three
Bonds

The alarm woke Suyeon at seven in the morning. She managed to get around two hours of shuteye. Jungkook beside had slept like a stone and was still fast asleep. She decided to wake him up when breakfast was done.

Her parents were just leaving for work when Suyeon stepped out of her room. They threw her a quick goodbye, no suspicion about a human in their house at all. Though the girl was happy about that, she felt bad for hiding it from them. However, it was probably for the better.

Suyeon made proper food that morning. A change from the usual cereal. It was partly because Jungkook was a walking skeleton and needed something better than processed sugar with milk. Also partly because she needed to distract herself with work not to go completely crazy overthinking the possible consequences of her actions. It didn’t help much since French toast was not a complicated dish. But not much was better than not at all.

The human was already awake when she went back to her room.

“Is this a dream or a nightmare?” He asked, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. His hair was a bird nest.

“None of them. Just plain old reality,” she unfortunately had to say. “Breakfast is ready.”

They ate in silence. Suyeon finished her meal quicker because she had other things to do like packing lunch and making herself presentable for school. She also made extra lunch for the human to eat at home because she couldn’t get herself to throw him out.

Once she was done with everything, the digital clock on the wall showed 08:02. School started in around ten minutes. Suyeon would have just enough time to tell the boy the most important things.

“Don’t leave the house,” she said. “I don’t think anyone will come, but if you hear anything, go hide. Keep the curtains closed and don’t look outside. Lunch is in the fridge and there are snacks in this drawer if you’re still hungry. Make yourself comfortable, but keep it clean. I guess you can watch TV if you want to. Oh, and if you want to take a shower, my bigger clothes are in the last drawer in my room.”

Jungkook nodded with the hint of a smile on his lips.

“Did I forget anything?” she wondered. “I think that might be it. I’ll have to buy groceries after school, so I’ll be home at around. My parents won’t be home before seven, so no need to worry.”

Suyeon put on her jacket, slung her bag over her shoulders and grabbed her keys. Jungkook followed her to the front door, where she put on her shoes.

Suyeon frowned. “Go back. The neighbours might see you.”

The human ignored her and took a deep breath, his cheeks slightly pink. He did a bow, taking Suyeon by surprise. “Thank you for treating me so nicely.”

“Oh… Uhm, please stand up.”

He did as she said but avoided eye contact and bit his lip. Suyeon felt a grin forming. Though the bow had been strange, she could feel he was grateful for having kept her promise about not hurting him so far. Even though she didn’t exactly like having the human around, she didn’t hate it either. She just hated the consequences.

“See you later, Jungkook.” She smiled.

Suyeon remembered to lock the door behind her and since she was now a little late, she decided to take her scooter to school. She made it into her seat just before the teacher entered the classroom.

“Just in time,” her seatmate, Hyomin, chuckled.

Suyeon hummed and slumped down in her chair. Maybe she had made it in time for the lesson but she had not finished her homework and ended up getting humiliated by her strict teacher in front of the class. At least that gave her something else to think of.

At lunchbreak Hyomin rushed out of the classroom as soon as the bell rung, leaving Suyeon alone. She did that every Monday to join the Gossip Girls – as Suyeon called them – to talk about the weekends newest drama.

Not wanting to be by herself in class, Suyeon went out to the large school part. It was an area shared with the University so both students from there and High Schoolers were found sitting on the grass and benches in the area.

Suyeon spotted a group of people from her year and joined them with her lunchbox. She was talking with a girl about famous performers when someone cleared their throat behind her. The attention from everyone in the group was now on that person who turned out to be none other than Hoseok.

“Do you have time to talk?” He asked Suyeon.

Thrown off by his serious expression, she nodded and excused herself from the group. They walked a little further away and Hoseok was about to talk, when they were interrupted.

“Yah, Hobi! Why’d you fly away like that?” A guy came running, a little out of breath. Suyeon recognized his face but she couldn’t recall his name.

“Jimin, not now,” Hoseok sighed.

“What do you mean not now? You were supposed to help me with Bora,” the guy, Jimin, said. You could almost hear the pout in his voice.

“Now now,” he repeated. Suyeon held back a snicker as she saw how the wind started blowing the smaller guy away.

“Fine!” He yelled, fighting to keep himself grounded. “I’m gonna get Yoongi to help me, then!”

“Yeah, you do that,” Hoseok shouted before turning his attenback to Suyeon. “Sorry about that.”

“Who’s Yoongi again?” She asked. The name sounded familiar… like it belonged to someone Suyeon was supposed to know.

“Probably his imaginary friend. He always brings him up to make me jealous.” Hoseok chuckled. “But back to what I was going to say. As I texted you yesterday, I might have found a solution for Jungkook. But it’s a little against the law.”

“Well, having in my house is already breaking the law. How much worse can it get?”

“Worse. I know someone who can create a new identity for Jungkook so he’ll be able to stay here without hiding.”

Suyeon blinked twice. “What?”

“If Jungkook gets an identity as a mage, he’ll be able to live here freely. He can get a home, go to school, get a job… that kind of stuff.”

“What?” Suyeon asked again.

“This guy I know, he has a lot of contacts… They can get Jungkook into the system. It’s been done before.”

“Are you serious? You’re friends with criminals?”

“Is that the only thing you heard?”

“No,” Suyeon said. “But wow. How does that even work. Why are you even willing to go to these lengths for a human? You could end up in jail, Hoseok.”

Hoseok didn’t seem nervous about that. He grinned. “Wouldn’t it be fascinating to have a human around? I saw this TV-programme once about humans. It was quite interesting.”

“You’re crazy.”

“You’re considering this as well, aren’t you? That means you’re crazy, too.” He chuckled. “Talk to Jungkook about it tonight, alright? He’s still in your house, right? I would’ve done it myself but I have dance practice today.” Hoseok was already walking away.

“But hey! They don’t do stuff like that for free, do they? I don’t have money,” Suyeon said.

“I’m his friend, I’m sure there’ll be a discount,” he answered with a wave. “Text me what he thinks!”

Suyeon walked back to the group with heavy steps. What was her friend even suggesting? Stuff like that was definitely illegal. Extremely illegal. Suyeon was about to turn into a big criminal and she was barely eighteen.

She sat down on the spot the group had saved for her with a faraway look.

“Did you get confessed to?” One asked her.

“Of course she did. Just look at her, isn’t it obvious?” Another said. Then an arm was wrapped around Suyeon. “He was a good friend, wasn’t he? And now everything is ruined. I know the feeling.”

She didn’t even bother denying it. She only buried herself into the other’s embrace and allowed herself to be comforted.

Back in class, Hyomin talked to her about what the Gossip Girls had to told her, which allowed Suyeon to think about something that had nothing to do with humans.

“Did you know someone from Uni found out how to form an Elemental Bond?” Hyomin said.

“A what?”

“You know, those bonds they formed during wars in the old days.”

“Oh, those.”

Suyeon had a slight memory of them. The bond were either formed by five mages with the same element or five mages with each of the five different elements. The Elemental Bonds were beneficial during war because they made your powers stronger.

“Anyway, those Uni girls found out how to form the bond. Isn’t that amazing?” Hyomin continued.

“Did they form one?”

“No, they just found the formula… Or whatever it’s called. I don’t think they’d be stupid enough to try.”