“Whoa, you look terrible. What happened?” Ji-eun asked as Eunji stepped into the dorm.

Ji-eun jumped when Eunji slammed the door shut a bit too forcefully and watched as she slightly limped over to her bed and flopped on it, face down.

“mhjfmgh” Came Eunji’s muffled voice.

Eunji has been acting quite strange lately. She would always come back later than usual from her finished classes and she would always seem really tired, dark circles under her eyes.

Sometimes Ji-eun hears Eunji shuffle around in the dark in the middle of the night but whenever Ji-eun asks her about it in the morning Eunji says she doesn’t know what she’s talking about.

Ji-eun frowned as she came over to Eunji’s bed and sat down next to her. “Eunji are you okay? What’s wrong?”

Eunji lifted her head slightly, “I’m fine.” She says and rolls over but cringes and stays in her previous position.

She is definitely not fine. Whatever has been happening has got to stop.

“Eunji.” Ji-eun says and placed her hand on Eunji’s sleeve covered arm. She had also noticed that Eunji was wearing more long sleeved tops even on hot days.

Eunji bit her lip and winced. However this action did not come unnoticed to Ji-eun.

Concerned, Ji-eun spoke “Eunji, tell me what’s wrong.”

Eunji shook her head and smiled half-heartedly, “no no I’m fine really.”

Ji-eun didn’t understand. Did Eunji not trust her enough to tell her what was happening to her? She stared at her quiet friend and a thought came to her. She started to put two and two together, it was just like the stories she had read. The best friend of the main character was hiding the fact that he was being bullied by covering up his bruises and making excuses all the time.

Was Eunji hurt?

Slowly, Ji-eun experimentally stretched her hand out and poked Eunji in the arm but she didn’t put a lot of pressure. When Eunji flinched, Ji-eun knew.

“Eunji. I know you’re hurt. Who is doing this to you?” Ji-eun asks, trying to keep her voice calm but inside she was furious and her heart hurt for her friend. No one deserves to be bullied when they’ve done nothing wrong.

Eunji had her face away from Ji-eun and her body stiffened.

“You have to tell me what’s been happening with you Eunji.” Ji-eun says firmly. Then she became hesitant, “do you not trust me?” She asks quietly.

The shy angel shot up from the bed, wincing a little as she did so but it didn’t stop her from frantically denying, “it’s not that! I do trust you Ji-eun!” She exclaims. “It’s just… I don’t want you to worry about me. I can deal with this myself.”

 “Eunji, you can’t let others do this to you anymore.” Ji-eun says. “Who was it?”

Eunji stayed quiet for a moment before whispering, “Miyeon and Haewon.”

Ji-eun gritted her teeth, “I knew it.” She stood up but Eunji grabbed her arm, “whatever you’re thinking, please don’t.”

“Eunji-“

“No. Ji-eun please. I don’t want you to get any more involved than you already are. This is my problem. I’ll… find a way to fix it.” Eunji says and Ji-eun had never felt so helpless in her entire life, she knew that she couldn’t just stand by and let this happen… but she just didn’t know what to do anymore.

 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“So it’s been a week and I still have not heard any news about the demons or those boys who framed you at the Masquerade.” Ryeowook tells his grandsons as they stood in his office.

EXO-K glanced at each other. This was going to be a lot harder than they thought.

Suho glared at the floor, he felt that it was his fault that they couldn’t find any lead to the demons and thought that he was responsible for tracking those six beings down however, he had lost any connection with them as soon as they vanished.

“Those Supernaturals are definitely not ordinary beings. They have proven to be very strong physically to have evaded Suho’s tracking ability.” The headmaster continued. “This just further verifies that those Supernaturals could have been an ally of a sorceress or warlock as not many beings can perform a deflection spell.” However, there is one person who was able to deflect Suho’s power…but that’s impossible. They’ve all been considered dead by now. 

“So are we still continuing this witch hunt?” Baekhyun asks, leaning onto the desk his grandfather was sitting at.

Ryeowook rubbed his chin. “It seems so. Any ideas where to go for the investigation?”

“Grandfather, my brothers and I have already discussed and agreed that we will search Endless Town next, for any evidence about the sorceress’s whereabouts. From the last time we smelt a witch’s scent, it came from that direction.” Suho announces.

“We only hope that the witch has been careless and left evidence if they had fled the town anytime between then and until now.“ D.O adds.

The headmaster nods, “excellent. I will excuse you six from your studies for a few days. You all can leave tomorrow evening. Do try your best in your search. The fate of Glaze will rely on you if any lead was to come out of this investigation.” 

“Yes, Grandfather.” Most of the members say except Chanyeol and Sehun who only nods.

“Good. Dismissed.”

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“….State the derivative of the quadratic equation and determine the average rate of change in wind velocity at three pm.” 

Ji-eun and Sehun were currently in the library studying which was another rare site to see by the students because they’ve never seen Sehun in library before or seen him study. So they moved to a more secluded area where they could study in peace.

The two had two hours of free study where they used the first hour to do inner energy training which Ji-eun was getting better at and it came more naturally for her to enter the zone. However, she never mentioned the blue light ever again. Even though it was still there.

The second hour was spent in the library so that they could work on their maths assignment. And from what Ji-eun learnt, Sehun isn't actually very good at maths. It was sort of expected, I mean he practically sleeps in class every time.

Even though she was pretty good in maths, she didn’t exactly excel in it. So there are still some questions she gets stuck on. For example the question they were currently working on at the moment.

“So at first, wind speed was at 20 km h^-1 but by one o’clock, the winds rose to 50 km h^-1, so the derivative would be… Ugh I don’t get it.” She huffs and Sehun silently agreed. He absolutely abhorred mathematics. He always thought it was such a waste of time. Why would he want to work out the rate of change of the wind when he could just control it himself?  

Suddenly a puff of black smoke appeared and Kai popped up on the chair in front of them.

"So what are you two doing? Alone. In an isolated part of the library where no one can see you?" Kai says, his eyebrows wiggling suggestively.

"Homework." Ji-eun answers shortly.

Kai raised an eyebrow and jerks his thump at his youngest brother. "With him? What is this, some study date or something."

Sehun scowls at him, "what are you doing here. Go away, you’re annoying."

Kai crosses his arms, "oi I’m your hyung, show some respect."

"I will not respect someone who has a mind with the maturity level of a five year old." Sehun states carelessly.

"Why five year old? Why not six?" Kai jokes, but Ji-eun could tell that he was beginning to become just as vexed as his brother.

Sehun exhales through his nose, looking extremely peeved.

"Kai, can you just leave?" Sehun says.

Kai sneers, "nope. I ain’t leaving." He leans forward, "until you call me hyung."

"I’m not even that much younger than you, we're pretty much the same age."

"I’m still older."

Wait a minute, so Sehun's the youngest out of s??? But he asks so mature! And Ji-eun had to admit, it was pretty amusing to see Kai reel Sehun up so much when he’s usually so impassive about everything.

Sehun looked ready to jump at Kai when Ji-eun cleared . They both focused on her, "um well we're doing a maths assignment which we are partners for and we need to focus on this question that we are kind of struggling on."

Kai perked up, "you need help? Well you are looking at the right person here." He points so himself, "yours truly. I am a maths genius."

Ji-eun stares at him for a second then she glances over at Sehun for confirmation. Sehun rolls his eyes and slightly nods.

"That’s great! Please help." Ji-eun asks, sliding her assignment paper over to him.

Kai leans back in his chair, "sure, I’ll help you guys. But Sehun has to call me hyung first."

"Not a chance."

Kai smirks at Sehun, "fine. Then I get a hug from Ji-eun."

"Er what?" Ji-eun asks and Kai smile cheekily at her. "That or Sehun calls me hyung."

Sehun snatches the paper back, "we don't need his help." He tells her, glowering at his simpering brother across the table.

Ji-eun blinks, this was getting a little ridiculous. "Uh yes we do, we've been stuck on this question for 20 minutes already. The question isn't going to solve itself. We need his help." Ji-eun says and Sehun glares at her but she ignores him. "Kai please just help us."

Kai watched their interaction intrigued, Sehun would never ever be partnered up with anyone let alone be ignored. He does the ignoring not others.

And when Sehun just sat back and looked away, allowing Ji-eun to take the paper, Kai’s eyes really did widen.

Wow, what did she do to make Sehun so tame?

Honestly, Kai was expecting Sehun to just flip the table and walk out with a raging hurricane behind him. He was even bracing himself for it to happen by making plans to quickly grab the strange angel next to him and teleport them both away from the upcoming hazard. But it never happened.

Ji-eun definitely was one of a kind.

 “So Kai, will you help?” Ji-eun asks, holding out the paper to him.

Sehun squints at him. “And I am not calling you hyung.”

Kai stares at them for a moment and then lets out a chuckle, "okay okay guys, I was joking, I’ll help." He replies, taking the paper.

Ji-eun was pretty shocked, true to his word, Kai really was a genius in maths. And she was really grateful for his help although Sehun just looked more and more annoyed, the longer Kai stayed.

“So do you get it now?” Kai asks, writing down the formulas to the question.

Ji-eun smiled at him and nodded while Sehun just sighs quietly.

“Thank you so much.” Ji-eun says on behalf of her and Sehun but then looks confused when Kai spreads out his arms.

“Where’s my thank you hug?”

He’s still harping on about that? Ji-eun looks at him, her face slightly flushed.

Sehun throws a book at him. “You’re not getting anything. Go away.”

Kai pouts at his brother who looks at him, repulsed. How can his brother be so childish and make such an ugly face? Sehun thinks.

“How can you be so mean Sehuniee I just helped you.”

“If it weren’t for her, you wouldn’t even bother.” Sehun says curtly. 

The side of Kai’s mouth quirked up, “that’s true.” He says and reaches out his hand to caress Ji-eun’s cheek gently before vanishing. “Bye, Hiccups.”

Ji-eun touched her cheek before turning to Sehun who was staring blankly at her.

She hesitated a little before she asked, “how come you guys are brothers but you’re not really getting along.”

Sehun raked a hand through his hair and closed his eyes. Ji-eun thought he was just going to ignore her so she went back to the maths assignment.

“We aren’t blood related brothers.” Sehun says after a while.

“I know.” Ji-eun responds and Sehun opens his eyes, giving her a side glance.

“We were all raised together when we were really young. Kai and I were really close back then before-“ Sehun stops talking altogether and Ji-eun realised that she must’ve hit a sensitive topic.

Before she could apologize, Sehun closes his eyes again. “It doesn’t matter. Things can never be the same.”

Ji-eun frowned, “that’s not true.”

Sehun opens an eye to look at her. And from his position, he looked really attractive but Ji-eun placed those thoughts aside as she said what she really thought, “being raised together is practically like family. Blood-related or not. And family should always be there for each other no matter what. You may- have gone through some hard times together but that’s what makes each of you stronger individually and as a whole.”  

Sehun now had his cheek resting on his palm as he leaned on the desk. “Those are just pretty words you’re sprouting.” He says lazily and Ji-eun felt a bit frustrated as he wasn’t taking her words seriously. 

“You should be grateful that you have five other older brothers to turn to. I grew up without any siblings so I would never know what that’s like.” Ji-eun voices, but as she said the last sentence she couldn’t help but feel like there was something she had missed.

Sehun stared at her with what appeared to be a slightly softer gaze before he turned back to the paper on the table they were sitting on. “Let’s get this over and done with.” He says and since Ji-eun couldn’t stand the unknown tension and atmosphere that began to appear around them so she quickly focused back onto the assignment as well.

“Yeah.”

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"You are going to sing for me."

Ji-eun was just walking peacefully down an empty corridor ten minutes before her next class when a body appeared in front of her, blocking her way and unfortunately it had to be one of the evil angel sisters, Haewon.

Ji-eun stared at her incredulously, "no way." She says and turns away. She had no idea what it was even for but if it involved the EA duo, she didn’t want to know.

Haewon glares and grabs Ji-eun’s wrist tightly, "you're in no position to say that. You better sing for me because D.O thinks I'm the masked singer."

Ji-eun’s head snapped up and she narrowed her eyes at the smirking angel, "so you're the one who stole my mask."

Haewon lifted up her chin triumphantly, "yeah and what are you going to do about it? D.O already thinks it’s me."

Yanking her wrist out of the tight grip, Ji-eun steps closer to Haewon, "well that’s because he thinks you have my voice but when he knows that the one singing isn’t actually you, who will he believe then?" Ji-eun retorts, she really didn’t mean to brag and shove that fact in Haewon’s face but this girl really needed to know that not everything can go her way.

Haewon faltered a bit at that, "w-well how do you think he'll feel if he finds out his masked singer is actually you?" She makes a disgusted face at Ji-eun, "I mean look, I’m prettier and much more NORMAL than you ever could be, so he would obviously be more appreciative about the fact that I’M his masked singer not someone as abnormal as you."

Ji-eun clenches her fists and glares her, "it doesn’t matter. I’m not going to sing for you."

She turns on her heel and starts to walk off but Haewon speaks, "do you want Eunji to get hurt?"

Ji-eun swivelled around and marched right up into Haewon’s face who seemed shocked at the sudden dominance, "you would even go that far just so that a guy would notice you." Ji-eun’s tone drops into an icy chill, "that is really low."

Haewon scowled but didn't say anything in response.

Ji-eun pressed her lips together, "fine." She ground out, "I’ll sing for you. However this will be the last time you ever torment Eunji again."

Haewon smiles thinly, "deal." She says sweetly, holding out her hand for a handshake but Ji-eun just pushes past her in the opposite direction. She pretty much had it with the EA duo, she wasn’t going to stand by and let them do whatever they wanted with her or Eunji again.

"We are meeting in theatre room three at lunch time, make sure you’ll be there!" Ji-eun hears Haewon tell her brightly from behind.

Even though Ji-eun had come to terms with her possible feelings for D.O she had to suppress them, for Eunji’s sake. She just hoped that D.O could see through Haewon’s facade.

 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Why the heck do I have to be here?

Currently, Ji-eun was hiding out of sight behind a row of red velvet chairs within theatre three. She was forced to stay in that position by Haewon who was sitting on the chair that she was directly hiding behind so that she could lip sync to Ji-eun’s singing.

“He’ll be here soon so you better not mess this up.” Haewon says while she files her fingernails. She then twists around slightly to glare at Ji-eun, “otherwise you know what will happen.” The angel threatens before turning back into her previous pose.

Ji-eun rolls her eyes before closing her eyes, please just get this over and done with already.

Suddenly the door to the theatre opened and Ji-eun heard Haewon straighten her posture before she spoke in her high-pitched annoying voice of hers, “Hello D.O, I’ve been expecting you.” She says, her tone becoming all sultry near the end.

At a time like this, Ji-eun couldn’t help but want to laugh because really? What a cliché line. Did she get that from a book or what? The witch hybrid covered muffling her chuckles.

“Haewon. I hope that what you said about being the masked singer I met is true.” Ji-eun’s heart thuds when she hears D.O’s voice, calm and soothing like always.

She felt Haewon stand up from the chair behind her, “of course! And I’ll prove it to you. I’ll show you I was that singer.”

“I look forward to it.” D.O says and Ji-eun suddenly felt sad because he’d never know it was she who was going to be singing.

Wait, what song is she going to sing? What if I don’t know the song? Oh this is not good. Ji-eun internally freaked out.

“I’m going to sing the song I sang as a solo at the masquerade.” Haewon says loudly like it was directed straight at her. Thank goodness, at least it’s a song I know then.

“I’m going to sing now.” Haewon says. “1, 2, 3-“

Ji-eun opened to sing after the third count. She sang loud and clear, closing her eyes.

It was only after the first chorus when she heard D.O speak, “okay. I think I’ve heard enough.”

Ji-eun stopped singing and released a quiet but shaky breath. She never knew this was going to be a lot harder to go through than she would think. Did she really like D.O more than she thought she did?

Haewon smiled brightly at him, “so? How was my singing?”

D.O smiled back at her as sweet as ever. “It was beautiful.” He stepped closer to her. “Your voice is one of the most amazing voices I have ever heard and its…hypnotising.”

Haewon blushed brightly as he stood directly in front of her gazing into her eyes. Ji-eun leaned her back against the chair and pulled her legs up towards her. Hearing his words, she kind of wished it could’ve been her, she didn’t know why but her eyes stung and her heart hurt.

Ji-eun bit her lip and placed her forehead onto her knees, curling into herself.

“D.O…” Haewon murmurs his name and closes her eyes as D.O leans in towards her.

“Was that what you thought I was going to say?”

Huh? Ji-eun lifts her head.

Haewon’s eyes snapped open in shock to see D.O stepping back far away from her, a deep frown plastered on his face.

“W-why?” She says uncertainly.

D.O laughs humourlessly, “you know why Haewon.”  

“No I d-don’t? Did I not prove myself?” Haewon says, her voice sounding a bit more desperate with a hint of anger.

D.O shook his head and grasped her chin gently but his tone came out as a warning, “do you think I’m stupid?”

Haewon quickly shook her head, feeling a little scared now.

He smirks, “good.”

Ji-eun tilts her head in puzzlement, did he think my voice sounded different from last time? Does it not sound the same as how I sang at the Masquerade? Why is he doubting Haewon?

She was too lost in thought that she failed to notice the footsteps that came closer and closer to the row of chairs that she was hiding behind.

A pair of shoes appeared on the side of her vision and she glanced upwards, blinking in bafflement.

D.O crouched down next to her and held out his hand, smiling at her charmingly. “Because I know who my masked singer truly is now.”

============================================

Whoa whoa whoa what's happening hereeeee???

Seems like D.O is a lot harder to deceive than Haewon thought ey?? 

Anyway HEY SUPERNATURALS!

A bit of a short chapter today and I know I was supposed to update last week but I had assignments and essays to hand up to I didn't quite have time to fix up my chapters, PLEASE FORGIVE THIS SENPAI. 

Still, I am so so grateful for the subscribers, comments and votes!!! 

Motivates me a lot to update more often. XD

Replies to previous chapter (24) comments: 

PoorKpopFangirl: And she's still being shady-

cathye: AHAHAH yes I love that Sehun is starting to warm up to Ji-eun too. You wanna whack Haewon in the head? Be my guest. Dahee and Ji-eun are friendship goals. 

UaenaExoticInspirit: Sameee. Hope you enjoyed this update!

That's all folks! SEE YA NEXT TIMEEE. ILYS <3<3<3

Lots of love, Author-nim~