Track 150 | EVERYTIME by Ariana Grande

6:24 am; Sunday morning. Haoran sat quietly on one of the couches in his basement. He only planned to have one Aurora today, and that was Rara’s research adviser. He didn’t think he’d have Rara deep in slumber too. Nari was crying while explaining to him, and for a devil’s gremlin, Taejoon was especially quiet because he, too, was surprised with how the event turned out. They accomplished two out of three things though; one, to get to his basement and two, to protect Rara at all costs. For Haoran, it was enough to just ask them to protect Rara; for all he knew, Rara was capable of doing such a thing on her own, but for Nari, who lived for the living, she was overcome by her own emotions as a nymph and protected Rara more than Haoran had asked her to.

Fly to Italy tomorrow? Guess that won’t be happening. He leaned back his head on the couch thinking of a way around their situation. He shouldn’t even be the first one to learn about this—or Nari, or Taejoon. But that was the least of his problems right now. He stared at the pouch of awakening powder that Nari left him, in case he needed to wake Rara. He set it aside and made few calls to other people instead.

On the other side of the story, after Byul did Haoran the favor of swapping Professor Kang and Chunhei’s souls, she dropped by to visit her dear friend Ahyoung. She was surprised to find Luhan there, too. Apparently, Luhan was also there to retrieve the books that Bora sent Ahyoung years ago, to return them to the restricted section at the Aima Lamia’s library. Luhan felt sorry for Ahyoung inactivating her own abilities, but it could not be helped if it was the doing of the supreme vampire council.

Byul was having tea in the living room. It has been quite some time since her last visit to Ahyoung’s house. She eyed Luhan, who was carrying a box of books. “Fancy seeing one of the council members out here.”

“Hello, Byul.” Luhan greeted in a bored tone; he anticipated another jab from the council’s number one hater.

“Did you apologize to Ahyoung on behalf of my wicked sister’s ploy to neutralize her powers?”

Ahyoung appeared with a teapot in her hands and chuckled lightly. “Oh, Byul, I’m sure Luhan had nothing to do—”

The sound of glass breaking startled Byul, and when she turned to Ahyoung, her attention shifted to Luhan shortly, after he, too, lost hold of what was in his arms. Luhan and Ahyoung had a staring game; it was clear to Byul what had happened. Ahyoung had regained her ability to see the future and what she saw must have been ghastly, because Luhan undeniably had seen through her vision with his telepathy, and what he saw also made him lose focus.

“What the hell...” Luhan whispered in disbelief. “How the hell was that possib—”

“There’s no time.” Ahyoung reprimanded. “Let’s go.” She said as she stormed past Luhan, heading for the front door. Bewildered, Luhan stood for a few seconds, then as soon as he came back to his senses, Byul stood up as well, and together, they left the living room.

Baekhyun’s heart thundered against his ribcage, threatening to break out any second.

I knew she was lying. He clenched his fists as regret naturally spread through his system.

And I bought it.

As usual.

Earlier today, Baekhyun grabbed coffee at the coffee shop he and Rara always went to; it was also popular among the students so it was like their school’s library, only that it served food and was noisy. Once he entered, he immediately noticed one of Rara’s research groupmates—Iseul. Baekhyun was acquainted with most of Rara’s classmates and friends, so approaching them was no problem.

“What’s up, Iseul?” Baekhyun greeted cheerfully.

Iseul looked up and smiled. “Hey, Baekhyun.” She said. “I assume Rara’s trying to get ahead of the load this week, huh?” She scrambled through the stack of papers in front of her. “One of the faculty assistants contacted all of Professor Kang’s advisees, informing that she’ll be on sick leave for the rest of the week.” Iseul sighed tiredly. “Guess we’ll have to fill in the work on our own and make sure we don’t give her a massive headache when she comes back.”

Professor Kang’s on sick leave? For a week?

Baekhyun thought. I’ll be flying to L.A. for a research convention. With my research adviser. Rara’s words rang inside her head.

“Oh, yeah. You know your leader.” Baekhyun shrugged nonchalantly. “She wants to be on top of things.” He continued. “Well, I don’t want to disturb you any longer. Good luck, Iseul.”

“Thanks, Baekhyun.” Iseul said appreciatively. “Tell Rara to take it easy.”

“Yeah.” I’ll be sure to tell her that, if I find her.

What made Baekhyun more uptight was the fact that he couldn’t pinpoint Rara’s exact location. She was either