Magic did not exist.

Or at least that was what Yifan had believed up until he came face to face with an actual fire-breathing dragon.

🐉

Junmyeon had stumbled into Yifan’s life during his third year of university. Kind and with a sweet smile, Yifan hadn’t stood a chance.

With Junmyeon came Minseok and his girlfriend Gahyeon, who coincidentally shared all the classes with Yifan that Junmyeon didn’t and then some. Yifan in turn had introduced them to Han, his friend from China who had tagged along when he left for university in Korea.

Two years passed without any remarkable incidents, and then one Monday afternoon Yifan stayed behind for extra studying. By the time he decided to call it a day, Hangeul blurring before his eyes, it was half an hour earlier than expected. 

That was fine. He sent a text to Junmyeon and went outside to wait; fresh air would be good for him after hours stuck indoors. Perhaps he could wheedle Junmyeon into getting them coffee from the cosy café nearby.

He saw a woman round the corner of one of the university buildings, which would have been perfectly normal and not worth a second glance if she had not been dressed like someone from a Western fantasy film. Curious.

She was coming towards him. Up close, the woman’s eyes were a vivid purple. She had to be an actress. 

“Wu Yifan,” she said, which startled him. Did he know her? “You must come with me. If you resist, I have permission to incapacitate you.” She smiled pleasantly. “It will be painful.”

Not an actress, then. This woman was clearly deranged and had probably escaped some asylum.

“I’m sorry, lady,” he said and tried for a friendly smile as he took a cautious step backwards. “I’m not who you’re looking for.”

The woman’s smile turned positively wicked. “I hoped you would say that,” she purred. “I do so love it when they resist.”

Yifan was starting to wonder when Junmyeon would get here.

The woman took a step forward, and Yifan turned tail and ran. No way in hell was he sticking around to see if she would actually incapacitate him. Had he heard any news of an escaped lunatic recently?

“You can run, boy,” she called after him, her sing-song voice sending shivers down Yifan’s spine because what the , creepy, “but you can’t hide.”

Yifan was officially weirded out. 

He returned to the building he had left, fumbling with and scanning his student card to open the doors while praying she would be unable to follow him inside. He ran down the hallway until he ended up at the library where he came to a halt, unsure what his plan was from here. 

A hand grasped his elbow and he would forever deny the yelp that escaped him.

“It’s me,” Junmyeon said, and thank Heavens for that. 

“Don’t go outside,” Yifan urged. “There’s a deranged woman –”

“Sorceress,” Junmyeon said (corrected?) as he glanced around. “Minseok and Gahyeon are around somewhere. We need to reconvene with them.”

“Junmyeon,” Yifan said, but he was cut off by Minseok calling out, “No need. We’re here.”

They appeared from a side hallway, which was just dandy except Gahyeon’s usually-brown-hair was now pink and her eyes were a lovely green. What the ?

“Junmyeon,” Yifan repeated, faintly. “What is going on?”

Junmyeon and Minseok exchanged looks while Gahyeon just offered him an encouraging smile. 

“They found you,” Junmyeon said, absentmindedly patting his elbow. 

“Who?”

“The dragons.” At Yifan’s incredulous stare, he added, “Your sister is the dragon heiress, but she rejected her heritage. They’ve spent years chasing her because of it. She knew it would only be a matter of time before they came for you, so she sent me to protect you.”

“What?”

“Your family comes from a long line of dragons,” Gahyeon said kindly. “You have never shown any dragon traits, but they don’t know that.”

“Is this hidden camera?” Yifan asked helplessly. “Or a joke?”

“Yifan,” Junmyeon said and grabbed his hands. “I will explain everything, but first we need to escape from the dragon.”

“What dragon?”

A loud roar interrupted them, followed by what felt like an earthquake. Yifan opened his eyes (when had he closed them?) to see the side of the building gone and a colossal dragon looking down at them.

“There you are,” it, no, she said. Her purple eyes swept over them and she started cackling. “What a pleasant surprise! I finally get to rip you apart, you vermin.”

“Run,” Junmyeon murmured, already turning around and dragging Yifan with him (not that Yifan needed much incentive because was than an actual dragon?)

An actual fire-breathing dragon. “What the ,” Yifan croaked, appreciating Junmyeon for pulling him aside just in time to avoid the fire, but still – fire-breathing dragon. 

“Run now, questions later,” Junmyeon said, and, all right, that was fair. 

They ran outside, Minseok and Gahyeon right behind them, but how could they hope to outrun a ing dragon?

A crack in the air and then suddenly Han appeared. Something was behind him, vague and shimmering like a mirage, and he was already grabbing Yifan and dragging him towards it.

“Get in the portal!” Junmyeon yelled over the roaring dragon and the crackling of the – portal.

Yifan did not fancy being barbecued by dragon fire, but the portal did not look particularly inviting either. Before he could voice his concerns, however, Han had seized him by the neck and shoved him forward. 

The portal swallowed him.

🐉

Magic did not exist.

Or at least that was what Yifan had believed up until he learned his best friend was a guardian sent by his sister to protect him, a sister who was supposed to be in Canada, and Minseok’s girlfriend was a pink-haired faery – not to forget the dragon that had nearly killed (“Abducted,” Junmyeon had insisted) him had Han not opened a portal into another world.

Junmyeon had a lot of explaining to do.

The Challenge: Behind the Mask, aka someone with a secret identity of some sort. Also, Yifan's birthday, yaaay!

I really really wanted to describe Junmyeon having a sword and giving Yifan a knife to “protect himself”, but word limits will be my undoing. (Minseok and Han are sorcerers, btw, where Minseok is... kind of a casual, perhaps, while Han is quite powerful, or at least that is how I imagined it (the portal requires a lot of power).)

I also intended for this to be more Krisho than it is, but, hey... know that in my mind, they end up together.

(I quite like this plot, actually, and I'm feeling almost tempted to expand it. Hmmm, might do that in the future. I included too much plot by accident, hence having to speed through it and ending up with something that seems almost crack-ish, lol. I decided to embrace it.)

Thank you for reading!