Hi! It's me! Yuuji!

I know it's been two months since I last updated, but I had a lot going on with exams and a  ton of assignments since it's my last year at high school...

But enough of my excuses, I hope you enjoy the chapter!

The next update would probably be in a month. Until then, see ya!

The time is midnight. The city is as lively as ever, and it doesn’t show any signs of stopping. The patrols are done, and everyone on the shift can go back home. A pure black griffon flies across Seoul and arrives above the Seodaemun district. It surveys the scene below before diving down. It goes to the deck of a penthouse and hovers above it before morphing into the green haired girl midair. The vecar lands on the deck gracefully and starts dusting off any dirt on her clothes. Her silver eyes looking inside the penthouse. The lights are , and she could hear the tv’s sound too. Someone’s home, she thought. She walks inside leisurely.

“Mina-unnie? When did you came home?” Tzuyu asks. The older woman was patrolling the suburban part of Seoul, and she herself was patrolling the center of it that night. But regardless of that fact, the black-haired woman reaches their home faster. Then again, she is the fastest one within the Senator’s council.

“About twenty minutes ago, I think,” Mina says. Her black hair flowing down till her shoulders, and her silver eyes fully displayed as she turns her head to look at Tzuyu. The other girl sees a brown coat sprawled on the sofa next to her, and a pair of boots near the front door. The other vecar is still wearing her white shirt and her black pencil skirt, just like how she saw her this afternoon when she visited the office. She almost looks like a normal office lady, she muses.

“Is Claire-unnie back yet?” she asks again after surveying the household for any sign of the other woman.

“No, not yet,” Mina turns to watch the tv again. “Since she’s dealing with Chaeyoung and Dahyun again, I doubt she’ll be coming back soon,” Tzuyu hums in understanding, and walks to the kitchen.

“So, the missing wolves and vampires were fighting again?” she asks. Opening the fridge door, she grabs one of the many packages of sliced beef tucked in the back. She closes the fridge, and she grabs some soy sauce from the cupboard.

“Yup, and Claire had already found them by the time I called,” Mina answers before realizing what the girl is doing. “You didn’t eat dinner?”

“I wasn’t hungry earlier,” the girl shrugs as she opens the package on the island counter.

“That’s not healthy, Tzuyu,” her attention no longer on the television.

“I had a big photo shoot at one. I couldn’t eat anything there. So, I ate at five instead.”

“Didn’t the staff order catering or something?” the woman walks to the kitchen, and watches as Tzuyu leans on the counter to start eating the meat.

“Yeah, they did. But everything was cooked,” the girl grimaces as she remembers the food that afternoon. “They didn’t have anything raw,”

“Not even salad? Or fruits?” Tzuyu shakes her head and continues to eat the meat dipped in soy sauce. Mina walks to the fridge and grabs a carton of milk. Might as well grab something to drink now that she’s there. She laughs as she pours her glass of milk, “You could at least put the meat on a plate,”

“I’m too lazy,” the girl complains.

“I don’t think mixing cow’s blood with soy sauce would be very appetizing,”

“You would be surprised, Mina-unnie,” Tzuyu grins.

“I doubt it,” the woman rolls her eyes while drinking her milk. “Once you’re done, go to bed. You have another shoot in the morning, right?”

“Yes, mother,” the younger vecar teases the woman walking back to the sofa. Which results in her receiving a glare from Mina. But she still does what the older woman told her. After she eats the last piece of meat from the package, Tzuyu washes away the remaining blood and throws it away to the garbage bin. None of them wants their house smelling like a butchery. The girl goes to her room after bidding the older woman a good night. She then showers before retiring for the day.

The time is one o’clock in the morning. A lone woman makes her way home. Driving her car across the streets of Seoul, her silver eyes gaze out vacantly to the scenery in front of her. The events of the day had drained her. She had been battling with paperwork all day, and then she had to patrol the dark forest for another five hours. Not to mention the fiasco that came at the end of it. Then she had to go back to her office in Guro because one of her subordinates had made a mistake in one of the documents. The only thing that lessened her burden was talking to the golden-eyed wolf. It has always been nice talking to the wolf.

“Dear Maker,” she cusses under her breath. The silvered-eyed woman swears that the car in front of her is the slowest one she’s seen in the entirety of her four hundred years of life. “The light is ing green. You have a brain for a reason. Move,” she hisses alone in her car. She knows that they can’t hear her. But it doesn’t stop the woman from complaining. At this point, the only thing she wants more than murdering the guy in front of her, is to go home.

The time is half past one. The woman sees her apartment in the distance, and she sighs in relief. Spotting a convenience store from the corner of her eye, she entertains the idea of drinking her stress away. But she knows she can’t unless she wants to vomit soon after. So, the woman settles on milk instead. Besides, she doesn’t have any mana potions to make her drunk. Hot or cold milk? She debates.

The long black-haired woman parks her car in her designated place and quickly makes her way to the lobby of her apartment. Only to stop a few steps away from her car. She opens her bag and takes out a pair of brown colored contacts. It’s a chore to put them on every time she meets humans, but she can’t let them get suspicious. Not when she’s the senator. All mythicals in Korea make an example out of her.

Once she’s done, the woman quickly strides over to the lobby. She greets the multiple security guards and the receptionist that is still working till late at night, and enters one of the elevators next to it. She presses the button for the top floor.

“I’m home,” Claire says softly as she opens and closes the door gently. The others should be asleep already, and she doesn’t want to disturb them. Announcing her arrival home is a habit that doesn’t seem to be dying anytime soon. She blames her Japanese heritage. But the woman doesn’t expect to hear a response back.

“Hey,” Mina leans on the kitchen counter to look at the woman that just arrived, “welcome back,”

Claire nods in acknowledgement as she takes off her shoes. She observes that the other woman is wearing a loose sweater and some short pants. Then she looks at the rest of the apartment as she saunters to the kitchen. All the lights are off, apart from the ones in the kitchen and the fairy lights that hang from the stair’s and the second floor’s balustrade—curtesy of Chou Tzuyu. She notices the curtains of the windows and the glass door leading to the outside deck are opened. The lights from the city flow inside and gives the room a soft white glow.

“Why are you still awake?” she asks Mina. “It’s almost two o’clock,”

“Waiting for you,” the woman answers, leaning on the counter next to the stove with a pot on top of it. “I figured you would need some comforting today,”

“And why do you think that?” Claire smiles at the other woman’s compassion. Her previous stress feels like a mile away. Talking with her partner has always had that effect on her. Mina walks to her and starts taking off her coat off. She chuckles, “I can take it off by myself you know,”

“We’ve been together for three hundred and fifty-six years.” the woman disregards Claire’s statement and continues to the coat. Once it was off her partner, she looks at her straight in the eye. She notes that it’s not silver. “You can’t hide anything from me, Yuuji,”

“True,” the long-haired woman smiles as she shakes her head. Her heart feeling warm from the use of her real name—something thing no one else does besides Mina. “So, what are you making?”

“I was just warming up some milk,” Mina giggles looking at Claire who’s trying to peek behind her.

“And the crystals?” the woman asks as she spots small transparent blue crystals on top of a white cloth near the stove.

“Thought you could use a snack,”

“With crystals?” she quirks her eyebrows, “They’re expensive you know,”

“It’s fine, we can afford it,” Mina laughs before going to the stove, turning it off. She opens the cupboard above it and takes out a white mug. She pours the hot white liquid from the pot into the cup, careful not to spill anything. She jokes, “With you being the senator, we’re loaded,”

“I suppose…” Claire goes to stand next to her.

“Yuuji,” the woman sets down the cup next to the crystals. She her partner’s forearm, “you’re supposed to be relaxing now,”

“All right,” the long-haired woman leans in and kisses the other’s cheek. “Thanks, Mina,”

“No problem,” the shorter woman smiles as she watches her take the mug and drink the hot liquid slowly. She studies her features and frowns as she notices the dark circles under her eyes. She notes to make Claire rest more often. Mina’s eyes travel further north, looking into her brown colored eyes. She reminds the other woman. “You should take your contacts off before you forget,”

“Oh, right,” the woman remembers, before asking her partner. “Take them off for me?”

“What if I end up stabbing your eye?”

Claire shrugs, and she takes an azure-colored crystal with her fingers. Mina sees her teeth grow sharper—as if all of them became canines. And she pops it into , eating the crystal.

“I trust you,” she nonchalantly says after swallowing. Her teeth back to normal.

“You idiot,” the woman rolls her silver eyes, and warns, “Don’t move,”

“I won’t,”

The time is half past six in the morning. Mina wakes up as the sun rises on the horizon. She sits up and stretches. The woman would go and do her usual morning routine if there aren’t any arms holding down her waist. She looks down and sees her partner sleeping. Her similar raven hair sprawled on the pillows. Mina feels bad for waking the other woman up, but they still have work to do. And it would look bad if the senator is late on the job.

“Yuuji,” she softly shakes her partner, “it’s morning. You need to wake up,”

Claire whines in protest and curls closer to her. She tightens her hold. Mina chuckles at the sight. It’s not often that she sees her partner being cute. So, she leans down and kisses her cheek. The woman squints open one of her silver eyes in response, before closing it again.

“Yuuji, wake up,” Mina tries to wake her up again. “We have work to do,”

“I don’t wanna work,” the woman mumbles.

“Come on, it’s only Tuesday,” she tugs at her partner.

“Exactly,”

Mina continues to wake the taller woman up for the next fifteen minutes. Only succeeding after forcibly removing herself from the woman. Which would be an impossible task considering how strong the other vecar is. So, she blinks away instead. A black mist taking her place between the woman’s arms.

“That’s not fair,” she hears her partner complain while sitting up.

“Anything to wake you up, Senator,” she jokes. Then both of them hear a few raps on Mina’s bedroom door. Tzuyu pops up from behind the door and greets them both.

“Morning, Mina-unnie,” she says as she completely opens the door.

“Morning, Tzuyu,”

“Oh, and morning to you too, Claire-unnie,” she notices the other woman a second later.

“Hey, Tzu,” the woman replies as she rubs her eyes.

“When did you come home?” the youngest one asks as she leans on the door frame.

“Around two or something,” Getting out of Mina’s bed, Claire walks across the room to the door. She stops near Tzuyu and says, “I’ll see you two later,” Before leaving to go to her own room and prepare for the day.

“Tzuyu, did you need something by the way?” Mina asks as she opens her closet door.

“Not really,” the green-haired girl shrugs. “I just came to say that I was going,”

“To the shoot?” the woman glances behind her to see the other girl standing with her arms crossed. She’s dressed fashionably, but appropriate for the almost winter weather.

“Yup,”

“Okay, be careful then,” she reminds the girl. Only to see her roll her eyes, though her lips curl into a smile. Or a smirk?

“Okay, mother,” the tall girl teases.

“I swear to Maker,”

Tzuyu laughs as the woman facepalms. “Bye, unnie!” she exclaims before walking away. Then she shouts to the closed door of Claire’s bedroom, “Bye, Claire-unnie!”

Both of them could hear a muffled ‘Bye, Tzu,’ from the room beside Mina’s. Tzuyu smiles and goes downstairs. She grabs an apple from the fruit basket and her handbag from the counter. She checks her belongings before walking to the front door. The green-haired girl opens it and starts her day as a model.

The time is a quarter before nine o’clock. Jihyo looks out from the window of her study. The sun stands brightly in the sky, brightening the world and the forest they live in. The den had been built facing the east, for good fortune they had said. Jihyo wonders the validness of the statement. After all, her own study lies at the back of the mansion, facing the exact opposite direction. She wonders if that’s the reason why she had been receiving bad luck. Her clanmates aren’t exactly helping either.

The heiress’s study is an old one. It had been her father’s before he gave it to her. Bookcases lined up on the wall opposite of the windows. The mahogany desk sat right in front of the door. Remains of her rebellious childhood still evident through the scratches on the bottom of the desk. A worn-out red carpet below the desk. A tall lamp near it. A fireplace put on the far end of the room. Warming up the space in winter time. A wing chair sits in front of it, and an end table next to it. The floors consisting of aged wood.

The air in the study has always been a little stuffy because of its age and the countless books in it. But Jihyo doesn’t mind. After all, many fond memories are found in this old room. It gave her a sense of warmth and coziness. She would always feel calm and collected in this room. Much like right now, except she couldn’t feel the warmth of the room. It’s not because of the weather. Jihyo made sure to light up the fireplace. But warmth is the furthest thing she’s feeling right now. The heiress could only feel anxiety and worry.

The golden-eyed wolf contemplates her situation as she looks on to her brothers and sisters gathering behind the den. She had told all of them—both involved and non-involved—last night to gather there at nine. A few minutes from now. The heiress wasn’t in the mood to punish any of her misguided clanmates last night and had dismissed them for the day. Besides, it would make a good opportunity for her to gather the members of the investigation team.

“Young master,” Jihyo hears a wolf knock on her study’s door, “All the brothers and sisters have gathered,”

“Thanks for telling me, Mark,” she smiles appreciatingly at the white-haired man standing by the door. “I’ll be there soon,”

The quiet man nods and leaves her back to her own devices. Golden eyes look back to the window. She spots a particular lone young wolf at the front of the crowd, looking quite distressed. Jihyo sighs as she reflects on her own decision. She doesn’t want to do this to the girl.

Despite her young age, Chaeyoung has always been excellent. She learns fast and far surpasses any other wolf in terms of adaptability. Perhaps it had been too early for Jihyo to appoint her as Captain of the scouts. The girl still wasn’t mature enough. Jihyo thought that she would learn as she did her duties, but she’s proven wrong.

Even if there is something that’s interfering with both her clan and Nayeon’s coven, the actions that the young wolf took wasn’t the best one. She could have reported to Jihyo, and the clan could have confirmed with the coven. But she didn’t. And that’s why she made her decision.

“Chaeyoung,” the girl looks behind her to see Jaebum looking at her in worry, “are you okay?”

“I’m fine, oppa,” she says, shaking her head.

“Are you sure?” he asks worriedly. His eyebrows furrowing. “With what happened last night… I’m not sure you guys ’ll get out of it easy,”

“I know,” she says simply. Chaeyoung knows what’s about to come from their princess. But last night had given her time to think. And she knows she deserves it. She