Seoul, South Korea

“Mun Hee unnie? Mun Hee unnie!”

Spirits, her voice could be a pain sometimes.

“UNNIE!” Seol called out for me from the corridor.

I held still, glaring ahead in concentration. A dragon stared back, rearing its head with menacing eyes. Like it was about to breathe a bath of fire into the room.

The sliding door to my right opened swiftly. I could hear Seol’s breaths, ragged as if she’d been running miles. So typical to humans.

My eyelids slid shut, a dull ache coming to my temple.

“There you are,” She said. I didn’t have to see to know her hands were planted on her hips. The energy of her aura was chaotic and vibrant, attacking the serene room with vigor. “I’ve been looking for you all over campus unnie-”

“Seol. I told you to open the door gently.” I interrupted quietly. The floorboards creaked as she shifted, remembering the time and place. Next to the school’s gymnasium was a length of individual rooms, mostly for meditation and small yoga classes. The point of it was for this to be a quiet space.

“Sorry,” The door was closed more slowly this time. I opened my eyes as she approached and sat “were you meditating?” She asked, unblinking eyes wandering around the room.

“Me and every person in the other rooms were.” My words were hushed, but clipped. “The walls are paper thin. How many times have I told you not to bother coming here?”

“But you always come for training.” She shifted uncomfortably on the cold floor. “And I wanted to talk to you.” Wordlessly I slipped off my flat pillow, dropping it on her lap. Without a word of thanks she got settled. “That’s a pretty tapestry.” She murmured. I stared ahead at the dragon, scales gleaming against the crimson background. In deep meditation I could sometimes see the dragon shift, blood and breath cycling underneath its golden armour. The dragon’s movements were so small, confined to the blood colored cloth, as if struggling to be released. I often wondered how Seol’d react if she learned the tapestry wasn’t entirely an inanimate object.

“It was donated by one of the school’s benefactors, one that we know actually. Did you want to compliment your uncle’s act of ‘kindness’?”

“NO- I mean no,” She half whispered furiously. “What do you take me for?”

A potential heiress that couldn’t get a handle on her money because of her relative’s greed and villainy. She had already explained his character with a lot of detail and disgust, emphasizing the distance between them. I knew she didn’t like him, but the fact she was still willing to forsake her right to the fortune because of that was baffling.

I placed my palms flat on the ground, bending from the waist until my head touched cool hardwood. “How was your figure skating competition?” I asked as I rose.

“Same as usual” Which meant she placed, most likely gold. The pride was easy to hear in Seol’s voice, and maybe it was that confidence in success that spurred her rebellion against him. “I’m more excited about your kendo competition, though.”

“Why mine?” I said, looking over my shoulder. Seol’s smile grew by the slightest fraction, like a child finally getting attention. “You should just be happy about your own win.”

“Of course I am! I’m just saying I’d be happy for yours too.” There she went forgetting to lower her voice again. “So, how’s the tramp?” She continued, recrossing her legs as they tired. I raised a brow at her. “You know, that girl from last week who made me look bad in front of Oppa.”

A smile grew on my lips as I spoke “You’re talking about Sehun.”

Seol nodded her head vigorously. Ignorantly. “To be honest I’m so sure she set the whole thing up to score a moment with him. Not like it would last more than a couple seconds.” I pulled off the ties at the base of my two french braids, the strands unraveling in seconds. She continued to ramble “That’s why I got some girls to help me stage a little ‘intervention’.”

“Did you?” I asked cooly.

“Yep, I added a little something at the end too. I mean, because she looked so desperate to get herself a guy it only seemed fair to do a little matchmaking.” A little smirk teased my lips. Only the first year Queenkas could be so severe, and Seol wasn’t an exception. But it wasn’t as if someone was going to call them out on their wrath. If anything they saved us second and third years the trouble of lifting a finger.

“Who’d you get?”

“Oh just some random guy. It was like, totally coincidental that we bumped into him while we were planning to whole thing out.”

“And you were sure he’d get the job done.”

She nodded cheerfully “He had some serious creepy vibes coming off him, but he was totally game. That tramp will never show her face again. I wouldn’t show my face again if I was her.”

“Sehun seemed pretty upset that you attacked her though. Are you sure that was even a good idea?”

Seol was waving the idea away before I had a chance to finish. “Unnie you know how uncomfortable he is around people he doesn’t know. The situation must have been so terrible for him that he just lashed out. It’s better that it was directed to us instead of some strangers.”

I flicked my hair over my shoulders, extending my legs out to do some stretching. “It’s funny how you call her a tramp-”

“That’s because that’s what she is,” She sing-songed, examining her nails. I looked at her from the corner of my eye.

“I wouldn’t call a close friend of the kingkas a tramp.”

“Huh?”

I hummed in response, stretching my arms up over my head. Little satisfying cracks sounded from my lower spine. “I was introduced already, her name’s Lena-”

“She’s friends with them. Like, legitimate friends.” She stared at me with a dumbfounded look. “That’s not possible.”

“Well now it apparently is.” I rolled my neck one way, then the other and stood. Seol followed a beat after, nearly tripping on her pillow. She kicked it away.

“There’s got to be some mistake then. She must have done something.” The wheels were turning in her head, suspicion boiling in a pool of what could look like anger. Inside her mind the seed of doubt had already settled in from my words. She always believed me, but now believing would spell a very steep miscalculation on her part. One that would cost her. “I mean we’ve never seen her before, but then she just waltzes in and stakes them as friends? She must of bribed them, maybe even blackmail.” I zipped open my bag, shifting through its contents quietly. My lack of response only fuelled her anxiety. “You seriously don’t believe any of this right?”

“It seemed legit to me. Especially since Kai and Lay know her too.”

My comment was like a slap to her face. “Unnie this is serious.”

“Who said I was joking? This affects me too, I’m the one that backed you up.” I raised a brow at her. “Kai and Sehun aren’t happy with either of us now. It’d be better to let this die down.”  My advice left Seol sputtering. The thought of being separated from kingkas did not sit well, neither did the possibility of them being angry at her.

“Tha- that witch!” She shrieked.

A stern rapt came from the door causing us both to jump. A long shadow, no doubt one of the phys ed. teachers stood in front of it. From the side profile I could see him put a finger to his lips, signalling for quiet. I shot Seol a warning look which she met feebly. After a couple moments the teacher tread past and it was silent again.  

I turned my head, staring at the dragon. Even as a simple picture the beast seemed to live through its eyes. The gleam they held were particularly cold, cunning. Wild. By Seol’s account, it’d be a reflection of its creator.

“Don’t exaggerate so much. Besides, I would know if she was a witch.” I murmured. Seol gave a half laugh, but her gaze had was far away. Her mind was long gone and oblivious to the reality of my words.

One thing she said was truth though; something about the situation did feel funny. It was interesting for a human to be close to any Creature. Modern day society brought along a great amount of mingling between races, but things weren’t seamless. We are all bound by our nature; Creature to their equal Creature and humans to humans. It was the way things were supposed to be.

The Exo kingkas were prime examples. They didn’t mingle very intimately with others; there was a faint line separating them from the rest. Admirers could link it to the price of popularity and that was half right, the rest being simple human deduction. Creatures recognized the real, more basic reason: wolves mated with their own kind, no exceptions. The same thing went with the other fractions; Creatures were never meant to truly intermingle. But a little flirting with the forbidden was always exciting. High school was a stretch of time where Creatures could forget, fantasize without the press of obligation. We were just curious; what was it like to be with another line that was different from mine? No one was looking for something long term but the fierceness was still there, and the carefree nature of humans only agonized the situation. Especially when it came to Exo.

Lena wasn’t the first human I’d seen nearby Exo members, but it was so sudden. When did it happened? What was it about her that drew them closer to their boundary edge, to her specifically? She was utterly normal and plain from what I could see.

I only had my curiosity to solve this riddle. And curiosity did have the unfortunate habit of killing cats, but thankfully I wasn’t the stereotypical witch that kept one as a familiar.

“Well?” Suho asked, staring at the wolf sitting in the chair next to him. Kris calmly turned the page of his book, eyes trained on the words. Suho fought the urge to snatch it out of his hands. “Did you guys find anything in Shanghai?”

“Remember how you expected us not to?” Kris said, a crinkle forming between his brow as he read on.

“It’s not like I didn’t have any hope.”

“Then it was wasted Junmyeon-ah.”

If only Suho had the gift of flame. Then his glare could burn the older to real attention.

The Hagwon was hollow without the sounds of sparring and gifts creating chaos. The silence sat on their shoulders, almost oppressive. Kris closed his book, and his brow twitched when he realized he forgot to mark the page.

“There wasn’t much we could do, the place was like a beehive.” Tao appeared from the stairs leading into this meditation room, a slight grimace on his face. Sehun, Luhan, and Kai followed behind a couple paces slower. Somewhere on the main floor was Lay, caught up in conversation with Amara. The rest were either with friends or lazing around at home, Suho having cancelled training for the day. He wondered how many of them were pondering the reason why. “I didn’t like it. It always felt like someone was watching me”

“They probably smelled your anxiety.” Kai murmured.

Tao shot him look, irritated “Oh and you would’ve done much better? Why didn’t you come then?”

“We were busy. Homework.”

“It’s not like I don’t have any either.” Tao rolled his eyes, “And since when were you such a model student? Sehun might pull that off for a couple days but definitely not you.”

Kai put a hand on his heart, reeling back slowly as if he’d been hit. Luhan settled on the arm of Suho’s chair, a smile threatening to break on his face.

“Your attendance record is just as crappy as mine, don’t look surprised!” Tao pointed a finger, annoyance in his voice. Kai swung his arm around the older, a cheshire’s smile etching on his lips. In just a second their age ranking seemed to switch.

“It doesn’t really matter so long as you actually pass. Last time I checked someone’s failing Korean Literature.”

“And you’re doing worse in math.” Tao deadpanned “Maybe if you’d show up to the class they wouldn’t call the house so much.” There was a creak from the stairs, then Lay’s face popped up into view.

“What’s going on?” The new arrival asked.

“Nothing special.” Suho gestured for him to come in and the group got resettled. “Did the archive really not have anything?”

“Nope.” Kris said “Nothing screamed ‘imprinting 101’. Maybe if it had a directory we could’ve found something.”

“Kris is just moody because he had a moment with the secretary.” Luhan filled.

Tao chortled “It was too short, I was waiting to see if she’d try to hit him.” Kris glowered from his chair but remained otherwise silent.

“Are you telling me you guys brought nothing?” Suho asked, silently exasperated by the direction of their conversation.

“We did. And mine’s a bust.” Kris said, gesturing to the book in Sehun’s hands. The Chinese script on the cover was dull in the overhead light. “It’s a history of famous political couples matched in the Han dynasty. It’s pretty interesting, one girl managed to seduce and kill a crown prince so her mate could seize the throne.” Suho gave the latter an incredulous look as he took the book.

“That sounds a bit kdrama-ish.” Kai smirked.

“It was. Very touching how dedicated they were.” Kris said sarcastically.

“This one doesn’t have anything either.”  Tao produced one from his coat pocket. It was small and leather bound, and just the size of his palm. “More couples, all matched.”

“So descriptive.” Kai mused. This time Tao didn’t hesitate to whack him in the arm.

“You’re not being helpful.” He turned toward Sehun, his expression becoming slightly more solemn “We could try the archive in America or Berlin. You should come too this time.”

“Their collections aren’t as extensive.” Lay murmured, a swell of nerves mounting under his skin; would Tao be so sympathetic when he knew this wasn’t a single imprint? Eventually it would be all of them. “We could still try. Something might turn up.”

Luhan handed a worn crimson paperback to Suho: “This one’s no good.”

“It looks like it’s supposed to be a storybook.” Tao explained “but the language is so old and weird.”

“Like chinese shakespeare,” Kris said, nodding in the affirmative “and I hated learning shakespeare.”

“We know.” Sehun responded, taking the ancient book. The cover was thick and the binding frayed. The margins were wide and there wasn’t much script on any of the pages; if he didn’t know any better he would’ve thought it was a book of poems.

“It’s a romance story, kind of like Romeo and Juliet.” Luhan explained.

“Wonderful.” Kris muttered. Kai coughed away his laughter.

“There isn’t an family feud, but the main characters do end up dead.” Luhan continued. “I thought it was interesting because the couple were sorcerers, but their relationship sounded a lot like how you guys explained imprinting.”

“Let’s just look these a little more .” Suho said “If we don’t have enough info we can just try the Berlin archive next.” Sehun nodded along quietly with the others, the edge of the binding. The majority of the group’s attention seemed to be resting on him, making it hard not to fidget. The urge came to just jump up and confess: I’m not the only one who imprinted! Look at those two! But then it would have to follow with the inevitable: We all are going to end up like this. Search faster if you want an out!

“How’s things been with the human girl?” Kris asked aloud. There was a slight pause.

“She didn’t come to school today.” Kai answered. None would admit to it, but the three wolves felt a pang of dread at the small reminder.

It had been three days. Three days of absolutely nothing.

“Is she sick?” Luhan asked.

Kai took a couple strides around the room, staring at the line of mirrors along one wall “How would we know? She just wasn’t in class.” There were countless possibilities that could explain why you hadn’t shown, but there one that was more probable than the rest. It left a target on the wolf’s back for Sehun to glare intensely at.

“Well you could’ve followed her. Or used your gift to find her.” Tao countered.

Both Kris and Suho started up, their tones matching their glares: “Definitely not.” Tao turned to his book in silent retreat, feigning interest.

“Let’s... see what happens tomorrow?” Lay interjected after a beat “She might show up.”

“Maybe.” Sehun murmured. Everyone caught the undertone of his voice: Maybe not.

Tao placed a hand on the younger’s shoulder “Don’t worry too much about it. Humans usually have weak immune systems right? She’ll be in school again by tomorrow, Monday at the latest.”

She’s not sick! Was the first response that popped in Sehun’s head. But why bother delving into the topic now? It’d do no good for them.

Sehun still couldn’t imagine the way things would fit together, how his brothers would find a way to share and bond with you individually; the situation was precarious with him, Lay, and Kai alone. He didn’t even understand his feelings towards you. Yes he was worried by your absence, but was he worried in the way that a lover would be? Each time he turned over the kiss between you and Kai in his head Sehun would feel irritated, but he didn’t necessarily understand why. Was it simply the bond made from his imprinting that triggered his emotions? But Kai had imprinted, so what right did he have to feel negatively about it? He was supposed to share.

So was this supposed to be romantic attraction? Did Sehun already love you?

I’m not in love with Lena. Sehun willed the thought deeper into his head. As if it would anchor him down. I’m not in love. I just care about her well being...I’m not in love.

Lay was lost in similar thoughts. Between his two starkly different pack brothers it felt like he was in a field of grey. He wasn’t as forward as Kai, nor was he quietly helpful like Sehun. He had barely even started getting to know you before things soured. Wasn’t imprinting supposed to be instantaneous and sure, with everything being made clear by his feelings? He could barely get rid of the feeling that he was overstepping boundaries, considering something that wasn’t meant for him.  

~~~