Warning: This chapter contains some sensitive content.

Chapter 17:

 Just as Seokmin finished belting out the final high note of his selected ballad, the owner had knocked on the door, peaking inside with a smile.

“Do you boy’s want another hour?”

The timer on the Karaoke machine read 0:02, and Seungcheol, at this point, had grown anxious. It was probably already starting to get dark outside, and figuring out that ‘demon barrier’ thing would probably be a lot trickier if it were pitch black. The other’s looked to him for the answer, even Woozi, who turned to him with a curious expression. While this had been fun and all, he supposed it would be best for them to head back. “No thank’s, ma’m.” He smiled charmingly, prompting the woman to bow and shy away.

“Aww, one more hour? I didn’t even get to sing Beautiful Tomorrow, yet!” Seungkwan shook him by the bicep, pouting.

Seungcheol patted his head with a condescending tone. “Next time, okay? Jeonghan’s home with a cold, I should go make him dinner.”

“You, make dinner?” Soonyoung scoffed, smirking. “Are you sure you want him to get better?”

“My cooking isn’t that bad!”

Seokmin was laughing now, throwing a playful arm over his shoulders. “Sure, you’ve only ever set the stove on fire trying to cook rice.”

Fine, maybe Woozi was gonna have to cook for Jeonghan, if he ever managed to get into the goddamn house. Either way, they needed to leave. “Whatever, none of you get to eat it, anyways.” He pouted, sneaking the arm he had free around Woozi, and dragging him along as they piled out the doors.

Soonyoung gleamed, following after with Seungkwan’s hand linked in his, who clutched the mic with his last dying breath, or until the cord stretched no more. “Any of you boys want a ride home?” He shook Seungkwan’s car keys tauntingly before Seungcheol’s nose. Damn these kids and their ‘driver’s licences’.

“That’s my car you’re offering out, you know!” Seungkwan whined.

“It’s okay, we’re all going the same way anyways.” Seokmin smiled at him. “Thanks though, Hyung.”

“Oh, does Woozi live close by?” Soonyoung eyed the short boy for a moment, who was struggling under the weight of Seungcheol’s arm with a darling scowl.

At that, Seokmin seemed to panic a little bit, letting out a nervous laugh. “Not really! Just the same direction!” He opted for diverting the topic, pulling Soonyoung and Seungkwan into a tight hug as goodbye. “See you tomorrow!” Since Woozi was an illegal immigrant, that kind of information should probably stay a secret.

Soonyoung stumbled back with a thumb’s up, once Seokmin had let him go. “Ah, y-yeah! See you!” Seungkwan struggled slightly as Soonyoung dragged him away to the parking lot, out of sight.

Feeling smothered, Woozi took a safe step away when Seungcheol ‘s hold on him loosened to check the time on his phone.

His eyes gouged out a little at the amount of notifications. Jesus, 16 missed calls? 40 text messages? All from Mingyu?

Mingiant: HYUNG JEONGHAN AND WOOZI ARE MISSING3:30pm

Mingiant: I’VE CHECKED EVERYWHERE THIS IS SERIOUS WOOZI IS SMALL BUT THERE’S NOWHERE ELSE HE COULD HAVE HIDDEN3:40pm

Mingiant: DO U THINK HE RAN AWAY?? DID JEONGHAN COME HOME? HE WON’T ANSWER HIS CELL EITHER.3:45pm

Mingiant: WHY AREN’T YOU ANSWERING MY CALLS4:00pm

Mingiant: HYUNG??????4:03pm

Mingiant: PLEASEEEE I’M FREAKING OUT4:10pm

He ran a hand through his hair, huffing. , why hadn't he thought this through? Of course, Mingyu was going to be confused if Woozi just disappeared out of the blue; he was an idiot!

Mingiant: I EVEN WALKED AROUND OUTSIDE OH WHAT AM I GONNA DO THE POOR KID DOESN’T EVEN HAVE SHOES7:42PM

Mingiant: NOT A KID! BUT STILL I’M NEVER GOING TO BE ABLE TO SLEEP AGAIN HES GONNA DIE OUT THERE AND ITS MY FAULT7:44PM

S.Coups: WTF sorry Ming. I was at Karaoke, totally forgot to tell u. I picked Jeonghan up after school and brought him home.7:52pm

“What’s going on?” Woozi poked his side, inspecting him with mild curiosity. Seokmin beside him, peaked in on the conversation with a naïve smile.

, if only Seokmin wasn’t here. He’d never be able to get used to this whole lying situation. “Nothing, just texting Mingyu.”

S.Coups: and Woozi said he needed to go home so I walked him to the bus7:53pm

S.Coups: Hes an adult man, hes gonna to be fine dude7:54pm

Mingyu was too caring for his own good. Hopefully, he and Woozi would never meet again, cause Seungcheol wasn’t sure how he’d be able to explain it if he found out they ing lived together. He felt sorry, but dragging another one of his friends into this was not on the plate right now.

Mingiant: You bastard! I’ve been panicking all day wtffffff He got to the bus safe?? You sure he’s ok??7:56pm

S.Coups: Ya, I made sure. He said thx btw.7:56pm

Ok, he didn’t, but Seungcheol knew Woozi was grateful without him putting it into words. Plus, Mingyu deserved this much for all the trouble Seungcheol’s managed to put him through. He frowned, thinking back to yesterday. Judging by the way he talked about him, all that ‘he’s so cute, I just want to protect him blah blah blah.’ Nonsense, he’d probably be real’ happy to hear this; That bastard.

He shoved his phone back into his pocket, and pulled Woozi and Seokmin into a friendly headlock, dragging them along with him. “Okay, let’s get going.”

Jihoon cringed, hopelessly stuck under the weight of Seungcheol’s sweaty armpits. Why is this guy being so touchy all of a sudden? Not that he wasn’t too touchy to begin with, but this is just getting ridiculous. Jihoon peaked across from him to Seokmin, who didn’t seem to mind at all. Whatever. “Are we taking the bus again?”

“It doesn’t run at this time, we’ll have to walk.”

He hummed. “Why is Seokmin coming?”

“What?” The boy in question whined. “Why? You don’t want me to?” He nestled himself out of Seungcheol’s hold, skipping to Jihoon’s side with a pleading expression.

“Of course I don’t, why would you think otherwise?”

Seokmin faked a sob, leaning on Woozi for emotional ‘support’.

“Yah, you’re heavy!” Man, why was everyone so freaking handsy today? He shook his shoulders, trying to knock either of them off, but nobody was budging. They weren’t even looking at him! Here he was, sandwiched between two dumb humans, who were staring at each other rather than acknowledging his discomfort. So annoying.

Seungcheol and Seokmin exchanged a glance, once again. It would seem they were both having the same thought, and Seungcheol wasn’t about to back off to make room. “Seokmin lives close by, remember?”

“Right...”

They continued on their way home, which was longer than the way there since they had no ‘bus’ to assist them. It was dark, and a little chillier, but Jihoon actually preferred it this way. The daytime in this place was too ing hot, not to mention he was wearing, like, seventy layers of clothing to hide his extremities. To top it off, these morons continued pressing up to his side like a bunch of hounds trying to rub off their scent.

When they finally arrived, Jihoon sat down on the front steps of the house, and Seungcheol joined him. They looked at each other for a moment, both with the same daunting question pressing against their gazes.

What the were they gonna do now?

“Do you guy’s wanna hang out for a while? I can grab some video games from my house.” Seokmin grinned, completely oblivious to their struggles, and to the fact that he was a part of the problem. That wasn’t his fault, but he should at least sense the elephant in the room.

“I think we shouldn’t, Jeonghan’s still sick so we should take care of him.” Seungcheol offered a sincere smile, trying to send the message through his eyes alone. Something like ‘please go away! I love you but we have to deal with a demon-boarder-thingy that you can’t know about!’ Unfortunately, he didn’t seem to get it.

“Oh right, sorry…” he thought for a moment. “I’m pretty good at healing magic, want me to take a look at him?”

God, this guy was too nice, too helpful, and such a pain. “I don’t think he’s that sick. Thank’s, though.”

Seokmin let out a whiny noise in protest, biting his lip as he tried to come up with another excuse.

What the hell were they going to do, camp outside? Seungcheol craned his neck back, watching a few sparingly placed stars shine amongst an otherwise bland, indigo sky. Woozi was next to him, chewing at his thumb-nail nervously, but his other hand rested dangerously close to his. He felt a little nagging need to hold it, he even inched a bit closer, but Woozi would probably try to beat him if he held his hand. His fingers froze when he caught Seokmins eyes, squinting at him.

“Why aren’t you guys going in?” Seokmin questioned, a little suspicious now that they’d continued sitting on the steps, acting as if they were shy lovers bonding under the stars. Seungcheol was just waiting for him to leave, wasn’t he? This sly guy. He’d made Seokmin believe he was straight this whole time, so that he wouldn’t question him. But after today? After all he’d seen go on in that karaoke room? Seokmin had it all figured out. He wasn’t about to leave, and give Seungcheol the opportunity to woo Woozi under the moonlight!

Seungcheol was blanking on any realistic excuses. “Uh, we’re just… Waiting to see you off.”

That endearing, lop-sided grin of his, only looked suspicious now.

The demon rolled his eyes. He had been waiting ever-so-patiently for Seokmin to get it in his head that he was in the way, but at this rate, Jihoon was going to be sleeping in the backyard. He let out a frustrated breath, eyeing up the child-like stubbornness of his stance with a dark expression. “What would I have to do for you to go away? Honestly.”

Although it had been a rhetorical question, and more of a ‘just go away’ than anything, Seokmin had gone quiet with thought. He met Woozi’s glare with a nervous of his lips.

“Give me a kiss.” He stated softly, smiling, and pointing to his cheek.

This sneaky son of a ! Seungcheol’s mouth fell open, bumbling out an incoherent line of protest. He watched dumbfounded as Woozi went red up to his ears, and stood up to fight.

“ off!”

Seokmin smirked, though he was just as flushed as Woozi was, maybe more. “Not until I get my kiss.” He leaned his face in, waiting nervously.

Woozi looked at Seungcheol, who shook his head wildly in disagreement. He really did want to go inside, but not if it meant Seokmin got Woozi’s first kiss! Or, what he assumed was his first kiss. Woozi did seem to live a pretty sheltered life, after all. He doubted being hidden away from demon society gave him much opportunity to pursue love. Despite his desperation, Woozi had turned back to Seokmin louringly.

“You nasty ert...” He hoped it would offend him, that comment had deterred Seungcheol so many timed before, but Seokmin was still smiling, so leer and stubborn. It really seemed like he wasn’t going to leave unless Jihoon followed through. Dirty, erted humans... Why were they always forcing him into such weird stuff? Sure, he didn’t want to, but a kiss on the cheek wasn’t that insufferable, right? He let out a humph and stepped up to the plate.

Planting his hands on Seokmin’s shoulders, and yanking him down to a reasonable height.

When Woozi began to lean in, everyone was speechless. And really, it happened too quickly for anybody to give a reasonable reaction; Just a rushed, dry, peck on the cheek. Seungcheol had only plotted the first quarter of Seokmin’s murder, and Seokmin had lost brain function’s altogether, holding his hand against his cheek in surprise.

“There! Will you leave now?” Woozi fell back down on the step with his arms crossed, face curled up in disgust. Seokmin looked satisfied enough, as the shock in his face retracted back to sheer joy.

Woozi was way too cute, way too cute for Seokmin’s weak heart. He grinned like a moron, stumbling back on the pavement with a fit of nervous laughter. “Wow! That was, uh, yes! I’ll see you soon, okay?” He waved maniacally, turning into a fast-walk down the street before he could embarrass himself further. Still, he felt the soft press of lips against his cheek lingering, and held his hand there to preserve the warmth Woozi had left. He would have definitely written this down in a diary, if he owned a diary… Maybe he should buy a diary?

What a moron. Woozi leaned back with a breath, wiping his lips with the back of his hand.

Then, it was silent, as Seungcheol was still wrapping his head around what had just happened. Part of him was angry, another part of him wondered why he hadn’t thought of that before; getting Woozi to kiss him for favors…

Well, actually, he’d rather not go back to Woozi calling him a ‘ert’ every chance he got.

“Hello? What are we going to do?” Woozi was looking at him, impatiently waving a hand over his blank stare. His cheeks were still red, whether that be out of embarrassment or something else.

His chest ached a bit, eyes peaking down at his lips. Somehow, he didn’t feel all that rushed about getting inside. Not yet, at least. “Was that your first kiss?”

The demon’s eyes went wide, a strange and flustered reaction, and Seungcheol felt another little jump in his heart at the assumption that it might be true.

It was just a kiss on the cheek! Did that count as a first kiss? He didn’t want to tell Seungcheol that he hadn’t before, it was embarrassing. For s sake, he was a man! A man who had never in his life dated, or taken someone to bed. How could he? With the few demon’s he’d known. He’d certainly never kissed someone on the lips befo-…

Oh… But, had he? That disgraceful memory flashed through his head, over and over again, bringing a nervous twitch against his gut. He held a finger against his lips, ghosting over the flesh. Did what happened that day count? Seungcheol hadn’t been conscious, and he’d only done it because he had blood in his mouth, but… It had definitely been a ‘mouth to mouth’ situation, so...

“It wasn’t… My first kiss.”

He gaped, taking in Woozi’s expression with a gulp. “You’ve already had it?”

“Yeah, pretty much.”

Seungcheol scratched at his head, a mess of confusion and jealousy. “But how? I thought your parent’s never let you meet anyone.”

…

An abrupt silence overwhelmed the space between them. Jihoon stopped, searching for a trace of falsity in the words he’d just heard, but Seungcheol showed no sign of hesitation. “How do you know that?”

“What? Uh,” He furrowed his eyebrows, innocently confused. “You told me, remember?”

“Yes, I remember.” He hissed, leaning forward. “But how the did you?”

The human chuckled, a little taken back at the sudden seriousness. “It seemed pretty important when you told me… How could I forget?”

“Because you were drunk!” he clutched his hair in a fist, looking away from the human in panic. This is a goddamn nightmare, he remembered? How? “Last time you didn’t! So why did you remember this time? Oh, …” He could not imagine a scenario more embarrassing than this, not one.

“Hey, hey, what’s the problem?” his hand’s hovered over the smaller boy’s angry, shuddering shoulders, unsure of what to do.

“What’s the problem?” The demon repeated back, eyebrows pushed together at the center. “The problem is, I wasn’t supposed to tell you any of that! Nobody, not a single soul in hell aside from a select few, know that I even exist. If my parents find out I told you that much, a human, I… I’m finished.” He was stuttering, obviously in a panic.

Seungcheol his lips nervously, and turned Woozi around by his shoulders to look at him. His eyes were trembling, and he matched up to Seungcheol with the full intention of continuing this manic back and forth. Seungcheol hushed him by placing his hands against the sides his face, a thumb across his cheek in a soothing motion. “Hey, It’s okay, Woozi.”

“No, It’s not… They’re going to kill me, Seungcheol.”

Woozi tried to pull out of his hold, but Seungcheol held him firmly, not allowing him to look away. He had lived with Woozi for what, a month? They’d gone through literal hell together, and Seungcheol had finally begun to believe this... ‘Wall’ Woozi had up was crumbling down for him. Had it all been fake? Woozi could only talk to him, or lean on him, because Seungcheol was drunk enough to forget it all the next morning?

“Do you not trust me, Woozi?” The demon stopped struggling for a moment at that, staring at his feet with a guilty expression. It really seemed like that was it. “I get it… You’ve got crazy strict parents, I understand that better than anyone. But, right now they aren’t here. It’s just you and me in this, don’t you get that?”

He opened his mouth, but couldn’t conjure up the words to justify himself.

Seungcheol sighed, fingers winding through strands of pink hair at the nape of his neck. “I mean, I’ve told you everything about me, Woozi. And if my parents ever found out about you? , they’d probably kill me too…”

Woozi frowned, sending a suspicious side-glance to the doorway of the house. “They already know about me, tard. How do you know they’re not planning that already? How do you know they-”

“I don’t!” The demon shrunk, Seungcheol’s grip tightened, bordering painful. “You want to know why I treat everything like a joke?”

“…”

“It’s ‘cause, if I don’t laugh at it, I’m not going to be able to do this anymore, okay? There’s just so much going on, more than I can keep track of, and it’s ing stressful. Every day I think, ‘this could be it, this could be the day this all falls apart.” He took a breath, taking note of the hint of pain on Woozi’s face, and dropping his hands. “But there’s one thing that keeps me going, keeps me from going ing insane over this. You know what that is?”

Woozi shook his head.

“I Rely on people. I have Jeonghan to talk to, and Seokmin, even the ones who aren’t involved, they’re there to help me feel normal… And I have you, Woozi.”

He scoffed. “Aren’t I one of you many problems, though?”

“Yeah, you are. But I’m your problem, too! You’re here ‘cause of my stupid mistake, remember? That’s why I’m saying, you can rely on me. You can talk to me! I don’t need to be drunk for you to do that, okay?”

Woozi looked into his eyes, desperate and genuine in the way that they shun under the weak light of the moon. It was comfortable, the way that Seungcheol looked at him, the way that he touched him. He didn’t feel nervous because of mistrust, that wasn’t it… It was because he always let his guard down around this human, always lost his temper, control of his emotions. It was scary, the way Seungcheol’s eyes showed no malice towards him, no ulterior motive. He was just… So sincere.

Still, he’d never had anyone to talk to about the things that happened to him. Sure, Jeonghan’s given him advice about more recent problems, (more specifically, the Seungcheol related ones) but his life back home was a whole other issue. “It’s just, not that easy to talk about, okay?” He looked away, a heavy sensation at the pit of his stomach. “I’m sorry.”

From the corner of his vision, Seungcheol’s doe-eyes squinted into a smile, peaking a hand under the demon’s beanie to ruffle his hair. “That’s okay, it's alright. You don’t have to tell me now. I just want you to know that I’m here for you, okay?” He chuckled, throwing his head back to stare up at the stars. ‘It’s just you and me against the world, dude. A -up wizard, and his equally ed up demon familiar. We gotta have each other’s backs, you know?”

Woozi smacked his shoulder, pouting. “Don’t put me in the same category as you, . It’s offensive.”

Seungcheol, unfazed by the comment, slinked an arm over his shoulder, and pulled the demon against his side. “You can’t deny it! Honestly, I think it’s fate that we met. Our levels of ‘ed up-ness’ really match up, you know?”

He laughed, guttural and heavy, and Jihoon felt the vibrations of it against his side. He bit his cheek, failing to suppress the smile that grew against his lips. “You’re an idiot…” Jihoon didn’t even think about moving away, he let himself relax against Seungcheol, and stared at the oversized shoes enveloping his feet. It was getting kind of chilly, anyways, and the human was… warm.

“We should probably try to break that barrier thing, huh…” Seungcheol sighed, feeling a bit giddy.

“yeah, we should.”

He pulled out his phone with his free hand, ignoring the happy emoji’s Mingyu had sent him in reply to that last text. Okay, first they should probably figure out what kind of a spell it could have been. “You think it’s black magic? It block’s demons, after all.”

“Yeah, It blocks demons, emphasis on the 'blocks'. That sounds a lot more Christian than satanic to me.”

He hummed. Who could he ask about this? Not Seokmin, he’d probably rush over to try and help… Who else…

He scrolled through his contacts, stopping at Jisoo’s name with a nervous bite at his lips. Jisoo was Christian, right?… and since he studied defensive magic, he’d probably know. Would it really be okay to ask him, though?

He supposed he could just pretend it was a school thing. “I think I know someone who can help.”

Woozi’s face scrunched up. “You are not dragging another annoying human into this.”

“Of course not! I’ll just ask him for some… advice.”

The demon didn’t seem too convinced, but at this point their options were slim. He pressed the call button on the contact, holding his phone up to his ear and clearing his throat, a bit nervous.

The phone rung through a few times, before a croaky voice picked up from the other end. “Hello?...”

“Ah, sorry Jisoo, were you sleeping?” Woozi leaned closer, trying to listen in.

Jisoo let out a muffled yawn. “Yeah, but it’s okay, do you need something, Hyung?”

“Yeah, uh… Okay, let’s just say for example, I wanted to set up a barrier around my house. Mind you, this is just a pretend scenario, okay?”

“… Okay?”

He coughed, clearing his throat. “So, just hypothetically, I want to set up a barrier. A barrier that blocks evil spirits, like, I don’t know, let’s say demons. How would I do that?”

Jisoo’s voice seemed to perk up, a bit ecstatic. “Seungcheol! Have you finally taken a serious interest in studying magic? I’m so happy for you!”

He groaned. “I said it was hypothetical!”

Jisoo chuckled, throat a bit froggy from exhaustion. “Okay, okay. We actually study spiritual shields at my church group a lot. We have one set up around the property, too…. Umm, making one is pretty simple, you just need to have a center point for the anchor. Like a… cross, or anything you have a strong emotional attachment to, so that the barrier stay’s connected. The spells for casting vary, too, but they’re usually in the form of a prayer. Want me to look one up for you?”

“No, no, that’s fine.” Damn, Jeonghan was right. Jisoo was pretty smart… No, he shouldn’t even be considering asking for anything else, he wasn’t going to drag a good kid like Jisoo into this god-awful mess. “Okay, last question. Hypothetically, let’s say I set up this ‘spiritual shield.’ How do I take it down?”

He went silent for a moment, humming. “That’s a bit trickier…”

, of course it was.

“You’d need to perform a counter-prayer on the central object. But, depending on how strong the spell was when it was casted, will determine whether you can break it. Since it’s an emotionally driven spell, you need to be in a very strong state of mind to counter it…. Um, for example. If the spell was cast with the intention of keeping the house safe from dark omens, but you try to break it simply because you want to fool around with some illegal magic, it probably won’t work.”

Makes sense. Seungcheol looks at Woozi. Needing to get this guy inside safe and sound was a perfectly reasonable state of mind for him to be in. Although, he had no idea why his parents had casted the spell in the first place.

“Wow, cool, okay… So, if I were going to perform a counter spell, hypothetically, what would the spell be?”

He chuckled. “Well, it would depend on what the original spell was. The counter spell should pretty much be the opposite of what you said to cast the barrier. For example, if the original words of the spell were ‘cast divine light upon this place and shield us from evil’, then the counter spell should be, like… ‘break the light upon this place and let the evil in,’ or something.”

God, why did it need to be so complicated? “hm, okay. Is there some kind of a general ‘barrier breaking’ spell? Like, what if you don’t remember the original words?”

The line went silent for a moment. “If you need help, I could come over you kno-“

“I don’t need help, Jisoo, this is all hypothetical, remember?”

“Fine, fine.” Jisoo’s let out with an amused tone. “There are some general spells for it, but the likelihood of them working is cut in half. It’s a lot more dangerous, too, since sometimes casters set up defense mechanisms within the base of the spell to stop people from tearing it down.”

“God.” He sighed. “So, do you have any of those counter spells? Not for-uh… it’s just cause I’m curious.”

“Of course, because this all hypothetical, right?” Even through the phone line, Seungcheol could sense his humored smirk. This kid.

“It is. So, do you?”

“Yeah, I do. I’ll text you an example. Want the instructions for the process, too?”

Seungcheol let out a breath of relieve. “Yes, please. Thanks a bunch, Jisoo.”

“No problem, Hyung. I should get to bed, but good luck with your barrier!”

“Thank- wait, it’s not!” Before he could defend himself, Jisoo had hung up. That ing kid.

“Did you get it?” Somewhere during his heated conversation on the phone, Woozi had slithered out from under Seungcheol’s arm, playing with the hem of his shirt impatiently.

A notification buzzed on his phone, and Seungcheol read through it, mumbling. Once he had finished, he turned to Woozi with a confident grin. “Yeah, I got it. You wait here, okay? I’m gonna go break this stupid barrier.”

“You sound pretty sure of yourself…”

He shrugged, brushing the dirt off his pants. “I gotta have a ‘strong state of mind’ to do this. Don’t doubt me! Give me some words of encouragement, or you’re sleeping out here tonight!”

He’d been joking, but Woozi hummed in thought, appearing a bit shy. “Uh, good luck?” he pumped a tentative fist in the air, and Seungcheol doubled over in laughter.

“Perfect, I think I can do it now.” He patted Woozi on the head, before heading inside.

Okay, center piece, center piece…. If it’s a center piece it should be somewhere near the middle of the house, yeah? That would be… The living room?

He looked through a few cushions for anything out of place, peered into shelves, under the couch. Catching a faint glimmer from under the coffee table, Seungcheol pushed it to the side.

“Ha!, gotcha.” It was a necklace of black, shiny rosary beads, with a silver cross at the end. Seungcheol would recognize this thing anywhere, it was the one his mother used to wear when she gave him his ‘bed-time prayer.’ Yeah that’s right. Most kid’s got a fun story to scare away the monsters under the bed, and Seungcheol got a creepy chant deterring evil.

Curiously, he reached a hand down to pick it up, but the moment his fingers neared the necklace, a jolt of power surged through his fingertips, knocking him back against a wall.

He groaned, a little dazed. this thing was strong. He pulled himself to his feet after his head had stopped spinning, shaking away the pain. Now wasn't the time to worry about a little headache.

The instructions Jisoo had sent him seemed pretty straight forward.

GentlemanJosh: To remove a spiritual shield, stand above the center piece with your palms outstretched. The best spell I could find was in Latin, hope that’s okay.9:30pm

GentlemanJosh: With you palms directed at the central object, say ”Hic spiritus denuntias si ita fiat. Pugnareignis aquam aqua ab igne removens murum evadit nullum vestigium donee vires." Make sure you speak clearly, the pronunciation is important. It basically means ‘The threat of the spirit is gone, let nature take over and remove the power of the barrier.’9:33pm

GentlemanJosh: The most important part of this spell is focus. If your mindset wavers it wont work. It says you should keep thinking about why you’re doing it, cause if you have an important reason your counter spell will be stronger.9:34pm

GentlemanJosh: Good luck with your “hypothetical” barrier ;)9:35pm

S.coups: Thanks!! ಠ_ಠ Could do without the sarcasm tho. It’s literally just for homework!!9:46pm

He read the text, over and over again until he could say it off by heart. It took about ten minutes, and by then he was feeling confident.

Well, not confident in himself, but one thing was certain. If he didn’t do this right, Woozi was going to be trapped outside. Trapped in the dark, cold outdoors, with nowhere to go, and it would all be Seungcheol’s fault. He needed to succeed, for Woozi, and for his peace of mind.

He stood up and cleared his throat, preparing himself. This is for Woozi, to save his demon, and to save himself. He was going to break this stupid barrier, and he wasn’t going to this up. He’d done crazier than this before! Like that time he broke Woozi’s mind-spell? Yeah, that was sick. He could do this, it wasn’t even black magic! Just that flimsy legal stuff.

With one final, deep inhalation, Seungcheol outstretched his palms before the necklace, staring down at it with determination.

“Hic spiritus denuntias si ita fiat.” The moment he had begun, the necklace had begun to glow, a strange metallic light emerging from it’s core. Finally, he could see the connection the object had to the shield. Delicate, luminescent encryptions ran along the floors, filling up the space within his peripheral vision, until everything around him shun silver-black. He focused his gaze on the necklace, which untwisted into a perfect circle, flat against the floor. He was going to break this barrier, he could do this.

“Pugnare ignis aquam aqua ab igne removens murum evadit nullum vestigium donee vires!”

The floor began to tremble, a force pushed back at Seungcheol’s hands, but he wasn’t going to let this stupid necklace get the better of him. He planted his feet and pressed back, not allowing the pressure to falter his steps.

Then, everything went white. Electricity seared through his hand, jolting his body still.

The power jutting out of his palms had connected with the force of the barrier, seeping together and intertwining the two. He screamed, energy cracking at the contact. Even if he wanted to stop, he couldn’t move. His body had seized up under the voltage, palms outstretched despite his mind leaving him.

He didn’t see it when the encryptions began to chip, his eyes had rolled back, unconsciousness overtaking him. The silvery layer shattered into chunk’s and dissipated as they fell against the floor. The shield was breaking, and eventually everything had diffused into nothingness. All that was left was the necklace, what was once entrancing to the eyes, was left lifeless against the floor, it's sheen dulled.

Seungcheol joined it not soon after, collapsing as the connection snapped.

Beside his head, the screen of his recently purchased phone had shattered, steam emitting where it had been electrified along with him. A faint buzz sounded from the device, and though Seungcheol was not awake to check, the screen had glitched awake at an incoming notification.

GentlemanJosh: Don’t worry, I know you’re not actually going to try it lolol, that’d be stupid10:12pm