It had been five days since DaeSung had run into Michelle at the bar. She was the first thing he thought of on the sixth day. It had been a while, years in fact, that someone had made such an impression on him. The last girl he’d dated had been in graduate school, but they had ended things due to his busy work schedule. Similar issues were what kept him from pursuing other relationships. But he could see himself making time for Michelle. Michelle was different.

They had made dinner plans for that evening. That first night in the bar, he had somehow managed to convince both Michelle and himself that he could cook and that he’d make dinner for her that weekend. There was only one problem:

He couldn’t cook.

After DaeSung dragged himself from his bed and cleaned up, he was once again confronted with the full consequences of his actions.

“What have I done?” DaeSung ran a frustrated hand through his hair. He leaned against his kitchen counter and yanked his cellphone from his pocket.

“Mother.” He shouted once she answered. He jerked away from his phone as his mother screamed back for shouting at her first thing in the morning. “Okay I’m sorry. I’m sorry! I need your advice, Mom!” There was a pause in the cacophony over the speaker.

“What?” Came her exasperated reply.

“Can you send me your recipe for ddeokbokki?”

“Why on Earth do you want that?”

“I need to cook tonight.” DaeSung tried to avoid the inevitable question that he knew would follow.

“Why don’t you order takeout like you usually do? Who are you cooking for?” She prodded curiously. DaeSung paused. “A girl?” DaeSung sighed and smacked his head against the fridge.

“Yes, Mother. A girl.” Her shrieks sent him reeling away from his phone again. DaeSung leaned against the refrigerator for a full minute listening to the high pitched caterwauling echoing in the room. DaeSung knew that she would be like this. She had been trying to set him up on blind dates for years, but his work schedule had never lined up. Today was probably the highlight of her life. She had passed the past couple of years thinking that she would never have grandchildren.

When the ruckus finally died down, DaeSung raised the cellphone to his ear again.

“Have you calmed down?”

“Is she pretty?” DaeSung sighed. He was resigned to the fact that he would have to submit to his mother’s interrogation before he would get a recipe.

“Yes, Mother. She’s very pretty.”

“What does she do?” He could practically see her pulling up a chair to sit next to the phone. He himself settled down at his small kitchen table, prepared for the long haul.

“She’s a nurse.”

“Oh, so she’s smart! Are you going to marry her?” DaeSung’s eyes widened in surprise.

“Mother, today is our first date! We’ve only ever had drinks! I’m making dinner for her tonight, that’s why I called!” There was a pause over the phone.

“Why would you cook for her? Are you asking for her to break up with you?” DaeSung stared at the table, deadpanned. Even his mother knew. He spent the next few minutes listening to his mother propose dozens of restaurants they could eat at to save him from inevitable embarrassment.

“You must keep this one, DaeSung, and you are not going to do that by cooking for her.” His mother reiterated for what seemed like the thousandth time.

“Can you just give me the recipe? It’s easy, right?” DaeSung begged. He was desperate at this point. He heard his mother sigh over the phone.

“Do you have time to go to the supermarket?”

“Yes, she won’t be here for a while.”

“Get a pencil and paper. Write down exactly what I tell you.”

A half an hour later, DaeSung was properly dressed and out his door, clutching a meticulously written set of directions and a grocery list.

He sat in the driver’s seat of his dusty sedan, practically abandoned since the werewolf experiment began. DaeSung sighed and collected his thoughts.

“Where’s the supermarket again?” The car was filled with silence. He shrugged and twisted the key in the ignition. “Muscle memory, it is.”

DaeSung was proud to say that he didn’t get lost getting to the supermarket. He could not say the same thing when he finally entered the building.

The dozens of aisles and thunderous rolling of shopping carts immediately overwhelmed him.

“DaeSung.” He muttered to himself as he snatched a basket and aimed for the frozen food section. “You graduated with honors and are working with the top team at YG Research. You can figure out how to buy groceries. You can do this.” His pep talk earned him a few questioning glances and more than a few outright stares, but the stocky man passed by them, completely oblivious.

“Rice cakes, rice cakes, rice cakes...” He scanned the plastic bags behind the glass doors. “Rice cakes! Yes!” He gave a celebratory jump and clicked his heels together when he found them. Yet again, the stares went unnoticed. He tossed the bag into his basket and checked the item off of his list. “What’s next?”

Unfortunately, the rest of the shopping trip did not proceed as smoothly. He had run up and down the aisles searching for dried anchovies to no avail. He finally resorted to asking an employee, who pointed out the bag, which to DaeSung’s frustration, was on the shelf right in front of him.

He had proceeded to the refrigerated food section to find the pepper paste, reading every single label to make sure he didn’t miss it. Of course, pepper paste had to be the very last container on the very last shelf. By the end, his angry mutterings were the cause of several looks of concern and and many shuffles in the opposite direction.

After he found the pepper paste he realized he forgot to find the kelp and returned to the aisle where he found the dried anchovies. An embarrassing amount of time later, he emerged, exhausted but victorious.

After he had paid for his groceries, he dashed out of the store, desperately avoiding the semi-amused looks burning into his back. He tried to justify the two hours he had spent in the supermarket. He had been living off of takeout for way too long, eating in front of computer monitors and a formerly feral werewolf. Of course, that should not have prevented him from reading grocery aisle labels or food packages, but that was irrelevant.

When he returned to his apartment, he dumped the grocery bags on the counter and collapsed on the couch, thoroughly exhausted. He glanced at his watch.

“I wonder what the team is up to.” He muttered. “Somebody will have free time.” He dialed YoungBae’s number. He picked up on the third ring.

“DaeSung!” His friend exclaimed. “How are you doing?”

“Doing great, YoungBae, I got to sleep in for the first time since this whole experiment. How are you all holding up?”

“I’m not complaining, man. Things have been smooth sailing now that we know Chen is actually a fluffy marshmallow. They’re both doing pretty well. Still cuddling at night, still acting like awkward teenagers during the day. They haven’t woken up yet, though.”

“Has anything new happened recently?” DaeSung held his mother’s recipe to his eyes, running through it another time.

“Not really. Jordan’s healing, taking it easy. She’s putting on a little bit of weight and her concussion is basically gone now, we think. Chen’s been taking good care of her. Hunting and gathering and all that.” A sigh echoed from the receiver, followed by the sound of a throat clearing. “But enough about work. What have you been up to with your vacation time?”

“I uhh, well,” DaeSung fiddled with the paper. “I met a girl.”

“WHOA!” YoungBae hollered. “Guys, guys, guys.” DaeSung heard him gathering the rest of the members of the team. He heard the sound of roller chairs gliding over the phone. “He met a girl. He met a girl. DaeSung, you’re on speaker. Tell us everything.”

“You sound like a gossipy grandmother.” DaeSung retorted with a grin.

“You can’t blame us, we’re stuck in a forest with nothing but behavioral science for entertainment. But anyways. Tell us.”

“That was so fast.” DaeSung heard the deep voice of TOP echo through the speaker. “You found a lady already?”

“What’s her name?” JiYong asked.

“Is she hot?” YoungBae piped in. DaeSung heard the sound of a smack and indignant muttering. DaeSung chortled.

“Her name’s Michelle. And yes, I mean, I think she’s pretty hot.”

    “Is she smart?” YoungBae asked.

“You are just like my mother. She asked the exact same questions.” DaeSung chuckled at his team members.

“Well we have a right to be curious!” YoungBae interjected. “You are our beloved team member. She must be deemed worthy.” DaeSung rolled his eyes.

“Yes, she’s smart. She’s a field nurse for JYP.” He replied. He heard someone whistle over the phone.

“She must have a strong stomach then. The centaurs are tough.” JiYong said, sounding impressed. “I’d say they could be even worse than the werewolves.”

“Yeah, she’s tough.” He thought about their time at the bar. Despite their best efforts, they had found themselves drifting towards the topic of work again. Neither of them minded. Their research areas were something they were passionate about, and it was nice to be able to share it with someone who knew the field. DaeSung was under the impression that Michelle’s job might even be more difficult than his. He watched people get torn apart behind glass. For Michelle, those people were her coworkers, and she was responsible for saving them. Her eyes didn’t flicker as she told him her horror stories, and he found that drive admirable.

“Helloooo?” A voice broke him out from his thoughts. “Loverboy?” He gave himself a reminder to smack YoungBae the next time he saw him.

“What?” He responded, annoyed. The boys poked endless fun at him for daydreaming, which he vehemently denied.

“Anyways.” YoungBae cut in again. “Set the scene. You are going to keep us entertained until Chen and Jordan wake up.”

“Excuse me, you may be bored, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have things to do-”

“Who do you think you’re kidding? You’re on vacation. Tell us.” TOP laughed, a rare occurrence. Further prodding finally convinced DaeSung to sit back in his couch and reveal the details to his friends. The group channeled the spirits of the old grandmothers they knew they were, and gossiped for the next hour or so.

“So I’m making dinner for her tonight. Going to try making ddeokbokki.” DaeSung ended his story and leaned back into the sofa, exhausted at all of the talking he’d done.

“Excuse me?” He heard JiYong question. “Why are you making dinner? You mess up instant ramen and TOP always needs to remake it.”

“You made a bad decision there, man.” TOP agreed. DaeSung rolled his eyes for the umpteenth time.

“I realize.” He replied wryly. “But I can’t back out on it now, so I have to make the most of it. I got a recipe from my mom.” Someone whistled again.

“Well, I wish you luck, my man.” YoungBae said, his skepticism leaked through the phone. DaeSung heard someone mutter from over the receiver, most likely the team leader. “Oh, they’re waking up? DaeSung, we have to go. Let us know if you set your apartment on fire. Remember, our company insurance doesn’t cover it.”

“Thanks.” DaeSung responded blandly, and hung up. He scowled good-naturedly to himself. He did not appreciate the skepticism. He scrambled lunch together. Thankfully, there was leftover takeout in the fridge.

Jordan felt like this morning was different than most. Chen’s embrace seemed a little tighter than usual, and as she lifted her face away from his chest, she felt a stinging cold against her skin. Her breath rose in billowing clouds towards the sky. Jordan blinked bleary sleep from her eyes and focused on a grey world. The forest roof, formerly a deep green, was dusted in a thin blanket of frost.

Jordan shifted to loosen Chen’s hold, but he only wrapped his arms more firmly around her and burrowed his face in her hair. Jordan scoffed and lightly poked the back of his head with her index finger. He let out what sounded like a purr into her hair. She sharply rapped her knuckles against his head. He started with an indignant intake of breath. She seized the opportunity to sit up and pushed herself to her feet while Chen haltingly shook himself awake.

Jordan hurriedly rubbed her hands against the goosebumps that had formed on her arms. It was cold, much colder than the days before. The temperature drop made her nervous. She only had one ragged layer left, and if the temperature was going to keep dropping at its current rate, it wouldn’t be enough. Searching through the backpack, she pulled out the extra sweatpants and slipped them on. She yanked out the hoodie, worn thin from overwear and exposure to the elements, and pulled it over her head. Slowly, Jordan shuffled over to the lake.

A thin, crackly layer of ice had developed on the surface. Jordan paused for a moment to appreciate the delicate filaments before stomping on it, breaking a hole in the layer. She splashed the frigid water on her face; the cold shocked away the fuzziness of her consciousness.

Jordan glanced at the sun. It wasn’t high, so it was still early. Still stiff from sleep, she shuffled over to her water bottle and swirled the purified water around in . She glanced at Chen, eternally grateful that he didn’t seem to notice her bad breath, because she was relatively certain it could kill a man.

Chen raised his arms above his head in a long stretch and gave his body a shake. He seemed unperturbed by the cold. He stood, moved over to the frozen shore, and dunked his head in the hole in the ice. He tugged his head out from the freezing water and shook, scattering icy droplets in every direction. He walked to stand next to Jordan and playfully flicked his head at her, splattering drops across her skin. She sputtered in protest and shot him a glare. He grinned, his eyes forming half-moons.

The brief moment of levity ended as the two began their morning routine. Jordan shifted her shoulder around and pointed at it. She tugged off the hoodie to allow Chen to attend to it. He left to grab the backpack with the leaves and returned.

Jordan sank down into the cold dirt with a sigh. She heard Chen plop down behind her, and soon felt the brush of his fingers against her back. Chen peeled off the old leaves, letting a pleased sound at the sight of the remnants of her wounds. The once-thick scabs had begun to peel off and the shallow cuts had healed over. Gently, he lifted her right arm up at her elbow and slowly rotated it back towards him, intently looking at Jordan’s face for any sign of pain. She showed none. After placing her hands back in her lap, he tapped on Jordan’s shoulders, gave her a smile, and unceremoniously dumped the sweatshirt onto her head. He jumped to his feet and headed towards the trees.

Jordan tugged on the layer as he left. Now that Chen deemed her healthy enough to go without bandages, she’d have to start mapping out the area again. The past week or so had left her map in shambles. She could only remember the areas closest to the lake. The deeper corners of the woods had completely faded from her memory. She hurried to swing a backpack onto her back, wincing as the strap chafed against her scabs. She removed it again. She was going to have to make Chen her pack mule for the day.

    She did. Once Chen emerged from the woods, the two bags were chucked at his face. Only his werewolf reflexes saved him from a broken nose.

“Thank you!” Jordan grinned innocently at him. “We have things to find, places to go, and people to murder.” She immediately set off towards the tree, trailed by Chen frantically arranging the two bags across his shoulders. He had no idea where they were going or what they were doing, but followed willingly as she weaved her way through the trees.

    He wasn’t sure exactly what she was doing when she combed the tree branches, but after an hour, he too began to recognize the subtle red flicker of the lights and the odd pieces of metal fixed to the tree.

    “Chen.” Jordan muttered. Chen had learned that she was talking to him whenever she said it. At first he didn’t get it, because she never pointed at anything. But once he looked at her, she would stop saying it. And then he understood.

Chen.

Chen meant him.

He liked it. She seemed to have something that only she called him. It wasn’t how his brothers caught his attention, but there was no way for her to do that. She said it when he wandered off, or when she needed a bag.

Sometimes, when the stars kept him awake, his quiet contemplation would be interrupted by ‘Chen’, gently mumbled by the girl curled into his chest.

Jordan crouched down, fingers pressed into her temples, muttering things he couldn't understand. She did that a lot. She had done it three times that morning. He didn't know what she was doing. He wanted to help, but it seemed like something she had to do on her own.

So he tried other ways. His eyes, much sharper than her human ones, could spot cameras more easily, and he would point them out to her if she didn't see them first. Sometimes they would stumble upon something glittering in the branches. Chen played with them while Jordan did her muttering routine; he liked the way the light glanced off the thin edges. She stood; they moved on.

The sun shifted in the sky, several wire fixtures passed, and the duo showed no signs of pausing.

“Chen.” Jordan said suddenly, breaking the comfortable silence. She plucked an aspen leaf from an overhead branch. “Leaf.”

“L-leaf.” Chen stuttered. She nodded and pointed again. “Leaf.” She smiled as he said it again with more confidence. He was smart. Really smart. Jordan only had to make him repeat a word once or twice, and he remembered it. Soon, he added tree, branch, berry, camera, wire, backpack and water to his verbal repertoire. She'd quiz him on occasion, and he never forgot.

It made her question a lot of things. When Variant relations first became tense, they were depicted as animals. People suggested “training” them to help humans or to euthanize them when they misbehaved. She couldn't imagine that now. She wasn't training him. It was the other way around. He was training her to live in this environment. He was the one ensuring her survival.

Jordan was fascinated by his psychology. How could he learn words so quickly when werewolves were never recorded to have a spoken language? How did he learn how to survive in this forest when his native home was hundreds of thousands of miles away? Did all werewolves have the same stunning ability to adapt?

The questions continued to bother Jordan as she filled in another five sections of the map. It was going much quicker than before, now that Chen was helping her find the cameras. Time was passing more quickly, with his quiet, albeit distracted, company.

He stopped to examine a plant at the base of a pine. Jordan walked on ahead, scanning the overhead branches.

He glanced up as she moved farther away. He could feel it again. The tugging. It didn't hurt, but the discomfort grew. He didn't know the source of the irritation. But as he caught up with Jordan again, the tugging loosened, and faded away.

DaeSung was panicking. Michelle was due to arrive in half an hour, and he had somehow messed something up. The recipe was simple. Boil the anchovies and kelp, take out the kelp and anchovies, put in the spicy stuff and the rice cakes and the green stuff, and then stir the out of it. In the pot, however, was not the rich red bubbling deliciousness of his mother’s ddeokbokki. Somehow, his was thicker and darker. The greens onions had black patches, and the rice cakes were oddly half-soft half hard. When he sampled it, there was a slight acrid taste of something burnt.

Stirring frantically with one hand, DaeSung opened the rice cooker with the other, relieved to see that at least the rice had survived. He still had kimchi that his mother had brought over from two days before, so there was no way that that was bad.

He gave up on his ddeokbokki, turned the heat down on the stove and ran upstairs to his closet. DaeSung ran his hands through his wardrobe, wondering if he should go casual. He looked down at his sweatpants and hoodie.

“Too casual.” He muttered, and changed into jeans. Several wardrobe changes and mental pep talks later, he settled on a crew neck shirt and jeans.

Just in time. As he emerged from his closet, his doorbell rang. DaeSung checked his reflection one more time, and rifled his hand through his hair as he answered the door.

“Hello!” Michelle greeted him, wagging a bottle of wine in her right hand. “I bring libations.”

“Oh good.” He broke into a smile. “You might need it to survive dinner tonight.” Michelle raised an eyebrow.

“Oh?” She stepped through the door and slipped off her shoes. “What for?” She looked at him from the corner of her eye, sly smile lifting the edges of . “Did someone lie about knowing how to cook?” DaeSung cleared his throat.

“I didn’t lie.” He led her to the kitchen. “I’m just out of practice, is all.”

“Well, I’ll enjoy it anyways. Can’t be worse than my cooking.” Michelle commented lightly, setting the bottle of wine on the counter. DaeSung glanced at her. “Yup, you’re out of luck. I can’t cook to save my life.”

“Ah.” DaeSung chuckled. “So we’re both no stranger to burnt meals.”

“Quite familiar, in fact. I’m surprised the carcinogens haven’t induced stomach cancer.” They grinned at each other. DaeSung heaved an internal sigh of relief.

“Okay, so what have you made for me?” Michelle wandered over to the stove. “Ooh! Ddeokbokki, I love this stuff. Looks pretty good! Where are your bowls?” DaeSung smiled and opened the cabinet above the stove. He lifted two down. Michelle spooned the still-oddly-dark ddeokbokki into them.

“There’s rice in the cooker and kimchi in the fridge. I can guarantee those taste okay. Rice is the only thing I don’t mess up, and my mom made the kimchi.”

“Can’t wait. We eating here?” She pointed at the small kitchen table.

“If you want. We could eat by the TV, too. I have a streaming service, if you want to see a movie or something.”

“I think I’ll take advantage of that!” Michelle dashed over to fridge, hefting the large tupperware from within and balancing her bowl on top. Taking slow, careful steps, she inched towards the living room, slid her bowl and kimchi container onto the coffee table before plopping  herself onto the couch. “It’s been ages since I’ve seen a movie. Apparently there’s a spy movie that’s available now?” DaeSung brought his own bowl over and placed a spoon into Michelle’s bowl before handing it to her. “Oh, thank you.”

“We can watch that, I’m fine with anything.” DaeSung reached for the remote and the TV. Michelle looked up the movie title, and soon the two settled down into the leather couch as the beginning credits rolled up the screen. DaeSung nervously glanced over at Michelle as she lifted a spoonful of his ddeokbokki to . She didn’t even wince at the charred taste. In fact, she even hurried to scoop more into .

DaeSung turned to the movie, and internally wished that he could enjoy his own cooking as much as Michelle seemed to.

The two munched in silence through the flamboyant car chases and overzealous gas explosions. DaeSung jokingly shushed Michelle as she pointed out every scientific flaw behind the pictures on the screen. When DaeSung finished his bowl, he set it down on the floor by the couch and sat back in the cushions. He glanced at the woman next to him, holding a breath in his chest. He chuckled to himself; never before did he think he would return to his high school nervousness on his first-ever date.

Quickly, before he could regret it or overthink it, he swung an arm over the top of the couch, letting his palm rest against Michelle’s shoulder. She didn’t seem to register the movement, but she unconsciously shifted, settling herself into his arm.

For a moment, the movie was forgotten, and a grin spread across his face.

------

Chen and Jordan trudged, exhausted, back into their camp. Jordan sank onto the ground with a soft smile. She’d gained more ground than she could’ve hoped thanks to Chen. The only reason why they’d stopped was that she’d begun to give in to the cold. He, however, still seemed to be bursting with energy as he grabbed Jordan’s makeshift net and set off to catch fish in the partially-frozen water. She decided to make herself useful and dragged forward a few logs from their wood pile.

Soon after, Jordan had herself a steady fire, and she sighed happily into the warmth. She looked over at Chen, who stood calf deep in the freezing waters, waiting patiently for a fish to wander past. As she watched, the net shot up, a wriggling shadow captured in the wire.

She hurried to set up a spit, and retreated to the woods to find thin branches. Chen looked up as she disappeared, once again alerted to her movement by the subtle tugging in his chest. He narrowed his eyes, and could see through the dark as she rifled through the fallen branches on the ground. After seeing that she was safe, he turned his attention back to the water.

She returned with five suitable branches in tow, and with the wire they used from their last fish dinner, set up another spit. Jordan glanced up at the sound of splashing, and saw Chen walking back towards the shore. As he neared, she saw that his skin of his feet was bright red, the first indication she’d ever seen of Chen being cold.

Jordan hurried to take the fish and let him warm up, but was deterred as Chen nudged her away with his hip with a playful scowl. She tried again next to the fire, only to have his hip punt her several feet away again. Her glare was met with a cheeky grin, and her irritation evaporated.

Her worry did not. Quietly, she purified another bottle of water and set it down by the fire to warm it. Jordan didn’t interfere as Chen began to arrange the fish on the spit. When he finished, he sat down on the ground with a quiet huff. Jordan sat next to him and yanked his feet towards her. His eyebrows raised in surprise as she yanked her hoodie over her head, goosebumps immediately rising on her skin. Chen reached for her, trying to yank the clothing back over her head, but she only responded with a quick flick to his forehead and a shove to his shoulders. Jordan opened the bottle and slowly poured the water, now warm, on his feet. She let it wash away the dirt and gently dried off his skin with her hoodie, massaging warmth back into his feet.

Jordan supposed she should have found it gross, but at this point, she didn’t care anymore. She hadn’t showered in approximately two months; she was caked in filth.

She methodically continued until his feet returned to their normal color, completely oblivious to the awestruck gaze being sent her way.

When she finished, Jordan scrubbed her hands with the leftover water, then sat down by the fire.

The next several minutes passed in comfortable silence, only interrupted when Chen rose to remove the fish from the spit. He snapped the twig in two, and offered one end to Jordan. She accepted it with a nod in thanks. They ate in silence, both silently contemplating the orange flames.

When she finished, Jordan tossed the stick back into the fire, and watched the sparks flare towards the stars. With a small huff of exertion, she jumped to her feet, and headed towards the woods.

Chen glanced up as her move seemed to tug him in the same direction. He planted his weight, stubbornly resisting the pull. Moments later, he winced as a twinge jolted through his chest, enough to force his hand to his heart. Panic flooded his system, and he considered every option.

He arrived at no conclusions, and only become more puzzled as the pain began to trickle away. Chen glanced in the direction of a cracking noise, to see Jordan emerging from the trees again. As she went to sit down, he wrapped his arms around her midriff and let them both tip over onto their sides. Jordan squeaked in surprise, and lightly batted at his shoulder, to no response. Giving up, she shifted slightly to make herself more comfortable. Chen sighed in contentment, as the fluttering faded away.

There. Better.

“Thanks, I had a great time.” Michelle said, a genuine smile stretched across her face. “We should do this again, when you have another break?”

“Definitely.” DaeSung readily replied. They were in front of his door. He hated this moment, of letting her go. “I have your number, I’ll let you know.”

“Sounds good.” She turned towards the door. Michelle paused for a second before turning, rising on her tiptoes, and planting a light kiss on DaeSung’s lips. “Next time, then.” She squeaked, before making a dash out the doorway.

“Hey, wait!” DaeSung laughed. “You can’t just leave me hanging like that!” Michelle paused again.

“What?”

“Just come here.”

It was with twin smiles that their lips met the second time.

The Big Bang research team was thoroughly puzzled. Though Chen and Jordan had kept them relatively entertained with their uncanny camera-hunting abilities, it still did not negate the fact that they were stuck in a bunker with few windows and an inability  to leave. They were left with only one solution, but with one problem:

DaeSung was excellent at hiding his alcohol.

Now far into the evening, the four despondent researchers slumped into their rolling chairs in the camera room. YoungBae sat in front of the cameras. An occasional “Oh, so cute.” could be heard, with the far more frequent. “I ship them.” The rest of the team ignored him as JiYong pored over official documents and TOP dozed off in his chair.

An odd rumbling sound prompted TOP to lift his head.

“What’s that?” He wondered, his deep voice breaking the silence. JiYong raised his eyebrows.

“Not sure. YoungBae, check the cameras.” The shorter man obeyed the orders, wheeling throughout the room, scanning the screens. He finally stopped in front of a separate panel. Not the ones surveying the forest, but the ones monitoring the bunker.

“There’s a vehicle approaching. Black SUV.” He wheeled around to face his superior. “Are we expecting anyone?” JiYong’s puzzled look answered his question.

“Creepy.” TOP muttered, voice still laden with sleep.

“Well, let’s see who it is.”

“Maybe someone should bring a baseball bat.” TOP cracked in an unusual moment of humor. He quieted under the team’s glares. “Okay, it’s not like we have one anyways. I was just trying to ease the tension.” He sighed as the team shuffled humorlessly in the direction of the front door.

The tension heightened as they heard the sounds of car doors slamming shut.

There were footsteps.

A ring as the latch to the door unlocked. No one else had access to the bunker, JiYong was sure.

Four sets of fists clenched tightly as the door creaked open. Four pairs of eyes widened as they saw who stepped through the doorway.

“Mr. President!” The four bowed deeply for the YG President. He scanned them with cold eyes.

“Bring me to the camera room.” He commanded. The four hurried to heed his orders. The president was silent as he marched through the bunker. As he stopped in front of the cameras, his eyes narrowed.

“Two weeks ago you said that she was near-death.” He swiveled his head to glower at the team leader.

“Yes, sir.”

“Did you save her?” His tone dropped dangerously low.

“No, we did not. That would interfere with the experiment, sir.” JiYong responded, tone equally icey. “Chen saved her.”

“The werewolf?” They had finally managed to catch the president off guard. “It saved her?”

“I-I th-think you’ll find” YoungBae piped up, hands trembling, “that werewolves, at least Chen in particular, have a stunning capacity for empathy, sir. He was displaying signs of guilt-”

“Really.”

“Y-Yes, sir.” YoungBae stuttered, and quickly took a step back, avoiding the president’s eyes.

“Well then.” The President surveyed the team. “Carry on. I’m interested to see how this will end.” He slowly and deliberately made his way back to the front door. Finally, he turned to the four researchers again. “Don’t disappoint me.”

***

I'M SORRY I KNOW I'VE BEEN GONE! It was a bad combination of incredible writer's block, which i tried to remedy with writing a Sehun drabble (insert shameless self-advertisement here), and really difficult classes. Anyways.

Chapter 10! Yay! A massive thank you to HunHan623 for helping me work through my writer's block. Another massive thank you to the bootyful Shooka24 for beta'ing for me.

Shoutouts to Equilibrium, KPOP4life_SHINee, Chelzz, and Pandabears for upvoting! You guys are awesome, I love you guys for your support! And another shoutout to all the readers, you guys' support and understanding is so great and makes my day. Thank you. <3

As always, leave a comment, I read them all. See you next time!