“Focus, Hyorin,” Kris instructed the young girl before him, “keep your mind blank of anything else.” The pair stood in the backyard of their family’s home, the older training the younger to use her powers correctly.

“Yes, Kris appa,” she nodded, trying her best to do as he told her. For a moment, it worked and her feet left the ground. But it was only for a moment because the next thing Hyorin knew she was back on the ground, her concentration shattered thanks to someone slamming the door.

“We have a problem,” Tao called, rushing over and pulling Hyorin into a hug.

“What’s wrong, Tao appa?” she asked, watching as his eyes darted around the yard. If Tao still had his demon powers, he’d probably have changed into his beast form by now. Tao looked down at Hyorin, his precious baby girl, and his worry grew. Without his power, how could he protect her from harm?

“Tao?” Kris asked, his tone commanding attention and snapping the other from his personal thoughts, “What’s going on?”

“The others are inside,” Tao nodded towards the house before turning to Hyorin once again, “Sweetie, can you go to your room for a while? Your appas and umma need to talk about something important.”

 “Yes appa,” she nodded, slowly making her way into the house. She glanced over her shoulder at Kris and Tao, trying to figure out what was going on. Why wasn’t she allowed to know?

“Hyorin?” her mother, Mi Sun called once she was inside, “are you headed up to your room?”

“Yes, umma,” she replied, looking around to see that her mother and her other fathers all looked just as worried as Tao had been.

“I’ll keep her company,” Sehun offered, making his way over to Hyorin. The others nodded, knowing that if Sehun was with her she couldn’t sneak to the top of the stairs to eavesdrop on their conversation. Hyorin had always been like that, doing anything she could to find out information so she could feed her curiosity. But this was one conversation they would rather she knew nothing about.

“Sehun appa?” Hyorin asked after reaching her room, “what’s going on?”

“It’s nothing to worry about, angel,” Sehun replied, “just some mom-dads talk.” She gave him a doubtful look, but stayed silent. She’d never once seen her parents so troubled, so she wasn’t about to push them into telling her what was going on.

In the living room, Mi Sun sat silently after hearing Kai explain the problem to everyone.

“Is Taemin sure?” Luhan asked, “He hasn’t gotten his information wrong?”

“He made triple sure,” Kai frowned, “and Zelo double checked once Taemin told him, too. Hyorin is their niece after all, they’d make sure Taemin was right before telling us anything.”

“Why would someone want her?” Mi Sun asked, panic starting to rise as she realized how much danger her child was in.

“She has our powers,” Kris growled, trying to control his temper, “whoever these people are, they want to use her. Damn it!” The very idea of someone – anyone – using his baby girl infuriated the former demon and he lashed out, putting his fist through a wall.

“She isn’t safe here,” Suho said, causing everyone in the room to freeze. He was right, they all knew that. If they still had their powers, they could protect Hyorin from anyone. But they were humans now, powerless humans who could do nothing to stop powerful enemy demons that were coming for their daughter.

“VIXX could help,” Xiumin mumbled. Everyone turned, raising an eyebrow as they tried to figure out exactly what the oldest had said.

“VIXX can what?” Chen asked, frowning deeply once he realized what Xiumin was suggesting, “I’m not letting them protect Hyorin for us. How do you know they’ll be able to keep her safe?”

“They’re the only shot we have,” Baekhyun argued. All twelve former demons would much rather keep Hyorin with them. But she wasn’t safe with twelve former demons who were just powerless humans. Not when the people after her had powers and would kill anyone in their way to get her.

Upstairs, Sehun tried to listen to the conversation. He’d heard his brother’s voices slowly rising in volume and wondered just what was going on. Hyorin was just as curious, but stayed seated on her bed, playing with the stuffed rabbit she’d gotten as a birthday gift years ago from her uncle Yong Guk.

“Appa,” she finally asked, unable to hold in her questions anymore, “What’s going on?”

“It’s nothing, Hyorin,” Sehun told her, “I need to talk with everyone so please stay here.” She nodded, but once Sehun had joined the others in the living room she tip toed to the top of the staircase. Squatting to avoid being seen, she tried to listen to what the adults were saying.

“I don’t want them protecting our daughter,” Kris snarled, “We can look after her just fine. We don’t need their help.”

“The enemy has powers,” Luhan argued, “And what do we have? Nothing. We’re humans now, powerless humans who can’t protect Hyorin from demons.”

“And what if VIXX can’t do anything?” Lay countered, “What if VIXX are just as powerless as us against this new threat? We just sit here at home, not even trying to protect our baby girl?”

“Enough!” Mi Sun yelled, startling everyone. It wasn’t often that that the laid back woman raised her voice and EXO had learned long ago to shut up when she did.

“We should vote on it,” D.O suggested, “the majority gets to do what they want.”

“All those in favor of VIXX becoming Hyorin’s guardians?” Suho called, raising his hand. Xiumin, Baekhyun, Luhan, Chanyeol, Sehun, D.O and Mi Sun all raised their hands.

“All those against?” Kris sighed, already knowing his side had lost. Still, Chen, Tao, Kai, and Lay raised their hands with him to make their opinion on the matter clear.

Hyorin couldn’t see who raised their hands, but she could figure out more of the group were in favor of VIXX going by Kris’ voice. While she’d never met the six demons who called themselves VIXX personally, the adults in her life had mentioned them a few times. No one had gone into detail, but they’d told her how VIXX had worked for the enemy who’d been trying to kill her mother and uncle Daehyun. Their contract had forced them to follow their master’s every command.

 It was because of this contract that they had been forced to kill her uncle Yong Guk’s parents. When Daehyun had burned the contract, freeing them, they’d their bad master and killed her. The way her dads had said that made her believe that the body they left behind wasn’t a very pretty sight. Truth be told, hearing all that about VIXX made her a little scared of them.

Now her parents were planning to make them her guardians.

“Hyorin can’t stay here,” Mi Sun sighed sadly, “this is the first place the people after her will look. VIXX or no VIXX, I want to keep her safe for as long as I can.”

“We could send her to Daehyun for a while,” Sehun suggested, but the others disagreed.

“He’s got his own problems right now,” Tao explained, “marital problems, remember?” Sehun nodded, blushing slightly in embarrassment that he’d forgotten about that.

“We can’t go to Zelo and SHINee,” Chanyeol sighed, “aren’t they clearing out a group of hostile demons from LA or something like that?”

“Not a good place for Hyorin to be,” Baekhyun nodded in agreement, “and Jongup’s wife just gave birth. We can’t drag him into this, not with a new baby.”

“Himchan’s doing that big family vacation thing, right?” Kai asked, “Isn’t he supposed to be in France right now?”

“We can’t drag his wife and kids into this, though,” Kris told the younger, “and he’d say no just to keep them uninvolved. He’s kept them in the dark about demons this long, I don’t think he wants to stop now.”

“Youngjae’s out, too,” Suho frowned, “he goes on so many business trips it would be just his wife and kids looking after Hyorin. We can’t put them in harm’s way like that, even if they say they don’t mind.”

“So that leaves Yong Guk oppa,” Mi Sun concluded, frowning slightly. She knew Yong Guk would be happy to take Hyorin in for a while, plus he could take care of himself in a fight. The problem was what would he do about VIXX. He still hadn’t quite forgiven VIXX for killing his parents and she was hesitant to put him in a situation where he had to work with them.

The sound of a sob followed by a door slamming shut alerted the adults to the fact that Hyorin had heard them. Silence filled the room as everyone tried to figure out what they were going to do. She was angry and hurt, that much was clear. But none of them knew how to comfort her, not in this situation.

“I’ll talk to her,” Lay finally volunteered, getting up and leaving the room. Unfortunately for him, Hyorin refused to open the door and he had to listen to the sounds of his child crying on the other side of the door.

After a few hours, Hyorin finally left her room and silently listened to her parents explain the situation in full detail. When they were done talking, Hyorin reluctantly agreed to go away like they wanted. She hated the very idea of leaving, but this is what her parents wanted and she wanted to make them happy.

God, she hated herself for being so eager to please her parents.