“What do you mean ‘you’re not dating’?” Jieun asked, mouth wide open. “It’s been like three weeks since you told me you kissed him”

Krystal shrugged. “I don’t know. I mean, we’re like dating and we aren’t seeing any other people but we’re not, like, official”

“You haven’t DTRed?”

Krystal furrowed her brows. “Is that like a relationship term that I don’t know? I thought I knew all of them”

Jieun laughed. “That just means ‘Define The Relationship’” 

“Oh, yeah we haven’t done that yet”

“But he’s picking you up from practice?”

“Pretty sure. He’s been doing that for the past three weeks”

“You guys are adorable” Jieun zipped up her bag, throwing her practice stuff in her locker. She and Krystal were the last in the gym after practice, Jessica went ahead with Yuri.

They walked outside. Aiden was in his truck bantering with Taeyeon. They just got off work.

“Hey, babe” Aiden smiled, hugging Krystal before pecking her lips. Krystal smelled gross and sweaty but Aiden was used to the smell of wet dog and car grease, so it didn’t matter.

Jieun and Taeyeon smirked at the two, as if to say can you believe these losers aren’t dating yet?

“We’re heading to the diner” Taeyeon coughed. “Want to join us? It’s gonna be us, Victoria-noona, Sooyoung, and YulSic”

 “Sure” Jieun smiled. “I’ll meet you guys over there”

She said goodbye, and the three piled into the truck.

“Where’s Hyoyeon? Wasn’t he supposed to work today?” Krystal asked, throwing her bag in the seat next to Taeyeon.

Aiden let out a laugh while Taeyeon rolled his eyes.

“He’s out with his girlfriend” Taeyeon grumbled. “Nicole Jung”

“Is it his mate?” 

“Yeah, found out when he came home from his dance practice”

“Then why is Taeyeon annoyed when I mentioned him” Krystal asked with a chuckle

“I had to take his shift, today was supposed to be my day off” Taeyeon was now sulking

Krystal cracked a smile while Aiden tried not to laugh. They both failed.

“What? What’s so funny?” Taeyeon asked

“Tae, you could’ve said no” Krystal laughed. “You’re way too nice”

Taeyeon’s ears went red. “Watch I’ll say no next time, I'll show you”

Taeyeon trying to act tough in front of Aiden was more funny then Taeyeon avoiding being mean to people. He laughed so hard his car started to swerve, making Taeyeon and Krystal fear for their lives.

He gripped his stomach, stopped laughing and started coughing. He gripped his side like he was in immense pain.

Krystal immediately shot up, while Taeyeon put his head between the front two seats, worry crossing his features.

“Are you okay? Where does it hurt?” Krystal asked. She lifted up Aiden’s shirt as he was still driving.

“I’m fine, I’m okay” Aiden stuttered. “Don’t worry about me”

Krystal saw Aiden’s scar from the stitches across his toned abs. The wound was patched up, but the surrounding skin looked red and infected.

“You told me you were healed” Krystal said softly, fingers tracing over the place where Aiden got shot. “Does your leg look like this too?”

“No” Aiden’s voice cracked.

“You’re lying. Take off your pants”

“I’m driving, woman!”

“Yeah, I mean do you really want your first sober time having to be in a car with me?” Taeyeon joked, scratching the back of his head

“We never had a drunken time!”

“We didn’t?” Krystal asked, confused. She could have sworn they did at Jieun’s party. “Oh” 

“So you’re still a ?” Taeyeon asked

“You’re a ?”

Aiden’s face turned beet red. “Thanks a lot, Tae”

“He wanted to wait for whoever his mate was” Taeyeon said, adjusting his snapback

“You can stop talking now” Aiden grumbled

“Wait, seriously?” Krystal said, still trying to process

“It’s dumb, I know” Aiden said embarrassed

“No! I don’t think it’s dumb” Krystal quickly cut in. “I think it’s sweet”

“More like dorky” Aiden mumbled

“I don’t think you’re dorky”

“Princess, let’s face it. You’re mated to a dork” Aiden huffed, pulling into a parking space at the diner.

“Hey, quit being so hard on yourself,” Krystal said. Aiden climbed out of the car, but Krystal stopped him.

“Don’t think I’m going to let you get away with the scar. This is serious, Aiden”

“It wasn’t that serious” Aiden brushed off, looking down

“You were shot!”

Aiden mumbled. “Yeah, well…” 

“C’mon love birds! Sooyoung’s gotta eat” Taeyeon called, opening the door to the restaurant

Krystal gave Aiden a pleading look

“Please, Aiden” she begged. “I don’t want this to get worse”

“It won’t, I promise” Aiden brushed off, leading Krystal into the diner

They sat down in a circular booth with their friends, Krystal still worrying about Aiden.

“Alright, can I have two slices of pizza, a burger cooked rare, like so rare it’s basically raw, with bacon, cheese, and kimchi on the burger, with rice cakes, and a chocolate strawberry milkshake, with a side of tteokbokki” Sooyoung listed off, leaving the waitress shocked

“Wow, you’re hungry as a wolf” Jieun laughed

The others looked frightened

“Heh” Taeyeon forced out. “Nah, we just get really hungry after working on cars all afternoon. Cause like, humans can’t be wolves, right?”

“You don’t believe in werewolves?” Jieun asked curiously

The table went deathly silent

Victoria coughed. “You do?”

“I mean, it’s kinda just a thing I like to believe in. like Santa and the Easter bunny” Jieun explained. “But I was talking to Jo Kwangmin the other day and he said the wolf that attacked his dad had a human-like conscious because it could have killed him, but didn’t”

Yuri’s hand went limp in Jessica’s

“Uh, I’ll just have tteokbokki with a small side of bulgogi” Aiden cut in, handing the menu to the server.

“That’s an interesting thing to believe in” Victoria said. “What about witches, do you believe in those?”

“You mean like Selena Gomez on Wizards of Waverly Place?” Jieun asked. “Or the old crones that were in Hocus Pocus?”

“Eh, something like that I guess” Victoria chuckled

“I think those theories are cool. Like, Seoul is crawling with the supernatural. It seems like there’s something in this town that’s mystical”

Aiden almost wanted to tell Jieun how right she was

~~~~~

“Any luck?” Victoria asked, sifting through her own pile of papers

Changmin sighed.”None, mama witch, none”

“I mean, the documents Jessica stole would have worked if Kang hadn’t had a witch put a spell on it” BoA rolled her eyes, throwing down the stack. “That bastard thought of everything”

“I think our theory about Daniel and HanBin are right” Aiden said, looking at their clue board. “But Irene said the legend says you need to have vampires and werewolves working together”

“Do you think you should visit this Bae girl again?” BoA suggested. “See if she has any new info?”

“I could see if she’s willing to fly out here, see it herself” Aiden shrugged. “But it’s senior year for her, she probably has a lot of college stuff to mail out”

“Saving the world is so much more important than college”

“Excuse me, have you seen the Asian education system?”

“Applications or not, she still should come out” Victoria cut in. “Thanksgiving break is in two weeks, ask her to drop by, maybe she created a teleportation spell being the genius she is”

“I definitely think we need more insight on this” Changmin added. “Her clairvoyance could help us a lot”

Yuri slammed his spell book angrily. “Stop calling her Claire her name is Irene! It’s so misleading people, geez”

Changmin and Aiden shared a look

“I- I’m not even going to try” Changmin sighed, discouraged

“I’m calling Irene” Aiden huffed

~~~~~

“Girls! We’re going back to California” Mrs. Jung told the twins when they came downstairs for breakfast

They both stopped in their tracks. “What?” Jessica asked.

“For thanksgiving! The Ahn family called and asked if we  wanted to come down to see them and I thought it would be a good idea since we haven’t been down there in a while”

“Oh thank god” the twins sighed. “I thought you meant we were moving” Jessica said

“You wouldn’t want to move back to California?”

“No, cause that would mean they would have to leave their boyfriends” Jaehyun sniggered

“Boyfriends?” Mrs. Jung asked

“Shut up Jaehyun” Krystal grumbled

“You have boyfriends?”

“Well…” Jessica said

“No” Krystal said

“Yes, it’s Yuri and Aiden hyungs”

“Jaehyun, I swear to god-”

“The orphans?!” Mrs. Jung asked, shocked

The girl’s mouth dropped open and they got defensive.

“They are human beings” Jessica scolded

Well, not really, Krystal thought. They’re werewolves but we can’t tell you that without you thinking we’re crazy

“I didn’t mean it like that, dear, but why didn’t you tell me?” Mrs. Jung said, almost hurt

“Sorry mom” Jessica said

“Aiden, is not my boyfriend…” 

“Yes he is, Krystal’s just in denial, mom” 

“Do you want to die, Jung Jaehyun?!”

“Hey, hey, hey” Mr. Jung cut in. “let’s not kill our brothers before 9, okay Soojung-ah?”

“But if they kill each other I get to be an only child” Jessica pointed out. “I’d go for it”

“You aren’t helping, Jess”

“Why didn’t you tell me you girls were dating Yuri and Aiden?” Mrs. Jung asked again. “I want to meet them”

“You’ve met them before” Krystal said

“Briefly, before you dragged them away” Mrs. Jung said, putting one hand on her hip. “I want to sit down and have a formal conversation with them”

“Don’t do that, they’ll break up with them” Jaehyun said. “I actually like these two” 

“Wait, aren’t they in a gang?” Jaehyun asked.

“Gang?!” Mrs. Jung gasped

“It’s not a gang! Seriously, they’re all like puppies” Jessica groaned

“Those boys are going to come over for dinner one night, no exceptions” Mrs. Jung said. “I want to see if these boys are good enough for my daughters”

“But mom-”

“No buts!” Mrs. Jung said firmly

“Hey, maybe we could have them over for Thanksgiving” Mr. Jung suggested

“Yeah, that’s a perfect idea dad” Jaehyun smirked at his sisters

The girls rolled their eyes.

~~~~~

“Good morning” Aiden smiled, leaning against Krystal’s locker

Krystal grinned. “What’s up?”

“I’m getting pumped for Christmas. Yuri blasted ‘Joy’ by NCT on the way to school today”

“We haven’t even had Thanksgiving yet”

Aiden looked down at his shoes. “Uh, we don’t really celebrate Thanksgiving at my house”

“Why not?” Krystal asked, shutting her locker.

“I mean, Thanksgiving is supposed to be about spending time with your parents and other relatives… or lack of, in my case. Sometimes me and the pack go to Jonghyun’s house but he’s going to Daegu this year, and I always tell Changmin not to make a big fuss over this holiday because it just reminds all of us that our parents are de-”

“Come to California with me” Krystal blurted out

Aiden looked up. “What?”

“Come to California with me, for Thanksgiving” Krystal explained. “I’m going back to see my friends Moonbyul and Hyejin, plus I think Jessica will invite Yuri as well,so come with me”

“What about your family?”

“Oh please, they have been dying to meet my boyfriend anyways”

Aiden’s eyes went wide.

“Boyfriend?” he asked smalley

Krystal froze. “Oh, crap. That just slipped out, I didn’t mean-”

“No it’s totally fine, I mean it was bound to happen anyways since we’re soulmates and destined to be together and like, get married and-”

“Whoa whoa whoa, slow down” Krystal chuckled, waving her hands. “Before we think about marriage, why don’t you agree to be my boyfriend first”

Aiden smiled widely. “I’m okay with that”