Kim Jongin, the youngest of three siblings and a part-timer in the city library has awoken to wails of fear and panic. Flashing lights came into his room through the gap between his drawn curtains. In his haste to see what the hell has been going on, he has clumsily tangled his endless legs with his blankets. A loud thud echoed in his one-room apartment followed by a pained grunt as he felt his cheek rub on his rug. He also felt a slight burn on his arms that he used in reflex to carry his weight.

 

. How did he even sleep through a fire alarm?

 

A deafening explosion has pulled another surprise from Jongin, making him jump up and almost face planting as he tried to dive for the curtains and finally see what was happening outside.

 

The first thing he noticed is the wide horizon that greeted him as he slid the thick fabric to the sides of his window. He blinked once, twice, thrice, willing himself to see the white and red-painted apartment right across his. Nothing has happened. There remained the orange hued sky. Weird, considering that Jongin's bedside clock is telling him that it is still a few minutes past two in the morning. There is still a few more hours before the break of dawn.

 

The noises muffled by his walls and the height of his unit in the twelfth floor came through him once more, plummeting Jongin back into his senses. The orange hue from the outside could only be caused by a fire. He cursed to himself for not being able to wake up on time but at least, he won't be left toasted inside his apartment all, alone.

 

At least, that is what he hopes for.

 

He quickly, but surely, removed his beddings from himself and slipped out of his bed, trying to remember over his nerves where the important things that he should get are before running for his life. Is his phone and wallet worth risking a few more seconds of his life for? Definitely. And so he launches himself outside of his room to get to his kitchen counter only to stop at three people standing in his kitchen casually.

 

“Uhh.” Why were they there in the midst of a fire? Who are they? How were they able to break inside his apartment?

 

“Are you Kim Jongin? The library assistant who has pissed off Lord Scary Midget?” asked the one in the middle with a cat-like smile that Jongin found creepy.

 

  Why the hell is he asking me a question in this kind of situation?And who is Lord-- whatever?

 

“Hey, mortal. Answer him. Are you Kim Jongin? The guy who was sitting at a librarian desk yesterday and reading some comics?” another guy asked, lifting a hand to his purple hair, flexing his biceps.

 

Frowning at the offensive words, Jongin crossed his arms in indignation and stared down Mr. Guns. He felt defensive for his love for those comics and stood his ground. He could’ve easily backed down because those arms are no joke. But no one dares to call his limited edition Katekyo Hitman Reborn full-color special comics. “That was a manga, excuse you, mister and...”

 

The third one with orange hair raised a hand and Jongin instinctively shut up. He was preparing to continue his speech before he was rudely interrupted when third guy and his orange hair faced his companions with a nervous look.

 

“That's him, okay? Now can we just get this over with before Kyungsoo decides that he's just going to topple his Globe over?!”

 

The owner of the apartment huffs in irritation. How dare them to trespass and ask questions and ignore him inside his own house?! Stomping towards the trio, Jongin warned, “If you do not leave my house at this instant, I will sure be calling the police on you...”

 

And there was only black.

 

 

 

Cold. That was the first thing that registered inside Jongin's head when his senses came back to him little by little. He slowly felt for his limbs and was glad that he could still feel them all. He feels complete but still, the cold, hard surface that he is lying on is bothersome. Cold, hard, unmoving.

 

  Am I dead?!

 

Jongin shot up from his position on the floor in a snap and groaning after feeling the whiplash on his joints. He rubbed his eyes thinking that the unfamiliar setting that he is seeing is some kind of a residue from his dreamland. For all he knew, he might've just fallen off the bed during the night and his alarm might've been the one that has woken him up.

 

“Looks like he is alive,” a booming voice came out of nowhere, scaring Jongin off of his skin. He hates when people sneak up on him but he doesn't want to wear a sign that says 'Jumpy. Approach with Caution' because that is not cool. It's not like everyone needs to know that his reflexes are pretty much sensitive, except when he is sleeping.

 

He heard quite a few snickers before he opens his eyes and still sees the big chairs that suspiciously look like thrones. Jongin felt the tips of his ears heat up by looking like a fool to some people. He shook his head and still nothing's making sense to him.

 

“Give the guy a break, will you?” came a chiming voice from Jongin's right. He turned to the owner of the voice and choked as he took in the proximity between him and the guy with a fair skin and double features. He has gotten cross-eyed as the other didn't seem to know the concept of personal space.

 

Thankfully, fair guy stepped back a little with an apologetic smile on his angelic face. He could easily be the most good looking person that Jongin has ever seen and the guy is beaming right at him, showcasing his pearly whites that could rival the sun's brightness...

 

Angelic guy squeaked when he was pulled back by a tall guy with broad shoulders and a bored expression. The hold he had on Angelic guy's waist told Jongin that his admiration is not welcome. He didn't know, okay?

 

“Sehun!” Angelic guy punched the arms that circled his waist but it looked like it didn't hurt. Bored guy just hummed and is thoroughly scanning Jongin from head to toe, making the latter conscious. He pulled his knees to his chest and averted his gaze to anywhere but the hugging couple. His eyes took in the incredibly large room that he is in, its high ceiling and intricate adornments on the walls, tuning out the bickering couple in front of him.

 

It looks like he is in some sort of a castle but how did he manage to get himself there? The last thing he remembers is that he was talking to three strangers that was able to get in his house...

 

“Did you kidnap me?!” he blurted out, earning the undivided attention of the couple, stopping their hushed conversation. “Why?! I am not rich and you will not be able to get anything from my family because my parents are already dead and my sisters have their own families to feed so please!” Jongin got onto his knees and put all his desperation in his begging. “You might've mistaken me for someone else so please let me go back. I will never tell anyone, I promise!”

 

Bored guy snorted while Angelic guy gave him a sympathetic smile. Those doesn't improve his odds.

 

Angelic guy waved a hand in the air and a screen materialized in front of Jongin. He would like to believe that it was some kick- brand new technology than any other explanation. Because all that will be left is a supernatural one and that is even more impossible.

 

His eyes bugged out as he saw what was on the screen displays. It was an image of his apartment, he knew the furnitures that he is seeing but they are part of a pile of rubble that he could only assume as his apartment building. It switched into another frame and the horror that is building up inside Jongin makes him feel want to puke. There was utter distraction in the city that has been done.

 

“W-why,” he croaked out. “Why are you showing me this?”

 

“Because you caused that, you stupid moron,” Bored guy spat and was only held back by Angelic guy from taking a swing at Jongin. A chastising 'Sehun' has brought Sehun guy into another snort but he backed down.

 

“What? How is this my fault?” Jongin asked in confusion. He isn't capable of doing such things. He's not a freaky sort of some superhero with powers that could turn the world upside down if he would want to.

 

Angelic guy smiled again (how is he smiley while his boyfriend's grumpy?) and waved his hand another time to show a video this time. It is a video of Jongin sitting in his desk and grinning widely at his  limited edition Katekyo Hitman Reborn full-color special. Oh, he remembers that and felt weird at watching himself like from a footage of a CCTV.

 

A few seconds passed and someone appeared on the screen and Jongin blushes. He knows that guy. He has been seeing him the past weeks in the library reading randomly and staring at him. It is hard to stay oblivious when the guy with fluffy and soft-looking dark caramel-colored hair and huge, sparkly eyes make it hard to.

 

He looked cute with his conflicted and hesitant moves and even more adorable when he slapped his cheeks lightly and marched somewhat stiffly towards Jongin. But then his memory also supplies him with what happens next as the guy stopped right behind the manga that he has been looking with intense excitement.

 

Jongin wanted to hide in shame and guilt when he saw Cutie (Jongin has admitted that to himself three minutes after debating with himself on what creepy level he is reaching for giving a stranger a nickname) raise his hand slowly to push down Jongin's limited edition Katekyo Hitman Reborn full-color special to get his attention.

 

He remembers the twitching of his eye when he felt his manga getting pushed down. He was reading into the of the story, totally immersed and at the edge of his seat but someone dared to interrupt him.

 

“Uhm...”

 

“What the..?! off!” Jongin yelled, even though he should be strictly enforcing the 'Observe Silence' rule. He was just too into the moment and someone has ruined his momentum. Reading it again will not give him the same excitement that he had the first time.

 

Upset, he looked up to see who dared to come at him in a usually dead hour in the library only to be met with Cutie's frozen expression. Jongin saw how his eyes slowly hardened and his jaw clenched. His eyebrows were mashed together and was looking at Jongin with such contempt that the assistant librarian felt like he did something that could get him killed.

 

“You know what? you,” Cutie breathed with barely concealed hurt and anger. Jongin felt instantly guilty with how he had acted impolitely with a library user, and it was even Cutie. Before he could even voice out an apology, Cutie is storming away, his aura darkening with each step.

 

Jongin meant that figuratively but now that he is seeing the scene in a different angle, he could clearly see wisps of black smoke emitting from somewhere around Cutie and enveloping him in it.

 

“Now, that wasn't too nice of you, right, Jongin?” Angelic guy asked rhetorically. “You made my son sad and angry.”

 

Jongin turned carefully towards Angelic guy. He doesn't look like he is joking. Son? What? How?!

 

“So you should be the one to fix this mess,” Bored guy quipped and Jongin is seeing black once more.

 

 

 

 

 

Loud knocks startled Jongin from his slumber. He was feeling very much comfortable from where he is lying until someone came to disturb his peace. He snorted and planned to ignore the rude bastard who didn’t want him to sleep in.

 

But then, he has never had sheets this fine. He also doesn’t remember his bed being soft and his room as big as his entire apartment.

 

The ridiculous encounter he had with a scary couple was brought forth to his consciousness. So it wasn’t a dream?! He started freaking out. Jongin has to escape. He was indeed kidnapped and who knows what his kidnappers will do to him when they find out that no one will be ransoming for him?

 

Wide awake, Jongin slid off the bed cautiously, only to yelp loudly when the knocks resumed. They’ve become more incessant and persistent from the last round.

 

Why would his kidnappers knock? They could just barge in, right? Just like what he has been seeing in action movies. They are the ones who run this beautiful place so why would they wait for someone to open up the door for them?

 

“Kim Jongin, open the door! Please!”

 

Jongin recognized the voice. It was the orange-haired person who was one of the last people he saw in his apartment. He sounded distressed and panicked. Jongin perked as the idea that Orange head was also kidnapped like him. He could make an ally to make his escape easy. Plus, he will be doing a good deed.

 

It only took Jongin four strides to reach for the door and open it for the person on the other side. Orange head stumbled a little as the door gave way. He quickly straightened himself and without a word, he pulled Jongin down the hallway.

 

The kidnapped could only wallow in regret. He shouldn’t have trusted easily as Orange head could be leading him to his doom. The other was walking with purpose, clearly familiar with his surroundings. He is definitely one of them.

 

He tried to pull back but the Orange head was surprisingly strong. His grip didn’t even falter when Jongin yanked his arm with good force. Jongin only managed to hurt his shoulder.

 

A few turns to the left and to the right has brought them in front of a large wooden double door. Orange head did a full stop while Jongin had to break his momentum before he crashed on the person in front of him. He was panting like a dog from the exhaustion while Orange head didn’t even same fazed..

 

Orange head then raised his hand to hover over the door. Some symbols appeared in thin air and Orange head is pressing on them like he is putting the password for the door. He indeed was doing that as the door groaned open after he dropped his hand to his side.

 

Jongin’s self-preservation kicked up a notch. He wasn’t simply kidnapped. He was kidnapped by people with voodoo .

 

No breather was given to the library part-timer when he was shoved harshly when the gap between the doors allowed him to fit. Jongin was shaking with anxiety that he failed to correct his balance and tripped embarrassingly.

 

He could feel soreness everywhere so he laid there on the floor in defeat. If he is to die, he wouldn’t have to worry over the minor pains. A squeak of apology and arms holding him up disturbed the peace that he is starting to feel. The carpet beneath is the softest thing that he has ever felt in his whole life.

 

Jongin’s head is still tucked low but he could see some kind of a pedestal right in front of him. There is an intricate design surrounding it, evoking sudden interest from him.

 

He slowly raised his head up for a better look. The pedestal is around four feet high and then it holds what looked like a massive hologram of, unmistakably, the earth. The hologram is in 4K resolution (Jongin has always been drooling over TVs that has the technology) but there are orange spots scattered all around it. He noticed a particular area with high density of the orange spots and upon closer inspection, it is around his neighborhood.

 

In fact, the full orange spot marked his city.

 

He stared at the hologram, trying to figure out why it seemed like his city has been marked off of it when a flash of orange entered his peripheral view. He jumped back with his arms raised for protection but whatever it was wasn’t going towards him. The orange thing was like an ammo for a Nerf gun and has struck the hologram a little ways just below Jongin’s home city.

 

The spot slowly glowed from a soft orange to a vivid shade in seconds.

 

Weird, Jongin observed. Why would someone have an expensive and high-end replica of earth just to make it some kind of a practice target for shooting?

 

Someone wailed exasperatingly from somewhere in the room but Jongin didn’t see anyone with him in the room. It was just him and the big- pedestal and hologram. The impressive piece of technology has taken his attention from the fact that he seemed to have been tangled in some kind of a voodoo and magical crap.

What if it was a ghost?! !

 

“Kyungsoo! Please stop it! This is going overboard!”

 

Jongin shuddered. The ghost talks! I’m ing screwed. I’m gonna die.

 

“Shut up!” another male voice boomed. It was less deep from the previous one but it rang familiarity in Jongin’s ears. That was a really nice voice, maybe similar to his favorite singer’s voice?

 

“Down!”

 

The ground shook and Jongin cursed his luck. He has just seen his apartment in rubble, he was kidnapped by scary people with magic and ghosts and then he might be experiencing his first (probably last) earthquake all in a span of a short time.

 

He spread his legs and bent down in a squat to somewhat help his balance as he assessed the room for anything that he could use for protection. The words duck, cover and hold were on repeat inside his head from the annual drills that the library has initiated. He saw nothing useful from his perspective but he also wasn’t seeing the entirety of the room so he slowly slid his left leg forward followed by his right.

 

Jongin’s concentration has always been unbreakable to the point that he tunes out the rest of the world. The adrenaline rush from the need to feel safe has still been coursing through his nerves and the focus he has put into finding a safe haven had him ignore a figure that has stopped a few feet away from him and the fact that he could already move properly as the shaking has stopped.

 

“Who the are you?”

 

Jongin froze on his spot without even meaning to. The voice sounded commanding and pissed that he’d surely be beaten to pulp if he does something stupid. It might just cost him his head. A mental picture of a brawny man with thick eyebrows and a scowl appeared in his head. His imagination is being the least bit helpful.

 

“Are you deaf? I asked you who the are you?” another question was thrown and Jongin is nearly pissing on his pants for he could almost feel the holes burned onto him by the fiery piercing gaze directed on his back. This could easily be the mastermind for his kidnapping and this person currently has his life in his big, calloused palms. “Or better yet, tell me who let you in? Those useless, poor excuse of a servant--”

 

“They are demigods, Kyungsoo! They are your nephews!”

 

“Shut up, Chanyeol. Down!”

 

Caught off guard, Jongin was knocked down on his as the ground beneath him shook. He should’ve known better than to forget about aftershocks.

 

“Soo stop doing that! It hurts!”

“That’s what you get for being too loud, Chanyeol. I need you to keep my Globe working and that doesn’t include your unwarranted opinions. Keep those to yourself and shut it!”

 

All this time, Jongin remained quiet on where he has landed. The mastermind clearly has a temper so he chose to stay as quietly as he could, maybe even fade into the background before he remembers that Jongin still hasn’t answered his questions.

 

“You,” the boss’ voice was a lot nearer that Jongin has expected. It was a lot nearer than what he is comfortable with and there was something prodding him on his back. It could be anything from a shoe, a cane, a gun--

 

“Can’t you talk?”

 

With no other option left, Jongin spun around, feeling his burn from the friction and grasped on the first thing that he has found purchase, which were white pants-clad thighs, and mustered all of his courage and desperation towards a kicked puppy face that everyone he knows is weak for.

 

“I AM SORRY! PLEASE DON’T KILL ME! I DON’T KNOW WHY YOU KIDNAPPED ME BUT I’M A POOR ASSISTANT LIBRARIAN WITH NOTHING ON MY NAME. PLEASE, I WILL DO ANYTHING YOU ASK OF ME. JUST PLEASE DON’T KILL ME!”

 

He was looking down through out his out his pitiful speech as he readied himself for the final blow. When he finally looked up, his mind went blank.

 

He’s looking up at the familiarly adorable face of Cutie though scrunched up in a confused frown. It dawned on him that the legs he has been clinging with his whole life is Cutie’s so he slowly and subtly removed his grabby hands. The blush he felt on his cheeks were because of his own confusion and fear and not from the nice feeling of those firm thighs under his touch.

 

Definitely not the thighs. Nope.

 

And Jongin has definitely imagined the blush that adorned Cutie’s slightly chubby cheeks because Cutie was then glowering menacingly at him. Shame had Jongin averting his eyes from the other, remembering how he dismissed the Cutie the other day (or how long was it exactly?). He should apologize, Jongin knew, but he isn’t exactly the best in socializing. His awkward and generally shy self had him lapsing into silence, words getting lost in him.

 

It was Cutie who was the one to first put a distance between them that grew larger and larger with each of the steps he took further from Jongin. The next thing he knew was the loud thud made by a closing door and the shuffling steps coming towards him. Instinctively, his head snapped up to see the incoming, just in case he needed to flee for real.

 

He was met with a really tall guy, probably taller than him, with ears sticking out of his messy fire red hair. The guy smiled sympathetically at him, probably witnessing the short exchange between him and Cutie. A hand reached out for Jongin and he took it, grateful that at least he won’t be getting killed anytime soon.

 

“I’m sorry for Kyungsoo. He has just been in a really bad mood lately, even more so than usual,” Red head said. “I’m Chanyeol, by the way.”

 

The names clicked inside Jongin’s head. Those two scary voices that has just been bantering have been calling each other Kyungsoo and Chanyeol. If the person in front of him is Chanyeol and Cutie is Kyungsoo who has been the one he had begged his life for…

 

“Kyungsoo is the boss?! Kyungsoo is the mastermind? Kyungsoo asked to kidnap me?!”

 

That cute, little and harmless looking beauty is the one who almost got me killed? He wants me dead? WHY?!

 

“Err…” Chanyeol scratched his head. “I don’t know about the kidnapping. All I know is that Kyungsoo is angry because of one guy. I really didn’t know what happened but a few days ago he came home and pelted attacks on the Globe. I can’t believe he started world destruction because of just one guy,” Jongin felt all his blood drain from his face. HIs brain was trying to piece things together with every new information he is getting.

 

The chaos from outside his apartment, the scene that he has seen when those two weird boyfriends talked to him and the big orange spot that marked his home city were very much related.

 

“I wonder what did the person do to anger Kyungsoo. To be honest, it takes a lot to get into Kyungsoo’s nerves and this is the worst that I have seen him,” Chanyeol tilted his head towards the hologram that Jongin assumed as the Globe. “I wonder who that idio