-Jinhae’s POV-

“This is pathetic!” I growled, tossing the gonggi pieces on the floor in front of Tao.

He looked up at me in surprise. “What’s pathetic about that? You’re winning. Shouldn’t that be my line?”

I stood up, my arms akimbo as I stared outside the window. I was getting really frustrated. It’s the last straw! I can’t take it anymore. “It just is, okay!”

He frowned, picking up the colorful circular pieces. “What’s wrong with you today?” he asked.

“You’re asking?”

“I guess,” he murmured innocently.

I looked around. Only the two of us were left since Lay and the other decided to leave for the town, doing their own reconnaissance thingy. “Zi Tao…”

“Yes?”

“Why do we all have to be apart?” I asked him.

He just shrugged.

I shook my head, the scenes of the previous days playing in my mind like rerun. It had been four days since Kris left and yet we haven’t heard from him. It was getting annoying. I didn’t want to think of the worst things that could come to my mind. I refused to. On the other hand, Lu Han left just the other day and I have never felt so angry in my life. It wasn’t just because he was missing, but because he chose to leave at a time like this. He didn’t even wait for Kris and though he got into an ugly argument with the other four nobles, he still chose to go on his way.

Listening to them arguing like that made me sick. They were all trying to make him stay, but he kept insisting on what he wanted. I didn’t want to call him selfish, but he was being one. I refused to talk to him even as he started telling me about his plans. I didn’t understand why he couldn’t see anything apart from what he wanted to. Everyone else accepted the inevitable where I was involved, but he still insisted that he needed time. Geez! He started to resemble a PMS-ing woman while he was telling me about it. Aish!

I already felt guilty enough, letting him bear my thoughts. I regretted doing that. Maybe he shouldn’t have been the Telepathy Noble. Maybe he shouldn’t have had the ability to read minds if he hadn’t conditioned himself to accept the truths that he would discover. I mean, he had it for as long as he lived. Compared to me, he should be stronger when it came to such things as I have only been acquainted to my abilities, but he didn’t seem to be the type to agree with the facts even if they are already in front of him.

Besides those things that made me so angry, I missed him. Damn it, I didn’t know how I would start my day the next morning when I went to the banquet hall and didn’t find him there to say good morning to me. He always does. He was always the first one to greet me whenever I eat in the morning and realizing that he had gone made my resentment flow through every vein in my body like a virus then I’d be in a foul mood. If only Kris was here, I wouldn’t be so agitated.

“Don’t work yourself up with worrying about him,” Tao said, frowning. “He chose to go and he’s already a grown up so more or less, he knows what he’s getting himself into.”

I shook my head. “I’m not worried about Lu Han. I don’t care what he wants to do.” Lies, a small voice in my head said, but I wasn’t giving in to it. “I just think Kris should be home by now.”

“Looking for me?” someone suddenly spoke from behind us, more like grunted.

“Did you hear that?” Tao asked me.

I nodded and we slowly looked behind us. There, leaning against the door post, with his hair sticking out on all directions and his white clothes soiled and torn, was the Flight Noble.

“Gege~!” Tao said loudly.

We both rushed to him and helped him as he was staggering. We made him settle on the couch and I stood in front of him, blinking slowly as I observed what had befallen him. He had deep, long slashes on his arms and they looked like they were burnt on the sides as if someone used hot blades on him. He had a clean incision just by his chin and his lower lip was split. His chest was in the same condition as his arms and I was utterly surprised that he still had the ability to fly over the distance juts to make it home.

“Tao! Get me clean towels and warm water.” I wrenched my gaze away from Kris and glanced at the Time Noble. “Can you have Lay summoned, please?”

He nodded and ran out of the room while I was left there, unmoving as I looked at the sorry state the always confident and immaculate-looking Wu Fan was in.

He returned my gaze. “Mei-mei, why are you looking at me like that?”

I felt tears stinging my eyes. “I’m just glad your back.” I sat beside him and lightly touched his arm, trying to gauge the extent of his injuries. I couldn’t help but wince. “Who did this to you?”

He breathed in deeply and patted my head. “She’s gone, Jinhae. Don’t worry about it.”

“She?”

“The black dragon was a woman.”

I tried to smile at him. “You got owned by a woman?” I chuckled bitterly. “Do you have any idea how you look like right now?”

“It doesn’t matter. How have you been?” he said.

“Don’t ask me that!” I scolded him. “What about you? Aish! Why did you…” I shook my head. “Never mind. I’m just glad you’re back in one piece, well, barely one piece, but yeah.” Without thinking if he still had other injuries, I threw my arms around him. “I was very worried.”

He chuckled and hugged me back. “I was, too, but it’s over for me.”

I pulled back, reminded by the cut on his face. “Dage, the black dragon messed up your pretty face.”

He laughed at that. “I saw to it that we were even. Don’t mind that. We have Lay.”

Tao came back with a basin on one hand filled with water and some linen. I started tending on Kris’ wounds. I knew it stung by the way he would wince and I had to blow on it just to alleviate the pain.

“I’m sorry,” I said, “But we have to clean it.”

“It’s fine, mei-mei. Thank you.”

I just continued on what he was doing as he told us about what had happened in Udaranna. A while later, the others returned. Lay quickly took my place, healing the wounds, telling me that I have done a good job cleaning them and soon, Kris was good as new. Chen took a fresh set of clothes for him to change into after he went to wash up then returned to the drawing room after meeting his parents who were equally glad of their son’s return.

“What did you find when you went there?” I asked and he showed me a silver cuff that had the symbol of the Flight Nobles engraved to it. I smiled at him. “It’s pretty.”

“I feel better, too,” he said with a grin.

“Good for you.”

“Have things been going smoothly while I was gone?” the Flight Noble asked.

“Pretty much,” Tao answered.

Xiu Min shrugged.

Kris suddenly looked around and began counting with his finger, pointing at each noble present in the room. He then frowned. “Where’s Lu Han?”

Everyone else exchanged glances then Xiu Min shook his head. “He left.”

“What?!” Kris snarled.

“He said he’ll be staying in Elatus for a while and he’ll meet us in Orodia,” Chen supplied.

Kris looked enraged now. “What? Didn’t we have an agreement that we would all stick together? How did this happen?” he demanded.

I bit my lower lip. “It’s sort of my fault,” I told him.

“No, it’s not,” Lay insisted.

“I don’t understand.”

I began explaining about what I have found out about half bloods and he listened patiently. He seemed sad after, but he didn’t make a fuss out of it the way the others did. I murmured my apology and shrugged. “I didn’t mean to drive him away. I just…I just thought you should all know. It’s the least I could do to be honest.”

He shook his head at me. “Don’t worry. We understand you. He’s just really sensitive. He’ll come around.” He looked at the others, lingering at Lay for an extra second. “We will respect your decisions in the end. It’s the least we could do for you, too.”

-Shinhye’s POV-

Hydris. It was a beautiful place with rolling hills and a lot of cliffs that stretched to the seas. I wasn’t expecting the castle of Aigua to be so near the ocean. It was a glittering effigy that shone like a diamond on the cliff. Huge, open windows were all over the walls of the palace and just like the Lumerian manor, it looked like a manor. It could pass as a lighthouse with its purposeful setting by the high sea cliff. Though it was a beautiful place, it was quite lonely with Suho oppa’s grandfather living alone within its walls. He did have servants at his beck and call, good ones, too, but I didn’t dare ask why that was the case and just let it rest. Even oppa didn’t seem to like being there thought it showed how he loved his grandfather.

I lifted my camera to my eyes and took another shot of the unusually huge waves, slapping against the rock walls with a rushing sound. I let the wind hit me with its intensity, tasting the tangy air, calming myself down. I still couldn’t get the image of seeing Baekhyun all weak and helpless when Kai brought him home from Lumina. He had been very restless then, appearing and disappearing and when he appears again, he would look pensive as if he was calculating a hard math problem. I’ve seen that look on Jinhae’s face before and it always shows up whenever we’re having our exams. It went on until the next morning when he snapped up from his chair during breakfast and suddenly teleported. When he appeared around noon, he was bearing an unconscious Baekhyun in his arms and I didn’t want to start describing what a mess he looked like.

On the other hand, I was happy for Jinhae, too. Kris was back in Hegaldinia, too, not in a better condition than Baekhyun was in, but at least he was back. He battled a damned dragon and I think that’s really difficult, but one hell of an adventure, too. I felt for my sister when she said she felt like crying when she saw him again. It was exactly how I felt for Baekhyun when Kai to