“And then after this, your instructor will be waiting for you in the regular room for your weekly lesson,” the butler bowed, after he relayed the instructions he had been given by the master of the castle. Choi Seungcheol watched the butler leave; narrowing his eyes at the slight tremble of the butler’s hands, but made no mention of it. Sighing, he stared at the sheets of paper in front of him that the butler had just dropped off and groaned. Picking up one of the sheets, he read it lazily before he added it to the pile to his left. Everything was boring. His lessons were boring – he already excelled in any form of dark magic, especially illusions. The people around him were boring – they were all scared to the bone of him and his family. Even his family was boring, and that was saying something. You’d think being born into a high class family of demons would make life at least a little interesting but all Seungcheol did was study and learn about politics. Not something a young boy would be interested in, unless you were a freak of nature.

          However, it seemed that nobody around Seungcheol agreed with his point of view. All his brothers and sisters liked their comfortable lives. They ordered the servants around, collected meaningless artifacts and clothes, and actually paid attention to the gossip surrounding the other aristocrats. In fact, his mother had constantly reminded him – not so gently – that Seungcheol was the only freak of nature in the household. He excelled in magic forms that took other demons years to learn, he was already much stronger and faster than the rest of his siblings (despite being one of the youngest), and had absolutely no ambition to act like the prince he was. Not like Seungcheol really was a prince, their family was high class but not to the extent of royalty. Which is exactly the reason why Seungcheol laughed when his sisters gushed about some upcoming ball or when his brothers trained for the next tournament. They could train or prepare all they wanted but they’d never get first place. No, that was reserved for royalty – even if the prince (who was around Seungcheol’s age) had no talent whatsoever.

          In any case, it wasn’t difficult to see that Seungcheol was bored of his life. He wanted to go out, explore, and meet other beings. The only other mythical beings he had seen was a glimpse of a vampire that was to be executed during one of the balls his mother insisted he attend. But Seungcheol knew there was more to life than stupid balls and boring politics, he had read about the thousands of other mythical beings, of the grand halls and fascinating landscapes beyond the walls of his father’s castle, and of the adventure and journeys that awaited anyone who could escape the boring noble life. Sighing, Seungcheol leaned back in his chair and looked out the window. There was nothing he could do; he had only lived for 156 years. Although that was probably a lot to humans (Seungcheol could never understand how they could have such short life spans, what could you even accomplish in around 90 years?) Seungcheol was still very much a child to many of the adults. In fact, he was still learning from an imbecile of a teacher. He didn’t understand why his parents continued to make him ‘learn’ from his current instructor. Seungcheol had already mastered most, if not all, of the magic he had been taught and all the lessons did were get Seungcheol in trouble. His instructor was obviously jealous of Seungcheol’s affinity for magic so he would constantly tell Seungcheol’s parents that the boy ‘never listened’ and ‘was increasingly disrespectful’; which would result in Seungcheol’s detainment and punishment.

          “Let’s get this over with,” Seungcheol said to himself, pushing himself out of the wooden chair he had been occupying for the last three hours. He gathered the papers and put them in a folder (lest his mother walked in while he was out and lectured him about organization) before he grabbed the books required for the lesson (that he had already read when he learned how to walk) and exited the room. Bowing to the passing guards, he made his way up the nearest staircase and onto the next floor.

          Holding his books to his chest, Seungcheol absentmindedly stared out of the window, looking at his family’s grand courtyard when he saw it. A flash of, pink? Stopping in his tracks, Seungcheol walked closer to the window and studied the forest line. There it was again! A quick, fleeting flash of something... pink. Unnatural for sure, and definitely not a demon. Dropping his books, Seungcheol raced down the stairs, curiosity blazing. Dodging the various castle servants and guards that had the bad luck of being in his way (he was pretty sure one of the maids dropped her bucket and got water on the carpet, to be her), Seungcheol finally made it outside. Scanning the courtyard for an adult or someone else that would report him and tell him to get back to class, Seungcheol caught his breath. After deciding that the coast was clear, he took a step back and concentrated. With a flick of his wrist, he cast a silent spell around himself. By bending the shadows and light around him, he had managed to make himself invisible. Of course, people would still be able to feel him if they ran into him and he couldn’t disguise the footprints his feet left on the grass, but it would be enough for him to sneak across the yard.

          Once he was on the other side of the lawn, he looked back and studied the windows of the castle. No one seemed to be looking for him yet so Seungcheol was in the clear. He dispelled the invisibility spell, it drained his magic a lot more than he liked, and studied the place where he had seen the flash of pink last. Circling the area, he examined the various plants but to his annoyance, he could find no trace of the pink thing he had seen before. Either the other being was extremely light (or was floating), or it had cast a spell so that Seungcheol would be unable to find it. Smirking, Seungcheol took a couple steps back and spread his arms apart. Two black orbs appeared in the palms of his hand and with a soft push, the orbs circled the area, leaving behind a faint, black smoke, until they connected together to form a perfect circle. Seungcheol brought his hands together, and as he moved his hands, the smoke moved as well. Soon enough, the entire area was covered with the dark substance. Within a couple seconds, Seungcheol’s eyes caught on to a slight movement to his right side. Relaxing his stance, he waited for the other being to move before launching himself in that direction. The other being however, had amazing reflexes and managed to twist in midair in order to dodge Seungcheol’s grab. Landing on the forest floor gracefully, Seungcheol turned around and spotted a young boy (maybe a couple years younger than him) with pink ears, a tail, and feline features jumping from branch to branch.

          Following the boy, Seungcheol set off at a medium pace run, easily keeping up with the other being yet always being a little behind as the other boy agilely jumped from tree to tree. Getting fed up with the long chase; Seungcheol put a little more weight into his next step and propelled himself forward. The boy’s ears flick slightly and he, once again, managed to flip out of Seungcheol’s way. Unluckily for Seungcheol, he hadn’t been paying attention to where he was going, and the demon found himself smacking face first into the trunk of a tree. Groaning in pain, Seungcheol felt himself falling before he landed on the forest floor.

          “Good one,” a voice laughed musically, causing Seungcheol to open his eyes and spot the cat boy sitting on a branch above him. He was close enough to have a conversation but was far enough to be able to run at any hint of danger. “Maybe you should look where you’re going next time.”

          “Shut up,” Seungcheol growled, sitting up. His face and back was already healing, perks of being a high class demon, but the embarrassment he was feeling wouldn’t go away half as easily. “It’s your fault anyways.”

          “For dodging?” the cat boy leaned forward, looking at Seungcheol with a mixture of amusement and sarcasm. “What was I supposed to do? Let you catch me? How would I know what you were going to do? For all I know that black smoke from before could have killed me.”

          “It’s a detection spell, all it does it let me see if there’s anyone there,” Seungcheol rolled his eyes. “It’s really basic dark magic.”

          “Well excuuuse me for not being trained in magic,” the boy said sassily, sticking his nose into the air. “What are you anyways? No one I know can do dark magic.”

          “That’s kind of a rude question,” Seungcheol stood up, his back and visage having finished mending, and looked up at the other boy in fascination. “I’m a demon, how about you?”

          “You don’t look like a demon,” the boy replied, dodging the question. “Aren’t you supposed to have horns and stuff?”

          “Only lower class demons are unable to hide their wings,” Seungcheol explained, he briefly closed his eyes and focused, before unleashing a wave of energy that blew back nearby plants. The cat boy was also momentarily taken aback, grabbing onto another branch and flipping over to maintain his balance. When he steadied himself, his eyes widened as Seungcheol now has midnight black wings, a long, scaly tail, and horns. The boy’s eyes had also turned from a warm brown to a deep blue and his hands had transformed into something more alike claws than a normal human hand. “Is this better?” Seungcheol asked, voice deepening from his transformation. “Of course, I’m not fully developed yet, in a couple years my horns will grow larger and I’ll gain more demonic features, but this is my demon form for now.”

          “Interesting,” the other boy said honestly, he swung down from his high branch until he landed before Seungcheol. “I’m a werecat, as you can see,” the boy pointed to his pink, feline features. “But I’m a certain type. More werecats can only switch between their feline forms and their human ones, but I’m a Bijou. We’re naturally smaller and more delicate than normal werecats, and our fur colour is a lot more... vibrant, but we have a larger affinity for magic.”

          “Oh? I’ve only read about normal werecats,” Seungcheol responded, staring down at the small boy. He was a lot shorter than he had first though, the werecat only stood up to his shoulder, but Seungcheol could feel the amount of magic he had running through his body.

          “Yeah, well, not a lot of people know about Bijou’s. We’re pretty rare. Which is the reason I’m here,” the other boy sighed, rubbing his head at the memory that came up.

          “What do you mean?” Seungcheol asked, tilting his head to the side in confusion.

          “I was at this festival thing that werecats run every season and its fun and all, until people realize you’re a Bijou and not some regular werecat that dyed their fur. Then they try to get close to you because you have a lot of power and if I have to tell one more person that no, I don’t want to dance with you or marry your daughter, I think I might snap,” the boy growled in reply. His tail swung from side to side in irritation and his face scrunched up.

          “So you ran here to relax,” Seungcheol finished the story. “I understand, that’s kind of why I’m here, too,” he explained when the werecat looks at him in confusion. “I’m actually supposed to be at lessons but I already know way more than my teacher so it’s useless.”

          “Are you sure about that?” the younger boy smirked, bouncing on the balls of his feet.

          “Huh?” Seungcheol raised and eyebrow, taking note of the cheeky smile on the other boys face.

          “I mean, you couldn’t even catch me, are you sure you’re really that good?” the boy laughed before launching himself backwards. He spun midair and caught himself on an overhanging branch.

          “You want to try again?” Seungcheol grinned, spreading his wings in challenge. Without a reply, the werecat raced through the forest and the chase began again. This time however, the two boys were a lot better matched. Even though the werecat danced through the trees at an impossible speed, Seungcheol was always right behind. Half flying, half gliding through the forest, his speed and strength increased since he had unleashed his demon form.

          “Why are you so slow?” the werecat asked cheekily, turning around mid-jump to stick his tongue out at Seungcheol. In reply, Seungcheol flapped his wings, creating a gush of air that pushed the werecat back. Instead of landing on the branch he had been aiming for, the boy flipped around and ended up flying out of the forest. They had been running through the forest for hours now, and none of them had realized that they had reached the end. With wide eyes, Seungcheol watched as the werecat was carried beyond the forest line and plummeted downwards, into the canyon to the north of his residence.

          Without hesitation, Seungcheol jumped above the tree line and flapped his mighty wings, propelling himself downwards to catch up with the already falling werecat. In two short bursts of strength, Seungcheol reached the werecat and grabbed the shorter boy’s torso. Securing the werecat in his grasp, Seungcheol turned around and flew upwards, wind tearing at his wings from the sudden change in direction, but they manage to make it out of the canyon safely. As Seungcheol hovered above the canyon, he felt the werecat slip his hands around Seungcheol’s neck for safety.

          “Good one,” Seungcheol said cheekily, “maybe you should look where you’re going next time.”

          “I knew where I was going,” the werecat huffed when Seungcheol landed and they were both on solid ground. “You’re the one who knocked me out of the air.”

          “Whatever, I won,” Seungcheol retorted.

          “What, no you didn’t,” the werecat replied, raising an eyebrow.

          “I caught you didn’t I?” Seungcheol smirked, crossing his arms and folding his wings closely to his back.

          “Doesn’t count,” the werecat stuck his nose in the air. “I want a rematch.”

          “Fine,” Seungcheol grinned, happy that he might be able to see this interesting boy once again. “What’s your name?”

          “Lee Jihoon,” the werecat responded, equally as happy. “You?”

          “Choi Seungcheol,” Seungcheol replied and the two boys stare at each other for a brief moment in silence.

          “Well Seungcheol,” Jihoon said at last. “Keep your eyes out for me then, next time I won’t lose.”

          “Okay,” Seungcheol answered, “but I’ll catch you next time and the time after that.”

          “Is that a challenge?”

          “It’s a promise."

~ ♦ ~

And that’s the end of Seungcheol’s back story. This was set a while back, in Seungcheol’s actual childhood, but the later chapters will be more modern times. Not including back stories because the backgrounds will always be when the member is younger (like the next chapter will be Jisoo and he’s going to be seventeen) but after I finish introducing all the members then the chapters will be in modern times (meaning Seungcheol will be 20 in demon years but he’ll have lived for 260 human years).

Yeah... That’s confusing. Which is also why I’ve decided that there aren’t going to be age orders. Like, obviously Seungcheol, Jisoo, and Jeonghan will be the oldest, but there’s not going to be any ‘hyung’ or whatnot because it’s confusing since different races have different age systems. For example, Jihoon is 19 werecat years but he’s actually lived 114 years while Mingyu is 18 in his race’s years but he’s lived 126 years. So technically he’d be older than Jihoon but he isn’t because his age is measured differently. Does that make sense? I don’t know it’s just simpler if I don’t use the senior-junior .

This was supposed to just introduce Seungcheol but my JiCheol feels took over. I think it turned out better this way so the other chapters will also have cameos by other members but the majority of the chapter will be based on the original member. I feel like I’m not making any sense but things will work out. Trust.

Once again, thanks for reading and I do not own anything in this story other than the idea and plot, any similarities to other works of fiction are purely coincidental or have been used as sources of inspiration. Please do not repost this anywhere without my permission; plagiarism isn’t nice!

Hope you’re smiling!

~ alateni