As the night slipped by, the rain finally stopped – the quiet gurgle of the pipes and the soft dusty pitter-patter of inky drops on the drive fading…. Yet Sehun found himself unable to enjoy the still, or take advantage of it to sleep – thanks to 6 feet [not including tail] of hot – in both senses of the word – phantasm, who managed to come up with one new argument every six minutes, right through the entirety of the night, till the room had melted its way from pitch black to grey; the shadows of the desk and the chairs, the bedside table and the chest against the far wall bobbing up to the surface like flotsam. From wheedling ‘pleeeeaaassseee Hunniieee, tell me!!’s, through eyebrow waggling offers of ‘Hunhun, if you just tell me your wish, I’ll give you all the euphoria-choco potion you could eat, and a mountain of freid chicken’s; huffy head tossings of ‘If you don’t tell me, I’ll never speak to you again’; heartbroken sniffles of ‘Sehun….please, I really wanna go home….’all the way to ‘Hey, I can’t kill you – at least till I get your soul – but short of that, I can do pretty much anything I want. D’ya think I can’t get it out of you??? Hmm~~ I wonder how long Sehun can hold out when I start burning his fingers off inch by inch, while stabbing needles of fire through his eyeballs~~’, Tao had run the gamut of persuasions, arguments and pleading he could think of – till, with one last dark glowering growl of ‘You shall regret this, Oh Sehun.’, he’d stalked out of the room so sinister, the only things missing from the best Dracula impersonation he’d ever seen were a cape and a Transylvanian accent.

Too tired and sleepy to argue, or even warn him to be careful and not let anyone see him, Sehun rolled over, burying his face in the pillow with a sigh of relief that didn’t even make it past the feathers before he’d dropped off a cliff and into oblivion.

 - BRRRRRRRRRRRRRIIIIIIIIIIINGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!RINNGGGGGRIIIIINGGGGG!!!!!!!!!

‘Ah!!’ Gasping, Sehun shot out of bed – plunging vigorously into conscious and flying out of the covers in pretty much the same motion, his eyes widening as he caught sight of the clock. ‘!!’ – he’d somehow – so tangled in the depths of sleep he couldn’t even remember doing it – managed to strike the snooze button so many times he was actually half an hour late – and blast it, he really couldn’t afford anymore tardies!! Esp not today – chemistry was first period, and as long as Jongin refused to take all of Sehun’s arch insinuations re: the TA [egged on by the memory of what Tao had found in his pocket], he’d definitely be in a pile of trouble.  ‘!!!’ Scrambling his way to the bathroom, he dived head first into the shower, where, thanks to his Olympian efforts of brushing his teeth with one hand while simultaneously rubbing in shampoo with the other, he managed to wash and dress in under two minutes flat [40 secs of which were spent just cursing after he accidentally rinsed his mouth out with conditioner] – a personal record he couldn’t help being kinda chuffed about as he hopped down the stairs three at a time, stuffing his legs into his uniform trousers. ‘Mom!! Moooommmm!!! I’m late, can I just have a sandwi-

…………………..

Sandwi…

Sand….-’

‘Ah! Sehun, look who I ran into when I was-  Sehun!!! What are you doing, today’s a holiday isn’t it!? It’s Founder’s day at your school!’

‘……………. ……………….. ………oh….. oh….. yea…h…..’ ‘Hahahaaaaa!!! I was wondering why you were up so early, I never even see you before I go to work on holidays, and here you are all dressed – haaahhhahhaha!!!! What an idiot!! Isn’t he an idiot!?’ ‘Ehehe, yeah!!’ ‘……..aahrmm…’ Swallowing again, Sehun gaped at the apparition that was lounging against the counter beside his mother, picking bits of bacon straight out the frying pan, and laughing along cheerily as he agreed with her.

‘……..aahrmm…’

‘Well, don’t just stand there, come in, sit down, and we can all eat together~’

‘……..aahrmm…’

‘Oh, I ran into your friend in the driveway when I came back from the farmer’s market – you were coming over to see Sehun, weren’t you, sweetheart – such a sweet boy, he helped me carry all the groceries in….’

Smiling, she Tao’s cheek demonstratively as she placed a dish of scrambled eggs on the table, gesturing him to a chair and heaping a spoonful into his plate, before pausing to frown over at Sehun. ’Huh.. … but I thought I had met all of your classmates… -‘

‘Ah! Tao transferred – in….. recently….’

☲☲☲

Reflexively stammering into speech in response to her peaked-eyebrows and sharp eyes, Sehun slid unevenly into his chair, pulled a bowl towards himself and shook some cereal in, more in an attempt to hide his trembling hands than anything. Quickly, taking advantage of the opportunity offered by her going back to the counter to slice up some strawberries and plums to add to his breakfast, he carefully looked over the guy sitting opposite him [he’d been too busy focusing on not hyperventilating to do so until this moment] – the tall, neatly-smoothed-down black haired… human eared, normal eyed, tailless boy, in an impeccably pressed button down and chinos, with not the slightest trace of leather, or zippers or rips or incomprehensible metal studs – or bikinis – anywhere in sight. In short, someone who fully merited the warm, indulgent, impressed-mom looks he was getting –

And that was not even taking into account the whole… pile of total that dropped so in fluently from his (totally fangless) mouth the next moment – or the bombshell he launched right at the end.

‘Yeah, I just came over coz I thought Sehun and I could work on our history reports together – well, it’s not due for another three weeks, but getting a head start will work to our advantage, right? After all, it all goes into our final credit… I’ve already read through all five of the recommended books from the library, and I thought we could get started on laying out a draft today….

Ah!

I’m sorry I’m so early.. I usually only get up this early on schooldays, so I can study, you know… but last night I just couldn’t sleep, ehehe, we missed our usual late-night….. workout, didn’t we, Hunhun- ‘ ‘……..KSHSSS!!!!’ Spluttering, Sehun choked violently as he reflexively flung his hands out to Tao, trying to somehow physically dam the flow of blatant lies – and highly uncomfortable truth, gurgling bits of cereal down the wrong pipe, necessitating Tao having to lean across to pound him on the head with some sort of vague understanding of human internal plumbing.

‘ Ouch!! Ouch!! Alright, alright, I’m fine now!’

Luckily, his near-suffocation had successfully distracted his mother from that last bit, and she only narrowed her eyes at him, sighing exaggeratedly with her hands on her hips, once she saw he was alright, before turning back to Tao. ‘Sehun, don’t talk with your mouth full… And Tao, honey, don’t you worry about that! Ehehe, if only you’d rub off on my lazybones here, I’d be so happy; You just have a nice big breakfast, and then you two can do your report – why don’t you use my study, it’s got a better workspace than Sehun’s room…would you like some more honey toast? Or cinnamon?’

‘May I have both..?’

‘Oh of course you may, little one!’

‘Hey!! You never let me have both!’ Sehun cut in – too shocked by pretty much everything that was happening, not least of all the idiot somehow having usurped ‘favourite’ status.

‘Well, finish your cereal, and we’ll see. And go slowly, my lil speed-eater~’

‘HA! That’s true! Hunnie always eats too fast!!’

‘Yes, doesn’t he? He just wolfs everything down~~’

‘……………….. ………………………….’ Glaring collectively at the two of them ganging up on him – and their stupid snide smiles, Sehun his spoon in with a vengeance, shovelling up a mountainful. ‘I just have a lot of stuff to do. Unlike some people, I’m quite busy.’

‘………… ……………….’ ‘………….. Bwahaha!!!!’  ‘Hahaha!!!’ ‘Hahaha!’

‘………!!’ Sticking his tongue out at them, and stifling down a little grin of his own, Sehun picked out a slice of strawberry, biting into the tangy juiciness. It seemed Tao was behaving – that moment, earlier, must’ve just been… well, it was just coz he was such a total IDIOT, he totally hadn’t even realised what he was saying!! Thank goodness, he was just talking normally now…

Phew!!

Ah, but this was actually better than normal!

Sehun’d been trying to get him to go human since forever, it was so much easier than having to sneak about with His Invisibleness! But he always kicked up a fuss everytime Sehun even suggested it, and whenever he did manage to force him into it, the stupid demon always cheated, sneaking his tail out at the worst possible moments, or letting his eyes flash red unconsciously, till Sehun had quite given up on the whole idea. Ehehe, whatever was going on in that idiotic swirling mess of a brain of his, this was definitely a step up-

‘Like last Sunday – he practically inhaled an entire pizza, without giving me even a bit!!’

‘Haa!! Yup, that sounds about right! ~~ Ah.. you two were playing together on Sunday?’

‘Yes, of course!’

‘Eeehh~~ ‘of course’~?’

‘Well… Sehun and I hang out together everyday~~’

‘…No we don’t.’ Cutting in, Sehun growled brusquely – first of all, all last week, he’d kept making excuses about where he was going, and who with – replacing ‘my invisible demon friend slash..kinda more-than-friend’ with ‘Chanyeol’ or ‘Jongin’ – and his mom was sure to get suspicious at a statement like that, when the name ‘Tao’ had never passed his lips.

And Secondly and more importantly – aarrghh!!! Stupid idiot, like we’re all… close, and uughhhhhh –

‘Hmm?’ Distracted by the coffee-maker beeping, Mom hummed.

‘Yes we do!! Sehun likes to be with me all the time – coz he says I’m special.’