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Chapter Text

Chan watched dispassionately as his meal gasped its last, pained breath.

five...four...three...two…

As the tiny pinpricks that betrayed the existence of his kind healed into smooth, sallow but otherwise unblemished skin, Chan readied the filthy razor blade he’d found in the meal’s bathroom, holding it firmly with a square of toilet paper. Leaning over the tub, careful not to touch anything, even with a sleeve or the end of his shirt, Chan grasped one flabby forearm (making sure it was the left, the meal had been a righty) and slashed down, stopping and starting at various points along the flesh; a man not wanting to live but also afraid to die.

Finally done at the juncture where wrist met hand, Chan stood up, panting. This type of killing, while not completely uncommon, wasn’t all that typical, either. A waste of food, Chan thought with a grimace, dropping both the mangled, bloody arm and the razor into the half-filled tub. He carefully stepped out of the bathroom, peeling off the meal’s own socks as he went and dropping them next to the pants, underwear, and stained top the meal had been wearing when the vampire had stopped by for one last feed.

With a final squint into the grimy hallway mirror to check for any stray flecks of blood, Chan smoothed back his hair, slipped into his trainers, and headed out into the moonless Ahyeon-dong night.

Trudging up the steep slope that identified this area of Seoul in a way few landmarks could, Chan turned and headed south toward the river to Gongdeok station, where he’d take the train to Itaewon for his coffee debrief with Sejun. Normally Chan would have chafed at the idea of reporting to a junior in the vampire kiss, Seungwoo’s orders or no, but the meal, the former Chae Joobin, had been a very special case.

Chan had kept Chae occupied for weeks, striking up conversation in a drivers’ diner, then later at a neighborhood bar, then stalking the man to his tiny apartment and finally feeding, while the others had tracked down the children the man had delivered to a private airport all the way out in Gimpo, and had rescued them and returned them to their homes.

It didn’t help that the Gangnam kiss was basically just the three of them: Chan, Sejun, and their leader Seungwoo, and that the closest kiss in nearby Incheon, namely Wei and Wooshin’s large band of too-cool-for-you vampires, had quickly realized what Seungwoo was up to and point blank refused to help.

It could be that Chan was still a little bitter, hurrying alone through the dark, dank, sweltering streets of Ahyeon-dong. But Wei had laughed; no, he had chortled, the fucker, and Wei had merely smiled in that smug, secretive way he had, before he shook his pretty head and showed the Gangnam kiss to the door with a “good luck, but dealing with organized crime isn’t really in our skill set” and a promise to have dinner together soon, just the twelve of them. Chan supposed that it was common knowledge by now just who would rather stake Seungwoo and his kiss than share a meal with them. Xiao wasn’t exactly subtle.

So Seungwoo, disgraced former scion of the greater Han Coven of Busan, with a chip on his shoulder as big as Hallasan and an incendiary sense of justice to boot, had decided to chase after these human traffickers on his own, with only his tiny kiss as backup. Chan was calm and competent at his job as a second should be, but Sejun was decidedly… not. Oh, he was ferocious when that was needed and beautiful and graceful and charismatic in a way that Chan could never even dream of, but Sejun would also be more likely to stab himself with a spike or probably find a way to accidentally decapitate himself one day. He was a hazard unto himself.

But somehow they managed to work very well together. With Chan and the vampire disaster known as Im Sejun, Seungwoo was quickly able to identify at least the handler of this particular group of trafficked children and deal with him first. Of course there would be other handlers to come take his place, but Seungwoo hadn’t seemed all too concerned about that. Chan physically “took care” of the grunts in the organization, Sejun traced the paper and electronic trails leading to the children being stolen, and Seungwoo… tore through the human trafficking gang as messily and as bloodily as he dared without bringing unwanted attention down on his little kiss. The Vampire Council Goryeo tended to look away from attacks on certain humans, as long as those humans met the parameters set down in the Treaty of Silla all those centuries ago. It was depressing to think that mortals, even with their terribly short lifespans, had always preyed on the weaker and more vulnerable of their species, but as long as they did, Seungwoo and his kiss could prey on them.

Notes: Chan makes a murder look like a suicide (wrist slashing), mentions of child trafficking

Chapter Text

Chan was full out sprinting, his dark red running tights and matching dri-fit shirt making him look more like a nighttime jogger burning off some chicken after work than a deadly creature of the night, so the lights that signified Gongdeok station came into view in relatively short time. Reaching into the zippered pants pocket for his wallet, he was thus unfortunately preoccupied when something slammed into his side, hard.

“Hey!”

“Oh!”

Chan flew head over heels onto the pavement, twisting as he fell until he landed crouched on the balls of his feet, one hand down for balance. To his surprise, his unknown assailant had landed in a similar stance a few yards away, head tilted, eyes glittering in the shadow of the surrounding buildings.

Yellow eyes. Oh, shit.

Fangs dropped automatically as Chan gave a low-pitched snarl, fingernails lengthening and the world turning a sickly dark green as his own night vision responded, his body preparing for a fight.

“No! Wait!” The other man’s glowing eyes quickly receded to a normal, human brown as he held both hands palms out, placating. He was panting, even though the crash hadn’t winded Chan at all. “Stop, please,” he continued, bracing one hand on a knee and the other over his chest, clutching at his shirt, “Wait, I’m-I’m sorry, I didn’t mean-”

But Chan, already feeling the high from the death of Chae Joobin and the recent aborted altercation, was on his feet and stalking toward the stranger waiting in the dark. As he got closer, his blood sense got a whiff of the other man instantly. “Byungchan,” he hissed, stepping in, “What are you doing here?”

The other man- Byungchan - young and innocent looking with his large, brown eyes, stood to his full height and blinked down at him. Chan’s treacherous inner voice grumbled that Byungchan had grown since he’d last seen him.

“I was looking for you, of course,” Byungchan explained, as if it was the easiest thing in the world to trail a supernatural killer, although if anyone could do it, it would be a werewolf. “I lost you when you went right instead of left by that church so I ran here knowing you’d be heading to Itaewon. And I found you!”

“Yeah, you sure did,” Chan said wryly. “Wait, how did you know I was going to Itaewon? And you want to tell me why you’re looking for me?”

“Well, um, maybe I heard you on the phone with Im Sejun? You know, hearing?” Byungchan reiterated, tapping at his ear.

Chan mentally kicked himself. Of course. Fucking werewolves with their superior senses. Sejun wasn’t a quiet person at the best of times, and his fondness for calling rather than texting - it’s hard to text and walk at the same time! - had gotten them into trouble more than once. Chan was going to have to start insisting on texting. “But you’re looking for me…?”

“Oh! We heard from Wooshin that Seungwoo was doing something, um, stupid.” Byungchan replied. “I mean, Wooshin actually said Seungwoo’s fucking lost it and Wei started laughing, you know, how he laughs without making any sound? That’s so strange, right? And Xiao was there and his eyes turned RED and, you know what, nevermind. Anyway, we weren’t, like, concerned about Seungwoo so that’s not why I’m here but Seungsik heard- hold on I'm getting ahead of myself- '' He smiled awkwardly, forcing himself to slouch in a relaxed way that looked anything but. “Um, anyway, Subin found you at Eonju station a couple of weeks ago and followed you to Ahyeon, and once you guys, you know, eat, it’s easy to follow the scent of blood, even from a mile away.” Byungchan frowned. “You’ve smelled like the same human for as long as I’ve been following you. It’s not like you to linger with a feeding.”

Chan stared at the young werewolf, feeling, for once, speechless. “Wooshin talked to you? About us? And Xiao what? Seungsik, you said something about- ?” He stopped, trying to process the last few minutes. “Byungchan, you’re not making any sense.”

“I do too make sense,” Byungchan grumbled. “Hey-!”

Chan grabbed Byungchan by the wrist, normally not something one should do to a werewolf but only if one wasn’t already a vampire, and dragged him deeper into the shadows of the darkened building, away from any lingering foot traffic. The smell of roasting meat was wafting strong and pungent from the restaurant above them, and the crash of adrenaline wasn’t helping at all. But that didn’t excuse the next words out of his mouth. “You said… Subin saw me?” Chan asked. He hoped he didn’t sound as pathetic as he felt. “He followed me? But I didn’t sense him at all.”

Byungchan rolled his eyes. “We know how to be sneaky, no matter what you vampires think. Even Subin. He’s good at stalking prey, ” he added pointedly. “Also he never talks about you, if you were wondering.”

Chan winced. He’d forgotten that Byungchan only looked like an innocent boy; he could be as cruel as the next supernatural predator. “No, that’s not what I-”

“I know,” Byungchan cut in. He sighed. “I-I’m sorry, that was mean. I’m only here to deliver a message but it looked like you were doing something complicated and gross so I waited until you were done.”

“Oi!”

Both men whirled toward the sound of someone running down the street and closing in fast. Byungchan froze, obviously recognizing and not liking what was coming, but Chan nearly slumped in relief. It was Sejun.

Dressed in a silky white button down, well tailored dark slacks and a long dark flowy coat that shouldn’t be comfortable at all in the summer heat, Im Sejun’s entire presence screamed vampire. “Oooh, I smell grilled pigs,” he sighed as he walked up, patting his stomach. “I remember what it was like to eat meat. I kinda miss that. I think?” He paused. “Right? Humans eat pigs? They don’t eat other humans? I always get confused. When they’re charred they smell the same.”

Byungchan made a face, like he’d stepped in something foul. “Charming as always,” he said. He glanced around nervously, realizing that he was now outnumbered. Putting his back to the wall, he added, “Listen, I’m only here to-”

“No, no! Stay a while, baby Byung, I just got here,” Sejun leered, leaning in. “I promise I won’t bite. Unless, you know, you want, and then you and me can-”

Chan snorted and smacked Sejun in the chest with the back of his hand, exasperated by the younger vampire’s antics but glad for the backup. “Cut it out, you weirdo. Byungchan and I were apparently just having a little talk.” He turned to his kissmate fully. “Not that I’m not glad you’re here, but… weren’t we meeting at the cafe?”

“Oh sure,” Sejun replied, waving a hand airily, his ridiculous attempt at flirting with Byungchan forgotten. “But something... interesting happened.” He leaned in again and gestured to Chan to come closer. “So I’m on the train heading to Samgakji when it stops at Isu. And there I smell a familiar little puppy by the open doors, but sadly he wasn’t there by the time I got up to check. He was fast, too.” He grinned. “It was Jung Subin. And here you are, little puppy Choi Byungchan. All we’re missing is your little puppy leader, Kang-”

Sejun yelped as Byungchan lunged, grabbing the other man by his shirt collar. “What did you do to Subin?” he growled.

“Nothing! What? I didn’t do anything, I told you he was gone!” Sejun gasped when Byungchan let go with a shove. “Jeez! You’ve been working out, huh?” He flinched when Byungchan made to lunge at him again. “Stop, you psycho!” He straightened his collar and made a show of brushing dust off his jacket sleeves. “I figured Subin was following me so I changed trains at Ichon and a couple of other stations, doubled back at Daehung, and here I am.”

“So where is he now?” Chan wondered out loud. He looked around before glancing at Byungchan, who shrugged.

“Ah, he wasn’t really supposed to follow Sejun,” he said. “He was only supposed to make sure he got on the line to Itaewon but texted me a little while ago saying he’d lost him almost immediately and that he was going home.”

Sejun stretched and yawned, a huge jaw-breaking motion that showed off his slim fangs flashing white. Chan always needed the extra incentive of a feed or a fight or something more carnal, but Sejun could drop them on command easily and did so all the time, the showoff. It was annoying.

“Well, we’re here, what do you have to tell us?” Sejun asked Byungchan. He made a motion with his fingers. “Out with it.” He grinned and stepped aside as a couple stumbled out of the meat restaurant, the man walking unsteadily and the girl wobbling from trying to keep him upright. “Ugh, he stinks of liquor,” he whispered dramatically to Chan. “You want to split him? We could probably get drunk!”

“NO,” Chan hissed back, shoving at his friend. He could see Byungchan fighting a smirk in his peripheral vision and mourned the loss of his reputation as a cold, smooth killer. He faced the werewolf. “Tell me why you’re here so I can go home,” he pleaded.

“What about me?” Sejun pouted, hanging off his shoulder and batting his eyelashes. “I thought you said you would actually get me a coffee tonight.”

Chan rolled his eyes. “Uh no I didn’t and since when do you drink coffee?”

“Well I don’t,” Sejun admitted, “But I love the smell. And remember those cute pink cakes shaped like little pigs, with a curly tail-”

“Oh my GOD,” Byungchan exclaimed, waving his arms. He frowned as a woman walking down the other side of the street jumped and ran into the train station. “Be QUIET and let me DO this! I’ve been FOLLOWING the scent of old blood for DAYS, in this HEAT, and Chan almost knocked me OVER and broke my HEAD tonight, and, and-”

“Whoa!” Sejun yelled back, laughing as another couple, walking toward the group, suddenly swung around and headed back the way they came. “Sorry, sorry! Come on, Byungchan, we’re scaring the locals. I’ll be quiet so you can talk,” he mimed zipping his lips and looked up at Byungchan expectantly. “Mmph?”

Byungchan huffed, sounding very put upon, and turned to address Chan. “My Alpha, Kang Seungsik, requests that his pack meets tomorrow with your leader Han Seungwoo and his, um, you guys... his kiss, to discuss a delicate matter. He agrees to having it late at night, say ten pm? and suggests Haneul Park-”

“It closes at sundown to protect the ecosystem this time of year,” Chan pointed out. Sejun coughed delicately.

“You nerd,” he whispered. “We’re vampires. Meeting werewolves. We got this.”

“Well, pick a place and we can find you,” Byungchan said, “Because you guys reek.”

Sejun gasped and his hands flew to his chest. “You dare-?!”

Chan sighed. “Are you at least going to tell us what the meeting is about?”

“I can’t.” Byungchan looked almost apologetic. “And by I can’t I mean I don’t know. Seungsik, um, didn’t tell me.”

“So you came all this way and stalked me for days just to tell me that you guys want to meet but Seungsik wouldn’t tell you what it was about?” Chan asked, incredulously. Byungchan merely shrugged in reply.

Sejun laughed. “Oh my GOD THAT’S AMAZING. Haneul Park. We’ll be there.”

Chapter Text

9:45pm
Haneul Park

“I’m dead,” Sejun groaned, flopping to the grass and rolling around. He stopped. “This also itches like fuck but I don’t care. Because I’m dead.” He craned his neck to give Chan the stink eye. “Help me up and carry me, I can’t go any further.”

“Idiot,” Chan said good naturedly, grabbing Sejun by the arm and easily hauling him to his feet. “There’s a bench right there.”

The two vampires trudged along the dirt path toward the closest of the two large pavilions that marked the large seating area of Haneul Park, Chan alert for any sign of the werewolves meeting them, and Sejun tripping along beside him. “It’s so dark up here,” Sejun complained, cursing soundly as he stumbled over a rock. “Why aren’t the lights on?”

“It’s closed to visitors after sundown this time of year but ‘we’re vampires meeting werewolves, we got this,’ remember?” Chan mimicked, laughing.

“Yeah, well, whoever said that was dumb,” Sejun grumbled.

Chan laughed again. “Get going, over that way,” he said, shoving Sejun toward the closest table

Sejun dropped gracelessly onto the picnic table under the thatched roof of the pavilion and stared at the ceiling, the pale skin stretched over delicate features faintly luminous even in the darkness of the unlit hilltop. “On a scale of ‘it’s fine’ to ‘HOLY SHIT WE’RE DEAD MEAT,’ how mad do you think Seungsik will be if he finds out that Seungwoo ghosted tonight?” he asked, idly kicking a leg back and forth.

Chan sat down on the bench beside him and frowned. “If he finds out?” He and Sejun both had taken turns asking, cajoling (Chan), and downright threatening (Sejun) Seungwoo to come with them and see what Seungsik wanted, but their leader dug in his heels, grabbed the thrawl he had commandeered for the night, and headed into his study without saying a word.

“We can say he’s in the bathroom,” Sejun suggested, waving toward the low building a few hundred feet away.

“For the entire time we’re here,” Chan said, pinching the bridge of his nose.

“He has a liver issue?”

Chan had had a light meal of a man who had sneered at Sejun on the subway and muttered ‘fucking faggot’ as the vampire was busily explaining how he’d visited not one, not two, but three Sephoras looking for his favorite fragrance before a salesperson finally told him it wasn’t one they carried, and could now feel the meal’s blood throbbing in the vein on his forehead. He rubbed at it absently. “I don’t think the liver has anything to do with needing to use the bathroom for an hour or two,” he explained slowly. “Plus they can probably smell that he’s not here.”

“Yeah. We can.”

Sejun let out a shriek and flailed off the table. Chan, who had also flinched, felt another strong throb in his forehead and stood up, clenching his fists to keep from shouting - at Sejun, at Seungsik, who seemed way too proud of himself, and at the smug little pricks Byungchan and Subin, who stood behind their alpha. “Get up,” he hissed at Sejun as he held out a hand. “Oh my god, get up.”

“I do not like loud NOISES,” Sejun snapped back, pushing the proffered hand away to brush himself off and push hair off his forehead. He straightened and glared balefully at the werewolf leader. “You totally did that on purpose.”

Kang Seungsik, current Alpha of a Gangnam wolf pack that was now as small as the Gangnam vampire kiss, merely smiled that awful, terrible, sunshine-and-flowers sweet smile of his and shrugged. “I try to find humor wherever I can,” he said. He sobered and crossed his arms as he regarded the two vampires in front of him. “So. I should’ve considered this, but no Seungwoo, huh?”

Chan lowered his head, not too much, just a slight acknowledgment of apology. “We tried, Alpha Kang,” he said. “Both of us did. But-”

“But, you know,” Sejun said, “we couldn’t tell him why we were dragging him up 3000 steps to Haneul Park in the middle of the night because Byungchan didn’t know because YOU didn’t tell him-”

“It’s only about 300, less than that.”

Sejun’s glare swung toward the one who dared to interrupt his rant. “What.”

Subin stared back, face expressionless. “It’s about 290 steps to the top of the hill. We got here in a few seconds,” he said, sounding bored.

“You little shit-”

“Okay, that’s enough,” Seungsik said, clapping his hands. He looked at Chan. “If we went with you back to your… Do you still live near-”

Chan regarded him slowly and remembered the last time the kiss and pack were together. “We moved,” he said quietly.

“To where?” Subin asked contemptuously. “Underground lair in Dongjak?”

“SUBIN,” Seungsik snapped, not bothering to turn around.

“Highrise penthouse in Gangnam,” Sejun answered.

But Seungsik remained still, until his subordinate bowed his head and moved behind Byungchan, who was frowning.“Ok, right,” Seungsik said, turning his attention back to the vampires with a thin smile. “Highrise penthouse. Of course. If we went back to your highrise penthouse, as a gesture of trust on our part, would Seungwoo listen to what I have to say?”

Chan thought for a moment. “If you want my honest opinion-”

“No, we want you to lie,” Subin called out scornfully.

“Byungchan,” Seungsik cut in, the young werewolf gently wrapping slender fingers around his packmate’s wrist and pulling him away while whispering in his ear, low and urgent.

“If you want my honest opinion,” Chan repeated, tightening his jaw, “I think Seungwoo won’t even come out of his room. But-” he held up a finger before anyone could interrupt, “I think having three werewolves in his space will unnerve him enough to want to come out, if only to get you to leave as soon as possible.” He threw up his hands. “Up to you, really. But can you NOW tell me and Sejun at least what the hell is going on? Who knows, it might be old news that we’ve already heard.”

At this, Byungchan and Subin stopped dead in their tracks and glanced at each other uneasily. Even Seungsik looked uncomfortable. Sejun caught Chan’s eye and also looked unsettled by the werewolves’ sudden disquiet. What was going on? What did Seungsik know? Chan looked up with a start.

“Last night, Byungchan said he didn’t know what the meeting was about. Clearly you told him and Subin since then and it scares them,” he told Seungsik. He spared a glance at Sejun, whose sclera had turned crimson and whose smile had become wide, with fangs sliding down. His own body responded and for the second time in two days, prepared itself for a fight. “Tell us right now or we’ll bring you back to Seungwoo in pieces.”

Subin growled, far more thunderously and terrifying than a young werewolf should sound, and Byungchan even snarled, showing a shocking array of large, pointy teeth. Seungsik’s eyes flashed deep red.

“Oh, yay!” Sejun exclaimed, clapping his clawed hands like a child in a toy store. His voice deepened. “I want the cute one.”

But before anyone could move, Seungsik’s alpha eyes retreated and he blinked, shaking his head. “STOP.”

As everyone halted and retreated to their human forms in their surprise, Seungsik pulled himself to his full height. Shorter than Byungchan and even Sejun, there was still something about his whole alphaness that made the vampires pause. “I’ll tell you,” he said. “This doesn’t have to be violent.”

Sejun opened his mouth and Chan promptly stepped on his foot. “So tell us.”

“Ow, you big bully,” Sejun said, rubbing his foot with his other foot. He looked up to find the others staring at him. “Oh, fine. Chan broke my toe but please, go on.”

Seungsik shook his head. “I want to be the one to tell Seungwoo the details,” he said. “Otherwise I could’ve gone to him earlier by myself. I went through his second as a courtesy from one leader to another.” He regarded his pack, both of whom nodded. “We drove here so we can all go together.”

Chan fought the urge to roll his eyes. “Okay, whatever, we can go to Seungwoo now,” he said, gesturing for the group to start moving down the hill. “But will you please just-”

Seungsik stopped and looked, really looked, at the vampires.

“Do Hanse is still alive,” he said. “Hanse is still alive, and I know where he is.”

Chapter Text

Do Hanse

The name brought to mind an unsettling reaction of feelings and memories - laughter and love and savagery and a flair for killing that Chan had never experienced before he joined Seungwoo’s kiss, and hadn’t experienced since.

Chan knew that Hanse had been Seungwoo’s first vampire and the reason Seungwoo had left the Busan Coven, his family’s legacy. Hanse had been a wild child with a love for outrageous style that made Sejun look bland in comparison, and yet he’d been years younger than any of them when he’d been turned, still a senior in high school and braver than any full-grown adult vampire Chan had ever known. Hanse had taken to being a supernatural blood-sucking creature of the night like he was born into one of the legendary vampire families, even if he’d been the first of his own family’s line.

(Hanse was the first of his line but he wasn’t the last. His sister, his equal in beauty and spirit and bloodlust, had also taken to vampirehood better than expected. Seungwoo had never forgiven himself for Hanbi’s death, either.)

Chan also knew that he hadn’t been first pick for Seungwoo’s second in command, that his leader had been slowly warming Hanse up to the idea of being his lieutenant, but both Chan and Sejun had been fine with it. Hanse brought a different perspective than Seungwoo, had an artistic sensitivity towards killing that made being a vampire more... fun. Back then, Hanbi joined her brother in teasing all of the kiss around her without mercy, Sejun laughed more loudly and freely, Chan had cracked more terrible jokes, and Seungwoo had regarded them all with a fondness that went beyond a mere leader and followers. They had been a family. And while they were still family now, it was born out of not wanting to lose anyone else, the cracks seemingly irreparable.

So Chan had been the consolation for Seungwoo’s second, but as that consolation, he’d been determined to make Seungwoo’s life and leadership as painless as possible. He’d taken his orders, done his jobs, killed on command. He was a more... subdued, not boisterous and ridiculous like Sejun or brilliant and creative like Hanse and his sister, but he got the job done. And had done so for years, thinking that Do Hanse was gone and never coming back. But now Hanse was still alive, according to Seungsik, the very werewolf who had helped to bring about his young kissmate’s destruction.

Chan was lost in nostalgia as he quietly followed the Gangnam werewolves back to their car, so he almost missed Sejun’s quiet snort of derision as Seungsik led the group to the lone vehicle in the parking lot, yellow-tinged with vapor lights shining overhead.

“It’s a mom car,” Sejun said flatly. He turned to Seungsik. “You’re an alpha werewolf, and you drive a mom car.”

Seungsik exhaled loudly and hit the automatic lock fob, the doors sliding open slowly on its track. “Just… get in the van.”

Chan waited politely for Subin to climb in first, but the young werewolf stared him down and gestured to the opening. Sejun huffed and pushed at his kissmate and Chan got the hint. He went in.

“All the way to the back row,” Subin ordered. He looked at Sejun. “You too.”

Sejun startled. “What? Why-?” At Subin’s glare he rolled his eyes. “Oh fine, whatever you say, Mr. Big Bad.” He snickered and elbowed Chan in the ribs. “Get it? Because he’s-”

“Yeah, yes. I get it,” Chan said, forcing down a sigh. “Hurry up.”

The driver’s side and passenger side doors slammed shut as Seungsik and Byungchan both reached back for their seatbelts, Subin climbing into the middle row a beat later. Staring at the vampires, he made himself comfortable with his back to the window, facing them.

“Um, there’s only three of you, yeah?” Sejun asked, looking around. “Why do you need a van?”

Seungsik peered out at them through the rear view mirror. “Well it used to be my parents’ car and we had a lot more werewolves,” he said. “Now we use it mostly for our full moon runs and usually Byungchan or Subin or both are too tired to change back into their human forms, so they each take a row and stretch out to recover a bit before changing back.”

“So that’s why it smells like a wet dog back here,” Sejun muttered to Chan, who snickered. He sniffed delicately. “And pee.”

“I’m going to pee on your broken body,” Subin growled, cutting in. He was surprisingly menacing and Chan shrank back a bit. But Sejun only laughed.

“Oooh, kinky,” he said, grinning and pointing at the werewolf. “You’re adorable, but you’re not my type. He is though.” He swung his finger at Byungchan, who had turned and was staring at Sejun. Byungchan squeaked and whirled back to face front, hands fluttering at his ears.

“All right, leave him alone,” Seungsik called out as he turned the ignition. “Chan, can you give me directions, or an address?”

The drive through the darkened streets took far less time than Chan had anticipated, and as Seungsik was able to quickly find a parking spot, the group was soon gliding in the smooth elevator up toward the penthouse suite.

“We’ve got the whole upper floor,” Chan explained to no one as the numbers rose higher and higher. “It was three separate suites but Seungwoo was able to... persuade the other two owners into selling it to him and-”

“Did he eat them?” someone muttered from the back.

“AND here we are,” Sejun said with forced brightness, as the doors slid open with a ding. The group stepped out into a large foyer dimly lit by an enormous chandelier hanging two stories above them.

As the werewolves looked around, craning their necks, Sejun hurriedly toed off his shoes and headed toward a darkened hallway. “I- uh, I left something in my room,” he said, waving an arm at the group. “You go get Seungwoo!”

Chan wearily rubbed at his eyes and went to look for his leader. “Stay put,” he called back to his guests. “Shoes to the right, the living room is down the hall- okay sure, follow me.” He padded into the living room, the wolf pack ignoring his orders as they silently followed behind him. He led the group to the large, airy open space, with its external wall of glass looking out over the blinking lights of the city at night. Chan, used to the view, headed toward his leader’s study, where Seungwoo kept his treaties and maps and actual paper correspondence; he’d never felt comfortable using a computer, much less texting on a cellphone or iPad. The werewolves were suitably impressed and were staring out the wall of windows, murmuring to themselves.

“Seungwoo?” Chan called out. “Are you-”

The leader of the Gangnam vampire kiss, Han Seungwoo, tall and lean in black silky sleep pants and matching top open to reveal the dips and planes of his chest and torso, glided into the room gracefully, seemingly out of thin air, one arm thrown over his thrall for the night, a young woman with dead eyes and limp black hair framing her pallid face. He regarded his second and the newcomers with a cool, impassive expression.

Chan braced for what he knew was coming.

“I’m staking you to the sand on Jeju and watch you burn for a hundred years,” Seungwoo told him dully. “Why did you bring… him here.”

“Seungwoo,” Chan said, trying hard to stay calm, the werewolves coming up behind him. “Kang Seungsik has news that he needs you to hear. It’s important.”

“Important enough to pollute my home with his feral dogs?”

Chan felt rather than heard the subvocal growl of an angry Subin and without thinking, put out an arm to steady the young werewolf. Subin stopped abruptly and tried to shove his hand off but Chan held firm. “Stop,” he said quietly, turning to meet Subin’s eyes, which were wide with shock. “You need to stop.” He turned back to his leader. “Seungwoo, please. Just… listen.” He glanced at Seungsik, who nodded. “It’s about Hanse.”

Seungwoo, who’d been aimlessly nuzzling his thrall’s neck, stiffened. He slowly looked up, pushing off the thrall, who pouted and headed out of the room, hissing at Sejun who was walking in. He jumped as she passed by.

“Seungwoo,” he whined, “Why do you always bring that one back, she hates me.”

“Sejun,” Seungwoo answered dispassionately, turning his back to the room as he moved toward the windows. “Please bring our guests some refreshments.” He pressed an invisible spot along the retaining wall and the glass panes slid apart, allowing a cool breeze to wash into the room. He gestured at Seungsik, who moved to follow. “Chan, you’re with me.”

“And Subin is with me,” Seungsik replied with a tilt of his head.

“What about-”

“Sejun.”

“Uuuugh fine,” Sejun plucked at Byungchan’s sleeve and pulled him along. “Come with me and protect me from that awful thrall and you can tell me what werewolves drink. Deer juice? Rabbit smoothies?”

Byungchan made a horrified face and held his stomach as he followed Sejun out of the room. “What is in that head of yours?!”

“Nothing, why?”

“That’s the smartest thing you’ve said all night!”

“Wait what?”

The bickering slowly faded as Chan went with the others out to the large wraparound balcony overlooking Seoul.