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Kang Taehyun sat a glass of water with a lemon wedge on the rim down on table eight. Yup. Another glass of water. He barely managed to hide his annoyance when he asked, “You ready to order yet, sir?” “Sir?” The customer looked appalled. Even held his hand up to his chest like being called that was the worst offense. “You ready to order yet?” What else was Taehyun supposed to call him? “ Pal? ” The awkward term of endearment must have been acceptable because the customer lowered their raised eyebrow and then propped their elbow up on the table and leaned close. “You coming over this afternoon,” Choi Yeonjun asked. He grabbed the fresh glass of water, slid it closer to him and noisily slurped from the straw. “Come on, Taehyun. It’ll be fuuuuun .” Yeonjun and the word ‘fun’ was a dangerous combination if the number of times he’d been called to the principal’s office had anything to say about it. His bad boy reputation was quite surprising. He had a soft face and pouty lips and a habit of scrunching up his nose like he was readjusting cat whiskers or something but when he opened his mouth, you could hear his bad intentions rattle against the back of his teeth. “I’ll pass,” Taehyun shot him down gently. Again. This was getting frustrating. Taehyun wasn’t here to socialize, he was here to work. Yeonjun’s persistence wasn’t allowing him to do that. “You know… you can always ask anyone else .” Taehyun was tempted to get one of his coworkers to cover the table until Yeonjun decided to up and leave. Taehyun would even take the outdoor patio in this ungodly heat than put up with Yeonjun’s incessant invitations. “There will be pizza,” Yeonjun bribed him. “And ice cream. And… soda.” Definitely not soda. Taehyun pointed at the laminated menu on the table with his pen. “Can I interest you in an appetizer?” Wow. How'd he screw up the pronunciation of that so badly? Like he hadn’t heard, Yeonjun sang out, “Dad just cleaned the poooool .” “It’s March.” “It’s hot.” Unamused, Taehyun tried to sell food again. “Would you care to try one of our cold noodle bowls? Since it’s so hot out?” “You know you wanna be there.” Yeonjun shimmied his shoulders in some weird kind of dance. Taehyun sighed and glanced around. Nosy Soobin was way on the other side of the restaurant handling table fifteen, laughing all big and trying all hard. Even Soobin’s big ears wouldn’t be able to pick up on this conversation from that far away. Good. If the giant of a boy caught wind of a party then Taehyun wouldn’t hear the end of it for the rest of his shift. He turned to look back at Yeonjun and whispered, “Who all’s gonna be there?” Yeonjun smiled as his bait hooked the fish. “Just a small little get together.” He spun his straw in circles, making all of the ice clink against the glass. “Just a few people.” “Why do you want me to be there anyway?” Yeonjun shrugged nonchalantly. Taehyun rolled his eyes. They weren’t enemies but the two of them weren’t exactly friends, either. They just lived on opposite ends of the same street and maybe saw each other on their morning commutes if Yeonjun could get his butt out of bed on time for school. They didn’t even have the same circle of friends! Taehyun was shocked Yeonjun even knew his name... yet here the guy was, chatting him up at his place of work like they were best buds or something. As tempting as a pool party was, Taehyun knew something fishy when he smelled it. And on a weeknight, no less. “What’s your definition of a few people?” “A handful. Not a party or anything. Just a couple close peeps and some food. No pressure.” Taehyun wasn’t convinced. He was a close peep? On what planet? “I have homework,” he lied. “Do it later,” Yeonjun said quickly. He grabbed the lemon wedge off of the rim of his glass, stuck it in his mouth and bit directly into it without so much as flinching. Without so much as dropping eye contact. “I shouldn’t put it off. It’s Mr. Kim’s class,” Taehyun kept up his lie. “You know how he is.” Even with Spring Break next week. “You’re smart. You can handle it.” Yeonjun sounded so confident. Or maybe so laissez-faire . The sentiments could get really similar. Out of the corner of his eye, Taehyun saw Soobin start to walk back their way. If you somehow missed his height, there was no way you could miss his megawatt smile and handsome face. Many of their classmates, particularly the girls, came by the noodle shop specifically to be waited on by the guy. Soobin was getting really close now. Close enough to eavesdrop. Time to change the subject. Taehyun smiled brightly at Yeonjun and put on his best Customer Service voice. “Would you like to try our Manager’s Special? Limited time only.” “No thanks,” Yeonjun singsonged. He was at least aware enough of his surroundings to wait until Soobin had passed out of ear shot before speaking up again. “I just want you to come over.” This was getting nowhere. Taehyun said, “I’ll give you a few minutes to look over the menu.” He had other tables to tend to. He started to walk away. “Hold on,” Yeonjun started, reaching for him. Taehyun spun away from his hand. “I’ll be back when you’re ready to place an order.” He dashed across the restaurant, not stopping for a moment. He sank into a routine for a while, almost robotically moving and speaking. An older couple had sat down at table six so he greeted them and took their drink orders. Then he had to coax a tantrum-throwing child out of the bathroom stall. In the brief downtime afterwards, he folded some fresh-out-of-the-dishwasher silverware into clean napkins. Table five didn’t want dessert but needed their check, so he grabbed that for them. Table four, just arrived, needed a high chair for their screaming, hiccuping toddler. Taehyun swung by the kitchen to grab the spicy chicken bowl for the solo diner at table seven, then he circled back around to pick up the two vegetable dishes for table six. He managed to forget all about Yeonjun and was almost able to go back to having a normal shift, when- “Can I get a refill?” It was Yeonjun, holding out an arm to block Taehyun’s path. He smirked up at Taehyun and shook his empty water glass. “Not until you order an entree,” Taehyun stated in a firm voice. He’d already had the cost of a dine and dash snatched out of his paycheck this week. He was not about to give his manager another reason to chew him out. Especially not because of some table-hogging freeloader. It was only Wednesday, after all, and Taehyun liked to limit his disasters to every other day. That meant Yeonjun’s little idea had to wait until tomorrow. Or never. Yeah. Never was better. “Are you denying me a refill,” Yeonjun asked. His eyes went wide in exagerrated rage. “I’m a paying customer!” “No. You really aren’t.” Yeonjun giggled. Well, at least this was fun for one of them. “Then we’ll just sit here and stare awkwardly at each other until you say you’re coming over,” Yeonjun set the terms. Taehyun attempted to step around the older boy’s extended arm but didn’t quite have enough space to do so when Yeonjun leaned a bit out of his chair. Taehyun gasped. What was he doing ? He could just turn around and go the long way. Yeonjun must have sensed his intentions. “Wait,” he said. He held up his glass even higher. “Make it a soda. Is that better?” Soobin was on his way back up the aisle of square, wooden tables. Boy, he moved fast. Maybe it was because he was so tall and had such long legs. Or maybe it was because he was super desperate for Employee of the Month again. Soobin carried a stack of napkins in one hand and, in the other, he held a big dessert plate: a huge, double fudge brownie topped with vanilla ice cream. A classic. Taehyun snatched the empty glass out of Yeonjun’s hand. “Fine,” he grunted. Yeonjun leaned back in his chair and grinned, satisfied. When Soobin passed behind Taehyun, he asked, “Everything alright?” He didn’t slow at all. “Absolutely wonderful,” Taehyun deadpanned. “Just making sure,” Soobin shouted back, glancing over his shoulder at Taehyun with furrowed eyebrows. This was bad. Soobin was getting suspicious . And now he was lingering dangerously close by, striking up conversation with one of the tables in Taehyun’s section and clearly keeping his big ears pointed in the boys’ direction. “I’ll be right back with your random, unspecified soda,” Taehyun said, walking away from table eight. Yeonjun raised his voice, “Pepsi!” “Dr. Pepper? Coming right up,” Taehyun huffed. What was Yeonjun’s problem? They’d barely spoken five sentences to each other all semester and now the guy was pestering Taehyun about some ‘small get together.’ The guy had to have an ulterior motive. There was no other explanation. Taehyun turned the corner towards the fountain drink dispenser just as a blur of motion rushed into his field of view. “Hot plate,” tiny little Beomgyu called out, rushing away from the noodle bar. Instinctively, Taehyun stepped to the right to get out of the poodle-haired boy’s way. “You wanna take table eight for a bit,” he begged. “Can’t!” Beomgyu passed by him in a rush, his reddish-brown curls bouncing on top of his head as he jogged. The bowl on the tray he carried billowed steam and smelled like their pork-bone special. “Big party just came in. I’m going to die.” He was gone already. Taehyun sighed and approached the drink dispenser. He poured out the ice in Yeonjun’s old glass, dumped in a fresh batch of ice and hit the button for water. He even got a new lemon slice and stuck it on the rim. “You waste of time,” he told the glass, pretending it was Yeonjun. “Just go home already, you fleabag. I don’t even know you.” There. Now he felt a smidgen better. As he walked back across the dining room towards table eight, he realized just how crowded the restaurant had gotten in the few moments he was hung up with Yeonjun. A line had formed in the lobby as adults fresh off of work piled inside to get out of the unseasonably warm March afternoon. Two of the other waiters had helped Beomgyu slide about four tables together and the large party of what appeared to be salarymen fresh off the clock was already getting loud and boisterous even though the place didn’t serve alcohol. Taehyun had to get rid of Yeonjun and free up the table quick. He rushed to table eight and sat the glass of water down in front of the dude. “This is some extremely clear Pepsi,” Yeonjun retorted. “Zero calories,” Taehyun fired back, his patience wearing thin. “You coming over this afternoon,” Yeonjun asked for the dozenth time. There was something about his smile. Something whimsical and sparkly that almost won Taehyun over. Instead, he leaned across the table and pointed at one of the photographs in the center of the menu. He was going to try one more time. “Our specialty Seafood Bowl is made with imported lobster tail. It’s pricey but worth it.” “That’s nice,” Yeonjun said, not even pretending to glance at the menu. He kept his eyes locked on Taehyun’s, holding a really smug look on his face. This sort of half-smirk like he knew exactly how close he was to getting Taehyun in trouble. After all, he’d been sitting at the table for nearly half an hour now, ordering nothing but refills on his water and holding up Taehyun while the restaurant was in the middle of rush hour. The pure definition of evil. “Answer my question. You coming over? Your shift ends at six, right?” Taehyun glanced around until he spotted Soobin way over by table nineteen. A safe distance. He looked back down at Yeonjun. “I don’t want to go to your stupid party.” That should have been answer enough, but... “It’s not a party. It’s… a gathering of kindred spirits.” Ugh. “I’d rather brush my teeth and then swish right after with orange juice.” Yeonjun pulled a face like he’d been physically hurt. “Harsh, bro.” Soobin was coming back by. Taehyun accidentally made eye contact with him for a second too long and his desperation must have been clear on his face. Oooh. Soobin had absolutely no intentions of swinging by the kitchen this time. He was headed straight for them! Taehyun spun back towards Yeonjun. The fastest way to get rid of him was probably to just say yes. “Fine, I’ll be there,” he hissed in a low voice. The last thing he wanted was for this to get brought up in front of Soobin. If the giant found out about their plans, he’d make Taehyun go just so that he could tag along. “What time?” “No later than seven.” “Fine.” “Don’t be a no-show,” Yeonjun told him. “Or I’ll-” Soobin slapped his hand down on Taehyun’s shoulder in a jovial manner. “Good afternoon, y'all. There’s no problems here, right? Taehyun’s one of our best. He’s gonna get promoted to Shift Lead soon. I can smell it.” “Says who,” Taehyun griped. “This weather sure is something,” Soobin went on. “The temperature keeps going up and up!” Although Soobin was smiling all wide, there was a sharp edge to his voice that you could only pick up on if you’d worked with him for ten months. “You got any plans for the evening, Taehyun’s friend?” Taehyun started, “He’s definitely not my-” “I have a pool,” said Yeonjun. Dangerous words. World-ending. “That’s nice,” Soobin said. He turned his head and stared straight at the side of Taehyun’s face with wide, knowing eyes but the shorter boy did his best to act like he didn’t notice. “Yeah. It’s really nice,” said Yeonjun, casually swirling the ice in his glass around. Taehyun felt like he was being ganged up on. There was only one way out of this. He reached into the pocket of his apron and pulled out his notepad. To Yeonjun, he said, “Alright, I’m going to put an order in for a classic beef bowl. That alright?” Satisfied, somehow, Soobin slapped Taehyun’s shoulder again and walked away. Taehyun continued, “If you want to make that a set, it comes with-” “No need,” Yeonjun interrupted, his smirk getting all the more devious. “Check, please.” Taehyun groaned loud enough to attract the attention of the nearby table. “You didn’t order anything!” “I’ll leave a big tip.” Frustrated, Taehyun flipped his notepad closed and dropped it back in the pocket of his apron. “Just go. I need this table clear for the rush.” “You won’t regret coming,” Yeonjun said, standing up. “Something really interesting is going to happen tonight.” He didn’t even give Taehyun a chance to get properly creeped out by his words before he walked away, headed for the restaurant’s front doors. 🍽 Sometimes, when you worked in a hot, humid restaurant on a hot, humid day, the only place to cool down between tables was inside the literal, actual walk-in freezer. The big, metal door shut behind Taehyun and it didn’t take much longer for him to be surrounded in a refreshingly chilly fog. He breathed in the cold air and then exhaled it. He leaned against the tall shelf that carried all the delivered boxes of shrimp and salmon to give his aching knees a rest. Sheesh. He was way too young to be feeling this old. “I think I’m gonna call in sick tomorrow,” he muttered. Ugh. The afternoon rush had been crazy and full of equally foolish customers. Taehyun had to spend two full minutes explaining to a man that the numbers next to the description of the dishes were the calories, not the prices. Then he nearly got into an argument with a different customer because they were convinced he was trying to scam them with the total on their bill even though he had explained in the beginning that specialty drinks did not come with free refills. But despite all of the mess, one thing stuck out in Taehyun’s head. Soobin had mentioned that he was up for Shift Lead. Taehyun almost questioned how Soobin heard such information but with those ears of his, he could overhear anything. The vast amount of info that was at Soobin’s disposal was kind of terrifying. He could know anything . The news still amazed him, though. “Yoongi thinks I’m Shift Lead material?” It was a lot to take in. He had only been here about ten months. He was only seventeen. Wouldn’t Soobin make a better Shift Lead? At least he had a moment of peace alone to think about it. Then Taehyun heard a quiet sob from farther inside the freezer. Well, he thought he was alone. He pushed himself off of the shelf, walked further into the freezer and poked his head around a tower of stacked-up plastic crates. “Hello?” Beomgyu was leaning against the vegetable rack near the back, tears streaming down his face as his body shook with a held-back sob. Oh. Taehyun was tempted to walk back out of the freezer as quickly as he had come in but Beomgyu looked up at him and met his eye. “Hey,” the kid said with a wave that seemed too friendly and open considering the situation. Hesitantly, Taehyun returned the wave. Only a bit more stiffly. “You okay?” “I’m chill,” Beomgyu said with a nod. The words were barely out of his mouth before he sniffled again. Taehyun realized, in a rather bizarre moment of clarity, that his coworker was holding a plate of dessert. He pointed. “What’s that?” “Blackberry pie,” said Beomgyu. Wait. Hold on. “Yesterday’s special?” “Yeah.” “It’s over a day old and… you’re eating it?” It had more than likely been sitting in the display case since Tuesday morning, all room temperature and everything. “Might as well. They’ll just toss it out and it’ll go to waste so I’m eating it.” Beomgyu stabbed the dark lump of pie with his fork and stuck a chunk in his mouth, chewing slowly and savoring every bite. Taehyun couldn’t say too much. He’d stolen a few pie slices himself and, when he was desperate, finished off a customer’s half-eaten noodle bowl but, at the very least, he only nibbled on the things he knew had been prepared that day. But instead of questioning the morality of gobbling down day-old pie, Taehyun decided to ask an even bigger question: “Why are you crying?” Beomgyu didn’t even hesitate. “The pie is really good.” His answer was so absurd that Taehyun nearly laughed. Then he had to resist the urge to laugh all over again when he realized that Beomgyu was completely serious. He had to bite his tongue to ask, “Really?” The curly-haired boy stabbed another chunk of pie and raised it on his fork. “Want to give it a shot?” Taehyun didn’t want to and he probably shouldn’t, all things considered, but… “May as well.” He stepped forward and allowed Beomgyu to feed him the dessert. He bit the treat off of the end of the fork and chewed it. “It’s good but I don’t know why you’re cry-” The words stopped dead in his throat as the flavor really hit him. Mellow in the beginning but stronger and stronger as the berries dissolved on his tongue. The flavors were layered and complex. At first, there was a strong tartness. Almost bitter. Then sugary sweetness filtered through his senses. Before it ever got unbearably sweet, it mellowed out again. Taehyun even felt like he could pinpoint the individual ingredients, that’s how good it was. “Oh.” Beomgyu smiled at his reaction. “Working here makes me sick of looking at food sometimes, which is why I forget that our stuff is actually really good.” Taehyun knew the feeling. His fingers had been accosted by way too many soggy, slimy noodles floating in dirty dishwater for him to ever have much of an appetite while at work. “Wow.” Taehyun swallowed and felt the chilled pie slide down his throat to his tummy. “I think I might cry myself.” The freezer door swung open then, letting in bright light and letting out the cold air. Soobin stood there, cast almost entirely into silhouette. “No wonder nobody’s on the floor,” he commented. “Everyone’s hiding in here.” Soobin wasn’t their boss but Taehyun still couldn’t shake the shame of being caught slacking off red-handed. His mouth hung open as his brain scrambled to come up with an excuse for why they were loafing around with fifteen minutes left on their shift. But to Taehyun’s surprise, Soobin smiled and asked, “Can I join you?” “Well, you’re already in here,” Taehyun sighed. He folded his arms across his chest, getting chilly inside of the freezer for the first time. Soobin readjusted the collar of his dress shirt. “I think I accidentally ate a jalapeno,” he announced. Taehyun expected more to the story but Soobin just stood there. Beomgyu’s fork scraping against his plate broke the awkward silence. The tall boy looked at Beomgyu. “What do you have there?” Beomgyu shoveled the rest of his stolen blackberry pie into his mouth. “Nuffin to shee ‘ere,” he literally choked out. “Why are you crying,” Soobin asked. Beomgyu let out a muffled mess of syllables. “What did he say,” Soobin questioned, glancing in Taehyun’s direction. “It’s like his grandmother’s cooking,” Taehyun translated. He didn’t know how he understood. Suddenly, Soobin whirled on Taehyun, wagging a finger at him. A frown cut across his handsome face. “You.” Taehyun stood up straight beneath that frightening stare. Was he mad at them for sneaking off after all? Soobin slapped a hand down on Taehyun’s shoulder with far too much force. Then the frown on his face melted into a wide, toothy smile. “So we’re going to that pool party after work, right?” They were in the freezer but Taehyun was suddenly very warm. “How did you even hear-” “A pool party?” Beomgyu spoke up. He had only just managed to get all of that pie of his swallowed. “It’s March.” “It’s hot,” Soobin said with a grin, looking Taehyun dead in the eye. Those big ole ears of his could pick up anything . What a horrific talent! Taehyun raised a hand to his head to massage his temple. “I thought I was safe.” Soobin turned his attention to Beomgyu. “Are you coming, too?” “I don’t have anything else to do.” “He invited me, not you guys,” Taehyun cut in. Going to a party with his coworkers, of all things, didn’t sound like much fun at all... but going to a party with strangers couldn’t have been any better. “But if you insist…” Soobin cheered. “That’s more like it!” He grabbed both Beomgyu and Taehyun by their elbows and yanked them towards the freezer door. “Now, since I’ve got you here, come and help me with this big party before I lose my freakin’ mind.”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
“Which house is his?” Soobin wondered. He didn’t know where they were going but that didn’t stop him from walking in front. “Is it that one?” He pointed across the street to a quaint yellow and brick house. “No,” Taehyun told him. This was a bad idea. This whole thing. He shouldn’t have given in to Yeonjun’s pestering. “What about that one,” Beomgyu asked, pointing to the red-roofed home they were passing. “He lives at the end of the street,” Taehyun stated. “This isn’t the end of the street.” To be honest, they probably looked like weirdos walking down the sidewalk at twilight with their colorful swim trunks on and beach towels thrown over their shoulders. Soobin probably looked the oddest with a thick streak of sunblock across his cheeks and nose, his straw hat obnoxiously large. Beomgyu, on the other hand, lived too far away to go home and change clothes in such a limited amount of time, so Taehyun had let him borrow an old pair of shorts. “That’s his house for sure,” Soobin declared, waving towards a gray house that sat a little ways back from the road. “It’s not,” Taehyun told him. It had been oddly warm during the day, especially for March, but now that the sun was going down, the air was getting chilly. Definitely not the kind of weather to go swimming in. Taehyun wondered if it was too late to stop them. He couldn’t shake the feeling in his gut that tonight was going to be a trainwreck. Beomgyu readjusted his Ray Bans. “That house? Over there? With the overgrown garden?” Taehyun shook his head. “Do you guys not know what the end of a street is?” Determined, Soobin said, “Alright, then. It has to be that one.” It wasn’t. Taehyun sighed and fluttered a hand ahead of them in the direction of the one-story house with white siding that sat right at the corner of the subdivision. Trees grew up on nearly every side of it. The busy main road was on the other. “It’s that one. Geez.” Beyond the white house, a fancy metal sign welcomed people to the subdivision: Red Fox Hills. “Have you been here before,” Beomgyu questioned, trying to peer over the house’s wooden fence as they walked past. He wasn’t tall enough to see much. “I’ve never been in his house,” Taehyun explained, “but I walk past it all of the time to catch the bus.” He glanced at the fence more out of caution than curiosity. “And nine times out of ten, when I walk by, he’ll rush up to the fence and yap at me like a dog or something.” They all heard a loud thump from beyond the wooden fence. Then Yeonjun hoisted himself halfway over the fence and shouted, “Sup!” His appearance was so sudden, Taehyun yelped. “Right on time,” Yeonjun said with a grin. His hair was wet and droplets of water still dripped from his cheeks and neck. He must have just gotten out of the pool. He looked from Soobin to Beomgyu before his eyes settled on Taehyun. “Yes! I knew I smelled you. I mean, I knew I heard you talking. I mean... yeah .” “Huh?” Taehyun blinked up at the dude. “Uhh, good evening,” Yeonjun tried again. “Hi,” Beomgyu called back. “It’s okay if we tag along, right,” Soobin spoke up. “We kinda made Taehyun bring us.” “It’s cool,” Yeonjun said. “In fact, I knew you’d come. I had a feeling.” He let out a grunt of effort. He was clearly straining to hold himself up over the top of the fence. “Come around the side,” he said. He jerked his head towards the corner of the fence. “I’ll let you in.” Then he dropped back behind the white wood and was gone from sight. “Seems like a nice guy,” Beomgyu stated. “If a little… what’s the word I’m looking for… untamed.” “Oh, that’s right,” Taehyun spun around to look at him. “You don’t go to our school. You wouldn’t know him.” Then he took a moment to think about it. “Maybe that’s a good thing. He’s trouble.” Beomgyu frowned a little. “He’s trouble but we’re going to his house.” “The kind of trouble that’s fun ,” Soobin corrected. “You only live once and all that jazz.” Taehyun started walking back the way they came so that he could lead them around the fence. “The kind of trouble that gets him in detention.” Soobin had stars in his eyes. “He’s like the most popular guy at our school.” “Because he’s a public menace,” Taehyun cut in. “Because he’s cool .” Soobin clapped his hands together. Beomgyu didn’t know what to make of this conflicting information. “Well… As long as there’s food.” They followed the white wooden fence around the corner until they came to a wide-open gate. Yeonjun was already there, holding it open for them and waving excitedly. “Hurry,” the guy said. “Everything’s gotta be in place by sundown.” “What are you talking about,” Taehyun questioned. “Just come on.” Yeonjun insisted. “Ooh, this sounds exciting!” Soobin bounded forward and rushed through the gate. More casually, Beomgyu walked through it. With even less motivation, Taehyun followed behind. “I just think it’s so interesting,” Yeonjun whispered to Taehyun as he walked by, “that the three of you are friends.” His words were like feathers in the air. Their edges were round and soft but feeling them brush past sent a chill up Taehyun’s spine. He wrapped his beach towel more snugly around his body. “What’s that supposed to mean?” Yeonjun slammed the gate shut behind them. There was that look on his face again. That sly, half-smirk like he knew something dangerous or troubling or exciting was a moment away from happening. “Nothing,” he sang out. To the others, he said, “Quickly. This way to the pool!” He waved his arms energetically and then jogged away. The three of them followed after the older boy. He led them around to the very back of the house, where the tall pine trees reached up and up over the wooden fence and blocked out half of the pink, dusky sky. Cool shadows stretched over the flower boxes and the grass, turning everything dark and purplish, but that didn’t change the fact that there was a mildly hazy glow in the air. Something close to a shimmer . Probably a trick of the sideways light of the setting sun, Taehyun decided. He cast his doubts aside and followed the others. The grass tickled his ankles as his flip-flops slapped his heels. The electro pop music in the air grew louder and louder until Taehyun realized why the noise sounded so lifeless. There were no other voices. No shouts. No splashes of water. No laughter. It was the quietest pool party he’d ever been to. Yeonjun raised his arms to encompass the strip of grass behind his house that had the nerve to call itself a ‘yard.’ “Welcome to the party of the century!” “Hmmm,” Beomgyu hummed. He pulled his Ray Bans off of his nose and propped them up on his curly hair. “I… Hmm. This is… Well-” He squinted as if to get a better look but it may not have helped him understand what he was seeing. “Ummm. Okay. Clearly, this is… I mean.” Taehyun, on the other hand, knew exactly what he wanted to say: “He thinks we’re idiots.” Soobin stuck his tongue in his cheek and got lost in thought for a few moments before letting out a “Huh,” that was closer to sounding impressed than to confused. Yeonjun smirked. “Just give it a moment to sink in. I know it’s a lot.” “It’s a lot of bull,” said Taehyun quickly. “Awww, where’s your enthusiasm,” Yeonjun loudly asked, stepping around the pool before turning around to face them. Taehyun rolled his eyes, “At home where I left it.” “The party’s in full swing now!” Yeonjun told them. “We couldn’t get this thing going without you.” Beomgyu still didn’t know what to say. “Hmmm… I kinda- Well, if you look at it this way…” “Do you even know what a party is,” Taehyun had to ask. Yeonjun laughed. Short and sweet and high like a bell ringing. “Of course, silly. I’m the king of parties.” Then he straightened out his face. “I just needed your help to make this one special.” Taehyun was flabbergasted. “ My help? But there’s nothing-” “No,” Yeonjun interrupted him. He wagged his finger. “There’s something only you can do.” The sun set a bit more. The shadows stretched a bit farther. There was less pink in the sky. More blue. The stars were white and clear and a bit too bright, a bit too close. It almost seemed like they were floating just above their heads, getting all nestled and cozy in the treetops. The coolness of the spring evening was settling over them properly. As hot as it had been that afternoon, it definitely wasn’t hot enough for a dip in the pool now. And ‘dip’ was probably a very generous term here. “We can still have a fun time,” Beomgyu suggested, at long last getting a handle on his words. “And there’s gotta be pie around here somewhere.” “Maybe,” Yeonjun said, “I can arrange something. What flavor?” Beomgyu wrinkled up his forehead a little as he thought it through. “Can’t go wrong with apple.” If there was a pie somewhere, Yeonjun did not move to go get it. Soobin’s flip-flops made a squeaking noise as he shifted his weight from one foot to the other. “This will be fun, you guys.” He swung out an arm and slapped Taehyun on the shoulder. “Lighten up! We’re not at work. Y'all don’t have to be so stiff.” Taehyun rolled his eyes. He was stiff because he was worried. Something about this whole thing made him grit his teeth with nervousness. Yeonjun eased himself down into a lawn chair that sat dangerously close to the pool’s edge. “I almost thought you guys wouldn’t show.” He crossed one leg over the other at the knee. His swim trunks were as bright as a highlighter and his shirt announced that ‘Life’s A Beach.’ “Feel free to let loose.” Let loose? Psh. “I’m going home.” Taehyun spun around to leave but Beomgyu halted him by side-stepping into his way. “We’re already here,” the curly-haired boy told him, as if that was reason enough. “But this is a sham,” Taehyun complained. “He’s playing us for fools.” “Oh, come on, Tae-Tae,” Soobin said with a pout. “It’s everything he said it would be! There’s a pool… and there’s food… and there’s a small number of people here.” Yeonjun nodded his head vigorously in agreement. He pointed at Soobin from across the pool. “This guy understands .” “If we leave,” Beomgyu piled the guilt on thick, “he’ll be lonely.” “Good,” Taehyun stated. “It’ll be what he deserves.” “I can hear you, you know.” Yeonjun seemed completely unbothered. Beomgyu forcefully spun Taehyun back around and pushed him farther into the yard. “Let’s at least stay for the food.” Taehyun let out one last huff. “This is embarrassing.” And it was. The pool in question was some inflatable kid’s thing hardly deep enough to reach their calves. The food was a single box of pineapple and ham pizza, a carton of fudge ice cream and a two liter of orange soda lined up on top of a picnic table that sat closer to the house’s back door. The ‘few people’ that Yeonjun had promised, the ‘small little get together’ he spoke of was... just the four of them. “It’s not embarrassing, it’s fuuuun ,” Yeonjun corrected. He grinned wide and then took a noisy slurp of his drink. “Come on, guys. It’ll be good to relax after that nightmare of a shift.” Beomgyu pulled his towel off of his shoulders and then laid it down on the grass. Then he stepped out of his shoes. He swung one leg over the edge of the pool and then the other. He sat down in the shallow water for a few seconds before looking up and saying, “It’s nice.” That’s all Soobin needed to hear. “A pool’s a pool.” He kicked off his flip-flops and tossed his own towel off of his shoulders but kept his ridiculous straw hat on. When he sank down into the pool, water sloshed over the plastic sides and into the dirt. He was so tall he couldn’t even stretch his legs out all of the way, needing to keep them bent at the knees. He looked up at Taehyun. “Come on in. The water’s fine.” Against his better judgment, Taehyun dropped his own towel to the grass, approached the pool and stepped into the lukewarm water. When he sat down, there was barely enough room to wedge his body between Soobin’s bony elbows and the edge of the pool. Now that he was in it, he felt even more ridiculous. “Not a word of any of this at school,” Taehyun hissed in Soobin’s ear. Not keeping his voice down at all, Soobin spun to him and said, “And pass up the opportunity to say I went to one of Yeonjun’s pool parties?” Taehyun shook his head in disbelief. “This can’t be classified as a pool party.” “Okay, well one of Yeonjun’s parties, then,” Soobin amended. Taehyun opened his mouth to shoot him down but Soobin rushed to speak over him. “An exclusive gathering that Yeonjun only invited a few people to.” An unbelievable story... but when it came right down to it, that’s exactly what this was. Taehyun sat up straight and stiffened as realization hit him. “Wait, hold on. This was never going to be some big thing, was it?” His eyes went wide as he stared up at Yeonjun. The older boy still sat on his lawn chair, sipping from his glass of soda, smirking like he knew something was about to happen . From the size of the pool to the lack of refreshments, there was no way Yeonjun had invited as many people as Taehyun feared he had. Taehyun continued, “From the very start, it was just going to be us .” He pointed to his friends and then himself. Yeonjun nodded and then stirred his glass with the straw. “I told you before. It’s just a gathering of kindred spirits.” Whatever that meant. “I’m going home,” Taehyun determined. “I probably won’t see you guys at work tomorrow.” He attempted to stand but Soobin slung an arm over his shoulders to keep him still. “Don’t be rude.” With his other hand, he scooped up a tiny bit of water and splashed it over Taehyun’s torso. “We’re at one of Yeonjun’s parties.” That still didn’t make Taehyun feel any better. In fact, he was even more sure of the fact that this was some kind of trap or prank. Beomgyu made himself a bit more comfortable in the pool, curling and uncurling his toes. “Can you hand me that carton of ice cream?” A brief moment of silence. “Please?” “Sure,” Yeonjun said. He sat his glass down on the table and then stood up. Soobin also didn’t seem to find any of this strange. “I’d love a slice of pizza but I’m not that big a fan of meat.” “I can make it work,” Yeonjun called out as he walked. Taehyun watched him walk away, his eyebrows furrowed and his lips curled down into a scowl. Yeonjun reached the picnic table where their meager meal was laid out. He grabbed a spoon and the carton of ice cream with one hand and then lifted a napkin and a slice of pizza with the other. He turned to look at the boys over his shoulder. “Did you want anything, Taehyun?” Taehyun gulped. The shimmer in the air that he’d chalked up to a trick of the light earlier only seemed to be getting brighter and brighter as the light of the sun dimmed. There was no mistaking it now. How could Beomgyu and Soobin not see it? Orbs of light twinkled and dimmed around the yard as if there were a swarm of fireflies darting between the leaves of the trees and bushes. More than that, there was a tingly sensation floating over Taehyun’s skin. Something dangerous had just happened. Or perhaps something magical. “Yeah,” Taehyun eventually got out. “I’d love a question. Whoops. I mean, I’d love to ask a question.” “Alright. But before you ask, can I get a question in first?” Yeonjun came back towards the pool. He looked… off. The same but different . Was it his hair? Yes. It was his hair. A minute ago, it had been dripping wet as if he’d dunked his head under the water. Now it looked perfectly dry. The reddish brown curls framed his face. A few of the strands seemed to sparkle. Taehyun shut his eyes, put the heels of his palms against them and gently rubbed. When he lowered his hands, the sparkle that surrounded Yeonjun hadn’t faded at all. “Sure,” Soobin stated. “Ask us anything.” Yeonjun handed something to Beomgyu. It should have been the spoon and the carton of ice cream but, to Taehyun’s surprise, it was a spoon and a big slice of warm apple pie on a plate. “Thanks a bunch,” said Beomgyu, not finding it strange at all that Yeonjun had been holding a carton of ice cream mere seconds ago. Yeonjun stepped a little bit more around the pool and handed the napkin and slice of pizza to Soobin. “Ooh, my favorite,” the tall boy exclaimed. By all means, the pizza should have been pineapple and ham, because that’s what had been in the box, but as Soobin took a gluttonous bite, Taehyun could clearly see that the toppings on the slice were olives, tomato chunks, mushrooms and jalapenos. “Don’t get anything in the water,” Yeonjun warned with a playful laugh, stepping around to the opposite side of the pool. The sun was completely set now. There wasn’t a hint of pink left in the sky but the air was so bright with twinkling stars that Taehyun could still clearly see. He was able to get a good look at Yeonjun’s face as the boy stepped into the pool and sat down facing the trio. Soobin tried his best to fold his legs out of the way but the pool obviously wasn’t made to fit all of them. Yeonjun’s body took up what little space was left. He pushed his feet firmly against Taehyun’s side. Beomgyu prompted, “Okay then, what’s your question?” Yeonjun leaned back against the pool edge casually as if there was nothing wrong with the fact that fox ears were very noticeably jutting out of the top of his head. “I was just wondering…” he said, fixing his eyes on Taehyun as if asking him and no one else, “...if any of you would be willing to die for me?”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
I was just wondering if any of you would be willing to die for me?
Taehyun scoffed. What an absurd proposition! No one in their right mind would think that was a good idea. “Oh, that sounds like a splendid idea,” exclaimed Beomgyu, speaking around a mouth full of apple pie. Now there was whipped cream on it. There hadn’t been whipped cream before. Taehyun turned his head to look at his curly-haired friend. “Huh?” Beomgyu’s face was all smiles but there was a hint of seriousness in his eyes. He didn’t seem to be playing around. Taehyun turned back to Yeonjun. This had to be a joke. He asked, “Like… figuratively die for you? Metaphorically die?” Yeonjun shrugged nonchalantly. “Literally die.” Taehyun let out a laugh. This was so stupid! Even if this wasn’t some weird prank, none of them had a reason to be onboard with such an idea. “I’d love to!” Soobin’s eyes lit up. Now Taehyun was properly weirded out. Were they even having the same conversation? He elbowed Soobin in the side. “Did you even hear what he asked?” “Of course,” replied Soobin. He took another bite of his pizza and chewed it with his mouth open. “He asked us to die for him. Isn’t that great? Yeonjun asked us to die for him! I’m going to be so popular.” This had to be a game. They were all in on it! “Okay, Yeonjun. Stop fooling around.” Taehyun leaned forward. There wasn’t much distance between himself and Yeonjun to begin with but now there was nearly none. “Whatever this is, you won. Can you guys stop pretending?” A little touch of purplish-pink was coming back into the sky above them. That should have been impossible because the sun had already set. Yeonjun tilted his head and glanced up at the sky as if seriously considering Taehyun’s question, then he looked back down at the boy. “I’m not playing any games. I’m asking a serious question with serious implications.” Taehyun glanced over his shoulder at his friends. At first, he thought they were acting but now it was obvious to him that they were under the influence of… something . The two of them continued to eat their food like they didn’t have a care in the world. Taehyun turned back to Yeonjun. He was angry before but now he was a little bit scared. “What did you do to them?” After a moment, Yeonjun said, “Nothing. I just treated them like my honored guests.” Taehyun frowned. “What? How?” “Beomgyu wanted apple pie so I gave him apple pie. Soobin wanted veggies on his pizza so that’s what I gave him.” Yeonjun narrowed his eyes. “You, Taehyun… I can’t figure out what you want.” “I don’t want anything you can give me.” “Really?” Yeonjun questioned him. “Even if I can give you anything?” “ Especially because you can give me anything.” Yeonjun nodded slowly. He mumbled, “I see,” as if that were the answer he’d been waiting to hear from Taehyun all along. Satisfied, he raised a hand and wiggled his fingers. The tiny little stars floating through the air around them seemed to get closer and closer. Although they shone with a bright blue light and flickered like flames, they gave off no heat. In fact, their light only added to the chill in the night air. Taehyun risked taking his eyes off of Yeonjun to look at the foxflames as they danced across the yard. Whenever the orbs of cold fire sank into the dirt, a flower would bloom in their place. Pink flowers. Blue ones and yellow ones. Purple ones. Flowers Taehyun knew and flowers he didn’t recognize. More and more of them grew until the yard was full of spring blossoms and the air grew sweet with the scent of their nectar. An orb floated above the pool and, like he was trying to catch soap bubbles, Taehyun reached up and grabbed it. It let out the faintest pop and then turned into a long-stemmed flower with pretty white petals. It didn’t make logical sense at all but Taehyun had seen the transformation with his own eyes. He could smell it with his nose and feel it with his hands. The flower was real. It had weight and took up space and no matter which way he held the flower, it seemed to turn its petals, ever so slightly, in Yeonjun’s direction. Taehyun looked up at Yeonjun and stared hard at the boy’s smug, knowing face. At his furry, twitching dog ears. He said firmly, “You aren’t going to trick me like you tricked my friends.” “Trust me,” Yeonjun said. “I’ve been trying to since I came by the noodle shop earlier today but you seem to be... immune to me.” “And I bet that pisses you off.” “No. That makes it even clearer to me that it has to be you. I tried to make you… but I think it’ll be that much more powerful if you choose to do this.” It was Yeonjun’s turn to lean forward. He got right up in Taehyun’s face, leaving only a breath of a gap between them. “You have to be the one I share my life with.” This was too much! Taehyun pulled away so quickly that a bit of the water in the pool sloshed over the sides. He lowered his gaze. Anything to keep from looking straight into Yeonjun’s brown eyes. “You’re out of your mind.” “Maybe so,” Yeonjun commented, “but I’m desperate and need a favor, Taehyun.” Taehyun stared at the flower in his hands. It seemed to be a lily. Glowing ever so faintly and warm to the touch. Slowly, Taehyun looked back up at Yeonjun. “What can I possibly do for you? I mean, what could you possibly need me for?” “My life is in danger and I am scared.” Yeonjun seemed completely serious about all of this. His bad boy persona had fallen away and, in the weird, blue light that floated around them, he looked like a shaking puppy. The furry ears on top of his head drooped as the smirk on his face melted into a frown. “I am being hunted,” he said. “There are people in this world who want to cut off my hands, slice up my tails and rip open my stomach to steal my magic bead.” “Wow that’s…” Taehyun gulped. “...that’s violent.” “It’s what I get for being born like this.” “Like… this?” “A gumiho,” Yeonjun explained. “A nine-tailed fox. A creature of magic.” Taehyun glanced at his friends again. They had to be hearing this nonsense, right? They had to think this was silly, right? But his friends didn’t seem bothered by the turn of this conversation in the slightest. Really, they weren’t paying any attention to anything but the food in front of them. Beomgyu should have been finished with his slice of pie long ago but the more he scooped into his mouth, the more seemed to appear on the plate. Even Soobin seemed no closer to finishing off his slice of pizza than he was when he first started. It was impossible but Taehyun was slowly starting to accept what was impossible. It was magic. The perpetual supply of snacks was Yeonjun’s attempt to keep Beomgyu and Soobin out of the conversation. The things going on here, the discussion that was happening, was meant to be only between Yeonjun and Taehyun. Right here and right now. Yeonjun gave him a smile. An honest one. “I need you, Taehyun.” Taehyun shook his head. Magic or no magic, what Yeonjun was asking of him was ridiculous. “You need me to… die in your place?” He threw the lily in his hands at Yeonjun. It bounced harmlessly off of his shoulder and fell to the ground. “You need to let those people hunt me instead of you?” “No. I plan to fight my own battles. I’ll even do what I can to keep your buddies safe but... you must be willing to die for me or the magic won’t work.” Yeonjun raised a hand to his mouth and coughed. Once, twice. Three times. Four. Each one sounded more wet and gross and painful than the last. Instinctively, Taehyun slid away, but he couldn’t get too far inside the tiny, inflatable pool. Yeonjun lowered his hand from his mouth. On his palm was a perfectly round jewel of some kind. It was almost white but seemed to shimmer with every imaginable color like an opal. “Look at this,” Yeonjun said. “It’s my magic bead. Basically my heart.” He turned it over and over in his hands. The glow at the center of the jewel seemed to pulse on a steady rhythm not too different from a heartbeat. “As long as this is outside of my body, they can hurt me all they want but I’ll never be truly dead.” Taehyun watched Yeonjun for several seconds. He found this all hard to believe but, even as he sat there and watched, he couldn’t help but start to wonder. He couldn’t help but question . The jewel in Yeonjun’s hand was more beautiful than anything he’d ever seen and all he wanted to do was hold it in his hands and cherish it. Images seemed to float across its surface. Taehyun didn’t know how he knew this, but he could tell just by staring hard enough that the pictures he saw were Yeonjun’s memories. His life. “I need you to keep my heart safe, Taehyun,” Yeonjun stated. “You’re immune to magic. If they try to trick you, you’ll see through it just like you’ve been doing all night.” Taehyun wondered if he was dreaming. He wondered if he had fallen asleep on the living room couch while waiting on Soobin and Beomgyu to change into their swim trunks. “And if I refuse?” Yeonjun didn’t even hesitate to glance over at Soobin. “Then I’ll use your rabbit friend.” Already, he was leaning forward, raising his shining heart towards Soobin’s blank face. Quickly, Taehyun sat up and raised an arm to block Yeonjun from getting close to him. “Fine,” he grunted. “I’ll keep your heart safe.” Yeonjun smirked. There was a satisfied glint in his eyes as if this, too, were part of his plan. “Alright then.” Taehyun glanced at the shining jewel. Even if he couldn’t believe it was Yeonjun’s beating heart, it still looked like a very expensive jewel. Something bigger than what a celebrity would wear. Heck, it looked like something that would be kept behind glass and security lasers at a museum! “I can put it at the back of my closet,” he suggested. Yeonjun shook his head. “It’s a heart, Taehyun. You can’t just toss a heart any old place. You have to keep it on you.” “What? You want me to wear it on a necklace or something? It looks like it’s as heavy as a brick!” “I misspoke,” Yeonjun said. “You have to keep it in you.” Okay. Cool. Hold up hold up hold up. “What?” Yeonjun shrugged casually. “It’s a heart, after all.” They sat in silence for a long moment. The world around them continued to shine but even Taehyun could see that the light was beginning to waver and dim. Yeonjun hadn’t said anything about it, but Taehyun simply felt like they were running out of time for this to work. If he didn’t do this now, if he didn’t agree to these ridiculous terms, who knows what would happen to his friends. “Fine,” Taehyun decided firmly. “Anything to make you break your spell on Soobin and Beomgyu.” “So you do want something from me.” Taehyun fumed. “Don’t get cocky. I only want my friends. Just give me your heart and stop whatever it is that you’re doing to them.” Yeonjun nodded. “Okay.” He raised his shining heart to his mouth and placed it between his pointy teeth. Taehyun didn’t realize what Yeonjun was about to do until the older boy leaned forward and propped his hands up on Taehyun’s knees. “Hey now,” Taehyun protested, sitting up straight. Yeonjun pulled the jewel out from between his teeth. “How else am I supposed to do this?” Taehyun suggested, “Shove it directly into my chest?” This got a chuckle out of Yeonjun. “You wouldn’t live through that.” This was embarrassing. Taehyun felt his cheeks get hot. Why did it have to be a kiss? He’d prefer anything else. “Okay, then,” he surrendered. “Do it the less lethal way if you have to.” Yeonjun placed the jewel back between his teeth and leaned forward. His dog ears perked up on top of his head. He now also had… a fox tail? Reddish-orange in color just like his hair. Smooth and silky and graceful. Taehyun just had to make sure this wasn’t a costume or something. It could just be a very realistic headband. He raised up his hands and pulled hard on the ears protruding up out of Yeonjun’s curly hair. The boy let out a squeak of pain and then winced. Even Taehyun jerked his hands back, startled. The ears were warm and soft to the touch and he’d felt them jerk beneath his fingertips as the muscles twitched. Were they… real ? Like… really real? Yeonjun pulled the jewel out of his mouth again. “That hurt, you know.” Now he had two tails. Three. They flitted this way and that behind him as he sat up out of the pool and pressed ever closer to Taehyun. “No more interruptions,” he warned. “Or it’ll be too late.” Taehyun gulped and nodded. He finally allowed himself to relax. This wasn’t too bad, was it? Yeonjun put the jewel between his teeth one last time. Now he had four tails. Five. Six. More and more of them kept sprouting from his lower back just like the flowers had kept sprouting from the ground around them. Taehyun watched the older boy lean closer and closer. Instinctively, he parted his lips as Yeonjun’s body heat swept over him. Now Yeonjun had seven tails. Eight. Nine of them. They flourished behind him, beautiful and otherworldly. The remaining orbs of foxflame in the air hovered above the tips of Yeonjun’s tails, glowing brighter and brighter as if pulling the rest of the magic out of the air. The pink left the sky. The air lost its haze. The flowers wilted and vanished. Yeonjun pressed his mouth to Taehyun’s. His lips were damp and cool. He used his tongue to guide the jewel into Taehyun’s mouth. It should have been too big to swallow whole but Taehyun gulped and it slid down his throat as easy as water. The taste it left behind was tart but pleasant. Like watermelon. Taehyun felt cold on the inside. Then he felt warm. Comfortable. Full. Complete. There was a loud, high-pitched whistle from right next to Taehyun’s ear. He opened his eyes--when had he even closed them?--and shoved Yeonjun away. The whistler was Soobin. He wiped his mouth with his empty napkin. “Wow, I look away for a second ,” he laughed. Beomgyu dropped his spoon in the empty carton of ice cream he was holding. “Taehyun and Yeonjun sittin’ in a tree,” he sang out. Soobin immediately joined, “K-I-S-S-I-N-G!” “Shut up,” Taehyun groaned out, leaping out of the pool as if the water were suddenly boiling. “That’s not what that was!” He glanced around the yard. All of the sparkling lights had vanished. Only the porch light was on, now, illuminating them in yellow. Even Yeonjun looked normal. No sign of his ears or his tails or his pointy teeth. Taehyun wiped his hands over his mouth as if that would help at all. He fruitlessly explained, “He just wanted to share his heart with me!” “Awww,” Soobin cooed. “I didn’t know you were such a romantic.” “I’m not!” Taehyun shouted. “I thought you didn’t like him,” Beomgyu asked. Taehyun nodded. “I don’t!” “Didn’t look like you hate him to me.” Soobin made obnoxious kissing noises. Taehyun slid his feet into his flip-flops and grabbed his towel off of the grass. He wrapped the thick terry cloth around his torso to fight away the chill of the night. “I don’t want to hear anything else about this,” he told them. “I’m going home.” He turned around to head towards the gate. He just wanted all of this to be over! He wanted to forget this all had happened. Yeonjun called after him, “Taehyun!” Knowing it was a bad idea, he stopped and turned around. Yeonjun leaned back against the side of the pool. That dastardly smirk of his was back on his face as if he’d still managed to successfully trick Taehyun into all of this. “You have my heart now,” he stated, going out of his way to make his voice all soft, “so that means I can’t stay too far away from you for long.” Soobin and Beomgyu turned to look at each other and, even from this distance, Taehyun could see them waggle their eyebrows. “First comes love,” Soobin continued their childish song. “Then comes marriage,” Beomgyu carried on. “Shut up,” Taehyun interrupted. “Then comes baby in the baby carriage,” the boys finished. Their giddy laughter followed Taehyun all of the way out of the yard.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
“Order up!” Hoseok, the head chef, bellowed from the grill. “Two mannies! Two spotted cows!” Two Manager’s Specials. Two regular beef bowl sets. Taehyun paused his refilling of the salt and pepper shakers, hopped off the stool and headed over to the noodle bar to pick up the order. Hoseok sat the steaming bowls up on the bar in a neat and orderly row. He was a tall man with a rectangular face and, even underneath his apron, his sculpted build was apparent. “Don’t take this the wrong way,” he said with a smile, “but… you look like you’re glowing.” For a long moment, Taehyun thought he was talking to somebody else-- anyone else--but when he looked up, Hoseok was looking straight at him. “Sparkling,” Hoseok added with a flutter of his fingers. “Huh?” Taehyun raised a hand to his cheek as if to check for a fever. The chef blinked a few times and then shook his head. “Nevermind. That’s- Sorry.” He returned his attention to the stove. “Maybe it’s just time for my lunch break. Been standing over this heat for too long.” “Okay. I guess.” Taehyun pushed the odd comment out of his mind and focused on the bowls of noodles. The beef still sizzled a little and the chili sauce in the broth of the Manager’s Specials had a delightfully sour tang to the smell. Ramen was best served when it was smoking hot so Taehyun set to work quickly loading up a serving tray. As he did so, Beomgyu came up beside him and propped his elbows up on the counter. “Your boyfriend’s in my section. Want me to move him to table one?” He grinned expectantly. Taehyun was a pretty logical guy. Life was at its best when he made decisions based on established facts. He didn’t really like believing in what he couldn’t see but he loved to believe in things that he could feel. Not emotionally feel but physically. Things that he could grab onto. Like fox ears. “ Hellooooo ,” Beomgyu called out, waving a hand in front of Taehyun’s face. Taehyun turned his head to look at the guy. “Are you talking to me?” Beomgyu huffed impatiently. “Yes! Who else?” “I don’t know,” Taehyun began, “someone who has a boyfri-” His words came to a sudden halt when he glanced past Beomgyu and spotted Yeonjun sitting by himself at table ten. The two of them made eye contact from across the dining room and Yeonjun gave a carefree wave. Taehyun groaned in frustration. “Don’t move him. He can stay in your section.” But, more importantly, “And he’s not my boyfriend.” This made Beomgyu puff out his bottom lip in a pout. “If you say so.” He turned around and started back towards the floor. “I’ll say you’re busy.” “Tell him I’m not here.” “But… he can see you,” Beomgyu called over his shoulder. Taehyun reiterated, “Tell him I didn’t come into work today.” He knew he was being mean and saying it loud enough for Yeonjun to hear but maybe the dude would get the hint and leave. Taehyun hoisted the serving tray up on his left shoulder and started the trek across the restaurant. Beomgyu rushed up to Yeonjun’s table. Even from a distance, Taehyun heard him say, “Taehyun told me to tell you that he’s not here.” Taehyun rolled his eyes and kept walking. At this odd hour in the afternoon, the restaurant was almost empty. That meant nearly everyone heard Yeonjun shout, “Sup, Taehyun! Can you come here for a second?” The quiet that followed made the fact that Taehyun purposefully ignored him all the more obvious. He sat the serving tray down on table three and slid the bowls to their correct recipients, warning, “Watch your fingers. The bowls are hot.” They were regular customers; a group of middle-aged women who had been classmates in high school and who often came to the shop on Thursdays to catch up like old times. “You need anything else,” Taehyun asked them, tucking the empty serving tray beneath his arm. “Refills? Napkins?” The tallest of the women shook her head but politely said, “We’ll call you, honey.” “Alrighty.” With that, Taehyun left them to their meal. Table three was his only obligation at the moment so now would be the time to catch up on the more mundane parts of his job. He went back to the counter to finish refilling the salt and pepper, purposefully ignoring Yeonjun’s arm waving from several tables over. He sat down on a stool at the counter just as Soobin came out of the hallway. “You can tell Jimin had the morning shift,” the tall boy complained, wiping his hands off on his apron. “Didn’t we have a staff meeting just last week about the fact that you don’t use the red squirtbottle stuff in the bathrooms?” Maybe it was just the way the afternoon was going, but Taehyun had to ask, “Are you talking to me?” Soobin continued like he hadn’t heard. “That red stuff leaves ugly streaks all over the place!” He slapped a hand down on the counter. “Especially on the walls. It’s only for the kitchen. You use the blue stuff in the bathroom. It even says ‘bathroom cleaner’ on the label. What doesn’t he get?” “You okay there,” Taehyun asked him, raising an eyebrow. Soobin was usually a happy-go-lucky guy so for him to be upset about anything was quite rare. Taehyun screwed on the lid of a pepper shaker, fighting back the urge to sneeze. “Like… do you need a minute? Want to go outside?” Soobin must not have been done ranting. “I always have to do double work, cleaning up his mess and then actually cleaning the bathroom. He’s got me looking like I don’t know what I’m doing because he doesn’t know what he’s doing.” Taehyun slid one pepper shaker to the side and then reached for another to start refilling it. That reminded him. He needed to put more ice in the drink machine. “Maybe you should tell Yoongi.” “I did ! That’s why we had the staff meeting.” “Isn’t Jimin new?” “Kinda,” Soobin told him. “He worked here like three years ago but then went off to college. Now he’s back. I’m guessing. I don’t know. That’s what I heard.” Soobin leaned his weight against the counter and folded his arms across his chest. “He acts new. How do you not know how to clean a bathroom?” Taehyun shrugged and continued with his task, screwing on the lid of the pepper shaker he’d just filled. Bathrooms could be… messy. In more ways than one. He was thankful that he was assigned to cleaning up the trash on the sidewalk in front of the restaurant. At least there was only one correct way to do that. Soobin’s anger eased and he seemed to revert back to his usual self, showing off his dimpled smile. “Anyways, look at you!” He helped Taehyun out a little by wiping stray grains of pepper off the counter with a cloth. “Thought you said you were calling out today?” “I was going to,” Taehyun replied, “but then I thought about my paycheck.” “That’ll do it,” Soobin snorted back a laugh. He glanced over his shoulder to look in Yeonjun’s direction right as Beomgyu placed a glass of water on his table. “So,” Soobin sang out, “did you know that your boyfriend’s here?” “Is that what he calls us?” Soobin turned to face him. “Want me to move him to table one?” “He’s not my boyfriend.” Raising his hands in innocence, Soobin said, “Okay, okay. You don’t like labels. I get it.” Taehyun decided to change the subject. “How was last night? What did you guys do after I left?” “Nothing much. We joked around a little bit but it got too cold to sit in the water. Beomgyu and I left not too much later than you did.” Something clicked in Taehyun’s head. “Wow. I forgot to bring the clothes Beomgyu left at my house.” They were probably still folded up nice and neatly on top of his dresser. “At least I didn’t have his school uniform or anything.” “We can come by tonight and get them?” “It couldn’t hurt.” Taehyun finished refilling another pepper shaker, twisted on the lid and then slid it aside. He was on quite the roll today, barely spilling anything. The movements became second nature to him. Slide. Shake. Tilt. Pour. “But you can’t stay long. I have got to get this assignment done by tomorrow.” “Well, what did you do,” Soobin questioned. “After you left his place, I mean.” “Questioned my every life decision.” Soobin nodded slowly. “Makes perfect sense.” Taehyun still wanted to believe that the ‘pool party’ had just been a terribly lucid nightmare but if Soobin and Beomgyu were throwing around words as high-risk as ‘boyfriend’ than Taehyun hadn’t dreamt anything. “Did Yeonjun say anything weird while I was gone?” Soobin gave him a look. “What do you mean by weird?” Anything about jewel hearts or gumiho hunters or him having nine tails. Aloud, Taehyun asked, “What kind of pizza did you have?” Soobin seemed caught off-guard by the random question. “Pineapple and ham. But I picked all of the ham off. Why do you ask? Mad you didn’t eat anything?” “No.” So Yeonjun’s magic had tampered with their memories somehow? “I’m glad I didn’t eat anything.” “Why? Afraid of catching cramps?” “Yeah. That. Obviously.” Soobin leaned close to Taehyun’s face and stared at him. He didn’t say a word, though. Just stared. Taehyun raised a hand and pushed his face away. “What?” Soobin brushed Taehyun’s hand away from his cheek. “Maybe I’m seeing things but, like… you’re glowing, dude. Like the little guy who sits at the controls in your brain left the cabin lights on.” Okay. “You definitely inhaled the vapors of that cleaning solution,” Taehyun told him. “Take your fifteen minute break and get some fresh air.” He walked away. If he didn’t have any customers to wait on, he’d find something to do. Maybe mop or something. Or get the bug spray out and go to town on the lobby. Or-- “Taehyun.” Yeonjun’s voice vibrated into his skull. Taehyun stopped at table ten long enough to point an aggressive finger. “I’m not in the mood for games so can you go?” “I can’t,” Yeonjun stated. “I really can’t.” Taehyun groaned in annoyance and started to walk away but Yeonjun caught him by the sleeve. “You have my heart,” the older boy said. “And too much distance between my body and my heart hurts me.” It couldn't have been any cheesier if it were made from milk. “Awww, so cute,” Beomgyu sang out from over by the drink machine. “Shut it,” Taehyun shouted without looking over his shoulder. Beomgyu didn’t shut it. “Let me write that line down so I can use it on my future girlfriend.” He proceeded to pull his notepad and pen from out of his apron pocket. “Too… much… distance…” He hurriedly scribbled down the words. Taehyun ignored him. To Yeonjun, he whispered, “Let’s talk elsewhere. Establish some boundaries.” “Aye aye, Captain,” Yeonjun said with a mock-salute. Taehyun spun away and walked towards the side door that led to the outdoor patio seating area without even checking to see if Yeonjun was following him. Soobin called out to him as he walked by but Taehyun just shot back a “Cover for me!” He shoved open the door and stepped out into the weird March heat. The sky above was blue and cloudless. Some of the nearby trees were already beginning to bud. Spring really was coming early. Taehyun took a moment to glance around and make sure there were no customers seated out here. Every table was empty. Even the umbrellas were still closed. Good. First up, he had to ask the question that was burning the tip of his tongue. “Are we boyfriends?” The question didn’t sound ridiculous until it was out of his mouth and floating in the air. When only silence followed, he feared that he had rushed out here by himself. Humiliation pooled in his gut and, panicked, he spun around to race back inside but Yeonjun was indeed standing behind him. “Boyfriends?” Yeonjun repeated the word like he’d never heard of the concept. “We can if you want us to be.” There wasn’t a hint of mockery in his tone. “Do you want to be my boyfriend?” He shoved his hands in the pockets of his jeans and smiled as if seriously waiting for Taehyun’s answer. To Taehyun, it was a joke he was not about to walk right into. “No,” he said quickly. “I just… wanted to make sure you weren’t telling Soobin and Beomgyu weird things.” Yeonjun tilted his head to the side. “Weird things like what?” The wind picked up. It was surprisingly cool considering the heat of the day. The gust got caught in Yeonjun’s reddish hair and sent it billowing every which way. Taehyun held a hand up to his own dark hair to keep the long, straight locks in place. “I don’t know… Weird things like you not being human. And the whole fighting for your life thing. Have you told them about that?” “No. I haven’t,” Yeonjun answered when the wind died down. “Although they may wind up getting involved… because of who they are.” “What’s that supposed to mean?” A small bird landed on one of the nearby tables and Yeonjun turned to look at it, clearly not about to answer the question. Taehyun switched tactics. “Why did it have to be me? Why’d you give me your heart?” Yeonjun walked around Taehyun at a casual pace. Taehyun’s cautious gaze followed Yeonjun across the patio but the older boy didn’t do anything except make himself comfortable by sitting down on top of one of the tables. “You chose to accept it. Remember?” “Yeah... but you still clearly picked me.” “Out of convenience, honestly,” Yeonjun said. “I needed someone who was close to me.” “But we aren’t close. We barely know each other and-” “Physically close,” Yeonjun corrected. “I needed to keep my heart somewhere nearby. Someplace I was already close to so that nothing would seem out of the ordinary if I were being watched. You fit the bill. We go to the same school. Live on the same street. Share a commute, sometimes.” “So, really, it could have been anyone?” “Do you want to be special or not, Taehyun,” Yeonjun asked bluntly. It was such a large question that Taehyun couldn’t quite figure out how to answer it. If he said no, would Yeonjun take his heart back and find someone else to give it to? If he said yes, would Yeonjun make fun of him for being so desperate? Not knowing what else to say, Taehyun answered, “I want to be me.” They fell into silence. The bird on the table nearby took flight, joining a small flock of similar birds passing by. Yeonjun fixed Taehyun with one of his signature smirks, then, at long last, said, “Being close to you isn’t enough.” Taehyun’s eyes went wide. “Huh?” Yeonjun stood up and took a step towards Taehyun. “Even being right in front of you isn’t enough.” He took a second step forward, closing the gap between them. Cautiously, the waiter took a step back. Then another. And another. He ran his hip into one of the tables and yelped in surprise as Yeonjun continued to approach him. “What are you after?” “This is my first time giving my heart to someone else,” Yeonjun explained. “It’s the first time I’ve needed to, so it feels weird not having it where it always used to be.” “Well, if you want it back, you can take it.” “I can’t take it back,” said Yeonjun, coming to a halt directly in front of Taehyun. He leaned into the waiter’s face a little. “Not until it’s safe. Not until I throw these hunters off my tails.” He reached out and grabbed one of Taehyun’s smaller hands up in his own. The older boy’s skin was soft and cool against Taehyun’s warm, calloused fingertips and the sensation of contrast was so mesmerizing that Taehyun did not immediately pull away. Yeonjun continued, “Based on what I’ve read, being this close is supposed to help... but it’s not helping, for some odd reason.” “Helping with what,” asked Taehyun. He was still a bit taken aback by Yeonjun’s proximity. This was probably another one of Yeonjun’s tricks. One of his spells! Taehyun refused to give in. “Why do you have to get so close?” “The spell I cast last night separates my heart from my body but it’s only supposed to do it physically. I should still be able to access my magic... but I can’t.” Taehyun swallowed hard. It was like being told he’d gotten a failing grade on a test he’d studied hard for. “Am I doing something wrong?” Yeonjun shook his head vigorously. “Of course not.” “Then why isn’t the spell working like it’s supposed to?” “Trust me. It is.” That didn’t make Taehyun feel better, though. Sensing his distress, Yeonjun tightened his grip on Taehyun’s hand. It helped. Yeonjun said, “I thought that you were immune to magic but now I’m starting to think your skin simply keeps it from passing through. Or something. I think it’s preventing the magic from naturally… well, I don’t want to say leaking , but… This is so hard to explain. Ummm. Instead of passing through you, the magic’s just building and building up inside you. It’s even shining through a little. See?” He raised a hand and swiped his thumb across Taehyun’s jaw. Taehyun rolled his eyes, not quite understanding. Then he slid a few of the puzzle pieces together. He gasped. “Is that why everyone’s lost their mind and is telling me I’m glowing?” “It’s definitely not because of your shining personality,” Yeonjun chuckled. “But if it’s noticeable to regular people, the hunters who are after me will definitely see it and know that you’re a part of all of this.” “So I am doing something wrong,” Taehyun insisted, getting anxious all over again. “No, no,” Yeonjun told him. “That’s perfect. You’re perfect. If we’re smart about this, they’ll never know you have my heart. They’ll never be able to tell.” “But if the magic is shining through me, doesn’t that make me a target?” “It’ll be fine,” said Yeonjun. He grabbed the younger boy’s other hand and ran his thumbs over Taehyun’s knuckles reassuringly. “If I just take some of the built-up magic, then everything will be alright.” “You’re an empty pepper shaker,” Taehyun reasoned, “and I’m refilling you.” “Huh? What? I guess. Sure.” Yeonjun let out a light laugh and then leaned down towards Taehyun. Without thinking, Taehyun leaned forward, aiming to press their mouths together just like last night, but... Yeonjun turned away before their lips met. “I thought we weren’t boyfriends?” “Oh,” Taehyun exhaled. Of course he’d misunderstood! His cheeks reddened with embarrassment. He tried to pull his hands free of Yeonjun’s grasp but failed. “Then what are you…?” “Are you standing on your tiptoes,” Yeonjun asked with a wide smile. “No,” the shorter boy complained. But he so totally was. He sank back down on his heels, making their difference in height apparent. “Just relax,” Yeonjun stated. He leaned down a second time, bringing his face close. Instead of a kiss, he pressed their foreheads together. “Close your eyes.” With a surprising lack of sass, Taehyun did so. They stood like that for a few moments. Nothing happened. Or, nothing seemed to be happening. Then Yeonjun began to softly hum. It was a low and gentle sound like a single note from a violin. Taehyun relaxed into the sound. It was warm like the sunlight on his skin. Yeonjun hummed a little louder but, this time, the vibration of the sound passed through Taehyun. Into him. Now, instead of a single note, Yeonjun hummed a tune. A simple chord progression. A song without words. The music reached the center of Taehyun’s body, resonating off of his ribs and filling his belly. The melody continued on. Taehyun found himself humming along with Yeonjun. He had never heard this song before, couldn’t even say what song it was, but he knew the notes that followed almost instinctively. He even harmonized with Yeonjun, opening his mouth and letting a fuller, louder sound escape him. The wind picked up again but instead of gusting over the patio like it had before, it more gently circled around just the two of them. The slight chill of it gave Taehyun goosebumps. Now Yeonjun was singing, too. His voice melded with Taehyun’s in a haunting duet. They weren’t singing lyrics. Their voices only expressed the winding sequence of notes, drifting in and out of each other, mixing and mixing. There weren’t lyrics, but Taehyun had a feeling that there were supposed to be. He almost knew the words. He almost knew the words. They were right on the tip of his tongue! The wind around them increased in strength. Now leaves and flower buds and bird feathers were circling around them, adding their own vibrations to their song like instruments slowly joining an orchestra. There was no doubt about it now. Something magical was happening. The song was probably part of the spell in some way, Taehyun figured. Or the song was the spell itself. The musical notes the two of them sang thrummed through both of their bodies and seemed to shake the ground they stood on. Taehyun could feel Yeonjun’s heart in the center of his chest. He hadn’t been able to before. He’d gone all night still trying to convince himself that Yeonjun had played a prank on him somehow but right now he was absolutely positive that he truly carried two heartbeats in his veins. He could feel them and Taehyun liked to believe in the things that he could feel. He knew exactly where Yeonjun’s heart was inside of his body. He could detect its exact shape and size. He could sense the shimmer it gave off and the multiple ways it tied him and Yeonjun together. All too soon, Yeonjun pulled away. “That should do it,” he announced as if they had done nothing more serious than shake each other’s hands at a business meeting. Taehyun blinked open his eyes, stunned. That quickly, the song had left his body and he wasn’t entirely sure he liked the way he felt now that it was gone. He looked up at Yeonjun incredulously. “That’s it ?” “That’s it,” Yeonjun confirmed. It seemed like he was the one who was glowing now but with as bright as he was smiling, the shine didn’t look a tad out of place. “Now you’re no longer sparkling and drawing attention to yourself.” He let go of Taehyun’s hands and backed away. Taehyun clenched his hands into fists so that he wouldn’t reach out and grab Yeonjun’s hands again. “Is that really all you have to do?” He felt incomplete all of a sudden. “Mmmhmm.” Yeonjun was smirking again. He shoved his hands back in his pants pockets and winked like he just hadn’t ruined Taehyun’s life. Or, more likely, the wink was a signal that he knew exactly what he’d done and was proud of it. “See you around.” He turned away and headed back into the restaurant. The door swung closed behind him and not for a moment did he look back. Taehyun collapsed against the table with a groan. None of this made sense. He liked when things had their designated place in his life. He felt at ease when things had structure. When there was a system . Like at work. Parties with large numbers of children were usually seated in Soobin’s section towards the back of the restaurant because his area was closest to the bathrooms and his big height and big laugh easily entertained kids. Parties of six or more people were usually placed in Beomgyu’s section, as the center of the dining room had the most open space to push tables together. Unfortunately, what Taehyun was beginning to discover was that Yeonjun did not have a designated place in Taehyun’s life. Or, rather, his place was proving extremely difficult to locate. Not friend. Not acquaintance. Not boyfriend . Yeonjun was a wild card. From his lack of restraint, to his magically infinite supply of pie and pizza, to his ability to sprout fox ears out of his head, Yeonjun had no structure. His nine tails defied any logically organized system and challenged everything Taehyun thought he knew about life in this small town. Yeonjun was… an outlier. An equation beyond understanding. A hypothesis that had yet to be proven. And never in Taehyun’s life had he wanted to solve something so bad. 🍽 “Order up,” shouted Hoseok over the ruckus of the 5pm rush hour. He was loud when he was attempting to be quiet, so him trying to be heard was quite the noise. “Claws up! Piggy back!” A Seafood Bowl. A pork-bone special. That was Taehyun’s table four; the two upperclassmen from school who wanted to sit in Soobin’s section so they could make heart eyes at him and get his number but who got rude when they were placed with Taehyun instead. He grabbed a handful of straws from the box under the counter and shoved them in his apron pockets. He stood up, ready to cross to the bar. “Hot plate, hot plate,” Soobin squealed, rushing behind him with a serving tray carrying two teriyaki chicken bowls. Taehyun waited for him to pass before rushing up to the bar to load up his own tray. He hoisted it up on his shoulder and got moving. The restaurant was bustling. The noise of conversation and clinking dishes was near-maddening but this was the kind of craziness Taehyun enjoyed. It was the kind of high-energy chaos that seemed overwhelming at first glance but was still... organized. The step-by-step routine of his job was still there, only sped up a little. Okay. Sped up a lot . Thursdays were usually the quieter evenings as both the students and the 9-to-5ers had work to focus on before the weekend rolled around but, apparently, baseball season had started that week. Half the shop was occupied by loud, sweaty fans sporting face paint and jerseys in the city team’s blue and yellow. According to their shouts, they were celebrating their first win of the year. “One Seafood Bowl and one pork-bone special,” Taehyun announced, easing the serving tray down on table four and sliding the girls their bowls. “Need anything else? Refills? Napkins?” He was practically functioning on autopilot, only letting the bare minimum of stress get to him. “No,” said the girl with her hair in a long ponytail. “You’ve done enough.” The girl with short hair looked him up and down with a barely-concealed frown. “So can you get Soobin over here already?” “This isn’t his section,” Taehyun said sternly. And even if it was, Soobin didn’t owe them any of his personal time. “And?” The ponytailed girl scoffed. “We just want to talk to him.” “I’ll go see if you’re worth his time,” Taehyun shot back, matching the nastiness of her tone. She gasped, not expecting the hostility. “We want good service, not bad attitude,” the short-haired girl snapped. “And Soobin just wants to work his shift in peace.” Taehyun gave them his best Customer Service smile and spun away before they could do or say anything else. He heard their grumbles and complaints but did not turn back. He only felt the tiniest bit of regret for getting heated but, really, as rude as they had been since they had sat down, he decided that such a tiny amount of let-off steam was warranted. “Tae-Tae,” Beomgyu flagged him down from behind the counter. “Backup!” Taehyun changed directions and circled around behind the bar. Calling for backup meant needing an extra pair of hands to carry trays to a table. “It’s so crazy tonight,” Beomgyu commented. “I’m going to die.” “You’ll be fine,” Taehyun reassured him. “We don’t have too much more of this shift to go.” Beomgyu grabbed one of the trays and lifted it up onto his shoulder. “I don’t care about an hour from now. I’m worried about what’s happening right this second.” “I’m here,” Taehyun said in what he hoped was a calming voice. “I’ll be right behind you.” Maybe the technique worked. Beomgyu gave him a tiny little smile, his cheeks turning pink with exertion, and then he spun away to carry on with the job. “Watch that bowl near the back,” warned Taehyun. He saw it slide. “You’ll dump it on the floor.” Beomgyu straightened his posture which immediately leveled out the tray and kept the shrimp bowl from tumbling off the back end. “Thanks,” he called out, not slowing for a moment. Taehyun approached the bar and grabbed the second tray. He gave the bowls a good once over. Seaweed, mushrooms and smoked chicken. Pork, soft-boiled eggs and scallions. A third bowl held a vegetarian dish with squash and kale and bean sprouts. Taehyun hoisted up the tray and followed Beomgyu around the bar and out to one of the larger parties laughing it up. “Lookie here!” Beomgyu called out. “Fresh off the stove, you guys!” It was as if Beomgyu had a mental switch he could flip. Gone was the anxious and jittery little pup he’d been behind the counter. He’d been smoothly replaced by a loud and confident server who effortlessly joined the party’s conversation and told a joke to get them all roaring with laughter. “If the team wins again, come on down!” As the revelers cheered and clinked their soda glasses together, Beomgyu glanced in Taehyun’s direction. “Five, six and seven o’clock,” he said, referring to the positions of the diners around the table. “Thanks a bunch.” “No problem.” Taehyun followed the directions to the other side of the table, calling out ramen orders and placing the steaming dishes in front of the correct diners. “Need anything?” He asked for probably the thousandth time that night. “Refills? Napkins?” When no one had a request, he backed away. Now that the meal was down on the table, Taehyun figured that Beomgyu could handle it from here. They made brief eye contact before Taehyun left and walked away. He had his own tables to check up on, after all. The machine had no time to stop. The girls at table four saw him approach and they both got quiet and aimed dagger stares in his direction. Taehyun met one girl’s gaze and smiled brightly back. She rolled her eyes and looked away. As soon as her eyes were off of him, he let his smile disappear. It shocked him how petty they were being just because they couldn’t chat with Soobin. If they wanted to talk to him, didn’t they know enough about the business circuit to avoid coming in during the evening rush? Why go through so much trouble just for a chat? He was a split-second away from asking the solo diner at table two if they needed anything when he heard the softest “Excuse me” off to his left. It was like hearing a pin drop. Even as he stood there in the middle of the crowded and noisy restaurant, he couldn’t figure out how he had heard the two words and he definitely couldn’t figure out how he decided such a quiet voice had been aimed at him. Taehyun spun around towards table one. Two young-looking people sat there, both of them dressed in fashionable leather jackets and black jeans like they were in a cover band or something. One of them had straight black hair and broad shoulders and they busied themselves with a cellphone that was almost constantly buzzing with new notifications. The punk clothing seemed to fit him. The other diner looked younger and had fluffier, curlier hair. This one was giving Taehyun the widest smile. Taehyun didn’t know them, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that the leather jacket and edgy styling didn’t suit them. They actually looked a bit uncomfortable wearing it. Like it was an ill-fitting costume. Or perhaps an outfit worn to resemble or impress or intimidate someone. “Hey there, pals,” Taehyun greeted them, fixing his smile back on his face. “It’s a bit loud in here tonight because our team won.” He reached a hand into his apron pocket for his notepad and pen. “What can I get you to drink?” Neither of them said anything. Taehyun looked from one to the other. Had he only thought those words but hadn’t actually said them aloud? “Did you want to try an appetizer?” He didn’t screw up the pronunciation that time. Cellphone didn’t look up. He seemed to be contributing to the rapid-fire discussion in a group chat and was clearly not interested in doing the ordering. Curly Hair, on the other hand stared up at Taehyun with an almost overly familiar smile. It reminded Taehyun of being out somewhere, like at the mall or something, and being approached by someone you didn’t know but they clearly knew you and after an awkward bit of banter, you find out you went to middle school together. Something like that. Narrowing his eyes a little, Taehyun gave the kid a more thorough examination, trying to decide if he actually did know them from middle school or something. He came up blank. He prompted, “Did you need a few minutes to look over the menu?” Curly Hair’s smile faltered. They shot an unsure glance in Cellphone’s direction but Cellphone didn’t look up. Curly Hair looked back up at Taehyun and smiled again. That’s how Taehyun felt it. The tiniest unnatural spark in the air around Curly Hair’s head. It was just like at the pool yesterday. It was just like earlier that afternoon when he and Yeonjun had sang together. Taehyun couldn’t be sure, but he had a very strong feeling that a spell had just been cast. “Hey there, y’all,” came a loud shout. Taehyun didn’t have a chance to brace himself before Soobin ran up behind him and collided with him. The taller man slipped an arm over Taehyun’s shoulder and shook him so violently he nearly got tossed to the floor. “Soobin,” he croaked, attempting to pull himself free of Soobin’s hold. No dice. “Take it easy.” “Want me to cover the table for you,” Soobin whispered into his ear. There was a sparkle in his eye. He’d just seen or heard something super exciting… but what? “No. I’ve got it.” Taehyun declined. “Just for a little bit,” Soobin insisted. He gave Taehyun another shake. “You can cover one of mine.” Taehyun couldn’t fathom trying to handle tables on opposite sides of the restaurant. He whispered, “Go back to your section.” “No. I need to be here.” Soobin finally let go of Taehyun only to slap his hands down on table one and lean towards Curly Hair. In stark contrast to his aggressive stance, his voice came out bubbly sweet. “If you want something spicy, I highly recommend our teriyaki chicken bowl.” Taehyun snorted back a laugh. “Teriyaki chicken is not spicy.” “To you,” Soobin glared at him over his shoulder. He looked back at Curly Hair. “If you want something really hot-” “Don’t listen to him,” Taehyun spoke up, attempting to salvage the situation. “He thinks tomato sauce is spicy.” Soobin groaned and looked over at him again, “It is!” “It’s not. By any stretch of the imagination.” Soobin shrugged. “It’s got a really strong kick to it. It spices the tongue!” Taehyun couldn’t find a lick of sense in this. He didn’t mean to get into such a debate in front of customers, but- “How is your favorite food jalapenos? How can you just eat them straight up without a fuss?” “I don’t know. I just like them.” The patron Taehyun mentally nicknamed Cellphone looked up from the device. It wasn’t all that impressive of an action but Taehyun couldn’t help but look up and track the guy’s movement. Cellphone shook his head in Curly Hair’s direction. Another subtle motion that Taehyun only noticed because he was already looking. Curly Hair’s smile faded completely. They looked completely different now that the joy had left their eyes. “Actually,” Curly Hair said, “we think it’s a bit too noisy for our tastes tonight so we are going to go.” Both of the black-clad visitors stood up to leave. This was an interesting development but Taehyun was willing to let them go. One less table to keep up with. Soobin had the opposite reaction. “Aww, you sure? The rush will die down soon enough.” Cellphone and Curly Hair gathered their things, clearly determined to leave. Soobin kept on, “Come back and see us! Get in before four to take advantage of our cold noodle specials. Maybe try one of our vegan bowls! The noodles are gluten-free.” “Thanks,” Curly Hair said. Not so much out of politeness but in a desperate attempt to get Soobin to stop talking. “Perhaps we’ll return.” Soobin’s enthusiasm petered out. It took a great amount of effort for him to not outright frown. He backed away from the table to give the two of them room to leave. “Have a good evening,” he gave it one last shot. “Same to you,” Curly Hair said, stepping away. Right before the two jacket-wearing kids turned the corner to walk out the front door, Taehyun was sure he overheard Cellphone say, “Kai, we’re looking for a fox, not a rabbit.” And maybe, just maybe, Taehyun heard the one named Kai say, “Trust me, Jungkook. I know a fox when I smell one.”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
“That’s just like you, though,” Beomgyu said while smacking on a fat wad of his bubble gum. Berry-flavored based on the smell. “You not wanting to get into the middle of things, I mean.” Taehyun didn’t even look up at him. “All I’m saying is that Soobin should be Shift Lead.” “Just because I’m older?” Soobin questioned. “You have seniority. You’ve worked at the restaurant longer.” Taehyun turned to look at him. “How? Yoongi hired us at the same time. We sat in on the same interview!” “But, technically, he shook your hand first,” Soobin clarified, wagging his finger. Taehyun rolled his eyes at the silly technicality but he also couldn’t help a tiny chuckle. “Whatever, dude.” The three of them were sitting shoulder to shoulder at the bus stop that sat right outside of Red Fox Hills. Taehyun was wedged between his two coworkers on the seat. They had spent the tail end of the evening at Taehyun’s house and now he was seeing them off. It was getting late, particularly for a school night, so even the traffic along a busy road like this one had become sparse. That made their wait for the night’s last bus quiet and, thanks to the weather, a little chilly. “I’m just trying to figure out how you know about this supposed promotion anyways, Soobin,” Taehyun said after a while. “Yoongi hasn’t brought it up with me at all.” Soobin slapped Taehyun hard on the knee, making him jump. “Trust me. I hear things.” “Maybe you heard wrong.” “No such thing.” Beomgyu blew a bubble with his gum, slowly easing air into it until it was about as large as his head. Then he did some kind of slick maneuver with his tongue that let the air out of the bubble without it popping and splattering all over his face. Taehyun said, “Well, out of everyone on the afternoon shift, why does it have to be me?” “Hmmmm, it doesn’t seem all that far-fetched,” said Beomgyu. “You’re like the most reliable person I know, Tae-Tae.” Soobin said, “I don’t see why you’re so against the promotion. You’ll definitely get a raise. You’ll probably land more hours. You get to boss people around.” Taehyun curled in on himself a little bit. “But I’m not ready.” This made Soobin frown. “Dude. You’ve always got our backs, jumping in to help when customers get rowdy. You’re practically Shift Lead already.” “Maybe so,” said Taehyun. “But…” A bright pair of headlights came around the bend, washing them in pale blue light. They all heard the bus slow down as it approached the stop. Soobin started to gather up his things. “Welp, that’s us.” “See you guys tomorrow,” Taehyun called out. The city bus rolled to a stop at the curb in front of them and let out a squealing noise as the doors opened. “See ya, Tae,” Soobin bellowed. Then he climbed through the door and hopped up the stairs. Beomgyu walked up the stairs behind Soobin. “Thanks,” he shouted over his shoulder, holding up the plastic bag where his clothes from the day at the pool were stashed. Taehyun just nodded and watched them through the bus windows as they walked to the back of the nearly-empty bus. The doors hissed closed. The engine revved and the brightly painted vehicle sped away. Out the back window, Soobin and Beomgyu waved their goodbyes. Taehyun waved back until the bus went around the curve up the road and vanished from sight. He sighed. It had been a long, draining day and he was almost too tired to even walk home but then a brisk breeze kicked up and made him shiver. That got him to stand up and get his butt in gear! When was the weather going to warm up and stay warm? For real. He would always prefer summer to winter. Taehyun folded his arms over his chest for warmth as he made his slow and shuffling way down the quiet sidewalk. He was so caught up in his thoughts about work that he totally forgot about the extremely awful super terrible absolutely wicked very bad thing that always happened whenever he walked this close past Yeonjun’s house. Yeonjun hoisted himself up over the side of the wooden fence. At the top of his lungs, the fox boy shouted, “Sup!” Taehyun let out an embarrassingly high-pitched scream. Yeonjun grinned excitedly. “You’re here!” Taehyun was still wide-eyed from the boy’s sudden appearance. “Why do you do that?” Instead of replying, Yeonjun said, “Stay right there,” and dropped down behind the white wooden fence out of sight. Too late, Taehyun asked, “What? Why?” There was no answer from Yeonjun. Maybe he was rushing to the gate on the other side of his house? Taehyun expected Yeonjun to do something normal like walk up to him from around the corner, but instead, Yeonjun vaulted over the top of the fence, sailing over his head. This got a second high-pitched squeal out of Taehyun. “Ahh! What the heck is wrong with you?” Yeonjun landed on the sidewalk not too far away. He bent his knees a bit for the landing but that hardly slowed him down as he ran up to Taehyun and threw an arm around his neck. “I was wondering when you were going to walk by. I thought I was getting a stuffy nose or something when I went the whole evening without catching your scent.” “That’s not creepy at all, by the way,” Taehyun told him. “Why are you so late?” Taehyun wasn’t late . He had simply taken Soobin and Beomgyu the long way around the neighborhood trying to keep this very thing from happening. Instead of saying all of that, he just asked, “Can you really… smell me?” “Of course,” Yeonjun said, smiling wide. “I’ve got nostrils, don’t I?” Taehyun ducked his head to get from beneath Yeonjun’s arm. “You know what I mean.” Yeonjun stated, only slightly more seriously, “What’s wrong with saying hey when you walk by?” “Maybe if you did it in a way that didn’t shorten my lifespan…” Yeonjun took a step back and leaned up against the fence. He hummed like he actually had to think about it. “I’ll come up with something different.” Why did that sound like a threat? “On second thought, please just keep leaping out at me. Maybe mix things up by screaming ‘boo’ from time to time.” “So you do have a sense of humor.” Yeonjun chuckled and then aimed his gaze upwards at the starry sky. They stood in silence for a little while. The breeze picked up in strength. The house across the street had about half a dozen windchimes dangling from the eaves. Metal. Wood. Shell. They all jingled a bit and added their gentle song to the beauty of the night. Taehyun found himself staring at Yeonjun a little harder than he needed to. He looked away. “Is your heart doing okay?” “Hmmm?” Yeonjun glanced in his direction. Taehyun felt his cheeks flush. “Is your heart…” He patted his own chest. “Is it doing alright? It’s not about to come bursting out of me, is it?” Yeonjun pushed himself up off the fence and approached Taehyun. He reached out a hand and his fingers found Taehyun’s chin. He turned the younger man’s head and made them look at each other in the eye for what felt like an eternity. “You should be okay for another day or so.” Yeonjun scrunched up his face a little. “Maybe. Possibly. I’m pretty sure. Yeah.” “That’s totally reassuring.” They fell back into silence. After a moment, Taehyun lifted an arm and gently pushed Yeonjun’s hand away from his face. There. That was better. Now that Taehyun had a moment to breathe, there was something he needed to talk to Yeonjun about. “Hey, I think those hunters who are after you came by the restaurant today.” The fox boy didn’t seem particularly surprised. “What happened?” “Nothing,” Taehyun explained. “Well… One of them tried to cast a spell on me, I think, but I’m not sure it worked.” Yeonjun nodded slowly. “Probably some kind of charm to get you to spill information.” “They know you go to the restaurant. One of them said the place smells like fox.” “Ummm… It would have to. All things considered.” “Isn’t it dangerous?” “I’m not going to stop living my life just because they hate me.” Taehyun frowned. He didn’t really like Yeonjun’s nonchalant attitude about this. “Maybe you shouldn’t come by the restaurant anymore.” And, you know, leave me alone , he added in his head. “For your own safety. And all of that.” “Maybe,” Yeonjun said noncommittally. He didn’t seem half as worried about this as Taehyun thought he should be. “I overheard the hunters say something about a rabbit.” Yeonjun casually shrugged. “Well, of course. A rabbit works there, too.” Taehyun groaned in frustration. He ruffled his own hair with his hand. “If you aren’t going to take any of this seriously, I’ll just go!” He turned to leave. “I am taking this seriously,” Yeonjun shouted at his back. “I hope they catch you,” Taehyun yelled in return, only half-joking. Yeonjun laughed wildly. “They’ll never get the chance!” 🍽 Friday was setting up to be another unseasonably hot day. The dry heat combined with the fact that Taehyun was rushing because he was nearly late meant that he was sweating terribly by the time he jogged into the restaurant’s parking lot after school. Now, if only this kind of warmth lasted after sunset. Maybe he’d sit in Yeonjun’s tiny little pool again. “Uh oh,” Taehyun groaned once he saw how crowded the outdoor patio area was. Tonight was going to be crazy. He could tell by the number of cars already crowding the lot. “I hope Yoongi put Seokjin and Namjoon on the schedule today.” There was no way he and Beomgyu and Soobin could survive the afternoon without them. It must have been the random warm turn in weather that was getting everyone out of their houses and sitting at a table today. It had rained all last week. Everyone seemed desperate for a touch of sun. Taehyun approached the restaurant’s front door and swung it open only to come to an immediate stop as if his limbs had turned to stone. He became overwhelmed with the sense that he was being watched. He slowly turned around and let his eyes sweep over the parking lot from one end to the other. A big family was piling out of their SUV. A young man was trailing behind his leashed dog as it sniffed around the bushes. A woman was freeing a baby stroller from the back seat of her sedan. Two middle-aged men were laughing up something fierce while leaning against a pickup truck. Nothing out of the ordinary. Taehyun shook his head and started to walk back inside. Wait. His brain supplied him with one more little tidbit of sensory information. Hadn’t there been two people in black leather jackets standing at the far end of the parking lot? Out by the restaurant sign? Taehyun spun back around and squinted towards the edge of the lot but he must have been mistaken. There wasn’t anyone standing out there. 🍽 “Is your lemonade fresh squeezed,” asked the man at Taehyun’s table six, not even bothering to get off of his phone. “It’s whatever I freshly squeeze out of that machine over there,” Taehyun joked, hooking a thumb over his shoulder in the direction of the drink machine. “Wait. What did you say,” the man asked, but it wasn’t clear if he was speaking to Taehyun or to who was on the other end of the line. After an awkward pause, the man widened his eyes. “What?” Taehyun just pointed over his shoulder again. The man sat up a little to look in the indicated direction but then sighed when he spotted what the waiter was pointing to. “That’ll do.” “Okay. I’ll bring that right out. Were you ready to order an entree or-” “I still need a few minutes,” he said quickly and then resumed his phone conversation. Some energetic discussion about basketball, it sounded like. “Alright,” Taehyun said and walked away to get the man’s drink. He had just poured a cup full of ice when Yoongi poked his head out from around the corner of the back hallway. “Hey, Taehyun. When you get a minute, I need to see you in my office.” “Okay,” Taehyun called back. He shoved the glass under the appropriate nozzle and pressed the button for lemonade (from concentrate) and filled it to the top. His nerves didn’t hit him until he was carrying the glass back across the dining room to table six. What did Yoongi want? There weren’t too many occasions when he needed to pull someone off the floor to talk in his office. Usually, he was blunt enough to say whatever he needed right then and there. Taehyun wondered if he’d done something wrong. Like… really wrong. Wrong enough that Yoongi could only say it in private. Yoongi didn’t sound mad but the man also had a way of delivering the nastiest of news with the cheeriest of voices. Half the time just to mess with people. Soobin must have heard Yoongi call him. He approached Taehyun and slapped him on the back in good cheer. “Look at you, Mr. Shift Lead,” he said in a dramatically low voice. “I doubt that’s what it is.” “You wanna bet?” Taehyun took him up on it. “If he makes me Shift Lead, I’ll buy the ice cream tonight.” Soobin jumped up in the air. “Sweet!” “If he doesn’t, you’re buying!” “Sorry, I didn’t hear that,” Soobin hurried away, giggling. “What did you say? Must have something in my ears.” Then he was gone. Taehyun sighed and sat the glass of lemonade down on table six. The man was still deep in his commentary about the game with his friend on the phone so Taehyun slipped away again, hoping that whatever Yoongi had in store for him wouldn’t take too long. Behind the drink machine was a short hallway with an ‘authorized personnel only’ sign hanging above the entrance. On the left of the hall was a big archway that opened up into the kitchen. Above the noise of frying food and banging pots and pans, Taehyun could hear Hoseok’s loud voice as he ordered the other line cooks about. At the end of the hall was a set of swinging doors that led to the back of the house. Taehyun pushed open the doors and was immediately assaulted by a high amount of humidity as the industrial dishwasher billowed steam into the air. It smelled both clean and dirty. Somehow. Beomgyu was in there, scraping used napkins and a diner’s half-finished food into the trash. He looked up when he heard the door swing open. “When are you taking your fifteen minute break?” Taehyun glanced above the door at the clock hanging on the wall. It was getting dangerously close to five in the afternoon which meant the evening rush was about to bowl them over. “I better take it soon, huh?” “I’ll go first if you cover for me,” Beomgyu suggested. “Sure, sure. I gotta talk to Yoongi, though.” Beomgyu dropped the bowls he had just scraped out into the basin full of cleaning solution. “Just let me know. We’re getting ice cream after our shift like always, right?” “Soobin’s paying,” Taehyun confirmed. “What bet did he lose?” Beomgyu stepped away from the basin and washed his hands at the tiny sink against the wall. “You’ll find out.” Beomgyu laughed, stepped past Taehyun and rushed back out onto the floor. Taehyun continued walking through the room, careful to avoid the puddle of water in the middle of the floor, and headed even farther into the back through another archway. The difference in temperature was whiplash-inducing. Out of the humid heat and into a dry chill. The walk-in freezer was back here along with shelves and shelves of dry food, spices and other ingredients. There was only one more door here: the one to Yoongi’s tiny little office. It was already open and Taehyun could hear Yoongi inside, talking to someone. Shyly, Taehyun poked his head around the door. “You wanted to see me?” Yoongi was sitting at his desk with a stack of papers in his hands and a big, blue pen tucked behind his ear. He looked up from one of the pages long enough to meet Taehyun’s eye. “We’ve got a new hire,” he stated. “I want you to show him the ropes.” “On a Friday,” Taehyun had to ask. “During the rush?” “What better way to learn? And who better to teach him?” Yoongi waved his hand towards the far corner of his office. Taehyun turned his head to look and had to do a double take when he recognized the redhaired boy leaning against the wall. “Sup,” Yeonjun said casually. He even went so far as to throw up a peace sign. “What,” Taehyun screeched. “What is this?” Hadn’t he just told Yeonjun last night to stay away from this place? Forgetting all about his manners, Taehyun rushed into the office and slammed both of his hands down on Yoongi’s desk. “What are you doing? You can’t hire him!” Yoongi looked up from his report with an unreadable expression on his face. He barely moved his mouth to ask, “And why not?” Taehyun almost shouted, “Because!” ‘Because Yeonjun’s a nine-tailed fox,’ Taehyun wanted to say, ‘and he’s being tracked by dangerous hunters who want to tear open his chest and steal his heart and slice off his tails and--’ Wow, that sounded absolutely ridiculous now that he thought it all of the way through. “Be.. cause… he… is…” His brain overheated as he scrambled to come up with a sensible excuse. “Because... he’s my... boyfriend… and I won’t be able to focus if he’s here and-” What was he saying? And why couldn’t he stop? “And we won’t be able to keep our hands off of each other if we work together and… and… Yeah.” Silence. Slowly, Taehyun turned his head to look at Yeonjun. The redhead just raised an eyebrow, that stupid little smirk of his tugging at the corner of his lips. Taehyun turned back to look at his boss. Yoongi seemed even less bothered by all of this. “Take him to the register and show him how to clock in.”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Choi Yeonjun was like a math problem. A difficult trigonometry problem you spend ten minutes on, fitting the numbers into the right formula and doing all of the necessary substitutions and computations. You think you’ve done everything correctly only to check the multiple-choice and discover that the solution that you came up with matches none of the exam’s acceptable answers. Usually, when Taehyun came across a problem like that on an exam, he worked backwards. He slotted the multiple-choice answers into the problem and then went through the list one by one until he found the correct solution. Taehyun couldn’t figure out Yeonjun. Everything he came up with didn’t ‘fit.’ But how do you take a near-stranger and… work them backwards? Apparently by claiming that they’re your boyfriend. “The first thing you should do is learn the menu,” Taehyun explained to the new hire. He held up one of the laminated things and waved a hand in front of it like he was presenting a game show prize. “You have to know it inside and out. A lot of times, diners don’t remember the name of a noodle bowl they previously had. They just remember what was in it. You have to be able to bridge the gap.” “Ahhh, I see,” Yeonjun said airily. “You should know where all of the specials are in the menu and be able to name their ingredients and prices.” Yeonjun said, “Interesting.” Taehyun opened the menu. “Ah-pet-it… Appetite… Appetizers on page two. Wow. I can’t say that word. Chicken and beef bowls on page three.” He turned the page. “Pork and seafood bowls on page four. Vegan dishes and cold noodles on page five.” Yeonjun nodded. “Mmhmm. Yup. Got it.” He absently dug around in the pockets of his brand new apron and then pulled out a straw, examining the white paper wrapper like he’d never seen one before. “You’ll probably shadow me for a few shifts before Yoongi gives you your own section. I’ll try not to let you have to take orders on your own just yet. Hoseok’s really picky with how you write them down and I don’t want you to get on his bad side right from the beginning.” Taehyun hoped he didn’t sound too harsh. “You can take drink orders, at least. That should be easy.” “Yeah. Sure. Sure.” Yeonjun nodded again. His eyes were still on the straw in his hands. The two of them were standing behind the noodle bar, tucked into the far left corner. There, they were a safe distance away from busy areas like in front of the grill and by the registers. Taehyun had never actually trained anyone else before so, honestly, he was just winging it. Without even looking, he pointed right at the photograph of the Pork-Bone Special. “If a customer doesn’t know what they want, recommend either this or the Seafood Bowl.” “Gotcha.” Yeonjun glanced up at him and smiled. Taehyun went still. The eye contact disarmed him. It was like being in a dark room when someone else turned on a bright, warm light. His eyes stung a little. Taehyun almost forgot what he was talking about. “Ummmm… Yeah. Right. Manager’s Specials change every four days. Hoseok usually writes what it is on the chalkboard on the wall by the grill.” Yeonjun shoved the straw back in his apron pocket and gave Taehyun his full attention. “Okeydokey.” Taehyun narrowed his eyes suspiciously. Only then did he start to catch on. Yeonjun was looking at him, yes, but he could also tell that Yeonjun wasn’t looking at him. There was a sparkly look in his eyes like he was doing nothing but daydreaming. Taehyun shut the menu and asked, “Are you actually listening to me?” “Barely,” Yeonjun said honestly. He let out a nervous chuckle. “I can’t really focus.” Now he was grinning from ear to ear, happiness almost physically gushing out of him. “I’m thinking about something else.” Taehyun didn’t trust that smile, bright as it was. “What else can you possibly be thinking about? The fact that those hunters can come in and find us any second?” “No.” Yeonjun glanced at the floor. His cheeks flushed bright red. Did he look… bashful ? Hardly above a whisper, he stated, “You said we’re boyfriends.” It was shortly after 5pm. The restaurant was noisy but that dangerous two-syllable word seemed Extremely Loud. Taehyun stood up straight. “Oh no.” He looked towards the drink machine but, fortunately, didn’t find who he feared. “No no no no no. He definitely heard that! I just know it.” Yeonjun looked up. His smile faltered. “What’s wrong?” “Shh,” Taehyun quieted him. He looked towards the numerous display shelves of pie next to the register. Then he glanced over towards the door by the outdoor patio. Almost every table in the restaurant was full. The waiters bustled about like chickens with their heads cut off. Taehyun spotted Beomgyu and Namjoon and Seokjin and even Jimin but... Phew. Were the two of them safe? Maybe he hadn’t heard. Relieved, Taehyun practically collapsed against the counter. He turned back around to face Yeonjun. “Look, I really only said that so Yoongi wouldn’t-” There was a shout. “I knew it! I knew it!” The familiar voice cut through the noise of conversation in the restaurant like a knife through butter. Taehyun tensed up all over again. Dangit! He thought they had gotten away with it! Soobin rushed out of the hall that led to the bathrooms, pushing a mop bucket as recklessly as if it were a go-kart. “I knew it, I knew it, I knew it,” Soobin hollered. He was coming straight for them with the biggest grin on his face. Terrifying. “You weren’t going to get that one past me! I’ve been paying special attention.” In his excitement, he ran the mop bucket square into the counter’s edge, causing soapy water to slosh out over the sides and get all over the tile floor at his feet. Taehyun leaned over the counter to get a better look at the mess. “Hey, be careful!” “I got it, I got it. Don’t worry,” Soobin told him. He hoisted the mop out of the bucket and frantically attempted to clean up the water, doing little more than spreading it around. “And if you ever need to mop the floor,” Taehyun said, glancing at Yeonjun, “that’s not how you do it.” Then, to Soobin, he asked, “Do you have a ‘wet floor’ sign for all of that?” “I got it, I got it,” Soobin repeated, his smile never fading. Then he looked up and really took in the sight of Taehyun and Yeonjun standing next to each other. He pointed. “But that’s not what’s important!” Taehyun would have argued that a wet floor sign was extremely important at the moment, but... “What’s all the hubbub?” Soobin dunked the mop back in the bucket, sending even more water all over the place and ruining his own hard work. “You’re boyfriends.” Taehyun’s mouth fell open. Soobin had been in the bathroom mopping. How had he even heard!? Taehyun squeaked out, “We’re boyfriends ?” As if repeating it enough times would make it come true, Soobin said again, “You’re boyfriends!” “We’re boyfriends,” Yeonjun parroted. Only far more cooly and confidently. Beomgyu came up to the counter with an empty serving tray under his arm. “You’re boyfriends?” “They’re boyfriends!” It was as if Soobin hadn’t heard anything more exciting in his life. Taehyun glanced up at Yeonjun. This wasn’t some kind of joke or prank like he thought. There was true joy in the redhead’s smile and even though Taehyun knew there wasn’t a spell behind those teeth, even though he knew he’d be immune to it even if there was, he fell utterly beneath the charm of that smile regardless. “We’re boyfriends,” he firmly admitted. 🍽 “Tae-Tae,” Beomgyu shrieked from behind the counter. Even from a distance, Taehyun could see the guy was red in the face from stress. “I need backup!” It was almost the end of their scheduled shift and the restaurant was still packed. The crowd didn’t seem to be there to celebrate a baseball win tonight but they were loud and in good cheer anyways. That’s just how the start of the weekend usually went. The last few hours had gone by in a bit of a blur as Taehyun could hardly manage his own stress of keeping up both with his tables and Yeonjun’s antics. As a matter of fact, he hadn’t seen Yeonjun in a while… “Hurry, Tae-Tae,” Beomgyu cried out again. Taehyun put a bit more pep in his step and circled around behind the counter. He walked up towards where Beomgyu was standing. Well, less standing and more trembling. “Alright. I’m here.” Taehyun glanced around, mildly confused. He expected trays of steaming ramen to be waiting for him. “Where are the bowls? Why’d you call backup?” “Because I need help!” “With what? Need me to cover a table?” When Beomgyu shook his head, his curly hair bounced all over the place. “Diners at my table are getting a little untamed.” Okay. That still didn’t particularly answer Taehyun’s question. He leaned in close. “Is something wrong with the food?” “Nothing’s wrong with my food,” Yoongi growled out from in front of the grill. Beomgyu went on, “It’s a pretty big table and they all want our lemon meringue pie but we’re out of lemon meringue pie.” This shocked Taehyun. If he remembered correctly, there had been two whole lemon meringues in the display case barely an hour ago! He had to move them out of the way to get to the key lime for a customer. As if sensing what Taehyun was thinking, Beomgyu lowered his voice and shamefully confessed, “I ate the pie.” “Well, what about the other one?” “I ate the pies,” Beomgyu corrected himself. “ Both of them?” Taehyun glanced towards Yoongi. There was no way the man hadn’t heard such a blatant admittance of thievery but the restaurant owner did not look up from his cooking. He used the tongs in his hand to flip the strips of beef over the smoky heat of the grill and sprinkled the meat with his top-secret spice blend. Taehyun looked back at Beomgyu. “Why are you telling me this? Just let them know we’re out of lemon meringue for the day. Offer them the coconut instead and hack the price in half. We should have plenty.” Beomgyu kept his voice low. “They want lemon meringue. No substitutions.” “Well, we all can’t get what we want,” Taehyun huffed. “Just say that we’ll-” “They’re threatening to leave if I don’t get management over there.” Once again, Taehyun glanced at Yoongi. “Management’s right there.” Yoongi put himself into their conversation again. “Management is also stuck in front of this grill until Hoseok’s off the toilet.” He looked up and met Taehyun’s eye. “I want you to go handle it.” “Me? Why?” Yoongi didn’t hesitate. “I trust you.” If Taehyun wasn’t already leaning against the counter, he probably would have fallen against it in shock. Yoongi? Trusting someone other than Hoseok? “Okay,” Taehyun succumbed. If Soobin were around, he’d probably be chanting ‘Shift Lead, Shift Lead’ right about now. “Fine. I’ll handle it.” “Thank you thank you thank you,” the words tumbled out of Beomgyu’s mouth. “Hurry hurry hurry.” He was already tugging Taehyun by the sleeve, dragging him from behind the counter. Taehyun nearly stumbled but he allowed Beomgyu to pull him faster and faster. Almost at a run. They nearly knocked Yeonjun over when they passed the drink machine. Yeonjun spent a frightening moment trying to right the tray of drinks he carried on his shoulder. Fortunately, he kept the glasses off of the floor. The redhead asked, “What’s the big rush?” “We’re out of lemon meringue pie,” Beomgyu wailed as they ran past. “I’m going to die!” Taehyun looked over his shoulder at Yeonjun. “He’s not going to die.” And then they changed directions to head to the far side of the restaurant. “Lemon meringue,” Yeonjun half-whispered to himself. He set the tray of drinks down and looked at the glasses in front of him with a capricious glint in his eyes. “I can make it work.” Beomgyu kept yanking on Taehyun’s sleeve, practically dragging him towards the center of the dining room. It was easy to tell which party was causing the issue. About three tables had been shoved together and nearly a dozen diners were seated at it. Scraped-clean ramen bowls and soiled napkins and empty drink glasses were strewn from one end of the table to the other. The diners were all tall, burly, angry-looking men who smelled of cigarette smoke and were dressed in smudgy work shirts and overalls. They probably worked at the factory that sat just outside of town. As the two waiters approached, the conversation the men were having died out and every single one of them turned their dark, narrow eyes in Taehyun’s direction. Boy, if looks could kill... Taehyun stood up straight and stiffened his shoulders to make himself look taller which… probably didn’t help much given how vertically challenged he was. “Hey, pals,” he called out cheerfully. “How’s everything going with you all tonight?” Quiet. One man on the far side of the table sat his glass down on the table. All of the ice in it made an unnerving grating noise. “We want your lemon meringue pie,” one man demanded when the silence was just shy of awkward. “We’re out of lemon meringue for the day,” Beomgyu attempted. The men acted like they hadn’t heard the kid. They kept their eyes on Taehyun. Judging. Assessing. Waiting. They probably knew already that Taehyun wouldn’t be able to do anything to dissuade their bad attitudes. It was almost like they wanted to start a confrontation. Taehyun doubted they would get violent but if they caused a big enough scene, the other customers would definitely get uncomfortable. Perhaps leave in a hurry. Or worse, film everything and post it online. If the men got disruptive enough, Yoongi would have to call the police and if the men decided to walk out without paying before the cops showed up, there wasn’t much the two waiters would be able to do to stop them without putting themselves at risk. The men would just leave. Beomgyu’s paycheck would be nonexistent if he had to get a tab as big as this one snatched out of it. Taehyun met the frigid stare of the man who was frowning up at him the hardest. “About your lemon meringue pies,” he began slowly. What do you want me to do? Go in the back and bake you some , he truly wished he could say. His voice came out steady when he said, “We seem to have-” “We seem to have some right here fresh outta the fridge,” someone behind them called out. Taehyun whirled around. All smiles, Yeonjun rushed up to the table carrying a serving tray up on his shoulder. On it were three perfectly chilled lemon meringue pies, a few small dessert plates and a trio of serving knives. “Can I get some backup?” He asked, aiming that grin of his in Taehyun’s direction. Beomgyu moved first. “Thank you thank you thank you,” he whined, not questioning anything. He rushed up to Yeonjun and helped him lower the tray onto the table. Then he grabbed one of the pies and a serving knife. Taehyun got a good look at the pies. They were nice. The meringue was fluffy. Whipped to perfection, even. The edges were wonderfully toasted. When Beomgyu sat the pie tin on the table and sliced into it, the pleasant scent washed over the crowd and made everything feel like spring. Beomgyu lifted the pie slice into the air and the yellow of the lemon seemed to make the entire restaurant light up a little brighter. The crowd was pleased. “See, I told you this place had legendary desserts,” a skinny man wearing glasses announced. Beomgyu placed the slice of pie on a plate in front of one of the men and then went back to the pie to cut another slice. “Tae,” Yeonjun prompted, hooking his eyes towards the remaining pies on his tray. Taehyun slowly moved into action, grabbing one of the pies and giving it another good look. He hadn’t been entirely sure from a distance but now that he was holding one, he knew the truth. It was a gorgeous pie but Taehyun could tell by how uneven the meringue sat in the center that Taehyung, the prep cook, hadn’t baked it. Taehyun had an odd sense of deja vu. There had been one other mysterious occasion where Yeonjun had brought out pie when there hadn’t been pie before. It had to have been magic. “Hurry up,” one of the men huffed. Another shouted, “We want some too, you know.” Taehyun snapped out of it. He circled around to the other side of the long table and sat the pie down. He used a knife from Yeonjun’s tray to cut the first slice and he could feel the spell escape into the air past his face. If it were possible to fall in love with food, the group of men obviously had. They fawned over the sweet crunchiness of the crust and the delightful sour punch of the citrus. Even Beomgyu seemed wide-eyed with food lust as he was very visibly restraining himself from lunging forward and snatching a slice for himself. Taehyun was immune to it all. To him, it was just pie. Yeonjun sat the third lemon meringue down closer to the center of the table. “Eat up,” he called out merrily. “We weren’t supposed to but we brought these out special for you guys.” The men ate it up. Both the pie and Yeonjun’s sweet words. No matter how many times they sliced at the pie with their forks and knives, the baked goods didn’t seem to diminish in size. The men’s attitudes had completely changed. Their anger and disappointment from earlier was gone, replaced by an effervescent happiness that almost didn’t fit them. Taehyun was so distracted by the madness of it all that he almost didn’t notice them: Yeonjun’s fox ears were standing straight up on top of his head. Right there for anyone to see! “You’ve got it from here, right?” Taehyun leaned around Yeonjun to look at the far end of the table. “Beomgyu?” “Yeah, yeah, I got it from here,” Beomgyu responded. He still had his eyes trained on the pie closest to him. His whole body was tense. It legit looked like he was about to leap across the table for a slice. “No more pie,” Taehyun told him sharply. “No promises,” Beomgyu let him know. Honestly, stolen desserts shouldn’t even be one of Taehyun’s priorities. He had two very important things to try and hide. Two big, fluffy red ears with white tufts of hair at the tips calling attention to themselves by twisting and turning to catch every stray sound. Taehyun wasted no time in grabbing Yeonjun by the collar of his shirt and pulling him towards the ‘authorized personnel only’ hall. “Hey,” Yeonjun cried out. He slipped at least twice before getting himself standing and moving correctly. “What’s the big deal?” “Hurry up,” Taehyun fussed. They couldn’t talk here. Not with all of these hundreds of eyes and ears around. Taehyun glanced up at Yeonjun. Fortunately, the boy’s hair was already a wild, curly mane so the ears weren’t immediately noticeable but the numerous magical sparkles probably were. Soobin was at the register ringing up a bill. He spotted Yeonjun and Taehyun in their mad dash to the back. “Hey, where are you-” “Can’t talk right now,” Taehyun called back. He pushed the swinging doors at the end of the hall open and dragged Yeonjun into the swampy humidity of the back room. They were alone. But only for the moment. He let go of Yeonjun and stared up at the boy’s fox ears. How did he address something so surreal? “You’ve... got something in your hair.” “Hmm, really?” Yeonjun lifted a hand and tugged at the ends of his hair. “Where?” He lowered his hand and examined his fingers for debris. Found none. “No. Up here.” Taehyun pointed to the top of his own head. Yeonjun put his hand in his hair again. “Where? I don’t feel anything.” Taehyun clenched his fists as the stress hit but made himself relax. “A little higher.” Yeonjun didn’t seem to care too much. “You pulled me back here just for some lint in my hair or something?” He carded his fingers through his hair a third time, purposefully looping his hand around his fox ears. This made Taehyun frown. Of course Yeonjun was just messing with him. “You know what I’m talking about.” “I do.” “Well… stop it.” “I can’t help it, okay,” Yeonjun grunted. “It’s who I am. It’s me. Whenever I cast a spell-” “Hush,” Taehyun cut him off. He pressed a finger to Yeonjun’s mouth. There was no telling if a particularly nosy friend was eavesdropping on them from the other side of the door. Just to be on the safe side, Taehyun caught Yeonjun by the wrist and pulled him even farther away from the swinging door. “Maybe you should wear a hat to work,” he suggested. This got Yeonjun just a little bit angry. “I’m not going to hide .” Taehyun didn’t know how to phrase this. “Well, you can’t just walk around with- You can’t just have- Your ears, they can’t be-” “Why not?” Yeonjun must have known what he was trying to get at. “Why do I have to hide when no one else here-” The sliding doors swung open and Taehyun only caught a glimpse of Yoongi’s face before he moved to act. Taehyun pushed Yeonjun up against the wall and pressed his hands down on top of Yeonjun’s fox ears to cover them. The height difference forced Yeonjun to dip his head a little, bringing their foreheads close. Yoongi walked into the back room and stared at the two boys. “Don’t mind us,” Taehyun said quickly. He felt his whole body grow hot from the humiliation. “Just two boyfriends being unable to keep their hands to themselves.” He tried his best to casually laugh but it ended up sounding far more like a madman’s cackle. “I warned you.” Yoongi didn’t frown. He didn’t raise an eyebrow. He didn’t even blink. “Thanks for handling that situation out there, Taehyun.” The lemon meringue pie. “Trust me. I didn’t do anything.” Yoongi’s gaze traveled up to where Taehyun’s hands were tangled in Yeonjun’s hair. He looked back at Taehyun. “Of course you did.” He turned to leave and, almost like an afterthought, added, “Shift Lead.” Before his words had even properly sunk in, he had passed through the archway to the very back of the restaurant. Taehyun let his hands drop from Yeonjun’s hair. This whole evening had been so unbelievable that he hoped he’d just dreamed it all up. The sliding doors swung open so forcefully that they banged against the walls. Soobin charged in, grinning so hard his dimples could swallow the world. “Look who's buying ice cream tonight!” “I’m not-” Taehyun sputtered out. “He didn’t- I mean, he-” Wait. Taehyun spun around to look up at Yeonjun. Thank goodness. The boy’s fox ears were nowhere to be seen! “I’m going back to my tables.” He brushed past Soobin and made his way for the doors. “Okay, Mr. Shift Lead,” Soobin shouted at his back. Then, to Yeonjun, he said, “You’ve got something in your hair.” Taehyun pushed open the swinging doors. Why couldn’t life be simple? Why couldn’t he just plug everything into the right formula and get a straightforward answer? Why did there have to be so many… variables ? Taehyun had just walked back into the dining room when the restaurant’s front doors swung open and two more diners came in. It was the tiniest, most insignificant thing to worry about on a hectic night like this. New customers were just a normal part of business. Another coin in the arcade machine. But these two customers were going to ruin everything. Taehyun could tell just by looking at them. They were Jungkook and Kai.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Even if Taehyun hadn’t spotted the two fox hunters as soon as they walked through the doors, he was certain his eyes would have been drawn to them eventually. The two of them were black holes, whirlpools, a monster’s open and toothy maw, and he was being sucked towards them mere moments from being devoured. There was just something about them. Something mystical and strange. Borderline unknowable. It wasn’t quite... magical. That was probably part of it, yes, but this was different. Slightly to the left of that. This was more magnetic . Charismatic. Idol-like. Ignoring them was simply impossible. It just couldn’t be done. You had to look. And perhaps you had to fear. Jungkook and Kai. Both of them were tall. One muscular. The other slim. Both of them seemed tough. One physically so. The other smart. Dangerously. Taehyun didn’t know how he knew. Their all-black clothing stood out in the brightly-lit restaurant. If they weren’t so obviously young, Taehyun thought, he would have assumed they were undercover detectives casing the restaurant. Good cop. Bad cop. Although, in their sleek leather jackets and calf-high boots, they stood out too much to be police on a secret mission. Well, they were on a mission. Every step they took was full of purpose. Their eyes searched the busy, bustling place for their nine-tailed target, even as Jimin greeted them and showed them to their table. Taehyun had to warn him. He backed up, retreating through the swinging doors he had just pushed open. How close was it to the end of their shift? Could they just leave ? There was a door in the back they could slip out of. Unnoticed, hopefully. He glanced at the clock. The evening felt like it had flown past but there was still just shy of a half hour left on the clock. This was going to be tough. Soobin and Yeonjun were chatting away casually, laughing like old buddies. Soobin slapped his big hand down on Yeonjun’s shoulder and the older boy’s smile turned into a pained wince for a split second. Taehyun just watched them. They were so happy. Completely unaware of the danger that had just been seated at table eleven. He almost didn’t want to say anything. He didn’t want to ruin this. Excitedly, Soobin remarked, “Wait until everyone at school hears that we’re coworkers. I’m going to be so popular!” “You’re already popular.” Yeonjun laughed at him. “So many people want your number. How can you not tell?” “Huh? Really? I never noticed.” Soobin pouted. No. This was going to be impossible. “Yeonjun,” Taehyun interrupted, getting in between them. What he had to say was urgent. “Your cousins are here.” Yeonjun looked up, furrowing his eyebrows in confusion. “My… who?” Taehyun forced a smile to keep things from getting weird. He met Yeonjun’s eyes and spoke as slowly as he could. “Your cousins … They’re probably gonna cause a ruckus so why don’t you stay back here? Where they can’t see you. And do things to you.” Someone pushed the swinging doors open, intruding on their safe space. For a moment, Taehyun feared the hunters were the ones boldly entering. It was Namjoon. His serving tray was loaded with empty noodle bowls. He saw the younger boys gathered in a huddle but he did little more than raise an eyebrow at them as he circled around towards the big trash can. Yeonjun didn’t catch on to the urgency of the moment. “Taehyun, what were you saying?” Taehyun held a finger up to his lips, urging Yeonjun to hush . He went quiet. All three of them turned their heads to watch Namjoon as he tossed napkins and straws and food scraps into the trash. Taehyun rarely saw him. He usually worked mornings except for on the weekends. He was tall. Taller than Soobin, even, and Taehyun always wondered what a put-together, educated guy like him was doing working in a place like this. Namjoon chucked the noodle bowls into the basin of cleaning solution in front of the dishwasher. Things didn’t get awkward until Namjoon glanced over his shoulder and saw them all staring at him. He parted his lips, a question right there on the tip of his tongue, but then he decided against asking and audibly clamped his mouth shut. He wasted no more time dumping the rest of the dishes and brushing past them again to step through the swinging doors and out of sight. Even with him gone, it still took several seconds for the three boys to restart their conversation. “Your cousins are out there,” Taehyun stated. “The ones that you don’t like.” Yeonjun didn’t catch on at all. “My cousins…” They weren’t actually Yeonjun’s cousins, of course, but if Taehyun could just keep the fox boy from walking through the swinging doors and getting spotted by those hunters, he’d say anything. He didn’t know why he was trying so hard. It had only been a day or so since Yeonjun had asked him to keep his heart safe but Taehyun couldn’t help but take this seriously, to let the task fill his mind completely like this. He didn’t even know Yeonjun like that, but if he changed the way he thought about it, it was just another math exam he had to ace. Another problem he had to work to find the solution for. “You know, those cousins of yours.” Taehyun waved his hands around as he struggled to come up with the right words. “The troublemakers who want to… get back at you… for that thing you did because… they’re… they’re your cousins.” He wasn’t even making sense to himself! Yeonjun narrowed his eyes. “What’s this about?” “Your cousins,” Taehyun tried for the dozenth time. “You can keep saying it,” Yeonjun folded his arms across his chest, “but I don’t have any cousins.” “Those guys,” insisted Taehyun, pointing towards the swinging doors. If Soobin wasn’t standing right there he could say what he truly wanted. This was getting so frustrating! “The two scary guys that are-” He pointed to his own chest, indicating the magical jewel wedged in between his ribs somewhere. “The ones that want your- The ones that are after you because of those nine things you have!” “Oh,” Soobin exclaimed, snapping his fingers as the idea hit him, “you mean those two hunters after Yeonjun because he’s a rare gumiho?” Taehyun almost didn’t catch on. Soobin had delivered the question with the same casual enthusiasm as an announcement about the nice weather or something. “Wait.” Taehyun whirled around to look at Soobin. He just had to double check. “He’s a… a what?” “A gumiho,” Soobin repeated happily. “And a tier three… A tier three...” He put his finger to his nose as he tried to think. “A tier three something or other.” Taehyun’s jaw fell open. “How do you know that, Soobin?” Soobin’s cheeks flushed red and he stared at the tile floor. “Ummm. I overheard the details. Yoongi and Yeonjun were talking about it during his interview.” This was getting wild. Taehyun knew Soobin had a knack for hearing anything and everything that went on in the restaurant but the guy still managed to surprise him. Taehyun laughed to fill in the odd silence. “You’re so funny, Soobin, coming up with ridiculous stories.” It wasn’t funny but if he forced it, maybe all of this could be hilarious . “You almost had me there, Soobin! Acting all cool. You’re letting your imagination run wild.” Soobin dropped his hand from his nose and spoke a bit more confidently. “I know you know, Taehyun.” He looked up and met the shorter boy’s gaze. “The two of you were talking about all this stuff when he came by the other day. When y’all were outside.” Soobin let a calm, collected smile play over his face. “Why didn’t you tell me you could sing, Tae-Tae? Like, really sing?” Of all of the crazy things he had just admitted to knowing, that was his big question? Not any of the other more fanciful stuff? Taehyun scoffed. “We were just playing around, Soobin. I mean... Yeah.” For the first time in a while, Yeonjun spoke. “It’s totally okay, Taehyun. He clearly knows everything. Why hide it?” “What?” Taehyun turned towards him. “Shouldn’t we keep this a secret between us?” “Hmm? Why? Who says?” Yeonjun wondered. His carefree attitude was starting to get on Taehyun’s nerves. It was like Yeonjun didn’t actually care that he was being hunted down. It was like he welcomed the fact that the guys who were after him were legitimately on the other side of that door! “But, Yeonjun, we shouldn’t-” “It’s okay. I had a feeling Soobin would get involved. From the very beginning. Didn’t I tell you?” Yeonjun stepped forward and gently wrapped his fingers around Taehyun’s wrist. His body heat swept over Taehyun, making him even more hot and uncomfortable in the already warm, humid back room. “Don’t you remember?” Yeonjun asked quietly. “When you came over to my house, I told you that your friends would probably get in the middle of all of this. Because of who they are.” Taehyun asked his favorite question: “What’s that supposed to mean?” Yeonjun pointed to himself. “I’m not human.” He waved a hand in Soobin’s direction. “And neither is he.” If absolutely nothing else had surprised Soobin today, this had. “Whuzzat? I’m not what ?” He poked and prodded at his own face and chest and arms as if to check for something. “I’m… not… human?” He slapped both of his hands on his cheeks in an exaggerated display of shock. Soobin was goofy enough that Taehyun couldn’t tell if he was playing along right now or being serious. “I thought you already knew,” Yeonjun questioned, keeping his eyes on Taehyun, “that he’s a rabbit?” “I didn’t,” Taehyun mumbled. Now that he thought about it, the word ‘rabbit’ had come up a ridiculous number of times over the past few days. Too many to be mere coincidence. “But I guess I do now.” Soobin nodded slowly, taking the news far better than Taehyun could. His hands still pressed over his cheeks, he said, “Hmm. I’m a rabbit. Not the strangest thing I’ve heard today, let me tell you.” Yeonjun gave Taehyun’s wrist a reassuring squeeze. “See? It’s really not that big of a-” “Yeah, right,” Taehyun interrupted, pulling his arm free of Yeonjun’s grasp. He couldn’t believe it. “Next thing you’re gonna say is that Beomgyu’s not human, either.” Yeonjun stayed quiet but his eyes said a thousand words. The swinging doors flew open again. Everyone startled and looked up. Beomgyu stood there, red in the face and wheezing from running around. “Why isn’t anyone helping me out there,” he cried out, the tiniest of tears in the corners of his eyes. “I’m going to die!” It was like being brought back into the real world. It was like being reminded that life carried on regardless of the topsy-turvy secrets that got poured out into the open. “You’re not going to die,” Taehyun told him. Life felt normal again. Mundane. “We’re done here anyways.” Soobin quickly added, “And sorry for leaving you out there!” Beomgyu just moaned in agony before whirling around, gone about as quickly as he came. The three waiters started to follow Beomgyu back out into the dining room but Taehyun caught Yeonjun by the sleeve. He waited until Soobin passed through the door and left them alone. He lowered his voice. “You can’t go. The hunters have to know you’re here.” Yeonjun frowned. Almost petulantly. You would have thought Taehyun was barring him from the party of the century or something. “But I can’t just hide forever,” he whined. “You can,” Taehyun told him. “And you will.” “That’s not what we agreed on,” said Yeonjun with a brand new and borderline wicked ferocity in his voice. Either Taehyun was seeing things or Yeonjun’s teeth had gotten pointy. “I said I would fight my own battles. I can fend for myself! I’ve done so for this long already. I can’t show them fear or they’ll just-” “I don’t want to see you get hurt,” Taehyun mumbled, almost under his breath. Yeonjun’s words stopped dead in his throat. His expression softened. “Neither do I.” They both turned to look. Yoongi was standing behind them. There was no telling how long he had been there or how much he had heard. “So I’m going to go out there and deal with those hunters.” Apparently, he had heard a lot. Taehyun tried to come up with an excuse, “Hey, we were just… playing. Yeah! Live-action role play. Or something.” “I know who he is, Taehyun.” Yoongi didn’t have to raise his voice to get others to listen. “Like any good boss, I know who my employees are. Why else do you think I hired you all?” Taehyun gulped. “But... how are you going to handle them? On your own?” Yoongi was a tough leader when he needed to be. He could straighten up messy situations by keeping his head cool but Taehyun doubted those kinds of skills would come in handy against people who knew magic.
“Oh, I’m not going to do anything to them,” said Yoongi with a snort. With one hand, he pushed his dark brown hair away from his face, revealing his handsome forehead. With the other hand, he put on a baseball cap. The restaurant’s logo was sewn into the front. “I’m just going to show them that they’re pissing off the wrong fox.”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
This whole night had been one mind-blowing secret after another and Taehyun feared he was simply losing his grip on reality. It was all going to come tumbling. Down to the last turtle. “You’re a fox,” he asked Yoongi. He’d meant to speak at a regular person’s volume but his shock and surprise had turned his voice into a high-pitched bat’s screech. “You’re a fox, too ?” The fact that he knew more than one! “Really?” Yoongi didn’t seem all too interested in answering such an obvious question. “Keep your voice down.” Luckily, Yeonjun was ready with an answer. “Of course, Tae,” he stated with a surprising level of patience. “Why else would he hire a dude with no restaurant experience on the spot?” Taehyun had wondered about that. “I know one thing, though,” Yoongi said. He aimed his gaze in Yeonjun’s direction. “You probably should stay back here until I get those hunters off the premises.” Yeonjun frowned, almost pouted, but he didn’t seem willing to argue the point now that someone other than Taehyun had suggested it. “I’m not doing it because you told me to,” he eventually huffed. “I just don’t have full access to my magic at the moment. Won’t be any good in a fight.” He hooked his eyes in Taehyun’s direction. Taehyun swallowed hard. He almost apologized for their weird, one-way magical connection, but-- “Fighting will just make things worse,” explained Yoongi. “This needs a diplomatic approach.” Yeonjun seemed hopeful. “You’ll really get them to back off?” “Stay put,” Yoongi avoided the question. He turned towards the doors and, more to himself than to the boys, muttered, “This won’t take long.” He was almost to the swinging doors when Taehyun asked, “Is everyone here not human? You said you know these things, right? You hire people knowing who and what they are, you said?” “That’s true,” Yoongi muttered. He paused for a few seconds. Not just with his words but with his body, becoming extremely still. Without turning back around to look at Taehyun, he said, “All the waiters on the weekday afternoon shift aren’t human.” “So… Namjoon?” Taehyun listed off, rummaging through his coworker’s names in his head and counting them on his fingers. He nearly said Taehyung but remembered that the man wasn’t a waiter. “Seokjin? Jimin?” Yoongi shook his head. “Everyone on the afternoon shift,” he reiterated. That changed things. The waiters on the afternoon shift narrowed the list down considerably. “So Soobin… and--” He could hardly believe it. “--Beomgyu, and…” Yoongi simply repeated, “Everyone.” Taehyun was still scrambling to fit the puzzle pieces together. Yoongi seemed to remember that he was in the middle of something. He pushed open the swinging doors, letting in the roaring noise of the weekend rush. “Be careful, Yoongi,” Taehyun shouted at his back. Yoongi paused and glanced over his shoulder at Taehyun. He raised an eyebrow in genuine confusion, as if the idea of being hurt by the hunters was so absurd that he hadn’t even considered the possibility. Without saying a word, he faced forward and continued through the doors. They swung shut behind him, leaving Taehyun and Yeonjun alone in the humid, noisy back room. The dishwasher hissing and steaming away behind them. Taehyun felt anxious all of a sudden. He didn’t want to get involved. He didn’t want to be nosy . Table eleven wasn’t even in his section but something deep down inside him couldn’t stand to be too far away from the action. Like a car accident he couldn’t look away from, Taehyun needed to run towards the danger instead of away from it. He was going to be with Yoongi when he confronted the hunters. He had to be. Straightening his spine and steeling his resolve, he started towards the swinging doors. “Tae,” Yeonjun called out. There was something in his tone. Not quite desperation. Not really pain or anger. Just a knife-sharp edge that made Taehyun stop and turn around. “Yeah?” Yeonjun approached him, his face was stiff with an unrecognizable emotion but the movements of his body remained inhumanly graceful. Yeonjun reached out a hand and let his fingers trail along Taehyun’s jaw and over his cheek. Taehyun hadn’t been expecting the contact. The gentleness of it made him shiver. Yeonjun stepped even closer. “You trust me, right?” What a bizarre question. Taehyun didn’t hesitate to say, “Of course.” Oddly enough, Yeonjun didn’t seem satisfied with the answer. His facial expression hardened further with a seriousness that didn’t suit him. Yeonjun’s thumb danced over the shell of Taehyun’s ear for a moment. “You’ll always stand on my side, won’t you?” “Yeah,” Taehyun said. “No matter what?” Yeonjun pressed. “Yeah.” “Even if you… hear things about me?” “Yes,” Taehyun said, getting a little upset by the repeated question. “Why wouldn’t I?” Yeonjun dropped his hand from Taehyun’s face and crammed it into the pocket of his apron. He wanted to say something. It was obvious he wanted to say something but he couldn’t bring himself to do it. Instead, he just mumbled, “Thanks,” and walked farther into the back of the restaurant. Taehyun dismissed it. Maybe beneath all the playfulness and bravado, Yeonjun was simply insecure? Then again, Taehyun wasn’t sure why he so readily leaped forward to answer the fox boy’s questions today. Just yesterday, if Yeonjun had asked the same thing, he would have hesitated. Maybe even denied him. Well… whatever. There was something more important happening. Taehyun pushed through the swinging doors. The noise of the busy restaurant collided with him but he charged onward, ready to help-- “Hey,” Seokjin grabbed his arm and yanked him backwards so hard that his shoulder stung. “I’ve been covering your butt forever . Where have you been?” “Sorry,” Taehyun apologized. He looked away but not out of any sense of shame about skimping on his duties. Yoongi was quite a ways ahead of him. He was a small-framed man and could slip around the waiters and tables and chairs and on-the-run toddlers like water flowing around rocks. Taehyun didn’t want to get involved. He really didn’t! He hated getting in the middle of things, but… “Can you hold on for like five more minutes? I swear.” Seokjin scrunched up his eyebrows and curled his plump lips down into a sneer. Then he smoothed over his expression and let Taehyun go. “I’m taking all of your tips.” It wasn’t that bad of a deal. Taehyun clapped his hands together close to his face. “Thank you, thank you.” He resumed his chase after Yoongi, cutting past Beomgyu carrying a tray of noodles bowls and avoiding Soobin’s curious staring. He caught up to Yoongi near the center of the dining room. The manager gave him a look out of the corner of his eye, more acknowledgement than annoyance, and as a united front, the two of them crossed the last remaining distance between them and table eleven. Just like the previous night, Kai had their elbows propped up on the table, an almost out of place smile on their lips. Jungkook still kept his attention on his cell phone, the device constantly buzzing and beeping as the group chat he was in exploded with new messages. Taehyun couldn’t even bring himself to smile at them. Not even his forced Customer Service smile. These two probably wouldn’t let up on their hunt until they got their hands on Yeonjun and Taehyun felt oddly protective of his brand new boyfriend. He would do what he could to keep them off of Yeonjun’s nine tails. “Evening, folks,” Yoongi said, placing a gentle hand on the surface of table eleven and leaning his weight on it. “Didn’t you two come through yesterday? I’m good at remembering faces.” “We didn’t stay long,” Kai said. “And you’re not gonna stay long this time either,” Yoongi strongly suggested. “We don’t want any trouble,” Kai said. “You won’t get any,” Yoongi shot back. If this were a cartoon, lightning bolts would bounce back and forth between their eyes. This was real life so, instead, the restaurant got dark. It happened quickly so Taehyun had thought it was something magical but then he blinked a few times and realized that the setting sun had chosen that exact moment to hide behind clouds. The sunlight that had been pouring through the windows a breath or two ago had now dimmed, leaving nothing but the small lamp above the table to illuminate their stand-off. To break the tense, awkward silence, Taehyun spoke up, “What can I get you two to drink?” Yoongi held up a hand. A nonverbal request to be quiet . Taehyun obeyed and took a step back. Still leaning over the table, Yoongi reached that same hand up to his hat and lifted it up just enough before placing it back on his head. His ears were out, Taehyun saw. Wide and pointy and covered in deep brown fur. There was no way the hunters hadn’t noticed. Jungkook looked up. Beneath his bangs, Taehyun only barely managed to catch the guy’s eyes travel up towards Yoongi and then back across the table at Kai. Kai met his gaze for the briefest second and then turned back to Yoongi. There was a brand new stiffness to their posture. “We were actually interested in ordering. Your Pork-Bone special. Heard it was legendary.” Yoongi snorted. “We’re all out of Pork-Bone specials.” “What about your vegan bowl,” Kai questioned. “With the gluten-free noodles?” It was what Soobin had suggested the other evening. “We’re out of that, too,” Yoongi said heatedly. Jungkook reached for something in his jacket pocket. Kai held up a single finger and gave the tiniest, subtlest shake of the head. Jungkook went still but he did not relax. Taehyun wondered what the guy had been about to reach for. Still trying to be courteous, Kai asked, “How about your Seafood Bowl. Can we get two of those, please?” “You sure can’t,” Yoongi replied with the widest smile. “We’re all out of everything.” Taehyun realize then that Yoongi was purposefully goading the hunters. Showing off his ears. Being nasty to them now. He was practically begging for a fight. Kai did not seem willing to give him one. “We’ve got the wrong place, then.” This didn’t please Jungkook. “Huh? But--” Kai cut him off. “We’ll go.” Angry and flustered, Jungkook got to his feet and purposefully stepped right up into Yoongi’s personal space. “Do you know what it means to obstruct us? This is a direct violation of--” “--of what?” Yoongi interrupted. Jungkook was taller than Yoongi and also wider, thicker, heavier. To the untrained eye, he looked like he had the advantage, but Yoongi had to have been stronger than his small frame let on. He didn’t seem threatened at all by Jungkook getting in his face. He simply continued to lean on the table, not even straightening up to his full height. “You two are not going to get what you want here,” the manager said. “So you would be better off leaving my employees and my customers alone because that is a violation.” Jungkook didn’t back off. He still stood rigidly. At the ready. Leaning down so close to Yoongi that their noses nearly touched. Kai put a hand on Jungkook’s back. “That’s enough.” Jungkook stood down, backing away from Yoongi and unclenching his fists. Finally. Kai smiled and said, “We’ve got work to do just like you do. We’re all trying to get paid.” “Get paid off of my property, then,” Yoongi stated, widening his grin. To a bystander, all of this probably appeared as little more than a friendly, if stiff, exchange of small talk. To be right in the middle of it, Taehyun noticed, the conversation was like a thread being pulled so taut that it was bound to snap. Yoongi, Kai, Jungkook. They all looked prepared for a fist fight. Even Yoongi’s outwardly relaxed posture was full of tension. Ready to spring. “We’ll get going,” said Kai, pulling Jungkook away from the table and towards the door. Then, in a bold declaration, in one last madhat attempt to save face, Kai cryptically added, “For now.” 🍽 The rush didn’t die down enough for them to leave until long after sundown. It had to be past seven by now. Taehyun hadn’t been this exhausted in ages. Not since his early days of working at the restaurant, back when he wasn’t used to the constant walking and lifting and carrying and smiling. Tonight was the shift from hell, if he could think so boldly. Everything had gone crazy. The customers, his coworkers, his boss. Everything. And the hours had stretched on and on, making one evening feel like it had been happening for weeks. He was usually able to stay cool under such stress but finding out that so many people close to him were magical had turned his world upside down in a way that little else could. He just wanted to go home and crawl in bed but the night wasn’t over. There was still one more thing he had to do. As usual on Friday evenings, the boys were going to head out to buy celebratory we-somehow-made-it-through-another-week ice cream from the convenience store at the bottom of the hill and, according to the terms of their bet placed earlier in the afternoon, Taehyun had to foot the bill. It wouldn’t be such a scary prospect if Beomgyu didn’t eat so much. Taehyun waited for his friends alone at the edge of the parking lot where the gravel met the sidewalk. He folded his arms across his chest to fight back the damp chill on the wind. “Come on,” he whispered, glancing around, “where are you guys?” Yeonjun’s absence he could understand. They hadn’t exactly... invited him and he hadn’t attempted to invite himself despite Taehyun expecting him to do just that. Soobin needed to stay behind to sweep up the contents of a bag of sugar his clumsy elbows had knocked from a shelf, but Beomgyu should have been clocked out and over here by now. Taehyun pulled his phone out of his pocket and wondered if he should give Beomgyu a call. There was a very strong possibility the boy had gotten distracted by something sweet and fruity sitting in the dessert display case on his way out. No. No. Taehyun wasn’t going to be that petty. He’d give his friends another couple of minutes. Wouldn’t he want them to wait on him patiently if their roles were reversed? He sighed and shoved his phone back in his front pocket. The movement reminded him of how stiff and sore the muscles in his arms and legs were. He’d been up on his feet for hours and he couldn’t wait to sit down on the convenience store’s comfortable, colorful stools and hopefully think and talk about something other than work for a bit. The wind changed directions. Taehyun noticed a charged smell to the air. Sharp. Salty. Almost electrical. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky but Taehyun could tell a storm was on the way. A big one. Everything around him was about to violently change. He could feel it. Taste it, nearly. He heard familiar laughter in the distance. Taehyun squinted across the length of the parking lot to see Soobin and Beomgyu exiting the building. Finally, they were on their way! His relief didn’t last long. The hair on his arms stood on end. He shuddered involuntarily. Someone was standing right behind him! Taehyun whirled around. Kai stood there. Ridiculously close. Beautiful like a rose but probably cruel like its thorns. Kai’s all-black outfit made them nearly invisible in the darkness beyond the light of the street lamp. Taehyun almost screamed but Kai stepped forward and pressed a hand over his mouth. “Get loud,” Kai warned, “and I’ll get your little friends involved. Stay quiet and this remains between us.” When they were sure Taehyun wouldn’t shout, Kai lowered their hand. “Don’t hurt them,” Taehyun almost whimpered. He had wanted to sound brave but his voice came out as a squeak. “Then stop getting in the way,” Kai retorted. Taehyun gulped. He reminded himself of the things Yeonjun had said about these hunters, about the violent ways they’d treat Yeonjun if they ever caught him. Taehyun wondered if Kai would ever hurt him if he kept ‘getting in the way.’ “But,” he began, “I’m not in your way. I’m not doing anything.” “You can’t fool me,” snapped Kai. “Every time we draw close to our target, you’re there. Don’t think I haven’t noticed. You obviously know who and what we are and why we’re here. Just hand the fox over.” “You met the fox tonight,” Taehyun attempted. Kai huffed, “Your boss only has one tail. Our target has nine of them.” Taehyun started to speak. “Don’t play innocent,” said Kai. “As it stands, you’re his accomplice which makes you just about as guilty as he is.” In a lower, darker tone, Kai muttered, “Don’t make me start tracking you instead.” Across the lot, Beomgyu landed some kind of joke and Soobin guffawed like it was the funniest thing he’d ever heard. They sounded close by. Really close. Taehyun started to turn around. Maybe to shout for his friends to stay away. Maybe to run away himself. Kai grabbed him by the front of his shirt before he could. “Let me go,” Taehyun hissed under his breath. “You shouldn’t hurt-” He nearly said Yeonjun’s name. That would have been bad. “He did nothing.” “Nothing?” Kai glanced over Taehyun’s shoulder, judging how much more time the two of them had left to talk before Beomgyu and Soobin came close enough to interrupt. Kai’s expression made it obvious they didn’t have long. “Do you even know why we’re hunting him? Do you even know what he did? Did he even bother to tell you the whole story?” Kai released Taehyun’s shirt, put a hand into one of the leather jacket’s many inner pockets and pulled free a very official-looking badge. It caught the glow of the lamp above their heads and glinted like it was made of gold. “This isn’t a game to us. It’s a job. Much is at stake.” Kai leaned in close, putting their mouth to Taehyun’s ear. Their next words were a hardly audible whisper. “That little buddy of yours is a tier three criminal. Wanted . Dead or alive.” Kai stepped back and practically vanished into the shadows a step or two away.
I was just wondering if any of you would be willing to die for me?
Yeonjun’s casual words the other day took on a darker and more menacing vibe in Taehyun’s head. He got the chills. What had he actually gotten himself involved in? How deep did the rabbit hole go? He put a hand to his chest and sucked in a deep breath. “Tae-Tae!” Beomgyu called out. Soobin added, “Sorry we kept you waiting!” It was like being snapped out of a dream. Taehyun shook away the dread that clung to him. He searched frantically, looking up and down the sidewalk in both directions but he found no sign of Kai. He turned back to Soobin and Beomgyu. “What’s up,” Soobin asked. He slapped a big hand down hard on Taehyun’s shoulder. “You look all spooked.” “I’m just… very cold,” Taehyun said. It wasn’t a lie. The wind picked up. Brisk. Chilly. Beomgyu put a hand down on top of his light hair to keep the curls in place. Soobin folded his arms across his chest for warmth. Teeth chattering, he said, “Didn’t mean to take so long.” “What were you guys even doing,” Taehyun had to ask. Anything to distract himself from the shocking news he’d heard. Beomgyu stuffed his hands in his pants pockets. “Leave it to Soobin to get himself tangled up in the extension cord. I could understand a loop or two but he was wrapped up like a mummy.” “It’s very easy to do,” Soobin defended himself. Beomgyu grinned wide, pleased that he could poke fun at his ridiculous friend. “Not really.” Soobin stomped a foot indignantly. “It is. When you’re getting the little vacuum tube into all the nooks and crannies, it’s really simple to just get spun around a few times.” Taehyun watched his friends. He took in their bright smiles. Their tinkling laughter. He’d only really been close to them for a handful of months but their happiness meant so much to him. He wanted to protect their joy. And if Kai was threatening to start watching him just to find a way to get to Yeonjun, maybe Taehyun shouldn’t spend too much time around the two of them. “Sorry, guys,” Taehyun said, bringing a halt to the good cheer. "I have to go." Beomgyu and Soobin both whirled towards him. “What,” Beomgyu yelled. “No fair!” “You can’t back out of the bet,” Soobin agreed. “Something urgent came up,” Taehyun said. “I really have to go.” He didn’t even wait around to see how they’d respond before he hurried in the direction of home.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
In a city as small as this one, there wasn’t much to do on a Friday night that didn’t involve gathering your friends or family and going out to eat somewhere. Unlike the big city, there weren’t exactly entire districts devoted to clubbing and nightlife and love hotels and shopping. Things out here just… moved slower. Sitting around a table laughing and eating with the people you loved was the epitome of entertainment once the sun went down. Someone from the big city probably would have found such a town boring and stifling but someone who had known nothing but these hills and trees and quiet streets wouldn’t have anything else to compare it to.
Food seemed to be a really big part of everyone’s lives. Growing it. Cooking it. Carrying it on a tray and serving it to other people. Reviewing it. Nearly everyone in town had a job or hobby somewhat related to one of those things. So to support such a gormandizing population, it was only natural that restaurants were everywhere. There were one or two big city chain restaurants that had plopped down their concrete boxes along the main street in recent years but, really, they were but background noise to the main event. Most of the popular eateries in town were family businesses passed down through generations. Recipes and cooking methods and unique tools inherited from ancestors.
There were the two aging brothers that had a shop near the foothills who grew their own cabbages and then fermented it themselves in the back room of their restaurant’s kitchen, labels on all of the mason jars describing the ingredients in the different chili pastes and the dates the cabbage had been prepared and stored so the chefs could track how many weeks or months the kimchi had been fermenting. Farther up the mountain, there was a much smaller shop, more a hut than a restaurant, where an old woman who had practically stayed the same age since Taehyun was young made and sold
seolleongtang
--or ox bone soup--using ingredients her grandchildren foraged for or grew on the mountain. Even Yoongi’s restaurant in the center of town had quite the history, as he’d gotten the place from his mother and aunts, and the women had insisted that he uphold the tradition of hand-making all of the noodles and ensuring that every ingredient he bought was grown in town. Preferably from one of the farms on or near the mountain.
In this town, the only good food came from the mountain.
That wasn’t so much opinion as it was stated fact. A proven hypothesis. Scientific theory.
The best food was grown on the mountain. Period.
And as Taehyun walked home, he couldn’t help but wonder if any of the other restaurants in town hired waiters or chefs or had owners that weren’t human. He didn’t know if he was skewing the truth to answer his question but it would make so much sense. It… worked. What better hunters and foragers and food-finders were there than animals? Was that why Soobin was so popular with kids? He was just one very very very tall pet bunny?
Taehyun shook his head. Now he was being silly.
Every time he passed a restaurant and peered through a window at the people sitting and eating and laughing, he wondered how many of them were inhuman. Every person he passed on the sidewalk, he asked himself if they had horns or ears growing out of their heads. If they had tails sprouting from their backs.
Just thinking about it made his own head itch. He raised a hand and scratched at his scalp.
He needed to talk to Yeonjun. He needed to find out what being a tier three criminal entailed.
What did Yeonjun
do
?
It was nighttime and the air was damp and chilly, but the sky was clear of clouds. The stars were bright and blueish. So bright that the big mountain at the edge of town was a noticeable black silhouette on the horizon. Taehyun stared up at it, admiring how it towered over the roofs of all of the houses and buildings and trees. Another important question sprang to mind:
Was the mountain full of magic?
Was that why the food grown on it tasted so good?
Sighing, Taehyun sat down on the bench of the bus stop next to the police station. The next bus that would take him towards home wouldn’t come through for about ten more minutes. He was suddenly hungry, his stomach growling, and he hated that he’d skipped out on eating with his friends.
Then his cell phone rang. He still had it turned down from being on the clock. He almost didn’t hear it.
Taehyun pulled it from his pocket and saw who was calling. It had been about five minutes since he’d walked away from the restaurant and he was shocked it had taken his friends
that
long to try to get ahold of him. He put it on speaker. “Hello,” he answered.
“Why did you leave in such a hurry,” Beomgyu asked. “We--” He started to say something else but his sentence was cut short by a rustling noise.
“I know where you live,” Soobin yelled into the phone. “Tell us what’s going on or I’ll come over there and punt you.”
“I’m not home yet,” said Taehyun, grinning despite everything. Soobin couldn’t be violent if he tried.
Beomgyu’s voice was back in Taehyun’s ear. “You can’t just ditch ice cream night,” he whined. “It’s
tradition
.” Then, in a quieter voice, he added, “Should we wait for you?”
Taehyun opened his mouth to say ‘no’ but-
“We’re friends, Tae-Tae!” It was Soobin, indignant. “We’re supposed to be able to talk about anything. Including all of this magical fox stuff!”
Taehyun’s jaw dropped. Soobin’s voice seemed to echo through the night air. Taehyun looked up and met the eye of the girl who had just walked up to the bus stop to wait. She raised an eyebrow at him, more wary than anything else. Taehyun hurriedly switched his phone off speaker and held it up to his ear. How could Soobin just blurt things out like that? Did he not realize some things should be said quietly? Or not at all? “What are you talking about,” Taehyun tried to play dumb.
Soobin said, “Didn’t Yeonjun say it’s okay to talk about all of this?”
“Yeah, to you,” Taehyun said. Not to Beomgyu.
“He clearly doesn’t care if we talk about magic,” said Soobin, unconvinced. “In fact, I don’t think it should be a secret at all.”
In the quiet that followed, Taehyun clearly heard Beomgyu ask, “Huh? What are you talking about?”
Soobin boldly declared, “Magic! Magical fox stuff. Gumihos.”
Taehyun was glad he’d taken his phone off of speaker. “Anyone want to come over and watch a movie tomorrow?” He was tempted to stand up and rush back to the restaurant just to get Soobin to
shut up
.
“Beomgyu,” Soobin said, “did you know that Yeonjun’s a nine-tailed fox?”
Taehyun shrieked, “Soobin.”
Beomgyu let out a choked noise of shock. “Uhhh… Nope… I can’t- I can’t say that I knew that. No.”
“And did you know,” Soobin went on, sounding pleased with himself, “that I’m a magical rabbit? I just found out today.”
Taehyun wanted to reach through the phone and give Soobin a mighty shake. “Soobin, please!”
Beomgyu made that same weird, confused sound. “No. Ummm. That’s something I never considered. Hmm. I mean... I never… I wouldn’t have guessed.”
“I see,” Soobin hummed. “I wonder if Yeonjun’s ever wanted to put his teeth in me. Wow. Getting eaten by Yeonjun. I’d be so popular.”
“Uhhh…” Beomgyu cleared his throat. “I’m so confused.”
“You’re part of the club, too,” Soobin said. Then, in a more excited voice, he said, “I overheard Yoongi say that everyone on the afternoon shift isn’t-”
“Soobin,” Taehyun interrupted. He knew Soobin had big ears but now he was starting to realize Soobin had a big mouth, too. “Don’t tell him--” He stopped himself. He remembered Yoongi saying to him not even an hour ago that Beomgyu also wasn’t human.
“Hmm?” Soobin asked him, finally acknowledging his protests. “Don’t tell him what?”
Taehyun didn’t know what to say. If Yoongi already knew that Beomgyu wasn’t human, wouldn’t Beomgyu find out eventually? Shouldn’t he learn about all of this anyway?
Soobin took Taehyun’s silence as permission to continue. “Oh, oh, oh, one more thing! Beomgyu, did you know that Taehyun can sing his butt off?”
Beomgyu gasped. “Okay, now I
do
know that.”
“How?” squeaked Taehyun. It wasn’t exactly a talent he remembered showing off.
“When you’re picking up litter on the sidewalk outside the restaurant, you’re always singing to yourself. I have to powerwash all of the outdoor furniture on the patio so I hear you sometimes. You’re really good.”
Taehyun felt his cheeks flush with embarrassment. He even glanced up at the girl waiting with him at the bus stop just to make sure she somehow hadn’t overheard. Why was
that
the thing that made him feel weird and almost ashamed when he and his friends had just been talking about magical foxes and other things straight out of a fairy tale? It just didn’t make mathematical sense.
Soobin switched the topic. “Yeonjun’s being viciously hunted. You know, by those two people in all-black who’ve been coming in the past few nights. I bet that’s what Taehyun’s upset about. Right?”
“Yeah, basically,” Taehyun admitted. That part was true. On general terms. What he was specifically upset about was that Yeonjun had told him everything except for the fact that he was a wanted criminal. Not even regular wanted but
dead or alive
wanted! That sounded serious. The girl waiting with him at the bus stop was leaning against the pole of the street lamp, not even looking in his direction, but he turned away from her and held his hand over his mouth regardless. Into his phone, he half-whispered, “One of the hunters told me something kind of crazy.” That they might be the good guys.
“You
talked
to them,” Beomgyu questioned.
“Which one?” Soobin had to know. “The cute-looking one or the scary-looking one?”
Taehyun thought about how Kai had grabbed him by the front of his shirt and growled into his ear. “The scary-looking one.”
“The one with straight hair or the one with curly hair?” Soobin asked, sounding like a reporter at an interview.
“The one with curly hair,” Taehyun supplied, not knowing why any of that was relevant.
“No, that’s the cute-looking one,” Soobin said.
“What did they tell you?” Beomgyu asked, getting things back on track.
Soobin joined in, “Yeah, what did they say? Anything about me?”
“You don’t already know?” Taehyun was surprised. Soobin was so good at listening in on conversations and all.
“Nope,” Soobin stated. “Am I supposed to know?”
“No.” Taehyun said. It would be so much better if neither of his friends knew about any of this. “But… that’s not the important thing.”
“You’re right. It’s not,” Beomgyu agreed. His tone shifted lower to something gravelly and more irritated. “You can’t
walk out
on ice cream night. I’ve been looking forward to this all shift, Tae. The shop just debuted a new flavor! Something with honey-roasted macadamia nuts. You can’t do this to me!”
Taehyun swallowed hard. The guilt was definitely getting to him now. “Go without me.”
Soobin cut in. “We go as three or not at all!”
Taehyun decided to tell a little bit more of the truth. Just enough to satisfy them. “I need to talk to Yeonjun.”
“Then why couldn’t you say that,” Soobin asked kindly.
His lack of an attitude pleasantly surprised Taehyun.
Beomgyu added, “If you wanted to hang out with your boyfriend instead of us, you could have just said so.”
Yeonjun was his boyfriend. Right. Taehyun had almost forgotten. The whole criminal thing had just about cancelled that part out. “I didn’t know how to say it,” he said. “We’ve only been going out like four hours.” That and the fact that he didn’t want his friends to know that ‘hanging out with his boyfriend’ actually meant asking the guy if he was a felon. Trusting men could be so difficult sometimes.
“How about tomorrow,” Soobin questioned.
Taehyun blinked. “Huh?” He hoped he hadn’t blanked out during an important bit of conversation.
“How about we all meet up for breakfast tomorrow,” Soobin clarified. “And you pay to make up for tonight.”
“Somewhere with big portions, please,” Beomgyu softly requested.
A meal would be way more expensive than ice cream. Taehyun should have just swallowed his pride and gone out with his friends tonight. “Okay.”
The bus Taehyun was waiting on came around the bend in the road. He looked up when he saw the bright headlights paint the road white. It was coming from the direction of the mountain that towered over town. “Let’s go to the ox bone soup place,” he said quickly. “The one halfway up the mountain.”
“Oh man, I haven’t been out there in like… a month,” Beomgyu emphatically agreed.
“Ooooh, yes! The weather will be good in the morning. It’ll be a great hike.” Soobin agreed. “Plus, their veggies taste the best!”
Taehyun was relieved. He was just glad that the solution to his friends being mad at him for not going out to eat with them was… to go out to eat with them. “Alright then,” he said. The bus hissed to a stop in front of him. He waited for the girl to move first and then stood up and followed her to the bus door as it swung open. He told his friends, “Let’s meet up at eight.”
“And bring Yeonjun,” Soobin yelled at him before hanging up.
Taehyun paid the bus fare and shoved his phone in his pocket. He walked down the long aisle towards the back. Bringing Yeonjun didn’t sound like the best of ideas. If the guy was indeed a wanted criminal, could they just go on a friendly walk in the middle of the day? Was that something they could just
do
? Taehyun wasn’t sure about the specifics of being wanted but he was positive that the last thing a wanted person did was just walk around town. All of these near-miss encounters in the restaurant had been sheer luck but there was no ‘authorized personnel only’ door to hide behind on a mountain. What if the hunters found them and caught them?
“Hello there.”
Taehyun stopped and looked to his right. He saw dark, curly hair and narrowed, brown eyes. Wait… Hold on! What? The bus accelerated from the curb more quickly than he expected. He lost his balance, went sliding sideways and fell onto the bus seat right next to a slyly smirking Kai.
“You just keep coming up wherever we go, don’t you,” said Kai.
Taehyun couldn’t help the sudden anger that boiled up in him. “What do
you
want?”
“Nothing,” said Kai. They tilted their head to look at something past Taehyun.
He followed Kai’s gaze to witness Jungkook lounging in the seat right across the aisle from the two of them. The guy had one hand shoved into the pocket of his leather jacket. His boots were propped up on the arm rest. Even in such a relaxed-looking pose, Taehyun could tell that Jungkook was ready to leap into action if need be. He turned back to Kai, scared. “Are you two following me?” His voice came out as a screechy whisper when he’d actually meant to scream.
From behind him, Jungkook said, “Not even close.”
Taehyun wasn’t convinced. “Then why are you after me?”
“Believe what you want to believe,” Kai mumbled, rolling their eyes, “but we were here first. You got up here with
us
, if I recall.” They weren’t wearing their leather jacket, Taehyun noticed. It was folded up neatly in Kai’s lap. Their short-sleeved shirt was rolled up to their shoulders which didn’t make much sense because it wasn’t particularly hot on the bus. “If we were after you, we wouldn’t be talking right now.”
Taehyun didn’t know how much of that to believe. Kai had already made half-threats about tracking Taehyun and now he’d run into the two hunters right down the road from the restaurant Yoongi had just kicked them out of! Taehyun leaned into the aisle a bit, searching for anyone that may be able to help him. Most of the other passengers on the bus were clustered towards the front. None of them looked towards the back of the bus. Even the driver kept her eyes on the road as she drove them towards the suburbs. Taehyun stared hard at Kai. “If you want to hurt me, just hurt me.”
Kai gasped, successfully looking offended.
It was Jungkook who said, “You’re not the one with a fat bounty on your head.”
Kai shot Jungkook a look. Clearly a ‘why did you tell him that?’ sort of glare. “What he means,” said Kai, “is that we’d have gotten you long before now if we were after you.”
Taehyun had to ask, “Then why haven’t you caught your nine-tailed fox, yet?”
Such a bold, daring question caught Kai off-guard. “He covers his tracks very well,” they explained. “He hides his scent trails, is careful with his magic and is wily enough to evade our usual traps and surveillance methods.” Kai gave Taehyun such a pointed stare that Taehyun gulped and wondered if the bounty hunters knew he had Yeonjun’s heart in his chest.
“He did make it all the way up to tier three,” Jungkook acknowledged. “Evading capture is par for the course with criminals of his magnitude.”
The bus came to a halt at the stop by the elementary school. None of the lights inside the brick building were on at this time of night. A few people got off of the bus but no one got on it. The vehicle rumbled on. Closer and closer to Red Fox Hills. Closer and closer to Yeonjun.
But still… He didn’t want to see Yeonjun get hurt.
“Will you two ever give up,” Taehyun had to know. He didn’t want to get into the middle of things. He just wanted to be left alone. He wanted to go to work and collect good tips and maybe eat ice cream with his friends. “Are you never going to leave him alone?”
Kai hesitated. They looked past Taehyun again at Jungkook.
Taehyun spun to look at the older man. He made no move. His expression didn’t change. His cellphone in his hand buzzed with a new notification. Whatever secret, silent signal he’d given to Kai, Taehyun had been too slow to spot it. He looked back at Kai just as they pulled something free of their jacket pocket. They handed it to Taehyun.
Taehyun hadn’t seen too many wanted posters in his life but he hadn’t expected it to actually have the words WANTED: DEAD OR ALIVE in bold black text across the top. There was a photograph--no, a composite sketch--of a boy who almost did but didn’t quite look like Yeonjun. The chin was too sharp. The eyes too slanted and narrowed. The nose too skinny. The cheekbones too high. The hair too short and too straight and too dark. It was recognizably Yeonjun but not Yeonjun at the same time. Beneath the sketch was the word BOUNTY in bold font followed by an amount with more zeros and commas than Taehyun had ever seen outside of a math problem. FOR THE FOLLOWING CRIMES, another header declared, and then there was a bulleted list that took up the rest of the page. Taehyun spotted the phrases ‘theft of protected artifact’ and ‘violation of contractual agreement’ before Kai snatched the poster out of his hand and stashed it back into their leather jacket.
He should have been upset about this but seeing this kind of proof only confirmed things in Taehyun’s mind. Yeonjun was always evading suspension from school by not leaving behind enough evidence or there not being enough witnesses to his vandalism and pranks. Up until tonight, Taehyun had assumed it was because Yeonjun was charming and handsome enough to smile and wink his way out of anything but now he wondered if escaping minor mishaps at school was child’s play to a wanted criminal.
Taehyun repeated himself, “What do you
want
?”
“We want to make a deal with you,” Kai announced. They smiled confidently. A strategist having already won a war before the battle began.
The bus shuddered and shook as it arrived at the next bus stop. Technically, the bounty hunters weren’t restraining Taehyun. This wasn’t his stop but he could probably get off the bus right now if he wanted to and take the long way home if the hunters decided to follow him. He could avoid leading them straight to Yeonjun’s house if he was careful but another part of him was intrigued by Kai’s proposal. “What kind of deal?”
Kai lowered their voice. “Give us the nine-tailed fox and we’ll give you a cut of the bounty. A finder’s fee, so to speak.”
Taehyun audibly gulped. What did ‘a cut’ of such a large amount of money look like? And if Yeonjun had committed enough crimes to be worth
that much money
, wouldn’t turning him in be a good thing? “Okay,” he said, surprising himself. “Let’s make a deal.”
His response also surprised Kai, whose mouth went wide at Taehyun’s rather speedy agreement. “Take us to him,” Kai said, eager.
“Tomorrow morning,” Taehyun told them. “We’re going to the mountain tomorrow morning. With friends.” He didn’t need to be more specific. There was only one mountain that the town residents would talk about and there was only one road between the town and the foothills.
The bus accelerated away from the curb.
Kai and Jungkook exchanged glances far too quickly for Taehyun to catch. Kai returned their gaze to Taehyun and the smile that crept across their lips was so easy-going it was almost frightening. “Get him alone,” they said, “and we’ll do the rest.”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Taehyun got off of the bus at Red Fox Hills feeling numb. Dazed. Kai and Jungkook had gotten off at the stop before his. Kai had beamed proudly knowing they’d finally catch their bounty. Jungkook had spoken up about not being able to wait until tomorrow, about being able to have a grand ole time. Behind Taehyun, the bus drove away from the curb. He listened to the sound of its rumbling engine get softer and quieter and he watched as the taillights grew smaller and dimmer until the road had taken the vehicle out of sight. He started home. “Maybe the trip to the mountain will be good for me. It’ll be like a vacation, kind of.” That much was true. He wouldn’t have to worry about school for another whole week! But how relaxing could a hike up the mountain be if you were doing it to betray your boyfriend? Taehyun was so distracted, so caught up, that he didn’t realize whose house he was walking past until he heard heavy footsteps thundering towards him from the other side of the wooden fence. “Crap,” he hissed. It really was every single time! Taehyun rushed forward and squatted down on the wildflowers and weeds growing beside the sidewalk and pressed his back to the fence, squeezing into the shadows and making himself as tiny as he could manage. A breath later, there was a thump against the fence as Yeonjun hoisted himself over the top. He excitedly shouted, “Sup?” Knowing that the loudness was coming this time, Taehyun didn’t shriek. Yeonjun didn’t spot Taehyun. It hadn’t occurred to the fox boy to look straight down. He squinted up the sidewalk in one direction and then twisted to look in the other. It was clear in both directions. No boyfriend. “Tae?” He was grinning from ear to ear, his fox ears poking out from under his curly, red hair. He tilted his head back and sniffed the air hard. He repeated himself in a higher and more confused tone, “Tae? Where are you?” Taehyun stayed where he was, not moving a muscle. Not even breathing. Anything to avoid making a sound and giving himself away. Honestly, he wasn’t sure why he was hiding. Perhaps it had something to do with the feeling of guilt rotting in his chest? “Huh? I could have sworn I caught a whiff of him,” Yeonjun mumbled to himself. He sniffed the air one more time, clearly catching Taehyun’s scent but not being able to find him. “Maybe I’m going crazy.” His expression soured. His smile faded. His eyes lost their happy shine. Even Yeonjun’s fox ears drooped to match his mood. Taehyun’s lungs burned as he held his breath, reaching his limit. Up until now, he had thought Yeonjun had just been screwing with him, jumping out from behind the fence to purposefully scare him, but looking up at his sad face at that moment, looking at the way Yeonjun deflated , Taehyun slowly realized that Yeonjun had always been genuinely excited to see him whenever he walked by. It made Taehyun wonder just how long Yeonjun had liked him--since he moved to the neighborhood?--and yet Taehyun had gone and ratted Yeonjun out to his enemies. Willing to die for him, his foot. “Maybe my nose is just stuffy?” Yeonjun heaved a sigh. Taehyun couldn’t help it. He made a squeaky noise as he sucked in a breath, filling his lungs with cool air. Yeonjun looked down. They made eye contact for a comically long moment before things clicked. Yeonjun’s grin returned. His ears perked back up. “Tae! Sup?” “Hey, pal,” Taehyun said slowly. He was still trying to fix the rhythm of his breathing. “You’re back quicker than I thought you’d be,” said Yeonjun. “Didn’t you say you were eating with your friends?” “Yeah, I did say that but our plans changed at the last minute.” “Sorry to hear that.” They drifted into a short silence. Then, “What are you doing down there?” Yeonjun asked. “Tying my shoe,” Taehyun blatantly lied. Yeonjun bought it easily. “You didn’t hear me calling you earlier?” “No. Don’t think so,” Taehyun kept the lies rolling. With a grunt of effort, Yeonjun pulled himself up high enough to swing a leg over the top of the fence. He laughed. “I’m glad you’re really here. You had me thinking I was losing my sense of smell!” Taehyun just smiled sheepishly. Part of him wanted to ask what he smelled like to Yeonjun. He wondered if he changed the soap he used, his deodorant, his shampoo, his body lotion, his cologne… If he changed all of those things, would Yeonjun no longer be able to recognize him? “I just realized something,” said Yeonjun, “with you down there and with me up here. It’s like that one scene from Romeo and Juliet, right? What light through blah blah blah window and whatever.” “Yeah,” Taehyun agreed, only half-listening. He was still pressed against the side of the fence, fearing that Yeonjun could somehow smell the hunters on him or know in some other magical kind of way that he’d cut a deal with them. Yeonjun swung his other leg over the top of the wooden fence and then dropped down onto the grass right beside Taehyun. Yeonjun held out a hand and, reluctantly, Taehyun grabbed hold of it and allowed the older boy to pull him to his feet. “What’s up? You’ve got this look in your eyes.” Nervously, Taehyun looked away from Yeonjun’s face. He stared down at their hands. Yeonjun’s fingers were so soft and warm wrapped around his. Taehyun felt like he’d never get lost if he held on tightly enough. No matter where he went. Yeonjun reached out his free hand, placed his fingers beneath Taehyun’s chin and tilted the younger boy’s head back until they were looking into each other’s eyes again. “What’s wrong?” Nothing , Taehyun thought. Just me coming up with a plan to hand you over to the authorities . “Really, what’s wrong,” Yeonjun asked softly, dropping his hand from Taehyun’s chin. “Are you mad at me?” “No. No. Why would you-- No.” “Then what’s up?” Taehyun cleared his throat. “I actually wanted to ask you something.” “Shoot.” “My friends and I are going to the mountain tomorrow morning. Did you want to come with us?” Yeonjun threw his head back and laughed. His fox ears twitched in the chill breeze. It wasn’t the reaction Taehyun was expecting. “Hey, what’s up with you?” “Sorry. Sorry.” He squeezed Taehyun’s hand tight. “You just had me so worried with that serious look on your face but you’re just asking me out on a date.”
Date.
The word lodged itself in Taehyun’s head. He hadn’t been thinking about it that way but now he was. “I see.” Yeonjun pressed, “What time?” “We’re meeting at eight.” “Yikes, that’s early for a Saturday,” Yeonjun grumbled, biting his bottom lip. “I don’t even get out of bed until noon on the weekends.” He laughed again. This wasn’t good. Taehyun had to bring Yeonjun along. Not because Soobin demanded that he do so but because it was part of the deal Taehyun had made with the hunters. “You’d rather sleep all day then hang out with us?” “Yeah, actually,” Yeonjun said plainly. “Don’t you know how great sleep on the weekends is?” Taehyun wouldn’t really know. His brain was wired to get him up early whether he had school or work or a day off from both. He had to come up with another tactic. He had to convince Yeonjun to come along or his deal with the hunters would be forfeit. Think think think! “We’re going out to eat,” he said. “At the ox-bone soup place halfway up.” Yeonjun scrunched up his eyebrows in thought before the lightbulb went off. “Oh, I know that place. That old lady’s still alive?” “Last I checked.” “Hmmm,” Yeonjun mumbled. He still didn’t sound too convinced or even look too eager to go. Now Taehyun understood how Yeonjun felt every time he’d asked Taehyun to come to that silly ‘pool party.’ What would Yeonjun say right now if their roles were reversed? Taehyun grinned and said, “It’ll be fuuuun .” He even said it in the same singsong voice Yeonjun had used a few days ago. The three terrifying words that had started this whole thing. They worked. Yeonjun’s smile grew even brighter. “Well, alright then,” he said cheerily. “It’s a date!”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Yeonjun wasn’t all too different from a zombie first thing in the morning. The moaning, the shuffling, even the random outbursts about being hungry (but hopefully not for brains.) His hair, already a lion’s mane of curls, looked even puffier than usual as he’d hurriedly dried it with a towel after his shower and hadn’t even bothered to run a brush through it. Taehyun, by stark contrast, was bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. A true early bird. It was six-about-to-be-seven-o’clock. The sky was just beginning to lighten up with dawn but it still wasn’t exactly bright out. The birds were starting up their singing. The street lamps cast their yellowish glow over the world, stretching the shadows of the two boys across the sidewalk. Yeonjun was so bleary and out of it that Taehyun had to legitimately lead him by the hand as they walked away from Red Fox Hills, one slow step at a time. Yeonjun made a groaning noise that vaguely sounded like language. “I’m sorry, what did you say?” Taehyun asked him. “I said…” Yeonjun’s words were interrupted by a yawn, his whole mouth stretched wide open and showed off the tiniest little points to his teeth. “I said it’s so early.” This was true. They were out even earlier than they’d need to be if they were going to school. “Is this what a sunrise looks like all of the time,” Yeonjun asked, squinting in the direction of the gray light brightening the sky in the east. “Can somebody turn the screen brightness down?” Taehyun rolled his eyes. Yeonjun continued, “Why aren’t we taking the bus?” Taehyun said, “We are.” They had walked past the bus stop outside of their subdivision several minutes ago. Taehyun couldn’t believe it had taken Yeonjun this long to catch on. “We’re going to the mountain, remember? We have to catch a bus on the outer loop to get all the way out there.” “Right. Right.” Yeonjun closed his eyes and his head dipped towards his chest like he was about to fall asleep right then and there. The town was so quiet and still. Every storefront was dark. It felt like the two of them were the only people awake, like they had the entire town to themselves. The whole world. “You weren’t kidding about only waking up past noon, were you?” Taehyun pulled hard on Yeonjun’s hand so that the taller boy wouldn’t walk smack into a telephone pole. “Why would I lie about sleep,” Yeonjun replied. He blinked open his eyes and smiled faintly at Taehyun as they walked. “But you said this would be fun, so it’s okay.” A pang of guilt shot through Taehyun’s system like a stomach ache. He glanced down at the sidewalk. “Soobin sent me a text a little while ago. Everyone’s ready and waiting.” Yeonjun made a sound that was probably supposed to be the word “Gotcha.” Then, more clearly, he asked, “Why couldn’t we have gone later in the day?” “You can’t have breakfast later in the day because then it’ll be lunch.” “Right. Right.” Yeonjun repeated. He closed his eyes and his body drifted towards Taehyun like a boat caught in a strong current. They bumped shoulders. Hard enough to jolt him awake. “Ahh, sorry. Sorry. I shouldn’t have stayed up so late last night.” “What were you doing?” “Being excited about today.” Taehyun laughed. “Really?” Yeonjun nodded. “Well, I was busy with other things… but it was mainly that. Wanting to see you, I mean.” “You’re being cheesy on purpose, aren’t you?” Yeonjun smiled and tightened his grip on Taehyun’s hand. “I can’t look forward to things?” There was an odd pulse in Taehyun’s chest. A pounding like a big drum that made his breath hitch. He didn’t even have to question it. He knew it was Yeonjun’s heart inside of him, racing with excitement. It’s rhythm seemed to trickle over to Taehyun’s own heart as well, speeding up its pace and making him feel like he was walking on air. He said, “You should have gotten proper sleep.” “I will,” Yeonjun yawned. “I will.” By then, they had reached the bus stop they needed. The one by the community center. At least in town, there were other people out and about at this hour. A group of older women all dressed and ready for work sat on the bus stop bench, talking and laughing and sipping coffee from their steaming thermoses. Taehyun led Yeonjun to the far side of the bus stop and propped him up against the metal siding like the boy was just some tall plank of wood Taehyun was carrying with him around town. He started to back away but Yeonjun tightened his grip, digging his fingernails into Taehyun’s palm. “Don’t let go, please.” Taehyun almost protested but something in his chest shifted , either Yeonjun’s heart or his own. “I won’t,” he said. So he didn’t. The two of them couldn’t have been more different, Taehyun realized. Not just in terms of personality but in how they had gotten prepared for their first proper excursion as a couple today. Yeonjun had obviously dressed in a hurry, aiming for comfort. He looked like some fitness nut who woke up at the crack of dawn to go jogging. He had on a light gray windbreaker to fight away the chill of the early hour, breathable athletic pants and a pair of sensible running shoes. Taehyun, on the other hand, had gotten dressed with a date in mind. He wore his cutest red and white cardigan over his lucky t-shirt with his favorite pair of skinny jeans. He’d even styled his hair differently, swooping it up and away from his forehead in a chic way that Yeonjun hadn’t complimented him on yet. Taehyun had almost brought this up to Yeonjun on five different occasions during their walk, about the fox boy looking so frumpy when this was supposed to be a date, but then it dawned on him that he would have to admit out loud that he’d gotten dressed this morning with every intention of looking good for Yeonjun… ...and his pride wouldn’t let him do that. “I can sleep on the bus, right?” Yeonjun asked out of the blue. “What? Yeah. Sure,” Taehyun agreed. Although, really, it wouldn’t be all that long of a ride. “You’ll be well-rested after half an hour?” “No. It’ll help, though.” “Please don’t fall asleep when we’re supposed to be having fun today.” Yeonjun held up an ‘ok’ sign with his free hand. “That’s why I’m trying to nap now.” The outer loop bus arrived. It would take them through town past all of the tiny rural neighborhoods, over the foothills, carrying them out to the farms at the foot of the mountain. Taehyun let the older passengers board the bus first, then he half-carried Yeonjun up the stairs and paid their fares. He sat them down close to the back of the bus where he hoped it would be quieter, putting himself near the window. Yeonjun wasted no time getting comfortable in his chair and propping his head on Taehyun’s shoulder. His curly hair tickled Taehyun’s ear. With a hiss of brakes, the bus rumbled away from the curb. For the first few blocks, Yeonjun didn’t make a sound. Taehyun assumed he had fallen asleep that quickly. Then, “Are you using a different body wash?” Yeonjun sniffed hard and opened his eyes. “Your shampoo’s different, too.” “I used my mom’s,” Taehyun admitted. He glanced down at the guy. “Wanted to try something different.” He couldn’t tell if attempting to change his scent had worked, though. When he’d walked by Yeonjun’s house that morning, the fox boy was already leaning against the fence waiting on him for a change. “Do you hate it?” Yeonjun relaxed. “Nah. No matter what, I can always recognize you.” He exhaled a content sigh. His breath was cool and tingly on Taehyun’s neck. “I like you so everything else is the whipped cream on top.” “I’m not a slice of blackberry pie,” Taehyun chided. “You’re right. You’re better.” Yeonjun mumbled it like he was sleep talking. Taehyun was thankful that Yeonjun had shut his eyes again. There was no way he could hide the bright pink shade of embarrassment that flushed over his cheeks. “Better than blackberry pie? No such thing.” Yeonjun didn’t respond. Perhaps he was actually asleep this time. The bus turned a corner and accelerated up the road in the direction of downtown. Out the window, the sun came up a bit more, spilling pale light across the valley and making Taehyun squint and lower his gaze. Their clasped hands drew Taehyun’s attention. Fingers interlocked. Palms pressed together, sweat and all. A smile threatened to tug at the corner of his lips but he banished it by biting at his bottom lip. Taehyun would have never imagined he’d be sitting next to Yeonjun like this. Calm and at peace. On their way to have breakfast together, of all things. If he’d been told by someone a week ago that he’d be riding a bus to the mountain with the school bad boy dozing off on his shoulder, he’d laugh in disbelief. Now, in that exact moment, he still wanted to laugh in disbelief. Just for a different reason. “Do I like you or is your heart in my chest making me like you?” Yeonjun stirred drowsily. He pressed his head a little more firmly into the crook of Taehyun’s neck. A long, sweet moment dripped by, and then, “It’s because I’m so cool.” Taehyun flinched and jerked backwards. Partially because he thought Yeonjun was napping and hadn’t heard him ask that question but mainly because one of the boy’s fox ears had sprouted from the top of his head and nearly poked Taehyun in the eye. “Sorry,” Yeonjun mumbled. He opened one eye. “Can’t help it.” He shut his eye again. “It’s okay.” Taehyun raised his free hand and carded his fingers through his boyfriend’s hair. He didn’t avoid Yeonjun’s fox ears and the things felt warm beneath his palm. They were a part of Yeonjun, too. “I’m… learning to like it.” The bus came to a halt at the stop near the post office. The front door whooshed open. A woman in her late twenties carrying a cake climbed up the stairs. She was followed by a man with brightly dyed hair hoisting a pack of bottled water. A few seconds later, Soobin came up the stairs. “Your friend is here,” Yeonjun announced without looking up. Taehyun asked, “How do you know?” Yeonjun kept his eyes closed but he lifted a hand to poke the tip of his own nose. “I- Well… Okay then,” said Taehyun. “You don’t want to eat him, do you?” “Not now but maybe later,” Yeonjun joked. Or at least Taehyun assumed he was joking. Soobin walked up the bus aisle, searching every row for his friends. He was dressed head-to-toe for this: a waterproof camping vest, a big backpack with multiple pouches and zippers slung over his shoulders, clunky hiking boots and a big bucket hat. Taehyun didn’t know whether it was excessive or… just the way Soobin did things. The boy looked up and spotted them towards the back. “Tae-Tae,” Soobin hollered, way too loud for butt-crack o’clock in the morning. “No. Don’t move. Stay there. Stay there.” As he rushed up the aisle, he searched his pants pockets for his phone and held it up towards them. “This is perfect. Hold still, y'all.” By the time Taehyun realized Soobin was trying to take pictures of them, his tall friend was already snapping photo after photo after photo, the rapid-fire shutter sound from his phone echoing on the quiet bus. “Stop frowning,” Soobin complained. “Don’t smile like a creep, either. Be natural. There. Like that!” Taehyun sighed wearily. “Morning, Soobin.” “Morning. Morning,” Soobin sang, leaning in to snap close-ups. The vehicle pulled away from the curb and continued on its route, accelerating down the road with enough speed to make Soobin stumble. “Sit down before you fall over,” Taehyun huffed. “Just a few more,” Soobin insisted. “The lighting’s so good.” He leaned against the seat across the aisle for balance. “Give me a peace sign, Yeonjun. Okay. Good.” Soobin shoved his phone into Taehyun’s face. “Y'all are so cute together. I can’t stand it.” “Soobin, please,” Taehyun half-whined. At least his hand was still on top of Yeonjun’s head, preventing the fox ears from being photographed. He had a feeling Soobin wouldn’t think twice about uploading magical fox boy photos to the internet. Firmly, Taehyun said, “Send those to me before you post them.” Just in case. “Sure thing, Shift Lead.” At long last, Soobin lowered his phone and sank into the seat behind the budding couple. He pushed his face between their headrests and loudly whispered, “Does anyone want a snack?” The boys had exact opposite reactions. “We are literally on our way to go eat.” “I could go for something crunchy.” That was all the permission Soobin needed. He rummaged around in a side pocket of his backpack for a protein bar and then poked Yeonjun in the side of the head with it. “Here.” Yeonjun took it and then sat up. His fox ears had vanished but his pointy teeth were a bit more evident. Slowly, reluctantly, he let go of Taehyun’s hand so that he could rip open the packaging and take a bite. “I’ve also got snack cakes,” Soobin said, aiming his hopeful eyes in Taehyun’s direction. “No thanks.” “Cookies. Do you want cookies? Mini cereal boxes. You want a mini cereal box?” Taehyun shook his head. “I’ve also got--” “Why do you have so much food?” Soobin didn’t hesitate. “Beomgyu.” “Beomgyu,” Taehyun repeated. That made all the sense in the world. Soobin checked his backpack pockets until he found a small little banana milk container. Ignoring the wrapped straw glued to the carton, he punched a small hole in the top with his finger and drank noisily. “Want something to drink? Yogurt? Water?” He zipped up one compartment and unzipped another, peering in. “I know you don’t like dark sodas so I won’t offer one of those.” “I don’t want anything,” said Taehyun. Then, without the edge in his voice, “At least not now.” “Cool. Just let me know. I’ve got everything.” He took a noisy sip of his drink. “Wait. No. I don’t have any baby carrots. Aww, man. I brought the apple slices but I think I left the carrots in the fridge.” Just to be funny, Taehyun asked, “Do you have jalapenos?” Soobin pulled a plastic bag out of his backpack. It was crammed full of the ripe, dark green peppers. “You bet.” Soobin dropped them back into his backpack and continued searching through another zipper compartment. “I’ve also got sunscreen and bug spray and bandaids. Lots of bandaids. And some ointment. Triple antibiotic so it must be good.” “Soobin, we’re just going out to eat. Not facing the zombie apocalypse.” Yeonjun put a hand on Taehyun’s thigh as if to calm him. To Soobin, he said, “You can never be too careful out on the mountain.” “Exactly,” Soobin eagerly agreed. “You hear all kinds of stories. I even brought flashlights and batteries!” Taehyun honestly thought the guy was overdoing it. Sure, they were walking up the mountain, but there were clearly marked paths and obvious signs and fences all the way up to their destination. They weren’t going out into the middle of nowhere. Plenty of people lived on the lower half of the mountain and it wasn’t like their little adventure group was going to go traipsing off the beaten path, leaving the paved road behind. Yeonjun said, “Just in case,” talking about Soobin’s preparedness. The mountain was close now, swallowing half of the horizon with its great size. The treetops were painted gold beneath the light of the rising sun. It looked so close, Taehyun thought, but it was still a good ten minutes away. Beomgyu got on three stops later, not too far from the big lake. Taehyun was a bit relieved to see that Beomgyu had also gotten dressed stylishly rather than practically, wearing a striped hoodie and distressed shorts, a backwards cap over his light hair. He came down the aisle looking chipper at first but then he pouted and pointed accusingly when he saw Yeonjun finishing the last bit of his protein bar, “Hey, I want one of those!” “Right here.” Soobin pulled another one out of his bag and waved it in his friend’s direction. Beomgyu crawled over Soobin to get to the seat by the window and eagerly snatched the treat from Soobin’s hand. “I’m not going to lie to you guys. I… I already had breakfast.” He used his teeth to tear open the protein bar packaging. “But I’ll probably be hungry again by the time we get there. Don’t you worry.” “I don’t think any of us were worried about you not being hungry,” Taehyun snickered. “I’m serious. I tried holding out. I kept thinking ‘I can just get a fourth bowl of soup or something’ but...” Beomgyu shoved the protein bar in his mouth and bit off a big chunk. With his mouth full, he said, “But I had just enough time to eat something at the house before the bus came by.” Yeonjun got himself settled on Taehyun’s shoulder again, smiling happily. “The gang’s all here.” “Really?” Soobin squeaked. “It feels like we’re missing one.” Taehyun turned around a bit in his seat. “Huh? How? Who? Who else is there?” Soobin tapped a finger to his chin like he was thinking. Taehyun could practically smell the mechanical burn as the gears in his head spun. Soobin eventually said, “I don’t know.” Taehyun turned back around in his seat. Over the next few stops, the bus emptied of its other passengers, leaving only the four waiters onboard as the bus rumbled to the last stop on its route before circling back around. Everything was going well, Taehyun thought. Everything was going smoothly. Yeonjun reached out and grabbed Taehyun’s hand, holding on tightly. In the row behind them, Soobin sucked in a dramatic, high-pitched gasp. So hard that he halfway choked himself up. Taehyun just assumed it was because the guy had spotted their clasped hands or something but then Beomgyu said, in the quietest, calmest voice, “Oh, would you look at that? That’s new.” Taehyun nudged Yeonjun’s head off of his shoulder so that he could turn around and peer between the headrests at his friends. Then it was his turn to dramatically gasp. His eyes went wide. His jaw fell open. “Oh,” the syllable tumbled out of his mouth. Jutting out of Soobin’s dark hair were rabbit ears.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
For several long, quiet seconds, no one said anything. Everyone’s eyes were on the rabbit ears. “Those weren’t there five seconds ago,” Beomgyu mumbled. “I swear. I was looking.” Taehyun commented, “Oh, we definitely would have noticed if they were.” Soobin raised a hand to the top of his head. His fingers curled lightly around one tall, brown rabbit ear and then the other. He smiled so wide that Taehyun could see both rows of his teeth, all the way back to the molars. Soobin excitedly cried out, “Do you see this? This is so cool !” He turned to the side to peer past Beomgyu at his reflection in the bus window. “Look at them. Aren’t they great? Someone touch them. Quick! Is this real? Oh my god.” “They suit you,” said Yeonjun in a low voice. Beomgyu lifted a tentative hand. His thumb grazed the soft fur of the ear closest to him. “So fluffy.” “I know, right,” Soobin yelled. “I’m not dreaming. I can’t believe something so awesome is really happening to me!” Taehyun winced. “Soobin, you don’t have to scream at the top of your lungs. We’re-- we’re right here.” “And trying to sleep,” Yeonjun said with a playful smile. Soobin either didn’t hear them or heard them and only thought that he was speaking more quietly. “Do you know how long I’ve waited to be special?” Yeonjun told him, “You’ve always been special.” Beomgyu lowered his hand from Soobin’s ears and took another bite of his protein bar. “Where’d you get those,” he asked, like Soobin was merely showing off some rare baseball trading cards or something. “I don’t know,” Soobin admitted. “I was sitting here and then my hat fell off of my head. I thought, ‘Hey, that was weird. Did my hat grow legs and hop off or something?’ So I tried to put it back on and that’s how I found these .” He pointed to his rabbit ears as if everyone weren’t already staring at them. “I’m just relieved that you like them,” said Yeonjun with a grateful sigh. Soobin practically vibrated in his seat. “Like them? Dude, I love them!” Taehyun smiled. He was actually starting to get used to his world being turned upside down at least once a day. He was starting to… expect it. He was a man of logic and science but, when it came right down to it, even mathematics still had numerous unsolved problems. There wasn’t-- no, there couldn’t --be an answer for everything. Some things just… were. It helped that he already knew Soobin was a rabbit. It was just that, right then, he capital-k Knew Soobin was a rabbit and seeing the evidence of that with his own eyes changed the way he felt about the whole thing. Taehyun tapped a finger to his chin and said, “So that’s how you became the biggest gossip.” That’s how Soobin heard everything . “I always wondered how you knew stuff before anyone else did,” muttered Beomgyu, nodding slowly as he connected the dots. Taehyun had to speak his piece. “I can be in the freezer and you’ll hear me mumble something, Soobin. Or you’ll be cleaning the bathrooms when you hear a specific word. Or I’m on the other side of the restaurant when--” “Okay, we get it,” Yeonjun cut in. “He’s good at listening.” “Eavesdropping,” Taehyun corrected, but he was grinning. Soobin shrugged, taking it all in stride. “I guess I never really paid it much mind. Ummm. Hearing stuff, I guess. You know… I just thought it was… Well, I always believed it was just… me.” He leaned back in his seat. His smile faltered. One of his rabbit ears drooped. “It is you,” Yeonjun told him after a while. “And that’s nothing to be sad about. Your ears are no different from your hands or your feet or your heart. It’s all you. It’s all something to love.” He hooked his eyes in Taehyun’s direction but the boy wasn’t looking at him. He squeezed Taehyun’s hand. “It’s nothing to hide.” Beomgyu nodded thoughtfully. “Hmm. Just like your ears?” “Yeah, just like my ears,” Yeonjun agreed with a sleepy little laugh and a sleepy little smile. It took a long second for Taehyun to catch on. He shifted in his seat to look at Yeonjun, at the boy’s fox ears sticking out from the mess of his uncombed hair. Taehyun sucked in a breath. As if sensing the words on the tip of Taehyun’s tongue, Yeonjun said firmly, “Don’t cover them up.” It wasn’t clear who he was speaking to. Soobin said, “Oh, I wasn’t planning on hiding these anyways.” Without facing away from Soobin in the row behind them, Yeonjun hooked his eyes in Taehyun’s direction as if also awaiting an answer from him. Softly, quietly, Taehyun said, “Okay.” Then, even more quietly, “Not anymore.” “Thanks.” Yeonjun lifted Taehyun’s hand to his hair and pressed it to the top of his head between his fox ears. “I still want you to pet me, though.” The bus rumbled up to the route’s last stop: the visitor’s center at the base of the mountain. With a squeal of brakes and a hiss of opening doors, they’d arrived at their destination. Well… kinda. From here, they still had a half hour hike up the winding mountain path to the ox-bone soup place among the trees. On a day with clear weather, like this one, you could see the whole town from up there. It would be quite the view. Soobin got up first. “Let’s go. Let’s go. I’m starving.” “Same,” Beomgyu agreed. He stood up and followed Soobin down the aisle. “I haven’t eaten anything. Recently. I haven’t eaten anything recently. Like… Not anything that counts.” Yeonjun and Taehyun stood up and eagerly followed them off the vehicle. The bus driver saw the rabbit ears, the fox ears, and let out a mildly confused “Hmmm.” When the boys had descended the steps, the driver mumbled, “Haven’t seen those in years,” before shutting the doors and pulling away. 🍽 Under most normal circumstances, a town builds up around a mountain. People gather around the resources, around the river and the fields and the forests. If you believe the legends, this particular mountain sprang up in the middle of town, overnight, taking all the houses and trees and that one river up into the air with it. There’s no proof of this, of course. Ask anyone’s grandma and the mountain has always been there, like a mountain should, but perhaps there was some truth to that legend if it was a legend to begin with. Maybe. Possibly. Taehyun needed to do more research. “Does it hurt,” Beomgyu asked as they all stepped away from the side of the road and walked side by side by side by side towards the visitor’s center. “Like… are you in pain?” Soobin shook his head. “It’s like…. Hmmm. How can I put this? It’s-- It’s like finally figuring out the name of that song that’s been stuck in your head that you could only remember the tiniest little piece of.” “I’m talking about your ears,” Beomgyu clarified. “Me too.” “So… Does it hurt? Do they hurt?” “It’s like,” Soobin tried again, “finding a shirt you used to wear all of the time that you thought you lost for good and it still fits and it’s still comfortable and it becomes your favorite again.” “Uhhh,” Beomgyu glanced towards Taehyun, secretly hoping for a translation. “Ummmm.” Taehyun shrugged his shoulders up to his ears in a ‘don’t look at me’ kind of way. Soobin snapped his fingers and blurted out, “It feels like what blackberry pie tastes like.” That was something Beomgyu understood. His mouth fell open in a big ‘o’ shape. “Now I want some.” “Blackberry pie?” Taehyun tilted his head to the side. “No. Ears. Well… The other kind of ears.” Soobin nodded. “Ears are nice.” “Well…” Beomgyu thought of a new question. “Can you, like, poof them in and out?” “There’s a trick to it,” answered Yeonjun, inserting himself into the conversation. “There’s a certain muscle or whatever that you’ll figure out but, half the time,” he paused to glance down at his and Taehyun’s clasped hands, “half the time, they just pop out when you’re really really really happy.” He wriggled his fox ears. “You can’t control it. Well, you can… but who would want to?” “Makes sense,” said Soobin. “I was really happy about today. It’s gonna be so great. All I could think about. For realsies. I barely slept!” “Ahh, so your happiness just poofed them out.” Beomgyu attempted to make sense of things. “But you’re always super happy at work. Why haven’t they popped out before now?” “It might be the mountain,” Yeonjun suggested. Soobin didn’t find this too surprising. “I told you guys there were stories about this place!” He waved a hand in front of them. The mountain loomed tall and mysterious and beautiful, swallowing up the whole sky. Spring was just starting to pull the flower blossoms and tree buds out into the sunlight, turning the landscape around the four of them into something straight out of a dream. A multitude of brilliant colors dotted the grass around them, flowers only beginning to pull apart their petals, filling the air with an earthy, honeysuckle scent. The breeze from the top of the mountain was damp and cool but it wouldn’t take but a few more hours for the heat of midday to stir things up and bog things down. That was exactly why they were doing all of this so early. Anything to beat the humidity. Anything to eat and get back home before it got hot. They started up the mountain road, sticking to the sidewalk. Soobin pulled a colorful, laminated map of the mountain out of one of the side pockets of his backpack. “Dude,” Taehyun complained. “There’s only one road up.” Soobin was quite long-legged so he was already pulling a few steps ahead of them. “Yeah, yeah. I bought this for the fun facts. Like this one. Did you know that, technically, this mountain almost isn’t a mountain?” Beomgyu squinted up at the trees on either side of the road. “Looks pretty mountainous to me.” “I mean, like,” Soobin ran his fingers along the map, reading the fact a second time, “It just barely meets the height requirement.” “There’s a height requirement for mountains?” Yeonjun asked, his voice going up a confused octave. Taehyun knew that. “Depending on the angle of the slope of the incline, the elevation has to reach at least 1,000 meters to be considered a mountain as opposed to a hill but the grade of this mountain is, on average, just over two degrees so… it has to be--” He racked his brain for the factoid. Found it. “--1,500 meters.” “Just barely,” Soobin confirmed, staring at the numbers on his map, “or, should I say, just exactly?” “Absolutely riveting,” commented Yeonjun, absolutely not riveted. Beomgyu swiftly changed the topic. “Hey, Soobin. You haven’t... Umm. You haven’t overheard any of our embarrassing secrets, have you?” “Depends on what you think is embarrassing,” Soobin answered. He lowered his map and spun around, grinning as he waited for the others to catch up. Although Taehyun put some thought to it, he couldn’t pinpoint the exact moment that Soobin’s rabbit ears had vanished. “Let’s not humiliate each other,” he suggested. “I just want to know.” Beomgyu shoved his hands in the pouch of his hoodie as a chilly, moist breeze swept past them. Now that the others had caught up, Soobin whirled back around and continued walking, clutching the map tightly in his hands as if afraid the wind would snatch it from him. “Hey, I’m not going to sell your secrets or anything. I’m not that kind of person.” Taehyun couldn’t believe what he’d just heard. “You sure? Because you blab quite a bit.” “Guys,” Yeonjun warned. Beomgyu spoke up, “I’m not mad. I just… want to know how much you know.” Soobin took a long moment to answer. “Okay... Well, I know that you whisper ‘mission clear’ to yourself when a table leaves. How’s that?” Beomgyu went quiet. “You do that?” Taehyun asked, peering around Yeonjun to look at him. “Yeah, but, like… It helps. You know?” Beomgyu’s cheeks flushed pink. “Waiting tables is like beating a video game stage and moving on to the next one. It keeps me from getting hung up on rowdy customers and crappy tips.” In the silence that followed, Beomgyu fully expected his friends to laugh at him, but instead… “That’s cute,” said Yeonjun genuinely. “I just make fun of customers in my head,” Taehyun deadpanned. “Not all the time,” Soobin corrected him. “Like that guy with the bleached blonde hair who came in a few weeks ago? You definitely called him a dandelion head outloud.” Taehyun stopped walking. So suddenly that Yeonjun jerked backwards as their linked hands kept them from being too far apart. “Dandelion head?” Beomgyu repeated it. “Seriously. Dandelion head?” Yeonjun commented, “That’s actually kind of tame.” He tugged Taehyun forward so that the two of them wouldn’t get too far behind. “Well, more accurately,” Taehyun defended himself, “I said his hair looked so damaged that if you blew on it, the strands would float into the air like dandelion fluff.” “Yeah! That’s it!” Soobin clapped his hands. “That’s what you said. Exactly! I remember now. He totally heard you, you know.” Beomgyu slapped a hand over his mouth but it didn’t completely muffle the screech of his laugh. Now it was Taehyun’s turn to go red in the face. “He wasn’t supposed to hear.” Soobin leaned forward. “Do you want to know what he called you?” “No. No I don’t. Thanks.” Yeonjun nudged Taehyun with his shoulder. He teased, “I thought you were good at your job?” “I’m actually extremely terrible,” Taehyun only halfway joked. “Yoongi thinks differently,” Beomgyu pointed out. Soobin had pulled a short ways ahead of them again but he stopped abruptly. Not to wait for them to catch up like last time but to peer into the tangled woods off to their left. “Did you guys hear that?” “Hear what?” Beomgyu asked. “It came from that way.” Soobin pointed. Beomgyu stepped up next to him, propped a hand up on the wooden fence next to the sidewalk and stared into the wilderness. There were thick clumps of moss clinging to the boulders and tree stumps. Clumps of blue moon wisteria dangled from tree branches like beautiful cobwebs while ivy grew in tight green walls of vegetation between signposts. Dappled sunlight and dark, morning shadows made the woods in the distance appear beautiful in one moment but oddly menacing the next. They all stood still and watched and waited, but there didn’t seem to be anything out of the ordinary. Beomgyu ventured, “What did it sound like?” “A rustle-rustle-rustle sound,” explained Soobin. He bit his bottom lip in concentration for a moment. Then the answer hit him. “Like someone creeping through the brush!” “Out there,” Yeonjun asked, twisting and turning his fox ears to catch any stray noise. “But all of the hiking trails are on the other side.” Beomgyu pointed across the street. “No one should be over on this side.” A light switch flipped on in Taehyun’s head. He had a feeling that he knew what Soobin had heard out there. Who Soobin heard out there. He had almost forgotten about the deal he had made. “It’s probably no big deal,” he shouted in an attempt to get everyone’s attention. He pulled his hand free of Yeonjun’s and walked until he had gotten ahead of the others. “I mean, we’re outdoors. What’s wrong with people being out and about?” “Good point,” said Beomgyu, jogging to catch up with Taehyun. Yeonjun frowned and narrowed his eyes but he pulled his eyes away from the woods and wordlessly continued up the sidewalk. Soobin didn’t move. At least not immediately. He continued to stare into the depths of the woods. His rabbit ears weren’t out but that didn’t mean he couldn’t hear . After putting some thought to it, he laughed at his own silliness before nodding. Soobin rushed to follow his friends farther up the mountain. “You’re probably right, Tae-Tae. No need for me to worry, then.”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
The ox-bone soup restaurant looked like something straight out of a fairy tale, Taehyun thought as it came into view around the bend. The restaurant appeared so bright and quaint and charming in the middle of the woods that it honestly didn’t look like it
belonged
. Perhaps it would fit in an old-school Disney animated movie but not out here. Not in these woods. Not on this mountain.
Or so he believed.
The thatched roof. The white siding with fingers of ivy crawling around the shuttered windows. The pile of firewood near the door. The gentle wisps of smoke curling out of the chimney. The bluejays chirping and singing in the trees. Even the pale green wooden fence that separated the hut from the road! The building looked more like a storybook cottage come to life or a good witch’s hut than a restaurant, but that may have been part of the appeal. That may have been why it was so well-known.
“Ugh, I can’t believe we’re here already,” Soobin complained with a pout. “I thought it would take longer than this. I’m sad that I didn’t get to use any of my
equipment
.” He gave his overstuffed backpack a shake, making its contents rattle.
Taehyun couldn’t help but roll his eyes. “You were the one who
chose
to come dressed like we’re exploring the Amazon rainforest.” He pointed at Soobin’s utility vest.
“You never know,” Soobin whined. “Momma taught me to always be prepared. For anything.”
“We’re just going out to eat,” Taehyun reassured him for what felt like the dozenth time. “Why are you making that so hard?”
Yeonjun draped an arm around Taehyun’s neck and gently tugged him away from Soobin. He chuckled. “Let him have his fun.” Yeonjun pressed his mouth close to Taehyun’s ear and whispered, “Not everything has to make sense, love. Everything doesn’t need to be puzzled out.” Yeonjun shook him playfully. “Some things just
are
.”
And Taehyun was slowly starting to learn that truth. “I suppose.” Then, to Soobin, he said, “I’m sorry.”
Soobin grinned. “No harm done. I know I’m weird.”
“It’s one of your many charm points.” Beomgyu encouraged him with a thumb’s up.
Somehow, Soobin’s smile got even wider and brighter.
Yeonjun sniffed at the air for a moment and then his eyes lit up. “The food smells so good! They’ve been boiling the ox bone for a while. Hours, even. Perfectly brined. I can almost taste it.” He vaulted over the waist-high wooden fence instead of walking along it towards the gate like the others. “I smell…” He sniffed again, trekking across the wildflowers towards the restaurant’s front door. “I smell onions and radishes and yellow peppers and
gochujang
!”
Soobin pushed on the wooden gate at the front and its squeaky hinges squealed in protest. “Can I hear the fire under the stove crackling? Is that what that sound is? I’m still new at this.” He raced Yeonjun to the front door since the older boy had gotten a head start.
“Hey, wait up, guys,” Beomgyu yelled. He took off running after the others. “We have to sit by the window. The view. Think about the view!”
Taehyun couldn’t smell any cooking food or hear any crackling flames so he walked up the stone path towards the restaurant with far less enthusiasm than his amazing, special, magical friends. “Don’t forget about me, you guys,” he mumbled sarcastically, the door to the restaurant already swinging closed behind them. “I’m ordinary. Remember?”
Alone for a bit, Taehyun shoved his hands in his pants pockets and peered around the property.
It wasn’t like the mountain was a complete wasteland. Across the street was a trio of colorfully painted houses and even farther up the road, he spotted the tall, triangular roof of an old shrine. Past that, he knew, the paved road ended and the only way higher up was to take the hiking trail. He spun back around to look at the restaurant. The building was surrounded by tall trees and squat bushes that were just starting to sprout and bud with spring blossoms. Pink. Yellow. Red. Purple. Orange. Everything was as beautiful as a watercolor painting. Pretty pastels and vibrant, spring greens all washing together under the midmorning sunlight. A photograph wouldn’t be able to do it justice. The restaurant was perched precariously close to the cliff edge and, up here, the air smelled like fresh-cut grass and recent rain tinged with the faint, smoky scent of burning wood.
For the first time since getting up that morning, Taehyun felt... relaxed.
Nothing awful could happen in a place as beautiful as this.
Not wanting to be left too far behind, Taehyun followed his friends through the brightly-painted wooden door of the restaurant and waited for his eyes to adjust to the dimness inside.
Now
he could smell food cooking.
Now
he could hear the wood stove crackling and sizzling and smoking as the flames ate at the fresh wood.
“I was just about to come get you,” Beomgyu called out, rushing up to him. “Hurry, hurry, hurry.” Beomgyu grabbed Taehyun by the wrist and led him across the restaurant’s wooden floor. “She’s taking our orders!”
“Already?”
“Yeah. She said we’re honored guests. Hurry, hurry!” Beomgyu pulled on him with a bit more force.
“You’re honored guests,” Taehyun corrected him.
“
We’re
honored guests,” Beomgyu repeated.
Taehyun let himself be yanked from one end of the restaurant to the other. The place was tinier than Yoongi’s restaurant. The ceiling wasn’t as high. There weren’t as many tables. There weren’t as many
customers
, either, and with the way everything was decorated--with the bookshelves and the potted plants and the worn rugs on the floor and the old paintings hanging on the wall--it made the space feel more like a grandmother’s dining room than a place of business.
It felt cozy. Comfortable.
The kind of spot you went to in order to stop fretting over stressful things.
“This way,” Beomgyu pulled Taehyun to the very back of the restaurant where they practically had the section to themselves.
The others had been seated at a small, round, wooden table covered by a checkered yellow tablecloth. Beside them was a big picture window. Through the glass, Taehyun could see the bottom of the mountain and the river and the town with all of its colorful roofs and the wide, blue, cloudless sky that stretched over it all.
“Welcome. Welcome. You can call me Granny Sohn.” The old woman who ran the soup place was already standing beside their table, grinning like the boys were all her old friends who had stopped over to visit. Her gray hair was long and beautiful, reaching to her waist and done up in a thick braid threaded through with white flowers. She wore a traditional hanbok made of fine, blue silk with embroidery around the hem. Couture fit for a fairy queen. “My, my, my,” she called out as Taehyun and Beomgyu made themselves comfortable at the table. “There’s so many of you. What a delight.” Her wrinkled, skinny, spotted hands didn’t shake at all as she moved four glasses of water from the tray she carried to the table where the boys sat. “Does anything in particular bring you all the way up here?”
“We wanted to make today an adventure,” Soobin explained, bringing his glass of water closer to him and running his finger along the rim.
“You should live every day like it’s an adventure,” Granny Sohn agreed. Although her face was dim with age, the way she smiled made her look so young. “I’ve been on quite a few adventures in my time. Several just yesterday!” Her eyes seemed to be closed but that didn’t stop her from seeing everything. “Wait… wait…” Her mouth fell open in surprise. “I was a bit unsure at first but now I’m certain.”
In the silence that followed, the boys glanced at each other with giant questions in their eyes.
“Certain of what,” Soobin prompted, looking up at the woman.
She angled her face towards him. “You are kin of the mountain. Born of old magic.”
Soobin looked excited.
Taehyun looked skeptical.
Beomgyu looked confused.
Yeonjun looked like he had heard all of this before.
“Magic?” Beomgyu asked her. “Like… spells and curses and illusions and stuff?”
Yeonjun leaned back in his chair and said, “Basically.”
At the sound of his voice, Granny Sohn faced the fox. “You. Your family has lived around this mountain for centuries. Half the town’s named after your kind.”
“Aww, I wouldn’t say half the town,” Yeonjun’s cheeks brightened as he waved away her warm words. “Just a single neighborhood and maybe a street or two. A building, I think. And the river.” Right. No big deal.
“You done boasting yet,” Taehyun hissed at him.
Granny Sohn asked, “Would you like our famous soup, my dear red fox?”
“Yes, please,” Yeonjun answered politely. Then his tone went serious. “You don’t usually take customer orders, right? You stick to the kitchen while your grandkids handle the tables. What’s the special occasion? Is it because of us?”
She clearly heard his questions but chose not to answer them. “And what will you have, sweet moon rabbit,” the old woman asked, turning towards Soobin.
Soobin gasped. He raised a hand to his hair but his ears were nowhere to be seen.
“No need to be shy,” said Granny Sohn. “We’re all kindred spirits here.”
Kindred spirits. Taehyun mulled over that phrase. He
knew
he’d heard it somewhere before.
Soobin asked, “Can I get a soup, but… without any meat in it?”
Taehyun asked, “Ox-bone soup without the ox-bone?”
“I’ll whip something up just for you,” Granny Sohn gave Soobin’s shoulder a reassuring pat.
Something clicked in Taehyun’s head. Several seconds late. He looked up at the old woman with sudden suspicion. “Wait, you can tell what they--
who
they are?” Yeonjun’s ears had long ago slipped back beneath his red curls. How could the woman know? “I mean… Soobin kind of looks like a rabbit with the teeth, but--”
Yeonjun put a hand on Taehyun’s thigh. “I told you before, we’re not a secret. We’re just something that a lot of people don’t notice.”
“Times have changed,” said Granny Sohn. Her smile vanished for the first time since they sat down. “People have forgotten the old ways. Everyone’s migrated to the big cities, taking their knowledge and magic with them. We’re left with only stories.” It took her a long time to gather her thoughts and press on. “In the past, your kind--
our
kind were a bit more abundant. To the point where this town belonged to us more than it did to humans... but these days... I can’t imagine how sad it must be to never know such an important part of yourself.”
Soobin nodded eagerly, completely enraptured.
None of it made sense to Taehyun so he grabbed his glass of water and took a long, slow sip of the cool liquid.
Beomgyu swallowed audibly, both nervous and excited.
Yeonjun scooped a cube of ice out of his glass and bit into it with a loud
crunch
.
Granny Sohn seemed to remember that she was in the middle of a conversation. “But to answer your question about seeing people for who they are, young man, when you’re as old as I am,” she tapped a bony finger to her temple, “you can just look at things and
know
.”
Taehyun turned to Yeonjun, practically pouting. “Is any of this making sense to you?”
“Maybe if you stopped thinking and started
feeling
, it’ll all fall into place,” Yeonjun whispered to him. He gently placed his hand on his boyfriend’s face. “Can you do that?”
“Doubtfully,” said Beomgyu with good cheer. Of course he was leaning in to overhear everything.
This got a snicker out of Soobin and even a held-back snort from Granny Sohn. And since her attention was now on Beomgyu, she said, “And you, my cute little goat, what would you like to order?”
Beomgyu covered his face with his hand in a sudden fit of bashfulness. “Can I get three bowls of soup, please?” He counted on his fingers as if able to gauge his hunger that way. “No… wait. Four bowls of soup. Yeah. Four is good. I’ll take four.”
“Hey, I’m paying. Remember? Don’t go feral,” Taehyun complained.
Beomgyu frowned. Reluctantly, he changed his order back, “Three bowls of soup.”
“I brought plenty of snacks,” Soobin reminded him at a stage whisper. Really, it was just an excuse for him to noisily shake his backpack again.
“Oh yeah. I forgot! Two bowls of soup, please,” said Beomgyu. “The biggest bowls you have. Or just bring me the whole cook pot. I don’t care.”
“Where is it all gonna
go
,” Yeonjun asked, motioning towards Beomgyu’s ridiculously narrow torso.
Beomgyu frowned. “One bowl, then.”
“One bowl, coming right up. I’ll throw in a little extra meat for you,” said the old woman with a chuckle. “No charge. No one leaves here hungry. It’s my rule.”
At long last, she turned her face towards Taehyun. “And you... are a sight for sore eyes.” An expression crossed her face that took Taehyun a long moment to decide was
recognition
. She saw everything about him. She saw through him. And she knew him in a way that Taehyun quite literally didn’t know himself. She blinked open her eyes for the very first time and Taehyun gasped at what he saw. Her eyes were pitch black from corner to corner, like the night sky in summer, and dazzling stars glimmered and shone where her pupils should have been. Looking at her was like getting lost in a far-off galaxy, like floating through a tunnel towards an entirely different world. As quickly as she had opened them, she shut her eyes again. When she spoke, she sounded…
excited
. “Oh. Now look at you, my dear--”
“Just a single bowl, please,” Taehyun cut her off, more than a little spooked by the strangeness that he witnessed. “With extra soy sauce.”
Although she stiffened at his sudden abrasiveness, maybe even got a little disappointed by it, she still gave him a courteous smile. An awkwardly long pause settled over the table before she said, “You’re glowing, child.”
Taehyun raised a hand up to his face. He couldn’t feel anything or see anything but he figured this was just like several days ago. This ‘glow’ was Yeonjun’s heart in his chest, shining through his skin as its magic filled his weird, magic-immune body.
“I’ll have your meals out to you in a short while,” Granny Sohn slowly turned away and shuffled off in the direction of the steaming kitchen where Taehyun could hear the banging of pots.
“This is really cool,” whispered Soobin after a while.
“Yeah,” Beomgyu agreed. “We’re part of some old-timey, magical legacy or something.”
Taehyun had to ask, “This doesn’t scare you guys at all? How can everyone be so calm about this? How are none of you concerned?”
Yeonjun, Beomgyu and Soobin all looked up at him, eyebrows raised curiously as if
he
were the strange one. Perhaps he was the odd one out.
“Order up,” the chef behind the counter yelled.
Taehyun instinctively rose to his feet before remembering that he didn’t work here.
“It’s the same everywhere,” said Soobin with a laugh.
“I almost stood up, too,” Beomgyu admitted. “Force of habit.”
Cheeks going red with embarrassment, Taehyun tried to play it off. “I’m going to the bathroom. What are you talking about?”
“Uh huh,” hummed Soobin with a knowing smirk.
“I’ll be right back. For real.” Taehyun hurried away, ignoring the snickers coming from his friends at his expense.
His quick steps carried him across the dining room and down a narrow hall to the restroom. The door was open, and the room was unoccupied, so he stepped inside, flicked on the lights and locked the door behind him. He didn’t actually have to use the toilet but now that he was here and away from his friends’ joking and teasing, there was something he needed to do. Something he needed to
see
with his own eyes.
Slowly, fretfully, he put his hands on the white porcelain bowl of the sink and leaned towards the large bathroom mirror to stare at his reflection in the glass.
He was glowing. Actually shining. It wasn’t just a catchy turn of phrase!
Taehyun twisted his head to the left and then to the right, taking in the sparkling light pulsing beneath his skin. At the tiny little stars dancing in his irises.
Definitely a bit brighter than a
glimmer
but probably not as obnoxious as
luminescence
.
As the seconds ticked by his surprise morphed into worry which eventually devolved into fear. Taehyun swiped a hand over his mouth and then his cheeks and then his forehead in a desperate, panicked attempt to wipe off the shine but the light didn’t move. It didn’t dim. If anything, the light only seemed to be brightening. “Oh no,” he gasped out, mildly horrified. “It’s worse than I thought!” All of this time, he’d assumed it had just been a warmth to his skin, a
figurative
brightness that caught people’s eye, but now he was standing face to face with the truth that Yeonjun’s heart in his chest turned his body into a lantern, burning bright from the inside. He touched his fingers to the mirror, his eyes wide. Even his hand had a bit of a glow to it. “Oh no. Oh no! What’s going to happen to me if--” He stopped himself, whirling around to stare at the locked door behind him. Soobin could probably hear every word he said in here. Taehyun turned back to his reflection and continued his worrying strictly in his mind.
What happens to me if this magic completely fills me up? Will I... explode?
Yeonjun had mentioned that, normally, magic passes through skin but his body hadn’t received that message. His skin didn’t allow magic to seep past. And just like any other kind of container, if one filled it up beyond its capacity, the contents would spill ...or the container would burst.
Taehyun jerked his hand back away from the mirror, suddenly feeling numb with fright.
“Am I going to be like this forever,” he asked his reflection. “Did he… did he do this to me on purpose?” Could Yeonjun just take his heart back? He no longer wanted it!
Full of anxious energy, he retreated from the mirror and paced back and forth across the bathroom’s black and white tile floor. His own heart raced in his chest. So hard that he could feel the hard, cold lump of Yeonjun’s jewel between his lungs. What was he going to do? What was he going to
do
!? He ran a hand through his hair and was surprised sparkles or something didn’t fall from the ends. What was he going to do? How long would he have to live like this? A sudden knock on the door made Taehyun nearly jump out of his skin. “Occupied,” he half-screamed.
“Hurry up,” a light voice on the other side of the wood begged. “Please. My child has to go. Bad.”
To punctuate the statement, there was the anguished whine of a young girl.
“Be out in a minute,” Taehyun huffed. How was he going to handle this? Walk out the door while he was shining as bright as a glow stick? He rushed up to the sink and turned on the tap. He cupped his hands beneath the lukewarm water and splashed it over his face but, of course, that did absolutely nothing to remove the shine from beneath his skin. Frustrated, he dragged the sleeves of his cardigan across his face in a bid to dry off.
There was more knocking on the bathroom door. Calm at first but then progressively more urgent. “Please hurry,” the mother on the other side begged. “I don’t mean to be rude, but… this is going to get
messy
very soon.”
“I’ll be out in a minute,” Taehyun repeated but he made no move to hurry.
Now the child was starting to cry. The mother banged on the door yet again.
Fine. Fine! Taehyun rushed up to the door, fumbled with the door lock and then charged outside. He knew he bumped shoulders with the woman, sending her spinning, but he didn’t care. The only signal his brain was sending to his body was
escape
!
escape
!
escape
! So he attempted to do just that. He didn’t get far. As if waiting for him, Yeonjun was standing at the end of the hall. Taehyun was so out of sorts that he didn’t even see the older boy and walked straight into him.
Yeonjun wrapped his arms around Taehyun’s shoulders and dipped his head so that he could press his face into the crook of Taehyun’s neck. “We’re connected, you know,” he whispered. “I could feel you freaking out back there.” His voice was a soothing, song-like tone, “I’m here. Okay? I’m here, Tae, and I won’t let anything bad happen to you.”
His words weren’t magic but they worked like magic. Taehyun eventually stopped trembling. He calmed down and let himself be gently rocked from side to side by Yeonjun’s amazing patience. But… “You did this to me,” Taehyun grumbled. “You turned me into this.”
“Hey, hey,” Yeonjun said against his neck. “Do you want to go outside? Get some fresh air?”
Taehyun didn’t want to do that but the only alternative was to sit back down at the dining table shining as bright as a diamond while his friends acted like there was absolutely nothing wrong with that. “Okay. Fine.”
Yeonjun pulled away enough to grab Taehyun’s hand and, together, they walked across the restaurant to the front door. “I know it’s scary but I’m here and we can talk about it.”
“I don’t want to talk about it,” Taehyun replied sharply. “I just want it to go away.”
“We can do what we did before. Is that alright? I’ll take the excess magic back and everything will be fine.”
“For a handful of days.”
“But if we’re together, that won’t matter. You can always give me what I need.”
Outside, the sun had rose quite a bit and its heat was finally starting to burn the chill out of the air. Rays of dappled sunlight shone through the canopy of trees and the air was full of birdsong. The tranquility of the moment didn’t reach Taehyun, unfortunately, and he continued to fret and stress, even as Yeonjun walked him down the stone path towards the green wooden gate by the road. He had to remind himself that Yeonjun hadn’t given him his heart to be sweet and romantic. He’d done it to hide part of himself. Protect himself. It wasn’t until the restaurant was nearly out of view behind them that Taehyun finally dragged himself out of his dark mood to pay attention to his surroundings. “Where are we going?”
They stopped at the side of the road. Not too much further ahead, the paved road came to an end as the slope of the mountain grew too sharp for cars. Yeonjun said, “A quick walk would be good for you.”
Taehyun laughed humorlessly. They were alone at the edge of the woods. “You aren’t going to hurt me, are you?”
Yeonjun turned to look at him, his mouth downturned and his eyebrows furrowed. “Why would I
ever
do that?”
“You’re a--what was it?--a tier three criminal, aren’t you?” Taehyun yanked his hand free of Yeonjun’s grasp. “You’ll probably do anything.”
A look of hurt crossed Yeonjun’s features and, for several seconds, his mouth opened and closed speechlessly. He said, “Tae, you told me you trusted me. You said you’d stand by me no matter what you heard!”
“That was before I found out how bad you really are!”
“Tae, please.”
Yeonjun took a quick step towards him but Taehyun took just as quick of a step backwards.
Yeonjun’s face crumbled. His confident, snarky grin was nowhere to be seen. It actually looked like he might cry. “You said you’d always be on my side,” he whispered.
Taehyun would not feel guilty. “Were you ever going to tell me about the things you’ve done? Were you
ever
going to mention that you’re a wanted criminal?”
Yeonjun could no longer meet his eye. His gaze fell to the gravel and grass beneath his shoes.
He didn’t have to say anything but Taehyun heard him loud and clear. He took another step back. “Were you really going to keep lying to me? Making me think that you were the
good guy
in all of this?”
“You don’t know everything. Good. Bad. You just don’t know! You don’t know what I did or why I did it.”
Taehyun stressed, “But when were you going to
tell
me?”
Yeonjun couldn’t give him an answer. When he raised his head and met Taehyun’s eyes, his fox ears had sprouted from the top of his head and one of his tails had unfurled behind him. “You’re right... I’m sorry. I should have told you from the start. But… I needed you.”
“You needed to
use
me,” Taehyun cut in.
Yeonjun’s bottom lip trembled but he did not deny the accusation. “I didn’t think things would turn out like this, but--” He stopped suddenly. His head jerked towards the right as if distracted by something. After a long pause, he looked back towards Taehyun. “That’s no excuse. I did wrong. I’m sorry. Can-- Can I hug you?”
The request was so out of left field that Taehyun thought he hadn’t heard right.
“Please. I need to.” Yeonjun closed the distance between them and wrapped his arms around Taehyun’s shoulders. He squeezed tightly, pressing the two of them together as if attempting to merge their bodies. When Taehyun didn’t resist, Yeonjun hugged him even tighter. Then he began to hum. Quietly and shakily and a tad off-key at first but as the seconds passed, his voice grew more confident. Louder. Hitting the notes with passion. He opened his mouth and sang a simple, wordless tune that felt so hauntingly familiar to Taehyun that he found himself singing along before he even knew what he was doing.
Their duet was slow and sounded sad. Like a mournful farewell song. The sound--the spell--resonated through Taehyun’s body, all the way to his toes, all the way to his ribcage. His own voice soared high and free as Yeonjun fell back into the harmony. Around them, the wind picked up, circling around them as if embracing them. The gust whistled through the trees, and the shaking leaves and trembling branches produced their own sound, coming in like an entire choir of voices to back up the two boys.
Taehyun could feel Yeonjun’s heart in his chest. He knew its size and shape and location. He could sense it beating away like a steady metronome.
Yeonjun had tears in his eyes when he stopped singing to ask, “Can I kiss you?”
Taehyun stopped singing to nod.
An instant later, their mouths collided. Their lips went together perfectly like puzzle pieces. Like salt and pepper. The kiss was warm and sweet and full of longing and it almost almost
almost
made Taehyun forget all of the bad things. Far too soon, Yeonjun pulled away. He tried to sound casual and aloof when he said, “There. That should do it.” They were standing so close that Taehyun could count Yeonjun’s eyelashes, count the tears that freely trickled from the corners of his eyes. “You should be good for a few days.”
Slowly, the world around them went still. The magic left the air. The wind stopped. The music that vibrated the air around them went quiet. It almost seemed like time itself had quit moving forward.
Yeonjun placed a hand on Taehyun’s chest, right above both of their hearts. “Don’t forget what I told you about this,” he said, going through a great deal of effort to keep his voice steady and firm. “Don’t forget
why
you have to keep this.”
“What’s that supposed to mean,” Taehyun asked. An odd chill was settling over him. He couldn’t shake the very real fear that something bad was about to happen. “What are you talking about?”
Yeonjun stepped away from him. Once again, his head cut to the right as if something in that direction had caught his attention. More of his tails had fanned out behind him now. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. All of them standing rigid, the fur on end. “I don’t know what they offered you,” said Yeonjun, “but I’m not mad at you for accepting it. If our roles were reversed, I probably would have done the same thing at first.” He took another step back. And then another. The distance between them was so small but Yeonjun may as well have been on the other side of the mountain. “I’m not mad at you because I know you… I know you’re doing the right thing. You’re doing what anyone else with sense would do.”
Taehyun didn’t need magical ears to hear the rustle-rustle of two figures trudging through the brush. He didn’t need to turn around to know who it was. He wasn't brave enough to keep maintaining eye contact with Yeonjun. “How long did you know?”
“When we first started climbing the mountain,” Yeonjun answered. “When Soobin first heard them out in the woods. I had a feeling.”
The guilt was eating Taehyun alive. He regretted making that deal now. He wished he’d never made it. He wished he could stop it from happening now. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be,” said Yeonjun. “Look at me, please.”
Taehyun glanced up. He was afraid Yeonjun would be pissed off. Or, even worse, pathetically sad. But Yeonjun was smirking. Like this whole thing was a game that he was a second away from winning. He had seven of his tails out now. Eight. Nine. “You’re perfect for this, Taehyun. Remember what I told you.”
But Taehyun didn’t remember. He wasn’t sure what Yeonjun was talking about. He wanted to ask but there was no time.
“Just wait,” Yeonjun insisted. “It will all be okay. I promise.”
That was when Jungkook and Kai stepped out of the woods. In their leather jackets and all-black outfits, they looked extremely out of place, but that didn’t matter when they carried such hard expressions, when they presented such a unified threat.
Kai met Taehyun’s eye and smiled wide. They said, “Thank you. You’ll be rewarded handsomely. I’ll see to it.”
Taehyun looked away, ashamed.
“Tier Three criminal Choi Yeonjun!” Jungkook shouted even though it was so quiet in the wilderness that he could whisper and still be heard. He identified himself according to protocol, “My name is Officer Jeon Jungkook. This is Officer Huening Kai. By the power vested in us through the authority of the Wardens, we shall apprehend you.” He reached inside of his leather jacket to retrieve something. It was his official, golden badge which he held up into the air.
Yeonjun wiped the salt trails off of his face and looked dead into Jungkook’s eyes, unshaken. Unbroken.
Kai reached into their own jacket and produced a pair of surprisingly mundane-looking handcuffs. “We shall proceed according to Section T of the Codex.” With quick, dextrous movements, they yanked Yeonjun’s arms behind his back and cuffed his wrists. “For the crimes of grand theft, vandalism, destruction of Warden property, obstruction of Warden justice and
numerous
other counts, we now place you under arrest.”
“Wait,” Taehyun exhaled. This was scarier than he thought it would be. “Stop.”
Yeonjun gave him the tiniest shake of his head.
That didn’t make Taehyun feel much better. “Hold on. Let’s talk about this a little more.” He reached a hand out towards Kai, who gave him a dark, pointed look that rooted him to the spot.
“You have the right to remain silent, Yeonjun,” Jungkook continued, “and you have the right to a Mediator. If you do not have a Mediator, one will be assigned to you.”
Kai spoke up. “Be reminded that you are Tier Three. Wanted dead or alive. There are some rights and privileges you will no longer be allowed to, such as that of a trial. Be advised, we are authorized to use
lethal
force against you if you resist. Do you understand?”
Fearlessly, Yeonjun nodded.
“Listen,” Taehyun tried again. “I think I made a mistake.”
“No,” said Kai. “You did your part as a law-abiding citizen.” They pulled out their cell phone and began walking back down the mountain road as they placed a call.
“Come with us,” Jungkook snapped, yanking Yeonjun after him.
The fox went willingly.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Beomgyu spotted him first. “Hmmm?” He pointed. Soobin followed the direction of his finger and gave a quick wave when he spotted Taehyun walking towards them. Beomgyu tilted his head to the side in confusion. “Why are you alone?” He waved a hand to indicate the empty space where Yeonjun probably would have been standing. “Yeah. Where’s your boyfriend?” Soobin asked, nibbling on the tip of his straw. Taehyun looked from one friend to the other. Guilt kept him from looking into either of their eyes for very long. He sank down into his chair and tried his best not to look directly at the empty seat next to his. “Yeonjun remembered something important. Said he had to go. That it was urgent.” The untruth came easily. Too easily. He barely had to think about them and the words were rolling off of his tongue. “He told me to tell you guys not to worry.” He wished it had been more difficult to lie to his friends. “That’s too bad,” said Soobin. Coming from anyone else, such a remark would have sounded sarcastic but Soobin sounded genuinely disappointed. “Mmhmm. He’s going to miss the food,” Beomgyu pointed out what was really important. “We were all so excited about eating together, too.” Then, just like that, Soobin turned back to Beomgyu and resumed the conversation they’d been having before Taehyun came back. “Okay, so then she looked up at Yoongi and said, 'I’d like to speak to the manager' and then Yoongi gave her this look and said 'I am the manager' and then--” Taehyun watched them. Envious of their carefree attitudes. His friends chatted and goofed around and playfully hit each other, not particularly aware of Taehyun’s bad mood. Or, more accurately, not thinking that his upset face was all too different from his usual flat-lipped look. Some selfish part of him wanted one or both of them to ask him what was wrong but neither of them would think that something was wrong because he had told them that nothing was wrong. He had told them not to worry. Meanwhile, Beomgyu spent a long portion of time explaining a relatively simple joke to Soobin who, when he finally got it, slapped the table hard and guffawed for about thirty seconds straight. Taehyun’s body tensed with nervousness. He should have been happy. Relieved! It wasn’t like Yeonjun had denied the charges against him. That meant they were all true. Getting punished for his crimes was a good thing but he’d watched Yeonjun get carted off in handcuffs and he still couldn’t manage to completely fight off his sympathy. Yeonjun was bad but was he… terrible ? Gosh, he was probably in jail or something right now and Taehyun’s two friends were none the wiser. They didn’t even have a clue ! And he couldn’t even bring himself to tell them what was really happening. That was the worst part. He’d lied to their faces and they ate it up like a warm slice of blackberry pie. Taehyun hated this feeling. He hated that his friends believed in him so completely. He would have preferred that the two of them had been suspicious and asked a million questions about Yeonjun’s whereabouts. But… Soobin and Beomgyu so readily accepting and believing Taehyun’s words… It hurt. Oddly. It hurt to recognize with his own heart that he did not trust them even half as much as they trusted him. “Oh, hey,” Beomgyu called out. He pointed towards the big glass window behind their table. “Wasn’t it sunny like five minutes ago?” Taehyun turned his head to look. Sure enough, black, stormy clouds were racing towards the mountain from off of the horizon. Their grayness washed away the blue of the sky like an angry artist dumping paint over hours of their own hard work. “That’s funny,” Soobin commented. “There wasn’t a cloud in the sky last time I looked.” He was right. There hadn’t been. Not a single one. And now it looked--and sounded--like a terrible thunderstorm was bearing down on them. “This wasn’t in the forecast,” exclaimed Taehyun. He’d checked and double checked the news, wanting everything to be perfect. Needing everything to go right. Today was supposed to be warm and dry with clear skies. Perfect for hiking and picnicking, the weather girl had stated. Go outside and take your friends somewhere nice . That was all going out the window now. Literally. “Listen to that wind,” said Soobin. “What wind,” Beomgyu questioned. It was oddly quiet in the restaurant. Even all of that banging around in the kitchen had chosen that exact moment to temporarily cease. The stillness seemed to reach all of the way outside. There wasn’t a movement in the trees. Only the clouds rolling overhead. The wind picked up out of the blue. Nothing, nothing, nothing and then sound . The wind gusted over the roof of the building and blew through the trees with a low, haunting howl. It was all followed up by the longest, lowest rumble of thunder. Just loud enough to send the ice in Taehyun’s water glass trembling. “Whoa.” The syllable slipped right out of Taehyun’s mouth. “Think we can beat this thing home,” Beomgyu wondered. “No. It’s already here,” said Soobin. “We should stay here until it passes.” Beomgyu nodded. “Good idea. I wanted to eat while my food was hot anyways.” Silently, they watched the storm approach. Seeing it through the picture window was like front row seats at a horror movie. The dark clouds hungrily ate up the blue sky until there was no part of it left. The wind grew louder and harsher, shaking the glass in the windows. As the weather turned for the worse, Taehyun couldn’t shake the unreasonable fear that maybe something terrible had happened to Yeonjun which was why everything around him was getting so dark. He tensed up, a mere breath away from standing up and spilling his guts to his friends, when-- “One artisan vegetable and tofu soup for the moon rabbit,” came a bright, cheery voice. The boys spun away from the dismal sight outside of the window to look at the waiter who had just stepped up to their table. He was slim and tall and didn’t look much older than they were. His hair was bleached almost platinum blonde in stark contrast to his dark eyes, honey skin and warm smile. The name sewn into the front of his brown apron simply read ‘Eric.’ Right. They were in a restaurant waiting on their meal. “Oh, that’ll be for me, then,” Soobin raised a hand eagerly. Taehyun coughed into his fist. Somehow, Soobin correctly translated the noise. “If Granny Sohn knew just by looking at me, he probably knows, too. Right?” He aimed his brightest smile up at the waiter. Eric hesitated only a moment before nodding. “No more hiding,” Beomgyu chimed in. “Isn’t that what Yeonjun said, Taehyun? No more shame.” Eric smiled politely. “If you prefer I don’t say anything about it, I’ll--” “Oh no,” Soobin cut him off. “Please continue. I like being called what I am. I just found out today. That might be why I want to hear it.” Eric shifted the tray that was on his shoulder a little and then lifted one of the large, off-white bowls from it to place in front of Soobin. “Here you go, rabbit. Bon appetit.” “Ahh, yes. Perfect.” Soobin stirred the thick, hearty soup with his spoon. “Plenty of carrots.” Then he remembered something. He snapped his fingers and then ducked under the table. He reached into his backpack, rummaged around in one of the pockets for a few seconds, and then pulled free his bag of jalapeno peppers. When he sat back up in his chair, he had a wide grin on his face. “You know I gotta jazz it up a little.” “An ox-bone bowl with extra beef for the goat,” Eric announced, going around the table. He sat the steaming bowl in front of Beomgyu. “Watch it. It’s hot.” Beomgyu leaned his face directly into the billowing steam. “Smells fantastic. Five out of five stars!” He grabbed his spoon, dipped it in the bowl and took a tentative sip of the hot broth. “No, wait. Ten out of ten stars.” “Made it myself,” Eric said without missing a beat. Taehyun resisted the urge to say that, technically, numerically, five out of five and ten out of ten meant the same thing. “Here’s some extra napkins.” Eric reached into the pocket of his apron and retrieved a stack of them. He placed them in front of Soobin who, bless his heart, already desperately needed one. Taehyun tilted his head back to get a better look at their waiter. “Where’s Granny Sohn?” He had expected her to still be hovering around their table with her galaxy-filled eyes, speaking in riddles and talking about the past. Eric shrugged. “Said she was worried about a guest and went out to check up on them or something. I don’t know.” “In this weather?” Taehyun jerked a thumb over his shoulder towards the window just as droplets of rain began to slip and slide down the glass in a chaotic rhythm. Eric wasn’t fazed by the storm and its shakings and rumblings. “Oh, that’s her doing. She’s a butterfly, after all. Flapping her wings and making storms. It’s what they do.” “Wait, she’s doing this,” Beomgyu asked, eyes wide. “Yeah. All kindred spirits know magic,” said Eric, looking at the boys as if they should already know these things. It made perfect sense to Soobin, though. “I wonder if hearing everything is my magic.” Beomgyu gasped. “So does that mean being able to eat anything is my magic?” “It would be my guess.” “That’s the coolest thing I’ve ever heard.” Taehyun took a moment to ponder back on earlier conversations he’d had with Yeonjun. The guy had said he could tell what people wanted, give them what they desired. Was his magic granting wishes? He could poof veggie pizza and lemon meringue pie out of thin air, after all. Eric circled farther around the table. “Ox-bone bowl for the red fox?” There was a brief silence. The three boys glanced towards the empty chair. Yeonjun wasn’t here. Right. There was that. Taehyun started, “He’s no longer joining us-- Ow!” Beomgyu had kicked his leg under the table to silence him. “Eric, if you would be so kind, you can just slide that bowl this way.” He motioned to the bowl until Eric slid it across the table towards him. “Yeah. Right here. Appreciate it, dude.” With a bemused expression, Eric shook his head and went around the table until he was standing next to Taehyun’s chair. “Last but not least, ox-bone soup with extra soy sauce for the--” “What are you?” Taehyun asked. “I mean… what kind of animal are you? Since you know what we are, what are you?” Eric seemed caught off-guard by the direct question. He went still. The broth in the bowl he carried sloshed dangerously close to the rim until he leaned down and properly placed it onto the table in front of Taehyun’s shaking hands. “I’m just human. Well… I mean, I’m not anything,” he said softly, his smile faltering for the first time since he started serving them their food. “I wasn’t lucky enough.” Taehyun asked hopefully, “So you’re just like me, then?” Normal. Ordinary. Boring. Lightning flashed outside, a hot streak of light reflecting off of Eric’s eyes in a spooky shade of blue. “No. Not really,” Eric eventually stated. He stood up straight and backed away from the table, shoving the empty tray beneath his arm. “If you need anything else, just holler.” And before the boys could say or ask anything, Eric hastily stepped away. 🍽 The storm didn’t show signs of letting up until it was almost noon. Not wanting to get stuck on the mountain for any longer than they had to, Taehyun paid their bill and the three of them set off back down the mountain, yes, while they still had time before the next bus but, more importantly, while they still had sunshine. The storm had passed over the mountain but it was still close. Thunder vibrated through the air and the passing wind sent the leaves on the trees whispering. At least the storm was on the other side of the mountain and would hopefully keep moving in the opposite direction they were walking. Taehyun led the way, suddenly ready to be back home. Beomgyu followed him at a much more leisurely pace, his hands shoved into his pants pockets. Soobin brought up the rear, trying to carefully dislodge the umbrella he’d stashed away at the very bottom of his stuffed-full backpack even though it had been minutes since the rain had stopped. He glanced up and realized how far behind he’d fallen. “Hold on, y'all,” he wailed, “I’ve almost got it. Wait up!” Beomgyu, ever loyal, stopped walking to let him catch up. Surprisingly, Taehyun turned around to join back up with them. He didn’t want to be mean for once. Growth. Or perhaps guilt. “Found it,” Soobin shouted. “Right where I left it.” He managed to pull the blue and yellow umbrella free without sending the rest of the backpack’s contents all over the narrow sidewalk. Soobin popped it open and held it above his head. “Now we’ll be prepared for rain.” The sun peeked out from behind the clouds then, stretching the trio’s shadows down the mountain road ahead of them. Beomgyu looked at Taehyun. Taehyun raised an eyebrow back. “I’ve been thinking,” Soobin said in an uncharacteristically serious tone. Dangerous words but he seemed to have put his whole heart into them so Taehyun went out of his way not to comment. “I’ve been thinking that it’s strange that I never discovered this huge part about myself until recently. I’ve said this before... I’ve always been able to hear things from far away and I guess it didn’t really hit me that other people couldn’t hear what I could hear.” He started walking, leading the way. Beomgyu filed in on his left. Taehyun walked at his right. They huddled together beneath the umbrella despite the thinning clouds above them. Soobin went on, “Or maybe I’ve always been aware, kinda. Maybe I’ve always known I was different. Special. I just didn’t know what to call it until someone else gave it a name.” “Hmmm,” Beomgyu hummed thoughtfully. He kept his eyes on his shoes, watching his step as he traversed the steep, broken pavement of the sidewalk. “I know what you mean. At first I thought all of this magic stuff would be spooky but now that I understand, I can just shrug it off and believe that my whole life makes a touch more sense now.” Soobin nodded his agreement. “Yeah. Exactly. That’s the thing. My exact thought!” Taehyun frowned. He felt awful. He had been trying so hard to keep all of this magic stuff hush hush. In fact, he’d actually tried to keep Beomgyu and Soobin away from this even after being told they were involved. “Sorry,” he admitted. “For always being secretive and telling you guys to hide.” Soobin looked at Beomgyu. Beomgyu raised an eyebrow back. Taehyun saw them do it. “What? What did I say?” “We understand,” said Beomgyu quickly. “This is new for all of us. We all had to deal.” “But it took you guys seconds while it’s been like a week for me and I’m still struggling.” Soobin switched his umbrella from one hand to the other so that he could drape an arm over Taehyun’s shoulders and give him a shake. “I still haven’t seen my horns, you know,” said Beomgyu. “Yeonjun said they come out when you’re happy but all I’ve been thinking about all day is that maybe I’m just never going to be happy enough to see them.” Taehyun understood the sentiment. He had seen Yeonjun’s fox ears so often over the last few days that the guy actually looked strange without them . Was Yeonjun always so happy because of him? Was it really that simple? If it was a math problem, it would be mindless addition. But that was also what made Taehyun nervous. It was just addition. Taehyun + Yeonjun = happy. Where was the multiplication and division? Where were the fractions and decimals? The square roots? The formulas? He was used to math being complicated and multi-step, a long series of equations that needed to be completed in a certain order or else everything that followed after would be off. Complicated math didn’t scare him because he could sit down and do it. It was this easy math that was throwing him off and making him second guess everything. “Hey, it’s Granny Sohn!” Beomgyu pulled away from their umbrella huddle to jog down the sidewalk. “Where? Where?” Soobin put a hand over his eyes to squint. Sure enough, the old woman stood at the base of the mountain, not too far from the visitor’s center and the bus stop. It almost looked like she was waiting for someone. Perhaps waiting for them. When she heard Beomgyu’s rapidly approaching footsteps, she turned around to watch him. “Hello, my dears,” she sang out. The lady waved. Surprisingly cheerful considering the hem and sleeves of her gorgeous, traditional hanbok were coated in layers of still-wet mud. “Where have you been?” Taehyun asked when he reached her, more worried than anything. He had honestly thought the storm would have picked her up and swept her away. “On an adventure,” she replied with a teasing smile. Soobin’s eyes were wide with awe when he asked, “You were the one who made that storm?” She waved away his enthusiasm. “Just a little bit of cover while I did some sneaking around.” “You? Sneaking around?” Taehyun couldn’t help but be disbelieving. “When you’re as old as I am, young man,” she told him, “people look right at you but don’t see you.” Beomgyu noticed her stiff, slow movements and he approached her and offered her his arm. She graciously accepted it, grabbing hold of him and leaning a bit of her weight on him. “Why were you sneaking around? What were you trying to find out?” Soobin approached her next. He tilted his colorful umbrella one way and then the other until he had found an angle that kept the midday sun from shining directly on her face. Granny Sohn sighed almost with relief. “Just making sure an honored guest of mine wasn’t being too badly treated.” She made an effort to crane her neck and look straight at Taehyun as if speaking directly to him even though he hadn’t asked her the question. “Back in my day, Wardens didn’t threaten violence.” “Wardens?” Beomgyu tilted his head like a puppy at the word. “What are they?” Granny Sohn finally took her eyes off of Taehyun. “They’re protectors. Guardians. Just like in any lawful society, there are rules and codes and laws and moral practices. The Wardens uphold them. Reprimand those who violate the code. Keep everything balanced.” She leaned a bit more of her weight on Beomgyu’s arm. “But I must be getting older than I first thought if the Wardens are out here behaving like big game hunters by passing around wanted posters, putting bounties on people's heads and locking their captured trophies up in towers.” She made purposeful eye contact with Taehyun again. Yeonjun. She was talking about Yeonjun. Taehyun gasped. Granny Sohn must have followed Kai and Jungkook off the mountain somewhere and she had just told Taehyun, in the subtlest of ways, where Yeonjun was. “That does sound kind of scary,” Soobin commented. "I hope I never get a bounty on my head." He tilted the umbrella a bit more so that he, too, could put his face in the shade. They all heard the loud rumbling of an approaching engine. Beomgyu spotted the bright paint job of the city bus first. “Hey, one is pulling up. We better hurry.” If they didn’t make it on board, they’d have to wait an hour and a half for the next outer loop bus to circle all the way back out this way. “Sorry, Granny Sohn. I know we just started talking but we have to go.” “I understand,” she said, patting Beomgyu’s hand. "Young people always have to stay on the move." “You can get up the mountain by yourself?” Soobin asked, pulling back. “I have my ways.” She shooed them away with a grin on her lips. “Well, the soup was amazing, by the way,” Beomgyu called out, chasing Soobin down the road and towards the bus stop. Taehyun would have followed after them if Granny Sohn hadn’t caught him by his sleeve. “Child,” she said, opening her eyes and staring right through Taehyun with her galaxy eyes. “Stop being so afraid of yourself. Not everything needs to be puzzled out. Some things only need to be felt.” And without another word, she patted him on the shoulder and started her way up the mountain. 🍽 Taehyun got off of the bus at Red Fox Hills and walked slowly to his house, feeling like his ankles were weighed down by boulders. He should have told Beomgyu and Soobin the truth. About everything. About Yeonjun hiding his heart in Taehyun’s chest just in case something like this happened. He should have told them about Yeonjun being arrested by the Wardens who had been following them around. He should have, he should have, he should have… Even right now wouldn’t be too late to tell them, but he couldn’t bring himself to scroll through the contacts in his phone and call them. Would they be mad at him for letting Yeonjun get taken? Would they be mad at him for lying to their faces? As if on cue, his phone beeped in his hand. A text from Beomgyu. It read, ‘u get home alright?’ Taehyun typed out an entire paragraph only to delete the lines and send ‘yeah, just got here’ instead. Based on the way the ellipses bounced on his screen for several seconds, Beomgyu must have typed out a message, deleted it, typed out a message, deleted it. When the text actually came through, it read, ‘thanks for 2day.’ Then, five seconds later, ‘see u at work tomorrow?’ ‘Yeah,’ Taehyun shot back. Wow. His spring break was off to a pretty grimy start. Could he start it over? Do it better? Actually find time to relax? This was supposed to be a vacation. He kept walking. He still couldn’t get Yeonjun’s arrest out of his mind. Whenever he blinked for too long, he saw Kai and Jungkook apprehending the boy. Who knows what they were going to do to him! No. He couldn’t panic like this. He had to stay calm. Nothing had happened to Yeonjun, Taehyun told himself repeatedly as he made his way to the edge of the subdivision where his house was. If Yeonjun was hurt in some way… wouldn’t he feel it? They were connected, after all. Tied together. Bound. Destined. He had Yeonjun’s heart in his chest and if he didn’t move too fast, he could sense it vibrating in time with Yeonjun’s calm, easy pulse. Yeonjun was fine. He had to be. Taehyun shook his head. What was he doing? What was he thinking ? Yeonjun was a criminal. Tier Three or whatever. Wanted dead or alive. All of those awful things. Whatever was happening to him now, wherever they were holding him in custody, he deserved it after all of the things he’d done! Or so Taehyun thought. Anything to keep the guilt from snitching on him at bay. He glanced around. Although the clouds were clearing and the sun was coming back out, everything around him was wet. The sidewalk was damp and slick. Warm rainwater still drip-drip-dripped from the green leaves of the trees. Yellow clouds of pollen swirled in the puddles on the ground. A dog barked incessantly in the distance. Home was but a short distance away. Then he realized something. Several minutes too late, but still. Taehyun had walked past Yeonjun’s house. Horrified, he turned around on his heel and sprinted back up the sidewalk in the direction he’d just come from. A car rushed past and he barely avoided getting caught in a spray of water as the vehicle drove through a puddle in the street. He ran and ran until he was standing in front of the tall, white wooden fence of Yeonjun’s house breathing hard, his heart racing in his chest. He waited. Nothing happened but he kept waiting. Yeonjun would come running, wouldn’t he? Any second now. It was so unlike him to just let Taehyun walk by without saying anything. Without sneaking up on him and trying to scare him. Taehyun waited. Minutes passed but, still, there was nothing. No sound of rushing footsteps. No cute boy climbing up over the fence to yell “Sup!” at his head. But Yeonjun wouldn’t leave him waiting long, right? Maybe the rain made it hard for the fox boy to catch his scent? So he waited a little longer. He approached the fence and splayed his fingers out across the wet wood. Taehyun leaned close and tried to peer through the gap between the boards. “Yeonjun,” he half-whispered, trying to convince himself that Yeonjun was playing a prank on him and was standing just on the other side, waiting for the right moment to jump out. “Yeonjun?” No response. Of course there wasn’t. Taehyun was being silly. He was using his heart instead of his brain. He was being illogical . Yeonjun wouldn’t be home because he’d gotten caught. Or, rather, Taehyun had given him up. Yeonjun had been arrested and carted away by those Wardens! Taehyun knew that. He’d seen it for himself. But still… “Yeonjun,” Taehyun called out a little louder. Then he did what the older boy always did to him. He hopped a bit to try to see over the fence. “Sup, Yeonjun?” Only silence answered him. Dejected, he pressed his forehead flat against the fence and sighed. “What am I doing?” Didn’t he dislike Yeonjun? The cocky way he was always smirking like nothing in the world could hurt him... Wasn't that stupid? The way he spoke to others like he knew exactly what to say to get whatever he wanted. Didn’t Taehyun find the guy’s confidence and live-and-let-die attitude frustrating and annoying and tedious? Didn’t he hate it whenever Yeonjun jumped out from behind this very fence at him? Scaring the lights out of him for no reason but to say ‘hello?’ Didn’t he hate it? Have nightmares about it? So why was he standing there right then expecting it? Wanting it? Missing it? Taehyun backed away from the fence, cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted, “Yeonjun!” His voice echoed loudly in the quiet, rain-damp neighborhood. The dog a few houses down stopped barking. A pair of birds leapt from a nearby tree and took off into the brightening sky. Other than that, there wasn’t a sound. “Yeonjun, I’m sorry. Yeonjun!” It was no use. The boy wouldn’t hear him. Couldn’t hear him. There was probably a chance they’d never even see each other again.
We are authorized to use lethal force...
Taehyun slapped a hand over his chest. He could feel his own heart thrashing about like it was a moment from tearing out of his ribcage. He could feel Yeonjun’s heart, calm and steady. An anchor holding him still even while the storm surged up around him. Before he knew it, tears pooled in the corners of his eyes. Tears that, logically, didn’t fit the situation. Tears that weren’t called for. That weren’t needed! But they were there anyways, sliding down his cheeks as he missed Yeonjun with every fiber of his being. “Yeonjun, I think… I think I like you,” Taehyun confessed. He’d never had feelings like this before. He thought he was too smart for them. He thought he had too much sense for them, but… But some things didn’t need to be puzzled out. They only needed to be felt. “Yeonjun, I know I like you.” Yeonjun, of course, wasn’t around to hear it. “I know I like you and I know I’ve made a big mistake.” Taehyun tightened his fist into the front of his cardigan and came to a very brave, very dangerous, very stupid and very illogical decision: He was going to free Yeonjun.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
The next day, Sunday, Taehyun dozed off on the city bus on his way to work. Or started to. His phone vibrated in his hand and he checked the group chat to see that Beomgyu had made the unfortunate discovery of a fresh ice cream pie in the dessert case at the restaurant. He had typed, ‘taehyung hasn’t made any since february.’
Taehyun typed, ‘It’s March.’
‘Why are you at work so early?’ Soobin typed. ‘We still have half an hour.’
Taehyun added, ‘Don’t eat the pies. Please don’t eat the pies!’
He put his phone on his lap. It wasn’t long before he felt it buzz again with a new message but his eyes were drifting closed. He usually didn’t sleep on the bus. He felt weird about it. Plus, anyone could tell you that it wasn’t the most comfortable place for a nap, and this ride certainly wasn’t quiet or smooth or all that pleasant, but his thoughts slowed and slowed regardless. Worrying about Yeonjun had kept him up almost the entire night so now his body was getting back at him by making his eyelids so heavy. The lightest layer of daydreams began to settle on his mind. First, it was simple things like eating a fresh, cool slice of coconut pie. Maybe on the front porch during a warm, breezy morning. Then his daydreams morphed into slightly more complicated things.
Suddenly his chest got tight and cold so quickly that he choked, startling himself awake. He almost forgot where he was until he felt the vibration of the bus seat beneath him, until he heard the rattle of the window next to his head, familiar streets whizzing by. Taehyun sucked a gulp of air down his throat and put a hand to his chest as his heart pounded hard between his ribs.
Ba-dump ba-dump ba-dump
! The rhythm was so quick he had to cough.
“You alright, dude?” The college student he shared a seat with eased away from him like he might get barfed on. “You're sick or something?”
“No.” Taehyun gasped for air. “I’m fine.” It didn’t feel like sickness. It didn’t even feel like thirst.
“Need me to call someone?” At least the guy was attempting to be friendly, even as he clutched his bag to his stomach as if to shield it from Taehyun’s germs.
“I am okay,” Taehyun repeated firmly only to cough again. He slapped a hand over his mouth.
His seat partner twisted around so that his knees were out in the aisle. He furrowed his eyebrows and leaned away, giving Taehyun far more space than he probably needed.
Taehyun rolled his eyes at the guy’s dramatic behavior. He glanced at his phone, where Beomgyu had filled the group chat with photos of the ice cream pie in the display case, photos of the ice cream pie sitting on the counter, photos of him slicing into the ice cream pie, photos of him smiling at the camera while shoving forkfuls of ice cream pie into his mouth and photos of the empty serving dish where the ice cream pie had sat--Taehyun checked the time stamps--twelve minutes ago.
Wow, Beomgyu could
chow down
.
Taehyun shifted his attention to the bus window, to the view of their town whirling past him in dreamy streaks of color, but he couldn’t get relaxed. He could only sit waist-deep in a mild panic, cold sweat beading on his forehead. Why was his chest so tight? Why were his hands so clammy? Why was his heart thundering so hard? It wasn’t like he was running around or anything and the daydreams he’d been having were calm and sweet. Nothing major. Nothing sad. They were happy things, in fact. Just silly things like forehead kisses from-- Then it hit him. “Yeonjun,” he gasped. Because he realized it wasn’t his own heart pounding hard with exertion. It was Yeonjun’s jewel heart doing all of the thumping. Right in the center of his chest like it was attempting to climb up out of his throat. Taehyun squeezed his eyes shut and balled his fist into the front of his shirt. ‘Yeonjun, are you okay?’ He screamed the thought in his head over and over, hoping that his concerns somehow reached Yeonjun no matter how far apart they were. Then again, the fox had never said anything about their thoughts being connected like that. Out loud, Taehyun repeated, “Yeonjun? You okay?”
His seatmate frowned worriedly at him but, fortunately, didn’t make any remarks.
Yeonjun didn’t say anything, either. If he even could. If that was something that was possible. If it was something the two of them could even
do
. Taehyun was simply being illogical. Yeonjun’s heart continued to pound hard in Taehyun’s chest like the fox was very excited. Or very afraid.
Oh no.
There was no telling what the boy was going through. There was no telling what the Wardens were doing or saying to him now.
Taehyun swallowed hard. Yeonjun’s emotions were becoming his own emotions and Taehyun now felt trapped on the hot, crowded bus. His shoes felt too small. His apron strings felt tied too tight around his waist. His own heart was beginning to speed up and the two chaotic pulses behind his ribs were starting to
hurt
.
The vehicle began to slow down.
He had to get off the bus. It was nowhere near his stop but he had to get off the bus!
Before the brakes even finished squealing, before the doors even hissed open, Taehyun jumped out of his seat and charged up the aisle, not caring who he bumped into, not caring whose way he got in as new passengers boarded the vehicle. He made it down the steps and onto the sidewalk, sweaty and breathless. As soon as he was outside under the sunny blue sky, his panic eased a little. Not much but enough for him to get his breathing under control. He no longer felt so
confined
but that didn’t stop Yeonjun’s racing heart. That didn’t stop the icky, cold sweat from forming on his back.
“Yeonjun, where are you? Please tell me where you are.” He started down the sidewalk but didn’t even make it half a block before he came to a halt next to a row of small, brightly-painted shops. “I’ll come get you if you just give me a hint. Yeonjun? Yeonjun!?”
But he didn’t get a hint. Not one. All he had was Yeonjun’s spiking heart rate.
Taehyun looked around frantically. He was still a good three blocks from Yoongi’s restaurant. He’d be late for sure if he waited around for another bus but he’d also be pushing it mighty close if he walked from here. Despite this, he could only stand still.
He couldn’t do this by himself. He had to ask Soobin and Beomgyu for help. They were his friends. They would look out for him, wouldn’t they?
He opened up the group chat and, being a budding scientist, found no other way to approach the topic except for head-on: ‘I don’t know where Yeonjun is.’
Soobin was the first to respond. ‘Maybe Yoongi will go easy on him for being late. He’s new.’
That’s right. Yeonjun was technically their coworker now, too.
Beomgyu added a photo. A picture of another whole ice cream pie. ‘there were two,’ he captioned it.
‘Ten minutes and there will be none,’ Soobin typed. And then, ‘Did you pay for those? This time?’
‘I’m here as a customer,’ was Beomgyu’s speedy response. ‘I’m not an employee for four more minutes.’
Then the two of them were talking about something else. That’s how quickly the subject changed. That’s how quickly Yeonjun’s absence was dismissed. He frowned. Perhaps Taehyun should have led the discussion with something that more closely resembled
Yeonjun’s been arrested by the magical police for numerous unspeakable crimes
.
That would have gotten their attention.
Taehyun saw movement out of the corner of his eye. Quick. Close.
He looked up and spotted a butterfly fluttering right towards him. He began to look away but something about the butterfly caught his attention. Caught it and held it. He looked up at the critter again. Squinted. The butterfly’s wings were large and bright yellow and she sparkled and shone like a tiny little piece of the sun. Taehyun knew quite a bit about math and the height requirement for mountains but he knew surprisingly little about animals. He didn’t know what kind of butterfly this was.
In his distraction, the butterfly came right up to Taehyun, her wings fluttering hard enough for him to feel the faint breeze of them on his cheek. He stepped backwards but the butterfly only circled around in the air and came right back towards him. Taehyun swung his hand up to bat her away from his face but the pretty creature seemed to dance out of the path of his palm, almost as if anticipating it. Then, so gently that he barely felt it, the butterfly landed right on the tip of Taehyun’s nose, so close he had to cross his eyes to watch her slowly open and close and open and close her shimmering, glittering wings.
A young woman passed by him on the sidewalk and did a double take when she spotted the critter on his face. “Isn’t that good luck,” she asked him, not slowing for a second. “Or is that only with dragonflies?” Already, she was walking away, going about her business.
Taehyun attempted to fan the butterfly away a second time but it was like he couldn’t gauge the distance correctly. His hand came nowhere near his face.
A middle-aged man dressed in his Sunday best passed him next. His eyes went wide at the odd sight and he didn’t even attempt to be subtle about his staring. The middle-school-aged girl walking with him did not even hesitate to pull out her phone and snap a picture of Taehyun.
Taehyun turned and looked at his reflection in the shop’s display window. He snorted back a laugh. It was a silly sight. The insect was so vibrantly yellow and so large that she seemed to emit light, masking most of Taehyun’s features. The butterfly shifted a little. Her movements itched his nose and her wings brushed against his eyelashes. Again, when Taehyun tried to swat her away, his hand somehow missed his nose. Missed his face.
Then he stopped fighting against all of this.
Taehyun spoke softly so that his breath wouldn’t blow the butterfly away. “Granny Sohn?” He felt ridiculous for asking a butterfly to identify herself but not everything needed to be puzzled out. Some things only needed to be felt. “Is that you?”
If he was right or wrong, he couldn’t tell. He had no way of knowing. The butterfly soundlessly took flight, catching the wind beneath her thin wings and sailing away towards the bright blue sky. Taehyun stared after her until she had gotten so far away that he could no longer see her against the blue sky.
Several seconds passed before Taehyun noticed that both of the hearts in his chest were now calm and at ease.
The peace didn’t last for long, though. He was about to be late for work.
🍽
“Order up!” Hoseok’s voice was like an alarm going off in the quiet of the restaurant. He didn’t
need
to be that loud, but, “Two hot critters! Two cold salads!”
Two spicy shrimp noodle bowls. Two vegetable bowls in a chilled broth.
Hoseok lined the bowls up on the edge of the bar with calloused hands. Two of the bowls had that fresh-off-the-grill sizzle going on. The other two bowls crackled with chips of fresh ice. Hoseok started to turn away to get back to work but then paused and whipped his head around to where Taehyun was leaning against the counter, all of the boy’s attention on his phone. Hoseok cleared his throat loudly, and then when the waiter didn’t immediately perk up, he knocked on the bar close to Taehyun’s head a few times. The boy still wasn’t paying attention so Hoseok shouted, “Taehyun!”
“Oh, oh, oh.” Taehyun jolted upright. He blinked like he was waking up from a dream. Taehyun met Hoseok’s annoyed stare and blushed out of nervousness. “Right. I’m on it.”
To quiz him, Hoseok asked, “What order did I just call?”
“Two cold salads and two hot critters.” He could multitask! He shoved his phone in his front apron pocket and grabbed a serving tray so that he could pick up his order for table five. Everything was going fine, when--
“Don’t start slacking off just because Yoongi showed you a bit of favor, Taehyun,” said Hoseok. Sternly but nicely. He didn’t wait for a response before returning his attention to the grill.
Taehyun sighed. He deserved that. “Sorry. Long weekend.” But could he even use that as an excuse?
Hoseok gave him the quickest sideways glance. “You’re not even supposed to have your phone out while you’re on the floor. Just-- Just keep it moving, will you? Get your head on straight.” He looked around the relatively empty restaurant. Then he turned back to Taehyun and somehow managed to lower his loud voice. But only by a tad. “It’s slow now but we still have a reputation to uphold.”
“Right. Got it.” Taehyun gulped. He placed the circular serving tray on the bar.
Smoke from the grill billowed up around Hoseok’s face as he dropped a fresh batch of chicken strips onto the hot surface. “Don’t give Yoongi a reason to take back that promotion.”
Oh man. Taehyun had only officially been Shift Lead for a few hours, but-- “I would love it if he took it all back,” Taehyun mumbled under his breath as he arranged the four noodle bowls on the serving tray.
“What was that,” Hoseok asked, leaning closer to hear over the hissing noise of all the fresh meat on the grill.
“I said I’ll work hard,” Taehyun told him, putting on his brightest smile. He hoisted the loaded tray up onto his shoulder. He was careful not to spill a drop as he stepped out from behind the counter and headed towards his section near the front of the restaurant, shouting out a “Behind you,” when one of his coworkers swung too close.
His whole afternoon shift, Taehyun had been searching on the web. Looking at maps, finding diagrams, reading through articles, sifting through photos, watching video tours. Anything and everything Google gave him so he could find a location in or around town that could be considered a ‘tower.’ It was the only hint he’d been given about Yeonjun’s whereabouts but, despite his efforts and worries, he’d been unable to find anything that fit. There were obvious things like the old firetower between the mountain and the big lake. Or the leaning clock tower at his school. Or the big water tower next to the library with the name of their little town in big black letters on the side. But you couldn’t keep someone jailed in one of those things, could you?
Could you?
“Two spicy shrimp bowls,” Taehyun announced as he approached table five, his big Customer Service grin pinned to his face. “And two cold vegetable bowls. Enjoy!” He sat the respective ramen bowls down in front of the correct customers and backed away.
They were a group of travellers and definitely looked it in their outfits a bit too layered and a bit too flashy and a bit too bulky for a day out in the mountains like this. They were in town for a friend’s wedding, they had said, and, even as far away as Incheon, they had heard about Yoongi’s ramen shop and wanted to give the restaurant’s famous dishes a try. Taehyun was positive that the restaurant’s only ‘famous dish’ was their Pork-Bone Special and he had told them so, but they had chosen other dishes instead.
“Can I get you all anything else? Napkins? Refills?” He made a point of making eye-contact with all of them. He had to be extra charming.
The old woman wanted a refill on her tea so Taehyun took her glass and turned away to head to the drink machine.
On his way, however, he saw the restaurant’s front doors swing open. Afternoon sunlight poured in, bright and beautiful and almost blinding. Taehyun winced at the sudden light, holding a hand over his face until he could see the face of the black-clad figure strolling into the lobby. Not only did Taehyun not expect it to be Kai who showed up, he also didn’t expect Kai to be at the restaurant alone. Without Jungkook. He thought they were glued to each other.
Taehyun tried to look away from Kai but didn’t do it fast enough. Kai’s gaze seemed to snap across the dining room right in Taehyun’s direction as if magnetically or magically drawn to him. Taehyun ignored them. Went out of his way to pretend he hadn’t seen them. He went up to the drink machine, dumped out the old, watered-down tea and filled the glass with new ice and fresh tea. He stuck a lemon wedge on the rim.
Unfortunately, he couldn’t ignore Kai for long when they gently called out, “Excuse me, Taehyun,” as he passed by on his way back to table five.
Should he stop? Would that be a good idea? Or would it be worse to keep going, ignore Kai and possibly anger them knowing they had Yeonjun in custody? Taehyun was mid-step when he tried to make the decision so he awkwardly paused as he brought his foot down, nearly losing his balance. Now it was obvious that he had heard Kai but he still did not turn around. Kai was the enemy! Taehyun didn’t want to talk to them. Let alone be courteous and serve them food! Wait. He had an idea. “Yoongi will get pissed off if he spots you here,” Taehyun hissed. “And you never wanna piss off Yoongi.” He started walking again, trying not to spill any of his customer’s tea.
Kai reached out a hand and tugged at Taehyun’s dress shirt sleeve. “Yoongi won’t know I came here if we handle all of our business fast enough.”
What business could they possibly have left? Kai and Jungkook had already apprehended Yeonjun! What else was there? Taehyun would love it if he never saw either of them again. But… “Sit at table one,” he snapped. “The one near the front door.” And almost out of sight. “Give me a minute.”
Kai let him go. Finally.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
“...and then he was like, ‘Taehyun, how did you fit so many brownies on a single tray because I usually have to use two or three just for one batch’ and I told him, ‘You cut the brownies in a square, so you are wasting surface area if you arrange square objects in a circular pattern.’ That’s just basic geometry, am I right? But anyways, he says, ‘I’ve been working here for four years and didn’t even know we had rectangular serving trays’ and then--” “Taehyun,” Jimin cut him off. He held up a hand as if to physically stop Taehyun’s voice from reaching his ears. “That’s nice and all… and I care so much about Taehyung’s display case problems… but all I asked is if we had any paper towel rolls left.” “Sorry,” Taehyun replied. If he was being honest with himself, he was surprised Jimin had let him talk his ear off even for that long. But it couldn’t be helped. All Taehyun had been doing today was running away from his feelings and trying to avoid his problems. And he really wanted to keep doing both of those things. He would do anything to keep from having to walk back across the restaurant and speak to Kai. Anything. Including talk to Jimin. “I’m not usually like this. I had a long weekend.” “And?” Jimin had cut his hair since the last time Taehyun had seen him. Gone were his pastel-dyed locks. Now all that remained were his natural, dark-colored roots. “Well?” When Taehyun didn’t immediately say anything, Jimin asked again, “Do we have any paper towel rolls left or not?” Taehyun frowned. “Yes, of course. Plenty.” “Gah. Where? It’s like when we kept running out of hand soap.” “We moved all of the boxes of cleaning supplies to the stockroom by the freezer.” It was what he’d spent the first hour of his shift doing. “Why,” Jimin huffed. “Why move it all the way over there? Why would you move it at all ?” He brushed past Taehyun and started walking towards the counter. “The supplies were perfectly fine in the stockroom between the bathrooms. It makes sense for them to be there.” It did make sense, but… “I didn’t make the decision,” Taehyun told him. Yoongi had. “That storm the other day put a hole in the roof. Did you not know about the leak?” “Apparently not,” Jimin shouted over his shoulder. He walked through the ‘authorized personnel only’ doors, effectively ending the conversation. “It’s supposed to get fixed tomorrow,” Taehyun shouted, although he doubted Jimin heard or cared. In a much quieter voice, Taehyun mumbled, “Glad I don’t work mornings with him.” With a sigh, Taehyun propped his hands on his hips and turned away from the swinging doors. He had delivered his customer’s glass of tea already but that had taken all of fourteen seconds and he was still too anxious to face all of his problems head-on. Who else was here that he could talk to and avoid his responsibilities with? Namjoon and Seokjin had surely left already this late in the afternoon. Hoseok would chew him out if Taehyun distracted him this close to the start of the evening rush. Yoongi would-- Wait a second. What was that? There was a blur of movement right behind him. He almost hadn’t seen it. Taehyun glanced to his left but didn’t see anyone. That couldn’t be right. Hadn’t someone been right there ? Yes. Even as he stood there, he could feel the light breeze from someone moving past him on the back of his neck. Taehyun twisted around and looked to his right. He saw Soobin skipping across the tile floor. “Slow down,” Taehyun shouted at his coworker’s back. He was already losing interest and facing forward again. “Jimin just mopped!” Soobin grunted out the bare minimum of his acknowledgment but did not stop his skipping. Wait. A. Minute. Taehyun spun to the right again just to make sure . He spotted Soobin cutting between tables, angling away from the center of the dining room and making a beeline towards--Taehyun gasped--table one. Towards Kai! “Oh no.” Taehyun rushed to follow his friend across the restaurant but Soobin had gotten such a headstart on him that there was no way he’d catch up. “Soobin!” In horror, Taehyun watched as Soobin slammed his palms down on the table excitedly and started up a good-natured conversation with Kai. Taehyun wasn’t looking where he was going. His shoes squeaked on the floor as he came to a halt. Right in front of him, a diner had slid their chair back to stand up. Taehyun gave the old man his best smile but when that didn’t increase the speed with which the man got to his feet, Taehyun backed up and found a different path through the maze of tables and chairs. He heard Soobin giggle. Yikes. More dangerous, though, was the smile spreading across Kai’s face. Not too big or too open. Just the corners of their lips quirking upwards. Taehyun had assumed Kai was some fiercely-trained professional who always kept a cool head, but when faced with Soobin’s enthusiasm, Kai looked… caught off-guard. Amused, even. Yup. That was definitely dangerous. Nothing good could come of this. Taehyun overheard Soobin say, “You’re just in time to catch our Sunday special which, between you and me, isn’t all that special.” He looked over his shoulder for a second as if to make sure Hoseok couldn’t hear him. “I mean, it’s special, but like… Let me let you in on a secret. It’s a regular menu item but with a different name. It’s cheaper than the special. Just ask to substitute, like, two of the ingredients and ask for extra-firm noodles. Even with the tacked-on cost of the additions, it’ll still be a bit cheaper than the special. I mean, it won’t come with the sides, but--” Taehyun raised his voice. “Soobin!” Soobin continued in a rush. “Would you like to try a bowl? It’s vegetarian friendly.” Kai’s eyes slid from Soobin to the quickly approaching Taehyun. “My apologies… but I don’t plan on staying long.” “One of these days,” Soobin loudly declared, “you’ll stick around long enough to actually try our food. Or maybe the two of us can go somewhere else to eat? What do you say?” Taehyun rushed up to the table and purposefully rammed into Soobin to make him slide over. “What business did you have with me,” Taehyun interrupted their conversation. “Why did you come here to bug me?” It was like neither of them heard him. Soobin said, nervously, “I’ve always been meaning to ask this, but… what’s your name?” “Kai.” “Kai,” Soobin repeated all dreamily. Then, a second time, he said, “Kai.” He practically sang it. He was already smiling wide but now he was smiling wider . Brighter. “I’m Soobin, by the way. Perhaps I should have introduced myself before inviting you out to dinner.” “I’ve known your name,” said Kai. “You’ve been paying attention to me?” The afternoon sunlight coming in through the windows brought out the deep honey color of Soobin’s sparkling eyes. “You’re wearing a name tag,” Kai pointed out. Soobin’s mouth fell into a big, surprised o-shape. If Taehyun wasn’t so sensitive to magic, he would have sworn Soobin had been spelled. Instead, the guy was crushing hard and Taehyun didn’t know which would be worse at the moment. No. No. He would prefer a spell. At least with a spell, he could break it and snap Soobin out of it. “Hey.” Taehyun gulped, leaning forward to put himself between the two. “What do you want with him, Kai? Leave him out of this.” “I didn’t do anything to him.” Kai smiled a little harder, showing off small, white teeth. “He came over to me.” “I’m just making nice,” Soobin explained himself, barely looking in Taehyun’s direction. Taehyun grabbed him by the arm and whispered to him, “Why? This is my section. Not yours.” “No need to get so defensive,” stated Kai. They reached into an inner pocket of their leather jacket and then pulled out a small envelope. Off-white in color with an official-looking wax seal stamped across the flap. “Our difficulties are behind us, Taehyun. Justice has been served.” “Justice?” Taehyun spat the word out like it tasted bad. He doubted that the fear he’d felt in Yeonjun’s heart earlier that day could be tied to justice . “Why don’t you just shove--” “We’re no longer on opposing sides.” Kai cut in with wicked calmness. They carefully slid the envelope across the table towards Taehyun who shied away from it like it might burst into flames. “Opposing sides,” Soobin tilted his head in mild confusion. “Opposing sides… Hmmm… Is it because you and the mean-looking one are chasing after Yeonjun because he’s a tier-three whatever?” Taehyun elbowed him. Hard. Sometimes he hated that there weren’t any secrets with this guy. “We’re no longer chasing ,” Kai made sure the two of them knew. “We’ve caught the criminal, detained him, and now the proper authorities are dealing with him.” They hooked their eyes in Taehyun’s direction, making deliberate eye contact. “Whatever happens to him now is out of our hands.” A chill went up Taehyun’s spine. Kai slid the envelope even closer to Taehyun who had no more room to back away from it with his back against Soobin’s broad chest. “Ahh, he’s a prisoner or something. No wonder he didn’t come into work today.” Soobin nodded slowly as if the situation were no more serious than finding out Yeonjun had come down with a cold. “But anyways, Kai, are you busy later tonight?” “Can’t say that I am,” Kai answered, looking over at Soobin. “These days, I have a large amount of free time. I didn’t receive a new assignment yet, having been on the other one for so long.” “That’s just great.” Soobin clamped a hand down on Taehyun’s shoulder and shunted him aside. “Being available is great, I mean. Can I get your number?” “Soobin,” Taehyun shrieked in surprise. Soobin’s big, clumsy hand had swung out and knocked a salt shaker over, popping off the lid and dumping the contents across the surface of the table, some of it spilling onto Kai’s lap. “Soobin, what are you doing?” “Trying to get his number,” Soobin said. Kai said, “They, please.” “Trying to get their number,” Soobin corrected the pronoun without missing a beat. Kai wiped grains of salt off of their black pants, their smile shifting closer to a grimace. Soobin repeated, “So can I get your number?” “Soobin, you’re such a menace,” Taehyun huffed. He searched in his apron pouch with both hands only to discover that he had no washcloth or napkins tucked away. “I’m just trying to--” “That’s not what I’m talking about.” Taehyun righted the salt shaker and twisted on the lid until it was nice and tight. “Help me clean this up. Why can’t you be more careful?” “Yeah, yeah. I’m on it.” Soobin grabbed the envelope on the table and used it as a makeshift broom to sweep the salt piles over the edge of the table and onto his outstretched palm. Taehyun’s eyes went wide. “Soobin!” “What?” Soobin gasped out, startled. “I’m doing what you said. Why are you shouting at me?” Taehyun snatched the envelope out of the guy’s hand. “Use a napkin or something. Don’t use this.” The envelope was heavier in his hand than he anticipated. He brushed salt off of it and stared down at the intricate design of the wax seal marking it as official Warden correspondence. Taehyun couldn’t help it. His curiosity was genuinely piqued now. He blamed it on wanting to be a scientist. “It’s yours,” said Kai, gesturing towards the envelope. “Why would you give me…” Kai flicked their finger in a triangle pattern. The spell sizzled in the air. Taehyun could feel the heat of it zip across the surface of the envelope. The wax seal made a hissing noise before crumbling away like bits and pieces of an old rubber eraser. Taehyun pulled back the flap of the envelope only to wish that he hadn’t. Only to wish that he’d never picked it up. That Kai had never come into the building with it in the first place! The envelope was crammed full of cash. He gasped sharply and, against his better judgment, used a thumb to fan through the paper bills, counting it with his eyes. Oh. It was a lot of money. Like… a lot a lot. More than he’d earn after two or three months of work, even with spectacular tips. Kai explained, “You held up your end of the deal so now we’re holding up ours.” Soobin started sweeping up the mess of salt with his hands. “What deal?” “Nothing,” Taehyun rushed to answer. There was no way he was about to admit that he had given Yeonjun up for a cut of the bounty. Argh, just thinking about it made him feel itchy with guilt but Yeonjun had been apprehended and the cash was in his hands. It was too late for regret. “Hmm, okay then.” Soobin scooped up the last bits of salt onto his palm. And, like nothing about any of this was odd, he asked again, “Can I get your number, Kai? You are single, right?” Kai looked up at Soobin, looking caught off-guard again. “I… Well… Yes, I am.” Taehyun pushed the money back into the envelope. “I can’t take this.” “You have to,” said Kai. “Now that you’ve accepted it, it’s a direct violation of the Codex if I take it back.” Taehyun didn’t even know what the Codex was or what laws were in it so it was not like he could argue the point. Almost dejectedly, Taehyun dropped the money envelope into his apron, slotting it into one of the inner pockets where he usually hoarded his straws. When Taehyun looked up, Kai had Soobin’s phone in their hands, apparently typing in their contact info. It was actually starting to bug him that no one else seemed mildly upset about any of this. Taehyun blurted out, “What did Yeonjun do to get such a huge bounty on his head?” Kai didn’t look up from their typing. “You read the wanted poster. You should know.” Taehyun could barely recall it. So much had happened over the last few days. Theft? Breaking contract? “But what exactly happened? What did Yeonjun do ?” Completely unbothered by all of this, Soobin bulldozed his way into the conversation. “Want to be my theyfriend, Kai?” Kai slid the phone back towards Soobin, having finished inputting their number. “Let’s go out to eat somewhere first and then maybe I can give you an answer.” “Something other than noodles?” Soobin inquired, already sending his first text message to Kai’s number. Kai stood up, smoothing their hands over their jacket and pants pockets as if to double check they still had everything. The distinctive noise of their phone’s notification sound trilled from their jacket pocket. “I think we’d both prefer something other than noodles.” “Hey, there’s a place at the edge of town with, like, the best grilled vegetable skewers and rice balls. We should go there!” Kai made a high-pitched staccato noise that Taehyun took an embarrassingly long time to recognize as a laugh . “That doesn’t sound too bad, Soobin. It really doesn’t sound too bad,” Kai said. “Call me?” Soobin asked, eyes full of hope and wonder. “My shift ends in three hours.” “Kai,” Taehyun butted in. “What did Yeonjun do?” He almost didn’t want to know… but he did want to know… but he didn’t want to know. But if he didn’t know, could he even still stand here and defend him? Yeonjun was a criminal, but maybe he didn’t do something criminal. But what if he did? But what if he didn’t ? Taehyun just had to know! Like any good scientist, he couldn’t come to an accurate conclusion if he didn’t look over all of the information. He stepped forward, putting himself into Kai’s way before they could reach the front door. “Why does--” He thought about that poster, and how Yeonjun was wanted dead or alive. “Why does he have to die?” Kai gently nudged Taehyun aside and continued towards the front door. They paused with their hand on the door handle, the stark afternoon sunlight streaking harsh shadows across their otherwise gentle face. Kai said, through gritted teeth, “He bit the hand that fed him and turned his back on the Wardens.” 🍽 “Taehyun.” It was the middle of the evening rush. A big party was in the center of the dining room, celebrating the wedding anniversary of their friends. Apparently, the couple had gone on their first date here, back when Yoongi’s mother and aunts ran the place. The big party’s loud conversations and boisterous laughter seemed to flood the entire restaurant, always riding the line between joyous and annoying. Most of the other tables were occupied as well but even though the restaurant was full of noise, even though it was getting to the point where Taehyun could barely hear himself think, it was like the waiter was programmed to hear his own name in a crowd. Taehyun whipped his head around, right and then left, until he spotted Yoongi halfway leaning out of the swinging doors. His boss repeated his name. “Taehyun. Come here.” Uh oh. Taehyun went to the counter and sat down the bucket of dirty glasses and ramen bowls he was about to take to the dishwasher and then followed Yoongi through the ‘authorized personnel only’ doors to the humid backroom beyond them. Yoongi folded his arms across his chest and said two words: “Where’s Yeonjun?” Taehyun had no answer. “He was scheduled for today and I can’t reach him.” Yoongi fixed Taehyun with a look. A look that made it clear that he knew Taehyun knew . “Luckily, we have the coverage, but-- Where is he?” Taehyun wanted to lie and say that he didn’t know. He wanted to lie and say that Yeonjun was sick at home. He wanted to lie and say that Yeonjun was probably goofing off as usual, out somewhere doing who knows what just because he felt like it, but-- “The Wardens have him.” Yoongi’s eyes went wide. He looked truly taken aback. “They caught him? How? There’s no way he--” “He let them take him.” Taehyun mumbled. “But he’s been avoiding them for months.” Yoongi shook his head, unable to believe it. “He’s a nine-tailed fox. A trickster among tricksters. How did he get caught?” Taehyun stared down at the floor. It wasn’t hard to remember how Yeonjun had walked the two of them out into the woods on the mountain. He had been so calm even when he knew the Wardens were behind them the whole time. Even when he knew Taehyun had told the Wardens where the two of them would be. Kai and Jungkook had cuffed him and carted him away. Yeonjun hadn’t even tried to resist or run. “He turned himself in. He… got tired of running.” Yoongi was quiet. Not out of anger like Taehyun anticipated but out of surprise. His small mouth hung open and his eyes--usually narrowed skeptically--were wide open from the shock of the bad news. “Is he okay?” “I don’t think so.” “Does he have a plan?” “I don’t know,” Taehyun answered honestly. Yoongi uncrossed his arms. “He has to have a plan. He always has a plan.” Taehyun looked up at Yoongi. “He just told me everything will be okay but... I don’t think anything is going to be okay.” “Are you okay?” “No!” The word was out of Taehyun’s mouth faster than he could stop it, but now that it was all out in the open… “No, I’m not okay.” And that made him... angry? The fact that he wasn’t sure why upset him that much more. “Things aren’t okay.” “Taehyun.” Yoongi pulled his hat off of his head. Now he looked surprised for a completely different reason. As if he wasn’t sure what he was supposed to do or say in front of Taehyun’s splintering emotions. “You don’t have to be okay all the time. It’s okay that you aren’t okay.” “Is it?” Taehyun’s voice broke in his throat. And something else deeper in him broke as well because now he felt like he was a breath away from crying. He sniffed it back and forced it all down. “How can things be okay when I don’t know what I’m doing? When I don’t know what I’m feeling ?” And when he didn’t really have anyone to talk to about those things. “I’ve been lying to my friends and maybe lying to myself. I even wanted to lie to you just now but I can't because I’m tired of doing it. I don’t know why I want to lie about everything. I just don’t know.” He was doing a bad job of holding back his feelings because now they were starting to leak out of his eyes. He sniffled. “And I guess I want to lie because I don’t know anything. I don’t know anything about kindred spirits or magic or Wardens or being Shift Lead… I don’t know anything about why I want to be with Yeonjun so bad when he’s so… bad! He’s a criminal and I turned him in but I hate myself for turning him in. He probably doesn’t want to be with me but I still want to be with him and I don’t know why! I just don’t know .” Yoongi pressed a wadded-up paper towel ball into Taehyun’s hand. It wasn’t exactly soft but Taehyun took it anyway and wiped the salt trails off of his cheeks. He looked up at Yoongi through the tears in his eyes. “He told me that I’m perfect for this but I don’t know what that means. He told me to remember what he told me but I don’t know what he’s talking about!” Yoongi attempted to speak. “Taehyun, it’s--” “I don’t like not knowing what I’m doing.” Taehyun wiped at his face again, catching his tears on the scratchy surface of the paper towel. “Granny Sohn said he’s in a tower but which one? Where is it? There are no towers in town. None. I’ve looked!” “Tae--” “And I like him and I miss him but am I a bad person for liking him if he’s a bad person? I don’t know the answer to that and I hate that I don’t know. How can I not know? How can I not figure it out?” Taehyun leaned up against the wall near the swinging doors. At least he wasn’t crying anymore. At least that was something he still had a bit of control over. “Everyone keeps saying that I can’t puzzle everything out but how can I not do that? How can I not want to puzzle things out? How can I just change how I do everything? It’s not what I’m used to. Just feeling things doesn’t help me. I have to puzzle them out. I have to know … but I don’t know anything!” Yoongi finally managed to get a word in. “We can’t know everything. No one can.” “But it’s all I want to do.” “Taehyun,” Yoongi said, gently but firmly. Taehyun got quiet. He looked up at Yoongi. Now that he properly had Taehyun’s attention, Yoongi spoke slowly and deliberately as if to make sure his words got through. “You love science, don’t you? You told me it’s what you want to study in college. You said it’s what you want to do when you grow up. Do scientists know everything?” He paused, but not long enough for Taehyun to give him an answer. “Or do scientists not know anything?” Taehyun blinked. He leaned forward, not knowing if Yoongi was being mean to him or not. “What do you mean?” “I thought scientists loved not knowing anything?” Yoongi smiled a little but not in a mean or joking way. “I thought scientists spent their whole careers--” “--asking questions,” Taehyun filled in for him now that he understood. Now that Yoongi’s meaning was starting to click. “Scientists love asking questions and coming up with hypotheses to attempt to solve problems!” Yoongi sighed in relief, practically collapsing against the table next to him. “There you go. It’s okay that you don’t have all of the answers, Taehyun. It’s okay that a few of the answers you do come up with are wrong.” “Right. Right.” Taehyun nodded. “Being wrong does not always equal being bad. What is an experiment without a few failed results? Gosh, how could I forget the scientific method?” How could he forget the one crucial bit of information that had been connecting him to Yeonjun the whole entire time? How could he forget simple, established fact? That was why academic essays required a summary! Without it, the question the essay attempted to answer would be forgotten along the way. “I do know where Yeonjun is.” This made Yoongi perk up. He raised an eyebrow. “Where?” Taehyun pointed to his chest. To the space slightly to the right of his heart. “Here.” 🍽 “So she gets upset because I offered her a plastic straw, right,” Beomgyu told his story. “She goes on and on about how straws are absolutely terrible and that she’ll never ever use one so she can save the oceans… but guess what she orders immediately afterward?” Taehyun had a feeling he knew. There were always customers like this. He opened his mouth to answer. Soobin beat him to the punch. “A seafood bowl? No. Wait. A spicy seafood bowl?” “Yup,” Beomgyu agreed. Taehyun narrowed his eyes. “With extra shrimp?” Beomgyu nodded fervently, sending his light-colored, curly hair bouncing. “And she also paid extra for crab. But wait, there’s more!” Soobin gasped dramatically like he was at home watching a horror movie. “She didn’t finish it?” “She didn’t finish it,” Beomgyu confirmed it. He shuddered like it was the most terrible thing to ever happen. “She didn’t finish it.” “She didn’t finish it!” Soobin wailed, grabbing Taehyun by the shoulders and aggressively shaking him. “Why would she do that? She was going to save the oceans !” Taehyun pried Soobin’s hands off of his shoulders so that his head wouldn’t snap off of his neck. Beomgyu shrugged. “Well, that’s how my night went. How’d yours go?” “My night’s just started,” Soobin exclaimed. “I have a date! They’re supposed to meet me here.” Beomgyu tilted his head back. “Ah, so that’s why we’re here instead of at the bus stop?” The three of them were sitting on one of the iron benches on the sidewalk outside of the restaurant. It was shaping up to be a refreshingly cool night. Their hectic shift was over, the madness of the evening rush had ended, and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky to block their view of the twinkling stars. Just sitting there was comfortable. They had only been resting a few moments but it already felt like the awful stress of their shift had happened long, long ago. Not even recently enough to keep being thought about. “You guys didn’t have to wait with me, you know,” Soobin said. “We wanted to,” Taehyun spoke up. He wrung his hands together, mildly anxious. “We didn’t want you to be alone. In case something… happened.” In case Kai decided to do Warden things or whatever. “What’s going to happen?” Soobin wanted to know. “You might get stood up,” Beomgyu suggested with an inappropriately bright smile. “Hey, don’t say that ,” complained Soobin. “If you do get stood up, then we can go out to eat. You want to know what I’m craving all of a sudden? Anpan . Actually, I’ve been craving it all night and we don’t sell any because we only have cake and pie and brownies. So let’s have anpan .” Soobin swung his foot and kicked at a pebble on the ground, sending it skittering across the sidewalk and out into the parking lot. “Are you really making me pick between dessert and a date?” Beomgyu looked over at him. “No. I’m saying we go for dessert if you don’t have a date.” “But now I don’t want a date because I want dessert!” Taehyun had stopped listening to them go back and forth. It was cool outside but his chest was getting hotter and hotter. Tighter and tighter. His pulse began to race. “What about you, Taehyun. Would you choose the dessert or the date?” Taehyun wasn’t sure which one of his friends had asked the question. His heart started pounding so hard that he couldn’t hear anything. No. Not his own heart. Yeonjun’s. It was just like earlier in the day on the bus! Yeonjun’s heart thrashed inside of him as if trying to beat its way out of his chest. Taehyun sucked down a mouthful of air but it wasn’t enough. He couldn’t get a deep breath. “Taehyun, you okay?” The voice was distinctly Beomgyu’s. He waved a hand in front of Taehyun’s face. “I’m fine,” Taehyun choked out. Technically, he was alright. It was Yeonjun who was panicking. It was Yeonjun who was in fear. It was Yeonjun being hurt. His heart throbbed between Taehyun’s lungs, making the boy feel the same, prickly pain the fox did. Taehyun swallowed. “I’m--” Beomgyu noticed the sweat beading up on Taehyun’s forehead. He put a hand against Taehyun’s cheek and felt the weird claminess of his friend’s skin. “Are you sure you’re alright? You’re--” “--shining,” Soobin finished the statement. Yes. Taehyun was shining. Bright enough that the sparkly light reached across the sidewalk and pushed the shadows away. Bright enough that customers walking in or out of the building noticed the light show and stopped to look and point and watch. Kai stepped forward out of the gathering crowd but none of the boys noticed them. “What is happening to me,” Taehyun croaked out. He looked down at his glowing hands. At his glowing arms. He felt ridiculous. He probably looked ridiculous. “I’m supposed to be okay for another several days. It’s what he said!” He choked hard, unable to catch a deep enough breath to keep from feeling lightheaded. “He said--” He stopped abruptly. Yeonjun’s beating heart… Taehyun could feel it sliding out from between his lungs. Crawling up his throat. Climbing across the back of his tongue and making him gag. “What’s going on?” Soobin held a hand over his eyes as the light pouring out of Taehyun’s mouth grew brighter and brighter. “I don’t know,” Beomgyu whined. “You tell me!” “Guys, where are you,” Taehyun squealed with what little air he had left. “The light is so bright… I can’t see!” Even when he squeezed his eyes shut, the light washed over everything. Beomgyu jumped up off of the bench and grabbed Taehyun’s hand, squeezing hard in what he hoped was a reassuring manner. “You’re okay, Tae-Tae. We’re right here.” Taehyun hardly felt the pressure of Beomgyu’s hand. He could hardly feel anything except for the exact size and shape and location of Yeonjun’s heart as it pushed its way out of his mouth. He coughed hard once. Twice. The third time, Yeonjun’s jewel heart flew from between his lips but instead of flying out into the parking lot like it should have, it hovered in the air, glowing and glowing. In the middle of the ordeal, Soobin’s rabbit ears had popped out of his dark curls. He clapped his hands together. “Isn’t this exciting?” “It’s more freaky than exciting,” Beomgyu huffed. He squeezed Taehyun’s hand again. “Are you okay? What’s going on here?” “I don’t know,” Taehyun muttered. At least the shine had left his skin. At least he could see. “I don’t know.” How could he know? All he was aware of was that, for the first time in days, he felt… empty . And he didn’t like that feeling. As much as his connection to Yeonjun was a mystery to him, as much as it scared him sometimes, Taehyun had still gotten acclimated to the phantom feeling of the boy’s heart beating in time with his. Now it was like he was missing the last puzzle piece that completed him. Kai, on the other hand, had been a Warden long enough, and had been dealing with nine-tailed foxes long enough, to know what it was they were seeing. And to know that they had seen enough. Turning on their heel, Kai stepped away, pushing their way back through the crowd before they were spotted. On the other end of the sidewalk, the three waiters were still trying to wrap their heads around what was happening. Beomgyu rubbed Taehyun’s back gently. “Why do I get the feeling that I’ve seen something exactly like this before?” Taehyun recalled how this all started. The so-called pool party. The kiss-- “Hey,” Soobin’s tall, skinny rabbit ears twisted and turned. “I hear Yeonjun’s voice. He’s really close.” Taehyun hadn’t heard anything. The only voices he could keep track of was the murmuring of the crowd and Yoongi’s authoritative voice as he stepped out of the front door of the restaurant to wrangle some kind of order out of the chaos of spectators. Taehyun held a hand up to his sore throat. “I heard him again,” Soobin called out, smiling all wide and bright and hopeful. Taehyun let out one last cough. “What did he say?” “I could barely hear him. Hold on.” Soobin cupped his hands over his mouth and screamed at the floating, shining jewel. “Repeat that!” The jewel let out a wickedly bright flash of light, making all three waiters cover their eyes with their hands. Making the crowd gasp and disperse. When the light petered out and Taehyun could lower his hands, Yeonjun was standing on the sidewalk in front of them. He looked casual and confident and charming as always. His hands were shoved in his front pants pockets and that annoying little smirk was on his face like he hadn’t just disrupted everything. “I said,” Yeonjun called out, looking from Soobin to Beomgyu and then, finally, settling his gaze on Taehyun. “Sup?”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Kang Taehyun didn’t like surprises. Like… eww. Anything but that. He hated them. He had a thing about them. More accurately, he had a thing about their unpredictability and the weird, anxious, squicky way they made him feel. He wanted things in his life to remain constant. Anchored. Under his control. That’s why he liked his job. His coworkers were extremely weird and impossible to fully understand, but the workplace itself had a strong foundation of fundamentals (people come in, they order what they want to eat, they eat, they leave) and a decent, working set of logical rules (keep the place sanitary and clean, always ask a customer if they want dessert before calculating the bill, call Yoongi if there’s a problem that can’t be solved with a smile and an apology.) There was only one menu to order from, so there were a finite number of variables. The section he covered during his shifts would always remain the same. The way Hoseok changed the Manager’s Specials every couple of days had a pattern to it (beef, chicken, veggie, seafood, beef, chicken, veggie, seafood.) Even the majority of the customers who came in and the exact times that they arrived and the exact meals that they ordered stayed consistent. Comfortable. Routine. That’s why Taehyun liked math. The basic, underlying rules would never change. Could never change. If he learned the structure--the formulas--he could do anything. And if he couldn’t do something, he could work backwards until he discovered the answers that fit. Adding 18,341 to 41,709 would always result in 60,050 and it would always take him 1.52 seconds to do the math in his head. If he was going over something new, no matter how scary it was, Taehyun knew that he could learn the theorem, learn the reason , and then everything else would fall into place. Numbers could never fail him. He could only fail the numbers. He could only fail the logic. But Yeonjun was none of the things Taehyun usually liked. Yeonjun wasn’t a set of math problems. Yeonjun wasn’t predictable. He didn’t remain constant. He behaved however he wanted which meant he behaved outside of Taehyun’s expectations. Outside of Taehyun’s control. Outside of Taehyun’s comfort zone. Outside of Taehyun’s know-how. Yeonjun only wanted to have fuuuuuun . Yeonjun always made Taehyun feel like he was a man that couldn’t be figured out. Something that couldn’t be solved. His wild behavior was unsafe and apparently criminal but, more importantly than that, Yeonjun was... illogical. Every moment Taehyun spent with Yeonjun was a roller coaster of impossible emotion. Yet Taehyun liked him anyways. More and more every day. That’s all it took. Taehyun was a big fan of lists and graphs and classifications but Yeonjun was pure chaos. Normal people probably wouldn’t be able to put up with it. Then again, normal people probably couldn’t say that their boyfriend was a nine-tailed fox. Sup . That simple, silly, stupid little word that Taehyun had associated with awful surprises up until now... It had become the one word he wanted to hear again and again. Taehyun blinked and wiped at his eyes like he couldn’t be sure that Yeonjun was truly standing in front of him. Okay, he was there. Taehyun squeezed his eyes shut and opened them again. Yup. Yeonjun was still there. “You’re back,” Taehyun squeaked out. Tears were already forming in the corners of his eyes even though he shouldn’t have been crying over anything. “I can’t believe it. You’re back.” He rushed forward, closing the distance between them. He threw his arms around Yeonjun’s neck and pulled the taller boy close close close . Taehyun missed him. It had only been days but it had felt like weeks. Another thing that didn’t make logical sense but screw logic. Taehyun missed Yeonjun’s body heat. He missed the spiced apple cider smell of Yeonjun’s laundry detergent. He missed how soft Yeonjun’s hair was. He missed the way Yeonjun’s fox ears tickled his nose. He missed that mischievous smirk! Yeonjun must have missed him, too, because he pressed his nose against the side of Taehyun’s neck and noisily, greedily inhaled as if trying to reacquaint himself with every layer of Taehyun’s scent. “I’m back,” he mumbled against Taehyun’s skin. His breath was warm and sweet. “I’m back, Tae-Tae.” “You were gone for so long,” Taehyun whined. He surprised himself with how emotional he was getting. He choked back a sob. “I couldn’t stand it. You were so far away.” Yeonjun wrapped his arms around Taehyun’s waist, his hands hot across the base of Taehyun’s spine. “But... I was never too far away from you, was I?” Yeonjun had been close. Closer than Taehyun ever would have guessed--closer than anyone would have guessed--but he had been terribly far away at the same time. It was just the nonsense way Yeonjun did things. “You fool,” Taehyun hissed at him. He tried to be angry but his brain must have gotten the signals all mixed up because he was happy instead. He was happy. He was crying. But he was happy . Being with Yeonjun meant nothing followed the rules. Nothing was predictable. Not even Taehyun’s own feelings. “You have some nerve putting me through all of that, Yeonjun.” But even after speaking such words, Taehyun just sighed in relief and pulled Yeonjun even closer to him. Squeezed him. Until their chests were pressed so firmly together that Taehyun could feel Yeonjun’s heartbeat against his own skin. Just like he used to be able to. Taehyun shut his eyes. It took a few moments, a few deep breaths, but their hearts seemed to sync up, beating as one. Ba-dump ba-dump ba-dump . Being with Yeonjun meant having two heartbeats. “I can’t… I almost… I didn’t--” Taehyun went on, still trying to sound upset and mean and not at all like the soft, crumbling mess that he was on the inside. “I actually thought I wouldn’t get to see you again.” Yeonjun pulled away, but only far enough away to wipe both of his thumbs across the streaks of dampness on Taehyun’s cheeks. “I’m sorry for hurting you, Tae-Tae.” But whatever moment they were in the middle of came to a sudden, anticlimactic halt. “Awwww,” Soobin cooed gleefully. Beomgyu added, “You two are so cute ! I actually think I’m about to go into a coma from the sweetness.” Right. Taehyun had nearly forgotten about those two. He could feel the burn of embarrassment light up his cheeks. Ugh. “You guys,” he complained. He opened his eyes. “Keep it down.” Beomgyu blew a raspberry. “And miss the opportunity to see you, of all people, blush and get all lovesick?” Taehyun almost didn’t want to look over his shoulder at the two of them but he did anyway. Soobin was grinning from ear to ear. His smile dimpled his cheeks and turned his eyes into half-moons. His rabbit ears twitched a little. “Yeonjun, you won’t believe how moody Taehyun has been while you were gone.” Beomgyu snorted back a laugh. “Well, grumpier than usual.” “Way grumpier,” Soobin added. Of course, Yeonjun joined in on the teasing, too. He leaned down and nuzzled his forehead against Taehyun’s temple. “Somebody missed me. Somebody missed me,” he singsonged. Taehyun dropped a hand from around Yeonjun’s neck and weakly smacked Yeonjun in the chest with it. “How did you come back?” He would ignore being the butt of the joke just this once. He sniffed back the last of his tears. “How-- How did you reappear here? Weren’t you locked away in some tower? What was that thing you told me to remember?” The words tumbled out of his mouth faster and faster, as if the drink machine at the restaurant was broken and constantly leaking Sprite. “Where were they keeping you? Whyareyouatierthreecriminal? Didyouplanallofthisfromtheverybeginning?” “Whoa, whoa, take a breath, Taehyun.” Soobin stepped close to them and put his large hand on Taehyun’s back, rubbing him soothingly. “You’re talking so fast that even I can’t hear what you’re saying.” Taehyun relaxed. Or tried to. He had so many questions! So many. His hypothesis had about a million and one holes in it. He just wanted to know what happened. He just needed a clear, concise, objective answer. “How did we end up like this,” he asked once he’d calmed down a little. “How did you wind up popping out of my chest?” “It’s what I told you when I first gave you my magic bead,” explained Yeonjun. “Think back to the pool party.” Slowly, the memories filtered into Taehyun’s head. The warm night air. The weird shimmer in the atmosphere. The twinkling orbs of foxflame. The mystical sparkle in the sky that made it seem like any and every impossible wish could come true. The shining jewel heart between Yeonjun’s pointy teeth. Their first kiss! Taehyun bit his bottom lip to keep from grinning like a lunatic. Yeonjun continued, “Remember what I told you?” He pressed his hand to Taehyun’s chest. His fingers tapped out a soft, slow rhythm. “As long as you had it… As long as you had my heart inside of you, the Wardens could hurt my body as badly as they wanted to but I would never truly die. That’s what I said. Remember?” Taehyun did remember now. It wasn’t every day you got told something like that. He looked into Yeonjun’s eyes. There was that weird, squicky anxiety again. Taehyun gulped. He had a feeling he knew the answer already but the question jumped to the tip of his tongue. “Did they…” Taehyun cleared his throat. He couldn’t even speak the words without feeling dizzy. Without feeling nauseous. “How badly did the Wardens hurt you?” “Bad enough to kill me,” Yeonjun said. The smirk on his lips didn’t match the grim, unpleasant words. Whatever happens to him now is out of our hands. Kai’s ominous words repeated themselves in Taehyun’s head. “But,” Yeonjun said quickly, sensing Taehyun’s distress, “because you’ve been keeping my heart safe this whole time, because you were so perfect for this, I had a place to come back to, Taehyun. Now, if you would be so kind as to stand… hmmmmm… over here. No, wait. Over here .” Yeonjun put his hands on Taehyun’s shoulders and guided the shorter boy back a few paces so that he was standing on the ankle-high grass next to the sidewalk. Yeonjun backed away and gave him a thumbs up. Taehyun didn’t get it. “Why do I have to stand way over here?” He hated that there was distance being put between them already when he was so tired of distance. Yeonjun’s fox ears had popped out of his reddish, messy hair at some point in the last few seconds. He looked so much more like himself now. The fox boy stepped close, put his hands on Taehyun’s shoulders again and pushed Taehyun back an additional step or two. “Ahh. That’s better.” He backed away again. Now they were standing even farther apart. Yeonjun gave him two thumbs up and a toothy smile like a parent on picture day. His cheerfulness almost made Taehyun mad. “Why do I need to stand in the grass,” Taehyun asked indignantly. He started to take a step forward. “Please don’t move, Tae-Tae,” Yeonjun said with a sudden seriousness. His posture had stiffened. Even the smile on his face had vanished. Taehyun stilled immediately. Only then did he get the sense that something bad was about to happen. Soobin gasped. “Ohhhh, I get it. I get it. I get it.” His rabbit ears twitched and twitched and he jerked his head to the right as he picked up on a sound only he and Yeonjun could obviously hear. A sound that was coming closer at a rapid speed. Soobin grabbed Beomgyu by the wrist and yanked hard on the smaller boy’s arm until the both of them were also standing in the grass next to Taehyun. Excitedly, Soobin shouted, “We’ll be in the way on the sidewalk!” He pumped a fist in the air and jumped up and down with an excitement that didn’t quite fit the thickening tension. “Soobin, what is your problem?” Taehyun asked. “We’ll be in the way of what,” questioned Beomgyu, looking flustered. He jerked his wrist free of Soobin’s too-tight grasp. “In the way of--” Soobin started. There was a wickedly fast blur of movement from one end of the sidewalk to the other. “--that.” Soobin finished. Yeonjun jumped out of the way at the last possible moment, avoiding whatever fast moving object had just been barreling towards him. Taehyun gasped as a sudden blast of wind blew his hair back and away from his face. He took a precautionary step backwards, nearly putting his back to the sturdy brick wall of the restaurant. “What was that?” “What was what,” Beomgyu asked. He scratched at the top of his head. “I didn’t see anything.” Whatever it was that was in motion stayed in motion. It whirled around and came right back up the sidewalk towards Yeonjun a second time. The fox boy just chuckled and hopped sideways. Taehyun couldn’t follow it with his eyes. It was just a dark, hostile shape smearing across his vision. Scarily close. Beomgyu startled. He held his arms in front of his face to protect himself. “What?” He had seen it that time. Soobin’s eyes went wide. “I can just barely keep up.” The dark shape came by them a third time. It clearly wasn’t targeting them but the three waiters leaped back regardless. Taehyun squinted at it as it passed. He might have seen a pair of green orbs somewhere in the blur. A pair of eyes catching the light of the streetlamp above them. Yeonjun ducked out of the way again with graceful, dancer-like movements. Two of his fox tails had appeared behind him. “You’re a bit late, aren’t you,” he called after the shape. “I’m shocked it took you this long to catch on.” There was a sound almost like a roar from the depths of the moving shadow. It came at Yeonjun a fourth time. This time, when Yeonjun attempted to dodge, the shadow angled itself differently to compensate. As if it were learning Yeonjun’s patterns. When the blur moved past the fox boy that time, four jagged red lines had been ripped into Yeonjun’s shirt. Yeonjun grunted in pain and pressed a hand down over his fresh wound. The blur finally stopped moving enough for Taehyun to get a good look at what it was. Who it was. “Jungkook,” he screeched when recognition hit him. But Jungkook looked considerably different. There was a greenish glow to his eyes as the streetlamp reflected off of them. Big, black cat ears stuck out of his black hair and his nails had grown to the length of claws, the fingers of his left hand were suspiciously crimson and sticky. The older man’s voice was low and gravely when he pointed his red-stained hand, “You bastard!” Yeonjun stood up straight. He was a bit wobbly on his feet and the red from his wound was seeping into the light-colored material of his shirt, but he still found a way to smirk confidently as three… no, four… no, five of his tails swayed back and forth behind him. “Someone’s mad.” “Don’t play with me,” Jungkook growled. There was no hesitation when he rushed forward, cat’s claws ready to swipe at Yeonjun again. This time, Yeonjun was a bit more prepared. He inhaled and then exhaled and suddenly looked just a tad more fox-like. His teeth had gotten pointier and now his fingers were tipped with his own short claws. He used them to swing out at Jungkook as the cat passed him. He managed to get his claws into Jungkook before Jungkook got his claws into him. The cat leaped back and angrily hissed. “You humiliated me,” Jungkook yelled. “You humiliated the Wardens with your stupid little fox trick.” Yeonjun shrugged. “It’s not my fault you all didn’t take the proper precautions.” He giggled like he couldn’t believe it. Like this was all some game he’d successfully cheated his way through. “Don’t you know that foxes have always been tricksters?” Taehyun couldn’t laugh any of this off, however. “You’re bleeding,” he cried out. “I’ll be alright, my dear,” Yeonjun said confidently. “No you won’t,” Taehyun shouted. He wasn’t safeguarding Yeonjun’s heart anymore. “No you won’t,” Jungkook agreed. “Because I’m ending you for real this time.” He rushed at Yeonjun again. They met claw to claw. Evenly matched in strength. No. Jungkook was stronger with Yeonjun so injured. Yeonjun jumped backwards out of the way before Jungkook could take a second swing at him. “You scheming little--” Jungkook bared his teeth. “You’re such a coward. You won’t even face your punishment properly. You think you can do whatever you want just because you’re a fox? You think you’re above the Codex?” He quite literally pounced in the air with the speed and grace and power of a lion about to drag down his prey. He never made it. Someone else was suddenly standing between Jungkook’s claws and Yeonjun’s neck. “Kai,” Soobin exclaimed, his eyes sparkling and full of hearts for all the wrong reasons. “Jungkook,” Kai snapped. They had both of Jungkook’s wrists held tight in their hands. Kai was tall, yes, but slight-framed. There was no way they should have been able to hold someone as beefy and quick as Jungkook still like that. Yet… “You don’t have to do this, Jungkook,” Kai said firmly. “I have to because no one else will. No one else will bother!” “No one will bother because justice has already been served. We caught the fox. We earned the bounty. His punishment has been served.” Jungkook’s anger would not be quieted. “But he’s standing right there , Kai. He’s right there when he should be dead because of the things he’s done.” Taehyun’s heart began to race. This time, he knew it was his own fear because Yeonjun’s heart was no longer inside of his chest. “Yeonjun,” he pleaded, “what did you do? Please tell me… What did you do!?” For the first time since Taehyun had ever met him, Yeonjun looked… ashamed. “We’ve done our job,” Kai repeated. “We haven’t. The job’s unfinished.” Jungkook fought with all of his might in Kai’s grip. “Technically, we did what we were assigned.” Kai grunted from the effort of holding Jungkook back. Their small, round bear ears were hardly visible beneath their tangled, sweaty hair. “But he hasn’t learned his lesson,” Jungkook yelled. “He’s still doing the same thing-- Think of what he did to the Wardens, Kai. Think of what he did to you .” His anger giving him new strength, he successfully managed to throw Kai out of his way, tossing them to the sidewalk. “Kai,” Soobin screeched. He ran forward and knelt at Kai’s side. Jungkook breathed in and out heavily. His ears were flattened to his skull and the pupils of his eyes had narrowed to dangerous slits. “Everyone else may have fallen under your spell, nine-tailed fox, but I won’t.” Now there was nothing standing between him and Yeonjun’s carefree, grinning face. “He’s been judged already,” Kai attempted to explain but then wound up in a coughing fit. “There’s no longer a reason to pursue him.” “What judgment? He sent a decoy in his place! He was never judged.” Jungkook turned all of his attention back to Yeonjun, as if afraid he was going to be bamboozled yet again. Have his target slip between his claws again. “According to the Codex,” Kai intoned. “Screw the Codex,” Jungkook yowled. “He thinks he’s above the law, I’ll just beat him down a peg.” Yeonjun grunted in pain and clutched the wound across his chest with both hands. He was in no position to defend himself. Jungkook would have his violent way if Taehyun did not do something . But what? What could he do? His friends were amazing. Spectacular. Awesome. Magical. They were rabbits and foxes and goats and bears. He was just Taehyun. What could he do? Then, out of nowhere, something popped up in Taehyun’s head. One awful question that Yeonjun had asked at the start of all of this: I was just wondering if any of you would be willing to die for me? Jungkook lunged forward with frightening speed. Somehow somehow somehow , Taehyun moved faster. In one single bound, Taehyun stood between Jungkook and Yeonjun. He expected pain. He expected to be knocked flat on his back due to Jungkook’s immense power. He expected everything to come to an end. But being with Yeonjun meant things happened outside of Taehyun’s expectations. There was no pain. Just strength Taehyun never would have believed that he had. All he’d done was raise his arms and splay his fingers wide across Jungkook’s chest, but that simple action was enough to hold the angry man back. Somehow somehow somehow . Jungkook looked just as taken aback as Taehyun felt. The taller man stepped back. The greenish, cat-like tint gone from his eyes, replaced by brown-eyed, human surprise. “Out of all people, I thought you would be on my side,” Jungkook sighed. He sounded so utterly disappointed. With a condescending tsk , he shook his head and turned away. No one relaxed until Jungkook was out of sight, melting into the nighttime shadows on the other side of the parking lot. Soobin looked up at Taehyun, all smiles. “Look at you, Tae. Look at you,” he gushed. Kai just smiled knowingly. “What about me,” Taehyun asked. “What’s wrong?” “You’ve got something in your hair,” Beomgyu told him, pointing a finger at the top of his own head. Now that Taehyun thought about it, his head did feel heavier than usual. Almost to the point where he couldn’t keep his balance. He turned slowly to look at Yeonjun who stood safe and sound behind him. The fox boy smiled brightly. Warmly. “You’re beautiful, Taehyun.” That weird, squicky feeling was back. Worse than ever this time. Taehyun had a feeling that he was about to be surprised. And Taehyun hated surprises. With an ever mounting sense of ice-cold dread in his heart, Taehyun turned to look at his reflection in the nearest restaurant window. He looked… normal. So normal, so average , that he almost didn’t see them. Almost. Jutting out of his head as large and gnarled and grand as tree branches were a pair of stag’s antlers.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
“Aren’t they super neat, Taehyun? Just look at them! Isn’t this the best?” That was clearly Soobin. No one could match his enthusiasm. “I think I do sort of see the appeal.” That was obviously Beomgyu. Calm and understated but not a smidgen less engaged. “Now that I see him with them, I doubt anything else in the world would fit him better.” “It looks like a crown on his head,” Kai spoke up. “See, Tae? And you kept saying you weren’t special,” said Yeonjun. Their kind words were so kind that Taehyun instantly assumed they were meant for someone else. They couldn’t be for him. “Oh, we should go tell Granny Sohn,” suggested Beomgyu. “You just want to eat ox-bone soup again,” Soobin chided. Beomgyu laughed and rubbed at his tummy like he was hungry. “You’ve got that right.” “We should all go,” said Yeonjun. “All five of us. Didn’t you say you felt like someone was missing last time, Soobin?” Soobin hummed as he thought back on it. “Now that you mention it…” Although his friends were all standing close by, Taehyun could hardly hear their voices. It was as if water had gotten into his ears, muddying all sound. “What?” But he wasn’t asking his friends to repeat themselves, he was questioning what he saw reflected back at him in the restaurant window. “What is all of this?” He raised a hand and his fingers grazed the cold, hard glass. He was the same and yet he was completely different. What he saw was the exact same thing he saw in the mirror on any other day yet also… not . His eyes were the same round shape. His cheekbones held the same sharp slope. Yet having a pair of antlers obviously changed how one looked. He attempted to lean closer to the window to get a better look at himself in the glass, but one of his antlers hit the window and the recoil vibrated from the top of his head to the base of his spine. The weird sensation startled him. He was using muscles he’d never used before and struggling to keep his head upright when he never needed to worry about it until now. Taehyun tilted his head a different way. He just wanted to get a better look at them. He just wanted to take a moment to observe how impossible all of this was. Unfortunately, his antlers were wider than he thought and, even from the new angle, they banged against the window. Taehyun quickly backed away from the window and the simple movement made him stumble due to the added weight on his head. Even doing something as simple as standing still had become extremely difficult for him. His friends continued on cheerily behind him, completely unaware of how badly he was freaking out. Soobin exclaimed, “Hey, we’re all part of the same club now!” “What about me,” Beomgyu asked, sounding a tad frustrated. “I still haven’t seen my horns yet.” “You’ll get them,” Yeonjun reassured him. “It takes everyone a different amount of time. We all have our own pace. But once you get them out the first time, you’ll know exactly how to bring them back.” “Oh yeah,” Soobin called out. “Mine popped out at the dinner table the other night. I was eating a carrot at the time. Talk about irony. Even my dad laughed.” “How long have you had yours,” asked Beomgyu. “I mean… your ears.” “I’ve known since I was a kid.” Yeonjun had a way of speaking that made every word of his drip with confidence. “They’ve been popping in and out since before I can remember. But maybe because I come from a long line of red foxes. It’s only natural.” Taehyun tried to tune them out. It concerned him that they weren’t concerned! Did none of them realize how wild it was that they all had animal ears or horns? Yet they were laughing about it like it was not too different than getting two bags of chips at once out of the vending machine. They should be taking this seriously. They should be trying to look into this. Taehyun reached up a hand and flinched when his fingers brushed up against the antlers. They were thicker around than he anticipated and were covered in fine, short velvet. The antlers twisted up and up and out of his head, so high that he couldn’t reach the tips of them. “No,” he whispered. Because… What!? He was fine with it happening to everyone else but now that it was happening to him… “No.” He didn’t like them. He wanted to take them off. He wanted them to disappear! “I knew from that day at the pool,” Yeonjun said, turning to look first at Soobin and then at Beomgyu, “that we were all kindred spirits.” Beomgyu asked, “Guardians of the mountain, right?” “I don’t feel like I’ve guarded too much lately,” Soobin stated. “Is that good or bad? Am I going to get fired?” “No,” Taehyun repeated. He looked… like a monster. To put it simply, he looked like a monster. Frantically, Taehyun grabbed hold of one of his antlers and pulled on it and pulled on it and it scared him how quickly the pain set in. Sharp and ice-cold. Drilling straight into the center of his brain and giving him a headache just from that much. But he still pulled and pulled again. Why weren’t they coming off? “No. No. No.” Why wouldn’t they go away? He didn’t ask for them, so why did he have them? “Are you okay,” Soobin asked. Taehyun thought the words were directed at him. He whirled around, completely in distress, ready to pour out all of his fears and frustrations only to see that Soobin had aimed the question at Kai. “I’m fine,” Kai stated, sitting up. They wiped at their sleeves. At the knees of their grass-stained jeans. “You sure? Jungkook knocked you over pretty hard,” Soobin said. He slapped Kai on the back a few times, attempting to wipe the loose dirt and pebbles off of their clothes. “I’m a Warden,” insisted Kai. “I’ve gone through worse than this during training.” “What’s a Warden,” questioned Beomgyu. Yeonjun provided the answer. “Just like kindred spirits protect the magic of the mountain, Wardens protect humans from wild, rowdy spirits.” “Or try to,” Kai said with a humorless laugh. “Sometimes, they manage to get away.” They gave Yeonjun a pointed look. Taehyun’s throat clenched. His fingertips were going numb from how hot the adrenaline was sizzling in his veins. “No,” he coughed out. How could they all be so okay with all of this? They were carrying on a casual conversation as if absolutely nothing out of the ordinary was happening. Why weren’t any of his friends worried? He had antlers growing out of his head! ANTLERS! “No!” At long last, the other four heard him. They all turned to him with varying levels of confusion on their faces. Yeonjun was the first to recognize the sour look on Taehyun’s face. He visibly tensed. “Tae-Tae,” he called out gently, reaching out a hand. “Everything’s going to be okay, my dear. Let me—” But Taehyun didn’t want to hear it. “NO!” He pushed Yeonjun’s helping hand away and jumped . He went so much farther than such a simple movement should have let him. It just wasn’t logical. One moment, he was surrounded by his friends and the next he was halfway across the parking lot, getting honked at by a van attempting to pull out of a parking space. “Taehyun,” Yeonjun shouted after him. “Let’s talk about this. Please?” Taehyun jumped again. He felt like he was floating. Flying. Both of his feet were off of the ground for so long that he wasn’t sure he’d ever touch down again. But then he did. And the jolt that went through his legs as he landed kind of hurt. It took him a moment to look around and realize where he was. He was entirely across the restaurant parking lot now. He’d closed the distance in two hops when it would take someone normal fifty steps to go the same distance. Taehyun looked over his shoulder long enough to see that Yeonjun was running after him, his nine red fox tails swaying back and forth. Taehyun’s instincts took over. Without warning, his brain gave up control and his body took over. He bolted forward, leaping from left foot to right foot to left foot and covering more ground with each bound than an athlete. He bolted past the small coffee shop that was still open at this time of night. He bounded past the grocery store. Past the used bookshop. Before he knew it, he was at the bottom of the hill with the restaurant far behind him. This was all so disorienting. He knew most of this town because he had spent the majority of his childhood here yet everything looked unfamiliar when he was one place, blinked, and then was in another place. A moment later, he was at the main street’s dead end. Right at the southeastern edge of town. The lights of the city twinkled in oranges and yellows while, above him, the stars twinkled in silvers and blues. The mountain was just a large emptiness on the horizon, blocking out the stars. He had watched that mountain nearly every day but now he could feel the distinct sensation that the mountain was staring back at him. He wanted to run away from it. Perhaps if he got far enough away from the mountain and its magic, he’d be regular, non-special Taehyun again. That’s the Taehyun he longed to go back to. The one whose biggest concern was studying for another exam or scheduling a weekend lunch with his friends. He didn’t like being the current Taehyun, the one who always feared what simple part of his life would fall away next, replaced by nonsensical magic. He took another leap and was at the edge of the forest that surrounded their small town and separated them from the big highway and the rest of the country. The forest was nothing but shadows. Twisted dark shapes hardly lit up by the stars. He stayed still long enough for him to ask himself what he was doing and why was he running. Why was he running from Yeonjun when he should be running towards the man? But he couldn’t help himself. His muscles twitched and he literally leapt into action. He jumped, throwing himself farther and farther into the woods with each bound. It was the dead of night and he could barely see the trees in front of him yet he could see everything . The low-hanging branches of the evergreen trees, fallen logs and the weird rows of gray boulders with moss growing across their surfaces. He leaped forward again, the chilly spring wind brushing past his face and stinging his eyes. He kept going until he was farther into the woods than he’d ever been before. Farther into the woods than he thought the woods themselves could go. He kept going until he was so tired that he couldn’t move. Could barely breathe. He sank down against the trunk of a large, gnarled tree, choking and gasping for breath. The muscles in his legs felt like jelly. Why was this happening to him? He had just started to be okay with all of this magic stuff. He had just started to truly believe in it. All of the gaps of logic in his life were starting to make their own weird sense to him but now… now he was also magic. But instead of this making him feel closer to his equally magical friends, he just felt like he was even further from them. Because even among his magical friends, he was different. Yeonjun had pretty fox ears. Soobin’s dark rabbit ears only added to his adorableness. Even Kai’s round little bear ears made them cute. Taehyun just had awful, ugly, massive antlers. He couldn’t hide them under his hair. He couldn’t tuck them under a hat. He couldn’t even walk straight with them on his head. Ugh. Taehyun put a hand to his chest. He felt the way his lungs expanded and contracted with each wheezing breath. For once, he was glad Yeonjun’s heart was no longer in his chest. He didn’t want Yeonjun to feel how badly he was sinking. It took over a minute, but Taehyun managed to catch his breath. He leaned back against the rough bark of the tree but he could still feel those antlers on top of his head, preventing him from relaxing as comfortably as he wanted. “This is real,” he mumbled to himself. “This is really happening to me.” He didn’t even have to reach out a hand to feel the antlers. An oddly-shaped headache dug into either side of his scalp, letting him know the exact places where the antlers were jutting out of his head. He hated them. But an entirely different thing was grabbing his attention now. There was a sudden tingle in the air. He could feel it across the tips of his antlers. It was movement from nearby. Something closing in on him. Taehyun turned his head and squinted into the depths of the blackness inside the woods. He thought he had put a significant amount of distance between himself and the others yet he could already hear the crackling of dried grass underneath shoes somewhere off to his left. “He went this way,” came Kai’s voice, loud and bold and confident. Beomgyu had his doubts. “How can you be so sure? It’s dark out here.” “I literally get paid to hunt wayward kindred spirits,” said Kai. “We’re not hunting him,” Yeonjun said quickly. “And he’s not wayward… He’s just… lost.” As quietly as he could, Taehyun rolled over so that he was on all fours. His hands and toes digging into the ground, he started crawling deeper into the woods, but— “Did you hear that? Sounded like it came from that way.” It was Soobin. Of course he could hear anything. Every thing. Screw it. It didn’t matter. Taehyun jumped forward. He was going to get away from them. He had to. He needed a moment to think! He leaped and leaped with a bit more grace than before. He was getting used to this method of movement. It was so much easier to twist his hips and plant his feet now that he was already familiar with the zig-zag, bounding way that deer ran. Left foot. Right foot. Left foot. Right foot. He stopped paying as much attention as he should have. He placed his foot down wrong. Too much of his weight went sideways instead of forward. That was all it took for gravity to snatch him around the ankle and send him sliding to the forest floor. Fallen branches scratched at his skin. Small rocks dug into his palms. He came to a stop after what felt like an eternity. His thoughts were twisted up into knots. He laid there face-down on the ground, feeling depleted. All he could think was that this was all Yeonjun’s fault. Every little bit of this mess had been Yeonjun’s doing. He knew from the very beginning! He’d said so himself. Every little thing the fox had done had been a part of his grand escape plan. Luring Taehyun and his friends to that poor excuse of a pool party. Getting Taehyun to swallow his jewel heart using sweet words and thinly-veiled threats. It had all been a part of Yeonjun’s scheme. The Wardens had been closing in on him and he’d been running out of options. He needed Taehyun’s trust so that his jewel heart would be safe even if the Wardens caught him and punished him. He’d been using Taehyun the whole time. And had gotten away with it, too. Taehyun picked himself up off the ground but did not have the strength to do anything but kneel. “Jungkook was right,” Taehyun muttered. Yeonjun was a coward who couldn’t even be punished properly. He was a criminal who couldn’t even tell Taehyun about the magical crimes he’d committed. He hadn’t even told Taehyun that he was a criminal, changing his story up just enough so that Taehyun would believe Yeonjun was the victim in all this when he’d been the perpetrator the whole while. Taehyun looked up. Above him, the canopy of trees was thin enough for him to see through the leaves and branches and up to the dark, star-dotted sky. “I let myself be tricked by him just like everyone else. He told me I was immune to him but I fell for him all the same.” He wondered if liking Yeonjun this much was also a piece of the fox’s scheme. If even that little bit had been planned from the start. He couldn’t even think about it for long. Already, he could hear his friends catching up with him. “He’s this way,” Yeonjun declared. “I can smell him. I’ll always be able to smell him.” “Is that some kind of soulmate thing,” Beomgyu asked. “Because that sounds like a soulmate thing.” “Maybe it is,” said Yeonjun and Taehyun didn’t even need to see him to be able to hear that smirk. Taehyun came to a decision. One that he hoped was not influenced by the nine-tailed fox’s mesmerizing charm. Taehyun raised both of his hands to one of his antlers and pulled . It hurt. It hurt more than anything Taehyun had ever experienced but that did not stop him. He pulled. Harder and harder. He didn’t want these twisted, painful things growing on his head! “I feel like we’re getting close,” Soobin bellowed excitedly. “I just know it. We’re going to walk around this tree and he’ll be right there .” There was a bright white light off to Taehyun’s left as a flashlight swept back and forth across the grass, missing him by a smidgen. Taehyun didn’t have much time. He tightened his grip on his left antler and pulled harder. Harder. The pain in his head exponentially increased. To the point where his vision blurred. Taehyun gritted his teeth and kept pulling. Even though his hands bled from the effort, he kept pulling. The bright white light of someone’s phone flashlight landed on Taehyun, throwing him into the spotlight. There was a brief second of hesitation as everyone realized what it was they were watching Taehyun do. “Hey,” Beomgyu squeaked out. Then, a second time, “Hey!” His voice went up an octave in fright. “Taehyun, stop it!” “Or you’ll hurt yourself,” Kai added. Taehyun was only vaguely aware of the four of them approaching him. Encircling him. He was hurting himself to the point where his aching head was making it difficult for him to stay conscious. To see. To hear. To feel. He readjusted his grip and pulled on his antler even harder. He felt disgusted. Angry at himself. He just wanted to be rid of the things. He didn’t want to see them. “Taehyun!” Yeonjun dropped to his knees in front of Taehyun, tears sparkling in the corners of his pretty brown eyes. “Taehyun. Don’t do this.” He attempted to bargain, “I thought you loved my fox ears? Well, I love your antlers! They’re perfect for you, Taehyun.” He threw his arms around Taehyun’s neck and sobbed into the crook of his neck. “I love you.” But Taehyun would not be consoled. He would not fall for Yeonjun’s tricks! He’d been told he was immune to spells, but what if that was part of the deception as well? What if he’d been under the influence of Yeonjun’s magic this entire time? What if all of his feelings for Yeonjun was just the side effect of his spell? He was no different from Beomgyu eating an unlimited amount of pie. He was no different from Soobin eating an infinite amount of veggie pizza. He was no different from those factory workers eating lemon meringue pie where there had been no lemon meringue pie. All of them in some sweet, foggy daze. None of them questioning the impossible. Yeonjun had said his magic could give people everything. Anything. What if that meant he could also give people hope? Taehyun hated himself just a tad bit more. He pried himself loose from Yeonjun’s hold, crawling away from him as best as he could. “No,” he screeched at the top of his lungs. “You aren’t going to trick me like you tricked everyone else.” “What… What are you talking about,” Yeonjun asked slowly. Then he realized what Taehyun meant. “I’m telling the truth, my dear. I really do love—” “Don’t say it again.” Taehyun took his hands off of his antler long enough to shove Yeonjun away even though the older boy hadn’t moved closer to him. “Saying it again won’t make it true.” “But it is true,” Yeonjun insisted. He reached out a hand but Taehyun spun away from him. Taehyun snapped, “Saying it again won’t make me believe you.” His right eye was splotched with red from a blown blood vessel. That’s how much pain he was inflicting on himself. “All nine-tailed foxes do is trick people. The only thing you know how to do is make fools of others.” Taehyun put his bloody, sore, blistered hands back on his left antler, ignoring the throbbing pain that rattled across the top of his skull. Being set on fire would hurt less. “Taehyun…” Yeonjun gasped out. Tears streamed down his face. The tip of his nose was bright pink from how harshly he was sniffling. “Please don’t. Please don’t do something like this.” He attempted to put his hand on Taehyun’s shoulder but the younger boy once again spun away from his grasp. “You’re not going to keep fooling me,” said Taehyun, his throat so dry that he barely got the words out. Yeonjun’s mouth fell open in horror as he realized that he could not stop this. That nothing he could say at that moment would make Taehyun happy. He was forced to sit there and watch and ache. Taehyun looked Yeonjun in the eye for the very first time their entire conversation. He pulled on his antler one more good time and the entire thing snapped clean off.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Yoongi had that look on his face. With a capital L. If you didn’t know him, this particular Look wouldn’t look much different from any other look, but if you did know him, this particular Look was clearly, obviously, concern . Perhaps even a step past concerned and all the way up to worried. Was there something past worried? Because maybe that’s where Yoongi was at the moment. He stood behind the bar, his work clothes pristine, his name badge neatly displayed, hat angled slightly on top of his dark hair. He had one hand propped on his hip and the other hand splayed out on the countertop between the cash register and the large, clear jar of complimentary mints. Yoongi was in the way, but not quite in the way enough for Taehyun to say ‘excuse me’ as he circled behind the bar to sit down the serving tray in his hands. “Good afternoon,” Taehyun greeted him with a courteous dip of his head. It wasn’t often Yoongi had enough free time to not only leave his office but also just… stand around. Yoongi didn’t say anything but that did not diminish the power of his Look . Taehyun started to ignore him, but when he turned around to keep walking, he could still feel the heat of Yoongi’s gaze on his back. Taehyun glanced over his shoulder just long enough to confirm that, yes, Yoongi was following the movements of his employee with his eyes. Ahh. So Yoongi was aiming that look of worry directly at Taehyun. Taehyun tilted his head back and tried to play it off. “Can I take what’s left of that strawberry cake home before Taehyung chucks it in the trash?” Yoongi gave him a simple. “No.” He wasn’t angry. Taehyun had worked for him long enough to know that his boss wasn’t angry. Yet Yoongi’s face was far from pleasant. Far from pleased. It was as if someone had asked him to taste test a dessert but the food was awful and Yoongi, for once, was struggling with a way to word the awful truth. “Beomgyu already claimed it.” “Of course.” Taehyun wiped off the serving tray with a towel and then stashed more straws in his apron pocket. Yoongi presented a peace offering. “The lemon squares and the white confetti cupcakes are still available if you want dibs.” “I’ll take the cupcakes, then,” Taehyun decided. He tried his best to act like nothing was wrong. He tried his best to act like antlers hadn’t grown out of his head yesterday. Everything was fine. Just fine. But when he looked over at Yoongi again, the man was still staring. Still watching. Still Looking. Like he was waiting for Taehyun to be the first to say something about the elephant in the room. Taehyun gulped. There was no way Yoongi knew about what had happened the previous night. Right? Sure, the man had kept a crowd from gathering when Yeonjun showed up and that fight with Kai broke out… but Yoongi wouldn’t know anything about what went down in the woods. It was too far away from the restaurant and Taehyun had gone straight home afterwards. There was no way Yoongi knew. Soobin was a gossip but he wasn’t a tattletale . There was a huge difference! Yet Yoongi was looking at Taehyun as if he knew. Taehyun looked away from Yoongi’s gaze hurriedly before the truth somehow became visible in his eyes. “You watch the game last night,” Taehyun attempted. He had no clue if there was a game last night or not. “Pphh… What?” Now Yoongi was properly suspicious. Taehyun was making it too obvious that he was trying to avoid the real question Yoongi had for him. He needed to find something else to do but he was running out of tasks to give himself. He’d already wiped down every table in his section. Swept. Mopped. He’d even reorganized the condiments and brought out fresh sweetener packets. He’d cleaned the grease spots off of the laminated menus and took the floor mats by the front door outside so he could pound the dirt and dust off of them on the sidewalk. He even dragged the mats back inside afterwards, started dusting the blinds and acted like he’d forgotten what words meant whenever Soobin and Beomgyu tried to approach him. You know… Nothing out of the ordinary. Nothing to see. Nothing for Yoongi to concern himself with. “Well, it was a good game. You should have watched it,” Taehyun sputtered out. He decided that standing still would give Yoongi too many chances to ask him things so he rushed to the other end of the counter so he could grab a package of napkins to refill the dispensers. The only bad thing about his plan was that he had to turn around and walk past Yoongi again to get from behind the bar without doing something silly like vaulting over the counter. Yoongi sidestepped into the waiter’s path and finally managed a careful, easy, “Taehyun.” Taehyun looked up at him. He purposefully smiled with more cheerfulness than he felt. “Yes? What is it?” His boss wasn’t fooled by the act. He saw right through the false, forced happiness. Yoongi’s expression didn’t change. Well, at least not obviously. The muscles around his nose and mouth relaxed a bit. He was calmer. Now that he could get the words out, now that he could start the conversation, he did not need to carry so much tension in his face. But then the conversation stalled. Taehyun paused. His smile faltered. “Yoongi?” Yoongi did nothing except point at his own right eye. Taehyun knew what he meant. He was referring to the eyepatch Taehyun was wearing. Taehyun had already been asked about it at least two dozen times this shift. Mainly by curious customers but also by Soobin about five times. “It’s nothing,” he said cooly. Just something his mother made him wear before he left the house today. “Don’t worry about it. It’s no big deal.” “First, I send Yeonjun home because he’s hurt. Now I see that you’re hurt too,” Yoongi stated. “I’m starting to think you two got hurt doing the same thing.” “Yeonjun got hurt dealing with the Wardens. I got hurt--” Taehyun clamped his mouth shut. He tried again. “I’m not hurt.” Last night had been a bit of a nightmare. He could still easily recall holding his snapped-off antler in his hands, surprised by how large it was. How… beautiful it was. How soft the velvet on the outside was. How hollow on the inside it was. How it was so much lighter than it probably should have been based on its size. He gripped it in his hands like it was something precious. Regret flooded his heart. He’d done something so stupid! He’d ruined something amazing like this… but then he remembered the pain across his scalp. The heaviness on his head where his antler used to stand. Acute and deep like someone had drilled a hole straight through his skull and into his brain. His friends had been all around him. Yeonjun’s hand gripping his wrist, supportive and warm. Soobin’s hands on his shoulder, reassuring. Beomgyu gently touching his knee. Even Kai had stepped forward and laid their palm across the crown of Taehyun’s head to stop the bleeding. They had all tried to comfort Taehyun but Taehyun did not want to be comforted. All he felt was disgust. Repulsion from this thing that made him other . He remembered throwing the antler to the ground. Getting up. Pulling himself free of their helping hands. Running away. His friends had called after him. Yeonjun had begged him to stay and talk. Taehyun just kept running until he found his way back home. Fortunately, when he had made it back to Red Fox Hills, he had just enough time to wash the blood and dirt off of his hands and face before his mother had come into the kitchen and asked why he was home from work so late. Then she had seen the blood spreading across the surface of his eye. Now Yoongi was looking at him the same way. With all of this worry. “I’m not sick,” Taehyun explained when Yoongi continued to stare at him. “It’s not like I’m contagious.” He attempted to step past Yoongi, clutching the package of napkins in both of his trembling hands like it was a shield that could protect him. Yoongi stepped even farther into the waiter’s path. They nearly bumped chests. “Taehyun,” the man said again. More firmly. Less room for leeway. “If you needed a day off, you could have just called in. Weekdays are slow and we have the coverage.” “I’m fine,” insisted Taehyun. “It’s just a popped blood vessel. It’ll clear up.” Yoongi started. “Tae-” “It’s not like I have conjunctivitis or anything!” Taehyun raised his voice a little. The restaurant was quiet this early in the afternoon, the lunch rush having passed but the evening rush having yet to start. Taehyun’s outburst had the unfortunate side effect of echoing and attracting the attention of not just a few of the customers but Hoseok in the kitchen as well. They all turned to stare at him. “You two alright out there,” Hoseok bellowed from the other side of the noodle bar. His voice was loud not out of anger but out of habit of shouting over the banging of pots and pans and frying, sizzling foods. “Everything’s fine,” Taehyun said. Hoseok did not believe this. He leaned over the noodle bar to get a better look at the two of them. “Did something happen? What are those sour faces for?” “Everything’s fine,” Yoongi said to Hoseok. This time, the head chef believed the words and quickly resumed his prep work, his attention back on the grill in front of him. Then, to Taehyun, Yoongi half-whispered, “But everything’s not fine. Is it?” Taehyun stood up straight. Had his antlers popped out? He raised a hand to his head and pressed his fingers into his scalp where his broken left antler would be. It wasn’t there. He felt nothing. Not even pain. Yoongi’s eyes darted up to Taehyun’s head and then back down to meet his eye. The look on his face had changed again, as if he had confirmed the answer to his question on his own. “Taehyun.” “Nothing’s wrong,” Taehyun gasped out. Too quickly. Too defensively. He brushed past Yoongi in a hurry. Yoongi caught him by the wrist. “You’d tell me if something was wrong, wouldn’t you?” He let go of Taehyun’s wrist. “I’m here to help. It’s what I’m here for.” Yoongi took a moment to clear his throat, obviously not used to such discussions. “Beomgyu told me you weren’t confident in being Shift Lead.” Thank goodness that’s all Yoongi thought this was about! Taehyun almost shouted in relief. “It’s not that,” Taehyun squeaked out. The temptation to just spill his guts was quite high. It’s not like he had to hide the fact that he wasn’t entirely human from Yoongi, as Yoongi wasn’t entirely human himself, but how could Taehyun possibly tell anyone here… any of his coworkers who accepted and loved the fact that they weren’t human, that he wished that he was human--that he wished that he was normal . How could he say that when Yoongi had known Taehyun was special long before he did? When Yoongi had given him this job and put him on the afternoon shift because he wasn’t human? “I’m fine with being Shift Lead… I just-- I just wish I worked the morning shift instead, you know?” The morning shift. With all of the other regular, normal, human waiters and employees. Namjoon and Seokjin and Jimin and Taehyung. “But… You can’t work in the mornings. You have school,” Yoongi said quietly. “Not this week. It’s Spring Break,” Taehyun answered. “I wish I could be on the morning shift.” I wish I could be human. “Even if it was just for this week.” It was a coded message but Yoongi deciphered it instantly. “Taehyun, you’re--” “I’ve got work to do,” Taehyun interrupted. “If you’ll excuse me.” He pressed the package of napkins to his chest and then he brushed past his boss to run back to his section near the front of the restaurant. Fortunately, Yoongi did not stop him. 🍽 The bus rumbled up to the curb outside of Red Fox Hills and Taehyun, so caught up in his own emotions, almost did not get off at his stop. He got out of his seat with so little time to spare that he could feel the door strike the heel of his shoe as it hissed closed behind him. The heat of the bus’s engine swept over his back as the vehicle rumbled away. Work had drained him. Not in the usual way where his throat was dry and his whole body was stiff and his bones creaked like he was thirty years older than he was but... in a different way. He was exhausted in the way that only loneliness could make you. But at least the sky looked nice. Taehyun could tell that spring was properly on its way. Daylight was lasting longer and longer, pushing sundown back by a minute every day. The sun had yet to set, allowing the clouds to keep their gossamer whiteness. Allowing the sky to stay inky blue from one end of the horizon to the other. The birds were already migrating back to the neighborhood trees, keeping up all of their singing and noise making. Even most of the spring flowers had begun to bud and bloom. In a few weeks’ time, everything would be green and bright and warm. And it wouldn’t be too much longer after that when summer would come breezing through. Taehyun lowered his gaze from the sky only for his eyes to land on something equally brilliant. “Sup,” said Yeonjun. But instead of shouting it while halfway throwing himself over the fence beside his house, he said the word calmly from the bench next to the bus stop sign. He had been waiting. Probably all afternoon. “What is it,” Taehyun asked, putting on his coldest and meanest voice. “I don’t have time.” But he did have time. He had all of the time. Every second. It hurt to be mean to Yeonjun. It hurt to be the reason his smile faltered. “Tae-Tae,” Yeonjun began. He started to reach for Taehyun but paused halfway through the action, his fingers just about close enough to touch Taehyun’s shirt sleeve. “Please talk to me.” “What is there to say,” Taehyun responded. He was acting all tough but the only thing he wanted was to step forward the last little bit so that he could feel Yeonjun’s hand on his arm. He wanted to sit down next to Yeonjun. Hug him. Crawl all up into his personal space and relax after the wickedly stressful day he had… but he could not tell if he wanted to do that because he liked Yeonjun or because he had carried Yeonjun’s heart and feelings in his chest for a few days. His own heart told him that there wasn’t much of a difference. His feelings were his feelings! But his brain refused to track such illogical data. It needed a definite, concrete answer. Was liking Yeonjun his choice or just a spell? When the silence got awkwardly long, Taehyun huffed, “If you have nothing to say--” Yeonjun spoke up, “I have so much to say. Like how I’m not going to take back that I said I love you.” Taehyun’s throat tightened. This was turning into a problem too big to run away from. An issue too important to ignore. Yeonjun lowered his hand to his lap and his eyes got a little glassy, a little unfocused. “I’m sorry if I didn’t make myself clear about it earlier. I’m sorry if I didn’t behave genuinely enough to be believed.” Such mature words almost sounded wrong coming from Yeonjun. Taehyun would have preferred it if Yeonjun had morphed all of this into a joke, but the Yeonjun he knew wouldn’t go through all of this just for a prank. Taehyun folded his arms across his chest in a last ditch effort to come off as defiant. “Just admit that you tricked me like you tricked the Wardens. Just say that our relationship was a decoy like that false body you walked around in.” “That’s the thing, Tae. What we have is not a trick. And that body and all of those memories are just as real as the me in front of you now and the memories that we are making now.” “Doesn’t seem like a good memory to have.” “Who cares.” Yeonjun’s own passion startled him. He cleared his throat. “Good or bad, I just want to make memories with you. I want to be close to you.” “But you only got close to me so you could have somewhere to keep your heart safe!” The words must have struck a nerve. Yeonjun stiffened. He curled in on himself a little bit as if he were either hurt or cold. “Okay. I admit it. Maybe at the start, I was only looking out for myself… but then, every night, I would go to bed and the last thought I would have before I fell asleep was how lucky I was that I got to share my heart with someone like you.” “See? All you do is trick. You even trick yourself.” “I can’t stop being what I am, Tae. I’m a fox! There’s no changing that.” Yeonjun stared down at his hands in his lap, wringing his fingers. “And I get that it’s super hard for you to believe it because I know you feel like you don’t deserve it… but I really do like you, Tae. And there’s no tricks about it.” There was a sudden pang in Taehyun’s chest. Sharp. Cold. Heavy. And he couldn’t even blame it on someone else’s feelings because Yeonjun’s heart was no longer next to his own. “You don’t know anything about how I feel.” Yeonjun jumped to his feet. “And you refuse to accept how I feel!” They fell into silence. Around them, the world continued on. Birds chirped. The wind whistled through the trees. Distant music could be heard blasting from inside someone’s garage. A crop duster plane flew overhead, low and loud. The sky started to turn the palest shade of pink at the edges as the sun sank towards the hills and trees. “Give me a chance, Tae,” Yeonjun pleaded. He leaned forward a little so that the two of them could make eye contact. So that neither of them could chicken out and look anywhere except at each other. “Give me the chance to prove to you that I will never trick you. Give me the chance to prove that I’m serious about you.” He held out his hand palm up. Beseeching. The look in his eyes was almost like a challenge. A dare.Taehyun’s logical brain wanted him to turn away and walk home and get a start on the homework he had even though it was Spring Break. But his heart… Oh, his heart did not want him to be anywhere else. His heart did not want him to do anything else except trust in Yeonjun. Because that’s what liking someone was all about. The war between Taehyun’s heart and his brain did not last long. His heart easily won. Or maybe Taehyun’s brain let his heart win. Taehyun grabbed Yeonjun’s hand tightly. Maybe even a little desperately. “Okay,” he managed. “I’ll give you a chance.”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
They were in Yeonjun’s backyard. It was such a simple place. As most backyards tended to be. Just a rectangle of uncut grass and untamed weeds. Simply add an inflatable pool and a few lawn chairs on top for flavor and box it all in with a white picket fence and there you have it. But for the two of them, it was the place where it all began. The place where Yeonjun had first asked Taehyun for the favor of a lifetime. And not just their first kiss. For the two of them, stealing away the scant moments before night fell, it was the only place to be. “I’ll convince you,” Yeonjun said suddenly. He tugged on Taehyun’s wrist, pulling the younger boy down until they were sitting in the grass next to each other. Taehyun asked, “Convince me of what?” “My feelings for you,” said Yeonjun. “I’ll figure out a way. I’ll do what you do. I’ll study you and logically approach things and then show you in a plain way so that you’ll understand.” Taehyun raised a hand to his own face and toyed with the corner of his eyepatch. “Sounds like a lot of work.” “Well, just telling you wasn’t effective so I have to find another way.” “Sounds like a lot of work for me ,” Taehyun reiterated. Yeonjun accepted the challenge. “I’ll find a way that works best for you. For us.” “You don’t have to do anything ridiculous or special, Yeonjun. Just give me some time.” “I can give you a thousand gifts. I can kiss you a million times. I can--” “Let’s just start with sitting next to each other.” Taehyun unhooked the straps of his eyepatch from around his ears and shoved it into his pocket. Yeonjun nodded his head. “Right. Spending time with each other. Yes.” So they sat next to each other. They spent time with each other. In silence, yes, but it wasn’t like the quiet was heavy or awkward. It was comfortable. All of the pretense of sparkling jewel hearts and magic-blocking bodies was gone. It was just the two of them now. No spells. No tricks. Taehyun looked around. Wow. Yeonjun’s backyard! It almost made Taehyun laugh. A few weeks ago, he would have thought it was an impossible place. A sacred location he couldn’t reach. A place he wouldn’t be allowed. To him, Yeonjun’s backyard had been a figment of his imagination hidden away behind a fence and the gargantuan size of Yeonjun’s personality. Of his reputation. Now, the backyard was just a backyard. Taehyun had spent the last few days getting to know the older boy and now it was clear to him that Yeonjun wasn’t some mythical creature. Well, he was , technically, but not because he was the super popular mischief maker at their school. He was just Yeonjun. Fox ears and all. Taehyun stretched out on his back in the grass, basking in the waning pink glow of sunset. The gray shadows of the nearby trees stretched across the lawn in diagonal streaks and made everything a little bit darker in the corners but Yeonjun’s magical foxflame appeared in the air and flitted to and fro in bright cyan orbs. Their light kept the dark away. Taehyun cupped his hands underneath his head and stared up at the clouds. At the goldish light that lined their soft edges. At the sliver of moon he could see on the horizon. He took a deep breath in and let it out. He watched, patiently, as the clouds slid from one end of the sky to the other, slowly slowly slowly changing shape before his eyes. He watched as the warmth left the sky. As more and more stars became visible above them. It was barely spring so it was hardly warm enough outside to be doing such a thing so casually, but everything would always be comfortable as long as they were near each other. Or at least that’s what Yeonjun said as he shifted over to further shrink the already nonexistent distance between them. Taehyun let his eyes drift closed as Yeonjun’s body heat swept over him like a blanket. He was happy, he realized. Happy with Yeonjun. “You’re such a sap,” he told his boyfriend. “It’s true,” Yeonjun said. “If I have you, I’ll be fine. No matter what happens.” “Am I really that important?” “Yes.” Yeonjun stated, full of passion. “You mean a lot to me, Tae. I want you to know. I’ll prove it to you.” “You mean a lot to me too,” Taehyun responded. “Let’s just say you defy all of my expectations.” Taehyun opened his eyes again. The color of the sky changed even in the few moments he had not been watching. Less pink. More reddish-orange. Just like that, they were a few breaths closer to sunset. Already, the heat was leaving the air. Taehyun shivered. “Watch this, Tae,” said Yeonjun. Taehyun took his eyes off of the sky to see what would happen. Yeonjun pushed a little bit of his magic out of his hand, until his fingertips sparkled, and then pressed his palm into the grass near Taehyun’s elbow. He held it there for a moment and then pulled back. Where his hand had been, flowers grew. Their little petals popped open soundlessly, revealing too-bright colors. This, too, was like the other day when the boys had met here. When Taehyun had first become aware that his world was just a tad larger than what he initially thought. He looked down at the treasure Yeonjun had made. At the leaves that fluttered and waved in the breeze that wasn’t actually there. Yeonjun had made recognizable flowers but also flowers that probably weren’t real. Flowers that he had made up just to show Taehyun. Taehyun reached out a hand so that he could snap one off at the stem and smell it, but the magic didn’t quite hold up that long. The flower broke down between Taehyun’s fingers, crumbling into sparkling, glittering, multi-colored light. Some of the magic remained on Taehyun’s fingertips. Yeonjun leaned forward and pressed his mouth to the sparkles on Taehyun’s hand. The contact was sudden and Taehyun gasped. Yeonjun kissed his hand again. This time, at least, Taehyun did not startle. “You still have my heart, you know,” Yeonjun said with a sly little grin and sparkling bits of magic on his mouth. He was lying on his stomach next to Taehyun, propped up on his elbows. One of his fox tails had unfurled behind him and it curled and uncurled behind his head. “It’s right here.” Yeonjun reached over and tapped a finger against Taehyun’s chest. “So take good care of it.” “How is that possible? I gave it back to you,” Taehyun mumbled. Then, with a bit more worry, “didn’t I?” He remembered the white-hot feeling of nearly choking on Yeonjun’s jewel heart as it came up his throat and out of his mouth the other day. He remembered the uncomfortable stillness in his chest when he realized he only had one heartbeat instead of two. “I can’t still have your heart.” “Well, yeah, there’s the heart I gave you… but there’s also… the heart I gave you.” Yeonjun’s red hair hung in his eyes but that couldn’t hide the gleam in his gaze. “The one you’ll always have.” Taehyun lifted a hand to push Yeonjun’s hair away from his face. When he saw that gleam for himself, he drew back and rolled his eyes. “Oh, wait. I know what this is. You’re being cheesy again.” “You finally caught on.” Yeonjun grinned a little wider. He rolled over a little bit more so that he could lay his head down on Taehyun’s tummy. “I know you like it when I’m cheesy.” “Maybe I do,” said Taehyun. “Maybe I don’t.” He so totally did. Yeonjun knew the correct answer if his chuckle had anything to say about it. “You’re so stubborn. But I like that about you.” “And you’re so insistent,” Taehyun countered with a playful groan. “And you like that about me.” “Maybe I do. Maybe I don’t.” He kinda did. “Yeah. Yeah.” “What else about me do you like,” Taehyun asked. “Do you really want me to answer that? We’ll sit out here all night.” “I have the time.” “How about this? I tell you one thing I like about you if you tell me something you like about me.” “Deal.” Yeonjun let out a self-satisfied “Yes!” Then he took the time to think about it. “I like your singing voice.” “I like how unpredictable you are.” “Hmmm. Well… I’ll try to be even more unpredictable from now on.” “It’s your turn.” “I’m getting to it! Give me a second. Geez.” Yeonjun tapped a finger to his chin as he thought it through. “I like how brave you are.” Taehyun frowned. He didn’t feel as if he was brave at all. In fact, he felt like a coward after all of the things he’d done. “You stood up for me,” Yeonjun explained. “And you stepped in the way before Jungkook…” Ahh. Now Taehyun understood. He tried to change the subject a little. “I like your fox ears.” “I like your antlers.” Ahh. Another subject Taehyun wanted to shy away from. “I like your appetite.” “I like that you keep me grounded.” “I like that you make me want to be wild.” “I like how you’re so smart. And I like how you already know what you want to do.” “Well, I like how you just do whatever you want without a care in the world.” “I care,” Yeonjun protested. “I care a whole lot. But what’s the point of living if you’re not having fun?” “It’s your turn. Say something about me.” “I like how sweet you are.” “Ummm. I’m sour.” “You are,” Yeonjun wholeheartedly agreed. “And that makes your sweet moments taste that much better. You’re a sweetheart, Tae-Tae. You’re my sweetheart.” “You’re just a big ole softie,” Taehyun told him. “So are you.” Yeonjun reached out with his hand until he found Taehyun’s. He squeezed Taehyun’s hand tightly. Like he didn’t want to let go. “And I wish you’d just let yourself feel things. It’s not a bad thing to feel things.” Taehyun sighed. Yeonjun had a point. He wanted to tell Yeonjun that he didn’t have a point but… he had one. “It’s scary, sometimes, to look at something and not know the answers.” “Look at me,” said Yeonjun kindly. Taehyun did so. Yeonjun didn’t say anything for a moment. Then, quietly, “Do you know the answer?” Taehyun didn’t know what the older boy meant at first. But then it came to him. “Yes.” Taehyun squeezed Yeonjun’s hand tight. “Is it scary?” Yeonjun wondered. “No. Because I know. I’m not afraid of what I know.” “I like you. And I know it. And I’m not afraid because I can’t be afraid of what I know. And I know that I like you for real. I know that I’ve liked you for ages.” “It’s why you always jumped out to say hey to me,” Taehyun responded. He looked back up at the sky and watched as more and more of the red-orange of sunset disappeared beneath the blue of the night. “Do you believe me, Tae-Tae,” Yeonjun asked. “Do you believe me when I say that there’s no tricks involved in our feelings for each other?” Taehyun laid there. His head was swarming with thoughts that he couldn’t classify or organize. Emotions he couldn’t label or define. But that was okay. Chaos was fine. There was plenty of chaos in math as well. Plenty of variables. Infinite problems waiting their turn to be solved. “I believe you,” said Taehyun. He couldn’t see Yeonjun’s face from how he was positioned, but he could still somehow tell that Yeonjun was now smiling at him. “But… I’d believe you even more if you told me what you did.” And there it was. The happy, sweet moment they were having came to an abrupt halt. For a time, they just laid there. Yeonjun on his stomach. Taehyun on his back. Yeonjun’s head moved slowly up and then slowly down as Taehyun breathed in and out. It probably did not need clarification but Taehyun explained himself anyway. “You have to tell me why you are a wanted criminal, Yeonjun.” If he asked a straightforward question, he would get a straightforward answer. Logically speaking. “I was a wanted criminal,” the fox boy corrected. “Past tense. I’m not anymore. You heard them.” Taehyun closed his eyes. His patience gone. “Yeonjun.” The fox boy was trying to make light of the situation but Taehyun didn’t want to have this big secret between them. Yeonjun squeezed Taehyun’s hand and then slowly, reluctantly, let go of it. “I do owe you the truth, don’t I?” Yeonjun sat up and curled his legs underneath his body so that he could turn and face Taehyun. Now he had two fox tails and he swept them from side to side through the grass behind him. Wherever the fur touched, fireflies appeared and alighted into the darkened sky. “I’m sorry, Tae-Tae.” Yeonjun had noticed the sour expression on his boyfriend’s face and he knew he could only blame himself for putting it there. “No more jokes. I’ll tell you everything.” “Please do.” Taehyun opened his eyes and looked up at Yeonjun’s sincere expression. “No tricks. No lies, Yeonjun. No skirting around the truth.” Taehyun sat up. They were nearly face to face in the near-darkness of twilight. He could feel Yeonjun’s cool, sweet breath on his face. “Just tell me.” Yeonjun lowered his gaze. “What if you hate me once you find out?” And it was a valid question! “I don’t know,” answered Taehyun honestly. And he was terribly afraid of what he didn’t know. “I don’t know.” And he hated that he didn’t know. He hated that he was afraid to learn the truth. Yeonjun’s crimes were heinous enough that he had to be killed for them. Well, as part of his elaborate ploy, his body had been a decoy and he’d reappeared using the heart he’d left behind in Taehyun’s chest... but still, he’d been executed for his crimes regardless. Would Taehyun actually hate him if he found out the story behind Yeonjun’s wanted poster? They sat in silence for a while. Breathing. Existing. Worrying. The world continued on around them, uncaring about their woes. A few birds still chirped but it was mainly the song of the crickets and frogs that Taehyun could hear. No one had turned the back porch light on so it should have been pitch black outside, yet Yeonjun’s magic brought light. A glow hung in the air. A shimmer. Everything felt charged with magical energy, as if something great or something terrible could happen in the next moment. All possibly dependent upon what Yeonjun would say next. Yeonjun looked back up at Taehyun, his eyes brimming with a brand new determination. “I’m afraid to tell you. But I’m even more afraid that you’ll leave me if I don’t tell you.” Taehyun could see the stars and the shimmering globes of foxflame and the in-and-out flicker of the fireflies reflected in Yeonjun’s wide eyes. Yeonjun’s eyes looked like they could hold the universe. Which would be beautiful if Taehyun weren’t so fearful of the unknown. “Then tell me the truth. Tell me what happened.” If only he knew , then he wouldn’t have to be afraid. Sucking in a breath, Yeonjun began his tale. “I used to be a Warden. Just like Jungkook. Just like Kai. I used to do what they did. Keeping balance between humans and spirits and enforcing the laws of the Codex.” His gaze became a bit unfocused as he lost himself in the memories. Taehyun almost wanted to laugh. Yeonjun, the boy who rebelled against all rules used to be an enforcer of rules? It was like Yeonjun knew what he was thinking. “Yeah, yeah. It seems impossible, doesn’t it? But this time last year, I was a Warden. Not because of any special talent or anything. I was a Warden because my mother was a Warden. And my grandfather. And great-grandfather. So on and so forth. My family… We… We were some of the original Wardens.” So many things and places around the mountain were named after the nine-tailed foxes. Yeonjun continued, “We didn’t train together… Me and Kai, I mean… But we probably would have been assigned to the same team back then. If things kept going the way they were supposed to go.” He pulled away from Taehyun a little and angled himself so that they were facing away from each other. As if he couldn’t speak the words if he could see the damage they would cause. “But let’s just say I made a few bad decisions and then I decided to leave the Wardens.” Taehyun reached out but stopped with his hand a mere hair’s width above Yeonjun’s shoulder. He drew his hand back. If he remembered correctly, Jungkook had made a comment that none-too-subtly suggested that whatever Yeonjun did or didn’t do had hurt Kai in some way. Taehyun balled his hands into fists. “Stop being cryptic. Just say it. What did you do that had the Wardens coming after you like that?” “The Wardens are stick-in-the-muds,” Yeonjun declared. Taehyun reached out for Yeonjun’s shoulder again. He gripped it tight and shook him hard. “Stop joking.” “Okay. Okay.” Yeonjun shifted until he was looking at Taehyun again. Taehyun could see it now. How Yeonjun was using his ill-timed comedy to run away from things he didn’t like. It was eerily similar to how Taehyun used his obsession with logic and math to keep his mind off things he couldn’t understand. Taehyun eased up on him. “Just tell me, okay? I like you and I want to keep liking you but to do that, I have to know .” He had to know so that he would not be afraid. “Well, the Wardens maintain order and balance, right? Not just any kind of order but… the meaningful kind.” Yeonjun went quiet. Taehyun let him. This didn’t seem like the sort of explanation that could be rushed or cut short. “Kindred spirits used to be all over the place. Not just this mountain but all over. But like Granny Sohn said, we moved away from the mountain and other places of power. We grew up and forgot who we are. Some of us grew up so far away from magic that we didn’t know of it in the first place. There may even be a few out there who resist it.” Taehyun hadn’t always lived in Red Fox Hills. He and his mother used to live in Seoul but Taehyun was way too young back then to remember. His mother said she’d come back to her hometown to ‘find herself again’ which Taehyun had always attributed to the father he never knew but perhaps his mother meant the heritage she’d nearly forgotten. Her ties to the mountain. Her life as a kindred spirit. “But regardless of how we started, this is who we are,” said Yeonjun. “And whether there’s a lot of us or only a handful of us, we can’t just do whatever we want. That’s why there are the Wardens.” That made sense. Taehyun liked to think of the Wardens as a pair of parentheses in math. With just a little bit of wrangling, they could turn a chaotic sequence of functions and fractions into something with a clear set of rules. PEMDAS! Yeonjun continued, “One day, I found out that the Wardens here had gotten their hands on something powerful. An artifact with some really, really old magic.” “And you thought they shouldn’t have something like that,” Taehyun wondered, sitting up straight. “Yeah… But only because I wanted that power for myself,” said Yeonjun. “I was selfish and greedy… but above all, I was just curious. I wanted to be strong. I wanted to know what it was like.” That wasn’t the direction Taehyun thought this story would go. He had assumed Yeonjun had done something heroic. Saved someone but broke a few rules in the process. He wasn’t sure he wanted Yeonjun to keep telling the story, but… “What did you do?” He came to the conclusion himself. “Who did you hurt?” Yeonjun’s silence answered most of Taehyun’s questions. For a long while, they just looked at each other. Taehyun could just barely see Yeonjun’s expression in what little light there was left. The fireflies still hung around but most of the floating orbs of foxflame had petered out, leaving the two boys sitting in the cold dark. “I wanted to be strong,” Yeonjun reiterated. “Stronger than the rules. Stronger than my family’s long and rigid list of expectations. So I broke into the place where the Wardens were keeping the artifact. I stole it. I used it. And everything went wrong.” Yeonjun gritted his teeth as if just thinking about it pained him. It probably did. Slowly, Taehyun said, “And Kai got hurt in the process.” Yeonjun didn’t have to answer him. But he did anyways. “Not just Kai. But their family too.” Taehyun felt a chill roll through him. “To what extent--” “No one died,” Yeonjun said quickly. “But I still caused quite the disaster. Hurt a few people. Damaged quite a few things.” The weight of the conversation was a little heavier than Taehyun was prepared to deal with. “And I was able to get away with it. For a time. You’re not going to like me for this but I tricked a few people. Granted a few wishes.” Yeonjun had been right. Taehyun didn’t like him for that. “But the thing about tricks is that the magic wears off,” said Yeonjun, meeting Taehyun’s gaze head on. Ready to face his past. “And when the magic wears off, people remember the truth. And when they realize they’ve been tricked, they add that to your crimes as well. And they come after you that much harder. It’s just notoriously difficult to corner a fox. That’s all.” Taehyun frowned. He furrowed his eyebrows and glared. Yeonjun spoke first. “But I’m remorseful and I’ve been punished for my crimes!” “Did you apologize?” Yeonjun fell into silence again. The answer was in the quiet. “You should apologize,” suggested Taehyun. “Not just to the Wardens but to Kai. And everyone else who wound up getting hurt because of you.” “I know.” “And you should mean it.” “Yeah. I know.” “And not use any tricks.” “I know. I know.” “I’m not playing around, Yeonjun.” “And neither am I, Tae-Tae. I upset a lot of people. Including you. But I’ll do better. I’m sorry.” Another lengthy silence. Except this time it was heavy. A little suffocating. And it stretched on for so long that Taehyun fidgeted beneath the weight of it. Yeonjun said, “Now it’s your turn.” Taehyun didn’t really know what he was talking about. He looked over at Yeonjun and suddenly didn’t appreciate the physical distance between them. “My turn to do what,” he asked. He reached out a hand and placed it on top of Yeonjun’s in the grass. “I told you the truth so you should tell me the truth,” said Yeonjun, uncharacteristically serious. Taehyun sputtered out, “What truth? What do I have to say?” He was still in shock from Yeonjun’s confession. How on earth could he say anything to top that? “Why did you break off your antler? Why did you run away from us?” Oh. Taehyun felt like a deflating balloon. He sighed wearily and wanted to look anywhere and everywhere except at Yeonjun’s concerned face. “Don’t you think you owe me the truth,” asked Yeonjun. He moved his hand from beneath Taehyun’s. Not to pull away from him but to lace their fingers together and hold on tight. “We owe each other honesty.” Taehyun wanted to tell him everything but he also didn’t want to speak a word. What had happened the other night felt so personal. So raw and deep and real. He’d been overwhelmed with feelings he couldn’t control. Feelings he couldn’t box in to simple categories. And he reacted by getting rid of the thing that made him feel that way. By just snapping the antler off. “I used to think that I could only believe in the things I saw,” he mumbled. “But even when I saw it, I couldn’t believe it.” “But why did you do it,” Yeonjun prompted. “Why did you hurt yourself like that? Why did you break it?” “Isn’t it obvious,” Taehyun huffed. “I broke it because I was afraid.” “And then you ran away because you were afraid?” He hated that Yeonjun was speaking for him. Putting words in his mouth and feelings in his heart. But he also hated that Yeonjun was right . “So what?” Shame flooded Taehyun’s system. His cheeks grew hot as he blushed, a mixture of anger and embarrassment fueling the heat inside of him. It must not have been the effect Yeonjun was going for because he immediately threw his arms around Taehyun’s shoulders and pulled him close. “What did I say before, Tae? It’s okay to feel things. Good things. Bad things. It’s okay.” He pressed his face into the crook of Taehyun’s neck almost like he was the one who needed to be consoled. “I shouldn’t have done it,” Taehyun said. His voice came out scratchy and thin. It was like he was getting choked up. Like he was about to start crying or something which was illogical and silly , given the situation. But maybe it wasn’t silly. Perhaps it was necessary. “I was angry and didn’t really know what I was doing. I mean… I knew what I was doing. I was trying to hurt you. And I don’t know why.” Yeonjun squeezed him tighter. Held him closer. His warm arms around Taehyun’s shoulders kept the chill of the evening at bay. “Did I do something that made you want to hurt me like that?” “You kept me in the dark about your past. You kept treating that big ole lie like it was nothing which made me feel like you cared just as little for me.” Yeonjun stilled. “This is why we have to be honest. I didn’t know that until you told me.” “But I feel like you should have known it. How could you lie to me about it and not think I’d be upset?” Loosening his hug, Yeonjun pulled away a little. He stared Taehyun in the face looking properly scolded. “But I know now… So I’ll fix it.” Then he gave Taehyun a taste of his own medicine. “And how could you hurt yourself like that… How could you snap off your own antler and not think that I would be upset? And what about Beomgyu and Soobin and Kai? How can you think you wouldn’t hurt all of us? You said I owe Kai an apology but don't you think you owe Beomgyu and Soobin an apology?” The medicine was bitter. It hurt to swallow. But the bitter pill was vital. “I wasn’t thinking. Or, rather, I was overthinking.” Now it was Taehyun’s turn to wrap his arms around Yeonjun’s shoulders and squeeze tightly. “I wanted to be like all of you. Magical and special. But then I found out that I actually was like all of you.” “You’ve been like us the whole time, Tae,” Yeonjun told him softly. “None of us ever tried to exclude you.” Taehyun heaved a sigh. Not out of frustration but out of relief. A huge burden lifted. A terribly great weight cast aside. “But what about now,” he asked in a whisper. “Won’t you guys exclude me now? After what I did? I mean… I only have one antler now.” “That’s where you’re wrong.” Yeonjun pulled away. “You’ll always have two antlers.” “Huh?” With his hands, Yeonjun wiped away the dampness on Taehyun’s cheeks. “You must not know a lot about deer, my dear.” “I don’t,” Taehyun admitted. “I don’t know much about animals at all.” He smiled. Laughed. “Good. Because now I can tell you something you don’t know.” Yeonjun pressed his mouth to the corner of Taehyun’s lips in a soft, chaste kiss. “Antlers grow back.”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Spring had to remind everyone that, though she could be warm and sweet-tempered and innocent when she so pleased, she was not and never would be the season of summer, thank you very much. In other words, she had to let everyone know that it was indeed the month of March and that all of the townspeople should put their short-sleeved shirts and flip-flops back in the closet for at least another six weeks, so help her. The clouds were still puffy and white and the sky was wide and clear and paintbox blue, but the temperature had dropped like a stone overnight and Taehyun nearly missed the bus to work because he ran back home to get a heavier jacket.
Winded from all of his running, he dragged himself up the bus stairs, paid his fare and all but collapsed on the first open seat he could find.
Oh, it would have been the worst if he missed the bus! If he’d come around the curve even ten seconds later...
“Whew,” he let out a shaky breath and rubbed his hands together for warmth. It was odd. Feeling hot and cold at the same time. Sweating from sprinting down the sidewalk yet shivering from the drastic chill in the air. Taehyun’s fingertips were pale from the cold. His nose felt numb. The heat on the bus hardly warmed him but maybe he’d have to give it a minute. Give it time to sink into his bones. “Hope Yoongi’s got the heat on today,” he mumbled. It had been so warm outside lately that they’d been using the air conditioner. Sweating over the grill, Hoseok had demanded it. Sweating over the electric bill, Yoongi had resisted. Apparently, Hoseok had won.
The bus rumbled away from Red Fox Hills, taking Taehyun from the suburbs and towards the center of town, passing trees and brightly-painted houses and farmland. They crossed over the old stone bridge and slowed down near the rough patch of road by the bakery. The smell of freshly baked bread was strong enough that Taehyun caught a sweet whiff of it as they drove past.
Then they were driving alongside the river. At least for a little bit before it curved north towards the forest.
Through the window, Taehyun saw that someone had a garden in their front yard. Something he was positive hadn’t been out there a week or so ago. It wasn’t a hodgepodge of plants and piles of mulch like what most people in Red Fox Hills called their ‘garden’ but something
planned
. Something with intention. Professional, even. There were bunches of short shrubs surrounding skinny saplings. Looping swirls of colorful yet coordinated flowers that had thrived in the freak warm spell last week but would probably lose to the cold before the week was over. There was even a half-dug hole and layers of tarp where it seemed like some kind of small water feature would be placed. Taehyun craned his neck so that he could look at the flowers for as long as he could before the bus drove around the bend and put the house out of sight.
He wondered how nice his own house would look if there were flowers out front.
He wondered how cute Yeonjun’s yard would be if the magical flowers Yeonjun planted lasted longer than a breath.
The bus slowed and slowed and then came up to another bus stop. They were on the edge of downtown. The trees gave way to small shops and boutiques and restaurants. Now that they had traveled out from beneath the trees, Taehyun could see the big mountain in the distance.
He had just been out on it that past weekend, had hiked halfway up it, but it looked bigger today than it had all of his life. Like he was seeings its true size for the first time today.
A small crowd of people got off of the bus, most of them dressed in big coats and fluffy hats. One person got on.
Kai.
As if the cold didn’t bother them, they only wore their usual leather jacket, a black shirt featuring a rock band name Taehyun wasn’t familiar with, form-fitting black jeans and clunky, black boots.
Taehyun was still certain that the edgy look didn’t suit Kai’s big eyes, soft face and charming smile but maybe the all-black look was the uniform of the Wardens. Or maybe Jungkook put Kai up to it so that they’d match while out on assignment.
In some alternative universe, Taehyun would be brave enough to ask.
“Hello,” Kai said, meeting Taehyun’s gaze as they came up the aisle.
“Hi,” Taehyun said back. Formally. Stiffly. Taehyun would have left it at that and gone back to looking out the window but he was surprised when Kai settled into the seat right next to him, bringing to his nose the delicate smell of ink and old book pages, as if Kai had just been out somewhere reading or studying.
“Don’t look at me like that,” Kai warned with a playful, brilliant smile. “Didn’t I tell you that we’re no longer on opposing sides? We aren’t enemies.”
“Still…” Taehyun mumbled. He sat up straight to give Kai a bit more room to stretch out their long legs. “It’s not like I know you very well.”
The bus pulled away from the curb and then rumbled further into town. Past the old church. Past the hardware store and the garden center. Past the public school.
Kai didn’t want the conversation to die. They asked, “Are you… shaking?”
Taehyun quickly answered, “From the cold. Not from fear.” He couldn’t stop himself. “Perhaps a little bit of fear, though. I’m just so used to running in the opposite direction whenever I see you.”
Kai laughed dryly. “What a compliment!”
“Sorry.” Taehyun bit his bottom lip. Now that he gave it a second thought, he realized how
horrible
such a statement made him sound. But his fear had been for a good reason! “I just wanted to keep Yeonjun safe...” Then, in a meek and much more emotional voice than he intended, finished with, “...but failed at it.”
“Aren’t you glad it’s over, though,” Kai asked. They raised a hand to their face to brush their hair from out of their eyes. “Wouldn’t it be tiring to keep running? To keep hiding?”
Taehyun hadn’t considered that bit. How long would he have been able to keep up with things if Yeonjun had kept evading the authorities? Every day would fill Taehyun with worry. Every time Yeonjun would be even five minutes late for his shift, Taehyun would panic and immediately think the worst.
“No hard feelings,” said Kai, as if sensing the direction of Taehyun’s thoughts. “It’s just part of the job.”
“Just part of the job. You aren’t mad at all? About what Yeonjun did to your family? And to you?”
Kai’s easygoing smile faltered. The facade they were keeping up finally cracked. Beneath it wasn’t anger, like Taehyun expected, but perhaps just forlorn acceptance.
“Sorry,” Taehyun stated. “Didn’t mean to upset you.”
“It’s fine. We were bound to talk about it. The only reason we know each other is because of what Yeonjun did.”
“He told me. What he did, I mean. He told me he got greedy. Power-hungry. Touched something he shouldn’t have.”
“Magic comes from nature,” Kai said. “From the animals. From the trees and the oceans and the mountains.” He looked away from Taehyun for the first time since sitting down, staring at the back of the seat in front of them. “Whether people know it or not, whether they can use it or not, humans gather wherever magic gathers.”
Taehyun wasn’t entirely sure where Kai was going with this so he just nodded.
The bus was pulling up to the next stop when Kai spoke again. “But sometimes too much magic can build up in one place.”
Immediately, Taehyun thought of his own weird little body and how magic didn’t pass through it as it should. He thought of the multiple occasions where Yeonjun’s magic had pooled in him so deeply that it leaked out of him through his skin. Made him glow.
The bus pulled away from the stop.
They were getting closer to the center of town now. Taehyun was about to be at his stop.
“Yeonjun is already full of magic,” Kai kept on. “Generations and generations of it flows through his blood. So when his old magic met another kind of old magic, it was just too much in one place. All of that energy just... went everywhere. We tried to stop him, but--” Kai paused. They pulled back the lapels of their jacket and hoisted up their shirt.
Taehyun was shocked by the sudden exposure of skin. Then he was shocked all over again by the faint red burn marks and sharp white scar-tissue that littered Kai’s long, pale torso in a dizzying pattern. It was yet another thing about them that didn’t suit their face. Taehyun lifted his gaze and met Kai’s stare. “Why aren’t you mad at him?” Gosh. If something like that had happened to
him,
Taehyun would be so mad! He wouldn’t be able to forgive whoever did that to him. “Jungkook has a point. Yeonjun tricked you all out of his punishment. Why aren’t you mad at him?”
Kai lowered their shirt and then readjusted their jacket so that everything was sitting proper again. “A Warden’s job isn’t to get back at anyone or seek revenge. Our job is to maintain order. If a cunning nine-tailed fox finds a loophole in that order, that’s our fault as Wardens.”
“But he hurt your family.”
“Not on purpose. He didn’t mean to.”
“He did. He told me that he selfishly sought out power! Just out of curiosity.”
“Calm down, Taehyun.”
Taehyun clamped his mouth shut. He had been getting loud. Attracting the attention of the other passengers on the bus. He tried things again but at a much lower volume. “I just don’t understand.”
“Do you want me to be angry at him,” Kai questioned. “Do you
want
us to still be at odds?”
Taehyun shook his head. He didn’t want any of that. He wanted to put it behind him. He remembered his conversation with Yeonjun just the other day. He remembered how sad and guilty Yeonjun had looked while the sky turned orange with sunset above their heads. “He’s very sorry.”
“I know.” Kai’s voice was small but not soft. It was firm. “That’s why I was able to forgive him.”
And that was why Taehyun had to really work on forgiving him too.
“Now that the mess is in the past, the Wardens might also forgive him. Though if he wants to come back to us, he’ll have to start all over again.”
“Oh, I highly doubt Yeonjun still wants to be a Warden.” Taehyun had said it with quite a bit of sharpness. “Sorry.”
Kai smiled. Just a little. “Relax a bit, why don’t you? You can badmouth the Wardens if you want. I won’t be offended.”
“That’s tough. It’s not just the Wardens I had a thing about. I thought some pretty mean things about
you
. I even said a few of them.”
“Anyone else in your position would think the same way. Just think of us as getting off on the wrong foot but just… trying again from the beginning.” Kai looked over at Taehyun and flashed a smile. “You don’t have to be so rigid. It’s not like I am under contractual obligation to detain you or anything.” Another ill-timed laugh.
Taehyun realized it was a joke about five seconds too late and let out the breath he’d been holding. “Right.”
“Sorry. I shouldn’t tease you like that.”
Taehyun smiled through his awkwardness. “I guess I also feel weird around you because of all of that money you gave me.” His mother had definitely raised a concerned eyebrow when he’d handed the stack of bills to her so she could put it in his savings account. “Gosh, I’m sure Yeonjun knows about it. I’m sure he’s guessed.”
“The money was also part of the job. We made the deal. You followed through on your end of it. We followed through on ours.”
“But I felt
bad
.”
“And acknowledging that should be enough, right?” Kai wanted to breach the narrow gap between them. They lifted a hand as if to place it reassuringly on Taehyun’s arm but reconsidered the action and drew their hand back towards their lap. “Circumstances change. Feelings change. We all learn and grow. You’ve apologized, right? That should be it. If the emotion’s not doing you any good, stop holding on to it.”
And it made sense when stated so plainly. Taehyun was always holding on to emotions he didn’t need to. Clutching unnecessary feelings to his chest when he should have been relying on common sense and logic.
“We aren’t enemies,” Kai said after a moment. “We never really were. If anything, I thought that we could be friends, seeing as we may be seeing more and more of each other from now on.”
It took a moment for Taehyun to understand. “Are you and Soobin dating?”
Kai giggled. “Not quite. Not yet.” There was just something in them. Something about the sparkle in their eyes. It was anticipation, Taehyun realized. A dream seconds from being grasped. “Don’t really have much of a reason to say no. Which is why I’m on the way to the restaurant now. To say yes.”
The restaurant. Taehyun stiffened. “But Yoongi--”
“Yoongi will be fine,” Kai cut him off. “Judgment has been passed. There’s no longer an investigation for him to obstruct.”
Taehyun looked out the window. All he was thinking about was the weather, and that if it was this cold now, with the sun out and all, then it was going to be
freezing
when he got off work, with the sun going down and the mountain breeze picking up. “But it doesn’t make much sense.”
“What doesn’t?”
“You and Soobin.”
“What is there to make sense of? He clearly likes me and I am pretty sure I like him. Dating… At the very least, hanging out is the next step.”
“How do you even know you like him? I mean, you hardly know each other.”
“Getting to know him… Him getting to know me. That is the fun part.”
Taehyun gritted his teeth. “That sounds more terrifying than fun.”
“Terrifying? What’s so scary about figuring out who he is and the ways we can fit together?”
“What if you don’t fit? What if you’re bad for each other?”
“Won’t know until we try.”
“How can you so confidently take the next step when you don’t know half the answers?”
“Isn’t that how you and Yeonjun started out? With neither of you knowing where to begin?”
That made Taehyun swing around to face Kai. “How do you even know we’re together?”
“It’s clear to me. In the way you fought so hard for him. In the way you spoke up for him. In the way I see him looking at you. You’re both obviously smitten with each other.”
Taehyun felt his face flush. Gosh. How humiliating! Taehyun had been chilly on the bus before but now he was hot with embarrassment. Hot enough to start sweating at the collar. “It doesn’t make sense,” Taehyun said again. He wiped a hand across his face as if he could smear the blush off of his cheeks. He looked out the window because he couldn’t stand to look into Kai’s grinning face. “My feelings for him don’t make logical sense! The way he smiles at me… His goofy jokes. His romantic cheesiness… It shouldn’t make all these butterflies dance in my stomach. Ugh. There aren’t butterflies in my stomach at all! I know that. It’s silly of me to even use the phrase but he makes me want to use it anyway.”
“I think that’s where your problem lies,” said Kai. Sternly.
The bus was turning the corner. Way up ahead on the right was Yoongi’s restaurant. Taehyun glanced over at Kai. “My problem? What problem?”
“You keep forcing your feelings away.” The sunlight streaming in through the bus windows was angled
just so
, exposing the tiniest hint of green in Kai’s golden brown eyes. “I don’t mean to be presumptuous but just listening to you now has cleared something up for me. You keep going logic this and logic that. But emotions and logic aren’t mutually exclusive. You can have both.”
It didn’t add up.
“That look on your face.” Kai pointed. “You don’t think it’s possible. But it is. It so totally is. Logic without emotion is just cold, immovable fact. Judgment without measure. Punishment without empathy.”
“But emotion without logic is just chaos,” Taehyun defended himself. “Chaos is just senseless nonsense. Irrational behavior. Opinion as law.”
“Taehyun,” said Kai. “Listen to me. Being logical doesn’t mean you can’t have emotions. Being emotional doesn’t mean you completely lack good sense.”
Kai was so young. Taehyun could see it. Hear it. Feel it. But Kai was so
mature
.
They said, “If logic without emotion isn’t ideal and if emotion without logic isn’t ideal, don’t you think it’s for the best that we can both think things through logically and experience things emotionally? Don’t you think it’s a relief that we can have them both at the same time?”
And as the bus pulled up to their stop and both Kai and Taehyun stood up to disembark, Taehyun stared ahead in a daze and wondered how on earth he hadn’t before seen such a simple solution to the problem right in front of him.
The math wasn’t all that hard.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Being Shift Lead meant Taehyun hadn’t even been on the clock for forty-one seconds before he had to scold Beomgyu for trying to sneak a slice of cherry pie out of the display case when he
thought
no one was watching him.
“Taehyung’s gonna make a new one in the morning,” had been Beomgyu’s excuse. “I’m just preventing food waste!”
“At least ask Yoongi first.”
“I asked. He said yes. He definitely said yes. Wait. Where are you going? Don’t ask him!”
(Well, Taehyun probably would have stopped Beomgyu whether he was Shift Lead or not.)
Being Shift Lead meant Taehyun got to stand to Yoongi’s immediate right while the manager held a quick meeting around the time clock before that day’s afternoon shift. They briefly touched on yesterday’s profits, discussed a slew of social media restaurant reviews Namjoon had apparently compiled, and even opened the floor to recipe suggestions to which Soobin immediately suggested they incorporate a spicy chicken bowl into the menu. Just… without the spice or the chicken.
In response, Yoongi said he’d thoroughly consider it and then get back to him on that.
(Really, just how much dessert could Beomgyu eat? Was there even a quantifiable measure for that? Was it something that could be put to numbers? Taehyun would have to run an experiment.)
“There’s a baseball game today, folks,” explained Yoongi. “Exciting times.” His blank face was the exact opposite of excited. He was so deadpan that the look was nearly comical. “But this is a good thing. We’ve had some mighty slow days up until last week. Baseball season is our golden ticket to profit for the next… How long is it?” He glanced over his shoulder towards the noodle bar.
“Five months,” bellowed Hoseok. “Right on through the end of the school semester.”
“You heard him, folks,” Yoongi confirmed. He turned back around to assess them. “Five months of fluctuating foot traffic. Take advantage of every opportunity to sell an extra dessert or specialty drink. Ask everyone.”
(Could Taehyun take Beomgyu to an all-you-can-eat buffet? Would that be wise? Would he finally see Beomgyu’s limits for once or would they just get kicked out?)
Yoongi glanced around at the half-circle of his employees. “The baseball team’s expecting a win today so be on the lookout for a larger than usual rush once the game’s done. I’d say around 6pm or so. Right near the end of your shift. Don’t let the pressure throw you off. They may get loud but give them the same service we give everyone else.”
“Tae-Tae,” Yeonjun whispered. A whisper Taehyun’s brain only registered because they were words shaped by Yeonjun’s pretty, sing-song voice.
Taehyun looked over at his boyfriend. He leaned back a bit to see past Yoongi.
Yeonjun looked so cute today in his uniform and apron. He’d styled his hair today, combing the reddish brown locks back and away from his forehead, showing off his prominent eyebrows and round, flushed cheeks.
Taehyun was a little stunned, to be honest, that his heart belonged to such a handsome man.
“Tae-Tae,” Yeonjun whispered again without a single drop of mischief in his tone.
Yeonjun didn’t say anything else. He just gave Taehyun the brightest smile on the planet. If this were a TV show or something, his front teeth would have sparkled. Maybe cherry blossom petals would have flitted through the air behind him.
Taehyun snorted. The cherry blossom trees hadn’t opened yet. Goodness. He was in no rush to have to sweep all of the pink petals off the sidewalk. He hoped the sudden drop in temperature would push their blossoming season back a few more weeks.
“Tae-Tae,” Yeonjun said again. Quieter. He jerked his head in the direction of the cluster of employees, in the direction of Yoongi as the man chatted away.
Taehyun realized that he wasn’t paying as much attention to the meeting as he probably needed to. That may have been why Yeonjun was giving him that patient, brilliant grin. Taehyun gave Yeonjun a quick smile back before focusing on Yoongi’s words.
He was Shift Lead. He had to lead by example. If everyone else saw him zoning out, they’d think it would be okay to do the same. Right? Wasn’t that how it worked? He’d never been a leader in anything before.
Yoongi kept on, “I know I’ve held you up a bit and I promise you can get back to your tables in a minute, but...”
It was early in the afternoon. Significantly past the last hour of the lunch rush but nowhere near the start of the evening rush. Most of the customers they had at the moment were either retirees enjoying the quiet hours or clusters of kids from Taehyun’s high school enjoying their Spring Break. Doing things like eating good food and having fun with friends when, usually, they’d just be getting out of class around now.
It dawned on Taehyun, then, that his Spring Break was already half over but it hadn’t felt like he’d had much of a break at all. Ever since that day last week, when Yeonjun had kissed Taehyun on the mouth, it was like his vacation was doomed.
But doomed in a fun way, Taehyun decided. He smiled to himself as he felt a flutter of nerves in his stomach. His Spring Break had been catastrophic in a romantic way. Disastrous in a pretty way.
Any other day, such a contradiction would have confused him or even angered him but, today, Taehyun had finally accepted that being with Yeonjun meant that sometimes stuff wasn’t going to make any sense. And that was okay.
(How easily could Beomgyu pass that Galaxy Burger Challenge at the barbecue restaurant up the road? Would a meal that large be the one thing Beomgyu couldn’t conquer? Or would he wolf it down like it was nothing and get his photograph added to the Wall Of Fame?)
Yoongi continued, “It’s supposed to rain this evening. Weather folks are saying it’ll get really cold and windy so please be safe on your way home.” He paused and glanced off to his right. “Soobin? We’re over here, bud. Just give me thirty more seconds of your attention. I’m begging.” Then, turning back to the others, he seamlessly continued, “starting next month, there will be minor changes to our hours of operation. Don’t worry, it shouldn’t affect your hours too much but the morning crew might get mad at me.”
Taehyun breathed in, held it and then breathed back out again.
Now he remembered why his mind was all over the place. Now he remembered why he felt so wired that he couldn’t concentrate on what was right in front of him. He wanted to stay calm, focused and centered but it was really difficult. There was just a
lot
to think about! His brain practically sizzled from the strain of lassoing together all of his worries.
So many things could go wrong today. Just in the next half hour!
Yoongi might try to start things with Kai.
Kai might try to start things with Yeonjun, even though they claimed things were over.
Taehyun swallowed hard and wondered if Beomgyu and Soobin might try to start things with
him
, as rude and unfair as he’d been to them lately. As distant as he’d been from them.
And Jungkook… Oooh. Jungkook.
Kai and Jungkook were a packaged deal, weren’t they? Partners in crime. (Or… partners in crime prevention? Partners in… crime retaliation?) One was usually never too far from the other. And just because they were separated now didn’t mean they’d be separated for long. Taehyun was sure that Jungkook still held a lot of anger in him--a lot of antagonistic energy, if you will--and Taehyun wasn’t confident that his neck would last too long if he kept whipping his head around to stare at the restaurant’s front door every time the bell jangled.
His nerves wouldn’t be able to take it until the end of his shift. That was for sure.
Taehyun took another deep breath and focused on what was happening right in front of him. He was standing next to Yoongi at the quick meeting. He was Shift Lead. So he had to be calm and confident and act like a Leader of Shifts.
Which meant he should do things like nod vigorously in agreement whenever Yoongi said something about teamwork making the dream work. It meant saying, “Yes, exactly what he said,” when Yoongi looked over at him and asked, “Thoughts, Taehyun?” Being Shift Lead meant swallowing his nerves when he opened his mouth so that he wouldn’t make a stuttering fool of himself when he listed off the tasks that needed to be completed that afternoon. (“The roof leak has been fixed. We need to take turns moving all of the cleaning supplies back to the stockroom between the restrooms.”)
Being Shift Lead meant he had to grab hold of Soobin’s ear and pull hard on the older boy’s earlobe when Soobin turned around and paid more attention to Kai sitting on the other side of the restaurant than to Yoongi right across from him.
Being Shift Lead meant he had to sigh heavily every time he caught Yeonjun making silly faces at him behind Yoongi’s back.
Being Shift Lead meant he would have to keep an eye on the display case so that entire pies wouldn’t mysteriously go missing.
It was going to be quite a day.
🍽
One upbeat indie pop song turned into an upbeat country pop song which then turned into a slower synth pop song on the radio and, like that, ten minutes passed without too many customers coming in.
Taehyun spent five of those minutes showing Yeonjun how to operate the ice machine.
Taehyun spent three of those minutes jotting down a take-out order over the phone (two spicy kimchi noodle bowls with garlic, green onion and extra ginger and two tofu bowls with extra soft-boiled eggs on top and could they get a whole entire double chocolate cake with chocolate frosting? Like, the whole thing? Yeah? There’s one left? That’s sweet. Thanks, dude. Can you wrap it up in a nice box? How long will it be until you get here? Wait. You guys don’t deliver? You’ve never delivered? I have to come and pick it up? Nevermind then, dude. I gotta go.)
Taehyun spent forty seconds watching Soobin give uncharacteristically shy and furtive glances across the dining room towards Kai while he mopped up a grape soda spill between tables.
Then he spent twenty seconds watching Kai…
be nervous
? Gosh. They were wringing their fingers and bouncing their knee and peeking out through their curly bangs in Soobin’s direction, biting on their bottom lip.
He spent one minute coming up with a plan.
It was a plan of simple construction, if he said so himself. It wouldn’t take much pizzazz. Just a little bit of math. Some simple addition. Some Soobin plus Kai.
He crossed the restaurant to Beomgyu’s section in the center and sat a fresh glass of ice cold water on Kai’s table. “Why don’t you just… Now this might be some hard logic to follow so bear with me. Why don’t you just sit in Soobin’s section,” Taehyun wondered. He pointed with his ink pen across the dining room. “I can sit you over there. He’s got free tables.”
“I don’t know,” said Kai, biting back a laugh. “I’m scared to.”
It was kind of amazing, Taehyun thought, to see someone so strong and fierce and cool be… afraid. Especially when Kai had been talking all that big, confident game on the bus earlier. And it was even more amazing that Kai was afraid of the least frightening person on the planet! Taehyun said, “He’s not going to reject you. Trust and believe.”
Kai pressed the back of one hand to their blush-red cheek. “Maybe it’s because I know it’ll work out that’s got me so nervous.”
That didn’t make sense. If the goal was right there, why not just go for it? Taehyun opened his mouth to ask his favorite question,
What’s that supposed to mean?
Kai beat him to the punch. “Success can be nerve-wracking.”
“But isn’t it what you want,” asked Taehyun, genuinely confused.
“Listen. It’s not like being told you passed an exam you studied your butt off for. These are your
feelings
at stake.”
“What’s at stake? You like him. He likes you. Why are you afraid?” But as soon as Taehyun said it, as soon as the words were out of his mouth, he could understand things a little better. It was like the truth had been taught to him. Like a light switch had been flipped on, revealing everything. All of this time, everyone around him had been telling him not to be afraid of how things were going with Yeonjun. He liked Yeonjun. Yeonjun liked him. It should have been easy. Obvious. But he’d resisted out of fear. Out of some kind of out-there worry that he was being fooled. That magic was involved. That none of it was real. He had resisted because feelings were at stake.
And he wished that he’d given in far sooner. Yeonjun made him feel so happy. Even if he was absolutely awful at telling the boy that.
Taehyun stuck his pen behind his ear and then checked the inner pockets of his apron to make sure he had enough straws and napkins and sweetener packets stashed away. “I can just move you over a few tables. He can wait on you.”
“Just... give me another minute, will you,” Kai stressed. “I’m not used to taking more than ten steps into this place without getting shooed out.” They took their eyes off of Soobin to look up at Taehyun. “Haven’t always been welcomed here.”
“Ahh,” Taehyun said with a long, slow nod. “Makes sense. Sorry about that.”
“It’s… understandable,” said Kai. “You and Yoongi… You just wanted to hide the felon-- I mean, you just thought you were doing the right thing.”
“Yoongi didn’t give you any trouble, did he?”
Kai reached for the glass of water and raised it to their lips. “No.”
Yoongi vs. Kai. That had been one battle Taehyun had been expecting but didn’t actually get.
Yoongi had merely slapped a laminated menu down on Kai’s table and walked away with nothing more offensive than a grunt.
“Well, if you don’t want to go to his section, I can bring him over here to you,” Taehyun suggested. Now he knew what Soobin and Beomgyu felt all those days ago. He didn’t want Soobin and Kai to miss their chance. “I can just call him over. He’ll come running faster than the speed of sound. Watch.” He opened and sucked in a breath to demonstrate.
Kai stiffened like they were about to make a run for it. “Actually, I think I’d better go.”
This wasn’t going to go well. Taehyun refused to watch his fool-proof plan be absolutely dismantled by fools. He had to act quickly. And maybe a little recklessly. He boldly lied, “Yeonjun is having a pool party tonight.” There. That should do it.
Kai scrunched up their face. “Isn’t it way too cold to get in a pool?”
That wasn’t the point. Well, it was but it wasn’t at the same time.
“Just hold on.” Taehyun counted the seconds down in his head. Five… Four… Three… Two...
He heard the tell-tale squeak of shoes on the tile floor behind him. Closer than expected. Oof, if he didn’t move, he’d get
squashed
. Taehyun took a long step sideways to get out of harm’s way.
“Hey there, y’all,” Soobin sang out at the top of his lungs. He had been running too fast and couldn’t get all that height slowed down in time. He ran his hip right into the edge of the table and let out a pained wail.
“Soobin,” Taehyun cried out. “Gosh, are you okay?”
“I’m fine, I’m fine.” Soobin swatted Taehyun’s hands away. “I can’t even--ow ow ow ow!--I can’t even feel it.”
Kai stood up, concerned. They reached out a hand but hesitated a split second before placing it on Soobin’s shoulder. Kai asked, “Are you alright?”
There was no spell. Taehyun could tell by how normal the air felt, but the way Soobin’s face relaxed... the way the sunlight came in through the window at just the right angle to make Soobin’s eyes twinkle…?
Well, it may as well have been the most powerful magic.
“Trust me, I’m more than fine,” said Soobin, looking right into Kai’s eyes.
Kai smiled in relief and then moved as if to actually put their hand on Soobin’s shoulder.
It could have been a
moment
but Soobin sent things sideways by being himself. He slapped both of his big hands down on the table with enough force to make Kai jump backwards and to send the water in Kai’s glass sloshing over the rim. “What are you two talking about, huh?” Soobin hooked his eyes from Kai over to Taehyun. “I heard there’s a party.”
“There’s no party,” Taehyun said. He plucked a napkin from out of his apron and wiped up the pool of water. When one napkin wasn’t enough, he grabbed another.
“What? No
party
?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Soobin.”
“But I could have sworn I heard-”
“You heard wrong,” said Taehyun quickly. He looked over at Kai and then back up at Soobin. “Don’t you two have something super important to talk about?” And he didn’t wait to see the looks on either of their faces before he spun around and left them to the first few moments of their own story.
🍽
The only place to find Beomgyu when business slacked off was in the freezer.
Taehyun should have known.
His friend was all the way in the back. Past the little tubs where sprinklers kept the cucumbers and carrots and cabbage covered in a fine layer of mist. Past the plastic partition where it was quite a bit chillier and quite a bit noisier.
Taehyun poked his head around a tower of empty egg crates just in time to watch the boy bite into a slice of cherry pie. The same cherry pie, Taehyun noticed, that Beomgyu had nearly gotten away with eating at the start of their shift. “Hey,” he said, loud enough to make Beomgyu startle. “Did you ask Yoongi if you could eat that pie?” He pointed to the tray in Beomgyu’s hands where the half-finished pie didn’t stand a chance.
“Yes!” Beomgyu couldn’t be bothered to wipe the crispy golden flakes of pie crust off of his pink lips.
Really, Beomgyu could have at least had some ounce of shame and took just a few slices of the pie and put them on a plate. Instead, he’d brought the entire pie into the freezer on the serving tray it sat on in the display case, as if Beomgyu had absolutely no intentions of leaving even a crumb behind for customers.
Taehyun teased, “So if I go over to his office and ask him…”
“Taehyun, please,” Beomgyu whined. “Don’t tell the boss!” He lifted the same slice of pie to his mouth and took a bite. When he spoke, bits of pie crust leapt out of his mouth, “Can’t you look away just this once?”
Taehyun rolled his eyes. “You can’t
actually
think I’m going to snitch on you.”
Beomgyu looked down at his shoes. At least
that
got him to stop chewing. Or slow down. He took a smaller nibble of pie. He licked his lips afterward but still left a tiny smudge of cherry juice on his chin. “You... could.”
“I’m not that unfun,” Taehyun defended himself. Beomgyu looked up at him. The look on his face begged to differ. And his obvious doubt kind of hurt. “I could snitch but I won’t,” said Taehyun. “I owe you.”
Beomgyu looked up. “You… owe me? What for?”
Taehyun stepped forward. “For being such a butt.”
“A… what?”
“For being such a...” Taehyun sighed. He couldn’t stand looking at it without doing anything about it. He fished around in his apron in search of his napkins. He grabbed one, folded it in half and wiped the dark red smear of cherry juice off of Beomgyu’s face. “For being such a bad friend!”
That made Beomgyu’s eyes go wide. “Tae, when were you ever a bad friend?”
Really? Taehyun sputtered out, “Plenty of times!” He thought back on it, his brain easily supplying the sheer number of times he’d done something silly over the past week. “When I got short with you guys when you kept calling Yeonjun my boyfriend. But, really, that was before we actually started dating… Ummm. When I stopped talking to you guys and ditched ice cream night! When I got mad that you all were so excited about--” He looked around as if anyone would walk into the freezer to listen in on them. “--about us not being human.” What else what else what else what else? “When we were at the ox-bone soup place and I ruined lunch for everyone by handing Yeonjun over to the Wardens and then lying about it. When I--”
“Tae-Tae,” Beomgyu cut him off. “It’s okay.” He crammed more cherry pie in his mouth and chewed like his life depended on it.
Taehyun hadn’t realized how close to running out of breath he was until then. A bit more quietly, he asked, “Betraying Yeonjun is okay?”
“Ehh, I don’t know. I’m not an expert on Warden stuff. But all the other stuff? I’m an expert on that, though, and I can tell you--” He paused to take another bite of his pie. “--I can tell you that you’ve been a good friend to me.”
Taehyun bit his bottom lip. He suddenly couldn’t look right at Beomgyu so he busied himself by looking around the freezer. At the boxes that lined the far wall, full of fresh-caught fish and never-frozen beef. Shelves and shelves of chicken breast and pork belly and crab and shrimp and lobster tail. When Taehyun had aged about ten seconds and felt just a tad bit more mature, he looked back over at Beomgyu. “I’m sorry, pal. About everything.” He shivered. The low temperature in the freezer was starting to get to him. Starting to cover his arms in goosebumps. He reached out, grabbed hold of Beomgyu’s wrist and pulled his friend up to his feet. “Can I at least say that? I’m sorry. I pushed you all away and… I was super cranky and obnoxious. I lashed out and was mean on purpose. And so I want to say sorry. I don’t want you to hate me.”
“I don’t hate you,” said Beomgyu. “You’re a good friend, Tae-Tae and I get why you would be upset. We’ve been through a lot.”
He let Taehyun pull him out of the walk-in freezer, through the fridge and out into the warm back room where all of the dry ingredients sat. The jars of seasoning. The bags of rice and flour and sugar and yeast. The air was still thick with the scent of baked bread and caramel, like Taehyung was still back here somewhere baking pies even though his shift was over hours ago.
Beomgyu continued, “I’m not going to lie, all this magic stuff is still a surprise. I’m still not
used
to it. But how much of our lives has it really changed?” He laughed. “Not much, I don’t think. That’s why I keep acting like nothing’s different. Because nothing’s really different. I still have you guys. In fact, all this magic stuff just makes it more fun to be together, right? It makes it more fun to be friends.”
They stood there for a moment.
Beomgyu used the new quiet to start on another slice of pie. The next to last one. Taehyun heaved a sigh and ignored the very real urge to ask Beomgyu for a bite. “Let’s get back out to the floor,” he suggested. He at least had to pretend to be Shift Lead every now and then, right? They couldn’t spend the entire night slacking off. Even if things were slow. “Make sure you wipe your face and wash your hands before you leave from back here. That baseball game should be wrapping up soon. It’s going to be all hands on deck any minute now.” And, in a weird way, he was kind of looking forward to the rush.
“Got it,” said Beomgyu. Under his breath, like he didn’t really mean to say it aloud, he mumbled, “I should have grabbed that marble cake instead. What was I thinking? No, wait. I should have grabbed
both
. I could have snacked on both! Next time. Next time.” He turned to walk away.
🍽
Taehyun didn’t get much of a breather after that.
The crowd thickened around 5PM with the usual after-work rush. Apparently, it wasn’t close enough to the weekend for most people because many of them brought in their bad, strange attitudes.
The two girls from school who wanted to gush over Soobin quickly discovered that they could not wrestle Soobin’s attention away from Kai long enough to get his number and then took out their frustration on Taehyun with their constant nitpicking about their meals and demanding free dessert as compensation for ‘bad service’ whenever it took him longer than two seconds to respond to their rude hand waves and whistling.
A young rich-looking couple nearly got away with a staggeringly pricey dine-and-dash but Soobin, with his big ears, overheard them from across the dining room as they were talking about their plan to dip without paying the bill just in time for him to call Hoseok over before they could slip out.
Then a lady in some kind of freight shipping coverall uniform nearly brought Beomgyu to tears running him ragged back and forth to the noodle bar making minor adjustments to her order and then being increasingly dissatisfied with the changes Hoseok made to her dish.
Taehyun nearly cried out of frustration himself when she had attempted to rope Taehyun into things only to immediately turn around and play victim when he called her out on her behavior.
And all of that was before the baseball game rush Yoongi had warned them about!
The game let out at around 6:20PM. Maybe a bit later than that. Taehyun knew they were coming because the entire street outside filled and filled with loud and noisy game fans as they spilled out of the baseball stadium two blocks down. Their hoots and hollers and whistle-blowing turned their procession into a bit of a makeshift parade. Complete with someone banging rhythmically on a drum. Taehyun peered out of the restaurant’s windows and could see the fans and their jerseys and blue-and-yellow painted faces even when they were on the far side of the parking lot, marching towards the front doors like an enemy army about to smash down the castle gates.
Even knowing that the lobby was full and bustling, crammed with waiting patrons, Taehyun pushed through the authorized personnel only doors and gave himself a few seconds to not just gather his thoughts but to
sit down
. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d done it so he decided he was overdue for it.
And boy did he need it.
Boy did he need the quiet.
But… He wasn’t the only one back there.
“Sup,” said Yeonjun, leaning against the wall by the door like he’d been waiting for this moment.
“Hey,” Taehyun said, settling himself down onto a wobbly barstool.
“How are you feeling?”
“Miserable.”
“Can I help you feel not miserable?” Yeonjun tilted his head curiously. “You’re the one person in the world whose desires I can’t sniff out. You have to tell me.”
Taehyun didn’t have much experience being asked such a question so he answered it the best way he knew how. “Just stand there and let me look at you.”
Yeonjun must have thought it was a joke because he threw his head back to laugh. Or he would have laughed if he hadn’t bumped his head against the wall and shouted out in pain instead. Pain that melted into delight because he broke out in laughter.
“It’s what you get,” Taehyun snapped at him, but he was laughing too.
“It’s so funny.” Yeonjun pushed himself off of the wall and stepped across the tile towards Taehyun. He grabbed hold of Taehyun’s wrist. His skin was soft and warm and just a tad sticky. “I’ve been looking at you all evening but this feels like the first time I’ve really
seen
you tonight.”
It didn’t make a lick of sense but Taehyun still understood. “I know the feeling.”
Yeonjun didn’t have enough experience to run tables on his own yet so he occasionally shadowed Soobin or offered Beomgyu backup with larger parties. Most of the time, though, Yeonjun bussed tables, fetched clean glasses, mopped up spills and, if he was close to the counter when it happened, answered the phone for take-out orders. In other words, Yeonjun had been doing just as much running around as any other waiter and Taehyun couldn’t remember the last time he’d gotten a real good look at Yeonjun since Yoongi held the meeting at the start of the shift.
Taehyun said, “I missed you.” And he meant it. Looking at Yeonjun was like falling neck-deep into solace. He felt so calm and complete now.
Yeonjun grinned, almost in relief, and held on to Taehyun’s hand with both of his own. “I missed you too. Even though I’ve been with you for the past few hours.” He brought his face close to Taehyun’s. Quickly. Urgently.
Taehyun misunderstood. He let his eyes flutter closed and he tilted his head back as if to catch Yeonjun’s mouth with his own but the tricky fox boy just giggled and pressed their foreheads together instead.
Taehyun wanted to be mad about being duped, but… It felt good. Yeonjun was just so
solid
. Like an anchor holding Taehyun steady when the storm threatened to drag him out to sea.
Their closeness felt different. Real. Lighter now that there wasn’t anything dangerous or unknown attached to it. Lighter now that Taehyun was no longer trying to shoehorn his emotions into cold, unfeeling, logical boxes… Now that he was no longer convincing himself that magic was the only thing that tied the two of them together…
It wasn’t just magic or math (basic
or
advanced!) There were feelings at stake. And Taehyun was finally letting himself feel things. He was finally running towards those feelings instead of away from them.
Taehyun asked, hopefully, “Sing with me?” Like they’d done before.
“Of course,” said Yeonjun. “Always. Always. Come on. Over here.” He gently pulled Taehyun up onto his feet and then, keeping their foreheads together, he began to hum.
At first, it was just sound. Really low and quiet like he was uncertain. Like he was nervous.
Taehyun wrapped an arm up around Yeonjun’s neck to pull him just a tad bit closer. It was marvelous how well he could
feel
Yeonjun relax. Every muscle in his back uncoiling. Unspooling.
Yeonjun began to rock them back and forth in a side-to-side slow dance as he hummed with a bit more volume and confidence.
It was like the first time. On the outdoor patio with the birds singing and watching. With the trees playing along.
Yeonjun began to hum a melody. Randomly, it seemed--bouncing from note to note--but as Yeonjun’s voice vibrated across his skin, Taehyun was absolutely positive that he knew how the song went. Knew the sequence of the notes. Knew the tempo. He was so positive, in fact, that he started humming the harmony. Matching notes and octave changes even though he had never heard the song before. Even though Yeonjun was making it up as he went along.
The exhilaration hummed through him about as strongly as Yeonjun’s voice did. He didn’t know how he was doing it. He didn’t understand how the two of them could match so perfectly. Yet even when Yeonjun tried to trick him with a high note, Taehyun knew it was coming somehow and their voices blended. Their song seemed to vibrate up the walls and across the ceiling. The air itself sang along, morphing their little duet into a symphony.
Yeonjun was the first to properly open his mouth and
sing
.
His tone was crystal clear. Beautiful and bell-like. It sounded yellow, Taehyun imagined. Bright and crisp.
Taehyun could
feel
the music in the air. He could feel the magic melting everything else away and leaving only the two of them together in that beautiful moment. He was so in the moment that he opened his mouth and sang the
words
to the song they were making together. His voice was strong and high and bold. It sounded blue, he thought. Smooth. Dreamy. Like clouds.
The combined sound of their voices thrummed through him. Down to his bones. Down to his toes. He felt the magic stir the air, felt their voices mix and mix until the back room brightened with mystical green light. Shining beyond anything he could imagine. Making a breeze circle around them even though they were indoors and there were no open doors or windows.
Yeonjun gently cupped Taehyun’s face in his hands, his brown eyes open despite their close proximity. Although he was singing, Taehyun felt like he knew what Yeonjun was thinking.
So he sang those feelings.
He didn’t know how he knew the lyrics. He wasn’t sure if he was making them up or if they were coming from someplace deep down inside of him. But Taehyun knew them so... he sang them. Over and over, higher and louder in a marvelous refrain.
And then Yeonjun pulled back.
Not suddenly. Not out of surprise or fear or anger. Not because he wanted the moment to end. He just… pulled back. Slightly, slightly, slightly. And distance filled the gap between them as their song came to an end.
Yeonjun was so beautiful. So handsome. His fox ears were sticking out of his red-brown hair and his teeth were a little pointy and his eyes were kind of
on fire
with old magic. And he looked into Taehyun’s eyes and he smiled and smiled.
“I love you too,” Taehyun said. And he meant it.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
It was not the weekend--not even close, not even by a long shot--but after a hell shift like that one, the waiter boys had taken approximately 9.75 seconds to unanimously decide that it was still close enough to Friday to retry the whole ‘we somehow made it through another week’ celebratory ice cream thing. They had to keep the tradition alive, apparently, and (according to Beomgyu) were contractually obligated to double the amount of ice cream consumed to make up for skipping last week. Oh, and there was still that new flavor to try out.
No more trying to ditch, Beomgyu had insisted, or they’d drag Taehyun kicking and screaming.
They
had
to go as three or not at all, Soobin had declared. No wait, they were four now. No wait! There were
five
of them!
All the more reason to make it special.
Beomgyu refused to give Taehyun permission to skip out on tonight but, really, Taehyun wouldn’t miss such a thing for the world. He missed his friends. He hung out with them all the time, it seemed, but he still missed them. Being off the clock made a huge difference. There weren’t customers to tend to or Yoongi’s strict guidelines to abide by and there wasn’t Hoseok’s steely gaze to duck under. It was just… easier to have fun like this. And with the majority of Spring Break behind him, Taehyun realized he probably wouldn’t have too much more time to casually hang out with his friends once school kicked back into gear. Sure, he’d probably run into Yeonjun and Soobin in the halls and share a table with them at lunch but Beomgyu went to the small charter school on the other side of town. And did Kai even
go
to school? Was going to school something Wardens even had to
do
?
“Stop looking at me like that,” Taehyun complained, “I’m not going to ditch you guys again.”
“You never know. You’re crafty,” said Beomgyu. “Wily. Shifty.”
“And prone to running away like a skittish deer,” Soobin added. To prove his point, he swung an arm out in Taehyun’s direction as if to swat him in the chest but Taehyun leaped backwards to avoid it.
They were standing just outside the restaurant doors. The warm glow of the interior lights spilling out through the windows onto the sidewalk and making the air a little hazy and yellow around them.
“I’ve gotta keep my eye on you,” Beomgyu stated. He hooked two fingers towards his own eyes and then flicked his wrist and pointed them in Taehyun’s direction. “You can’t use the boyfriend excuse because your boyfriend is here.”
Yeonjun raised his hand like he was being called on for class attendance.
“I’m not ditching,” Taehyun reiterated.
Soobin clamped his big hand down on Yeonjun’s shoulder. “You can’t go anywhere either, you hear? No getting carted off by the Wardens again.”
Yeonjun snorted. “They aren’t exactly the best at catching foxes.”
“Umm. We caught you,” said Kai.
“I let myself be caught,” corrected Yeonjun. “After a whole two months of staying out of your clutches. I mean, it’s really easy to throw you Wardens off my tail.”
Kai furrowed their eyebrows. “You’re a nine-tailed fox! Why would the Wardens ever have to catch one of you? You
are
the Wardens!”
A tense moment of silence.
Yeonjun spoke up, “Maybe if the Wardens just accepted my apology instead of putting a bounty on my head--”
Kai said, “You
did
do something kind of stupid.”
“But everything turned out okay. You said you were fine with it.”
“I can say whatever I want but I’m no one’s boss. I just work here.”
“Let’s talk about what’s really important,” Beomgyu interrupted. “Food. Food is really important. Let’s talk about food.”
Taehyun nodded in agreement. “Yes. Let’s.” He had thought the two of them had made peace.
“Everybody makes mistakes,” Soobin pointed out. “I don’t want you guys to argue and fight over it.”
“Let’s just eat ice cream,” Taehyun spoke up. He was about to do something silly like offer to pay for that ice cream but then he remembered the crowd he was in. The company he was keeping. The pack he was a part of. “I’ll buy the ramen.” Because that would be very cheap. “Let’s just hurry and claim our usual spot by the window.” And, with that, he led the way across the restaurant parking lot.
The others clustered behind him and followed him around the parked cars and restaurant signs and street lamps.
It was just around sunset.
A month ago, it would have already been dark around this time of night, stars dotting the sky and the moon hanging high in the sky, but now there was still a hazy layer of yellow in the corners of the sky as the sun took its sweet time dipping below the trees.
On the horizon, reaching up and up towards the sky, was the shadow of the mountain. Taehyun could see the tiny yellow lights of all the houses out there. One of those lights belonged to Granny Sohn and her restaurant. He wondered how simple it would be to get everyone back on the mountain, back up to the ox-bone soup place. He didn’t really enjoy his food last time. The guilt of handing Yeonjun over had made it salty. He’d like to have another meal. Have another good go at it.
Taehyun realized his friends were still chatting away.
“...thought it was a great movie,” Soobin was saying. “That one part where they danced together at prom? It was so sweet. I want a moment like that. I want to go to prom. I want to slow dance with someone.”
Beomgyu, on the other hand, didn’t feel half as sentimental, “The movie would have been so much better if they didn’t shove so many couples in it.”
Soobin rebutted, “But would as many people have watched it without so many cute pairings?”
“They should! The script was actually pretty great. But there wouldn’t have been as many plot holes if so much screen time wasn’t devoted to that boring dude with the bad hair.”
Taehyun wasn’t sure what movie they were talking about. He didn’t watch too many movies.
Yeonjun joined in the discussion. “I like a good, sweet romance.”
“With plenty of cheese,” Taehyun added, almost without thinking.
“Cheese is the best.” Yeonjun bumped his shoulder up against Taehyun’s. “You love it.”
“Maybe. Possibly. There’s a small chance,” said Taehyun, looking up at the slowly-darkening sky to keep Yeonjun from seeing how hard he was blushing.
By then, they had reached the far side of the parking lot. Even as they left the place, more and more cars and throngs of people began to crowd into the lot. The restaurant was probably packed from one wall to the other by now but Taehyun merely chuckled at the fact that all of this was the evening shift crew’s problem now. Since Beomgyu was now in front, he led the way down the sidewalk, down the hill towards the convenience store. Even from this distance, they could all see how brightly lit the building was, a beacon shining in the purplish shadows of dusk. Glowing about as yellow as the low-hanging moon in the sky.
“Whew, it’s cold,” Yeonjun announced. As if they all weren’t crossing their arms over their chests to block the chill in the wind. “I need to warm up.” He had apparently forgotten to wear a jacket to work and was now suffering in his short-sleeved shirt.
“Sounds like a you problem,” Taehyun told him.
“Really? I thought it was an us problem?” That smirk of his tugged at the corner of his lips.
Taehyun narrowed his eyes at him. “You weren’t cold when you left your house for work?” He still remembered how breathless the wind had made him. Like being punched in the chest. He recalled how he’d rushed back home to grab his heavy jacket. The one with the faux-fur on the hood. “I nearly froze my butt off!”
Yeonjun shivered so hard that Taehyun could hear his teeth chatter. “The sun was out. It was warmer then!”
Warmer, yeah, but not
warm
. “Don’t tell me you’re the type to bust out the shorts and flip-flops once the temperature gets over a certain amount.”
“You got me.”
“It’s not summer yet.”
Yeonjun stepped close. He wrapped his arms around Taehyun’s small waist which would have been harmless, but then his hands purposefully snaked beneath the material of Taehyun’s jacket and then, boldly, found their way beneath the hem of Taehyun’s shirt.
Taehyun squealed. “What is your
problem
?” He tried to spin away from Yeonjun’s frozen fingertips pressing into his skin.
“They’ll warm up soon. Just stay still.” Yeonjun tightened his grip to hold his boyfriend still which only made Taehyun shriek in dramatic agony at the temperature difference.
Soobin watched their shenanigans with a sparkle in his eye. “You guys are so cute. Yeonjun, you should have invited us to a pool party so much sooner!”
Thank goodness. Yeonjun was distracted enough by the question for Taehyun to pull free of his icy grasp. “Huh? Why?” Yeonjun said.
“I could have been so much cooler by now. So much more popular.”
Taehyun rolled his eyes. “I thought you were going to say something about me and him getting together sooner.”
Yeonjun told him, “If you weren’t such a scaredy-cat, we could have been.”
Beomgyu tsked. “Last week was a freak hot spell. If we had that little get together thing a week or two before then, we all would have frozen our butts off in that water. I don’t handle being sick very well. I’m completely immovable. Can’t eat anything.”
That made Taehyun perk up. Under his breath, he said, “I’d love to see that.”
“You don’t have much of a butt to freeze off so I think you’ll be okay,” said Soobin.
That made Kai snicker.
The cheery sound nearly startled Taehyun because he had forgotten Kai was even there, following behind them a pace or two slower.
Taehyun used his shoulder to push Yeonjun closer to the edge of the sidewalk, creating a wide space in the center of their group for Kai to occupy. “Sorry. We weren’t trying to shut you out.”
Kai took the invitation, picked up their pace and made a space for themselves between Beomgyu and Taehyun. “Thanks,” they said. “It’s… It’s okay. Being a Warden, I tend to disappear.”
“You’ll fit in real soon,” said Soobin. Even beneath the strongly angled lighting of the street lamps they walked under, it was obvious that his entire face was turning red. “I mean… If you want to keep hanging with us, you can. If you want to get… closer...”
“I do,” said Kai with a smile. “It’s just that I don’t really get to talk with others too much. Always being on assignment, and all. Jungkook’s always on his phone.”
Soobin waved a hand dismissively. “If you want to say something, just jump in and say it. We don’t mind. Even shy, soft-spoken Taehyun learned to put some volume in his voice when he started hanging out with us.”
“I’m not shy,” Taehyun huffed. “You two just never stop talking!”
“No. You never used to
want
to talk with us,” said Beomgyu. “You were always quick to say that we weren’t friends and that we were just coworkers.”
Yeonjun laughed. The sound was high and sweet. Like a sugar rush. “Oh, are you saying Taehyun used to be even
more
standoffish?”
“The grumpiest,” Soobin agreed. “I always heard him mumbling and complaining.”
Yeonjun reached over and pinched Taehyun’s cheek. “That’s so cute!”
“Oh, stop.” Taehyun swatted his hand away.
Kai attempted to try out the whole just-leap-in conversation technique. “And did it get any easier, Taehyun?”
“Yeah,” Taehyun told them. “Well, Soobin was going to make me his friend regardless so I kinda gave in to him.”
Soobin took it as a compliment. He beamed from ear to ear. “I could tell you wanted to be my friend from the beginning.”
Kai tried jumping in again. “And me? You seemed pretty adamant about getting to know me.”
“From the moment I first saw you,” said Soobin in a shockingly serious tone.
“Even though we were on opposite sides? Even though I was trying to catch your friend?”
Soobin said, “Were we really on opposite sides?”
Kai looked over at Soobin only to discover Soobin was already staring hard at them.
“Oh, don’t make me stand between the giants,” Beomgyu complained. “They’re just ogling each other over my head. Now I feel like a shrimp!” He grabbed the sleeve of Kai’s leather jacket and did some spinning move so that the two of them switched places, forcing Kai shoulder-to-shoulder with Soobin. “There. Better.” Beomgyu released his grip on Kai’s sleeve then raised his hand to pat Taehyun on the top of his head. “Now I don’t feel so short.”
“Ha ha, very funny,” Taehyun grumbled. Maybe a week ago, he would have been agitated by a remark related to his height. Now he didn’t mind as much. He was grateful that he was vertically challenged compared to his friends. He liked getting up on his tiptoes to kiss Yeonjun. He couldn’t do that if he were taller.
Yeonjun slipped his chilled hand into the front pocket of Taehyun’s coat. He interlocked their fingers and squeezed tight. This time, Taehyun didn’t startle at the cold. He just squeezed Yeonjun’s hand until he felt his boyfriend’s fingers grow warm tangled between his own.
The five of them were at the bottom of the hill now and had to wait for quite a bit of traffic to clear before they could cross the street and approach the sliding glass doors of the convenience store.
Inside, the bright blue-white lighting bleached the color out of everything and made all of the shadows flatten out. The floor had been freshly waxed, polished to an almost mirror shine. Before the doors had even shut behind them, the girl working the cash register called out to them in greeting only to scrunch her face up in confusion at the fact that they were in here on a day that wasn’t Friday. Maybe part of that confusion was also at the fact that they had brought along two new faces. Soobin cheerily returned her greeting while Beomgyu asked to make sure they still had that new flavor in stock.
“We’ve been sold out since last weekend,” she told him, but then quickly added, “but we just unboxed a new shipment today. It’s a hit!”
“Oh, I’m glad you have some,” Beomgyu sighed. “The walk was worth it.” There was a possibility he would have turned around and walked back out of the store if they didn’t have any. “Someone go claim a table. Quick. Go, go, go.”
They seemed to be the only customers in the store at the moment but Yeonjun volunteered to circle past the self-serve coffee bar and sit down at one of the bright green tables used by customers who wanted to heat up and slurp down their food right after they’d purchased it.
Beomgyu and Soobin raced each other to the back of the sales floor to the refrigerated section while Kai, in much less of a hurry, joined Yeonjun at the table.
Taehyun watched them for a moment, warily. He was still hesitant about leaving Kai and Yeonjun alone together considering everything that had happened, but when Yeonjun cracked a joke and got Kai laughing, Taehyun decided he could relax.
He looked around.
Aisles of neatly-arranged food products were lined up in front of him. Loaves of bread and packages of half-dozen bagels were on aisle one, fruity candy and gummy bears and sour worms were on aisle two, chocolate bars and salted cashews and flavored popcorn were on aisle three, seaweed chips and cheese crackers and granola bars were on aisle four while about thirty different flavors of cup ramen were wedged onto the shelves of aisle five.
There was a distinct
lack
of magic here.
Taehyun could sense that, now that he knew what it was to look out for.
None of the food here was made on or around the mountain. All of it was processed and artificial. Shipped in from very far away. He would have felt right at home here a week ago, before he even knew magic was a
thing
, but after everything that happened, after all that he’d been through during Spring Break, he felt completely out of place here. As if the sterile, loveless energy here was no longer a perfect match for him.
But… Everyone needed a break from magic every now and then.
Right?
Taehyun circled up and down the aisle and grabbed everyone’s favorite flavors of cup ramen: spicy seafood medley for himself, kimchi for Soobin, and hearty chicken and mushroom for Beomgyu. He almost walked up to the check-out counter before he remembered that there were two others to think of. He turned back around and, unsure of their tastes, hovered on the safe side when he picked lime chili shrimp for Yeonjun and classic beef for Kai.
Now
he could walk up to the check-out counter.
Soobin and Beomgyu had gotten ahead of him in line and Taehyun peered around Soobin’s broad back to look at their choices. Soobin had grabbed his usual dairy-free ice cream sandwich and had also picked up Taehyun’s favorite rocket ship popsicles. “The waffle cone is for Kai,” he explained when he spotted Taehyun curiously snooping. “And I got your boyfriend a rainbow sherbet because I just feel like that’s right.”
“Yeah, that feels like him,” agreed Taehyun.
Beomgyu, on the other hand, had gotten about eight ice cream bars of various flavors. All of them clearly for him and his astonishing appetite.
With their snacks paid for (and after Beomgyu shot a flirty one-liner at the clerk), they all hustled to the table in the corner.
Soobin passed out the cheap, disposable chopsticks the shop clerk had handed him while Taehyun slid everyone their cups of ramen.
Beomgyu dumped his hoard of ice cream on the table and arranged them in the order he was going to eat them in.
Kai said, “I can’t remember the last time I had ice cream.”
This was clearly blasphemy. Beomgyu shrieked, “What?”
“On patrol, it’s best to eat things that don’t melt and get all over the place,” Kai explained. They vaguely motioned in the direction of their leather jacket.
“Still,” said Soobin, “to go so long without ice cream? I can’t imagine. Even a week would be tough.”
“Well, if I was allergic, I wouldn’t have a choice.”
Soobin bellowed, “You’re
allergic
?”
“No,” Kai said quickly, raising a placating hand. “You misunderstood. I mean, people with allergies can’t eat what they’re allergic to. Right? Whether it’s really good food or not. They have to miss out.”
“Wow,” mumbled Beomgyu. “I don’t want to think about that.”
Taehyun draped his jacket across a nearby table and went to the self-serve coffee bar. He grabbed the electric kettle off of its dock, popped the lid to make sure the water in it was bubbling hot and then rejoined the others at the table as they peeled the lids off their ramen cups, talking excitedly. Having done this dozens of times before over the months--and ignoring the feeling that he was still stuck at work--Taehyun poured boiling water into each ramen cup while Kai set a timer for four and a half minutes on their phone.
Everything happened so smoothly. Like clockwork. As if this was how things were supposed to be.
Taehyun returned the kettle to the dock and then squeezed onto the bench seat between Yeonjun and Beomgyu. He hadn’t even gotten completely settled before Yeonjun was pressing close to him and clamping a hand down on Taehyun’s knee. Taehyun looked up at him and Yeonjun smiled down at him. Easy. Simple. Clean.
Taehyun grinned.
You’re a menace
, he wanted to say, but he couldn’t bring himself to spoil the moment. “I’m glad.”
Yeonjun’s smile widened, showing off slightly pointy teeth. “Why?”
I’m glad I met you, Taehyun thought. I’m glad I realized that my feelings are my feelings and not one of your spells. “Just because.”
Yeonjun clamped his fingers down just a tad harder around Taehyun’s knee. A reassuring squeeze. “You make me happy too, you know.” And he was so handsome. There was that little sparkle in his eye coming from the overhead lights and his cheeks were a little pink and his lips twitched like he was fighting back the biggest smile, the brightest laugh.
Taehyun wanted to drink up that smile. Take bites out of that barely-hidden laugh. He leaned forward, closing what little distance there was between them, and rubbed their noses together.
Yeonjun
did
laugh. Soft and sweet. His warm breath billowed across Taehyun’s face, smelling faintly of bubble gum.
“Blegh,” Beomgyu commented. “If you’re going to kiss while we’re eating, go to another table.”
Yeonjun laughed harder then. Hard enough that he had to pull back and turn away, fist raised up to his mouth as a coughing fit took over.
Taehyun spun around to face his friend. “We weren’t kissing.”
“You were close,” Beomgyu said. He snapped apart his wooden chopsticks.
“You’re the main one who kept putting us together. Remember?”
“Whatever. It’s time to eat,” said Beomgyu. Then, as if he’d been counting down the very seconds, Kai’s phone alarm went off and everyone peeled the lids off of their ramen and began eating.
Taehyun snapped apart his own chopsticks, quietly fuming when they did so unevenly, and then slurped up his first mouthful. The noodles weren’t as thick or as chewy as what Yoongi spent the early hours of each day making at the restaurant. They weren’t bad, just different. Thinner. Tougher. Less textured. The broth wasn’t as thick and heavy but it also wasn’t as salty, as spicy. It was a lighter and easier taste.
He looked over at Beomgyu who had already finished his first mouthful and was twirling up another scoop of noodles to shovel into his mouth. When he raised it to his lips, he just sort of opened his jaw wide and
inhaled
. Maybe he swallowed it all in one gulp? It was hard to tell. The thought was fascinating and terrifying at once.
Taehyun chewed his food. Deliberately. Then he hooked his eyes towards Yeonjun who scooped up a more manageable serving before noisily slurping it into his mouth, broth dripping across his chin.
Taehyun glanced across the table at Soobin who had pushed his cup noodles out of his way in favor of starting on his ice cream sandwich, taking a generous bite.
“So what’s a guy gotta do to become a Tier Three criminal around here,” Soobin asked Kai casually, as if he were only inquiring about the time of day.
Kai stared at him, taken aback. Their chopsticks stilled in their hand. “What?”
“Soobin,” Taehyun chastised from across the table.
“What,” Soobin wondered. “I’m just asking.” He took another bite of his ice cream sandwich and, mouth full, continued with, “Do I have to cause irreparable damage to an official Warden building?”
Kai didn’t answer him. Probably because they thought the question was rhetorical.
Apparently, Soobin actually needed an answer. “Do I have to trespass into a high-security location? Do I have to break a one-of-a-kind item?”
Slowly, Kai asked, “Why do you want to know?”
“I want you to come after me.”
Kai went pale. Then got a little red.
Beomgyu dropped his chopsticks and nearly choked on his food. He had to slam a hand against his chest.
“Being a criminal isn’t fun,” Taehyun broke the silence.
“I don’t know. It’s kind of enjoyable,” Yeonjun contradicted. “You’re constantly looking over your shoulder. You’re attending school to keep your alibi together. You’re asking friends to help cover you when you have to go out and cover your tracks.”
“You’re pressuring innocent bystanders into looking after your immortal heart in case you get killed when you’re caught,” Taehyun added bitterly.
“And then you get a cute boyfriend at the end of it. It’s a win-win,” Yeonjun said without missing a beat. “Being on the run… It really gets the blood pumping. Really connects you to the animal inside.”
Of course, Soobin took in all of this information with the widest smile and the deepest dimples, his eyes scrunching up from how widely he was grinning. “Sounds delightful.”
“Sounds horrible,” Taehyun said. “Why would you want to spend your days running and hiding?”
Soobin shrugged, “Why wouldn’t I? You do it all of the time so it’s got to be easy.”
“You know,” said Kai, “you could just ask me to romantically pursue you. Why would you
want
me to put you in handcuffs?”
There was a cold, awkward silence.
The quiet was broken only by Beomgyu picking up his chopsticks again and scooping the last of his ramen into his mouth. Then, to get to the rest of the broth, he tilted his head back and upturned the ramen cup.
How could he be done already? Taehyun had only just swallowed his first mouthful!
Soobin still didn’t seem to catch on to the fact that he was sending their conversation so far sideways. “Okay, okay, fine. How about I become a Tier Two criminal instead? Is that more manageable? Yes, yes. That way I’ll be wanted but only alive and not dead. Hmmm. Let me make a list of suitable crimes. I think magical artifact theft is one of them.” With his free hand, he patted his pockets. Seemingly for his phone. When he discovered that it was trapped in the front pocket of his jeans, he dropped his ice cream sandwich into his cup ramen to free up a hand to dig his phone out.
“What are you doing,” Kai screeched.
“Gotta get my phone,” Soobin answered. “Going to open up the notes app and ask Yeonjun for pointers on--”
Kai interrupted, “No. I mean…” They pointed at Soobin’s cup ramen. “What are you doing?”
Soobin didn’t get it. “Eating?” He wrenched his phone out of his pocket and tapped away at the screen. “So, Yeonjun, how did you do it? How’d you get to Tier Two?”
“I was never Tier Two.” Yeonjun propped his elbows up on the table, eager to be questioned and idolized. “They jumped me from Tier One straight to Tier Three the second I left my Warden badge behind. Apparently you can’t do that without filling out the proper paperwork.”
“There’s so much paperwork,” Kai said offhandedly.
Soobin typed away, as if this were an exclusive interview and he needed to record every detail. “So when they took you away, what happened?”
“They read me my rights--or rather my lack of rights--and then hauled me down the mountain.”
“That was the day at Granny Sohn’s, right? They got you pretty quick.”
Yeonjun’s smile faltered just a tad. “If you do something wrong, you’ve got to own up to it. Right?”
Kai reached for Soobin’s cup ramen and visibly debated on whether or not to pull the ice cream sandwich out of the steaming broth. Evidently, they decided against it and dropped their hand back to their lap. “You could have just sat it on a napkin.”
“Hmmm?” Soobin looked up from his phone.
Kai pointed at the cup ramen.
Soobin followed their extended finger. Apparently, he didn’t quite catch on.
Taehyun did, though. “If you’re wondering how he even makes it through the day, we don’t know either.”
“You guys are weird.” Soobin focused his attention on Yeonjun again. “Where did the Wardens take you when they arrested you? Prison? What’s prison like? Is the soap any good? Are the beds comfortable?”
“They took me to the tower. Prison is humid and poorly lit. The soap is fantastic. Made with coconut oil, I think. And there are no beds for the Tier Threes.”
Taehyun couldn’t help but be curious despite how much he wanted the conversation to end. “What tower? Granny Sohn told me that she followed you guys and found out where they’d taken you. But what tower? There aren’t any in town.”
“There aren’t,” Yeonjun said. “But there is one outside of town. Kinda. Sorta. Well, there used to be.”
Beomgyu spoke up, starting on his first ice cream bar. “Oh, that thing on the far side of the lake? Half of it fell over during that storm a few years back. On a good day when the weather’s clear, I can see it from my house. It used to be so pretty.”
Taehyun bit his bottom lip. If he’d just told his friends the deal from the start, perhaps he could have gotten their help. He looked up at Yeonjun. “If I had known,” he said, “I would have gone there and gotten you out. Set you free. I swear.”
Kai made a disapproving noise at the back of their throat. “Then you’d have been a Tier Three criminal as well.”
“Two hearts outrunning the law,” said Soobin. He propped his chin on his hand and sighed dreamily. “How romantic.”
“You’ve got a pretty weird definition of romantic,” said Beomgyu.
“Right?” Taehyun joined in.
“What would be even more romantic is if you became a Warden,” Beomgyu kept on, “and then the two of you caught Tier Three criminals together.”
“Oh, you’re right. That sounds way more epic,” said Soobin.
“The Wardens actually have rules about such fraternization,” Kai shot their idea down.
“I’m pretty sure there are rules about Warden/criminal relationships as well,” Taehyun guessed.
Soobin huffed, his dream shattered.
“Just start the romance the old fashioned way,” Yeonjun suggested. He placed his hand on Taehyun’s shoulder. “Just say hey to them every day and wait patiently for them to say hey back.”
That made Soobin roll his eyes. “Boring. Where’s the
drama
?”
“It’s sitting in your ramen,” Kai screeched suddenly. They reached across the table and pointed to the ice cream sandwich going soggy on top of Soobin’s noodles.
Soobin looked down and finally saw what was causing Kai such great distress. “Oh, it’s okay. It’s all going to the same place, isn’t it?”
Beomgyu raised his second ice cream bar to his mouth. “Digestion can’t tell the difference.”
“But it’s
touching
,” wailed Kai.
“It’s touching inside your stomach,” Yeonjun pointed out.
“But you can
see
it mixing together,” Kai stressed. They grabbed the ramen cup and tilted it so that the others could clearly see the ice cream melting across the top of the noodles.
“It mixes together inside,” said Soobin calmly, as if he couldn’t believe Kai didn’t know that. “So who cares if it mixes together outside?” To make matters worse, he pulled the ice cream sandwich out of his ramen and, with half of it brownish orange from ramen broth, raised it towards his mouth.
Kai’s entire face screwed up. “Don’t! Please don’t.”
Soobin bit into it and chewed.
“No,” Kai yelled, high and loud.
“It’s not a big deal,” Beomgyu reasoned, shoving more ice cream into his mouth. “Food is food. Even if it mixes together a little.”
Kai shook their head, disgusted by the very idea. “I can’t be the only one grossed out by that.”
“You aren’t,” said Taehyun. He leaned across the table just to get a better look. “That just looks gross. Soobin, how can you eat that?”
“Like this,” Soobin exclaimed. He dunked his ice cream sandwich back into his ramen like it was some kind of dipping sauce and then--
“Stop it!”
--took another bite of it.
Both Kai and Taehyun squirmed yet neither of them seemed to be able to take their eyes off the mushy, discolored sight as it was squashed between Soobin’s big teeth.
“Soobin, you’re…” Taehyun started. He scrambled to find the words. “You’re really something.”
“Thanks,” said Soobin. An idea hit him. “You guys should try it. The ice cream mellows out the spiciness.”
“No thanks,” said Kai, turning their face away when Soobin held out the ice cream sandwich towards them.
“I’d rather not,” said Taehyun, when Soobin held it across the table towards him.
Even Yeonjun raised a hand and shook his head.
“I’ll take a bite,” Beomgyu said. He was already sitting up.
“Here. Bite it off that corner. It sat in the ramen the longest.” Soobin lifted the ice cream sandwich towards his mouth and Beomgyu bit it in half and chewed.
They all sat and stared and waited as, for the first time in his life, Beomgyu took his time chewing. He swallowed and then smacked his lips. “Not bad, actually.”
“See,” Soobin said. “I have great tastes.”
“I’m not so sure about that,” Taehyun said quickly. Soobin was the type to say that ketchup was spicy only to turn around and snack on raw jalapenos like they were candy.
Kai just had to ask, “Is he like this all of the time?”
“Yes,” Yeonjun, Taehyun and Beomgyu said in perfect unison.
Surprisingly, that made Kai smile a little. No. It made Kai smile a lot. They giggled. “Good.”
The pleasant vibes couldn’t last too long, it seemed.
The electronic bell above the convenience store’s sliding doors sounded as someone came in. The first other customer to arrive since they entered.
That wasn’t too out of the ordinary in and of itself but what was odd was that the customer made a beeline straight for their table, heavy boots thumping and squeaking on the shiny tile floor.
Everyone looked up to see Jungkook standing next to their table, his entire face hardened and lemon-sour.
Almost out of reflex, Kai stood up, ready to stop things.
Jungkook pointed across the table at Yeonjun. In a gravelly voice, he hissed, “You. Me. Outside. Now.” Then, in an even lower voice, he added, "We're finishing this."
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
As promised, Jungkook moved to take the fight outside. He also took Yeonjun along with him by grabbing a fistful of the man’s shirt and
pulling
.
It all happened quite quickly.
One moment, Yeonjun was sitting next to Taehyun. The next, he was no longer in his seat at all and was being dragged up and away from the table, shoes squeaking on the convenience store tile as he struggled in Jungkook’s grip.
Jungkook growled, “I’ve had enough of you.” His eyes got a little greenish beneath the sterile white lights of the store. He tugged on Yeonjun’s shirt with a bit more vigor.
“Hey, this is my one good work shirt,” complained Yeonjun loudly, grinning despite how roughly Jungkook was handling him. “Do you know how few shirts with buttons I own?” He flashed the convenience store employee a theatrical wink to dissuade her from reaching for the off-white phone on the counter. He turned back to Jungkook. “Don’t stretch out the collar!”
That got a chuckle out of Soobin and a snicker out of Beomgyu but it only got an annoyed grunt out of Jungkook. “I’m going to wipe that smug smirk off of your face once and for all,” the Warden said. The electronic bell chimed as the glass doors slid open and then Jungkook really was
taking Yeonjun outside
.
Wait. “Yeon--!” The name died as a squeak in his throat as Taehyun jumped up in fright.
It was like being on the mountain again, watching Yeonjun be carried away from him. Taken from him. He couldn’t handle the thought of being separated from his love a second time. He had just gotten used to having his love back. He had just gotten used to being in love.
“Yeonjun,” he tried again.
Yeonjun responded by winking at him and holding up his fingers in the ‘ok’ sign, even as he vanished outdoors.
For several long seconds, Taehyun stared at the slowly closing doors. He half expected Yeonjun to walk back in, shouting ‘Sup?’ as if the last few terrifying seconds had been another of his many pranks.
But then the silence dragged on long enough for Taehyun to realize that this was no joke.
He turned back to face his friends, wide-eyed and shaky with adrenaline. “Shouldn’t we do something?” Soobin and Beomgyu had resumed eating their snacks, Soobin and his ice cream ramen, Beomgyu and the last few bites of his coconut ice cream bar. Taehyun shouted, “Hey!” Because why was no one else moving? Why wasn’t anyone else concerned? “I think Jungkook’s serious about hurting him.”
Soobin, mouth half full, gasped in such a dramatic fashion that it
had
to be his genuine reaction. “Why, that’s terrible,” he declared, holding a hand over his mouth. “Jungkook’s such an
unfriendly
guy.” Coming from anyone else, Taehyun would have thought he was being made fun of but this was Soobin.
“You think,” Taehyun griped. “We have to do something. We have to stop him.”
Beomgyu just opened up another of his numerous ice cream bars (this one was strawberry shortcake) and shoved it into his mouth to take a big bite. “Can I pass? These are gonna-” He paused to swallow. “-start melting like any second now.”
Taehyun put both of his hands on top of his head. He was so flabbergasted he couldn’t even speak.
Kai at least had the sense to say, “I’ll go with you, Tae-Tae. We’ll stop him.”
Finally! Someone with half a sense of urgency! “Thank you so much.”
So the two of them grabbed their jackets and rushed outside into the chilly night.
Even with the clinical bright white light of the convenience store illuminating the sidewalk around them, it still took several precious seconds for Taehyun to finally spot Jungkook in his all-black clothes, dragging Yeonjun towards the edge of the woods at the far end of the road.
“What’s he going to do,” Taehyun asked, worried and breathless and terrified. “What is he planning to do with my boyfriend?”
“There’s no telling,” said Kai, nervously running a hand through their hair. “But he could lose his badge if he takes this too far.”
Taehyun wasn’t the least bit concerned about Jungkook’s badge! “I think he’s already taken it too far.” With speed Taehyun forgot he had, he broke away from Kai and ran down the sidewalk, chasing after Jungkook and Yeonjun to the end of the block. His feet felt light on the ground as he bounded from one foot to the other, full of grace like a majestic deer. Soon, the pavement of the sidewalk ended and he rushed into the calf-high grass at the bottom of the hill. “Yeonjun!”
The man’s voice floated back to him like a song. “I’m right here, my dear. I will always be right here.”
But that didn’t sound very reassuring considering the situation.
Taehyun caught up with them just on the other side of the big ditch at the side of the road. He skirted past the two of them and then blocked their path with his arms outstretched as if he could actually stop Jungkook on his own. His chest heaving, he cried out, “Let him go!”
Jungkook knew he had the advantage. “Or what?”
Yeonjun spun out of Jungkook’s grasp easily, effortlessly. He twisted himself free like it was something he could have done back in the convenience store if he truly wanted. His red fox ears had shot up out of his curly, tangled hair and one of his fox tails was now swishing in the air behind him. “You’re not going to get anyone else involved with this,” Yeonjun told Jungkook, putting himself between Taehyun and Jungkook. “This is between me and you, Warden.”
“But you’re allowed to hurt whoever you please? Do whatever you want without consequence?” Jungkook scoffed. “That’s what I hate about you. You change the rules whenever you see fit. You never do things fair.”
For once, Yeonjun didn’t have a snarky remark handy. It was almost like Jungkook was telling the truth.
Jungkook pulled his pink lips away from his teeth in a snarl, revealing the brand new sharpness of his incisors.
“He’s sorry,” Taehyun attempted. “Yeonjun didn’t mean to hurt anyone. He thought--”
“His intentions don’t matter,” Jungkook snapped. He shook out the muscles in his arms, in his legs, almost in a dance, before he wriggled his Warden jacket off of his shoulders and discarded the thing onto the grass. He raised his fists in front of his chest in a boxer’s stance. “He could have thought he was saving the world but what does that matter if he hurts people in the process?”
“He screwed up big time,” agreed Taehyun, remembering the scar across Kai’s torso, “but don’t you think all he’s been through since then makes up for that?” Being labeled a Tier Three criminal. Being wanted, dead or alive, and hunted down by the very organization that his ancestors had founded. Being chased down by the crime-fighting partner he would have had if he’d stayed a member of the Wardens. Being so afraid of what was to come that he would give his own heart away just so he could see another day.
Being so desperate to stay hidden that he’d willingly choose to work in the food service industry.
Wasn’t that punishment enough?
Apparently, Jungkook didn’t think so. “You’ve left a scar on those closest to me. Why can’t I leave a scar on the one closest to you?” He took his eyes off Yeonjun to look straight at Taehyun. Jungkook’s ink black cat ears were now protruding from the top of his head and his eyes glowed with a feral feline light.
Taehyun gulped.
Fortunately, Yeonjun wasn’t about to sit idly by. “You are not going to hurt him.” His tone of voice left absolutely no room for negotiation. “You’ll lose your badge if you try.”
For a moment, that threat seemed to do the trick. Jungkook stilled as if he hadn’t considered that possibility, as if he hadn’t considered that he would lose the one thing he’d worked so hard to have. But then he
did
consider it and
still
decided to take his chances.
He took a step forward.
Taehyun let out a frightened cry.
Yeonjun shifted around to put more of his body in front of Taehyun’s. “Don’t.”
It must have been a comical thing to say because Jungkook threw his head back and laughed. The noise was odd. Humorless. He raised a clawed finger and pointed at the fox boy. “You’re the one ugly spot on my perfect,
golden
record! I’m never going to be able to live that down.”
Yeonjun did a silly little bow, bending at the waist. “Thank you kindly.”
“You wily fox!” Jungkook screeched, completely unamused.
Taehyun knew the feeling. He knew how frustrating Yeonjun’s lack of any sense of self-preservation could be. But now wasn’t the time to empathize. He slapped the fox boy on his back. “Shut up, Yeonjun!”
Yeonjun stood up straight, his eyes slightly wide with surprise.
Taehyun immediately felt awful for screaming. “Don’t taunt him,” he almost whimpered. He grabbed his boyfriend by the arm, his hands tight around Yeonjun’s bicep. “This isn’t something you can charm your way out of. You have to talk to him for real.”
Jungkook frowned. “Talking won’t be enough. The Wardens will be nothing more than a joke once the higher ups find out you’re just walking around free after spending so much time and money hunting you down!” He paused, his chest heaving with anger, his mouth red in the numerous places he’d bit his lips in irritation. “I’m not letting this go until I properly carry out Warden punishment.” He popped his knuckles like he was ready for a brawl. “And if I lose my badge in the process, so what? The foxes act above the law anyway.”
This confrontation was far more layered than Taehyun had been expecting. Jungkook’s anger went deeper than surface level and there were things at play here that Taehyun didn’t exactly have the time to ask about. He was no longer sure this was a disagreement they could smooth over with apologies and handshakes. Even Yoongi’s famous noodles probably wouldn’t be enough to fix this. “Jungkook, I’m sorry,” he tried anyways. “We were just--”
“You helped hide him,” Jungkook angrily screeched. “You don’t get to say anything.” He stepped forward, his tall, muscular form straining against his too-small shirt as he got ready for a fight.
Yeonjun did the same, rotating his arm and popping one of the joints in his neck.
Taehyun freaked as Yeonjun pulled away from him. “You don’t have to do this. You don’t have to fight.”
Yeonjun smiled but he didn’t take his eyes off of Jungkook as the cat boy paced back and forth, waiting for the chance to strike. “It’s okay, my dear,” Yeonjun said. “Didn’t I tell you at the very beginning that I would fight my own battles? This is the last one.”
Taehyun swallowed hard. “But if something happens to you, I’ll--”
“Nothing’s gonna happen to me,” Yeonjun cut him off. He finally took his eyes off Jungkook to meet Taehyun’s gaze. He smiled. “I’m going to be alright.”
“Wanna bet?” Those two sharp words were the only warning either of the boys got before Jungkook’s cat claws raked across the front of Yeonjun’s shirt, tearing the cotton to ribbons.
Yeonjun looked down at the shredded fabric in horror. “My one good work shirt!”
“It’ll be your throat next,” said Jungkook, his teeth sharp and gleaming.
“Hey, guys, we can talk this through.” Boldly (or stupidly) Taehyun stepped forward and put himself between the fox and the wildcat. Between the two sets of vicious claws and snapping teeth. “Just give Yeonjun a minute to tell his side of the story and I’m sure we can reach an understanding.”
Wasn’t that the logical thing here? Couldn’t they put emotions aside just this once?
Apparently not. Jungkook curled his body almost to the ground, his tail raised high in an aggressive stance. “Get out of the way.”
Taehyun did not get out of the way. “If this is about what happened to Kai, Yeonjun already apologized to them! They already forgave him. You don’t have to keep doing this.”
“This isn’t about Kai, this is about that fox bucking the rules and playing us Wardens for fools!” Jungkook lunged.
The movement was so fast in the dark night that Taehyun did not see it coming. It was just a flash of claws in the moonlight, a glint of reflected light off green eyes. Taehyun didn’t even have time to brace himself.
Then something hit him square in the chest. A great weight that knocked the breath from him. Knocked him clear off of his feet.
He had only shut his eyes for a moment yet he was no longer standing up. Now he was flat on his back on the dry, scratchy grass. Winded. Cold.
“Are you okay,” Kai asked, looming over him, grizzly bear ears sticking out from the curls of their hair.
“What the…” It took Taehyun a moment to realize that Kai had pushed him out of the way of Jungkook’s attack. Just in the nick of time. “Yeah, I’m--” He sat up and peered past Kai to watch as Yeonjun and Jungkook fought each other. “I’m okay.”
“Good.” Kai leaned back, settling their weight on their knees in the grass. “I didn’t think I’d reach you in time. You’re so fast.”
Taehyun hadn’t really been thinking about his own safety. He had only been concerned about Yeonjun. “Sorry. I shouldn’t have run off.” What made him think he could stop such a fight by himself? He needed help. “You’re not upset, right? Aren’t you supposed to have Jungkook’s back?”
Kai didn’t say anything. They just pulled Taehyun to his feet and guided him a little bit farther away from the fight.
“Jungkook doesn’t want the Wardens to lose their honor,” said Taehyun. “And maybe he has a point.”
There was a scream of anger and both Kai and Taehyun spun around at the noise.
Yeonjun and Jungkook met claw to claw. Again and again. One was just as fast and strong and ferocious as the other. Jungkook swung high, claws arcing through the night air like glinting daggers. Yeonjun ducked low to avoid them then he spun around, kicked low. One, two, three of his fox tails lashed out like whips. Jungkook leaped high, flipping through the air to avoid being struck. Then the two were facing off again, their snarls echoing. They lunged and spun and attacked each other but they were both fierce fighters and neither of them seemed to be able to land a hit.
It scared Taehyun to even think about what would happen if claws actually met skin.
“They are going to seriously hurt each other,” Taehyun realized. He knew that. Of course he knew that. But it felt a little different to say it aloud.
Then Kai said something stupid (or bold.) “You stop Yeonjun. I’ll stop Jungkook.”
“That’s crazy,” Taehyun exhaled. He would rather take Beomgyu to a restaurant and offer to pay for the whole meal.
“Do you think they’ll stop if we ask them to?” Kai was already summoning more and more of their bear-like strength. Their fingernails grew into thick, stubby claws. Their hair, already long and thick, seemed to grow even wilder and thicker. When they opened their mouth, their teeth were numerous and sharp.
Taehyun didn’t know how he knew, but if there was anyone who could stop Jungkook, it was Kai.
“Okay,” Taehyun agreed to the crazy plan, summoning his own animal strength.
“On my mark,” said Kai.
Taehyun shook with fright. What was he supposed to do and how was he supposed to do it? He wasn’t strong like Kai. He wasn’t fast like Yeonjun. He wasn’t skilled like Soobin or Beomgyu. He was just himself.
But Kai kept counting down. “Five, four, three, two…”
Taehyun didn’t know exactly when they had sprouted from his head but he could feel his antlers now. He could feel how one was noticeably lighter than the other, still in the process of growing back.
Jungkook and Yeonjun collided yet again, claw meeting claw.
When the two of them leaped away from each other to strike again, Kai shouted, “Now!”
Taehyun took that as his cue. He darted forward, moving faster than he’d ever moved.
But how was he supposed to
stop
Yeonjun? With violence? With words?
Taehyun couldn’t do any of those things so he did the one thing he could. He pressed his face into Yeonjun’s chest. He threw his arms around Yeonjun’s waist and squeezed and squeezed until Yeonjun stopped resisting, until Yeonjun stopped breathing hard and ragged and, finally, hugged him back.
Taehyun didn’t realize he was sniffling back tears until Yeonjun dragged his thumb through the wet, salty trails on Taehyun’s cheek and said, “I’m sorry, my dear.”
That’s how the fight came to an end.
With Yeonjun holding Taehyun close to his heart. With Kai gripping Jungkook tight, restraining him more than hugging him.
“I told you they were this way. I could hear them!”
When Taehyun pulled away from Yeonjun, he was surprised yet not at all surprised to see Soobin and Beomgyu shuffling through the grass towards them.
“We’re through here,” Kai announced.
“Awww, did we miss the blood and stuff,” Soobin loudly questioned.
Beomgyu had a chocolate ice cream bar in one hand and a slowly dripping key lime pie-flavored bar in the other. “Really? That sucks. I brought snacks to munch on while we watched.” He took a bite of the chocolate ice cream bar.
Taehyun laughed despite their absurdity. He was just glad to see them.
But Jungkook, on the other hand, had had enough. “You’re all here to laugh at me, aren’t you?”
That hadn’t been Taehyun’s intentions at all. Then again, he was learning the hard way that intentions didn’t matter when it came to the results. When emotions were at stake, things could get unpredictable. And he was still getting used to the unpredictable. “No one’s laughing at you,” he said. “We know you take your job seriously.”
Jungkook attempted to yank free of Kai’s strong hold on him but failed. “Then why? Why am I the only one upset?” He looked up at each of them in turn and when his eyes settled on Taehyun, the younger boy could plainly see the hurt and frustration there. If he put himself in Jungkook’s shoes, wouldn’t he be just as upset? Jungkook went on, “Why do none of you care about him making a mockery of us? Why are all of you taking his side?” He jerked his head in Yeonjun’s direction. “Do the Wardens really mean so little?” He at long last managed to wrench himself free of Kai’s grasp but instead of starting up another fight, he just stooped down to pick up his leather jacket. When he stood up, his badge was in his hand, the gold emblem sparkling in the silver moonlight. “Does this stupid thing even have meaning now?”
Yeonjun said, “Okay, you’re taking this a bit too--”
Taehyun silenced him with an elbow in his side.
Jungkook knew what he was about to say anyways. “Am I taking it too seriously or are you not taking this seriously enough?”
A stormy, brooding silence as the six of them stood in a loosely-formed circle. There was still tension in the air. A sizzling apprehension as if all of them fully expected another big fight.
“It’s hard for me to take many things seriously,” said Soobin, breaking the silence. At first, it seemed like he was about to make light of the situation, but then he lowered his gaze to the grass and his tone became stern and uncharacteristically cold. “My attention span… I just-- I can’t emotionally attach myself to things like a lot of other people can. It’s there and gone. There and gone. Everything just rattles around in my head, you know? And people call me dumb or silly but-- I’m just different.”
It shocked Taehyun a bit to hear Soobin speak in such a firm manner.
Jungkook snorted. He pulled his jacket back on and shoved his Warden badge back in the appropriate pocket. He looked ready to storm off but instead, he swung around to face the rabbit-eared boy. “Are you saying the rules don’t matter because you can’t pay them any mind? That’s not how the world works.”
“I’m not saying that,” said Soobin. “I’m saying I know exactly how it feels to have a truth but to have no one around willing to listen to that truth.”
His words took a moment to settle in but they subtly changed the mood in the air. Eased the tension.
Kai said, “I certainly know how it feels to speak but to not be heard. To not be respected.”
Beomgyu had finished both of his ice cream bars while no one had been paying him much attention. “I feel that way sometimes too.”
“Same,” Yeonjun agreed. “People find out I’m a fox and, whether they know me or not, they assume that everything I do and say is some kind of trick. Some kind of deception.” Then he giggled. “I mean, half of that is true, but like… I can mean what I say sometimes.”
It was a bonding moment. Or that had been the goal.
Jungkook wasn’t ready to make amends just yet. “Is that supposed to bring us together? Is being on the same page supposed to erase everything that happened during this terrible hell week?”
“We aren’t trying to erase anything,” Taehyun spoke up. “But what we want to do is reach out to you.”
“So all of this will be just fine once we hug it out,” asked Jungkook bitterly, his eyebrows furrowed and his cat ears flattened to the top of his head. He fixed his greenish eyes on Taehyun. “I can’t believe you. I thought you were the only one here with sense. The only one who used their brain. But you were in on it. You handed over that decoy. You helped pull the wool over our eyes.”
“I felt deceived too,” Taehyun cut in. “I didn’t know about that!” Or, rather, he’d merely forgotten the details. He’d been too busy looking for complicated mathematical formulas when he should have been solving the basic equations. “I was just as surprised to find out I was part of the game.”
No answer seemed to be enough for Jungkook. The truth. A biased opinion. It didn’t seem to matter. It wasn’t what he wanted to hear so he didn’t want to hear it. “You’re all liars and cheats!”
“Jungkook,” said Kai, softly. “If you’re going to be mad at anyone, you should be mad at me.”
Jungkook’s expression soured. “How could I ever be mad at you?”
“Because I knew.”
“Knew what?”
Kai spun around and slapped their open palm on Taehyun’s chest. “I knew where the fox was keeping his heart. I knew we were chasing a decoy.”
Realization crept across Jungkook’s face. His eyes widened. His jaw went slack.
Even Taehyun flushed with color as he put two and two together. He said, “What? How did you find out? We kept it such a secret!”
“We all know magic, don’t we?” Kai explained. “And I knew a complicated spell when I saw it up close.” They looked from Taehyun to Yeonjun and then back to Taehyun. There was the tiniest smile on their lips but it slowly faded beneath the weight of their shame. They turned back around to look at Jungkook. “I owe you an apology.”
“Did you know the whole time?” Jungkook asked in a low, broken voice. “Did you know we were chasing a decoy the whole time?”
“No,” said Kai quickly. “I didn’t figure it out until it was a bit too late.”
Jungkook’s face went bright red with anger. He extended his claws as if to start another fight.
“But--” Kai held up their hands, palms up and wrists together, “I didn’t share that information with you and I’m positive that counts as obstruction of Warden justice.”
It took a few seconds for everyone to recognize Kai’s posture. That they were presenting their wrists for Jungkook’s handcuffs.
Jungkook saw it too but instead of reaching into his own pocket for the handcuffs, he stepped forward and reached into Kai’s jacket pocket for their badge. “I’m going to hold on to this,” he stated firmly, flipping the badge over and over in his hand as if also expecting that to be a sort of trick. “I’m going to have to file a report about this. About what you did. About what Yeonjun did.” He shoved Kai’s Warden badge in his own pocket.
Kai said nothing. They stood there, a bit blank-faced, obediently waiting for their punishment.
Worried, Soobin stepped forward.
Kai gave him a shake of their head to make Soobin stop in his tracks.
“But,” said Jungkook, stepping away. “I might forget to write a few things down.” He looked up, first in Kai’s direction and then over in Yeonjun’s direction. “My memory might be a little dodgy and some details may slip through.” He was halfway up the hill to the sidewalk now and he called back over his shoulder, “Maybe no one important to me will lose their badge or get suspended. But maybe I’ll reveal enough to wipe that smudgy imperfection off my record.” And then he was up the hill and out of sight.
🍽
They all met early the next morning for breakfast.
Yeonjun, still groggy with sleep even after the bumpy bus ride, was more interested in pressing soft kisses to Taehyun’s knuckles as they held hands than in the menu he should have been ordering from.
“I’m going to order you the nastiest thing up here if you don’t stop fooling around,” Taehyun half-seriously threatened.
“That’s impossible,” said Yeonjun, his breath warm against the back of Taehyun’s hand. “Hoseok doesn’t make nasty food.”
“Actually,” Soobin cut in from across the table, “there’s this pepper he throws in the beef broth that, like, really ruins the flavor.”
Beomgyu had something to say about that. “What? The beef stock is one of the best! It’s hearty and salty and perfect.”
“Should I order a beef bowl, then,” Kai wondered. “As many times as I’ve come here and I’ve never actually had anything.”
“The beef bowls are just standard, entry-level things,” said Taehyun.
“But they’re
classic
,” Yeonjun raised his voice. “They are staples. You can’t just pass them up.”
Soobin said, “We’re trying to impress Kai here.”
“The beef bowls are impressive.” It was Yeonjun’s hill and he would die on it.
Taehyun said, “If you want to really get a feel for Yoongi’s recipes, you need to order a seafood bowl. Splurge on the lobster tail.”
“No,” Beomgyu immediately contradicted. “You
have
to order a spicy chicken bowl and then ask for a double dose of special sauce.”
“Special… sauce…” Kai repeated.
“It’s a restaurant secret but I can pick out the individual ingredients by taste.” Beomgyu smiled wide, “Want me to list them?”
“Surely that violates our employment contract in some form or fashion,” Taehyun stated.
“So a spicy chicken bowl, then,” said Kai, getting them back on track.
“Why not one of the vegetarian bowls?” Soobin wondered. “They are on the next page, Kai. We’ve got some good ones. And, of course, there’s the kimchi special. It got us featured in a magazine.”
“He’s not wrong about that,” Yeonjun mentioned.
“This one’s the famous one.” Beomgyu pointed to one of the photographs in Kai’s menu. “Ask them to swap in egg-free noodles. There’s no extra charge but they are thinner so you usually end up getting more bang for your buck.”
Kai nodded slowly, visibly overwhelmed by the onslaught of information.
Taehyun said, “And don’t get a hard-boiled egg.”
“But what’s ramen without a hard-boiled egg on top,” Kai asked.
“Still ramen,” said Soobin defiantly.
“No, I mean…” Taehyun flipped Kai’s menu to the next page and pointed to a different photograph. “I mean, get your eggs poached. Hoseok cracks one open and drops it in the boiling broth right at the end. It’s still cooking when we sit it on the table. It’s the best.”
“Or you can get a tofu bowl,” said Soobin, “and I can show you the secret to seasoning it.”
Beomgyu laughed. “You don’t know any seasoning secrets.”
“Your seasoning secret is to not use seasoning at all,” Taehyun added.
“Hey now, I enjoy a nice pinch of pepper,” Soobin defended himself. “And some chopped jalapenos for a touch of zing.”
Slowly, unsurely, Kai said, “You have a very unique palate.”
“Don’t let him order for you,” said Yeonjun. “Taehyun knows the menu best. He’s worked here the longest.”
“I’ve worked here twelve seconds longer than Soobin.”
Yeonjun squeezed Taehyun’s hand in his. “But I trust what you would order more than I would trust what Soobin would order.”
“I’m not
that
bad. I just have some restrictions.”
Jimin slapped the edge of their table with his notepad, making them all startle and look up. When the waiter realized he finally had their attention after impatiently clearing his throat for the past minute, he rolled his eyes and asked, “Do you guys need even
more
time? I can come back.”
“No. We’re ready to order,” said Taehyun.
Kai sheepishly started, “Actually, I still haven’t decided--”
That was all Jimin needed to hear. He groaned and stomped away but not before growling out, “And keep it down! Yoongi can hear you all the way in his office.”
Taehyun was about to say something smart and definitely mean about his coworker’s attitude but Kai spoke up first. “The seafood bowl and the chicken bowl and… and the vegetarian bowl all sound great, but--”
“Order all of them,” suggested Beomgyu. “And whatever you don’t eat, I’ll happily finish.”
“Don’t order all of them,” said Soobin. “The employee discount isn’t
that
high.”
“So you
are
paying for them? So this
is
a date?”
Yeonjun held up his and Taehyun’s clasped hands. “Double date.”
“Since when,” Taehyun had to know. “I thought this was a friend thing.”
“It’s a
boy
friend thing,” said Yeonjun.
“And a theyfriend thing,” added Soobin.
To that, Kai’s cheeks went pink. “Really, if you can just help me pick one thing…”
“There should be an everything bowl,” said Yeonjun. “Like how there are everything bagels? There should be an everything bowl.”
“Everything bagels don’t even have everything on them. They’re a lie,” Beomgyu huffed.
“And I don’t want to imagine what an everything bowl would taste like.” Taehyun screwed up his face just from the effort of trying to picture it. “Talk about a war on our taste buds!”
“Hey… Uh… Yeonjun, is it?” The low, mellow voice belonged to Namjoon.
The five of them paused their conversation to look up at the tall waiter.
Namjoon pointed the pen in his hand to the top of his head. “You’ve got something in your hair. Right… No. A little more to the left. Too far. Hey-- Can I just… I’ll get it.” He was already reaching forward and picking a long, bright green cotton thread from out of Yeonjun’s hair. Based on the color, it had come from off of his hoodie.
Now that Taehyun was paying attention, Yeonjun’s hood had slipped off of his head, revealing his red hair and matching fox ears. Taehyun was so used to seeing them now that he almost didn’t realize that Namjoon was
also
seeing them. And not reacting at all. “Hey,” Taehyun said, reaching up. He almost wanted to cover them up. “These are just--” He lowered his hand, remembering that they weren’t hiding anymore.
“Do you think this is my first time seeing those?” Namjoon’s voice was calm and steady. “I’ve seen Yoongi’s. I’ve seen Hoseok’s.”
“Hoseok’s?” Taehyun repeated, feeling like a rug had just been yanked out from under him, his whole world falling just a touch more into place.
“You know,” said Soobin, grinning wide as if he actually had to introduce the man to Taehyun. “The lead chef. The one who stands by the window and shouts--”
“Order up!” Hoseok’s voice bellowed from the direction of the noodle bar, right on time.
“I know who he is,” Taehyun grunted. What he
didn’t
know was that Hoseok was also a kindred spirit. But then… How could he not be when he co-owned this place with Yoongi?
“Are you kids ready to order,” Namjoon asked, fishing his notepad out of his apron pocket. “Jimin begged me to take your table from him. He said you’re about to give him a stroke.”
“We’re ready to order,” said Taehyun, although he could use a few minutes to reorganize his thoughts.
“Wow. Have we really been sitting here trying to decide what to get for forty minutes,” said Yeonjun, looking up at the clock. “At this rate, we will still be sitting here when it’s time for our shift.”
“Really,” said Namjoon, infinitely patient. “If you’re still picking out what you want to eat, I can come back.”
“No. We’re good,” said Kai hurriedly. “I’ve picked what I want.”
“I’ll go first since I’ll take the least time,” said Beomgyu. “Can you ask Hoseok to just… dump every single ingredient we have in one bowl?”
Namjoon almost wrote that down on his pad. He looked up. “I don’t think there’s a bowl big enough--”
“Can you ask him to bring out the whole cookpot? Just dump everything in it. Like an everything bagel.”
“An everything bagel,” Namjoon repeated.
“He wants a spicy chicken bowl with a double dose of special sauce,” Taehyun translated. “No.
Two
chicken bowls.”
Eagerly, Namjoon scribbled down the order.
“That’s why I like you, Tae-Tae,” said Beomgyu cheerily. “You keep my head on straight… Which is something I’m very suddenly having difficulty doing on my own.”
Everyone looked over at him.
Soobin saw them first. He gasped. Loud and high-pitched and dramatic and sending him into a coughing fit.
Kai would have offered more than a reassuring grin if they didn’t have to lean over and smack Soobin on the back between his shoulder blades to help him stop coughing.
Yeonjun leaned back in his seat knowingly and quietly whispered, “It’s about time.”
Taehyun took in the sight before him, at the light gray horns spiraling up and out of his friend’s curly hair. Proudly, Taehyun said, “Beomgyu, you’ve got something in your hair.”
Fin.