Chaeyoung gets a message to meet at the meeting room at 8 while they're having breakfast (it's self-served bread and strawberry jam). Good thing they keep the habit of waking up early. When she gets to the meeting room, only 3 men are there, Jaejoong, Junsu, and Changmin.

"You're here! And Mina too. I expected to see only you here, Chaeyoung."

"Why can't Mina be here?"

"We're going into details and plans today, and I just think we can spare her the boring details."

"We don't keep things from each other."

"I know, that's fine. You can tell her later. For now, I think she has better things to do than sitting here with us." He turns to Mina "You can take a walk around the garden or exploring the castle. I think there's something you need to prepare before taking the medicine. I’ll send Yoochun, he can accompany you around this place."

"Thank you."

Mina says before going out of the door, not forgetting to squeeze Chaeyoung's hand reassuringly.

"Now, let’s get into the plan."

"We will implement it right after Chuseok[1]. They will still be in a festive mood and will let their guard down. The wings are kept in the back house. Junsu and Changmin will be responsible for creating diversions at the front and east doors. Try to attract as many forces there as possible. Meanwhile, Chaeyoung will sneak into the back house and take her wings away, try to avoid direct confrontation as you can. As soon as you get the wings, you must immediately go to the meeting place, do not come to help the two of them. They can manage on their own. Got it?”

Chaeyoung nods. Seems decent. Jaejoong proceeds to explain his plan, which is greatly detailed, making it hard to believe he just came up with it yesterday.

"You will try to avoid direct confrontation, but we can never be too cautious, you should be trained before going there. From now, you will train with Junsu and Changmin. There’re only 15 days left. Your life could be dependent on what you’ll learn in this period. And you will have a short magic lesson with me in the afternoon every two days. Is that good?"

Chaeyoung nods again, not sure what to say. She now has a much clearer view of her role in this and what she's going to do. And Jaejoong is right, although her role is less dangerous than Junsu and Changmin's, she needs to sharpen her skills if she wants to come back in one piece.

“Any question?"

Although Chaeyoung has plenty of questions running through her head, why do they have a detailed map of the tiger god's place? Why were the wings taken away in the first place? How can they take someone's wings? Why her? But she knows it's not wise to ask now, there's too much information to take in today. She can unlock the background story later.

"Alright. If there's no question, let's go to the training ground, three of you. Work hard!"

With that, Jaejoong kicks them out of the room. Chaeyoung follows two men to an open room, connected with a yard. Training equipment is neatly placed in the far corner of the room.

"I think we haven't been properly introduced. I'm Junsu. Nice to meet you. I hope we will work well with each other."

The red-haired man turns to her and holds out a hand, which she shakes firmly.

"Nice to meet you too. I'm Chaeyoung."

The taller man nods curtly.

"Changmin. We all know each other's names. Let's start."

"Just want to let you know, we won't go easy on you because you're a woman."

"I don't expect you to."

"That's the spirit. Let’s see what you have!"

Training with Junsu and Changmin isn't that dreadful as she imagined it would be. Physically, it’s tiring, but mentally, it’s actually good for a change. They nod in approval when she shows them what she knows, saying that it's better than they expected, but still lots more to learn. They start with a running exercise, then an obstacle course racing. It's not easy, no, it makes her breathe through her ears and turns her feet to jelly at the end of the day, but the men are quite laidback. No yelling or degrading comments like combat coaches usually use, they're sharp, straight to the point, and really good at what they're doing. They know exactly what her weakness is and what she should do to improve. Changmin, in his nonchalant manner, saying that it’s her life, and Mina’s; and they can’t force her to save her own life.

During training time, they are sharp and silent, but as soon as break time comes, they start bickering on everything, which Chaeyoung finds endearing. It reminds her of Tzuyu and Dahyun's banter. They sometimes make her the arbitrator of their quarrels.

"Dark chocolate is the best type of chocolate.”

“It’s supposed to be a treat. Why would people want their treat to be so bitter?”

Somehow it turns to

"Why do you never call me hyung[2]?"

"You never act like one."

And there's trick as well.

They even keep the light mood by their funny tricks (mostly on each other).

"Hey Junsu, Chaeyoung here doesn't believe you can run a lap on your hands."

"I--"

"Sh--" Changmin nudges her, stopping her protest.

"Oh yeah? Watch and learn."

The sight is so funny it makes Chaeyoung and Changmin laugh so hard, tears are in their eyes. Later, she has to assure a very sulky Junsu what he did was pretty impressive.

Magic lessons with Jaejoong are not as laid back. It's true that he has quite big knowledge about spells and hexes and is good with using them. However, she can't shake away the first impression of him being cold and unapproachable. She knows that might not be the truth, as he's the one who welcomed them in and offered a way to help - not without a price - but that's understandable. Still, there's this air around him, maybe because of his ethereal beauty, that makes him look unattainable.

"Focus, Chaeyoung-ssi" they speak Korean whenever Mina is not around, so Chaeyoung can get used to the language again. "I know magic is not your strong suit but having a few tricks up your sleeve will be valuable in situations like this."

"Can I ask you something?" Chaeyoung fidgets on the edge of her chair. It's the second lesson already and she can't keep it in anymore.

"Go on." The man sighs "I know you can't focus unless you ask your question."

"Why were the wings taken in the first place? He's a tiger, he doesn't need wings, right?"

Jaejoong eyes her for a while as if contemplating whether she deserves to be answered, before letting out another sigh and sitting down on the other side of the table.

"It goes all the way back to more than two hundred years ago. You know my husband and my background from the folk story, right?"

He waits for her confirmation before continuing with the story.

"He was the great General and I was from a Kumiho family. After we got together and adopted children, we led a revolution against authority. The old regime was terrible. The gods were waging war against each other for power, they exploited creatures like us."

He gestures at Chaeyoung and himself and Chaeyoung knows he's talking about half human, half animal creatures.

"They treated us like low-life beings. We were treated like nothing but a mere ant for them to step on. So, Yunho and I, together with our kids and many other beings, revolted against them. We fought for many years and they finally complied. System was changed, for the betterment of people. But then, when everything died down, they banished us, me and my husband, from our land, from Korea. So, we fled to Japan, our children followed. We built a new life here. But Yoochunie, the eldest, a kindhearted healer, loved to travel and learn new methods of healing people. On one of his trips to Korea, he was attacked, and they took away his wings. My poor boy has been so depressed since then, it takes years for us to convince him to get out of his room; and on some days we're lucky, he would go out of the castle for a short walk."

When he averts his gaze from the window to her, Chaeyoung doesn't dare look back. Instead, she fumbles with the pebbles in front of her, the ones she's supposed to cast running charm on.

“We’re all greatly affected by the war, Chaeyoung-ssi. But Yoochun got it worst.”