“Oh, JongUp! Where have you been?”

“Seriously, you missed the hunt! If you weren’t my favorite, I would have let the glutton have your portion.”

“Who are you calling a glutton?!”

“I didn’t mention your name now, did I? Guilty conscience perhaps?”

JongUp sighed sadly.

“What’s wrong, JongUpie-hyung?”

“I think I just got rejected…” he pouted, plopping onto the floor with his stomach on the ground, looking much like a glum puppy.

“By what? That human? You didn’t appear in front of her, did you?”

“I couldn’t help it, YoungJae-hyung! She was about to be attacked…” JongUp defended as he tried to bury his face deeper into the ground.

“Aish, seriously, what did you expect? Like any human would be okay with a werewolf appearing before them. Just be glad she’s not a Slayer…unlike those friends of her,” YoungJae, their pack’s Gamma, scoffed in disgust just thinking about the Slayers.

“Well, one of them is pretty cute. I wouldn’t mind having a round with her~”

“You’re disgusting, DaeHyun,” YoungJae sneered as he eyed the Delta up and down with a shake of his head. DaeHyun merely shrugged as he smirked lecherously.

“Humans are scary…” stated the Omega, JunHong, as he recalled the Slayers that he’s encountered in the past.

“Well, just the ones wielding dangerous weapons,” HimChan, the Beta, said as a matter of fact while he prepared JongUp’s meal for him. “Where’s YongGuk?”

“Patrolling the territory,” YoungJae informed as he poked the depressed JongUp. “What happened exactly? What did you say to her?”

“…I asked if she would be my mate.”

The Gamma stared silently at the Epsilon for a moment before asking, “And what did she do?”

“…she ran away.”

“That’s it?”

“…that’s it.”

“JongUp-ah.”

“Neh, Hyung?”

“I would have run away too if I were her.”

“Why?”

“Because that’s really ing creepy.”

JongUp pouted.

“Yah, stop that pouting. It’s for the best. What did you think was going to happen? She was going to accept you and you guys live happily ever after,” YoungJae harshly scolded.

“YoungJae, you’re going a bit overboard, aren’t you?” DaeHyun scolded as he patted JongUp on the head. “Don’t listen to him. He’s just bitter because he got rejected by one of the Slayers~”

“AS IF!”

Ignoring YoungJae’s ranting, DaeHyun continued speaking to JongUp. “If you really like her that much, you should go after her. She seems really nice so I’m sure she’d at least give you a chance. Just be careful going into human territory. Their Slayers are always on high alert.”

“Stop encouraging him,” YoungJae growled in annoyance as he swatted DaeHyun away. “It’s a bad idea to get so involved with humans like that, JongUp-ah. Hyung is just looking out for your safety. Even if she does accept, it’s you against the rest of the world.”

JongUp stared at the towel in his hand. It smelled like HyeJu, so it brought JongUp comfort.

“WANG JIA ER! I’M GOING TO MURDER YOU!”

“Ah~! Kira! Calm down!”

“YAH! DON’T POINT THAT GUN AT PEOPLE! 有毛病?! (YOU HAVE PROBLEMS!)”

“找死?! (DO YOU WANT TO DIE?!)”

“你疯了, 狂女人! (YOU’VE LOST YOUR MIND, CRAZY WOMAN!)”

“PLEASE SPEAK IN A LANGUAGE WE ALL UNDERSTAND!”

And that’s the situation HyeJu found herself in when she walked into the Slayer’s headquarters. The civilian ducked as Kira threw a box at Jackson, hitting JaeBum in the process.

“Yah! At least aim properly!” JaeBum yelled as he kicked the box to the side, pointing at Kira threateningly.

“H-Hyung…Noona…calm down…” YuGyeom tried to pacify both sides helplessly. “Mark-hyung~! Help!”

Mark walked over and patted Kira on the head while laughing, “Do your best~”

Kira smiled sweetly back at him before glaring at Jackson. She broke out of MiHyun’s hold and screamed like a banshee as she shot fires at the other Slayer with every intention of hitting him.

“MARK-HYUNG, YOU-!” Jackson cursed as he ran for his life passed the cackling elder. Not watching where he’s going, he nearly bulldozed over HyeJu had JinYoung not pulled her out of the way.

“Noona, are you okay?” he asked, earning him a nod from HyeJu.

“Thank you, JinYoung-ah…” HyeJu sighed in relief as she continued watching Kira try to murder Jackson. “So…what happened…”

“Jackson accidentally kissed Kira-noona on the cheek,” JinYoung chortled in amusement as he recalled the incident. “He was trying to catch MiHyun-noona by surprise. You should have seen the look on Kira-noona’s face!”

“I’m assuming it looks pretty similar to what it looks like right now…but madder…”

JinYoung chuckled, “Pretty much~”

“Okay, okay! I give up! I give up! Please stop, OW! YOU ACTUALLY HIT ME?!” Jackson yelled in surprise but kept running when he realized Kira hadn’t stopped. “OKAY! UNCLE, UNCLE!”

“Noona! Please don’t kill Jackson-hyung! We still need him! Even if he is a womanizer!” YuGyeom begged as he chased after Kira.

She suddenly turned around, stopping YuGyeom in his tracks to prevent himself from bowling Kira over, and asked him with a straight face, “Who’s your favorite noona?”

“Kira-noona!” he answered without hesitation.

“Ai~! YuGyeomie is my favorite dongsaeng, too~!” she cooed happily as she hugged the tall magnae, her attitude flipping 180 degrees while doting on the younger male.

“Are you okay, Jackson?” MiHyun wondered in concern as the tattered one laid flat on his stomach in exhaustion. She patted him on the back as he shook his head, face planted into the ground.

“I hope you get bit by a vampire so I can legally kill you with no remorse,” Kira sneered in the middle of her snuggling with YuGyeom. HyeJu sighed as she shook her head. “Oh, Eomma. What are you doing here?”

“Yah! You little-stop calling me that!” HyeJu huffed in irritation as Kira cackled evilly. “I came to pick you two up since you were taking so long! We had lunch plans!”

“Is it noon already?” MiHyun gasped, at least one of them had a conscience.

“Let’s go eat together then!” BamBam suggested, getting excited at the word, “lunch,” as he came from the showers.

“As if I’m feeding all of you!” HyeJu exclaimed in disagreement.

“That’s right! Eomma only feeds her children!” Kira defended with a nod. HyeJu knocked Kira on the head.

“Eh? What about me?” YuGyeom pouted.

Kira patted him on the head, “I’ll treat you.”

“Yay~ Noona jjang!”

“That’s so unfair!” YoungJae whined out, throwing a tantrum.

“MiHyunie-noona~ I’ll treat you to lunch and we can call it a date~” Jackson flirted with a click of his tongue. Before MiHyun could respond, Kira whacked him on the forehead.

“You’re 10 years too early. Why don’t you wait in line?” she scoffed.

“Come on, BamBam~ Noona will treat you~” MiHyun teased, waving Jackson away as she pulled a happy BamBam along.

“YAH! BAMBAM, YOU TRAITOR!”

As the group moved out of their training facilities, HyeJu pulled JinYoung to the side. He blinked in confusion but smiled at HyeJu.

“What’s the matter, Noona?”

“This is kind of a weird question but I’m just curious…do werewolves actually…imprint on their mates? …and how permanent is the imprinting?” HyeJu asked, choosing her words carefully.

“I’m surprised you even know about werewolf imprinting to begin with,” JinYoung commented suspiciously, getting just a noncommittal shrug in response. “But yes, werewolves imprint on their mates and it’s pretty permanent unless one of the mates dies. Ah, although when it comes to mating season, it depends on their pack. Which is why we get werewolf attacks late winter…you know…excessive ual energy just bursting out with no outlet.”

“…do…werewolves ever imprint on other…I suppose species?”

“Hmm, I wouldn’t know. That would be kind of weird. I guess it’s possible if the species are compatible?” JinYoung smirked devilishly as he nudged HyeJu. “Why? Is Noona falling for the teen wolf trend that’s going on~?”

“Park JinYoung, don’t make me hit you.”

“Neh, Noona~” he agreed although he didn’t bother wiping the smug grin off his face. As he went to catch up with the others, seeing that HyeJu no longer had any more questions, she sighed in exasperation. At least from what JinYoung was saying, werewolf imprinting on other species shouldn’t happen. Maybe JongUp was just playing a prank on her. A smile unbeknownst to herself emerged on her face at the thought of the werewolf.

A loud siren snapped her out of her daze as she watched the Slayers simultaneously pull out their communicators.

“It’s close!” JaeBum announced as he pulled out his gun, clicking the safety off.

“Four vampires coming from the east,” Jackson added on while they all prepared themselves.

“Unnie…go find shelter. We’ll take care of this and come get you when it’s safe,” MiHyun suggested with worry in her eyes as she threw HyeJu her gun for protection. Understanding that she would just get in the way, HyeJu nodded and headed towards the nearest building that hadn’t gone into lock-down mode yet.

“They’re coming fast!” Kira growled out as she stood back-to-back with MiHyun. Just as she finished saying that, she yelped in pain at the force of something slapping her in the face. Her hand reached up to touch her cheek, checking to see what it was. She scoffed in irritation at the sight of her own blood on her hand. With trained eyes, Kira scanned her surroundings for any flashes of movement. “Mark! Behind you!”

Without even questioning what was behind him, he shot under his arm, aiming backwards before turning around to continue his fires at the now wounded and sluggish vampire. Despite being slowed, the demon still managed to move fast enough to suddenly knock the gun out of Mark’s hands and forced him into hand-to-hand combat. Though the demon was stronger and faster than Mark, the Slayer was experienced with fighting against these types of opponents and focused on dodging while redirecting attacks against him to find an opening.

Thankfully, he didn’t have to fight alone as Kira jumped in with a dagger since she didn’t want to risk hitting Mark with her gun. In comparison to Mark’s avoidance techniques, Kira was a bit too headstrong and stubborn to stay defensive, choosing an offensive approach of attack first and ask questions later. While normally a destructive strategy, it was extremely effective with Mark on the side, attacking vital points that open up with Kira’s unrelenting attacks. When the vampire would try to strike back at Kira, Mark would block the attack, leaving their opponent open for Kira to stab. When the vampire would try to strike at Mark, Kira had a good shot of slicing the demon with her dagger, causing it to retreat. Eventually, the two managed to fight the monster off far enough away that Mark could get a clean shot with his gun. He hit his mark with perfection as the vampire vanished into thin air while screaming in anguish. The two high-fived each other with a grin.

MiHyun tag-teamed with Jackson and BamBam after one of the vampires that YoungJae managed to shoot down. Better with her gun than with her hands, MiHyun preferred to keep her opponents out of striking range and finish them before they even get a chance to touch her. Since MiHyun normally filled the role of a sniper, she trusted her ability to read movements and her excellent marksmanship to continue firing whenever she could get a clear shot. Jackson kept the vampire’s focus on himself as he fought him in close range with his saber. When the vampire lunged at MiHyun, BamBam deflected the demon back with his shield and a good hard kick so MiHyun could focus solely on shooting the vampire without worrying about getting hit. Some bruises later, MiHyun finally finished the vampire off with a shot to the heart, causing it to vanish with a scream. The sound brought cold shivers up MiHyun’s spine. She never liked the noises they made when they died.

“Come on! There’s still two left!” MiHyun encouraged as she hurried BamBam along and helped Jackson up. She found JaeBum and YoungJae finishing off another one, leaving one left.

Suddenly, a familiar scream hit MiHyun right in her heart with fear.

“HYEJU-UNNIE!”

Both MiHyun and Kira reacted almost instinctively to the scream, running towards the source at top speeds. They gasped at the sight of JinYoung coughing up blood as he held his left hip that seemed to be bleeding profusely. The last vampire’s claws were soaked in JinYoung’s blood, scraps of the young boy’s clothing stuck at the ends of its nails. Despite his obvious injury, JinYoung held the vampire at gunpoint, keeping his focus as best as he could on the demon. Behind him was YuGyeom protectively huddled over HyeJu, using his own body as a shield. His body was shaking while hugging HyeJu tightly, gashes from the vampire’s claws evident on his back.

With a war cry, Kira launched herself at the vampire with murderous intent. While MiHyun stayed composed, just lifting up her gun to back Kira up, her eyes were swirling with absolute fury and bloodlust. The normally happy and compassionate girl suddenly wished for a regular gun that would bring the vampire more pain and suffering. The two girls could only hope that HyeJu was okay, unable to tell with YuGyeom hanging over her. With both girls 100% focused on their task at hand, it didn’t take long for them to vanquish the last vampire.

Everyone ran over to the three. JaeBum caught JinYoung before he could collapse onto the hard ground as Mark looked at his injury. Kira gently pulled YuGyeom off of HyeJu and held the crying boy as BamBam examined their magnae’s wounds. YuGyeom’s tears wouldn’t stop despite the fact that his wounds were not as bad as JinYoung, so Kira whispered soothing words to the magnae. She knew that YuGyeom wasn’t crying from the pain of his injuries but from the immense amount of relief that nobody had died from the close call.

“HyeJu-unnie!” MiHyun called out, tackling the older girl into a hug. “Are you okay? Are you hurt? What happened?”

HyeJu wasn’t able to process any of MiHyun’s words, still shaken from the experience of becoming face to face with a demon. She realized just how spoiled she and the rest of the town had become with such dedicated Slayers. When the vampire had appeared in front of her, HyeJu was frozen in fear at the terrifying look the demon gave her. Of course her logical brain yelled at HyeJu to use the gun that MiHyun had given her to defend herself, but her emotional brain overrode all logical thoughts, causing her to react like any other civilian would: screaming and running. She didn’t get very far (but then her logical brain could have told her that if she was listening to it) as she felt the horrible dangerous being looming over her in seconds. Yet the pain that came with it never reached her as YuGyeom dove in front to protect her as JinYoung fought the demon off with his sword. Everything after that had been a blur as a boat load of thoughts clouded HyeJu’s head.

“HyeJu! Unnie! Are you okay?!” MiHyun yelled as she looked HyeJu over. The older one finally snapped out of her daze.

“MiHyun…”

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah…I’m fi-YuGyeom! JinYoung! Are they-”

“They’re alive and their wounds aren’t too bad. They’ve had worse. Don’t worry too much. I’m just glad you’re okay,” MiHyun sighed in relief as she hugged the older girl again.

“…it was terrifying…I’ve…I’ve never been so terrified since we lost our-” HyeJu stopped there, knowing the point got across without needing to be said. She didn’t like the way MiHyun had to clarify first and foremost that the two boys that protected her were living and that their well-being was second to that. It hit home just how dangerous their line of profession was. HyeJu could only imagine how many of their comrades had died without recognition while defending their city, many of them the same age range as these children before her.

She could only watch helplessly as JaeBum and Mark helped JinYoung and YuGyeom respectively to the main street so they could call a cab to the hospital.

Nervous pants.

Cold breaths fogging into the air.

Searching, worried eyes.

Did he go too far?

He pulled his hood down as he wandered through the crowd of people nervously. It was taking everything that he had to hide his presence. The light snow fall helped in blurring everything. He hoped to find her soon so he could leave this unnerving place. Sniffing the air, he sighed dejectedly. While the snow did a great job of hiding his presence, the precipitant worked against his ability to sniff anything out. He could only rely on his eyesight.

After meandering aimlessly for a bit, his nose picked up the scent of an extremely delicious aroma.

“Ah, I’m hungry…” he realized with a sad sigh as he patted his stomach. He would have to deal with that when he was done with his search. His determination to find her overrode his hunger. His eyes scanned through all the people again. Did he get her meal time wrong? Normally she would be hunting for food in this area. Humans sure were strange creatures…exchanging those papers for food. The paper didn’t seem special to him in any way so he really couldn’t understand how a piece of paper could be of equal value of food.

“One meatball ramen please.”

His ears perked up at the sound of her voice (which he had to flatten manually against his head because humans didn’t have functional dog ears). He followed the voice to the source, a smile appearing on his face. He watched as she received her food from the food provider and thanked them for their service. Now that he found her came the biggest problem he had every time he saw her.

He needed to approach her.

On a normal day, this was the part he would run off before she realized he was there. However, today he was on a mission. And it required him to go up to her. As she walked towards him, he chanted encouraging words to himself. She was coming. She was coming. Almost there. All he had to do was call out. He reached out his hand.

“Ah-”

“HyeJu-unnie!”

ABORT MISSION.

He turned away, looking over his shoulder as another female human approached her. They had a brief conversation before the other human left. He sighed inwardly in relief that he didn’t lose his chance to talk to her.

“Ah!” he gasped out again when he realized in the middle of his talk with himself, she had passed by him. He slowly trotted behind her, calling out in a soft voice. “H-Hye…Hye…Ju…”

He was so focused on getting HyeJu’s attention that he wasn’t looking where he was going and ran into another pedestrian.

“Watch where you’re-AHHH!”

JongUp winced in pain at the loud screech, now echoing in a throbbing manner through his head, his ears flattening against his head to make it go away. He felt a breeze over his head. Ah, his hood fell off. That explained why the human made him deaf.

…uh oh.

JongUp smiled helplessly as the frantic human slowly began to draw attention to him.

“W-What are those?! Are you a furry?!”

“F-Furry?”

“That’s disgusting, you ert! DID THEY JUST MOVE?! YOU-”

He blushed as his hood was pulled back over his head. Her scent overwhelmed his senses, bringing him relief.

“Miss, what you just saw was one of the latest technological advances in expressing human emotions. These ears work in tune with brainwaves and move according to how the wear is feeling. They are very realistic, but are still in the developmental process. Please don’t miss understand,” HyeJu explained calmly while patting JongUp on the head. Embarrassed by her misunderstanding, the girl walked away without a word. When she saw that the crowd was no longer focused on them, HyeJu grabbed JongUp’s hand and led him into a more secluded area so she could scold him properly without the attention. JongUp hid the growing blush on his face, biting his lips at the skinship.

“What are you doing here, you idiot?!” HyeJu scream-whispered once they were in an empty alleyway behind her work place. “What would you have done if I wasn’t there?! They would have realized you were a demon and called the Slayers and aigo…my head…”

“I’m sorry…” JongUp mumbled softly as he looked down at his feet. Unable to really stay mad at the adorable pup, HyeJu smiled in defeat, happy to see that the young werewolf was doing well (not that she would ever admit that to anyone). She looked around to make sure there wasn’t anyone in the vicinity before uncovering his hood to get a better look at him.

“You’ve grown…” she mused out loud as she patted his head. The faint blush on the werewolf’s face didn’t go unnoticed, making him all the cuter in her eyes. His ears wiggled up and down in excitement as he smiled shyly. As she petted the werewolf, she was reminded of the vampires she had encountered awhile back. She was absolutely terrified by those demons yet here was one right in front of her (that had been following her no less) and she wasn’t scared at all, comfortable even. Not just now, but when she first met him, she hadn’t even been scared. Just as JongUp’s eyes started to get sleepy from how nice the pets felt, he snapped awake and shook his head.

“HyeJu! Whatever you do, don’t come here tomorrow!” JongUp warned a serious look on his face, ears erected straight into the air.

“What? Why?”

“My pack is going to attack this side of your territory.”

“W-What?! Do you know how many people live in this area?! Tell them not to!”

“I…I can’t…I’m just an Episilon…and it’s not YongGuk-hyung’s fault…humans have impeded on more than half our territory with your growth. We don’t have enough space to live without invading another pack’s territory, which isn’t beneficial for us since we have a treaty to uphold with them,” JongUp explained, looking powerlessly at her.

“But you can’t just attack the city! They’ll just send Slayers after you. You’ll-” HyeJu froze as she stared at the confused JongUp. Slayers…like Kira and MiHyun…vs. werewolves…like JongUp. What was she supposed to do? Should she tell them about this premeditated attack? But then they would go after JongUp.

JongUp smiled, “Don’t worry. We’re not attacking anyone in particular. We just need to destroy a few buildings that are in our way.”

“But you can’t…I…JongUp…”

“I know. I’m not asking you to choose between me and your friends because I know they always come first for you. You can even tell them we’re attacking tomorrow. My pack is aware of my visit. We’re fully prepared. We just want our territory back,” JongUp informed. He chuckled, “Your friends are strong, but my pack is stronger. They haven’t defeated us yet.”

“You’re at a disadvantage if you don’t plan on killing…the Slayers only have one interest. JongUp…please! I don’t-” She paused to get a good look at the werewolf in front of her. He stared back curiously. “…I don’t want you to get hurt…you or your pack…”

“Hearing those words from HyeJu makes me really happy…” He smiled brightly while nuzzling against her gently for a moment. “…I’ll do my best not to get myself killed so I don’t make my mate sad.”

“JongUp…I don’t-”

“It’s okay! I know you have your important friends. I don’t want you to leave them.” His grin widened, causing his eyes to disappear. “Not every werewolf gets to be with their mate. Just seeing you doing well is enough for me. Be sure not to come tomorrow, okay?”

“JongUp!”

Without another word, the boy transformed into his wolf form and scaled the building vertically. Her heart was pounding against her chest in fear. She was scared. She was scared for JongUp; she was scared for MiHyun and Kira. Why? Why did those two have to be Slayers? If only they weren’t, HyeJu could just-

Her eyes widened. What would she do? Run away with JongUp? She shook her head and smacked her cheeks repeatedly to snap herself out of it.

HyeJu groaned as she hit her head repeatedly into the wall.

“WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO?!”

=====================================================================

And there goes my feels~ Running full speed ahead~

~Kira :3