T h e   I n s t i t u t e

Chapter Two

The library was deathly quiet when Siwon slipped inside. He looked about at the solemn faces, some with hands covering their mouths in shock and others looking resolutely at the floor. His eyes were inevitably drawn to the wall above the fireplace where the mark of the Dark Elves had been scorched; a black elven skull looked down on them all. Siwon swallowed and tried to focus his mind so that unwanted memories wouldn’t rise to the surface. He was soon distracted by Sungmin spotting him and rushing over, clinging onto him like he could make it all go away. But he didn’t have that power.

The Dark Elves were the most volatile, inhuman race in all the realms below. They waged war back when the special agents were just children and massacred tens of thousands including most of their families. Siwon was lucky, his father was a powerful man and had survived protecting his son, then able to continue his work for the Institute. Siwon knew, however, that even one mention of the Elves was far too painful for some of the others to bear.

He spotted Heechul across the room looking like all hope had left him. Heechul’s entire family had been murdered before his eyes, that much Siwon had been told. Something else had happened that night which only Kibum knew about, though completely unintentionally. Heechul didn’t talk about it, he didn’t really talk about anything to anyone but they all found out his story eventually. He would never admit it to them, let alone himself, but he was broken and no one as yet had worked out how to fix him.

‘What do you think this means?’ Ryeowook’s voice cut through the silence despite his voice being as soft as ever. There was a long pause before anyone dared to answer him.

No. Let’s not go there.

‘ZhouMi, why are you angry?’ Heechul would have run straight into the two people ahead of him had one of them not spoken up. He glanced over at them, just coming out of Master Chen’s office and briefly recalled Leeteuk mentioning last night that they were the new agents. Last night was somewhat of a terrible blur however.

‘It’s not me it-’

‘Hi.’ Well this is one form of distraction.

‘Oh um… hi.’ The shorter of the two replied. There wasn’t that much of a height difference, they were both annoyingly tall, they should start a club with Siwon.

‘So you’re the new guys.’

‘Err yeah.’ Heechul saw the taller one send a bemused expression at his companion who was either in some sort of daze or was just completely thick.

‘I’m ZhouMi, nice to meet you.’

‘You too.’ There was a pause. This time ZhouMi’s friend got an elbow in the side for being so surprisingly slow.

‘Ow oh err… Hankyung.’ Heechul raised an eyebrow. ‘I’m Hankyung.’

‘Pleasure…’ He didn’t really know what to make of the odd boy quite yet but if he got over his inability to function properly then he looked attractive enough to be seen with.

‘Are you ok? You look like you’ve been crying.’ ZhouMi asked in a friendly tone which Heechul found he couldn’t get annoyed at for being too peppy even if he tried and he was usually averse to overly positive people.

‘I’m fine.’ He said shortly.

‘Did you sleep ok last night? You were in quite a state when Leeteuk sent you to bed.’

‘I… I’m fine.’ He folded his arms and gripped the sides of his loose top. Maybe these people weren’t such good distractions after all if they were just going to make him remember again.

‘Shoot! I’ll have to leave you, I have training with Leeteuk-hyung in two minutes and I have no idea where I’m going.’ ZhouMi patted Hankyung’s shoulder and took off down the hall, shouting a goodbye to them both as he did so. Now Heechul was alone with the village idiot. Great.

‘I’ve got my first training session later.’ Hankyung said once his friend had disappeared.

‘What can you do then, Hankyung?’ Heechul replied, honestly curious. The other boy didn’t verbally respond. He grinned at Heechul and lifted up his hand. A flame caught in the centre of his palm and danced about in the air. Then it swirled and chased itself around his wrist and through his wiggling fingers, morphing shape as it twirled, swelling to the form of a dragon as it rested on his palm again. The dragon blew a ball of fire and the flames out of the air, disappearing in a puff of smoke.

‘What about you?’ Hankyung returned the question as if nothing had happened. Heechul thought he was coming down with something. He was lightheaded, he’d gone completely warm all over for some reason… weird.

‘I um… I can… shift- shapeshift.’ He managed to get out. Wonderful, now he sounded like Hankyung had done before. He wasn’t even paying attention to what he was saying, his mind still full of dancing flames.

‘Shapeshift? That’s pretty cool. I don’t think I’ve met a shapeshifter before.’

‘Oh um yeah. Well, we’re kind of rare though you’d probably never realise that you’d met a shifter before it’d be too late.’ Heechul winked, regaining himself a little. Hankyung laughed and he wondered if he could bottle the sound and keep it in his room for when he felt miserable… which was often.

‘Can I see you do it?’

‘…what?’ He knew he’d heard that wrong. That was definitely wrong.

‘Shift. Will you show me?’ Hankyung explained and Heechul’s felt himself go warm again at misinterpreting what had been said. He quickly pulled himself together and put on his confidence. Keeping his eyes on the boy before him, he felt a whoosh and tug from his bellybutton then smirked, knowing that he’d changed into his familiar female get-up. Then he frowned because Hankyung was frowning. Why was he frowning?

‘Did I do it wrong?’ He immediately looked down to check everything was in order, which it was, but now Hankyung was going red.

‘No, no. It was awesome I just… um…’

‘What?’ Heechul suddenly felt self-conscious.

‘I wasn’t sure if you were a, err, a girl before.’ Hankyung admitted sheepishly, looking down at his shoes. The insecurities dissipated quickly enough. Heechul tossed his hair over his shoulder.

‘Guess I do a pretty good job of tricking people.’ He said boastfully.

‘Aha yeah.’ Hankyung scratched the back of his neck, returning his gaze upwards to notice that Heechul had returned back to what he once was – a boy in girl’s clothing. ‘I’m sorry.’ He said, even though there didn’t seem to be any damage done.

‘Don’t be. Shindong didn’t find out I was boy until a month after he met me.’

‘I don’t think I’ve met Shindong yet. Is he another special agent?’

‘Yeah, he has echolocation. I call him Batpig.’

‘Batpig?’ Hankyung sniggered.

‘You’ll understand.’ Heechul nodded sagely. ‘Have you met Sungmin yet?’

‘We were both on the mission last night.’

‘Ah yeah, I remember you coming in with him. So you know he’s not a girl as well?’ Heechul hadn’t noticed himself begin to slowly walk down the corridor with Hankyung but he didn’t feel like pointing it out, despite not knowing where they were headed. Regardless of the rough start, he found it easy to talk to Hankyung. He didn’t think he’d ever clicked with anyone this instantly before. Not even Donghae.

‘Kibum told me about that.’

‘Ah Kibum.’ He sighed. ‘Very handy if you’re looking to blackmail somebody.’

‘I’ll bear that in mind.’ Hankyung chuckled again and sent Heechul a crooked smile which the latter returned hesitantly. He wasn’t used to pleasant conversation that didn’t start with ‘hey ’ or ‘how’s my favourite today?’ and those were mainly with Sungmin. ‘So how many special agents are there? Master Chen made it sound like you’re a regular chaos.’

‘Master Chen would be right. There were thirteen of us until you came. Maybe we won’t be unlucky anymore.’

‘I doubt that. The night we arrived so did the Elves.’ Heechul didn’t know how to respond to that without his voice shaking so he chose not to reply at all and kept his eyes downcast, briefly noticing that they’d come to a stop at the meeting point.

‘I’m sorry, that was completely tactless.’ Hankyung said, sounding mournful in his apology. They were standing face to face now, though it took Heechul a while to trail his vision up to look the other boy in the eye. ‘I just talk without thinking sometimes. Honestly, shut me up if you need to.’ He unwillingly started laughing when he noticed the fire spreading out across Hankyung’s head, his feathery black hair glowing red from the reflection. ‘I really am sorry. I’m quite the idiot.’ He knew the Chinaman was chattering away on purpose while his head sprouted flames which just made Heechul laugh more. He covered his mouth with his hand.

‘Should I get a fire extinguisher?’ He joked, trying to fake being serious but the wide smile on his face gave him away. Hankyung laughed back at him and the fire vanished. They continued to grin at each other, lapsing into a comfortable silence.

‘You should smile all the time.’ Hankyung said softly. ‘You have a pretty smile.’ Heechul went bright red. As did Hankyung who seemed to realise what had just come out of his mouth. There was another awkward pause.

‘I um… got to go do err… I’m going this way.’ Heechul gestured vaguely behind him at the corridor leading down to the bedrooms and common room.

‘Err yeah… I’m this, um, this way.’ Hankyung started backing off in the general direction of the swimming pool; he probably didn’t have a clue where he was going.

‘Bye.’

‘It just makes no sense. They were banished from the nether worlds to Lemuria.’ Kyuhyun stated huffily. Lemuria was the desolate kingdom of the Dark Elves where they rotted and, in light of new events, plotted. Clearly all their rotting and plotting was now being directed at the Institute but why? What were they planning? The war was over, their rulers were dead.

‘It’s the not knowing that’s making me nervous.’ Siwon said. ‘If we knew what they were up to, we could do something about it.’

‘For now it’s a waiting game. They’ll probably make another move soon and hopefully we can use that to figure out what their aim is.’ Kangin replied in his scheming voice. Kyuhyun abruptly scoffed.

‘Yeah but what if that next move is blowing up the Institute?’ He said haughtily.

‘Then it’ll be too late for you to say ‘I told you so’.’ Kangin countered, equally smug with his witty reply. Kyuhyun gave him a forced smile then stuck his tongue out.

‘Do you think we’re even ready to take on the Elves?’ Siwon shifted the conversation. ‘I don’t think Heechul’s in any kind of state to be confronted with them again. They fell into a morose silence, each thinking about Heechul and the others that all felt their tragedies as if they were just yesterday.

‘I’d personally see it as finally getting revenge for my mother.’ Kangin’s brows set into a hard line. He was better at dealing with his emotions than most people gave him credit for but the loss of his mother still stung like knife. The three of them were suddenly interrupted by one of the regular agents, Sooyoung, who gave them a tight smile. She had a clipboard and pen in her hands.

‘Can I ask you a few questions about last night?’ She enquired, the pen now poised to write. The three men exchanged looks and then Kangin nodded, it wasn’t like they had anything to hide. ‘Do you know who it was that found this?’ Sooyoung gestured to the burnt emblem on the wall behind her.

‘It was Heechul, wasn’t it?’ Siwon looked to the others for confirmation but they could only shrug. They hadn’t been here last night, they only knew as much as the others had told them once they’d arrived back.

‘Ok. Has Heechul-oppa or anyone mentioned seeing the Dark Elves?’ Sooyoung went on.

‘No, no one saw anything.’ Siwon replied again.

‘We found Heechul in the common room and all he said was that he’d come to the library last night and found that on the wall.’ Kangin added. Sooyoung jotted some things down on her clipboard and frowned, looking like she was trying desperately to figure something out but couldn’t quite fit the pieces together.

‘I’ll have to go and find him.’ She murmured to herself.

‘Have any of the agents found anything so far?’ Kyuhyun asked, a calculating look on his face.

‘That’s the thing I can’t work out.’ Sooyoung exclaimed. ‘Nothing was taken or damaged apart from the wall.’

‘Well it’s probably a scare tactic.’ Kangin pointed out.

‘True but it just seems a little… tame? For Dark Elves at least.’ They all considered this and realised it was, in fact, quite accurate. ‘Anyway, I better go and find Heechul or some of the others that were here last night. Thank you.’ Sooyoung bowed and hurried out of the room.

‘This is getting more confusing.’ Siwon grumbled.

‘Everyone’s going to be royally pissed if some idiot did it as some kind of practical joke.’ Kyuhyun glared at the wall, his irises boiling with red and black. There was a stony silence.

What was most impressive, however, was the spectacular view of the ravine below them and the waterfall to the left. It was a magnificent valley of rock and vegetation. There were cascading vines swinging from the cliffs and down below were twisted, creeping trees that curled in and around the river like animals at a watering hole.

Sungmin would never get tired of looking out and admiring the beauty. He could hear voices approaching that sounded familiar and dragged his eyes away from the windows to see who had come into the café. Noticing Kyuhyun first, he jumped up and waved so that he’d look over to the corner in which he’d been sat in. The younger man smiled and went to join Sungmin on the comfy seating.

‘Hi Minnie. Are you feeling any better?’ Kyuhyun asked, recalling the stint he’d pulled with the hellhounds on top of this Dark Elves business. He didn’t realise how close he’d stood until Sungmin said a breezy ‘I’m fine’, pushed past him and was suddenly ignoring him in favour of settling himself comfortably in Siwon’s lap. Sungmin was completely oblivious to the infuriated look he was then sent.

‘Are none of the others here?’ Kangin questioned, flitting his wolfish eyes around the café in search of any of the special agents.

‘Not anymore.’ Sungmin replied. ‘Though Shindong said he’d be back soon. Yesung and Ryeowook were here before but Wookie wouldn’t stop thinking about the Elves so it started raining. Yesung took him to his room when the rain came in here.’ They laughed despite the underlying seriousness.

‘Have you seen Heechul since he ran off?’ Siwon asked and then quickly added, ‘Sooyoung was looking for him.’ Sungmin noticed the quick explanation and attributed it to the fight they’d had a few weeks ago about Siwon caring a lot more about Heechul’s wellbeing than his. At least the bastard had apologised.

‘I only saw him briefly when I was leaving my room to come here. He was smiling so I asked him why and he just turned red and ran away. His mood swings are freaking me out! I swear he’s spent too much time as a girl and now his body’s getting mixed up.’

‘So what’s your excuse?’ Kyuhyun innocently enquired with a blank expression. Sungmin’s eyes flared bright red and the coffee table between them started to shake violently. Kyuhyun exploded into laughter, as did Kangin. Siwon was too worried about the dangerous position he was in to find anything funny. He ever so cautiously s his arms around the smaller man’s body just at the moment Sungmin tried to attack their evil maknae with energy. The blood red power ricocheted back around the demon as Siwon absorbed it into his body instead.

‘Superman strikes again.’ Kangin quipped as the pair seated opposite returned to normal. Siwon panted to regain a steady heartbeat; his shields always took a lot out of him when he was dealing with something so raw and ancient. Sungmin grumpily got off his lap and sat on the other end of the sofa, folding his arms in annoyance. He’d get Kyuhyun back another time. He wouldn’t be making fun of his mood swings when they were purposefully directed at him.

‘Hey guys.’ The four sitting down abruptly swivelled their heads to see Henry, Shindong and the new recruit, Hankyung coming over to them. ‘We found this one completely lost on the management corridor.’ Henry chuckled and patted Hankyung’s back, encouraging him to sit down as he and Shindong were doing.

‘You didn’t have to sneak up on me though.’ The Chinaman grumbled. He’d nearly kecked his pants when Henry just popped into view right before him and shouted ‘what are you up to?’. Shindong had found the entire ordeal hilarious.

‘He does it to everyone Hankyung.’ Siwon said and pursed his lips wryly.

‘I’m going to get food, what do you want?’ Kangin promptly got up and paused to gather everyone’s replies. Hankyung hadn’t eaten in the café yet and resorted to just getting the same as Siwon since he didn’t know the options available to him and most of the others were unhelpfully just asking for ‘the usual.’

‘Do you have training today, Hankyung?’ Sungmin asked, he was now sitting comfortably close to Siwon again so that the new guy could have a seat.

‘Yes, in a couple of hours.’

‘I’d love to watch your pyrotechnics. I’ve never really seen anyone do it properly before.’ Kyuhyun tensed.

‘Well, you can… if you want.’

‘Oh wow thank you.’ He could feel demonic energy twisting within his body.

‘Does that mean I can watch your training too?’

‘Of course!’ One look over at the ridiculously apathetic look on Siwon’s face and Kyuhyun saw red. Literally. Sungmin shrieked when a gash sliced open across Hankyung’s cheek and started gushing blood. He cried out in pain and shock, having no idea what had happened to him.

‘Kyuhyun!!’ Shindong yelled, knowing full well who was to blame. The group was horrified that Kyuhyun would suddenly lash out but generally confused since they were blind to his motives for doing so. The boy himself glared at them all sulkily. He wasn’t going to sit back and let Sungmin be shamelessly flirted around by anyone while Choi ing Siwon sat back as if he had no claim over him. Just because they weren’t ‘official’, it didn’t mean Sungmin would still be on the lookout for someone different, someone better… someone who loved him. He’d always go back to Siwon.

‘Are you going to apologise?’ Sungmin screeched, breaking into Kyuhyun’s miserable thoughts. He didn’t bother to reply or look at anyone before he threw himself off the sofa and stalked out of the café. Kangin stared after him bemused as he wandered back to the table.

‘What’s with him?’ He questioned.

‘Slashed Hankyung’s cheek open for no reason whatsoever.’ Shindong explained and frowned, shaking his head. ‘I’ll never understand that kid.’

‘Are you ok?’ Sungmin was fussing over Hankyung’s wound, helping to staunch the bleeding with a napkin. ‘Does it sting? I’ll get him back for this, the little .’

‘I’m fine. Honestly, I’m fine.’ Hankyung tried to stop the other boy’s fluttering hands as he haphazardly nursed him. ‘I’ll live, its ok. He was probably just upset about the Elves and got me by accident.’ Sungmin finally desisted and dropped his hands to sit in his skirt-covered lap.

‘You might be right about that.’ He mumbled.

The drama soon calmed down once they all had food to preoccupy themselves with and the conversation turned light and friendly. Kyuhyun did not return, not that they expected him to because him saying sorry was akin to Heechul being a nice person in the morning – never gonna happen. At some point, Yesung and Ryeowook came back so that they could eat and Hankyung learned all about Ryeowook’s atmokinesis when the latter decided to show him what he could do by sending a hurricane swirling down the ravine. Hankyung also now knew why Heechul called Shindong Batpig. One minute the food was there, the next it was gone.

As he was walking down to his training with Sungmin, his mind wandered to Heechul and he smiled to himself. The other boy was intriguing to say the least. He didn’t know why he made him act like such a dork. Perhaps it was the mesmerising way he wore his clothes or his big, bright brown eyes. He realised where his mind was headed and shook himself back to reality.

His cheek twinged and he wondered what had gotten into Kyuhyun. It could have been the thought of Dark Elves but somehow it didn’t seem likely. He seemed awfully protective of Sungmin for someone who was a friend, almost like a brother to the other demon. Although maybe that was it. Maybe he was just being like a brother. Hankyung couldn’t figure it out. It’s not like he was being overly friendly towards Sungmin back in the café, they were just talking weren’t they? He shrugged it off and decided it was best not to think too hard about it.

The training facility wasn’t hard to get to and he stored away the memory of the route they’d taken for later use so as not to get lost again. It was a door at the end of a long corridor that opened up to reveal many large, glass encased sections that were divided by narrow walkways. Agents milled about between the training areas with clipboards and equipment. Some were in the glass pods, working on their combat.

Sungmin led the way to an empty section and Hankyung stepped inside, taking a look at his surroundings. It was a generous space to train in and there were weapons and other useful items at hand in case he wanted to practise with them. The glass walls were apparently sound proof as well since he could no longer hear the buzz of activity from the agents. Sungmin waved at him and then pointed out a regular agent that had come to stand next to him. This must his trainer. The girl smiled and then pressed a few things on the touch screen key pad built into the glass.

‘Hello Hankyung-ssi. I’m Hyoyeon.’ Her voice came filtering through into the training area. She must have a communication device. ‘As this is your first training session, it’s up to you to just use the space and get comfortable with developing your power within it.’ Hankyung nodded. ‘Sungmin-unnie says he’ll watch you but I’ll be around if you need anything.’ The honorific confused him for a moment and he wondered if he’d understood it wrong but it looked like Hyoyeon and Sungmin were good friends so he figured it might be something like a nickname considering Sungmin’s floaty pink dress.

Once his new trainer had left, he got to work on what he was used to doing back in China. He summoned flames from his hands and let them cascade up his arms then practised a few martial arts moves while trying to keep his concentration on the fire. He did this for a good ten or fifteen minutes and grinned at Sungmin who was looking impressed and giving him a thumbs up. With the encouragement, however, he began to get a little cocky and covered his whole body in flames.

He attempted a few spinning kicks which went well albeit knocking the breath out of him. He was using a lot of energy keeping up the fire. It was when he tried a back flip that things got out of hand. His body expelled a ball of flame that went charging around the room, flaring up against the glass walls. The fire caught on the flammable items in the area and smoke began to clog the air. Hankyung tried to it all back into him but he was too tired. He spotted Sungmin frantically pounding on the glass and shouting. Before he could do anything to stop him, the other boy opened the door.

‘Sungmin! No!!’ He yelled but it was too late. As soon as the fresh oxygen hit him, the fire still gathering around his body burgeoned and rapidly shot out into the air. Fire balls ruptured in every direction, spitting out into the halls and at anything they could find to spread their flames across. The whole place was on fire in a matter of seconds.

‘EVERYBODY OUT!!!’

The facility evacuated. Hankyung ran out of his training area and sprinted after Sungmin who caught his wrist to pull him in the right direction. Together they followed the other agents through the Institute and off to the meeting point where someone hit the fire alarm. More officials came darting into the fray but managed to organise everyone into getting out of the building. As they left, Hankyung spotted Donghae being hurried off the in the opposite direction. He hoped he would be ok even if he was going to help put out the fire.

The special agents succeeded in finding each other amongst the crowds gathered outside of the Institute. It looked like it was instinctual the way that they grouped up seamlessly. Sungmin let Hankyung’s wrist go when he saw Siwon and moved over to press against his side. A good number of them all had paired up apparently, perhaps not romantically in some cases but it was only a few of them that were left almost on their own. Heechul was one of them. He seemed to know what had caused the fire however.

‘Way to make a first impression.’ Hankyung looked sheepishly at his feet. Heechul sniggered. ‘This kind of thing happens on a regular basis. I wouldn’t feel too special.’

‘I’m not used to training inside.’ Hankyung offered though it wasn’t really an explanation or an excuse. He’d only just thought about it properly. He looked up and caught Heechul’s gaze which momentarily distracted him. Then he noticed the way the other boy was shivering and realised that it had started to rain. ‘Are you cold?’ He asked.

‘I was suddenly ripped from my bed to come out in the freezing rain. Of course I’m cold.’ Heechul deadpanned. He rubbed his arms to try and build up some warmth but it had little effect.

‘Here.’ Hankyung shrugged himself out of the hoodie he’d been wearing. It smelled like smoke but it was warm. He draped it around Heechul’s shoulders and the latter’s wide eyes blinked at him in surprise.

‘Thanks.’ He muttered softly, pulling the jumper around him more tightly.

‘It’s ok.’ Hankyung replied then an idea occurred to him. ‘Hey give me your hands.’

‘What?’ Heechul eyed him warily.

‘Just trust me.’ He had to wait a minute or two but eventually Heechul gave in and held out his hands. Hankyung encased them with his own and let the power he had left in him fill his palms with heat that thawed the chill settled into Heechul’s bony fingers. ‘Better?’

‘Yeah.’ The shifter’s voice was quiet and he stared transfixed at their joined hands.

They had to wait for almost half an hour outside. The rain was fine and soaked them through, making them all grumpy. It soon transpired that with a little help from some sprinklers and a hose pipe, Donghae had managed to put out the fire. He looked immensely pleased with himself, if a little exhausted and happily accepted the group hug that nearly crushed the life out of him.

‘So what do you think of the Institute so far?’ Leeteuk asked the new members.

‘There definitely aren’t any dull moments.’ ZhouMi replied with a grin and they laughed.

‘I can’t believe I’ve only been here for less than two days and I’ve already set the place on fire.’ Hankyung groaned, shaking his head in disbelief. They all laughed again, louder this time.

‘It’s ok. When Donghae arrived, he kept flooding his bedroom every night.’ Leeteuk said.

‘I used to wake up and not realise anything was wrong until I opened the door and all this water went rushing out.’ Donghae added, remembering it in amusement.

‘That’s because you’re totally oblivious.’ Eunhyuk jibed and earnt himself a splash in the face full of water.

‘So you can breathe underwater then?’ ZhouMi picked up on the unspoken, looking amazed at Donghae’s ability.

‘Yeah, it’s awesome! I could go live with the fishies if I wanted to.’

‘Which you do want to.’ Eunhyuk pointed out. Donghae went pink and dipped his head, awkwardly nuzzling himself against the other boy’s side.

‘Naww I’d miss you.’ He admitted quietly and then it was Eunhyuk’s turn to go red. Kyuhyun resisted the urge to make vomiting noises. It was too sickly cute and he hated it.

The conversation went on way into the night and Kyuhyun reasoned that it was because they had someone new to talk to. That someone was ZhouMi because it turned out Hankyung was a man of few words; it was like having another Kibum. It was funny, though, the way that when Hankyung actually did say something, everyone would shut up and listen. He had a strange calm demeanour that rubbed off on everyone around him, even Donghae who was still bouncing around happily at one in the morning.

‘I have to ask.’ Hankyung began. There was that silence again. ‘Why do Sungmin and Heechul… um…’ He trailed off, not knowing how to phrase his question.

‘Why do they dress like girls?’ Kyuhyun finished for him. He wondered how long it would be until they were asked. It had varied from person to person when they’d arrived and met the cross dressers. Shindong, of course, never asked and had found out on a mission when Sungmin got hit in the balls by an angry goblin. After that assault, no girl would scream ‘SON OF A ’ for all the netherworld to hear.

‘They have different reasons.’ Leeteuk started to explain. ‘We only know why Sungmin does it after… well, let’s just say at least he’s eating again.’

‘What?’ ZhouMi breathed, looking disheartened.

‘He’s not too happy in his own skin.’ Kyuhyun said solemnly. ‘And yes, he’s eating again. When people watch him do it. I know he takes food back to his room and throws it away.’ He was beginning to get riled up.

‘Kyuhyun… don’t start.’ Leeteuk tried for a comforting smile but it didn’t take effect.

‘And all ing Siwon does is tell him that if it makes him happy then it’s fine. Well it’s not ing fine is it?!’ He clenched his fists tightly as he harshly jumped up from the sofa.

‘Kyuhyun!’ Donghae yelped in fright.

‘I’m sick to death of everyone turning a blind eye. No one ever helped him get better! You all thought as soon as he ate something he’d be ok. It doesn’t ing work like that!!’ A table on the other side of the room exploded.

‘Kyuhyun stop it!!’ ZhouMi sprung to his feet and forcefully pressed his hand on Kyuhyun’s forehead. All of a sudden, the fight left the demon’s eyes. He panted heavily and looked completely shocked. ZhouMi helped him to sit back down and then smiled at him reassuringly. The others were amazed.

‘ZhouMi… what did you do?’ Leeteuk demanded in astonishment.

‘I err sent him to his happy place.’ The Chinaman replied, shrugging modestly. ‘At least, I got rid of the anger.’

‘That was awesome.’ Donghae cooed.

‘Thank you. I’ve been practising.’

‘I’m going to bed.’ Kyuhyun announced and without waiting for them to say anything, left the common room. He quickly manoeuvred himself down the corridors and to the sleeping quarters. He was still in a daze at having his mood change so dramatically. It was like making your body go from hot to cold. He shuddered.

so we're starting to get hints at backstories here ;)

all in good time

also, I noticed that I tend to use colloquial language sometimes which you might not get :P the main thing I spotted was 'kecked his pants' which is 'pooed his pants' in other words. I'd change it but hey, I'm lazy. 

please comment

do it

i know you want to

JC oppa needs love

please

:D

~JC