With his parents off patrolling the territory borders, Hongbin had the house completely to himself.

And yet, he chose to stay in his room with the lights off, browsing the internet on his phone. 

If Wonsik was here, he'd call this situation funny, or even ironic.

With the pale blue light of the phone illuminating his face, Hongbin swiped through the major news networks. It was all the same, everyday. Someone dies, someone makes a bad policy, someone does something that makes the world fume.

At the end of the day, who cared? The world would still go around, life would still go on.

Then again, he was a wolf only concerned with his pack. 

That was what set him apart from the humans the most, he didn't care. 

In order to do well in school, he needed to match his classmates' passion for the rest of the world. Years of pretending had made him a good actor, and today he could rattle off an entire series of concerns when faced with some random issue from some random part of the world.

But at the core of it all, he couldn't care less. 

But if it was something relating to his pack...?

His sharp ears caught something, something strange. 

It sounded...foreign. 

He quickly called up Taekwoon. "Taekwoon-ah, meet me at outside my house. Something's wrong."

"Aren't your parents out on patrol?" Taekwoon asked. "Shouldn't we let them handle it?"

"They're on the other side," Hongbin explained. "Even if something were wrong, they won't be able to get here in time. I want you to help me just scope out the situation."

Taekwoon thought about it for a moment before sighing. "I'm on my way," he said before hanging up.

Hongbin quickly shifted into his wolf form before jumping out of the window. Within minutes, he saw Taekwoon walking up to him, also in his wolf form, ready for anything. Right before he could say anything, a sound made both of them stiffen, their ears moving to catch the source of the sound. 

"Did you hear that?" Taekwoon softly asked.

"I did," Hongbin said.

"Think your parents heard it?"

"No, they're too far away."

"Do we have to check it out?"

"Yes."

Hongbin started off towards the sound, Taekwoon following closely behind him. The two skillfully moved through the forest, being light on their toes. Luckily, it was a new moon that night, giving them all the darkness cover they needed. Their eyes took care of the "seeing in the dark" thing.

Hongbin paused as he caught a scent. Immediately, he put his head low to the ground.

"Found something?" Taekwoon asked.

"Something, yeah," Hongbin replied. He then lifted his head back up. "It's a human smell, pretty recent."

"Something to worry about?" Taekwoon asked as even he bent down to get the scent.

"We'll have to find out, won't we?" Hongbin said, turning and slowly walking along the scent trail.

The two had barely made it two meters before a gunshot fired next to Taekwoon's leg. Pulling back, the two scattered as the sounds of a couple more gunshots rang out while the two disappeared into the trees. 

Once away and safe, Hongbin looked over at Taekwoon, his eyes going down to his paw. A cut shone in his light fur, glowing red and dripping down while the scent of blood hit his nostrils.

"Are you okay?" he panted.

"Yeah," Taekwoon said, pulling his paw up and running his tongue over the wound. "I'll be fine. It was just a graze. I'll need at most an hour for it to heal."

Hongbin grunted in response, getting up and taking a couple of steps forward, his yellow eyes focused on where they came from. The fur on his neck and back was standing up, and his tail was stiff. All that could be seen from him was the occasional breath visible in the light fog. 

"What just happened?" Taekwoon asked.

Hongbin's left ear turned a little to signal that he was listening, the rest of his stance the same. "I'm not sure," he admitted. "What did it look like to you?"

"It looked to me like we have a pretty big problem here," Taekwoon said. "I think hunters are in our town."

Wonsik watched as Sanghyuk almost zombied his way to their desk, dropping his bag on the seat before rubbing his eyes. 

"Didn't get enough sleep?" he guessed.

Sanghyuk stifled a yawn. "Not much," he said.

"What were you doing?" Wonsik asked.

"Playing video games," Sanghyuk replied, sliding into the seat and preparing to sleep his way through class.

"I like games," Wonsik said. "What game were you playing?" 

"Uh, Skyrim," Sanghyuk answered.

"Skyrim, huh?" Wonsik muttered. "I like that game a lot."

"It's official," Wonsik said. "Han Sanghyuk was there last night."

"He was?" Taekwoon asked. "Are you sure?"

"Absolutely, positively, completely," Wonsik said. "How many people do you know who are new to this place, and sleepy after the event that you guys had last night?" He breathed in. "Han Sanghyuk is a hunter."

"Did he come with anyone else?" Hongbin asked.

"Last time I talked with him, he was here with his parents."

Taekwoon clicked his tongue in frustration. "That means we have three hunters on our tails now." 

"I don't know," Wonsik said. "From what it sounded like, it seems his mother is unaware of all this. She probably truly believes that they're here to get away from the city life."

"We still can't rule her out," Taekwoon insisted. Then he turned to Hongbin, a thought striking him. "How many scents did we catch last night? I don't really remember."

Hongbin scrunched his forehead. "My mind's blurry too," he said. "But I think I caught two distinct scents."

"Ah great," Taekwoon said. "That means Wonsik is correct."

"I always am," Wonsik said. "Didn't you know?"

Before the two could start fooling around, Hongbin brought their attention back. "So now we have two hunters in the area, possibly hunting us."

"Not possibly," Taekwoon said. "They're definitely after the pack."

"What do we do, hyung?" Wonsik asked Hongbin.

"For now?" Hongbin said. "We lay low. Hope to throw them off our scent. I'll inform my parents, they'll know what to do."

The other two nodded. "Good idea," Taekwoon said.

"Oh, and Wonsik-ah?" Hongbin said, catching the younger's attention. "Reveal to him what you are."

He could feel the startled gaze of Taekwoon burning into the side of his face as he was faced with the wide eyes of Wonsik. "What did you just say?"

"Get closer to him," Hongbin said. "Reveal who you are, but not your connection to the pack. If he asks for information, give it to him. Help him out."

"Hey, Lee Hongbin," Taekwoon said in a low voice. "What's the matter with you?"

Hongbin shrugged slightly. "Well, they do say to keep your friends close and enemies closer," he said. "I'm taking it literally."