AN: I don’t think this needs a trigger warning, but I will make a note that this chapter gets a little violent. So, just in case that stuff does bother you, please read at your own discretion.

Also I kinda rushed through these gifs in the past two nights...so there are tons of things I should fix, but oh well. This is free entertainment, haha. Enjoy!

What started as one faded howl in the distance slowly multiplied into a few, until the whole forest was engulfed in a choir of animalistic sounds. Though Taeyeon has completely stiffened from the unsettling sounds, she notices that none of her other peers are reacting to the bone-chilling noise that’s overwhelming her ears. Feeling a prickle crawl down her spine, she turns to her professor instead. “S-siwon, do you—?”

“Yeah, I hear ‘em, kid.” The man knits his eyebrows, fully concentrated on the displacement of each vibration in the air.

The younger werewolf furrows her brows too, still listening to the symphony of howls that have been stirring in the air for minutes now. “P-packmates?” she questions.

“No,” Siwon flatly replies, well aware of the strange decibels of the wolf-like cries. He keeps tilting his head and pausing at new angles, confused by the creatures causing these sounds. “Doesn’t quite sound like a wolf…or a werewolf,” he whispers.

“That is howling though, right? It’s gotta be some kind of wolf.”

“What’re you two whispering about?” Jessica asks, leaning into her friend and professor.

“You can’t hear them?” Taeyeon asks.

“I can’t speak werewolf,” Jessica chuckles, also keeping her voice down from the other students. “What are you dogs talking about?”

Still surveilling the area, Taeyeon notices the twitchy gumiho at Tiffany’s side and she wonders if Yuri can hear something strange in the distance too. “I think so-something’s wrong,” Taeyeon stutters, agitated with paranoia. “It’s really freaking me out.”

“What is?” Jessica asks, observing Siwon stand from his seat before approaching the female professor. She watches the man lean into Professor Song and whispers something that makes the woman’s eyes widen at the news. Jessica can feel the panic from meters away. “Taeyeon…what’s going on?”

The raven-haired girl gulps before meeting her friend’s gaze. “I…I think there are other werewolves in the forest.”

“What??”

“Professor Song! I think the girls are back!”

Hearing Seohyun’s voice from meters away, Tiffany turns and searches for the source. Finally spotting her junior climb up the small hill, Tiffany tries to shield her eyes from the sharp light and squints at the approaching figure—oh, make that figures—as they start to show through the mist. “Bora! Get your down here! Is that Soyou and them with you too?”

Up ahead, Seohyun continues to make her way up the hill, but she slows her walk upon approaching the silhouetted figure that’s starting to look a little bit bigger than she remembers Bora’s frame.

“Bora-unnie?”

Yuri knows that, as a gumiho, she harbors strange abilities and heightened senses in comparison to her human friends, so when she catches the smell of liquid metal in the air, she wipes her head around, searching for the source. Her nose certainly isn’t as acute as an actual canine’s, but after a few deep sniffs, she grabs a panicked fistful of Tiffany’s sweater when she looks into Seohyun’s direction heading towards the silhouettes coming down the hill.

“Ismellblood.”

“What?” Tiffany blanches.

“I smell blood!” Yuri says again before rising to her feet. “Seohyun! Get back here!”

Startled by her friend’s words, Tiffany also looks up at her junior before she breaks into an all-out sprint. “SEOHYUN!”

“Bora-unnie?” Seohyun asks again, watching the dark figure suddenly come to a standstill. The young witch squints against the harsh sunset rays and finally sees—what appears to be—a male figure turn away from her, confused about his whereabouts. “H-hello? Are you—?”

“GET BACK!” Tiffany doesn’t think twice about yanking the taller girl behind her and raising her wand against the stranger. The boy stumbles forward in jerky erratic steps, snarling as he snaps his jaws at the pair of girls, and Tiffany can’t tell if they should be helping the stranger or attacking him. “Wh-who are you?!”

When the sun beams finally illuminate his face, Seohyun grips tightly onto Tiffany’s sweater when she clearly sees the boy’s werewolf-like features. “Oh my god!”

“RAWWWAGGG!”

The hybrid snarls something terrifying, but before he can even make a lunge, Tiffany straightens her arm and screams, “confringo!”

Shot from the tip of a holly wood wand, the fiery curse explodes against the boy’s bare bloodied chest, which elicits a horrific howl from the hybrid.

“Wh-what the hell?” Tiffany stammers, wand now trembling in her grasp. She can feel Seohyun’s quivering grip on her sleeve too and, when something new grabs onto her, she almost fires another curse from her weapon, but thankfully halts in her movements when Yuri’s face comes into view.

“We’ve got to get out of here!” Yuri screams as she grabs hold of both her friends.

However, Tiffany finally looks at her feet and starts to shudder at sight of the seemingly lifeless boy. He was just howling in a pain just a few seconds ago, but now he…h-he—

“FANY!”

Tiffany squeezes her eyes shut, blacking out the sight of the corpse before she realizes Yuri’s violently shaking her and attempting to wake her from her shock.

“Fany, we’ve got to get out of here! Move!”

Legs suddenly feeling like jelly, Tiffany doesn’t quite register the other figures starting to show through the mist, but she lets Seohyun and Yuri pull her along. Even when they start to flee down the small hill, she glances over her shoulder and catches the boy’s lifeless eyes as his body still remains sprawled on the forest floor. What have I done?

Along with dozens of her peers, Taeyeon gawks with trepidation when the sounds of a horrific snarl and explosion contaminate the tranquility of the forest. Though the bang startles Jessica and makes her shriek, Taeyeon grimaces at the deafening ring in her ears now and it makes everything feel surreal when silhouettes continue to emerge from the mist.

She watches students begin to scatter and disperse from the forest clearing as werewolf-like creatures begin to dash down from the hilltop. Oh God, Tiffany’s there. Taeyeon wants to move, wants to run to or from the danger, but she finds her shoes locked to the leafy forest floor. She watches Professor Song surge up the hill towards where the handful of monsters are infiltrating from and the professor casts another deafening explosion from her wand, forcing Taeyeon to grimace at the decibels intensifying the ring between her temples. 

With all the flurry of bodies swirling around her in a chaotic mess, the only thing that brings Taeyeon back to her senses is Siwon gripping her shoulder and snapping his fingers right in front of her face.

“Taeyeon! You need to shift, right now!”

…W-what?

“Taeyeon, snap out of it! You need to shift! I can’t turn without the moon, but you can! You need to shift!”

“I-I—”

“RAWWWAGGG!”

In search of danger, Taeyeon jerks to the left to inspect the source of the distorted snarl. She’s on the opposite side of the clearing, but still spots a female hurdle over a dead log and Taeyeon takes in everything too quickly. The bright gold eyes, the jagged fangs, and the thick black claws. She feels her stomach bottom-out once she recognizes all the werewolf-like features. What’s worse is that the rampaging half-turned girl finds her way right on top of Sunny. 

Taeyeon wants to desperately call out for her screaming roommate or—hell—even save her, but she finds fear immobilizing every nerve spread throughout her body. She may as well be wetting herself with how scared she is. And while her conscience berates her for the way she disgraces her brave red and gold house colors, she exhales a sharp sigh of relief when Hyoyeon rushes in and kicks the half-turned beast off of Sunny.

Hyoyeon’s movements are sharp and strong as she draws a sharp peak in the air before casting, “Incendio!” which generates a violent stream of fire that swallows the hybrid-girl whole.

Taeyeon flinches from the bright, blinding flames and can feel the heat from meters away. It’s times like these when she wishes she didn’t have her sensitive hearing and smelling abilities because the hybrid-girl’s shrieking and the scent of her burning flesh and hair do nothing but enhance Taeyeon’s fearful paralysis. 

“Shift! You need to shift! You’ll be safer that way!”

“Taeyeon! What’s wrong with you?”

Taeyeon trembles in her sneakers when Siwon and Jessica’s voice are garbling together into overlapping nagging. She’s sure that she’s never experienced fear like this before and if something as silly as arguing with Jessica in the corridors was enough to trigger her shift, getting attacked by a bunch of strange creatures, in the middle of nowhere, should draw nothing short of a similar reaction. Taeyeon doesn’t know why she’s still rooted in her human skin though. With a shaky breath, she tells them, “I-I ca-can’t shift.”

“Taeyeon!” Siwon snaps, still shaking the girl. “I’m serious! You need to—”

“I CAN’T!”

The younger werewolf’s surprised when her mentor shoves her away and he grabs Jessica by the wrist before shoving her along too. “RUN! Take your friends and go!”

Finally finding her voice, Taeyeon snaps, “Are you crazy?!”

“Just go! I’ll meet up with you guys! Hyoyeon!” Siwon screams across the clearing. “Military major, right?”

Though her professor isn’t wrong, Hyoyeon isn’t sure what her instructor expects from a nineteen-year-old witch who’s only learned to fight in practice. “Y-yes, Profe—”

“Take these girls and get out of here as fast as possible. Find higher ground!”

“What? W-what about you and Professor Song—”

“JUST GO!” Siwon screams, pushing some of his students behind him before pulling his wand out. As soon as he turns around, a male hybrid lunges for the professor and Siwon catches a mouthful of jagged fangs with his forearm.

Taeyeon doesn’t remember when her feet start moving, but she catches a glimpse of Siwon putting his amplified strength to use when he sacks his assailant in the face. Getting turned around from Hyoyeon pulling her along, Taeyeon can hear the hybrid’s cracking skull from meters away. And even though she’s sprinting alongside her peers, everything feels like slow motion when she manages to sneak in one last glance over her shoulder. She sees her Professor casting spells and knocking back half-beasts with stunning grace and power, but…she just hopes it’s not the last time she’ll see the man.

Be careful, oppa.

***

Lungs burning and thighs beyond fatigued, Taeyeon thinks they must’ve put a kilometer or two of distance between themselves and the unexpected danger. She and her group of peers finally come upon a tight clearing up on high ground, so they finally come to standstill when they’re unable to push through their exhaustion.

“What the hell was all that?” Sunny huffs between gasped breaths.

“No idea,” Hyoyeon wheezes as she slumps against a mossy rock.

Noting how disturbed her roommate looks, Taeyeon has to tell Sunny, “I-I’m sorry. Back there…when you got attacked,” she whispers, feeling guilt weigh her down. “I-I’m sorry I froze.”

“You’re not the only one,” Sunny numbly replies, staring at her own trembling hands. “I could barely remember how to move. I don’t blame you.”

“I’m glad Hyoyeon got you.”

“Me too,” Sunny whispers. “Yoona, Hyo, Sica, you guys okay too?”

Faces beyond pale, they trio manage a weak nod in return. “I-I’m okay,” Hyoyeon stammers. “You two good?” Taeyeon and Sunny answer with a nod as well. Though Hyoyeon’s glad that all her closest friends are safe, she doesn’t like that they’re in company with Tiffany’s gang of all people. She’s sure that there were other students fleeing with them, but for the life of her, she can’t remember if the other kids scattered into different directions or if they were…killed.

“I-it’s…it’s not a full moon,” Sunny suddenly mutters, staring at the dimming sky. “It’s not going to be a full moon tonight.”

“Those…were werewolves though, weren’t they?” Yoona asks.

“I’m not sure,” Sunny whispers before turning her eyes to her roommate. “Though I’m pretty sure they’re not natural werewolves. They only looked half-transformed.”

“It wasn’t me!” Taeyeon snaps once she catches her friend’s gaze. “Don’t look at me like that.” The longer she holds Sunny’s wary eyes though, Taeyeon feels her own confidence falter. “It…it can’t be me, right?” she whispers, barely audible. “I’ve never bitten anyone—I don’t even know if I can turn someone!”

“Is that what Professor Choi meant when he asked you to shift?!”

There are only a few meters gaping the two rivaling groups, but Yuri breeches the threshold as she stalks forward with angry strides. “You’re a werewolf?” Yuri accuses, now completely aware of how Taeyeon managed to sniff her identity out.

Alarmed, Taeyeon rises from her cross-legged position on the forest floor to meet the fox-girl. “I-I…I am. Yes.”

Coming up behind Yuri with slower steps, Tiffany whispers through a trembling voice, “…Did you do something to Bora?”

“Wha—what’re you talking about?”

“She was sick this morning!” Tiffany suddenly snaps. “Like…like she was going through a bite transition!”

Taeyeon’s reflexes are usually lightning fast, but she freezes out of surprise as Tiffany pushes past Yuri in an outrage, striding forward to challenge her former friend. Before she can even raise the wand and threaten the wolf-girl, Tiffany jerks to a stop as Jessica steps between the two girls, with her wand drawn as well.

“Don’t,” Jessica simply warns, pressing the tip of her wand against the other girl’s forehead, with an ignited spell.

Tiffany grits her teeth into a nasty sneer. “You’re wrong about her!” she snaps, flinching from the heat of Jessica’s spell, glowing at the tip of her wand. “If she’s the reason why Bora’s—”

“S-she’s not!” Jessica counters, trying her best not to let her nerves show as she challenges a military major.

“How do you know?”

“She’s my friend. I believe her.”

“She’s a werewolf! She’s a ing monster—just like those things we saw out there! It all makes sense why she attacked me now!”

“She said didn’t!”

Taeyeon growls before demanding, “How long are you going to keep up with your bullting?! I didn’t assault you!”

“Are you kidding me?!” Sooyoung screams, also rising from her seat. “I saw her in the classroom; I was with her at the infirmary, you liar!”

“I don’t have rage blackouts like natural werewolves! I’m different! I—”

“Are you the reason why those things are out there?!”

“I’M NOT FERAL!”

“Are you sick?!” Tiffany asks, still trying to stride forward past Jessica’s halting hands. “Do you want me to prove my point?! Do you want to see?!”

Taeyeon swallows hard, speechless about how confident Tiffany is about this whole ordeal.

Tiffany’s gaze shifts from the wolf-girl to the girl right in front of her. “Go ahead,” she tells Jessica, “take the memory! Take a look at what your friend did.”

Blanching, the rigidness is Jessica’s stance softens when Tiffany’s hard glare pierces her with dread and it just intensifies when the Hufflepuff girl abruptly snatches a hold of the other girl’s wrist, forcing the tip of Jessica’s cherry wood wand to her temple. Whether it’s fear from the truth or fear from the sudden strength of her classmate, Jessica’s unsure.

“Go ahead,” Tiffany tells her again, guiding Jessica’s motions to pull the smoky white-blue memory from her temple. “Give it to her or take a look yourself,” she says, releasing her hold on the girl’s wrist and stepping back.

Numb, Jessica remains in her stance, wand gripped far too tight with the glowing memory attached at the tip of her wand. She doesn’t want to look at it because she already knows who’s telling the truth.

When a hand touches her shoulder, she jumps at the feeling before turning her head to the sight of Taeyeon at her side, staring hollowly at her wand.

“…Show me.”

Jessica gulps and wordlessly turns to her friend. “Taeyeon—”

“Just show me the stupid thing,” Taeyeon pleads, placing her hand over Jessica’s. She guides the girl’s hand up, moving the tip of the wand and memory till it reaches her temple. As soon of the warmth of the magic touches her skin, Taeyeon feels her whole being rip from her physical form as her mind gets propelled into the past.

***

When Taeyeon blinks, her world changes from misty forest to empty classroom and it only takes her a few seconds to realize she’s not in her own body. Because, asides from her dulled werewolf senses, standing across from her and seated on the edge of the desk, Taeyeon stares at her thirteen-year-old self. She glances at Yoona, Sunny, and Hyoyeon sitting around her younger self too and they practically look like babies compared to the ladies they’ve grown into now.

“W-why are you mad at me?”

Her lips move, but it’s Tiffany’s voice that comes out of her own throat. Taeyeon’s never warped into someone’s memory like this before, and worn their skin, so she’s confused when she can actually feel remnants of Tiffany’s hurt and confusion, clouding her young mind.

“Fany, I told you to stop bothering me,” Taeyeon replies.

“You heard her,” Sunny adds fuel to the fire, not hesitant about burning Tiffany. “She doesn’t want anything to do with you, so just leave.”

Taeyeon feels constrict as she hoarsely whispers in Tiffany’s voice, “What about Christmas? I-I don’t—”

“Go home to Salem then.”

“But I love spending Christmas with you guys—”

“Why aren’t you listening to me?! There isn’t going to be any stupid holiday parties this year, okay?! Why do you have to be like this?!”

Taeyeon can see it plain as day. Knowing that there was no home Tiffany could have possibly visited at this point in her life, Taeyeon can see the damage of ty parents disguised in cruel words directed at Tiffany. If she could, she’d hang her head in shame, but this isn’t her body, so her eyes start to glass with tears instead.

“Tiffany, I think you should leave,” Yoona clearly warns, standing up to her full height. She was tall then, even before puberty really hit.

“Taeyeon,” Hyoyeon warns her friend, “send the girl away. We have a…busy night today.”

A full moon? Taeyeon can’t quite remember what the girl’s insinuating, but the next words out of her own young-self’s mouth startle her.

“I’m sick of how ing needy you are,” she lashes out at Tiffany. “Find someone else to babysit your .”

There are tears running down Tiffany’s face now and Taeyeon shares the feeling of wet cheeks and eyes that burn with anger and hurt. Surprised, Taeyeon feels the girl’s feet suddenly move, striding forward in big steps till she’s face to face with her younger self. Right after her palm strikes over a soft cheek, she feels