"Where are you going?" cried Hoseok, startled, seeing Yoongi and Namjoon bolt as soon as Jimin asked for help. It seemed to be no small matter, though, not since they reacted this way – not since Jimin was nearly in tears.

Aanchal seemed to think the same; she grabbed his arm and they hurried after the other three, trying their best to catch up. They were out of the school building now, and streaking towards the right side – hold on, there were no more cars at this point....

Hoseok stopped short, sure he was seeing things – up ahead, Yoongi had somehow disappeared, replaced by an enormous white wolf who let out a terrible howl. It made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up and riddle the skin of his arm with goosebumps.

"Hobie, come on!" urged Aanchal, who seemed shocked as well but determined to find out what was going on.

Hoseok pulled himself together and ran, a voice in his head screaming that he should turn around. But he ignored it, and entered the fringe of the forest.

****

Yoongi's howl made Su Ji's heart soar, but at the same time she was terribly afraid – not for herself, but for Yoongi. The black wolf suddenly tensed, and without even touching her, fled deeper into the forest. Hardly two seconds later, something white streaked past, following the black wolf.

It was Yoongi.

Su Ji picked herself up, ignoring her stinging hands and elbows, just as Namjoon and Jimin appeared. Namjoon immediately went to her, looking more agitated than she had ever seen him before, the other boy looking panic-stricken.

"Are you all right?" Namjoon demanded, grabbing her hands and turning them over to see the slightly torn skin. "Are you hurt?"

She shook her head frantically, her words tumbling out in haste. "I'm fine, but Namjoon, it's Yoongi! He went after the wolf – the wolf is Jin! It was never Jimin, it was Jin!"

"I know," said Namjoon, and Hoseok and Aanchal rushed to her.

"You look spooked!" said Hoseok – that was a bit rich coming from him, he looked as though he had seen a ghost. "What happened?"

"You two," ordered Namjoon. "Look after Jimin and Su Ji – don't let them out of your sight no matter what!"

They nodded, and Namjoon touched Su Ji's hand one last time before he too, ran in the direction the two wolves had gone.

Su Ji stood rooted to the spot, with Aanchal's arm around her shoulders, not knowing what to do. She wanted to go after them, but there was nothing she could do – she knew she'd just end up being a hinderance. But this was her fault – if she hadn't been so stupid, this would never have happened. Aanchal asked her whether she was hurt, to which she replied she wasn't.

Jimin, beside her, stood as stiff as a starched sheet, his shoulders trembling just a bit. Did he know about Jin? He caught her looking at him, and, suddenly enraged, screamed, "He's going to die because of you!"
 

Hoseok put his arm around Jimin, his eyes as wide as saucers, mirroring Aanchal's. "Whoa there, let's not-"

Jimin shook him off. "Let go of me, I have to go and find him before they do."

Hoseok grabbed him, preventing him from leaving. "Namjoon said not to-"

"I said, LET GO OF ME!!!" Jimin's face twisted in pain, and he crumpled to the ground, struggling to breathe. "I need to go.... I need to find him..."

"Jin won't die," said Su Ji, trying to sound as calm as possible. "They won't-"

"They killed my father!" Jimin spat. Hoseok and Aanchal exchanged shocked glances.

"It was an accident," maintained Su Ji. "You have no idea how guilty they felt, for years-"

"It serves them right! They are guilty!"

"Jimin," Hoseok tried to soothe him, but Jimin wasn't having any of it.

"Do you know how unfair my brother's life is because of that Protector? Do you have any idea of what he went through? And to end everything like this... it isn't fair!"

"They won't end him!" Su Ji cried. Why wouldn't Jimin listen? "Believe me, they're going to do everything they can to keep him alive!"

"Is that what they told you?" he sneered. "Liars and hypocrites, both of them!"

Su Ji crossed her arms and glared at Jimin, to which he responded by glaring too.

"Can someone explain what's going on?" asked Hoseok, breaking the tension between the two. "There are two people here who are totally lost at sea... um, is it just me or did... did Yoongi transform into something?"

Jimin sighed, and, addressing Su Ji, he said, "You explain, I'm too tired."

While Jimin waited anxiously for any sign of their return, Su Ji told Hoseok and Aanchal about the wolves, trying to keep down her own anxiety and fears.

Yoongi would be ok. Right?

****

Jin had an ordianry life. He had a twin brother who was his best friend, a set of loving parents, a wonderful aunt, and a bunch of friends. He was this little kid who had no clue about life, about anything, all he knew was the simple joys and little hardships of early childhood.

Everything changed when he was six years old, but at the time he hadn't known it was going to change. He hadn't known that the day he pushed his friend while they played freeze tag was the last day he would see him, would be the last time he played freeze tag. He didn't know, as he walked through the village to his home, that it would be the last time he would feel the warm sun on his skin for years.

It happened at night. Everything was normal – Jimin was fast asleep beside him – he had come to Jin's bed because he was scared of the monster he swore lived in his cupboard. Jin, on the other hand, wasn't asleep. He felt restless.

All of a sudden, his entire body shook uncontrollably, and he felt hot, so hot, as though he were running a high fever. He tried to call out for help, but a very strange sound came out instead. Beside him, Jimin's mouth twisted up and he began to cry loudly. This was enough to bring his mother running to their room, and he tried to tell her he was hurting. But he couldn't, no words came out.

His mother peered into the cot and gasped, then disappeared, yelling for their father. Jimin was still screaming, and he lashed out with his tiny fists at Jin. Their mother finally reappeared and she snatched Jimin up, as though to get him away from Jin.

Jin was still making those strange noises, he had to let thm know he was in great pain and to do something about it. Make it stop!

His father appeared next, his face the colour of old porridge. "No!" he goaned, and his face became drawn with pain. "Not Jin, not Jin!"

His mother, holding Jimin close, whispered, "What are we going to do?"

"I don't know..." His father's tone would have scared him if he had been able to pay attention to anything other than the unbearable heat in his body. "I just..."

"There's a new Protector here!" His mother's voice was hysteric. "He'll be able to sense Jin, he'll take Jin away!"

"He won't." His father gently ran his hand along Jin's trembling, hot body. "Shhh, son, relax." He picked him up, and even though the pain or the heat didn't stop, Jin was relieved – finally, someone was trying to comfort him.

"He's probably in great pain," hs father murmured, his head. "Phasing doesn't get easy until puberty..."

"What can we do?" asked his mother. "Oh, Jin!"

"I don't know... we have to wait for it to pass..."

Jin was and rubbed and cooed at, and he heard endless lullabies that made him feel somewhat better. But why wasn't Jimin next to him? He liked lullabies, too. And why couldn't he speak?

Jin tried to point to the door, to ask where Jimin was, but his hand felt so heavy, he couldn't lift it. The whole night, he tossed and turned and whimpered with the pain, his parents taking turns to nurse him.

Thankfully, the next day he was fine. Exhausted, but fine. It was just a very bad fever, his mother had explained. Jin didn't miss the glance she threw at his father as she said so. He stayed home from school, too, so he could rest and recover.

****

Aunt Aera had always loved visiting, as she had no children of her own. She brought them toys and sweets and hugs and stories, and the two brothers often quarrled over who got to hug her first. Her visits became increasingly frequent after Jin's bout of fever, to be exact she visited every day for a week, and he did not miss the fact that she left their house with her bag a bit fuller than it was when she had come.

He wasn't sure why, but at the end of the week, Aunt Aera took Jimin with her after one of her visits.

"Where is he going?" asked Jin anxiously, watching his brother follow Aera on his chubby little legs.

"He is going to visit Auntie for a while," said his mother, a huge smile on her face. Jin didn't like that smile at all. Rather than assure him, it told him that something was wrong.

"When will Jiminnie come home?" he asked.

"Don't worry, he will be happy with Auntie Aera," said his mother, and Jin didn't know why, but he somehow realized that Jimin was going to live there from now on – that his mother and father had sent him away. And somehow he knew it was because of him.

It was his fault that Jimin wasn't here now.

"Bring him back!" he cried. "Please, I'll be good, bring back Jiminnie!"

His mother knelt down and put her amrs around him, drawing him in a tight hug. "Shhh, honey, don't worry..."

"You shouldn't let him yell like that," said his father, who had been watching the whole thing. "There is no more child in this house – it has to be quiet!"

"Quiet, Jin!" said his mother. "Shhh, stop crying! Listen, you have to be very, very quiet, ok?"

"Why?" sniffled Jin.

"We're playing a game," said his mother lightly. "We have to be quiet."

It was no game, Jin quickly discovered. He was not allowed to go outside, the curtains were drawn all the time and he was not allowed to open them, and he didn't go to school anymore. In fact, his existence was hidden from the world – Aunt Aera never brought Jimin over to visit, even though his parents said he would come one day. It was like Jimin's existence was erased too – there was not a single thing of his in the house, Aunt Aera had taken everything. He only existed in Jin's memories.

His mother quit her job and stayed home to keep an eye on him, and she took on the role of a teacher. Jin hated it. He didn't understand why he couldn't go to school, why Jimin was sent away, and why he couldn't even open the curtains to get a glimpse of the outside world.

It is never good to keep a child indoors like this. It is only natural that in time, they would begin to hate and resent everything that home represented. Instead of seeing home as a warm, safe haven, they would see it as a prison.

Almost three years later, he discovered why. It came with an excruciating pain and heat, and when he tried to brush the hair he was sure was on his forehead, even with his blurry eyes, what he saw was not a hand – it was a paw.

He screamed, but what escaped him was a howl, the kind wolves made. Terrified, he rolled out of bed and tried to stand, but he stood on four legs instead of two.

The door burst open, and his father stood looming in the doorway, attracted by the howl, his eyes half-crazed. "Quiet!" he hissed. "Don't you dare make a sound!"

Jin whimpered, crouching low. What was going on?

"Shhh," his father said again, but this time in a gentler tone. "That's right... relax, Jin, and be quiet. You don't remember? This happened when you were six... we told you that you were just sick, since you didn't realize what had happened. But you're not sick... you're a wolf. Just like I am."

Jin raised his head and looked at his father in confusion. A wolf? His father was one too? But then why had he never seen his father like this? And above all,what on earth was a wolf and how could he be one?

"I learned to control it," murmured his father, sitting on the edge of the bed. "I have erased that part of me. And now, we must do that to you as well."

Jin did not understand any of this. He was dreaming, he had to be...

His father then told him about the wolves, about Protectors, about the Wolf Purge, and how the only reason he had survived was because he had learned to mask his inner wolf. "That's the only way we can survive," he whispered. "There's a Protector living in the area, you understand? He cannot find out about you."

Jin nodded, not fully understanding anything aside the fact that this was why Jiminnie was sent away – he was sent away to be safe from him. The realization made his entire being feel heavy. Did they think that he would do something to Jimin? To his baby brother? Though they were twins, and Jin was only an hour older, he liked to think of himself as the hyung.

"I don't think you have attained the stage where you can learn to phase at will," said his father. "You're going to be stuck in this form, Jin, and I can't tell you when you will be able to shift. Last time, you could shift after a few hours... let's see, maybe you'll be lucky again."

Jin wanted to shift. He didn't know how he could do that, but he did know that he hated to be like this, it was too strange. There were voices slithering in his mind, whispering things he wouldn't even want to do.

Attack him.

He is keeping you prisoner.

Attack him, and you will be free.

It scared Jin, but what scared him even more was that a sound he couldn't remember consciously making escaped his lips – the snarl frightened him, even though it came from him. This was not him... maybe if he ran away, he would be able to leave this... this beast behind.

Jin clumsily got to his feet, unsteady on his four legs. His tail knocked into the bedside lamp, sending it crashing to the floor. The noise of shattering glass and the sudden darkness was what made him bolt – panicking, Jin raced across the hallway, and in his haste, lost his footing in the staircase and went tumbling down.

"Mi Ho!" His father shouted, running down the stairs. "Help!"

Jin picked himself up – he could see someone racing to catch him, and in this state, he could not recognize whether the person was a friend or foe. He looked around for a way of escape, but there was nothing but walls on all sides.

Nevertheless, he tried to escape the man and the woman trying to grab him, but they eventually trapped him in a corner of the house and held him down. Jin snapped and fought, terrified. There was a satisfying feeling of teeth sinking into flesh, and the man gave a guttural cry of pain.

Thunk!

Jin literally didn't know what hit him – something hard and heavy slammed on his head, and the world dipped and spun before fading into black.

****

It took a year before Jin could phase back into a human. For that entire year, he was kept locked up in the basement, where not even a streak of sunlight could penetrate. His father made frequent visits. Armed with a baseball bat in case Jin should attack, he tried to bring back the boy he knew was hiding inside the wolf. He knew perfectly well that the best way to soothe his son was for him to phase as well – but he couldn't. How could he let loose the being he had worked so hard to nearly erase? The wolf slumbered deep within him, and he had no intentions of awakening it once more.

One day, the wolf would slumber inside Jin, too. He would make that happen, even if it had to happen by force.

****

"No!" His father screamed harshly, making Jin flinch. "I can still sense it! I told you to mask it! If I can sense it, then the Protectors can, too!"

Jin forced his mouth to stop quivering, and for the tears burning his eyes to go back in.

I am human.

I am human.

I am human.

For the hundreth time that afternoon, Jin tried to force back one entire side of his nature – the bad side – into one small pocket, not allowing it to leak out even a crack. This was the only way he would be allowed out of here, to be allowed near Jimin again.
 

He had finally attained the point where he was physially mature enough to shift at will. Yet shifting back and forth was painful, especially shifting from wolf to human. His father refused to allow him to shift into his wolf form.

"That's what the inner wolf wants," he said. "Don't give in to it – remember that each time you don't give in, you become stronger, you step closer to the boundary of being human."

It didn't always work. Sometimes Jin couldn't help himself, he was too exhausted, mentally and physically, so he gave in. This was met with punishments, and he was never left alone, so he could never hide his form.

I am human.

I am human.

I am not a wolf.

I am not a beast.

I am human.

Only human.

It was exhausting, it was painful, it was frustrating. But it was worth it. Oh, it was so worth it, for he was finally allowed to step half-way into the light, away from the shadows where he had been held prisoner for most of his life.

It was when he was fourteen that he was finally enrolled in school again. It was when he was fourteen that he finally saw Jiminnie again. Thier parents had allowed him to come over, and even though there were tears of joy pricking Jin's eyes, there was a certain stiffness about them... they had not seen each other since they were six years old, they were like strangers again.

Jin had spent so many years alone, as though he were dead, and trying to supress his wolf side, that he had forgotten how to carry a normal conversation. Jimin, on the other hand, didn't forget. He hadn't forotten his brother, and he made it possible for them to start over, with baby steps, careful not to frighten or push Jin too much.