Clan.
He's Not A Monster
"There is a possibility that we could all die."
After three whole days of taking turns to persuade Jiyong, we finally got him to agree on following us into the woods to seek out his clan.
It took us a threat and an incentive to convince him.
The threat was to go on without Jiyong, only bringing along an article of clothing belonging to him.
We kept repeating how he would eventually regret letting us into the woods without his protection, if ever we were to get attacked by anything or anyone.
He kept saying it was impossible, until we told him what Seunghyun had researched.
His eyes had bulged out from the information, but he was still thick-headed.
Seunghyun was about to rise the white flag when I added the incentive.
Jiyong paused, thinking about the incentive.
He twisted my words and tried to catch any loopholes.
I resulted to giving him the best incentive anyone could ever get.
Satisfied, he agreed and made us promise to keep our word or else he would use our words against us.
The final decision was concluded and we were set to travel the forests in Seoul on the next Saturday.
The day came faster than I would have imagined, and I only realized it when I stared at the tall trees in front of us.
"You got a map, Hyung?" Jiyong turned to the tallest guy standing in between us.
He raised his smartphone and looked at the map on the screen.
"Mhm. I just hope my phone won't lose the connection halfway through."
I shivered slightly and tucked my hand into my parka jacket's pockets.
It was bad enough that we had to go through this torture in late autumn, but to add on to that, it had been raining a lot lately so the temperature was cold.
Seunghyun led us into the forest, all the while looking at his smartphone for directions.
From his knowledge, he was determined that Jiyong's clan should be somewhere near the river banks.
Since his crowd was unable to walk down the streets freely without getting attacked, the only other alternative they had was to live by the natural water source.
I did not need to look at my watch to know from that it was well past six, due to the darkening skies.
Jiyong had taken out two torchlights and handed one to me.
It was our only source of light, along with Seunghyun's phone.
We walked in silence the whole time, occasionally asking if we were on the right track.
Everyone was tensed, especially Jiyong.
Since his senses worked way better than ours, he would feel paranoid over the smallest sounds of bushes swaying or something moving.
Seunghyun paused for a moment.
"It says we're almost at the river bank. So start looking out for any form of inhabitants."
We nodded in understanding and began shining our lights left and right with every step we took.
Jiyong abruptly stopped and quickly hissed at us.
"Come here!"
Seunghyun and I jogged up to him.
He snatched phone away from Seunghyun, closed the window and typed something into the memo pad, lowering it slightly so we could see it from the top.
'Someone's caught my scent, they're tailing us. Stay close to me.'
Before I could fully register the message, Seunghyun had pulled me to stand between himself and Jiyong.
The younger male looked up ahead of us and called out to whoever was following us.
"You better reveal yourself before I force you out."
The thing that was hiding slowly moved in the bushes.
From my slightly covered view behind Jiyong, it looked like whatever 'it' was, had transformed into a full sized human.
I squeaked when I realized he was and was about to take a step out of the bush, fully exposing himself.
Seunghyun reacted quickly by reaching out to cover my eyes.
"So you caught me, Kwon." The unknown person said.
I could almost hear him smirk as he spoke.
"And you are?" Jiyong asked without a hint of fear.
The person must have tried to take a step forward.
"Stay where you are. All of you. I know there are at least four more of you guys surrounding us in the bushes."
'Oh. So there was a whole group of them tailing us. We're dead, for sure.' I thought to myself.
Seunghyun used his free hand to lightly squeeze my shoulder.
I guess he could feel how terrified I was.
"I just wanted to formally introduce myself." He chuckled.
"My name's Kim Jaejoong. From the Kim clan."
I felt Jiyong's right hand reaching behind to protect us.
"What do you want from me? What do you have against the Kwons?"
Jaejoong grunted, "I don't want anything from you, and we don't have anything against your clan, Kwon-sshi."
"Then what's your reason for tailing us?"
"The exact opposite. We're here to help bring you to safety, and to your clan."
Jiyong snorted, "And why should I believe your lies?"
"Because we're the only clan that's in the same position as your clan. And we're also the only ones who have the same objective as your clan, so we're in truce. It's up to you whether to believe my words or not."
The person replied as calmly as ever.
Something must have prompted Jiyong to believe him.
"Alright, but I have a request."
"What is it, Kwon-sshi?"
He took a step aside to show me to Jaejoong as Seunghyun still kept his hand covering my eyes from seeing a man.
"I have a female friend following us. Could you at least wear some clothes or change back to whatever you were?"
There was a light and hearty laughter from Jaejoong before I heard some shuffling sounds before Seunghyun finally let go of me.
In front of me was no longer a man, but a really well-built wolf.
It looked kind and calm, almost like how I had imagined the person's personality to be.
Jaejoong let out a little howl, and his friends came out from hiding, standing proudly beside him.
He strutted forward in his y wolf form.
When he reached my legs, he slowly rubbed the top of his head along my jeans.
I decided to be brave so I reached down to scratch his crown.
He purred in delight.
Seunghyun was watching in amusement before Jiyong cleared his throat.
"Jaejoong-sshi, we don't have all the time in the world. You can grind on her later. Let's get to my clan now."
My eyes widened at Jiyong's choice of words towards the action of Jaejoong wanting me to pet him.
Jaejoong growled at the man before moving forward with his gang, leaving us three to follow behind them.
Seunghyun stifled his laughter as he rested his arm on my shoulder.
---
I cannot remember how long it took for us to reach our destination, but by the time we had reached, it was pitch black.
We were standing beside a cave that looked like it had a wall made of stones to cover the entrance and the only passageway was through a really tiny hole, just big enough for us humans to squeeze through.
Once we entered the hole, I realized that despite the small passageway, the cave was enormous.
It could fit at least eight clans of wolves, but was only shared by two.
There were a couple of campfire that was already lit up before we came in.
The population was in their human form with clothings on, only a few wolves whom I assume to be the younger generations were playing and fighting in their wolf form.
The five wolves brought us to a corner where a man who looked like he was in his late forties greeted us.
We were soon left to the man while the wolves went to what looked like their tent houses to clean up and get dressed.
He gestured for us to sit down in front of him as he sat on a low wooden stool.
"Kwon-sshi, come forth."
Jiyong shuffled on his knees to be directly in front of the man.
"What's your name, young lad?" He asked.
"Kwon Jiyong."
"Yes yes, I remember. The son of Sehyun and Yoojin. You were passed on to your godfather for protection."
He took a glance at Seunghyun and me before he turned back to Jiyong.
"I see you came with friends. Where is your godfather?"
"I don't know where he's at, sir. We lived separately for about two years already. And these two are my closest friends. They're the only ones whom I trust, and they're the ones that convinced me to come and look for my clan. They're not one of us, so there's nothing to worry about." He said.
The elderly smiled, "I know, my boy. You can smell the difference between a human and a wolf. I recognized their difference the moment they entered the cave."
It was silent for a while before he looked behind us.
"Tell me, Jaejoong-ah. Where did you happen to come across them?"
Jaejoong walked and calmly sat down at the empty space on my right.
He smiled at me before he shrugged to the man, "My brothers and I were having our usual practice and we were on our way back when we smelt them. So we wanted to follow them to see what they were up to. At that point of time, we already knew there was a Kwon amongst them.."
He pointed to Jiyong.
"So when the shorty noticed our presence, we decided it would be best to bring him here."
"Yahh! Who you callin' short?" Jiyong retorted.
Jaejoong smirked before turning back to me, "So, what's your name?"
I pinked at his obvious flirtation, "(__-_____)-imnida."
"Which of these two idiots are you closer to?"
This time, both Seunghyun and Jiyong raged.
"Who you callin' idiot?!" They shouted at the same time.
The elderly chuckled and told them to quieten down.
"Thank you, Jaejoong-ah. Now, it's too late to send you back home so Jaejoong-ah, can you set up some place for them to sleep in?"
Jaejoong stood up and led us out the elder's tent.
We walked towards the tent he shared with his brothers as we made small talk.
"So (_____)-sshi. You haven't answered my question. Who are you closer to?"
I turned back to see Jiyong scowling deviously while Seunghyun could not be bothered to tolerate Jaejoong's flirting.
"I'm close to both of them just the same." I smiled up at Jaejoong.
"Then do you think you can open up some room in your heart for me to be closer to you too?"
I bit my lip to stop myself from smiling at the cheesy comment, "We'll see."
The big tent had different curtain separations for rooms.
Since there were five rooms, two of them became our guest rooms.
One for me and one for the boys to share.
Jaejoong had personally given up his room for me as he shared with his second brother Junsu, while his fourth brother Jonghyun went to share a room with Kibum, the youngest of the family.
I visited the boys' room first to check if they were okay.
Sticking my head in, I grinned.
"Knock knock!"
Seunghyun grinned back at me as he sat on his makeshift bed on the left side of the room floor.
Jiyong was already lying in his bed with his eyes closed.
I crept up to him and was about to scare him awake.
"I know what you're gonna do and it's not gonna work. I'm still awake. Anyways, don't crept up on people like that, you look funny." He spoke as he opened his eyes.
"Awwh man! You're no fun anymore." I slumped into his bed.
"Yahh! You're taking up too much space! Get off!" Jiyong poked my side, making me jump up.
I glared at him.
"Goodnight Seunghyun Oppa!" I grinned at the older male.
Right before I could walk out their room, Jiyong faked a cough.
I spinned on my heels.
He looked at me with an eyebrow raised, waiting for me to say goodnight.
"Goodnight, Kwon-shhi." I stuck my tongue out at him and dashed back into my room.
I looked up and met eyes with Jaejoong, who was fluffing up my pillow.
"Ready for bed?" He smiled.
I nodded slowly as I strolled towards him.
"Thank you for uhm.. Fluffing my pillow, Jaejoong-sshi." I said.
He shook his head, "A princess needs to sleep well even in tough circumstances. I'm sorry this is the best I can manage in such a short notice."
Blushing once again, I slightly bowed to him and settled on his bed after he replaced the pillow.
Jaejoong seemed amused at my actions.
"You know.. You're so different. I mean, the way you talk and fool around with your friends and the way you react to my words. It's so different."
I realized what he was talking about so I replied, "Ahh. Yes, it's different huh? Those two are the only male friends I've had since young, and they don't usually talk to me like how you do.. So I feel a little awkward towards you when you do that."
He chuckled, "I see. But what I said earlier is true."
I looked at him in confusion.
Jaejoong pulled the blanket up to my shoulders and tucked me in.
"The part about getting closer to you.. I meant every single word of that." He patted my hair and left the room.
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This chapter is my Lunar New Year present to all my subcribers and commentors~! (Though I don't actually celebrate Lunar New Year LOLOL)
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I made it really~~~~~~~ long for you guys.
Took me about three to four hours to write this in one go.
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-miia186<3
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