You try to avoid Baekhyun and Kai the next few days. Not because you don't want to see them anymore, not because you don't like them. No. But because you don't know how to act around them.

Do you go back to normal; acting like they haven't just confessed their liking for you? Or do you have to choose one of them to date? You're not even sure who you like, how are you going to do pick one of them?

Sehun has been accompanying you everywhere lately, only because he wants to make sure you're alright. Kai and Baekhyun go out of their ways to look for you but you seem to always be leaving their sights just in time for them to catch a glimpse of you.

But with Kai as your neighbour, it is only a matter of time before he corners you. And indeed, four days later, just as you are leaving the house, you get the shock of your life. Kai is standing right at your doorstep, both his hands holding onto the door frame on either sides. He was staring down before, but now that you have opened the door, Kai looks up at you through his fringe.

"K-Kai..." You stutter, your eyes bulging. Swallowing your nerves, you tell him, "I h-have to go to class..."

He raises his eyebrows—though you can't see it, you know he's doing it. "I'll go with you."

"No, I—"

"Stop avoiding me," he murmurs, dropping his arms and taking a step forward. "I can't live with it." He raises his head and you see a cut on his cheek.

"What happened there?" You gasp, reaching out for him despite the major fluttering of your heart. He lets you touch him, his eyes closing at the touch of your hand.

"Work," he shakes his head, opening his eyes again. He covers your hand in his and squeezes it lightly. "Let's go."

You follow him silently to the lift, your hand in his warm one. He presses the button and stares at the display as the lift rises up to your level. He smiles softly at you when the lift reaches and pulls you into it when the doors open. You are staring at the cut on his cheek. It's long and it seems painful. He catches you staring and you look away.

"I missed you, you know," he whispers, clenching your hand. "I want to talk to you but you're always avoiding me. Why?"

You look down, ashamed. "I don't know."

"Have you been seeing Baekhyun hyung?"

"No..." Kai seems visibly relieved, so you ask him instead, "Are you okay?" He raises his eyebrows as he stares at you. "Your cut."

"It'll heal," he brushes it off like it's nothing.

"It doesn't look like a minor cut, Kai," you tell him as you guys get out of the lift. "Have you put some medication on it?"

"Maybe if I saw you more, I wouldn't get cuts like this," he comments.

"There's more?"

"No," he replies firmly. He seems a little off and you know your intuitions are right when he looks away.

"Show me."

"There's no more—"

"Show me," you press again. He sighs, reluctantly pulling his hand away from yours and pulling up the left sleeve of his dress shirt. There is a longer cut running on the underside of the bend of his elbow to the middle of his forearm. "Kai."

"It's not painful," he sighs, taking your hand again. You don't let him as you stand still though. Kai looks hurt that you don't want hold him.

"Kai, please," you beg. His eyebrows furrow and he takes a step closer to you. "Stop hurting yourself. Quit your job."

"I can't quit," he shakes his head, reaching his hand up to touch you.

"Why not? Is it the money? You can live with me so you don't have to pay—"

"It's not the money," Kai looks amused as he takes another step towards you. He runs his hands up and down your arms. "It's really nothing."

"Hey..." You hear Sehun's voice trailing off. You and Kai turn to the side to look at the newcomer. Sehun's eyes are trained on the male's hands on you. "You alright, sweetheart?"

Your eyes catch another figure walking towards you from behind him. The others hear the sound of his heels clacking against the marbled floor of the lobby. Baekhyun stops next to Sehun, smiling softly at you. Then he glances at Kai. You don't anticipate the both of them jumping on each other but you definitely don't expect them to nod at each other. You see a line on Baekhyun's neck, peeking out from his dress shirt.

"Morning, kitten," Baekhyun greets.

"What happened to your neck?" You ask, eyes fixed on the cut.

"Aren't you an observant little thing?" Baekhyun chuckles.

You know he won't tell you, so you step out of Kai's hands and walk towards him. Baekhyun's eyes don't stop following you until you reach him. You look into his eyes before bringing your hand up to his collar. Your fingers brush against the cut and you pull the fabric away. The cut runs from the base to the middle of his neck.

"Why are the both of you getting cuts?" You ask, fingers fluttering lightly over the healing cut.

"Everything comes with a price," Baekhyun mumbles, smiling humourlessly as he places his hands on your hips. You don't like the way he answers; like it's a riddle.

"Can't you pay with something else?" You ask him innocently. "So you don't get hurt?"

"We can," Baekhyun nods.

You frown, asking, "What do you mean 'we'? Are you and Kai in the same line of business?" You turn your head to stare at Kai.

There are people walking in and out the lobby, every pair of eyes seem to find your cluster. Sehun steps forward and says, "Let's go back up to talk. We'll skip today."

So you're all in your home, sitting in the living room. Kai and Baekhyun are sitting on either sides of you. Sehun has pulled a dining chair to sit and watch. You're fiddling with your fingers nervously. You catch Sehun's gaze and he smiles assuringly at you. He must have seen the tears welling up in your eyes because he uncrosses his legs.

You don't even need to be told to go to him. As you settle on his lap, Sehun wraps his strong arms around you. He knows you're frustrated and scared. He knows you're confused. Sehun presses his lips to your head, his hand running up and down your arm comfortingly.

"Kitten," Baekhyun calls softly. "Come here."

"No," Sehun tightens his arms around you. "Maybe you should explain yourselves before I know whether I can trust my best friend to any one of you."

There is a beat of silence before Kai speaks up honestly as he shakes his head, "I'm not— I'm just not good for her." You stare at him, because he's the one who confessed his feelings for you first, after all.

"Kai," Baekhyun says his name firmly and the male stares back. Sehun and you watch the both of them converse with their eyes before Baekhyun mutters, "We're both not, okay?"

"You're not the one—"

"We're both equal," Baekhyun's eyes are piercing into Kai. "If you're not good for her then so am I." Kai is about to say something, but Baekhyun continues, "We're both deadly, Kai. Do you think I'm good for her, then?"

"No," Kai mumbles as he stares longingly at you. "But—"

"What are you guys talking about?" Sehun demands, pressing you closer to him in case the two males in front of you are crazy.

Kai stands up abruptly, ready to walk out. But you grab his wrist, making him stop. "You're not bad for me," you whisper.

"I am, angel," Kai turns to look at you. He retrieves his hand from your grasp to cup your cheek. "I'm the worst."

"It's not like you're going to kill me, Jongin," you shake your head. "Don't leave."

He laughs humourlessly, bending so that he is face-to-face with you. "You don't know that, angel. I'm going to be the cause of your—"

"Kai."

"—Death," he continues as if Baekhyun hadn't called out to him in warning. Kai grits his teeth and tries to suppress a groan. He is in obvious pain as his face slowly pales.

"Kai!" You clamber off Sehun's lap to be by Kai's side. He falls back to sit on the ground and you see a patch of maroon on his light denim jeans. "Kai!!!"

Baekhyun is next to Kai and Sehun is behind you. The oldest male shakes his head, "You're an idiot, Kai."

Kai groans and you feel frantic, "Oh my God, what should I—"

"He'll be okay," Baekhyun shakes his head, reaching over to hold your hand. But the blood on Kai's thigh is spreading. It looks like the red is going to take over the colour of his jeans. "Trust me, kitten."

"What's going on?" You cry, pleading them both to tell you. Your heart is breaking slowly, seeing Kai's face paling with every moment.

"We're your—"

"Hyung..." Kai forces out. "Don't..."

"You know what's a Grim Reaper?" Baekhyun asks instead, eyes darting between you and Sehun. You both nod. "We're—" He swallows as if anticipating something bad. "—something like that. We're Grims."

You haven't yet processed what he just said when he purses his lips, a suppressed scream bottled inside of him. He tries to stay upright but he ends up slumping against the sofa, his hand pressing on his side.

"," he grunts in pain, biting down on his lip. You and Baekhyun glance down at his side and there, you see blood staining his fingers.

"Why are the both of you bleeding out of a sudden?" Sehun asks frantically as he runs to get your first aid kit.

You lift Baekhyun's shirt a little and you see a deep cut on the right side of his lower stomach. You gulp and cover his shirt again, quickly reaching for his hand. He struggles to smile at you and that makes you cry. You lean in to him and press your lips to his temple. He has his eyes closed blissfully. Sehun is back with the kit and is about to start cleaning up their wounds when Kai stops him.

"We heal fast," he shakes his head. You move towards him and bring his head to your chest, pressing him closer to you. "I'm gonna be fine, angel," he chuckles, wounding an arm around your hips.

"You just got cut out of the blue," Sehun points out again, crossing his arm as he stand looking down at the two males. "How?"

Kai shrugs and from behind, Baekhyun speaks up, "Hades doesn't like inefficiency. So, as a reminder, he marks us... He does that when we reveal our identities too." You hear Baekhyun groan painfully and you cringe.

"About you being Grims?" Sehun confirms.

"Yeah," Kai nods and in a deep breath. His arm around you tightens and you look down, only to be greeted by a fresh cut on his forehead. 

"The more direct we are with the revelation of our identities, the more painful and harmful the cuts are," Baekhyun explains, squeezing your hand.

"How long does it take for you to stop bleeding?" You ask shakily, suddenly scared. Sehun looks worriedly at you.

"In an hour or two we completely stop," Kai tells you.

"Does it still hurt?" You question, glancing back at Baekhyun.

He gives you a weak smile as he shakes his head, "No, kitten. Doesn't hurt anymore." He sighs before chuckling breathlessly, "Can't believe I did that... I promised myself I'll never do that again."

"Do what?" Sehun asks, raising an eyebrow.

"He revealed his identity to a girl he loved in 1965? No, I think it was 19—" Kai is interrupted by Baekhyun's sigh.

"1972," Baekhyun informs. "The cut was so painful, it was unbearable. And the just left me lying on the ground, bleeding." He gives a humourless chuckle.

"1972?" You whisper. "How old are...?"

"Old enough to be your grandpa. Or rather, great-grandpa," he chuckles quietly.

Kai mumbles, "I'm younger than him by a decade or two." You must have looked shocked because Kai explains, "We're immortal, but we look the same age when we were turned into Grims."

"So are you dead...?" Your question in soft and you're scared to hear the answer.

"No," Kai shakes his head. "We're immortal."

"What he means is," Baekhyun grunts as if tired of Kai's ambiguity. "We're not like vampires, if that's what you're thinking about?" You nod and he laughs, squeezing your hand and rubbing his thumb on the back of your hand. "We're very much alive. It's only that Hades stamps us when we're "ripe" enough."

Sehun glances at Baekhyun in concern when he makes a pained sound at the back of his throat. "I swear to God," Sehun starts. "If this is a ing joke, I'll ing kill you guys."

The two injured men laugh, their low voices harmonising beautifully. "No," they both say together, causing the hair on your arms to stand. "It's not a joke."

"So you go around killing people?" Sehun grinds out, standing closer to you.

Baekhyun laughs, "No, that's what murderers do, Sehun."

"Then what do you do?" Sehun asks, raising any eyebrow.

"We..." Kai sounds uncertain whether or not he should say it. But then he finally voices out, "We each have our own people to work on, but in the mean time, we can send people to die when their time is up."

"Who're the both of you working on then?" You ask, glancing at the two boys.   

"Honestly," Sehun narrows his eyes.

"You," Baekhyun grins at Sehun almost mischievously. 

"And I got you," Kai mutters, his fingers twitching against the side of your body.

Author's note:

jeng jeng jeng!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! lol...... anyway, i'm here to say sorry for the long wait and to tell you guys that you have only a couple of chapters more with kaibaek before I wrap up this story. enjoy it while it lasts!

till next time
xoxo