Taehyung paused as the knocking came again. It was even more forceful this time, and it made Namjoon get off the couch to unlock the heavy metal door.

“Kim Taehyung!” shouted Hoseok, bursting through the entrance and past a startled Namjoon. “Have you lost your ing mind?”

“You’re early,” commented Taehyung curiously. “Your plane’s not supposed to leave for another hour.”

“Damn right it’s not; I drove up here when Jungkook told me that you kidnapped two strangers - one of whom is an unidentified mythical creature who may-or-may-not have powers that we aren’t even ing capable of comprehending!”

Hoseok was breathing heavily, and Jimin noticed that Jungkook was cowering shyly behind the older man, watching him from the doorway as he tore into the young cryptozoologist.

“Goddammit, Hoseok! Plane tickets cost money, you know,” huffed Taehyung. “I didn’t pay for you to get your in a knot and follow me down here when you could’ve just done that in the first-”

“Taehyung, are you completely ing oblivious to the fact that you’ve put us all in unimaginable danger by pulling another one of your incredibly stupid - not to mention illegal - one-point schemes?” interrupted Hoseok.

“I’ll have you know that there were at least three points in my scheme,” bellowed Taehyung. “And if two people are not back at the airport in forty minutes to use those tickets, then so help me God, I will murder the living daylights out of-”

“Tae!” barked Namjoon. “That’s enough, okay? We don’t need to wake up the whole ing neighborhood.”

The purple-haired man was still holding open the door, letting in a cool night breeze as Jungkook stood awkwardly between the room and the blinding floodlight.

“Right,” Taehyung grumbled as he pinched the bridge of his nose. He pushed Hoseok and Jungkook out into the alleyway, pulling on the handle of the door as he shut it behind them. “Excuse us for a moment.”

✧✧✧

Jimin sat awkwardly on the couch next to Yoongi as the four young men left in the dingy apartment listened to the muffled argument going on outside.

“We’re supposed to be ing QUIET!” yelled Taehyung from behind the closed door, and the sounds of their battle softened somewhat as Yoongi slumped over in his seat.

Jin moved to take up the vacant space on Jimin’s left, and Namjoon began flittering nervously about near the metal door, pacing as Taehyung and Hoseok rumbled outside.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Jimin whispered to the open air.

Perhaps a better question would have been why Jimin himself hadn’t known in the first place. Although he had only truly started to tap into his Sensor abilities less than a week ago, the young man still felt that he should have been able to tell that one of his best friends was in fact not human - if Jimin himself was indeed as powerful as Taehyung had claimed. He was starting to doubt that he was as the combined weight of Jungkook’s more finely developed skills and his own long-term ignorance pressed heavily on Jimin’s shoulders, sending him into a swirl of uncertainty.

“Jimin, please,” mumbled Jin. “Let’s not talk about this now.”

The younger man felt the tether connected to Jin strain as he glanced at his friend, the latter still outwardly calm despite the stress in his voice. Of course Jin wouldn’t talk to him while Namjoon was in the room, but Jimin was still thirsty for answers, so he turned to look at Yoongi.

“And you,” snapped Jimin. “You knew all along, and you didn’t tell me either?!”

“I didn’t know until a few months ago,” whispered Yoongi, staring at his own hands as he avoided Jimin’s glare.

“That’s enough,” warned Jin. “The three of us need to have a talk, but this is neither the time nor the place.”

Jimin looked over at Namjoon, who seemed like he was trying to melt into the floor as he stood perfectly frozen in place, alternately gazing at his bare feet and fixating at something on the featureless ceiling.

“What about when I called you that night?” Jimin continued to pressure Yoongi as the latter shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “When I asked you if you believed in monsters? Was everything you said a lie?”

“Jimin, I-”

“Exactly how much do you know, Yoongi?” interrupted Jimin.

“Probably about as much as you,” sighed the older man. “Or, I guess, really a little more…”

“Stop it, Yoongi,” commanded Jin.

✧✧✧

There was fire in the elder's eyes as he glared at the pouting, curled-up man on the couch in front of him, and Yoongi immediately shut up without protest. Although the latter had asserted that Jin was not a monster, the older man certainly seemed to be threatening him now. Jimin didn’t know what to make of the convoluted situation as he himself felt trapped - both literally and metaphorically - on the ratty, blue couch.

The young man was about to say something more when he felt a long, twisting, and slightly damp string tickle his left ear.

“What the ?!”

“Oh, . Sorry.” Namjoon scrambled over to Jimin, reaching to remove something from the sofa behind him. “Looks like Monnie woke up… And he likes you.”

Namjoon lifted a strange-looking lizard from the back of the couch, and Jimin regarded it with a mixture of amazement and unease. The thing flicked its slender, forked tongue, and Jimin’s hand moved subconsciously to the place where his ear had been touched.

“Monnie?” repeated Jimin.

“Short for Monster,” chuckled Namjoon as he placed the creature down on Jimin’s lap. “I’m not good with names.”

Jimin was reluctant to let the animal sit on his knees, though he had to admit that it was actually kind of cute. The lizard had colorful frills on the sides of its wrinkled, brown face, and its four-legged body was about the size of one of Jimin’s upper arms. It almost looked like a regular iguana if not for the strange coloration and extra ornamentation on its scaly head and neck, and the young man reached out to pet it as it sat languidly on his lap.

“, , !”

The lizard’s chest had started to glow just before Namjoon yelled, and the lavender-haired man quickly scooped the animal off of Jimin’s legs seconds before it spit a smooth stream of fire into the dark room - almost as if the creature’s mouth was a flamethrower.

“Bad Monnie!” Namjoon scolded gruffly. “We do not breathe fire at guests.”

The dragon’s arms waved lazily in the air as Namjoon held it at a distance, and Jimin was struck by the creature’s brightly smoldering chest, which had already started to dim after the release of energy. The other man set the reptile down on the ground, its lengthy tail coiling before Monnie darted away to a corner of the dimly-lit apartment.

“Sorry,” grunted Namjoon apologetically. “Usually Monnie is more well-behaved.”

✧✧✧

Curious, Jimin wanted to follow the skittering creature, but he was stopped from tracking the monster’s mental string by a sudden pounding on the closed, metal door. Namjoon unlocked the entrance, and the three men outside came filing in, none of them looking particularly happy as Taehyung pouted and Hoseok crossed his arms.

“I would like to begin my three part apology by saying that I’m sorry to both Jin and Yoongi for bringing you here against your will,” announced Taehyung, still with a slight grimace on his shadowy face. “Second, I’m sorry to Jimin for not asking you before I kidnapped your friends, and for dragging you into the truck while you were unconscious.”

Hoseok tapped his foot sternly as the younger man continued, pausing to mumble something inaudibly before he spoke.

“And thirdly, I’m sorry that I am the biggest, most half-witted, and completely moronic idiot to ever walk the face of the Earth.” Taehyung stopped to look at the snickering man behind him, and added, “Happy, Hoseok?”

“Very,” smirked the older man.

Jungkook giggled before quickly covering his mouth, and he and Hoseok shared a small smile at a joke that Jimin was apparently unaware of. The elder’s expression turned abruptly more somber as he turned to face Taehyung.

“I won’t call the police on you, Tae, although I really should…”

“But you won’t,” demanded Taehyung. “’Cause we made a fair deal, and, besides, you love me too much to see me rot in jail.”

“Y’know, you keep saying that,” muttered Hoseok, “but I wonder if you actually have any idea what an expression of love looks like.”

“Aw, come on, Hobi,” taunted Taehyung. “That punishment was obviously supposed to make me into a better person by forcing me to live up to the consequences of my actions. If trying to better someone for their own sake isn’t an expression of love, then by God, I just don’t know what is.”

✧✧✧

Jimin thought privately that the outcome of the situation was more like Taehyung had completely avoided the consequences of his actions, but he didn’t want to say anything that might make either Jin or Yoongi do something rash. The other two men on the couch seemed willing enough to accept the apology - or at least to pretend to - so Jimin kept his mouth shut as Taehyung pointed at Jungkook while still eyeing Hoseok with a sly, winky grin.

“I’m sure Kookie has told you my theory regarding what kind of cryptid Jin is, so what do you think about it?” wondered Taehyung.

“I think it’s been centuries since anyone’s seen a Guardian, and I’m not sure why Jimin would be important enough to have one watching over him now.” Hoseok glanced at the younger man as he shrugged his shoulders, looking at Jimin with passively hooded eyes. “No offence.”

Jimin didn’t take any, because the truth was that that was a point of confusion for him as well. If Taehyung was right - and Jimin strongly suspected he might be - then why was the latter being followed by one of these “Guardians” in the first place? Had Jimin really done anything interesting enough besides being a Sensor to have someone assigned to keep track of him? For what particular purpose he was being watched, Jimin knew not - but he was certain that if there was any Sensor who was remarkable, then it was Jungkook. Why was the younger man not being stalked - or perhaps protected - by one of Jin’s kind as well?

“Can I say something?” Jungkook spoke shakily for the first time since arriving, apprehensive with the eyes of so many strangers suddenly turned toward him. “I… I wasn’t sure about it before, but now I am. I dunno if Jin is a Guardian o-or not - but whatever he is, I’ve felt a string like his before.”

So much for that theory. Guess I’m not so special after all.

The room fell silent as tension hovered in the stagnant air, none of the men willing to speak for fear of setting one of the others off.  Eventually, however, Namjoon turned to the youngest as he directed a question at a nervous-looking Jungkook.

“You’re the guy who’s not in my database?” asked Namjoon.

Jungkook nodded, and the older man spun around on his heel.

“Let’s try to figure out who the hell you are, then.”