Jongin didn’t quite know how he got to this point. He had only showed up to the orientation day to be able to get the necessary documents and his dorm key. He was only planning on interacting with the person handing out the things he needed. The young vampire wasn’t anticipating the collision with another student and then being followed by that student.

Being born into a family of a pure blood had Jongin rather used to being followed around and given too much attention. He was just hoping for the opposite upon being forced to attend this academy by his parents. His entire life leading up to this point was moulded by tutors and servants. But once he e-hundred-and-fifty, Jongin’s parents suddenly got the bright idea to send their precious son to the equivalent of a slightly higher class public school.

Jongin was hoping to get through his time at Exodus Academy hidden in the shadows.

Unfortunately, the lack of coordination of a certain phoenix had Jongin’s first day more eventful than he anticipated or wanted. Chanyeol was a very persistent bird and Jongin figured giving in would prove to be less of an annoyance than having the giant red-head constantly looking for him.

It seemed Chanyeol either didn’t notice or didn’t care that Jongin was showing little interest in getting to know him. The phoenix just kept talking and when it became apparent that the vampire wasn’t going to answer his question about touring the campus grounds, Chanyeol decided for the both of them.

“We should check out the dorms first and unpack our stuff. Do you have anything?” the phoenix asked, giving Jongin a once over, as if checking if the vampire had any luggage with him.

“My possessions are on their way,” Jongin supplied as a vague answer. He had been dropped off earlier in order to attend the orientation and become familiar with the school grounds. His servants had still been packing when he had left so they would probably arrive later.

“Oh, okay. I just have this,” Chanyeol explained, lifting his shoulder to draw attention to the backpack slung over his one shoulder. Jongin was kind of curious as to how the guy could fit everything he needed into one bag. The vampire had enough clothing to fill at least four suitcases.

“We should still check out our rooms. Maybe we’ll meet our roommates too.” An easy grin stretched across Chanyeol’s face and he tilted his head to the side, clearly as a sign to lead the way.

Jongin resigned himself to the fact that he would have to put up with Chanyeol’s presence a little longer. At least once they made it to the dorms, he could split off with the excuse of checking out his own room. They couldn’t possibly be roommates, could they? The likelihood of that was incredibly low, right?

They began moving through the crowd of people still populating the lobby of the main building, keeping to the sides of the room where there were less bodies. Once they were out of the building and into the open space of the courtyard, Jongin started up a less than leisurely pace, intent on getting to the dorms quickly. Chanyeol was able to keep up with those long legs of his and he kept up the conversation as well.

“Are you in the North or South Wing?”

Jongin glanced down at his dorm key to check. “North.”

“Me too! What room?”

.

“179.”

“Aw, I’m in 61.”

Jongin tried not to let the relief show on his face. He may not have been the most pleasant of people, but he had manners.

Earlier when the vampire had slipped away from Chanyeol, he had been looking at the map so he already had an idea of where to go to find the dorms. There was a long paved path leading from the courtyard to the other side of the campus where both the north and south wings of the dorms were located. They passed the campus shop on the way and Jongin could see the large Athletics Center just behind it and a body of water just beyond that. The campus was rather large, with wide open spaces of grass and big facilities that seemed to have been built rather recently. Jongin wondered if the school upgraded often seeing as it had been around for over a century but the architecture – save for the outer structure of the main building – was modern.

Chanyeol had started chatting at some point but Jongin wasn’t really listening. He was too busy watching the students that were entering and leaving the set of doors they were approaching. He had been taught quite a bit about the world of magic and the mythical as a child so he felt pretty confident in recognizing the different species.

Two students stepped out of the building, both female and passed by them. Their eyes – one with brown and the other with gold – were on Jongin, very clearly admiring him with their gazes. Jongin guessed that the one was a witch since she looked entirely human and the other was a kitsune, being that she had fur ears atop her head and a fox-like tail curling from behind.

Jongin smirked briefly in their direction, acknowledging their looks before coming up to the dorm doors. Chanyeol stopped talking as a male student pushed open the doors and stopped short upon laying eyes on the two of them. His dark eyes settled on Jongin the longest, his eyebrows drawing in a little into almost a look of confusion before he realized he was standing in the doorway still. He moved out of the way but not before glancing back at Jongin once more. His eyes met with the vampire’s and Jongin watched as the guy seemed to literally step into a void of shadows that at his body before consuming it entirely. The shadows dissipated soon after his body vanished and Jongin was left slightly gaping at empty air.

Apparently Chanyeol had been watching too for he let out a loud gust of air. “Did you see that? That was so cool.”

The vampire wasn’t impressed in the same sense that Chanyeol was. Instead he was perplexed. That student had just walked through shadows which was a thing pure blooded vampires could do – Jongin was still mastering the ability – but that guy didn’t smell like a vampire. In fact, Jongin couldn’t smell him at all.

“Kai? Hey, you alright?”

Jongin turned his attention to Chanyeol when the phoenix called his name. He nodded and went inside first. There really wasn’t any use dwelling on that mysterious student. Perhaps he was just a species Jongin wasn’t familiar with.

There were a few plush armchairs lining the front room with little wooden tables in between the chairs. On the left side there was a little room with a window sized opening and a counter, posters of all sorts stuck to a bulletin board right next to it. There was a guy at the counter – a cyclops judging by the single eye that rested on both Chanyeol and Jongin as they entered. He waved them over and jumped right into a practiced speech, his tone entirely void of emotion.

“Welcome to Exodus. This is the North Wing dorms. There are four floors, each one equipped with a small kitchen, a common room and public bathrooms and showers shared among the students on that floor. Each student is required to take on at least one task when it comes to cleaning the common rooms. Sign up on this list by the end of the week. You’ll be sharing responsibility for your bedroom with your roommate. Each room is shared between two students.” He leaned over the counter and tapped on a list that was pinned to the bulletin board. It had various cleaning duties listed with students’ names already written beneath some of them. “What’s your room number?”

Chanyeol held up his dorm key first, the numbers six and one boldly printed on it.

“You’re on this floor. Head down the hall and turn right when you can. Your room is at the end of that hall.”

The phoenix adjusted his bag on his shoulder and grinned at Jongin, raising a hand in an enthusiastic wave. “I guess I’ll see you later, then?”

Jongin lifted his hand as a half-hearted farewell and watched for a moment as Chanyeol headed down the hall and disappeared around the corner. The vampire turned back to the guy behind the counter and showed him his own dorm key. He was given his own set of instructions and sent on his way. Room 179 was on the top floor so Jongin had to climb a couple flights of stairs at the end of the hall before heading down another hallway and finally to his room. It was going to be irritating having to lug his stuff up so many steps once it finally arrived. Good thing he had servants to help.

Using his key to open the door, he stepped inside and briefly checked out the layout of the room as he removed his shoes at the door. It was quite spacious with two twin beds pressed up against opposite walls, each with their own side table and lamp. There were two wooden desks as well, each with its own wheeled chair and shelving unit. There were even two large wardrobes, both set up on opposite sides of the room. The layout made it clear whose side of the room was whose and one side seemed to have already been claimed. The bedding was more personalized – a neutral black and white psychedelic pattern – and there were things all over the desk and thrown over the back of the chair.

“You must be my roommate,” a voice spoke up and Jongin’s eyes followed it, having not noticed the body that was mostly hidden on the other side of the one bed. The voice belonged to a guy. He stood taller than Jongin when he pulled himself up out of the beanbag chair he had thrown in the corner next to his bed.

“I’m Oh Sehun,” he introduced himself, moving around the bed to address Jongin properly, his hand outstretched in greeting. “I’m a djinn.”

The guy had an elaborate mess of pale pink hair atop his head and his eyes were brown like a sparrow’s wings. The hair wasn’t even the most startling thing about him. Sehun seemed to like lounging around his room shirtless, showing off the flashy jewellery he had adorning his body. Besides the many studs, hoops and chains he had dangling from his ears, Sehun also had golden hoops stuck through both his s and a diamond stud shaped like a teardrop dangling from his naval.

Jongin took his hand politely and shook it. He was warm to the touch. “Kai. Vampire.”

“Oh, are you one of those fancy pure blooded ones?” Sehun asked, his eyes dropping to Jongin’s feet before travelling up his body in a slow examination. Jongin could have sworn he caught sight of a piercing on the guy’s tongue as he spoke.

“I’m from the Kim clan,” he replied after a moment of hesitation. He didn’t want to draw attention to himself by using his family name so openly – hence why he preferred to just go by Kai instead of his given name – but he figured living with the guy would mean a lot of his personal information wouldn’t remain hidden for long.

“So you’re very fancy,” Sehun mused, a bit of a smirk curling at his lips. “How old are you?”

Jongin couldn’t quite tell if Sehun was making fun of him. The vampire stepped towards the unclaimed part of the room and opened the drawers of the desk, checking out how much storage space he had. “I e-hundred-and-fifty this year.”

“We’re around the same age. I’m older though,” Sehun’s voice sounded more pleased now.

“I’m not calling you by any honorifics,” Jongin immediately said, not even glancing up from investigating his desk. There was a pamphlet sitting on top of it that seemed to be a list of dorm rules and regulations.

Sehun snorted and it sounded like he had fallen back on his bed, sheets rustling and mattress squeaking. “That would be weird. We’re both under two-hundred-years-old so we’re practically the same age.”

Jongin didn’t offer a reply, instead opting to open the pamphlet and read through the expectations of the dorms. There was a knock at the door and Sehun moved first to get it. Jongin wasn’t expecting anyone so he figured the other male was.

The voice at the door though was someone Jongin knew. Why was Chanyeol here? Did he memorize Jongin’s room number?

Sehun let the phoenix in and there was another male right behind him.

“This must be your roommate, Kai,” Chanyeol started, talking to the vampire but holding out his hand to the djinn. “Hi, I’m Chanyeol, a phoenix and this is my roommate Kris. He’s a dragon.”

Sehun didn’t seem fazed by Chanyeol’s eagerness at all. He shook the red-head’s hand. “I’m Sehun, a djinn. I’ve actually met Kris before. We’ve had classes together.”

Kris nodded his head in greeting.

“I’ve never met a djinn before. Actually, I haven’t really heard of that kind of species before.” Chanyeol looked a little embarrassed by that fact but Sehun still didn’t look bothered.

“Humans mostly know us as genies. You know, the beings that live in lamps and grant three wishes?”

Interest lit up the phoenix’s features. “You live in a lamp?”

The djinn let out a laugh as if he got asked this all the time. As far as Jongin knew, he could have been. “Not yet. I won’t get my own lamp until I’m at least two hundred and it doesn’t have to be a lamp. Any container works really.”

Chanyeol’s companion chose that moment to step forward with a hand outstretched towards Jongin. “It’s nice to meet you. I hope we aren’t intruding. Chanyeol was adamant about seeing his new friend.”

The vampire shook Kris’ hand, noting the feeling of scales as well as skin and the slit pupils akin to that of a reptile’s staring back at him. The dragon was as tall as Chanyeol was and seemed to be entirely golden – golden blond hair, golden eyes, and shimmering golden scales that seemed to be randomly placed along his cheeks, neck and hands like patchwork. Jongin absentmindedly wondered just how much of him was scaled. He had never personally met a dragon before.

“It’s fine,” the vampire replied just a second too late. Kris didn’t seem to notice. “I’m resigning myself to the fact that I am now Chanyeol’s friend.”

“He’s a pretty persistent person,” Kris commented with a soft chuckle, his eyes drifting back over to the phoenix.

Chanyeol, as if sensing the eyes on him, interrupted whatever conversation he had going with Sehun to suggest getting a tour from the two returning students. At some point Sehun had pulled on a loose fitting tank top that only kind of covered him up. Jongin didn’t really want to go out – he was expecting his luggage soon – but both Sehun and Kris readily agreed and the vampire was whisked off with them.

Somehow it was decided that the Athletics Center would be the best place to check out first. It was the closest building to the dorms and according to Kris the facilities were “absolutely awesome”. Jongin was well aware of the capabilities of the campus as his parents hadn’t stopped praising the training that Exodus Academy provided. The younger Kim would need a little more to convince him though.

The four of them made their way to the main floor of the North dorms and stepped outside, forgoing the path that led back towards the campus store they had passed earlier in favour of crossing the stretch of green grass that separated the dorm building from the Athletics Center. Sehun claimed there was a back door near the South Wing of the dorms that led directly to the training area of the Athletics Center.

Jongin was taking up the rear with a steady but casual pace, crimson eyes trained on the lake just to the left but he suddenly bumped into Sehun’s back and nearly lost his footing on the rough patches of grass. Chanyeol let out a shout of fright and the whole group came to a sudden halt. Jongin peeked around Sehun in order to see just what had caused them to stop.

Right in front of a pale Chanyeol was a figure that seemed to be hovering a few feet above the ground. The guy seemed to be lacking all colour, making the solid red shirt he had on even brighter of a colour. His hair was completely white, styled up off of his forehead, his irises were nearly as ivory as the whites of his eyes, and he was paler than most vampires Jongin knew. Like the strange shadow walking student from earlier, Jongin couldn’t smell this guy either.

“New students, huh?” the guy prompted, a bright grin on his face. “I had heard that there would be a phoenix joining the school, but I never imagined he would be so tall.” The guy’s face was level with Chanyeol’s as he peered at the phoenix, bobbing gently in midair.

Sehun still didn’t look fazed. “Hey Lu, it isn’t very nice to scare the new guys.”

Chanyeol seemed to recover when Sehun addressed the strange student.

The pale guy let out a light laugh. “It wasn’t intentional, I swear! I’m sorry.” He stuck out a hand towards Chanyeol like a peace offering. “I’m Luhan.”

The phoenix did take the hand after a moment of hesitation. “Chanyeol. Uh… what species are you?”

“A ghost, spirit, phantom, wandering soul, specter, my kind have a whole bunch of names.” The corners of Luhan’s lips lifted into a small smile. Before Chanyeol could even breathe the word “cool”, Luhan flew/floated around him, bringing himself up close to Jongin suddenly. “You’re the Prince of the Kim Clan, aren’t you? Kim Jongin, right?”

The vampire’s mouth opened in complete shock, not expecting that this ghost would know pretty much his entire family connection. Chanyeol chose in that moment to make a rather stupid statement in Jongin’s opinion – “Wait, but your name is Kai.”

“I will only respond to the name Kai,” Jongin emphasised, his crimson eyes settled on Luhan’s face.

The ghost’s face was bright, as if he hadn’t done anything wrong with sharing Jongin’s personal information to a group of kind-of strangers. “It’s a pleasure, Prince Kai.”

“Just Kai, thank you,” Jongin reiterated through clenched teeth. Luhan was really grating on his nerves.

“So what are you doing over here, Lu?” Kris asked, effectively steering the conversation away from Jongin. Apparently the dragon knew this guy too?

Chanyeol voiced Jongin’s thoughts, glancing between the djinn, the spirit and the dragon. “You all know each other?”

Sehun shrugged. “Luhan knows everyone.”

“And everything,” Kris added, an amused tone to his voice.

“Clearly,” Jongin muttered, still a little irritated. He had wanted his status within the vampire community to stay unknown. Everyone treated him as royalty back at home and he wanted a break from it all. He just wanted to get through his time at this academy quietly with as little attention as possible. Luckily, it seemed his three new acquaintances didn’t think very much of the title.

“I heard about a pure blood and I was curious,” Luhan supplied as an answer to Kris’ question. His pale eyes lowered to Jongin’s hands. The ghost suddenly dropped to the ground, his feet landing silently on the grass and his hands reached out to grasp onto Jongin’s left hand. “So it is true that the pure bloods have magic rings,” he mused, more to himself than anyone else. His fingers touched the heavy ring that fit snug around Jongin’s middle finger and the vampire instinctually jerked away, holding his hand close to his chest.

No one touched his ring. The ring – a round onyx stone set upon a silver band and bound in a silver braid, branded with Jongin’s clan’s crest – was what kept him alive. Vampires burned in the sun and Jongin would be reduced to ashes without the magic that his ring was wrapped in. Only the pure blood families were granted the ability to walk in the daylight, a fact that few knew about outside of the vampire community.

“Luhan,” Sehun said, his tone still sounding bored. “What happened to boundaries?”

“Sorry, sorry!” Luhan chimed, holding his hands up in a gesture of surrender. “My apologies.”

Jongin just turned his head away from the ghost. “Are we going to the Athletics Center or not?”

That was the wrong thing to say for Luhan perked up, looking at the four of them. “You’re checking out the training grounds? Can I come?”

Sehun offered a shrug as his response – Chanyeol answered with a “sure” and Kris just nodded – and then the djinn turned to Jongin for his reply. “Yes or no?”

“Please? I’ll behave, promise!” Luhan said, his hands clasped in front of him like a child who was begging for a cookie.

Jongin looked between them all, realizing that they were all going to follow whatever he decided.

The poll is below! Please vote! There are quite a few characters left to introduce and your votes will determine who will be introduced next!