Vernon stepped out of his car slowly with a grim look on his face. He had arrived at the house just as the sun was setting behind the traditional architecture and he certainly didn’t want to be there. He had parked his vehicle across from the entrance so in 10 strides, he was already through the stone archway. Nothing but the muted clicking of his loafers on the walkway could be heard in the silence as he made his way to the front door.

“You know you can’t go in there without a summons.”

The voice made Vernon pause for a moment. He should have figured that Shin Hoseok would be around since he was pretty much the counsel’s guard dog. He glanced to the left and then to the right to see where he was and saw the smoke before the man stepped around the corner of the building.

“Hoseok,” Vernon bowed slightly to give recognition to his elder.

“Hansol,” the man acknowledged him back with a smirk and took a drag of his cigarette.

Shin Hoseok was one of the older members who preferred hands-on action to sitting in the stuffy main room that held the rest of the elders. He was dressed smartly in dark blue slacks with a dark grey button up. It seemed he had paired his light grey leather belt with matching split-to crocodile dress shoes and, since it was still a bit cold, completed the outfit with a navy-coloured cardigan. Vernon watched him as he rolled up his sleeves and put his cigarette out.

“I am pretty sure what I need to discuss with them will be approved for an exception,” the younger man said.

Hoseok walked towards Vernon and took his position at the bottom of the steps. “What could be an exception this time? We rarely see you around here so what could you possibly have to say?”

Vernon’s hair shifted a bit as the wind blew through the buildings, but Hoseok’s hair did not. He laughed at himself as he realised that the man still used a load of products to style his hair out of his face like it was still decades prior. Maybe he would learn on day that it wasn’t necessary.

“There has been an incident and I wanted to report it before it got me once more.”

Hoseok raised his eyebrows. Even though he wasn’t officially one of the members to make final decisions, he still had jurisdiction in the district. “What kind of problem?”

“I would rather discuss that with the counsel so if you may, please let me pass.” Vernon said.

Hoseok stared at the man as he contemplated letting him go through. He ended up allowing so with a small nod and Vernon proceeded up the steps to where the other elders awaited.

The main house was actually one of the many royal homes from the Joseon period and still was decorated as such. Two young women slid open the screens to the viewing room as Vernon coolly stepped inside. Ahead of him was eight large chairs, two at a time, and placed in a semi circle.   Each pair was a different division. To keep the harmony among them all, two representatives held a seat at the counsel.

As Vernon approached them, they completely stopped talking and turned to look at him. The eight elders were each dressed in a black hanbok, making them look like judges from another time period. He hadn’t had this kind of attention from them since the incident all those years ago and he didn’t quite enjoy it now.

When he was only 10 feet away, he stopped and bowed to a ninety degree angle before going down into a complete formal bow and presenting himself to them with his body to the ground and arms stretched forward.

“You may rise, Hansol,” Cha Hakyeon said as he raised his right hand slowly to motion get up.

Vernon cautiously moved back onto his heels and got up to stand erect and his hands crossed in front of him. He bowed once more before proceeding with why he came to them. “Elder Hakyeon. Elder Taekwoon. Distinguished Elders of the Other Realms. I come upon you to report an incident.”

The counsel exchanged glances among one another before Jung Taekwoon spoke. “Proceed.”

“As you know, I am at Chojayeon High School this time around,” he started to explain, “but as I found out on the first day, I am not alone. Choi Seungcheol, Yoon Jeonghan, Kim Mingyu, and Jeon Wonwoo showed up as well. Besides a few exchanges of words, we have stayed away from interacting with one another.

The issue is that, earlier today, they were picking on a smaller student with soft pink hair whom I had heard struggling and tried to see how to assist, and, well, there is this boy called Boo Seungkwan who tends to put his nose into everything. He saw what was happening and started yelling at Seungcheol.”

Taekwoon raised his eyebrow at what Vernon had said last, as he knew where this was possibly heading. He turned to Hakyeon and leaned into whisper something as Vernon continued on.

“Needless to say, the group threw one of the pouches at the student. I protected him but it exploded all over my jacket. I wanted to come before you clarify the situation before I ended up in another predicament like last time,” Vernon explained.

The elders side-glanced at one another. Aaron Kwak spoke first, “Boo Seungkwan and the boys that accompany him are under our jurisdiction. I would like to thank you, Hansol, for protecting them as best you can.”

“We have students in that school as well,” Lee Minhyuk spoke up.

“We will assist in protecting them, Aron and Ken,” Yoo Kihyun added.

Lee Jaehwan nodded his head in their direction, “thank you. That would be wonderful. We don’t need another situation since we have gone so long without something major happening.”

There was a moment of silence as the other four elders spoke to one another. Vernon was most concerned about these council members as they weren’t as lenient as the others.

“You said the student they were harassing was on a smaller side with pink hair?” Wonsik asked Vernon.

He stood up more and turned to answer the man, “Yes, Elder Wonsik. He was about a hundred and sixty-five centimeters with a pink bowl-cut. He held his own pretty well as he bite the boys to escape their grasp.”

The other elder looked at Wonsik. “That’s my boy, Ravi. That’s Jihoon,” Hyunwoo commented with concern. He looked at Vernon, “the young man was my son, so thank you for your attempt to help him. He is a little spitfire and he hasn’t even fully developed yet. “ Hyunwoo laughed softly.

“It seems they have decided to cross the line in two of our divisions, Leo,” Wonsik said Taekwoon. “And to attack Shownu’s son, granted they might not have realised he was lycanthrope since he isn’t at full growth and no smell has developed, but also the humans. We cannot idly sit by as your vampyres expose us once again. This is getting ridiculous, N!” Ravi started to get angry as he continued, “Minhyuk. Kihyun, is the witches behind us as well?”

The to elders who were ahead of the Metamorphmagus division leaned in and whispered to one another before Kihyun turned and responded, “yes. You have our-”.

“Enough!” Hakyeon spoke up and held his hand to silence the room, cutting Kihyun off. “We get it, Ravi. Clearly, we have a situation on our hands, once more.”

“If you had properly taken care of them back then, we wouldn’t be IN this situation,” Wonsik retorted and scoffed.

Taekwoon turned and glared at Wonsik but Hakyeon continued to address the situation; it seemed they all had forgotten that Vernon was standing in the middle of the room as they discussed what was happening.

“The best thing we can do it proceed to send members of the divisions under cover to monitor and report what is going on in this school. Gentlemen, do you all have people you can trust?”

All six other elders nodded and agreed.

“Good, we do as well,” Hakyeon added. “Hansol, you will continue to report as well and that’s an order.”

Vernon bowed at the conclusion of the words and his heels to exit the house. He wanted to get out of there more than anything. Part of him regretted coming but he knew if he didn’t he would get pinned with this again because that’s what Seungcheol and his crew did. They never owned up for the blame. Just as he was about to leave the main room, he heard Elder Hakyeon call out to him.

“You did good work, Hansol. Thank you.”

That’s all he said before the doors opened from the outside and he walked out to the night air wondering what tomorrow would bring.