“Watch your step.” Sungyeol reminded you again as you trekked farther into the unknown. Your inner self smiled at his words. It felt good listening to his voice again after so long so his constant reminders to you to be careful were the farthest from annoying.

“Hyunjoo,” Sungjong called out to you. When you turned, he said nothing. Instead, he stared longingly at your face. You gave him a look that asked ‘what?’ and he smiled, “Just making sure you were real.”

Your chest gripped tightly at his words. Like the day you found out he was okay and jumped into his arms while he was brushing his teeth, you had the urge to hug him tightly. You held back the urge and grinned, “I never left you guys you know.”

As though he had held back as much as you had, Sungjong reached out and embraced you tightly against him. You were surprised by it but didn’t push him away. You wrapped your arms around his back and buried your face in his shoulder. He squeezed tighter, “You smell disgusting.” He laughed and you furrowed your eyebrows, about to make a witty retort when he continued, “Like hunter.” You lightly laughed beside his ear, making him tremble. He pushed you away suddenly and gripped onto your forearms, “Let’s keep moving.” He said with a shy smile.

Sungyeol watched the exchange and knew it would never happen between you and him. Sungjong and you had the kind of relationship in which skinship was natural. He couldn’t help but feel a tinge of jealousy though put it to the back of his mind. He felt someone staring at him and looked up, finding you looking back at him.

“Sungyeol, let’s go.” You waved your hand towards him and he walked nearer to you. “What’s with the scrunched up face?” You laughed and pointed to his eyebrows. The tension inside of him relaxed and he swatted your hand away playfully, making you face forward again. He didn’t mind that the relationship between him and you was like this at all.

Once out of the sight of the two werewolves, your smiled deflated into a deep frown. With every minute that passed, you were getting more and more worried about not only the werewolves but the hunters as well.

“Keep moving. You’ll be fine.”

“Hyung, I can’t go any longer. Please, just go on.”

“Like hell I’ll leave you here. Now stand up Pyo Jihoon!”

“Hyung, my full name? Really?”

“Damn right, now move.”

Zico lugged P.O’s arm onto his shoulder. P.O struggled to keep up as he dragged his right leg behind him. The two breathed heavily as they moved down the hallway. P.O caught his breath for a moment, “Do you think Jaehyo, Kyung, and Taeil go out okay?”

Zico let out a contained laugh, his weariness showing in his breathing, “You saw them. They got out before the door closed. They are probably running through the forest right now on the way back to the house.”

P.O’s half lidded eyes almost gave out on him but he continued on, “What if they come back inside to find us?”

Zico narrowed his eyes and steadied P.O onto his shoulder more, “We all agreed that if one of us got out, we would go home. We wouldn’t come back here.”

P.O nodded. That had been Zico’s order after they got away from the man in black earlier, “You think that Hyunjoo is with them?”

Zico turned a right corner that led down another hallway, “Of course she is. We made sure she would go back home the way we came in.”

A loud rumble followed by a roar in the distance made both men falter. They halted and looked around them. The roar was too far for them to worry but even so, their uneven breathing picked up and their hearts raced.

“We need to find a way out ourselves now.” Zico gulped down and reminded P.O.

P.O’s eyes became hazier, “Hyunjoo will be waiting for us.” P.O mumbled, not in his right mind due to the spreading pain, and continued to mumble incoherently as Zico dragged him down the hallway.

“Yes, she will.” Zico kept repeating back to him.

You caught your breath, feeling something familiar growing inside of you; that feeling of someone looking at you. You looked up and found nothing. The way in front of you was clear as well. Both Sungyeol and Sungjong watched you, not understanding why you stopped walking suddenly.

“Hyunjoo? What’s wrong?” Sungjong put a hand onto your shoulder. You whipped away from him and turned, looking behind you. Your heart dropped. For once, you wished you didn’t notice these kinds of things. Darn Zico for making you hypersensitive to your surroundings. Reason being? Well most of the time recently, you were right. Such as now. Behind you, down the corridor, was the same figure you had seen before you had been separated from the hunters.

You took a step forward, “I have to catch him.” You don’t know why those words came fumbling out of your mouth. Suddenly, your courageousness exploded inside of you. Next thing you knew, you were taking off into a sprint down the hall the way you came, the figure retreating from you. Sungyeol reached out to stop you, his fingers skimming over the fabric of your jacket. You continued on as though nothing had interfered with you.

He snarled before heading after you. Sungjong followed him, doing the same. You turned right down the corridor, following the figure.

“She’s fast hyung!” Sungjong yelled to Sungyeol as they turned the corner. Sungyeol had thought the same thing. You were much faster than you used to be. He remembered the way you fought side by side with the hunters. Had you learned something from them? Even so, it didn’t add up. You were faster than the hunters themselves. You must have had the potential in the first place.

“Faster than you?” Sungyeol muttered back to Sungjong. Sungjong threw him a glare, one that said ‘I’ll-show-you,’ before speeding off from Sungyeol’s side.

After following the figure for what seemed like a good ten minutes, it came to a stop on a walkway overlooking floors of the structure around you; quite similar to where you last were with the hunters. You had kept on the figure's tail and upon reaching him, you pulled the gun from your holster without hesitation. You aimed to his head and stepped deadly close to him. He was tall but the length of your arm allowed you to aim it accurately.

“Where are they?”

Sungjong reached you now. His eyes widened when he saw what you were doing. He called out to you, his voice hissing, “Hyunjoo!”

The figure turned to Sungjong and you growled, “Don’t pay attention to him, pay attention to me.” You said sternly. “Where are they?” The figure stepped closer to you, allowing you to see underneath his tattered hat slightly. His eyes instilled in you something you should have felt much earlier. Fear. Fear spread throughout your veins like a wildfire setting a forest aflame. You gulped down, washing away the flames of fear, and stood your ground.

Even when he was less than two feet away from you, you did not falter. You narrowed an eye at the figure, “I’m not going to run away from you this time. I won’t.” Though you were saying it to him, it was more of a secret mantra for yourself.

Sungyeol arrived now. He had the right mind to go up and knock you out to prevent you from being your stubborn self. The figure took another step and he did just that. Instead of knocking you out however, he came up from behind and yanked you back, both of his arms secured around your waist. You struggled in his grip, your eyes not leaving the figure.

The figure stepped closer, his hand reaching up towards your face. Sungyeol yanked you back farther and tighter against him. He glared at the figure, tempting him to try anything. Sungjong stepped in front of Sungyeol and glared, fighting against his instincts to transform. If he did, there would be no clothes to replace the ones he now wore. If it came down to it however, he could care less if he went .

“Shinae.”

A deep voice mumbled. You stopped struggling in Sungyeol’s grip and blinked blankly at the figure. The voice came from him. Something about it sounded sad, unbelievably sad. Your heart wrenched from the sound.

The figure turned, deftly jumping down from the walkway and disappearing into the abyss below. You snapped out of your daze and pulled away from Sungyeol. You went to the railing and looked below you. You saw nothing but darkness. You banged your hand onto the railing in frustration.

Sungjong’s sense was also brought back to life now. He burst out at you, “What’s wrong with you? How could you run off like that? What if you got hurt?”

You looked at him, wide eyed. Why had you run off like that? The answer was simple. Still, saying it out loud made it feel as though you were admitting you had done the one thing you promised you wouldn’t.

Sungyeol read your facial expression and approached you now, “Was it because you were worried about them? The hunters?”

You looked at him, fear stricken due to him discovering. You calmed it down quickly however, “I just feel bad okay? Pity you know?” You lied through your teeth. You looked to Sungjong, “I’m sorry.”

Sungyeol let out a breath, his conscious wanting to believe you more than anything. Sungjong grasped onto your hand, “Don’t do it again.”

You nodded, your voice stuck in your throat. 

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A/N:

Another day, another chapter.

Still at the edge of your seats?