Her parents had called it the “Seventh Sense”. This seventh sense allowed someone to, well, to sense demons, even in a crowd of people, and recognize them, if you were ever close to one. 

They said only a few in the family had possessed that kind of ability, and that made her feel a tiny bit special on the inside. 

The first time Nayeon felt it though, she wasn’t fully aware of what it meant yet. That's why, when her parents were telling her little sister and her the story about the Im family and brought the seventh sense up, she knew she had to keep shut about that day... 

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Here she was now. This was the third time in her life she had actually felt it, but it was... different this time. Even so, it was really strong, impossible to miss. 

The seventh sense clouded all of her other senses. 

Whenever she was near a demon her vision would affix to them, almost like a big light, attracting her like a mosquito. A strong acrid smell would emanate from them, burning her nose a little. She couldn’t hear anything, besides the word demon being chanted over and over in her mind in a guttural voice, nor feel anything else apart from the creature that would catch her attention. It was like a trance. Even if this only lasted for a minute, the sensation would linger on Nayeon for a while after that, and sometimes it would come back in nightmares. 

This time though, something was off. 

Yes, the girl (or was it a demon?) in front of her was all her sight allowed her to see but, her smell wasn’t all that acrid. In fact, it had a preponderant sweetness to it, which Nayeon’s nose was grateful for.

And the voice in her head, which would usually scream ‘DEMON’ at her in means of danger, was really faint at the moment. 

Only when she closed her eyes and concentrated she catched what it was saying, “Demon. But also human. No apparent hostility.” 

By the time she opened her eyes, the figure in front of her was gone, Nayeon’s hand still out in the position in which she was holding the girl's hand just seconds ago. 

Looking far ahead she could only see what could have been the girl, running away around a corner of what, Nayeon concluded, were the remains of an old bank. 

Her trance had ended already but her mind was still hazy. The words were repeating in her head on a loop, “Demon. But also human.”. How could that happen? Was that even possible? Not once in her life had she heard stories about half human demons, not even in demon history class. 

She was full of questions and only one step away from running in the direction of the girl... the demon... whatever it was, but the half hour was about to finish and if she didn’t get back to the group on time the principal would have far more questions for her, and she wasn't really sure she could answer them. 

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It was already getting dark as they got on the bus. Nayeon hadn't said a word since she came back from her expedition and Mina had noticed this, especially because they were sitting together again and she wouldn’t stop talking on the way to the outskirts. It was weird for Nayeon to be so quiet but Mina had seen her like this before. Some nights after having a nightmare she would sit on her bed, looking out the window but not really seeing, she was all caught up in her thoughts. And she had the same look now. 

“Hey, is everything okay? We’ve been half an hour in this godforsaken bus and you still haven't told me all about your adventures in today's mission.” Mina slightly nudged her. 

“Yeah, it's just... nothing interesting really happened.” 

Nayeon looked distraught as she was saying this, actually, she was like that for the entire day, but Mina decided not to enquire her further as she trusted the girl would tell her if something were far from fine. 

But Nayeon couldn’t really talk about this with anybody. It's not like people knew about her seventh sense. Well, Mina did know about that but, she didn’t want to worry her friend, even more so when she didn’t even know what was that she had seen back there. And it wouldn't leave her mind until she found out. That, she knew. 

That’s why, at three am when Nayeon got tired of not being able to sleep, she decided to take a little trip to the library, to see if she could get any information that would leave her mind at ease enough to rest. 

She got her bunny slippers and her jacket on and, trying with all the forces of the universe to not make a sound (thank god Mina had bought some noise-blocking earplugs two weeks ago), she went out the door. 

The air outside was chilly so Nayeon wrapped herself in her jacket and walked briskly towards the library building. It was old and huge, but that meant if she didn’t find what she needed in there, she wouldn’t find it anywhere else. It was filled with books that went from demons, to The great daemon war, to diaries written by the first demon hunters and lots of other things. 

Getting in was fairly easy. She placed herself in front of the biggest window, closed her eyes and, seconds after, she was inside. As she walked towards the big demons' section, she turned the cameras to angles where she could go by unnoticed, step after step, moving all of them. Her power, when used in control, could practically make her invisible. And that scared Nayeon sometimes. 

What would happen if her abilities consumed her? She could only be in control them till a certain point but, they were much stronger than she would ever be, and she knew if she ever released them from their cage, hell would unleash. 

She knew very well to keep her emotions in check. She didn’t want the incident to repeat. She didn’t want to hurt more people she loved for being careless. 

Before she realized, she was in front of the so-called, “demon wall”. The shelves of books went from one end to the other of the 30 feet wall. Luckily Nayeon was no stranger to this section. She would spend her afternoons here, reading all kinds of books about demons, learning about their skills, their weaknesses, their history and all of that sort. She would tell herself that this helped her better her training and with her classes, but she feared that that might not have been the only reason, that she was searching for something, obsessed for answers. But that was no good, so Nayeon decided not to question whatever pulled her to this place every single day and shutted down what she thought her real motives were. 

She didn’t entirely knew what she was dealing with in there, so she took the most reliable book about demon species she could find and rushed through all the pages, but she found nothing about half human demons. She then decided she might have to approach this issue from the root, so she grabbed a book about demon turnings. Once again, nothing. 

She had gone through four books with no results on her search yet when she heard a sound. A door opening. She hid under the table, not the ideal spot but she wasn’t the best at thinking fast. Steps. In front of her were two penguin slippers she knew all too well. 

“Mina!!” Nayeon hit her head on the table, “ouch”, immediately forgetting she was crouching under it when she saw the intruder was actually her friend “what are you doing here?” 

Something in Mina’s expression told her that she might have wakened her up, and she was not so happy “turns out these cheap earplugs don’t really work with super hearing, they just muffle all that I hear but its still there. But thankfully they did now ‘cause do you want to explain to me what are you doing in the library at 4 in the morning reading about...” she took a look at the books scattered on the table, “...demons?” 

Mina crossed her arms over her chest, that meant she was not going to desist from this until Nayeon gave her a real answer. “Fine ,let's go back to the dorms and ill tell you I promise” 

The girl turned around and headed straight for the door, Nayeon put the books back on the shelves and followed suit. It was time she told her friend what had her like this. 

“Wait, if I woke you up when I got out, why did it take you so long to come find me?” 

“You know, not all of us have the mastered the powers of the darkness” Nayeon flinched, she hated it when Mina called them like that, but she realized and apologized as soon as the words came out of . 

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“...And when she looked up it all locked in place, I didn't recognize her as a demon until I actually saw her because she wasn't fully a demon, her scent was faint. And her eyes... you know how demon have fully colored eyes as if they were wearing lenses. Well, her eyes were red around the edges but as it started going into the pupil they turned a warm green color. It was... new?” Mina was scrutinizing her every word to see if she could catch a lie, but when she found that what Nayeon told her was the truth, her brows burrowed even further. 

“You’re telling me you saw a demon and you warned no one about it. Nayeon, who knows what she's doing right now, who knows what would have happened if it weren't you the one who found her, you can't just leave them be, running around as if they were harmless” She was hyperventilating, this is why Nayeon didn’t want to worry her, she knew how she'd get. Mina wasn’t exactly fond of demons (not that any of them were but the girl hated them with a burning passion, but also feared them the same. She had a rough story with them.). Nayeon reached out to sooth the girl. 

“Listen Minari, calm down. Breathe. I didn’t say anything because I don’t even know what that was. Until yesterday if you’d tell me half-human demons were a thing I would have laughed at your face. Plus, Seventh ("short for the seventh sense", said Nayeon to Mina once) said ‘no hostility’, and my sense has never been wrong, trust me I've wished for that a million times.” 

Mina seemed calmer, the fire in her eyes disappeared, her breathing was normal now. “I... I get it, im sorry I snapped at you, im really tired. Can we go to sleep before my head bursts? and tomorrow I will help you with this” She rubbed her eyes and pinched her temple, visibly exhausted. 

Nayeon smiled as a thank you. She felt warm. Her friend was willing to help her even if it put her in this mood, she knew the younger girl would worry anyway so she was grateful to at least have her by her side. 

They both drifted off to sleep in minutes. 

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She woke up when she heard three knocks on the door. It was Mina. She probably got up before her, as usual. 

“Hey” Nayeon yawned “what time is it?” she was suddenly worried, what if she had missed class because of her little nighly investigation. 

“Don't worry, there's still an hour till class starts. I couldn’t really sleep well so I went to the library, did some research, and brought some books you might not have checked last night” Tzuyu came out from behind her carrying a big pile of books on her arms. 

She left them on the bed gave a nod towards Nayeon and left as Mina thanked her. 

“Please tell me you didn’t tell her anything about this” 

“Nayeon, please. You know how Tzuyu is, she saw me struggling with the books in the way back here and gave me a hand, she would never ask questions” 

“Yeah, you're right, sorry. I just don’t want more people to know about this until we can figure it out” 

With that Mina took a book from the pile and gave it to her, “Let's start reading then” 

The two hours went by and they had scanned all of the books but, still nothing. Nayeon didn’t get why this bothered her so much, why she couldn't let it go. But the memory of the girl (demon girl) was still printed in her mind, and she needed answers. She knew if she didn’t get them soon, her curiosity would get the best of her. 

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Nayeon had been distracted again all day, but this time it was because she had a plan. She had no idea how it would go through but she was certain she'll do it. 

The sun was starting to set and she was about to finish packing a few of her things in a backpack when Mina came in. 

“What the are you doing?” 

“Mina, im gonna need you to cover for me” Mina flopped on the bed, knowing it was already late to stop Nayeon so the best she could do now was listen “Im going to go find answers, maybe if that girl’s still out there she could tell me something. The point is, if I don’t come back by tomorrow morning and someone asks you where I am, tell them I went to my parents.” She was decided. 

Mina just pressed her fingers on her temple, this girl was giving her headaches since the day they met, “are you really going back to the city alone? At night? Oh god, I could go with you.” 

Nayeon nodded no with her head, “Im not letting you and you can't convince me. Besides I need you here, if they found out I went back to the city by myself I might get expelled” The other girl let out a defeated breath. 

“Fine but, Nayeon, don’t you dare die” 

She knew that was Mina’s way to tell her to be careful and she appreciated that. 

She nodded and went out the window.