Someone crosses your wards.

All of them. At the same time.

Fear envelops you like a blanket. You’re used to it at this point, but it always comes suddenly and unpleasantly. You grab your backpack, throw it over your shoulder, grab the keys from the counter and run to the door. Once in your car, you shoot Kai an emergency text, too busy driving to actually call him. You head to the forest, where three out of five wards broke just a few minutes ago, and you feel a surge of adrenaline.

You probably break a few traffic rules on your way, but you don’t even notice that. You drive into the forest road, following your instincts, and stop at some point. You get out of the car and let your magic roam the forest grounds freely. You breathe in the scent of water and grass, focusing on your wards and your sense of space.

You head left, into the deep forest. You stop two minutes in, your senses suddenly sharpening. You hear some weird, unnaturally loud rustling, and you look up.

You see two swords, a lot of blackness, and you grab at the baseball bat that’s sticking out of your backpack.

Two ninja-like people land in front of you. The one on your left aims his sword – that looks like an actual katana – at your neck. You duck, and that’s when the other ninja, the one on your right, twists his wrist until his katana is upright. The tip of it happens to be inches away from your head.

You stop the katana with your baseball bat, using your right hand; with your left, you push the first ninja away, using telekinesis. Your head starts hurting almost immediately. The blow is hard enough to push the ninja a few good meters away, but then you hear a crack and you look at your baseball bat.

The katana slices right through it, making you lose balance when a chunk of it hits the ground. You tilt back, falling onto your , and the ninja once again tries to impale you on his blade. His face is completely covered by a mask, and that includes his eyes. You suddenly wonder if he’s even human.

You throw your baseball bat away and roll over your right shoulder a second before the katana slices through the air. Instead of your head, it pierces the ground, and that short second during which the ninja tries to get it out is enough for you to kick up, hook your leg over the ninja’s arm, and pull.

He lets go of his weapon and falls onto the ground, surprised by your sudden weight. You grab his katana and use magic to make your legs stronger; you jump away from the guy, breathing harshly.

He stands up. You glance to your left, where the other ninja is standing as well, just a bit further. They’re both jusy staring at you. Or at least you think they are.

And then they turn into black smoke.

At first you think that maybe they ran away.

But something sizzles in front of you and behind you, and the ninjas re-appear. One of them right in front of you, the other – behind you.

You hear the familiar sound of a thin blade swooshing through the air, and then tearing pain pierce through your abdomen. All the muscles in your body go tense. You let go of the katana you were holding and it hits the ground with a thump.

The ninjas disappear in black, thick smoke, and you feel hot blood dripping down your stomach and legs. Your arms are just sort of hanging at your sides, hands hovering near your stomach.

You taste blood in your mouth. Shocked, shivering and scared, you look down to see a silver blade sticking out of you; stained with blood that’s dripping onto the grass in front of you.

You cough, tears gathering in your eyes, and even more blood trickles down your mouth as you open it in a silent, painful gasp. You have trouble breathing because of panic that overflows you.

“Haa,” you let out. “Haaa.”

You need to take out the blade. You need to take it out, because if you don’t, you won’t heal.

When you gave your magic for Kai’s life, your powers mixed. He’s able to turn into a wolf thanks to you, and you’re able to heal just like werewolves. But you know very well that if you don’t get rid of the blade, your skin will close around it, and your organs will heal with the blade still inside you.

You reach back, your fingers meeting the katana’s handle, and your whole body screams with pain. You cry out, dropping onto the ground and wheezing.

And then your triangle tattoo warms up.

*

“Is she waking up?”

“I think she is.”

“God.”

“Give her some space, come on.”

You open your eyes to see a lot of curious faces looking down at you. When they realize you’re awake, they erupt with laughter and ovations. Someone high-fives, someone sighs with relief, another person starts crying (it’s probably Tao). Your eyes stop on Siwon, who’s sitting by your bed. He looks devastated.

“Why did you go alone?” he asks. “Do you know how idiotic that was?!”

Everyone goes quiet. You stare at Siwon, he stares at you. There’s no more words exchanged. He stands up and walks out the room, angrily closing the door behind himself. You recognize the room you’re in as his office. You’re lying on his couch. It’s logical you’re here – it’s closer than Kai’s loft.

“Are you okay?” Kai asks, appearing at your side. His eyes are all over the place, and he’s smeared with blood. You gasp at him, pointing a finger at his bloody cheeks and sitting up. “It’s yours, dumbo, that blood is yours.”

“What the hell happened?” you ask. “My wards, they all broke. I—“

“We’ve had a few visitors,” Luhan interrupts you. You look at the boys. There’s Luhan, Kris, Kyungsoo, Xiumin and Tao. They’re all dirty and tired, or so it seems. “We took care of them. They were all the same, some kind of…ninjas with katanas and stuff.”

“Judging by what Kai told us, you met some of them, too,” Kris adds.

“Two,” you mutter. You look at Kai. “You saved me?”

“I just carried you here,” Kai explains. You look at him like he’s grown a second head. He frowns at you. “What?”

“I had a blade stuck in my stomach,” you deadpan.

“No, you didn’t, “ Kai shakes his head. “When I got there, the blade was gone. You were just bleeding, and your body was slowly starting to heal. But you lost a lot of blood, so you passed out.”

You look around the room, at all the boys. Then back at Kai. “So the blade just magically disappeared?”

“Must’ve. It definitely wasn’t an illusion, because we got slashed up pretty good, too, Kai included.” Kyungsoo tells you.

“Are you okay?”

“We’re fine,” Kris reassures. “The ninjas just disappeared.”

“And we’ve been talking,” Xiumin says.

“Well, you’ve been talking,” Tao interrupts him. “I’m far too dumb to realize such things.”

“What things?” you ask, looking from Tao to Xiumin and back.

“Well, the ninjas can teleport, right?” Kris says. “Xiumin says that it’s weird that they made themselves known by breaking the wards set around the city’s territory if they could just kind of…infiltrate us. It’s like they wanted us to come for them, not the other way around.”

“And they disappeared really quickly,” Xiumin adds. “They weren’t here to kill us, is what I’m trying to say.”

“So why were they here?” you ask, squinting at them all. “Any ideas?”

Kyungsoo shrugs. “We’d hoped you’d have some.”

“Have you told the rest yet?”

“No. We just said we’re alright,” Xiumin replies.

“Calls for a pack meeting,” Kai decides.

*

Iseul is sitting on the floor in the far corner of the living room. She can hear voices, but she can’t make out the words. She doesn’t care about that, really. She doesn’t care about Mabeob and what they do and don’t do; she doesn’t care about whether or not she lives or dies.

But then someone calls out her name, so she looks up.

“Yes?” she says. It’s that big-eyed guy talking to her.

“Who was it that came to you first, asking for you to join their organization?” he asks. Iseul doesn’t remember telling you about these guys trying to ‘enlist’ her and her pack, and it’s the first time she realizes that you’ve probably had some experience dealing with them already.

“It was…a guy,” she replies. “Just one guy. Probably around our age. Young. Quite handsome. Dressed in a black suit. He smelled like magic.”

“How did he approach you?” Chanyeol asks.

“Did he tell you his name?” Kris follows.

“He just knocked on my door,” Iseul explains, looking bored. “And yes, but I can’t remember. Something Japanese, I think.”

“Wait,” Chanyeol says, his eyes wide. “Don’t tell me it was Hiroto.”

“Who?” Tao asks, confused. Chanyeol glares at him, waving his arms around in exasperation.

“The kitsune! The one that trapped Kai and Dal in an illusion!” he practically yells.

“Hiroto is a girl,” Tao says, looking like he’s about to spit.

“Kitsunes can change forms,” you say. “Their features stay the same, but they can change genders as much as they want. Her name is actually male.”

“It wasn’t Hiroto,” Iseul speaks up, sounding like she wants to get over this whole conversation. “His name started with an ‘S’.”

“That doesn’t help at all,” Chen concludes.

“Who attacked you later on, then?” Yixing asks carefully, his voice quiet and low. She’s looking her in the eyes, and Iseul actually snaps her up at him when he asks. Yixing suddenly feels guilty of opening his mouth. “I mean—“

“Some people,” Iseul replies, looking away from him. “I wish I could tell you who they were, but I can’t.”

Kris sends Yixing a bashing look. Yixing shrugs, his eyes crossed on his chest, as if asking ‘What?’. He does feel sorry for asking Iseul that question, though.

“Are you going to fight them?” Iseul asks then, still looking away from them all. It seems her gaze is fixed on the floor. “That organization.”

“We have to,” you say. “They’re a huge threat. They’ve already killed so many people.”

“It’s not like it’s your duty,” Iseul shoots, her voice…angry. “You could just protect your own city.”

“They’ve attacked us before, and they will do it again,” you say, frowning. You’re a bit surprised at how irritated she sounds. “And it is our duty. We can do things other people can’t. How can we just sit around and do nothing when others get hurt?”

“Whoa there, Peter Parker,” Suho says, laughing warmly. You look at him, amused.

Iseul just continues to stare into nothing.

*

Someone rings at your doorbell. You listen in to see whether or not your mom is going to open, but you can’t hear her moving downstairs, so you suppose she’s busy doing something else and is waiting for you to open the door. You sigh, push yourself away from your desk (you’ve been studying the book Father gave you again) and head downstairs.

“Mom?” you call.

“Can you open the door?” your mom asks. “My hands are wet.”

You walk past the kitchen on your way to the door and you see her doing the dishes.

“A second!” you call at the door, looking around for the keys. When you finally unlock the door, you find a guy behind them. Someone you don’t recognize. He smiles at you, so you smile back. “Hello. Can I help you?”

“Yes, actually,” he says. He’s holding himself very strictly. He’s standing as straight as an arrow, his right hand resting on the hem of his suit jacket, his left hid behind his back. He’s quite tall, slim, and has mussed, dark hair. He reminds you of someone, but you can’t quite place it. “Dal, is it?”

You stare at him, your smile slowly fading away from your face.

It hits you like a ing brick in the face.

“I see a flash of recognition on your face,” the guy says. “I reckon you must’ve heard about me.”

He doesn’t feel magic. At all. You can’t feel a single magical vibe coming off of him, so you guess he must be hiding it almost as well as Father. Even you haven’t mastered that yet; Siwon has told you, several times, that he can still sense your magic if he’s standing close enough.

“We won’t give you Iseul,” you tell him, trying not to show any fear. In reality, though, your skin is crawling. He just walked up your doorstep. And you didn’t even realize there was something off about him until he spoke your name.

“I’m not here for Iseul,” the guy says. “I’m here for you.” And with that, he gives you the most charming smile. Right after that, he steps away from the door, and gives your house a once-over. “Judging by the amount of wards and protection you’ve placed on here, I guess you won’t let me in?”

“If you have something to say, say it from there,” you demand, your fingers twitching by your thigh. You can feel your magic gathering under your skin; you don’t even tell it to, it’s already acting up, ready to fight.

“No need for using magic,” the guy says. “I’m here on a diplomatic mission, nothing more. I don’t want to raise any alarms.” He looks down at your hand, his smile becoming even wider now. “Though I did come here for that. Say, wouldn’t you want to join us?”

“Us?” you ask.

“Don’t act like you don’t know who I am.”

“I have no clue who you are, you didn’t introduce yourself.”

He gasps in shock. “Ah! Right! My name is Saburo. It’s lovely to meet you,” he greets, bowing to you – ninety degrees – and straightening up his back with a smile. That’s when your mom decides to come out of the kitchen to see who’s at the door. You see the exact moment Saburo notices her. His smile grows wider, predator-like.

“Hello,” your mom says, wiping her hands with a cloth. “Who—“

“Mom, go back inside,” you say as quickly as you can, raising your voice. Saburo’s sharp eyes snap down at you, his smile fades. Your mom is frozen. You can’t see her face, but you can almost feel her hesitation. There’s six tense seconds during which the three of you are silent. Saburo is looking at you, and you’re not looking away, even when your heart threatens to beat out of your chest.

And then your mom slowly turns on her heels and walks away. You hear her head to the living room. You successfully manage to hide the relief that washes over you once she’s out of Saburo’s view.

“I see how it is,” Saburo says. The smile is completely gone from his lips. He also moves a little; he hides his hands inside the pockets of his trousers, leaning away a little, looking nonchalant and confident. Something inside you boils when you see that. “Okay. Seeing as I’m really stressing you out just by standing here…I’ll make this quick.” He takes a step away from the door again, turning his shoulder slightly, as if slowly preparing to walk away. “Come join us, and we’ll leave your friends and family alone. Sounds fair, don’t you think?”

“Why do you want me?” you ask, frowning at him. He reaches the stairs and takes one down.

“For your magic, of course,” he replies, shrugging. “But you’re not the kind of person who’d join us because you hate humans, no. You love humans. You feel like one, more than you feel like a mage. And you know how it goes. Different clients, different…” he gives you a once-over, followed by a smirk, “…approach.”

He winks at you, jumps the remaining two steps of stairs down, and heads for the gateway. He looks over his shoulder for the last time, sends you a flying kiss, and exits onto the street.

You exhale a bit forcefully.

*

“I can’t reach Siwon,” you say. Kai looks up from his laptop. Your eyes are a bit watery. “Kai, I’m scared.”

“I know,” he says, sighing. “I am, too.”

“My mom should leave,” you add. “She should leave the city.”

“I feel like they’d find her no matter where she was,” Kai says honestly.

“I hate waiting. All we do is wait, Kai. Always. It’s always the same.”

Iseul suddenly comes into the room. She’s been napping up until now. You think that she might be deeply depressed, but you don’t really know much about it. You and Kai look up at her almost at the same time, and she looks at you, then at Kai, then back.

She looks a bit curious. You think that maybe she’s going to ask, “What’s going on?” or something. Anything. But she just stares, then turns towards the kitchen and goes to rummage through the fridge.

You glance at Kai. He’s already looking at you, a bit disoriented, and a bit nervous. You can hear Iseul going through the fridge.

You wait until she walks past you (holding a bottle of water) and until she closes the door to the guest room.

“We need to do something about her,” you say, whispering. Kai sends you a look.

“What?” he questions with reproach. “I’m not a psychiatrist, Dal. I can only do as much as give her food and a place to sleep. She lost her friends. Maybe even her pack, we don’t know. Can you imagine that?”

“Yeah, I can,” you say angrily. “It might happen to me in a few days. Unless I go and join them.”

“Oh, you want to play that card now?” Kai sits back in his seat, anger already visible all over his face. “Why did you tell me about Saburo, then? Why not just go to him? Isn’t that what people always do?”

You sit back in your own seat too, fuming. You look away from him.

“You ed up by telling me. Should’ve tricked us all into thinking that you’re actually really into Mabeob.”

“Oh shut up,” you spit, turning your head at him angrily. “You’re angry for something I didn’t do.”

“And you’re angry for my theoretical death!” he shoots back, looking you in the eye. You shut your mouth with a click, then close your eyes, trying to calm down.

“I don’t know what to do,” you mutter. “We’ve been mostly dealing with psychos and monsters up until now. They didn’t have plans for us, and they weren’t smart enough to take us down. Or strong enough. But this time? For all we know, Mabeob could be a ing army. They sent six people just after Iseul. Six to one. What if each one of us will have six Mabeob members to fight with?”

“We can take them on,” Kai replies, weirdly confident. “We’re strong, Dal. Especially you. You’re stronger than you think.”

*

Iseul’s been staring at Taemin ever since he entered Kai’s loft. Taemin doesn’t pay her any attention. In fact, he’s pointedly ignoring her for the sake of listening to what you and Kai have to say.

But he’s getting really annoyed.

“Here,” you say, throwing something at him. Taemin catches it swiftly in one hand. It’s a flat rock. He looks down at it to see some symbol engraved in it and painted baby blue. “For protection. It should create a barrier around you if something magical is about to hit you. I don’t know how much magic it can take on, though, so you better avoid getting his by anything.”

“Thanks,” Taemin says, putting the stone into the pocket of his jeans. He wiggles a little in the armchair.

You tell him all about Saburo. He listens carefully, trying to wrap his head around this whole thing and make a list of things he should probably borrow from Seon to be prepared to fight. All the while, Iseul is staring at him from the corner of the room.

At some point, he snaps.

“Do you have a ing problem?” he asks, sending a glare her way. Iseul doesn’t even flinch. She doesn’t look away either. Not at first, at least. She looks away when someone enters the loft, and she turns her head to see who it is.

“Heeey guys!” says Luhan, walking in with bags in hands. Xiumin is with him, carrying even more bags. They both look fairly happy. “We’ve got food!”

“Thank ,” Taemin says, immediately standing up and walking over to them. You glance at Kai, worried, before going over to the boys, to see what they’ve bought.

Kai approaches Iseul. He hadn’t talked to her much. She shuts herself in her current room, and she doesn’t eat much, even if Kai or Kyungsoo or you make something. That’s why her eyes widen slightly when he reaches out for her, motions for her to come closer.

She tenses up when he lowers his lips towards her ears.

“You’re welcome here,” he says, “but if you really have a problem with Taemin, you've got two options: solve it or leave.”

He stays close to her for a second more before pulling away. When he’s still close to her, though, he fixes her with a sharp look. At first, she’s too transfixed with how serious he sounds and looks, and how his voice seems to her want to obey no matter what. He raises his brows slightly, questioningly. He doesn’t look scary, just serious, but still open at the same time. Iseul suddenly feels like a little kid.

“Okay,” she whispers. Kai’s face softens. He nods slightly and walks away from her, turning all awkward the second he heads towards his friends. Iseul watches as Luhan throws an arm around his shoulders and gives him a noogie.

This is the kind of alpha she should’ve been.

She feels someone’s eyes on her, and she glances to the right to see Taemin looking at her. Now that she thinks about it, him and Kai look similar. They smell alike as well, and it’s not the kind of similar smell that someone gets from spending a lot of time with another person.

It only now occurs to her that they might be related.

“Iseul,” Xiumin calls, taking her attention away from Taemin, “come eat with us.”

She’s about to do that when there’s sudden change in someone’s heartbeat. It’s violent enough for her to get surprised. She looks at you. Your heart is going crazy, and you’re frozen in place, staring at the table in front of you wide-eyed.

“They’re here,” you whisper.

*

The ride to the forest is excruciating. Even more so when you think about it as walking into a trap.

Saburo made himself known. He purposefully allowed his magic to get out, and now you knew that he was a mage, just like you.

You figured he wanted an answer, and you were going to give it to him.

You, Kai, Luhan and Xiumin walk into the forest after leaving your jeep off the main road. You follow your instincts, and the boys follow their heightened senses.

Saburo is waiting for you in a circle-shaped clearing inside the forest. He’s alone, he has his arms laced together in front of him, and he’s wearing a black suit. The shirt he has underneath is black, too, and so is his tie, and shoes.

“You must be really hot,” Luhan comments upon seeing him. The four of you stand in front of the guy, but remembering to keep a very safe distance between you. Your magic is literally sparkling on your skin, sensing another mage. “It’s like thirty degrees out, man.”

“I’m good, thank you for your concern,” Saburo replies, a small smile visible on his face. He looks so damn calm and nice, it makes you sick. “It’s very nice to see you in flesh. I’ve only heard rumors about you till now. Especially about you, Kai,” he says, nodding at Kai shortly. “You don’t hear about werewolves who can transform into their wolf selves very often. I’m truly impressed.”

“His wolf form looks really great up close,” Xiumin butts in, raising his brows at Saburo, as if they’re all just friends having a chat. “Though I don’t recommend making him angry.”

“No doubt,” Saburo says, smiling wider. He looks at you then. “Although it’s really pleasant talking to you gentlemen, I’d now like to listen what our Dal has to say.”

Kai’s eyes flash red at his words.

“After all, I came here for her,” Saburo continues, not minding Kai at all. You raise your chin slightly, feeling both threatened and motivated to kick that guy in the face. Or maybe put him under a chicken spell. You’d enjoy seeing him run around the forest clucking. “I’m here to hear the answer, you see.”

“You know my answer already,” you speak up. “It was, is, and will be the same. Always.”

Saburo tilts his head to the side, looking sad and let down. “I thought that I might change your mind.”

Before you can answer, four silhouettes show up on Saburo’s sides, swimming in black smoke: two on his right, two on his left. It’s the same ninjas as yesterday, and you shiver when you suddenly remember the pain one of them caused you. You can feel an actual shiver go down your spine, and you swear you feel your abdomen muscles flex around the katana that was just there not so long ago.

You swallow hard.

“Five against four? Not very nice,” a new voice says. You recognize Kris, and you grow more confident. You focus on your tattoo to also feel Kyungsoo’s presence. “How about five against six?”

Saburo looks smug at that. As on cue, another two ninjas show up by his side. Now there’s three on his left side and three on his right. You roll your eyes at the drama.

“Scared of us, after all?” you ask.

“Not at all, no,” Saburo says, showing his teeth. He looks like he’s baring them rather than smiling. “I just want it to be even, you see.”

He looks past you. You can feel more and more people from your pack emerging from the forest, as silent as mice.

You decide to use that short moment of distraction to create fire in your hands, and send it flying Saburo’s way.

The flames hit quicker and harder than you’d ever think they would. But Saburo is just as quick; he makes a cross out of his arms and a barrier shows up right in front of him, pushing your fire away in waves. The flames are shooting out of your hand, and you move on your feet to get closer to Saburo.

And around you, all hell breaks loose.

Kai transforms and his howl can be heard in the entire city, probably. The boys all jump at the ninjas, and the ninjas pull out their katanas, swift on their feet.

You trust the boys to protect you while you fight Saburo.

When you’re close enough to him, you stop throwing fire at him. The second the fire is gone, though, you see a ninja instead of Saburo. The guy is gone, and instead of him, there’s another ninja standing in front of you.

You punch him in the face, of course.

He flies a few meters away from you, thrown out of the loop, and you wave your right hand around, as if drying it in the air. You close your eye, feeling your wrist strain.

“Jesus,” you comment.

The ninja places his hand on the ground, and it shakes below your feet.

Now, this one shouldn’t be able to do this. Saburo is supposed to be the mage, not this freakish creature in front of you.

You look down to see the grass and soil around you break, and you reach back to get your daggers. Turns out, you do it just in time, because there’s whip-like roots shooting out of the ground.

For a few seconds, you’re dancing around them, swooshing your daggers and cutting them out before they can reach you and wrap around you; but then you decide to turn them against your opponent. You throw one of your daggers at him, and he gets distracted when he ducks. At the same time, you grab at one of the whips, pull at it, and make a single gesture with it in hand.

The whips shoot away from you and right at the ninja. He waves his hand once, a barrier appearing in front of him; it’s transparent, but you see it when the whips hit it and fall onto the ground, black as coal. You keep on bombarding him with more and more, the ground below your feet shaking.

And around you, the boys are fighting.

Thing is—

—no one’s winning.

Xiumin tries to punch the ninja he’s facing, but it’s no go. Every time he aims, and thinks he’s gonna get it this time, his opponent acts like he knew exactly where Xiumin is going to hit. Every time Kai thinks he’s close to trapping one of the ninjas between his teeth, it slips away from him by mere inches.

It’s like they can tell what their every next move is going to be.

Chanyeol notices something weird, too; every time one of the ninjas slashes someone from the pack with their katanas, they raise their weapons to their mouths, as if scenting the blood on them.

*

Sulli shows up at the Jung’s, breathing harsh. She walks past Yunho, who opened the door for her, and heads straight to Krystal’s bedroom. She barges in, making Krystal jump on her bed. Myungsoo is with her, and theyre listening to the music together, using the same pair of earphones.

Sulli literally tears the said earphones out of their ears, her face serious and voice strained.

“I need to use your power,” she says, grabbing Krystal’s hand and pulling her onto her feet. Daehyun appears in the threshold to Krystal’s room, and Myungsoo stands up, looking wary.

“What’s going on?” he asks, throwing Yunho and Daehyun a scared, confused look. Daehyun is staring at Sulli, Yunho shrugs.

“Use my power?” Krystal asks Sulli. “What do you mean?”

Sulli grabs Krystal’s head, placing it between her fingers. Krystal’s eyes roll to the back of her skull.

*

You’re bombarding the ninja with balls of fire and lightning, but he keeps on pushing them away, his barrier almost indestructible. In-between aiming and shooting, the ninja sends his own balls of fire and lightning your way, and just like him, you wave your hands around, creating barrier after barrier, and stopping each bullet of magic from hitting you.

It’s neverending. It feels like it’s never going to stop.

And then you hear a sudden voice in your head that doesn’t belong to you.

It belongs to Sulli, and it’s loud enough to make you yell and curl inside yourself.

They take your powers and abilities when they taste your blood.

You get hit by a literal wave of pure magic. It vibrates around you, makes your skin crawl, and then you feel your feet leave the ground. You don’t even realize you’re flying until someone catches you with a loud grunt.

“What the hell was that?” Kris asks. He’s the one that caught you. You feel like you don’t have any muscles anymore, and when Kris tries to put you down, your head lolls back and your legs give out. “Dal? Hey!”

“I’m fine,” you choke out. You look at the ninjas, who’ve all stopped attacking you and are patiently waiting for your next move. “Everyone heard that?”

“Was that Sulli?” Sehun asks, frowning.

“That’s why they slashed us,” Chanyeol speaks up. “They were trying to take our blood.”

“That’s why we can’t win,” Min adds. “We’re fighting ourselves.”

“Who wants to switch opponents with me?” Baekhyun asks, stretching out.

 You look at the ninja you’ve been fighting with, and you wonder the same thing.

Who’s gonna switch with me?

Now, who could take on Dal (or rather someone of Dal's talents)? Who guesses first wins my undying love. And, say, karma points.