It had been three nights and three days since the ordeal.

Three nights of restlessness on Ren's part from the noises he was hearing -or thought he was hearing- outside the window. Either he was in danger or he was losing his mind. Whatever the case, Mouse was not helping his fragile nerves at all by sitting perfectly still throughout the nights staring fixedly ahead towards one window with nothing behind it.

Furthermore, it had been three days of JR refusing to leave his room.

Despite everything, his return had not lessened the burden of worry, because he turned out to be in bad health. His headache and hypersensitivity hadn't faded after a day of rest like everyone had expected it to and now he had a high fever and loss of appetite to boot.

On the bright side of things, his foul mood had passed and he had put aside enough of his pride to apologise for his behaviour. This had convinced Ren to re-establish him as a friend and fill him in on what had passed in his absence.

On the third morning, right before they were each about to leave for college, Ren and Baekho like every day so far, went to check on him. Baekho carried a tray of breakfast items while Ren held on to Mouse with one arm and knocked on the door. After a brief paused they were received with about as enthusiastic of a muffled welcome as they could have expected.

"Good morning, JR. How are you feeling today?" Ren inquired happily.

Pulling the covers from his head and sitting up with visibly great effort, JR looked at them forlornly with a weak smile before answering.

"Not really amazing, to be honest."

"Well you look a lot better already," Baekho remarked helpfully. Ren raised a questioning eyebrow, looked at JR with his bloodless cheeks, grey general complexion, darkly circled eyes and air of utter listlessness and then gazed accusingly at Baekho.

"Don't lie to him, that's not nice."

"I'm just trying to make him feel better."

"Well that's not-"

"You guys," interrupted JR. "If you're going to argue please don't do it in here."

"Sorry. Yes, Ren's right. That was a lie, you still look pretty rough. But look, there's juice! That'll make you feel better. Get some vitamins in you, it'll brighten you right up."

"It hasn't so far," Ren mumbled softly, but Baekho didn't hear him.

Setting down the tray on the bedside table, Baekho smiled warmly.

"I appreciate the trouble, you guys, but I'm really not hungry," JR groaned more than said, and his shoulder's slumped as he laid back down again.

Ren pouted, "You need to eat something. You need your strength if you want to recover."

"I'll try."

"And if you won't at least humour us and eat to feel better, Mouse is here too, and he comes bearing hugsies," Ren said in his cutest voice, ing the cat in JR's face.

"Hugsies are always nice," JR commented dryly and he reached up to touch their house pet.

Ren pried Mouse's claws from the fabric of his shirt and placed the cat in JR's outstretched arms, but Mouse would have none of that. The moment JR lay a hand on him he yowled loudly, and began to writhe to get away, scratching and clawing viciously at the boy's arms with all his fervour.

"Mouse!" Ren shouted as the creature made a mad dash out the door.

"So much for hugsies to cheer me up, he is in no mood for me," JR laughed it off but his smile did not succeed in covering up just how much the rejection stung. "I must've touched his injured leg."

Baekho shook his head. "It probably wasn't your fault, man. He's been acting weird and jumpy ever since the accident."

Ren suppressed a bitter laugh. We're calling it an accident now?

Perking up as if he suddenly remembered something, JR brought up a new subject."Hey, isn't that party tonight? That the girls told you about? Are you going?"

"Yeah, can't say I'm really raring to go, but the girls wouldn't permit us to stay at home,” said Ren.

Picking up his glass of orange juice, JR sniffed it carefully before his face twisted into a grimace that told the world his stomach was not ready for this. He shrugged. "Still, must be nice. I wish I could join you."

"You're not the only one," Ren commented with a meaningful look in Baekho's direction. Baekho was silent in contemplation for a while but then he caught on.

"Oh yeah, that's right. Aron seemed to be enormously disappointed when he heard you couldn't join us because of your health. He took me on as his plus-one very reluctantly indeed.”
“It was pretty cute to see him so upset,” added Ren.

"Really? I knew he was concerned for me, because my phone has exploded with his messages alone, but I never thought he'd be so disappointed."

"Well he is. Maybe you should call him and tell him how you're doing."

"I will. And now that you mention it, I might try to come with you guys anyway, if he-"

Ren's eyes widened with the realisation that his little plan for teasing JR had backfired. "Don't be ridiculous. You're in terrible health. You can't go.”
“But you said-”
“It doesn't matter what I said, look at yourself, you can barely sit upright for more than a minute. Don't go anywhere more than a foot from this bed, you hear me?"

"Gosh, fine then."

Baekho cleared his throat, realising all too well that this conversation had taken a turn for the awkward. "Anyway, we need to get going. But don't you worry about a thing. If you need anything you can call either of us any time, okay? Even if we are in class."

"Thanks guys, but I'll be fine. Just need to get some sleep and hope for this fever to go down."

"And eat your breakfast," Ren commanded. "You really have to eat well."

JR fell back on the bed again and sighed.

"I mean it, JR."

"I know."

"Come on, Ren. We'll be late."

Reluctantly, they both left the room with a final goodbye, leaving JR free to wallow in his own misery.

When back in the living room they both checked to see if they didn't forget anything before they'd go their separate ways to their own classes. After making a mental note to take extra concise notes today to bring home to JR, Baekho paused from packing his books when he noticed Ren staring at his bag without actually looking at any of its contents, his eyes glazed over.

"Hey, don't worry about it. He's gonna be fine." He placed a hand on Ren's arm reassuringly.

"That's not what I was thinking about."

"Then what was?"

Ren sighed. "I'm still not at ease about the Lurkers. They've never done this before, attacked people out in the open, I mean. Or I think they never have. Maybe they do it all the time but we just never hear about it. Maybe it all gets covered up so we won't be scared and the reality is that stuff like this happens all the time." When he felt Baekho grab hold of his hand, he looked up and searched his face. Then he smiled self-deprecatingly. "You probably think I'm being totally paranoid."

"No, I don't. I've actually been thinking the exact same thing."

Ren raised an eyebrow, slightly incredulous. "You have?"

"Yeah. This is all so weird, and I can't help but feel that if we knew a bit more it wouldn't all be so unsettling. I mean, is anyone even sure what the heck kind of things they are. Or what they look like."

Suddenly, a thought occurred to Ren, Someone might know. He smiled. Class will have to wait, I need to swing by the faculty of medicine first.

Baekho, mistakenly assuming that Ren's smile was a result of his words, soothingly rubbed circles on his hand with his thumb and let out a relieved laughed.

"Come on, let's go."

Ren nodded, slung his backpack on his shoulder and they set off for the door.

In the other room, overhearing his friends' concerns, JR felt horrible on more levels than just the physical.

God, if only they knew, he thought mournfully as he looked upon the tray of food they'd brought him. Such a kind and caring gesture. He laughed bitterly and traced the stinging lines of fresh claw marks on his arms. Mouse seems to be the only one here with any sense left in him. I need the get the hell out of here before it's too late.

…

A half hour later, Ren stood on the curb outside one of the university buildings, vigilantly watching the people that walked past him. As the many unfamiliar faces went by, several of which seemed to turn to look at him, he couldn't shake the feeling that everyone knew he didn't belong here, and were judging him for it.
He pouted. Focus man, that's not what's important now. Just be sure you don't miss him.

He was embarrassed to admit he had no idea if Minhyun even had classes at this time, and that he was waiting here, where he hoped he would be graced with a meeting with him, solely on impulse.

A pang of fear that he had skipped his own first class for nothing emerged in his chest, but it was subdued before it could develop into a freak out by the sight of a familiar dark haired boy.

Minhyun didn't seem to pay heed to the people around him and was engrossed in a textbook that he held casually in one hand while he kept the other in his pocket. He didn't see that Ren stood waiting by the entrance to the lecture hall a few feet in front of him.

Surprised by his friend actually showing up, against his expectations, Ren was dumbstruck for a few seconds and became awkwardly confronted with this when Minhyun by chance looked up from his reading and came to look right at him. He stopped walking.

“Ren?”

“Uh- yeah. Hi.”

Minhyun raised an eyebrow and looked around him briefly, as if to see if there were any others from their clique of friends present, if he had forgotten an appointment they all made.

“What are you doing here?”

“I want to talk to you.”

Minhyun looked at him for a while, then took a good look at his book to mark the page, closed it and took a few steps closer to Ren to get our of the pathway of oncoming students. “What about? Is it Mouse? Is he not healing well?”

“No, he's fine, it's not that.” Ren brushed a lock of his hair behind his ear nervously. “Minhyun, have you been researching the Lurkers?”

There was a silence as Minhyun's expression fell.

“No.” The reply was cold and intent to end the conversation. It startled Ren, he hadn't been expecting such defence from this question. He bit his lip and looked down, unable to meet his friend's eyes. Minhyun could manage a very cold stare if he wanted to.

“Minhyun, please.”

The pleading response made the other raise an eyebrow. This was counter his anticipations. He thought Ren had been talking to the others, the ones who laughed at him behind his back and had come to hear the rumours first hand. Paranoid and delusional is what they called him. Worrying about stuff no one else saw as a threat. Preparing for an, in his opinion, inevitable disaster. He didn't like being right, but it was beginning to dawn on him that he was. Ren saw it too, and, judging from the sound of his voice, that's what he came to him for.

“What do you want from me?”

“I want to know what you know. I want to know what we're dealing with.”

“I-I don't actually know that much. It's very hard to find anything out about them. It's mostly theories,” it was always embarrassing to admit that the theories that were one's years' work of research lacked practically all factual support.

“Tell me them.” Minhyun couldn't help but smirk. He believes me. That's a first.

“Where to begin? For starters I think the image of what people make them out to be is all wrong.

They're a lot more intelligent than we give them credit for, on par with us, I even think.” He paused, then smirked lightly. “Well, probably not on par with me. But most people, definitely.”

Ren suppressed a sigh. So arrogant even now.

“So you'd agree with me when I say I think they killed that pigeon to lure Mouse out? Do they have the forethought to set a trap for a cat rather than eating whatever vermin they can get their hands on?”
Minhyun's smile faded and he looked upon him solemnly. “No Ren. I don't think they killed that pigeon to lure Mouse out. I think they killed that pigeon to lure Mouse out and hurt him to then lure you out. Do you really think the lights breaking just as you and Baekho left was a coincidence? They planned it all,” he stopped then and looked at Ren's face intently while waiting for his words to sink in.

An uncontrollable tremble went through Ren's spine. That feeling he had when he sat on the balcony looking out over the streets that night. That feeling of being watched. That had been genuine. They were watching him, and preparing their plan to capture him. The thought was haunting.

“They're that smart?”

“I told you: they're as smart as people. But no one wants to believe me, because if they do then they’d have to be much more cautious than they're comfortable with.”

Ren nodded, if he was completely honest with himself, he already knew this. He just hadn't wanted to accept he knew. “Where do they go during the day? I mean, we know they're in the dark at night, but they need somewhere to hide from the sunlight.”

“I suspect they live in the sewers.” Minhyun his chin thoughtfully and heaved a sigh.

“This is all speculation, but it's the most logical conclusion I could draw. The old sewers, from when the city was still in its baby shoes, have been out of use for decades. They're basically just halls now. I got hold of plans, it's like a massive maze right beneath our feet. There's room enough for them to all live there and it also goes to explain how they can get around at night if all the main roads are illuminated. They simply bypass it all by going underground and coming up to the surface wherever there's manholes.”

“How do you know all that?”

“Like I said, it's mostly speculation. But it was a suspicion I had for a while, and when I looked into all the people that went missing -the ones I could find records of at least- I went by the places they were last seen, and every single one of those crime scenes had a manhole or an access tunnel of the old sewers somewhere in the area.”

“How did you even find out where this happened? I never even hear of people going missing in the first place and then you even have locations of where it happened?”

He smiled. “I've been doing a lot of digging.”

“What do you suggest I do?” Ren asked.

“You do?”

“About... all this. Shouldn't we do something? Shouldn't we make it stop?”

“I don't think we can make any difference. This has all been going on for a while, the city keeps us safe every way they can, but it's simply not fail-safe. Sometimes things happen, and when they do no on believes me.”

"I believe you, Minhyun. And I want you to tell me what to do.”

Minhyun snickered and tossed his fringe from his eyes. “Be careful. Stay safe. The best way to do that is to always be watchful for anything suspicious. Stay in the light, stay inside. And most importantly, stay the hell away from the sewers.”

Author's Note:
I'm back on track again guys. You might even be able to expect the next update within a week. (I can make no promises, but I'm feeling good about this)

Also, out of curiosity. Am I the only person who ships JRon? Because sometimes I feel like I am, and that I'm all lonely on this deserted, sinking ship. XD