“Is Song Hyunjoo here?” Dongwoo leaned into the doorway of your classroom. His eyes frantically searched for any sign of you but yet again, there was none.

“She’s absent again today. Sorry, senior.” A black haired boy answered.

“It’s okay.” He feigned a smile and turned to walk down the hallway. Sungjong walked up to him with a frown on his face.

“Hyung, I can’t even smell her presence here anymore.” Sungjong’s eyebrows scrunched together in worry, “It’s been two weeks and she still hasn’t shown up for school at all.”

“And we can’t go to her house because of the darn promise we made with the hunters.” Dongwoo grunted in frustration and ran his fingers through his hair. His hair became a mess though he paid no mind to it. Sungjong huffed as he followed behind Dongwoo and fixed it. Soon, they both found themselves in the courtyard.

Woohyun and Hoya were sitting there, both driving others away with merely their auras filled with rage. Both of them were taking your disappearance harder than the rest of the pack. No, it wasn’t that. All seven werewolves disliked your absence. It’s just that Woohyun and Hoya made the fact that they were angry about it more obvious. When Dongwoo and Sungjong approached close enough for them to notice, they both looked up.

“She wasn’t there again was she?” Hoya asked, his nose a bit too strong for his liking. He was able to tell as soon as he stepped onto the school’s campus that you weren’t here.

“Yeah.” Sungjong answered dejectedly as he took a seat next to Hoya on the bench.

Hoya looked to Woohyun now, “Where is Sungyeol?”

“He’s riding around on his bike. He’s been going around our side of town during school lunch breaks for the past week.” Woohyun answered him.

“And?” Dongwoo squished himself between Hoya and Woohyun on the long bench.

“He says he’s still found no trace of her.”

“And where’s L-Hyung?” Sungjong scooted closer in.

“Where do you think?” Woohyun raised one of his eyebrows, “Still doing what Sunggyu told him to. He’s sticking to that Minah girl like glue. Well actually, she’s the one sticking to him.”

“Doesn’t he care about Hyunjoo?” Sungjong crossed his arms.

“There’s nothing he can do. He’s the closest one to the mayor now among all of us.” Hoya pointed out knowledgably.

“That doesn’t help us find Hyunjoo though.” Sungjong pouted.

“Dammit,” Dongwoo ruffled his hair again, messing up the work Sungjong had put into fixing it earlier, “Just where is she?”

Running. Just keep running. Run even if you cannot feel your legs anymore. Run as if you are running away from your own death. Run. Don’t stop. You couldn’t hear anything but your own thoughts and the thumping of your heart as you urged your legs to continue on. You swerved through trees as you continued forward. The forest sounds greeted you as you saw a bright light shining out down in front of you. You pushed your way into the light, finding yourself in a clearing of the forest. You turned, shocked to find your way blocked by something black. You stumbled backwards from shock and you felt your knees buckle from exhaustion. You were steadied by the arm that wrapped around your waist and pulled you up. That’s when you found out what surprised you even though it shouldn’t have.

“Zico.” You murmured when you found yourself just short of three inches away from his face. Your heart jumped in alarm. You pushed him away from you when you discovered he was the thing that was keeping you standing. It took you a moment but you were able to find your balance on your own. You felt you legs pounding and you were amazed you were able to run for this long. Apparently, Zico was pleasantly surprised as he looked down at you with a satisfied smirk on his face. However, it had been two weeks since you started this running training, that’s what Zico called it, so of course you had improved since the first day. The first day, he caught you within the first seven minutes and he had given you a five minute head start. “How long has it been?” You asked him as you bent over and caught your breath.

“An hour.”

Your eyes widened in surprise. An hour? You were able to run away from him that long? Impossible. “You’re lying.” You accused him as you stood up straight.

“I’m not.” He showed you the clock on his phone. Sure enough, it was four minutes till 1 pm. You had started running at noon. But then that only left one other possibility.

“You let me survive that long.” You accused him again. He rose an eyebrow at you.

“Why are you so insistent on thinking that I’m lying to you. Do you have any reason not to trust me?” You stared at him and he coughed and looked away, “I was surprised when you took off. I thought I would never catch you. I lost you multiple times and was only able to find you when I sniffed you out. If it wasn’t for this clearing,” He gestured to the lighted area around the two of you, “I wouldn’t have caught you.”

You looked down at your legs. This same pair of skinny legs had carried you for an hour without you even noticing. “Whoa.” Was all you could say as you took a seat down right onto the ground. Your exhaustion hit you all at once as you finally realized what you had been doing during your adrenaline rush.

Zico laughed and leaned onto the tree near you, “You’re faster than you look. Though this is the only thing you’re good in.” He gave you a pointed look and you knew instantly what he was referring to.

He meant the training he was giving you with the gun. You were sub pair with the slightly curved knife he had given you but besides that you had no other weapon you were affinitive with. The bow and arrow thing wasn’t for you. You were too impatient, something that B-Bomb had tried to knock out of you since he started teaching you how to use the crossbow one week ago. Jaehyo and U-Kwon, the two hunters who were adept in blades, were pleased with your progression with the knife however. Kyung and Taeil tried to teach you about how to use a gun.

Scratch that, Taeil tried, Kyung just stood on the sideline and watched you fail miserably. You just couldn’t get a handle of it. Your hand would tremble when you held onto the wooden grip of the gun and thus your aim when using it would be completely off. P.O was teaching you how to defend yourself hand to hand, his specialty. That practice had given you bruises on most parts of your body. The only thing he would tell you about how you did was, ‘You’re stubborn. I keep knocking you down but you just get back up. Don’t lose that aspect of you.’ Zico…well Zico could pick up any weapon he wanted and beat the living daylights out of you. He was adept in just about everything. If he weren’t so cocky about it you would actually admire him for it.

“Don’t remind me.” You answered back at him as you hung you head low and took deep breaths.

“Don’t be so down sweetheart.” He cooed at you in that annoying, condescending tone of his, “You’re actually doing much better than I thought you would. When you asked to join and I threw you out here after three days, I thought you would immediately quit.”

You looked up at him, remembering now where this had all started. That’s right. At first, you weren’t supposed to go through any training at all. Zico asked you to meet him in the forest one morning, three days after joining the hunters. When you did, he pulled out a knife and told you you had five minutes before he started after you. At first, you thought he was kidding. But then, from the way his eagle eyes looked at you, you knew he wasn’t. That’s when his little test for you became serious. He told you when he caught you that he was just seeing if you could run to safety fast enough if something happened. But then, as he chased after you, he saw something in you. He wouldn’t tell you what, you just knew that after that, he took up training you very seriously.

You hadn’t been to school in two weeks since then.  You were worried about your schoolwork. You had been living at the hunters’ place, in the living room to be precise, so you hadn’t even been home to study anything.

“When can I go back to school?” You asked Zico. He was taken by surprise by the sudden question.

“School? Oh right,” He paused as he rubbed the back of his neck, “In two days. You can go back.” He answered.

You nodded your head. In two days, you would have to face the werewolves. The worry of how much you missed in school triumphed over your anxiety about what to do when you finally met your werewolf friends face to face after so long. Thus, you were more than happy to get back to it. You wondered vaguely if your mother had gotten any calls from the school. If she did, she didn't call you about it. You hadn't recieved a call nor a text message. You wondered how she was doing. If you would be once more grounded when you got home. 

“In the meantime,” Zico interrupted your thoughts, “you should talk to Taeil. If you remember what you all last went over, he can give you some practice problems.” You stared at Zico, confused as to why Taeil would know such things. Zico saw your look and smiled, “He’s the smart one out of all of us. Trust me, just go to him for anything regarding school. You’ll be caught up in no time.”

You thought over the idea of having Taeil be your tutor. It didn’t sound bad at all. You had nothing against Taeil and he was not the type to hold grudges like Kyung or Zico. “Alright.” You agreed with a nod.

Zico checked the time on his phone and frowned, “Let’s go. It’s time to meet up with everyone.” He held out his hand in front of you. You glanced at it and your hand almost moved on its own. You stopped yourself however before turning away and getting up by yourself. He blinked a few times before smirking playfully. He stuck his hand back in his pocket, “The road is near here. We can get B-Bomb to pick us up.”

He started to walk away as he dialed B-Bomb’s number on his phone and you followed. You glanced down at the palm of your hand. A flicker of Zico’s own palm just a moment ago flashed in your mind. You quickly shook your head. You weren’t here to bond with him. You were here to find the necklace for the werewolves. You couldn’t get attached to the hunters.

“We usually don’t have an even number of people so this time should be more fun. What do you all say?” Zico asked everyone as they all sat in front of him in the living room.

“Did you just say a training exercise?” You asked, your eyes wide. “Great, another thing to at.” You mumbled below your breath.

U-Kwon laughed next to you, apparently he had heard what you said, “Sounds good to me.” He directed towards Zico with a smile.

“Sounds like fun right?” P.O asked B-Bomb who only glanced at you secretly without responding.

“We have to train anyway.” Kyung said with a shrug and a rather pissed off look on his face. Taeil patted his shoulder, trying to soothe his anger.

“I’m up for it.” Jaehyo raised his hand into the air calmly.

“Good then,” Zico bit the corner of his mouth and thought for a moment, “The teams will be decided as they always are.”

“With what?” You asked U-Kwon.

“Rock paper scissors. We play till we get two people left. The one who wins between the two of them gets to pick their team first.” He answered you with an excited grin on his face. “Usually the person who loses has to have a team of three but since you’re here its even.”

“Yay for me.” You faked enthusiasm, much to U-kwon’s pleasure.

You stared at the opposing team in worry. If this really was the training exercise that Zico described it as earlier, than it would be like a game of laser tag. Both teams start at a certain point in the forest. Then, at exactly eight in the morning, go after the other team until there’s only one team left standing. U-kwon told you it usually lasted only around five hours. However, it looked like you wouldn’t even last that long. It seemed as though you would be the first one out in this game.

The reason?

Well that was simple. The opposing team you now looked at that had gathered on the opposite side of the living room was composed of Jaehyo, B-Bomb, Kyung, and Zico.

------------

A/N:

Another chapter for all of you guys~

Now that Hyunjoo is "with" the hunters, things are going to be a bit different. I hope I relieved you all from the cliffhanger from the last chapter with this. 

Leave a comment if you please~