Hidden King

Chapter 3 Short Hunt

Yunho

         I can't seem to find my mic pack, but thankfully Mingi finds it for me. He hands it to me as we head out, looking for the thing that had been following the others. I head out with Wooyoung, SeongHwa and HongJoong, taking the charm with us. The others using San's magic to use as a beacon, or even something of a tracker, like the charm.

         "Yunho, does he not like me?" Wooyoung asks me when we are alone, turning his mic off. I look at him and sigh, turning mine off as well.

         "What do you mean?" I ask, humoring him. He and San are always in something of a push-pull relationship. As soon as one gives in a bit and thinks there might be something, the other seems to pull away, thinking something is wrong with going forward.

         "I... Never mind." he says, putting his earpiece back in and turning his mic back on. I sigh and follow as he heads back to our hyungs.

         "What were you two talking about?" SeongHwa asks, Woo just shrugs and keeps walking. "You?"

         "Nothing, we talked about absolutely nothing." I say and keep walking. We walk for a while, not finding much of anything. I can't seem to shake that Wooyoung wants to talk, but he is silent the whole time.

:@:

Mingi

         I walk with Jongho, putting an arm around his neck as we search. We don't find much, but Jongho seems a bit annoyed at San.

         "What's up with you two?" I ask him as we walk.

         "Nothing, I just don't like him being so... ugh I don't know. There is just something I don't like."

         "Is it just because he's a witch? I mean I know we Hunters don't work with them much, but he's one of us."

         "I guess... I know we've been a group for a long time, but the fact that he only recently told us... " he sighs and shakes his head.

         San had only recently told us that he was a witch, and after we had an incident where his magic was used to shield Wooyoung and HongJoong. Our mission had been going poorly until then, and he saved it by using his magic.

         Most of us understand why he hid that from us, most Hunters would've killed him for having magic. In our case we knew him, and most of us didn't mind, though apparently Jongho is still coming to terms with it.

         "Well, he has been a lot of help since he came out as a witch to us. Why not just focus on that?" I ask and Jongho nods. I watch as he goes to hang out with Yeosang, and I head over to San.

         We walk silently for a while until he stops and looks off down an alley. He pulls out a water bottle and we head down, Yeosang and Jongho close behind. As we head down a man jumps at us, hitting me and Yeosang calls on the others.

:@:

SeongHwa

         We are a block away when Yeosang calls for us, making us run to the others. I turn the corner in time to see San throw water on the ground, causing a barrier to go up around Mingi. Injuring the demon in the process. Yunho runs to him and I see Jongho holding it back with holy chains.

         "Are you okay?" I ask Mingi and he gives a thumbs up. He had a bruise forming on his jaw, something San could heal easily. HongJoong goes to exorcise the demon as San comes over to heal Mingi, Jongho still holding the demon down.

         "The bruise isn't bad, sorry I didn't stop him before he connected..." San says quietly as he heals Mingi.

         "It's not your fault, it happens. I hate pain, but I knew it was something that would happen when I came into this." Mingi says and smiles kindly at him. San nods and heads over to help HongJoongie with the exorcism, chanting with him.

         I kneel by Mingi and he tells me what happened until then. I nod and we wait until the boys are done with the demon. When I turn around Jongho is holding the man up, and helping him to sit.

         "What just happened to me?" he asks and I go up to him.

         "You were possessed, use this to prevent that from happening again." I say, handing him a marker that San made up. All of us have it tattooed on our bodies, it's an anti demon possession mark. I sigh as he puts it on and runs off, not even giving us a second glance after bowing.

         "Glad that guy only cares about himself." Jongho says as he brushes himself off. He hates having dirt on his pants.

         "Yeah, we should clean this up quick," I say, pointing to the spray of blood on the ground. San collapses the shield he made with the water and uses it to clean the blood up in one motion.

         "That works..." Joongie says as he watches. We all kind of just stare and sigh in relief. This was actually fairly simple compared to most of our past jobs, so I'm just glad nobody was seriously injured this time.