The journey back to Mt. Shia was highly uncomfortable. The atmosphere was filled with such tension that you can slice is with a dull blade. Tao and Jieun were particularly irritated, as both Luhan and Kris won’t say anything. Not that they haven’t tried, Tao kept asking Kris until the latter had to raise his voice to make his brother stop. Poor Tao had to use Jieun as a shield again. Jieun had only asked Kris once and when he said to drop it she did. Her gaze went to Luhan as they walked briskly to an empty alley. She knew him long enough to know not to talk to Luhan when he’s like this; bothered and agitated.

As soon as Jieun casted the portal both Kris and Luhan disappeared through it and catching Tao’s eyes, Jieun motioned for him to go.

Jieun had connected the portal outside the palace gates and as she stepped through she could see Luhan’s back disappear through the thick trees.

            “where is he going?” Jieun asked Kris who stood still watching his friend walk away.

            “to think.” He sighed.

Jieun crossed her arms and stood in front of Kris.

            “ok, YiFan, I’m not going to ask why Luhan is so bothered by that woman, but I can’t just ignore that today happened. So I’m going to ask you this, how did she know you?”

It wasn’t that she was interested in gossip, but it was part of the law that they should not let humans get to know them for too long. Sure Jieun’s college friends are close but as they would eventually part ways and Jieun having mentioned moving to another country after graduation it didn’t matter much. But the lady recognized both Luhan and Kris and she had said Kris has not changed.

Did she know about them being immortal? Or was she just paranoid? These questions filled Jieun’s head that she felt her brain turning to mush.

Kris’ eyes stared at Jieun’s and his faced masked by an unreadable expression. If he was going to answer Jieun’s question then he is trying very hard not to give anything away by his face.           

“once I’ve answered your question you will not bring the topic up again. Ever. Understood?” he said in his leader voice.

Jieun nodded.

“but if Luhan tells me?”

“then I would not bother stopping him.”

“ok so…?”

“we met her 20 years ago. Xiumin, Luhan and I. that’s all I’m telling you and don’t bother asking Lay and Chen, they’re as clueless as Tao.” He said curtly and left Jieun standing there alone and as curious as ever.

~~~~~~~~

The week after the incident was so hectic that Jieun hadn’t had much time to think of it. Everyone was so busy preparing for the Autumn Ball and it made everyone tired to the bone. They were all finished with the decorations, food and some of those other-party surprises. Each year the Majae and Magus gather together and welcome the coming of autumn by throwing a fancy dance. No celebration in winter but in spring they celebrate by wondrous fireworks display courtesy of the senior majae and in the summer, water games by the lake.

Jieun had only attended the summer and autumn celebrations once as only of-age majae and magus are allowed but for the spring fireworks display, everyone was allowed to watch.

Every year for the autumn dance all the senior majae enters the ballroom in their own preferred style, some casually than other while some like to show off and throw a spectacle for the others. Yesung and his bonded wife, Rin, made quite an entrance the year before that almost made everyone’s jaw to drop. A huge white horse with wings that looked liked wisps of smoke, which turned out to be clouds. It made a huge thunder-like roar and its wings beat so strongly it snuffed out all the decorative candles and made the room dimly lit, it was the effect they looked for because after that a lightning struck in the middle of the ballroom and out came Yesung and Rin.

Although Jieun preferred their entrance, the bonded couple who topped it was Leeteuk and Taeyeon. A soft visible breeze entered the room and twirled in the middle of the ballroom, sparks flew out of it and slowly formed into a fountain, and the water flowed gently in a controlled swirl and froze looking like a diamond sundae. Cracks slowly formed in the middle and burst into tiny dazzling powder of crystals. From the middle out came the bonded couple dressed in frosted white and gracefully slid down the ice sculpture.

The votes went to Leeteuk and Taeyeon because the horse caused so much damaged it took a few minutes before the other bonded couples could make their entrance.

Jieun walked back to her house from the castle after the last few touches of the interior of the ballroom. It was already 3am and all she wanted was to drop off to sleep in the comforts of her warm and soft bed. The night was quiet, a few crickets s could be heard and the rustling from birds of the night.

A figure caught Jieun’s eye as she glanced towards the direction of the cliff, which was still covered by trees.

She stopped and squinted her eyes, but she still couldn’t make it out clearly. She straightened up and closed her eyes and exhaled. Her magic seeped out of her skin and touched the air. The familiar aura hit the tips of her fingers and made it tingle with soft, buzzing feel.

            “Luhan.” She whispered. She didn’t think twice and started walking towards her friend.

Jieun approached him as silently as she could but somewhere in the back of her head she knew it was futile. He’d know her scent.

And true enough.

            “nice evening, isn’t it, Jieun?” Luhan said in a quiet voice when Jieun was about 5 feet away from him.

Jieun didn’t answer and just sat beside him leaning on a tree.

            “what got you here at this time of night, Lu?” Jieun asked staring out at the view. Then she remembered that night when she formally met Kris 7 years ago. It was a place almost exactly like this. She almost grinned about how she was back then.

            “just…thinking.” He sighed.

Jieun knew it was about that encounter they had a week ago. Like Kris told her, she asked nobody about it.

            “penny for your thoughts then?”

She heard him chuckle. The night breeze rustled his hair to his face and the light from the moon made his face ghostly but it didn’t mar the beauty of his features.

            “I’m afraid it’ll cost a little more than a penny though.”

            “oh I have a few jewels at home that we can exchange for a few bills.” Jieun joked. It worked Luhan laughed but it slowly faded slowly as he looked down and his expression turned a bit miserable.

            “getting reality shoved up your really doesn’t feel all that great, Jieun-ah.”

            “getting anything shoved up your never feels good, Luhannie.” Jieun smiled sympathetically. “care to share? I’m all ears.”

Luhan looked like he was considering it for a second but sighed and nodded.

            “now that I think about it you were probably only 6 or 7 when this happened.” Luhan laughed and Jieun scowled.

            “I know you’re old enough to be my youngest uncle but don’t laugh please.” Luhan glanced at her and smiled.

            “anyway,” he started and leaned back on the tree. “20 years ago, when I was 29, we were sent on a mission. It wasn’t big and there were only 3 of us; Kris, Xiumin and me.” He paused.

Jieun’s face slightly understood what Kris had told her about the other 3 not knowing. Luhan saw her expression and thought she was asking where the other 3 were.

“ It was about a human trafficking syndicate that had gone too big for the Council not to interfere. We later found out it was operated by one of the rogue ones. Chen and Lay, who only had 2 years of experience then, weren’t allowed yet and Tao was still 19 and just started his training.” He explained. Jieun just nodded and gestured for him to go on.

“everything went according to plan. We attacked and fought all of the guards with ease; their guns were no match for our speed. Everything they threw at us that night was pathetic compared to the combat rooms Kyuhyun and Changmin hyung designs. Even though rogue vampires operated the syndicate, most of their men were just ordinary people. We fought and killed each and every one of them.”

“I imagine it was one hell of a bloody fight.” Jieun commented. Luhan chuckled.

“it was a bit. We were so young back then…for mage standards.” He added catching the look on Jieun’s face. “Kris wasn’t even the serious YiFan you know now back then.” Luhan’s smiled faded and the gloomy expression was back.

“anyway, most of the dodging of bullets we did that night mostly killed those men. So you can say they kind of killed each other. Xiumin was annoyed that he didn’t get that much time to get warmed up. Kris hit him.” The grin on his face was back at the memory. “There were so many rooms at that place that we decided to split up. I went down to the basement where most of the women were. There were about 10 per room; I told all of them to wait by the stairs after I let all of the others go. I suppose the rooms were soundproof because when I got to the last room there was one of the goons in there that was about to one of the girls. Her shirt was ripped and there was blood on her lips from the beating she got. I broke his neck and killed him. I looked back for the girl who was curled up in the corner of the room.”

Flashback

Luhan stood over the crumpled body of the man he just killed and his blood boiled at the thought of such men who do vile things to women just because they thought they could easily be overpowered. He looked over his shoulder for the girl and saw her in a corner curled up in a ball crying from fright and trauma. Luhan felt himself calm down and slowly made his way to the girl.

As the sound of his footsteps echoed the girl cried even hard begging him not to hurt her.

            “hey hey, I won’t hurt you. I’m one of the good guys.” He put his hands up even though her head was down and couldn’t see his gesture.

            “go away please! Don’t hurt me!” she begged as she got a look of Luhan’s masked face. It didn’t reassure her, but it scared her even more.

Luhan kneeled in front of her and took off his mask.

            “look at me, I promise I won’t hurt you. See? No more bad guys, you’re safe now.” Luhan touched her arm but she flinched and pulled away.

Luhan sighed.

            “I know you’re scared but we need to get out of here. All the others are out already, do you want to stay here all alone?” he said trying to get her to cooperate.

She lifted up her head and saw Luhan’s face. She froze. Although she just almost got assaulted she couldn’t help but trust the man in front of him.

Luhan also froze as he saw her face. Her eyes were the most beautiful eyes he saw and he gulped and tried to keep himself from getting distracted.

            “are you ready to leave now?” he asked. With tear streaked eyes she nodded.

Luhan smiled and stood up and offered her a hand. She shakily accepted his and he pulled her up. The girl tried to cover herself with what’s left of her shirt but it was no use. Luhan noticed this and pulled off his black leather jacket and put it over her and guided her out towards the others and up the stairs while putting his mask back on.

End of flashback

            “the girl we saw last week, that was her?” Jieun asked. Luhan nodded grimly.

            “I got them all upstairs and a few seconds later Kris came with a bunch of boys in their teens then Xiumin with a bunch of younger kids. I suppose she got frightened by Kris and Xiumin that she clung even closer to me. We got them as near to a police station as possible and left them a block away from the station and told the older ones to get everyone there. But when we left she held on to my sleeve and refused to let go. Suffice it to say we both kind of got attached and I honestly didn’t want to leave her there but Kris is my leader and I had to obey him.”

            “so he’s still an insensitive jerk even from way back.”

            “a bit.” Luhan said laughing. “I couldn’t really forget about her and 3 months after that I was walking around Hongdae and saw her serving coffee at a small café. Without second thoughts I walked towards the place and sat.” Luhan smiled at the memory.

            “she was really beautiful, her innocent, round eyes captured me even more. You can’t imagine how I felt back then. She froze when she recognized me of course but unlike her scared self a few months before she calmed down faster now and smiled at me. ‘I still have your jacket’ she said. I don’t know if you can call it flirting but I told her to keep it in remembrance of me.”

            “Flirty and greasy.” Jieun giggled.

            “we introduced ourselves and I found out her name was Shim MinJeon and 19 years old, she was an orphan and supported herself since she was in high school when her parents died. We got to know each other more after that, I walked her home. Even if I was 29 back then and may sound horribly weird but at least I didn’t look 29 right?” he said in an attempt at a joke.

Jieun snorted.

            “you don’t even look 29 now.” She said.

            “it was what you call a dangerous liaison for both of us, she can’t find out about what I really am and with me interacting so close to her might get her into trouble when the rogue ones find out. So I tried to keep it as quiet and as secret as possible. Kris found out of course and he wasn’t happy.”           

            “how did he find out?” she asked.           

            “Kris followed me when I sneaked out once and saw me walking MinJeon home, it was also the first time we ever kissed.” He smiled to himself again. “Kris was and still is the best at stealth so I had no idea he followed me; he even made sure to keep his distance for me not to get a whiff of his scent. Anyway he confronted me when I got back home and told me to break it off. I knew what he meant, and I already know that we can never be but at that point both of us were already too far in love to care. I can still hear his voice in my head saying what will happen when she notices that I never age or why she can only meet me at night. I have my ready-made excuses, that I had to work during the day and can only meet her at night, the sorts. Eventually, Xiumin also found out and both of them tried to stop me without the Council knowing.”

            “so how did MinJeon know Kris and Xiumin?”

            “those two tried to stop me meeting her one night after one of our missions and saw the 3 of us arguing. We couldn’t really tell her what we’re arguing about so I introduced them to her. That was when she realized they were the other two guys who were with me the night I saved her.”

Jieun didn’t say anything and just nodded knowing they were near the end of Luhan’s story.

            “about 3 years of keeping our relationship to the Council a secret, some rogue ones found out and decided to kidnap her to lure me with Kris and Xiumin to a trap. They were just thugs and could be easily disposed but my anger got the best of me and I barged into the abandoned house where they kept her. They had her tied to a chair and when she saw me she screamed for me to leave, I can’t say I blame her, those rogue ones were huge, bulky men. But they were all about brute strength as I was about speed and agility. I fought them hard, my blood boiling at the teasing they told me about how they her blood dry after they kill me. My fangs bared unconsciously as I killed them all. She saw me got freaked out. I gave her no explanation as to what I am even when she asked.  Kris and Xiumin arrived in their wolf form and even when they were animals then, I knew they were beyond mad. I ignored them and brought MinJeon home.”

Flashback

Luhan laid MinJeon on her couch before going to the kitchen to give her a glass of water. She was crying quietly both from fright and confusion. The man she loved didn’t turn out who she think he was and he lied about what he really is. She saw Luhan’s torn expression and her heart broke into pieces.

Luhan stood up without a word and kissed on the side of her head so long that MinJeon knew something wasn’t right. He let her go and turned towards the door. MinJeon held his hand to stop him from walking out.

            “you’re not…coming back… are you?” her voice cracked and tears fell from her eyes. Luhan kept his back towards her and inhaled sharply as he tried to blink back tears that were threatening to fall from his own eyes.

            “I…I was never good for you, Jeonnie-ah, I’m sorry to have even tried.” He said trying to keep his voice calm but his other hand was clenched into a fist.

At that point MinJeon understood, why he couldn’t, why he should leave. With a shaking hand, she let his hand go. As soon as MinJeon let go Luhan turned abruptly around and hugged her as tightly as he could and she hugged him with as much ferocity as he gave her.

“be happy without me. Always remember that I love you forever and always.” He begged and with a final chaste kiss, Luhan turned around and left.

End of flashback

Jieun felt her tears fall rolling down her cheeks, she wiped it away not looking at her still broken-hearted friend.

            “the Council found out that exact same night and, as the leader that he is, gave Kris one heck of shouting. He took the blame for everything that I did even if I told them Kris never missed a moment to tell me to stop what I was doing but it was futile. I have never seen Hangeng gege look so disappointed in his son. We almost cost the life of an innocent we’ve sworn to protect because of our foolish actions, my foolish actions. I’m afraid Kris also changed after that.”  He guiltily looked at his hands and sighed.

            “when I saw the girl that night I recognized her at once, they both have the exact same eyes; those innocent, round eyes I’ve always love staring. I guess somewhere inside of me wished she’d never move on, as I never have. But I guess I really needed that reality check.”

            “you’re really beating yourself up on this, Luhan. It’s not your fault you fell in love. You need to stop putting all the blame on yourself.”           

            “why not? I almost cost my team too much because of it.”

            “They’ve forgiven you, Luhan, I know they have and from what I see it’s only you who haven’t forgiven yourself. I think you only can when you finally let go of everything.”

            “but what if I don’t want to forget?”

            “who said anything about forgetting? You only need to forgive yourself so you can move on and accept things. I think she’d like that. I can see she had already accepted things and let you go, but she never forgot you, it’s obvious who she named her little girl after.” she smiled and gave Luhan a pat on the shoulder.

Luhan stared at her and smiled.

            “you know you reminded me of her when we saved you that time in the alley. You were so scared you wouldn’t even let me touch you.” He sniggered. Jieun tried to suppress her laugh.

            “you’re not in love with me are you?” she teased.

            “heavens no!” Luhan almost shouted and both of them laughed. “you’re a good friend, Jieun, thanks for listening.”

            “anytime and don’t worry I won’t tell a living soul about what we talked about tonight.” She smiled and nudged Luhan’s shoulder and both of them stood up. “you know what she told me before I left?”

Luhan looked at her.

            “what?”

            “she told me to take care of you.” Jieun said smiling kindly at her friend. “ you better get home, it’s almost sunrise.” She said before she turned.

            “bye Jieun.”

            “bye Lu!” she waved and disappeared through the trees.

Luhan waved a hand towards Jieun with a comforted smile on his face. After a few seconds he sighed and looked back towards the skies.

            “I thought you’d never get that out of your chest.” A low and bored voice echoed from a couple of trees back.

            “how long have you been there?” Luhan asked not bothering to look who it was.

            “long enough.” He said as the tall figure of Luhan’s team leader came out of the shadows.

            “you know I haven’t really begged you to forgive me all those years ago.” Luhan grinned as Kris stood beside him.

            “and I’m still waiting for the begging to happen.” Luhan laughed and playfully punched Kris’ shoulder.

            “seriously, I really am sorry.”

            “you’ve apologized enough, Luhan. I’m just happy that you’re finally willing to let her go.”

            “what do you mean?”

            “the fact that you’re willing to talk about it after, I don’t know…17 years? Shows that you’re willing to finally move on.”

 Luhan smiled and looked towards the sky where a little light was becoming visible.

            “you sound like a girl just now.”

            “yah, want me to push you off the cliff?” Kris threatened.

            “now that I’m willing to move on, I think it’s time for you to let go of something too.” Luhan said and patted Kris’ arm and started to walk away.

            “let go of what?” he asked. Luhan paused and turned to his friend.

            “your fear of getting bitten by the love bug.”