"Campus is closer by than your home, you might as well go to class for the time being," Minhyun commented before taking a sip from coffee blacker than the deepest pit of hell. He needed it that way, he was not a morning person. Neither was Ren who, for want of a better word, sat at the kitchen table with his forehead against the tabletop and his eyes closed.

Baekho, acting as the housewife among the three, had taken upon him the task of preparing breakfast. Minhyun hadn't thought to object, it was all fine by him if his friends wanted to do his work.

Mouse was doing well, given the circumstances. He was still lethargic, more so than is healthy even for a cat and the skin around his nose was noteworthily pallid. But such was to be expected from any animal after having lost so much blood. He was also curiously friendly, languidly trying to cuddle with Ren, whose lap he was draped on, but he didn't evoke much reply. Usually, being ignored would make him vicious but now, quite uncharacteristically, he just purred and curled up into a ball.

"Hey, Ren! I'm talking to you!" Minhyun snapped his fingers next to his friend's ear, his reply was an irritated grunt.

"As I was saying," he continued. "Before you were awake Baekho called your veterinarian, yes? You're listening?"

Ren nodded, which was quite a feat for someone laying face-down on a table.

"And you have an appointment for the afternoon, at twelve thirty, couldn't get any sooner. And you could go home and wait there, but it might be a better idea for you or Baekho, doesn't matter, to take Mouse to class with you."

"Can't I just stay here?" The unbrushed fluffy mass of blond hair that was Ren's head lifted up strenuously to peer at him.

"What? While I'm in class? I don't think so. I don't want anyone in my place while I'm not here." Ren opened his mouth to reply but Minhyun cut him off.

"And before you suggest it: no, I won't be staying home, no matter what you say. I have too much overdue work as it is, I can't afford not to go."

"Fine, I'll take Mouse with me." He scratched the creature in question behind his ear and watched him roll over onto his back and look up at him listlessly. "I don't think he'll cause any trouble, anyway. He's being very compliant today," he noted and to prove it gave the cat a little shove which caused him roll on his side without offering any hostility at being toyed with. He was nowhere near catty enough, for a cat, that is.

"That's because he's drugged out of his mind, I made sure of that. He's more morphine than cat."

"Well, it works, so I have no objections. Maybe we should try that on you sometime, princess. Might make you something close to tolerable."
“Oh please, you all love me just the way I am.”

…

Ren would never forgive his classes for starting as early as nine in the morning. Not that forgiveness is even possible to be bestowed upon something as inanimate and conceptual as a class, but that was besides the point.

Ren needed the earlier part of his morning after a night like this simply to start up properly. Like a dangerously unreliable product of Victorian engineering, he needed a long time to get all the gears and pistons going smoothly and any attempt to speed things up would cause a malfunction inevitably resulting in a loss of limbs.

Heading into the campus café with Mouse's travel basket under his arm he set out to get even more caffeine into his system than he had acquired at Minhyun's. He had parted ways with Baekho a while ago. His friend was a history major, and followed classes at an entirely different building than Ren and his film studies peers.

It occurred to him while he stood at the counter ordering a mochaccino and blueberry muffin that he hadn't done any of the reading for today's classes nor even bothered to check if there had been work due to finish. He sighed. Of course he wasn't so fortunate that the bulk of his day before the vet's appointment would just be lectures, enabling him to ignore the problem for a few days more. No, he'd start off his academic undertakings almost immediately with feeling stupid.

"Good morning, dude." The sudden voice beside his ear didn't make his heart leap out of his throat so much as make it emigrate to Mozambique.

"Jesus Christ, Aron, you scared the living daylight out of me."

Aron frowned. "You seem awfully on edge, are you sure you should be having coffee?"

"I'm fine, really. Just had a but of a rough night."

Aron nodded in understanding before stopping to notice he didn't actually know what Ren had meant and what he was claiming to understand. "I see," he said instead, hoping it would be sufficiently vague. Then he slapped Ren's shoulder cheerfully. "Why don't you come sit with me and the girls? I'm bored as the only guy there anyway. They've just been comparing their reports all morning."

Ren stiffened."What reports?" Oh no, I'm screwed.

“I... don't know. I think it's for the Modernism in Cinema course, but I can't even say that for sure,” Aron shrugged dismissively and Ren followed him, weighed down by a knot of uneasiness in his stomach.

"Oh Ren, hi." He received greetings from two of his other classmates and friends, Jisook and Seungah, who were poring over stacks of paper, attacking them with markers, coloured pens and sticky notes.

"What report is this Aron's talking about?" Ren looked over Jisook's shoulders at the myriad of colour in front of her. He was not at all pleased with how little he recognised the subject matter, or how much effort the girls were clearly putting into it. "I am very concerned." He summarised.

"Don't you worry your pretty little head about it boy." Jisook's big strawberry blonde curls bounced when her head snapped up. Her plump lips in a reassuring smile, she pointed at him with the green marker she was holding. "Its not due until next week Wednesday, but we're going to all be working on it in class today. Seungah and I just wanted to have our first drafts finished and reviewed before asking the professor some questions." Ren inched away from the girl and closer to where Aron, who he presumed was a kindred spirit, was looking boredly at his phone. He couldn't shake the feeling Jisook was judging him for not sitting there with her, checking a friend's work for the most minute mistakes while allowing his own brilliance to face similar scrutiny.

"Don't look at me, I haven't started yet either," Aron said defensively when Ren turned to him for help.

"Well you should've." Seungah's tone was unconcealedly accusative and unlike Jisook, she was very clearly judging them. "You boys never prepare yourselves for anything and only ever sit around moping when we get better grades than you."

"That's not true." Aron crossed his arms and frowned to begin a battle for the defence of his honour as a man that he had already lost before it had even properly began.

"Sure, because you were both totally intending on working on it in class today, instead of just dicking around on the internet with your phones. Right?" Jisook interjected in jest.

Ren looked at Aron blankly, who returned his gaze with a guilty smile and a shrug saying oh well, they caught us.

Seungah sighed. "Boys." She rolled her eyes and patted the seat next to her in a sign of truce. "What's in the basket?"

Plopping down on the proffered seat, Ren smiled and carefully set the basket on the table, turning the opening towards the girls so they could see the sleeping cat within.

"He's been in an accident. I'm taking him to the vet this afternoon."

"Poor baby," Jisook said with a sympathetic pout.

"Should I give him some of my coffee to help him feel better?" Aron raised his americano helpfully while sticking a finger through the roster at the front of the basket to scratch Mouse's head.

Seungah smiled. "Cats can't have coffee, Aron. They die."

"I'm just trying to help."

"By killing him dead?"

Eager to change the subject, Aron picked up Ren's muffin and pretended to study it.

"This blueberry muffin is suspiciously non-blue."

"Blueberries turn red when you crush them." Seungah was in one of her moods today, and Aron was the object of her pestering realism.

"What manner of witchcraft is this?" While he and Seungah went off on their own tangent of half-serious food-colour banter, Jisook swept a judging look over Ren's hands.

“What happened to your nails? They're all damaged.”

“Oh, I haven't exactly been paying attention to them lately,” I was too busy not getting killed, must've chipped them while running for my life.

“Well that just won't do. Our last manicure date was no more than three days ago, and I managed to keep mine looking fine.” Sure enough, she presented her slender, albeit marker-stained fingers and there was no sign of damage to the delicate purple and pink nails embossed with gemstones.

“We should arrange for another date then, so I can redo them, and maybe watch a few films together while we're at it. How's Wednesday for you?”

She sighed. “Oh totally cramped, not really an option. I have a pretty tight schedule with all my homework, and I can't allow myself too much time off. I still have tonight free, though, after school. I don't know what time you're about done at the vet, but my classes end at four. If you could make it to my building around then, we should be done before dark.”

Before dark. Because that was vital.

It shouldn't be, Ren thought dejectedly, that shouldn't be our life.

Their life was meant to be a normal student routine of classes punctuated by coffee breaks with mundane conversation about muffins. They should have no more severe concerns than the trivial matters of homework, exams and potential love-life complications, their spare time preoccupied with frivolous indulgences like nail-art. That what it should be like.

The dark, the Lurkers, they shouldn't be part of it.

And they won't be. Not if I don't let them.

“I think I can manage that,” he said before Jisook would become suspicious of his absent minded expression.

“Great, then it's settled. And while you're there, I'll be needing some honest advice on what outfit I'm going to wear to the complex party this week. I've asked Woori, but she just insists I look good in everything, which is sweet but entirely unhelpful.”

“Good call on her part, I say. You'd not be able to handle the truth if she were honest.”
Jisook slapped him in the arm playfully. “You ,” she cried with a broad smile. She then froze for a moment, tilting her head as though listening attentively for something distant.

Coming from outside, they heard the unmistakeable growling of a revving engine. That signalled the arrival of Woori as the final addition to their gang. She had a habit of dropping in at the last minute.

“Speak of the devil, she's late.”

Ringing the bell above the door as she entered, Woori tucked her helmet under her arm, shook her hair loose from its formerly crumpled up state and turned all heads in the vicinity. Pretty girls were not a rarity in the café, as Seungah and Jisook would vouch for but Woori had a talent for drawing attention, often without looking for it.

She swept her gaze through the room, the shape of her large eyes complemented by cat eyeliner, and her lips curled to a smile when she spotted her friends.

Plopping down on the seat saved for her by Jisook's side, she hung her helmet from the post of the wooden chair and chucked her keys on the table with an air of complete belonging.

"Morning everyone," she chimed to the group as a whole before turning specifically to Jisook and putting an arm around her shoulder.

"You shouldn't work so hard this early in the morning, Sookie. It'll wear you out."

"Thanks for the advice, grandma."

"I'm just looking out for your health, and you too, Seungah."

Seungah deferred her attention from tormenting Aron when she heard her name.

"Hard work is all well and good, but you two are always busy, whenever I see you. It's like you never take a break."

Oblivious to the male gazes she drew, she zipped open her stifling leather jacket and shrugged it off, leaving only her tank top and snugly fitting leather pants.

Ren knew the leather served a purpose in the off chance she'd fall off her motorcycle, but he didn't believe Woori hadn't noticed how good she looked in it, too.

Aron butted in. "She's right, you know. You should take more of an example to me."

"Well that would be taking things a bit too far, I'd not advise anyone to follow your lead."

Everyone laughed and Aron just crossed his arms and his face twisted into a pout that practically read 'hurtful noona is hurtful'.

Jisook nudged Woori's arm and made a whining noise. "You're no better, grandma. You're always off doing all that patrolling, you don't even get any sleep."

Woori just smiled at that. "I do important work."

Ren had forgotten for a moment that Woori was a member of the volunteer night watch. An association of good Samaritans who dedicate their evenings to patrolling the streets and keeping a lookout for the eventuality of a crime or an accident. They did for free what the police weren't allowed to do even on their active duty because of occupational health and safety regulations.

Mostly this came down to seeing if anyone was outside past the curfew at all and kindly advising these lost souls to return inside.

He wondered if he should tell her about last night. She cared about people's safety more than anything, devoted so much of her time to it, sacrificed her sleep. She should probably know about the unusual, almost hypnotic effect the Lurkers had on him, so she knew what to look for in case it happened to anyone else. She should know about the lights not being as reliable as commonly accepted.

She probably already knows, he thought, Besides, I wouldn't want to worry her. I might just make her afraid of doing what she enjoys most.

"What about you, Ren?" Jisook looked at him expectantly, and he realised in his embarrassment that she'd asked him a question he didn't hear at all.

"What?"

"Are you coming to the complex party this Saturday?"

"What party is this?"

"The Haedong complex we live in," Seungah began, "the board is organising a party for all the students, but we're each allowed a plus-one from outside if we want."

"Woori's mine, of course, you can be Seungah's, if you want to come, and Aron can take someone too. Maybe Baekho if he's interested."

Aron was still pouting but it turned into a different sort of pout when he heard decisions being made on his behalf.

"What if I don't want to take Baekho as my plus-one? It's my choice isn't it?"

"Don't you want him to be there?" Jisook said in surprise.

"Well of course I do, but if we can each only take one person, he's not my first choice."

Ren felt the need to stand up for Aron, the girls had been hassling him all morning. "You guys, get off his case, he's right. He can take whoever he likes."

"Thank you. Good to see there's still someone left out of the plot to conspire against me."

"But you're just so easy to pick on, sweetie. You can't be mad at us for doing what's most fun, can you?" Jisook put on her cutest expression and puffed up her cheeks.

"I'm not even going to dignify that with a response, you're not worth it. Ren, could you maybe ask JR if he is planning on going?" Aron added a bit too hopefully. Ren didn't even notice the sparkle in his eyes, he was too distracted by the sudden feeling of his heart stopping momentarily. "I'd ask him myself, but he hasn't been responding to my texts lately." There was the pout again.

"I don't know where JR is, actually. He's sort of lost." Aron's face fell and the girls fell silent with curious interest.

"Wha- How do you mean lost? He's not a set of keys, it's not like you can just lose him."

"He wasn't home late last night when Mouse... had his accident. I haven't returned home myself since then, so I don't know if he's there or where else he might be."

"But that's not, that can't be. What if something-"

"Aron, calm down. I'm sure it's nothing. He must've just stayed the night somewhere." Seungah suddenly had no quarrel with humouring Aron. She had enough sense to know this was a not a time for their childish banter.

"That's what I thought, too," Ren concluded, slightly relieved by outside opinions agreeing with him and ignoring Aron's quiet whimper of "but where?"

A silence fell. It was a painful one. The sound of reality trying to kick in the bolted door of everyday pretence.

All of a sudden, Seungah's ponytail whipped over her shoulder when she moved to pick up her bag.

"We'll all be late for class if we don't get going," she declared with a forced smile as she gathered her papers from the table and ped her bag.

"Yeah. Yeah we should get a move on," Jisook agreed.

As one they got up and gathered their things and soon after Seungah lead the way outside.

Aron paused for a moment when he set his chair back. "I should..." he began, but then shook his head and tagged at the end of the group.

As if nothing was awry, Seungah and Jisook started an energised discussion on the material for the upcoming lesson, expressing their hopes of receiving praise for their well prepared assignments. Ren turned the travel basket to check on Mouse only to find him calmly sleeping, the effect of what Minhyun had described as 'a preposterously high dosage of downers' not yet worn off. He jumped when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Ren, are you all right?" Woori's eyebrows were furrowed in concern.

"Yeah, sure. Why wouldn't I be?"

"You look... off. Something on your mind."

How can she always tell? How does she do that? "I-"

"Is there anything you want to talk to me about, Ren? You know I'm always here to listen."

Struck by a pang of a guilt, he averted his gaze, unable to maintain eye contact and pretended to minutely study Mouse's condition instead. There were so many things on his mind. So many things she should know, that they should all know.

He turned up his face and looked into her caring inquisitive eyes. "No, there's nothing, noona. Thank you for your concern." He smiled reassuringly, and hoped she would leave it at that.

Author's Note: There you go, an entire chapter of people talking over coffee. But yay! New characters!

Aron is totally not a comic relief character added just to break the mood and be the of every joke. I swear. He's totally legit. Like totally.

P.S. Just leaving this here:

Oh Woori, you ay thang.