Earlier

Her body was bombarded in front of him before he could breathe. With his locker open, Onew sighed heavily already knowing the atmosphere that was her personality, shoved into his own personal space.

“Luna,” he murmured, grabbing out his notebooks then slowly closing his locker shut, “we’re gonna have to talk about something-“

“It’s weird,” she abruptly interrupted and leaned, looking behind him like there was something he was hiding.

“What?” He sighed.

There was a lingering annoyance. An annoyance he was finally understanding that Key felt whenever she popped up. Is this what Key felt?

“Really? I have to ask?” She pursed her lips, basically protruding her hips out towards him. “Where’s your bestie? Your one and only Key?”

Oh yeah, he thought. He’d forgotten about him, for a second. He was definitely worried, but…something else bothered him right now. There was…a buzzing…or something. He couldn’t even come up with words in his own head to describe it. Because it wasn’t really a buzzing. Maybe it was like Luna—an annoyance. Or was it more like something coming? Like when your hair tingles upward towards the sky and you get goosebumps. Yeah, something like that. That’s what he felt.

“Onew? Earth to Onew?” Oh, she was still here, still talking. How long had he zoned out?

She huffed and cocked her hip out again, then flipped her hair back.

“Did you hear anything I said?”

“Honestly Luna, I think I have a bit of a headache,” he lied and he could tell that she could tell that he was, in fact, lying. But for some reason, it didn’t really bother him.

“Fine,” she sighed, “let’s go to class then.”

He unconsciously followed her, and while doing so, looked up to find Minho and Taemin down the hallway near the entrance of the school with serious looks on their faces. But he wasn’t sure what for, or whether he cared or not because….that little feeling, that feeling he couldn’t describe. It was getting bigger.

***

It was weird not having Key close by. He couldn’t remember the last time it was like this. Him without Key or Key without him. They were like conjoined twins. Meaning, even if they were far away from one another, they could feel what the other felt. Like that night, when Key was in danger and that monster was attacking him. Even before then, there was this sense, this tingle in the back of his mind when he went home before his best friend. And his heart started beating in irregular pumps.

Then Key got ahold of him. God, the fear in his heart that night when his best friend…his brother called him in a panic. Terrified, alone, helpless. He felt like that now. Not as severely, but it was there. Like Key was freaking out about something, or something was wrong. But he knew what was wrong this time around. The Gumiho. It was fighting back at the years Key lived as a human. And it was burning it out of him. It was a transition that— his mother repeatedly assured him as he was forced out of the house this morning— was going to keep occurring.

And then the door opened.

And he looked up.

And rather than both Minho and Taemin…there was just Taemin. The teacher was already in the classroom—he must’ve been zoned out during that time—and Taemin walked up to him and whispered something in his ear. The curious side of Onew wanted to turn around to see how Jackson and Jonghyun were acting, but he knew that would look suspicious and he knew the deal the four of them had promised one another. So, instead, he watched as the teacher nodded his head with a concerned look and Taemin quietly, calmly, made his way back to his seat.

And that was the way the rest of half the class went. Quiet. Because there was no Key here, and because even though she annoyed him enough—Onew made sure Luna sat with her sister. Suddenly, the feeling, it grew. And his heart, it was doing that beating thing it did the night of Key and Aunt Kim’s attack. The feeling was different though. Or at least where it was directed to. This was a feeling for himself. Of himself.

Then there was a sudden sharp pain above his eyebrow. An eye headache, it had to be. It was piercing and loud. Like a silent drum banging through his veins in his skin. The vibration reverberating throughout his forehead. He heard the teacher talking, heard him. But he couldn’t fixate what words were coming out of his mouth. So, with the eye closed that the headache seemed to hover over, he raised his hand, high.

“Can I go to the nurse please,” his voice was shaking, “I have a migraine.”

The teacher mumbled something he couldn’t understand. Something along the lines of, “you’ve never” and “before” and “asked.” Or maybe it was “asked before.” But nonetheless, he heard a yes and quickly pushed himself out of his seat and rushed out, not caring who was staring or who was watching.

His body moved towards the direction of the nurse’s office, but for some reason, it didn’t seem to want to go there. And the headache, it was getting bigger. And the nurse’s office was looking just a little too far. So, he saw the next best thing. The boy’s bathroom. Very close, within proximity of his over craning body right now. And so, he headed for that bathroom, stumbling over a few times in his attempt to walk straight. Everything, everything. It seemed to be becoming brighter. Like someone was constantly shining a light in his eyes but they had a switch on it that let the light get louder and louder until it pierced the sight of the person looking. That’s what it felt like, that’s what it looked like.

Luckily, he was able to grasp the edge of a sink before stumbling again. He tried to look up, to look at himself in the mirror, but, when he did that, the headache got worse. Maybe he was wrong, maybe it wasn’t a headache. Maybe it was a migraine. A horrible migraine that had somehow manifested itself within a couple of minutes of him zoning out in class—which he never did in the first place.

To be honest, everything that’s been going on lately, he’s never done before. Never ran in the woods, definitely never hid out in it, never faced monsters of another species, never attempted to skip school because Key was sick—but Key was never sick. Never missed school like his mother forced them to do when Key got attacked in the cafeteria. Never went up against his parents, never went on a date with a girl—with anyone. Never. Never.

The word kept repeating in his mind. Of course, it was also contributing to the headache. Making it expand from his eye, to his brow, and across his forehead. He heard himself grunt. Low. Deep. Onew squeezed his eyes shut. That defensive mechanism you do to try to get rid of the pain. He wondered if Key felt like this when he went through his fevers. Maybe that’s what it was. Another never. He never had to worry this much about Key before. He never had to worry about their lives this much before.

He started rocking his body a little bit. Moving his legs in hope of ridding his body of this irregular pain that was starting not to feel like a headache or a migraine. Rather, something more, something different. Something he couldn’t explain. Something—

“Onew?”

He couldn’t unsqueeze his eyes, but he moved his head in the direction of his name. His name that came from that voice.

“Onew, are you okay?” Taemin asked.

If his brain and body weren’t delusional, Onew thought the last thing he would do in a situation like this was laugh, but he heard himself chuckle anyway. Because the question was stupid, and he knew that Taemin knew it was stupid.

“You should just go back to class,” Onew grunted back. “It’s just a headache, it’ll be over soon.”

He heard footsteps get closer to him.

“Well,” Taemin continued, “I was on my way to the bathroom anyway. Once I left the classroom, I smelled that you came here too, instead of the nurse’s office.”

The footsteps came closer.

“A headache?” He questioned, “Seems more like a migraine.”

Onew heard himself laugh again, “I thought the same thing too, but…it’s getting worse.”

Why was he talking to Taemin so casually? Calmly?

“Where did it start?” Taemin asked.

“Above this damn eye.” He put his finger against the top of his lid but not too much to make it worse.

“Well, I don’t think squeezing your eyes so hard is helping much. Lemme see.” Before Onew could argue, he felt Taemin’s fingers brush against his eyelids and smooth themselves across the surface. “Just, open them for a bit.”

Onew shook his head, but slowly as to not make the pain worse.

“It’s too bright. When my eyes are open, it’s too bright.”

“Okay,” Taemin sighed, “well…do it slowly. Maybe there’s something wrong with your eyes.”

“I doubt it,” he chuckled again, but he did as the boy said anyway. Slowly, slowly, opening them up to a mid-slit. And as before it got bright, but through that brightness, he saw Taemin, standing so close to him that their breaths could easily intertwine if they weren’t careful. So close that their lips could actually brush up against—no. Why was he thinking about that? This wasn’t the time, nor is it ever.

“I beg to differ,” Taemin whispered.

“Excuse me?”

“Your eyes. You said you doubt it and I’m saying, I beg to differ. They’re…um….”

Oh no. His eyes. The way Taemin was hesitating, he knew the last thing they were right now was ordinary.

“Do they um…,” Onew tilted his head a bit, “Are the um…are my pupils big? Like really big? Are the irises glowing or something?”

“G-Gold in fact,” Taemin added, eyes wide.

Onew moved away from Taemin’s hands and found a corner in the bathroom to sit at. His body scooted down towards the floor and he pulled his knees up to his head, then looked down into the gaping hole of darkness that he’d created with his body, and opened his eyes. He could see every detail of the pants he was wearing down to the crisscrossing dark blue fibers.

“I-I didn’t mean to be mean,” Taemin suddenly stuttered from across the room. “I was just telling you what you asked.”

Onew laughed again, realizing what it looks like he must be doing. Crying.

“I’m not crying, dummy. I’m shielding my eyes with the dark.”

Footsteps approached him, and he heard Taemin’s body slither down next to him. Could feel the boy’s presence in his own personal space. It didn’t bother him like it did when Luna did it.

“Shielding your eyes?”

“It’s like my moms,” Onew finally spoke after a moment’s silence. “Her eyes were the same that night. It’s the Night Owl side of me. I guess, conflicting with the human side. I’m not sure. This has never happened before.”

“But, you disappeared—no, made you and Key invisible that one time when you were hiding from us.”

“That’s different,” he sighed, “they glow for a little bit or something. Key told me before. But nothing to this extent. These were my mother’s eyes that night. Scared the living hell out of me.”

“You mean,” Taemin’s voice got quiet, “that night you guys told us about. When Key and his aunt got attacked?”

Now that his head was feeling better with his eyes in the dark, Onew could nod comfortably.

“I-I know you told us what happened, me and Minho. But…do you know what happened to Key’s aunt? You know, why she was there in the first place?”

“Why she was there…” Onew echoed the words and blinked a couple of times in the darkness. “I haven’t thought about that for a long time. It used to be all we thought about. Now, all we think about is, what’s going to happen tomorrow, who’s gonna attack us next, who do we trust now and why.”

“Understandable,” Taemin whispered.

“No.”

“What?”

“I’m answering your question. No, we don’t know why Aunt Kim was in the woods. All we know was that her and my mom were supposed to be meeting someone. And then Key said something inside of him told him to go in the woods, where he ended up finding his aunt. Thought she was dead. She wasn’t, just barely breathing,” he sighed, “Meanwhile, I thought Key was dead. With the way, he sounded on the phone and all. And now, everything’s suspicious. Aunt Kim is unconscious for who knows how long, some weird man followed Key one day and now I’m afraid everytime he walks by himself. Yep, everything’s suspicious. And-“

“Somehow, it’s all connected to the Elders,” Taemin finished, “I’m sorry.”

Sorry. That wasn’t the word Onew expected to hear out his mouth. Nor was it the word he was suddenly ready for. It was soft and gentle. And warm. And—his headache was gone. But he kept looking down.

“You know,” Onew chuckled to himself, “one of my biggest fears through all this was…am I going to be able to keep up with Key? How does our connection really work? Will he stop aging, will I stop aging. How does anything between us work? I’m only half a Night Owl after all. I’m probably nothing compared to my mother.”

Taemin looked down, his lashes lowering while staring at the back of Onew’s bent head.

And then he snuffed out a laugh.

“What’s so funny?” Onew asked.

“You really think you have to worry about keeping up? The first day you met us in the woods and helped Key run away from us, we could almost barely keep up with you. Besides the flowers that grew for Key, that’s how we knew something was up with you guys. Plus, you were the one who learned how to turn you guys invisible, so you could protect him. You’re the only one of us who actually knows what the words “be cautious” mean. We think of plans and actions. You, you always think of safety first. How to get out of situations, what if something dangerous were to happen. You may be half human Onew, but the last thing I think you need to worry about is catching up with Key. Like you told us in the Minho’s cave. You two are meant to be connected, it’s what your mom said.”

He sounded sad when the words came out his mouth. Why did he sound sad?

“Taemin?”

“Hm?”

“You don’t have to be sorry all the time,” he answered quietly, then started to lift his head, but Taemin stopped him.

“Onew, what are you-“

“It’s okay. The headache’s gone. Which I suppose means—“ They met eyes and Taemin looked into his. Back to the normal, human, dark brown eyes.

“Ordinary.”

Onew relaxed his legs and rested his back against the wall.

“I’ve been giving you guys hell, I know that. At first, I was trying to protect Key like I always do, but then, I just started being an . I know that. I’m gonna try to do better. Speaking of which,” he dug into his pocket and pulled out his cell phone, “I might’ve missed a text from him.”

Taemin watched as he looked down, clicked off his lock screen, and nodded his head.

“He’s fine,” he sighed.

“Onew?”

“Hm?”

“When you say that you and Key are connected and close. Would you consider him a brother?”

“The one and only.” He smiled. “He’s the closest thing to a sibling I’ll ever have.”

Taemin smiled as well. But not for the same reason.