Minghao barely took a step out of the bedroom before he was suddenly knocked over by a large hound, his back hitting the floor painfully. Despite that, Minghao found himself laughing out aloud as the dog his face persistently.

“Stop — Stop it!” Minghao tried to command the dog through his own laughter. The hound was practically on top of him, paws on his shoulders and snout at his face. It wasn’t even a small hound but a large, monstrous one and Minghao found himself gasping for air, in between laughter, under the dog’s weight on his chest.

The feeling of the dog on him, him, was such a normal thing that Minghao embraced it warmly, drool and pain and all, especially with how abnormal and weird his life had been recently. For one brief moment, Minghao felt normal again, like he was just a teenaged boy with a pet dog and not a teenaged boy with superpowers who was nearly captured by strangers.

“Wonwoo, get him off Minghao!” Somewhere, Minghao heard Jisoo giving instructions and all of the sudden, the hound was finally removed from his body.

Minghao opened his eyes (he hadn’t even realized that he had closed them in the first place) and found an apologetic Jisoo looking down at him with another dark haired boy holding onto the hound tightly. Now that the hound was a distance away from him, Minghao was amazed by how huge it was.

“I’m so sorry about that, Minghao.” Jisoo immediately apologized as he extended a helping hand to the Chinese boy, pulling him to his feet. “I bet you didn’t expect to have a dog your face when you came out.”

“It’s okay, Jisoo hyung.” Minghao grinned back, not fazed, as he rose to stand. Then, he cringed ever so slightly as he wiped some leftover drool on his face with the back of his hand as he shared. “I actually like dogs so I really don’t mind it.”

The hound barked excitedly, as if understanding Minghao’s words and was extremely delighted, and Minghao patted its back fondly.

“I mean, dogs are awesome.” Minghao beamed at Jisoo as he continued rubbing the hound’s back. He bent down, his hand not stopping, and the dog practically whined in pleasure.

The other boy raised an eyebrow in disbelief. “Really?” He eyed the hound skeptically who barked again, forming an eerily humanlike smile, but Minghao took in the boy first.

The boy was tall with black hair that brushed the top of his eyes, covering his eyebrows entirely. He was also strikingly handsome with a sharp, angular face and defined cheekbones. Minghao must have been staring for too long when the hound barked in his ear, bringing him back to reality.

“Yeah.” Minghao affirmed, regaining his senses, before wrapping his arms around the hound, hugging it tightly to make for his earlier distraction. “What’s its name?”

“Mingyu.” The same boy answered flippantly, sticking his hands into his jeans’ pockets.

Minghao couldn’t help but let his lips quirk up in a smile as he glanced up. “That’s a really — erm — human name.”

At this, both the boy and Jisoo smiled in slight amusement. “If I were you, I wouldn’t get too attached to Mingyu.” The boy advised strangely.

“Why not?” Minghao asked, surprised by the advice.

The boy didn’t answer but the hound barked once and then dashed into the bedroom Minghao had just vacated, startling Minghao who watched it go. A few moments later, a smirking boy who was most decidedly not in the bedroom earlier emerged from it. He was topless with a pair of sweatpants hanging low on his hips.

“Okay, where did you come from?” Minghao demanded as he stood up, his brain not quite progressing everything yet.

The new boy only grinned, flashing his pronounced canines and everything fell into place.

Minghao’s jaw fell as he pointed at the boy, exclaiming. “You’re the dog!”

“I’m a shapeshifter,” the boy — Mingyu — corrected pompously and Minghao faintly registered the other boy rolling his eyes in exasperation.

“You my face.” Minghao accused, his hand touching his face subconsciously. He made a face of disgust. “Gross.”

“You didn’t mind it when I was a dog.” Mingyu retorted without any malice in his voice. He bounced forward, skidding to a stop in front of Minghao. Even though he was now a human, Minghao found that Mingyu reminded him faintly of a dog — hyper and energetic. “I can’t believe we finally have a new recruit. How long has it been since Jeonghan hyung joined us?”

“A new recruit?” Minghao echoed in confusion. “Why are there recruits? Are we an army or something?”

“Stop scaring Minghao.” The dark haired boy chided Mingyu before turning to Minghao. He flashed a quick smile before reassuring him, “relax. We’re not an army and I’m Wonwoo.”

“I’m Minghao,” Minghao answered quickly before realizing that Wonwoo had called him by his name. Laughing nervously, Minghao ending lamely, “but you already know that.”

Jisoo smiled affectionately at Minghao and the younger managed a weak smile of gratefulness but inside, he was feeling upset and out of place. I’m like a fish out of water here. They’re all so nice, especially Jisoo hyung, but I’m not one of them.

“Junhui hyung told us that you can teleport and generate force fields.” Mingyu spoke up, his eyes shining with curiosity, breaking Minghao’s train of thoughts. “That’s so awesome.”

Minghao thought back to earlier where he couldn’t even produce one force field and coughed awkwardly, remembering his failure. “I suppose so.” He vaguely answered, not meeting anyone’s eyes. I’m not awesome.

Mingyu opened his mouth to ask another question but Jisoo jumped in before he could. “Save your questions for later, Mingyu. I’m supposed to bring Minghao to see Junhui and Seungcheol wants to talk to him, too.” The oldest boy informed the trio.

“Well, there’s always breakfast.” Mingyu piped up, ever optimistic. “We can just interrogate you further then.”

“Interrogate?” Minghao repeated with a nervous gulp.

“Quick scaring him, Mingyu.” Wonwoo scolded, smacking the taller boy on the shoulder before dragging him away, leaving Minghao with Jisoo.

Jisoo let out a sigh before apologizing sheepishly, as he began walking. “Sorry about that. We’re just really excited that you’re here.”

“How come?” Minghao asked curiously as he walked with the older boy. “Surely, there has got to be more of you guys. I mean, people like you guys aren’t exactly common but you’re not that uncommon, right?”

There’s lots of mutants in X-men and demigods in Percy Jackson. Minghao thought, falling back on his albeit limited knowledge of people with superpowers but Jisoo only gave him a queer look.

“We’re actually that uncommon.” Jisoo rectified Minghao’s perception of them as they went down a hallway. Dimly, Minghao could hear noises emitting from the other rooms and he felt himself become eager to meet more people with superpowers.

Jisoo hyung can heal and move things with his mind while Mingyu is a shapeshifter. Minghao recalled mentally as he walked beside Jisoo. The Junhui guy can turn invisible whenever he wants.

“So far, Seungcheol only managed to gather twelve of us.” Jisoo continued elaborating as Minghao listened attentatively. “And he started doing so about a few years ago. Which is actually a long time, considering his superpower.”

His superpower? Minghao wanted to ask questions but Jisoo opened a door and motioned for him to enter. Obeying, Minghao walked inside the room which was plainly yet nicely furnished.

The room was considerably larger than the bedroom Minghao was in and the floor was carpeted. There were two sofas and an obscene amount of bean bags randomly placed around them, surrounding a coffee table. Opposite it was a television and Minghao deduced that this was probably the living room.

Blinking, Minghao noticed that Jisoo was staring at him intently. “What is it?’ He asked self-consciously.

“Nothing. Just that, this was where you first appeared with Junhui.” Jisoo explained, gesturing at the living room as if making a point. “So I thought that you might have some memories of it.”

Minghao instinctively glanced down at the carpeted floor. “Well, to be fair, I out seconds after I came here.” He reminded the other boy.

“True, true,” Jisoo agreed as he smiled bashfully. “I should have considered that.”

“So, where's the Junhui guy?” Minghao inquired, settling down on the nearest bean bag. He let his head fall back, trying to relax. “I have a lot of questions I want to ask him.”

“Maybe that's why he's not here yet.” An unfamiliar voice spoke up, teasing, and Minghao jolted in surprise. He straightened up and watched a black haired boy approach him.

“What's your name?” The new arrival asked and Minghao resisted the unexpected urge to stand up. Despite his gummy smile and friendly eyes, there was a sort of authoritative air coming from the boy and Minghao was pretty sure he was the leader of this ragtag band of gifted people.

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