“Is this some kind of joke?” I ask, and she laughs. I groan. “I got myself a doll that acts like a human, and now cousins that may or may not have supernatural abilities. What’s next, friends that might have supernatural abilities as well?” At this remark, she turns silent, and I immediately panic. Seeing my reaction, she laughs out loud again. “No, just kidding, scaring you is hilarious, but I was serious about the two.”

I looked around. I’ve seen these kinds of pranks. Hidden camera pranks.

Soohyun shouts. “There aren’t any cameras in this house of yours, oppa, if that’s what you’re thinking.”

I sigh as I make my way back to my room after talking to Inhyeon. Am I seriously that naïve and obvious that they think pulling pranks and making me paranoid would work and end up being a hilarious memory? I then gather my things, placed them in my back backpack, and was about to leave the room if it weren’t for the loud buzzing of my phone, which I had forgotten to grab. I went back to my bed and picked up the incoming call, only to be greeted by Chanhyuk from the other room. “Hyung,” he says, “aren’t you going to go to school? You took way too long to prepare, and you didn’t even eat breakfast with us. “ I can hear him slightly pouting on the other line, or in this case, the next room, and decided to give him a few knocks on the wall. “Sorry. ” I replied, “I’ll hurry up.” And I ended the call, heading down to the living room, where Soohyun was waiting. Looking around, I noticed something. “Where’s Inhyeon?” Soohyun shrugs. “She says she needed to go to a friend’s place since your friends may or may not come over and pick you up, so she needed to go so no suspicions will be raised. By the way, what took you so long?”

I thoughtfully replied. “I was talking to Inhyeon, and kind of zoned out as well. Sorry.” She hands out a paper bag, and she smiles at me. “You skipped on breakfast, so I packed you food for lunch and some healthy snacks in there.” I smile a bit too. “Thanks, mom.” I jokingly replied, and her smile slightly faltered, but I patted her hair. “No need to worry,” I chuckled, “I’m absolutely fine with that remark of mine.”

I felt a hand rest itself around my shoulder and I turn to see Chanhyuk beaming at me. “Hyung, Soohyun, let’s go?”

Knowing the house well, I mindlessly skimmed through the padlocks, put the keys in my pockets, and locked the front doors, along with checking for any open windows. After securing the house, the three of us began to walk, until I saw Gikwang and Mino from a distance. “You two go on ahead,” I told Chanhyuk and Soohyun, “I’ll wait for the two.”

Gikwang and Mino soon arrive, and Gikwang looks at me curiously. “Where are your cousins heading to?” I replied. “Chanhyuk and Soohyun are both in middle school, and our schools are at the opposite ends of the road from the house. So, I had to wait for the two of you.” “Ain’t that sweet.” Mino retorts sarcastically, and I hit the back of his head. He rubs it and hisses at me. “I was kidding. Jeez.”

As we walked towards school, I noticed Mino’s eye twitch again. I look at the direction he’s facing and saw Inhyeon walking as well, with a guy walking beside her. “Inhyeon! Are you heading to school as well?” I ask, and she nods. Gikwang then eyes Inhyeon and her companion.

The five of us finally reached the waiting shed and sat down, looking around for any buses heading our way towards the school , and Gikwang decided to ask. “So, Inhyeon, care to introduce us to your friend?” She nods while beaming at us, and then to her friend. “Gikwang, Mino, Seungri, meet Kang Seung Yoon. He’s a friend I met while moving to this place.” Seungyoon smiles at us. “Hello, just call me Seungyoon, or Yoon. It’s a pleasure to meet all of you.” We all say our greetings, and enjoyed the surroundings as a comfortable silence filled our conversation.

Mino, however, seemed to be having his allergies again. His left eye kept twitching, and he kept on sneezing, rubbing his nose, and the poor guy just seemed like he lost his energy first thing in the morning. “Should I walk you back to your house and tell your mom your allergies are getting worse?” I offered, but he waved my concern away. “I’m fine. I have a pocket in my bag filled with anti-histamine tablets, can you get them for me?” I opened the top pocket and grabbed a small white pill, and gave it to Mino after zipping the pocket closed. “Thanks.” He mumbles and nods before reaching for his water bottle and swallowing the pill.

We all scrambled to our seats as the first teacher came in. As soon as she came in, however, Mino sneezed, and the class looked at him. “I’m sorry, teacher. My allergies are getting worse.” She nods, and proceeds to introduce herself. “Hello. I’m Lee Chaerin, and I will be your class adviser from now on.” The classroom was soon filled with questioning whispers, all filled with curiosity. “It seems like you weren’t informed,” She continues, “that your previous adviser has resigned due to personal reasons. Was this information not disseminated by your class president during your summer break?” The class president, Yoon Doojoon, stands up and bows twice, both to the teacher, and to the class. “I’m sorry everyone for causing a misunderstanding.” He says, shakily, “I have neglected my duty as class president to inform all of you about this incident, two weeks after class has officially begun.” After taking a closer look, he was pale, even paler than usual. Someone from the back row shouted. “Doojoon, it’s totally fine. No need to worry about it. We’re okay as long as you’re okay with it. We were just shocked, that’s all.” The class agrees, and Ms. Lee seemed like she was shocked at our response. She looked like she was about to say something but decided against it.

Class went smoothly, and before I knew it, lunchtime had arrived.

I opened up the paper bag with my lunch that Soohyun packed, and found a note. It read:

Oppa, what Inhyeon said earlier to you, don’t think about it too much. Let’s talk about it later. Eat well~

I opened the pack and as I looked around, the classroom was empty, save for a few students still asleep. It was a good day; no Jiyong, no trouble, no anything.

I seriously hope I don’t jinx it.

I chowed down on the cheese kimbap, then proceeded to have a mouthful of ddeokbokki when Mino and Gikwang walked in, and snapped at the smell of food. “I smell kimbap.” Gikwang cheerfully declares, but widens his eyes at the sight of vanilla cake on his table, nicely wrapped. “I definitely didn’t notice that one.” I told him, and he runs to it, opening it, and marvelling at the beauty that is cake. Mino picks up the note and reads it with a super annoying voice. “Dear Gikwang oppa~” He starts off, along with some cringey ‘cute’ acts which calls for a beating, “I bought cake for you because I like you~ If you want to meet me, see me at the rooftop after class~ I love you~~” Mino does even more cutesy acts and I pretend to throw up in disgust, all while the three of us laugh at each other. Gikwang rolls his eyes at Mino, and places the cake box inside his bag, and headed over to me and Mino’s seat. “I wonder what Soohyun’s cooking taste like.” Gikwang says, and I hit him, causing him to choke a bit on his ddeokbokki. “Idiot, she’s like, 6 years younger than us, and besides, this is Chanhyuk’s cooking.” Hearing Chanhyuk’s name, he eats it even eagerly, while attempting to say “I don’t mind, I love Chanhyuk’s cooking since it’s better than your cooking, Seungri.”

Slowly, our classmates come back to the classroom one by one, and a girl classmate gasps while looking at Gikwang. “Weren’t you still at the cafeteria a few minutes before?” And I swear I saw Gikwang tense up before he relaxes and starts laughing. “Yes, there’s two of me,” He says, while waving both arms in the air and making ghost sounds. “I guess I didn’t see you walking towards the classroom then.” She concludes and heads for her seat.

Class then resumes, and after a few hours of hard-work in taking down notes and few attempts at waking Mino up, class ends.

The three of us head out when I passed by the next classroom. It seemed like Mino and Gikwang caught on to what took my attention, and saw Inhyeon and Seungyoon, sitting together, both working hard scribbling notes, solving formulas, and reciting in class. “She’s nice, badass, strong, and smart. Not to mention she’s very pretty. What else can you ask for?” Mino says, and Gikwang and I simultaneously hit the back of his head. His head bumped into the door, making a really loud noise, and through the small glass on the door, I saw the teacher’s shocked expression, and the three of us scrambled to get out of there. As we ran, I suddenly hit something on my head and fell down, and as I looked up, I saw the sky.

The… sky?

I immediately got up and looked around. We were in the rooftop, but I don’t remember running towards the rooftop…

Gikwang and Mino were both looking down, and as Mino looked up and had eye contact with me, he immediately hung his head sheepishly. I walked towards them, and sat down, cross legged, in front of them.

“Care to explain?” I simply stated, too shocked to even react accordingly, and they both shrugged, and walked away from me, towards the ledge of the rooftop.

Suddenly, Mino pushes Gikwang off the rooftop, and my eyes widen as I immediately panic and rushed over to them, looking over the ledge, until someone pulled me back and we fell down on the floor. As I rolled over and looked at the person who pulled me, I went blank.

It was Gikwang.

“Is that enough explanation for you?” Mino says, and pats Gikwang’s head. I gaped.

 “Aren’t you mad at Mino for pushing you off the ledge and could have been possibly the reason for your death?” I asked Gikwang in disbelief. “No, not really. He’s suffering enough which doesn't even need my beating, so we’re even.”

“Okay. Explain.” I told them as the three of us sat in a circle, while I rubbed my temples in confusion and a massive headache from taking this all in. “What the actual are you two?” I questioned, still having a mental breakdown. Gikwang explains. “So, okay, let me get this straight: we’re just as human as you are. We could die, but the chances of our death is really low. BUT! We look, sound, speak, reproduce, and came from humans. We were birthed the same way as humans—” I wave him off. “You didn’t need to add that part in,” I say, and he continued. “Mino and I are what you would call ‘Witches’. Witches are human beings that have supernatural powers. In human terms, they’d call it a ‘superpower’. My superpower is teleportation and cloning myself. Yes, it sounds a little too far-fetched—” and he disappears in front of me, and appears standing at the ledge of the rooftop, “but soon you’ll come to terms with it.” He then appears in front of me again, sitting as if nothing happened. “I can only teleport to places where I’ve been, so I can’t really do the ‘travel the world in 87 days’ kind of thing. As for Mino,” he says, “his power .” “Wait, even Mino has powers?!” I whispered in disbelief. “Well, yes. His power is detecting humans from non-humans, but his allergy only comes when he senses dolls that walk among humans.”

I then flash back to his really bad allergy episode earlier this morning. Was it because he knew about Inhyeon, and that she was in really close approximation to Mino?

“Is that it?” I ask, and Gikwang nods. “Told you his power .” As we both looked at Mino, he seems like he had fallen asleep, but without opening an eye, he says in a low voice. “What are you two looking at?” Gikwang then lights up. “Ah! I forgot to tell you, Mino has weird spirit friends. Not only can he differentiate and see dolls, he can also see spirits. These spirits are pretty much anything you want them to be, and they’re awesome.” Mino opens his eyes, and his left eye was nothing but a blue orb. He blinks and it disappears.

“Okay, holdup.” I say while putting my arms in the air. “First, I meet a doll who seems human. Then cousins who may or may not have abilities, and now friends? How great can this day be?” I sigh, silently questioning my mentality. “Don’t.” Mino says, and I tense up. “You’re sane, trust me. Oh, I don’t read minds, not my fault a spirit is sitting on your head and can fully hear your thoughts while telling me everything.”

“I swear I’m about to faint.” I say, and the two laugh. “By the way, don’t tell anyone about us.” Gikwang states. “Only Mino and I know about other non-humans thanks to Mino’s abilities, but other than that, keep it a secret, especially to your cousins.” I nod. Gikwang then waves the two of us off. “You guys go on ahead, I still have to meet the person who brought me that cake.” We leave, and get off of school.

As we walk home, Mino keeps on looking back, and he seemed uneasy. “You okay?” I asked, and he shakes his head. “Gikwang’s still not back. Normally he’d teleport back here a long time ago, but he still isn’t coming.”

Little did we know about what had happened to Gikwang’s fateful meeting with that said person.