Chapter XIX "House of Wolves"   

   "I said I'd protect your forever, but it was all a lie, a lie." ~ iKON 'Apology'  

“The process isn’t an easy process, it’s a rather simple ritual but it’s the toll of the aftermath. Some humans can handle it, some can’t,” Jin spoke, his voice soft and very hidden. It was as if he was scared to even explain the situation, no, it was as if it pained him to even be saying it.

“What do you mean?” Jungkook asked, not understanding much of what is going on. He has so much to learn and so much to comprehend. Everything just hurt his brain.

“Taking a piece of soul like that, the purest part of the soul to be exact, may protect Yugyeom. But his soul will be incomplete and he is at risk of changing, he is at risk of getting dark thoughts. Humans can be consumed by darkness too, that’s why some of them kill or commit horrible crimes,” Jin spoke trying his best to explain the difficult topic in the softest and most approaching voice he could get.

“It’s not that I don’t want to keep him safe Jungkook, I don’t want to steal his soul. I don’t want to risk him getting consumed in darkness, aren’t we trying to keep him away from it in the first place?” Minyoung spoke, her eyes slightly pained at thinking about doing such a thing. Robbing Yugyeom of part of his soul will be as difficult as killing a human. She didn’t even know if Yugyeom was ready to do such an act and if his soul was good enough to withstand darkness trying to fill that gaping hole she would leave behind.

“Why don’t you just leave him?” Jungkook spoke, his eyes darting towards her in earnestness. Her breathing hitched as her heart fell onto the floor, she never thought he would ask her that. She never expected that to be his answer, and it was such a serious and well-thought out solution for him,

“It’s kind of not possible,” Junhoe spoke up, feeling the need to put his foot down since Minyoung looked so baffled and unable to set him straight. It was impossible for Minyoung to leave Yugyeom now, it was simply too late to turn back.

“You start lessons tomorrow Jungkook, its best you save all your questions for your lessons,” the Master of Fire spoke, his tone sounded offended that Jungkook would ask his child such a thing. But it washed away, knowing the boy knows nothing about them, their lives, their nature.

Jungkook wasn’t about to defy one of the Masters, but the question was still inside his head. Part of him wanted to push the question because all they tell him is that Minyoung loves Yugyeom, but they have barely known each other for two weeks. Love can’t be fabricated in that short amount of time, and he isn’t even sure that Yugyeom loves her back.

This would sound simpler if Minyoung just broke up with him and left him alone. He didn’t know why that felt like the right solution, he just felt like things would be simpler. But the more he thought about it, the more he realized the reason Hanbin walked out without hurting Yugyeom was because Minyoung loved his best friend. If he caught everything correctly, the soul of Jiwoo was only given up because of that love.

Maybe it was the only thing that was keeping Yugyeom alive at this point.

“You know the necklace helps block your thoughts from us and replaces them with fake ones, but your most troubled thoughts pool out,” Junhoe walked up to him, his voice echoing painfully in the empty room.

“Is that why it feels like you can read all of them?” He spoke, his voice soft and very childlike. He sounded like a kid who was just done with a crying session.

“Yes, we can’t read all of them. It’s the big ones that leak out, but we try to ignore them because they are your thoughts and we shouldn’t be reading them. We still shield you to make sure the thoughts that pool out won’t be read by anyone else,” Junhoe spoke, his words rather confusing but still a little understandable. That must be the reason they haven’t pointed out his thoughts, why they knew something was wrong with him but refused to ask him. It was because they wanted to stay away from his thoughts, and refuse to acknowledge them to respect his privacy.

They were back in the hospital wings. The five masters were out trying to get the reports from the council members, getting updated if there was any movement with the darkness or Hanbin, and if the defensive plan they went into was the right one.

“Guppy!” A loud scream suddenly made the room feel like it was shaking and tumbling. Junhoe’s head snapped, all of his emotions replaced with worry and desperation. He stood up, running in top speed as he busted through the door that had an unconscious Sehun waiting for recovery.

Minyoung was there, she was the one who screamed. Tears were in her eyes as she was trying to keep Sehun down on the bed. His eyes were raving in a more vivid turquoise color. His teeth had grown very pointy, he looked like he was going to transform but he still looked very much human.

He looked like he was going crazy. His eyes searching crazily around the room as he roared and begun to breath heavily. He looked like he wanted to attack, like he wanted to bite down onto the flesh of whoever was there.

Even Minyoung and Junhoe.

Minyoung yelped, feeling his hot breath on her neck and feeling his teeth shadowing over her skin. She moved away fast enough before Sehun tried biting her neck. His voice growled like an angry wolf as the veins of his biceps were popping out at how much force he was trying to use to push Minyoung away from him. Regardless if he tried attacking her, she never stopped pinning him down.

“Sky, hold him down” Junhoe demanded with a stern voice. There was a black snake wrapped around his two legs and pinned him to the bed. The golden snake on Junhoe’s wrist fell and begun to slither forward. It’s body disappearing fast under the bed and suddenly reappearing around Sehun’s wrists.

Jungkook had his heart on his mouth. He’s never seen Sehun like this. He looked madden, he looked possessed. There was no way he would attack Minyoung, try to hurt her at all.

“What’s wrong?” One of the doctors that was attending Sehun walked in, her voice soft and concern. She stopped the moment she saw what was going on.

Sehun was using all of his force, all of his strength to get up. His predator teeth having grown in too much for his human form as his eyes were dilated and very vivid. His body moved, squirmed, uncontrollably as he was growling and snaring. His mouth snapping one more time as Junhoe was careless and his arm got a little too close to Sehun’s mouth.

“Expose his torso, I need to inject the tranquilizer,” the woman spoke, her voice soft and in that language that was translated with a delay to Jungkook.

The snakes were doing a decent job at keeping Sehun pinned against the bed. Minyoung let loose one of her arms and went to pull Sehun’s shirt up. But once she saw his stomach, she whispered a heartbroken and desperate no.

“The seal is broke, the light seal is broken,” she muttered, her voice shaking as she looked at Junhoe with desperate and tear filled eyes.

On Sehun’s torso was a circular tribal mark. It started at his belly button and spiraled three times around in unified . But now, the spiraled circle was cut in half, what looked like a red burn slashed across the mark. The javelin impelled the side of his stomach, but the burning mark looked as if the javelin went all the way across his stomach.

Sehun yelped, the pain in the simple sound bringing Jungkook to feeling tears whelm up in his eyes. The moment the tranquilizer was injected in his torso, he looked at Minyoung. His eyes returning to their normal dilation.

“Mikey,” he whispered, his voice returning to him as his eyes were now filled with pain, seeing a gash across Minyoung’s face, something only his hands could create. His body begun to get heavy as his eyes grew heavier too and suddenly, he drifted into a deep slumber and was no longer fighting the suppression.

“What happened?” Junhoe asked, his vice raw with emotion as he was trying to compose himself.

“I don’t know, he begun to breath heavy. I got closer, trying to see what was wrong and the moment he opened his eyes, he clawed at me,” Minyoung spoke, her voice caught in her swollen throat as she looked at Sehun.

“The light seal is indeed broken. The weapon must have had a spell or some type of poison that ate away the seal. He went back to his wild form, before having chosen any side,” the doctor spoke, her voice soft yet very compassionate.

“It was done on purpose, a spell or poison doesn’t just appear on a weapon like that,” Minyoung spoke, her voice broken and drowning in desperation. Junhoe’s lips quivered as he saw the mark up close, finally realizing that it was in fact true.

“Keep him tied, keep a set of tranquilizers at all times, he still has a wound,” Junhoe spoke, trying to compose himself but he was lost. He didn’t know what to do or how he could help Sehun.

Jungkook felt like crying, seeing the events unravel before him and he couldn’t even do anything to help. He was taken aback at how much raw emotion came out of Minyoung and Junhoe over Sehun’s health. There was so much untold history there and that only made him feel more of an outsider than before.  

“We will discuss this with Master Aqua, figure out the remedy and what needs to be done. We’ll update you every hour,” the doctor spoke, her leafy green eyes landing on the two who were hovering above the bed in silence.

“Thank you,” they spoke in unison, their eyes falling onto the floor with sorrow. The moment they looked at Jungkook was when their sorrow suddenly begun to be subdued.

They realized that they had a duty to protect Jungkook, to care for him. They can’t be a wall protecting him if they were letting their grief consume them and take control of them. They had to be stronger than that.

“Let’s go home Jungkook, I presume you have a lot of questions,” Junhoe spoke, his voice a little rough but more composed than before. The three took their leave, the academy echoing with silence that it was painful to see the beautiful corridors radiate loneliness.

In the day, the neon grass and the bright colors that filled nature were nowhere to be seen. The world looked much human and normal.

The moment they got through the light door, that had become physically embodied in Minyoung’s room, everything felt suffocating. Minyoung gasped softy and simply ran out, her presence leaving in the matter of a second and all she left behind was a gust of wind. Jungkook didn’t know what to do or what to say, he felt this desperate need to get a hold of Yugyeom to see if he was okay.

“You start training tomorrow, you will be trained by Master Blaze, or Jin. You and Mina, the vampire that attacked you will be in the same training sessions. You will begin in stage zero, as if you were a being that was freshly born,”

“What happened with Sehun?” Jungkook asked, cutting off Junhoe before he had a chance to explain anything else. He was hoping that they would tell him everything about Sehun, why he had a seal and why he acted the way he did when it was apparently broken.

He wanted to know about Mina too. Why the vampire who wounded him, that kidnapped him would be allowed near him. Why all of a sudden she was good.

“Let’s go to the living room, I doubt you want to stay here,” he spoke, a deep sigh being released before he gestured Jungkook to walk first.

Jungkook took in all the details from Minyoung’s room There were many charcoal tinted papers, they were drawings, that were hung all around the room. There was a lot of mint, mint colored sheets, and mint colored pillow cases. A familiar skateboard hung against the mint colored walls next to a shelf full of books and beanies. The room had a nice fresh aesthetic, but it had Minyoung’s name written all over it.

Junhoe offered the boy some coffee, which he didn’t refuse. Holding the scorching cup of coffee reminded him of how he’s always been. Extremely hot or cold stuff never bothered him. He remembered laughing every time Yugyeom would burn his tongue with a cup of tea or coffee while the liquid seemed to be cool in his own mouth.

“I have ice phoenix blood inside of me, is that the reason I can drink this at ease?” He asked, his mind having shifted into another question.

“It’s not blood, its chakra. It’s an energy source that comes from ice. But yes, the reason is because the hot liquid cools in your mouth. You are meant to withstand cold, to be comfortable in ice. Your body automatically turns everything colder,” Junhoe spoke, blowing on his cup of coffee as he didn’t have this ability. Hot coffee at times was too hot for him, and when he was slightly burned, he was always made fun of by Minyoung.

There was a moment of silence, Jungkook understood that silence as Junhoe collecting enough of himself to speak. To say everything that was going on. Jungkook knew he would answer his doubts, because this, cannot be answered in training.

“When our world was first fabricated, there were only creatures with no true nature, there was only survival. Light, one of the two forces that made our world, would grant some sort of humane ground to these creatures. If a wolf, a wild wolf, would choose the Light, then the Light would allow them to become human and turn into a wolf at will. The transformation between the two will be painless,” he begun to explain. The words echoed with a heavy burden in the room, as Jungkook understood. The reason why Sehun could transform without pain and at will was because he was in the Light’s side.

“If a wild wolf betrayed the Light and chose the Dark, the other force, then the wolf would abide to a rule that only during the night, for six hours, they could be human. The transformation would be painful and if they didn’t want to deal with the pain, they could give up the ability to become human forever,” the boy continued, drenching his lip with coffee and took a pause that only ignited questions inside of Jungkook’s head.

“Okay, but why is this connected to Sehun?” He asked, feeling a little confused why every single explanation had to happen with some sort of detailed back story.

“The wild stage, before any wolf chooses a side, they are simply animals. Just like here, a wolf only knows survival. That wild stage is what Sehun returned to,” Junhoe spoke, his eyes scrunching in sadness as he looked at his hands that creased the coffee mug.

“What about the seal?” Jungkook whispered, finding this need to know more and he didn’t know how much more Junhoe could say in a calm state.

“The seal is a complicated process. Sehun used to be a Dark creature, he had betrayed the Light and chosen Dark. That’s the side he chose from the beginning,” he spoke, his eyes picking up as he looked at Jungkook directly.

“When he first encountered us, he kind of imprinted on Minyoung. He changed sides, which creatures can do, because he loved her so much. A wolf has never changed sides, it’s in a wolf’s nature to be loyal until the end. So, when Sehun switched sides, measures had to be taken because he was the first one.” Jungkook felt his body at the edge of the seat. Junhoe took in a deep breath and looked away briefly.

“Originally, if a creature or being changes to the Light, trails are held to see if they truly mean to be good. The last test is a purifying ritual in which the soul is cleansed of all their unwanted darkness. If they don’t mean to be truly good, they die in that ritual.” His voice was slightly stern as if something was bothering him.

“When Sehun went through it, and he survived, his intension to be good were clearly seen but because his nature was to be loyal, many worried he would return to the Dark, since that’s the side he should have remained loyal until the end. Therefore, a seal was embodied onto him, and acted as an eraser. His first choice, the Dark, was erased. His second choice, the Light, then became like his first. The seal proves he chose the Light, and since the seal is broken, it’s as if he never chose the Light. Meaning both of his choices were erased,”

“It brings him back to square one, the wild stage,” Jungkook whispered, realizing that is where Junhoe was going with all of this. Jungkook suddenly felt cold and very on guard. He had this feeling sinking into his stomach again, as if something was wrong.

“Yes, and we don’t know if they would be able to fix the seal. No creature has made a third choice, and we don’t know if Sehun will be allowed to. Other wolves that fight with us have white eyes and white fur, Sehun’s fur is gray and his eyes are turquoise because it’s a reminder that he was not a Light Warrior from the start. That he was once dark,” Junhoe spoke, his eyes squinted and face falling, it was as if the hopelessness and sorrow was returning to him.

“Is that why he is bounded to Hanbin?” Jungkook asked, his voice small and worrisome. He didn’t know if he should continue to ask questions or just leave the subject along.

Jungkook felt his spine curve as a chill made his entire skin hard. He felt coldness and darkness embrace him wickedly as a mischievous chuckle was heard in the room.

“You shouldn’t be talking about me behind my back like that,” the voice echoed painfully around the room.

Announcement time: 

1) I'm done with finals, I have a month of break and have so much motivation to write for this story so, hope you are still reading and aren't getting too bored 

2) I've been in the mood for years to write a story with a very phsycologically complex character and I finall have. It's a Jungkook AU, it's called The Kingdom Club. Gist: Jungkook is an heir who begins to visit a host at a Host Club. 

And spolier alert! Jungkook is the complex character...I haven't even made this announcement in that story(You're the first to know he has some sort of phsycological problem, I wanted to write this now considering there is a lot of mental health issues comming out into the K-Pop world and mental health isn't a joke. Awareness is needed).

3) I want you guys to leave comments on what you think will happen next. What are some of your questions or if you need clearing up on some concepts. I literally have throught of everything for this idea of phoenix beings you can ask me anything and chances of me having an answer is as high as my student debt. (i'm exagerating...)

Thank you for reading, have an amazing day!!!