Hyuk frowned slightly as he watched Hongbin within the large white room. The older was sleeping, curled up in his bed, calming down from his earlier fits; Hyuk hadn't been there to see it, but he could tell Hongbin suffered by his disheveled appearance.

"What am I going to do with you?" Hyuk sighed, wishing that he could let Hongbin know he was there somehow. But would that make things better or worse? The ghost honestly didn't know. With Hongbin's mental state being what it was anything was possible.

All Hyuk could do was come visit Hongbin whenever he had free time, watching over him but never interacting.

"I wish the others would come see you," Hyuk sighed, "but all of them... they all try to pretend that nothing happened, that we don't know each other. It... it hurts, you know, knowing that my death destroyed all of you. I never thought you would all do... do this. Run away, lose your minds. I thought..."

Maybe things wouldn't be this bad.

Maybe our family wouldn't be broken.

Hyuk sighed sadly. He's repeated this dozens of times, almost every time he came to see Hongbin.

"I wish things were different," Hyuk sighed, moving to 'sit' beside Hongbin's sleeping form.

--

Choi Seung Cheol, or S.Coups as his friends called him, was bouncing with excitement. It didn't matter how many years the shifter had been at Dark Lake, the first day of a new school year filled him with so much excitement one would think it was his first year. He'd been attending the school since he was about eight, making him one of the first kids to benefit from Dark Lake extending its services to supernatural children as young as five. And when the end of the school year rolled around, he was lucky enough to be one of the children who'd become a ward of the school not too long after the big war.

Well, not too long if you ignored the time he'd spent homeless. He didn't like to think about the days before Sori and Ravi had stumbled upon him. He'd much rather think about the pair of shifters who'd taken him in, given him a home, and shown him much love and kindness; Much more than his dead parents had.

"S.Coups," his longtime friend Hoshi laughed. "Seriously, calm down." Hoshi, or Kwon Soonyou as his parents insisted on calling him, was a dragon that came from a strict and very traditional dragon family. If it wasn't for the new councils' regulation that supernatural children should attend schools like Dark Lake as a means of promoting friendship between the species, he'd have probably stayed locked up at home. This year he'd arrived a few days early because his parents were going out of the country for a special council meeting.

"I can't," S.Coups frowned slightly, "You know that. A new school year means new friends, new adventures, new...everything!"

"I still think you're too into this," Hoshi smiled, "but you wouldn't be you if you weren't." He laughed again. "Wow that is way too cheesy."

"S.Coups!" Kwon Yerim, nicknamed Yeri, called, rushing over to the pair as they entered the cafeteria, "Hoshi! You guys are late. The first bus will be arriving in a few minutes."

"That's what I said," S.Coups pouted, "But Hoshi was dragging his feet."

Like S.Coups, Yeri had been left without family in the wake of the war. Unlike him, she'd been placed in Dark Lake's care right away. She'd once mentioned to their group of friends that her mother had been friends with the woman who was running Dark Lake before Sori and Ravi. This it was easy to find her when Dark Lake and the ISBIP started looking for orphaned children to send to the school. When S.Coups had arrived the following year, the young nymph had been more than happy to show him around.

"First bus should be getting in right about now," called D.O, the head vampire teacher, from the front of the room, "You should all know the rules about not talking about what we are, but as a reminder......don't say anything."

"You'd think we were newbies," Hoshi rolled his eyes, grinning playfully at the others.

"This should be Joshua's bus, right?" Yeri asked. "He did say that his bus was arriving first this year, right?"

"That's what he said," Hoshi nodded. "But from what I've read, all the bus schedules were changed up this year so it might be someone else's bus that arrivesfirst."

"And how'd you find that out?" S.Coups teased, already knowing that Hoshi's taken advantage of the trust the staff had in him, again.

"Hey!" Hoshi laughed, "The bus schedules aren't a big secret or anything. Taking a quick look so I can find out when our friends are gonna arrive isn't a big deal.

"Not wrong there."

The three turned to find the powerful yuki-onna known as Joshua Hong grinning at them.

"Hey!" Yeri grinned back at him, jumping up to give him a hug. "Welcome back! How was America? How are your parents?"

"It was nice being back home," he replied, "and they're good. They’re proud that I'm getting so good at controlling my powers."

Joshua was originally from the US. He lived with human parents until his powers ran out of control, resulting in LA being covered in a soft blanket of snow. An ISBIP team lead by Wu Kris had been sent to figure out what had caused the strange weather and it hadn't been long before they'd found Joshua. After the initial shock that Joshua was male, Kris sent him to Dark Lake. At first, the young yuki-onna had been upset about the whole ordeal. He was angry about leaving home, scared that his parents would reject him, confused about how he could be part of an all-female race of  creatures, but settled when he'd found a new home at Dark Lake and found out that his parents still loved him regardless of what he was.

"Anyone interesting on your bus, aside from you that is?" S-Coups asked, earning laughs from everyone.

"I'll pretend I'm not offended by that," Joshua teased, "but to answer your question, no one I noticed." He paused, thinking it over, "I'm pretty sure that there weren’t any new people on the bus."

"Well that isn't surprising," Hoshi responded. "There aren't many international kids anymore."

In recent years, there had been more and more schools like Dark Lake popping up around the world. Many had different agendas. Some were only open during the summer holiday, while others allowed for the majority of students to live at home; but all taught the students to get along with those outside of their own race. After all, a lack of friendship and unity between the races had been a large reason the war within the supernatural council had been able to happen.

"Boo," S.Coups pouted, "I want new friends."

"Hard to believe he's the oldest sometimes, isn't it?" Hoshi teased, earning laughs from the rest of the group and making S.Coups' pout grow.

"There was a bus not far behind mine," Joshua said, patting the eldest boy’s shoulder comfortingly, "I think it might have been Mingyu's bus."

"Sweet!" S.Coups' mood picked up immediately, "His bus always has a bunch of new kids."

Kim Mingyu, a fallen with the ability to use both light and dark magic, was the second to last member of the group. He'd only been attending Dark Lake for a couple of years, but he'd fit in with the others as if he'd been with them his whole life. For all of his talent, Mingyu had a habit of making mistakes. It was nothing too horrible; just the occasional burst of power that left him and anything around him a bit singed. The head fallen teacher theorized that it was a result of the conflicting magic within him constantly being at war and the other teachers agreed. Even with this problem, Mingyu was considered to be one of the strongest students at the school.

"Sorry to disappoint you," Mingyu said, silently slipping into the empty seat beside Yeri, "but there was only one new kid on the bus this year; a witch girl." He nodded towards the girl in question who was sitting alone at the back of the room.

"Seriously?" S.Coups sighed, "Just one?"

"One new friend is still a new friend," Joshua assured him.

"And there are still a few more busses to come," Hoshi added.

True to his word, four more busses arrived bringing a couple dozen new students. With each one, the oldest boy’s mood picked up more and more until he was bouncing with excitement like he had been at the start of the day.

"So many new friends~!" S.Coups giggled, looking around happily, "So many new people! This year is gonna be great."

"Just one last bus," Joshua said, grinning brightly, "Woozi is gonna be here soon."

Lee Jihoon, affectionately called Woozi by his friends, was the final member of the group. The little fae had been attending Dark Lake for almost as long as Yeri and S.Coups, and came from a human family. His parents weren't in the loop about his supernatural status, which upset the young boy a great deal. Despite this, Woozi was the happy virus of the group, doing all he could to cheer the others up when they felt sad. On top of that, his dreamscaping abilities made him a favorite student for Ravi. At first, this had caused a bit of a rift between Woozi and S.Coups since the older wanted to be Ravi's favorite, but time, age, and a long talk with Sori helped him to work past that and the pair now had an extremely strong, brotherly bond.

"He's here," Yeri grinned brightly, pointing towards the doors. Everyone turned to find their friend making his way over to them. He paused for a moment, saying something to four boys who were behind him. One of the boys replied before the four heading to an empty table. Woozi watched for a moment before making his way over to his friends.

"Who are they?" Mingyu asked.

"New kids," Woozi explained, "they don’t seem to be in the loop."

"You asked them to sit with us, right?" Hoshi asked.

"And they turned me down," Woozi nodded, "they're pretty freaked out by this whole thing.

"They'll warm up to it in time," Joshua smiled, "I did."

The others agreed except for S.Coups. He was more focused on watching the four new students. They seemed interesting and interesting meant excitement. If there was one thing that S. Coups enjoyed, it was excitement.