Kai was infamous.

Infamous for things that were decided genetically by DNA, genes and cells, and perhaps with a dash of misfortune bestowed upon by Fate.

From the very moment he was born, bearing dark skin was the very first sign of his impending misfortune. It was perhaps a couple of shades darker than his own kind. Just a couple . It was a colour similar to milk tea, warm and inviting. In the human world they would’ve classed it under ‘tan’.

Tan (n.)

A yellowish-brown colour that tints the skin after long exposures to the sun.

A skin colour that celebrities and mortals of the west commonly sought for.

‘Tanning gives your skin a healthy glow!

Healthy my .

Kai was considered to be far from healthy, his skin condition being seen as a punishment from the previous life or even a curse, such beliefs held by his very own light skinned peers. He was avoided like a plague.

Coincidentally, or possibly not so, from the very moment he hit the pubescent age of thirteen rain poured from the skies.

Rain had fallen and followed him everywhere ever since then.

“Cursed boy,” people would scowl and hiss with literal intent as they took shelter under porches. The boy would pass with growingly heavy showers. “Told you he was cursed!”

Kai could only make an attempt to let such harsh comments slip through one ear and out the other. Regardless, it numbed him internally as the string of words left unwanted traces behind in the realms of his mind. Traces that became ingrained like parasites, all the positivity and joy out of him – that is if he had any left to spare from his miserable childhood.

In a way, the rain was his frenemy. The only friend he ever had that followed him around wherever he went, was there for him 24/7 to silently listen to his inner thoughts, reminding him of its constant presence by tapping softly against his windows. Yet also an enemy for its burdening existence had only made people hate him more, as if it was the rain’s intentions to isolate him further from society.

His skin had already separated him from his biological parents, parents who had abandoned him at birth, fearing that having a cursed son in their household would bring bad luck like a pixie.

When the rain came it detached him from his fraternal parents, parents who never gave up on him even after he moved out on his own accord.

He loathed his very own existence.

Sometimes he would attempt to commit something stupid and life threatening.

“Everything will get better one day, one day…” his sniffling fraternal father would murmur whilst holding him tightly in his arms shortly after stopping one of the attempts, having also understood the pain that Kai had gone through.

Despite living outside of town so that he wouldn’t burden them with the dreary rain every day, they would often visit to check up on him and bring him food.

“But you weren’t actually cursed and brought misfortune wherever you went.” Kai would retaliate, “and you have Kibum.”

“Even so I’m still hated for what I am. And I was lucky to have met Kibum.” A few stray tears were wiped away from soft tofu-like cheeks, “Maybe you too will find a pivotal moment in your life soon. Don’t give up.”

Kai could only nod and trust the pixie.

The annual alliance missions were compulsory for angels and fairies that were aged nineteen in September. It only existed in case a future war broke out across all races, though it was very unlikely seeing as all kingdoms globally have been relatively peaceful in the past couple of years.

Angels and fairies were randomly put into teams of various sizes depending on the mission assigned to them. It was a test that everyone had to pass, otherwise they may as well live life at the borders of their towns and cities forever ridiculed and shamed for their uselessness.

It would have made no difference to Kai.

Kai never really bothered paying any attention to it ever since his nineteenth birthday, thinking that he would be excluded from it as they probably wouldn’t bother listing him down as a participant.

But he was wrong.

“Kim Jongin,” an officer called out from one side of the grand hall that was filled with other anxious nineteen year olds.

The hall went silent, only the soft rain outside became audible, no one responded.

“Kim Jongin!” they called out again, louder with a hint of irritation.

Kai had forgotten that his birth name was Kim Jongin.

A name that was given to him by his biological parents.

A name that he had buried away along with their existence.

Kai was a name given to him by his fraternal parents, a name that made him sound stronger not weaker.

The hands in the pockets of his new jacket – gifted by his over doting parents that morning – slowly clenched as he walked slowly over to the officer. The sea of fairies parted to make way for him, scared that being within a meter’s distance would bring some kind of disease upon them.

It rained harder outside.

"Honestly, you should answer immediately when someone calls your name out,” the officer grumbled as he led Kai out of the hall and into a long white corridor, “or did you actually forget?”

Kai could have answered that it was a birth name that he no longer uses. He could have explained that his name was changed to Kai ever since he got adopted at the age of four, and maybe they forgot to update his documents.

But he didn’t.

I’m such a coward.

Now that he thought about it, the name Jongin probably suited him better. He wasn’t strong like a Kai. He can never change the fact that he has become something like a reclusive weakling, feeble and helpless, unable to communicate properly with people who weren’t his fraternal parents.

He was never given the chance to anyway.

Kai decided to settle with a small sigh.

The officer grunted.

They eventually reached the designated room where he would be given his mission and meet his team leader. A large wooden door painted with gold designs upon the surface.

Strange, he thought realising that there were no other participants around, why am I the only one called? Why am I not in a group?

The officer opened the door and gruffly pushed Kai in before slamming it shut.

The room was the head minister’s office. Although he had never seen the head minister let alone been in this room before, he could tell from all the certificates and the plaque that had claimed it.

“Ah, here you are,” the owner of the room set his papers down neatly on his desk and straightened himself, giving Kai a once over, “Kim Jongin?”

Kai nodded.

“Have a seat.”

Two seats were situated right in front of the minster’s desk. One had already been occupied by someone with a head full of blonde curly tresses. When Kai took the empty seat his heart almost failed to function as the stranger, who was a boy that did not look nineteen but a twelve year old, turned to flash a blinding smile at him.

“Nice to meet you Jongin, I’m Luhan.”

Luhan was Kai’s team leader. Team leaders were angels. Therefore, Luhan was an angel.

If he wasn’t an angel I don’t know what he would be.

Kai would’ve never thought that he would end up getting teamed with a beauty, a beauty that had shown no hostility towards him, a beauty who was incredibly friendly, a beauty that actually treated him nothing like soil.

This was all too bizarre to him; he was always used to narrowed eyes of hate aimed towards him, short sentences filled with venom and being treated like leper.

Any fairy in the land would have killed to be in Kai’s place and work with Luhan. He could tell from the amount of gaping and staring that he and Luhan had received when they exited the hall.

The envy would soon turn into hate.

More hate for Kai.

Kai would have made a run for it if only he hadn’t promised his father that he would try to find his own ‘pivotal moment’ from carrying out this mission. Perhaps Luhan was the said ‘pivotal moment’, or the beginning of it at the very least.

“I wonder why they gave us such an easy mission,” Luhan pouted, “I was expecting something awesome like defeating dragons or preventing an evil from returning – that was my aunt’s mission, but nope, all we get is a stupid mission to find something someone had lost. Absurd!”

Why would they send such a beautiful person on such dangerous and life threatening missions? I sure wouldn’t.

The angel had read Kai’s mind, “I know, I know. It’s this freaking face.” He sighed heavily; shoulders slumped and let a few blonde locks fall over his eyes, “Sometimes I hate being a descendant of Aphrodite.”

A responsive utterance fell from Kai’s lips naturally, “Not as much my hatred towards the colour of my own skin.”

He hadn’t noticed that he was now talking to someone other than his fraternal parents.

Luhan looked at Kai from head to toe, then back up again, returning a confused look, “What is there to hate? It’s an awesome colour.”

“Thanks,” he rubbed an arm self-consciously, not really knowing how to respond to such a positive comment about his skin colour, “but the people here would beg to differ. My skin is seen as disgusting, filthy, the results of my ‘evil’ past life.”

They stepped out of the building and stood at the porch, watching the rain fall in front of them.

“It had also foreshadowed my curse, this-” he stretched a hand out to let the rain meet the palm, “this is my curse.” He then smiled bitterly as a small pool began to form in the crevice of his palm, “I bring rain everywhere I go.”

The fairy was finally opening up to someone, willingly and naturally, without having to double think about his actions. Perhaps it wasn’t just Luhan’s approachableness that made him talk; it was also possible that being introverted and distant for such a long period of time, with minimal social interaction, made him crave interaction and feel the need to…let it all out.

There was a moment of silence as Luhan nodded understandingly.

“You know what I used to hate more than being a descendant of Aphrodite?” a small playful smile graced his lips, “Being a mixed blood.”

Kai was puzzled, “mixed blood?”

Luhan gently curled the fingers of his right hand on Kai’s wrist, startling him. The fingers felt warm and soft against his skin, almost giving a calming effect.

“I’m not only an angel, but also a human…”

The fingers then became ice cold within a second after, prickling Kai’s wrist, threatening to freeze the blood stream beneath the skin.

“…a vampire…”

Sudden heat then burned against Kai’s skin, not enough to actually leave burn marks, but enough to make Kai pull is wrist away in fear.

“…and wolf.”

The fading summer sun peeked through the gaps of the rain drops, its beams making Luhan glow and appear more meaningful to Kai than before.

Take the six o’clock cooking class in the union on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, Luhan had instructed as he hoisted his backpack onto his shoulder. Keep an eye out on Park Chanyeol okay? He handed Kai a photograph of a tall lanky male with frazzled auburn hair, smiling with a twitch on one of his eyes at a shorter brown haired boy in the park.

Kai wanted to ask Luhan how he managed to acquire such a stalker-ish photograph of one of their targets – who they hadn’t even seen in real life yet, but the angel boy had already dashed out of their temporary flat.

He was glad that he didn’t have to approach the target and talk to him. He wasn’t quite ready for that yet.

It wasn’t difficult finding Chanyeol in a room of fifty people, him being the tallest of the bunch and not the mention the loudest.

“I want to learn how to cook steak! Steak!!!”

But it was very difficult to keep an eye on him at all times. The very focus of his vision always drifted from the hyperactive happy virus to the guy who would constantly come over to help him.

Baby faced.

Doe eyed.

Short.

Mother-like.

The epitome of all things cute and squishy.

Do Kyungsoo, the apple of Kai’s eye.

AN

It took me a while to type this chapter out because I wanted everything to be perfect. Well, in terms of storyline. I don’t know about grammar. My grammar has always , hardcore. Hence why I am planning to hire a beta reader (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧ ! PM me if any of you guys are interested :333 !!!

// I was also VERY conflicted on whether I should post this certain chapter up now and carry one from the prologue or later;;;

Unfortunately I am unable to write for the next 2 weeks because I have deadlines coming up. I need to create a flash game, hand code a php based site that uses queries and databases (anyone out there who can help me? Cos I at this ; w ; ), and write reading responses to academic books.

If all goes well I should be able to study at Korea University in 2013-2014 - 3- !! Or Sydney, New South Wales, Toronto, and Carleton. This could potentially mean that I would have no time to write fanfics if I end up studying abroad in the next academic year;;;

But um, yeah.

Hello, I would like a beta reader ; 3 ; !!

Unable to update for next 2 weeks ; AAA ;

Thank you for reading <3