▬ Chapter 5: Year 16: Argument ▬

“Why do you even wear glasses?” Kibum lifelessly asked. He was lounging in Jinki’s house for the day but unexpectedly, the latter couldn’t entertain him because he had a deadline to finish inputting the grades of his students. “I don’t think you even need them.”

“Because,” Jinki continued to type in numbers on his computer. “It makes me look smart.”

“That’s it?” His friend didn’t look amused as he continued to lay on the couch and played with a plastic ball — much like a cat — to keep himself from being bored. Kibum was right. Although he didn’t know, demons have spectacular eyesight and having glasses was truly unnecessary. “That’s one of the stupidest things I’ve—”

The front door slammed shut and heavy footsteps stomped up the stairs until another door rammed the walls loudly which resonated throughout the house. Jinki winced at the noise and he immediately frowned. He let out a sigh as he took off his glasses and laid it across the papers in front of him.

“Do you want me to talk to him?” Kibum sat upright and offered, his face showing concern. “It’s probably just the usual teenage drama.”

“No, it’s fine.” Jinki stood up and walked out the living room. “I can handle this.”

“Taemin?” He gently knocked on the door. Not hearing a single sound, he invited himself inside when he noticed the door wasn’t locked. “I’m coming in, okay?”

His son laid flat on his bed, face buried in his pillows. Jinki sat at the edge and sighed, “What’s wrong?” He gave Taemin a few moments to recollect himself and waited until he was ready to answer him as he always did.

Taemin moved his face a bit to the left so that his father could clearly hear his reply, “I had an argument with a classmate of mine.”

“Okay.”

“And I somehow ended up punching him in the face.”

Jinki smirked, “Oh, I see.”

Taken aback by his response, Taemin sat up and faced his father. His face was void of any tears yet his eyebrows remained furrowed as anger still seeped inside of him. “You’re not angry or disappointed in me?”

There have been countless of times Jinki himself wanted to punch a few humans. Sometimes he did but other times, he had to man up and leave before things escalated.

“Tell me, what was your argument about?” He pried in order to reach a justification. If the argument was valid, then he believed that his son’s actions were justified. He taught his son to stand up for himself so if he determines that punching someone was necessary, then so it shall be.

“He made fun of my eyes,” Taemin started. “I usually just let it go because you know how other people can be but this guy just kept on persisting that I was some sort of alien or a demon.”

“A demon, huh?” Jinki gave a flat smile. “I guess it might be best to tell you now.”

Taemin shook his head and scrunched his eyebrows as he looked at his father in confusion. “Tell me what?”

“Who you are,” he smiled and his amethyst-colored eyes softened.

[ • §§§ • ]

“Onew,” his father’s stern voice bellowed across the room. Jinki was known by the mononym ‘Onew’ in the other world. “I already told you that humans and demons can’t form a romantic relationship so leave that girl at once.”

“But in the past, we co-existed, right?” He tried to reason out, his lips quivering for a second hoping to find some answer in his father’s eyes. “What happened to that time, father? You even told me to mingle with humans whenever I needed some time to myself so why are you stopping me now?”

“Because you’re taking this love too far. I only made you mingle with them so that you can learn from them.”

“Learn from humans?” He scoffed. “Those creatures who always shun us for the little things that we can do that they can’t?”

“And yet you fell in love with