Chapter 4. The Plan

Taemin kept down the stairs quietly. The house was already silent but he knew his father was awake and the chances of running into him were just as high as the chances of running into her. He took each step carefully, pausing at each creak of the floor boards and moving as slowly as possible. The lack of sleep already had him sluggish and his movements were already limited.

He already had somewhere to be. Truthfully anywhere other than his own home was better but Jonghyun and Jinki had suggested a day out and were not taking no for an answer. Taemin begrudgingly agreed, knowing that if he didn’t, his friends would come to his home and drag him out anyway. When he finally made it to the bottom of the steps, he looked around, not finding anyone before moving quickly towards the door. He didn’t bother even properly tying his laces before he was closing the door slowly behind him and walking away.

It was a few streets down when he was sure that he was out of sight that he finally decided to tie the laces of his sneakers. The walk wasn’t far to the cafe they were meeting at but Taemin was too tired both physically and mentally to truly care about whether or not he was late. The sun felt too warm against his skin and everything felt too far away. All he wanted was to sleep.

Despite everything, however, he had arrived before his two friends, quickly ordering a coffee and whatever else his stomach currently desired and sitting down to wait. The cafe was luckily relatively quiet but it still did nothing to ease his thoughts. The place was clearly run by humans and he’d have to remind Jonghyun and Jinki never to bring him back here another time. He had enough of the constant encounters with the horrid creatures and he didn’t need his so called friends only adding to it.

He still avoided his father, not wanting to be subjected to the lecture his father was probably brewing in head. He luckily hadn’t encountered the man yet and he hadn’t planned to do so any time soon.

Jonghyun and Jinki had entered the cafe just minutes later, grinning at Taemin in way of where he knew that the two had planned this. They very well knew who owned the cafe and they had done his purposely. He tightened his hold on his cup, restraining himself from causing a scene as he glared at his friends as they sat in front of him together.

“Now now, no need to be so upset,” Jonghyun said. Taemin turned his glare directly to Jonghyun, who didn’t so much as flinch, already used to the treatment. Jinki didn’t mind it either when Taemin focused on him, and the youngest settled for now ignoring them both, knowing that glaring wasn’t doing him any good. He was nowhere close to intimidating them.

“You aren’t that mad, are you?” Jinki asked. Taemin sighed and looked up once more, giving him a blank look now, and Jinki knew that he was. “You really need to let this go.”

“And both of you need to stop interfering with my life. You know that I’m not comfortable in these places, or at least with the type of creatures who run it.” Taemin replied. The two nodded at him but said nothing more on the matter, and instead went to the counter to order their own food. Taemin took that moment to walk away from them, right out of the cafe door. He could hear Jonghyun and Jinki calling out for him, but they’d no doubt find him when they got his food, so he didn’t pay them any mind. He chose to instead walk through a more demon populated area of the town, to avoid running into more humans.

He walked carelessly into a random store, not really caring for what they sold, but just wanting to get out of the sun. It was much too bright for his eyes at the moment and the coffee still hadn’t taken it’s effect yet. He lazily browsed through a rack of button ups before he could practically feel his friends watching him. He walked right back out of the door, ignoring the lady that asked if he had found what he was looking for and simply stared at his friends.

As soon as they were within arm’s reach, Taemin held out his coffee between them, silently looking at Jonghyun, who now stared right back at him.

“What do you want?” Jonghyun asked. Taemin pushed his coffee closer towards the shorter, forcefully making him take it in his hands.

“My coffee got cold. Heat it up for me,” Taemin demanded. Jonghyun scoffed at him, and Taemin could see his abilities already at work as the steam started to come up from his drink. He reached over to take it from him, but Jonghyun held it out of his reach before he could, and Taemin sent him a curious look. “Give me my coffee back now.

“What do I look like to you, your heater?” Jonghyun asked incredulously. Taemin nodded, to which Jonghyun only glared and continued to heat up the drink. Taemin noticed the bubbles in the drink and knew that his coffee was already boiling. He looked towards Jinki, who nodded at him and blew a soft wind towards Jonghyun to stop him. The shorter understood, and offered the cup back, but Taemin knew better than to touch the overheated cup now. Instead, he gave another look towards Jinki, who once more understood what he wanted and blew a cool wind towards his drink.

Once the boiling had calmed and Taemin deemed it slightly okay to touch, he took it from Jonghyun’s grasp. Still, he couldn’t quite accept the clear disrespect for his drink, and he was in no mood to deal with any of Jonghyun’s antics. He poured a generous amount of water on Jonghyun’s head, pleased with the angry look the shorter was now giving him. Jonghyun looked ready for revenge when Jinki got between them and blew a stronger, warmer air towards Jonghyun to dry him off.

“Did you have to do that Taemin?” Jinki asked. Taemin could practically hear the amusement in his tone, even if his face didn’t show it. When Jinki turned to look at him, Taemin nodded mutely, hoping that it was enough to end the conversation and turned to continue walking. The other two who were not stunned by his action; trailed after him. Taemin could feel their presence behind him and only continued to drink in the somewhat peaceful silence. But that was shattered as soon as Jonghyun spoke.

“You know why we invited you to that place right?”

“So we could eat.” He answered, clearly mocking the elder’s question.

Jonghyun rolled his eyes at Taemin’s attitude and could only give Jinki a look of plea since he was just this close to burning the kid. “We wanted you to get used to it.” The eldest of the three said. The two watched quietly as the Tria-demon in front of them didn’t make a sound other than his sips of his coffee. “Being around humans, we mean.”

“I’d rather not.”

“You never know until you try. It’s not that bad. Humans are just there, they don’t do much to bother us anyway. I don’t see what’s so bad with just being around them..” Taemin’s mind blanked out as he let the words of a lecture he did not plan on hearing first thing in the morning trail off into nothingness. He’s heard this all before, whether it be his father, his cousin, or them; he refused to listen to another word of it. He would rather not pay attention to another one of Jinki’s lectures which they had clearly planned out.

Taemin never really liked hanging out with other demons, especially since they were either afraid or looked down on him. The only two that he’s met who he could tolerate and vise versa, were these two. He knew there would be consequences on befriending them. But he hadn’t realized he had to another pair of men who would lecture him about giving humans a chance. It was kind of funny since he knew that they were not clueless to his reasons of hatred towards humans, he actually wondered why they still bothered to have him ‘get along’ with them.

There was just no way he was going to start now on suddenly lifting his loathe for the human race. “-So you get why we did it? Taemin?”

He didn’t bother listening and realized he had just finished his coffee. With a sigh, he crumpled it in his hand and threw the cup into a trash nearby. However as he did this, he hadn’t realized the two were calling out to him when he wasn’t paying attention to his path. “Ah-ow-” Taemin stopped in his tracks to rub his now slightly aching nose. He looked up to see just who it was who didn’t bother observing who or what could be in the way-despite him being the culprit himself-only to be shown the sight of the last person he wanted to see.

The two looked at one another, not saying a word as they scanned their eyes on the person standing in front of them. He saw that the other had bumped into him because he had been reading a book, which was probably what had hit his nose so hard. “Sorry about that.” The feline-eyed man said with a soft voice as he folded the book and held it at his side.

“You better be. And here I thought that friend of your’s was the only stupid one?”

“You’ve been thinking about me?”

Taken aback from his curious tone he felt his cheeks become slightly warm from how his words had just been twisted in a way that was completely wrong, but somewhat true. “No. I wouldn’t bother wasting my time on you humans.”

The other only blinked, now looking behind Taemin who seemed slightly irritated to how the man wasn’t affected by his anger at all. “Taemin we told you to be careful.”

“Whatever.” He said under his breath. Taemin walked away from the three with his eyes glued to the floor.

“Where are you going?” He heard the same voice of the man he wanted to humiliate.

“Nowhere you need to. Why are you following me? You shouldn’t be around a bunch of demons. Especially me.”
 

“Why? Just because you hate humans?”

“Just because?” He said, not realizing it came out as a scoff, though he was happy it did. “You make my hatred sound like a slap on the wrist.”

Kibum only continued to follow him, not minding the two who were behind them. “Taemin right?”

“I didn’t give you the right to say my name.”

“Humans aren’t all that bad.” He started pushing his rude words aside, and although Taemin was already annoyed with the lectures he had piling onto his shoulders, he couldn’t help but listen to what the other was going to say. However, he made sure to feign himself ignoring the other. “Like I said before, we hold kindness in our hearts. We’re not all like Minho, but I’m not saying he’s a bad guy either. He’d probably be one of the kindest human beings you could ever meet. He couldn’t hurt a fly even if he wanted to. So I don’t see why you can’t try it once since there are others out there who are as kind as him and I.”

“Try what once..” He mumbled.

Kibum smiled a little to how the other was actually listening. “Try approaching a human. Or at least let them approach you.”

“Yeah right.” He scoffed intentionally this time.

Silence filled the pause they had at the moment, making Taemin speed up his pace a little. “So who was it that made you think of us this way?”

The Tria-demon didn’t show it, but he was truly surprised the other still remembered that one specific part of his sentence he had said to him the other day. He didn’t like this feeling. It felt almost as if he already knew too much about him. He had never even let a human know his name nor his reasons for hating humans. It was too much. This feline-eyed man was seeing more than he should have been able to see. Not to mention, he had actually taken his words into consideration.

Instantly, he was running away from the others, too frustrated with his own thoughts and the human who was getting too much into his life. He couldn’t even believe he was able to stand next to him more than two minutes. And to have had an actual conversation that lasted for more than one day? What was wrong with him? He knew nothing of where he was running off to, but he was just running. He wanted to go anywhere else but near that human, and being around the other two who called him out here in the first place was not a choice he wanted to make.

So with that, he simply let his legs carry him to where they wanted go. He didn’t stop, and silently reprimanded himself for still thinking about those words mentioned from the human. He didn’t like how it stuck to him just like the word ‘kindness’ had from the day before. Shaking his head slightly, he scrunched his eyes to rid of the aggravating thought, only to have done the same mistake from before that had gotten him here in the first place. He instinctively muttered a sorry under his breaths as he had bumped into a body, only to be stopped by a hand that held his wrist tightly just as he was about to take his leave.

The touch of this skin against his own made him feel funny. His head whipped around to see just who this was and was immediately regretting the words he had said earlier. He couldn’t believe he had just apologized to a human. “Gosh why do I have to run into another lowly human today?” He groaned. “What is it that you could possibly want from me? First your stupid friend feeds me all these lies again and now I bump into none other than the clumsiest person on this planet who couldn’t be any more useful than a house without a roof.” Taemin found himself even more breathless since he had just blown off on this guy. What he couldn’t stand was how the man didn’t seem phased by his words either. His reaction was almost identical to the other, only, this smile had him feeling in a strange way that pushed his buttons even more. “What? What do you want?” He asked bitterly, eyeing the hand which was grasping his wrist.

“Kibum.”

“Huh?” He was confused as to what nonsense this human was saying.

“His name is Kibum..” Minho mumbled and continued to look at this creature who he hadn’t been able to forget about since the day he met him. Those deep sea blue eyes were as beautiful as ever. “Your eyes..they’re so..blue.”

“Look captain obvious, I’m kind of on the run here.” He tried to rip away from the human’s hold but was only pulled harder than before.

“He wasn’t lying..Kibum was telling the truth.” He felt distracted looking at the beautiful demon in front of him as the wheels were struggling to turn in his head. “Not all humans are as low and clumsy as I am. There are kind humans. The people he described to you, that was all pretty much his characteristics..and many others.”

Taemin wanted to roll his eyes, but couldn’t find himself to do so with how deep the other seemed to be looking into his eyes. He didn’t get why this man seemed as if he was fascinated, he was looking at the most hated creature for crying out loud. “You realize no matter what you and your friend say it won’t stop me from feeling the way I do about humans, right?”

He shook his head slightly. “You..you’ve met the wrong type of human haven’t you?”

The other’s grip became tight on his wrist, but it didn’t seem too tight. It was just a light squeeze that seemed like it was meant to comfort him. Deep down, he wouldn’t say he minded it too much. “Why do you care?” He had completely forgotten about how he had a human touching him. “I have no heart when it comes to people like you. So you shouldn’t have to care so much if I hate humans. It’s my own thoughts and I have my reasons.”

“Hate is a strong word..” Minho didn’t like the thought of being hated by this demon. He had never really minded demons, he was just afraid of them. And he still was now, but not this one. With this particular demon, he felt curious. He wanted to know everything and anything about him. “If you just..just gave us a cha-”

“It’s not my fault that a human has made my existence unwanted.” He blurted. His eyes had widened at what he said, shocked as to how his mouth acted with a mind of it’s own. Now he found himself afraid to looked at the other. Why did he say that? He asked himself, unsure as to what had made him reveal such a thing still being in his right mind.

With a gulp, he had glanced at the other’s face, curious as to what kind of reaction he had. He knew he was probably holding a smirk, or just some sort of sick expression to mock his now vulnerable self for revealing a weakness of his. But once he looked he didn’t expect to see a face filled with genuine sadness and sympathy. The expression on his face made him baffled to no extent. He knew more than anything this wasn’t pity, which was why he couldn’t comprehend what exactly was happening. He couldn’t seem to tear his eyes away from the human who held an emotion on his face which he had never seen done for himself. And what brought him close to feeling insane was when he saw those brown eyes become glossy. Was this guy..tearing up? “Why are you..” He forced the other’s grip off of his wrist with his free hand as soon as he knew he was only going to continue digging his own grave with the questions he should keep to himself. Fear filled his chest at the thought of what this man could possibly be thinking about him.

Before anything more could happen or be said, Taemin ran again. What the hell just happened? He thought to himself, unable to remove the image of the human’s face from his already messed up head.
 

Kibum blinked frequently at the realization of how the demon had just run off again. He wondered if his words got to him, but thought maybe that was the reason he ran away, because it was too much somehow.

He turned to face the two that had also been left behind, half-demons he noticed by their yellow eyes. He vaguely remembered that Taemin’s eyes weren’t the same, but he also didn’t have the red of a full demon either. He looked questioningly at the two, who looked at him with just as curious eyes.

“You guys are half, correct?” he asked. The two nodded and Kibum nodded back, still in thought. “But Taemin isn’t? His eyes are different from any other demon I’ve met.”

“That’s because he’s a Tria,” Jinki replied. At Kibum’s confused look, he decided to further explain the meaning of the term to him. Kibum’s expression turned to one of confusion to somewhat understanding, now that he knew what exactly Taemin was. However, it didn’t quell his curiosity completely, and he continued to pester them for more answers to his other questions. “I’ve never met a human quite as stubborn as yourself.”

“It’s a gift,” Kibum replied to him. He turned to Jonghyun, knowing that Jinki wouldn’t give him much answers anymore. “Would you explain to me why he hates humans so much?”

“It’s really not that difficult,” Jonghyun told him. He looked as if it were the simplest answer out there, and Kibum was wondering what exactly he was missing that could be so obvious. He turned to look at Jinki, who was glaring at Jonghyun, but the shorter either didn’t notice or didn’t care, because he continued talking despite the other’s clear warning glance. “His mom’s a human, and his family is a bunch of purebloods.”

That was as much as Jonghyun could get out before Jinki started cutting off the amount of air around his head and he had to punch the elder before he fainted. He glared at the elder, who just glared back. Kibum looked at the two, confused about their relationship but not quite enough to voice it out. Still he thanked Jonghyun for the information he provided.

“Anytime cutie,” Jonghyun replied. Kibum stared at him incredulously before looking at Jinki, as if to see if the other was serious. Sadly enough, Jinki nodded, to which Kibum sighed and turned back to the shorter.

“I don’t know you, so I’d appreciate it if you didn’t call me that,” he said. Jonghyun looked dejected but Kibum just smiled at him, hoping to ease some of his disappointment. “Well, I have to go meet up with Minho now; I’m kind of running late. I’ll see you guys later.”

He turned back around and walked away, only turning back to give a small wave when he heard them call out their own farewells. The cafe he was looking for was just a few blocks away, and knowing Minho the taller was probably just as late as he was, so he didn’t feel the need to rush. Even after he arrived, Minho was still no where to be found.

Five minutes later and Minho was walking into the cafe, looking confused and bothered and Kibum couldn’t help but let the curiosity bubble up in him once more. He waved his friend over, pushing his favorite drink and dessert towards him to which Minho smiled gratefully.

“What’s got you thinking so hard for once?” Kibum asked.

“Well I just ran into– Wait, what do you mean, ‘for once?’ I think a lot, I’ll have you know,” Minho replied. Kibum rolled his eyes and looked at him blankly. Minho got the hint and coughed, taking a sip of his drink first. “I ran into Taemin on the way here.”

“You too? Well he must be seriously pissed off by now. Wouldn’t be surprised if he set his abilities off on the whole town at this point,” Kibum said before taking a bite of his danish. Minho gave him a curious look and Kibum sighed. “I ran into him too. I may or may not have pissed him off and then he ran off, okay?”

“I know he ran into you. He told me, and he was mad about it. He also said something that I found really odd,” Minho replied. When Kibum stayed quiet, Minho figured he should continue where he left off. “He said that it wasn’t his fault that humans made his existence unwanted.”

“Unwanted...” Kibum thought for a moment, trying to piece together everything that Jonghyun and Jinki had told him. If his existence was unwanted because of a human, that had to mean it had something to do with the human in his family. From what he knew, Purebloods wanted to remain... purebloods. “That’s it...”

“What?”

“Taemin’s family is full of purebloods, and because his mom is human, he wasn’t able to be a pureblood like the rest. He’s just a Tria,” Kibum explained. Minho still looked confused and Kibum realized he needed to elaborate more for him. “After Taemin ran off I asked Jonghyun and Jinki some questions. Taemin’s a Tria, so he’s only 3/4 of a demon. His family is a bunch of purebloods and purebloods like to keep the line going. Get it now?”

“So... He meant that his mom made his existence unwanted within his family,” Minho mused. Kibum nodded, feeling a certain burst of pity for the demon he had simply believed to be ignorant the entire time. The problem clearly ran deeper than either had expected and if he didn’t know what to do about it, he much less expected Minho to have any idea either.

“I don’t think..we should try to do this whole ‘convince him to liking humans’ thing anymore.” Kibum said softly, disappointment in his tone. “If I was in his place, I know I’d feel the same kind of hatred.”

Minho frowned, “But I don’t want him to hate us, it’s kind of sad that he defines just one human he’s met to the whole race. Like you said before, neither I or anyone else can’t be used to categorize everyone who exists. We’re all different individuals and we carry different characteristics, there’s no way he should hate everyone. Especially since he hasn’t been able to get to know people like you. I hate to admit it, but you’re one of the nicest people I’ve met.”

“Alright Mr.Nice guy, then what do you suggest we do? I’d love to hear what you got up there in that hollow little head of your’s.”
 

He took a bite of the desert which Kibum had given him earlier. “Why don’t you prove him wrong then?”

“What?”

Minho sipped the drink after swallowing the food in his mouth. “I mean all we’ve been doing is talk and explain why humans aren’t so bad when what we should be doing is showing him with actions.”

Kibum, who had thought what he had just said was total nonsense, was flabbergasted once he understood what he meant. “Minho..”

“Hmm?”

Just as the man was about to take another bite, the blonde had taken his fork and eaten the piece of desert. “You actually made sense!” He said with his mouth full.

“H-Hey I wanted that.” He said with a slight pout.

“Why didn’t you say this earlier? We could have come up with a plan ages ago.”

Minho shrugged his shoulders as he cut himself another piece to eat. “I didn’t come up with it yet. I wouldn’t have been able to since we knew nothing about him. But now that we’ve heard what his real reason is, it all makes sense as to why what we did wasn’t enough.”

“Why aren’t you thinking like this all the time? You scare me sometimes y’know? I don’t know whether you’re a genius or just some plain quirky hollow minded guy.”

“Thanks.” He chuckled.

A/n: Guess who’s back? Well sorry for the late..LATE update! But we are now officially able to update faster than before considering how we are both on Vacation. But then again, Unnie has a job too, so it’ll be a bit harder than we expected *sighs* So sorry for how hard it is to update! But we guarantee that we will do our very best! So please continue to give us love and support! Don’t forget to comment too!

We’re very sorry for being so late with this! But we hope that you’ll forgive us! We’ll try to update sooner next time :)

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