Jeonghan took the pot off the stove carefully and turned off the heat, leaning against the counter with a sigh. He thought up a list in his head of possible culprits to Seungcheol’s sudden change in character. Gangs? Maybe someone was blackmailing him?... No, this was a pretty goody-goody town they lived in, the only ‘gang’ he knew of was maybe Jisoo’s charity group, since they weren’t government funded. Bullies, maybe? No, Seungcheol was pretty prestigious. People outside their circle generally stayed clear of the town’s infamous ‘hero’.

Though Jeonghan and his friends understood the truth about their lazy magic-hating hyung, most others believed he was a prodigy; destined to make magical history.

He blew away the stray hairs intruding his thinking space, staring at the silver locks with furrowed brows. Why couldn’t Seungcheol just tell him already? Did he really not trust him? It was so ridiculously depressing to think that Seungcheol would rather hide the truth than ask him for help.  Wasn’t he his best friend? Or-

Jeonghan ceased his thoughts and whipped around at a crashing sound coming from downstairs, followed by what seemed to be a lot of yelling.

Okay... Forget it. No more Mr. ‘mind your own business’; it was time to get to the bottom of this.

He threw the door to the basement open quickly, his heart pounding out of his chest as the yelling became clearer, louder. And that was definitely not Seungcheol’s voice. On the last step he halted, meeting eyes with a pink haired boy who seemed to be crawling towards him.

“Seungcheol.. who…” That… that is not human… “What the hell is that?” It had ebony horns, very clearly sticking out from strands of bright pink hair. Jeonghan flinched his leg away from a tickling sensation, and looked down further to see a black, fury tail squirming by his feet. He glanced up from the thing below him, staring shocked at a frozen Seungcheol; who seemed to be a strange mixture of panicked and guilty at the moment.

“J- Jeonghan I… I can explain..” He stepped forward with his arm outstretched, and Jeonghan watched as the monster at his feet seemed to try to curl up against the step, as if trying to escape Seungcheol's approach. It looked up with round eyes at Jeonghan, who was making an expression of pure disbelief over this whole situation. Just what kind of a mess has Seungcheol gotten himself into?

“Then explain… I asked what the hell this is.” He was looking at the pink-haired monster as he said this, who finally looked away and swallowed nervously.

“He’s… Woozi, he’s a demon.” Jeonghan shot back up at Seungcheol, who at this point was acting far too guilty, as opposed to being shocked and scared over the fact that there was a ing demon in the room. How long had it been here? Was this who he had been talking to before? The one hiding under his bed?

“A demon…” his eyes darted back, watching the demon avoid the gaze of everyone in the room with a panicked expression. Was he scared? How absurd, wasn’t he a demon? Shouldn't demons be terrifying and ugly? This guy seemed to be a lot closer to a frightened kitten, than a disgusting monster from the pits of hell. “Woozi?” The demons eyes flickered up tentatively at the mention of the name, and in that instance Jeonghan remembered.

Woozi: the burn on Seungcheol’s chest, the black magic… This was it? The black magic he'd performed had been a demon summoning?

Jihoon clenched his hands against the grain of the floor. On one side of him was Seungcheol; the ert he was bonded to, who was apparently trying to get him to pay for food with ual favors. On the other side was Mrs. Silver hair; who was probably getting ready to jump to the phone and call up the military. He was dead, a situation he should be used to being in by now, completely and undeniably dead. He had to do something; speak up and convince this person to help him. Seungcheol had taken his side pretty quickly before, so maybe his roommate was one-in-the same? He swallowed thickly, looking up towards silver-hair with the most pleading look he could conjure up.

She looked down at him with eyes that almost seemed calm, surprisingly so... Woozi found himself caught off gaurd. This person was incredibly ethereal and beautiful, for a human.

“Jeonghan, please, you can’t tell anyone about this.” Seungcheol was on his knees now, pleading with him. For the first time in the years that Jeonghan had known him, Seungcheol was literally begging. This was a very, very serious matter.

“Who would I tell, dummy?” He attempted a smile, though the shock of the matter still had him pretty shaken up. “Just… you need to explain. Everything, right now.” Seungcheol and Woozi exchanged looks with each other, before he looked back to Jeonghan, nodding in agreement.

The three of them moved out of the damp dark depths of Seungcheol’s basement into a calmer environment, sitting around the dining room table like a hypothetically happy family. Woozi had continued to be silent, as odd as it seemed considering his usual persona, situated on a wooden chair in the middle of the most awkward conversation he believed he'd ever been a part of.

“So what you’re saying is… You accidentally summoned a demon with a black magic book….”

“Yeah.”

“And… you need to decipher a spell from that book to send,” he looked towards the silent demon with an incredulous look, “Woozi, back to hell.”

“That’s right.”

“Okay, I believe you.”

Seungcheol raised his guilty-hanging head in surprise. “What, seriously?”

Jeonghan crossed his arms over his chest, his expression soft. “I mean, I already kind of knew about the black magic.” The naïve older boy gaped. “Oh come on, Coups. Might I remind you that I’m the one who healed you after that mess? Blood, demonic sigils, deadly side effects that had you coughing up blood and fainting; anyone who paid half of their attention in class would have been able to tell it was black magic.”

“But... you acted normal! Why didn’t you say something?” Jeonghan rolled his eyes.

“What was I supposed to say?”

“I don’t know, maybe ‘hey Coups I know that you’re a criminal who’s harboring a demon illegally, just a heads up’. Or just something! Do you know how stressed I’ve been over this?”

Jeonghan pushed his long hair back in frustration. “Do you know how worried I’ve been?? You, my best friend and roommate, have been keeping this whole ordeal a secret from me! As if you didn’t trust me! Do you not trust me?”

“Of course I do, But I didn’t!-“

Woozi slammed his hands down on the table, fed up with all the back-and-fourth yelling he was stuck in the middle of. “What, am I invisible here?! Do you humans ever shut the up? Honestly, what in the hell is blowing out my eardrums with your obnoxious bickering going to solve!?”

Seungcheol sat back into his chair with an apologetic look, and Jeonghan stared at the demon in surprise. The little thing had one hell of a mouth on him. He had been starting to believe he was mute or something.

“No matter how much you flap your gums at each other like brainless monkeys, this problem isn’t going to just off and fix itself. Maybe instead of arguing, we can appreciate a new head at the table." He was glaring at Seungcheol as he said this, motioning to Jeonghan with exasperated gestures. "This human probably has more brains than you, at least, so maybe they can help us get somewhere with this ing spell.” Woozi crossed his arms over his chest tightly, after getting his word in, huffing.

“Yah!”

Okay... maybe Woozi was kind of right. Seungcheol knew next-to nothing about this whole demon spell deciphering business, plus Jeonghan was the only calm-headed person in this house, so... maybe being discovered could be a good thing? Either way, he really needed to teach this kid some manners. “Watch your language, Woozi! Honestly.”

Jeonghan began to chuckle, his face red in an attempt to hold back his laughter.

“Wha-… what’s so funny?” Woozi looked at long-hair with a perturbed expression.

“Sorry...” He took a few deep breaths to gain control over himself again. “Just, you’re really cute; not what I imagined a demon to look like at all. And I can’t believe you just got roasted by a demon, Coups... Woozi, you're hilarious.”

The demons face went red, his tail curling around the leg of the chair he was sitting in. “Wh- what?”

Seungcheol gaped at Woozi in surprise, watching the mouthy little thing curl up in embarrassment. One word from Jeonghan and the kid acted like a blushing schoolgirl standing before her senior, this brat.

“How tall are you? You can’t be more than 5”3 or something.”

“Shut up! My height is not the issue here!...  And I’m 5”4…”

Jeonghan ruffled his pink hair lovingly, chuckling at his response, and provoking a murderous glare from Mr. 5”4. “You’re really funny. Are all demons like you?”

Woozi looked away with his eyebrows furrowed, his hands curling up in his lap. “No…”

“Oh? So you’re one of a kind then, huh? What kind of a demon are you?”

Seungcheol cleared his throat loudly. “Han, isn’t that a little-”

“What, aren’t you curious? Seungcheol we have a real live demon living in our house! Not a picture in a textbook, or a CG animated documentary. Don’t you have any questions?” Seungcheol looked over to Woozi curiously, watching the boy’s eyes flicker down to his lap to avoid his gaze.

“He won’t even tell me his real name; I doubt he’d answer any other questions, personal or not.”

“I’m right here, dickhead, a-”

The two boys looked over to Woozi as a low grumbling sounded throughout the room. The demon placed a hand over his stomach with an embarrassed expression.

Jeonghan chuckled. “How about this then, Woozi. If you answer a few of my questions, you can have some dinner. Assuming demons can eat Gimpap?”

Seungcheol scoffed. “That’s not going to-“

“Deal.”

“Huh? Just like that you’re going to tell us everything? For food?” He gaped at the boy, who was acting strangely nonchalant.

Woozi shrugged. “I’m hungry, and his food offering sounds a lot better than yours.”

Seungcheol felt his cheeks warm up at the unfortunate reminder. “I… That was a misunderstanding! I thought…”

Jeonghan cut him off before another argument could begin. “What species of demon are you?” He got up from the table to grab a piece of paper and a pen, looking to Woozi expectantly.

“My mom is a succubus/necromancer cross and my father is a Naga/kasha mix. I have most of my mother’s incubus features, some of her necromancer traits, but none of her abilities. I have hardly any of my father’s features, but some of his abilities.” Jihoon played with the hem of his sweater awkwardly. Yeah, both his parents were half-blooded and a mix of some amazing species, but all he got out of it was some feline traits and a human body. He was pretty much useless, demon-wise. “There really isn’t a name for my species, since I’m extremely mixed, but personality and ability-wise I guess I’m mostly Kasha?”

Seungcheol slammed his hand on the table in revelation. “Ha! So you are an Incubus!... kind of.”

“The only thing about me even remotely incubus in me is the fact that I look partially human. Don’t judge a book by its cover, -wipe.”

Jeonghan wrote down everything on his pad of paper, humming in interest, and ignoring Seungcheol’s outburst. “Abilities? What kind of abilities do you have?”

“Nothing interesting. From my Naga side I have a miniscule amount of thermal vision, and I don’t like being cold. From my Kasha side I have a heightened sense of smell, slight night vision... I'm naturally flexible. But really, those are just stupid quirks. I wouldn't count them as true abilities”

Jeonghan stopped writing and looked up at Woozi with a look of realization. “Oh my god, you’re a cat. You’re literally a cat.”

“ off, what’s the next question?”

Seungcheol thought for a moment. “Oh! How old are you?”

The pink-haired boy raised an eyebrow and began to count his fingers idly. “I’m 19, in accordance to the human aging system.”

Okay so not 12, and not 200 years old. Good, that’s a good thing. “I’m older than you by a year then! You should be calling me hyung.”

“Go yourself, erted bastard.”

Jeonghan chuckled at that, and Seungcheol shot him a warning look. “That… I didn’t mean that! Ah, you’re so frustrating.” He ruffled his own hair, grumbling to himself.

Woozi’s stomach spoke up again, and Jeonghan smiled at him kindly, putting his pad and pen down. “That’s enough questions for now; how about some food?”

The hungry demon nodded his head enthusiastically as Jeonghan stood to plate his dinner.

“That’s it? You don’t have any more questions?” Seungcheol crossed his arms over his chest. He had plenty of questions, like... What was hell like? Was it really hot as hell? How old can demons live? What the hell is a Kasha? He glanced at Woozi thoughtfully, who was watching Jeonghan with a glimmer of excitement in his eyes. Seungcheol felt his heart falter at the sight of Woozi looking like an excited child over some food. Okay, so he was probably really hungry; he supposed the questions could wait until later… 

“Don’t be so mean, Seungcheol, the poor guy’s starving. The rest of my questions can wait until after dinner.” Woozi nodded in agreement as Jeonghan turned away, and the eldest bit his tongue coyly.

The moment food was set down within the demons proximity; he began to dig in as if he’d never eaten a meal in his life. Jeonghan grabbed himself and Seungcheol a plate as well, joining them at the table with a content expression. He pushed his hair back and took a few bites, staring across the table at as he chewed, at Seungcheol (who was busying himself by shoveling food into his mouth.)

“How did you even get your hands on a black magic book?”

He shrugged, swallowing his mouth-full quickly. “I have no idea, actually… I only figured it out after this guy showed up.” He gestured towards the small demon, who was currently doing a convincing impression of a vacuum cleaner.

“And that doesn’t bug you at all? Seungcheol, what if someone planted it on you? You could be in trouble.”

“Of course it bugs me; this entire situation bugs me. I just have no idea where to start with figuring it out.” Woozi finished his food and looked towards Jeonghan timidly, who smiled knowingly and picked up the empty plate; walking over to the stove to grab him a second helping. The demon muttered a quiet ‘thank you’ before digging in again once again.

“You still have the book, right? Can I see it?” Seungcheol got up from the table and ran downstairs to grab it, placing the ominous book in front of Jeonghan, who stared at it with curiosity.

“It looks like it was designed to look just like out textbooks at school…” Jeonghan hovered his hand just above the cover, hesitant to make the next move. “It won’t curse me if I touch it, right?”

He shrugged “I don’t think I’m cursed.”

Taking that as a yes, he opened the book, flipping through the pages and skimming through descriptions of some of the spells. “Seungcheol, this stuff is crazy. Hexing, death curses, amnesia, summoning; if someone caught you with this you’d be sent to death-row without question.”

“Yeah, I know… I’ve kind of been trying to keep it a secret to prevent something like that.” He looked briefly at Woozi, who was still gobbling down food. He must have been really hungry. Seungcheol felt a tinge of guilt watching the boy, knowing it was his own fault for being oblivious to his needs..

“What page was the demon summoning spell on?”

“Ninety….six? I think that was it.” Jeonghan flipped to the page and began to read through it. His eyes widened as he studied the details of the spell.

“You… you guys are bonded? Is that was that burn mark was?” He turned towards Woozi, who was looking a little shy at the mention of their bond. “Do you have a burn too?”

Woozi pulled down the collar of his very oversized turtle-neck sweater, (probably one of Seungcheol’s) to reveal a fancy copper collar encased around his neck. It had fancy little designs around the edge, and ‘Seungcheol’ written clearly on the front in bold lettering. Jeez, Seungcheol was even treating the poor guy like a cat. Woozi pulled his collar back up quickly, looking embarrassed.

“Seungcheol, you ert.”

“Yah! The collar wasn’t my idea, the spell did it!”

Jeonghan read further through the page. “It says ‘the bond will form in whichever way it is imagined.’ Maybe you didn’t think it up consciously, but somewhere in your mind, you wanted to see Woozi in a collar.

Woozi choked on the food he was eating at that, and Seungcheol rubbed his temple in frustration.

“This spell seems pretty serious; did you not read through the instructions when you summoned him?”

He looked away, biting his cheek. “I… skimmed them.”

The long-haired boy sighed. “Of course you did. It has extra information on training. Like, different punishment spells or hexes of obedience. It’s kind of like a strange illegal guide to taming your pet demon.”

“I’m not a ing pet…” Woozi grumbled behind a mouth full of food, looking away from everyone else at the table in anger.

He flipped the page and furrowed his eyebrows at the strange paragraph. “What the hell, it’s in gibberish…”

“We think that’s the reversal spell… If we can decipher that paragraph we’re hoping it will send Woozi back, or reverse the effects of the bond, maybe.” Jeonghan hummed.

“I bet Jisoo would be able to figure it out.”

 Seungcheol laughed sarcastically. “We are not dragging another person into this mess.”

He shrugged. “It was just a suggestion.”

Jihoon watched as the two talked to each other, feeling satisfied now that he was finally full. He looked outside and realized the sky was becoming darker as their conversation progressed. His eyes drooped slightly and he drowned out their conversation to stare at the dull flickering lights in the sky.

Seungcheol stopped talking when he spotted Woozi’s stature faltering, the small boys round head drooping ever-so often as he fell in and out of full consciousness. The demon rubbed his eyes and yawned, staring out the window with a far-off look in his eyes. He was sleepy, that’s ing adorable. Seungcheol bit his tongue at the sight. This kid really needed to stop being so cute, it was bad for Seungcheol's heart. “Woozi?”

The demon shook his head to wake himself up, turning to him with a tired expression behind his soft brown eyes. “Seungcheol, can I go sleep?”

Seungcheol smiled endearingly. It was strange to hear the demon ask for Seungcheol’s permission for something like that; he was generally pretty defiant to everything his Hyung said.

It was a nice change, Woozi should be tired more often.  “Yeah, sure… Goodnight Woozi.”

 “G’night.” Woozi left his plate at the table and headed towards his usual spot, staggering tiredly towards the basement door.

“Where are you going?” he stopped to turn and look at Jeonghan with squinty eyes, who was raising his eyebrow at him dubiously.

“The basement... to sleep?”

“You’ve been sleeping in the basement?” Seungcheol looked away with a guilty expression when Jeonghan shot him a disapproving look.

“Yeah, in the wardrobe.”

“Seungcheol, you monster.” He clicked his tongue and stood from the table, striding forward and taking Woozi’s small hand in his own. “Come on, we have a guest bedroom, you can sleep there.” Woozi looked down at his hand, his mouth hanging open as if to say something, but the boy stayed quiet.

Jihoon was really tired, and the idea of sleeping in a bed sounded fan-ing-tastic, so he didn’t put up a fuss over Jeonghan holding his hand.

He'd also... kind of figured out along the way that Jeonghan wasn’t a woman, though at first glance anyone could have been mistaken. Still, he had a kind of atmosphere about him… something motherly? He was calming to be around; a nice change from Seungcheol’s polar-opposite persona.

Seungcheol watched Jeonghan lead Woozi by the hand out of the room, feeling a strange pain within his chest at the odd sight. He wasn’t… jealous, was he? He shook his head, knocking on his skull in an attempt to remove those kinds of thoughts from his mind. No, he was just tired, and Jeonghan’s food gave him heartburn… yeah, it was just heartburn.

He sighed; his life was turning into a mess. At least now he won’t have to worry about hiding Woozi from Jeonghan, though.

That… should be a good thing, right?

Jeonghan the light to the bedroom, revealing everything Jihoon had dreamed of while he was cramped and forced to sleep in that dumb wooden wardrobe. The older boy pulled the blankets back and Jihoon lay down, feeling bashful. He kept silent as the older male tucked him in like mother would for their child. The light behind Jeonghan’s head created the illusion of luminance surrounding his figure, sparkling silver hair draping down and hanging just above him. He stared at him in awe as Jeonghan whispered a quiet ‘goodnight’ to the demon, and smiled kindly.

An angel, this boy was an angel.

Jeonghan turned off the light before he left the room, and Jihoon pulled the blanket up to cover his face; which was probably red as a  at this point. Aside from Seungcheol’s fruitless attempts, he couldn’t remember any time in his life that he'd been taken care of like this... like he was worth something.

He shut his eyes tightly and curled up under the blanket, feeling just a little conflicted at the thought. Sleep took him quickly, and he dozed off with the shadow of a smile on his lips.

~

A boy whose eyes were shadowed over with a dark mahogany hood, stood before the audience in matching hoods, only the flickering flames of a number of torches illuminated the room,. They glowered over him with a judging aura; even with their faces covered, the anger they held was evident.

“What do you mean you lost the book?” The man in the middle of the row spoke up loudly, his voice powerful and influential to the ears of everyone in the room.

“I… It was a foolish mistake… I collided with one of my classmates and he picked it up and ran away. I tried to stop him, bu-”

“I don’t want to hear your excuses, D.O!” The boy cowered slightly, his hands joining together nervously. “Just get the book back and we will erase his memories before he figures anything out. I’m assuming he doesn’t know it was yours, yes?”

“He hasn’t shown any signs of knowledge over the matter, from the way he behaves at school…”

“Good, then get the book before he figures it out, got it? This case is dismissed.” The man lifted a golden-brown, wooden gavel, ready to slam it down on the table to confirm his judgment.

“Wait, leader!”

Before the hammer could hit the table, the man’s arm halted at his word.. The gavel hovered in the air as he looked down upon the boy, annoyance evident in his tone. “What?”

“I don’t think it will be so simple to get it back… The boy who has my book, it’s Choi Seungcheol.”

The Jury made a few sounds of surprise, a number of the members leaning into each other and speaking in hushed words of worry. Their leader held up a hand, wordlessly silencing the latter.

“I would like to request temporary use of my magic in order to obtain the book.” He lowered his head slightly, listening as the party began to discuss the request amongst themselves.

“D.O. you know I can’t grant that request. Your magic and title were revoked for a reason, and knowing that you allowed this to happen in the first place doesn’t exactly give me reason to trust you. Request denied.”

The boy dropped to his knees, his head hung low in a pleading motion. “Leader, I beg of you, this is Choi Seungcheol we’re talking about. He is the man that plundered our mission last fall and alerted the town of the presence of black magic users. He is prestigious and powerful; I am not confident that I will be able to do this if not magically.” Their leader turned to listen to the opinions of his jury, taking a couple moments to consider the request.

D.O.’s head remained hung, staring at the shadows of the flames flickering across the tiled floor. A drip of nervous sweat trickled down his brow as he listened to the ominous whispers of his brothers. He whipped his head up at the sound of his leader clearing his throat, loudly.

“I will grant you use of your magic.”

D.O stood quickly, bowing gratefully. “Thank you, l-”

“But.” He shut his mouth quickly, biting his tongue. “Your magic will be limited, I will unseal just enough that you may use 5 spells, and no more. That should be plenty for you to get the job done.”

D.O. bowed again, politely. “Thank you leader, I promise I will not disappoint you.”

“I will accept nothing but success from you. Another failure will not be tolerated, D.O.” He lifted the wooden gavel once again, slamming it down on his desk and sending a ricocheted bang throughout the hallow room. “This case is dismissed.”

He bowed again, before walking down the dimly-lit hallway. With his back turned to the council he allowed his expression to falter, his lips stretching into a wide grin, and he exited the room confidently though two large doors. Five spells, he could make do with five spells. All he needed now was to think up an effective plan to eliminate Choi Seungcheol for good. Leader hadn’t said anything about how he should go about getting his book back, so the possibilities were endless, he had complete creative freedom for this mission. The idea of being able to perform spells again excited him to no end, his stomach churned in sickening giddiness at the very thought of it.

Kyungsoo chuckled quietly to himself, stretching his fingers out and cracking the joints with a few satisfying pops. By tomorrow morning he would have his powers again.

Tomorrow the fun would finally begin.