Jimin had at least been expecting Taehyung to show up on this particular morning, but nothing could have prepared him for the moment when the younger man screamed at him from behind the former’s closed kitchen window.

“Good morning, Jimin!” boomed Taehyung through the glass.

Taehyung was smiling impossibly brightly, and Jimin jumped backward at the sight of the excited man, nearly spilling the glass of water he was in the process of carrying to the living room. He stopped, and went to unlock the door that Taehyung had come bursting through when they’d first met - now close to a week ago.

“Why do you hate my front door, Tae?”

“Why are you still not anticipating that I’m never going to use it?” countered Taehyung.

Just then, the doorbell rang, sending Jimin into a spiral of confusion. It was too early for this, and his little house was already becoming crowded with visitors.

“Hoseok really is a er for tradition,” shrugged Taehyung.

Jimin scurried into the living room, dropping off the glass of water by Jungkook, who was sitting timidly on the sofa. He heard Taehyung loudly greeting the youngest man behind him as he made his way to the front door.

“It’s always an adventure inviting Taehyung into your home, isn’t it?” chuckled Hoseok, not bothering with pleasantries as he stepped through the doorway.

“And even more of one when you don’t invite him,” Jimin replied. “How are you doing, Hoseok?”

“Oh, good, good,” mumbled the older man. “I barely get home, and whom do I find calling me at three in the morning but Kim Taehyung? Going on and on about hellhounds, and mysteries, and uncatalogued Sensors. Speaking of which, where is the new kid?”

✧✧✧

Jimin led Hoseok into the sitting room, offering the latter the same spot on the couch he had occupied several days earlier, when the two of them had chatted awkwardly with Jin. The older man sat down, regarding Jungkook with a look of curiosity mixed with slight apprehension.

“Jungkook?” he presumed as he extended his hand. “Nice to meet you; I’m Hoseok.

“But you can call him Hobi,” interjected Taehyung, grinning mischievously.

“No, you can’t,” sighed Hoseok with exasperation. “And neither can you, Taehyung.”

The orange-haired man gave the elder a look that questioned the authority of his statement, but stayed quiet while Jungkook and Hoseok shook hands.

“Taehyung has told me a lot about you,” said Jungkook shyly. “He says you’re very good at finding cryptids.”

Jimin was amazed at the transformation Jungkook had gone through over the past couple of days. From a cocky, demanding teenager to a nervous-looking, submissive boy, the youngest seemed to gain a lot of humility in the face of a stranger - though that wasn’t the only thing that had changed about Jungkook.

The youngest man had been excited at first to learn about the hidden world of Sensors and paranormal creatures, but as the lessons wore on and the truth became clearer, Jimin could tell that Jungkook was overwhelmed by the vast amount of information. Even Jimin himself felt that he still couldn’t grasp some of the details that Taehyung had revealed to him, and he was continuing to learn novel things each and every day. Now, Hoseok was here to help Jungkook and Jimin refine their Sensor abilities, and Jimin could tell that the younger man was ready to crack under the added pressure.

“According to Taehyung, I’m not as good as you. He told me that you can see hellhounds?” clarified Hoseok.

“Y-yeah,” stammered Jungkook, his voice cracking slightly.

There it goes.

“But I don’t know if I’m really cut out for it,” blabbed the youngest man. “I mean, I didn’t even realize I was a Sensor until Jimin and Taehyung told me, s-so how good could I really be, y’know? Everyone keeps going on about bloodlines and family databases - but I don’t even know who my parents are, and-”

“Kookie! Calm down,” soothed Jimin.

The younger man was mirroring many of the concerns about inadequacy and uncertainty that Jimin himself had experienced upon learning he was a Sensor - many of which still nagged at the latter to some extent. He was empathetic toward Jungkook’s nervousness, but Jimin also knew that the boy had nothing to worry about.

“I told you, Hoseok is really nice-”

“When he’s not completely draining my bank account,” interrupted Taehyung.

“-And he’s just gonna help you tap into your own potential,” finished Jimin.

✧✧✧

It felt odd to explain this to somebody else when Jimin himself had been ignorant to all of it just several short days ago. Still, though, the reassurance seemed to do Jungkook some good, and the boy settled down as he turned back to Hoseok.

“Sorry,” breathed Jungkook. “It’s just a lot to take in.”

“I get it,” sympathized Hoseok. “You should’ve seen Jimin when he was a newbie at this. I thought he was gonna keel over the first time I saw him; it was like looking at Death’s progeny.”

“Hey!” shouted Jimin.

“That’s actually pretty accurate,” snickered Taehyung. “You look like a baby fawn when you’re scared, Jimin.”

“Okay; I thought we were here to help me and Jungkook,” growled Jimin with tightly clenched fists. “I didn’t realize this was the Take a on Jimin Party.”

“It wasn’t supposed to be, but I’m glad that’s what it turned into,” teased Taehyung. “Jiminnie’s right, though; we should really get going. I’d volunteer to drive, but Hoseok complained about my car the entire ride over here, so we probably shouldn’t take mine.”

“How does one person pile that much crap into such a small space?” shot back Hoseok. “And also, why the does your car smell like a barber shop? Are you shaving hobos in there when you don’t get enough money from your monster hunting to make rent?”

“For your information, Hobi, the check from my last venture is due to arrive any day now,” informed Taehyung. “And the ridiculously high cost of bribing two hours’ worth of help off of SOME PEOPLE means that not all of us can afford to repair their bathroom mirrors so they can get a decent shave in the morning, and-”

“Okay, okay,” Hoseok groaned. “Nobody asked for your life story, Tae.”

“But you know? That’s not a bad idea,” pondered Taehyung. “I should write a biography; I bet someone would buy that.”

Jimin shook his head as he got up to find his keys. Taehyung had struck him as the type of person to come up with a lot of get-rich-quick schemes when he wasn’t kept busy with chasing after skinwalkers, and Jimin wasn’t surprised to see that he was right. He had learned a lot about the young cryptozoologist himself through receiving coaching from the younger man - and although Taehyung wasn’t nearly as adept at Hoseok at instructing Sensors in the art of Sensing, his heart was almost always in the right place.

✧✧✧

Jimin gathered his things as he half-attentively listened to the other three men continue their conversation. The past couple of days had been jam packed with practicing in anticipation for Hoseok’s arrival, leaving room for very little besides sleeping, eating, and Sensing as the two younger boys honed their abilities. The eldest man had wanted to recuperate for a bit rather than rush back to assist Taehyung with what the former probably assumed was yet another hare-brained scheme, and in that short time, Jimin felt that he had started to get a genuine handle on his abilities.

The threads were still there, and they constantly pulled at the back of Jimin’s consciousness as they led him to unimaginable numbers of different cryptids. How he had never caught glimpses of these beings before, Jimin would never know - but he supposed it was probably due to the fact that he just hadn’t been educated on them. By this point, however, Jimin was able to selectively attend to any of the multiple paths at whim, and he could even begin to identify some of them by feeling alone. The hellhounds were gone, for whatever reason - possibly destroyed by Taehyung’s government employers, seeing as the hounds posed such a significant threat to the surrounding area - but the nymphs were still floating; just at the edge of the forest where he’d first found them, if Jimin was guessing correctly.

There were other strings, too; strings that led to creatures that the young man had no names for, as of yet. They weren’t overly abundant, but there were definitely more than Jimin would have expected. He stuffed his cellphone into his pocket, and turned to see his companions lined up at the door.

“Are we going or what?” pestered Taehyung, the excitement on his face as evident as his jumping feet.

Hoseok was also fidgeting slightly, but his movement was subtler in the form of a rapidly tapping foot. He stood with crossed arms next to Jungkook, who somehow managed to be so antsy that it almost looked like he was standing still; vibrating with fear and anticipation.

“Yeah; let’s get outta here,” agreed Jimin. “I hope we find something really awesome today.”