You sighed as you walked up the steps to the double doors of the school. You hadn’t gotten much sleep last night. You kept thinking about Myungsoo. You hadn’t done that at all in the past no matter how much he seemed to attract you with his presence. The sad part was that you could only remember ever seeing one expression on his face. His neutral expression. So what was there to miss about seeing it? You couldn’t find the answer to that question within you.

You mindlessly opened the doors of the school and stepped inside, ignoring the looks you got due to your expression. You continued to walk through the school in a daze, your eyes downcast as you ascended the stairs.

“Hyunjoo.”

Someone called from above you. You looked up from your feet, stopping in your tracks on the stairs. Woohyun was standing a few steps above you where the stairs turned. He opened his mouth to say more when he saw the look on your face.

He grimaced, his heart feeling as cold as stone. “Is it Myungsoo?”

Your eyes widened slightly in shock at how easily he guessed what was on your mind all of the past two days. Then again, you were the walking billboard of emotions so you were probably being obvious about it.

“Sorry.” You muttered as you continued on your way up the stairs. You passed by him, your jacket sleeve lightly brushing against his own. He tilted his head towards your direction, his fingers twitching as he yearned to reach out and stop you from simply passing him like this.

He couldn’t do it. He didn’t have the confidence to stop you. He swallowed down before speaking up to you, “Can’t you at least smile for me? I don’t want to see you like this. Not when I waited so long to see you again.”

You turned, your foot falling from its place in mid-air as you stopped ascending the stairs to the third floor. You willed your lips to curve upwards, a pathetic attempt at a smile, before they fell again and your shoulders descended downward, “It’s hard to smile when I know he’s in a place where I can’t reach him.” You lifted your arm up and waved before continuing up to the third floor.

Without warning, you felt your feet being lifted up off of the ground. Your eyes snapped open, your nerves alert all at once. A small yelp came out of your mouth on reflex as you felt yourself being spun in circles. You latched on to what was holding you up; a pair of arms. A pair of arms that came paired up with a laugh you had heard enough to know whom it belonged to.

“Woohyun!” You yelled at the top of your lungs as he continued to twirl you around, your back pressed tightly against him. You screamed as he spun you faster now. After what felt like a ride on the teacups at a theme park, he placed your tenderly onto the floor. It took you a moment for your head to stop spinning, but when it did, you whirled around, glaring at him. You slapped his arm as hard as you could, knowing he could take it, “What the heck are you doing?” You questioned him, flabbergasted with his actions.

“You’re smiling.” Woohyun points out and you became shocked. He was right. The corner of your lips had been tugged upwards in what was none other than a smile. “Should I do it again?” He asked, a demure smile gracing his features.

“What’s this? Having fun without me?” Dongwoo bounded up the stairs from the bottom steps, skipping up with ease. He had witnessed Woohyun’s action and was more than intrigued with what was going on after he saw Woohyun spinning you around.

Woohyun nudged Dongwoo forward, “It’s amazing! She’s really easy to lift. You should try it.”

Dongwoo looked you up and down, “She is?”

You couldn’t help but think that was a silly thing to ask. Of course you would be since they’re all werewolf muscle. You took a step back, not liking Dongwoo’s expression now. He lifted his hands from his side and you turned, sprinting up the stairs without a second thought.

“I see you at lunch you know!” Dongwoo yelled from below and you could hear the two laughing as they high-fived each other.

You laughed as well as you quickly took shelter in your classroom, people giving you the eye though you not caring in the least. “Woohyun.” You mumbled as you shook your head in disapproval, the smile he made you show him still lingering on your features. “He’ll be fine.” You said to yourself.

Myungsoo would be fine. He would be fine because he had friends who were anxiously waiting to do everything they could for him. Because he had friends who knew how strong he was and that he was undoubtedly still alive. Because he had friends who once Zico came back with news, would jump into action to save him.

They weren’t worried because they knew they could save him. You decided to trust in that confidence and continue smiling despite what awaited you.

The lunch bell rang and the teacher left the room. He gave a grudging glance at you and you scowled as soon as he frowned his back. You weren’t a troublemaker. What was with the hate?

You shrugged it off and dismally laid your head onto your desk, your math test which had a big red “97” written on it underneath your forehead; all of which was thanks to Taeil.

“Hyunjoo!” Someone hissed your name loudly from the doorway. You looked up, your paper sticking to your forehead. You pulled it off and slipped it into your math notebook before once more looking towards the person who called you.

Sungjong was motioning you to come towards him from the doorway of the classroom, “Don’t fall asleep! It’s lunch time!” Still, he seemed as though he couldn’t enter the classroom belonging to the upper classmen for some reason.

You put both of your palms onto your desk and pushed yourself upwards, stretching your legs out as you do the action. You really did almost fall asleep again.

You freeze as you think about your inner thoughts again.

“I almost fell asleep.” You said out loud in a hushed tone.

The last time you fell asleep you had a dream

A dream about the Containment Zone.

A dream about blueprints.

And a name.

Shinae.

You now remembered what you were going to do after you had such a dream. You were going to the mayor’s house before you had gotten the phone call from Myungsoo.

You turn to Sungjong, eyes wide and he tilts his head, not understanding the look you were giving him. You grabbed your notebook and you bag before approaching him, “Sungjong, where would I find the town’s registry at?” You couldn’t go to the mayor’s house for the time being. Instead, you would look for what you saw in your dream in a different place.

He didn’t understand your question. Of course he wouldn’t. He answered despite his confusion. “The town’s library should have them. Why?”

The town’s library.

It looked like your afterschool plans had now been made.

Sungyeol peered over the heads of his fellow students as they all exited the building eagerly. A tight frown was on his face, his finger which were wrapped around the handles of his bike tightened, “Where is she?” He questioned out loud.

All kinds of thoughts raced through his head. What if you got kidnapped again? What if you ran off to the hunters again? What if you were hurt again? Or worse?

As he started to almost break out into a cold sweat, a hand came up behind him and grasped onto his shoulder, “Looking for something rather intently aren’t you?” Hoya joked as he also looked past Sungyeol towards the group of girls exiting the building.

“Have you seen Hyunjoo?” Sungyeol asked without looking in Hoya’s direction. He continued searching the crowd of girls as they passed, all of whom were chuckling and chirping to themselves about how he was staring at them. 

“Hyunjoo? Yeah. What about her?” Hoya answered, causing Sungyeol to spin around, finally looking at him. Sungyeol stared at him with wide-eyes, telling him to hurry up and elaborate on his statement.

Hoya soon discovered why Sungyeol had been looking so intently towards the school though felt he should have realized it sooner, “Ah, you’re looking for her? She left earlier with Woohyun.” Hoya thought about his words again, “Well I’d say she left and Woohyun followed her. She looked like she was leaving with a purpose. I figure Woohyun will tell us what happened later.”

Hoya had contemplated following the duo as you two left but decided against it. Now that he thought about it though, he had no idea what he was thinking as he watched you leave. He inwardly asked himself why he didn’t follow you two when Sungyeol spoke up, drowning out his thoughts.

“Nothing I can do now.” Sungyeol let out a breath, frustrated that once more he wasn’t there when something happened. “I guess we’ll have to wait till he gets home.” Sungyeol said out loud despite not wanting to have to wait. He shook his head and got on his bike, “Woohyun always seems to be around when its most important. Lucky.” He mumbled as he kicked the brake stand from under the bike.

“What’d you say?” Hoya had once more spaced out for a moment, his consciousness scolding him for not going after you as Woohyun had.

“Want a ride home? It’s a good idea to look normal to humans every once in awhile.” Sungyeol fibbed as he patted the back of his bike.

Hoya contemplated for a moment before giving in. He decided to skip his work out today and go ahead and go home. Who knows when Woohyun would get home after all. When he did, he had a lot of explaining to do.

You pulled out the seat at the computer desk in front of you. Your fingers skimmed over the mouse, causing the computer to wake from its sleep. You slipped your bag off of your back and sat down, scooting the chair in as you clicked on the convenient book shaped icon on the desktop. It was completely quiet in the building besides the every so often flip of pages of a book. The building you were currently in was the Springfield Library. The main reason for the calm around you. However, there was one entity that disturbed the serenity of the library now standing over your shoulder. Mainly because girls were beginning to gather around to gawk.

“It’s updated often here. Though not a lot of people from out of town decide to come live here.” Woohyun mentioned as the application loaded on the computer, oblivious to the attention he was getting which caused you to decide to ignore it.

He was talking about the town’s registry. That was the reason you were here now. When you asked the librarian where you would find it at, Woohyun ended up answering your question from beside you. Despite his usefulness at that point, you still had no idea why you let him tag along in the first place. Since you had been with the hunters, you were used to finding out things by yourself. It felt odd having someone by your side again as you looked for the truth.

The truth about what?

The truth about the person named Shinae.

Woohyun grabbed the chair from the computer beside the one you were on and pulled it beside you, taking a seat down next to you, “You can search for someone there.” He pointed at the screen and you eyed him, knowing full well he was joking around with you. It would be odd if you didn’t know what a search bar looked like. He smiled smugly, trying to keep it down as much as he could though failing due to the funny look on your face.

You shook your head, a smile tugging on your lips, “So what will it tell me about the person?” You had never had experience looking at a registry before. The city you lived in before was quite large and you had no real reason to go looking for someone either.

Woohyun pondered if he should tell you for a moment, “Instead of telling you,” he scooted your chair a bit to the left, “I’ll show you.” He flashed a smile in your direction and began to type into the search bar.

“Song Hyunjoo.” You read out loud what he typed before he pressed enter.

The screen took a moment to load but when it did, you saw your name on it as the only match.

“Your name is unique after all. Though definitely as pretty as the person it belongs to.” Woohyun commented with a sly smile as he clicked on it. You pushed his shoulder, causing him to have to stifle a laugh as the librarian leaned over in her desk from nearby to see what the two of you were doing. No matter the situation, there was no getting rid of the cheesy Woohyun. Even if you could, you rather not. You let a smile cross your face, a smile which did not escape Woohyun’s sight.

A new screen popped up, drawing your attention away from Woohyun, and your name appeared on the screen. Accompanying it was the date you arrived in the town and your family member, your mother, at the bottom as a link under ‘related’. Other than that, no more information was listed. “That’s it?” You asked in disbelief.

“That’s it.” Woohyun sat back in his chair as he pulled your own closer, positioning it back in front of the computer. “So what did you want to look up?”

You eyed him, a frown on your face before an idea popped into your head. You typed into the search bar and pressed enter quickly.

“Me? You’re searching for me?” Woohyun sat up straight in his chair and scooted to the edge of his seat. You had indeed typed in ‘Nam Woohyun’ out of curiosity. Plus, you wanted to see his reaction and boy did you get a shocked one.

The person who was more shocked in this situation however was you as you stared at the results page now on the screen. “No matches?” You asked, your voice a whisper. You turned to Woohyun, waiting for him to explain.

“Our kind isn’t recorded here.” He said in answer to your silent question. By our kind, he must have meant werewolves. If that was true however, then neither Sunggyu, Dongwoo, Hoya, Sungyeol, Myungsoo, nor Sungjong would be here. But that also meant something else.

You clicked on the search bar again, attempting to affirm your thoughts.

“Woo Jiho?” Woohyun read the name uncertainly.

You had only heard it on one occasion, the full names of the hunters never being revealed to you besides this one; Zico’s. You pressed enter and as you thought, the same message appeared.

“No matches.” This time, you weren’t questioning it. None of the werewolves were listed in the town’s registry. “Then neither you all nor the hunters are here?” You asked Woohyun.

Woohyun nodded slowly. He figured ‘Woo Jiho’ was the name of one of the hunters, a reason he hadn’t heard of it before. Woohyun’s jaw suddenly opened slightly as he remembered something, “We have our names recorded by hand in an actual book though. A dusty old thing in Sunggyu’s grandfather’s office. Can’t say we’ve even gone in there in years though.”

You made a small noise, signifying you understood his words. You decided to get back to the main reason you had come here. To look for one person who was neither you, Woohyun, nor Zico. You typed the name ‘Shinae’ into the search bar and pressed enter.

“Who is Shinae?” Woohyun was getting more and more confused by the second. However, he knew you would tell him sooner or later what was going on. You wouldn’t have let him stay if you didn’t want him to see you looking for this person. He hoped though he would learn who it was sooner rather than later.

The error message ‘No matches’ flashed across the screen, startling you. In the side bar however, there was one match under obituary. You clicked on the link and were redirected to the town’s obituary, another feature of the town’s online registry. An old picture of the front page of the Springfield newspaper pulled up, the date on the picture showed it was written twenty-three years ago.

“Kim Shinae.” Woohyun read out loud, “The native woman, twenty-years of age, drowns in town’s local river. Body found one hour after her death.” He continued to read the article though you had now become consumed with your own thoughts.

Kim Shinae was a native woman. Meaning she was born in Springfield. If she was born in Springfield however, her birth date should be recorded in the town’s registry. Yet when you searched for her name, there were no matches? Why?

You voiced out your thoughts to Woohyun beside you. He stopped reading and turned to you, “Maybe they forgot. The registry was transferred online only around three years ago so maybe while they transferred the names they accidently skipped her.”

You shook your head, it didn’t make sense, “But they didn’t skip her in the obituary section?”

Woohyun blinked a few times, “Humans make mistakes.” He simply said. It didn’t seem so simple though. Surely someone would have checked over it to make sure everything was there.

“Would they have the physical book here?” You ask and he nodded, getting up from his seat. He shrugged his backpack off of his back and laid it in the chair he was previously sitting in.

“I’ll go get it for you.” He told you before disappearing behind a bookcase.

You decided to think over things again, running over the things you know. She’s in the obituary but not in the registry despite being born in Springfield. Why wouldn’t she be? Unless…

You remembered Woohyun’s words from earlier and your heart started racing. “It couldn’t be, right?” You muttered, your eyes glued to the article that reported her death.

Something brown blocked your view momentarily, causing you to look up. Woohyun sat down in his chair and placed the book down in front of you. You quickly start to flip through the book that you found was in alphabetical order.

You reached the ‘Kim’ section and drifted your finger down each name. Looking as though you life depended on it. Once you checked it once, you checked it again. Then again. Woohyun stared at you, concerned with the expression on your face. You looked lost, half shock and half confusion covered your face.

No matter how many times you checked, there was no changing the answer you found. She wasn’t here. You couldn’t find her no matter how many times you double and triple checked. She simply, as easily as Woohyun had spoke earlier, wasn’t here.

“She’s not here but she was definitely born here and her name is in the obituary.” You shifted your body towards Woohyun, your eyebrows furrowed together, “What are the chances her name is in the that dusty old book you mentioned earlier?”

-------

A/N:

Trust me, Hoya will have his time. I cross my heart and promise you it will happen! Most of the time, I give other characters more screen time because they will be playing mainly supportive roles afterward for an unspecified period of time. (Sorry all of you Woohyun lovers. Enjoy it while it lasts~) Anyone else curious about this Shinae woman? Is she a werewolf? Looks like you're going to have to wait to find out~ 

Also, I want to thank everyone who comments on this story. Comments mean alot to me because they let me know what you all think about the story. They get me all giddy inside too which is a definite plus!

Time to say goodbye for the week. It'll fly by, it really will! See you all next week! I'll miss you guys!