Dawon and Yugyeom, who lives in the southern part of the town, are starting to get lost on the eastern part of it. Busay Falls may be small, but it’s most definitely not small enough for you not to get lost. Minghao and the other Yuju, not their Yuju, lives on that side of the city. It was also getting dark, so the two were not sure whether to go back or not. Minghao was supposed to still be in school because of dance practice, but apparently, he skipped practice for no reason. Yoo Taeyang, Dawon’s friend and Minghao’s Dance teammate was left annoyed, so they had no choice but to look for him at the east. The east was always the quietest part of the city. It would only be loud when there are fights or during festivals.

But today is just too quiet that it’s scary. Dawon, although a Strzyga, and considering that her natural habitat is the calmness and silence, she’s actually pretty scared of what might happen. Tightening her grip on Yugyeom’s backpack, the two walked down the lonely street, hoping to find someone who can show them the way or some sort. “Hey, Dawon.” He suddenly called her out, startling her a bit.

“What is it?”

“Have you ever wondered why Draconians don’t drink fairy blood?”

Dawon couldn’t help but raise a brow. “From what I know, rather than helping Draconians, fairy blood deteriorates their own blood, making it impossible for reproduction of their kind. So if they mate with a fairy, their dragon blood will die out, and their child will be a fairy by default.” She stopped a bit before catching up to his pace once more. “Why did you ask?”

She stared directly at Yugyeom’s eyes. He’s playful and he has lots of charms, but he’s wise. Compared to werewolves his age, including Mingyu, he was always referred to as someone intelligent, someone on a Strzyga’s level. This is what made Dawon choose him. But his intellect is mysterious. She’s heard of his past when she was a Fairy Assistant. As they say, any publicity is good publicity, but for a werewolf who’s highly intellectual, it’s not. Elderly wolves frequently referred to smart werewolves as werewolves who are away from their hunting instinct, that it’s just a phase. He just shook his head at her question. “Nothing. It’s just that we tend to believe in things that are passed down to us, not bothering to look for the truth.”

She raised a brow once more then she let out a light chuckle. “Is this for a study of yours? You still do that?”

He shrugged. “It’s my curiosity. And if I finish this study, I can go through the final year without having to write a study”

“Good for you.” Dawon congratulated him but then, they both stopped on their tracks. Their heightened senses made them feel it. A powerful presence that seems to have sent shivers to their spine. Dawon prepared her wings to fly and Yugyeom readied his claws, and as a technique of self-defence, the two stood back-to-back. “What could this be?” Dawon asked.

“I don’t know, but whatever it is, it can’t be good.”

“Should I lift off?”

“That,” Yugyeom shrugged, but his eyes widened when he heard rustling from the leaves. He smelled its scent, and his claws became longer. “If it comes out to be a big one and we can’t fight it, fly and get the others. Fairy Dust should be able to paralyze it even for a bit.”

“You’ll hold it down, then?”

Yugyeom nodded as the both prepared their parts. He could hearit coming from the back, in front of Dawon. “It’s coming from your twelve-o-clock.”

“I heard it too.” The rustles soon turned to definite steps, making their defence much tighter and stronger. The footsteps soon turned louder. Dawon identified it as rubber shoes. “Put that claw back down.” She told Yugyeom as she finally saw who it was. She also retracted her wings and separated her back from Yugyeom as he faced her front as well.

“Hey!” He yelled. “You scared the heck out of me, Xu Minghao!”

Minghao, a slanted-eye kitsune, also the one who they were looking for, also had his tails, two of them, up for defence. “You, what are you two doing here?!” He frowned and retracted his tails back into his body. He had a disappointed look on his face and a frown. “Just when I thought that I’m about to see a fight here in the east.” Minghao is tall, but not taller than Yugyeom. He had brown hair, and the trademark yellow eyes of a kitsune. “What brings you two southerners in the east, anyway? Didn’t think I’d see you guys here.”

Dawon just went straight to the point. “We came to talk to you.”

He raised a brow. “After your fight with Minhyun-hyung you didn’t even bother to talk to me, Dawon.” He smiled it off and said, “My apartment is on the next block. It’s a little messy there, and I live with a few other kids, so should we go there or should we talk somewhere else?”

“I’m fine with talking anywhere.” Yugyeom answered and he looked over at Dawon. “You?”

“Yeah, definitely.” They went straight to the corner and went up to the fifth floor. He resides in the third door with three more kids from school. Dawon noticed them almost immediately. The three kids all had weird-coloured hairs. They had them dyed. Dawon and Yugyeom both know who they are. They were the dancing upperclassmen and lowerclassmen. All of them were in dancing teams. The pink-haired one is Junhui, the captain of the hip-hop team. He was sitting on the sofa, on his phone. The girl who has white and brown hair is Chengxiao, the ace of the rhythmic gymnastics team. She is behind the counter, chopping vegetables for dinner. The last, orange-haired girl is Mina. She’s a member of the ballet club and she’s watching a drama when they arrived. When they saw the two schoolmates enter, the two who were sitting on the sofa, stood up and actually fixed themselves.

“Oh, shoot.” Jun fell on the floor and dashed to his bedroom since he was topless, making Dawon and Yugyeom laugh while Mina scooted over to the edge of the sofa.

“Ey, what brings you guys here?” Mina asked as the two of them sat down.

“Mina, they need to talk to me, can you and Chengxiao head in for a bit?” Minghao asked his female housemate.

She raised a brow but she shook it off and she stood up. “Chengxiao, let’s go in for now.” She noted as she pulled the younger to their bedroom. When they finally left, the Minghao sat on the solo sofa in front of the long couch.

“So, what do you need to ask?”

The partners looked at each other with a knowing look that says, we should just get to it. The both exchanged nods and Dawon finally began. “We have a task from the new fairy of love as a team. And we need your help.”

He became curious. “You need fox power?” He asked, referring to his capabilities as a kitsune.

Yugyeom chuckled and shook his head. “No, no, that’s not what we need.” He immediately answered back. “We need information.”

“About what?”

“Two years ago.” Dawon began with seriousness. “Two years ago, you and Yuju took a job for Seungcheol’s father.”

Minghao blinked. “What about it?”

“What does that job have to do with Seungcheol and Sojung? What do you know about them?” Dawon began blasting with the questions.

Minghao furrowed his brows and became hesitant, but he soon opened up to them quickly. “Seungcheol’s father is very dirty, and that’s not very new to us common men. They’ve lost all their dhampir servants who do their dirty work a few years back after the end of the Cleansing, and we all know that.” He stared straight at them and added. “So no one can do their dirty work for them. And we took one job, but it was a job under Kim Youngbin.”

Yugyeom’s brows were raised now. He began looking for a reason. “Youngbin-hyung? The Fairy of Leadership? Why?” He glanced at Dawon, who had a blank expression, as if she knew about it. “Why is your expression like that?”

“Youngbin-oppa was the Fairy of Knowledge before Luda. Fairies that are in charge of Knowledge can change to Leadership once the Fairy of Leadership is promoted.” She explained. “I didn’t know that he has the habits of giving jobs.”

“Well, actually, that job was just a side-job. The actual job that Youngbin-hyung made was to look after Eunwoo, you know, the fourth year fairy. She took a job for Seungcheol-hyung’s father with her partner, but since Vampires are dangerous for Fairies, she had to be closely guarded.” Minghao explained. “Here is where me and Yuju fell into. Our job for the royal clan, the Chois, was to take care of the bodies they collected during the cleansing. We checked each and every one of them, added blood enhancers.” This is where he began sweating. The scene that happened two years ago is still visible to him. “And Sojung-noona’s mom’s body was there. When I saw her, I saw Sojung-noona. They were splitting images. And it creeped me out, honestly.”

“So you checked dead bodies then you saw Sojung’s mom? Oh, weird.” Yugyeom commented. “Then what happened next?”

“Well, we all know that Seungcheol’s father is a pure bloodline advocate, so he dislikes Sojung-noona. A lot. As in, like, it’s really really bad, his hatred towards her is really on another level of awful.”