Quick recap:

Byun Baekhyun, the son of the congressman Byun Ilheon, was not who he seemed to be. He was a shapeshifter and he came from an ancient lineage of shapeshifters. Yet for some reason, his first shift hadn't happened yet. 

One night, he learned that his family has had a long-lasting feud with a different branch of their shapeshifting family and that to finally reach peace, his family was planning on marrying him off to a member of the other branch, Kim Jongin. This had been quite a shock for him, but he had managed to adapt to the idea, encouraged by Jongin being quite friendly and sweet. He had come to terms with his fate when his father put everything in jeopardy.

That night, Baekhyun had walked away, angry and frustrated, he'd parked his car in a park and decided to just sit around and watch the people until he calmed down, but to his surprise, he involuntarily shifted. Having had his first -failed- shift when he was a kid, he hadn't known how to shift back, so he stayed that way. One hot day, Baekhyun's bird form had been overheating when he was found by Chanyeol. The latter had taken him to his home and helped his temperature come back down, but then, he had decided to keep him. 

Baekhyun stayed with Chanyeol for a long time until his body started shutting down, that's when Chanyeol figured that it was time to set him free, and that had been the last time Chanyeol had seen his magnificent blue bird, Suk.

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“….Onto other news, and after eight months of going missing, Byun Baekhyun, son of the assemblyman Byun Ilheon has been found three days ago, alive near the same area he was suspected to have been kidnapped from. Sources say that he has been admitted to the hospital immediately for further checks, but there have been no reports of his current condition or his previous whereabouts. Reporter Kim Balam is with us live to report on this mystery that has been finally solved. Ms. Kim, how is the situation?”

“Well, Ms. Oh, it looks like this case has finally been resolved, although we don’t know, as of yet, the exact details, but we can confirm that the young Mr. Byun has finally returned to his……”

The reporter droned on, talking about speculations and information. But the woman watching the TV had no interest whatsoever to hear what she had to say, she grabbed the remote control and switched the TV off, there was no use trying to surf the channels for different content. After all, everyone was talking about the same thing, at the moment.

She glanced at the boy sound asleep next to her, fighting the tears forming in the corner of her eyes so hard. Despite her efforts, they still managed to escape down the route they already know so well on her cheeks. There’s only so much she can do to convince herself that he was merely asleep. That he will wake up in a few hours. But the sad truth was the complete opposite. Her son, her precious gem. The boy whom she had fought all her life to keep protected, has been in a coma for three days.

A couple of knocks on the door had her jump out of her chair in a haste to wipe off her tears. She needed to be strong for her family.

“Ma? You’re in here?” She heard her daughter’s voice calling.

“Yes, Hyuna, come in.” She replied. The door opened and her daughter came in, a sleeping baby in her arms.

“I brought you some food, I know you probably haven’t eaten since yesterday.” She said, placing a paper bag with a famous restaurant logo on the table in the middle of the room. “How is he doing?” She asked, worry etched onto her features as she looked at the sleeping figure of her baby brother.

“Still the same.” The mother sighed, fighting with all her might to stop the tears from escaping again. “The doctor said all the tests showed no ailment. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with him, we have no idea why he’s not waking up,” she explained.

“It must have something to do with why he had disappeared,” Hyuna commented.

“Yes, but that is precisely what’s worrying to me. I’m so scared someone had hurt him somehow. Or if they discovered what we are and experimented on him,” she rambled on.

“Ma, stop! Just stop jumping to conclusions. The tests came out fine, the doctors said there was nothing wrong with him. There’s no reason for us to panic.” Hyun patted her mom’s back. “He’ll probably wake up soon, we just need to have faith in him.”

Just then, another knock sounded on the door, Hyuna waited for her mom to invite whoever is out there to come in but when it was evident that she’d gotten lost in her thoughts again, Hyuna did the job.

“Dad!” She smiled, placing her baby in the stroller and hugging her father.

“I’m glad we’re all here. I brought someone… I think he might be able to help Baekhyun.”

“Someone?” Hyuna tilted her head.

“Yes,” he said, looking out of the door, “please come in, we’re all waiting for you.”

Just then, an elderly man walked into the room, Hyuna was all too familiar with him.

“Good morning everyone.” The old man greeted.

“Good morning uncle Jiho, it’s nice to see you after so long,” Hyuna greeted as she shook his hands.

“Dalrae, this is Kang Jiho, I believe you’ve met before,” Ilheon said, grabbing his wife’s attention.

“We have, of course, back when Baekhyun had collapsed after his first shift.” Dalrae replied, smiling politely as she shook his hands.

“Yes, that is correct. May I know what is the situation, this time?” The man, Jiho asked.

“As you know, my son went missing eight months ago,” Ilheon began, Jiho nodded his head, it was all over the news for quite a while. “Well, last Tuesday, they found him unconscious near the same park he went missing in, he hasn’t woken up ever since. We did some tests, and everything is fine, we have no other choice but to assume that it has something to do with… you know.” Ilheon trailed off, not wanting to reveal any more information in case the walls had ears.

“I see, I understand,” Jiho nodded, “well, I’ll take a look and see what’s going on.”

The man walked up to Baekhyun’s bed, he put a hand on his forehead and closed his eyes. A heavy silence fell on the room as Jiho furrowed his brows in concentration. Everyone kept their eyes focused on Baekhyun, waiting for the second he’ll open his eyes. But when seconds ticked by and nothing happened, it became evident that this was not the same case as when he had last shifted and lost consciousness.

Jiho removed his hand from Baekhyun’s forehead with a heavy sigh, shaking his head disappointedly.

“Unfortunately, there’s nothing I could do, at the moment,” he said.

“What do you mean? Can you at least tell us what’s wrong with him?” Baekhyun’s mom asked impatiently, her husband patted her shoulders, trying to calm her down.

“All I can see at the moment is that he has completely drained his divine energy. The only reason I can think of something like that happening is shifting for way too long, and seeing as Baekhyun has never had a stable shift before, this has probably posed a serious strain on his body and mind. I tried to pull him out, but I’m not able to reach his consciousness, like it’s too far away. Try to talk to him more often, familiar voices can guide him back.”

“And,” Dalrae began, gulping quietly before continuing, “what if we can’t guide him back?” She asked.

“Well, he might stay in this state for a much longer amount of time before he wakes up, that is, if he does.” Jiho answered. He wasn’t a fan of giving bad news but, he had to be frank with them. In all his years of working as a mediator for shapeshifters, he had encountered deplete