Zico tossed in his sleep, getting everyone's attention. Taeil was already by Zico’s side on the couch. He was waiting for sleeping beauty to awaken since early that morning. Zico’s eyes fluttered open slowly. "Good morning." Taeil laughed hardily though you could hear the relief in his voice. Zico sat up and immediately felt the tightness that gripped his upper and lower limbs. He used his right hand to check underneath his shirt, finding bandages wrapped around his chest. He lifted the blanket and saw his leg wrapped in gauze. His upper left arm was also wrapped up. He looked up at Taeil questioningly.

“What’s going on?” Then, he realized the rest of the hunters, including you, were all standing around him. He got a smirk on his face, “What? Don’t you all having something better to do than stare at me like idiots?”

Your bottom lip trembled. Why is it that looking at him actually moving and breathing again made your eyes start to wet? You felt like crying. In fact, you could tell that soon you wouldn’t be able to hold the tears back. You clenched your fists, “Yeah, we’re the idiots who passed out in the middle of nowhere!” You yelled at him in a rage, “Try to think about the people who care about you for once before going who knows where and getting hurt!”

U-Kwon and Jaehyo looked at you, startled at your loss of temper. They had been sitting with you in the kitchen earlier and you seemed normal, not in the least bit angry about Zico disappearing.

P.O walked towards you and put his hand on your shoulder in an effort to calm you down. Kyung nodded in silent agreement. He respected Zico too much to yell at him and was pleased that someone was. Taeil breathed out, and looked at Zico’s reaction.

B-Bomb stayed silent. He was the only one who could tell you had been holding back your feelings. He wasn’t surprised at your blow up. In fact, he knew that being able to yell at Zico like this was for the best. It would make you feel better and maybe even get through to Zico.

Zico stared at you wide-eyed. He had no idea what to say to you. You were looking at him in a way that made him hurt. Not physically, no. For some reason though, his stomach constricted due to the way your bright eyes solemnly glared at him.

“Oh, you have nothing to say now?” You questioned him, your eyes shaking as you held back your tears. They would come any second now, “Why don’t you for once tell us what you’re planning? Why do you always have to carry out everything by yourself? Aren’t we friends who can count on each other? Or are we just convenient tools for you to use only when you feel it’s necessary?” You pointed your finger at him accusingly, “Screw you and your damn secrets!” You swatted your hand through the air, “I want nothing to do with it!”

Zico swung his feet off of the couch and managed to stand up. He took an unsteady step forward towards you.

You backed up and shook your head, “Stay the hell away from me!” He didn’t listen to you and instead made his way around the coffee table. Your feet kept still as he now stood in front of you. “You jerk.” You murmured, your voice cracking, as the tears you had been holding back ran down your cheeks.

Before the others could see your crying face, Zico pulled you to his chest with his good arm. His shirt got wet and soon he could feel the coldness of your tears on his collarbone. “Shh.” He urged you to stop crying, “I’m sorry.” He rubbed the back of your head, smoothing down your hair, “I’m sorry.” He repeated again, “Shh.” His comfort only made you cry harder. You found yourself wrapping your arms around him.

The other hunters couldn’t believe the sight going on in front of them now. You, the tough, stubborn girl was actually sobbing like a baby. Something they couldn’t believe more was that Zico was actually soothing you. He was apologizing as if he had just committed a grave sin.

“I’ll tell you okay?” Your sobs ceased as your mind started to process things once more. You looked up at Zico, wondering if you heard him wrong, “I’ll tell you everything.” He let his hand trace from the back of your head down across your cheek before he let it rest there. He cradled your face in his palm, “Okay?” He asked you.

You nodded slowly. You felt much better now. You weren’t sure if it was yelling at him or him hugging you that did it, but you no longer felt frustrated about Zico getting hurt. That’s when you had a sudden urge. “I need to do something first.” You told him. Your tear-stained cheeks were not helping you produce a stern enough face. Instead, Zico just found you adorable. He agreed without thinking twice, your personality to do the unexpected not crossing his mind in the least. You took a step back from him and planted one foot behind the other. You lifted your arm and clenched your fists. He only realized what you were doing once it was too late.

You fist went flying towards his face. The impact made him stumble backwards and fall over. He winced in pain. Half of which came from the punch and the other half from the fall. You inspected your fist.

“Now I feel better.” You put your hands on your hips and told him with a smile, “Now as you were saying.”

 Zico slowly walked forward, making sure not to cause further damage to his leg. It was a little after nine in the morning, a day after the full moon. “This is it.” He said as he looked down, down the same staircase descending below ground that you had found him in.

You walked forward along with the other hunters. U-Kwon was the first to ask what you all were thinking, “This is,” he paused for a moment before continuing, “what exactly?”  

“The secret I’ve been hiding from all of you.” He turned to face the rest of you now, “Happy now?” He raised an eyebrow at all of you.

“Well what’s the secret?” U-Kwon asked, not grasping the situation.

“It’s some kind of underground prison. That’s what it looked like anyway. Though, I’ve only been around twenty minutes in.” Zico explained.

“So you really don’t know what it is exactly.” Jaehyo pointed out. Zico gritted his teeth in annoyance though knew Jaehyo was right.

“What stopped you from going further?” B-Bomb asked as he took a step towards the stairs. He stared down intently, trying to make out anything down there. However, the shade casted by the light through the trees made visibility almost nonexistent.

Zico followed B-Bomb’s gaze, “An iron gate.” Your heart skipped a beat. You looked towards Zico, focusing on every single one of his next words. “When I grabbed the handle, I realized there was a large bronze lock on it. The thing is bulletproof. Trust me, I tried.” Zico walked over to the crumbling wall beside the stairs and used it to steady himself. He wasn’t used to standing around with his leg in a cast. “Then, while in a meeting with the mayor, he was twirling a key in his hands. That’s what I needed. I realized the lock must have a key somewhere. I also realized something else, the key in his hand then was the same off-color bronze as the lock on the door.”

“That’s why you got me to help you steal it?” Taeil asked. Zico nodded in response.

“In the beginning, I agreed to follow his orders in order to placate him. The reason,” Zico looked towards the other hunters. It seemed as though he had never even told them the reason why they went to the mayor’s parties or listened to the mayor’s orders.

They trusted Zico enough to believe he knew what he was doing. You grew jealous of the relationship they held with each other. It was so strong that even after spending a month with them, you felt light years behind.  

“The reason was because he told me he’d give me the necklace.” There it was again. That object everyone wants to get their hands on. “If he’s got it hidden, then he must have a way of getting to it. That’s when it all matched up. I figured finding out what’s down here,” He pointed to the abyss below, “was better than letting him play puppet master any longer. That’s why we stole the key. I figured maybe the necklace was down there. But, I wasn’t able to use it before that white wolf showed up.”

“But why go through all this trouble for a necklace? I don’t understand.” You questioned him. What made him do all of this? What made him keep secrets from his friends like this?

Zico went silent. He pondered if he shouldn’t tell you everything after all. The more he thought about it, the more he rejected the idea. He didn’t want to see you look at him the way you did earlier again. That hurt him more than the punch you gave him afterward. He upturned his eyes to you as he leaned back onto the wall he was using for support, “It’s more than a necklace. It can change those monsters into normal humans.”

The hunters became silent as they all stared at Zico. You glanced around at all of them. The information had gone over your head. “What?” You verbalized your confusion.

Zico leaned off of the wall, “It makes a werewolf become full human. Average strength, normal nights at home on full moons, and all.”

-------

A/N  swallowed into a black hole by AFF.