The door opened, cool air rushing into the room. "Wow, look who actually showed up for dinner."

Suho looked up from the work desk at the voice, holding in a smile at the sight of his father at the doorway. The older man kept one arm braced on the frame, indirectly making the stretch of yellow and rouge plaid around his neck more visible.

Suho raised a brow. "I really hope you’re talking about you,"

"Of course, I'm more surprised than you that I made it." Mr. Kim said with a chuckle. He crossed the threshold of the room to give his son's shoulder a squeeze. “You look so much like me in that chair it's scary."

"Some differences will hold."

“I don’t mind if you take a few things.” Mr. Kim touched the knot at his neck, adjusting it with a grin. "These ties could grow on you, I have plenty to hand down."

"I'm fine with what I have, really." Suho spoke with a smile, looking down at his papers. Most of them were application documents; it was his final year at the high school, and he'd already planned on the extended studies program as his post secondary choice, or not really choice; in being linked to the high school, it was also under the jurisdiction of creature counsels. It did have its perks in normal society, namely the high academic standard. It was easy to point his direction there. "What do you feel like having for dinner?" He asked his father.

"Anything's fine," Mr. Kim breezed, unlatching his briefcase on the corner of the desk. Suho made some space for him, but the man was content enough to shuffle his work between his hands. "You've started studying for the entrance exams then?"

"Yes, it's going good."

Mr. Kim nodded appraisingly into some papers. Suho tapped his pen against a free square of wood, glancing up at his father. They both had a knack for getting into work, so it didn’t surprise Suho that it took a solid minute before the man looked down, mildly surprised at his son's intent stare.

"What is it?" Mr. Kim asked. It was the first time in a while they were alone together, technically the perfect time to talk and catch up, but Suho couldn't think of quite the right words to start.

"Has the task force been picked out?" He asked.

Mr. Kim looked to the ceiling, tallying off by memory: "Tao's father, a couple detectives from the head station in Seoul, and our flown in prosecutor."

"The woman from the council meeting?"

"Yep. Tough, and sharp enough to be on par with Byeong Ho. We’ve booked her at Mugunghwa for the duration of the investigation so you may run into her. Her name is Lee Ji an."

“I’ll introduce myself if I get the chance,” Suho assured, “and I just wanted you to know, if the council is ever running thin on volunteers, Exo could always help.” Mr. Kim set down his work, shedding his suit jacket and rolling his sleeves.

“I don’t think we’ll be that short staffed.”

“I’m just saying we’ve really improved in training, enough that maybe-”

“-you all would be very helpful. I’m sure of it.” Mr. Kim finished, walking into the kitchen. Suho pulled himself out of the desk chair, following the older man. Turning on the kitchen sink Mr. Kim took some dish soap, scrubbing it into a foamy lather over his hands. Suho stayed on the other side of the island.

“Why not give us a chance instead of shifting us to the back of the pile. It’s rare to have a pack of twelve gifted wolves at the counsel’s disposal.”

“Not even half you are out of high school yet,”

“Half will be by the end of this coming semester,” Suho insisted, but his father still wasn’t moved. Being pushy was like begging for the work, and that way he was more likely to be turned down.

His father walked to the pantry, looking through the cupboards. “Do you know how many wolves hate field work? You’re just walking around the city Junmyeon, and then you’re stuck in a desk, neck deep in paperwork to document every single thing you did, saw, and sniffed.” Suho leaned back, trying not to roll his eyes. After some shifting around Mr. Kim pulled out a medium sized pot, but it was lidless. He made a little tisk noise, resuming his search. “If you’re not called to help, I’d pass the whole thing.”

“Without experience there is no growth, and no growth means no strength.” Suho recited aloud. His father looked up with a raised brow.

“Since when do you quote Nam il?”

Suho shrugged. “Since when did you eat ramyun for dinner?”

“I was making pasta.”

“But that’s the ramyun pot.”

Mr. Kim stared down at it with a deep sigh. “I’m not home enough to know the difference.”

Suho cracked a smile, coming around the island. Mr. Kim stayed in place while his son procured a proper sized pot, utensils, and the ingredients.

“Use these.”

Mr. Kim picked up the thin box of pasta, squinting at the instructions on the back of the packaging. “Why are you so set on getting involved anyways?” He asked.

Suho gave a little shrug as he filled the pot with water. It was one thing to be taught fighting and strategy, and it was another to be ushered into the chaos of a real fight. “These guys are rogues making trouble, we can take care of them.”

“I didn’t realize you all wanted experience,” Mr. Kim made a little face at the word, “last time I checked, no one in the group wanted to go into law enforcement.”

“No one does.”

“Then?” Mr. Kim turned to his son, his brow still arched. It wasn’t an intimidating look, only appraising. Suho shrugged instinctively, but inside his mind was caught in a mess of conflicting wants.

“You know what this looks like? To me at least,” his father said after a while. Suho’s heart gave an extra beat, “it’s like you’re trying to prove something.”

“Me?”

“I mean for the pack. You guys are a special case. There hasn’t been a group of your size - all gifted at that - in decades. Our society tends to expect a little something… extra from the special,” he put air quotes on the word. “That doesn’t mean you have to lead the group into something dangerous.”

“As wolves we are the protectors, of the city and our place in it.” Suho responded, his voice strengthening with resolve. The words had been instilled into his bones, like a code of living. “Even if in a small way, the guys and I all believe that we need to do our part,” and it was the truth. Under any complaint, sigh, or sound of displeasure, Suho knew the pack cared as much as he did. Generations of wolves weren’t being trained just for show, it was to be ready if they were called on to uphold the Treaties.

Mr. Kim considered his words for a long while. Suho realized he was looking for the right words to say. “Those ‘Ghosts’ are a problem. If the pack really is up for it, I can send Tao’s father and Miss. Lee to the Hagwon for preparation.”

“Tao’s dad?” Suho echoed. Mr Kim grinned a bit. “You know if I consider someone for field work, they get proper training.”

“We’ve done lots of training.”

“Of course,” Mr. Kim crossed his arms with a smile, “but you need a little bit more for this kind of thing. No one goes in unprepared.” Suho’s smile of happiness went a little stiff. If his father meant to deter his determination to get the pack involved, he certainly picked the right person. “It’ll be time consuming too,” Mr. Kim gave a purposeful sigh, “grades may slip, someone will break a toe.”

“The guys can handle it.” Suho quickly said, half to himself as well as to his father. It'll be unpleasant, but necessary. Suho tried to assure himself. The guys will understand. He slowly tread back towards the office, but Mr. Kim called out, his body still arched over the stove.

“I’m not promising you guys will get a job after this. If you do, don’t think of it lightly. You’ll be dealing with killers, remember that.”

The next training day began two days later, and as promised the former military sergeant and Lee Ji an came in to observe and guide the lessons.

Chanyeol braced his fists on the ground, trying to will his legs not to go limp from beneath him. Panting, he kept his gaze ahead, to the figure standing in the middle of the sparing field. Tao’s father stood will an unnatural stillness. Hands at his side, his expression observed him calmly, analyzing.

“Don’t attack him directly.” Sehun spoke mentally. Physically, he was slumped against one of the pillars circling the parameter, nearly half of its diameter caved in by the impact of him being smashed into it.

“You tell me that now?” Chanyeol responded. At least he was still within the lines of the arena, or what was left of it. Clenching his hands into fists, flames spontaneously erupted around them. He kept the twin fires small, a close diameter to his curled fingers but at the highest heat he could maintain. “What do we do? Divert his attention then attack?”

“He’ll expect that since we outnumber him.” Baekhyun said, bringing himself to a stand. He stood about a hundred feet from the sergeant on the opposite side of Chanyeol, streaked with dust and exhausted. “We need to drive him into a corner, literally. He has a clear view of the arena from there.”

“Caution is good, but hesitating gives the opponent the time to strike you down.” Tao’s father spoke lightly from his place, measuring each wolf’s position with a slow sweep of the room. “Don’t think about the examination. This is a real situation, I am your target.”  

At a point in between Chanyeol and Sehun, Luhan raised his hands. In response pieces of debris and rocks slowly pulled off the grounded, hovering around his form. “Chanyeol and I will keep defense. Sehun and Baekhyun, keep him engaged until we can strike hard enough to push him.”

On the second landing of the Hagwon, the rest of the pack stood watching, all in various degrees of tenseness. Lee Ji an observed the match with them, occasionally writing in her clipbook with an indecipherable expression. Amara was also in attendance, reconstructing the arena as parts were quite literally obliterated during the spars.

Unlike his pack members, Kris was slightly more attentive to the unfamiliar addition to their training session. It was slightly unsettling to him that every time he locked gazes with Lee Ji an he couldn’t read a single thing from her. Every being left their cues - a heartbeat falter, shifting hands or legs - there was never a time when a being wasn’t communicating something with their bodies, whether they realized it or not. Wolves knew how to notice these things, to recognize the subtleties of behaviour as a way to detect threats. Focus as much as he could, Kris couldn’t find anything significant from Lee Ji an. Her pulse was low and even, her gaze trained either ahead or on her clipboard. She didn’t shift between her feet, didn’t even flinch at the flying debris.

“Are you marking our ability levels?” Kris asked aloud.

She responded without turning her head. “I need to know what we’ll be working with. So does the elder council and the task force.”

“Why are you talking to her?” Tao asked wryly from down the line. A couple heads had subtly turned from Kris’ question, and he could feel the pressure of multiple minds on him.

“It was a question.”

“She’s sizing us up, its her job.” Suho intervened. In truth the woman was as just as an intimidating form to him as it was to the rest of the pack. Even Amara had toned down her usual sarcasm with the new arrival, if only because her attention was forced to focus on the results of the fights. The pillar Sehun had nearly cleared through was the second heavily damaged, and four had already been obliterated and rebuilt in the past two hours. Half of the sparing space was scorched black, littered with craters and broken stone pieces. The side lines could easily be fixed at any time, but Amara had to wait for a match to be over before she could go down to fix the field. With time to spare, she walked quietly down the line, coming to a stand next to Suho.

“I haven’t watched you guys spar in a long time.” She spoke aloud, her face scrunching “I can’t even remember the last time I saw Tao’s father fight. I forgot how good he was.”

“He was a sergeant what do you expect?”

“Yeah, but that was his human job.”

“It also fits as a wolf job,” Suho said with a tired laugh, and it turned into a cough from the dust in the air.

Amara crossed her arms, eyes trained on the activities below. “Tao's dad doesn’t have a gift right?”

“No,” Kai interjected from her side, “just miraculous strength, agility, and speed, all unnaturally high for his age and size.” He looked over at Suho, eyes mutely blazing a you’ve doomed us all look. Suho could only stare back, slightly miffed: Kai hadn’t gone through a spar yet, while Suho had been the first, by himself. It didn’t feel fit that he complain until something was aching or bleeding.

“Are you impressed?” Suho asked Amara.

“At your kind’s destructive capabilities?” She paused as one of Luhan’s boulders shot far out of range of the fight. He’d lost control, the rock hitting the dome ceiling with a reverberating bang. Ji an immediately took note of it in her book.

“They’re called gifts.” Suho said with a grimace.

“Destructive capabilities feels like a good synonym.” They collectively ducked down as a ribbon of wind shot straight up, way too close to the ledge. Dust slapped their faces, embedding little craters into their clothes. “Okay,” Amara coughed, coming to a stand again “I’m definitely good not watching.”

“A little dirt won’t hurt you noona,” Kai smirked, reaching over to swat a hand over her curls. A mini shower of dust fell down. She glowered at him. “If they task force actually takes you guys on, please be helpful and catch this guy.”

“Group.” Lee Ji an corrected from the end of the line. She stood erect, her clothes completely free of dust and hair still up in a sleek ponytail. She noticed the state of Exo and Amara, and a jaded smile grew on her lips. “Next time I can put up a defensive barrier if you’d like. I thought you would’ve set one up yourself for the group against the blasts.”

“Of course I would,” Amara recovered herself, the corner of twitching as it stretched into a smile “I was a little preoccupied making sure the arena doesn’t cave in, but don’t worry I got the next one.”

“Oh my god Amara shut up. she can’t hear me.” Tao resolved to stare at her pointedly, communicating the words with his face. She only blinked back at him, completely unapologetic. D.O and Lay held in their sighs.

Chen could still afford a little smirk: “At least someone has some humour. We’re going to need it for however long this is going to last.”

I didn’t see any of them again after that day, which was actually kind of surprising. Head manager had given me a full schedule for the rest of the week, so the days had started to haze over from the routine. Today the quiet of the store was dampened by the distant zaa of water pelting the windows. The rain was a peaceful background, and I was content to slowly sweep my way through the store, humming under my breath with the music on the public speakers. There was only one other sunbae on shift with me, but he was behind one of the registers, flipping through a magazine from the front rack. After a moment’s contemplation, I walked up to him, clearing my throat.

“Excuse me, did you know if head manager wanted us to put the new titles out yet?”

The sunbae flipped his page, taking a deep sigh. I fought an urge to do the same, leaning a bit closer.

“Sunbae-nim-”

“WOAH!” He jolted backward, the little stool lifting up a little underneath him. We weren’t allowed to bring seats behind the register, but he still dragged one out any shift our manager didn’t show. “Oh, my god. Lena-” he placed a hand over his heart, as if I had just blasted an airhorn in his face or told him a little zu had been run over outside, “why do you keep doing that? I told you I hate being frightened.”

I leaned away from the register. “I wasn’t trying to, I was asking-”

“Right,” he huffed, making little tsk noise. “I know what’s in these days. Teenagers, you guys just love to do your pranks on anyone or anything,” He often spoke like an old man, but I knew for an irritating fact he wasn’t even out of university. I muttered an apology before he could go on a lecture, taking back my broom and dust pan.

“Hey!” He called as I tried to leave, “you’ve been sweeping enough already, go put out those new titles we have in the back.”

I didn’t turn to him, only smiling thinly at nothing as I stalked to the back of the store.

Wow jee wow I totally wasn’t thinking of doing that. Thank you for the wonderful suggestion-

Dumping the dust bunnies into a wastebasket, I found a boxcutter knife and a little trolley to use to carry out the new books. At least working back here I wasn’t around him. The only downside of the manial work was how my mind could still wander, falling back to my mysterious, insolvable puzzle.

Sometimes I randomly toyed with the idea of texting Chanyeol or Xiumin, just to get more information about the Hei situation, but something in my head went into emergency mode every time I opened my contacts list, screaming ‘do not attempt’. It almost made me wish one of them would randomly appear so I could talk to someone.

Almost.

After my shift was over I walked home ducked under my umbrella, feeling the squish of my converse on the pavement. The apartment was dark when I unlocked the door, which was not entirely concerning; sometimes Ha ri had to stay back at her work. I sent a quick text to her anyways, lit the living room lights, then padded down the hall into my room. I flopped onto the mattress with a large sigh. Because of our lack of customers I hadn’t done much talking today, and without Ha ri the apartment was so still. I could feel the silence creeping into my skin, nearly oppressive.

Funny, peace and quiet was all I’ve been wishing for these days. I smiled lightly into my pillow. A buzz came from my phone, signalling a text.

> Hey stranger :)

I blinked in surprise at Xulian’s name, but a smile was quick to stretch across my face.

> That name suits you better! I haven’t heard from you in a while!

> I was busy with things at home, school…

> School ended already remember???

> You missed me that bad? I’m touched ;)

“Loser,” I mumbled to the screen, chuckling. In truth he had been gone quite a while, since just before the masquerade formal.

> So, what’s new? How’s summer going so far? He asked.

> Nothing, I’m working :(

> Wow, making money is such a reason to sulk :((((

> I told you what my manager is like! Plus I there’s this guy from school tha

I halted my fingers, on the verge of mentioning Kai. I never tried to allude to my dealing with the kingkas before. It felt like it’d be too easy for him to put things together, to figure out who I was. At the same time, I did want to bring the subject up, if only to vent to someone about it. I bit my lips together, hesitating on my reply. In the end I cut the last sentence, deciding to keep it safe. We chatted for a while about the usual things: homework, summer activities, family plans. At some point my stomach began growling, reminding me I hadn’t eaten, or shed my outside jacket. I picked myself up off the bed, hanging the coat on a hanger in the closet.

>Hey.

> What?

>Would it be okay if

He cut the message off there, making me frown at my screen. He didn’t wait forever, the second half blinking up just underneath

 We talked over the phone?

I stared at the message, pausing so long at the words that my screen went dark. Sometimes - many times - I’d wonder what his voice sounded like. I tried to imagine how a laugh would sound, how words would change with humour, teasing, or an encouraging tone of a voice, but I’d never tried to take the step to ask. But for all I did and didn’t know about Xulian, this was more than just a stranger.

One call, one little call won’t hurt.

With tingling limbs I looked up the contact screen for Xulian, then pressed the call button. I held my phone to my ear, swallowing but my mouth was suddenly dry. It only rang once, the line picking up.

“Hi,” Xulian really was a guy. My heart hammered a little harder in my chest at the affirmation, at how deep his voice sounded. Deeper than what I had in my head. “Well this is awkward.” He spoke.

“N-no, not at all-” I turned away from my closet, standing in the middle of the room. The reflection off my mirror was bewildered but happy, then also capped with a mild case of bed head. “I mean, kinda.” I ran my fingers through my hair quickly, then wiped my free hand on my pants. “It’s just…”

“Different?”

“Yes,” I winced at how that sounded, “but different is... good?”

“And awkward.” There was a hint of humour in that, but it was well consumed in his tone. He sounded really... mature, but guys could have voices like that and still be young. Chanyeol did. “It was like that when we started messaging.”

“R-really?”

“You only typed in one word responses”

“Well you asked so many questions!” I pointed an accusing finger, then stared blankly at my hand from how dumb that looked with no one here. Tucking the free arm to my chest, I walked to the kitchen. He chuckled; it was an easy, comfortable sound, like laughter was something that came often to him.

“It was an icebreaker, like twenty questions? You didn’t even ask me any,”

“I did, I just ran out of things I wanted to know,” I pulled open the fridge, eyeing its contents with a frown. In a mumble I added, “you were comfortable enough to carry the conversation, yet you called yourself an introvert.”

“Am I that uninteresting?” He spoke, his voice going wryly.

“I never said that,”

“You implied it.”

I could imagine the mock frown on his face, maybe even borderlining a little pout. The thought was too funny, and I ended up snickering quietly. It didn’t go unnoticed.

“Glad to hear your amused.”

“Sorry?” I offered. The stiff air was dissipating, easing back into the little rhythm we made for ourselves in conversation.

“Sure you are,” he said. I grinned from his tone, tucking the phone against my ear as I pulled out some tupperware containers to make dinner, “so, what were we talking about again?”

“You tell me.”

~~~

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