The trees were dancing with the wind, the birds were singing along the chattering of the people, it was a lovely Monday morning. Yet amidst all of that, Yujin had to drag her feet towards the direction of the dining room, worrying about school. During any normal circumstances, she would not mind going to school. However, it was not anything near normal. She did not know if she could face those perfect classmates of hers. At the same time, she did not have a good excuse to skip school—not when her mother just came home the night before so any lie she would try to make would most probably be caught.

“Are you okay?” Her mother was the one who broke the silence when the both of them settled on their seats in the dining table, trying to eat their breakfast. “You don’t look as excited as usual.”

Yujin was never excited for school—her mother might have misunderstood. “I wasn’t excited.”

“Yeah but you would eat as fast as you could so that you would not be late.” Her mother snorted. “You hate being late more than anything else.”

“I just…” Yujin trailed off. In reality, she was purposely trying to eat as slow as she could. In her heart was a small hope that she would be too late for school. “There’s nothing much to do in school today.” She tried to explain before jumping into another topic. “Are you going to work today?”

Thankfully, her mother did not seem to question the suddenly changed topic. “Yes. My boss wants me to go to work early today. I would be home by noon today though. Plus, I would have three days off of work.” The older woman seemed to be so glad that she would have some time to rest.

Of course, Yujin was happy for her mother yet the former could not keep away her churning insides. She was nervous—what if S.coups and the others tried to pry on her life and what if they decided to investigate? Perhaps, it was not about the demons or the Shadows anymore—perhaps, it was about her. Perhaps, she did not want to find out whatever her past was hiding.

Nevertheless, she continued to eat her breakfast as if she was not thinking of anything.

Dragging one’s feet to school was not exactly an easy thing even for Yujin. Still, she needed to do so. Arriving at their room around fifteen minutes before class, she was glad that three certain boys were not yet around. She still had time to not fret about anything. She could not help herself so she glared at her innocent chair. If she remembered correctly, that comfortable chair and desk had caused her a great misfortune. If she had not fallen asleep on Friday, she could get home easily without bumping into some Shadows. Then again, it might have been the cleaners’ fault because they did not bother to clean or to wake her up. If she knew who it was, Yujin would send them to the Shadows herself.

Anyway, things had already happened and whether she liked it or not, there was nothing that she could do about it. She then settled herself down on her chair.

“Good morning, Yujin!” Yujin almost yelped when someone greeted her brightly. She did not want to turn around because she knew that voice all too well. Her hopes that those ‘people’ would just act like they did not know her came crumbling down. She would not dare to turn around if not for Haneul who nudged her.

“Yujin,” Haneul frowned, looking disappointed. “Seokmin just greeted you. Be nice.”

Suppressing a groan that was caught in , Yujin turned around to face the three newcomers with a forced smile. “Good morning.” She forced herself to greet them, feeling awkward that everyone’s eyes were on them—the most ignorant person exchanging greetings with the friendliest and most perfect students, what a sight! At the moment, Yujin just focused her attention to the three boys. They were all smiling at her—except Minghao’s and Mingyu’s smiles were more of out of amusement than friendliness. Of course, no one thought of it that way.

“How was your weekend? Had a lot of fun?” Minghao asked with a sweet smile but behind his words was venom that Yujin was pretty sure that the former was pretty much taunting her.

Yujin was not planning on losing though. If she were to act friendly, she might as well do it right. “Not really,” Yujin was grinning ever so softly. “It would have been a great weekend but I had a really bad nightmare about some pretty boys who had nothing better to do than playing outside.”

“I’m sure that it’s a weird nightmare, not exactly a bad one.” Mingyu stepped up, offering a kind smile.

Of course, Mingyu and Seokmin probably did not want to fight. Yujin could not promise anything though because she wanted to ruin Minghao’s life there and then.

Not sensing the tension, some classmates decided to join in the conversation. “Whoa, I didn’t know that the four of you are this close.” Someone from the class commented.

“We keep it low-profile.” Seokmin replied with his ever bright grin.

“After all, there’s not much to show-off.” Minghao chimed in.

Honestly, Yujin wanted to open and to retort that she and the three boys were not close to begin with. However, she would not get anything from denying or just accepting it. Besides, she did not want to waste her time arguing since that would just make the conversation even longer—something that the female did not want. Soon enough, the topic was dropped and everything went on as usual—well, except for the fact that some students tried getting some information out of Yujin.

“Those three seems so hard to reach. They are barely friends with everyone around them. How did you do it?” Haneul was the most excited one as usual.

Yujin inwardly sighed. She hoped that she had not chosen her seat in the first place but turned to her seatmate’s direction anyway. “Things just happened.” She replied, not wanting to lie nor to say the truth. After that, she dismissed her seatmate by pretending to be busy with her phone.

As per usual, Yujin sat on the empty seat at the corner of the cafeteria during lunch break. Things would have been great if not for one guy who slammed his tray on her table and invited himself in by sitting on the chair right across her.

“Someone is sitting there.” Yujin said, not holding back her glare as she looked at the person across her—Minghao.

“Yeah but I can’t see that someone so I’ll be sitting here. You don’t even have friends.” Minghao retorted. “Anyway, I know your secret.” He spoke, both his tone and face held no expression. That made it hard for anyone to read him. For some reason, Yujin felt her heart sinking to her stomach—what did the guy know? “Do you want me to tell you what I know?” Minghao asked.

“What?” Yujin snapped, not wanting to appear nervous in front of him—not even for a second.

“I know that you are adopted.” Minghao decided to drop the bomb.

Yujin’s eyes widened and she felt her stomach churning as she dropped the chopsticks that she was unknowingly gripping. Her heart was throbbing and the surge of headache hit her again. She felt so terrified—she had been found out. What else did they know? She did not want to force herself to remember anything else. “H-how did you know?” With a very soft quivering voice, she decided to ask.

“I didn’t.” Minghao shrugged his shoulders. “Yet now, we know.”

As if on cue, Yujin heard someone laughing behind her. Turning around, she saw Seokmin—who was, by the way, already dying of laughter—and Mingyu—who looked much calmer yet amused.

“I can’t believe that this method actually worked! I gotta thank Hoshi for this later!” Seokmin managed to speak in between his laughter. Still laughing, he made his way to the empty seat beside Minghao and settled himself there after placing his tray on the table.

Mingyu, smiling to himself, sat beside her. He set his tray on the table and tried putting away Yujin’s bag which was on the chair that he was sitting on. Yujin beat him to it though.

Yujin took her bag, standing up from her seat. She felt three pairs of eyes looking at her so she froze for a moment, thinking if she would seem sensitive if she were to walk away or if she had the rights to walk away and to leave the three guys there. Anyway, they were still her classmates and despite trying to use tricks—not to mention their abilities—on her, they were still nice. She took a deep breath.

“I’m leaving. Eat well. Hope you do not choke.” Yujin spoke through gritted teeth.

Yujin’s legs seemed to have a mind of their own a