The front door opened and what followed was a loud yell that echoed throughout the house, “About time you got here.”

Sunggyu looked up from his shoes which he was in the process of taking off. He had already known they had come over. What else would explain the two familiar cars outside. Plus the fact that the place was starting to reek. He felt like he was being hit with a curve ball as soon as he entered the house, the smell of the foreign people now in his grandfather’s home threatening to knock him down. That and the loud boom of a yell that blasted into his eardrums, all produced from one specific hunter leader.

Sunggyu didn’t rush to the living room but instead took his time as he slipped his shoes off. Once more, he thought to himself that taking the day shift at the convenience store was just that, convenient. “Nice to see you again to.” He said as he finally entered the living room, finding all thirteen males looking towards him. “All of you.” He bowed his head curtly before walking around the couch to take a stand in front of the fireplace. “Who wants to start first?” he gestured around the room to which immediately someone spoke up.

“They said,”

Sungjong was interrupted midway through his sentence by Kyung, “We know where Hyunjoo is.” Sungjong turned to the other side of the room, where all of the hunters except B-Bomb were gathered. He narrowed his eyes and sent deadly glares at Kyung who all but scoffed in response.

Unlike how most all the werewolves had reacted upon hearing this, Sunggyu remained composed. He shrugged his jacket off of his shoulders and threw it onto the back of the lounge chair Woohyun was occupying. He said nothing but instead focused on fixing the ends of his sweater that had shifted due to his movements while taking off his jacket.

“You’re not going to say anything?” U-kwon finally spoke up, saying what everyone was now thinking. Sunggyu may have not been the leader of the hunters but they had come here expecting him to at the very least react to the information they were offering him. In this case, the information was regarding you. This caused U-kwon to have limited patience with the werewolf leader.

Sunggyu looked up from his clothes and blinked a few times. He seemed to not understand the question, “Say something?” U-kwon was in his right mind to jump over the coffee table and shake some sense into Sunggyu. He locked eyes with Zico, not paying attention to the look of disbelief U-kwon was giving him, “I was under the assumption you had more to say. I doubt you’re just going to give this information for free, right?”

“Nothing’s free after all.” Dongwoo added, his eyes drawing away from Sunggyu and coming to rest on the hunters on the couch they now took up residence on and around.

There had to be a catch. Nothing was free when it came to Springfield. Give and take was the essence of all things here.

Zico’s lips curved upwards into an amused smile. He raised his hands into the air, his palms forward, “You caught me.” He laughed and now it was him that U-kwon wanted to sock right in the jaw. Couldn’t the guy just say what needed to be said instead of going around in circles like this? U-kwon held his tongue and took a deep breath.

“Are we seriously doing this right now, Zico?” B-Bomb asked from across the room. He had known Zico would want something. He wasn’t going to give up information so easily but this was you he was talking about. Surely he wasn’t going to negotiate terms before telling what he knew.

P.O’s mouth opened to speak from his seat next to Zico but Zico lifted his hand, stopping all sound from escaping the boy’s throat. P.O. regretfully his lips. He wanted to tell everyone what he knew. He didn’t want to play games but he knew what Zico had in mind so he kept his mouth shut at his leader’s request.

Zico glanced back towards B-Bomb, his eyes narrowed into eagle sharp slits, “Why? You have some other place to be?”

“Depends on what you tell us.” Sungyeol answered back in B-Bomb’s stead, “Because if you’re just going to say that the mayor had something to do with it, we all have better things to be doing.”

“Oh,” Jaehyo laughed at Sungyeol’s authoritative tone, “It’s more than just that. A lot more than just that. You’ve got the who but not the where and the when.” Sungyeol stepped towards the couch, one foot planted firmly in front of the other as he glowered down at Jaehyo who looked up at him with a smug expression.

“And you do?” Sungyeol asked through clenched teeth.

“That’s what we’ve been saying,” Jaehyo opened his arms and looked to his fellow hunters beside him, “So, yes.” He finished and crossed his arms against his chest once more, causing Sungyeol to have to resist the urge to jump over the coffee table and throttle him then and there.

“This isn’t what we came here to do.” Taeil broke his silence, his words directed towards Zico.

“What exactly did you come here to do?” Hoya voiced out, asking the question that was floating in the forefront of his packs’ minds despite all the bickering currently going on.

“Right, the catch.” Zico smiled once more as he looked to the casual Sunggyu who had been waiting in silence for this point of the conversation to arise. “The constant disagreements are becoming boring. What do you say we shake things up a bit? It really has been getting dull around here lately.”

“How do you propose we do that?” Sunggyu questioned, a knowing smile on his face. He knew. He knew since Zico showed up here what this all meant. For Zico. For the hunters. For his pack. For himself.

For his grandfather’s ultimate goal. The restoration of the werewolf population in Springfield.

“What do you say about us joining up?”

Though they were all male, he could still work with that.

“I’d say you would’ve saved a whole lot of time if you said that sooner.”

He had to take what he could get after all.

“P.O.”

P.O. turned, stopping mid-step out of the front door of the werewolves’ home. He had been told to get a map of the forest that Zico had put in the truck. After they had escaped from that underground prison, which he had just learned from the werewolves’ was called the “Containment Zone,” Zico had written with precision each area of the forest they ended up in upon exiting the place. All in case they found more evidence of the necklace being down there. At this point, they still hadn’t and Zico didn’t want to risk it again. But now there was another reason to use them.

You and the werewolf Myungsoo both were down there now.

P.O. was thrown off by the person who called out to him. The person who had said nothing the entire time since he had arrived with the other hunters.

“Nam Woohyun.” Woohyun gave his name as he outreached his hand towards P.O., “I heard Zico call you that earlier. Is P.O. your real name?”

P.O. looked down at Woohyun’s outstretched hand, then up to the smile on his face. It didn’t falter despite P.O.’s obvious suspicion of him. P.O. gave in, reluctantly shaking his hand as he shook his head no. “It’s Pyo Jihoon.”

Woohyun’s mouth opened as though he were experiencing a moment of epiphany as to the way P.O. got his nickname, “Nice to finally be working with you.”

“Yeah.” P.O. answered slowly, his one word dragging out.

This guy was friendly. Too friendly. Sure, Zico had just made an alliance, the terms being left to be discussed later, with the leader of the werewolves, Sunggyu, but that didn’t mean that Kyung wasn’t still picking fights with the youngest wolf. Nor did it mean that Jaehyo was any less conniving to that taller wolf. Or that Taeil seemed to disregard that odd, silent armistice with the muscular one. Conclusion, this guy was absurdly familiar with him.

“Well, I have to go to the truck.” P.O. pointed to the front of the house, just outside the gate, only to have Woohyun do the exact opposite of what was implied of his sentence. He stayed there. An ignorant look on his face. Before P.O. could ask what he was doing not planning how to save you and that Myungsoo werewolf in the living room with everyone else, Woohyun spoke up.

“The wolves’ crossing you said?”

P.O. froze. He blinked a few times, processing the question. Then he uttered out a deep but soft answer, “Yeah.”

That’s where he had seen you thrown into the Containment Zone. Some kind of hatch that was constructed on the side of the stone bridge called the Wolves’ crossing. That’s what he told the werewolves and B-Bomb moments ago.

“I wonder if the lake’s water will rise soon. It’s supposed to rain tonight.”

P.O. shrugged at the odd statement and Woohyun merely smiled silently in return.

Myungsoo stopped walking. He hadn’t come to a planned stop either. It had only been around fifteen minutes since the last time the two of you had stopped. Your phone was only good for telling time now. No signal allowing for none of your texts or calls to go through. You had been praying to see the roaming sign on your phone’s screen. At least then there was hope of signal. Instead, there were only un-shaded bars that remained a dull gray, providing no hope whatsoever.

“Myungsoo?” You called out to him. How many times had you said his name in all the time you had been down here? How many times had you thought of his name in all the time you had been down here? How many times had you thought of him in all the time you had been down here?

You laughed.

Well there wasn’t exactly much else to say or think about was there?

He orientated himself to the right suddenly. Which was quite odd. He looked as though he were going to turn left at the fork just a moment ago. You wanted to ask what was wrong but he started walking with a purpose down the right hallway. You walked quickly behind him, able to keep up but if he had taken off down the hallway any faster you would have to jog after him. You were fast, sure, but Myungsoo right now seemed to be on some kind of preset mission.

You only saw one half of his profile. His eyes seemed to stare straight forward, the hint of a frown on his face. He didn’t look your way as he quickly turned into a room near the two of you. There was a door leading out the other side and he went through that without hesitation as well.

He had found something. He was on a trail like a hound dog. But what trail? Whose trail? Hadn’t he been moving farther away from the man in black’s scent for hours now? It wasn’t hard to figure out you were moving farther away from the loud noises you would hear every now and then. But this, as with most everything dealing with Myungsoo, boggled your mind.

“Who did you find?”

As though your mind knew the appropriate time to ask such a thing, Myungsoo stopped just then in the middle of a hallway that lead farther downwards, doorways leading into rooms here and there. He stopped and he tsked.

Why?

Because then something black poked out of the doorway to your nearest left. A head. A head of black hair. The person this head belonged to stepped out of the doorway, facing the two of you now with a large, cheesy smile on his face.

“Long time no see.”

Woohyun.

-----

A/N:

It's official. School has ruined my normal owl-like sleep pattern. I now wake up at around five in the morning and go to sleep around eleven at night. So not cool school. So not cool. I had a system and now I'm all out of wack. So here I am, early in the morning, updating again. I'm not going to lie, this may happen again. But I hope all of you guys know just how much I try to fight off sleep for another hour only to fail miserably. I will continue to fight it but sadly, no promises can be made. 

Either way~, here's the next chapter. Things are finally happening! Woohyun is in the containment zone. Block B has joined up with Infinite. What's going to happen next?

Are you excited? I am. 

Also, looks like amongst Block B and Infinite, there are some people who just can't wait to duke it out with the other. Could you figure them out from this chapter? Here's one, Sungjong and Kyung (as though it weren't obvious).

I need someone by my side, annoying me so that I stay awake.