”Taehyun” Mino grumbled and got to his feet.

“What are you doing here?” He asked as he moved forward.

“You don’t have to protect him, I’m not going to do anything on sacred ground…” Taehyun leered at Mino who’d moved to stand between Taehyun and Jinwoo, blocking the latter.

“OK. What the hell is going on here?!” Jinwoo bellowed as he walked forward, but now Mino was the one that stopped him by raising his arm and catching Jinwoo.

“I would’ve thought you smarter, Kim  Jinwoo.” Taehyun said sarcastically, tilting his head to the side.

Jinwoo felt the rage bubbling in the pit of his stomach.

“Why you-!” He started forward, but Mino grabbed him and pulled him back.

“Taehyun, leave. Whatever you want to talk about we can do it later!” Mino snarled, his brow furrowed and his jaw tight.

“Why should I, this has as much to do with him so he could very well stay and take the blame…” Taehyun drawled on, looking at his hands nonchalantly.

“What?” Jinwoo looked up at Mino.

“For s sake, Taehyun. He is not to blame! But if you don’t stop yapping…” Mino bellowed in a low voice that made icy chills run up Jinwoo’s spine.

“Or what? You’ll drag me down to the underworld and let the demon’s deal with me? At this point you’re at as much risk of breaking the law as I am.” Taehyun laughed.

“What the hell are you going on about?!” Jinwoo broke free from Mino’s grip and walked in front of him.

“What law?!” His eyes were filled with doubt as he looked at the man he’d just felt like he could trust.

“I’m doing this for your own good” Mino said through gritted teeth, though he didn’t look at him.

Jinwoo couldn’t wrap his head around what was going down.

“Taehyun, I want you to leave!” Mino snarled at the man.

Taehyun raised an eyebrow at him.

“You’re telling me to leave? Seriously? After I came all this way to see you?” Taheyun was speaking sarcastically again, he took a step towards them.

Mino grabbed Jinwoo and threw him behind him again.

“Now now. Don’t be so violent, you might end up hurting him…” Taehyun clicked his tongue disapprovingly before he smirked.

Mino glared at the other man, who seemed like he couldn’t care less.

“Mino, what the hell is going on?!” Jinwoo asked while grabbing onto the man’s shoulder.

Once his hand gripped Mino his hand felt tingly and then the sharp pain shot through his arm and down his spine.

“Ow!!” He exclaimed loudly and let go of Mino and retracted his hand, taking a step back and looking at his hand.

Mino turned to look at him, he’d gone awfully pale.

“See, it’s because you’re so riled up you ended up hurting him. It’s fairly poor manners to feed off of him now before the contract conditions need to be met.” Taehyun blabbered on, waving his hands around like some ballerina while walking towards the other two.

Mino seemed shocked; he stared at Jinwoo’s hand and took, uncertain, quick glances at his face.

Since Mino wouldn’t talk and it seemed as if Taehyun would.

Jinwoo let go of his hand and stood up straight to face him.

“Oh, you’re quite courageous” the other noted, he actually seemed impressed.

Jinwoo puffed his chest up, took a deep breath before he faced Taehyun.

“Someone needs to tell me what the is going on here. Right. Now!” he bellowed, his hands tight fists by his side and his shoulders shaking with every word.

Taehyun smirked and laughed through his nose.

The man inspected his nails carefully as he took another casual step forwards.

“Taehyun, don’t you dare say a word.” Mino snarled from behind Jinwoo.

Jinwoo turned his head as much as possible and glared at Mino.

He looked at Taehyun again, the man smirked as they made eye contact.

“Shouldn’t you ask your loving mother to tell you?” the emphasis was sarcastic along with the look he threw at Jinwoo.

“It’s fairly bad taste if you ask me to reveal such profound secrets…” Taehyun drawled and looked at the shrine.

“Taehyun, I’m warning you!” Mino spat angrily and Jinwoo could almost feel the anger radiating off of him.

“Wait, so whatever is going on here and whatever my mum is keeping from me are connected?” Jinwoo stared at Taehyun.

The man smiled at him “Clever boy” he leered.

“But-?” Jinwoo began but Taehyun interrupted him.

“Bad taste, child” he said shortly as he walked past Jinwoo.

“Taehyun, you’ve said quite enough!” Mino towered over them both in rage, though Taehyun didn’t seem bothered.

“I haven’t actually said anything…” He pointed out and gestured towards Jinwoo.

Jinwoo stood practically frozen in place.

How could the secret his mother had been keeping and whatever the hell was going on between Mino and Taehyun be connected?

It was true that his mother had seemed oddly adamant that he not visit the shrine, but he’d blown it off because he thought the shrine was a ruin and therefore dangerous, plus, he could’ve gotten lost I the forest.

“What the hell!?” Jinwoo exclaimed and clutched at his forehead as a dull throbbing started to appear as he tried to wring his mind of information.

 “Jinwoo, you need to stop thinking about it.” Mino demanded.

Jinwoo turned around in anger “What? Why? All this weird has been happening lately, and none of it makes any sense! Of course I’m going to keep thinking about it!” Jinwoo threw his arms out in frustration.

Taehyun came back and made half a circle around Jinwoo before he stopped in front of him and brought his hand up to the man’s face, he gripped Jinwoo’s chin between his fingers.

He brought his other hand up and the side of Jinwoo’s face; all the while Jinwoo’s eyes were growing big trying to decipher what the other was thinking.

“Taehyun” Mino snarled and walked up and was about to grab Taehyun’s arm when the man let his hand fall to his side.

“Jinwoo!!” the loud yell cut through the tense atmosphere like a knife through butter, but Taehyun and Mino looked very startled.

“Taehyun!” Mino said in a panic struck but hushed voice.

“!” Taehyun hissed and stepped aside and behind Jinwoo.

Seungyoon came up the stairs, he looked ruffled as if he’d been running; his face flushed and he seemed to be panting.

Jinwoo stared at his friend who he’d left suddenly in a fit of anger.

“He must’ve been worried…” Jinwoo thought to himself, he sighed and felt a little guilty for just disappearing on him.

“Jinwoo!” Seungyoon called again and looked around.

At one point he looked directly at Jinwoo, but seemed to be looking straight through him.  

“Wha-? Seungyoon?” Jinwoo called.

“He can’t see you.” Mino said in a low voice.

“What?!” Jinwoo’s voice was shaky; he stared wide eyed at his friend who clearly couldn’t see him.

“How?” He whispered.

“Taehyun put up a mirage. Basically we’re invisible right now.” Mino continued in a monotonous tone.

Jinwoo looked back at the two who were standing behind him; He made eye contact with Mino, when he looked at Taehyun the man was staring straight at Seungyoon, seemingly oddly transfixed.

“. He isn’t here either…” Seungyoon on his lower lip and scratched the back of his head in frustration.

“Maybe I should contact the police?” Seungyoon said to himself and looked around once more.

“Crap...” Jinwoo mumbled, he couldn’t let him do such a thing,.

“I’ll call his mum again and ask if he’s returned first.” He reasoned aloud with himself and pulled his phone out.

“Mino, he can’t call the police” Jinwoo hissed in a hushed voice.

“I agree.” Was all Mino said before he turned to Taehyun who was still frozen on the spot.

“Taehyun.” Mino urged, but there was no response.

“Taehyun!” Mino spat, he reached out and touched the man’s arm and Taehyun seemed to snap out of it.

 “Taehyun you need to break Jinwoo out of the mirage or that one will call the police.” Mino urged.

Taehyun shook his head and raised his hand slightly.

Suddenly Jinwoo noticed a small pressure he hadn’t noticed earlier and he felt as if a light breeze swept over him.

“Seungyoon!” Jinwoo called.

The man looked up and saw him the phone stuck to his ear.

“Oh.. Uh… No, I found him Mrs. Kim.” Was all he said staring at Jinwoo before he put the phone down and hung up.

“Jinwoo… where the hell did you come from?” Seungyoon frowned at him.

“Never mind that. Why on earth did you come looking for me?” He tried to distract the other.

“Ah, because you stormed off in such a rage I figured you might walk about blindly and get lost.” He shrugged, still holding his phone.

“Why’d you come here?” Jinwoo asked, he was curious, he couldn’t remember talking about Mino or the shrine in combination.

“Oh, I called your mum and asked her where you could be or if she knew where you’d met someone new recently. She let slip that you’d encountered a stranger here, so I chanced it.” Seungyoon answered honestly and with a small shrug.

“Well, you’ve found me.” Jinwoo chanted awkwardly.

“Let’s go.” He added brashly and stormed forward and grabbed the man’s shoulder and lead him off down the stairs again.

Jinwoo turned to look, but saw only air where he was sure Mino and Taehyun were standing.

“Don’t freak out. Don’t freak out!” He urged himself as he walked together with Seungyoon who was chatting about one thing or another.

As the shrine disappeared from sight as it was swallowed by the top of the hill and was shrouded by the trees, Jinwoo looked back one last time before it disappeared from sight completely.

His mind was abuzz, he couldn’t process things properly and the throbbing pain that had started earlier was growing stronger, he decided to focus on Seungyoon and clear his mind of whatever was going on.

He figured if he took some time to think things over he could probably figure something out, he just had to take a step back to think things through.

But for now he had more than enough to occupy him by focusing on Seungyoon, he figured he’d get home first before he let the information flood his mind.

Maybe he’d even sleep on it.  

Tada! On schedule again! Hopefully the next chapter will also be on time ...

I hope you like it!

Comments are love! :D