eleven

“Hello?”

“It’s me, Sehun,” and I curse my hands for shaking so much. It’s just a damn phone call.

“Yeah? Are you calling to apologize?”

“Maybe,” I reply. “But mostly, I want to tell you that I know who has a soul gem. I saw it.”

Silence.

“Kai?”

“Who?”

“Luhan. He’s a Chinese violinist and the best in our school supposedly.”

“Well that explains why he’s best,” scoffed Kai.

“He invited me to join chamber.”

“Don’t. He and Tao are working together to try and trap a weak must, like yourself, into a gem. They’re young hunters and probably inexperienced. Maybe this is only their 2^nd or third catch. Starting any larger would be presumptuous.”

I…I don’t think Tao’s related,” I reply.

“Even after what you say today?”

I grip tightly onto my phone.

“I want to believe him. Today when I was with him I got scared because I felt that strange feeling with him, like the one I got with you, when we touched. But also, I felt something coming from me as well like… like we’ve bonded?”

Kai cut me off quickly, “Who taught you that?”

“What?”

“Bonding. Who taught you about that?”

“My… my mother. My uncle was bonded with the muse who freed me from a soul gem.”

There was silence.

“Sehun.”

“Yes?”

“Tomorrow don’t go anywhere alone with anyone and stay in crowded areas.”

“OK,” I say quietly.

“Even Tao. Bonding is complicated. You can’t just let yourself bond with the first human you see. He might be the enemy. Be careful.”

“Ok.”

“Good night.”

“Good night.”

I hang up the phone and sigh as I lay back in the bed. I can’t just bond with any humans but Tao isn’t just any human to me. I feel like he’s the human responsible for the sudden change over me whether it is for good or bad. Does he just want me as a soul gem? What if w bonded and he could have all of me forever? Would he accept that? I shake my head. It’s a foolish thought to have about a potential danger and I close my eyes to sleep.

Immediately I see his smiling face in my mind’s eye and I hear his cute sunshine laugh. But they’re quickly replaced by his darker, feral glare and then the broken sad look he had when I told him to leave me alone.

----

The next morning I head straight to the vocal department. I want to meet Yesung. I have to. I want to tell him about my mother and uncle and about Rain and Hyori too. I feel Yesung is supposedly cold and even Kai had said Yesung would have left me dead if he could. It’s intimidating.

As I grow closer I see vocal students chatting amongst each other.

“We have a written test today in Kyuhyun Teacher’s class. I’m so nervous.”

“I at written tests! Come on we’re vocal students!”

“At least they’re easier than the ones Jongwoon Teacher gives. He’s so tough, help!”

Well, that overheard conversation does little to ease my nerves but I press on. I round the corner and bump into someone quite small, stepping back.

“Watch it!”

I apologize, focusing my eyes on the person before me.

“I’m looking for 214,” I say though on second thought I should have inquired if he was OK after I ran into him.

“Huh? That’s Jongwoon’s office. I can show you.”

I nod and he regard me with knitted brows and a tilted head as I see his eyes dart towards my instrument case before he turns on his heels and begins to lead the way.

“So orchestra, huh? What are you doing here then?”

“Is it strange?”

The boy frowns a bit, “You’re a really awkward guy, aren’t you?”

“I’m sorry?”

The boy laughs, “Don’t worry. Just it feels like I’m pulling teeth just to have a normal conversation with you.”

“I’m not used to other people,” I try to explain but it only makes him look at me as if I’m even stranger still.

But he says nothing as he points down the hall he’s leading me down.

“His office is over here,” he says.

Apparently I was going the wrong way. I wonder what I’m going to say to Yesung when I see him. Who do I identify myself as? A student or a muse? The son of Ock Joohyun or the child from Rain’s soul gem? Even though I know what I want to say I don’t know where to start.

We stop in front of a door and the round eyed boy turns towards me.

“Here we are. I hope you make it back out in one piece,” he says before waving and walking off.

I’m left alone now and it’s time for me to face Yesung. I don’t know how long I stand there but eventually my hand raises to knock but before I can a smooth voices beckons me inside.

I open the door and walk in. The door is heavy and it slams shut behind me after I let go. The room is surprisingly dark and I have to blink to adjust my eyes. Where the windows should be hang heavy dark richly colored velvet curtains fringed with gold. The entire room reeks with elegance. It’s all deep ebony wood and blue silken upholstery. The light fixtures are dim and resemble old time gas lamps though they’re not. I can tell that the flame inside is merely a bulb. The desk, chairs and bookcase all fit the scene but there is a jarring oddity. A black Yamaha keyboard sits against a wall. The only way to explain its appearance in contrast to everything else is ugly.

That is where I first see him. There are two people in the room but I know immediately who is Yesung. He’s standing beside the keyboard with a cup of coffee in one hand and the other on the shoulder of a smaller male seated before the instrument. The pianist looks to be a student but he isn’t wearing a uniform.

Yesung looks at once aged and young. It’s a strange combination to see such experience and world weariness on someone physically no older than 30. His eyes are dark and so is his shaggy hair. He wears sleek wire framed spectacles over the bridge of his fine nose and despite how lanky and wan he feels here lurks an inner strength and masculinity. I see now why Kai would be intimidated.

“I was wondering when you’d come in,” Yesung speaks first, startling me from my observations. “You were standing out there so long I thought you’d never come in.”

“You knew I was there?” I ask.

“Of course,” Yesung takes a sip of his coffee, perhaps pausing for effect. “I could smell your fear.”

He looks at me with his piercing shapely eyes and they’re dark and mocking. Is this how he treats his students or is it because he know that I’m a muse?

“Oh quit teasing him, Jongwoon,” the small man at the piano stands and swats Yesung’s arm with a hand joined to an impossibly thin wrist. He turns and that’s when I finally see his staff badge: Kim Ryeowook. “You’re always abusing the young ones.”

“And you, my dear, spoil them. You play favorites to too many.”

“You’re just cruel to them all.”

“As it should be. I care for no one but myself,” Yesung replies.

Ryeowook pursed his lips and then sighed sending me a glance that basically said ‘What am I to do with him?’

“Besides,” Yesung continues, moving away from the keyboard and towards his desk. “Sehun is no average student. He’s not here for my guidance… at least not in music, certainly not vocals.”

Ryeowook’s mouth opens as he glances at me again, this time understanding begins to bloom in his eyes.

“Ah,” he says. “I’ll leave you two then to your business. I’ll see you later.”

Ryeowook exists the room and pats me on his shoulder as he leaves. Yesung sits behind his desk and gestures to the seat in front of him.

“He knows,” I say as I slide into the seat.

“Of course he should seeing as we’re bonded,” Yesung says plainly.

My mouth falls.

“Close your mouth, Sehun. You look stupid.”

I do as told.

“So you finally know and it’s all thanks to Kai.”

“You really knew?”

“Of course I know. I’m not just the muse in charge of this school. My domain is this entire side of the Han River.”

My mouth falls open again.

“There is no reason to be surprised. Nor is there any reason to be afraid of me. I do not hurt other muses however I do not help foolish ones either. I am not a leader because I wish to be but rather it came with age. I can say with confidence though that hunters are far less successful in my domain than they are in others.”

“That’s what I came to talk about,” I say. “There is a hunter in our school.”

“And I suppose you hint that this hunter is in your department?”

I nod.

“The keeper of that gem is not the hunter.”

“What?”

“He is merely the consumer. He didn’t capture the gem. Whether he plans to hunt himself I cannot pretend to know in that regard but it’s better to err on the side of caution.”

“So you can’t do anything?” I ask.

“Like I said, I do not help foolish individuals. There are measures one can take to avoid becoming ensnared in the traps of one like that child.”

“SO there are no actual hunters in this school?”

“Not one. Aspiring hunter, maybe scout, yes. The hunter who captured the gem around the child’s neck goes by Suho. He is a dangerous man but he doesn’t dare to step foot on my grounds.”

I purse my lips together. I can’t help but feel his arrogance and it’s a tad annoying. Still ti’s good to know that Luhan is not a hunter though he may have ambitions on becoming one. I do have to keep my guard up around him and also I have to be aware of this Suho. If Luhan were so inclined he could inform Suho about Kai and I.

“How about a violist… Hwang Zitao?” I ask. “He’s a Chinese exchange student and newly enrolled like me.”

Yesung looks at me, searches through me as if judging my decisions and motivation for the question I just asked.

“You care about him.” It was a statement.

“It’s not that I care,” I began, but I’m cut off.

“You do not know the heaviness that comes with a bond.”

I say nothing choosing only to stare down at my lap.

“Hwang Zitao is an innocent, though I cannot say the same for his friends.”

I leave soon after that. My mind is swirling with the results out our conversation. Classes will start soon. When I get to the room however the first thing I notice is Tao’s absence. Did he skip school to avoid me?

I try to shake that narcissistic thought from my head. There is no way it’s because of me. What I said last night couldn’t have hurt him that badly could it?

-to be continued-

AN: so there ya have it!  The boy who showed Sehun to the office was D.O. btw. But he's not gonna be a character.

Side note: bonding doesn't have to be romantic but it can be. It can just be a strong emotional bond only. The bond between Hyori and Uncle Dongwan was romantic but I am not sure if Yesung and Ryeowook's is. In real life Yesung adores Ryeowook and it's a bit onesided. Ryeowook is very aware of this and indulges his hyung and also teases him. I think that the same relationship is at play in this unviverse too. Yesung has time for no one in the world except Ryeowook haha. I ust had to say that because they're not main eople so it's not like their relationship will be explored much but the thought of the dynamic between them really intrigues me!

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