It's a chilly, quiet Monday morning at school that day as a group of boys gathered around Jaebum's table at the back of his classroom. It's a normal sight for Jaebum and Mark's classmates to see Jinyoung, Jackson, Youngjae, BamBam and Yugyeom hanging out at their class ever since Mark's sister's death. No one really paid attention to them whenever they're all huddled together. They understood this as these boys trying to be there for Mark whenever they could, to keep him company. They also knew that even though the police kept on saying the case had no leads or suspects, Mark's sister was killed by the Bloodsuckers.

The Bloodsuckers, a species that had the appearance of a human, was a type of creature that consumed blood to live and had been haunting Sokcho since forever. No one knew where they came from or why did they choose to reside there in their town but there was nothing the authorities could do except for appointing a special unit to combat these monsters. Years of experience made them learn how to fight back and prevent casualties as much as possible. 

However, the fact that there had been more deaths during the past few months compared to the last ten years shook the town so much that people actually stop caring about what others around them were doing and made them keep their heads down, minding their own business to stay out of trouble. Most cases left no mark for the authorities to trace the Bloodsuckers' lair so they could only stay prepared to fight whenever an attack happened. As days passed, the situation had only gotten more serious with no solution so Jaebum came up with the idea to hunt these creatures down. He wanted to help Mark feel better by avenging his sister's death and actually do something to help instead of just waiting around, hoping he won't be the next victim. His friends, of course, straight away agreed to join him. It was also really helpful that Jackson's father was a member of the special unit assigned to handle the Bloodsuckers because they mostly got information from him, without him knowing he's helping them do some stupid of course.

 "I got new intel," said Jackson in a low voice, not wanting others to hear what they're discussing about.

Jaebum looked around to make sure no one is listening to them. He took a quick glance at his deskmate, Byul, who had her earphones on and was sleeping on the table. Assured that it's safe, he gave Jackson a nod as a sign to spill da tea.

"The BS have been found active hunting for food at the river area," Jackson told the boys, referring to the Bloodsuckers as BS so that they would not draw attention to themselves. "We should go there tonight." 

"We can try the new crossbow Yugyeom and I built," BamBam uttered. He and Yugyeom were into weapons and they had been inventing (and stealing) some for the group in order to kill the Bloodsuckers.

"Good. Is 10 o'clock okay for everyone to meet up?" Jaebum asked. He looked at all the faces in front of him and saw Youngjae appeared to be worried. He raised an eyebrow at him.

Youngjae stuttered a while before answering "it's a school night..."

The rest of the boys sighed and grunted. Youngjae had always been the goody two shoes and it's always a hard job convincing him that it's fine. "We've done this before!" Yugyeom said, "we can get back before midnight. Is that fine?"

Youngjae still seemed unsure with the suggestion. He was about to reply when the bell rang, indicating that they should go back to their respective classes. "Youngjae, come on. I'll buy you food if you come tonight," Jinyoung tried persuading Youngjae while they started heading back to their classrooms, leaving Jaebum and Mark. Mark seemed sullen as he had always been recently. It worried Jaebum a lot but he understood how Mark needed time to grieve and move on.

"Hey, how are you feeling today?" Jaebum asked. His face showed genuine concern. 

Mark smiled bitterly. "I wish I could say I'm feeling better."

"We'll find the Bloodsucker who did this. I promise you."

"Thanks, man. It means a lot to me."

Jaebum placed his hand on Mark's shoulder, trying to comfort him. Mark gave him a little nod before he moved away to get to his table. He's glad he could rely on Jaebum at times like this. Being able to see Jaebum at school everyday was the only reason he got out of bed every morning. He won't deny, he liked the attention he's getting from the guy.

"I hope Mark will get better," Byul's sudden remark surprised Jaebum. He turned his head to face her. They looked at each other for a moment.

"Yeah, I hope so too."

"And I hope you guys are not doing anything silly to make him feel better."

Jaebum frowned. What the hell was that supposed to mean? Before he could ask Byul what she meant, their teacher had entered the class and the question just died unanswered in his head.

***

That night, as promised, the seven boys arrived at their meeting point at 10pm. After a short discussion, they split into three groups to look for anyone suspicious around the place. Jaebum went with Mark, Jackson with Jinyoung while Youngjae, BamBam and Yugyeom went together to scout their respective areas. It was an eerie night and no cars or people were seen passing by. Everyone knew better to stay at home when night came, except for these boys. 

They went around carefully and quietly, searching for any unusual activities around the river using torchlights to light their way. It wasn't even half an hour after they started when they heard a scream from somewhere along the river bank. Realised that the scream was what they were looking for, all seven of them quickly rushed towards the direction of the scream. Not that far away from them, they saw a body lying down on the ground and as they got closer to the person, they could see blood pooling around him with his neck cut open. The sharp iron scent in the air made them stop in their track for a while, worried that the Bloodsuckers might still be close around them. 

"Call the police," Jaebum ordered. "Youngjae, BamBam and Yugyeom stay here. Don't let the police see your guns and crossbows. The rest follow me. The bastards shouldn't be far away from us!"

Jaebum was followed by Mark, Jackson and Jinyoung, running towards the opposite way from where they came from, which led them into the woods. They split up inside there but made sure they didn't go far away from each other. As their hearts pounded loudly and sweats trickled down their necks, all four boys stayed alert and paid close attention to any sound heard.

Jackson, who accidentally took too much sugar before they came, was super excited that night and had went deeper into the woods before his friends could catch up. He directed his torchlight up towards the trees at one point and that was when he saw a figure jumped from one branch to another. Immediately, he pulled the trigger of his gun and shot it. He knew the Bloodsucker took the hit when it grunted in pain and fell onto the ground. Wanting to finish his job, he quickly ran towards the Bloodsucker but a wolf leapt on him out of nowhere and pinned him down before Jackson could get to the injured creature. 

"!" Jackson cried out and covered his face with his arms, scared that the wolf might go for his handsome face. 

Having heard Jackson scream, Jinyoung who was closeby hurriedly went over to where Jackson was. He fired a bullet as soon as he saw the wolf on top of Jackson. It missed the wolf but managed to chase it away. "Are you okay?" Jinyoung asked while he helped Jackson to get up on his feet.

"I'm not hurt. Something was there behind that tree! I shot it down. Let's go see." Jackson rushed towards the tree only to find some broken branches. He punched the trunk in frustration. "Damn it! I was so close."

"It got away?" Mark who just came with Jaebum asked the two of them.

"Seems like it," Jinyoung answered. "I think we should go. Jackson almost got hurt by a wolf just now. We're inside too deep."

"Yes, let's go and check up on the others," Jaebum agreed before leading the group to exit the forest, not wantig to expose themselves to danger anymore. As soon as the boys were out of sight, a sigh of relief could be heard from behind a tree. "They're gone."

", he got my leg. Thank God Suki was here, I managed to hide," a voice replied.

"Yeah, I got here as soon as I heard the gun went off. Let me see the wound."

"How is it?"

"It's not that bad. It should heal in two weeks."

"What the , Byul! I thought I asked you to take care of those boys?" A new voice inquired in anger.

"Shut up, Yoongi! I told you they were gonna come out tonight! If you weren't insisting on staying, we would've been home by now. We got what we wanted anyway!" Byul scolded the guy called Yoongi. She couldn't believe Yoongi's trying to put the blame on her. "Last week you almost died, now Hani is injured. We need to be more careful if we don't want to get killed." She started wrapping Hani's wounded leg.

Yoongi sighed. "Fine, sorry. Let's go back now. The police might search the area. But you make sure the boys won't disturb us hunting again next time!"