Kris lunged for Jieun and managed to push her out of the way but not fast enough for him to avoid the spawn. It sank its teeth on Kris’ shoulder and he yelled from the pain. Jieun tried to stand but Kris pushed her out of the way again; his face started to drain of its colors.

Tao and Lay heard the commotion inside and ran back. Lay whipped his blades as soon as he saw what was happening and it wrapped around the spawn’s neck and with a strong tug, he beheaded the creature and burst into flames.

Kris dropped on the floor all energy drained from him.

            “YiFan!” Jieun yelled as she hurried towards him adrenaline rushing through her veins.

Kris stayed immobile but they heard him give a painful groan.

            “it his energy. He’s almost completely drained.” Lay said through gritted teeth.

They knew this could be a great problem. A succubus will drain one of its life force so fast you could pass out in seconds then die in the next minute. Since Kris is a mage, all the creature could do is to make him pass out but it could take days before all his energy would be restored.

            “can you gate us back to Mt. Shia?” Tao asked as he lifted his brother onto his shoulders. Jieun nodded.

They all ran out and saw the others with Krystal who was still unconscious.

            “what happened back there?!” Luhan asked his eyes wide in shock when he saw who Tao was carrying.

            “we’ll explain later. Let’s get back to Mt. Shia first. Jieun?” Lay looked at Jieun. She nodded.

She raised her hand and summoned her magic. A portal to their world appeared and slowly they all stepped inside. Jieun gated them directly outside the doors of the healing room.

Chen yanked the door open and the team scrambled in with a shocked Sunny and Luna. Xiumin laid Krystal on a bed near the window and Tao laid Kris on the bed next to her. Kris’ shoulder was still bleeding profusely.

            “what in the world happened here?” Sunny said as she trotted to Kris. Luna was already tending to Krystal who she made to drink a purple mixture from a bottle.

            “we missed one.” Lay said in a dead tone.

            “tsk! He got bitten…Bad.” Sunny assessed her brows furrowing.

            “it’s my fault, he…he tried to get me out of the way.” Jieun said in a voice so soft it was almost a whisper. She could barely stand her legs were shaking so badly.

            “it isn’t anybody’s fault.” Sunny said but she didn’t look up but kept attending to Kris’ injury.

            “I think you need to rest, Jieun. That spell you and Krystal did tonight wasn’t a minor one; you need to get your strength back again.” Luhan said gently pushing her down on a bed.

Jieun honestly wanted to wait till Kris would be conscious again but her eyes were starting to droop and her body just wanted to lay still and recuperate for hours.

            “Lay and I will keep you guys company, don’t worry.” Tao said patting Jieun’s head as her eyes flickered and closed. Her arm dropped to the side, which Chen picked up and laid on top of her stomach.

            “Xiumin, Chen, I need you two to come with me to report to the Council.” Luhan said calmly but with a commanding voice. He is, after all, the second in command for this team.

Xiumin stood up from beside Krystal, who Luna said would be waking up in a few hours and the three of them walked out of the room.

            “so, care to explain to me why one of the Yin’s best warriors ended up like this?” Sunny said as she straightened up and dabbed Kris’ wounds with a bluish liquid that smelled horribly like rotting vegetables.

            “I’m not really sure myself.” Lay started dropping onto a chair. “all I know is that we heard some noises and Tao and I rushed back in the building.”

            “all we saw was the creature already the life out of my brother then Lay killed it.” Tao finished.

            “from what I could piece together, Jieun was about to be attacked but since she was too weak to fight back Kris came to the rescue and pushed her away but got bitten himself.” Lay theorized rubbing the bridge of his nose.

            “are you sure that’s…safe?” Tao asked wrinkling his nose from the smell of the liquid.

            “of course, I’m just ridding his wound of the poison before I close it up.” Sunny replied a bit testily.

Kris twitched. Tao winced in response. He never really liked it whenever Sunny is the one doing the healing.

Sunny laid a hand over Kris’ wound then closed her eyes muttering a spell. White, hot light shot from her palm and onto the wound, a few seconds later the wound closed leaving only a pinkish mark on his skin like a little burn spot.

            “ thanks Sunny.” Lay said as he stood up and peered on the wound.

            “that spot will clear in a few days when he regains his full strength.” She straightened up and wiped a little sweat from her brow. “he can’t go on missions yet though.”

            “how many days will that take?” Tao asked.

            “depends, maybe 3-5 days depending on how he’ll rest.” Sunny crossed her arms and studied Kris’ face. “If I know him he won’t be able to stay put and doing nothing, so five days max.”

Both Lay and Tao groaned. 5 days without threat leader is going to be hell. Luhan is all right but only Kris could really control Xiumin.

            “you two better go home now, they will be fine here.” Luna said from Krystal’s bed. She stood up and opened a cabinet and took out two bottles. “here, you’ll need it.”

She tossed it to the two boys and both caught it easily grinning at the bottle of blood in their hands. Tao twisted the bottle cap open and he took a sniff. He pushed the bottle away as soon as he realized whose blood it was.

            “ugh! This is Jessica noona’s blood!” Lay gagged. Unlike Tao he drank his bottle immediately after opening.

            “so? It’s just blood.” Sunny replied with a raised eyebrow.

            “but noona’s blood is like drinking a whole tube of toothpaste. It’s freezing my throat.” Lay grimaced clenching his throat.

            “I bet she donated this while having a bad mood again.” Tao said gingerly letting the bottle to his lips to taste.

Sunny and Luna caught each other’s eyes and held back a grin. Jessica did indeed donate while having a bad mood. Apparently Donghae got caught up with something and forgot all about their date. Her frequent mood swing made all the mage very wary in drinking her bottled blood, so it’s usually her blood that will be left un-drunk at the Mage Bar. Thankfully, she never goes in there and only Donghae would endure drinking hers coz she’s his girlfriend. Other mage will have no choice though if there’s no other bottles left just like now.

            “whose blood would you rather have then if given the choice?” Luna asked out of curiosity. Sunny stared at Luna.

            “hmmm…hard to say, I’m not too picky as long as it isn’t Jessica noona’s.” Tao said taking a brave gulp of blood and clenched his teeth after he swallowed.

            “ditto!” Lay replied after emptying his and shoved the bottle away.

            “fine, now both of you go home, the sun is about to rise.” Sunny said and waved them off.

Both of them trudged out the door and Luna put the bottles away.

            “why did you ask them about whose blood they preferred to drink, Luna?” Sunny asked as she draped blankets over Jieun and Kris.

Luna looked Sunny and gave a small knowing smile. Her gaze fell on Kris’ sleeping form.

            “I was just curious if it’s a vampire thing or just a self preference.” She shrugged.

            “I know you know something, Luna. I know that look.”

            “well,” she started draping a blanket over Krystal. “I know of someone who prefers the blood of one maja in particular, but I don’t even know he’s conscious about it, unnie.”

            “who?” Sunny asked looking closely at Luna.

            “you’ll know soon enough, unnie.” She smiled and left for the back room.

Sunny looked down at Kris and thought if it was he. If it was, Sunny thought whose blood it could possibly be. Then her eyes wandered to Jieun.

            “interesting.”

Outside a quaint coffee shop around the bustling streets of Hongdae sat two people.  They didn’t interact and just sat there doing their own things. Jieun was trying to finish her schoolwork as fast as she could while Kris sat in front of her with a cup of blood disguised as coffee. He was reading a Chinese book which Jieun didn’t bother to ask what. The two didn’t exchange a word to each other that passersby would think they just shared a table in the full coffee shop.

Jieun continued to glare at her homework, she didn’t honestly like the idea of Kris tagging along with her after school but Sora unnie had him go with her, she didn’t know why but she guessed it was her punishment for getting Kris bitten.

Kris neither liked nor disliked the idea though. He wanted to catch up on his reading anyway and Jieun was too mad to even talk to him for tagging along so he didn’t complain about the no talking setting.

Kris only looked up from his book when Jieun yawned and stretched.

            “done?” he asked in a bored tone. Jieun burrowed her brows at him.

            “just about.” She said looking at Kris take a sip at his drink and watched his face contort in disgust.           

            “disgusting.” He said slamming down the cup of blood on the table. Jieun felt offended, it was her blood after all.

            “yah, can you please not make a face like that? It’s mine after all.” she said biting angrily at a garlic stick.

            “you should know how it tastes like they made you drink the stupid tonic to make this after all.” Kris retorted and went back to his book.

SaeMi did get Jieun to drink an herbal tonic, it was made to be absorbed in her bloodstream to be given to the mage who needed it. In this case it was Kris. The tonic will make no effect on a mage when directly drank and mixing it with donated blood will make its effects useless.

            “don’t remind me.”

            “you brought it up.”

            “will you just shut up? I have a garlic stick and I’m not afraid to use it!” she jabbed him in the chest but before it could stain his white button down shirt he grabbed her wrist. Even trying to look normal, his reflexes were still the best.

            “stop embarrassing me. You’re making me look like I’m babysitting you.” He pushed her arm back towards her and went back to his book.

            “oh that’s better, I thought I’m making you look like my tutor.” Kris looked up just in time to catch her sticking her tongue out at him. He shook his head in defeat. Jieun was really immature.

Another few minutes passed in silence until Jieun broke it with a question.

            “hey, YiFan, I’m curious. What exactly does our blood taste like to Magi?” Kris looked up at her.

            “why do you ask?”

            “like I said, I’m curious. I heard Tao complaining yesterday about Jessica unnie’s blood making his throat freeze or something.”

Kris had to suppress his grin.

            “noona’s blood is just like that coz she’s usually in a bad mood when she donates, but if not, it’s fine, tastes something spicy, good spicy, like a kimchi jigae.”

            “so is it like that for the rest of us?” Jieun pressed on. She leaned over the table slightly as to not be overheard. Talking about what blood tastes like in public would surely attract curious glances.

            “it’s different. Yours normally tastes sweet, not sickly sweet but it’s like a fruity sweet, smells like it too. Krystal’s like a peppermint candy, that’s why Xiumin loves it, he used to eat peppermint candies before he turned.” Kris explained looking like a tutor with a book on his lap while explaining something to someone with books and paper scattered all over her side of the table.

            “oh, so it makes you not miss normal food then?” she asked. Kris sighed from her unending questions.

            “yes and no. even with blood tasting like normal food we’d still prefer the real thing but since it doesn’t taste like anything to us anymore we couldn’t do anything about it.”

He closed his book and set it on the table.

            “where are you going?” Jieun asked as Kris stood up.

            “getting you another coffee.” He said pointing at her empty cup.

            “oh, thanks…I guess.” Jieun said a bit surprised.

            “I’ll get you café latte.” Jieun was about to protest about wanting a double espresso but Kris held up a hand “no, at this rate if you have more espresso you won’t be able to sleep for 3 days.”

He turned around and went inside the café. A couple of girls stared and gushed over him as he walked like a model to the counter. Even the girl taking his order was blushing like a tomato. Jieun just shook her head, tied her hair and went back to her Greek mythology essay. Her browns furrowed and bit her lip as she mentally cursed Hera. Her results of her jealousy were something she found childish and pitied Heracles for getting punished for what Hera had done to him.

She started to write the conclusion of her essay when the seat in front of her was pulled back. Thinking that Kris was back she looked up.

            “you’re ba—“ she stared but it wasn’t Kris. It was the face of the person she didn’t ever want to see.

            “this seat taken, babe?” JinGu said in the greasiest tone she’d ever heard. He seemed not to recognize her. She wasn’t surprised she wasn’t that loser of a geek anymore.

            “yes, so you may leave now.” She glared angrily at the man and looked back down. The last she heard about this guy he got his of a girlfriend knocked up and both of them got expelled from the university. Then he left her and she got an abortion.

            “have we met before?” his asked peering closely on Jieun’s face, his voice sounded really curious now.

            “do you use that line on every girl you flirt with? Coz if you do, you’re pretty outdated.” Jieun spat, not even bothering to look up.

Then a soft breeze swept the hair from Jieun’s face and revealed the scar on her left temple.

            “you’re that geek from my old uni!” JinGu yelled in surprise.

            “oh how smart of you, here’s a red star.” Jieun gave a mock clap. JinGu stared at her.

            “you’ve gotten braver…and confident…I like that.” He smirked and leaned forward.

            “yey, lucky me.” Jieun replied sarcastically. The dolt didn’t recognize the sarcasm and took her reply as a gesture of flirting back.

            “you’re actually pretty. So, why don’t we ditch whoever you’re with and go somewhere more private.” He suggested.

            “thanks, but no thanks. I don’t spend my precious time on s.” Now she didn’t bother with sarcasm and went straight to her point.

            “why are you still playing hard to get? You should consider yourself lucky, no guy will ever take you with that ugly scar on your face.” He said and leaned forwards. Jieun recoiled disgusted and leaned back on her chair away from him.

            “I’d rather stay as is than go off with you. Now go away before my friend comes back.”

            “friend? Tsh! You’re just saying you’re here with someone so you be able to get rid of me aren’t you?”

            “no.” Jieun glared and pointed at Kris’ cup. JinGu followed saw the cup and a slight crease appeared on his forehead.

            “I bet this friend of yours is an ugly nerd? Who else would have you as a company if not for people like you.” Apparently JinGu is still the kind of guy who didn’t take rejection lightly.

Jieun tried not to snap back and say the person he is insulting is a tall, muscular, not to mention, very good looking mage who could easily snap him in half if he wanted to.

JinGu, however, took her silence as an assent and grinned victoriously.

            “so what do you say we leave your geek of friend and let me show you how to have a good time?” JinGu stood up and grabbed Jieun’s wrist and tried to tug her up with him.

            “yah! Let me go! I’m not going anywhere with a jerk like you!” Jieun yelled and yanked her wrist back at the same time controlling the magic that was threatening to burst. A couple of people from other tables started to stare at them.

            “you’re not getting rid of me that easily. I still haven’t forgotten the humiliation your family gave me seven years ago. If you come quietly with me I might consider forgiving them.” he said making it sound like a threat.

            “tch! You deserve what you got for being a bullying !” She spat.

            “YOU-!” JinGu raised a hand his hand ready to slap her as Jieun just glared at him unafraid of the incoming hit knowing she’s had worse.

A firm grip around JinGu’s wrist stopped him from hitting Jieun and his face contorted with pain.

            “can I help you with something?” Kris’ low voice said as he forced JinGu’s arm down as easily as a twig. If he put in more force Kris could possibly break his arm.

            “let go of me, you son of a !” JinGu yelled from the pain.

            “hitting a girl? Not very manly don’t you think?” Kris said calmly.

            “ get lost and mind your own business!” Kris didn’t let go, JinGu’s hand started to turn white from the blocked circulation.

“I am minding my own business. She’s my business.” He said emphasizing the word. Jieun just stared at the two quite enjoying the sight of JinGu getting what he deserved.

“what do you mean she’s your business? She’s--.”

“MY girl.” Kris said in growl and threw JinGu’s wrist away with so much force he stumbled.

Jieun met Kris’ eyes and with a tiny twitch of his eyebrows, he conveyed what he meant and that Jieun should just go along with it. Jieun started to pack her things and neatly shoving it inside her bag. JinGu straightened up defiantly but stayed silent. He may still have his muscles but Kris was both tall and lean and obviously more intimidating with his experience fighting with a lot worse that jerks.

            “done?” Kris asked and handed Jieun her coffee. The change of the tone of his voice from a possessive growl to a soft, low and sweet one made the girls who heard swoon in their seats. Jieun had heard this kind of tone from him so often that it didn’t move her as much as it did to the other girls.

            “yes and thanks for the coffee.” Jieun smiled her best girly smile at him and swung her satchel bag over her shoulder. Being a maja for 7 years made her practically a very good actress.

Kris grabbed her bag and swung it to his own shoulder and held a hand out to Jieun, she held it without second thoughts.

            “you.” Kris said facing JinGu again. “don’t show your face in front of us again if you don’t want to go home with a frog for a face.” He threatened and walked away with Jieun who was leaning against his arm trying to suppress her laughter.

When they rounded a corner and Jieun burst out laughing. The silent treatment they both gave each other earlier vanished as Kris chuckled at the maja.

            “did you see his face?” Jieun said in between laughs.

            “you’d think I shoved my fist down his throat.” He sniggered. Jieun straightened as she caught her breath.

            “and I must say thank you, I might’ve really turned him into a frog if you didn’t intervene in time.”

Kris snorted.

            “yeah, I was expecting a lot worse, like a fly or something then you’d smack him dead.” he put a hand on the base of the back of her neck and started to push her forwards. “come on, let’s go home before you’ll find another person to add to the country’s amphibian population.”

            “yeesh! Like it’s a big deal if I did.” she tried kicking his shin but his reflexes was too fast and dodged it.

            “stop acting like a kid for once, Jieun-ah.” He said.

            “I am not a kid, I’m 27 already.” She stuck her tongue out making Kris raise his eyebrows.

            “and I’m  49.” He shook his head and they started walking again.

Jieun pouted in defeat he was definitely older in age and even higher in rank.

Kris grinned in triumph. They both started to the direction of an empty alley to where she could gate them back to Mt. Shia where hopefully they could hang out with their friends.