“Studying is for losers,” I proclaimed as I picked up one of the books from my bed. “Besides, I’ll probably fail even if I study.”

Jongin raised an eyebrow. “Getting a fifty-nine is a fail, but so is a forty and I think your brother would rather see a fifty-nine.”

“I don’t want to practice my script,” I groaned. “It’s not going to do anything but waste my time because we all know I’m going to panic and kind of, like, bull my way through it and try to get it over with when it’s my turn to present whether or not I rehearse.”

He picked up the script I’d put on my bed. “Mira, it’s just a two minute presentation.”

“That’s two minutes more than it should be.”

Chapter 30

I slept like a rock that night. Nothing could even wake me up, and when I finally did, Baekhyun had bounded into the room and was banging two cymbals together. I managed to make out over the earsplitting clashing noise that it was already one o’clock in the afternoon.

Suho appeared behind him, looking confused until his eyes landed on Baekhyun.

“Should’ve known,” he grumbled. “Geez, what’s wrong with you? You can’t just storm into a girl’s room like that.”

Baekhyun shrugged. “She’s been sleeping for, like, fifteen hours. Kai was asking about when they’d do homework together.”

I shot straight up. “Oh no.”

“Study date,” Baekhyun laughed. “What a fun time. I’ll leave you to it.”

Suho muttered something that sounded like I’m disappointed in you under his breath in Baekhyun’s direction, but both of them retreated from the room and I sat on the bed by myself.

I didn’t feel quite as sore as I had before I slept last night, but my whole body felt stiff from fighting the berserker faes. Maybe doing homework was better than training for an hour, but that would just make my head hurt instead of my arms (holding up a blade for over an hour in proper stance was absolutely torture) and then it would be double the pain. I wondered if there was anyway I could convince Kai to let me sleep for the rest of the day, but then there was another knock on my door.

“Come in,” I groaned.

Kai stuck a head instead. “Baekhyun said you’re up.”

“Who wouldn’t be if someone clashed cymbals above them? That hurt even without enhanced hearing .”

He snorted. “True, but I’ve had worse. Sharpie’s hard to wash off. Be thankful he didn’t decide to draw on your face. It’s happened to Yixing before.”

“Great. Thanks for the warning.”

“No problem.” He pushed the door open a bit more. “I said I’d help you with homework, though you’re probably hungry right now and I was thinking we can go to a café instead of staying at the safehouse. Someone raided the fridge last night so there’s literally nothing left there, and Kyungsoo’s not home so there’s no one to cook.”

I kind of wanted Kyungsoo’s homemade breakfasts—those were good, and the one time he’d made green onion cakes was a blessing—but going to a café (“Study date!” Baekhyun’s voice repeated) didn’t sound bad and maybe it could turn doing work bearable.

“So?” he prompted again. “Are you going?”

I blinked. “Sure.”

***

It was still chilly when I shouldered my backpack and followed Kai out the front door, trying to balance the armful of textbooks in my hand and at the same time not fall over. By the time we got to the gate, Kai seemed to realize my struggle because he helped me take half of them.

“You’re not going to make it to the cafe like that,” he laughed. “We’re walking.”

I stared down at the first textbook of the pile. It said chemistry, and I was pretty sure at least half of my homework consisted of that. It also happened to be the one subject I couldn’t quite wrap my subject around—all three years of taking the course—and very possibly my lowest mark.

“You’re going to have to help me with chemistry,” I told Kai. “I don’t get this at all.”

He squinted at the textbook in hand. “What homework do you have?”

I frowned. “One lab, which I have no idea what I’m doing, and then I have twenty eight questions from page two hundred fifty eight from the textbook, which was due, like, three days ago, and then forty two more from page two hundred sixty and sixty one. Could you possibly do all of that for me?”

He whistled. “You’ve got a lot to do. But that’s fine. We’ve got the whole afternoon.”

“Don’t I always?” I grumbled, shifting my grip because I was about to drop the armful of books.

“Do you need more help with that?” he asked, jerking a chin towards me. “But hey, it’s an improvement. If I dumped that load on you two years ago, you wouldn’t have been able to lift it at all.”

“Two years ago, I’d be lying home sick instead of fighting berserker faes,” I pointed out. “I think I’d rather drink Jinyoung’s chicken noodle soup than fight.”

Kai gave me a shrug. “That’s too bad. Which cafe would you like to suffer at this afternoon?”

***

It was nearing seven when he walked me back home.

The walk back was a silent, and instead of seventy unfinished questions, I was carrying back sixty five finished. I suppose it was quite an improvement because I barely finished homework most of the time, but it was pretty difficult to keep track of schoolwork on top of all the Athanatoi training. It felt like two separate, completely different worlds, and a lot of the time, I was having a lot of trouble switching between the two of them. The gap between them was just too big to jump over easily each time.

Then there was also Jinyoung. He was that one person who remained strictly in the real world side, the one that had absolutely no association with magic. It made sense, because Jinyoung already had enough on his shoulders, but at the same time, part of me really, really wanted to break everything to my brother instead of tricking him each time.

Kai’s warning went through my head each time I wanted to, though—those without Athanatoi blood weren’t supposed to know—in fact, they shouldn’t even be able to see monsters, and my brother was one of those people. It was for his own safety, and that was something I didn’t want to jeopardize.

When the apartment finally came into view, Kai stopped. He had most of my books in his arms, and the pile came up to his chin. I wasn’t sure how he was able to carry such a heavy pile and walk for fifteen minutes without faltering—sure, he was more fit than I was (according to Baekhyun, he had abs, but Baekhyun also claimed that Sehun once dyed his hair rainbow so I wasn’t sure what to believe), but it still seemed like a hard task.

“Do you need help carrying these up?” he asked. “Or are you good on your own?”

I eyed the books. If they came up to his chin, wouldn’t they go past my head? Nevertheless, I gave a slight nod. “It’s probably fine.”

It took all my strength not to collapse when he placed the rest of the pile on mine, and then I had to lower my arms as far as they would go so I could actually see over it. Kai raised an eyebrow. “Are you sure you don’t need help?”

I winced. “Nope. Totally fine on my own.”

He glanced dubiously at me, obviously not buying it, then shrugged. “Tell Jinyoung I said hi. And go rest. You have training tomorrow at… uh, what time do you want to go there at? I’m a bit busy in the mornings, so can you go there by yourself at around noon?”

I’d walked to the safehouse so many times that there was no way I couldn’t find it on my own, but then there was always the question of whether or not it was safe to do so.

Kai seemed to read my expression. “You’re not going to die in the middle of the day,” he promised. “You have your shortsword with you, right? Monsters don’t roam around in the middle of the day anyways. You’ll be fine. And if everything else goes wrong, just drop all you have and bolt. Tactical retreats are always great.”

I squinted at him. “Have you ever tactically retreated?”

He seemed to be contemplating for a moment. “I did with Baekhyun once, because he got stabbed through the chest and was bleeding to death and I needed to get him to Yixing. Other than that, no. It seems to be more of your thing.”

I kind of wanted to throw the whole armful of books at him, but it was too heavy to go far and I doubted I could throw such a thing. “The key word is tactic. I don’t tactically retreat. I don’t even retreat. I just run.”

“You didn’t even do that back when you encountered the fire elementals,” he pointed out.

I shooed him out of the door before heading straight for the elevators.

Jinyoung