Heejun’s POV:

      At first, what I noticed was the light. It was bright enough to shine through my eye lids, which bothered me. Annoyed, I turned so that the light was hitting my back now, instead of my face. Much better, I thought. I don’t know how long I lay like that, in the bed, going in and out of sleep….

Wait….

A bed? Sleep?

I forced my eyes open in surprise and sat up. It was true! I was in a bed!

WHY was I in a BED?!

I groaned as I buried my face into my hands. Ok, just… calm down, Heejun. Try and think. What was the last thing you remember?

Sleep was still a bit present in my brain so it took some time for it to really come to me.

“My name’s Emory! It’s nice to finally meet you!”

That’s right. A new master found me… I lifted my head from my hands and looked around. I was still in the guest bedroom that my master had allowed me to sleep in for the night. In it were a total of three beds; one set of bunk beds on the left side of the room, and then the medium one that I was in at the moment. Another groan came out of me as I fell back onto the unusually comfortable pillow and tugged the large, fluffy blanket up to my chin. When was the last time that I was in a real bed? I couldn’t remember. Which why I was so surprised that my body even remembered how to ‘sleep’.

Honestly, that feeling was one that I couldn’t tell if I liked or not.

Crossing my arms behind my head, I looked up at the ceiling and started thinking about what happened yesterday. When I first felt my master call me out of my card, I had expected to see a look of triumph on her face for knowing just how powerful I was, just like all the other masters did. Instead, she just stared at me with what seemed like…. caution? I think? Then her eyes grew wide and started to tear up. My first thought was ‘wow, she’s another spoiled rich kid who cries when her warrior doesn’t please her’. So I bowed, thinking that it would satisfy her enough to make her stop crying. You can probably tell that I’ve had experience with those kinds of masters before.

When she told me that she’d rather be my friend instead of my master, I truly was surprised. And… who can blame me? What deck master does that? Although I saw all the other warriors in the room as the ‘proof’ of her kindness, my heart still wanted to deny the chance of her words being true. I would be lying if I said that I didn’t trust them completely because, deep down, I DID want them to be true...

I wished that they could be true.

But I’ve had too many years of bad experiences to let my trust be earned that easily.

“Oh, C’mon! Just let him sleep!” A pleading voice pulled me from my thoughts and I turned my attention to the closed guest bedroom door.

“Do you even know what time it is? He’s had PLENTY of sleep!” A male voice bit back with a point.

“I know! But I don’t just want to barge in on him and freak him out!”

“Just because you want to baby him doesn’t mean that WE have to. Now, if you don’t mind…. Leo!”

In a matter of seconds the door burst open with a bang and standing in the door way was a tall, darkly tanned skin man. His well combed straight black hair fell neatly over his eyes and contrasted well with his light blue button down shirt and black slacks. Oh yeah, he was one of the older warriors that belonged to one of my master’s sisters. What was his name again? T? M? I think it was M….

“Rise and shine, Sleepy-! Oh!” He cut off his own yell when he saw me sitting up. “You’re already up! Good! Now, let’s go! We’ve got stuff to do!”

He quickly walked to the bed I was in, grabbed my arms and literally pulled me out. When he dragged me into the hallway I found my master being held back by another one of the warriors from yesterday. Unlike M, this warrior was paler in comparison. He had curly, medium length black hair that split a little bit around his eyes and sported a loose, black sweater and black pants. From the conversation that I just overheard, my guess was that he was the one called Leo. I looked at my master and found that he had one hand over while the other was wrapped around her body so she couldn’t move. Only when we started to decent the stairs did he let her go.

“You don’t have to drag him like that, N!” She yelled once Leo’s hand let her free. N? That was his name? Well, at least I was close.

“It’s NOON, Eminem!” The older warrior replied. “If I knew that he’d sleep this late then I would’ve woken him up earlier! We have very important things to discuss! So important that I let you skip SCHOOL today!”

I slept till noon?? If I remembered right, noon meant the middle of the day. So…. Does that mean that I slept for more than twelve hours??? Wow…..

When we finally made it to the kitchen, N let go of my arm before pulling out a seat and motioned me to sit down. Out of habit, I looked at my master in a silent attempt for permission, which she gave me an awkward nod, before complying. I then felt the chair next to me being pulled out too, and saw that it was Leo as he shoved my master down to sit on it. After that, N yelled out a quick ‘Family meeting!’ and we waited. Soon, one by one, the rest of my master’s so called ‘family’ entered the kitchen and sat down at the table. I tried my best not to show my shock at seeing a WARRIOR telling everyone what to do, but it was kind of difficult to keep my eyes from widening in awe.

“Alright, let’s officially start this meeting!” N said once everyone was finally accounted for and clapped his hands. “To start off, I suggest that we inform Heejun about what he doesn’t know yet.”

What…. I don’t know yet? There’s information that I need to know?

N nodded at me as if he could read my mind. “Heejun… how old do you think you are?” It wasn’t difficult to tell that he was talking about my true Warrior age.

I raised my brow at the odd question. “I don’t know. Maybe 15… why?”

“So you think that you have yet to be a card master’s Destined Card?” He went on.

I nodded. Where was this going?

“Alright.” He looked at me with serious eyes. “Now, what I’m about to tell you might be a bit…. shocking. But try and stay calm, ok?”

I narrowed my eyes at him in suspicion, but said ‘ok’ anyway.

“To start off, Heejun. I know for a fact that you’re not fifteen…. But seventeen.” He said slowly, eyes watching me for a reaction.

“Seventeen? That doesn’t make sense.” I crossed my arms, unconvinced. “Why would you even think that?” Everyone knows that a Card Warrior’s True age can’t surpass the age of fifteen until they’ve become a Destined Card; which only happens once in their entire lifetime. I definitly haven’t meat mine yet, so it’s preposterous how he thinks I’m older than fifteen.

“Because, up until yesterday, Emory never obtained her first card.” Leo’s soft voice caught my attention.

Wait, what? I looked at my Master in surprise, but she quickly avoided my gaze and started fidgeting with her fingers.

“How old do you think she is?” N added. But, before I could even think to guess, my master spoke up.

“Seventeen.” She answered, still not looking up at me. “I just turned seventeen this year….”

“W-wha…. But that’s impossible!” I yelled in shock. The age limit for a Card Master to get her Destined Card is up to fifteen! No one in history has ever passed that limit! Not one!

“We don’t know why it happened this way either.” N folded his hands together and leaned on the table. “At first we all thought that she was just a late bloomer, and that it would come a few days after her sixteenth birthday…. But…. Then… It never came to her. So we just assumed that she wasn’t destined for the life of a Deck Master…. now it seems that we were wrong about that too.”

He didn’t have to say any more for I already understood. “So… I’m her Destined Card?”

Everyone at the table nodded.

“Um… ok?” I tried not to look like I was in shock, because I sure felt like I was. “Is that all of what I ‘needed to know’ “?

“Nope!” N suddenly smiled and pointed at the two youngest looking Warriors. “Those two have something to tell, not only you, but the rest of us it seems also.”

From what I remembered of last night they were Warriors that belonged to my Master’s younger sister; I think their names were Jungkook and….. V?

The youngest one, Jungkook, had fluffy brown hair and curious brown eyes. He wore a knitted blue, black and white sweater over a light blue hoodie. The older Warrior next to him, V, had lighter brown, strait hair and dark brown eyes that matched with his slightly tan skin. I couldn’t help but raise my brow at his black and white striped sweater underneath his green jacket; it wasn’t particularly cold at the moment so wearing layers like that didn’t really seem necessary.

They both gave me a nervous glance before sharing one with each other. Then Jungkook sighed and started to talk. “Some number of years ago, V-hyung and I had belonged to a pair of twins. One twin had me while hyung was the other’s Destined Card.”

He gave me yet another nervous look before continuing. “V-hyung’s master kind of had this… obsession with collecting cards from different decks instead of trying to find ones that matched or had similar powers.”

“One of the cards that she had….” V took over from there. “…. was Seungjun-hyung.”

Emory's POV:

    Right after V said that name Heejun shot out of his seat and slammed him hands on the table.

     “WHAT?!” He practically screamed in shock. Eyes wide and mouth opened wide, he looked around at us all before settling back on the two warriors. “How long ago was that?” He asked desperately.

“About… Fifty years ago? I think?” Jungkook voiced out and then looked at V as if to ask if he was right; the older warrior just shrugged.

“Ok, hold on!” Ravi waived his hands around to get our attention. “I’m lost here. Who’s this ‘Seungjun’ guy?”

“He’s from the same deck as Heejun-hyung.” Jungkook answered, and then asked. “Remember when V-hyung and I said that Heejun-hyung’s card looked familiar?”

After Ravi nodded, he went on. “That’s because I remembered how Seungjun-hyung’s card looked like and it was similar.”

Heejun is part of a Deck… I let that thought slowly sink in. That means… he has friends that he hasn’t seen for a long time; just like V, Jungkook, N, Ravi and Leo. Although it isn’t rare for Card Warriors to belong to an Original Deck, it can sometimes take a life time just to collect them all. That’s why most Deck Master’s don’t bother with collecting cards from the same deck and, instead, just look for cards that have similar powers.

“Heejun…” N’s voice bought all of our attention. “When was the last time you saw any of your Deck mates?”

“So long ago that I can barely even remember what they look like.” Heejun replied after a hesitant pause. He looked sadly at his lap, refusing to meet anyone’s eyes. I wanted to comfort him but, because I knew that he didn’t trust me yet, I didn’t move. Leaving him alone was probably the best thing to do at the moment.

“But that’s not all either.” V spoke up again, making Heejun look at him with what almost seemed like expectation. “At the same time, we also saw Inseong-hyung a few times.”

Next to me, I could hear Heejun in a quick gasp.

“He’s also from your deck…” Jungkook asked Heejun. “Right?”

Heejun quietly nodded.

“I thought so!” V yelled with a smile. “See… he belonged to a friend of the twins so we got to see him every now and then!”

“They treated us more like servants than they did slaves.” Jungkook explained. “They made us do things like house work or bringing them something that they needed from another room. So there were plenty of times were we would be able to talk to each other while doing chores. Their friend liked Inseong-hyung the most and whenever she came over she would call him out and order him to bring her food or something; which gave us chances to talk to him in the kitchen!”

“Is that how you knew about Heejun?” I asked thinking back to yesterday when they both recognized the Warrior’s name.

“No.” V answered me. “We didn’t really talk about personal stuff. Even with Seungjun-hyung; the conversations were mainly about how to make certain stuff and what our Master’s preferred to eat.”

“But there was this one time that we were able to talk and shares stories with each other.” Jungkook’s eyes were rolled up like he was struggling to remember.

“Oh yeah! I completely forgot about that!” V yelled right as Rori said. “Really?”

“It was on a night when the twins and their friend decided to drink and ended up getting so drunk that they forgot to send us back to our cards before falling asleep…” Jungkook started off. “We didn’t really know what to do at first, so we just left them where they were, gone up to one of the bedrooms and just started talking.”

“What did you guys talk about?” Allissa propped her head on to her hand in thought.

“Mainly stuff that we remembered doing when we weren’t Card Warriors.” Junkook smiled at the memory. “Like, going to school and pulling pranks on our friends.”

“That was also the night we learned that Inseong-hyung can be annoyingly loud and Seungjun-hyung laughs like a dying robot.” V grimaced at bit as if it was happening at the moment.

“Yep… sounds like them alright.” I heard Heejun mutter next to me. He was looking at his lap again, but this time a small yet sad smile graced his face along with hooded eyes to match. I noticed that he was playing with something in his hands and when I narrowed my eyes a bit I saw a thin metal band wrapped around his index finger. I don’t know how I didn’t notice it before, but with the way we was caressing it I could tell it was very special to him.

“Haha! Couldn’t agree more on that, Hyung!” Jungkook laughed. “In fact… now that I think about it; the reason why they were laughing so loud was because of you, Heejun-hyung!”

Heejun’s head snapped back up in surprised. “Huh?”

“Yeah!” V added. “They were talking about some prank that you had pulled on Inseong-hyung a few times and he kept falling for it. What was it again?”

“It had something to do with putting wasabi in a dumpling and tricking Inseong-hyung into thinking it was a normal one…”

Right after Junkook said that something quickly flashed in my mind.

     I was in a bright room with tables full of ingredients and cooking utensils in front of me. I looked around and saw four tall, older looking boys standing behind other tables. The one on the far right had fluffy blonde hair, slightly pale skin, and large sharp eyes that curved up into crescents because of him smiling so hard. Next to him was a male about the same height; his dark brown hair stuck out beneath his black beanie and his smaller brown eyes just looked at the men around him in what looked like a mix of embarrassment and exasperation; which made me smile inside because I’ve seen that same look on Leo when N makes a scene about something.

     The next boy was a bit taller than the rest and would have looked a bit intimidating if not for the fact that he was laughing really hard and holding his stomach. His hair was also dark brown and was styled so that it swept over the left side of his forehead. The ends of his eyes crinkled as he laughed and he kept pointing at the boy standing on my right. Instead of laughing like the others his eyes were wide and he kept talking very fast like he was trying to make an excuse. His black hair and slightly dark tanned skin stood out against the light walls of the room and clashed with the pink apron he was wearing.

     Seeing as they were distracted at the moment, my eyes shot to the table in front of me and I quickly picked up an unfinished dumpling along with a green tube full of wasabi. I looked up again to see if anyone was watching me before squeezing the wasabi out onto some of the dumpling filling and then folding it into the correct shape. After hiding the green tube the scene jumped to an image of the boy in the black beanie lifting the lid off of the steamer, making white smoke fly out of it in the process. After he took each dumpling out one by one and put them on a plate, I quickly recognized my wasabi one and waited for it to cool a bit before picking it up.

“Inseongie-hyung~!” I heard myself call out as I shuffled to the black haired boy. “Here! Eat this one!”

I could feel myself grin widely as the black haired boy opened his mouth wide and let me feed him the dumpling. It was hard to hold in my laughter as the older boy’s face went from contempt to shock in the matter of seconds. Then he shot himself over to the tables and struggled to get the cap of a water bottle off.

After chugging down most of the water, Inseong whined and yelled out.

“Yah!! Oh Heejun!!”

By now I could feel my body shaking with laughter as I fell to the ground, holding my stomach.

“Really, Inseong-ah? Again?” The boy in the black beanie raised his brow and crossed his arms. Inseong looked at the older boy in disbelief.

“He’s the one that gave me a dumpling full of wasabi!”

“But it’s not the first time he’s done it either, hyung.” The blonde haired boy snickered with a grin. “Haven’t you learned by now NOT to eat anything that the Maknae ‘makes’ for you? It always ends up being made with something spicy or gross!”

I was on the floor laughing and watching the others bicker when I blinked and it was all gone. I was now back in my kitchen, with everyone still sitting at the kitchen table as Jungkook and V still talked about Heejun’s Deck mates.

“We can’t remember everything from our conversations…” Jungkook leaned more onto the table. “But I do know that they talked the most that night.”

“Yeah.” V agreed. “Out of all the nights of being that twin’s Destined Card, that night was my favorite. It was so much fun even though it didn’t last long.”

“It still sounds like a great memory though.” Rori smiled and rubbed V’s back in comfort. “One that you guys seem to really cherish.”

“It is.” Jungkook smiled at her. “This is why V-hyung and I grew excited when we heard Emory say Heejun-hyung’s name yesterday; the memories of that night just about flooded our minds and we got to thinking that we might be able to see them again.”

“What makes you think that?” Heejun asked them. Although it was a short and easy question I could see the bigger one that was hiding behind it; what makes you think that you’ll see them again when I haven’t even talked to them in such a long time?

“I think I can answer that.” N raised his hand and gestured to me and my sisters. “It’s because of those three.”

“What do you mean, N?” I tried not to shudder when Heejun gave me a curious glance.

“Well… just look at your sisters...” N went on. “Allissa is the Master of three Warrior’s Cards from the VIXX Deck, and little Miss Rori over there has two from the BTS Deck. So far, they haven’t come across Cards from other Decks; just those two.”

“So… you’re saying that…” Heejun motioned for N to get to the point.

“I have a feeling that these girls are special.” The oldest Warrior smiled softly at him. “I think that cards from the VIXX Deck, BTS Deck and now even your Deck, Heejun, are purposely showing themselves to these three so they can bond with them.”

“That’s what I think too.” Leo softly agreed.

“Yeah.” Ravi nodded at the three of us. “You guys are special, especially you Miss Forgetfulness, and I kinda want to find out why…”

     “Wait… what?” Heejun asked incredulously.

     After our ‘Family Meeting’ we decided to quickly have lunch and then drive Heejun into town so we could buy him some real clothes. Rori, Jungkook and V didn’t come because they needed to train for an upcoming fitness test at the academy, so it was just Me, Heejun, Allissa, Ravi, Leo and N, who was driving. The only reason why Ravi came along is because he saw how couscous Heejun was when he tried to get in the car for the first time, thought it was funny and came along just in case the poor Warrior had more culture shock moments like that.

     He howled with laughter when Heejun jumped after N the engine. I would’ve slugged him in the arm for that if only Heejun didn’t have such a death grip on my hand at the time. He snapped out of it when I asked if he’s ever been in a car before then quickly let go of my hands and crossed his arms while saying

“I have… just… not in a really long time….”

So, just like a lot of things that he hasn’t been able to do while being a Card Warrior, he’s probably forgotten what it’s like to ride in a car. Can’t blame him for reacting in such a way…

“Do you want to go to school with Emory?” N asked again while glancing at us through the rearview mirror. “She doesn’t go to the academy because she never got her Destined Card- until now anyway- so she goes to regular public school with the other humans. And since you can’t be apart from one another at the moment I thought it would be a fun idea if you went to school with her.”

“Oh…” I mumbled. I forgot that a newly bonded Card has to be close to his master for a certain amount of time so they both can get used to the bond. If they aren’t close to each other during the recommended time then it can really harm them both physically and mentally.

“But we know that Emory isn’t like a normal human anymore.” Ravi sat up a bit so N could hear him. “Shouldn’t we put her in the academy so she can learn how to protect herself?”

“No.” Leo quickly rejected without looking back from the passenger seat. Surprised both Ravi and I asked. “Why not?”

“Remember how mad the council was at Emory when they found out that she didn’t have a Destined Card during their visit last year?” Allissa turned so she could look at the three of us. “If they found out that she finally obtained one TWO YEARS after the age limit, what do you think they would do?”

“Shoot. They’d probably lock her up and do tests on her or something…” Ravi’s eyes grew wide in realization.

“Exactly. That’s why we need to keep it a secret for as long as possible.” My sister’s face was so serious that it made me shiver.

“That’s also why I want Heejun to attend school with you, Eminem.” N yelled back. “If the Council does somehow find out that you finally have a Card, Then having Heejun there to protect you would make us all feel a bit more at ease. Today’s a Friday, so we’ll use the weekend to teach him what he needs to know about the school and what not until his first day on Monday. What do you say, Heejun? Sound like a plan?”

“It’s either go to school as a student…” Ravi quipped up before Heejun could speak. “… or you can stay in your Card and have her carry you. Which one seems better?”

Heejun rolled his eyes at Ravi and scoffed a bit. “After what you said? Doesn’t really seem like I have much of a choice now does it?”

Ravi just grinned and turned back to the front. “Hear that Hyung? Better get him a uniform!”

Hey ya'll! So.. yeah, it's a short chapter. Seemed longer while I was writing it but oh well. Now, I know that the whole 'age' thing in this story is a bit confusing, so I'll clear it up for you a bit.

 Warrior's can't age past 15 until they become a destined card. I won't tell you why exactly, yet, because I'm saving that for later. But I will tell you that, after they become a card, they will age VERY SLOWLY. And I mean VERY very slowly. That's why some cards look older than others. 

   Another thing that I will clear up is, yes, only women can be Deck Masters and only Men can be Card Warriors. But, if a Deck Master were to get married, then their husband will be giving the right to control his wife's Warriors, and can also kiss them out of their cards too.

I told ya that I wanted to have my own twist to the AU didn't I? hehe.

   Well, what do ya'll think about the story so far? And, OMGosh! Have ya'll SEEN the trailer's for KNK's Complete Gravity repackaged album?! They look amazing!!! Took so much of my energy not to scream like a fan-girl while watching them in the Library. hehe.