Dark clouds are starting to form across the sky enveloping the waning crescent moon, making the streetlights the only source of light of Seungkwan and the now sleeping boy on his lap.

“Mingyu, you still up? I need you to pick me up.” He looks around. “I’m here in the alley near the main street. Use the van.” Seungkwan sent his friend a voice mail. He puts his phone away and looks at the boy peacefully sleeping on his lap with his coat keeping him warm. He could only hope that his friend would come as fast as he could because Seungkwan is freezing to death.

“And this guy is…?” Mingyu asked whilst steering the wheel. Everything is silent aside from the stereo that is playing trot music, his friend usually sings along when they’re travelling together, today is an exception. Mingyu looks intently at him through the rear view mirror waiting for an answer.

“Uhh, I-umm, I gave him my…” The handsome boy, still on his lap, stirs on his sleep making the coat covering his bloody shirt fall. Seungkwan catches it mid-air and puts it back on in a lightning speed making Mingyu suspicious because he seems hiding something.

“You what…?” Mingyu scrutinizes him. His eyes widen, things clicking together in his head.

“Seungkwan, how could you?! And with a stranger?” he scoffs at him. “I didn’t know you were that desperate to lose your ity.”

“Keep your eyes on the road and I did not!” The blond raised his voice at him through gritted teeth. He tries to cover the ears of the stranger but it’s too late for that. “I gave him my life energy.” He mutters.

“Oh. Oh. You should’ve said so.” Mingyu nodded to himself, his eyes glued on the roadway.

Life energy is what keeps a person alive. A person who has a long life span but small life energy left would die earlier than a person who has a short life span but with a bursting life energy. The blood of wizards runs in Seungkwan’s veins. Their family is one of the elites in the echelon of magicians. He was shut from the world because no one should know their existence. He only has friends who aren’t “normal” because her mom forbids him from human contact.

“We’re here.” Mingyu announces, the vast gates swing open on their own as if they’re welcoming their master home, the gate eerily shriek on rusty hinges.

“Those gates,” the tall guy shivers. “They’re still as spooky as ever.” He commented as he drives into the enormous manor. They parked in front of Seungkwan’s two-story mansion that gives off a warm and serene atmosphere in comparison to the ghostly metal gates. The place was adorned with beautiful flowers.

“What actually happened?” Mingu asked with his arms crossed, leaning back on the van’s doorframe.

“I’ll tell you later,” he lifts the sleeping boy up. “Follow me to my room,” before Mingyu could say anything they vanished in the air.

“What the hell? He should’ve teleported to here instead.” He was about to shut the door close when he saw a wallet left on the van’s backseat.

“His name is Choi Vernon Hansol and he’s from Seoul. Probably here for a vacation?”

Seungkwan looks at him, his eyebrows pulled together in confusion. The smaller guy is wearing a new set of clothes. Mingyu places the wallet on the cross-leg nightstand beside Seungkwan’s bed where lies Mr. Choi who’s wearing Seungkwan’s sweater shirt and pants. The smaller guy shakes his head at him for breaching the stranger’s privacy.

“Wow, so domestic.” Mingyu smirks at Seungkwan as the latter tuck Vernon into his own bed. He ignored his remark as he sits on an antique wood chair heaving a tired sigh.

“He was stabbed… countless times.” He looks at the innocent-looking boy from his seat beside him, glimmer of sadness reflected from his eyes.

“Sounds like something Thanatos would do.” Mingyu muses.

“I already get rid of him. You know that.”

“Nothing’s impossible in this world.”

Mingyu stares outside beyond the window. The rain that has been threatening to fall starts pouring down. It pours harder, the pitter patter on the roof combining with the sound of the clock ticking that echoes on the halls outside the room.

“What are we going to do next?”

“We make him forget.”

◆◆◆◆◆◆

There’s a loud knock on his door. Wonwoo is busy cleaning the dust off of his books in his cramped library; it’s been eons since he cleaned it. He places the feather duster inside the cabinet and jogs to the front door to welcome his guest.

“What is Seungkwan’s familiar doing here?” Wonwoo raises an eyebrow at the taller guy but gives way for him to enter his small apartment.

“He needs an enchantment to erase memories.” They are in Wonwoo’s kitchen. Everything was arranged accordingly. The cookwares were hanged on the left of the counter and the glasses are placed on the cabinet symmetrically.

“I see.” He nods as he transfer the ramen he cooked from the pot to a huge bowl. This happened a lot of times already; people discovering about Seungkwan’s powers and Wonwoo taking the responsibility of erasing their memories.

“Do you want to eat? I cooked ramen.” He offers to Mingyu.

“No way, I don’t want your burnt ramen.” He vigorously shakes his head. “You only cook burned things.”

“I can change how they taste in my mouth anyway.” He pouts at him as he sets two small bowls on the table. “Plus, I didn’t burn them today. The electrical power went off earlier.” He smiled enthusiastically at him.

Mingyu flipped the chair in front of him and sat on it, his arms resting on the chair’s top rail. He watched the charming enchanter serve the newly cooked ramen on his plate its delicious aroma reaching his nose. He might as well eat since the guy was imposing and how can he possibly turn the offer down when Wonwoo is smiling at him like that.

The familiar is now sleeping in Wonwoo’s guest room. The reason being the potion for the enchantment won’t be done until tomorrow morning. In a few turns sleep came to him, his stomach full and his body exhausted from using his wings.

The enchanter hums a happy tune as he collect the ingredients he needs from his stock room, measuring them acc