Taehyung put on his happiest, most bright-eyed expression as he pushed out the double doors that led to the motel’s parking lot. Jimin followed closely behind the taller man as he approached a stern-looking individual who appeared to be only slightly older than the two of them.

“Hoseok!” Taehyung greeted the man as he threw open his arms.

Rather than waste time with pleasantries, the person named Hoseok scowled as he threw a punch that connected directly with Taehyung’s lower jaw, knocking the younger man almost completely down before he was able to stand and recover.

“I only agreed to come here so that I could do that,” Hoseok growled. “And to hopefully save this poor kid from getting killed just because he’s gotten himself wrapped up in another one of your harebrained schemes.”

“Nice to see you, too, Hobi,” mumbled Taehyung, rubbing his sore jaw.

“Please don’t call me that,” moaned Hoseok. He turned to Jimin, who was shyly standing off to the side as he watched the two men battle in the deserted parking lot. “Sorry you had to see that. You must be Jimin.”

The young man accepted the hand that Hoseok offered to him, and shook it while trying to swallow any reservations he had already formed about the new arrival. Hoseok seemed friendly enough toward Jimin at least, but he certainly had a feisty streak.

“I’m not sure how much Taehyung has told you,” sighed Hoseok annoyedly, “but he and I have a bit of a history.”

“We don’t need to get into that now, though,” interrupted Taehyung. “The important thing is that Hoseok is here and he can help us teach you to track down the hellhounds.”

Hoseok frowned as he crossed his arms and tapped his foot impatiently.

“You said I’d get paid for this, right?” he asked Taehyung. “So, where’s my money?”

Taehyung dragged his feet as he took a few steps closer to Hoseok, throwing an arm lazily over the older man’s shoulders.

“You’ll get the money soon enough,” Taehyung promised, pulling the other man closer into his conciliatory embrace. “But I don’t have it with me right now.”

Hoseok didn’t seem satisfied by this answer, so Taehyung groaned as he tried to placate the other man a different way.

“What I meant was: let me go to the ATM and get you the money - okay, Hobi?” warbled Taehyung. “You and Jimin can get to know each other while I’m gone.”

Jimin glanced nervously at the frowning man, whose expression softened slightly upon hearing that he would be payed. Taehyung grabbed the former by the shoulder as well, and he pulled the shorter man toward Hoseok, pressing them together.

“Talk about your family lives. Show Hoseok around town. Really have fun with each other! And I’ll be back before you know it.”

Hoseok shrugged out from underneath Taehyung’s arm as he stood up straighter. He folded his arms again, but didn’t make a move to say anything, so Taehyung came up with a more concrete plan.

“I’ll meet you both at Jimin’s house in no more than an hour,” he pledged. “And I will have your payment in full.”

Hoseok seemed placated by this, so he followed Jimin to the younger’s car while Taehyung walked off, muttering something unintelligible under his breath.

✧✧✧

Jimin buckled his seatbelt, and Hoseok slid into the passenger’s seat as the former started his car. The older man’s arms were crossed in defiance for the entire duration of the ride, but his tone was surprisingly pleasant when he finally spoke to Jimin, who was already more than halfway through the short drive back to his house.

“I’m sorry for the way I acted,” began Hoseok. “I just can’t ing stand that guy sometimes.”

“Taehyung said that you, um… took some convincing to agree to help us.”

“Pfft. More like bribery,” Hoseok scoffed. “With a healthy dose of blackmail.”

Jimin’s eyes widened as he pulled into his driveway. He knew all too well that Taehyung could be persuasive when he wanted to be, but he hadn’t pegged the younger man as someone who was willing to be quite so blatantly manipulative. He left the car outside the garage, and opened the door to exit as he asked Hoseok another question.

“Taehyung said that there were no other Sensors who were available to come here on such short notice. Why were you able to help?” he wondered.

“I’m not surprised I’m the only one free right now,” Hoseok commented as he undid his own seatbelt. “I know weirdos like Tae are always scrambling to snatch up whatever Sensor isn’t working on a project already. I’m surprised you managed to stay under their radar for so long,” he joked. “These people are like sharks.”

The two men started walking up the paved stone pathway to Jimin’s front door, and the younger man stopped to fish out his keys.

“Anyway, the reason I was able to get here so quickly is that I’m not working with anyone right now,” revealed Hoseok. “And I don’t particularly like taking requests.”

Jimin wanted to ask why that was the case, but he felt it best to leave Hoseok’s private life alone. He didn’t want the older man to turn his wrath on him for being nosey, and those types of personal decisions seemed like something that Hoseok wouldn’t be overly thrilled to talk about.

“How many Sensors are there, anyway?” Jimin asked instead. “Taehyung said that there weren’t any other ones for a couple dozen kilometers.”

“We’re not as rare as somebody might think, but it’s not exactly a common ability either,” answered Hoseok. Now it was his turn to ask Jimin a question. “You really had no idea you were a Sensor until Taehyung told you yesterday?”

“Yeah,” laughed Jimin in embarrassment. “I guess I’ve always had it in me, but I really didn’t have a clue.”

He unlocked the door as Hoseok stood in wonder behind him.

“Jeez. The things a guy’s parents forget to tell him.”

✧✧✧

Before the two men could step inside Jimin’s house, a shout rang out from the walkway behind them.

“Jimin!”

The young man instantly recognized the voice, and turned around to see his friend Jin jogging up the path to the door.

Why now? Of all times.

“Hey, Jin.” Jimin tried to put on a convincing smile as if everything were perfectly normal. “What can I do for you?”

“It’s good to see you, Jimin,” Jin said warmly. “We should really get together more often.”

Pleasantries were nice, but Jimin didn’t have time to spare for any of them right now. Taehyung was due to arrive with an unspecified amount of money to be used in convincing Hoseok to go monster hunting with them in less than an hour, and Jimin thought that all of that would probably be a little too much for Jin to take in. Not to mention it would make all three of them sound completely insane.

“Yoongi called to tell me that you were having some kind of monster-related freak out last night - and he wanted to check in on you, but he’s working today. So, I volunteered to come over and make sure you’re doing alright.”

Crap. . Dammit.

Apparently Jimin had either sounded a lot more terrified than he’d thought he had on the phone last night, or else his lie to Yoongi this morning hadn’t gone quite as undetected as he’d hoped it had. Probably both. Jin smiled widely before turning his attention to Hoseok, who was still standing beside them on the porch.

“I’m sorry; where are my manners?” chided Jin. “My name’s Jin; it’s a pleasure to meet you. Are you a friend of Jimin’s?”

Jimin glanced up at Hoseok as the latter shook Jin’s hand. There was an amused smirk crossing his thin lips, and Jimin felt his stomach start to sink as he realized he didn’t know this strange, occasionally violence-prone man at all, and he had no idea what Hoseok’s reaction would be in a situation like this. Jimin was having more than a little trouble processing everything himself.

“Hoseok,” the young man introduced himself. “Pleased to make your acquaintance, Jin.”

Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad. Hoseok was acting a little bit too formal, if anything, but Jimin didn’t care as long as it kept Jin distracted for long enough for the younger man to come up with a way to get rid of him. Hoseok might be able to keep his mouth shut about monsters and hellhounds for the time being, but Jimin didn’t want to see what would happen if Taehyung got a chance to meet Jin.

✧✧✧

Jimin’s phone buzzed, and he checked it to see a text from Yoongi.

“Sending Jin over to check up on you. Call if you need anything.”

Thanks for the warning.

Jimin sincerely wished that he didn’t have such caring, concerned friends as he looked up at Jin and Hoseok, neither of whom had said anything the entire time he was looking at his phone. The two men were both continuing to smile so intensely at each other that Jimin thought their faces might just shrivel up from the sheer weight of the social awkwardness.

Luckily, however, Jin broke the grinning contest to turn toward Jimin, speaking in his usual soft, helpful tone.

“Mind if I come in for a bit?” he asked. “Or are you guys up to something?”

Jimin knew that he should have taken the opportunity to tell Jin that everything was fine and send the older man on his way before the latter started digging for information that Jimin wasn’t at all prepared to give. He knew that he shouldn’t have let Jin past the doorstep even as the words were leaving his mouth, but he just couldn’t help it. There was something in Jin’s tone and the way in which he glanced subtly over at Hoseok when he spoke that made the older man sound vaguely suspicious. Jimin so desperately wanted everything to seem normal to his friend that he invited Jin to step inside even as the voice at the back of his mind was screaming at him not to; that this was the last thing he should be doing in his effort to prove that nothing was up.

“Come on in,” Jimin offered as he swung open the door. “The more the merrier.”