chapter one
words: 9.8k
warnings: descriptions of a dead body, maybe gross changing sequence if you squint, too many words... etc.
a/n: im s o sorry this is late... it was supposed to go up today at like three pm,, it’s now EIGHT PM . this is lowkey a gift to @escapedbeauty since it’s her bday so hehe but enjoy !! stay tuned for more <3
chan
chan laced the lacrosse stick, the white mesh stared back at him as he brought the strings towards him, knotting the end. he placed the stick on the ground and stood to walk over to his shower. the hot water did nothing to calm him or to relieve anything that he was feeling. he was nervous. chan thought it might be from starting his sophomore year, but he really wasn’t sure to be honest. the steam from the shower fogged up the mirror and he wiped the condensation off to see his reflection. the dark hair on his head laid flat, he combed his fingers through it. he got dressed and heard something from above him, considering he was on the second floor of his home it was a tad worrying. the boy grabbed the bat next to the door. chan walked down the stairs and heard the movements become louder. the front door handle was cold to the touch and the creaking of the wood under his feet brought him back to the sounds above him. the bat felt heavy in his hands as he brought the metal up, ready to swing at anything that would jump out at him. he saw a body fall and chan was met face to face with his best friend.
“jisung what the hell!?” he screamed at the boy with grey hair, who was was currently hanging upside down on his front porch. jisung scrambled and with wide eyes he let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding.
“what the hell jisung? what the hell chan? why do you have a bat? you don’t even play.” jisung was still frazzled by the sudden introduction of the bat and moved his hands towards his face to protect himself. his grey hair fell from his scalp and dangled before chan. the bat fell from the original position and hung at chan’s side. jisung snapped his fingers to get chan’s attention back on him. “anyways, i was listening in to the radio and they found a body in the woods!” chan’s face showed confusion and jisung sighed cross his arms,
“body? what type of body? like a body of water?” now it was jisung’s face that fell and he’s the one that looked confused.
“yes like a body of water.” the grey headed boy snarked back not before adding, “no dumbass! a body, like a person! body of a person, duh.” the smile that graced jisung’s features was off-putting since they were talking about an actual body. chan frowned and helped jisung down from the roof. the boy brushed off his clothes and straightened out his shirt. “we gotta go! dad said it was somewhere in the middle of the woods. it’s only half the body! super gruesome stuff. we have to try to find it! i wanna be on the news, maybe star in a podcast or two.” jisung was practically shouting and it almost hurt chan’s ears. the boy was already tugging chan by the arm out of his house. chan reached behind to pull his house door shut and let his friend drag him to where the said body was supposed to be.
the two boys walked under the trees and let the leaves crunch under their feet, wondering where the body was. chan held his phone out to guide the way and the bright light was shining on both of their shoes.
“so you’re telling me they actually think there’s a body out here?” chan walked up the hill of dirt and pushed himself to reach the over ecstatic boy in front of him. the breaths leaving him were more like wheezes, he knew he needed to take a break. he felt himself reaching for his inhaler that was in his jacket pocket, his breathing more ragged as his fingers grasped the plastic container that would hopefully calm his lungs. chan brought it to his lips and paused his movements to let the medication flow through his airways. he let out a relieved sigh. his lungs no longer felt like they were on fire anymore so he ran to meet up with jisung. his friend was still trying to explain everything.
“well i mean it was a call about a potential body. not completely sure they’ll find anything but if they do, we’re gonna be their first to see it!” jisung exclaimed while pumping one fist in the air. the smile never leaving his face as they continued their trek in the forest. jisung was still happily proclaiming his theories about the body before seeing flashlights in the distance that wasn’t from chan. jisung grabbed chan’s hoodie and forced them to the ground. “dude my dad’s here, if we get busted my ass is screwed.” chan wanted to laugh but couldn’t when he overheard his friend’s dad speaking along with some other officers.
“the tip said it was in this area, i’m thinking we should spread out and check the vicinity.” jisung’s dad ordered the remaining officers near him and within seconds the officers and dogs were out of the pair’s sights. jisung looked to his friend and gave him a thumbs up before scrambling to follow after his dad.
“wait jisung! wait for-“ chan was cut short and threw himself against a tree once he saw jisung fall to the floor. a flashlight was soon in his face, jisung yelped and held his arms out to protect himself from the harsh light that came above him. chan clamped a hand over his mouth to minimize his breathing and he tried to hear what they were saying.
“wait a minute, this one belongs to me.” jisung’s dad scoffed and held out his hand to help his son off the ground. jisung grabbed it and dusted the dirt from himself for the second time that night. he smiled at his dad, “wait wheres the other one? where’s chan?” jisung’s dad moved the flash light around in hopes of finding his son’s partner in crime. “chan are you out there?”
“no! he’s uh not here. chan’s at home, you know sleeping. it is the night before school.” jisung answered quickly hoping to steer his his father away. his dad seemed to buy it because he grabbed jisung’s shirt and started pulling them towards the police car that was just outside the woods.
“that’s right it is a school night, you should be home sleeping right now like your friend.” chan overheard the whole conversation and his hand went to grab his inhaler to make sure it was in the pocket. the boy wanted to go home. he’d been up for far too long and wanted to sleep the night away. after making sure the coast was clear, he started to wander off from the area and came across an area with a lot of trees spread out. chan tried to listen to the sounds of the woods but was left with eerie silence. it was all quiet. not even the sound of crickets or leaves crunching could be heard. he watched the trees, and let his other senses take over. the ground started to shake and chan backed away from the open woods. a herd of deer came into chan’s view and his eyes widened to make sure what he was seeing was true. the sudden intrusion of the herd made chan’s hand fall from the inhaler and he lost it somewhere on the floor. he fell somewhere away from it. the deer stomped through the forest and around chan. he tried covering his eyes from the dirt that flew into his eyes. as an afterthought he kept his arms up to protect his face from the deer. he was afraid and didn’t know what to do. after a few stray deer made their way to the rest of them, chan let out a breath. his heart was beating so fast and he took a few breaths to try and get his rapid heartbeat under control. he got off the ground and reached for his phone, the boy turned on the flashlight and let his phone light cover the ground in order to find his inhaler. chan moved his phone around slowly, searching for the small thing. instead of his inhaler, the phone light landed on the body.
as in the cut in half, bloodied body. he almost screamed as he fell backwards. the body stared back at him, the girl’s eyes open wide in horror. he wanted to reach out and close her eyes but he was too terrified so he just slowly backed up until he got to his feet and turned away from the body on the ground.
chan started to search for his inhaler again, he wanted to get the image of the dead girl’s body out of his head. he was tempted to call jisung and tell him but he had more pressing matters. he shook off his nerves. the movement of leaves and branches behind chan scared him out of his mind. he turned around to be met with nothing, it was like something out of a b-rated horror movie and he almost laughed. the same sound was heard. he moved his head only to it to be met with red glowing eyes in the distance. chan swore under his breath. he wanted to run away from whatever was out there but before he could he react, the thing jumped out at him. chan tired to push himself away from the thing on top of him but with no avail the thing had a hold of chan’s torso. chan felt a scream rip through his throat when his side was pierced with something wickedly sharp. it had a sort burning sting to it and his mind wandered to what his mom would say. chan shook the thoughts from his head. he must be delirious from the pain. he needed to get this thing off him before it tore him to pieces. it finally released its hold on chan. the teenager scrambled to get on his feet and started running as fast as his legs could take him. he started to hyperventilate. his inhaler still nowhere to be found but he just kept running. he’d rather suffer an asthma attack then whatever the hell was in the woods. suddenly, chan could see lights in front of him and he pushed himself to run faster. the moment he was met with road he stopped to hold his chest. he was hoping to get more air into his lungs but it didn’t seem to be working. chan heard the sound of an engine and he turned to be met with headlights. the car had to swerve to avoid hitting him. he was left alone on the dark road. he wanted his mom or a pair of paramedics. with shaky breaths leaving chan he brought his hand to his side and lifted the shirt that used to be white up to reveal his wound. chan’s eyes widened at the bite mark that cover his side. his wound wasn’t from claws or a knife like he was expecting. chan didn’t know what to do. he was in a lot of pain and all he wanted to was go to sleep.
chan locked his bike on the rack just outside his school. he heard a car park besides him and cursed when he saw that it was a porsche. jackson wang got out of the over priced car and smacked the door into chan’s unhurt side. jackson closed the door and scoffed towards the boy.
“dude, watch it.” he pointed to the car door and chan’s eyes followed it. jackson was the one who hit him. he really wanted to go back home. jackson was called away by some of his friends and chan sighed leaving his bike locked up to meet up with his friend and tell him everything that happened the night before. the gauze stuck to his side covering the wound felt sticky and chan wanted to replace it already. jisung jogged up to his friend after clicking to lock up his jeep. chan smiled when he saw him. before chan had gone to bed he had texted his friend about the bite, but not about the body.
“alright channie let’s see it.” chan felt that jisung’s enthusiasm about the wound was too much. he wasn’t sure how his friend had so much energy in the early morning, but he pulled the side of his shirt up to reveal the bite. chan could see it was bleeding again. “woah there buddy, looks like it hurts.” jisung went to grab at chan’s waist and touch it but chan flinched away. “oh shit, sorry.” chan let the shirt fall back down. jisung asked him what he thought did it but he honestly didn’t know. chan grabbed at his backpack straps and the pair started walking towards the entrance of the school.
“it was really dark so i couldn’t see much, but im pretty sure it was a wolf.”
“oh my god, i know you’re dumb, but are you really that dumb? there’s no wolves in california, dumbass.” jisung’s small laugh made chan look at him. if it wasn’t a wolf he wasn’t sure what it was.
“well it howled,” chan explained.
“doesn’t matter, california doesn’t have wolves.” jisung made chan stop in his tracks just so could look him in the eye. chan saw he wasn’t joking, he was being serious.
“you’re joking.”
“i’m not.” his eyes were concerned and gravely serious. it was odd to see his usual happy friend so solemn. “there’s no way you were bitten by a wolf.”
chan didn’t know what to say but then he remembered the body. “i found the body. well half of it.” jisung jumped and he reached out for the boy.
“oh my god really?! you found the body, thats so co-“
“it’s not cool! i’m gonna need years of therapy.”
“therapy, dude? you’re a wuss! this is awesome. literally the best thing that’s happened,” suddenly, a brunette entered the scene. jisung’s eyes followed the girl and chan smiled at his love sick friend. “...since areum was born.” the bell rang and jisung pouted once areum walked into the main building doors. he turned around and met chan’s eyes again. chan grabbed his friend by the shoulder and pushed them both towards the school. jisung would only have to wait mere seconds to see areum again. she was stuck in first period with them.
“now, i know some of you are aware of the body found in the woods last night,” their teacher started and chan could feel the wink that jisung was sending him without even looking. “and i’m supposed to tell you that the police have someone in custody. that means you can focus on my class and not the conspiracy theories following this case.” chan looked back towards jisung and gave him a questioning look, jisung just shrugged and went back to staring whatever was important on his pencil. chan slouched back into his seat trying to focus on the class, but a phone ringing made him bring his hands up to cover his ears. he looked around, but saw no one who looked remotely concerned about a phone going off, not even the teacher. the boy’s eyes drifted to the window and his eyes caught sight of someone sitting on the bench outside with a phone to their ear, chan could hear their conversation clearly.
“mom, you don’t need to call me on the first day. i’ve done this before, i know how high school works.” chan could see the boy struggling to open his bag and look for something, “no i’m fine, i think i just forgot a pen.” chan smiled and he ignored the small lecture that was going on right in front of him to listen to what was happening outside. “no, mom, please don’t, i’ll be fine, okay i gotta go. yeah, love you too” the boy got up and shook hands with whatever admin was helping this kid out. chan focused on listening to them to where they were going and suddenly saw them in the doorway to his classroom.
“mr. morgan’s astronomy class, good morning to you all. i’d like to introduce a new student here at becon hills. his name is kim seungmin and he’ll be in this class, do your best to make him feel welcome.” the administrator left and the teacher pointed to the area where chan was sitting. he saw seungmin walk towards him and heard his bag hit the floor once he was seated. chan grabbed an extra pen that was on his desk and turned to give it to the boy.
“thank you?” seungmin looked confused but still took the pen from chan and he smiled back to show his gratitude. the rest of school went by rather quickly, and every kid left the school halls leaving them empty. chan made his way to his locker and saw seungmin, by what he wassumed was his locker. the two smiled at each other, areum came from the other hall and saw seungmin,
“i’m areum, it’s seungmin right?” areum held her hand out for the boy to shake and he nodded as well, chan heard seungmin’s heart rate increase. areum let out a small chuckle as she let go of the nervous boy’s hand. “hey, i’m sorry i didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable, just wanted to make sure that you have a good first day, and maybe ask if you need a friend?” seungmin smiled brightly and shook his head slightly,
“no, it’s fine, don’t worry. thanks for checking in. it’s nice to meet you areum, and i’d love to be friends.” seungmin’s hand were still gripping his back pack and chan could hear his heartbeat start to slow. jisung stood in front of chan now but he was still listening to the two across the hall conversation. jackson joined his girlfriend and let his hands attach to her waist while areum still talked to seungmin.
“how is the new kid already friends with areum and jackson?” some girl came up to chan and friend and jisung answered for chan.
“probably because he looks lonely and areum is a nice person that wants to make everyone comfortable?” jisung answered nonchalantly. chan let jisung and the girl bicker back and forth while he was focused on seungmin and areum.
“alrighty then seungmin, there is a party this friday after school. it will be so much fun! we can hang together the whole night!” areum smiled clasping her hands together excitedly. chan knew that that was an exaggeration. areum wouldn’t hang with seungmin the whole night like she said. chan liked areum, but he wasn’t always her biggest fan. she was like a coin. sometimes she was the kindest thing this side of the galaxy had ever seen, but she also had a tendency to flip when she was around jackson and his friends.
“oh i’m sorry, every friday my family and i do something special but thanks for asking though.” seungmin almost looked uncomfortable under the gazes of the most popular couple at school and chan almost felt sorry for him.
“you have to come! everyone is gonna be there and so is the team.” jackson tried.
“football?”
“beacon hills football team sucks, haven’t won a game in years. our lacrosse team on the other hand has won state champs the last three years.” jackson offered a smile and areum brought her hand to brush some of the stray hairs on jackson’s head away from his face.
“yeah because of a certain team captain.” areum kissed her boyfriends cheek and chan swore he heard jisung gag.
“we actually have practice in a few... you should come and watch it,” jackson was no longer leaning on the lockers and areum grabbed for seungmin’s hand. “see if you wanna even join the team.”
“i actually have– i don’t do sports really.” seungmin looked scared and chan wanted nothing more than to just help the poor boy.
“well jackson was just kidding but you still have to come watch.” areum dragged them away and chan pulled jisung by his bag to go practice too.
after changing into their gear, the boys practicing for the lacrosse team all gathered on the field. chan heard coach blow the whistle.
“listen, im tired of sitting out on everything! i wanna be on the front line jisung, no more bench warming.” chan muttered and jisung shrugged not quite agreeing, he was just glad to be on the team.
“bang!” coach finstock yelled at chan from behind him, he turned around to answer coach but was interrupted. “you’re goalie today kiddo.”
“coach, i’ve never played goalie before though.” chan was ready to beg to get out of it, but his regular gear was thrown on the ground and replaced with a goalie’s stick and helmet.
“well obviously, but hey, there is a first time for everything! try and get the kids going you know? fire them up? or whatever the hell you kids say now a days.”
“huh?” the boy looked scared and coach laughed.
“catch the balls so they don’t hit you, bang.” he gave chan a hard pat on the shoulder and left chan there. he went to stand near the net and chan heard seungmin’s voice again,
“who is that?” areum followed her new friends eye line and frowned.
“not sure, why?” she looked seungmin in the eye but the boy was still looking at chan.
“we have astronomy with him. he gave me a pen, i was just wondering.” seungmin shrugged and chan let his attention drift to the practice. the loud ringing of the whistle startled chan and he tried clutching his ears with the big gloves to drown out the sound. an incoming fast ball hit chan on the helmet beating him to it and he was thrown backwards from the force. he heard some laughing and jisung visibly cringed from the sidelines. chan got back up and focused on the kid in front of him, the ball left his net and in the blink of an eye, it was sitting in chan’s. he looked surprised along with everyone else on the field and jisung screamed out for his friend.
“hell yeah!”
more kids tried getting past but chan caught them all. one after the other he caught all the lacrosse balls thrown at him. chan didn’t know how this was possible and how he was doing it, but he was and nobody was more surprised then him. jackson skipped the lineup and went to the front, chan’s whole body tensed up, he had to catch this and not make a fool of him self.
“oh god,” chan went into position to catch his ball and as soon as it was thrown from jackson to chan, it was in his net. chan did it, he caught the team captain’s ball and everyone was cheering for chan.
“yes! that’s my best friend!” jisung shouted and chan laughed and sent him his best version of thumbs up given the gloves. areum was on her feet cheering chan on and chan caught jackson staring at her and felt something close to proud.
chan jumped off the small dirt pile and his feet were soon wet from the small river, jisung followed behind him and they both walked across the small river.
“i don’t know man, it’s weird. i just caught them it was like time stopped and i was able to catch them no problem. but the thing is that’s not the only weird thing thats happened,” chan stopped for a moment to duck under a tree branch, “i can hear and smell things that i shouldn’t be able to. like the spearmint gum thats in your pocket.” chan stopped again to let jisung look in his pocket to find one wrapped piece of spearmint gum. jisung was shocked that he knew that but brushed off thinking it was just a coincidence.
“and this all started with the bite?” they continued their journey in the woods.
“yeah, but what if im dying? like this is the surge and my last few hours are just all my senses heightened, or maybe i have some type of disease?” chan turned to look at jisung and he scoffed but then jisung placed his hands on his hips, moving his jacket out of the way.
“oh yeah i’ve actually heard of something like this man,”
“really? what is it?”
“lycanthropy.” jisung stated with a straight face.
“oh my god it sounds bad, it’s bad isn’t it?”
“oh yeah its the worst. but usually its only once a month,” chan looked confused and wanted to say something but jisung didn’t let him “only on the full moon.” jisung howled and chan wanted to punch his friend. jisung was still howling by the time that chan turned to start walking away, chan turned around and punched him in the shoulder. “hey! im just relaying information i got from google.”
“dude im serious!! i could be dying and here you are making jokes about it.”
“no way, dude, you’re just a big bad werewolf now!” jisung made some growling noises and chan wanted nothing more than to punch his friend again, but this time in the mouth. chan glared at his friend and jisung stopped his teasing to hold up his arms in defense. “okay, okay, im joking obviously! but there is a full moon on friday, so just be careful.” jisung teased but chan was already over it.
he halted his steps and crouched down to move some leaves around. “i swear on everything holy, it was right here. the deer, where i dropped my inhaler and found the body.” he continued to move some leaves and throw some branches out of the way while jisung just stood there.
“maybe the killer took it?” jisung tried
“yeah i get the body, but why my inhaler?” chan was still crouching when jisung slapped his shoulder, the boy got up and turned to where his friend was looking. a man in a leather jacket was standing twenty feet away from them and the pair stood there awkwardly while the man walked closer to them.
“what are you doing here?” the man tried and still got no response from chan or jisung. “this is private property.” jisung took his hands from his pocket and scratched his neck.
“uh shoot sorry dude, we uh didn’t know” jisung rushed out.
“yeah, sorry, we were looking for something but forget it, sorry we intruded.” chan wanted to leave, the man standing before them was intimidating. the man in leather threw chan’s inhaler and chan caught it without looking. the man turned to leave and chan was ready to leave too. “come on jisung, lets go.” after getting some space between them and the mystery man, jisung spoke up.
“dude, do you even know how that was?”
“no, why should i?” he asked, still walking. chan just wanted to put more space between leather guy and them.
“it was freaking lee minho! he’s only a few years older than us. do you not remember?” jisung pressed and chan’s grip on the inhaler tightened.
“remember what?”
“his family, they all burned in their house like ten years ago.” both boys were now heavily confused, chan twirled the inhaler in his hands before sticking it in his pocket.
“wonder what he’s doing back.” it wasn’t a question. it was a statement and with the silence that followed chan could tell jisung was starting to grow more curious as time dragged on.
after departing from his best friend, chan had work to attend to. chan worked at a veterinary clinic and had been for awhile now. that was why he closed some nights. he went to the front door and switched the sign to closed and locked the door. soon he would be heading home, and he was glad. sleep was calling for him.
chan looked up to the darkening sky and saw storm clouds. he walked to the bathroom and brought the necessities he needed to clean up his wound. he lifted his shirt and saw nothing. there was no remnants of any wound on his side at all. chan was more confused than ever. he really didn’t know what to do other than to keep working so he put the supplies back and went to grab cat food to make sure they were fed before the night ended. the moment he entered the cat’s room hissing could be heard from everywhere and it surprised chan. he looked around the room and saw all the cats were going crazy and looked like they were going to jump chan if the cages weren’t in the way. he dropped the bag of food and left the room in a hurry. not understanding what was happening. the sudden knocking brought chan back and he saw a glimpse of seungmin from the door. he ran to the to door and opened it seeing a distressed male.
“i was just driving and i… i look away for one second and i hit it. it came out of nowhere! i didn’t see it.” he babbled and chan noticed how anxiety ridden he was.
“calm down, you’re okay. what did you hit?”
seungmin took a breath in and slowly exhaled, “a dog, i hit a dog.” chan was still worried about seungmin and he didn’t know what to do.
“do you know where you hit it? i can call someone and we’ll find the-“
“i have the dog, i took it with me. i didn’t want it to be alone and hurt. ” seungmin said breathlessly and moved to go out to his car to show the other male the hurt dog, chan followed. getting soaked wasn’t on chan’s agenda tonight but neither was dealing with a dogs broken leg. after they moved the dog into the vet clinic, chan was quick to give seungmin a towel to dry his hair and clothes as much as he could, along with himself before tending to the dog. he towel dried himself as much as he could and went over to the dog, drying some of the dogs fur and then looking at its broken leg.
“i can splint it for now and give the dog some pain meds but the head vet has to reset it. im not qualified for that yet.” seungmin hung the towel around his neck and went to lean on the table in the middle of the room to talk to chan, he smiled for the first time that night and chan responded with a soft smile.
“well i’m glad, i didn’t want to just leave the dog hurt especially in this weather. i hope i made the right call.”
“you did, don’t worry, i can handle broken legs. its nothing to worry about, this pup will be back on his feet in few months.” chan was getting ready to administer some pain meds and get what he needed to splint the dogs leg when he saw seungmin was petting the dog trying to make sure it was comfortable. he smiled and grabbed the supplies he needed, “do you like dogs?” seungmin looked up to chan and smiled.
“yeah, i do. i used to have one but she died a while back. also how do you know my name?” seungmin smirked and chan laughed, he pets the dogs head before going to his front leg and grabbing some of the fur to inject the medication.
“we have astronomy together, my names chan by the way.”
“yeah i know, you just never told me your name, chan. you gave me the pen today. do you want that back?” seungmin tried and chan laughed again, he wrapped the dogs leg and stood up straight to stretch out his muscles.
“don’t worry about it, i have a ton more.” seungmin gave him a thumbs up before going back to pet the dog again. the two fell into a comfortable silence with the rain and the dog breathing were the only things that could be heard. chan put the supplies away and walked back to the table. “so do you really have plans on friday, or was that just an excuse not to go to areum’s party.”
seungmin looked at chan and shook his head with a slight smile, “no, family night isn’t a thing, why?”
“wondered if you wanted to go to areum’s party with me instead? areum’s a busy lady and she might say one thing, but mean something totally different. she’s still a good person though don’t get me wrong. i just don’t want you to be alone.” chan added a smile and hoped he wasn’t be too pushy.
“yeah, let’s do it. i should probably head home though,” seungmin handed the towel back to the other boy and he placed them on the counter top while the seungmin gathered his things. chan walked his new friend outside and made sure he got back on the road safely before leaving to pack up for the night. after racing to get home to get a healthy amount of sleep, chan laid in bed wondering about what he was going to wear to the party. he tossed and turned and just when he thought he was falling asleep, he was rudely awakened by bumping into something.
his eyes opened wide in annoyance but then shock when he realized that he wasn’t in his bedroom. chan was face to face with dirt, he was literally staring at leaves and the dirt on the ground. he regretted not wearing a shirt to bed as the air outside was colder than what he was expecting. chan looked around, he couldn’t tell if he was dreaming or not. the fog proving to impair his vision and and the breeze did nothing for the goosebumps that arose on his skin. when chan stood up he tried to see if he could see anything that would tell him where he was. a twig snapped and chan froze, he slowly turned to where the sound originated from and saw nothing. another rustle from his left and chan was staring at something dark in the distance. afraid of what it could do and not wanting to stay behind to find out, chan started running. chan looked to his left again and the thing looked to be mimicking him, it was copying chan’s every moment. he forced his legs to move faster, sprinting in the forest, he made it to a break by the edge of the forest and was met with a fence. chan threw his body over it and landed ungracefully. he ran back to his house after realizing where he was, he still had to get ready for school. chan was severely confused about how he got to the woods and more confused about what it was that he saw. he got ready and headed to school as fast as he could not even stopping to say bye to his mom.
he never slept-walk before.
the day had gone on so long and chan was grateful that all he had left was some practice. he was grabbing things from his locker when a hand slammed the door shut. chan was met with jackson’s eyes and he visibly sighed, he was too tired to deal with anything jackson had to say.
“alright asswipe, how about you tell me where you’re getting your juice from?”
“huh?”
“where do you get your juice?” jackson hissed.
“my mom does all the shopping?” chan really didn’t know how else to answer the question, he had no clue what jackson was talking about.
“listen up bang, i know for a fact that there’s no way hell you, out of all people, are kicking ass on the field without some type of chemical cocktail.” a light switch went off in chan’s head.
“oh you mean steroids… wait, what?” before the boy could react jackson grabbed the top of chan’s jersey and moving to pin him against the wall. chan’s back hit the lockers and he glared at the boy in front of him.
“what the hell is going on with you?” jackson’s words were laced with anger and chan could almost taste it.
“you wanna know what the hell is going on with me jackson? well i would love to know too! because i can do things that i shouldn’t be able to do like hear and smell things that are way to be far to be even sensed.” chan paused as jackson let him go, but he wasn’t done yet. “i’m also able to do things like you said that i shouldn’t be able to do? i mean have you seen me? i’m not in great shape, but that’s not the point! i’m sleep walking miles away from my house and i’m pretty sure i’m losing my god damn mind!” chan let out a gasp he didn’t know he was holding. a weight that the boy didn’t even know had been lifted slightly. jackson laughed.
“aw did that help? is this funny to you bang? i know you’re hiding something and i’m gonna find out what it is, even if it kills me.” the words that left his mouth left chan speechless and jackson turned to leave. chan grabbed his belongings and followed the other boy to the field.
“chan! channie boy come here!!” chan could hear jisung’s yelling before he even saw the boy properly. chan placed his stuff near the bleachers by his friends stuff and leaned down to re-tie his shoes so they were tight enough.
“hurry up sung, i gotta be on the field.”
“okay listen, dad got the screening back from the fiber analysis and you won’t believe what they found on the body! they found animal hairs.” jisung sounded excited and nervous at the same time, but chan had seconds before coach called them to the field.
“sorry dude, can we talk later?”
“wait chan! you’re never gonna believe what the animal was!” chan could barely hear what jisung was saying anymore as he ran out to the field, but he caught the last bit. “it was a wolf.”
after practice, chan was going to head straight for jisung’s, and after a quick shower he biked towards his friend’s house to talk about what went down on the field earlier. he invited himself in and walked to his friends room. chan pounded on the door and within seconds the door opened to a disheveled looking jisung, he smiled towards him and pushed his way in to sit on jisung’s bed.
“thank god, you’re here. come in, you gotta see this.” jisung closed his door after chan was inside and began to ramble, “so i’ve been researching for a while and found all this information.” chan watched his friend sit at his desk and grabbed some papers near the printer.
“how much caffeine have you had today jisung?”
“too much but just listen,” chan laughed
“is it about the body? did they find out who killed her?”
“nope, they’re still questioning people. like lee minho, the guy from the woods. but chan! this isn’t about that!!” jisung was throwing his arms around to try and get his point across, chan shut up so his friend could talk, jisung put on a serious face and wasn’t flailing around anymore. “remember the joke from yesterday?” chan slowly nodded, “well buddy, it’s not a joke anymore.”
“jisung wha-“
“chan! i’ve been doing research since this all went down and now i know! do you even know why wolves howl?” jisung stood up with his arms crossed and the papers crinkling under his arm.
“no i don’t.”
“it’s a signal chan. they howl when they stray from the pack. it’s to signal their location to the rest of the pack. chan this means if you heard that, there could be more of them out there.”
“oh my god, a whole pack of wolves?” chan was still confused and jisung wasn’t making it easier with his rambling.
“no. a pack of werewolves.” at this point chan was annoyed. he didn’t want to listen to jisung tell scary stories, he was too busy and this wasn’t a boy scouts meeting.
“jisung, i swear to god. i have stuff to do like homework and pick up seungmin to go to areum’s party!” chan stood and grabbed his bag, already slinging it across his shoulder, making his friend talk to his back.
“chan, listen please. what you did today at practice, wasn’t just cool and amazing. it was literally impossible.”
“i made a good shot and went with it.” chan wanted to leave, he had things to attend to and jisung was just getting in his way.
“no! its not just that!” jisung grabbed his bag and moved to lay on his bed while he stared chan down, hoping to get his point across and to make his friend understand what was happening. “i mean chan, your reflexes, your speed! everything! you’re good at it chan, and people like us,” jisung motioned between them “can’t do that overnight. and also, your vision and smell! all your senses are heightened and don’t even try me, bang chan! i know you haven’t used your inhaler in days. days without using the plastic container that you used to be so dependent on before all this happened.”
“okay… i…” he couldn’t think, “jisung, i can’t do this right now! like i said i have stuff to do. we can talk tomorrow about this.” chan tried reaching for his bag again just for jisung to push his hand away and yell at him with wide eyes.
“dude no way! tonight’s the full moon. it can’t be tomorrow, what are you not getting?” jisung was begging him, pleading for chan to stay in and not go out.
“jisung please, i can’t deal with this right now. i just made first line and i’m going to hang out with seungmin. everything in my life is somewhat okay right now, so why are you trying to mess that up for me?”
“i’m trying to help chan.” jisung sat down and now chan was the one hovering over jisung. jisung looked defeated in his desk chair and chan almost felt bad, it didn’t last long though. “you’re cursed, and its not just gonna make you physically change when the full moon hits. it’s also when your bloodlust is at its peak.”
“my bloodlust?”
“yeah, your urge to kill.” chan groaned and turned his body away from his friend, grabbing the bag once again and putting it on. jisung grabbed a book in front of him and started reading from it.
“the change can be caused by anger or anything that raises your pulse.” chan pushed his hair aside that fell over his eyes and jisung spoke again.
“and if you ask me chan, its a bad idea all together to hang out with seungmin and go to areum’s! you could hurt yourself or someone else.” jisung had the same look in his eyes again and chan was just fed up that he didn’t even bother to answer him. jisung was quick to jump in front of the door and stop chan from leaving. jisung was silently asking chan to stay and let him help. it did nothing but annoy him. chan grabbed jisung’s shirt and pinned the boy between him and the door, while holding his fist up like he would punch his best friend. jisung didn’t know what was happening and neither did chan. chan didn’t want to punch jisung, let alone touch the boy in a harmful way. it was surprising. he wanted his friend to feel safe and welcome when he was with him. but jisung just wouldn’t stop talking and now chan was agitated. he let jisung go and chan turned away and held his backpack straps in his hands walking back and jisung moved away from the door to let him leave.
“i’m so sorry sung i-“ chan began but jisung beat him to it.
“it’s fine, just go. i’ll see you at the party.” chan looked at his friend and a frown reached his face. chan felt like shit and it was his fault that jisung was acting like this.
“i’m sorry.”
chan still felt bad after the thing with jisung but he took the keys from his mom and drove to the address seungmin sent him. after the second boy got in the car, they drove off to areum’s with small talk and good music. chan and seungmin walked through the sea of people littering the host’s house, they stopped near the pool and seungmin stopped to say hi to someone, chan looked over at everyone and saw someone standing near a gate.
lee minho stood by the entrance with a dog barking behind him. chan didn’t know why the older man was at a high schooler’s party but he had more important things to do rather than wonder about older men. seungmin and chan made their way to the dance area and let the music take over. they both danced and let the music have its way with their bodies. letting it take over to let them have a good time and enjoy themselves at the party. chan was dancing with some of his friends from freshman year and looked over to the house. he saw areum and jackson dancing together, or more like her moving and him attacking her neck with his mouth. chan continued dancing with all his friends and seungmin until his head started pounding. he felt like he was gonna be sick, chan’s head hurt and his heart was racing. whenever anyone bumped into or even slightly touched chan, he’d freeze up. his body reacting on its own. the music was suddenly too loud and everyone was too close for comfort.
“chan, are you okay?” seungmin asked him while dragging him away from the group of people to hopefully calm the boy down. it did the exact opposite though, chan heard everything a little bit clearer now that seungmin was talking directly to him. he could hear his friends heartbeat steadily beating, along with the smell of gum that seungmin had chewed on before coming to areum’s. chan’s eyes dragged to seungmin’s hand that was clutching his forearm. his skin felt like it was on fire and he needed some fresh air or cold water.
“i’ll be right back,” chan stated to what he thinks was seungmin. the room was spinning, and chan was very dizzy. his head felt heavy on his shoulders and he couldn’t even blink properly. chan felt like he was dying. he couldn’t breathe. he almost reached for his inhaler but remember he hadn’t brought it.
“hey, chan? you okay dude?” jisung had pressed a hand to chan’s shoulder as he passed by but chan didn’t stop. he barely recognized who it was. the only giveaway being his friends grey hair.
chan thought he was going to pass out at any second. the room wouldn’t stop moving and he didn’t know where he was going. a few other kids had asked chan if was okay but his mouth wouldn’t open. no sounds were coming out and he didn’t know what was happening to him. chan felt a bead of sweat roll down his temple and he reached to wipe it away. he passed by others, trying not to knock over drinks but he really didn’t care that much. his main priority was to get out of there. he reached for his keys once he was out of the house and scrambled down the few steps leading up to areum’s house. seungmin wasn’t far behind and he followed to try and found out what chan was doing. chan felt a bit better after meeting fresh air that wasn’t surrounded by other people and didn’t smell like sweat. he got in his car and turned the ignition, he chest felt warm and he just wanted to get home. chan needed to be home right now.
the drive wasn’t easy but manageable. chan slammed the door shut and dragged his feet up the stairs. the jacket he was wearing was soon on the floor along with his shoes. he fell to the ground and started heaving. chan felt like he was having an asthma attack and he couldn’t remember where he put his inhaler. the window in his room was wide open and the light from the full moon was hitting chan straight on. he closed his eyes and made his body move to the bathroom. every cell, very molecule molecule in chan’s body felt like it was on fire and ice at the same time. he was freezing and burning up and wanted nothing more than to just scream. the cold water from the shower head did nothing to calm his nerves. his hands that clutched the sides of the tub felt like they were being stabbed. chan dared to look and he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. his finger nails were growing, and at an impossible speed. they grew into claws and he rushed to get out of the tub once the same feeling hit his mouth. he looked in the mirror and opened his mouth to see that in fact his canines were no longer their regular shape, but resembled those of a wolf. his brown eyes turned yellow, an almost glowing eerie color. chan was officially scared, a sudden knock brought chan out of it.
“chan?” it was jisung. he must have followed him
“not now jisung, go away.” he limped to the door.
“chan, it’s jisung! let me in, i promise i can help.” the boy promised and chan was prepared to let his friend in and help until he remembered what jisung said earlier about hurting others.
“no i can’t, you know i can’t. i don’t wanna hurt you.” he inhaled and held it for five seconds before exhaling.
“chan! just let me in-“ jisung was pounding on the door and chan opened it slightly.
“listen jisung, please, i know who did it. but tell me, did seungmin get home safe?” jisung sighed at his friend.
“yes, yes, he got home. i saw him get a ride.” there was a pause like jisung was still processing the words chan had uttered. “what do you mean you know who did it?”
chan let his head fall against the door, his wet brown hair dripping water on the floor. “it’s minho. he’s the one behind everything. he killed and hid the body, and he’s the one who bit me.” chan answered matter of factly. he figured it out a while ago and just need to piece it all together. the party just confirmed it.
“wait chan, minho was the one that drove seungmin home after you ran off.” chan swore his heart stopped beating for a second. he closed the door and jisung began pounding again. chan tore off his soaked shirt, and let all his feelings overcome him. he ripped open the curtains of his window and yanked it up. what once used to jam now moved with perfect fluidity. he was surprised by his own strength. it didn’t last long though because he jumped out and landed on the ground, feet parallel and head down. his emotions were running haywire but he just let his gut have the chance to lead him and took off where ever he thought he was needed. chan’s ears elongated and he felt his cheeks slightly itch. he hoped jisung would go check on seungmin to make sure the boy got home safely. but chan could worry about that later, he had things to do like find minho. he leapt throughout the town and scaled buildings when he needed to in order to get a better sense of where he was headed. chan’s feet carried him away and he was brought back to the woods from this morning and when he got bit. chan stopped.
his breathing was hard and he felt himself take deeper breathes in order to get the air into his body. his eye sight was messed up and didn’t look normal and yet he could see perfectly. he followed his nose and let it guide him. chan focused his hearing and closed his eyes to try and hear more. the sound of an engine turning off made chan stop, and he looked around to try and find which direction it was coming from. sudden shouts all around chan made his yellow eyes glow and he took off again. a body came into chan’s peripheral and before he could see who it was clearly, it came at him full force. the wind was knocked out of him. he struggled to his feet.
“minho? what are you doing here? wait, is seungmin safe?!” the second question thrown at minho made him growl, he was agitated and now he had to deal with some teen wolf. minho held onto chan’s shoulder to force the boy to look into his eyes. minho could tell that chan was burning up, his fingers that rested on the boys shoulders were warm. chan tried hitting the boys hands off of him but that just made the grip even tighter. the sound of someone walking near the pair made them both tense up and minho dragged chan to somewhere out of sight from the people in the woods.
“alright look dumbass, i’ve been watching over you for the past few days to see how the bite affected you and you were doing alright so far. but i knew that tonight would be hard,” minho paused too look up at the moon and pointed with his index finger. “and now that we’re here, we’re in trouble cause you can’t keep your cool and managed to hit all the basic no-no’s in the how to be a werewolf checklist. so i’m here to clean up your mess. plus those are hunters out there hunting us and i don’t know about you, but dying wasn’t on my agenda tonight. also the kid is safe, i took him home.”
“okay i can agree with that and thank god.” chan and minho went to the right and started running but it was too late. they were caught in the crossfire and red lasers were pointed at both boys. minho was calm and collected but chan was starting to freak out. minho was trying to reason with them but they had guns. people like that tended to have the upper hand in these sort of situations. chan couldn’t even hear what they were saying, the sound of his heartbeat seemed too loud in his own ears. minho’s hand was still holding chan’s arm and suddenly he let go to push the boy out of the way. the sound of gunshots and arrows whizzing past chan made him come back to reality and he heard minho yell at him,
“watch your eyes chan! close them!” minho was desperate for chan to listen but it was too late and chan looked directly at the arrow that hit a tree. it blew up and the bright light seared his brain. it made him want to claw his eyes out. he rubbed at his eyes and kept running. an arrow came from behind him and pierced his lower arm. minho growled and tried to get the hunters off of chan. chan’s arm was bleeding and he looked down to see the arrow sticking out of his arm on both sides. he let out a shaky breath and minho came running over, he grabbed his hurt arm and put pressure near his elbow to restrict the blood flow while he pulled it out. “the healing will kick in, just give it a few.” he pulled it out and chan groaned, the relief setting in. their was no more pain and minho pulled chan from his thoughts when they started running again. chan held his arm and they made it close to the edge of the woods.
“who were those guys?” chan questioned trying to catch his breath.
“hunters,” minho said simply.
“what?”
“how else am i supposed to explain this to you?” minho groaned. “people with guns, bad. you and me, not bad. yeah, you got it? and if you don’t get it, you’ll end up dead.” minho placed his hands on chan’s shoulders to make the younger boy look him in the eyes. “also, why are you not wearing a shirt?” he tapped chan’s chest and the other boy laughed. “chan listen to me. this is serious, i know this isn’t what you envisioned for you self but this is your life now. whether you like it or not. we’re brothers now.”
chan sighed but nodded, understanding most of what was happening. minho stood up and pulled chan to his feet, the pair walked towards the road. the sun was beginning to rise. chan called jisung and thanked god when said boy was on his way to pick him up. minho made small talk and the two waited together, guards still high just in case. jisung pulled up and chan climbed in the blue jeep after thanking minho and telling him to get home safely.
“so what happened?” jisung questioned after giving chan a shirt. the brown headed boy sighed and felt all his muscles begin to ache as he moved around to get comfortable in the seat.
“you were right, i’m a werewolf.”
“i would say i told you so but i don’t want you to beat my ass so.” jisung laughed and chan joined him. the pair kept driving until chan was dropped off at his home. the weekend was spent trying to get sleep and finishing up his homework. school on monday was brutal. the entire weekend was spent in wallowing in guilt and chan was unable to think of what to say to seungmin.
it didn’t matter though because as soon as chan saw him the words came pouring out of him like he was some sort of leaking faucet. “seungmin, i’m so sorry about everything.”
“i know, it okay. can i ask what happened though?” seungmin locked eyes with chan as they sat in astronomy together. class hadn’t started yet.
“i got sick?” chan tried and seungmin laughed, sitting back in his chair. chan offered a small smile in return, feeling a bit better.
“yeah okay, are we still friends though?” seungmin almost pouted and chan wanted nothing more than to reassure the boy that being his friend was all he wanted.
“of course, always.” chan genuinely smiled and turned around once the bell rang.