“You mean to tell me that you’re close to Kai.” Sehun spat almost disgustingly as soon as they were alone. But her best friend begged to differ.

“Look, I got close to him during our third year ok.” Baekhyun confessed as he raised up both his hands. “And we weren’t even in the same building throughout the whole of last year.”

Sehun huffed and blew a strand of hair off her forehead. She couldn’t believe that Baekhyun made friends with their arch rival. “So, that was why you never allowed me to come to this building during lunch. But you’d always eagerly come to the first and second years’ cafeteria instead.”

Baekhyun rubbed his eyes in exhaustion, he was tired from waking up so early in the morning. “Look, it wasn’t only my decision okay. Luhan wanted me to get close to him too.”

Sehun cocked a brow, “Why would my brother ask you to?”

Baekhyun shook his head and ‘tsked’ playfully towards his friend, “Don’t you see Sehun, you gotta keep your friends close; and your enemies, closer.”

Sehun rolled her eyes and pursed her lips, knowing fully well now why Luhan told her friend to initiate the friendship. But what Baekhyun said next only made Sehun’s blood boil.

“But he’s a really cool person once you get to know him.” Baekhyun told without a hint of regret in his voice. “I mean—”

“He’s a monster Baekhyun,” Sehun huffed and slammed her locker shut. “And I don’t need you to tell me otherwise.”

The petite man shook his head as he watched Sehun’s figure become smaller and smaller as she made her way down the busy hallway. It wasn’t a surprise that Sehun held an immense amount of hatred towards Kai. And as much as Baekhyun knew he shouldn’t be wavering, his feelings towards Kai couldn’t remain indifferent after he finds out the sole reason as to why he was acting cruelly towards the Novi clan.

And even if he were to tell Sehun about it, he doubted the girl would change her perspectives of him.

~”~

Luhan turned and gave a curt bow when the bell above the front door of his flower shop chimed. A customer had walked in just seconds after Luhan opened the store. He was still busy arranging the new arrivals and placing the bouquets he’s set into the refrigerator. The man gave a warm smile towards his first customer of the day before promptly going back to arranging a new bouquet.

“Wow, that’s impressive.”

Luhan looked up from cutting the stems, raising both eyebrows as he kept his smile on, “What is sir?”

The man advanced closer and ed his chin towards the bouquets in the refrigerator. What intrigued him the most was how Luhan managed to arrange them not only in a coordinated manner, but it was the colour combination in every bouquet was perfect.

“I’ve never come across a male florist before,” the man told, his eyes still trained on one particular bouquet; a mix of red roses and fresh, yellow sunflowers. “You’re the first, and by far one of the most amazing ones in the city.”

Luhan let out a laugh, “You sound as if you’ve been to every one of the flower shops here.”

The man looked back to him with a sincere smile, “I have.”

Luhan only brushed his golden locks and nodded, seeing that the man seemed to know how to work around with words.

“Are you looking for something in particular?”

The man nodded and looked back to the red roses and yellow sunflowers, “Do you think that bouquet would be well suited as an apology?”

Luhan jutted out his bottom lip, shaking his head as he gave a regretful smile. “There are other bouquets that symbolises regret and remorse.” Luhan brought him to a few more bouquets and pointed to a few pink lilies with white roses. “And some of them are really dependant on the reason behind your apology.”

The man rubbed his chin and tilted his head, “Well, assuming I’ve left someone for quite a while. And she feels quite um—neglected, if I may say; mainly because the nature of my job requires me to come so early and leave so late.”

Luhan gave a nod and smiled in understanding, pulling out a bouquet of fresh pink and white carnations that came early this morning. “It seems that the problem you’re experiencing is what’s commonly face nowadays,” Luhan spoke, handing the bouquet to the man. “You’re in luck because these just came in. They’ve been high on demand for a while now.”

As the man was about to thank him, Luhan’s ear perked when the news anchor addressed last night’s incident. There on the screen was their Prime Minister Kim, addressing the issue. Luhan gave a sigh and shook his head, he needed his clan to be aware of what was going to happen if they don’t act soon.

“You’re bumped out about them invading us?”

Luhan looked to the man and wore a sad smile, “Not really… I know this may sound, weird. But I hoped that we could be like how we used to be before.”

The man cocked a brow, “But they started to betray us first, didn’t they?”

Luhan simply shrug, his lips played a grin that the other couldn’t seem to comprehend. “At least that’s what we’ve been taught.”

The man dug out his wallet and paid for the bouquet, beaming from ear to ear. “Thank you, for the bouquet.” He was about to leave the shop when he turned back to glance at Luhan, “And perhaps you’re right, there might be two sides to the story. Or three.”

~”~

Sehun scribbled into her book as she waited for the professor to come into class. It was pretty weird how they arranged the classes for them, and she didn’t understand why she had a ‘self-defence’ class when she signed up mostly for sports instead of arts.

The school splits the system into two; where students get to choose whether they want arts as their main base or sports. The culture aspect was a default alternative, because they all had to take whatever subject that falls within the ‘culture’ component. As far as Sehun’s concerned, she was pretty sure that self-defence didn’t fall in the sports section. It couldn’t be part of culture either, could it?

“It’s considered as a core module, something like a general and compulsory lesson that we all have to take up.”

A female student plopped to the empty seat beside Sehun and gave a warm smile.

“I heard you, talking about why it’s not important and all.”

Sehun gave a sheepish smile and instantly faced the front as soon as their professor came in.

“I’m Irene by the way,” the girl introduced herself after they greeted their professor. “I just enrolled here, from Illie West.”

Sehun refrained herself from asking why the girl chose to enrol to Empire Institute when Illie West was already a prestigious and recognised school worldwide. The girl kept her doe eyes trained on Sehun, as if waiting for her to say something back.

“Um… welcome…?”

Irene let out a chuckle and pulled out her laptop, “I thought you’d, you know, introduce yourself or something.”

Sehun ruffled her blonde locks and tucked a strand behind her hair in embarrassment. “Sorry,” she mumbled, “I’m Sehun.”

Irene looked to her with wide eyes, “NO WAY! YOU MEAN, THE SEHUN!”

“Yes, miss Bae. I’m pretty sure we’d be more interested in you.” The professor had her brows raised, motioning with two fingers for the girl to come up to the front. “Seeing that it’s your first day.”

She looked to the professor and smiled nervously before turning to Sehun. But the other only ed her chin towards the front, indicating that she’d better hasten her steps if she didn’t want to delay her introduction.

“Wow, I thought she’d be the shy type.” Sehun’s batchmate, Cara, came settling down on her left. “She was trembling the whole time around the hallway, I’m surprised she spoke to you.”

Sehun smirked and rested her cheek on her fisted hand, “She is. She just felt the need to introduce herself, pretty sure she felt that no one would if she doesn’t.”

Cara shrugged and nodded as she fished out her laptop, “Didn’t you bring yours?”

Sehun looked to her with a wry smile, “Self-defence class doesn’t require the usage of a laptop.” She told, “If you actually read the school’s website.”

Cara let out a groan, who reads the school’s website? Nobody.

The students don’t even check their school emails, let alone go to their website.

“Okay, so can anyone tell me why this class is considered a general module?” The professor finally asked once Irene went back to her seat, keeping her head down as she avoided the gazes of the rest of her classmates.

“Maybe because we’ve a clan of freaks to fight off?” one student called out, earning a few laughs from the rest.

But Sehun wasn’t.

The blonde bit back and swallowed a remark as she brought her burning gaze over to the student.

“Fight? We don’t fight.” The professor said, “Can somebody tell us the history of how the ‘Novi’ clan came about?”

The class fell silent, nobody ever pays attention in history class. Empire Institute doesn’t even provide them with history classes. The professor looked around and scanned for students, before his eyes fell unto Irene’s avoiding gaze.

“Perhaps you would like to try, miss Bae?” The professor tilted his head, “Seeing that Illie West emphasises highly on history and values.”

Irene her lips nervously as they trembled, “I… in 2118, the meteor showers…”

“A meteor shower happened back in 2118 during the rare occasion of a hybrid solar eclipse. It was said that because these two events are in no way related to each other, and for them to happen at the same time isn’t expected, the space energy, or better known as the vacuum energy; disrupted the four fundamental forces of nature which caused a shift in us, humans.” Sehun answered flawlessly for the quivering girl. “A Novus, wasn’t initially born. They were made. The difference between them and ordinary humans back then, were their supernatural abilities and attributes.”

“But they became cruel and decided to take over us—”

“No, they were wrongly accused for the mistakes someone else made,” Sehun disrupted the same student who tried to rebut. “We—or at least our ancestors, lived a harmonious life together with the Novi clan for many decades. But that was destroyed 50 years ago—”

“Well that’s because—”

“Because nobody admitted to their mistake and someone decided it was best to blame the Novi clan for something they didn’t start.” Sehun finished, clamping her notebook shut. “If the Novi really did become violent, we only have ourselves to blame because we were the ones who accused them. We are, to them, people who only care for our own interests.”

The boy’s eyes turned to slits as he looked from Sehun to their professor. “What do you think Professor Wang? Sehun thinks she knows better than history.”

The professor looked to the boy before averting his gaze to Sehun. The girl expected a dressing down but what came next, surprised not only her; but her whole class as well.

“History’s recorded by humans; and I’m pretty sure humans make mistakes,” he stated with a warm smile on his face. “Don’t we, miss Oh?”

~”~

“Luhan texted for a meeting?”

Sehun nodded when Baekhyun finally met her at the entrance of the school, “Yeah, I think he wants to talk about what happened yesterday.”

Baekhyun nodded in acknowledgment as they proceeded to stride on the sidewalk. It would be great if either of them could drive, but neither of them had the time to get a license of their own.

“You were late today,” Sehun huffed in annoyance, “And I couldn’t even call you!”

Baekhyun gave an apologetic beam, knowing that if he appeared any later, they might’ve needed to run back to the mansion.

“Well, at least we’re going back to the mansion, right? I’d be able to grab my phone back and—”

“WATCH OUT!”

Sehun pushed Baekhyun to the ground and onto the grass, barely missing a firebolt aimed towards them. The blonde rolled her friend over and kept her eyes trained on the flying Novus above them.

“What on Earth…”

“I told you!” Baekhyun hissed in pain as he rubbed the stinging pang on his elbow when Sehun pushed him. He didn’t have the time to recover from the shock when Sehun pulled him up and attempted to make a run for the woods.

“Sehun, we have to—”

“We can’t.” Sehun’s voice sounded desperate. As much as she wanted to shapeshift, she couldn’t. At least not yet. “He would want this.”

Baekhyun let out a huff in frustration. It was tiring to avoid the Novus’ fires and run towards the woods at the same time. They weren’t even anywhere near the woods.

“Ow!” Baekhyun’s instantly released Sehun’s hand as he tripped and fell flat onto his front. He looked up to his friend and swatted her hand away, “Go first! You and Luhan are the ones their after.”

Sehun rolled her eyes and pulled him by his upper arm anyway, “You speak as if you’d last five minutes fighting her off.”

“Hey! I’m strong too you know—”

Baekhyun was cut off when the Novus blasted towards them again. But this time, her blast was countered by a shot that hit her steel wings. The Novus barred her teeth in anger as she looked to the perpetrator.

Baekhyun’s eyes widened when he saw who it was, “Kai…”

The two of them watched in horror as Kai fended the vexed Novus with his electric cables. And Sehun didn’t know if she should feel thankful or resentful towards Kai’s actions. She watched with bulging eyes as Kai electrocuted the Novus and rounded her up after he retracted the metal cables back into the device attached on his hand.

The setting sun behind him slowly sunk in the horizon, making Sehun tug on Baekhyun’s sleeve.

“Baekhyun…” Sehun whispered harshly when Kai advanced towards them, “We have to go. Now.”

Baekhyun waved to Kai and wore a smile on his face, “Why, he’ll think that we—”

“Baekhyun, my eyes.”

The petite man turned and gasped in shock when he made contact with two crimson orbs, “Oh no.”

***

a/n: and the second chapter is up! I wonder how the two of them are going to escape Kai like this? hope this chapter was fruitful enough, do leave some comments on how I’m doing and see you in the next chapter okay! xoxo