There was a set of pawprints right beneath Su Ji's window. Yoongi felt his entire body tremble violently, and without even meaning to, he started to phase – he felt his limbs start to elongate and his clothes stretching at the seams.

"Yoongi?"

He froze. Her voice... her voice had made the trembling stop. He was able to think again, he was able to stop phasing.

"Did you find your book?" She still couldn't see him, she was standing on her porch. "Hey, where did you go?"

Yoongi took a deep breath. Control. Inhale. Exhale. There. He could breathe again. Taking one last look at the set of pawprints, he quickly went to her before she could come here and see them – later, he'd show them to Namjoon.

Su Ji was standing on the porch, waiting for him. "Hurry!" she said, seeing him. "I was thinking... how would you like to meet my grandmother?"

This made Yoongi snap to attention. "W-what?" he stuttered. "Meet your grandmother?"

He had often seen her working in her garden, and also when Su Ji had first come here and he had been hiding and watching, and he gathered that she was a very gentle and kind person. She had also told Su Ji not to be afraid of the wolf, all those months ago when he had first started watching over her.

Su Ji was making him do all kinds of things today. Studying, not napping in class, actually going to Hoseok's for a study group... and why on earth did he just keep agreeing to doing whatever it was she wanted him to do?

Because it's for your own good, a tiny voice whispered at the back of his mind. It had been years since someone was telling him to do things for his own benefit– Namjoon had stopped three years ago.

"Come on," said Su Ji impatiently. "I already told her you were coming!"

"You did?" he asked, a bit nervous – what if she didn't like him? She was Su Ji's family, so he had to make a good impression on her.

He let her grab his arm and drag him inside, wondering why she suddenly wanted him to meet her grandmother.

"Here we are!" she yelled, as they stepped inside. Yoongi shut the door behind them carefully, scanning what he could see of the road and garden for any suspicious movement.

"Ah, good!" said Grandmother's voice from the dining room. Su Ji led him into the room – the table had been set with their dinner of cold noodles.

Yoongi bowed and greeted the elderly woman already seated at the table. She nodded and smiled at him, and told him to take a seat. Su Ji introduced him, and told her that they sat next to each other in class and he was a good friend of hers.

"How long have you been friends with Su Ji?" asked Grandmother, addressing him. She passed him a bowl of noodles.

"I'm not sure." Yoongi didn't know from when they had been close – she had liked him in his wolf form, did it start from there? Or did it start after he had marked her and she had accepted his comfort when she got the news that her father had been admitted to a hospital?

"A long time," said Su Ji. "Well, not before I moved here, obviously."

No one laughed at her lame attempt of making a joke, and she hurriedly took a big bite of noodles and exclaimed, "Oh, yum! Grandma, this is so good! Yoongi, did you have any yet?"

Yoongi took a bite, and he instantly knew he would be able to eat five bowls. "This is delicious," he said, his voice soft.

"Thank you," said Grandma. "Eat as much as you like, there's a lot."

"Don't say that!" cried Su Ji. "He'll eat everything! Grandma, he eats so much!"

"Even more than you do?" asked Grandma. "I don't think that's possible."

"She eats my lunch at school," put in Yoongi, and Grandma laughed.

"You can have more noodles than her then, since she eats your food," promised Grandma.

Yoongi smiled in thanks – he liked Su Ji's grandmother, she was kind and there was a certain something in her that reminded him a bit of Su Ji.

"Where do you live?" asked Grandma, giving him another serving of noodles since he had finished already.

"Ah... it's near the forest," said Yoongi, half-truthfully – inside the forest and near it wasn't too far apart...

"Be careful, all right? Things have gotten very scary," Grandma sighed. "This place used to be a very peaceful one... the villagers are signing a petition to submit to the Forest Department – they don't want the wolf to live here anymore."

Yoongi forced back a shiver – so, the villagers blamed the wolf. They only knew one wolf, the white one. They only knew him. They blamed him for the attacks and wanted him gone.

They know you're a murderer.

The thought came unbidden, and he forced it back in the darkest and deepest corner of his mind. This was not time for guilt or remorse, he had to keep his head on straight. If he let himself think too much, he would lose himself in a torrent of guilt and darkness. He remembered the way Su Ji had kissed him just yesterday – she had put so much of her love into it, and he should focus on that rather than be drawn to his negative side.

After dinner, Yoongi said goodbye and left. But he didn't return to his little cabin to stay – he quickly put away his clothes and phased, then rushed back to Su Ji's. He couldn't stay away tonight, not after he had seen the pawprints. Night had fallen, and darkness made it easier to hide and attack.

He whined beneath her window, trying to catch her attention. Sure enough, she opened it and stuck her head out.

"What is it?" she whisper-shouted.

Let me in! he whined, trying his best to look as sad as possible – his ears and tail almost drooped down to the ground.

"I want to," she said, understanding he wanted to come in. "But Grandma..." She looked at his pitiful face. "Ugh, fine! I'll open the door – you have to keep your ears on the look out for her, though!"

He wagged his tail and she shut her window.

Success! He padded to the front door, hearing her footsteps approaching quickly. She opened the door and he slipped past her, brushing against her legs as he did so. Keeping a lookout for her grandmother, he crossed the hallway and bounded up the stairs. Once he was safely in Su Ji's room, and they had the door shut, he was finally able to relax.

Su Ji headed straight to her desk and sat down. "I'm studying," she said. "And I suggest you do the same."

Yoongi screamed inside his head – studying agian?! What was wrong with this girl, it was almost time for her to be asleep and she was still studying?

Reluctantly, he flopped down on the floor, right next to her. She reached down and patted his head. "Shall I read out loud?"

He closed his eyes and slightly leaned closer to her as she his head, listening to her soft voice as she read out loud about the theory of employment.

****

Everything was dark, but his eyes could make out a familair circle of trees and the ground that suddenly dropped into a treacherous slope. He was back in the clearing, where the grey wolf had died.

But now, instead of a grey wolf, it was a black one. It snarled and sprang at him, but Yoongi quickly dodged it – but the wolf hadn't been targeting him, it had been targeting something behind him.

Yoongi heard a scream, and turned around, his heart beating agianst his ribcage. The black wolf had sprung at Su Ji, not at him.

"Yoongi!" she screamed. "Help me!"

But he couldn't. His legs refused to move forward, and his body refused to phase. He could only stand there and watch the wolf attack her. He was too afraid – he was afraid that if he phased, he would lose control of his actions, and would repeat the same mistake as before, with Mr Choi – but this time, he would end up killing both the black wolf and Su Ji.

Yoong woke up in a cold sweat, and it took a minute until he realized he wasn't in the forest, that he was indoors – that Su Ji was lying next to him safely.

Those pawprints... the wolf had come here, and it could come again. Yoongi didn't know why it would, but he did know that he wouldn't let it come near the house again – as a wolf, he could smell and hear it before it got too close.

Su Ji was still fast asleep. Good, he had worried that his nightmare might have woken her up – they could often sense if one of them was afraid or angry. She must be too tired to be able to feel it – she had studied a lot today.

Yoongi curled up, placing his head between his paws. As he tried to go back to sleep, he kept one ear cocked up, so not a single sound would be able to escape his notice, even in his sleep.

****

Hoseok