"Urgh... ow." Jisoo's head was pounding. With a groan, he opened his eyes and was immediately blinded.

"Oh, you're awake. Good."

Trying to figure out where he was, the monk squinted into the neon light. Someone was leaning over him, the silhouette dark against the brightness. Jisoo recognized the lab coat.

"Tao? Wha-," his voice cracked and he had to clear his throat before he could continue, "what happened? Why am I here?"

"I guess you're doing pretty well since you can already ask questions again. Follow my finger with your eyes."

The monk did as he was told and the motion made him feel slightly nauseous. With another low groan, he closed his eyes as soon as Tao stopped. His body didn't hurt - apart from his head - but it somehow felt weirdly disconnected. Worriedly, he attempted to clench his fist - and to his relief, everything worked just fine.

"What you're feeling right now is normal; it'll fade in a few minutes. It's an after-effect of my ability. Does anything hurt?"

Jisoo peeked through his lashes and found Tao sitting at a desk, jotting down notes on his clipboard. The room they were in reminded the monk of a doctor's office: neutral colours, stainless steel and cold neon lights. Even the bed he was lying in was completely white. "My head."

"Normal." Tao's chair creaked when he swivelled around. "Your body is fine? No numbness, pain, itchiness?"

"No... are you going to tell me what happened?" The question had sounded more aggressive than Jisoo had planned but he didn't apologize. He was fed up with having to extract every little piece of information from the other Human - and his head hurt.

Tao's eyebrows furrowed at his tone before he leaned back with a deep sigh. In the harsh light, he looked tired and worn out. "Well, you survived a pretty bad blow to the head and then Hansol started chewing up your face. Fortunately, Jeonghan stopped him before- you know." A small grin tugged at his lips while the monk tried to process what he had just heard. "They're in deep now; Chen is furious."

"What do you mean, 'chewed up my face'? Not literally, right?" Jisoo asked, his voice trembling. The mental image alone was enough to make him gag. "He bashed my head in and you patched me up afterwards, right? Right, Tao?!"

At the sight of his horrified expression, the Human chuckled. "That was your first time meeting a werewolf during full moon, wasn't it?"

"A w-werewolf? Hansol is a werewolf?!"

"Yep and a pretty strong one to boot. Unfortunately, he's not very good at controlling himself once his instincts take over. Which is exactly why they're in trouble: Jeonghan volunteered for the trial and brought Hansol along even though he knew that he's unstable right now."

Silence filled the room.

A werewolf.

A freaking werewolf.

They had sent him, a Human, into a fight against one of the most ferocious of all beast-type Beings. Unprepared and without a weapon. He could have died. Hell, he almost had died, apparently.

The monk abruptly sat up and the world started wavering around him. After shaking his head a few times to get rid of the dizziness, he glared at Tao. "Why didn't you warn me?! That guy could've ripped my ing head off!" he spat, his voice growing louder with every word.

The other Human still looked relaxed, despite his outburst. "I only got the info after you had already left. And trust me, it's no walk in the park for me to reverse those kind of injuries. If I could have prevented it, I would have."

The patience Tao radiated helped to at least somewhat subdue the monk's anger and after a few more heavy breaths, Jisoo forced himself to calm down. His temper wouldn't help him get out of this mess. He needed to clear his head. Out of habit, his hands searched for the familiar shapes of his prayer beads until he remembered that he had taken them off before the fight.

"Funny, I always imagined monks to be really reflected and calm. You even cursed just now."

Jisoo looked up once Tao's amused voice reached him. "I'm still in training." Hesitantly, he returned Tao's grin. "Sorry, usually I'm better at controlling myself."

"Well, I can't really blame you. The trial is supposed to be a test of skill, not an execution."

Wasn't that different from what he had said before? Jisoo raised a sceptical eyebrow at him. "It isn't? What about 'the chance of getting injured is pretty high'? Weren't those your words?"

Tao shook his head, his tone calm when he said, "Of course it's not supposed to be an execution. The whole point of a trial is to figure out the limits of the recruit. Hence the examiner is supposed to start easy and slowly work their way up to the higher-level abilities. Yes, it's almost inevitable that the participants get hurt but what Jeonghan and Hansol did was completely uncalled for." He shrugged. "I wouldn't be surprised if they get suspended for a while."

They probably wouldn't be happy about that. Great. He had already made enemies without even being part of the unit.

Jisoo reached up to rub his throbbing temples but froze when his fingers came in contact with hair. "Woah."

Apparently, his surprise was visible and Tao laughed at his confused expression. "Oh yeah, sorry. That's another side effect of my ability. But you can just shave it off again - although I think longer hair suits you pretty well."

"Healing causes hair growth?" the monk asked distractedly while looking around for anything with a reflective surface until Tao handed him a small hand mirror.

His hair was almost as long as it had been three years ago when he had entered the monastery. Shaving it off had been borderline painful back then. Maybe he could keep it long until he was back at the temple, just for old time's sake.

Studying his face, Jisoo noticed smudged streaks of dried blood on his skin. The chest area of his grey tank top was also stained rust-red.

"I'm not a healer - at least not officially. I use time to reverse injuries and the one on your scalp was pretty severe," Tao explained casually while thumbing through the pages on his clipboard.

Jisoo looked up from the mirror to stare at him in awe. "You use time?! Are you a mutant? I think I can control time too! I'm not 100% sure though. How does it work? Does it have limits? Can you teach me?"

With a grimace, Tao shushed him. "You're definitely good to go. And no, I'm not a mutant. I'm a shaman, so my way of controlling time is completely different from yours, sorry."

Jisoo visibly deflated at his words. "I see...," he mumbled. With a sigh, he straightened up again. "Anyway, I failed the trial, right? When will I go home?"

For a moment, Tao only stared at him, confusion written all over his face. "What are you talking about?" he finally asked. "Didn't I tell you like one hour ago that there are no regulations for Humans? You can't fail."

Jisoo looked just as confused. "But Chen said I could go back once I..." He stopped and his face darkened. "Oh."

With a shake of his head, Tao turned back towards his desk. "Jisoo, you need to learn not to take everything he says seriously. There's always a chance that he's trying to manipulate you; it's part of his nature."

The monk ran a hand through his hair, too agitated to enjoy the silky feeling between his fingers. "So everything was a lie?" he asked, his voice once again rising in volume. "I can't go home? I'm stuck? And what about the payment? Chen said I could make some serious bank here!"

Tao eyed him up and down before he grinned. "You're a really strange monk, you know. Aren't you supposed to let go of worldly things like money or something? Oh come on, don't look like that. We're not the mafia. You haven't signed a contract so you're free to go, regardless of what Chen says. And the pay is pretty good; he wasn't lying about that."

But Jisoo was done with games, he wanted facts. "How much is 'pretty good' exactly?"

His heart skipped a beat at the sum that passed Tao's lips. It was almost enough to fully pay for his mother's monthly treatment. Maybe he could stay with his brother, rent wouldn't be a problem this way.

"Also there is free housing for employees as well as bonuses for each assignment you finish."

Alright. "I'm in. Where do I sign?"

"Wow, calm down a little. You got ranked level one after your trial which is, like, the lowest of the low - and your unit is filled with Beings. I can guarantee you that they won't be happy to have you in their group. Also one of them tried to kill you a few minutes ago," Tao reasoned, a look of concern on his face. "Are you sure you want this?"

Jisoo remained quiet for a long moment.

He had thought about it before the tria