“Hoya!”

You yelled as you jogged up to him whilst throwing your backpack over your shoulder. He was entering the school, large headphones covered his ears making him unable to hear you. You managed to catch up to him as he ascended the stairs up to the double door entrance. You reached out and pulled the headphones down. Stunned, he stopped walking and turned around.

“Did you not hear me?” You laughed at the surprised expression on his face. He shook his head no innocently. “I called your name just now.” You explained to him.

“Sorry. What’s up?” He wasn’t sure how to react to your sudden appearance. Usually the name you’d go calling for would be Woohyun, Sungyeol, and more often now Dongwoo or Sungjong. Yet, his name? He felt regret he had been listening to music at the time. He simply couldn’t picture you yelling his name.  

“The plans. How’d they look?” You had been curious since you first left the mayor’s house with Sunggyu.

He got a wide smile on his face, his expression telling you his answer. Still, he voiced it out for you, “It looks exactly the same. The floor plan is all there.” You felt all of the anxiety lift from your shoulders. Having those plans would help you all scout the Containment Zone without the worry of getting lost. This meant the search for Myungsoo would proceed quickly without surprise dead ends and pitfalls getting in the way. That’s what you hoped at least.

“Good.” You nodded to yourself confidently.

Hoya lightly laughed from next to you as the two of you entered the school. He outstretched his hand above you, holding the door open from up high while you passed through. You didn’t say thank you. You did something better than that. Something that made him gulp down despite having no reason to. You shifted your head, turning to him slightly and your lips curved up into a smug smile. You were being funny. You didn’t tell a joke, simply looked at him, your eyes saying ‘got you to open the door for me’ in a teasing manner.

Of course he’d open the door for you. For the few moments in which you were actually by his side with no one else tagging along, he would be sure to do so.

“Hyunjoo.” He called out to you as you started to walk up the stairs to the second floor. You turned and waited for his next words. He didn’t say anything, simple stared on at you, baffled by how he came to be so attached to you. You in your simple clothes. You who wore no makeup. Yet, you didn’t need to. You didn’t need to pretend to not be your stubborn, in the moment self. Others still liked you in spite of that. He still liked you in spite of that. Hoya didn’t need a reason why. He simply did.

“Sunggyu wants us to look over them together after school.” Hoya stuffed his inner thoughts into the locked box in the back of his mind. He latched a strong lock on them to keep them from running wild.

“Okay.” You responded simply before turning back around and waiting on the stairs. For who? For Hoya. He was gawking at you, rooted in his spot a few feet away from the stairs. “Come on, let’s go.” You motioned him to walk beside you with your hand. Hoya’s blank face formed a smile in response as he began his trudge towards you.

Myungsoo had been left alone now. His inner thoughts consuming him as he thought over what that man in black said before disappearing. Why didn't he leave with the others? He couldn’t understand. He wasn’t sure if he should even move from the room he was now in. Was the man a danger to him? Should he attempt to escape from this room and avoid having to find out the answer to that question all together?

He stood from his kneeling position. He wasn’t going to wait around for that man to come back. Right now, he had to find a way out of here. He made his way to the doorway, his body no longer resisting movement, all of his energy nearly back. When he stepped out into the hallway, for the first time since he had woken up, he attempted to sniff out what awaited him if he pressed forward. He shut his eyes and focused, taking one deep breath in before letting it go.

His eyes snapped open. Amidst all the dust and the rust, he didn’t smell grass. Nor did he smell the man in black earlier. He smelt a person. Not a werewolf. A human.

He leaned onto the wall near him, lightly hitting his temple onto the cold concrete. “Of all people.”

“You told me they had all escaped.”

“They did. Why would I lie to you?”

“Then why is he there? Why isn’t he gone like the rest of them? I don’t understand.”

Manshik sighed, his irritation reaching its peak. Then again, it didn’t take much to anger the mayor of Springfield. “You’ve been cooped up for too long. Your nose fails you. Trying to make him, or the group who traveled down there before, into werewolves in order to convince yourself your race isn’t all but extinct won’t make it true.” The mayor lied through his teeth, his wrinkle-ridden face expressing a look of fake sympathy for the man wearing all black in front of him.

“Then he’s not?”

“How many times do I have to tell you? You and Shinae are the only ones left now. And you do remember who is responsible for making sure you two stay alive, correct?” The mayor outstretched his hands, gesturing to himself as though he were some grand savior.

The man went silent, all of his protests went down the drain at the mere mention of her name, Shinae.

“So are we clear? That boy down there is not a werewolf. He’s the one who wants to take away this.” The mayor reached forward, one of his index fingers landing on the middle of the tall man’s chest. “And if he takes it away, he’s taking away Shinae. You don’t want that do you?”

The man stared down, his shaking eyes devoid of any sign of emotion besides fear. The mayor’s lips produced a toothy grin.

“I’m glad we understand each other now.”

You tapped your foot impatiently, eyeing the clock on the wall. A couple laughed nearby, the girl giggling while the boy leaned over the table and whispered sweet nothings to her. Why there was a couple flirting near you? You weren’t at school. In fact, it had now been around half an hour since school had ended. You were currently at a café near your school. Again, why?

“Don’t look at me like that.” Minah scowled at you for the bored look you were giving her, “I’m sure you don’t have better things to do.”

Actually you did. “Actually I do.” You leaned over the round table that separated the two of you, “You said you needed to talk. What is it?” You raised an eyebrow, waiting for her to hurry up and spit out whatever Myungsoo nonsense she had to say this time.

“Myungsoo didn’t come to school today either.”

You sighed and leaned back into your chair. You were right. More Myungsoo talk. You didn’t have time to just talk about him now. You had to find him. Bring him back. Not waste time talking about how he’s gone.

“Has he said anything to you?”

Your thoughts faded as you processed her question. Though not quite what her question was as much as how she sounded when she asked it. She sounded genuine. Completely and utterly genuine. Not only that but worried as well. Much different from how she was just yesterday, most of her words of ‘worry’ pairing together with her own selfish thoughts. Now though, she sounded as though she wasn’t thinking about herself in the least.

“I mean, you’re friends with his friends so I was wondering.” Minah looked down, her eyes searching for anywhere to look but at you as she twiddled her fingers.

“One iced tea and one caramel Frappuccino with extra whip cream.”

Minah looked towards the counter of the café. She glanced at you, pleading with you to stay, before getting up from her seat. You watched her as she walked towards the counter in awe. Minah’s current attitude was far from what you were used to getting from her. She actually seemed decent if you momentarily forgot about her pink frilly room and her narcissistic personality.

She came back after a while, your tea in one hand and her Frappuccino in the other. She handed it to you without saying anything and sat back down quickly before taking a sip of her drink. You didn’t understand her actions and wrote them off as her being embarrassed about coming to you for help. Though when she whined to you about Myungsoo yesterday she was not in the least bit embarrassed. Still, you disregarded her behavior and took a gulp of your tea.

“Don’t worry about it anymore.” You reassured Minah for what seemed like the millionth time. She might have been expressing her thoughts to you with selflessness but listening to her worries that spun around one single person still had a way of getting on a person’s nerves. You wondered briefly what Minah’s life was like before she met Myungsoo.

Was she an empty husk just waiting for him to arrive and give her purpose? For some reason, you wished she wouldn’t like him anymore because all that she was stemmed from her infatuation with him. For some reason, you found yourself actually wanting something better for her than the way she lived now; off of Myungsoo like a leech.

You finally got to your car at the corner of the parking lot and unlocked the door.

“Thank you.”

You spun around, regretting the action almost immediately. Your head pounded from the quick action, causing you to reach up to your temple and steady your spinning head with your hand.

“This doesn’t mean we’re friends or anything.” Minah mumbled beneath her breath, eyeing you from her peripheral.

You attempted to look up at her. Your vision started to become blurry and you felt as though you were moving in slow motion.

“Even though I was made to do this, I wanted to thank you for actually listening to me.” She looked up, locking eyes with your hazy ones, “Thank you.”

“What?” You asked before your world went black.

---------

A/N:

It feels like a lifetime has passed before we finally arrived at this new update. What's happening now? What's going to happen? You won't have to wait long to find out. For now though, we shall all commence in hating Minah once more. 

We have almost reached the 100 chapter mark, look forward to a big annoucement next update!