Every once in a while, the boys happen to do something really dumb. Sometimes it’s a prank turned wrong, sometimes it’s a tiny mistake that causes a bigger mistake that leads to a freaking disaster, sometimes it’s their clumsiness that – eventually – forces you to use your powers because there’s a monster roaming around the city, and sometimes it’s just…dumbness. The purest form of it.

“Tao,” you say slowly, your eyes shut. “Why would you think that throwing the remains of a fried chicken into the toilet is a good idea?”

Tao has his shoulders hunched. He’s looking at you, at the toilet, at the floor, back and forth, back and forth.

“You always throw leftovers out into the toilet,” he says quietly.

“Yes,” you reply forcefully, your jaw clenching, “when it’s a stinky sauce or a few pieces of fish that would smell if I threw it in the trash. Not when it’s a whole. Chicken.”

You look up at Tao with something Taemin would probably call ‘mighty rage’. The second you think about Taemin, you hear him snort in the corridor, where he, Kai, Chen, Xiumin, and Min are currently huddled together (in safe distance from you).

Tao isn’t talking. He’s able to hold your gaze for three seconds, then he looks at his feet, his cheeks going red.

“Tao.”

“Yes.”

“Go to the store. Buy the…the thing.”

Tao frowns. “What thing?”

“The thing they use on animated movies. The stick with the orange…thing on its end.”

Tao squints at you. “Toilet…brush?” he asks shyly. You let out a dangerously low growl that makes Xiumin swallow so hard even you can hear it.

“Kai already owns a toilet brush,” you say, “which you’d know of if you ever cleaned the toilet after yourself.”

“I don’t live here.”

You slap him on the shoulder as hard as you can, and Tao squeals and jumps away. “Plunger!” you scream after him, just as he throws himself out the bathroom. “Buy a freaking plunger! Or something that’s corrosive enough to melt chicken bones that someone threw into a toilet!”

A loud bang is heard, informing you of Tao’s quick leave. You look up at Kai and the rest.

“I think he heard you,” Taemin informs with a grin. You shoot him a nasty look.

“You knew he was going to throw the bones into the toilet, you sick, sick bastard,” you hiss. The smile disappears from Taemin’s face, and is instead replaced with a very, very ‘busted’ look. Taemin is frozen in the corridor. The rest of your friends are watching you closely, but don’t dare move or speak.

Taemin moves, just a tiny little bit, a small jerk to the side, and that’s your cue. That’s when you throw yourself into a run, Taemin screams, and you both round the corner in a crazy chase. Kai gets hit in the face in the process – Taemin hits him accidentally – and staggers back, stomps on Xiumin’s foot, thus making Xiumin fall onto his . Before he does end up on his , though, he grabs the thing closest to him, which is Kai’s shirt, and brings the man down with him. Min jumps away, trying to avoid getting squashed down by them, but she forgets about the wall behind her so instead of safely getting away from two boys on the ground, she ends up bouncing off the wall and stumbling over someone’s feet.

Suffice to say, she ends up on top of Kai, who’s in the middle of her and Xiumin now.

Chen is the only person left standing, so he’s shooting a video.

*

“I think that video of Kai, Xiumin, and Min falling down is the best video of the year,” Eun says, smiling at her phone. “It’s even better than the one of Baekhyun and the bowling ball.”

You glare at her. You’re in a café, both drinking coffee, and Eun looks as chirpy as ever, while you look and feel like a zombie.

“No.” you deadpan. Eun rolls her eyes and puts her phone away to pay attention to you. “One day they’re all gonna die because one of them leaves the stove on.”

“They’d hear and smell the gas leaking,” Eun tells you reasonably. “And they won’t die. They’re werewolves.”

“That makes it even worse!” you exclaim a bit too loud, waving your hands around. A few people turn to you in surprise, but you don’t really pay attention to them. “They’re stronger than normal people! When they hit the floor or try to hold on to something, they literally end up tearing chunks of walls off!”

Now there’s even more people looking at you in worry, and one of the waiters is giving you a strange look. Eun clears , sends the people around you a dazzling smile, and raises her brows at you.

“Eun,” you say, teary-eyed, “they’re all gonna die if I go.”

She doesn’t understand what you’re saying at first, so she’s just looking into your eyes trying to figure out what’s on your mind, and then she gasps, putting her elbows on the top of the table and leaning closer to you.

“No. No way you’re backing out of it now,” she says, her voice serious. “You’re going to study in the academy, and you’re going to make a damn fine cop one day, Dal, and you’re not going to have second thoughts now. You hear me?”

“But Eun, that’s just the non-supernatural stuff,” you whisper to her, also leaning closer. At this point, you both look like you’re planning on taking over the world. “They get themselves in danger so easily, and I only mean the times when they’re clumsy or speak their minds too easily around dangerous guys, and stuff. And then there’s the supernatural stuff. Monsters come here on a daily basis, and once I’m gone, do you know what’s gonna happen?”

“Kai and the rest will take care of them,” Eun replies.

“No!” you shout, and you sound like an annoyed kid that doesn’t want to eat their spinach. “They will probably make an even bigger mess!”

Eun looks at you judgingly. “Okay, Dal, tell me: who found you last time, when the kitsune took you?”

You lean back in your chair and cross your arms over your chest.

“Sulli did,” Eun says. “And your whole pack went to save you. It wasn’t you, it was them. And the hunters. Good thing we have the hunters now, too.”

“Yeah, super,” you deadpan. She looks at you like a threatening mother.

“Don’t give me sarcasm,” she says. “Who took care of wendigos back in high school? A whole pack of wendigos.”

You start worrying your bottom lip.

“They did.” Eun reminds you. “They can’t face mages, but they can face witches, ghouls, werewolves and other creatures that roam around just fine.”

“But I’m the one that tells them what they’re dealing with,” you say, pointing at yourself. “I warn them when something’s coming.”

“Kai can feel when things cross his territory,” Eun points out. “Also, Siwon and Chanyeol are just as good as recognizing monsters as you are.”

“Yeah, once they see them, but what if they don’t see them?”

“Oh my God, Dal.” Eun leans back, looking at you pointedly. “Are you really worried about them not being able to fight monsters, or are you just sad that you’re leaving?”

“Worried,” you state confidently. Eun raises a single brow. “I’m telling the truth!”

Your friend is looking at you carefully now. She finally lets out a sigh and takes a sip of her coffee. You repeat after her, because you don’t like awkward silence, and then you feel yourself pouting.

“Okay,” Eun says. “If it doesn’t work out, you’ll come back. How about that?”

You grunt.

“Dal, you can’t live here forever,” Eun says. “I mean, not this way. One day your mom won’t be here to support you financially, and you could live with Kai forever because – let’s not lie – his family is pretty loaded, but we both know that you’d rather die than let Kai spend his, or his family’s, money to provide a living for you.”

You pout even harder, if that’s even possible.

“So you gotta try,” Eun finishes. She takes a sip of her coffee again. “The city won’t burn just because you drive away. Father is here.”

“Not always.”

“Now you’re just arguing with me because you hate to lose arguments, and you know that I’m right, so you’re coming up with dumb excuses.”

You look up at her. She looks awfully smug.

“Fine,” you say angrily. “But it could burn.”

“Not on Kai’s watch!”

You let yourself slide down your chair a little. Eun smiles at you.

“Watch out, you’re getting a second chin,” she says. You slide down even more. “Oh, there’s the third one.”

“Shut up, I only have one second chin,” you mutter.

“Sorry, what? I didn’t hear you. Did you say how smart I am?”

You crack a smile. Eun beams at you, showing her teeth and all. You think back to when you first met her – how she protected you from bullies in the school bathroom, how she didn’t care that she could be putting herself in danger, how she acted right away, and how she started growing on you and the pack. You think back to when she found out, to when she and Chanyeol kissed in front of you for the first time. It feels like a lifetime.

“Don’t get all nostalgic on me,” Eun says, chuckling. “Come on. You look like a puppy.”

You snort and look away from her. A few moments pass by in silence, and then Eun speaks up again.

“Twenty bucks on one of the boys breaking into the gym’s basement and stealing some magical object in the first two weeks of you being away.”

You snap your eyes up at her.

“I should probably put up wards around that place, actually,” you say, deeply in thought. Eun laughs, throwing her head back, and you start giggling so hard you almost spill your coffee.