“All those kids who get beat up or verbally abused by bullies. Don’t you feel sorry for them?”

“Don’t you feel sorry for the bullies, whom may be going through something terrible at home or in their personal lives that they’ve resorted to letting that anger out on somebody else?”

I blinked at Jongin. “Still,” I argued weakly. “They can’t just resort to beating someone else up, or even hurting them!”

Jongin was never one to pick on anyone; in fact, he didn’t even talk to the general population at our school, but somehow, he sounded like he understood what he was talking about. “You never know,” he stated, voice quiet but firm. “You never know what they’ve gone through to turn into the person they are today.”

Chapter 7

Waking up in a room that wasn’t your own was something quite scary for the first couple seconds, but waking up in a room that wasn’t your own and remembering that you were in another dimension was something truly horrifying.

Not only that, but to top it off, the closet (wardrobe, more like; closet sounded to simple) that I Baekhyun’s family provided me had no pants -- just skirts and dresses and the occasional top to go with the skirt -- which was still too fancy for my taste. The pajamas weren’t pajamas either -- they were old fashioned, white, lacy night gowns that felt too fancy to sleep in. My school uniform, which lay in a heap at the foot of the bed, was in no shape to be worn around all day in Ignis. The only thing I had were my sneakers.

In the end, after choosing the simplest attire possible from the closet, and washing up, I headed downstairs.

Just a turn out of the room, I crashed into Kai.

It wasn’t really my fault; he had been the one running, and I was light enough to be sent flying if hit with just a moderate amount of force. But unlike tens of times before, this time, as I stumbled and fell, no hand reached out to stop me before I hit the ground, like he had done before. I wasn’t sure if the shock of hitting the wooden floor was from pain, or from the fact that I had actually crashed into him and he had let me fall.

Kai blinked, looking almost surprised and I met his gaze with a probably similar expression. He looked more casual, now that he wasn’t wearing the suit anymore, but there was still something that seemed newly unfamiliar about him.

“Are you okay?” he offered right hand, and before I could think twice, I pushed myself to my feet by myself, ignoring his outstretched arm.

“Fine,” I mumbled.

He didn’t look the slightest bit flustered or even embarrassed as he withdrew his arm, though if it were me I would’ve been exceptionally awkward at the rejection. “It’s nice that you’re up so early,” he told me, voice monotone, and something in my chest seemed to hurt. Ever since I had woke up from fainting the other day, Kai seemed to be drifting further and further away, getting even more emotionless and colder than before. It made me mad, but most of all, frustrated. He had been closed off before, but it was never this much. Everything felt like it was a huge lie; our supposed friendship, the three years we had spent together in school. All of a sudden, it was all gone, leaving me with not a friend, but a stranger; not Kim Jongin, but Kai. “Mrs. Lee herself is here, and we’ll be discussing a couple more things this morning, and then I’ll probably take you on a tour.”

“Just her?” All of a sudden, it seemed to be an impossible task to meet his eyes.

“Just her. I’ll meet you downstairs when you’re ready.”

Before I could tell him that I was already ready, he had turned and began walking away, with fast steps, towards the staircase.

The words wait for me died in my throat.

***

The Byun family and Kyungsoo were nowhere in sight, though the table was set. It was a long, oval shape, with at least enough room to sit twelve people. Cakes and fruits and other delicacies spread out across an intricately embroidered tablecloth, and though it all looked appetizing, something in my mouth still tasted bitter from a couple minutes ago. When I sat down next to Kai, across from Mrs. Lee -- as he had called her -- something felt simply unnatural, forced.

“Mira.” Mrs. Lee smiled -- actually smiled for once. “Now that we’re alone, we can drop some of the formalities.”

I stared at her for a good while. She had seemed so stoic yesterday that I felt somewhat confused. “Hi,” I managed. “Yesterday was…well...”

“You have trouble speaking in front of crowds?” she cut in. Her smile wasn’t mocking, just sincere, and the tension seemed to leave my muscles as I looked at her in shock.

“How…?”

“It just takes observation. We also have heightened senses, so despite my age, my eyesight's still quite sharp. I could see how nervous you were -- you were shaking, and your hands were clenched. It took a couple tries to answer questions, right?”

Dumbly, I nodded.

“You’ll overcome it. Though I’m not here to discuss that today -- more about your powers, and how we’ll sort out your return to Seoul in a couple days of time.”

She wasn’t as bad as I had originally painted her, I realized -- friendly, though still formal, and all in all, likeable. More that I had expected. “Thanks,” I replied, unsure of what to say to her previous sentence. “I mean, going back to Seoul and all. For letting me. Thanks.” She smiled again, a comforting one, and for a moment, I felt completely at ease. “But… all of this -- are you sure I belong here? I mean, after all that questioning, I don’t see how I could even have powers. I’ve seen Kai and I believe it all but… but me…”

“There’s no way you aren’t.” Mrs. Lee sounded way more confident than I felt. “I can sense the pull of your aura. As for your past, there’s always going to be answers. Athanatoi powers, normally show up when between the ages of eight to fifteen--” I wasn’t sure if it were my imagination, but Kai seemed to go rigid beside me, “--and as for you, it’s possible there’s something in the way of your powers. A barrier, though I have no idea who would have done so. A barrier of that sort isn't hard to break, so tomorrow afternoon, we’ll go through the Awakening process.”

“Awakening?”

“Kim Jongin can explain more later, when he takes you to the Archives.” She turned her gaze at him. “You know which scrolls to take out?”

Kai nodded stiffly, mouth set in a straight line. He didn’t look very happy, but he didn’t deny her request either. I wondered if it were because he was unwilling to show me around, or because of an entirely different reason. If I had been able to understand even a bit of him before, he was a complete, unfinished puzzle now, that had too many pieces for me to actually solve.

“And the Council has decided. Jongin, you’ll be sent back to Seoul with Mira, and you’ll be in charge of teaching her combat skills.” She turned to look at me, dropping the formal speech once again, grinning. “He’s one of our most trained fighters, though we’ll still have to see about how good a teacher he is. We will be sending back about twelve other people with you for precautions, and you’ll simply continue your training there. Sound fair?”

“Yes,” I answered cautiously. “What about Jinyoung? He’ll kill me if I’m living with someone else.”

“After the golem, which slipped past all our defenses, it’s never too bad to take the extra step just to be careful. Luhan will be in charge of putting up protection spells around your house, and you’ll be walked home if it’s at night.”

“I’ll be staying at home?”

“If that’s what you wish.”

That information was a breath of fresh air. At least I wouldn’t have my brother to worry about… or maybe I did. If I were to train with Kai wherever that would be (the thought quite frankly terrified me -- I could barely keep up with gym classes at school, and having to learn how to fight for god knew how many hours per day was a horrifying thing to imagine.), then that meant I wouldn’t be attending school, and that would mean Jinyoung would be suspicious if he didn’t see a pile of undone homework lying on my desk. Besides, the school was bound to call -- I couldn’t just drop out and expect everything to be alright.

“What about school?”

That was supposed to happen after you graduated high school. Suddenly, Kai’s words resurfaced. Had I been meant to finish high school?

“It would be no problem to put a couple of glamour spells through to make it appear that you’re going to school--”

“Can I go to school?”

I wasn’t sure how the words left my mouth. Go to school? This was my ideal opportunity. Be able to skip school -- no, never go to school again -- living in a fantasy novel -- what could go wrong? But now that I was actually pretty much living in a fantasy novel, it didn’t seem so fun anymore. There were too many things that could go wrong, all listed in a long list in front of my face.

“You want to go to school?” Even Mrs. Lee looked completely taken back, though I doubted she was as surprised as I myself was.

Not exactly, in that sense. But now that my life had been turned upside down, I wan