Why.

He stared in irritation at the noisy bunch.

Why…

Perhaps he should voice his irritation and they’ll go away so he can get some work done.

“Why…are you all here?!” HimChan exclaimed out loud, directing it at the three girls, who were chatting with the magnae line. The girls exchanged a look before turning to the magnae line for an explanation.

“Hyung’s just mad because Ailee didn’t win one of the music shows this week,” JongUp informed a bit too honestly for HimChan’s taste.

“Yah! Moon JongUp!”

“Ahh, that pretty solo artist that came out recently, huh? She’s really cute. You have good taste, HimChannie~!” HaNa teased with a laugh.

“Don’t sass us just because you’re upset! And just out of curiosity, where is YongGuk? I haven’t see that child in at least a week!” KyungHye demanded, disliking the fact that HimChan had the nerve of questioning them.

“Oh, oh! And where’s the fox?! I made cookies for her! You think she’ll want to be my friend if I give her cookies?” EunMi added with a bright smile.

“Cookies?!” JunHong gasped, nearly drooling just from the smell of the baked goods.

“Tell Noona where the fox is and I’ll give you one, JunHongie~” EunMi baited.

“EunMi! Stop tormenting our magnae!” HimChan commanded though nobody was listening to him anymore. “I swear I don’t get paid enough for this…”

“Oh, HimChan, did you know Ailee’s coming to perform next week?” HaNa informed as she began browsing through her phone out of curiosity for HimChan’s new obsession.

“WHAT?!”

Immediately, the oldest mage there literally flew next to HaNa to look at this information to see if it’s true. He grabbed HaNa’s phone from her in revere. (To be honest, HaNa was starting to get a bit creeped out by it). A second later, he was at his desk ordering tickets.

“There! Four tickets ordered!” he said proudly.

“Four?” HaNa questioned.

“Yes, for me and you three girls.”

“…Kim HimChan, what did you just say?” KyungHye clarified, her voice dropping down a level, evidently a sign that she was just a bit upset.

“Who is Ailee?” EunMi asked the magnae line, who just shook their head.

“HimChan’s obsessed with her though,” JongUp informed though that much was already obvious to EunMi.

“It’s kinda creepy…” JunHong shivered. This, EunMi has also gathered from what had just occurred.

“Well, as long as she’s a good performer, I don’t mind going,” EunMi voiced out her opinion but it was quickly drowned out by KyungHye yelling at HimChan for his reckless attitude and don’t just do things others haven’t agreed to yet.

“But none of the guys will go with me~!” HimChan whined.

“Kim HimChan!”

“Ai~ Noona~ Please just this one time!”

“Wonder what’s on T.V…”

“Do you think fox like sweets? Maybe I should have made her meat or something instead…”

“Noona, can we watch Pokémon?”

 “New episode is coming out soon!”

~

“They’re serpents, which means they’re basically just really big snakes and really big snakes can’t strike very fast. They’re gonna have to rely on trying to catch and squeeze the life out of us so stay out of the center of their circles.”

“No, seriously, why would you provoke them? They’re giant snake demons! What kind of idiot provokes giant snake demons and think that’s okay?!”

“Are we really doing this now?!”

“Watch out!”

One of the serpents suddenly lunged at Kira. YoungJae threw up a barrier behind her, causing the snake to bounce off. He stared at the barrier, surprising himself at his own ability. It had been so long since he had used magic; he had almost forgotten what it felt like.

Wait…he could use magic again?

He looked over at Kira, who just rolled her eyes at him.

“Yes, I’m agreeing to work with you. Now’s not the time to be sappy about it; we have two problems to take care of!”

“So what’s our plan?”

“They’re not just two snakes; they’re twins. We just need to immobilize them so they know we mean business. If we can somehow focus our attack on just one of them, the second one should be easier to take out. The only problem is differentiating the two of them. Don’t get confused by their movements as they slither around. They have mirror image patterning of each other. Focus on one characteristics of each of them and remember which one is which. Got it?” Kira barked out as she kicked one of their striking faces away. “Don’t worry too much about their heads. They can’t do much if their prey aren’t immobilized. They don’t want to damage their fangs with struggling victims. Most of it is just a scare technique.”

“Most?!”

“Focus, you moron! Which one are you going for?!” she growled.

“Easier said than done!” YoungJae yelled back as he deflected another attack. “They keep coming after me; I don’t have time to look for a pattern!”

As the two serpents slithered back and forth around them, YoungJae noticed something on one of their backs.

“Kira! One of them is shedding!”

“Where?”

“Somewhere in the middle.”

“Got it.”

With a roar, Kira led the counterattack against the two serpents. Her sharp eyes found the head of the shedding twin and fired a ball of flames right in front of him, stopping him in his path. Not even a second after Kira fired, YoungJae manipulated a pile of snow over the center of the serpent’s body (focusing on the pieces of flaking dead skin so he got the right one) before freezing the snow into a block of ice, effectively weighing the large snake down. Without missing a beat, Kira fired another ball right in front of the other serpent before he could help his brother out. The mage was prepared, performing the same procedure to stop him in his tracks, much easier than the first one since there was only one slithering snake left.

Smirking as she transformed back into her , Kira tapped one of them on the head as she taunted, “What was that about having fox for a snake?”

Grunting in defeat, the two serpents morphed out of their traps into human-like forms.

“You’re a serious pain, you know that?” Daeryong glared as he shivered.

“You’re the ones that attacked me!” Kira countered while stomping her foot.

“We were teasing you. Can’t you take a joke?!” Daeryong argued, glaring.

“Alright, you two. Cut it out,” Soryong sighed as he pushed Daeryong away from Kira. “I’m assuming since you took the effort to catch us, you want something,”

“Aw, Soryongie! I always knew you were the smarter twin.”

“Yah!”

Soryong could only smile as his hyung and Kira were at it again. It was funny to watch considering how much Daeryong towered over Kira, yet the fox wasn’t backing down at all.

“Wha…but…you KNOW these two?!” YoungJae exclaimed in disbelief.

“Hm? Oh yeah, we’re pretty familiar with each other,” Kira nodded.

“Unfortunately,” Daeryong added.

“You two work pretty well together. I’m surprised. Most people can’t get Kira to do anything if there isn’t anything in it for her,” Soryong commented.

“It’s not by choice. Now, I need you two to work for Infinite until I get back,” she commanded. The twins exchanged a glance before bursting out into laughter. She rolled her eyes and kicked Daeryong in the shin.

“YOU LITTLE-”

“…you’re serious?” Soryong questioned, interrupting his brother’s furious rant. “No way. Are you kidding me? We know the work you do for them.”

“You’d have to be suicidal to be Infinite’s pet,” Daeryong agreed with a grumble as he rubbed his leg to keep it from bruising. Kira growled at them.

“Look, you don’t have to do all the I do. Just…take care of those idiots and watch their backs. Those Stymphalians aren’t exactly forgiving beasts. And you two are sneaky enough to sense those birds coming better than they can. I’m not going to be gone for long,” Kira explained with an annoyed look on her face.

“What’s in it for us?” Daeryong questioned with a raised eyebrow, finally standing back up again, not tending to his wound.

“My benefits? I’m surprised you two have the energy to slither around at all right now without the usual amount of sunlight. Wouldn’t it be nice if you two didn’t have to find food this winter?” Kira smiled.

Soryong tapped his chin. “Hmm, I suppose if we aren’t doing any suicidal missions it should be okay.”

“Fine. You got yourself a deal. But when exactly are you gonna be back…you know…now that you’re a familiar and all,” Daeryong wondered, looking over at YoungJae.

“I’ll figure it out. Shouldn’t take long,” she informed.

“I’m still here you know…” YoungJae huffed, amazed that the fox was just blatantly ignoring his presence.

“Later.”

And with that, Kira was gone.

YoungJae shook his head. “Unbelievable.”

Boisterous laughter erupted from behind him.

“Good luck, mage,” cackled Daeryong, shaking his head with a smirk.

“She’s a handful~” snickered Soryong as the twin serpents transformed back into snakes and slithered away.

~

Su kept glancing every now and then at YongGuk with a grunt. They were currently on their way back to the Wall. But Su was still suspicious. The Stymphalian felt like she just wandered into something very dangerous. She couldn’t explain it, but the hackles on her back were sticking straight up. It was weird. It just didn’t feel right. As if sensing her uncertainty, YongGuk turned around to find her staring at him. He grinned at her defensive stance. “What are you so nervous about?”

She didn’t answer and just shook her head while she walked towards him to pass him. “I feel like I witnessed something I shouldn’t have.”

“No, it was intentional. To be honest, even my team doesn’t know Jieun is alive,” YongGuk confessed, his grin turning into a sad smile of guilt. Su whipped around in shock at the news.

“Why would you show me something not even your own team knows?” she questioned accusingly. Nothing about this was making any sense to her. There had to have been a catch.

“Now we’re even. I accidentally figured out your secret, and now you know mine,” he answered. “Like I said, I don’t have any interest in revealing your secret. But I wanted to put your mind at ease. I can tell you don’t trust me…and…I understand where you’re coming from…but you seem lonely and I just…wanted you to know that you have a friend to come to…if you need…umm…sorry, I’m not the best with words,” YongGuk chuckled awkwardly as he watched Su’s face contort in confusion. “Tigger doesn’t see you as a threat and I trust his judgment more than mine. So please see this adventure as my way of apologizing for scaring you and thank you for your help.”

Su hummed in thought as she stared at YongGuk. “So basically you’re giving me blackmail material as a power check, huh?”

“Well…yes…but I thought we could just-”

“Okay. I accept your conditions. However, don’t think I won’t use this against you if you cross me,” Su threatened despite her rapidly beating heart because oh my goodness, was she really just threatening a mage that could have her head in a second? She inwardly sighed in relief when YongGuk merely chuckled again with a nod.

“I wouldn’t dream of it. Well, I better get back before Kira has my head. She’s been on my tail since she became one of my teammate’s familiar,” the mage sighed, turning to leave when Su suddenly grabbed his wrist. He turned to find a pair of shocked eyes staring up at him.

“Did you say Kira? As in…the fox? That Kira? She…she’s here?” Su clarified, fear evident in her eyes and voice.

“Y-Yes,” YongGuk stuttered, a bit bewildered by the demon’s reaction. “YoungJae, my teammate, put a collar on her and made her his familiar. I didn’t approve of it, but-”

“T-That means the wolves will be coming after her. Oh gosh…no, they’ll kill me for sure if they find me!” Su panicked as she fled into the city in a rush. YongGuk was left staring in absolute puzzlement. For a moment, she turned back to YongGuk and advised, “You’d best prepare for a demon invasion because you’ve just become enemies of one of the most feared pack of werewolves in the forest.”

With that warning, Su spread her wings and took off for her home.

She had planning to do with this new information. Moving was becoming a more appealing option than before.

Perhaps she could find some way to take residence in another human city.

Just for a second, an image of Henry flashed through her mind, but it was quickly buried by her instinctual drive for self-preservation.

=====================================================================

Tension, tension, tension~

~Kira :3