“And you’re certain, it was her?”

“Who else has the attributes of the sun, my prince.”

A deep snigger reverberated against the walls of the huge and hollow room. Despite the silence, the room was filled to the brim with the other half of the original Novi clan.

“Then, it looks like our time is near.”

∞

Sehun coughed violently, eyes widening in shock as her fingers bathed in crimson. The metallic smell of blood seeped through her nose as she tried to clamp shut. It disgusted her how these humans managed to come up with so many different weapons to hunt the Novi down and kill them off mercilessly. She hated that even her best friend wound up being close to one of the greatest murderers of the Novi clan.

‘How revolting…’

She climbed up the stairs and was about to head straight to her room when Luhan suddenly popped out of his study. His eyes were widened with surprise when he saw the blood trickle down his sister’s lips.

“Sehun? Sehun! what happened?”

The blonde gritted her teeth as she kept mum. She didn’t need to tell Luhan anything.

Backing away, the younger retired back to her room only for her wrist to be caught by Luhan’s strong grip.

“Sehun—”

“Let go!”

The blonde had no strength in her to push her brother away, which made it quite easier for him to push her against her bedroom door.

“How come I didn’t feel this, did you deny my connections with you?” Luhan’s voice was an octave higher when he realised it was true. “When, why!”

Sehun snatched her wrist away from her brother. It was impossible for him to know when she cut off all empathic connections with him because he has so many of his kind to keep up with. Being connected to them through mirror-touch synesthesia manner allowed him to track when and where his people were being attacked.

“I know Amber was attacked near Empire High, but she managed to flee before anything happened.” Luhan added. He glanced to the clock and narrowed his eyes. It was only 4. Sehun would be home earliest, by 5. “Did you… Expose yourself?”

Sehun coughed once more and held in pain as she wheezed out blood.

“Does it matter? If I didn’t do anything, that girl could’ve—”

“I could’ve teleported there and brought her out of the situation! You know that you’re down by more than half of your abilities because of the mansion.”

“And what difference would it make? Exposing you, exposing me. What difference is there?”

Luhan let out a sigh and advanced nearer towards his sister, bringing his fingers up to her lips. He swiped the stain of blood underneath and brought her into a warm embrace.

“Our attributes are what makes us different, Sehun. The sun alone is not enough, I’m sorry. If it wasn’t for the succession decision, if it wasn’t for me, your powers could’ve been—”

“Shut up!” Sehun pushed her brother away violently, her face was a mix filled with distaste and pain. “I’m not weak alone. I don’t need him and I don’t need you to protect me as if I’m some damsel in distress, Luhan!”

Luhan’s eyes doubled their sizes when Sehun started to sob. Her eyes welled with tears as she dropped onto the ground.

“When are you going to treat me as your equal?”

∞

“Boa, I’m fine.”

Sehun let out a soft sigh as she tried to get off the bed, but her foster aunt still pressed for her to lay back. After the unfortunate incident in Empire High, Sehun’s body weakened almost abruptly. It has been awhile since she’s experienced such high voltage pierce through her body. The voltages then wasn’t a tenth compared to what she experienced two days before.

“Your body is weak, Sehun. Your brother has instructed you to stop shielding the mansion while you recover.” Boa mumbled, wearing a worried expression when the princess shook her head.

Stubborn as always.

“And pass this duty to him?” She asked with a small beam on her face. Her fingers dived and curled tighter onto her comforter as she pulled it closer to her chest. “His shielding abilities were never on par with mine--”

“And that’s because you’ve learnt to hide more from him than he does from you.” Boa butted, bringing a hand to brush the a strand of Sehun’s locks away from her forehead. “When will you both learn that by hiding things from each other, you’re hurting each other more?”

Sehun basked in Boa’s touch.

Such motherly affection, it wasn’t something she was privileged to experience when she was younger.

“He wants to live a normal life with the humans, Boa.” Sehun sat up and rested her chin onto her knees. “Why doesn’t he see that that’s impossible?”

Boa retracted her hand away, an awkward hum left her lips. Only then did Sehun realised what she’s said. Whipping her head to the former, Sehun caught hold of Boa’s hands and clasped them in between hers.

“You’re different! You’re different, Boa.” Sehun whispered, feeling sorry albeit her immense hatred towards humans.

Being nice to them. Understanding how they worked. Comprehending how they studied.

These things were never what Sehun wanted to do. But because Luhan wanted her to, because her brother told her to, because it was what made him happy; to be able to live in harmony, Sehun obliged.

But being with them only made her more convinced that these humans only cared about their individual existence. They barely cared about their own kind, let alone the others. Unknowingly, she felt an arm snake around her shoulders and they brought her into a tight embrace.

Why can’t everyone be like Boa?

“Could you… fill me in?” Sehun snuggled deeper into the woman’s embrace, “About what Luhan has said in the meeting…”

The woman laughed and ruffled her blonde locks, “Why don’t you ask him yourself?”

Sehun wore a pout on her lips, “We’ve yet to speak since that… argument…”

Boa wore a smile on her face, brushing Sehun’s cheek lovingly as she planted a kiss on her forehead. Before she could say anything, the door creaked open slowly before someone came walking in.

“Am I disturbing?”

Sehun looked away and bit on her bottom lip. She didn’t think her brother would come any time soon.

“Of course not,” Boa assured, nodding as she excused herself. “Take care, Sehun.”

As the door closed, Sehun felt Luhan come closer to the foot of her bed.

“Baekhyun came over this morning, he said that Kai has placed the school on lockdown since the incident.” Luhan told, “But they’ve yet to find anything.”

When he received no acknowledgement from his sister, Luhan dragged Sehun’s study chair and settled down nicely by her bed.

“I heard that his crazy sister went on a rampage as well after losing a Novus for the first time in all of her 8 years of experience.” Luhan wore a small smile as he snickered, “I didn’t know you were capable of doing that much damage.”

Sehun turned to Luhan and wore an unreadable expression on her face. Why wasn’t he bringing up their argument?

“I…”

Luhan watched as Sehun worried over her bottom lip on what she should say. Silently, he brought his palm over his sister’s head and combed her hair with his fingers.

“I’m sorry Sehun, I thought asking you to back down and conceal yourself was one way of protecting you.” He confessed, heaving a disappointed sigh as he let his fingers linger a little while longer on her ear. “I didn’t know it was a display of doubt and distrust instead.”

Sehun’s lips carved into a wide grin as she took her brother’s palm into her hands. “I’m sorry too, I shouldn’t have gotten so worked up that day.”

Luhan tutted and flicked his sister’s forehead in response, earning a pained whine from the younger.

“Anyways, I told the clan that we might need to start coming back to the mansion more often to train. I’ll lend them my teleportation abilities for a while, so that they wouldn’t need to walk into the woods. The Cabinet might suspect something if so many of us were to come out in the open.”

Luhan informed his sister regarding the plans he had shared two days prior when he gather his sept. His worries grew when he came to notice that not only were they short of time, but Empire High could be gravely involved in this if they were to attack out of the blue; seeing how Sehun revealed herself in a place she frequented. Nonetheless, it would be better if the humans could lend them a hand in the chaos that has yet to come. But Luhan still had no resolve for what comes after a possible alliance. He reckoned that they would choose to eliminate his side of the clan as well even if they were obliged to assist them beforehand.

“Luhan, can I ask you something?”

The prince raised his brows before nodding, “What is it?”

“I heard that you were the one who told Baekhyun to get closer to Kai?” Sehun waited for him to deny it, but all his did was hum in response. “But, why?”

Luhan wore a sad grin on his face, “When I heard that he was in the same class as Kai was in his first year, I thought that Baekhyun would be able to garner more information as to where our people are. I’m pretty sure Kai didn’t kill them, I mean, I’d know if he did.” Luhan crossed his arms and leaned back, heaving another sigh. “But never once has Kai spoke to any of the council members about the Novi he’s taken down. All I’ve managed to get from Baekhyun, was that Kai would be the last one to bring them back to some place. But nobody knows exactly, what or where that some place was.”

Sehun bit her bottom lip in guilt. She should’ve understood why Baekhyun did what he did.

“But, didn’t he quit the Student Council after 6 months?”

Luhan his upper lip as he bit back a sigh, he realised he’s been doing it quite often nowadays.

“Yeah, watching his own kind being electrified and tied down with no means to help them; affected him emotionally.” Luhan’s voice was filled with so much regret when he recalled the day Baekhyun begged him to lift the responsibility off his shoulders. For many days, the boy couldn’t sleep in peace. His mind would subconsciously remember how Kai and the rest of his team would electrocute and harm someone so heartlessly. “You were still in your last year of high school, far from the main city. I did ask him to stop being friends with Kai entirely, but Baekhyun said it would be far too suspicious if he were to do that out of nowhere.”

“But I guess, being friends with Kai taught and exposed him more to what’s happened and what’s been happening in the boy’s life.” Luhan finished, pulling his lips back when Sehun wore a scowl on her face.

“Whatever it was, he still is the prime killer of our kind.”

Luhan shook his head, “I told you Sehun, he didn’t—”

“I don’t care, his intentions are foul.” Sehun argued, blowing a raspberry as she ran her fingers through her own locks. She looked straight and stared into her reflection on the mirror latched on her wall. There wasn’t a significant drop in their population.

Well, at least not a significant drop in Luhan’s sept. But their people were still their people, and no lives were more worthy than others. Even if they’ve lost a few, those few must be counting on both Luhan and the rest of the sept to find them. Was there really no way to find them before that comes?

Sehun thought for awhile before sitting up straight, eyes showing more keenness than they initially had.

What if…

“Luhan… Maybe, I could join in the Student Council.”

***

a/n: such a late update but what’s new? I don’t have any excuses but I hope this chapter would be able to let you know of current situations, tell me if you would prefer to see more of Kai or Baekhyun (or both!) in this fic (or any other specific characters actually!!!) because i’ve been writing more about Sehun’s side of stories rather than focusing on other parts. It’s really just how the plot flows. But they’ll come to meet in the next chapter, so no worries there!

@Moe-Kun: yes she did! I was hoping i could delay her reveal but that’s how the story is gonna go! I had plans to show her a bit later but i didn’t want to drag the fic more, and i hope you’d enjoy this chapter well!

@Jayashri: thank you so much dear! Your comment itself is beautiful, i live!!!

Okay, till the next update. I really hope it’ll come soon though. See you! xoxo