Chapter 25

 

 

 

 

Why does my head still hurt? The brunette winced harshly, taking a few deep breaths before she fully emerged back into her consciousness. She opened her eyes slowly, allowing herself time to adjust to the lighting changes from the sun’s unwanted rays pouring through the cracks of her curtains.

 

How did I get back in my own bed? Did I imagine the whole thing of them leaving? Jieun frowned at the latter thought. Or have they really left already…

 

“Looks like the sleeping beauty’s awake!” Chanyeol, having been taking regular checks into her room, practically bellowed out to the rest of his brothers. And well, most probably the neighbours heard it too. But instead of feeling the usual feelings of irritation bubbling up inside of her, she found herself smiling—not so much at the level at which he shouted at, but by the fact that not even a second later, the hurried footsteps seemingly coming from all directions in the apartment were rapidly approaching her bedroom.

 

So…they didn’t really leave me. Whether she was aware of it or not, she let out a relieved sigh.

 

“You really gave us a scare there, Jieun-ah.” Baekhyun was one of the first to approach her, as if she was a wary creature waiting to attack at any given moment. He walked up until he was beside her bed, he lifted up his hand, only to bring it back down again in fear that she would try to avoid his gesture of affection.

 

She moved her gaze towards the light demon in idle curiosity. Why was he acting…different towards her? Did she do something wrong? So, wanting to correct whatever she may have done, she reached out her own hand to hold his, though the action was slower than expected. But Jieun didn’t pay much attention to this. In response, a double backed expression was etched on his handsome features, as if startled by the notion that she would show such affection towards any of them.

 

“…I’m sorry, everyone.” She croaked out, her voice sounding husky. The brunette’s gaze dropped to her lap as she blinked slowly. “I didn’t know why I acted like that…for some reason, during that moment, I actually believed that you all had left. I thought that you were just simply hallucinations haunting my subconscious.”

 

Jongin’s face was contorted into nothing less than anguish. He rushed forward while the rest remained outside her bedroom, unable to hold back on his emotions as he kneeled beside the girl, the same one he had grown so fond of. “Why would you think that we would leave you, Jieun-ah? We care for you too much, we would never hurt you.”

 

The petite girl in question’s eyes clashed with the darker skinned male’s own, she weakly shrugged. “…I don’t really understand myself why I did.” She breathed out a sigh as she shook her head. Maybe it was just a moment of madness? Or she was just overtired…no matter, there was still work to be done and assignments to be completed. She couldn’t stick around in her bed all day that would just be a waste.

 

But she had realized that she could not move her legs to step out of her bed. She frowned, her eyebrows furrowed together in evident confusion. Jieun attempted to sit up straight, but it was almost as if there was an invisible force preventing her from doing so.

 

“No, no. You need to rest and recuperate until you’re one hundred per cent better.” Suho was the first to push her back gently, the trademark smile was not present on his face as he observed her. “We will all take turns in looking after you today so do not worry about doing anything.”

 

From by the looks, she was starting to feel more apprehensive than reassured of anything.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Xiumin was the first of the bunch to look after her, once the rest had departed—some were visibly more reluctantly to leave—his serious demeanour remained. He glanced at her form for a moment before he settled himself onto the chair beside her. It was strange to see such a bright and enthusiastic soul such as himself appear so worn out.

 

“How are you feeling?” He inquired, watching her reaction carefully.

 

“I’ve been better, that’s for sure.” She struggled to smile, to which he frowned at. The oldest reached out the back of his hand to lightly graze her forehead, the heat that seemed to be radiating from her body suddenly came to a halt. In a split second, she could feel herself gradually becoming cooler and more relaxed. She marvelled at his concentrated gaze, as he took a moment to close his eyes, when it seemed that he was satisfied he removed his hand away from her.

 

“There, that should do the trick.”

 

There was something nibbling at the back of her mind, her eyebrows furrowed in thought. From what she can gather from the limited interaction she had with Xiumin, the majority of the time he seemed to lean towards being one of the mood makers of the group, he relished in generating smiles and laughter—admittedly though, at the expense of others. Yet, she could see a glimpse of potential of leadership with him. 

 

“Penny for your thoughts?” He tilted his head to the side, almost as if he knew what she was thinking but did not want to pressure her into voicing them out.

 

She blinked out of her reverie, turning her eyes to her duvet silently. “It’s nothing, just daydreaming really.”

 

The dark haired male released a sigh as he scratched his neck, silence eluded into the atmosphere as neither of the pair broke the ice. It was more than evident that out of the rest of his brothers, the ice demon may be the only one she didn’t feel one hundred per cent comfortable around. It wasn’t to say that he was at fault, it was just he seemed to emit an aura that wasn’t quite as friendly as the rest, almost as if he was subconsciously holding up a barrier that prevented her from seeing him for who he truly was.

 

“I know I’m not the closest one to you, Jieun-ssi.” He started off, nervously his lips. “I want to let you know that it’s not because I don’t want to get you know you better, it’s just…to put it simply, it’s a complicated situation that would take too long to explain.”

 

Jieun slowly raised up her eyes towards him, seeing the troubled look etched on his handsome face was enough to make her feel uneasy. “Please don’t feel like you have to talk to me about matters that you do not wish to talk about, I can understand that everyone has secrets they want to keep to themselves, that’s only natural.”

 

He let out a husky laugh, shaking his head. “Sometimes I wonder to myself, what good acts any of us did in our past lives that made us worthy to have you as our saviour. I often believe that you received the short stick while the rest of us got the long sticks in this situation.”

 

Why do they all think that I’m some sort of saint? She felt a frown pull down the corners of her lips. They always praise me to the point where I wonder whether they even bother to care about my flaws.

 

“I think that if any more of you keep flattering me with compliments, my head might start to get too big for my shoulders.” She raised an eyebrow, though a cheeky smile rested on her lips to which he returned the smile much to her relief.

 

“Don’t worry about such things, I’m sure you would still look just as pretty even with a head that is not in proportion to your body.” He winked at her playfully. And with that, the pair did not hesitate this time round as they practically dove into the conversation without any burdens weighting them down.

 

That is, until Xiumin was eventually dragged out against his will, yelling that he would come back if she was just to shout out if any sort of funny business that could occur on with any of his brothers in the room. The way they went about to resolve this problem included the idea of whoever was next to watch over her would either be paired up or put into a group—inevitably meaning that her bedroom was going to get rowdy than she would like.

 

So, as you could imagine yourselves, when the door opened again to reveal a grinning Chanyeol and a cheeky looking Baekhyun, Jieun could not suppress the urge to groan out loud as she rolled over so her face was submerged into her fluffy pillow. It would be more humane to just kill me now to save me from the unforeseeable torture.

 

 

 

 

 

“—And that is how Baekhyun hyung managed to seduce all the SNSD noona’s and became a playboy.” Chanyeol nodded his head sagely. “I tried many times in telling him that courting too many girls would soon come back to bite him on the but he just refused to listen to my infallible reasoning. He’s a stubborn old nut, my brother is. But I sure was right, wasn’t I?”

 

“ you, Chanyeol.” That what was hissed back in response, the typically calm and collected male looked beyond the point of infuriated. 

 

“As much as that offer is tempting, I am going to have to decline your overly generous offer. You are already very aware of the fact that Jieun-ah is the only one for me~”

 

Baekhyun looked far from being happy with his brother, if this was a cartoon, the brunette would have no trouble in visualising the light demon with smoke pouring out of his ears. He gritted his teeth together as he looked towards Jieun, shaking his head.

 

“Don’t listen to this one, he was always a compulsive liar especially when we were younger.”

 

Chanyeol had the gall to look appalled at this accusation. “I’ll have you know that I was telling the truth most of the time but no one ever believed me—“

 

“—Says the one who would set fire to everything and would try to blame it on the rest of us.” The light demon’s expression melted into a deadpan look, but that didn’t stop the caramel haired demon from digressing, his arms waving around in exaggerated motions as he did so.

 

“Like when I would see Baekhyun hyung on a regular basis sneaking out and whenever I told anyone, they didn’t believe me for ages until it finally came out what he was really up to all that time.”

 

“Yah, why are you trying to tarnish my image in front of my sweetie pie, huh?”

 

“I don’t have to do anything, you’re too greasy that you would ruin your chances yourself!” He threw his head back to laugh. “You don’t even need me to screw this up!”

 

“The same goes for you then, except the fact that you obviously struggle to contain your inner demon to the point where you are on the verge of causing harm to others.” Baekhyun smirked smugly towards his brother, who instantly halted in his laughter as his eyes shifted into the tainted crimson colour.

 

“When it comes to Jieun-ah, I would never hurt her intentionally. I wouldn’t trust some slimy, playboy wannabe like you as far as I could throw you.” Baekhyun stood up from his chair—though, the motion itself looked like a blur more than anything else. The mere action nearly knocked it backwards with Chanyeol copying his actions until they were merely inches away from each other. Their eyes were no longer calm and brown but now tarnished completely, their irises shifting into a dangerous red.

 

What the hell has gotten into these two idiots?

 

“Why are you guys so wound up today?” Jieun frowned as her gaze flickered between the two, she could practically feel the waves of anger radiating from bodies. “Don’t make me get up from this bed and slap some sense into you two—“

 

“Mission: fool Jieun was a success!” They both chimed in chorus, taking out party poppers as strings of papers suddenly flung themselves into the air thus showering the unimpressed Jieun as the truth started to settle in.

 

“We got you good~” Suddenly, the pair threw an arm around each other’s shoulders with identical grins stretching from one side of their face to the other. “You were convinced we were angry, right?”

 

The brunette’s eyes became slated as she merely pulled up her duvet and placed it over her head, thus concealing her from view. Aish, teaches me not to worry when they’re angry. I’ll let them tear each other part next time and then we’ll see who’s really sorry. This simple gesture, however, wasn’t taken very lightly as the pair surrounded both sides of the bed within seconds, cooing softly for her to forgive them—which she eventually did so they would stop bothering her.

 

However, they still did continue to pester her, much to her chagrin. 

 

 

 

 

 

From the newly proclaimed actors raising her blood pressure, these three were the breath of fresh air that Jieun needed.

 

Suho had little to no trouble ushering the two troublemakers out of her room. He shook his head in disapproval upon hearing what had gone on as he exchanged a few departing words with the two demons in question, the promise of punishment in the air until the trio left the room. Lay was more focused on trying to make everything as comfortable as possible for Jieun, though he kept forgetting what tasks he was meant to be doing. Then as if a ‘eureka’ moment suddenly popped into his head, he would get right back to his assigned task at hand. It was quite a comical scene to watch as the brunette had to suppress the little bursts of giggles that wanted to escape at his super focused expressions which then melted into that of confusion.

 

Chen shot her his calming smile as he helped her to sit up straight, which seemed to take longer than expected. Kyungsoo soon followed in after as he brought in a tray filled to the brim with items such as a bowl of porridge, a glass of mango juice, a plate of freshly cut fruits all of which were lined with simple decorations that did not fail to bring a smile to her face.

 

“Just eat as much as you can, don’t force yourself.” Lay had told her earnestly as he checked all her vitals to make sure they were alright, this was one of the rare instants she witnessed the swift change in his default character. The dark haired male’s full attention was placed upon her as he thoroughly followed the general procedures. His intense gaze was sufficient enough to make her feel self-conscious and nervous.

 

 

 

 

“There’s no need to be so nervous, we know that Lay hyung can be quite full on sometimes, but that’s only because he’s beating himself up because feels that he didn’t pay close enough attention to you before you took a turn for the worse.” 

 

 

 

 

It was Chen who informed her of this information. He patted her comfortingly on her hand but she was quick to response as she grabbed hold of his, much to his surprise and soon to be happiness. It wasn’t common for her to initiate any sort of form of skin ship with any of them unless it was completely by means of an accident. The brush of her hand was enough to give him the feeling of having butterflies in his stomach. The brunette shot him a thankful smile as she entwined her fingers with his own. Thank you, Chen. For everything you and your brothers have done for me. I can never thank you all enough.

 

 

 

 

“There’s only so much we can do for you Jieun, we don’t want to invade your privacy by reading your mind. Please don’t feel that you would be burdening us if you tell us your worries, we would be doing you more of a disservice if we didn’t take care of you as we should do not because we have to but because we want to.”

 

 

 

 

Kyungsoo busied himself by lifting up a spoonful of porridge as he fed it to Jieun, with his usual blank expression. It would have been hard to tell that it was him who conversed openly into her mind, however his face allowed a small smile as he watched Jieun chew her food thoughtfully. Jieun's gaze lowered to her hands clenching her blanket. Sometimes, I forget how lucky I am to have such caring people in my life.

 

 

 

 

“Even I, with my terrible memory, will never forget how lucky I am to have you in my life Jieun-ah. I promise that I will do more in the future to ensure your health is my top priority.”

 

 

 

 

The brunette in question shook her head, directing a soft smile at the healer. No, I want your main priority to look after yourself first, then your brothers, I don’t care what my ranking is, as long as you promise to not forget about yourself too.

 

 

 

 

 

It was easy to see why these two were handpicked to be the main leaders of the group.

 

While Kris eluded a strong and natural leader aura, Suho was more of a kind and gentle spirited leader and together with their combined strengths they were able to carefully manage and watch over their brothers with apparent ease.

 

“—Yah, I told you that you have to wait your turns. Don’t be so noisy.” The blonde leader barked out as he scolded whoever it was lingering behind the door, irritation was practically rolling off his body in waves.

 

“You’re taking too long though! Can’t we just go before you?” She could distinctively hear the whining voice who could belong only to Sehun, she had little to no trouble visualising him stamping his feet and pouting as he didn’t have his own way. He never failed to act like a child when it suited him, that was for sure.

 

“Yeah, I’m sure that our kitten wouldn’t mind if we had our turn before you guys—“ Suho shot Luhan a warning look as he shook his head. “We all get equal amounts of time with Jieun-ah. There’s no need to be so hasty, unless you want the rest of us to bother you guys when it’s your turn?”

 

Suddenly, as if he had the power of persuasion, all the noise and ruckus instantly died down and with that the pair took a step back into the room, closed the door and pivoted on their heels to face her with smiles. Even she had to admit herself that those smiles made her slightly wary of how their expressions must have been a few seconds ago. The thought was nearly enough to cause an involuntary shiver to run down her spine.

 

“Apologises about that, you know how clingy they can get sometimes.” Suho released a sigh as he settled down in the chair, dragging a hand over his face in evident exhaustion of having to cope with looking after his brothers.

 

“Well, they have good intentions, even if it doesn’t seem that way sometimes.” The brunette shrugged her shoulders lightly, a small smile graced her face.

 

“Be careful what you say now, you may end up regretting it when it’s their turn.” The blonde leader rolled his eyes as he folded his arms over his chest, leaning against the wall to her left.  

 

Jieun knew that she was speaking too soon, it was inevitable that they would cause noise and trouble—it was in their nature to do so. But even if she complained about their presences, more so in her own mind than out loud since she knew they would only whine to her about it, their fiery and prankster-like energies balanced out the other matured, calmer brothers.    

 

At least she thinks most of them are calm, who knows how they were really like when they were demonic princes? They could have all been party animals for all she knew. There were chuckles that escaped into the air and once again, Jieun had forgotten the crucial detail that they could read her mind.

 

“We did attend a fair amount of balls in our time, I don’t think they were considered to be up to the standard of rowdiness of parties in this day and age. There were certain expectations we had to uphold, some took this more seriously than others as you could most probably already guess.” Once again, for the umpteenth time the usually smiling leader released a long drawn sigh. The brunette could only imagine how much hard work it must have taken to keep them all in check.

 

“We all kept together though, it was a rarity for any of us to stray away from each other during these kinds of events. It was very easy for a scandal to break out, there were many eyes watching our every move, to try and catch us with incriminating evidence.” Kris closed his eyes, shaking his head at the memory. “As you already know, Jongin was the only one to break this. Aish, I could tell from a mile away that she was a snake in the grass.”

 

“Come now Kris hyung, how were we supposed to know that she was a psycho maniac?”

 

“It’s not an unusual coincidence for a witch to possess pink eyes, is it not?” Pink eyes…why is that familiar? Jieun frowned as she tried to think back, racking through her mind but coming up with nothing viable. I’m sure it’ll come back to me another time, it’s probably not even important.

 

However, unbeknownst to the girl, the two leaders stiffed upon overhearing her thoughts, their gazes met instantly at the sudden uncovering of truth. The true question that was buzzing around in their minds was to what extent would this witch go to achieving what she desired to travel across different worlds?

 

 

 

This was the moment Jieun had been dreading the most.

 

The youngest brothers of the group—excluding Luhan, but he looked young enough to be the youngest—were next to watch over her. And as you could probably tell, the brunette was absolutely thrilled to bits that it was their turn. I think I would rather spend another few hours with Chanyeol and Baekhyun than with these noisy kids.

 

 

 

“Just say the word, Jieun-ah/Jiyonnie and we would be more than happy to take their place!”

 

 

 

“Not a chance in hell, hyung!” And with that immediate reaction, her door swung open, revealing her worse nightmares come true.

 

In a flash, they entered the room with Tao being the last as he shut the door behind him. Without any hesitance—since they were no longer under the watchful, hawk eyes of the two leaders of the group, they were finally able to let loose. Sehun literally dove for her bed until his head rested just below her waist, snuggling closer to her as he clung to her arm. His other half remained somewhat calmer as he chose to sit down on her desk chair instead. It was more than clear that the remains of guilt were still residing in him, which served as a barrier to him being himself around her.

 

“Want to see something cool, jagiya?” Jongin’s grinning face interrupted her train of thought, her eyes slowly drifting from the suddenly turned recluse Luhan to the overly excited tanned demon.

 

What do I have to lose? She shrugged her shoulders, watching in slight anticipation as he kneeled beside the bed with his hands placed on top of her duvet.

 

He clicked his fingers, his grin still in place as he waited for shock to fly across her face, but her face remained blank. The brunette’s eyes slated slightly, her eyebrows furrowed together in confusion. Was she missing something here or did he stay the same as he did before he clicked his fingers?

 

“That was such a total fail, hyung.” Sehun’s muffled laughter could be heard in the background, even Tao managed to crack a smile as he shook his head in disbelief. The oldest one of the brothers however, seemed to be unimpressed as he rolled his eyes at the naivety of the transporter demon.

 

“B-But you guys said it was fool-proof? They are still there right?” The demon who was oblivious at being mocked by his brothers stuttered, thus breaking his façade.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            

“Unless something spectacular was supposed to happen, is there something that I’m missing?” She raised an eyebrow as took a sweeping glance across the room, lingering for a few seconds longer on Luhan it returned back to Jongin.

 

It was only now that Luhan let out a snigger, as if he had been suppressing the urge for a long time. “I told you guys that she would have trouble seeing it.” It seemed apparent that this knowledge had been kept hidden from the tanned male as he shot incredulous glares at the other three occupiers of the room.  

 

It was fair to say that Jieun was increasingly becoming wary of what she was not seeing.

 

“Don’t worry your little head, it’s nothing bad.” Tao smirked at her, at least that’s why she thought he was doing as part of his face was covered by his hand—no doubt trying to hide his amused chuckles.

 

That doesn’t answer my question though. She was also getting very annoyed and quickly at that.

 

“Look more closely and I’m sure you’ll find the answer hidden in his hair.”

 

She scrunched up her face in exasperation. What sort of a clue is that? I can’t even see anything in his dark hair—She paused for thought, tilted her head to the side as she took another few seconds to make sure what she was seeing was what she was supposed to see in the first place. How the heck was I supposed to see that?

 

“Did you see it? Do you like it?” Jongin, having brushed off being the main source of amusement for his brothers, was evidently more concerned with Jieun’s reaction more than anything else.

 

The brunette wasn’t sure what to make of it, it was only now that she was aware of its presence as it stuck out more obviously than before. If anything, it did add an extra appeal, if anything else.

 

“…I think they suited you better when you were a cat, Jongin.” That was the only response she could manage to come up with. The demon in question's pointed cat ears dropped slightly in disappointment at the lacklustre reaction—thus concealing them even more than before if possible. Upon this, the three were most certainly not tentative as they burst out in laughter at the unintentional rejection.

 

“He totally—fell for it—hook line and sinker!” Luhan wheezed out between breaths, hitting his knee while Sehun sniggered into the duvet.

 

“I never said it wasn’t a nice idea though, it’s cute.” Knowing that Jongin’s mood was deflating by the second, she decided to give him a lifeline. Though, she started to regret her two cent input the moment he turned to stare at her—was that sparkles in his eyes? Perhaps it was just the lightening—before he moved to pounced on her, causing her to brace herself. Tao waved a few fingers in the air, thus stopping everything in its tracks. He walked over to push Jongin out of the way before he leaned forward, his slated eyes scrutinising her for a moment or two.

 

“You’re too nice sometimes, little girl.” Then, she felt a peck on her forehead. “There are many wolves in this world, it would be safer to be like this only around us.”

 

 

 

Author's Corner                                                                                                                                                                               

 

Hellooo ^-^

 

Fluff overload in this chapter, as you could already tell haha! Important notice: For the time being, I'm going to take a break from writing (or at least until the festive season's over) while I finish up all my university work deadlines!  

 

Thanks once again for all the support! Hope you all have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New year~