Jisoo was a nervous wreck. Ever since his first attempt at romance had gone wrong, he had not even once tried to make advances towards anyone and nobody (at least as far as he knew) had shown much romantic interest in him either. Well, except for Jeonghan - but the Warrior was the type of person who enjoyed teasing people he was close with, so that didn't count.

Therefore Yongguk's interest had come out of nowhere and had hit Jisoo as hard as the book that had fallen on his head prior to their first meeting. But except for feeling excited, he also felt rather bad for his Forcebearers. Especially Chan and Jeonghan looked quite bothered on their way to class and he blamed the excitement he unintentionally kept sending through the bonds for their annoyance. That would also explain why Seungcheol seemed the least fazed since their bond wasn't strong enough to transmit emotions yet. Instead the Warrior looked clearly amused by the dark expressions surrounding him and he kept nudging Jihoon until his brother snapped at him.

Chan reluctantly left with Soonyoung for his class and the remaining Warriors immediately cornered Jisoo to hear every detail about his sudden recovery.

"So he's also one of the Others. No wonder Kangin keeps him on a tight leash," Jihoon mused, deep in thought.

Jisoo looked tense at his words and fiddled with his shirt. "Please don't let him know that I told you, I promised not to tell anyone but Chan since he doesn't know you're my Forcebearers."

"No worries, we don't interact much with him anyway and Ji is not someone who blabs without thinking first," Seungcheol reassured. "Also everyone still thinks he's our Wielder and it's better for all of us if it stays that way. Keep worrying about your date instead." He couldn't bite back a grin while his brothers pierced him with their glares and Jisoo hid his face behind one of his books.

The class proceeded smoothly much to Jisoo's relief. Seokmin behaved just like usual and Jihoon was his regular perfectionist self (including a little meltdown because he wasn't satisfied with the amount of sources they had used for one of their essays) while Kangin still treated Jisoo like dirt.

The only difference was that Jisoo was now able to feel Jihoon's growing anger whenever Kangin would make a derogatory remark, so he secretly began to massage Jihoon's thigh beneath the table whenever the other Wielder opened his mouth. It calmed the Warrior down and distracted Jisoo enough to not care much about whatever nonsense Kangin was spouting but Seokmin, who was generally more observant than his Wielder, watched them with furrowed brows.

The end of class neared and Jisoo's nervousness increased tenfold.

Seokmin caught him alone in front of the door of the classroom when he returned from the toilet (where he had desperately tried to get his hair to look at least somewhat decent). His sudden appearance made Jisoo flinch who had been too distracted with date-related thoughts to notice him.

"What's going on with you? First you're all beat up and now you're incredibly jumpy. Is there a problem you want to talk about? Is Jihoon forcing you into something weird? I can help you, you just need to talk to me," the tall Guardian offered, his voice low and worried.

Jisoo stared at him in confusion for a few seconds before it clicked. "Jihoon forcing me? What...? Oh. OH! No, Seokmin, you got it all wrong! Jihoon isn't doing anything to me!" Jisoo blushed at the mental image of doing... stuff with Jihoon and hastily banned the thought. He pulled Seokmin into a corner to make sure nobody would overhear them. "Okay, I promised not to, but since you revealed a secret today, I'll tell you one in return." He looked around once more before he lowered his voice to a whisper. "Jihoon is not a real Wielder, he's my Warrior."

Seokmin stared at him wide eyed. "But that's illegal," he hissed after he had gathered his thoughts, glancing around as well, just in case.

Jisoo smiled and nodded. "Yeah, that's why it's a secret. Keep it for me, please?"

Seokmin still looked sceptical but nodded nonetheless. "So he was angry at Kangin for trash-talking you? And where did your bruises really come from? I still don't believe your 'little accident' story."

"Well, Jihoon's a bit prone to anger," Seokmin grimaced at the understatement, "and the only thing I could think of was to calm him down without Kangin noticing. And yes, I lied, I'm sorry... I got attacked on Saturday and Jihoon saved me, that's how we ended up in a contract."

"Wow. So you got Chan and Jihoon now? That's pretty amazing considering you were such a quiet loner in the beginning," the Guardian said with a wide smile and ruffled Jisoo's hair.

"Nooooo, I just combed it in place!" The Wielder jumped a few steps back and protected his head with his hands.

Seokmin looked at him as if he had suddenly spoken in a foreign language. "Uh... What?"

Jisoo was busy looking for anything he could use as a mirror while patting down his hair once more. "I'm going on a date in a few minutes but I totally forgot and didn't prepare anything so I tried to make at least my hair look decent."

Seokmin eyed his hair with a very judgemental expression before he pulled him back by the wrist. "You're going on a date and you decided that parting your hair in the middle is a good look? No offense but you need some serious help, my friend."

Jisoo stood in front of the gate and had no idea what to do with his hands. He had never before noticed how awkward it looked to just let them dangle around but if he crossed his arms or hid his hands in his pockets he might potentially come off as rude o