All of the fear from his dream came back as Taeyang recalled every detail from it. Holding his arms, he stared at the ground in shock.

Hwiyoung's jaw set as he knew that he had lied to his friend about a deer in the forest. He knew that this would happen if he told him the truth.

"Those varmints have been attacking folks as soon as they step foot outside their homes," an older man continued, "We'll be ready for them even if we have to stay up all night."

Hwiyoung didn't know what to say as everyone was terrified. He couldn't really do anything.

As the two friends began making their way to the bakery, a shrill howl stopped them in their tracks. Taeyang started going into a panic attack when the howling didn't cease.

Quickly, Hwiyoung threw his hands over his friend's ears to help in some way. It seemed to work, and he led Taeyang to the bakery right after a beastly screech of death ended the string of howls.

Bursting through the door of the bakery, they were surprised to find two hunters talking with Kyungsoo. When he noticed them, Taeyang's uncle waved them over.

The tallest of the hunters stood up in a friendly manner from where he had been leaning on the counter. Taeyang recognized him as Chanyeol, the hunter who often frequented the village. Hwiyoung knew him too and didn't want to be anywhere around him.

To make matters worse, Hwiyoung didn't know where this other hunter came from. The new hunter gave him a bad vibe as he studied his facial expression. Drooping eyelids and a tired expression did not hide the look of a killing instinct which Hwiyoung immediately saw in his tired stare.

Taeyang was too preoccupied with calming down from his recent panic attack to want to even be aware of any extra danger.

"What's wrong?" Chanyeol's smile faded to concern.

Taeyang began to explain, "The wolv-" "Taeyang's not feeling well right now," Hwiyoung cut in. Taeyang nodded sullenly, "I'll just go to bed early."

As Taeyang and Hwiyoung walked past the counter, the other hunter spoke up, "Be wary of the wolves. They've been dragging people off into the woods."

Chanyeol gave him a perturbed look, "Kai, don't you remember what we just talked about?" 

With a dangerously dark tone, Hwiyoung's face became extremely serious, "You better watch your own back." Kai smirked as the two had a silent glaring battle for a moment.

Everyone else was confused as to what was going on. Hwiyoung then rolled his eyes as he turned around and left with Taeyang.

Once Taeyang was safe in his house, he turned to Hwiyoung out of curiosity, "What's wrong?" Hwiyoung sighed, "I really don't like that guy. Something was very strange about him." Taeyang hummed in approval, "But he's a hunter. Don't you think he'll help protect the town?"

Hwiyoung simply focused his gaze on the crackling wood which was now ablaze in the fireplace. He didn't have an answer, but he would if he paid attention to make sure the new face didn't do anything sneaky.

As he continued to sit in silence, Hwiyoung recalled what had happened earlier that day as he was waiting outside Chaekyung's home.

He was looking at the dead tree as a wolf's scent from its paws had drawn him to it. Then, he noticed there were claw marks on the other side of it. Eyeing it suspiciously, he tried to detect from what pack the wolf was from.

Although he was quiet, a blonde wolf was spotted out of the corner of Hwiyoung's vision. He turned swiftly to face the animal.

"What are you doing here?" the wolf spoke as it transformed into a young man. Hwiyoung scoffed at the rudeness of the other kid and decided to humor him, "This is my territory- I can be here if I want to be. You, on the other hand, have no business claiming the place of a pack leader."

Slouching in fear, the kid remembered his position and decided not to take a risk against Hwiyoung. "I'm sorry. I didn't realize this was yours," the kid said as he moved to leave, "You should be careful. There's recently been a rogue wolf killing people around here. You might get mistaken for him if you're this close to humans."

Hwiyoung rolled his eyes and shooed the kid away.

When he was finally alone outside, he decided to see if Taeyang was ready to leave yet. Hwiyoung went over to the window and waited for his eyes to adjust to the dim lighting inside. As he saw more clearly that Taeyang and Chaekyung were about to kiss, he almost fell over which resulted in him knocking over a vase.

"Hey! Are you asleep?" Hwiyoung heard Taeyang speaking to him in the present when he realised that he had zoned out. He blinked slowly, "Sorry. I was thinking. What did you say?"

Taeyang laughed in disbelief, "I didn't know you thought about things that deeply."

Hwiyoung snorted, "Am I not allowed to think? What did you say?" He lightly shook Taeyang's arm in annoyance. Pacing to the other end of the room, Taeyang gave him a side-eyed glance, "I don't think I'll tell you."

"Fine, I'll just go home," standing and moving to the door, Hwiyoung began to leave, "You'll be safe if you're indoors."

"Wait. I'll tell you," Taeyang grinned as he retrieved a box from a wooden chest. Hwiyoung looked at it knowingly, "Wolf and Geese."

Taeyang simply placed the handcrafted board game on his table and set it up. They had played it a lot as kids when Taeyang would have a nightmare.

Taking a seat, Hwiyoung wondered if his friend would decide to play a different side. His question was confirmed when Taeyang declared, "I'm going to change it up for once. I'll be the wolf." "Do you know how long I've been waiting for you to say that? It's been so tiresome always being the bad guy," Hwiyoung revealed dramatically.

Laughing, Taeyang took a seat as well. “Ready to lose again?” he taunted.