"Hey," Luhan smiled, letting himself into Ken's apartment. "It’s me."

He frowned when he didn't get an answer. Luhan found Ken curled up on the couch, staring into space. He knew where the other boy’s mind was; the past, the days before the war and before his family broke apart. He didn't find Ken like this often, but when he did...

"Hey," Luhan tried to smile, hoping that he'd be able to pull Ken out of this with just his words alone. It never worked before, but he could always hope.

Just like he suspected, Ken barely flinched. He was too stuck in his own world to realize that anyone was in his home. Luhan sighed and took hold of Ken's hand, using his powers to bring Ken back to the real world. He hated messing around with Ken's emotions, but it was the only way he could bring Ken to reality; draining him his sadness and forcing joy upon him.

"Luhan?" Ken asked, eyes finally focusing on what was going on around him. "When did you get here?"

"Just a few minutes ago," Luhan replied. "You look like "

"Thanks." Ken tried to laugh, "Sorry, it was a rough day at the bookstore yesterday."

"Do you want to talk about it?" Luhan questioned.

"Not really."

"Alright," the fae nodded, deciding not to push Ken. "Other than that, how have you been?"

"I've been alright," Ken replied, "a couple of the other employees dragged me out for dinner a couple of days ago."

"And did you have fun?"

"Yeah," Ken smiled slightly, "it was...it was really nice. I didn't realize how lonely I was until then."

"Sorry about not visiting lately," Luhan apologized, "I had to get some work done for Sori."

"Ah," Ken nodded, averting his eyes, "what...how...?"

"It's nothing to worry about," Luhan assured him, "do you want me to stick around? We can have dinner together"

"Could you?" Ken asked, "I'd really like that."

"Ok," Luhan nodded, giving his friend a small smile before heading for the kitchen.

--

"Well," Shownu sighed, "that's one day over with."

"It wasn't too horrible," Minhyuk said, relaxing against Hyungwon's side. "I've defiantly had worse first days."

"I guess," Hyungwon nodded slightly, his fingers found their way to his tired friend’s hair. “I just wish they would stop saying that I'm not human."

The other three shared a look, unsure of how to respond. Hyungwon was so convinced that he was human that there was nothing they could say to persuade him otherwise. But if they admitted to him that they doubted his human nature, he'd deny it and they didn't want to upset him.

"How was your first magic class?" Minhyuk asked Shownu to change of subject.

"Interesting," Shownu replied after a moment of thought.

"Because that's descriptive," Jooheon laughed.

"I don't really know what else to call it," the eldest shrugged, "it's... really interesting learning about all this... this magic and spellcasting stuff. S.Coups' friends who are in the same class are really nice. Any time I got confused they were right there to help."

"I found the same thing," Minhyuk intercepted, thinking back to his special class with Woozi and Ravi. "Ravi's pretty cool, too. I think get why S.Coups talks about him the way he does."

"How was your ‘special class,” Hyungwon emphasized with air quotes. "Working in dreams...how does that even work?"

"We just go to sleep," Minhyuk explained, "and dream and mess around in those dreams."

"Huh," Jooheon frowned thoughtfully, "that, so it's kind of like...What's it called? Lucid dreaming?"

"I guess it is," Minhyuk nodded, "Ravi said that tomorrow I'll be joining the shifter class."

"Really?!" Hyungwon asked, eyes lighting up at the idea of having one of his brothers with him.

"Yeah," Minhyuk grinned, happy that he'd made the younger smile. “So you’ll be meeting Ravi tomorrow too.”

"What about your class?" Shownu turned to Jooheon, "did you enjoy it?"

"Not really," Jooheon said, his voice cold and eyes hard.

"Did something happen?" Minhyuk asked after a moment, unsure if he should say anything or not. It wasn't often that Jooheon used that tone of voice, so the others never knew how to approach him when he did.

"No," Jooheon replied, giving him a look that clearly told him to drop the subject.

"It's been a long day," Shownu said when he realized that no one knew what to say. "Why don't we all head back to our dorms and get some sleep, ok?"

The others nodded, doing as he had suggested.

A/N: sorry this chapter took so long, guys and gals. I'm a little bit blocked on this story, but i'm trying to work through it. Hopefully the next chapter won't be as long of a wait.