“…30…29…28…”

Three pairs of feet scattered away, leaving a trail of muted scents.  Kai stood in the center of the empty room, hands held over his eyes as he counted down to 0.  He could smell the year-round rain and cold that Fangs was known for, and the house’s drafty walls did nothing to improve the situation.

“27…26…25…um 10…9 umm…3…2….1…ready or not here I come!”  After what was considerably less than 30 seconds, Kai uncovered his eyes. He was greeted by silence.  It was part of the game, of course, but Kai could never get used to being alone. He hated being the “hunter,” cut off from the pack. Kai instinctively reached out to Taemin in his mind—

Hey, no cheating!

Fine, whatever. 

Kai moved quickly through the house, trying to sniff out his siblings’ scents from underneath the mud they had all coated themselves with.  The floorboards creaked even with his cautious footsteps.  Downstairs was a no. Second floor was a no. The attic was a no, too.  With dread, Kai realized he would have to venture down to the basement.   He hated the dark, and everyone knew it.

But as Kai made his way down the staircase, his ears pricked up at a creaking noise.

Someone was there!

Elated, Kai followed the sounds, trying to keep his own as light as possible.  Whoever his soon-to-be victim was, they weren’t doing a very good job of trying hide themselves.  Maybe one of them had needed to go use the restroom.  Smiling to himself, Kai turned the corner in the ground floor hallway.

And ran straight into a rock-hard figure.

“Ow!”

Clutching his arm in pain, Kai looked up and into the palest face he had ever seen.

For a second, Kai thought he’d seen a ghost.  He gasped and gave a little cry, backpedaling and windmilling his arms as he fell. He tried to break his fall by slamming his palms against the ground, but they were still slippery with mud.   He ended up flat on his back, banging the back of his head against the hard wooden floor.

“Ow!” he cried, tears springing to his eyes.  His head swam with pain and his vision starred over.

Kai! Are you okay?  Taemin’s concerned voice broke through as he sensed his twin’s distress.

Eurnghhhh…

After the stars had cleared from his blurred vision, Kai forced himself up, sniffling. 

Then, a soft voice asked, “Are you alright?”

Kai cried again at the unexpected voice.

It came from the ghost—no, person—he had ran into, a boy with fair skin and dark hair and eyes.  He looked like a doll.  He was wearing a starched white shirt, black pants, and a shirt with frills on the collar.  His hair was slicked back like in those old movies.   On his white shirt and cheek were splatters of mud, courtesy of Kai thirty seconds ago.

The boy reached into his pocket to draw out a white handkerchief with which he wiped his face.  He looked like he was about to offer it to Kai, before he seemed to realize that Kai was covered entirely in mud.

“Hi,” squeaked Kai. He wondered whether he was hallucinating.

“Good morning,” said the boy.  He had an accent, again like the ones in old movies.  “Are you hurt?”

Kai shook his head, even though his did sting. 

The boy crouched down to kneel beside Kai.  “What’s your name?”

“Kai.” Kai didn’t know why, but something about the boy made him a little nervous.  He felt the hairs on his neck rise with every passing second.

“Nice to meet you. I’m Suho.”

Kai opened his mouth to respond, but his words froze over a chill entered the room.  This time, every hair on the back of Kai’s neck snapped to instant attention.  Suho turned around, as new figures joined them:  A man, a woman, two boys, and a girl came in through the doorway.  They, too, had dark hair and were dressed in strangely formal outfits. But unlike Suho, who still had some pink in his cheeks, they were all as pale as paper, with eyes that glowed amber. 

“Vampires,” Kai gasped before he could catch himself. Oh, no.  He was in trouble.

“Correct.” The man’s sharp eyes zeroed in on Kai.  “And I see from the marks on your arms that you are a shapeshifter…wolf.”

Kai pulled his muddy sleeve down as he stared fearfully up at the man.  He’d never seen a vampire before, except on TV and in books—and those weren’t even the real kind.  Still, he’d heard enough stories about them from his aunts, uncles and cousins to know what they were and were capable of.  Monsters.  Ruthless killers that ate anything with a pulse. A constant source of strife for werewolves.

He also knew that they could doubtless hear the frantic racing of his heart.

TAEMIN, HELP I’M GOING TO DIE! I’M NOT KIDDING!

The vampire lady reached out a slim hand, placing it on the man’s arm.  “Heechul, I think you’re scaring him.”

Mr. “Heechul” smiled, revealing the barest hint of pointed teeth.  “No need to be afraid.”

“I-I’m not!” Kai cried, scooting away and hiding himself behind Suho.

We’re coming!

“I’m Heechul Kim,” the man continued.  “This is my wife, Taeyeon.  And our children, Luhan, Irene, Suho, and Sehun.  I see you’ve met Suho already.”

Kai backed away from Suho. He was part of them too?  Suho reached out his hand.

“Nice to meet you,” he said. Kai gingerly took the clammy, cold hand.

“Um, n-nice to m-meet you too.”

If Kai thought Suho’s hand was cold, it was nothing compared to the rest of his family’s.  Compared to their icelike handshakes, Suho’s had felt almost human.  By the time Kai was done shaking hands with the rest of the Kims, his palm was numb.

“So… Kai, tell us—“

“HOLD UP!”

Taemin burst into the room, followed behind by Minho and Seulgi, and Kai nearly cried from relief.  Their clothes and neck were caked with dried mud.  Seulgi and Taemin held tree branches in their arms. 

“We’re armed!” Taemin cried, brandishing his stick.  It broke in half on the second swipe.

The vampires stared back, unimpressed.

“Is this the rest of your…pack?” Mr. Kim asked.

“Yeah, and we aren’t afraid to fight!” Taemin snarled, pulling a second stick out of his pocket.  “Leave Kai alone!”

Mr. Kim held up his hands.  “Calm down, little wolf.”

Taemin bared his teeth at the words.

Mrs. Kim laughed; her eyes glowed.  “Oh, how adorable.”

Minho, who had finally caught up, stepped forward, pushing a protesting Taemin behind him.  “Don’t mind him,” he said.  “We don’t mean any trouble.”

“Neither do we,” Mrs. Kim assured, though her glowing eyes seemed to contradict her statement. “But we are territorial of our property. I’m sure you can understand, as fellow hunters. This is our home.”

“What,” Minho laughed.  “This house?”

The Kims nodded in confirmation.

“But…I thought…isn’t it abandoned?”  Minho’s glance flicked around the room, from the spiderwebbed corner to the cracked walls.

“Oh, dear, has it really been that long?”  Mrs. Kim exchanged looks with her husband. “It’s only been, what, fifty years?

“Barely any time!” he agreed.

Kai gaped. Fifty years. That was more than his and his siblings’ ages combined.

“Uh.”  Minho said.  Taemin and Seulgi dropped their sticks.  “So it’s really your…house?”

“Bought it back when this street didn’t even have lamp-posts,” Mrs. Kim confirmed, smiling at the memory.  “We always meant to settle in with the kids, but we got sidetracked.  Life gets in the way; the decades just fly by, you know.”

Not even a decade old himself, Kai had no idea what she was talking about.

“Um.”  Minho looked sheepish. “We didn’t know.  We…we were just playing.  We live next door.  We play here sometimes.”

“We’re sorry for getting your house all muddy,” Seulgi, the most polite out of them all, added.

 “They’re just like dogs,” Sehun whispered to Luhan, who snorted.

“Better than being a leech!” Taemin yelled.

Minho slapped him on the shoulder. “Don’t be rude!”

At the same time, Sehun lunged at Taemin. Irene calmly reached out a hand to grab her hissing brother by the collar. 

“Well!”  Mrs. Kim smiled serenely at the scene of snarling children.  “In that case, it’s so lovely to have met our neighbors.  You should all come over for dinner sometime.  I’ve been dying to try out a new recipe.”

“She makes great Italian,” Mr. Kim added proudly.

“Why?” Seulgi asked curiously.  “You guys can’t eat real food.”                   

Minho kicked her shoe, even though he’d probably been thinking the same thing. “Don’t be rude,” he repeated. 

But Mr. Kim only laughed, his lips stretching open to reveal pointed fangs.  Kai looked away, laughing nervously along. 

Kai was relieved when their chitchat finally came to an end.  It was clear that none of the children were particularly eager to socialize; Taemin and Sehun looked on the verge of a fight.  The rest of the children looked uneasily at each other, sizing the other up.  As they left, Kai met Suho’s dark eyes from across the room.  Suho smiled at him.  Kai blinked and looked away.

Back home, it finally sank in.

“I can’t believe we’re getting vampires for neighbors!”

“It’s like they’re not even trying to blend in,” said Taemin in horror as he peered through his binoculars.  “They’re even carrying a casket!”  The Kims were in the midst of moving in, and the Jung children were crowded around the attic window as they spied on their neighbors’ activities.

Minho wrinkled his nose.  “I can smell them.” 

Kai, Taemin and Seulgi couldn’t; they weren’t full werewolves yet, so their noses were only slightly better than those of humans.

“What do they smell like?”

“Killers.”

They all shivered.

If it were up to Kai and his siblings, they would like to have nothing to do with those monsters that now lived inconveniently next door. Unfortunately, Mr. Jung and Mrs. Jung were those progressive werewolves who believed in “breaking down outdated barriers” and “welcoming fellow supernaturals.”   And so, three days after the Kims had moved in, they had been forced to eat dinner with the other family.   

Dinner had been awkward.  Awkward and terrifying, because how could their parents be sure that the Kims didn’t have traps set up and weren’t preparing to turn them into Werewolf a la Carte? Kai tried not to stare as the vampires sipped daintily on their blood soup.  Meanwhile, he was sure the Kims were judging them as he and his family tore into their raw meat with bare hands, as they always did.  The girl, Irene, looked scandalized and kept subtly nudging the napkin stand over to their side.  Luhan wrinkled his nose as though there was garlic in his blood soup.  Suho kept smiling specifically at Kai, probably mocking him in his mind.  Speaking of Suho--

Suho was eating pasta.

Pasta with raw and bloody meatballs, but still.  Carbohydrates.  Kai wondered why his digestive tract wasn’t breaking at the moment.  Suho was the only one in his family eating the extravagant Italian meal Mrs. Kim had prepared, courtesy of Food Network.

“Am I that handsome?”

“Huh?”  Kai moved his gaze up to the smiling vampire. 

“You keep staring at me,” Suho explained.  “Vampires have a seductive effect on humans, but I didn’t know it worked on werewolves too.”

Kai frowned.  “I don’t know what sed…what that means.”

“Ah.”  Suho’s smile widened, and Kai wanted to wipe the superior look off his face.   “It means…”

“But anyway, you’re ugly.”

The smile disappeared.

Over the next few weeks, trucks and cars stopped by 15 Fine Street, delivering depressing-looking furniture and cardboard boxes. The musty brown curtains were replaced by equally-creepy looking curtains. The Kims continued to dress in outdated outfits that made them look like they came from the 17^th century.  If the Kims were trying to blend in, they weren’t doing a very good job.  Fangs was already a small enough town. News of the Kims’ arrival spread, and neighbors came by with muffin baskets and nosy questions.

The Kim children enrolled in Fangs Public School and instantly became the talk of the school.  Irene and Luhan were in Onew’s class, and Suho was in Minho's.  Meanwhile, Sehun was in Kai and Taemin’s class and was assigned to the seat next to Taemin’s, to both their displeasure.  He and Taemin were sent to the time-out corner at least once a day for fighting.

Unsurprisingly, Kims quickly developed a reputation of being different.  If their doll-like features and pale skin didn’t already set them apart, their mannerisms certainly did. Everyone was fascinated by them.  The general consensus was that the Kims must’ve moved from somewhere in Europe, where everyone was civilized and sun-deprived and good-looking.  All the girls wanted to know what makeup brand Irene used to achieve her flawless complexion.

Only Kai and his siblings knew the truth.

Unlike Taemin, who liked to antagonize Sehun every chance he got, Kai tried to stay out of the Kim children’s way.  Vampires and werewolves weren’t supposed to mix.  It was just a law of nature, like how cats and dogs didn’t like each other.  Kai certainly didn't miss the way his hair stood on end and his skin crawled whenever one of the Kims came too close to him. However, Suho didn’t seem to get the memo.

“Hello, Kai.”

Kai stifled a shriek as the older boy took the seat next to him on the bleachers.  He hadn’t even heard Suho approach.

“Hi,” Kai said shortly, scooting away.

Suho scooted along the bench, following Kai.  “What are you doing?”

“Nothing.”

“What’s that on your hand, then?”

Kai looked down at the baseball glove around his hand, then at the baseball game currently going on in the field in front of them.  Chanyeol waved at him.

“Oh, it’s just a game we’re playing.  It’s pretty boring, you wouldn’t like it.”

“I know what baseball is,” Suho said, sounding amused.   “I wasn’t born in the last century.”

“How old are you, then?” Kai challenged.

“Twelve.”

“And how long have you been twelve?”

“Kai!  It’s your turn!” Chanyeol yelled, running over to him. He took off his cap to wipe off some sweat and looked over at Suho in surprise.  “Hey, does your friend want to play too?”

Kai shook his head.  “He’s not my friend—“

“I would,” Suho said.

“Cool!  Do you want to be on our team?”

Kai watched with a frown as Suho accepted Chanyeol’s glove.  Why couldn’t Suho just mind his own vampire business?!

Twenty minutes later, Kai's team had steadily caught up to the opposite team, thanks to their newest addition. Suho had lightning fast reflexes, and he caught every ball that came within a ten foot radius of his person.  Despite being dressed in black from head to toe, he barely broke a sweat as he darted left and right.  Kai sulked as his team cheered Suho on.  This was unfair.  If only he were also twelve--his werewolf abilities would definitely beat Suho's vampire abilities.

The score was 7-7 when it came Baekhyun's turn to bat.  Kai watched warily; Baekhyun was known for being a sneak.  As Baekhyun dropped his bat and sprinted toward first base, the ball sailed straight into Suho's glove.  Or, it would have, had Baekhyun not had other plans. 

"Watch out--" Kai called, but it was too late.  Baekhyun veered off course and crashed into Suho, sending both boys to the ground.  The recess bell rang.

"CHEATER!" Kai yelled, running over.

Baekhyun pulled himself up off the ground.  "Oops," he said, not sounding very sorry. "I guess that was a tie, then."

"That's NOT A TIE!  YOU CHEATED, SO YOU GET A MILLION POINTS TAKEN AWAY! YOU CHEATING CHEATER--"

"Kai," Suho interrupted.  "He's gone."

Kai scowled as he realized that Baekhyun had indeed left, along with the rest of the players.  He could see Chanyeol shaking his head at Baekhyun further up ahead. 

But Kai’s attention was soon arrested by another sight.

“You’re bleeding!” Kai stared in amazement as the unmistakeably red liquid dripped down Suho’s arm. First he could eat pasta, now he could bleed like live people?

Suho glanced down in surprise.  "So I am."

Kai didn’t have the opportunity to question Suho further, though, for a third figure joined them. Kai felt before he even saw her; the hairs on his neck stiffened.

“Suho,” came a quiet female voice.  It was Irene, and she did not look pleased. “What do you think you’re doing?”

Suho gulped, and Kai answered for him. He didn’t want Irene to think he’d attacked Suho or anything.

“We were playing baseball; it’s a game—“

“I know what baseball is,” Irene interrupted without looking at Kai.  She was still frowning down at Suho.  “What I want to know, is why my brother is playing the game in the first place."

"...it's fun." Suho said in a small voice.  Irene sighed and bent down. 

"Give me your arm."

Kai watched, fascinated, as Irene the cut on Suho's pale forearm.  In a few seconds the wound had congealed into a scab that then fell off, leaving behind flawless skin. 

“I know you’re still a baby, Suho, but can you not ruin this for us?  We only just got here."

“I’m sorry,” said Suho, looking and sounding very much like a kicked puppy.  Kai suddenly felt bad for him, and he felt the need to defend the older boy.

“Baekhyun fouled him.  It wasn’t his fault!”

Irene turned to give him a cool look.  Kai fought the urge to cower as her eyes glowed amber.  “Suho knows better than to put himself in risky situations.  I’m sure, as supernaturals, your parents told you and your siblings the same when it comes to behaving properly in public.  Or, on second thought, maybe not."

As Kai tried to figure out whether Irene had just insulted him and his family, Irene turned back to her brother.

“I know it’s not easy...” she said in a gentler tone, and Suho looked away with a sigh.

"I'll get used to it."