“I want to find his contract and burn it,” Hyorin announced the next morning as every sat gathered in the basement.

“What?”

“I want to burn his contract,” she repeated, “that’s how his master managed to hurt him, right? Then to keep that from happening, we need to burn the contract.”

“We don’t know if that’s how his master hurt him,” Ravi replied, “and even if it was, how do you expect us to find it?”

“Hyung is right,” Hongbin nodded, “masters like to keep demon contracts someplace safe. Like your mother and uncle. They kept EXO’s contract hidden in a box in the attic with a bunch of other stuff. Even they had trouble finding it and they’re the ones who hid it in the first place.”

“So we’re just going to leave things as is?” Hyorin growled, her temper starting to get the best of her, “we’re going to let what happened last night happen again? Next time he might die.”

“We’re not saying we don’t want to do anything,” Ken spoke up, trying to calm her down, “just that it’s really hard. We’d have to find out where his master is. We don’t even know his masters name or what they look like.”

“My contract isn’t with my master,” the wind demon suddenly said, “my master hid it someplace else.”

“Where?” Hyorin turned to face the demon, “where did your master hide it?”

“My master never said exactly where it was,” the wind demon explained, “so that I couldn’t destroy it myself.”

“Your master didn’t put a ‘you can’t destroy your own contract’ clause?” Hyuk raised an eyebrow.

“Doesn’t have to,” the wind demon shrugged, “my master’s beaten most of my brothers into submission. Most of them can’t even dream of going against our master because they’ve been so……..damaged.”

“Do you have any idea where your contract is?” N asked, trying to ignore the implications of the wind demon’s words. He and his brothers had been beaten by their master until they lost the will to fight back? That was horrible beyond words.

“It’s in town,” the wind demon explained, “someplace Hyorin should know. I think my master wanted it that way so they could play mind games with Hyorin later. ‘Can you find the contract and free the demon before I kill them’ type stuff. Wouldn’t put it past my master to do something like that.”

“So we should be able to find it,” Leo frowned.

“Sort of a ‘in plain sight’ kind of thing,” the wind demon nodded, “like I said, my master loves playing games like that. It makes them feel superior when the people they’re playing with can’t figure it out. Plus it feeds their sadistic needs.”

 “I’ll find it,” Hyorin told him.

“I hope you do,” he made an attempt to sound hopeful, but everyone could tell he didn’t think she could. A part of him was convinced he’d be a slave to his master forever. He’d said his brothers had lost hope, but he’d lost hope as well.

“Let’s go,” N said, “we’ll split up and search places that Hyorin knows in town. Hyuk, you’re with me. Leo and Hongbin will go together and I want Ken and Ravi to go with Hyorin.”

“Alright,” everyone nodded before starting to leave.

“Hyorin,” the wind demon called before she could leave the basement, “be careful. My master might have a trap waiting for you.”

“Don’t worry,” she smiled, “Ken and Ravi will be with me.” The two demons in question smiled slightly after hearing that. “But I have one question. Can you tell me your name?”

“JB,” the wind demon confessed, “my name is JB.”

“Alright, JB,” Hyorin smiled, “we’ll find your contract and free you.”

“Promise,” Ken nodded in agreement, throwing an arm around Hyorin’s shoulders, “we’re gonna save you.”

--

“We should make a list,” Ravi said as the three walked down the street, “of all the places you like to go, Hyorin.”

“Why?” she asked, unsure how that would help them.

“We should start searching at the places you go most often,” Ravi told him, “you heard what JB said. ‘Hidden in plain sight.’ His master plays games like that.”

“Right,” Ken nodded, “that makes sence.”

“I need paper and a pen,” Hyorin said, taking the pen that Ken offered and the crumpled paper that Ravi pulled out of his pocket.

After a few seconds, Hyorin handed over a list of the places she liked to go.

“So this is everyplace you go?” Ravi clarified. The list was so short he almost didn’t believe it.

“Our poor Hyorin is such a shut in,” Ken laughed, earning a small glare from the girl in question. Ravi laughed slightly to himself before returning his attention to the list in his hands.

“Let’s try here first,” Hyorin pointed to the third item on the list.

The library

A/N: I think that’s a perfect place to end things for this chapter. Will they manage to find JB’s contract? Or will he still belong to his master for a little longer?