“What a beautiful day.”

Jimin had to agree, and he trailed after Hoseok as the older man led the way, crossing into a meadow that Jimin was unfamiliar with despite having lived near for most of his life. In an odd reversal of events, it had been Jimin’s parents who had moved after his graduation from school, leaving the family house to be used by their eldest son. He’d quickly found that abode to be much too large for his bacheloristic needs, however, so had opted to stay in the same town while moving to a more humble house that better suited his lifestyle. Now, though, Jimin found himself wishing that he had kept his family’s house with its extra bedrooms and living space, as Taehyung was starting to complain about the cost of his low-end motel, and Jungkook was already sleeping on the floor of Jimin’s living room.

“It’s a nice day,” agreed Taehyung, already sounding like he was about to add a condition. “But the question is: are there any super-mega-cool monsters out here?”

“I know they say guys have a one-track mind,” joked Hoseok, “but I struggle to think they were referring to cryptids.”

“How would you know?” shot back Taehyung. “Maybe whoever said that knew how amazingly awesome monster hunting is.”

Jimin doubted that he himself would ever be able to compete with Taehyung’s unbridled enthusiasm for the strange and unknown, but he would be lying if he said that it wasn’t any fun to work with the eccentric young man. On the contrary, Taehyung seemed able to make any situation into an enjoyable adventure. As long as the monsters they were tracking were relatively harmless. Jimin had tried to stay away from following any of the more malevolent-feeling tethers - much to the dismay of the adventurous Taehyung. Even though the younger man had expressed his desire to take a break from the more threatening paranormal creatures after being chased and nearly killed by the three-headed hellhound, his devotion to this self-imposed abstinence had faded rather quickly.

“Where’re we goin’ Hoseok? Gimme a hint,” begged Taehyung.

“How many times do I have to tell you, Taehyung? I just follow trails; I can’t magically place the damn things in space.”

“I know where we’re going,” piped Jungkook from the back of the line. “There’s a well by a cabin in the woods out there. And the well… something is living in it.”

“What’d I tell ya, Hobi?!” yelled Taehyung. “The kid is a goddamn natural!”

“That is very impressive,” admitted Hoseok. “Care to lead us to it, Jungkook?”

Jimin pouted as Jungkook advanced to the front of the group. It wasn’t fair that the younger man was already so much better at Sensing than he was. Sure; Jimin had only been aware of his own abilities for a couple of days, but Jungkook had had an even later start than he did. The shortest man followed dejectedly at the back of the crowd, stuffing his hands into his pockets as he tried to focus on the string that the youngest man appeared to be following.

✧✧✧

“What’s up Jimin?”

Taehyung was pottering alongside the sullen man, swinging his long arms as they crossed the clearing and entered the woods. Jimin didn’t understand why these creatures always had to be hiding in deep forests and bug-infested swamps, but he supposed it made sense if the things didn’t want to be stumbled across. He swatted at a mosquito as it buzzed in his ear.

“Nothing,” lied Jimin.

He uncrossed his arms to try to show he was fine, but Taehyung obviously wasn’t convinced by the act. The younger man slung an arm around Jimin’s shoulders as they stumbled through the trees together, sunlight filtering down to rustle the former’s fiery hair.

“Fine,” relented Jimin. “I’m upset that Jungkook is so good at this even though he’s freaking out about everything, and I feel like if I can’t do a good enough job, then you’re going to get rid of me.”

“Get rid of you?” echoed Taehyung. “Why would I do that?”

“’Cause look at me!” whispered Jimin as harshly as he could without letting the two men in front of him hear. “Kookie’s off prancing through the goddamn woods, doing things that Hoseok can’t even compete with - and the kid hasn’t even started his formal training yet.”

“Well, neither have you, really, when you think about it,” contemplated Taehyung. “You got one lesson from Hoseok, but you’ve been on your own from there. I’d say it’s pretty damn impressive that you’ve managed to accomplish what you have already.”

“I almost got us killed back when that three-headed hellhound was chasing us,” argued Jimin. “If it wasn’t for Jungkook, we’d have been eaten, or slashed to pieces, or I don’t even know what!”

“Transported to a nightmare dimension,” Taehyung corrected.

“What?”

“Hellhounds don’t eat you; they kill you by taking you to the nightmarish plane of existence from which they come,” explained Taehyung. “At least, that’s-”

“The theory,” finished Jimin. “I know, I know. We’re learning everything as we go; what’s the point of research if not to discover new information? Yada, yada, yada.”

“Exactly.” Taehyung smiled softly, speaking quite sweetly in contradiction to his usual, over-excited tone. “And always remember that you are still learning, too, Jimin. You have great power and amazing potential, but it takes time to foster both of those things.”

✧✧✧

Jimin’s resistance faltered as he listened to Taehyung’s encouraging words. He turned to thank the taller man, but the latter had already charged ahead, his brilliant moment of supportive insight decidedly over.

“Yo, Hoseok, I’m starving! Did we bring anything to eat?” shouted Taehyung.

The two men in front stopped briefly to regroup.

“I don’t think it’ll be much longer,” guessed Jimin. “I feel it, too; it’s close.”

“Yeah,” concurred Jungkook. “Just a little bit farther.”

Jimin hid a scowl as they ventured deeper into the trees. He hated to be so petty about it, but the young man couldn’t help feeling envious of Jungkook’s extensive abilities. The latter had talents that were beyond Jimin’s comprehension, yet the younger man was still horribly insecure. Jimin could guess at the relative distance between himself and a creature - and that was apparently more that even Hoseok could do - but Jungkook seemed able to paint a mental map; to actually visualize where the thing he was tracking was.

“I already said that,” Jimin muttered under his breath.

He tried to breathe deeply as he focused on the trail. Sensing had become noticeably easier for Jimin, and he no longer had to concentrate so fully on emptying his mind. It certainly still helped to have fewer distractions present, but the young man no longer felt quite so encumbered by the occasional hiccup. Unlike when he had lost track of the hellhound completely, Jimin could now function even under mild stress - which was good, because the young man could feel his blood boiling as they approached the unknown entity.

Another thing Jimin could do was detect a creature’s aura, so to speak. This was not an ability that was unique to him, as Hoseok and Jungkook were also both able to say with certainty what a familiar cryptid was before they’d actually found it, or at the very least to get an idea of what its personality was like based on its tether alone. The being they were following now felt vaguely angry, yet not particularly threatening or worrisome. Jimin had the feeling that it was a fairly inconsequential little creature, and thought that even Taehyung would be able to see it, as it didn’t feel like one of the monsters that the younger man had dubbed “paranormal” - his code for invisible or ghost-like energies.

“Here we are,” announced Jungkook, and a moment later the group stepped into a clearing.

There was a cabin standing in the partially-cut forest - its ramshackle, worn down appearance suggestive of age and lack of use - and Jimin detected the faintest hint of mildew as he stopped in front of it. Sure enough, just as Jungkook had predicted, there was a well on the property to the side of the house. It was this small stone structure that the youngest man approached, peering over the edge to locate his prize.

✧✧✧

“Ew; water sprite,” grumbled Hoseok as he dodged a stream of muddy gunk.

Whatever was in the well was spitting at them, Jimin realized, and he crept up next to Jungkook to get a better look. Squabbling up at them from the bottom of the well, a small creature stomped its feet several meters below Jimin as it yelled high-pitched, squeaky gibberish at him. It was bipedal and ugly, and the creature’s leathery skin was a putrid, rotting green color. The sprite’s face was scrunched up into a snarl of disgust, and its ears were humorously large on its wide, squished face.

“Gross,” marveled Taehyung, snapping a picture with his camera.

The being was not at all what Jimin pictured when he heard the word “sprite,” and he thought with amusement that the thing looked more like an angry old man than anything else; one that could fit easily into the palm of his hand. The water sprite took up a mouthful of the disgusting water at its feet, and squirted the liquid up at them, narrowly missing Jungkook’s face as it grazed the youngest man’s ear.

“Ha-ha; Kookie got spit on,” taunted Jimin as he fell backwards with laughter.

He continued to giggle as the other man wiped off the slime, grimacing as the mucky substance coated his ear. The latter wiped his fingers on Jimin, who scrambled to his feet as he tried to avoid the attack.

“Yah; that’s gross!”

“Don’t make fun of me,” warned Jungkook. “And I know it’s gross; it’s all over my ear!”

“I have to admit, Jungkook: I’m impressed,” applauded Hoseok, breaking up the small squabble as he eyed the youngest man. “I’m no expert, but I’d have to say that being able to pinpoint the surroundings of one of these creatures is something that’s pretty unique.”

Jimin felt his face burn as the older man praised his newest student. He knew he shouldn’t be envious, but that was easier said than done when there was someone right in front of Jimin praising the abilities of someone who was supposed to be even more clueless than him.

“This is fun,” giggled Jungkook. “I like hunting monsters; I can see why you do it, Tae.”

“Just remember that there are creatures out there that are more threatening than nymphs and sprites,” Taehyung cautioned. He had been busily trying to capture the water sprite, but looked up from his task when he was addressed. “We’re lucky those hellhounds are gone, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t still threats to be wrestled with.”

The orange-haired man looked like he had his hands full trying to handle sprite, as he couldn’t quite reach to the depths of the well. In fact, Jimin realized, he didn’t even come close - but the sprite had climbed the mortared stone walls and was taunting Taehyung as it evaded his large hands, which were swinging frustratedly halfway down the well.

✧✧✧

Eventually, Taehyung gave up on trying to catch the persnickety little creature, and settled for videotaping the thing instead, encouraging its anger like some sort of twisted photoshoot director.

“What do you do with all the pictures and stuff?” wondered Jungkook.

“It goes on my blog,” revealed Taehyung. “As I believe I’ve said before, I care about exposing the truth - and the best way to do that is with solid, documented evidence like this.”

“If you have a blog devoted to this stuff, then how is it not all over the internet?” questioned Jimin. “I’d assume people would be interested if you could prove the existence of monsters.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa there,” chuckled Taehyung. “One: paranormal monsters are, like, the hardest kind to get blog-worthy evidence of. Two: I don’t advertize this on Google. Do you know how much trouble I’d get in if the government caught wind of this?”

“I thought you worked for the government,” challenged Jungkook.

“They hire me sometimes,” acknowledged Taehyung. “So do a lot of people. When I’m not working for them, I dabble a little in the deep, dark recesses of the internet - posting the truth where it’s difficult to find. Unless you’re looking.”

He snapped a few more still photographs, and replaced the camera in its carrying case.

“Isn’t that a little… incredibly corrupt?” questioned Jimin.

“Gotta have something to do in my free time.”

Jimin was about to suggest that Taehyung take up reading, or knitting, or anything somehow not related to monsters when Hoseok spoke up, interrupting their impromptu discussion of morals.

“I love exposing Taehyungie’s dirty secrets as much as the next person, but it’s really time we get going.”

The oldest man started in the direction of the woods, and Jungkook followed after him with disappointment in his eyes.

“But we just got here,” protested the younger man. “Can’t we look for something cooler?”

“Sprites that spit gook at’cha aren’t good enough for you, kid?” Hoseok paused to stand with his hands on his hips. “There are plenty of other creatures for you to discover out there. Just ask Jimin - he’s friends with one.”