Chapter Text
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This far out into the forest, miles away from the town's oil lamps and golden lanterns, the full moon and all its stars were as clear as day. Of course, Taehyung's transformation was all the more tougher to get through with nothing to cloud the intensity, but he was relieved to finally get it over with.
The fur was literally an itch that he couldn't scratch. This was the first time Taehyung felt he could actually breathe in a week, despite him having next to no control over himself during these monthly nights. It was like watching himself in a pleasant dream.
As he grew in size, back curving forward, Taehyung’s torn clothes slid into a pile by one of the maple trees. The autumn breeze was cool but welcomed, as Taehyung felt the last part of his transformation come through with his face elongating.
Then, cooler and unwelcomed, struck his shoulder.
Perhaps Taehyung was too slow to turn, unable to catch what had scratched him, or too fast when he realized he hadn't fully turned yet. But, soon enough, Taehyung's view of the moon was blocked by a ridiculous, intimidating umbrella.
Ridiculous, showy, frilly, so big Taehyung couldn't see who was carrying it, blacker than a universe without stars, and intimidating . The silver tip of the umbrella that must've been what scratched Taehyung glinted, resembling a spear, and Taehyung— well, shit. Taehyung absolutely booked it.
He wouldn't have been able to move at all if the silver was fatal, so Taehyung did all he knew how to do. It ran as deep as animal instinct, truthfully, his first thoughts to just get away because there was no way he was giving up his pride to die by such a stupid excuse of a projectile weapon. Obviously, though, living for his family and stuff took up his real first thoughts.
The glances Taehyung spared to check the distance between him and the weird hunter were short and unclear, but he heard him groan every now and then. After some time and eight miles, ‘I’ll kill you! Just… stand still!’ was beginning to sound less threatening, and more like a plea to get off an old man’s lawn.
Taehyung would be lying, though, if he said he wasn’t afraid. As he circled a pond, his blood dripped warm onto his feet, and his throat begged to close with every other step but— to be fair, dying was embarrassing.
Foliage brushed over Taehyung’s head, the hunter’s umbrella cutting it all down. Taehyung jumped across a corner of the pond, the hunter behind him following suit. He continued running through tall grass and bushes, the hunter pushing past the greenery with ease.
“GET BACK HERE!”
Taehyung actually looked back, for a second longer than all his past panicked glances. He kept moving forward, as did the hunter, whose face Taehyung suddenly realized looked achingly familiar. Looked like the guy he spotted dropping stuff off at the thrift store the other day, and buying the last bundle of strawberries at the farmers market two weeks ago. Jimin, or something (Taehyung learned it when he tried to buy the last bundle of strawberries).
Was this guy—?
Taehyung wanted to cry all of a sudden. Not because of shock or anything, but because he ran, injured shoulder first, into a thick tree trunk. He wasn’t all that shocked, only surprised that he hadn’t put together sooner the species of the guy whose full face he would never see because of the veil hanging from his umbrella and his gigantic sunglasses.
◯
Taehyung’s knees wobbled, his shoulder stopped bleeding, and his lungs seized up every time he tried to inhale. He had been running wild for the past four hours and a half, his first and last stop being when the sun finally came up.
Once he fell into a pile of leaves, pushing aside wildflowers and weeds, he spared a last look back, the longest one yet since he no longer had to run.
The big, black shade of the silver-tipped umbrella had retreated back to the town. The rising sun had taken its place in Taehyung’s view of the sky, and he was safe.
For now, at least.
🌣
Taehyung was surprised to find himself warm, despite having spent an entire October’s night in the woods, and waking up— naked.
Stark naked. Buck naked. Butt naked. His everything was covered in nothing, exposed to the elements, in the open, and really uncomfortable.
The breeze cooled Taehyung’s bare butt cheeks for a second, and maybe it actually felt nice, but that didn’t mean he liked it. If his skin needed to breathe, he’d rather not do it in the middle of a forest, but if he had to— at least not in a spot too shallow for him to sneak out and get back in town unnoticed, for Christ’s sake.
Taehyung flipped over in his makeshift bed of leaves, a loose attempt at sitting up before the soft sting in his left shoulder grew to take over his entire arm. He groaned— it throbbed like its own pulse was fighting death, and the sunlight glared in his eye just as the silver tip of an umbrella had the night before.
Normally, he spent these nights running like he’d forget how to in the morning, the breeze gladly welcomed if he had a coat of fur, but last night was merely the second time he ran because someone else was running, too.
There wasn’t a part of his body where exhaustion wasn’t gnawing now, but this ache he was used to. The days after a full moon weren’t easy on him, but Taehyung had long since made peace with the hangover-ish feeling he was always left with. It was a bit of a comfort, sometimes.
Soon enough, Taehyung gathered his strength and stood. He needed to get out, go back home, treat his shoulder— and find some damn clothes. Even though the cut in his shoulder was about as deep as an accidental cut while chopping fruits, that didn’t stop it from stinging so bad he would’ve wailed like a baby if not for the will to stay unseen and unnoticed. It was silver, and he was used to healing faster, so of course it did.
His knees threatened to give out under him, but Taehyung was okay enough to try and find the gravel path that led back to the neighbourhood. Maybe his feet did everything in their power to stop him from walking straight, but it was fine. He was able to use the trees he rammed head-first into to steady himself.
The forest was quiet, though not silent, as if it was only sleeping and might wake to bid Taehyung good morning if he was too loud. There was the occasional bird he scared off, leaves crunching under his light stomps, never one for stealth even if he tried (hence almost getting killed).
He reached the path soon enough. If Taehyung could just find the clothes he was wearing before he turned last night, he had a shot at not having to completely shatter his dignity— and, following the pants leg stuck in a tree branch, he did. Torn, obviously, but he could work with what little left he had. Although, he couldn’t figure out which hole his leg went through and which holes weren’t supposed to be there at all. He furrowed his brows at the way his slacks were more holes than pants at this point, got his toe stuck in one of the belt loops, and toppled over.
Taehyung face-planted, and then came a whistle that didn’t belong to the birds.
The whistle wasn’t directed towards him, coming from the right and near the entrance of the grove, thank goodness. It'd been the musical kind that seemed to be in response to a fledgling instead, but it didn’t belong to a bird, and Taehyung couldn't tell whether the shiver in his spine was brought on by the wind or the fear of who he might be seen by. Only getting as far as to put on his underwear, he stumbled to hide behind a tree.
He’d chosen the wrong tree to hide behind, apparently.
Taehyung would much rather die by poison ivy or something. Anything— anything else, just not die of shame (and, if he froze for any longer, more silver) in front of the black, frilly, and unreasonably large umbrella.
“What the— wh— huh?! ” A staggered, confused shout prompted Taehyung to get moving.
Typically, the smarter choice might’ve been to run, but he swiftly tore a branch from the tree above his head and hid himself with the leaves. If he was still enough, maybe Jimin wouldn’t see him.
“You’re— you’re just going to stand there now? Who—” The vampire tried to speak, and failed. Taehyung thought he’d camouflaged successfully, though he couldn’t know for sure, the umbrella’s frills right up in his face, blocking him from seeing wherever his hunter’s eyes might fall. Then again, with the sunglasses he always wore, Taehyung doubted he’d ever see anything at all.
Along with the frills, the silver tip of the umbrella got dangerously closer every time Jimin sputtered something unintelligible. All in all, this was yet another way Taehyung refused to die.
“There’s— a, um— a big, furry creature, down that way—” Taehyung pointed vaguely somewhere to his left, “it stole all my clothes. This isn’t—”
“Big and furry? Can you describe it to me?”
“What?” Taehyung gulped.
“Describe the creature you saw.” Jimin took multiple steps back, into the shade of a different tree. With the umbrella straightened up, Taehyung could see the shady freak he saw every now and then. Still covered neck to toe in a fur coat, though Taehyung caught a glimpse of his hand around the umbrella handle. He hoped it could be a trick of the light, but there was barely any light on this guy, nothing to make him appear so frighteningly pale.
Taehyung shuddered, and shifted slightly to completely hide his injured shoulder behind some leaves. What animal’s fur was the coat made of?
Taehyung hesitated. “Well, it was big and furry—”
“Yes, yes! You already said that, what else?”
Taehyung rolled his eyes, and questioned if Jimin even had any behind his sunglasses.
“It ran on its hind legs, had a snout. Green eyes. I think it was a dirty blond, or maybe it was just blond and actually dirty—”
“Okay, that’s all I need!”
Taehyung enjoyed the second he got to breathe. What he’d accidentally shown the vampire last night was a dark brown, far from blond, although he’d be over the moon and bragging if he actually had green eyes.
His second of enjoying breathing ended when a fur coat smothered his face. Itchy, Taehyung thrashed his head around, a forceful attempt at removing the fur suffocating him, careful not to move the leafy branch in front of him.
Was he really going to die this way? No way—
The hood of the fur coat slipped to catch on the side of his head instead. Jimin was still standing back, reduced to another thick layer of clothes. He was laughing at Taehyung, an ugly, squeaky sound.
“I just helped you! Why would you try to kill me?” Taehyung snarled, breath heavy. If he’d been recognized, seen through his blond lie, he was ready to fight, but— the vampire stopped laughing, surprisingly enough.
“I just helped you back, what do you mean kill you?” Jimin crossed an arm, unable to do the same on the other side with his other occupied with holding up his umbrella.
“How would fur—”
“God, just cover up! Are you going to hold that branch in front of you forever? I’ll gladly take my coat ba—”
“No, no! Fine.”
With some difficulty, Taehyung eventually got the coat on. The branch he had to keep hold of slowed him down, but he was a different kind of uncomfortable when the coat was zipped up.
The vampire tilted his head to the side suddenly. All Taehyung knew as he shifted his weight between his feet was that he was staring at him.
“What?”
“None of your business,” Jimin spat before spinning on his heel to leave. “Return the jacket to me later.”
With that, Taehyung was alone in the forest. Not naked, but just as uneasy as when he was, wearing someone else’s fur. He didn’t know what to do from there; the only thing he knew for sure was that the vampire wasn’t getting his fur coat back.
🌣
Taehyung coughed, the air polluted with smoke and the stench of burning fur. He probably shouldn’t have burnt the coat indoors, but it was worth it. He would like to honour his kind, and not wear their literal skin, thank you very much.
Or maybe that was only half of what he was telling himself to justify making the basement reek like rotten eggs.
Taehyung coughed again, pinched his nose and opened the narrow window. He should’ve done that earlier, it was too late now— Namjoon would be back from his usual morning market run soon, he wasn’t there when Taehyung got back home. Standing near the window, Taehyung was grateful it faced the woods behind the house and not the streets where passerbyers could send him strange looks for the horrible smell.
Saying he simply wouldn’t bump into the vampire was a plan bound to fail, but there wasn’t much else he could do. Taehyung would just make sure to only go outside if it was sunny and he had garlic in his pocket. He didn’t want to explain that he got rid of his coat, let alone talk to him at all again.
Taehyung had called Namjoon earlier to buy some bandages because they’d run out. The man upstairs, Hoseok, didn’t have any either and just hissed guiltily when he saw the blood spotting Taehyung’s shirt. He was reaching for his phone to ask for garlic too, but his brother was already struggling with the lock on the other side of the door before he could even pick it up again.
“Hold on!” Taehyung hastily kicked what was left of the fur coat under the table. Running to the door and staring through the window, he tried to spot what was inside Namjoon’s grocery bags. There was what could only be an entire tray of instant noodles crammed into one. "Hyung, it turns the other way."
“Oh.”
The door hit Taehyung in the face when Namjoon rushed to open it. Naturally, though, he recovered quickly.
“You didn’t come back last night,” Namjoon said expectantly, not noticing he slammed the door into Taehyung. They’d grown used to not acknowledging when Taehyung got hurt though, considering the speed at which he healed. So, the shock was obvious when he noticed that Taehyung’s shoulder, for once, did not heal immediately. "Eh? What's that?"
"Hyung, I'm dying."
"Ah, I'll tell the shady guy putting up ‘wanted werewolf’ flyers around the plaza that he can stop soon, then." Namjoon shrugged, Taehyung snorted. Still, as soon as Taehyung shut the door behind Namjoon, he was being thrown a box of Band-Aids. “That one must be fast, huh?”
“That leech’s umbrella is like a spear,” Taehyung scowled. Then again, all umbrellas could work as a projectile weapon if one tried hard enough. It was no doubt this vampire was fast, if flyers were already being hung up.
Taehyung wordlessly examined the box, opening and plucking one of the Band-Aids out, “Why have they got cartoon dogs on them? These might be too small.”
“Huh? The dogs aren’t just a part of the box?” Namjoon was setting down the other bags by the table, and Taehyung gulped as he did. How Namjoon still hadn’t seen the coat was a mystery, but Taehyung might start believing in miracles again if it continued like that.
Pausing in his counting of instant noodle cups to look guiltily at a wall, Namjoon’s face contorted as Taehyung laughed airily. The dogs weren’t that big of a deal as long as the Band-Aids did their job, and Taehyung quite liked them anyway. “I didn’t know what kind of injury you were talking about, my bad. Just put multiple along the cut if it’s not too wide.”
Taehyung hummed. It should work, he'd just avoid wearing anything that'd let his shoulder be visible and tear him of his very adult dignity. Moving towards the table, Taehyung sunk into one of the wooden chairs and tore open a Band-Aid.
"Can you help me?"
"I shouldn't, you only bled more last time this happened." Namjoon frowned at the cut running halfway around Taehyung's upper arm. "Did you already clean it? You're lucky it didn't strike anything important."
"Yeah." Taehyung's pain tolerance was still good enough for him to literally slap a Band-Aid on, nice and smooth. "Are you saying my arm isn't important?"
"You know that's not what I mean, Taehyung-ah," Namjoon sighed, and dumped his groceries onto the table. Neither of them minded the mess.
Namjoon did mind the smell, though. Taehyung broke a sweat when Namjoon sniffed the air, “what’s that smell?”
“What smell?”
“Ehh, your senses are better than mine. You tell me.” Namjoon kneeled down, rummaging through the bags to check what he’d bought. It was only a matter of time and some more rustling until he saw the thick, lumpy, half-scorched coat under the plastic bags. Taehyung pushed his chair back when Namjoon tried to touch it and hissed because it was still too warm to hold for longer than a minute. “Taehyung, what is that?”
“Not mine,” Taehyung mumbled, shrugging. He stared Namjoon straight in the eye to make himself believable.
“How’d it get here? I know Hoseok’s nicer than to leave his garbage here,” Namjoon pressed. Taehyung shrugged again, but it only seemed to make Namjoon want to question more, “You brought it here, from who?”
“I stole it,” Taehyung promised. He couldn’t say where— if Namjoon found out he burnt someone else’s property, he was doomed.
But, no matter how good a liar he has been since he could first play pretend, Namjoon was always the first to know the truth. “Did you get it from whoever hurt your—”
“Hyung—” He didn't want to be hunted for the second time in 24 hours.
“Taehyung, the jacket looks a lot like a threat,” Namjoon spoke from his chest, and Taehyung bit his tongue. “Who even wears this type of coat, what else could it be? And why’s it burnt?”
“It’s not a threat, I— I burnt it anyway,” Taehyung argued. The next Band-Aid he slapped on ended up wrinkled. “We’re fine, he was too shocked to recognize me.”
“But why was he shocked?”
“I come out of my nights without cloth—”
“Yeah, yeah.” Namjoon waved his hand as if to tell Taehyung to shoo and started pacing, while Taehyung— sat quietly.
He knew what Namjoon was going to say, and Taehyung wanted to hear it, actually. Never one who liked to stay around bloodsuckers, he preferred to ditch them for better places.
“We should move if there’s hunters like that here," Namjoon said, after taking laps around the dirty laundry basket in the middle of the room, placed there to remind them to get it cleaned. The only problem was that they never knew where they would go when they said they’d move. It could add to part of the fun of it all, though, if they tried hard enough.
“He’s not a hunter, hyung.” Taehyung chewed his top lip, focusing on the latter point. Moving again could be fun, but making fun of bloodsuckers? Funner. An oversized mosquito, that was what Jimin was. Dracula’s dusty offspring.
“If he’s not a hunter, then what?” Namjoon’s hands fell loosely by his sides. He pulled out their other wooden chair, a few ignored noodle cups rolling off the table and onto the floor.
“A leech,” Taehyung joked. “You know, the things with 32 brains, but one for each pair of sunglasses.”
And Namjoon laughed lightly. He shook his head, as if a bit guilty to laugh at that kind of joke, but continued laughing anyway. “Mm, the leech with the umbrella?”
“Gottem.”
“Well, know any place that might have less leeches?”
Taehyung put on the last Band-Aid, and sighed. “Have enough saved for Jeju?”
Namjoon laughed again.
🌣
Maybe if Taehyung helped deal with the leak in the mausoleum instead of just pinpointing the source of the stink for other workers and fleeing the room, he wouldn’t have had to take up the afternoon shift in the cemetery. Even if helping out then promised some extra money, though, Taehyung still wouldn’t have done it. No matter how sensitive to smell his rabbit-looking co-worker claimed to be, Taehyung would only be found across the field from the mausoleum.
“ Good luck! ” Taehyung had laughed then. Now, he wondered if his co-worker was laughing somewhere, knowing Taehyung was told to stay behind. Taehyung didn’t particularly mind working later, though.
The moon in its waning gibbous phase reflected light where the flickering lamp posts didn’t reach, and Mid-October spilled leaves onto the gravel paths, especially crunchy under Taehyung’s shoes as he found his way to the front gate. The iron bars of the gate were cold when Taehyung pulled it closed behind him and pushed his key into the rusty lock. He made sure the gates were shut tight to keep out graverobbers and curious children, and went on his way. Had Namjoon not promised him beef for dinner, Taehyung might’ve stayed even more overtime.
This side of town was quiet, even in the morning. The loudest it ever got was in the evening, when people might walk their dogs or bike along the less-crowded-by-graves paths. The graveyard wasn’t creepy, the dead let everything rest easy too. Most problems were caused by the undead, after all.
All Taehyung heard for a while was his own footsteps. This side of town wasn’t bad either; every now and then, Taehyung passed a lamp post with a ‘wanted werewolf’ poster on it, or some kind of coat tied around it. Puffer jackets, pea coats— freaking cloaks and fur coats.
He looked over his shoulder when he heard someone else’s, an unsteady echo of his own down the sidewalk.
Suddenly, Taehyung wished that the lamp posts didn’t flicker so much. That the clothes tied around the lamp posts didn’t resemble people in the corner of his eye. He picked up his pace and discreetly looked behind himself again, and there— some type of flowy coat fluttered as the only one who could be wearing it disappeared into an alleyway.
Taehyung liked to think he was doing a good job at hiding from Jimin. Nothing had bothered him since the fur coat, and it’d been a few days since then. But maybe, if this was the first time he was noticing, he wasn’t.
Taehyung’s walk turned into the most relaxed jog he could pretend to be having, uneven and zig-zagging down the sidewalk. There weren’t any vehicles to stop him as he crossed the road, thankfully. He was nearing the street lights that worked properly by then, and Taehyung couldn’t have been more relieved to reach the better lit roads. He was no longer alone with his follower either, some else down the road coming into view, although they seemed to be hugging a lamp post.
Taehyung began to run. He didn’t bother sparing another look back, as it would only slow him down, and ran until he reached the lamp post-hugging stranger.
“Hey, sorry to bother you, but I think there’s someone following me,” Taehyung said, tapping the stranger’s shoulder. Staring at their back, Taehyung saw their hoodie move as if they cocked their head to the side, and continued, “do you mind walking with me and acting like a friend or something? Anything helps, really.”
“Mm, yeah, sure.” The stranger stepped aside and spun around to face Taehyung, and simultaneously revealed a part of the lamp post they were ‘hugging’ to be wrapped in a fur coat.
Taehyung gawked, eyes ready to pop out of their sockets. “Oh my god.”
“There another problem you need help with?” Jimin frowned and crossed his arms. “Why are you so shocked? I don’t mind giving a third favour as long as you repay me.”
“Why are you tying these coats on the lamp posts?” Perhaps Namjoon was right, perhaps they were a threat. Maybe Taehyung had more things to burn.
“What— why, you need one?” Jimin eyed Taehyung up and down— or so Taehyung thought, because even in the dead of night, this weird guy was still wearing sunglasses. “Not all of them belong to me, but you can take this one after you return the one you already borrowed.”
“Huh?” Taehyung had hoped this guy had forgotten about his fur coat, but evidently, Jimin hadn’t, even though it seemed easily replaceable by the three other fur coats Taehyung saw on his run from his follower. Although, if they apparently didn’t belong to Jimin, that could only mean there were more vampires in town. Right? Taehyung stepped back and laughed nervously, “you remember that?”
“Yes, those types of coats are hard to find these days.”
“Yeah, for a good reason.”
“Sorry?” Jimin’s mouth fell open, probably offended. His eyebrows dipped behind his sunglasses. “I might just not walk with you, then.”
“Then— don't?” Taehyung put up a dismissive hand. It didn’t matter who had been following him if it wasn’t Jimin, anyway. He raised his other hand and cringed, like he was trying to distance himself from something that smelled gross, “don't think I wanna walk with you anymore, either, dude.”
“Fine, then,” Jimin said, though his head bobbed around rather aimlessly. “Don't blame me if something happens!”
“Will do.”
“Okay!”
“Okay.”
Taehyung started walking, quick with his hands shoved in his pockets. He still didn’t have to answer where the fur coat he was lent was, which, in a way, was a win. The streets went back to their quiet rest as he left Jimin behind, the trail of coats seeming to have stopped with that last lamp post.
All that was left to bother him was the pair of footsteps behind him again though, but he knew who it was this time. Taehyung turned back around, grimaced, and groaned, “why are you following me, too? I know this ass is nice but seriously—”
“I’m not following you for that, the hell?” Jimin threw his hands up, finally able to without a giant umbrella to throw him off balance. “In fact, I’m not following you at all.”
“Then what are you doing?”
“I go this way too.”
Taehyung sighed, “I don’t believe you.”
“I don’t need you to,” Jimin said, although his voice lifted like he was asking a question. “What’s wrong with you? Go, just walk.”
Taehyung breathed a couple times, quite quickly while he whipped his head around to look for an answer that didn’t include him being followed home. “God.”
Taehyung crossed the road again, to walk on the opposite side. Jimin looked a bit dumb on the other side, standing stiff, but Taehyung kept walking anyway. The moon was high in the sky, the stars were hidden by the street lights, and Taehyung, like many, didn’t like being seen in his human form.
☾
Namjoon flung the door open so fast Taehyung worried he might deepen the hole in the wall from the handle, which was already put there by the first time Namjoon flung the door open. Sometimes, it was hard to believe Namjoon didn’t have increased strength too.
“I thought you would’ve been more excited for beef, why’ve you been out so long again?” Namjoon stepped aside to let Taehyung in, and Taehyung left his shoes by the door before going to absentmindedly flatten the tape on one of their boxes. They’d already begun packing, and there were a bunch stacked around their basement, mostly ready for them to move out when the time came.
“I ran into that umbrella leech again,” Taehyung said, leaning his hip onto the box. Its tape wouldn’t smoothen out. “He’s tying fur coats around the lamp posts now, I think it’s a sign.”
Taehyung half-smiled when Namjoon pressed his fingers to his temples, either from sleepiness or stress. Both, probably. “You should stay away from him.”
Taehyung frowned at that. “I’ve been trying , hyung. It’s not like I want to see him, you gotta know.”
“Yes, I know, just maybe— try harder?” Namjoon suggested, weak. “I know it’s not really in your control, but find a way.”
“Okay.” Taehyung nodded. He sauntered past their sink, spotting the two plates stacked in it, and towards the table. “Okay. Where’s the beef?”
“Huh— oh, it was getting cold,” Namjoon said.
“And?”
“Well,” Namjoon began, “I finished it.”
“Hyung!” Taehyung cried, sinking like a limp corpse into his chair. They never said anything about it, but Namjoon always took the one on the right while Taehyung either took the left or the floor. “You didn’t even have to wait that long, I could’ve reheated it!”
“I waited four hours, and I was hungry.” Namjoon shrugged. “You should’ve come home earlier.”
“I’m not coming home again, at this rate.” Taehyung slid onto the floor.
“Ah, don’t say that.” Namjoon shook his head, nudging Taehyung’s torso with his slipper, “I’ll treat you some time again, instead.”
☾
This must’ve been, what— the fifth time Taehyung heard the beginning line of Little Red Riding Hood ? It wasn’t like he disliked the story, but— it was exactly like that.
“ Once upon a time there was a dear little girl who was loved by everyone who looked at her, but most of all by her grandmother, and there was nothing that she would not have given the child. ” But Taehyung knew exactly what he would give her, given the time he had to think it over; a smack upside the head to knock some common sense into the kid and send her back home before the other wolf found her.
Typically, Taehyung was not an angry drunk. Hell, he wasn’t even drunk or angry now, only hardly tipsy and annoyed— maybe a bit more than just annoyed, but what could a man-sometimes-wolf do? Taehyung could go for some Uturi, the Baby with Super Powers , or even Beauty and the Beast , but god forbid he be put through Little Red Riding Hood or The Three Little Pigs for over two hours.
After all, there wasn't a lounge singer that he knew that would opt to read stupid fairy tales instead of actually sing. Taehyung simply didn’t see the appeal, unlike the crowd huddled like kindergarteners at the foot of the tiny platform the lounge fairytale-reader was on. Namjoon was probably among them, that bookworm. Taehyung had lost him the moment they stepped foot into the bar, even though Namjoon had promised to pay for both of their drinks tonight.
Taehyung frowned and turned his back to the crowd, hunching over his glass. He glanced behind the counter to catch one of the bartender’s attention because screw it, his need for a good night was stronger than the hand-sanitizer-like taste of alcohol. Little Red and her damned Riding Hood weren't going to spoil his time.
Maybe, though, a hand gloved in lace could. It spoiled Taehyung’s full-moon, why not his third quarter moon too?
Taehyung didn’t bother looking up from his long since emptied glass when a hand inched its way into his view and tapped the counter.
“May I help you?”
“Yes, by switching out whoever is reciting wolf stories into the mic.”
The bartender scoffed, and Taehyung shivered.
Taehyung looked up, then, and he barely recognized the face he saw. This was the third time he'd seen it without the too-big, frilly umbrella covering its entirety, although the top half was still covered by sunglasses— this pair had cheap-looking gemstones in the corners. Once Taehyung fully registered his face, his blood ran colder than the moon’s extremes.
Maybe— hopefully Taehyung was just imagining it, hopefully he was just more tipsy than he’d thought. But the creature in front of him seemed to still for a second too long when Taehyung looked up, as if stung by the same recognition as when Taehyung first put on that fur coat.
“Leech,” Taehyung breathed, hopefully quiet enough for it not to be heard before he clamped his jaw shut with a loud clack . Dismiss the bartender, find Namjoon and leave— Taehyung wanted out, he shouldn’t dull his senses with another drink. “What are you doing here?”
“I work here. Why else?” Taehyung could see the tops of Jimin’s brows disappear behind his shades, probably to be knit together. Even if this wasn’t the world’s most obvious vampire, Taehyung still wouldn't trust anyone who wore sunglasses inside. The bartender shook his head, “what's so wrong with the lounge singer? I think he's doing a great job."
"No, the story's terrible." Taehyung shook his head. “The wolf is written so wro—”
“You’re going to hate on a children’s story?” Jimin asked. Taehyung really might’ve read to far into such stories, but—
“Yes,” Taehyung said, absentmindedly sliding his glass towards Jimin. It almost slipped off the bar top, the bartender stopping it just before it reached the edge. “The wolves are always too aggressive and the protagonists are always stupid.”
“I think the wolves are written just fine. Perfectly, if anything.” The bartender pushed Taehyung’s cup away, a refusal to serve him. Taehyung meant to be returning the glass anyway.
He hated fairy tales and folklore about wolves, their portrayal of his kind horribly off, always too aggressive or too naive or a grand mixture of both plus all things terrible. But Taehyung could see why vampires thought they were realistic sources of information, when all they ever saw was the werewolves they annoyed to insanity.
“How would you know?”
The bartender pursed his lips. For a second, Taehyung could’ve sworn he faltered by the quirk in the corner of his lip. “Don’t think I have no experience with them.”
“Obviously not enough experience.” Taehyung tilted his head, “Did you get scared by one angry pup?”
“No, two packs of werewolves.” The bartender held up two fingers, and Taehyung suppressed a shiver. When did they bring up the were part? “All fully-grown, all terrible. How would you know anything? Who would bother defending those brutes? Weren’t you attacked by one?”
“I—” Taehyung would know a lot, more than anyone, especially more than the pallid oldies with a fear of the sun, but he couldn’t say so right in such a creature’s face. Now wasn’t the time to get caught. He mustered a smile, “Ah, have you caught the big, furry creature? I mean they’re too aggressive, as in I even out-ran one. I’m terrible at running, you know?”
“Really?” Jimin tilted his head, to which Taehyung nodded quickly, although it looked like Jimin didn’t catch anything he said. “You must be better at running than you claim to be, I couldn’t find it.”
“You sure? It was huge, no way you missed it.” Taehyung gestured widely, to imitate the size of a make-believe werewolf.
“I’m sure.”
“Did you look again?”
“Yes.”
“How hard did you look?”
“You care a lot about finding that werewolf, huh?” Jimin’s voice raised suddenly. Taehyung could feel a few eyes from the crowd train onto the back of his head, and the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end.
Shit, where had he gone too far? Perhaps if Jimin finally took those sunglasses off, Taehyung would know whether he was suspicious of him or not, but all he had left to judge by was the tight purse of Jimin’s lips.
Taehyung frowned, “I don’t want the thing that stole my clothes to get away with them. It has my favourite sweater.”
“Mhm.” Jimin finally took Taehyung’s glass. “Well.”
“What?” Taehyung tried not to curl in on himself.
“What do you do for a living?” Jimin asked. He crouched to look somewhere below the counter, Taehyung couldn’t really tell.
“What? Why?”
“What do you mean ‘why’? I want to know,” Jimin pressed. “Can you answer?”
Taehyung nodded.
“So?”
“I’m a cemetery groundskeeper,” Taehyung told the truth, and immediately cringed. Somewhere, he missed the point of keeping his secret, but he could hope his lie worked better with a bit of honesty.
“Really?” Jimin asked, and Taehyung nodded slowly. His heart skipped a bit, but Jimin only seemed to part his lips with a bit of realization. “Is it likely for werewolves to lurk in your cemetery?”
“No, no,” Taehyung answered quickly, maybe a bit too much so, “err— I wouldn’t know, I don’t know.”
“Is there a way you could find out?”
“I don’t think so.”
“What if I helped you?”
Taehyung felt his chest empty, his heartbeat dipping into his stomach as if he was the one who was undead. Was he supposed to find himself— “I don’t think—”
“Or I can help you, however you want to think of it, just—” Jimin was sliding Taehyung’s glass around on the counter, passing it between his hands, “I want to find that brute.”
Taehyung’s face twisted, albeit only internally because anything else would be too obvious. He didn’t like being called a brute. “I shouldn’t.”
“How much do you make as a groundskeeper?” Jimin asked, and Taehyung was going to answer, but Jimin seemed to have decided to answer in his place, “I’ll pay you and you can choose your hours.”
Taehyung blinked.
“Please.” Jimin pushed the glass back towards Taehyung, as if it were some type of peace offering, despite it still being empty.
“Okay.” Taehyung took the glass.
“What?”
“Okay,” Taehyung grumbled, louder this time. Jimin’s head jerked backwards, and Taehyung could only hope that where he was looking into Jimin’s sunglasses was his eyes.
Wordlessly, Taehyung got up from his seat. Namjoon was going to get a silver umbrella himself now, probably— or Taehyung could just not tell him. At least, as one of the detectives, he would be last to be suspected as the criminal. Probably. Hopefully.
Taehyung slapped the back pockets of his pants to check for his wallet, and shuffled towards the crowd surrounding the lounge singer to find Namjoon. He never got another drink, which was fine, but before Taehyung could completely leave the bar top, Jimin called for him again.
“Hold on, how’s this going to work?” Jimin asked. “Who are you, where can I find you again?”
Taehyung wasn’t going to be able to get out of this. “Taehyung. I’ll just meet you here again in, like, two days.”
Jimin gave a slow, dismissive nod, and Taehyung ran like a kid the second the school bell signalled the end of the day.
Everything smelled like soju, meat, and sweat, and it was weird, but Taehyung was dragging a surprisingly still sober Namjoon out of the bar in record time. The lounge ‘singer’ was still reading the story, the lights were dimmed but still too bright for Taehyung’s tipsy eyes, and he wanted to spit on the umbrella open on the bar’s porch as he left.
“Why did you want to leave so early?” Namjoon asked, not disappointed but fully confused.
“I don’t really like drinking.” Taehyung shrugged. “And that fairy tale was getting annoying.”
“Oh, okay— you should pick where to go next time I owe you something,” Namjoon offered. Taehyung only nodded, and Namjoon’s frown at his unresponsiveness was subtle enough for him to ignore.
Taehyung tore a ‘wanted werewolf’ sign off of the bar’s brick wall. He could still hear the fairy tale, even through the bar’s closed windows.
“ ‘Good-day, Little Red Riding Hood,’ said he .
“ ‘Thank you, kindly wolf. ”
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