After hastily getting dressed and brushing his teeth at a pace that would have made his dentist cringe, Jimin grabbed his cellphone, his house keys, and the scraps of paper given to him by the orange-haired young man before leaving his house and getting in his car. He started the ignition, and glanced at the address of Taehyung’s hotel before speeding off down the mostly-deserted street. The modest black sedan zoomed toward the center of town, and in a matter of minutes, Jimin was parked in front of the cheapest motel he had ever laid eyes on, his clammy hands clutching onto the steering wheel tightly.

He took a deep breath before digging the folded-up business card out of the pocket of his jeans. As he slowly typed Taehyung’s number into his phone, Jimin wondered how he should start a conversation with the eccentric young man without seeming either desperately terrified or completely crazy. He tried to make the text message sound as casual as possible, even as he could feel himself sweating buckets in the hot, humid sedan.

“Hey, Taehyung.” He tapped away on the on-screen keys, practically suffocating in the stagnant heat. “I’m really sorry about yesterday. I was wondering if you’d be willing to talk to me again today. I have a few other questions I’d really like to ask.”

Jimin pressed the “send” button, and waited nervously for a response as he sat in his stuffy car. He started to wonder if maybe the other man was still asleep - and wouldn’t have found it that hard to believe if the latter was - when his phone buzzed to inform him that he had received a reply.

“Sure!” texted Taehyung. “Do you want to meet at my hotel? I gave you the address for it yesterday before I left.”

Jimin felt relieved as he sent back his response, and the sweltering heat of the car seemed to dissipate slightly as he hit “send” again.

“That sounds fine. Thank you so much.”

“Great,” came Taehyung’s message a moment later. “How soon can you get here?”

Jimin blushed as he realized how silly it had been to rush out of his house before even confirming that Taehyung would be willing to talk to him. He wouldn’t have been able to blame the other man had he refused - even despite the latter’s encouragement to call if Jimin changed his mind - as both of them had acted rather impolitely toward each other the previous morning. The older man was extremely grateful that the young cryptozoologist didn’t seem to be one to hold a grudge, however, as he really did have a lot of questions that he would prefer not to leave unanswered.

“I’m outside in the parking lot now,” texted back Jimin. “Sorry for springing this on you. I just really need some answers after what happened last night.”

It was vague, but Jimin hoped that his explanation would be intriguing enough to get Taehyung out the door and talking as quickly as possible - and he didn’t have to wait long for his answer.

“Cool,” responded Taehyung immediately. “I’ll be out in, like, fifteen minutes.”

“Let me rephrase that,” Jimin typed hurriedly as the car started to heat up again. “I’m having a mental breakdown; please come out now.”

✧✧✧

Jimin didn’t get another text message to indicate that Taehyung had read his final plea, but a minute later there was a sharp knock on his passenger window, which would have made Jimin jump out of his seat had he not been restrained by his seatbelt.

“Sorry,” Taehyung chuckled as he opened the door after Jimin unlocked it. “Did I scare you?”

“No,” mumbled Jimin, “but something else sure as hell did.”

“OH MY GOSH,” exclaimed Taehyung. The sudden outburst made the shorter man cringe again as Taehyung gazed at him with wide, happy eyes. “You saw something didn’t you, Jimin? DIDN’T YOU?!”

“Ow; you’re hurting my ear,” complained Jimin with a scowl. “And yes, I did. I mean, I think I did.”

The excitement was evident on Taehyung’s unwashed face, and his disheveled appearance made it obvious that he had again neglected to comb his hair or pick out matching socks in his haste to leave the hotel. Jimin was surprised that the other man had even managed to get dressed, although the wrinkled tee-shirt and coffee-stained sweatpants looked pretty similar to what he had been wearing yesterday, so maybe the enthusiastic young man had simply slept in his clothes from the day before. Jimin didn’t want to waste too much time speculating on the younger man’s personal hygiene habits, however, as he was just glad that the latter seemed to harbor no obvious feelings of ill-will after their heated argument yesterday.

“What did you see? Was it awesome? I can’t believe that I get to be a part of your belated awakening into Sensorhood,” panted Taehyung. “This is so cool!”

“I can assure you that it was most definitely not ‘cool,’” grumbled Jimin. “I wasn’t sure if I believed you when you started talking about monsters and nightmares yesterday, but after what happened to me last night, I don’t know what else to think anymore…”

“Well, don’t leave me in suspense,” pressured Taehyung. “Spill the beans! What did you see?!”

“I saw… it was some kind of glowing-eyed dog or something at the foot of my bed,” revealed Jimin. “It - it growled at me. And then it just disappeared. It was freaky.”

Jimin expected the other man to explode with enthusiasm at his latest announcement, but the orange-haired man stayed unusually quiet. He looked up to see the young, excitable man with an expression of blank solemnity, which made Jimin frightened and uncomfortable.

“Jimin, did you look at it?” asked Taehyung seriously. The twinge of nervousness in the other man’s voice made Jimin’s stomach sink, and he hesitated to answer the question. “Did you look at its eyes?” Taehyung repeated.

“I-I… yeah?” Jimin squeaked. “How could I not have? They were bright ing red and right in front of me.”

“Dammit,” cursed Taehyung. “Okay, start driving. I’ll tell you where to go when we get out on the main road, alright?”

✧✧✧

Jimin started the car, far too fearful of the implications of Taehyung’s earlier words and his abrupt change of mood to refuse the other man’s orders. He pulled onto the street, which was still devoid of any cars except for the workaholic early-birds who were already on their way into the offices in the adjoining city.

“Take a left,” Taehyung instructed as he fastened his seatbelt.

Jimin obeyed, and threw a cursory glance in the other man’s direction as he to a winding path that lead away from the center of town and toward the open highway.

“Taehyung, what’s going on?” sobbed Jimin, trying and failing to keep his voice from shaking as he continued to drive.

“In two streets take a right,” said Taehyung flatly before letting out a deep sigh. “To answer your question: I’m not entirely sure,” admitted the messy-haired man. “But it sounds like you’ve accidentally stumbled across the subject of my latest study - which I guess is kind of both a good thing and a bad thing.”

Jimin felt another lump forming in his throat, making it hard to breathe as he concentrated on driving. He had come to Taehyung’s hotel to get some answers, and all he had found were more questions and a foreboding sense of dread - which certainly didn’t help matters.

“What do you mean,” gulped Jimin. “What are you studying?”

“Hellhounds,” replied Taehyung simply. “Dogs that signal imminent death, basically. As I said yesterday, they’re totally invisible to people like me, but for you… well, it seems like I don’t have to tell you that you’re able to see ’em.”

Jimin nodded, keeping his eyes glued to the road. They were traveling on the highway now, and tall, intimidating trees guarded either side of the pavement as Jimin drove speedily down the leftmost lane.

“According to legend, anyone who looks a hellhound in the eyes more than once is pretty much guaranteed to die,” Taehyung continued. “And if you remember what I said yesterday about legends… well, let’s just leave it at the fact that it’s probably not good that you’ve already stared at one of the bastards once.”

Jimin tightened his grip on the wheel as he felt the lump in his throat expand. He thought back to the way the creature’s eyes had shone menacingly last night, seeming to stare right through the young man’s body and into the depths of his soul. The low growl it had emitted echoed through Jimin’s mind as he fought to maintain his sanity.

“Take that exit.” Taehyung pointed at the ramp directly ahead of them, and Jimin shifted lanes to position the car in front of it. “We’re almost there.”

“Can I ask where we’re going?” questioned Jimin, slowing the car down so he could pull the sedan smoothly off the highway.

They were diving through a fairly heavily wooded area now; the exit apparently leading to a small stretch of paved scenic road. The street itself ended in a large, circular parking area, and Jimin pulled into one of the unmarked spaces, all of which were vacant.

“That,” replied Taehyung, “is where you come in.”