Jimin felt like he was drowning as he set the three glasses of water on a carrying tray next to a large bowl of pretzels. How had he gotten himself into this situation? Everything about his current position was the exact opposite of how he wanted it all to be, and Jimin had no one to blame but himself.

Jin and Hoseok were sitting in the living room, talking about their jobs or some other equally mundane topic as Jimin busied himself in the kitchen. He wasn’t really listening, because he was trying to come up with another plan to get rid of Jin - seeing as Jimin’s first attempt had ended with him inviting the older man inside and serving him snacks.

“How long have you known Jimin?” asked Jin just as the aforementioned youngest man entered the room, setting the tray down on the coffee table.

“Not too long,” replied Hoseok as he munched on one of the dry pretzels.

Jimin was amazed by the other man’s composure in a situation that was so stressful that the former felt like his head might explode. Maybe Hoseok had dealt with something like this in the past, though, and knew what to do to get himself and Jimin out of it. The younger man certainly hoped so as he glanced at the clock on the wall - which told him that Taehyung was due to arrive in a little over ten minutes.

“What about you, Jin?” countered Hoseok. “How long have you known Jimin?”

“Oh, for forever, it seems like,” teased Jin. “Jimin and I go way back - and so does our other friend, Yoongi.”

The name seemed to spark some memory in Jin, and he slapped his head as he continued.

“That’s right! I’m sorry; that was the reason I came here in the first place.”

He turned to look at Jimin, who was fluttering nervously on the edge of his seat in the armchair to Jin’s left.

“Jimin, Yoongi asked me to check up on you,” explained Jin with a smile, although he had already informed the younger man of this earlier. “He said you called him last night and started talking about monsters and crazy people, and that you sounded really stressed about something. Are you holding up alright?”

“I’m fine,” insisted Jimin. “I probably just watched one too many scary movies last night.”

He laughed, hoping that the slightly forced, high-pitched jingles would serve to assure Jin that everything really was fine. The older man calmly took a sip of water.

“You see, Yoongi told me that that’s what you said to him this morning,” reported Jin. “But he said that last night you were talking about some weirdo who tried to convince you that monsters were real. Was that part of it, too, or…?”

Jin’s eyes shifted slightly to where Hoseok was sitting, and suddenly all the pieces fell into place, and Jimin realized what was going on.

Crap. He thinks that Hoseok’s the guy and that I’m hiding something. Or totally insane.

✧✧✧

Although Jin was correct in assuming that Jimin’s dodgy responses were meant to circumvent a rather massive secret, the younger man really didn’t want - or have time - to get into that bag of worms right now. He didn’t think explaining the finer points of Sensors and paranormal ‘monsters’ - of which Jimin was still rather foggy about himself - was going to earn him any points in terms of proving his competence and sanity to Jin.

“Yeah; I did run into a guy,” admitted Jimin. “But it was just some random, crazy dude. Nothing to worry about.”

Jin stared at him, still smiling, but seemed slightly unconvinced.

“I swear I’m fine now. Like I said, it was the weirdo combined with the evils of late night television,” Jimin chuckled. “I know that monsters aren’t real.”

The words almost caught in his throat as he tried to say them as calmly and evenly as possible. Jin looked satisfied, but that didn’t stop Hoseok from piping up on the couch next to him, swallowing the pretzel he had been chewing on while the other men had their conversation.

“Of course monsters aren’t real,” he agreed. Hoseok was apparently good at keeping a cool voice and a pleasant face when he was lying through his teeth. “Jimin here has absolutely nothing to worry about.”

✧✧✧

Jin appeared to be contented at last as he announced that he should probably get going soon, and Jimin felt the relief wash over him as he and Hoseok waved the older man off while standing on the front porch. They watched Jin walk until he had disappeared completely down the street, and Jimin exhaled heavily as he slumped against the railing of the stairs.

“That was close,” he breathed.

“I’ll say,” concurred Hoseok as he stepped back through the entrance to the house. “Do your friends always show up unannounced and start asking questions like that?”

“No,” Jimin laughed. “Not unless I give them a good reason to.”

He joined Hoseok, who was still smiling somewhat weirdly at Jimin, in the living room - though he didn’t bother to shut the front door after stepping through.

“Hey, did you really mean what you said? About me having nothing to worry about?”

“Oh, hell no,” chortled Hoseok. “If what Taehyung told me is true, then you’re in a world of , dude.”

Jimin’s stomach dropped again, but before he had an opportunity to ask for clarification, a bright green car turned into his driveway, and Taehyung stepped out with a large grin on his face. The vehicle was pretty badly beaten up, and Jimin could see the unorganized stacks of papers and multiple strange-looking mechanical devices that littered its backseat all the way from his position on the porch.

The car’s physical appearance certainly matched that of its eccentric driver - even if the paint color clashed with Taehyung’s messy sienna hair, which was sticking up in places it shouldn’t have been again. Still, the youngest man looked oddly professional as he marched up to Hoseok, pulling out an unmarked envelope which he shoved into the latter’s eagerly waiting hands.

“Your payment is there in full,” he declared. The eccentric young man turned toward Jimin with an exaggerated wave of his hand. “And your Monster Hunter has arrived!”

Jimin silently thanked God that Jin had left - and not a moment too soon - as he watched Hoseok open the envelope and check the contents inside.

“Okay,” sighed the older man. “It’s all here. I’ll help you.”

“Yes!” exclaimed Taehyung. “Thank you, monetary compensation. You have saved my yet again.”

“Hey, am I getting payed for this, too?” interjected Jimin.

“Never mind about that now,” dismissed Taehyung. “It’s time to find ourselves some cryptids!”

✧✧✧

“Not so fast,” demanded Hoseok.

Taehyung’s countenance came crashing down as he slumped over so comically that he was close to touching his toes.

“What?!” cried the younger man in exasperation. “I gave you the money, Hoseok. And you have no idea how many savings accounts I had to scrape dry to get you that payment. Some of them weren’t even mine.”

Great. Now we’re using stolen money.

“What else could you POSSIBLY want?” moaned Taehyung.

“To go over some ground rules,” replied Hoseok. “Not that those exactly went honored or followed the last time we worked together, but - call me old-fashioned - I at least like to set up the precedent.”

Jimin was starting to wonder again why he was still following along with all this, but Hoseok didn’t give him very much time to think before furthering his explanation.

“It makes me feel better to at least have the illusion of a plan to follow,” the older man continued. “So I want to set some things straight before we go ‘out in the field,’ as you would say.”

Taehyung listened attentively as Hoseok outlined his conditions while the three of them headed toward the youngest man’s disaster of a car.

“First and foremost,” began Hoseok, “if it’s dangerous, we leave.”

That sounded agreeable enough to Jimin, so he kept on listening as he opened the door to the backseat of the car. There were all kinds of detectors and wires scattered about the loose sheets of overdue bills and eviction notices, and the interior of the car smelled faintly of shaving cream for some reason.

“Just push that out of the way,” Taehyung instructed. “Leave it wherever.”

The youngest man and Hoseok were still standing to the side, both of their arms crossed as the two feuded silently - each waiting for the other to slip up and say something stupid or reprimandable.

Jimin thought that everything inside the car already looked like it had been left ‘wherever,’ but he set about clearing a space for himself while Hoseok listed off more demands.

“I want to be shown proper respect at all times,” Hoseok commanded. “No stupid antics; this is serious stuff, Kim Taehyung. And no abandoning me like last time.”

That single statement answered a whole lot, and Jimin could understand why Hoseok had been so reluctant to help them if his last experience with working for Taehyung had ended so badly. The apprehensive young man hoped that a similar fate wasn’t waiting for him if and when they found the hellhounds, because he knew that he definitely did not want to be left alone again with another one of those horrifying dogs.

“See; what’d I tell ya?” Taehyung whispered to Jimin, leaning in close. “High, mighty, and difficult to work with.”

“I heard that, Tae, and you’re already breaking rule number two.”

Hoseok tapped his foot as he grimaced at the younger man, and Jimin kept his own eyes on his work. He moved a small, circular beeping device onto the floor of the car, which was just as messy and cluttered as the seats.

“Also, I am only helping you teach Jimin how to use his Sensor abilities,” said Hoseok. “You know I can’t help you with the hellhounds anyway - and besides, I don’t want any part of that.”

Truthfully, Jimin didn’t either, but he guessed he was too far in to back out now, so he kept his mouth shut.

“After he learns how to track, I’m gone,” stated Hoseok. “Understood?”

Taehyung nodded fervently, obviously growing impatient as he moved to the driver’s side of the car.

“Yes; can we go now?”

“Almost,” tortured Hoseok. “One more condition. I’m driving.”

“What?!” objected Taehyung. “B-but - it’s my car!”

“Maybe so, but those are my rules,” countered Hoseok. “Take ’em or leave ’em.”

Grumbling, Taehyung came around to the passenger’s side of the car and stepped in, slamming the door behind him. Jimin crawled into his limited free space in the backseat, and buckled up as Hoseok got in the driver’s side a second later. His short tantrum over, Taehyung clapped his hands together as he shouted excitedly, filling the cramped space with his renewed energy while Hoseok started the car.

“Alright! Now it’s time to go monster hunting.”