“Tonight too?”

Minah spun around, the picture she was holding in her hand slipping from her fingers due to her surprise. Yura flinched as it hit the small beige carpet by her bed, just missing the wooden floor of her room by a hair.

“I’m so sorry.” Minah bent to pick it up but Yura held out her hand, telling her it was okay.

Yura breathed, relieved, as she walked into her room, bent over, and inspected it. It came close to being shattered, the glass of the frame. The frame itself held the picture she took with Sunggyu at one of the more recent mayor’s parties. The one in which him and his friends had not gone with you. She took that as an opportunity to take it. He wasn’t smiling in it. He was merely staring forward at the camera lens as she hooked her arm through his own. Not at her own behest, but at the behest of Hyeri who was taking it. She wouldn’t have done so otherwise. That they were together like that was what caused her to put the picture on her desk beside the ones of her and her friends, Minah included in them, and her and her family.

Even if his head was inclined away from her own, she was okay with that. Even if his arm that she hooked her own through was in his pocket, she was okay with that. Even if he already has a girlfriend, she was okay with that.

“You must think it’s silly.” She laughed at herself as she dusted off the frame and set it back onto her desk in its rightful place.

Minah shook her head, “It’s not silly. It’s what makes you different from the rest of us.” Minah sighed dismally and crashed onto Yura’s bed. She used the large stuffed bunny that was there, a gift from Minah on Yura’s last birthday, as a pillow as she sighed again, “He’ll actually take a picture with you. He actually talks to you. That’s something Hyeri, Sojin, Jihae, and I can’t boast about.”

Yura slipped her backpack from her shoulders and placed it at the foot of her bed. She had arrived late because of basketball practice. When she arrived home two hours after school had ended, her mom told her that Minah had been waiting for her in the living room until a few minutes ago, when she came upstairs to wait in her room instead. Yura didn’t expect it, her staying over again.

Sunggyu told her to take care of Minah last night when he dropped her off at the house. Really, even if he hadn’t said anything, Yura would have done so without hesitance. The ones who needed to be reminded are Hyeri and Jihae. Sojin was just as protective over Minah as she herself was. Especially after the Sungjong incident that occurred not to long ago, the two had been making sure to stay by her side unless she asked them to leave, as she did so when she visited the young male this morning.

Still, since the request was coming from Sunggyu, no words were produced from in response and an embarrassing head bobble up and down is what her body chose to do instead. She mentally scolded herself for that all of last night. And here Minah was again, even more depressed than she was last night when she wouldn’t say a word of why she was. Now, however, it seemed as though she would.  And like always, if Yura’s guess was correct, Myungsoo was the cause of all of it.

“What do you mean? Myungsoo talks to you all the time.” Yura second guessed herself and added after in a low mumble, “I mean, until he stopped coming to school.”

Minah groaned and buried her face in the bunny’s stomach. She said something, of that Yura was sure. What was difficult to make out was exactly what she said. As Minah continued to mumble into the stuffed animal, Yura had to put a stop to it. She walked over and grabbed onto the ear of the bunny, yanking it from underneath Minah. Minah lifted her head, using her arms to push herself up, and pouted due the bunny being taken from her.

“You rather a bunny listen to you instead of one of your best friends?”  Yura joked though for some reason, it only seemed to make Minah’s lips form a tight frown. Yura placed the bunny aside and took a seat by Minah, “What is it?” She asked softly and Minah peered up from beneath her bangs.

“Myungsoo doesn’t talk to me.” She spoke up, “He listens. I can’t remember a single thing he’s told me about himself because he hasn’t told me anything. Not about his family. Not about what he does when he’s not at school. Not even what his favorite color is. I don’t know anything about him. It’s not fair.”

Yura didn’t understand her sudden revelation. She had in the past never cared about any of those things. The only thing she was interested in was his face. How attractive he was. Never about who he was. He could have a name like “Trash Can” and Minah wouldn’t have cared as long as he was still just as good-looking.

“Why do you suddenly care?” Yura didn’t hold back with her next words and when she said them, she felt the need to correct herself, “About him I mean. About what he likes.”

“Because one of the things he likes is Hyunjoo.”

Yura froze, now understanding where this was going. It was about Myungsoo, yes, but most of it was about you.

“That’s all I know about him. That he likes Hyunjoo. It’s not fair.” She said again as she buried her face in Yura’s bed sheets now.

“A lot of things aren’t fair but rubbing your face on my bed is not going to help.” She patted Minah’s back to, urging her to stand up, “I have some extra pajamas, you know where they are. Take a bath while I go get us something to eat from downstairs and for pete’s sake stop rubbing your face on my sheets. You’re going to get makeup everywhere.”

She stood up from the bed and made her way to the door. Minah slowly lifted up from the bed and sat up, a frown still on her face. Her eyebrows furrowed as she gripped tightly onto the cloth of the bed under her fingertips, “Don’t you hate her for it? For being Sunggyu’s girlfriend?”

Yura stopped before she left the room and turned slowly, her hand resting on the frame of the doorway. A small smile lit her face, “Yeah. I do. I hate her for being Sunggyu’s girlfriend. I hate that it’s a fact that’s not within my power to change. But I don’t hate her. Last time I checked, she’s never done anything to me.” Minah’s glare faded and her lips parted as her facial features relaxed. “Guess you should be asking yourself that question then, huh? Do you hate her because Myungsoo likes her or because of her herself?”

There was silence now. A long period of silence. And Yura stood there, waiting for the answer that she already knew. The one that Minah didn’t like to admit and thus never did.

Minah finally spoke up, her voice a small whisper, as though she were trying to stop herself from hearing it. Still, she did, and so did Yura, “I don’t hate her.”

Yura’s fingers tapped the frame of the doorway and a smile lit up her face once more, “Good then, so apples or oranges?”

You screamed yet the forest did not echo it back to you. This was because your scream wasn’t produced from your lips. No sound escaped your throat. Instead, inside of your head, your screams echoed. Loud. High pitched. Glass-shattering screams.

And your legs. Your legs could not move one inch. Not as time seemed to go in slow motion. As you watched his body go falling backwards. As Tablo went hitting the ground a few feet away from you. As you saw his eyes flutter open and closed. And he coughed. He coughed and a stream of blood slipped from the corner of his lips. Yet, you couldn’t move. Within the mere seconds this took place, you couldn’t move an inch. Only once the world seemed to speed up again and you could hear Woohyun yelling for you did your legs tremble as you took steps towards him.

Someone grabbed you from behind, bringing you into the curve of his body as he shielded you. It wasn’t Woohyun. No. It was Myungsoo. And your ears started ringing at this moment. Ringing as from the corner of your eye you saw Tablo motionless on the ground.

You heard the sound of Myungsoo’s voice as he yelled, albeit faint, “Is he alive?” He was yelling at Woohyun who ran to Tablo and checked him over. You struggled to see from the position Myungsoo held you tightly in only to have him cover your eyes with one of his hands. Your groaned in displeasure and tried to reach up and pry him off. Yet he stayed strong. Not all too hard considering your arms and fingers trembled, loosing strength by the second. You could feel Myungsoo’s palm begin to wet. Not because he was sweating, not at all. It was because you were still crying. The tears from before had continued. A different reason behind them this time.

All the while, the ringing continued. Blocking out the sound of the forest around you. The sound you relished in moments ago. But beneath that, something threatened to penetrate the ringing. To take over the ringing sound that entered your eardrums. A whisper. A soft whisper of your name over and over.

The sound of Myungsoo calling to you, urging you to calm down.

And soon, that’s all you heard. The sound of your name escaping his lips over and over again. Coupled with a phrase that explained why he was doing what he was now.

“Don’t look.”

That’s all you heard until Woohyun yelled out a statement that caused your trembling to cease.

“He’s still alive.”

Your hands felt limp as they lowered from Myungsoo’s that covered your eyes. Your tears ceased and your breathing slowed to a steady rhythm.

He was okay.

Tablo was okay.

Myungsoo let his hand fall from your eyes, revealing to you once more the forest around you. He let go of you slowly, backing away with caution as he looked around, making sure there wouldn’t be another bullet being fired off.

“But he won’t be for long.”

You turned slowly towards the voice. A voice you had never heard before. You saw a man there. A man with brown hair and a serene smile on his face as he stood in front of the four of you. He took a step forward, towards Tablo. You quickly went to him first, Myungsoo making no move to stop you. You kneeled by him, glaring at the unknown man.

“Relax babe, we only want to help.” A new voice came from behind the mysterious man. And this new voice belonged to someone who looked exactly like the brown haired man. A mirror image other than the wild blonde hair he had with blue and pink faded streaks running throughout. You didn’t take all too kindly to the nickname he gave you, you just didn’t see that you weren’t the only one who felt this way. “Whoa, I hit a nerve on that one. You two reserving the nickname for your own personal use later?” He shrugged off the looks that Woohyun and Myungsoo were giving him now, “I liked Snow White better anyway.”

“Where is he?” The brown haired one asked, obviously directed towards the blonde one.

The blonde one lifted his hand in the air and mimicked a running motion with his middle and fore fingers, “Ran away like a puppy with his tail between his legs. I’d say he’s half way to kingdom come by now.”

The brown haired one didn’t seem all to pleased with that statement as he raised his hand up and pinched the bridge of his nose, “We have to chase him then?”

“The chase never is fun when it’s easy.” The blonde one responded with a dissatisfied frown.

All the while, you remained beside Tablo, as did Woohyun, not sure what to make of these two. Myungsoo was the one who questioned them, interrupting their playful conversation.

“Who are you?”

The two looked from Myungsoo, to each other, back to Myungsoo once more, “In a sense, you could call us saviors of a sort. And we’d like to start by saving this man here if you don’t mind.”

Woohyun didn’t like how he dodged the question and was about to ask again when you spoke up first.

“You would save Tablo? Why?”

Both of them looked towards you now, smiles on their faces that were in no way comparable to each other. The browned haired one had that same serene smile from before, as though he were some kind of wise man. The blonde haired one had on a large grin, his excitement due to your quarry seeping from his pores.

The brown haired man took a step forward, closing the space between you and him to less than three meters. “The question isn’t why, it’s for what.”

Woohyun was going to speak up again, only to have you interrupt once more.

“What do you want?”

Tablo wasn’t moving. His chest barely stirred as his eyes remained closed. He may have been breathing but it was weak. He was weak. And the bullet had lodged itself in his chest. The bullet that had rendered him this weak in the first place. Myungsoo knew. Woohyun knew. It was Wolfsbane. Even you could smell the strong, pungent fumes it produced. It was different from the one in the necklace. And it wasn’t simply resting on his neck, it’s ability to burn his skin rendered useless due to its glass casing. It was under his skin. Burning him from the inside out. You didn’t want to naïvely reject their proposition and hope he would get better on his own as Myungsoo, who was shot in the leg, not the chest, had.

Woohyun looked to you, his eyes wide at your willingness to trust these two men. You didn’t glance at him, your eyes locked onto the brown haired one, narrowed as you glowered at him. Woohyun looked to Myungsoo for support to find him looking right back at him, his eyes telling him that he was on your side on this one. That he wanted to know more about these two men. Especially considering the smell that poured off of them as they gallivanted on, speaking in more riddles by the second.

The blonde haired one took steps past his duplicate, steps towards you. Woohyun didn’t like it, not in the least. Still, he remained squatted by Tablo, choosing not to do anything yet. But there wasn’t a doubt that he would if the blonde one tried something. He came to a stop in front of you and kneeled down right there, his grin causing your glare to falter for a moment before you grew suspicious of him once more.

“Your silence.”

You watched on in silence, a smile on your face, as you watched twelve wolves scattering back and forth in the kitchen, making something that they said would make you feel better. You felt better just being with them but you had to admit they all looked silly as the twelve of them questioned each other on how to make chicken noodle soup. The task itself proved to be impossible to accomplish as you heard yells and groans coupled with the sound of crashing pots and pans from the kitchen.

As you were asked to in exchange for saving Tablo, you were silent about the two men you had met earlier, Daeryong and Soryong. You were told to keep quiet about Tablo specifically. Not about who he was, how he was down there, or why he was down there. No. You were told to keep quiet about where he had gone now. About him getting shot down by none other than the mayor who promptly ran away right after, apparently like a dog with his tail between his legs as Daeryong has described it. And he surely wasn’t scared enough to not shoot in the first place so that meant that these two were the ones who caused him to go running for the hills. Instead, you were told to change what happened. To say he left, fine as could be, to follow his own path. It was ridiculous yet what choice did you have?

You had to trust them. As they told you they were friends with Tiffany, not trusting them was not an option anymore.

Thus, as you told the werewolves and the hunters everything else that happened, they knew you now wore the necklace securely around your neck. Yet, for some reason, they didn’t even say one word about it. Even when you pointed it out to Sunggyu who must have noticed it right away, they didn’t say a word. Even when they brought you back here to the hunters’ home, it being closer, and you told them what it could do, they didn’t say a word. As though it didn’t matter anymore.

As though they could care less about it.

As though they cared more about you.

About you, about Myungsoo, and about Woohyun.

You were being taken care of, sure, but more notably, the two of them were being treated like Kings. Sungyeol continued to badger Myungsoo about him needing anything as Sunggyu continued to assert the need for Woohyun to eat a carrot while he waited for the soup. If that didn’t make it obvious, the ingredients for chicken noodle soup in the house were limited; the reason the process seemed to take quite the chaotic turn.

Yet, as though a miracle had somehow occurred in the kitchen, the twelve of them filed out some time later, filling the living room one by one. The last one to emerge from the kitchen being Sungjong who held three bowls of soup on top of a tray as though he had the utmost pride in the part he took in making it. He set them down on the coffee table in front of the couch you, Myungsoo, and Woohyun were now occupying, a smile on his face as he gestured towards it.

“He means eat it.” Kyung spoke up from behind him, causing Sungjong to turn and glare at the hunter who merely stuck his tongue out playfully at him in return. Sungjong snarled, his upper lip twitching as he looked Kyung up and down indignantly.

You leaned over, causing the blanket to shift off of your shoulders. The blanket they wrapped you up in as soon as you came out of the bathroom after changing into pajamas, a long white pullover and psychedelic leggings that always made U-kwon laugh, that you had left there. That’s the first thing Sungjong had told you, Myungsoo, and Woohyun to do when he saw the three of you after all. He said you guys stunk and that you needed a bath yesterday at the latest. That was the first thing you heard when you saw them again and it made you laugh. It reminded you of how much you missed them. And here they were, all in front of you like this.

And it felt good.

Unbelievably.

More than how it felt to finally shower after four days and wash your hair free from the grime that stuck to it.

An expectant smile lit your face as you picked up the spoon from the tray that was for you. Myungsoo and Woohyun didn’t do the same, apparently waiting for your judgment before they tried anything the twelve of them cooked. They were good at other things when it came to cooking but chicken noodle soup seemed to be an experiment they had chosen for this particular occasion judging from the skeptical looks that Woohyun and Myungsoo had on their faces. You dipped it into the soup and pulled it upwards from the bowl. Things were looking up for the recipe as you did see a noodle and a piece of chicken. What struck you as strange was the thick carrot slice that made itself known on your spoon, sticking out like a sore thumb.

“I cut the carrots.” P.O. boasted, his voice a deep whisper as he grinned from next to Sungjong.

“I think we can all tell P.O.” U-kwon patted his back to comfort him as he shook his head, a slight smile on his face as he messed with the younger boy.

“I think we can tell who helped him too.” Sungyeol mused as everyone glanced towards Taeil whose lips parted to speak, only to close in defeat right after.

“Who? You?” Jaehyo joked right back, causing Sungyeol to send him dirty looks. Thankfully, the two were standing on opposite sides of the coffee table.

You stifled a laugh and blew on it, cooling it down, before tasting it. The carrot took over, but, “It’s not bad.” You said, your statement more of a question than anything as you laid down your spoon, still contemplating the taste. Still, the twelve of them seemed all too pleased with that response as there were a series of high fives exchanged.

“That doesn’t mean its good.” Woohyun distastefully gulped down, not convinced, as he stared at it.

Sungjong fumed at his comment and pointed from him to Myungsoo from across the coffee table, “Just eat it!” You held your hand up to your mouth as you laughed at the exchange. Dongwoo took the opportunity to lean over and pick up your spoon before taking a taste of their creation himself.

He stood straight up and pivoted on his heel, returning to the kitchen, “Okay, time to break out the ramen.”

“That bad?” U-kwon sighed as he followed Dongwoo into the kitchen, “Are there even any noodles left? Why don’t we just get take-out?”

Sungyeol followed behind him, just as if not more confused as to what went wrong, “I thought we did pretty well considering we actually remembered the “noodle” part of chicken noodle soup.”

“Though I have to say I’m not surprised at all.” Jaehyo shrugged it off and slipped into the kitchen next to Sungyeol to make sure that they at least cooked the ramen right without messing up.

“It was the carrots, wasn’t it?” P.O. shook his head in disappontment, his face producing exaggerated expressions as he did so. Kyung laughed at him and hooked his arms around both him and a rather irritated and unwilling Sungjong before dragging them into the kitchen. You heard a faint yell of, “Don’t touch me,” soon after.

“If anything else hurts, just tell me okay?” Taeil said with a smile only to have it fade the next second as there was a loud crash from the kitchen, “Though I guess there’s a better chance of someone about to be hurt in there.” He disappeared into the doorway of the kitchen, Hoya following close behind to aid him, and you saw all of them as they now began to debate on the correct way to make ramen. The fourteen of them, the hunters and the werewolves, being together now, was certainly going to make every day much more eventful. You were glad that they finally aligned with each other. Something that seemed impossible just months ago.

“You want some water to wash it down?” B-bomb asked, drawing your attention away from the others who were creating a fuss in the kitchen, as though he already knew the outcome of this endeavor of theirs’ to make the soup in the first place. You reached down and picked up your spoon, taking another taste of it. When you looked back up to him, you coyly nodded and he smiled before leaving.

Still, you would eat it because they made it for you. You had to admit, the warmth it spread through you was better than the taste itself. So much so you actually liked it just a little bit.

As you looked up from your soup, you found that you were left in the room now with Myungsoo, Woohyun, Zico, and Sunggyu. And you couldn’t help it now. You needed to know where things would go from here. What would happen now that you had finally found what they had been looking for.

You laid down the spoon once more and reached up to your neck, producing from the collar of your pullover the tear shaped necklace. Sunggyu’s grandfather’s necklace.

“What are you going to do now?”

And the two of them glanced at each other before turning back towards you, a smile on Sunggyu’s face and a smirk on Zico’s as they seemed to come to an agreement as to what the answer to your question was.

----

A/N:

This. Took. Forever. To. Write. This will be a short author's note becuase I think I'm all out of words to even attempt to write any more for at least like, the next hour. Okay, maybe I'm not that tired out~ I will respond to your comments now, because you guys are so wonderful. 

On the bright side, Tablo is alive! Though what will happen to him now that Daeryong and Soryong "saved" him? What will happen to the mayor? What will Sunggyu's and Zico's decision about the necklace be? We'll just have to wait and see!

Off to my take my hour long break!