Myungsoo watched your frame as you quickly packed your backpack. For the past week, you had been trying to approach him before he left after school. Now, you weren’t throwing glances back at him in an attempt to get his attention. He was waiting for you to turn around but you didn’t, not once, as you finished packing your bag and left the classroom. He had been avoiding you for the past week whenever you tried to approach him in an attempt to not have a careless slip of the lips, something he was used to whenever the two of you ended up talking. Last time, when you thanked him for listening to your ramblings, he had no words escape his throat.

In one plain word, it was awkward. He wasn't sure what to say. That it didn't bother him? That was the truth but it was a truth he couldn't bring himself to say. Why? That answer would only cause the relationship between the two of you to become even more complicated. You would rely on him more. You would seek him out more. That's why he avoided you whenever you had a look on your face that begged him for help. A look he was determined not to fall over. 

Myungsoo shrugged it off and grabbed his bag as he stood from his chair. “Oppa.” He cringed, his eyebrows pinched together in revulsion. He knew who it was instantly. “Oppa, do you want to study together at my house today? We haven’t hung out together recently.”

There was a reason for that but Myungsoo kept his mouth shut. He had hit his point of patience when it came to Minah long ago. He had only hoped she would be too busy with her other things to realize they indeed had not spent time together for a long time.

“You see, the thing is, my father wanted to speak with you for awhile now.” Myungsoo’s ears perked up and he spun around. Minah’s lips curved up into a smile. He was looking at her, something he hadn’t done in so long. “So can you come?” She asked, her voice over loaded with cute.

Myungsoo’s nose twitched and he fought off the urge to walk away from her. He put on the smile he knew she always loved to see. “Okay.” If the mayor wanted to see him, there was no way he was going to turn down that chance to finally be rid of the job given to him by Sunggyu.

 A small knock vibrated on the door. B-Bomb looked up from the couch and lowered the magazine he had been flipping through. It was one he found in Myungsoo’s bookshelf, stuck between a dictionary and a math textbook. The magazine contained works, paintings, and various drawings from a certain artist whose name Myungsoo had scribbled out every time it was written. There was even one drawing he particularly liked. One of a young child’s, maybe four or five years old, face. The title was ‘The Façade of the Monster.’

He wasn’t planning on questioning Myungsoo about it and was going to pretend he never saw the thing. Thus, another knock on the door startled him. He shuffled out of the couch and ran over, almost stumbling and falling over, to the bookshelf. He forced it back into the place he found it, making sure not to bend any of the pages. As he stepped away from it, the door opened.

“Sorry,” The voice did not belong to Myungsoo, “Did I wake you up?” Dongwoo grinned as he peaked in from behind the door. B-Bomb breathed out, thankful he didn’t have to share an awkward moment with Myungsoo.

“No, you’re good.” B-Bomb replied as he sat down at the couch, pretending he didn’t just almost have a heart attack.

“Are you feeling any different?” Sunggyu stepped out from behind Dongwoo, forcing the door fully open.

“Different is one way to put it.” B-Bomb laughed at the expense of himself.

“I didn’t want to push you for questions when you so willingly gave up your own pack for ours. But now that things have calmed down a little, I need to ask something.”

B-Bomb straightened up in his seat. He could see the serious expression on both Dongwoo’s and Sunggyu’s faces. “What is it?”

Sunggyu sat down on the arm of the sofa, “What were you doing down there? In that underground place?” Sunggyu had heard from Sungyeol and Sungjong what you had told them, but he still wanted to confirm the story was true by hearing the hunter side of it all.

B-Bomb knew this was going to come up sooner or later. Yet, all of his preparation to be ready for such question was for not. He was internally conflicted. To tell or not to tell? He knew the origins of the necklace. All of the hunters did. It used to belong to the used-to-be leaders of the werewolves. Seeing as how Sunggyu was in charge now, the past leader and he must have shared the same blood. He must know more about the necklace.

B-Bomb chose to tell the truth. Sunggyu had done a lot for him, much more than he ever expected from the werewolf leader. “We were looking for the necklace.”

“The necklace? My grandfather’s necklace?”

There it was, the confirmation to B-Bomb’s suspicions.

He locked eyes with B-Bomb, his gaze intense, “And you are sure it is down there? The necklace?”

“Zico seemed sure of that.” B-Bomb answered, not quite sure where Sunggyu’s intense aura was stemming from at the moment.

There was silence in the room now as Sunggyu thought of what he would do now. The existence of the necklace down there was good news. He felt relieved because now that he knew the necklace was there, there was no longer any reason to follow the mayor’s words and pompous orders. His pack could finally be free of having to constantly be anxious of being exposed. The mayor having possession of his grandfather’s necklace was the main reason he followed the mayor’s words. If the necklace was instead in his possession, as it should have been when his grandfather died, he could care less if the mayor exposed them. Who would believe such nonsense anyway? Werewolves? No sane person would believe him and he would no longer have any leverage in order to bend the pack to his will.

Dongwoo broke the thoughts shooting off in Sunggyu’s head with an awkward cough. Both B-Bomb and Sunggyu turned to him and he cleared his throat before speaking, “Not sure if you’re interested, but there’s a marathon of horror movies that’s about to start.”

B-Bomb stood up from the sofa, “Sounds good to me.”

“Hoya, Sungyeol, and Sungjong are waiting. Let’s go.” Dongwoo motioned him to the door. B-Bomb liked Dongwoo’s personality. In fact, he liked all of the personalities of the werewolves. They were laid back and they had reason to be. They could control themselves to the point of living normal lives.

Dongwoo swung a friendly arm around B-Bomb’s shoulder and the two exited the room. Sunggyu stayed routed in his spot, staring at B-Bomb before he disappeared out of the door, “There’s something he’s not telling me.” He would let it go for now. B-Bomb had enough to deal with and putting stress on him right now was not a wise thing to do.

You rushed through the house, quickly throwing on the first pair of jeans and shirt you could find before descending the stairs. You flipped your hair back, out of your face, as you slipped your shoes on. You were on your way to the werewolves’ house. The blueprint you had seen in your dream was definitely the same one you had seen in the mayor’s office. You had to tell Sunggyu now. Those blueprints could be what finally leads you to where the necklace was. Now that you thought about it, you had never told him the necklace was down there. Then again, he never asked. Either way, getting this information to him was of the utmost importance.

Since your house was on the way to the werewolves’ home, you decided to stop there and drop off your backpack off and take a quick shower. You had a feeling that telling Sunggyu such news would not cause a simple result to occur. Most likely, today was going to be the farthest from peaceful.

You finished putting on your shoes and grabbed your keys from the counter, leaving a quick note to your mom about where you went. Though you left out most details and simply wrote ‘Went out with some friends. I’ll be home soon.’

You reached out for the doorknob and turned it when your phone began to ring. You pulled it from your back pocket and checked the caller ID. It was Woohyun.

Before you could speak, you heard a muffled moan followed by a loud grunt. Static rang into your ear and your face reflexively scrunched up. The sound of wood scratching onto wood made you wonder if maybe Woohyun had dialed you on accident and was now in the process of moving about, or rather it sounded like he was stumbling over everything in sight. You opened your mouth to speak when a cavernous voice on the other side of the line spoke first.  

“You should be feeling quite weak now.”

The voice you heard was muffled, slightly away from the phone.

“Like your body is on fire. Yearning to just be burnt off and toasted into a crisp. That’s Wolfsbane for you. The regular ol’ herb always does do the trick.”

You heard a groan of pain and your heart palpitated in your chest. No words came from your mouth, your better judgment telling you to shut up right about now.

“Ah ah ah,” The unknown voice scolded, “Don’t try to transform on me now. That’ll only speed up the flow of Wolfsbane through your veins. You’ll be wishing you were dead without me having to lift a finger.”

Rough breathing fluttered through the phone and you felt as though you were there, in the room with these two strangers, both of which you had a feeling were not Woohyun. A laugh echoed throughout the space the two seemingly occupied.

“Now, I understand I am not taken as seriously as I would like to be. Your friends ventured somewhere they were not supposed to go and were even aided in escaping by those who I rather not bring up at the moment.” You heard steps towards the phone, “So I thought to myself about how I can show both your friends and those people who and who not to try to trick.”

The once rough breathing became soft, each one taken with great difficulty.

“Dammit.” One strained drawl invaded your eardrums. Your fingers trembled, the car keys in your hand falling onto the floor, out of your grasp.

“Oh, no, are you going to pass out on me? I’m afraid you won’t be able to hear what my plans for you are.”

You heard more footsteps towards the phone, each step louder than the last. The person walking was getting closer.

“What’s this, you called someone? Oh no, what should we do about that person now?”

Then, the call dropped, the dial tone ringing in your ear as your heart felt as though it dropped to the floor, sank through the floorboards, tunneled through the earth, and burnt at the core.

Myungsoo.

It was Myungsoo’s voice you had heard.

And the person talking to him was Bang Manshik, the Mayor. 

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A/N:

I changed the weekly updates to Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Back to Back sounds good to me. (Chapter 88 A/N has been updated)

Now, two of my lovely commenters said they were frustrated over how Myungsoo avoids Hyunjoo and did not understand it. That question is addressed in the first scene of this chapter. All cleared up? :) (He avoids her so she doesn't rely on him.)

Ask questions and I shall give answers. Unless it has something to do with the plot because you guys know I love to tease.

Also, you guys know I love comments right? So you do know what you should do below right? To the comment section you go!