Grinning, Kwon Soonyoung looked down at the bustling streets of the second largest ocean side ports. He watched as humans unloaded a freight ship, the two teams of men and women working precisely and quickly. People got chosen every day near the gate of the port for that day’s work, but they could easily be kicked off of the team if they didn’t work hard enough, so all of the workers at the dock were doing their very best. It amused Soonyoung, the fact that humans worked so hard even though their lives were so short. Soonyoung couldn’t remember the countless lives he had seen disappear over the years.

          It wasn’t the human’s fault that they were so weak. They had the lowest affinity for magic, save for a couple magicians, and they lived the shortest compared to any of the other races. It was only natural for Soonyoung to stare at humans in wonderment. Soonyoung was a flugel. In another world, he might have been described as an angel, with his large golden wings and angelic features, but in his universe, angels were something of a myth. Instead, creatures like him, flugels, ruled the skies.

          Flugels were different, yet similar, to angels. They both had wings but while angel wings originated from their shoulder blades, flugel wings started on the lower back and could shrink for convenience. Flugels also had two smaller wing-like appendages above their ears, starting at their temples. These features, while seemingly useless to other races, actually helped flugels with their magic. It connected them to a higher network, the Sihoh, where information gathered by previous flugels was shared between the entire race. In this way, flugels held more knowledge in their bodies than any other race – which is why they were considered the wisest. It was common for a king or ruler to have a flugel in their service, as it was useful to be able to access their knowledge at any time, yet forcing a flugel to work for you was practically an impossible task.

          If you asked Soonyoung, he would never agree to help any ruler. To bind yourself to service was to ask for a prison sentence, in Soonyoung’s opinion, and one of the most important things to Soonyoung was being free. He was a happy go lucky person, responsible but always in for a laugh. Many people had described him as a cheerful individual who couldn’t stay serious for more than a couple seconds. They were wrong of course, Soonyoung was still a flugel, he loved to learn more than anything else, but unlike other flugels who devoted their lives to science or mathematics, Soonyoung was more interested in emotions.

          Which is why Soonyoung would constantly sit on the top of a building and people watch. He preferred to observe humans; they were the easiest to figure out in his opinion. They couldn’t hide their emotions under magic, and most humans lived with their hearts on their sleeves. Of course, elves couldn’t lie so observing them was easy as well. However, because of their inability to tell lies, most elves ended up being immensely tricky and witty with their words – often hiding double meanings in their sentences – and that was just something Soonyoung didn’t want to deal with.

          Looking back at the dock workers, Soonyoung leaned over as two humans broke off from the main group. They headed to the back of the ship, seemingly in an argument. Curiosity ablaze, Soonyoung unfolded his wings and launched himself from the building. Swooping over, he landed on a shorter building that was closer to the ship yet far enough away so no one would notice if they weren’t looking up. Soonyoung lifted a hand and tapped his smaller wings, accessing the Sihoh network, and muttered a spell that allowed him to hear better. Flugels had a high affinity for magic yet they couldn’t feel it the way other races, like faeries, could. The only way they could use magic was to call upon the elements by their Original Names. This consisted of what was described as an Ancient language and was terribly difficult to learn. Luckily enough, many past flugels had devoted their life study to the Ancient language meaning that there was enough spells in the Sihoh for flugels to use magic on a daily basis.

          “-I can’t believe you would do that to me!” the man exclaimed, waving his hands. Soonyoung watched them carefully, keeping track of where the original group was the entire time. “You’re a !”

          “I am not!” the girl replied. She was younger than the man, maybe a little over 20 years old, yet she stood with her head high. She glared back at the older man confidently. “You’re delusional.”

          “We were going to get married Haeri!” the man screamed, grabbing hold of the girl – Haeri. He held onto her wrist even though the girl was in obvious discomfort. “And then you went around sleeping with some other guy because he had money?”

          “You don’t treat me right! You said you were going to take me away and give me presents every day! But this is what I get? Hard labour at the docks? Where the salty winds tear my hair and make me age? You lied to me Jaehyo!” the girl shouted, trying to rip her hand away from the man.

          “You ,” Jaehyo growled, bringing his hand back before he slapped Haeri across the face. Inhaling sharply at the violent action, Soonyoung clenched his fists and opened his wings again. Watching as Jaehyo’s actions became increasingly aggressive; Soonyoung launched himself into the air right when Haeri was pushed backwards. The girl screamed as Jaehyo shoved her over the edge of the boat in his rage. She plummeted downwards into the ocean, eyes shut and mouth muttered prayers before she landed into something that was definitely not the ocean.

          “Are you okay?” a voice asked her and she opened her eyes to see herself in Soonyoung’s grasp. He had managed to catch her right before she made contact with the water and they were currently hovering a couple metres above the ship. The rest of the workers gaped at the flugel in their midst, his golden wings fluttering in the breeze, and even Jaehyo’s anger subsided.

          “Y-yeah,” Haeri stuttered, unable to keep her eyes away from Soonyoung’s handsome face. Soonyoung landed on the deck of the boat, softly placing Haeri on her feet, before walking over to Jaehyo.

          “You should think before you act,” he said simply, before disappearing into the air again. Soonyoung twirled through the clouds, mind buzzing over what had just happened. He wasn’t really sure why he saved Haeri; he was used to being an observer. Hovering on the edges of the main drama and simple watching the events unfold. This time, however, he had stepped in, and he wasn’t sure if that was the right choice. After all, he had managed to hide his existence in this town for a decade but now that the workers knew there was a flugel in their midst, the town’s mayor would probably want to speak with him. Then he’d have to politely decline the mayor’s offer of service and explain why he would never be bound by a contract even if the town was suffering from an economic downfall.

          Sighing, Soonyoung swooped down from the sky onto the top of his apartment building and hid his wings in between the folds of his clothes and walked into his rented room. Grabbing the needed items (he didn’t need much since he could simply find more in whatever town he went to next), Soonyoung left and paid for the remaining month’s rent at the front desk before leaving. Setting of at a brisk pace, Soonyoung turned towards the road that left town. He continued walking even as the night fell, eyes quickly adjusting to the darkness. There wasn’t much he was afraid of. If anything, he could always fly into the skies to escape from danger. Besides, the full moon wasn’t out so werewolves wouldn’t bother him and most vampires nowadays contained their blood thirst by feeding only on their Chosen.

          “Watch out!” a voice shrieked before a body barrelled into Soonyoung. Flying back, Soonyoung landed on the ground awkwardly, pain shooting up his leg. He looked down to see a young teenage human boy sprawled on the ground in front of him while a soft growling appeared in the distance. “ sorry!” the boy apologized, trying to stand up but Soonyoung could see the blood oozing from his leg.

          “Calm down,” Soonyoung commanded and the boy stopped struggling immediately. Leaning over, Soonyoung muttered a light spell that caused a soft glow to emit from his hand. Ignoring the boy’s cry of surprise, Soonyoung examined the wound before commanding the tendons and skin to mend. The wound was closed and healed within seconds and Soonyoung’s own pain had subsided. “There, now where are you going in such a rush?”

          “There’s, there’s a monster back there!” the boy exclaimed, suddenly remembering why he was running. “It, it killed the caravan I was travelling with!” Raising an eyebrow, Soonyoung was about to respond when a loud thump was heard. Expanding the light spell to cover the entire area, Soonyoung watched as a large ogre crashed through the trees.

          “Stay behind me,” Soonyoung told the boy, before standing up. The boy scampered into a bush a couple metres behind Soonyoung and watched in awe as Soonyoung stretched his wings to their maximum length. “What are you doing?” Soonyoung said, adjusting the tone of his voice as he switched to the language of ogres.

          “Killing of course,” the ogre smiled wickedly, showing off his crooked teeth. “I was bored and that brat’s caravan just rolled onto my territory. What was I supposed to do? They wouldn’t pay my fee.”

          “Did the ogre tell you to pay a fee?” Soonyoung asked the boy behind him. He turned around, one eye on the ogre and watched as the boy shook his head violently. “You’re lying,” Soonyoung turned back around and glared at the ogre. “I don’t appreciate that.”

          “Why does it matter to you that a couple measly humans died?” the ogre brandished its large fists. “Humans are weak, they can’t do anything. That caravan had guards yet they died easily underneath my weight.”

          “I wouldn’t care if it were humans or elves. You killed innocent people for no good reason, what logic is there in that?” Soonyoung replied. “If there’s something I hate more than imprisonment, its stupid ignoramuses.”

          “What?” the ogre asked dumbly.

          “Point proven,” Soonyoung smirked, stretching his arm out. He pointed at the ogre and the light from his palm grew larger. It transformed into a red orb and with a couple words in Ancient, the orb burst into fire. Commanding the fire by its Original Name, he sent it towards the ogre. Growling in pain, the ogre tried to get the fire off of him but to no avail, Soonyoung kept it on his skin until the ogre began to blister.

          “You’re going to die for this!” the ogre promised, charging towards Soonyoung despite the heat. Soonyoung jumped up, easily dodging the ogre as he flew into the sky. Keeping an eye on the boy’s location, Soonyoung twirled around in the air, shouting insults on the ogre so he would stay focused on Soonyoung rather than the trembling boy in the bushes.

          Landing gently, Soonyoung opened his other hand and shone a bright light into the ogre’s eyes when he charged towards Soonyoung a second time. The ogre threw a hand over his eyes, allowing Soonyoung to easily sidestep him, causing the ogre to ram into the trees.

           Increasing the heat of the flame, Soonyoung watched as the ogre howled in agony before he ran off away from the duo. Making sure the ogre was far enough away, Soonyoung told the fire to keep burning for another ten minutes before turning around. “He’s gone now.”

          “How did you do that?” the boy asked in curiosity, jumping out of the bushes. He raced over to where Soonyoung was standing and examined the flugel’s wings. “Are you an angel?”

          “A flugel,” Soonyoung responded. “Angels are myth, flugels are not. Although we don’t appear often so maybe we’re something of a myth to you humans.”

          “That’s amazing!” the boy smiled, causing Soonyoung to begin to grin as well. There was something about the boy’s smile, it seemed to light up the area even though it was the dark of night and Soonyoung had ended his light spell.

          “Do you have any supplies?” Soonyoung asked as a cold breeze blew through the area, causing the young boy to shiver. He was dressed simply, in long pants and a simple shirt, but the fabric was thin and was obviously ripped and mended in several places.

          “N-no,” the boy replied, teeth chattering. “The ogre destroyed everything.”The boy stopped smiling; face dropping when he remembered his lost caravan. “He killed everyone I knew. My parents threw me out of the house so I had been travelling with that caravan ever since I was 16. Now they’re all gone...” The boy hiccupped, about to break into tears when Soonyoung touched his face softly.

          “It’s okay, people are born and people die. It’s the cycle of life. All you need to remember is that you were lucky, that you survived, and that you have to continue living life for those that were lost,” Soonyoung comforted the boy. He reached into his bag and pulled out a long blanket and wrapped it around the shaking teenager. “What’s your name?”

          “Seokmin... Lee Seokmin,” the boy sniffled back. He accepted the blanket gratefully and pulled it tighter around his body.

          “Nice to meet you Seokmin, I’m Kwon Soonyoung,” Soonyoung smiled at the boy softly. “How about we travel together to the next town? That way you’ll be able to get back on your feet.”

          “Would you really?” Seokmin asked, “I mean, I don’t want to be a bother!”

          “It’s fine, I was going there anyways,” Soonyoung grinned, patting the boy on the head. “For now let’s rest, you seem tired. We’ll set up camp a couple metres away from the road. I’ll take first watch, in case the ogre comes back.”

          “Are you sure? I can do it, I feel bad,” Seokmin stated, before letting out a large yawn. “Actually, maybe I shouldn’t.”

          “Definitely not,” Soonyoung laughed. “Let’s get started then.”

~ ♦ ~

And there’s Soonyoung! I am adding all my ships to this story whoops. I think I made Soonyoung a little too serious but, like Jisoo, this is his past. Besides, flugels kind of do think they’re better than humans so I tried to convey that. In the future Soonyoung will be more like the cheerful baby we all know and love! Also, the italics when Soonyoung and the ogre are fighting show that they're speaking in another language (ogre) meaning Seokmin can't understand them (flugels are good with languages so Soonyoung can speak almost all of them).

Haeri made an appearance, just because I felt like it. I kind of considered killing her but then I decided against it. Killing is bad! Although there might be deaths later on in this fic... Hint hint. =3 The next person we’re going to see is Jihoon by the way. Since we met him in Seungcheol’s chapter I was like, why not? ^_^

By the way, in case any of you were wondering, the main ships in this ‘story’ (I can’t even really call it that) will be JiHan, JiCheol, Meanie, SoonSeok, and China Line. Of course, if you request certain scenes I can throw in other ships but those are my OTP’s so they’re going to be the ones I’m working with. If you disagree or have any suggestions, comments/PM’s are always appreciated!

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

PS: Thanks to keaves1019 and SapphireMelody for upvoting!!