The Chapter is late, I know. I had some projects to finish and I'm going to be graduating in a couple of months so I had so forms and stuff to finish. I put a lot of thought into this chapter and how it's going to play into the rest of the story, so remember guys, pay attention to detail. I hope you enjoy!

Their promise was like diamond. When the school day came to, the four kept their distance from one another, staying in their own group. Jonghyun and Jackson were quiet and they intentionally avoided eye contact with Key and Onew. The boys noticed. But Key noticed something else. Something annoyingly particular; the way Luna tended to hover over Onew throughout the passing minutes. When they arrived at school, she was the first at their lockers, when they were in class, she stayed standing near Onew talking about recent gossip with the class before it started, and while distracting the students with another one of her stories, she managed to slip Onew a note folded up into a tiny square. Key eyed it all and he crept an eyebrow up when Onew unfolded said note, made a face and scrunched it into his pocket after making sure Luna wasn’t looking. Key had to wait until the crowd around his best friend, caused by Luna, dissipated which means he couldn’t really talk to him again until lunch time came around and they were in the halls together.

But when that time came, Onew’s face wasn’t the first he saw out of class while he hanged by the door. Z abruptly stopped and nodded her head over to Key’s locker. The boy leaned his body towards the door, waiting for his friend to come out, ignoring her.

“He’s been annoyed by my sister again if you oughta know,” she commented.

He pursed his lips, grimaced, but stayed by the door.

“I need to talk to you about something,” she went on, her voice a low hover. Students walked out of the room in hordes, and yes, some looked his way when they noticed the quiet, anti-social Z hanging around Key like a bodyguard.

Key arched his brow. Z never had anything to talk about, let alone with him.

“Which is?” He asked.

“I wouldn’t be nodding towards your locker if I wanted to blurt it out at the door.”

He leaned his body towards the door one more time but stopped when he heard Luna’s short giggle migrating from the classroom. And there was only one reason she could be giggling.

“Fine,” he sighed and trudged his way over, Z quietly behind him. “What exactly did you want to talk about?”

“Well,” her eyes flashed across the hallway just as some students walked by, “I was curious to know how the date with Onew and Luna went.”

Key raised his brow.

“You’re seriously asking me this when you can hear your sister’s giggles all the way outside pass school grounds?”

“Never mind,” she sighs turning around to leave. Key grabs her arm in time to stop her and she turns her head like he was the one at fault.

“Hey, what the hell Z. What did you want?”

“I said never mind.”

“Yeah, I heard that part.”

Luna comes out of the room just then giggling with Onew right by her side. The two look up like they had signs hovering above their heads, like a signal. Onew grimaces when he sees the two of them together. It was a strange sight, definitely not something you saw every day at school. Key immediately let's go and by their reactions, he was sure they didn’t catch it, just thought it was weird the two were hanging out next to his locker. Z sent a smile her sister’s way.

“Come on Luna, let’s get to lunch.”

He didn’t even try to say anything else as she walked. He was too focused on Onew focusing on him. His friend strides over.

“Key, what was that all about?”

Key watched the two identical bodies walk and disappear from view and shrugged.

“Honestly, I have no damn idea. But I should be asking you the same thing.”

“What?”

“What’d you mean, what? What exactly happened on your date that you got Luna all goo-goo eyed over you.”

Onew, let out a long and uncomfortable huff as they began to make their way down the hall towards the lunchroom.

“Let’s just say Luna might’ve gotten the wrong idea because I might’ve touched her hand or something on the date.”

Key snorts.

“So, you lead her own without realizing you lead her on,” he nods but Onew doesn’t return the gesture.

“Well….” The boy presses.

Key snorts again.

“So you did know what you were doing-“

“It’s just, I had to find some way to get her to stop asking me questions or looking all curious when you texted me. I mean, I did that plus told her my dad was sick. That’s what was on the note she sent me in class. She was asking if he was alright, though, to be completely honest, I had no idea what the hell she was talking about at first.”

Key throws up his arms.

“Hey man, I never asked.”

Onew let out a small chuckle and nudges his friend against his shoulder.

“Like you weren’t curious.”

“I don’t see anything wrong with Luna though,” Key adds.

Onew stops them in mid-hallway and stares at his friend with lingering, irritated eyes.

“Are you talking about the same Luna I know?”

Key laughed again.

“I mean, I know she’s annoying man, but she seems to really like you. Was she annoying on the date that much?”

Key was right. When they were on the date and it was just the two of them, even when Luna was telling him the story she wasn’t as annoying as she seemed at school.

“She wasn’t that bad,” he replies.

Key shrugs.

“Maybe you should think about considering to…I don’t know…date her.”

Onew scoffs.

“Yeah right. And with everything that’s going on between us and our...situation,” he emphasizes, “let’s just invite her to the party while we’re at it.”

“I mean, but Onew. There has to be time for a break somewhere. Even superheroes have partners or dates.”

“Yeah well, we aren’t superheroes and the last person I want to be my partner, as you so kindly put it, is Luna.”

“Onew, man, do you even like anyone?”

“Do you?” He retorted.

And they both went quiet. Onew thought about it a minute and he remembered the brute strength of Taemin that night, though why Taemin, in particular, popped into his head, he wasn’t sure.

“Nope,” he responds, “I don’t.”

****

But the weirdness of the day didn’t stop there. When they finally get to the lunchroom and open the lunches that Onew’s mom made for them, something told Key to look up while his friend dug into the depths of his food. And there it was. It was only for a second, but that second was enough for Key to realize that Z was staring at them—or Onew. He wasn’t sure. But she was looking their direction and when he’d locked eyes with her after having a pressing feeling of someone watching them—a feeling he was all too familiar with—she moved her attention away, acting as she was actually listening to whatever her sister was talking about.

He peers over towards Minho but of course, the man wasn’t even trying to look back, not with Jonghyun and Jackson at their table. So Key steers his attention back to his food, digging in, though not as avidly as Onew. He wanted to mention to his friend the suspiciousness of Z, but not with Cerberi or rather Jonghyun and Jackson so close by.

“Onew?”

They both look up to find Luna standing there with a huge smile on her face.

“Is it okay if I sit with you guys for today? Z’s getting on my nerves.”

“Z’s getting on your nerves,” Key presses, “Yeah right, because that makes sense.”

Luna huffs, tray in hand and decides to sit down anyway, making herself comfortable right next to Onew while Key merely sat across like the third wheel.

“We’re sisters Key, not soulmates. You know, sometimes we don’t always get along.”

Luna doesn’t catch it, but Key notices a small roll of the eyes as Onew watched her sit down and for a second while looking over to Z again, Key thought he saw Taemin glance over their way, but when he checks, of course, the boy’s eyes are nowhere near them. Z, on the other hand, abruptly stands up with a huge scowl on her face. Her chair makes a large skidding noise against the cafeteria tile, turning heads but she wasn’t staring at Key. No, she was staring at her sister with a broad mass of annoyance on her face. Quite different from Onew’s but still evident. Onew is to distracted by Luna to notice the interruption and Luna, of course, is swooning over him. So, when Z comes striding over in long, large footsteps, Key stands up in response and swiftly walks over, cutting her off.

This time, he knew the Cerberi were looking. Could feel their gaze run down his neck as he intercepted. And his abrupt stance made both Onew and Luna turn around.

“Out of my way,” Z mumbles.

“Hey, what’s your deal, huh?” He whispers back, then nods towards the exist. “Now it’s my turn to say we need to talk.”

Z’s lips run into a thin line, but after a moment of switching her glance towards staring faces, she nods in agreement and follows Key outside.

He tries to walk her a good distance away from the cafeteria, just in case the Cerberi was listening, but when a minute passes of them walking, she pulls her arm from the boy’s grasp, a grasp he didn’t realize he had on her. And he peers behind her hoping how far they were, was far enough.

“That’s enough walking,” she says.

Key huffs and crosses his arm.

“Well excuse me for not wanting a commotion to start because you have some sort of attitude today. Speaking of which, what the hell is wrong with you? First the locker, now this? You started walking like you were about to attack your own damn sister.”

“I’m just annoyed with her is all.”

“Just annoyed my . Z I’ve seen you plenty annoyed before and you never attempted to charge at her. What? Is it because she’s all goo-goo eyed over Onew or something? Is that what’s annoying you?”

“No,” she replies sternly.

He leans in front of her and waves sarcastically, but she keeps this disinterested expression on her face.

“Just no, huh? Is that all I’m gonna get off you?”

“Yes.”

“Oh! A yes,” she hysterically laughs. “Look Z, I don’t know what the hell your problem is today, but don’t go bothering Onew about it because your sister is obsessed with him.”

“She’s not obsessed with him.”

He laughs again.

“Tell that to everyone else in the classroom she used to hover around him.”

“I’m just tired of her damn rumors ok.”

“Her rumors?” He felt his brow raising in curiosity but coolly forces it down.

She clears , an obvious sign of her trying to get her thoughts together, and lowers her voice.

“Do you know how they’re date went? Did Luna bring anything up?”

Key unfolds his arms.

“Not that I know of,” he lied. “They had a quiet date. He said there wasn’t anyone else in the restaurant since they knew his parents and he may have touched her hand and she got the wrong idea.” Now that part wasn’t a lie, but he needed something to not sound totally suspicious.

“Right,” she mumbles as if trying to convince herself of something, “It’s just, you know her and her crazy stories.”

She attempts what Key assumes to be, a laugh. But it was awkward and forced, anyone could tell. Plus, Z barely ever laughed so it was weird as well, obvious she was trying to keep herself from saying something she wanted to.

“Why, is there something up?” He asks in return.

“No,” her response is quick and noted.

It was too obvious she was lying as well and when the two go back into the cafeteria room, Key sees Minho eyes lingering at the door and he wonders, just how much the Cerberi heard.

****

“So, we might as well talk about it while we’re walking,” Onew mentions as they stroll the sidewalk. School was over now and they went from their lockers, straight out before Luna could come into any further contact with him. The Cerberi, of course, didn’t even look their way when they left. Taemin and Minho didn’t even try to start a conversation, but Key remembered the stare, the narrow of eyes the man had when he and Z had come back into the lunchroom.

“Oh…yeah,” Key replies. “I don’t know, it was weird. At first, I thought she was annoyed at the fact that Luna kept coming over to you after just one date, but then…”

“But then what? Why were you two at your locker earlier?”

“Yeah…that was strange too. It was like she wanted to ask me something, but she didn’t. Then, when lunch time came around, she looked like she was about to charge Luna over with whatever they were upset with each other over and that’s why I got up.”

“I was wondering about that.”

“It took a minute to get something out of her. She asked me how you and Luna’s date went and if she brought up anything. And before that, she said she was tired of her damn rumors. I mean, putting two and two together…”

“You think it has something to do with that story Luna told me,” Onew finishes.

Key wiggles his finger in the air like old folks did when they were on to something.

“Exactly.”

“And what did you tell her.”

“At first I lied and said no, then I told her I just thought Luna was clinging to you like lint because you touched her hand and I thought she got the wrong impression from it. Had to say something to make up for the lie. Didn’t trust that she couldn’t tell if I was or wasn’t. But after that, she kinda waved it off and told me nothing was up even though I could tell she was lying.”

“So you think the story is definitely true?”

“I mean, we’ve seen Z annoyed by her sister before, but she seemed a lot more pissed than she was letting on.”

“So what does this mean? Do you…do you think their family is dangerous?”

“Onew,” he scoffed, “they’re just humans. I mean, we might not have a solid handle on our abilities, but I think we can take them in the danger zone. It’s not like they’ve been up to something or are going to do something. Me and you been living here since we were little. Don’t you think something would’ve happened if it could?”

Onew stopped in his tracks and stared.

“But Key, things did happen. You and your aunt got attacked, you found out you are a Gumiho, I found out I am a Night Owl, we met Cerberi, we found out about war and we’ve found out about betrayal. That sounds like something to me.”

Key stopped too, letting Onew’s words sink in.

“But they are just humans Onew…I mean, we should be fine. Even with Luna telling you her story.”

“Yeah, just humans whose ancestors ran a coop on yours causing the extinction of your species.”

They both froze. This, unfortunately, was the ugly truth.

****

When they got to the house, Key asked to spend some time with his aunt, her beautiful body carefully laid on the bed and was still encased in covers. Her breathing was normal. It was as if she were just sleeping everything off. But she wasn’t here. She wasn’t present, and it hit him hard. Even though he laughed and cried with Onew, things were definitely different without her. He touched a string of hair that flew out of place by a slight breeze of his breath as he hovered over her. Aunt Kim is a strong woman, the strongest he’s ever seen, and that truth was more evident by the war she’d survived. And it took only one night to take her away from him.

“Are you ever gonna wake up?” He asks her. She just breathes in a small piece of breath and breathes it back out. That was her response every time he came to check up on her. So, to pass the time, Key caught her up on everything, making sure to exclude anything dealing with the Cerberi personally because of prying adult ears he knew was nearby.

That night, when Onew was soundly asleep next to him and he was completely immersed in darkness, he texts Minho for the very first time in his life. They all exchanged numbers in the cave before they completely parted the other day, but no one had really texted the other. It was like a silent trade-off. So what better time than now? At first, he texted a simple “hello” and when a minute passed and he got a “hello” back, he dug into his next set and asked if he saw or heard the situation with Luna.

“Didn’t hear, but saw,” he received.

“Should we talk about it?”

“Not now, Uncles are always watching me. I don’t usually text, they’ll be wondering why.”

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to bother.”

“Don’t be. I like that we’re communicating. Is something wrong?”

“Why do you ask?”

“Just…because I guess.”

“Well…”

“Yes?”

“I’m just sad I guess. My aunt is still…sleep.”

Two minutes pass.

“Ah. Well, cheer up Key. Bad things happen, but now that we’re working together, maybe they won’t have to anymore.”

He could tell it was Minho’s first time attempting to cheer someone up that didn’t probably pertain to Cerberi duties. It was almost laughable…cute. Key found himself chuckling a bit and his sudden giggle made Onew move a little.

“Thanks,” he replied.

“You’re welcome. You should get some sleep. Night.”

“Night.”

And before the strange day was completely over, he finds himself asleep soon after his conversation with Minho was over. Maybe the man’s words were some kind of comfort. Enough to settle his mind to sleep. And his dreams invited the woman that came before, her delicate hands a smooth introduction. Her fingers were like feathers. Thin and long. Like they could sing their own song. They were beautiful. And when they panned away, the long thin figure in front of him was beautiful. But there was so much light. Too much light. It blinded him. He couldn’t see her face.

His mother.

He covered his face from the blinding light, but it started to lead him. Started to make him travel somewhere else. A forest. A beautiful forest. Paradise. His Paradise. He knew it from the twinkling waterfall and fresh crisp grass. He remembered his Paradise. He remembered the smell of it. In the distance, like a statue was his tree. Large and looming. It had a gaping hole at the bottom of it. The whole he had been found in. But it closed up. It didn’t want him, anyone. It had served its duty and now it was gone.

“Key,” he heard.

Turning, the forest went deeper, more greenery than he’s ever seen in his life with swaying fresh leaves and fluttering butterflies. Even the fireflies glowed in the shadow of the trees. But there was something in the distance. A figure. But not the womanly figure from before. No, this wasn’t his mother. He walked deeper, letting the forest consume him and when he got close enough to the glowing figure, he stopped, his heart pounding.

It was him.

Key.

He was looking at himself like a reflection but the glowing him was smiling, hand drawn out. The hand had long fingernails, sharp and threatening. They ombréd into the color of thick blood and small tiny veins lined his reflection’s arm, rising up to his throat and stopping at his mouth; a strange dark maroon. His skin was paler. His hair was longer with flecks of grey streaks but…he couldn’t see his eyes. And though the image he was staring at looked frightening, he didn’t feel scared. He felt…like he belonged here.

“Key,” he heard again. It didn’t belong to his reflection. It belonged to…

“Key.”

He opens his eyes to find Onew hovering over him in a panic. The light is coming in from the window. It’s morning, but his mind is a little dazed…a little confused.

“Onew,” he wheezes.

The boy sighs in relief.

“You’re having another fever again. My mom is making me go to school,” he angers at this, “she knows I hate that idea, but she says I can’t skip. She’s gonna take care of you okay?”

It feels as though it takes him millennia to answer, his body weak and in immense pain.

“Okay,” he wheezes out.

He watches Onew’s eyes frown, but when Key closes his eyes again and opens, the boy is gone. The room is quiet. He sees a tray a soup on the side that reads, drink immediately when you wake back up, will be back in five minutes to check on your fever. But he doesn’t. Instead, he pushes himself off the bed, the sheets, covered in sweat. Something doesn’t feel right. Something’s off about him…or right. He’s not sure, his mind is fuzzy. Even though he’s weak, he drags his body into the bathroom….and sees his reflection.

His face is fine.

He touches his cheeks and sees it.

The long, sharp, threatening nails, ombréd into the color of thick blood with veins running out of them like wood.

Like a tree.