Hyunjin's seven pet wolves (SKZ werewolf AU)- OT8

Chan is very unimpressed with his pack

Looking back on it now, admitting that the new human that they had been stalking was a friend of a vampire wasn't the brightest thing that Jisung had ever done.

Of course, it barely went over well with the other occupants of the table aside from Felix, who leveled him with an unimpressed and exasperated look. If even Felix was looking at him like that, Jisung knew he had fucked up.

In his defense, he was a very honest person. He found it hard to keep a secret of any kind, let alone look any of the alphas and betas in the face without simultaneously combusting on the spot. If the lord put him in a confession booth, he would walk out only a second later because everyone knew everything about him.

And now, Chan was up from his chair and pacing the spacious kitchen like he'd just had the epiphany of a lifetime. Like the time Jisung admitted he had used Changbin's toothbrush by accident and Changbin, the germaphobe, nearly threw up on the spot.

Minho, for his part, looked peeved as he clenched the wooden chopsticks in his right hand. "Chan," he nearly growled, "sit down and eat your food."

Chan ran hands through his unruly hair, looking around like their wooden cabin was collapsing in on them. "But-"

"Sit. Now." And anyone who denied one of Minho's orders was an idiot, even Chan, so Chan quickly slipped back into his chair. Minho always hated it when mealtime was interrupted and they didn't fully finish their plates. He usually sat all of them down to make sure they licked the dishes clean.

Chan grabbed his utensils and Minho went back to his own food- even if the tension in the air was suffocatingly palpable. "If the human is hanging out with a vampire, then that means he's dangerous, and we can't take risks. The last time the vampires entered our territory-"

"First of all," Felix interrupted from next to Jisung, "the human has a name, and it's Hyunjin. Second off, we can't just jump to conclusions, he's new here. What if he doesn't know that's a vampire he was hanging out with?"

Seungmin shook his head, because he rarely ever took sides in arguments. He was their voice of reason. "As much as I don't like guesses, I'd say anyone that moves to a place like this already knows about supernaturals. It's highly unlikely he's just a normal human."

Felix looked downtrodden as Seungmin's observation, because his instincts were the sharpest of all of them and rarely ever wrong. Jisung hated to see that look on his face, especially since it was normally covered with a bright smile.

"Okay well, he saved Felix. Doesn't that mean we owe him the benefit of the doubt?" Jisung looked up at the table hopefully, and everyone seemed to shift in their chairs, eventually all facing Chan to silently ask what to do.

Chan sighed deeply. "How about we keep surveillance on him for now."

Felix's face lit up, and Jisung matched his energy with his own smile. "For now can we relax? It's been a while since we've let loose. Can we go on a run?"

And that, Chan could also not agree with. "The full moon's in a week. Can we wait until then?"

"No," Changbin said, mouth still full of food. "I've been crawling out of my skin. Let's go out tonight."

And with all three of them- Changbin, Felix, and Jisung- shooting their own puppy eyes, it was nearly impossible for Chan to resist. Minho smirked at him, all cat-like and smug because he was the only one invincible to their whims.

Chan set his head down onto the wooden table with a loud thud. "Fine."

-

Hyunjin now had two contacts in his phone. One that was written as 'Father.' With an emphasis on the period at the end, and the one labeled 'Ajax' with so many emojis that Hyunjin needed to click the three dots to see all of them.

Ajax was a frequent texter, and combated with Hyunjin's lack of tech-savviness, it didn't go over too well. Hyunjin hardly ever checked his phone, never needed to use it in the first place up until now. It was a small little device, smaller than his hand, and the screen was cracked all over. The camera was broken, but that didn't matter because he had a professional camera that he used to capture art pieces.

They had been given an art project off the bat, the first day of classes, and that was enough for Hyunjin to determine that the professor was an asshole. That, and the way he slowly spoke and looked down on Hyunjin like he was the creator himself.

Hyunjin was used to assholes, so he would let it slide. It could be better, but it could be worse. At least, Ajax complained about him a lot. He said all of the things that were on Hyunjin's mind but didn't have the courage to say.

A pretty symbiotic relationship, if you asked Hyunjin.

That night when he returned from classes, body heavy with exhaustion, all he wanted to do was sleep. He upgraded from a futon on the floor to a waterbed with no frame (yet.) He even splurged and ordered thick blankets, the kind that would keep him warm even in the winter with his broken heating unit.

He didn't have the money to cough up and fix it.

As appetizing as it would be to curl up in a ball and put headphones on to sleep, Hyunjin had raemom to heat up and he had a photo library to sort through and pick from. The assignment was a simple 'paint your favorite art style to showcase.' and Hyunjin had plenty of acrylics to use.

Except...

Even as he sorted through the pictures and slurped on his dollar menu meal, none of them intrigued him as potential artworks. At least, not at the moment.

He set his camera down, sighing in exasperation. There was no way he would be able to get any work done tonight- not with the weird buzzy feeling under his fingertips that he got. An itch to paint, even if he had nothing to paint at the moment.

It was dark outside, and dinner was sitting comfortable enough in his stomach to make him sleepy, but he needed to paint, and he knew exactly where he wanted to do it.

Only sparing a few moments to mentally apologize to the old lady from the market before shrugging on warmer clothes and collecting his go bag with art supplies.

The woods wouldn't be too bad if he kept his knife on him... right?