11 Families

It’s been two months since Seungmin moved into the mansion with the rest of the pack. It definitely took a lot of persuading to get him to agree with the boys. Woojin on the other hand, wasn’t saying anything at all, the only time he urged Seungmin to move in with them is when they sat together for dinner.

The look on the wolves faces was priceless once Seungmin declared he was gonna move in with them. They bribed everything they had just to get the witch to live with them, but no matter how many times they present Felix and Hyunjin as an offering, Seungmin refuses, although he really thought it was a good deal.

“So what did Woojin offer to you?”

“For the last ing time, Felix, he offered nothing! I came here on my own accord, so stop pestering me.” With one last nasty glance, Seungmin went back to typing on his laptop. Felix pouted, but he didn’t want to concede defeat just yet. “The others even betrayed me and Hyunjin just to get you to live here and you refused. But with only a word from Woojin, you come running here with your weird briefcase that almost ate Hyunjin." after his pity talk, Felix rose up from his seat stomping away towards the kitchen with his arms crossed. Felix was always the sulky type of person. Chan eyes Seungmin who was grinning ever so smugly.

"You're not a witch. You're a devil." Hyunjin clicked his tongue in disbelief.

"You're not a wolf. You're an idiot." Jisung and Changbin cackled. "Daaaamn. Apply cold water on that burn bro!" Changbin blurted, holding his stomach as both him and Jisung fell on the carpeted floor. "Why are you so good at comebacks…" Seungmin shrugged. He looked back at all the times where he got dissed by Chan with just a few words.

Seungmin is an . But Chan is the ultimate .

"Anyway, none of you can still convince Jeongin to move in?" Minho asks, leaning on Jisung's shoulder. The rest of them looked at each other with curious eyes. But with a few turns of their heads, they came to the conclusion that no one succeeded. Felix walks back in the kitchen, his resentment towards the witch long forgotten as he sat in between Seungmin’s legs. "What you guys talkin' bout?"

"How none of us won over Jeongin to move in." Felix's mouth formed into a small 'oh', he nods his head and frowns after realizing he too hasn’t won over the boy. “I did try to bribe him with snacks.” Felix murmurs, munching on a sandwich he made.

In one blink of an eye, Jisung was kneeling in front of him, mouth wide open. Felix offers him the sandwich and Jisung happily takes a bite. "Ew, what the hell is this?" the wolf’s face contorted in disgust.

"Vegemite." Jisung forced himself not to choke as he swallowed. "This is gonna come right back up." he already felt his stomach gurgling. Thankfully it stayed there.

"How can you eat that?"

Felix gasped as if his whole nativity was insulted. "It's called 'refined taste'. You wouldn't understand either way."

Jisung glared at him before returning beside Minho.

They continued their conversation.

“His mom wants Jeongin to live with us, right, Chan?” Woojin puts a hand on Chan's thigh making the guy smile meekly, “Yeah.”

“Really? When did she say it?” Seungmin straightens up from his seat, placing his hands on Felix's shoulders, tapping them rhythmically.

Thinning his lips, Chan huffs out air from his nose. “When I visited his place.” he purposely emphasized the word ‘I’. As a response, he got big grins and cute faces from everyone. Including Woojin. His stern look was overpowered by his fondness. He shakes his head and looks down briefly before breaking into a fit of chuckles. “Alright alright. I’m sorry I didn’t let you guys come with me.”

They all laugh. “Wait, how did she say it to you? While we’re leaving the house? When did she say it?”

Chan chuckles awkwardly, scratching his nape as he avoids everyone's gaze. “Well, she didn’t actually say it.”

“What do you mean?” Chan sighs quietly. “I kinda read her mind.”

“You what?”

Woojin smiles. He knows about it. Chan tells him everything. He trusts the vampire as much as the vampire trusts him.

Apparently, after gate crashing, Jeongin and Chan's supposed “home visit”, while they were heading out one by one outside, Chan made eye contact with Jeongin’s mom. And it’s as if all her thoughts flow simultaneously in his head.

The sole thought that actually caught his attention was ‘I really wish Jeongin would spend more time with you guys. I don’t even mind if you all move in together. I’d be glad.’

“So you just read her mind? Dude! That’s Jeongin’s mom!”

Chan raises his hands, stopping Changbin’s assumptions midway. “Hang on. I didn’t purposely read her mind. I told you a couple of times before, that’s not possible for even the strongest vampires.” Hyunjin shifts from his seat, attaching himself more to Woojin. His eyes finding Chan's, opening his mouth to ask the question: “Then how?”

“You guys know I can only read minds when that certain person gives me access to their memories and thoughts. However, that doesn’t mean I can read everything. I can only hear some random thoughts and those thoughts that are just on the surface of their brains.” Taking a deep breath, Chan stood up, fetching his phone near the TV before plopping back down on his seat.

“It’s like she purposely allowed you to hear her thoughts? Or she just unconsciously let you hear them.” Woojin eyes Chan curiously. The vampire said the same thing. Although, he wasn’t quite sure himself if that was the case. “No one would know. Only Auntie can answer that question.” the room went still and silent.

Breaking the silence, Minho spoke up. “We can rule out the assumption that his parents did not give him the permission to live with us.” Chan nodded. Crossing his arms, Woojin slumped on his seat. “That’s actually the only one to cross out. We have no idea why he doesn’t want to live here.” Everyone else agreed with the alpha. Jeongin never told them the reason why. He would always avoid answering the follow up question ‘why?’

“Not even you, Woojin?” Hyunjin assumed that the sole person who could convince Jeongin was Woojin. He’s the alpha and almost like the oldest member of the family. 6 pairs of eyes, excluding Woojin, stared at Seungmin. The witch gave each of them a dirty look. “Get your stinking eyes off of me or else… The suitcase?” shivering across the room was Hyunjin, his face was pale and he was shaking against Woojin’s chest. Seungmin held his chin high, feeling like he won the world cup.

Going back to the topic. Woojin had no chance either. Unlike the other boys, he did not bribe nor push the boy to move in. He sometimes, almost casually just brings it up and when he feels like the Jeongin was getting uncomfortable with the topic, he would brush it off and move on.

He didn’t want the boy to feel obliged to move in with them just because Seungmin was there.

"I know."

"Thank god you finally said it." Woojin eyed Chan. The vampire looked around the room. "What? I thought you guys didn't know?"

He saw Hyunjin rolling his eyes. "Duh? We know that you know."

"So spill." In unison, they crossed their arms and faced Chan.

"Ok! Geez." He touched his nape uncomfortably. All this attention is unnerving. "He said he's okay with our current status. Visiting us often here, we hang out outside. He said that moving in here was a big decision to make and that he's not ready to take it." They saw how the vampire's sullen eyes grew sadder. "We can't blame him. Humans hate change. They need ample time to adapt and Jeongin's still quite young and vulnerable."

They felt bad for making Chan feel bad.

Minho stood up, he walked to Chan's side and put a hand over his shoulder. "It's fine. At least we get to hang out with him in general. That's better than nothing, right guys?" the rest agreed. They reassured Chan that none of it was his fault.

Woojin offered to order some pizza and chicken. Food always kept them away from such heavy topics.

“But hey guys. Did you hear what Chan said earlier?” Jisung managed to utter the question before taking another big bite from his pizza, his cheeks bulging with food. He almost resembled a squirrel. “Don’t talk with your mouth full.” Seungmin looked at the wolf in disgust, rolling his eyes when Jisung flipped him off.

“What was it?” Chan tilted his head curiously, he waited for Jisung to answer Felix’s question. Their eyes shifted from Jisung to Minho who instead answered the question.

“He called Jeongin’s mom ‘Auntie’.”

If it was possible for a vampire to blush, Chan would be red as the blood he was drinking.

Oh god was he so embarrassed. He hadn’t realized that word slipped out from his mouth, and how the hell did they even manage to catch that with such a heavy subject matter? And alas, the teasing began. It was unbelievable that a vampire like him would never be taken seriously in that mansion.

“You guys are utter -nuggets. I’m gonna murder you all with a trowel.”

-

The cold winter breeze hummed outside the shop. With his head hung long, Chan sat behind the counter, a half-empty flask of blood on his hand. As the door swung open, a familiar waft of human blood came in contact with his nose, not just any human. Chan's calm face turned firm as he heard a voice that annoyed him to bits decades ago. “Hey, Chan!” his eyebrows twitched in annoyance. He stood up, coming into view of 3 people. Two of which he was unfamiliar with.

With a bat of his eyes the door instantly locked with a subtle ‘click’ making the 2 new faces look back. “Kazuo.” The man laughed, he was used to Chan's attitude towards him, but he could at least hide his utter disgust towards him.

Ignoring the vampire, Kazuo went around the counter, sitting down like a boss. When he was about to put up his foot on the table, he received a very terrifying gaze from the vampire. “Woah woah. Alright, geez.” he threw his hands up in defeat, signalling the two boys to come sit down with him. Chan eyed the two identical faces as they walked past him sitting down beside Kazuo, both of them staring at him like he was an antique piece too, well technically he is.

With a heavy sigh, Chan proceeded to the fridge, shoving his flask inside. “Any drinks?” His voice had the most unpleasant and unwelcoming tone ever. The guests couldn’t feel at least an ounce of hospitality from his actions. They were unwanted and Chan was shoving it in their faces.

“Nah. Don’t want to piss you off some more.” thinning his lips Chan sighed, now trying his best to glance at the ‘guests’. “I insist.” Kazuo chuckles, irking Chan’s nerves even more. “We’ll have some tea, right boys?” the two boys nodded in unison before turning their heads back to Chan, almost melting him with their curious stares.

“Ah, yes boys. Stare all you can. That’s a very ancient and powerful vampire right there. You don’t often see that in this light and day.” If he had Seungmin’s hexing powers, Chan would’ve had the 3