The cafe was a lot emptier than usual. Which didn’t bother her, but it was strange. The lights were dimmed to add to the calming ambiance that the music provided. She could see that rain drops had started landing on the windows not too long ago and they were accumulating faster. She nestled further into her seat and continued to read the book in her lap. As she decided to take in a sip of her warm coffee, seven boys stumbled into the coffee shop complaining about their clothes getting wet in the sudden downpour.

 

    “The weather man said nothing about rain in today’s forecast!” the one with orange hair complained. His voice sounded familiar.

    “Quit complaining and get your coffee like you normally do so we get to practice already. I need to figure out that one dance move.” The shortest, black haired one said whilst moving his arms and legs in a very odd gesture.  His voice sounded familiar too.

 

    She noticed a spark of light above each of their shoulders.  She finally decided to put her glasses on and saw that the lights were actually small animals. Confused by this, she tried to get a closer look and spilled her coffee all over her favorite book. She gasped loudly and whined a bit before looking up. She felt so embarrassed, but the feeling only lasted for a moment. She gathered her things quickly and cleaned the mess as best she could.

 

    “Sorry, Em! I’ll make it up to you when you get home!” She told the girl behind the counter.

    “I-It’s okay, Jaz, I understand!” she glanced at the seven boys now watching them both very intently. “You don’t have to make it up to me, it’s dead anyways. I needed something to do.” She smiled at her reassuringly and Jaz bowed at the seven boys as she exited the cafe. After all, they were living in Korea so the least she could do was be polite to the people.

“Okay, I’ll have the usual.” Yoongi ordered and slid his credit card across the counter towards Em.

 

Blushing, she asked, “Will that be all for today?”

 

He nodded and sighed, “These kids don’t need coffee. Look at them, so full of energy.”

 

He glared towards s who were already playing games with each other and trying to make the other lose their balance.

 

She laughed, “I’ll have it right out for you. You can sit if you want.” She gestured towards the booths near the door and he accepted her invitation.

 

As much as she hated it, she got his coffee ready faster than any other coffee before, because she was so used to it. She knew that these guys were idols and the fact that they chose to grace her little coffee shop with their patronage… she felt like the luckiest girl alive.

She handed the coffee over to Yoongi and gave him a small piece of bread for Jimin’s and Hoseok’s birds. She had no idea why they always had birds with them, but they were so well behaved that she didn’t mind them being in her cafe. She did find it odd that they even performed with their birds tho, and nobody ever commented on them.

 

    The boys decided not to question the fact that she could see their familiars, or even why she could only see Hoseok’s and Jimin’s, because they didn’t want to cause any trouble and they feared what Big Hit would do to her. Besides, she had a familiar too. It seemed very malnourished and sad, just like that girls’ who just left. Jin wondered if she, too was a Sheltered One. They all had been Sheltered Ones, each parent with their own reason. Yoongi’s though… his father just hated him and didn’t care what happened to him at all.
    You see, when a faerie’s familiar dies, so does the faerie. The fae were an endangered species, the reason being that more and more fae children were being born outside of the forests and raised as humans. Their life expectancy decreased from 2,000 to a measly 84 years.  The generation before these Sheltered Fae was one full of curiosity and selfishness. They did not care that their children would not live to experience life to the fullest as their elders did, but they wanted to know what it was like to live as humans. Because of this, they did not allow themselves to use their magical abilities. Their familiars could only be kept alive so long as the fae used their magic, but only a rare few knew this, and those few were already dead. The downfall of the fae began in the early 90s and the species continues to plummet. Although there are only a few remaining elders, they still believe that the night is darkest before the dawn. Although their world only contains 7 brilliant stars and 4 dim ones, it is the dim starlight that gives them hope of the tomorrow that is to come.

 

She paced back and forth the apartment living room listening to the rain hit the window and the light tapping of keys as the youngest of the girls attempted to defeat the latest boss in her game. What was she going to tell Jazzy? How could she let her know that her pet cat had run away and was caught outside in the sudden rain storm?

    The tapping stopped and Julia stepped out of her room, stretching, with a satisfied sigh. She smiled smugly and walked over to the refrigerator, opened it, sighed in dismay, and closed it. “You haven’t gone grocery shopping yet?” She asked the one still pacing.

    “I was gonna go, but the cat got out and then it started raining, and now I can’t find her! I don’t know what I’m going to tell Jazzy!” her arms flailed at her sides as she stopped pacing to explain herself.

    Julia held up her hands in a ‘stop’ gesture with wide eyes, “It was just one question, calm down. I was looking for a victory snack.”

    “There’s a pear on the counter, but you can’t eat it, because it belongs to Jas.”

    “Well, she’s not here yet. She and Emilee aren’t  supposed to be home until fi-.”

 

    “YOU GUYS WILL NEVER BELIEVE WHAT JUST HAPPENED TO ME.” Jas came bursting through the door, soaking wet with a coffee stain on her oversized sweater and leggings.

    “Umm the coffee bird took a piss on you?” Julia joked. Jas glared.

    “I’M SORRY ABOUT YOUR CAT BUT SHE RAN OUT RIGHT WHEN I OPENED THE DOOR AND I DON’T KNOW WHERE SHE WENT, I’M SO SO-” she stopped talking as soon as Misha popped her head out from Jazzy’s collar. “Nevermind!” she smiled and happy-danced her way across the room.

    “So, what happened? Why do you look like you slid into home base?” Julia asked as she took a bite from the pear.

    “Hey! That’s mine!” Jas pouted. “But i don’t care anymore.  You guys will never guess what happened to me!”

“oH MY GOD just say it already!” Elyssa laughed.

    She sighed deeply before she began as to gather herself, “Okay, well, you guys know how I was supposed to visit Emilee and wait until she closed so that I could walk her home?”

    The  younger girls nodded simultaneously.

    “Okay, well, I was reading my favorite book and freakIGN BTS walks into the cafe and totally threw me off because they all had sparks above their shoulders, except for Suga, because he had this blue dragon looking thing floating above his shoulders and I tried to get a closer look, but my coffee spilt all over me AND my book so now I’m sad and wet, but BTS.”

    The younger two glanced at each other and stared back at Jasmynne with bewildered eyes. Elyssa was the first to react. She scurried over to Jas and started sliding her over to her bedroom, “You need to hurry up and get changed! We need to hurry up and get to my sister! Also, on the way home we can get the grocery shopping done since we’ll all be together and we can pick what we want.” She practically threw the eldest into her bedroom and slid down the hallway to hers. Never had she been more grateful for finished wood flooring. Julia just shrugged and grabbed a cardigan from her closet and slipped on her converse.

    An hour had passed before Elyssa emerged from her room with full makeup, a loose, gray sweater, socks, and black skinny jeans. She would only need to slip into her black and white Jordan’s before they left. Jas was sitting patiently on the couch in her favorite black jacket, white tank top, no-show socks, and her own pair of black skinny jeans. Julia sat next to her grunting and murmuring insults at her DS still wearing her black tank top, black cardigan, black leggings, and black no-show socks.

    “Okay, guys, c’mon! She should be closing up by the time we get there. we should probably help her.” Elyssa said as she slipped her shoes on. Jas slipped on her red converse high tops and Julia slipped on her black vans.

    “Wow! you really match your crow today!” Elyssa grinned. Julia blushed and made her way outside of the apartment building, grateful that the sky had stopped crying.

 

    Just as anticipated, Emilee was already closing up the cafe when the girls finally reached her.

    “Sorry, Em. Julia’s crow kept going crazy when we passed by the supermarket and I wanted to see why, but they girls told me I was crazy… but if I was crazy then how come you guys can see this butterfly and I can see your fairy wren?” Everybody ignored her questions like they usually did.

    “Did the grocery shopping get done?” Emilee asked, tired.

    Nobody answered and she glanced over at Elyssa while they made their way back to the supermarket. “Wasn’t it your turn this week?” The older one let her shoulders fall and apologized.

    “It doesn’t matter, at least we’re going together now. We can pick what we want now!” Jas offered. Elyssa perked up as her idea was offered up and accepted.

 

    Jhope was running through every aisle in the supermarket trying to catch his white owl and Jimin followed close behind trying to catch his chickadee. Yoongi was ahead of them attempting to calm his blue dragon sea slug because it was swimming through the air as if it’s life depended on it. Seeing as they were chasing their familiars (which made everybody think they were crazy, because nobody saw anything so they thought they were chasing air), they didn’t see where they were going and they bumped into the four girls at the store entrance.

    Speechless, Jas helped Hobi get to his feet and Emilee helped Yoongi. Julia and Elyssa helped Jimin and began petting his chickadee as soon as they saw it. It made little cooing noises and nuzzled its head closer to their hands. Shocked by this Jimin stepped back, “Hyung,” he whispered towards Hobi, “They can see him.”

Hoseok’s eyes lit up, “Can you see my white owl?!” He gestured towards his familiar that was now resting on his shoulder. Confused, the girls nodded.

    “I can see your birds, too!” Emilee affirmed.

    “Yea, but we already knew you could, so it isn’t too surprising anymore.” Jimin waved his hand at her.  Hurt by his gesture, she pouted.

    “Wait, is everybody going crazy? I don’t see any birds anywhere? what I do see, though, is a blue dragon slug hovering over Yoongi’s shoulder.” Jasmynne said.

        “You know who I am?” Yoongi asked.

        “Of course! We’re really big fans of yours! I’m going to ignore the fact that you spoke so familiarly to my sister, and introduce myself. My name is Elyssa and I’m Emilee’s older sister.” She gave a bow and smile.

        “So cute.” Jimin whispered under his breath. Yoongi proceeded to punch his lower belly.

    The other girls followed suit;

        “My name is Emilee and I’m the owner of the cafe you frequent, Yoongi-oppa.” Yoongi blushed ever so slightly at the title. “I am the second youngest in our friend group.” smile, bow.

“My name is Jasmynne, but my friends call me Jas or Jazzy. I hope we can become close enough that you will address me by either of those nicknames. Oh, and, I am the eldest of our little friend group.” She smiled widely and bowed.

        “My name is Julia and I’m the youngest amongst us four.” short and sweet.

    

Yoongi gathered Jimin and Hoseok in a little huddle near the entrance of the building, “I know I’m not your leader, but since you don’t have one yet I will tell you what to do. I think we should talk to them more because they are obviously Sheltered Ones.”

“Do you think they’re the four dim stars?” Hoseok asked with a gleam of hope in his eyes.

“Maybe.” Yoongi glanced over and saw Jas’ familiar, “From what I can see, their familiars are very malnourished. We should help them out. Our mission is to awaken as many Sheltered as possible, after all.”

They glanced at each other and nodded in agreement.

“Hyung, did you catch them? Where were they running to?” Jungkook came running up behind them with the others not too far behind. All the girls could see was a small light floating above his shoulder.

“Yes, they were headed towards these girls.” Yoongi gestured towards the four girls still standing at the entrance, bewildered by everything that was happening.”And they are coming with us, because our little guys were headed towards them for a particular reason and we need to find out why.”

 

“Okay, but can we get our groceries first? I’m starving.” Julia complained.

Jin laughed at her, “It’s okay, I’ll feed you girls when we get to our place.”

“We’re going to your place?” Julia blushed thinking about helping Jin cook a meal, “I’ll help you!”

The boys all looked at Jungkook in unison and Jin scoffed, “I wish our maknae was that helpful. Julia blushed harder and to stop herself from blushing further, she pulled out her DS and continued to play her game.

Jin’s eyes lit up as he pulled his DS out of his back pocket. The two played Mario Kart together the whole walk home. It was a wonder they didn’t bump into anybody. It was obvious the two hit it off very well.