“Sehun, although your words may be sharp, your cooking is fantastic,” Chanyeol said as he leaned back in his chair, dangerously close to falling. This earned him a glare.

“Okay, then, straight to the point.” Kris ignored the two and cracked his knuckles.

“That’s so like you, Kris,” Chanyeol remarked, which earned him a glare from yet another person. He shrugged, nonchalant.

“First off, do you know that the Chinese thought that everything divided into the Yin and Yang by remembering the ancient times? And they knew that the world was made up of five elements: earth, fire, metal, wood, and water. They were pretty wise people – the ancient Chinese, I mean. They were one of the oldest and highly developed civilizations in the world.”

"Yeah, yeah, we get it. Since you're Chinese and all," Chanyeol muttered.

“Anyways,” Kris continued, ignoring the other boy, “a long time ago, the first people lived in the Other World, though it wasn’t called that then. Every person in that world was supposed to be either Yin or Yang. The Chinese later on thought that Yin and Yang were male and female, but they actually were more like races. The two didn’t mix together, I believe. They lived separately, with the Yin in the sky and the Yang on the ground. Then as generations and generations of people appeared as much time passed, most of the people became none of the two – they were just your average humans. Those people didn’t have the Yin or Yang Aurora. Those people, who were pretty much shunned by both the Yin and Yang, discovered a new world they called ‘the Real World.’ Using a portal someone found by accident, the group of average humans moved to that world, which is the world we are in right now. So the Yin and Yang lived peacefully in the Other World while the average humans began settling in the Real World, building the first civilizations, including the Chinese. Though as more time passed, the people started naturally forgetting about there ever being another world. The Chinese were the ones who remembered the longest, although that soon faded away too.”

The history of the universe perked Sowon’s interest. She had never even heard a single part of Kris’s recounting before. “How exactly are the Other World and the Real World connected?”

Kris hissed in annoyance. “I’m getting to that. Keep your questions until the end.”

“Our team leader doesn’t like being cut off once he starts,” Chanyeol whispered to Sowon.

“We are right now in the Real World, which is full of ignorant humans who are not Yin, Yang, or a Native. It’s supposed to be called the “Normal World,” and is linked to the Other World. The two worlds aren’t opposites of each other; more like neighbors. No one really knows how they were formed, but it is believed that all humankind started in the Other World. They are linked by portals, which you can see as slim lines of connections to transport from one world to another. Yet they are extremely rare and no one really knows where there are; it is estimated to be about four of them.”

“How does someone be born either a Yin or a Yang?” Sowon asked.

“They just are. If someone is born a Yang, their parents must’ve been a Yang,” Kris said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“So are there no ‘mixed race?’”

Kris stared at Sowon with a half-irritated, half-confused look. “No one can be both a Yin and a Yang. Since long ago, the Yin stayed in the sky and the Yang on the ground, in each of their respective kingdoms. They barely saw each other, save ambassadors once in a while to solve minor conflict. They don’t mix. I have never heard of a Yin and a Yang of the opposite gender getting together in history.”

“Are the Yin evil now?” Sowon asked after a moment’s pause.

“Well, the Yin weren’t always evil. The Yin and the Yang tolerated each other quite well in the past, although they didn’t integrate. They were like neighboring tribes. However, one day, the new leader of the Yin whose name is Xiumin, formed the opinion that the Yin and Yang couldn’t exist together. For no apparent reason but that the Yang were the Yang, he despised them – kind of like Hitler in the Real World, if you know him. He wanted the Yang beneath his feet. Also, he was a malicious being from the start, power-hungry and desiring the whole Other World for himself. He secretly formed his own Yin army, plotting to destroy the Yang. The result of his bias and greediness became the Great Battle, which was a devastating battle approximately fourteen years ago between the Yin and the Yang.” Kris grimaced, showing his obvious dislike of Xiumin.

“The Yin King sent a threatening message to the Yang King; the details I do not know. However, he drew the Yang to the battlefield of the Great Battle, where he met them with his new-founded army. Of course he would win; the Yang were totally unprepared. They didn’t even have people who could fight. Xiumin crushed the numerous Yang who went out to stop him. In the end, Xiumin slayed the last Yang King and became victorious. The Yang who were lucky enough to survive fled; even a few managed to escape to the Real World.”

“Afterwards, Xiumin was content to stay in his dark kingdom in the sky, and I believe that nowadays the Yang kingdom is full of just the Other World Natives. Ah, that is what we call Yin or Yang who have removed themselves from each of their ancestries – they are practically just average humans. They formed after Xiumin’s disastrous reign started – they either began to despise their ancestries or wanted escape from the knowledge of having been a Yin or Yang. There are rumors that Xiumin’s Yin planted in certain places amongst them to keep order.”

“So how about the magic? Did that start from the Chinese, too?” Sowon interrupted. She had suddenly thought of the incident with Chanyeol a couple of hours ago.

“As I said earlier, five main elements make up this world. Well, there are actually people who have merged with the main elements in the ancient times – they were called ‘the Elemental.’ No one is sure how, but the people were known to be able to control those elements, as if they themselves were formed from them. However, it was also known that there were two Elementals for each element: one Yin and one Yang. For example, if there was already a Fire Yin, another Fire Yin could not exist, so the other Fire, if there was one, would be obviously a Yang. Once a certain element Yin or Yang died, it would be many centuries later when the same element with the same Yin or Yang is born. Don’t ask me how; it seemed random to me.” Sowon’s mind buzzed at this new information. So when she first came here, that’s why Joonmyeon had said that she might be a Wood Yang because he believed that the Wood Yin died after she was born.

Sowon was silent for a second, and then making sure that Kris was finished for the time being, she piped up with a question. “So all of you guys are Elemental Yang, right? How did you all meet in one place?”

“Well, I am an Earth Yang. Joonmyeon is a Fire Yang, Sehun is a Metal Yang, and Chanyeol is a Water Yang, as he obviously showed you before. I’m not sure how we got altogether; it was fate. We just met on our own paths. However, every Yin and Yang have their own Aurora, with the Elementals’ Aurora being especially strong. Joonmyeon claims that we were drawn together.” Kris looked skeptical.

“So do think I am a Yang? A Wood Yang? Do I have an Aurora?”

Kris sighed. “I was getting to that.” He narrowed his eyes as he stared hard at Sowon. “Joonmyeon claims that you’re a Wood Yang, but I think he found that out quite recently, along with the fact that the Yin were tracking you down because of you being an Elemental. Or maybe your sister, who knows. He apparently overheard from a couple of Yin nearby that Ophenor was tracking down an Elemental in an abandoned house near Polex Town, although he didn’t tell me that until early this morning. He deducted that one of you two was an Elemental and told us that he would personally take measures. About knowing that you have a power – I have no clue. The Yin might’ve gotten their hands on a tool that lets them track down Elementals by their Aurora. You see, we can’t just detect Auroras, or at least, I can’t. Anyways, there’s only the Wood Yang left, so if you are an Elemental, you must be a Wood Yang.”

“How can I know for sure whether I am a Wood Yang or not?”

“Your power might be slumbering right now, but it may show sometime soon. It’s probably because the Awakening, what we call the state when we our powers finally show, is close by that the Yin have decided to move.”

“What do you guys do exactly?” Sowon was getting more and more overwhelmed by the passing minute. Her voice showed her growing distress.

Kris glanced at the two other people inside the room, who were deathly quiet. “That’s a story for another time. Although I did make the Yang Youth Team and am the leader of it, Joonmyeon, Sehun, and Chanyeol will tell you themselves how each one of them joined me. It’s their personal history, anyways.” He stood up, as if everything was told and finished.

“But what do you do?” Sowon repeated.

“We do missions.” Kris left abruptly, leaving the three silent at the table.

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