3^rd Person POV

Gikwang’s eyes slowly opened, and he winced in pain at the immense throbbing of his head.

Where am I?

He looked around, trying to scan the surroundings and get even the slightest clue as to where he is and how he got there.

**flashback**

It was 5:45pm and it was starting to get dark. Gikwang had made sure the two idiots left the school, teleporting every now and then to watch them. As soon as he got back to the roof, however, he hears the rooftop door being opened, and he acted as normal as he could, trying to calm down his nerves, and noticing how tense he was.

The rooftop door opens, and his eyes widen.

“Ms. Lee?” She laughs. “Yes, hello, Gikwang. You’re from my class, right?” He nods, and she smiles, but the smile made him uneasy. “So, Ms. Lee, what is it that you made me come up here?” She fished for something in her bag, and showed Gikwang a pinkish purple gem, glowing. He looked at it, captivated by its beauty. “What is this?” He points at the gem, and she stares at him, eyes glossy, her face devoid of any emotion. Gikwang looked up and saw his teacher looking more and more like a mannequin, and it hit him. “.” He muttered under his breath.

She was a mannequin, and whatever she’s holding smells like trouble. She probably knows what I am.

He attempts to teleport back home, or wherever Mino and Seungri were, but another realization hit him.

This must be the Azelic gem Mom warned me about.

“!” He hissed. He couldn’t teleport as much as he tried, and Lee Chaerin lunged at Gikwang, with the gem in hand, and hit the side of his head, eventually making Gikwang black out.

Before he fully out, he heard faint voices, and he tried to make out as much as he could.

“…get… him… mall… basement…”

**end of flashback**

Oh God, my head hurts. He groans and as his eyes started to adjust to the darkness of the place, footsteps echoed. “You’re awake. Good.” Chaerin appears, but she had transformed back into a mannequin. He felt chills on his spine, seeing how ghostly she appeared. “Now, before you try to escape, let me tell you something about this pretty gem,” she holds up her necklace which contained the gem, “you can’t escape. You can’t use your powers. You’re weak.” She sneers at him, with Gikwang attempting to get up but falls back down, finally realizing he was tied to a chair. “I’m not sure if you were told, but this is what you call an Azelic Gem. What’s an Azelic gem, you might ask? Maybe a handwritten notebook from the dollmakers and the witches themselves might answer your curiousity. How pathetic. A witch like you doesn’t even know anything about there is to being a witch.”

He glares at her, but remains silent. “According to page 58, paragraph 2, ‘Azelic gems are gemstones found from the ashes from burning mannequins and dolls. The souls and energy from dolls and mannequins are stored inside these gems, and is a weakness to Witches and Dollmakers. Witches and Dollmakers can't use their powers if this gem is in a 7m radius of where they are.’ So, knowing this information,” she cups Gikwang’s face and her eyes glowed a fiery red,

“Aside from you, who are the other witches in school?”

Gikwang’s eyes roll back and turn black, his body convulsing at the power manifested by Chaerin just by her touch. “P-Please…” He begs, veins appearing on his neck, showing how much he struggled with her power to control him, to be crushed under the choking pain of his powers draining him. “Please… what?” Chaerin asks, waiting for him to say an answer. “Please don’t do this.” He pleads, shaking violently, his hair turning silver. “The more you resist, the more your physical appearance changes, the more it hurts you.” Chaerin remarks, and he screams.

She smirks at the scream.

“It’s Song Mino! He’s the only one I know!” He screams, and his eyes roll back, his pupils shaking, his hair returning to a dark brown, and he breathes deeply, catching his breath.

“Now that I’ve gotten what I want,” This time, she holds both of his cheeks close to her face, and flashes her eyes, this time a bright purple, “It’s time for you to forget things.”

Seungri’s POV

Mino and I were waiting for Gikwang in front of his house, and I was shivering from the cold, forgetting to bring a jacket.

“Is it cold?” Mino asks, and smirks at me when a little flame appeared on his fingers as he snapped. I rushed over to it to get my hands warm, and we both sat there, in silence, until we heard someone rushing out the front door.

“Mino! Get inside, people will see you!” Gikwang’s mom pulled both of us inside, and locked the front doors. I bowed to her, and Mino simply did a curt nod. “Hello, Mrs. Lee. I’m sorry for camping out in front of your house at a time like this.” I said, and elbowed Mino to apologize. “I’m sorry for using my powers in front of your house, Mrs. Lee.” He bows, and she hits both of us with a rolled up newspaper. “I guess having two more kids to deal with is fine.” She eyes me and faces Mino. “When did you tell him?” She asks, pointing at my direction. “Gikwang and I told him after class.” She sighs, and motioned for us to sit. “I’m guessing you know now, Seungri.” I nod, still unable to comprehend that these guys have been hiding a secret from me since God knows when, and only decided to tell me at the start of 11^th Grade. “Here,” she hands me an ancient looking notebook. “Go get yourself some knowledge. It was hard having you come over when the three of you were younger because you knew nothing.” She sighs apologetically, and I smile a bit. “It’s okay, Mrs. Lee. Don’t worry about it too much. Smile, you’ll get less wrinkles that way.” Mino snickers and all she could was chuckle.

“Oh, by the way, where’s Gikwang?” Mrs. Lee popped up and Mino and I exchanged glances before spilling the truth. “He went to meet a schoolmate on the rooftop but we haven’t seen him since.” She looks up and sighs worriedly. “Let’s just hope the kid didn’t get himself into any trouble.” And with that comment, she heads back to the kitchen.

I opened the book and read the nicely handwritten introduction of the notebook. “Hello and welcome to the world of Witches and Dollmakers, and their products: Dolls and mannequins. This notebook contains all known information about each species from experience passed down from dollmaker to dollmaker, and witch to witch. Any additional information that is newly discovered can be written and added onto the list by any dollmaker/witch of legal age, and the information added will appear in all copies of the notebook owned by any entity.” I then shifted my gaze over to Mino, who gave me a slight nod, as if to say continue reading. “Dolls. Dolls are beings that can walk among humans, meaning that they can co-exist with humans without anyone noticing. They start existing when a doll is presumably bought off from a dollmaker or a witch that owns a store. After being bought, these dolls can be gifted to humans and serve as companions.”

“Dolls can alter memories once they exist, making humans have false memories once they interact with dolls (e.g. a doll claims a human was his/her best friend from kindergarten, and the human's memories are altered). The memory alteration is a mechanism in which to help become good companions with humans. They can only die if the doll itself is destroyed, thus locking them inside the plastic being.” Mino looks up, seemingly deep in thought, and spoke. “I have a weird sense. My allergies only come whenever I’m in EXTREME proximity to dolls. Inhyeon’s an example.” “But why didn’t you get your allergies when we first met Inhyeon?” I retorted. He looks at me with a blank expression. “She still smelled like a human. More specifically, she smelled like your perfume that I assume you kept in your bag. That’s why I couldn’t detect her yet.” I nodded in agreement, but immediately stopped when the information sank in.

“How’d you know I had perfume in my bag?” “Simple.” He casually replies. This was not the usual troublemaker Song Mino. This was the witch, Song Mino. “I leave a spirit friend with you in your bag to watch over you.” He nods once again at the notebook, and I narrowed my eyes at him. “You weren’t explaining anything, seriously.” He his head to the side. “Why should I? Everything you need to know is literally in that book. Keep reading, so we can pass time while waiting for Gikwang.” He sighs worriedly. “The er’s going to kill me with worry.”

Curiosity got the better of me. “I know the three of us are super inseparable and , but since when have you been this worried for him?” He wore a dark expression. “I felt a weird presence in the school grounds. Because Gikwang and I are the only witches I know of, it’s better if we had each other’s backs.” “And what about me? Are you guys seriously making me left out?” He eyes me, scanning me from head to toe, and scoffs. “Bastard, you can handle yourself.” “er, I’m the only human among the three of us. I’m mortal- heck, I even get beat up by some bastard from the other class and I can’t do anything about it. If anything, I should be the one you guys should be looking out for.” I whined, and Mino hits my thigh. I yelp in pain, and grabbed my thigh instinctively. He simply shakes his head at my statement.

I sigh dejectedly, and continued where I left off. “Witches are human beings that have supernatural powers but cannot create life forms or pass down their powers. Instead, the only way their offspring can have powers is if they interact with dolls, thus making them dollmakers. A normal human couple can have a child with powers, meaning one or both of them may have interacted with any of the non-human species mentioned. They can die just like normal human beings although they're more difficult to kill, but they heal twice as fast as humans if injured. Witches’ powers depend on the type of entity they may have encountered. Some have powers from birth, others get it from an unlikely event where entities would help them out.” I faced Mino, and by the way he looks at me, I could tell he knew what was on my mind. I spoke up anyway. “How’d you get your powers, Mino?” He his head to the side, his eyes trailing off, seemingly trying to remember something. “Not sure. My parents seemed like they didn’t know about my abilities, or at least pretended to not know. I think I was in a car accident when I was younger, but I don’t remember much. After finding out I could see spirits and had weird powers, I kept it from them until 5^th Grade, and after gearing up courage to tell them, apparently they already knew and pretended to not know so I wouldn’t be scared.” He finishes telling me the story, and I looked around, hoping no one could hear my next question. “How about Gikwang, then?”

Mino motions to the next page, and pointed at the title, in bold, black letters: DOLL MAKER. I read it, this time minimizing my volume so only Mino and I could hear. “Much like their name implies, Doll makers are humans that can take souls and energy from witches to create either dolls or other witches. They're much more powerful than witches, since they’re witches but more evolved. Dollmakers can't die, but they're paralyzed for 2-3 days when anything that is made out of Azelic gem touches them. This effect happens to witches too, but instead of paralyzation, witches black out.” I shake my head. “I don’t get your point.” Mino sighs. “Gikwang’s mom is a doll maker. She had powers as a witch but decided to pass it on to Gikwang, and never talked about it until the day Gikwang found out about his nature.”

So that’s why Gikwang’s mom has a different aura.

“Mannequin.” Mino growls, while looking at the now asleep Gikwang, his energy drained out of him. “Purple means someone controlled him, and erased his memories. Finding whoever did this won’t be easy. Mannequins are beings with immense power, and for a witch, it .” He runs his fingers through his permed hair, frustration seeping off of his aura.

“Aren’t I glad I’m a human, then.” I thoughtlessly remarked, which earned me a beating from Mino. “Idiot. Being a human means more risks, because entities can literally wipe your existence clean. Also, to your statement, no.” He shakes his head and rubs his temples.

“So, question.” I asked Mino. “With your spirit friends, can they do anything?” He nods, his eyes never leaving Gikwang. “These spirits have 100 times more abilities than I have, and they’re kind enough to let me use them since I helped them in the past.” He shrugs, and I speak up once more. “If they’ve got a ton of abilities then why not use them to find the culprit?”

“It’s not that easy, Seungri.” This time, he looks at me and I stared right back at him. “It’s a complicated situation, but spirits don’t do it that easily. Their powers have limitations, too.” He goes back to observing Gikwang when Mino suddenly clutches his chest. “What the —” He hisses in pain. I rush over to his side, panicking at the thought of losing two friends in one night. He pushes me away, motioning that I shouldn’t stay too close. “I’m fine.” He croaks out. “But , somebody used Azelic gems on Gikwang.” I immediately run to the living room and back to Gikwang’s room, and hurriedly opened the notebook to find any information about Azelic gems.

I was rendered speechless. “Azelic gems come from burning mannequins and dolls, and are deadly to wizards and dollmakers. Isn’t this too overpowered?” Mino shakes his head. “Not really. Azelic is hard to find, as it often crumbles along with the ashes after burning mannequins and dolls. Once obtained, this thing does go a little overpowered, but humans, for some goddamn reason, can touch the thing all they want and can even help witches develop a resistance for it by numbing the effectiveness of the gem, enabling entities to use their powers. Unfortunately,” he points to the sleeping figure, “this brat doesn’t even know these gems exist and is still radiating a bit from the contact with the gem. Think of it as radioactive material.”

I rubbed my temples, my head becoming 50 shades of ed up and dizzy from all the information I had to sink in. “We should get going and go home now, Mino.” I tell him, and opened my phone.

I might’ve died from a heart attack.

50 missed calls, 175 messages, all from my cousins Lee Soohyun and Lee Chanhyuk.

Soft knocks were heard before the door opened. “Mino, Seungri, you two can stay for the night, just take care of Gikwang and watch over him. Also,” Gikwang’s mother entered the room and handed the both of us red string bracelets. “These things often help entities. It’s a good luck kind of thing. Sleep well, you two.” And the three of us were left in the room.

I thumbed a quick reply to the cousins, and decided to pull out a mattress where we would sleep on whenever we had sleepovers. “Mino, it’s getting late. We should seriously sleep. Kwangie looks fine.” I inwardly cringe at the childhood nickname I called Gikwang, but at least Mino visibly relaxed and laid down to rest.

“Goodnight, ers.” Mino says. “Sleep well, brats.” I replied back, and we both soon fell asleep.