You thought it was an urban legend–a practical joke. But, unfortunately, it seems it isn’t. Because you see the giant flaming scarecrow right now, as it jumps around on its spindly stick legs and hurls flaming pumpkins right at you and Yoongi. A parade of zombies shambles lifelessly after it, a mindless army commanded by, literally, a flaming pile of sticks.

The fact that the two of you are running away from them doesn’t make you feel any better about yourself.

“Wait,” you say in between breaths, as you stumble after him. You’re in some forested area now, lost, and praying to god that he knows where you’re going. “Why can’t we just like, fight them, or something? I mean, they don’t seem that bad, right?”

“And that’s why you’re new,” he says, not looking back at you. He continues to pull you along, further away from the horde of monsters that endlessly chase the two of you.

“What?”

“If you’d gotten here earlier, you would’ve been able to hear the whole commencement speech and an explanation of our annual ritual,” he replies. “But it’s too late now. I’ll explain later if we have time, but the whole point of the exercise is to not kill the monsters. Sure, you can harm them, but like, I don’t know about you, but my abilities are pretty, ah, fatal as is. Hard to hurt without killing.”

“Oh, so I take it that you’re not an assassin?” You’re surprised, honestly. He seems like an assassin type: lithe movements, lean body build.

“No, I mean, I am, but like, ugh,” he says. He groans and runs a hand through his hair in frustration. “Basically, basically, it’s like a game, and you have to steal these dumb tags, except I don’t want to play the game, so yeah.”

“Why not?” you ask. A flaming pumpkin sails towards your head, but you manage to dodge it just in time.

“Because I just don’t,” he says. “Been here long enough as is.”

“You say that as if you don’t want to be here,” you pant, as the two of you come to a stop in front of a gnarled tree.

“Eh,” he says. Then, he gestures up at the tree. “You can climb, right?”

“Of course.” Quickly, you clamber into the branches at a frantic speed, albeit with Yoongi’s help and urging.

“Here’s good,” Yoongi whispers, sounding out of breath, and you cautiously perch on a nearby branch to wait.

Down below, the zombie-scarecrow-and-various-monsters parade runs right past. They disappear into the depths of the forest.

Both of you exhale.

“So what I was saying earlier–you don’t want to be here?”

Yoongi looks uncomfortable, and you feel kind of bad for asking the question. You didn’t mean to pry, really; you’re just trying to keep the conversation going. You’re trying. It’s not working so well.

“No, it’s just–” He pauses, thinks. “It’s just a lot of work. Would be nice to kinda, like, get away some time, you know? A vacation is always nice.”

You nod, understanding. “Yeah,” you say. “A vacation.”

There’s an awkward silence and it makes you kinda uncomfortable. You fist the fabric of your shirt in your hands, as if somehow that will make everything less awkward. It doesn’t help. “So, uh, Yoongi, right?”

“Hm?”

“Where are you from?” It’s probably not the best conversation starter, but you’re trying, damnit.

“Well, my family’s from the east, but I practically grew up, uh, here.”

“In the League?”

“No, no,” he says, waving his hands. “I meant like on the mainland, inner capital.”

“So you grew up in the capital?” you say, awed. “That’s… so cool. I’ve been there a few times, and oh gosh, wow. That must’ve been such a cool place to live in.”

“Y-Yeah.” He inhales deeply. Under the moonlight, you can tell his expression is forlorn; you feel bad. Again. . Making friends has never been harder. “So where are you? From?”

It takes you a second to register that he’s actually talking to you. “Oh, me?”

“I mean, who else would I be talking to? The tree?”

You raise your hands up defensively at his sarcasm. “Sorry. Uh, I’m from the southeast, I guess. A bit far from here, but yeah.”

He furrows his brows. “Southeast? Like, near the Glades?”

“In the Glades,” you say. “I’m not actually fae, but was kinda raised around them. So yeah.”

“Figures,” he says. “No one wonder you dress so strangely.”

Dramatically, you place a hand over your chest, as if mortally wounded by his words. “Says you.” He laughs, and you follow.

“Hey, you know, if you think I dress terribly, you should see one of my friends–”

//

The sound of beating wings comes from the distance. Preoccupied, you take no notice at first. Yoongi’s staring at you intently, wrapped up in your story. “Yeah, no, and right after that I was so scared of the lett–what the is that?”

A dark feather has floated down in front of you. Before you can react, Yoongi curses, and then jumps down from the tree. You gape at him. It’s at least a fifty foot drop, and he just–jumped.

“Are you craz–”

Snap. You whip around and see a black winged demon pushing through the tree branches, limbs grotesque and hair a wild mane.

“_______!” Yoongi yells. “Get down, now!”

“Not sure how fast I can scramble down a tree, but I’ll try my best,” you mutter under your breath.

“Jump!”

You stop and look down at Yoongi. “What.”

“I said jump,” he shouts. He glances up; the demon is getting closer. “I’ll catch you!”

“Right, I’ll jump so you can get squashed under the weight of my body hurtling towards you at speeds achieved by jumping from like, forty feet!” you yell back. You continue to scale down the tree, faster now, hands sweaty and feet tingling. “Thanks, but no thanks.”

The monster thrashes through the forest before finally making it your tree. It screams triumphantly upon seeing you, diving closer–and then it crashes, headfirst, into the trunk. You recoil sharply, startled by the sudden nosedive and the resounding thunk, but it seems unaffected: it groans, slightly dazed.

You, on the other hand, let go and fall.

Aw, .

Strangely, you don’t scream. In fact, you don’t even feel in the least bit alarmed. Maybe it’s because somewhere, deep down, you know that Yoongi will catch you. You’ve only just met this guy, and already he’s saved your twice.

Fwump.

He grunts, but manages to hold out; carefully, he sets you on your feet. “See? Caught you.”

Awkwardly, you brush off broken twigs from your clothes. “T-Thanks.”

“Don’t mention it.”

You look up. Currently, the demon is struggling in the air, one of its wings pinned through by a sharp branch. It screeches. Strangely, you relate. “Okay, but can we actually fight this thing? I mean, it’s just one,right? It’s not twenty, like last time.”

Yoongi rolls up his sleeves and raises a brow. “You sound overly calm for someone who just fell like thirty feet.”

“I mean, you’re the guy who jumped from fifty feet–”

“Shadow flashed, actually,” he corrects. “I’m a stealth fighter. Blades.” The snapping sound of a branch catches your attention again; the demon has managed to free itself. It swings its head around, looking for you and Yoongi.

“Congrats to you,” you reply, giving him a playful grin. “I’m a mage. Are you up for this? Because if you aren’t, I’ll just take this thing on myself.” Already, you outstretch your hands, calling forth the familiar hum of magic.

“If you think you’re up for it, then sure,” he says, throwing you what you assume to be an attempt at a smile. “Just–don’t kill them. Get the tag thingies they have. And the ropes that tie the tags to the monsters are magic proof, by the way. Temporary, obviously, but it’s just so if you’re a magic user, you can’t just blast the tags off.”

You nod, eyeing the dangling piece of wood on the monster. It flutters in the wind, as if taunting you to snatch it.

“Okay, Yoongi, here’s the plan: you go and distract.”

You don’t miss the horrified look on his face as he turns to you. “What?! I’m a stealth fighter, how the do I distract- “

You grin at him. “Guess you’ll have to learn,” you say, and sprint off to the other side of the tree. “Here we go!”

He gapes after you. “The –”

Distraction, as far as you know, is not your forte. You’ve never really tried it, nor have you seen anyone do it, but already you know this isn’t going well. You hold back a grin as you watch Yoongi frantically wave his arms around to gain the monster’s attention.

Blades, Yoongi, blades.

Unfortunately, neither of you have telepathic abilities, so you can only watch him continue to yell and shout.

it. Maybe, you suppose, it’s time for a change in roles. Quickly, you leap from the side of the monster and aim a lance of magic straight through one of its wings, blowing feathers into the air. It snarls angrily and whirls around at you, jaws open wide, smoldering eyes blazing. You dodge out of the way as it hurls demon fire at you, rolling away from the path and behind another tree trunk.

Before it can follow after you, Yoongi seems to finally fall into his fighting mindset; from behind your tree, you watch as he materializes close to the demon, blade swiping across its body. At the last moment, the demon dodges, and Yoongi misses the tag by mere millimeters.

You bite your lip. Close, so close.

Sensing your chance, you step out of the shadows again, this time shooting for the other wing. The monster screeches but, surprisingly, remains airborne. It’s low enough that maybe if you jumped at the right time, you could tug it right off…

You manage to hold back a surprised yelp when Yoongi appears out of nowhere, a dagger at his hands. With a quick flick of his wrist, he manages to cut off the tag.

You lose your breath.

It’s not because of the way he cuts off the tag; it’s the look in his eyes. They look so full of bloodlust. His hands seemed to turn into claws. In that moment, for that flashing second, he doesn’t look human at all.

For a second, he looks like a monster.

But a monster wouldn’t go this far to help you, would it?

The winged demon vanishes in a puff of smoke. Grinning, Yoongi hands the tag to you. You look at him; his expression is normal now. Human. So maybe it was an illusion of the night. Strange things happen. Still, the hairs on the back of your neck continue to stand up.

“Nice job,” you say, taking the tag from him. He hums in response.

Panting slightly from the sudden exertion, you clutch the tag in your hand, inspecting it carefully. Despite the whole having to kill-but-not-really-part, you actually find the activity kind of…fun. Especially with Yoongi.

He leans over your shoulder to also get a good look at the wooden chip. “Wood?” he snorts, sounding disappointed. “I swear, they get cheaper and cheaper with these things each year. Makes you wonder what they’re doing with all the money they make offa us.”

“Well, I mean, it could be expensive w–”

“Hey, Yoongi!” A voice from the distance suddenly cuts through. Wide-eyed, you turn to Yoongi, who stiffens. He returns your look and then whips around. You see a group of five guys, faces obscured by the dark of the night. One is waving at you. He makes his way over.

“,” Yoongi mutters under his breath. Then, louder, so they can hear, he hollers, “Yeah?”

“So it was you,” the waving guy says, coming closer now. “We weren’t sure, and Hoseok was talking about how it wasn’t you, how it was probably some doppelganger or monster with illusionistic abilities playing us or some . He’s hiding in that–” the guy turns around and points at a tree a few feet away “–tree over there, by the way. Rest of the squad’s trying to coax him down, but he isn’t having any of it. Anyways, I thought you weren’t going to play?” He looks at Yoongi inquisitively, and, in doing so, seems to notice you, standing behind him, looking curious and confused. “And I see you’ve found a friend? Hey?” Shyly, he waves at you. Yoongi shifts uncomfortably.

“Uh–”

“Yeah, hi, I’m _______,” you say, cutting Yoongi off. You stick out your hand for a handshake. His friend tentatively takes your hand.  Bashful. He lets go a bit too quickly, but not in a rude way. You suppress a giggle.

“Ah, I’m–I’m Jungkook,” he says. He then clears his throat and turns to Yoongi, who merely raises a brow. “So, uh, anyways. I thought you weren’t–”

“I wasn’t planning to,” Yoongi says. “Things just sorta happened. We got attacked.”

“Oh, um–”

“Yo, so it is Yoongi!” Now, there are five guys coming over, six in total, including Jungkook. You guess they finally managed to get that Hoseok guy down from the tree.

“I KNEW IT, I KNEW IT,” one guy yells enthusiastically. He jumps in the air and triumphantly points at another guy. “THAT’S RIGHT, HOSEOK, YOU CAN BITE MY , I TOLD YOU SO!”

“Shut it, before I make you,” Hoseok says, sounding wounded and disgruntled. “Plus, better safe than sorry.”

“Yeah, yeah, safety, what an uptight ,” the guy mutters, under his breath. He turns to you. “Oh uh, hey there!”

“Uh, hi.”

“What’s–”

Yoongi clears his throat, loudly. “Guys, this is ______,” he says, sounding bored. “________, this is the resident goon squad. I’d avoid them if I were you.”

“Hey–” Indignant.

“Says you–” Defensive.

“I’m Taehyung!” Enthusiastic guy seems impervious to Yoongi’s insults. Kudos to him.

“Are you guys seriously the goon squad?” Jungkook looks confused, but strangely awed.

“Um, yeah, hey, hi,” you say, awkwardly. They’re weird, but they seem like cool people to hang around. “Um, if it’s not too late, or if you guys are okay with it… Can I… Join?”

They look at you, surprised. You brace yourself for rejection–

And then they break into smiles.

“Of course, yeah! We’ve got room, and the more the better,” Namjoon says. Then, he turns to Yoongi, an expectant grin on his face. “So, Yoongi, are you joining?”

Yoongi looks ready to reject the offer, but then he looks at you. You shoot him a pleading look; after all, they are his friends, and it’d be kinda…awkward if you just kinda tagged along without him. Please say yes, pleasepleasepleaseplease–

He sighs heavily. “ing–okay, fine.”

You break into a wide grin.

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