“I’ll protect you from anything that scares you or tries to harm you. I won’t take anyone doing something like that towards you. You’re special, Jae-ssi. I’ll help you figure it out, if you want… I told you I’ll protect you. Nothing’s going to change that, not now or ever. No one else matters, not as much as you. They never will… But just know that as much as I love you and want to help you and protect you… I can’t protect you from everything. If I could…If only I could…” – Jonghyun

[Jonghyun’s POV]

I figured that she’d never know, because no one would tell her. At least, not me. The answers were always right there in front of her, hiding under her nose, but always just out of sight. I wanted to help her, badly. But, then, there’s only so much you can do when you love someone, especially when you’re part of the reason behind what’s troubling them. You could know everything and not say a word, all because you’re frightened of the possible outcomes that could result from the chain reaction the truth brings.

“I shouldn’t have trusted you with such a simple job.” He was mad at me, again.

“If it’s so simple, why don’t you do it yourself,” I scoffed, forgetting the fact that it would make him even more upset.

He made that noise that he knew I hated. It sounded a lot like a deadly hiss, “Just do what I ask you to do!”

Silence.

His eyes sparked blue and I stepped back, bowing my head. Long, thin fingers left cold trails along the side of my face, “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t yell.”

We both knew it didn’t matter whether or not he “shouldn’t” do it; it was only about him not wrecking my loyalty to him. I guess it could be said that my admiration for him went too far or lasted longer than necessary since I had gotten myself tangled up in his web of workings. On the other hand, everyone wants to be on the winning side in the end, right?

One good thing about him was that he never did say “Well, I did this for you” or “You should be grateful.” Never anything like that, although it would’ve been very true.

“Don’t lose sight of your goal, Jonghyun,” his voice rang softly through my ears, “All you have to do is complete your assignment.”

“Yes, that’s all I have to do,” I repeated, my mind anywhere but in the dark, dungeon-like room with him, “I will follow your orders.”

“Promise me, Jonghyunnie~ Promise me that you’ll complete your job~”

It took a moment, but before I knew it, the two words slipped from my mouth: “I promise.”

[Jae’s POV]

“Yah! Taemin, what’re you wearing,” Minho yelled at the pup as he walked out of the back bedroom.

Taemin’s angelic features turned down into a frown, “Noona said I could get whatever I wanted to wear until I got my own clothes.” The spice-red redhead made his way over to where I was sitting, in the lone armchair across from Minho.

“Why would you tell him something like that,” Minho questioned, looking a bit in awe at what Taemin was wearing.

Taemin has managed to find something to wear that was very similar to what we’d brought him back in, minus the blood, of course. He wore a pair of my dark, torn jeans and one of Minho’s white tees – the borrowed top being considerable baggy on his small frame.

He sat down on the arm of my chair, leaning on me. “He’s fine,” I finally replied, smiling up at Taemin. I caught sight of Minho squirming uncomfortably in his seat, but kept my attention on the boy at my side, “Do you want something to eat?”

Taemin hopped up and ran into the kitchen. Minho’s voice caught me as I stood up, “We can’t support him, too, you know?”

“Do you always have to tell me no?” I replied, standing there for a moment, but dismissing myself to the kitchen before he could answer.

“Noona, I want meat,” Taemin whined, having found a seat on the counter.

I looked through the fridge, “What kind of meat?”

“Steak,” he cheered, “Can I have steak?”

“We’d have to go shopping, but I guess we can get you some clothes while we’re out~”

That was all it took. Taemin had gotten his boots on and was waiting for me at the door in the blink of an eye. I could only smile as I walked to the door and got my shoes on as well. I made sure to grab my wallet from my coat pocket in the closet.

“We’ll be back,” I was gone again before Minho could respond.

~~~~~~~~~~

“Why does Minho-hyung hate me,” Taemin questioned as we walked along the sidewalk, a row of stores lined together at our right.

“He doesn’t hate you. Besides, it’s only been a few hours since we’ve met you. He can’t hate you.”

“But every time he looks at me, he looks like he wants to kill me… or eat me…”

I couldn’t help but to laugh, “Taemin, he’s not going to eat you.”

He smiled weakly, “Does that mean he’ll kill me then?”

“He has no reason to, okay? And I’ll protect you, so don’t worry about him.”

I got a full, genuine smile out of him that time.

The first store we stopped in was dark, excluding the neon colors that reflected from the wall. Various words and shapes filled the spaces of the black walls where bright orange, green, yellow, and pink paints had missed. The clothes that hung on the racks held straps, buckles, chains, or tears, few with none or all of the above.

“Yah~ Minnie, where’d you go,” I called out, realizing I was still at the entrance of the shop and he was no longer by my side. He startled me, popping his head out from behind a distant shelf and then coming and dragging me to where he’d been. I stood by, watching him sift through the clothing and pick up whatever caught his eye. Once he’d stated he was done, he led the way to the register. I picked up a piece of clothing I’d noticed he dropped.

“Taeminnie-ah! Were you planning on wearing this skirt?”

He smiled and shook his head, adding the skirt to the pile the cashier was ringing up, “I picked out things for you, too.”

“I should’ve been paying more attention~”

~~~~~~~~~~

Taemin kept close to me, still, as we continued walking. He felt no need to go into any other stores, satisfied enough with what he’d already gotten, so our final stop was the food market. His nose automatically took us to where the meats were being sold. As I talked with the butcher about the meat I was going to purchase, I felt Taemin tugging at my shirt. “Aigoo~ Wait, a minute, okay,” I simply stated, still talking with the butcher. Once I’d finally finished with the order of meat, I finally turned my attention to the boy at my side, “What’s the matter?”

“Someone was watching us,” he stated with a frown, looking down at me and then back to where his dark brown eyes had been focused before, “But they’re gone now…”

“I’m sure they weren’t watching us,” I gave him a smile and turned my attention back to the butcher.

After the meat had been paid for, we made our way back to the apartment. Soon, Taemin was tugging at my shirt again. “Omo~ What’s g-“

He nodded towards a shadowy figure standing a good amount of feet behind us. “Is that who you saw earlier,” I whispered. He nodded, his eyes taking on a venomous glint.

Before he or I could even think to react, the figure was behind me, hand over my mouth and pulling me away from a nowvery angry werewolf pup. Besides Taemin, the last I remembered seeing was an electric blue smoke before I out.