A/N If you've read IO2BK, N-CITY Series and The Rise of the Mages (TROTM), you the and will get almost every relationship drawn out. If not, it's all good. I think it's still funny xD

Nakamoto Yuta was evil.

And he didn’t try to hide it.

“Jung Jaehyun deserves to be broken in the worse way possible,” Nakamoto Yuta began to say and I stepped backward to put space between us. “He’s hot-headed, competitive, a good-for-nothing man who hides behind a façade of kindness and authenticity. Integritas. Troublesome, all of them.”

He seemed to be in his own mind, Yuta turning away from me for a moment while he droned on about Jung Jaehyun. I sighed, not wanting to disturb his train of words. He looked like he needed a rant.

“Irritating. And that smile. With the women in Integrita, it’s Jeffrey this. Jeffrey that.”

Sounded like Nakamoto Yuta was simply jealous of whatever Jung Jaehyun had but the foreign name made me blink, turning to ask him who Jeffrey was.

“Jung Jaehyun. That’s his nickname. He lived in Amerika for four years and came back with a nickname. Jeffrey is what they call me in Amerika, Mother!” Nakamoto Yuta’s voice rose an octave as he mimicked what seemed like a child’s voice. “You should all call me Jeffrey now!”

He scowled, running a hand through his hair while I simply watched him.

“He can’t deceive me,” Nakamoto Yuta said lowly.

 I wondered what went wrong between Yuta and Jaehyun. If my memory served me right, both of them were head boys of their house. Was it a war between colors? Did something go wrong throughout the process of their schooling?

“Did I tell you we’re stepbrothers?”

“Shouldn’t you have told me that before you told me anything else?” I asked back, Yuta giving me a stare that came off cold but I was sure it was just the way he looked.

“Does it matter? I hate him and that’s that.” Yuta’s tongue poked out the side of his cheek before he smiled. I noticed that he had such a bright smile but there was something deceiving about it—like he didn’t mean it. “So, this is what I want you to do. I want you to make him fall in love with you. When he does, I want you to turn him down and break him. You know what they say, nothing hurts a person as much as loving someone who doesn’t love you back.”

“You want me to make him fall in love with me and then break his heart?” I clarified, Yuta nodding before taking a step forward. He reached out to tilt my chin up, his thumb rubbing my skin in soft circles.

“That’s precisely what I want you to do, Shin Aera. I want Jung Jaehyun crying on his knees, begging you to love him,” he sighed. “You remind me so much of her. She was a blue, just like you—”

“Who?”

He didn’t answer my question, Yuta quirking up an eyebrow to turn my face to the side like he was trying to remember how I looked like. His proposition was enticing. I always wanted to see how it was to break people and the idea of control was tempting but I didn’t like this kind of control.

The control I wanted was for the people who had hurt me and my brother. I wanted them to be burned at the stake while they cried for help. I wanted to hurt them.

And Jung Jaehyun wasn’t one of those people.

“What do you say, princess?” Nakamoto Yuta asked and I shook my head, brushing his hand away from my face.

“No.” I shook my head. If I were to cleanse my soul and turn my color to a brighter blue, I would have to get rid of my tendencies of thinking of imaginary events that included the people at the whorehouse dying. “I want nothing to do with it.”

My words made Yuta’s eyes flash green, the male's hand dropping down before he gave a sharp inhale.

“Corsivas Common Room is by the Advising Room. Statue to the left. The password is Osaka.” His eyes did not leave mine. “If you ever change your mind, Shin Aera.”

At that moment, I was pretty sure I wouldn’t.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

I didn’t go for dinner that night but Kim Bunny, her and her kind soul, brought me pieces of bread. After a few hours of talking, I realized that these girls were purer than they seemed. Kim Bunny was a personality, her cheerful side was enough to light up our room and she always had the tendency to jump onto one of us halfway through talking and hug us.

It was like she craved affection.

Oh Dana, on the other hand, looked and seemed tough but she was also a softie. She began to tell us a story of a summer she went to a theatre show and there was a play about penguins, the female tearing up at the memory. She was definitely a crier behind closed doors. We later talked about how she found her abilities in shield bending, the female telling us that she was once blasted by her oldest brother and she became numb all over.

“Couldn’t feel a thing!” She threw her hands in the air. “I literally could not feel pain.”

“Ouch. I wish I had that. The things I could do if I couldn’t feel pain!” Kim Bunny twittered, turning one of her pigtails around her finger.

“Please…. It was horrible.” Dana fell back onto her bed and Bunny squeezed her thigh to give her some comfort from her touch to which Dana slapped away. Bunny growled at her, Dana absentmindedly grabbing her hand in apology before holding it and Bunny brightened up. “Besides, Jeffrey tried the craziest things to see if I would finally feel pain.”

“Jaehyun Oppa is like that,” Bunny chirped. “He’s very curious about things he doesn’t understand.”

I simply listened to all of them until both of them looked sleepy, Dana announcing that she would go to bed and finally get some rest.

“You have classes, don’t you, Aera?” She asked and I nodded, passing her a piece of parchment that was in the box. “Mhm. You’ll be studying with the older people. Not surprised, they somehow always put a Verita in a higher class than their age group. I mean, you all have the absurd processing power. We have potions together, though. How nice, at least I won’t have to pair up with Johnny.”

“You like getting paired up with Johnny,” Kim Bunny pointed out and Dana released Kim Bunny’s hand, throwing a pillow at her. “Okay, fine.”

“Bed, girls?” Dana asked and I nodded, the female giving a sleepy Bunny a sympathetic look. “Rest, Aera. You need it.”

“You usually do not sleep this early, Dana.” Bunny frowned; her pout prominent. Her eyes were closing and I saw Dana shrug, telling her that she wanted to be ready for the day to come. “Oh. Okay. Goodnight.”

The lights went off, Dana jumping onto her bed and I fell back, closing my eyes.

There was a moment of silence when moving could be heard and I could hear Bunny mumble to herself when her footsteps approached my bed. Her hands went to my quilt to tug it up and she tucked the area of my feet in first before she moved up to the rest of my body, grumbling to herself.

“Sleeps so late,” Bunny was whispering and she yawned. “Had to wait for such a long time. Here you go, tiktok, tiktok. Time to sleep, Aera.”

Maybe it was just how a yellow usually was and this explained why Dana suddenly told us to head to bed.

There was a shuffle and I could see her waddle over to Dana in the dark, doing the same to her.

“Hot-headed, Dana. y Dana.” I peeked out into the dark and under the moonlight and curtain-drawn windows, I could see Dana’s fist clench. An indication she was just pretending as much as I was. “Such a pretty girl, Oh Dana. Pretty, so pretty.”

The phrase made Dana visibly relax and when Bunny was done, she went straight to her bed and collapsed, her leg hanging out the edge of her bed.

A minute passed and Dana and I sat up, silent communication between us.

“You take the leg, I take the blanket?” Dana whispered and I nodded, climbing out of the confines of the huge quilt Bunny had tucked in. Both of us pushed Bunny fully onto her bed, Dana tucking her in like she did to both of us and finally giving her a stuffed toy for her to hold. “And that, my friends, is what happens when you have a Justicia as your roommate."

I chuckled, Kim Bunny stirring, both Dana and I suddenly running back to our beds.

Dana put on her eye cover, the female smiling at me.

“Goodnight, Aera.”

“Goodnight, Dana,” I whispered. When Dana fell asleep, I glanced at my bracelet, my heart beginning to swell at the amount of care I had received in just a day. Much to my surprise, the color seemed to have brightened up a little bit, the blue just a tad shade lighter.

I knew deep down that if I continued to stay with the girls, I would be a brighter shade in no time.

Love and care did that to you.

That was how the night ended and I woke up a little bit earlier than the others. I think it was because my body clock was so used on being alert that every single sound made my eyes fly open. At the crack of dawn, I was already dressed and ready, telling myself I wanted to roam the hallways and get used to the place.

Preparation was always key when there was change.

I walked out of the dorms, giving one last look at Kim Bunny hugging her little dog stuffed toy with Oh Dana and her eye mask on. I closed the doors softly behind me and walked down the stairs, wondering where I should start. The library? That was right by our common rooms. But even if I haven’t been to the Verita Common Rooms, I decided that maybe I would start off with the place that I had gone to before and go from there.

The throne room.

I made my way to the throne room, remembering the photos on the walls of their past leaders when there was a yell and I saw a portrait move, flashes of men wearing red cloaks filing out of what seemed like the Integrita Common Room. Why were they up for early? Classes were said to start around 9 am, and it was just 7. I moved to the side, watching them just to recognize Johnny Suh. He was talking to another male who had a blonde stripe in his hair.

“Mark, look,” Johnny was saying. “Just follow the guidelines we taught you the other day and you’ll be fine. I also need to head to the lighthouse. I have duty today.”

“Morning practice ,” one of the reds said, stretching. “Did we actually have to lose against the Corsivas for the time slots? Now the greens get afternoon practice while we’ll practice half asleep—”

“We’re Integritas,” Johnny snapped. “There are seven wonders of the world but you know what’s the eighth? Our energy. Now, don’t complain and get going while we wait for Jaehyun. Where is he—”

His voice was cut off from my attention when a hand wrapped around my elbow and I found myself being pulled to the side, a very sweaty Jung Jaehyun huffing and puffing in front of me. Perspiration was dripping on his forehead and he was wearing normal attire—tight pants and a white shirt. He squeezed my elbow before turning to the side to yell out Johnny’s name.

“Johnny! Yeah. Bring the young ones to practice. I’ll meet you there.”

The order was enough for Johnny to lead the other Integritas away, a bunch of them dragging their feet against the floor and I looked back at Jaehyun, the male running a hand through his wet hair.

“I was going to look for you.”

“Sorry?”

“Give me a moment.” Jaehyun released my hand and lifted a hand up in the air to tell me to wait when he grabbed a bag. “I went out for a run and to do some fishing by the stream. You know, just random morning things. How are you? Why are you up so early?”

For someone who Yuta said was evil, Jaehyun was friendlier than Yuta could ever be.

Jaehyun zipped up the bag and finally threw it over his shoulder before grabbing my elbow and dragging me after him. I stumbled after him, Jaehyun standing in front of the portrait and saying a password.

“Queso,” he murmured and the portrait moved to the side to show a room. It was big, the fireplace crackling and the walls tainted with red. Pieces of parchment were on the ground and I stepped in after him, Jaehyun moving into an empty room that had his name upfront.

The room had a bed and… nothing else. Just a bed. Not even sheets.

“I usually sleep in the common room,” Jaehyun said, chuckling. “The little ones like to listen to stories about SM so sometimes I fall asleep while telling them those.”

How warm.

“So? How are you? Why are you up so early?” Jaehyun asked again, urging me to answer him when I pressed my lips together.

“I… wanted to take a walk.”

“Ah.” Jaehyun nodded, going to drag a chair over to me and telling me to sit down. “Sit, sit. Wouldn’t want a lady to stand for too long.”

“Is there a reason why you were looking for me?” I blurted out, Jaehyun his lips before nodding.

“Yes. I wanted to talk to you about….,” He paused like he was trying to formulate the right words for his next sentence. “I have a proposition to make. Apparently, a fellow red saw Nakamoto Yuta heading into your room last night while everyone was out for dinner. I take it he talked to you?”

“Uh… Yes.” My hands automatically clasped each other. “He did talk to me—”

“Nakamoto Yuta has no one’s best interest to heart. He’s fake. Very fake. A conniving Corsiva,” Jaehyun blurted out and I looked at him with wide eyes, the male grumbling to himself. “He’s selfish and all he thinks about is himself. Nakamoto Yuta.”

Well, this was a rerun of last night when Yuta was talking about Jaehyun.

“All he ever does is look like he’s got it all! He thinks he’s the best. Like, what does he have? A superiority complex? Also… Did I tell you that we’re stepbrothers?”

I blinked.

“No, you didn’t. Didn’t it ever occur to you that maybe that should be the first thing you should have told me?”

My question made Jaehyun shrug.

“I wanted to get to you first, you know. But then I thought to myself… Why don’t I just let Yuta do all the explaining?” Jaehyun asked cheerily and I couldn’t help but laugh. “Besides, what did he tell you?”

“I turned him down if that’s what you’re so worried about. I said I didn’t want anything to do with it. He just said that he wanted me to make you fall in love with me and… break you.”

“Yeah. Sounds like him,” Jaehyun mused, looking at me. “This happened before, you know? There was a girl, right where you slept. Dana told me about you. She was blue, too. She lived in New York, Amerika for a while so we called her New York. It was easy to remember and all and considering she was Dana’s step-sister; she was automatically a target. The greens just hate the reds. So, New York… I kind of fell in love with her.”

“You fell in love with a girl named New York who stayed right where I’m staying now?”

“With Oh Dana and Kim Bunny, yes. Long story short, I fell in love with her and she… fell in love with Yuta.” He went quiet for a moment and I could tell that it bothered him. “I actually don’t know how it ended but I know she was spending a lot of time with Yuta before she left.”

“She left?”

“Yeah, she went back to Amerika.” Jaehyun gave me a sad smile. “But… That’s beside the point. The point is, this has happened before and if Yuta told you to make me fall in love with you, that means he wants to wage war. But it’s not going to be a normal war because if you try to make me fall in love with you, Yuta in turn, will try to make you fall in love with him.”

Jaehyun paused.

“Does it make sense?”

I tried to wrap my head around it.

“Yuta proposed for me to make you fall in love with me and if I agreed, he would try to make me fall in love with him?”

“Right. Because think about it! What if I fall in love with you but you also fall in love with me? Then we’ll have a happily ever after and Yuta will have to see us in love. Oh no. Nakamoto Yuta can not handle seeing me in love with someone who loves me.”

“So… You’re saying that Nakamoto Yuta wanted me to fall in love with him while you fall in love with me and we’ll both be broken while he’s fine?”

“Yes.” Jung Jaehyun snapped his fingers at me. “No wonder you’re a blue! That’s exactly what he’s trying to do.”

This pissed me off. There was nothing I hated more than someone using me for something just to betray me.

“So, I’m not going to lie.” Jung Jaehyun smiled. “I have a proposition to make. You see, Nakamoto Yuta doesn’t know that you know of his evil plan. That gives us the upper hand. I want you to tell Yuta that you agree with his proposition and while he tries to make you fall in love with him, you try to make him fall in love with you. But to him, you’re trying to make me fall in love with you… Geddit?”

“Let me get this straight. You want me to pretend I’m making you fall in love with me but in all actuality, I’ll make Yuta fall in love with me while he tries to make me fall in love with him?”

“Yeah. All this falling in love thing is giving me a headache. But yes, that’s what I want to happen. Trust me, if you go to him and say you’re all for it, Nakamoto Yuta will suddenly swoop in and try to sweep you off your feet. As I said, New York fell in love with him while I was still in love with her.” Jaehyun’s tone went salty when he turned to look at me, tilting his head. “So, what do you say?”

“Corsivas…” I seethed, Jaehyun’s eyes widening at the venom of my words. “And if he finds out that we’ve teamed up and conspired against him?”

“Oh, pssh.” Jaehyun waved a hand. “We’ll find the closest yellow and blame them. You know what they say, anything goes wrong… blame a yellow.”

“Please tell me no one says that. That’s ed up.”

“Shin Aera, there is still so much for you to learn,” he chuckled, standing up. “What do you say? Do we shake on it?”

“How do I know you’re not going to play me, too?” I asked.

“And how will I do that? I’m putting all my cards on the table, Aera. I’m an Integrita. Honesty is the best way to go. Trust me, if you agree to this, you’ll have all the reds on your side. We’re very loyal. I can’t say the same for the greens. They’d turn their back to you in no time.”

“Mhm…” I pressed my lips together. “And all this includes acting… If you at lying, how do you expect to act it out—”

“I’m Jeffrey.” He raised a hand. “I’ll find a way to make it work. Did I tell you that I was scouted to act for this theatre back in N-CITY before I came here but it was canceled?”

“Of course, you didn’t. This is literally our first conversation.”

“Well, another conversation for another day, I guess.”

“What makes Yuta think he can make me fall in love with him?”

“It’s Yuta. The guy can be charming if he wants to be—, did I just say that?” Jaehyun made a face at the unintended compliment he made about Yuta.

“I’ll agree to it. But only because I think Nakamoto Yuta deserves a taste of his own medicine.”

“That’s the spirit.” He bounded up, reaching out to grab my hand and shaking on it. “I already know we have the same classes so I’ll see you then.”

“Let the show begin.” I smiled at him, shaking on it.

“Let the show begin.”

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Right after my conversation with Jeffrey—Jung Jaehyun, I made my way towards the advising room.

“Statue to the left,” Yuta had said and I tried to find it when a statue suddenly moved and a male could be seen exiting an entrance. I stepped closer, the male looking up at me in surprise.

“Shin Aera," he said my name like he knew who I was and I tilted my head at him. “I’m Lee Haechan.”

Lee Haechan. I racked my brains on where I heard that name before, my mind bringing me back to the conversation of Dana and Kim Bunny the day before and her plans of replacing him with me.

“Kim Bunny’s best friend?” I asked carefully, Lee Haechan smirking. His hands were shoved in his pockets, the male giving me a nod. “I’m here to see Nakamoto Yuta.”

“Our Head boy?” He asked, raising an eyebrow. “Did you finally cave in?”

“Sorry?”

“Oh, please. We all knew you wouldn’t be able to turn him down.”

His words made me realize that all the greens were in on it. This was beyond just me, Yuta, and Jaehyun—it was a war between houses.

“I think he’s rather busy right now, though. But I can relay the message to him.”

“I’d rather tell him myself,” I answered, Haechan sidestepping from the statue. “Deals are supposed to be made in person.”

“A very blue thing to say. And you’ve been here for less than a week,” Haechan mused. “I’m impressed.”

I didn’t say anything to that, whispering “Osaka” to the statue just for it to move to the side. Haechan had a look on his face and I stepped into the Corsiva common room. Unlike the Integritas common room, silk green curtains were draped against the windows. Every corner of the common room was well kept, not a single pillow out of place.

I knew Yuta would be in his bedroom. Like Renjun told me the day before, Head boys had their own private room in the common room while everyone stayed in the shared dorms. I wondered what Haechan was doing here so early morning when I saw a schedule for “Palet” pressed against a door.

Lee Haechan was a captain—for what, I didn’t know. But I guessed he came to give it to Yuta.

I moved to the door and pulled the paper away to see that the door had Nakamoto Yuta on it and I turned the doorknob to open it, stepping in.

“Yuta—”

And maybe I shouldn’t have.

Nakamoto Yuta was on his bed, a female on top of him while she rode him with pure pleasure. Yuta had his head propped up with a pillow, a hand against the side of her hip while another lazily plucked a between his fingers when he looked over at me.

I understood now what Haechan meant when he said that Yuta was busy.

“Sorry—,” I mumbled, Yuta giving two taps on the female’s thigh when she cast me a look, climbing off of him. I turned my head to the side, away from both of them. “I’ll come back later.”

“No need for that. We were just having our morning exercise. Cover yourself. We have a guest.”

The female wasn’t red and she definitely wasn’t the girl I first saw in the classroom. I turned back to see Nakamoto Yuta standing with all his glory, the male grabbing pants and sliding them on.

“Here.” He motioned me after him, a big walk-in closet in his room. I followed him gingerly, Yuta waving a hand through the air when a green shield appeared by the closed door. A containment spell. “So, princess. Changed your mind?”

He stood in front of me and I brought my gaze up to the ceiling, trying not to look at his topless self. I wasn’t experienced and the only topless men I have seen were my mother’s clients who definitely did not look like Yuta.

“Yeah,” I said simply before frowning. “Put on a shirt.”

“Sorry?”

“Put on a shirt, Yuta. I’m not going to talk to you half-. I already feel like I’m invading your privacy.”

I heard a chuckle and the sound of a shirt being pulled on could be heard. I looked back at him to see that he had pulled on a silk green shirt, the male not even bothering to button it up.

“Good enough?”

I nodded when Yuta’s eyebrows knitted into a frown, the male taking a step closer to me, his finger trailing up my neck. This was the second time he had done this and I wondered if he had a neck kink, Yuta murmuring to himself.

“Not a , are you?”

His question made my cheeks flare up, Yuta letting out a laugh.

“I knew it. What a pure, pure girl.” His finger left tingles on my skin and I swallowed, Yuta stepping away to give me space. “That’s harder to work with. You sure you can make Jung Jaehyun fall in love with you without sleeping with him?”

“I have every intention of sleeping with him,” I blurted out, Nakamoto Yuta looking surprised at my words. I smiled, tugging the sleeves of my cloak up. “What better way to lose it to a handsome red, right?”

Yuta scowled suddenly at my words.

“As long as you don’t fall in love with him.”

“That wouldn’t be so bad, would it?”

“Then our bet would be null, princess,” Yuta pointed it out and I smirked, knowing that he could slip his intentions out anytime soon. But Yuta was a Corsiva for a reason and he turned away, giving out a sharp exhale. “That defeats the purpose of whatever we’re going to agree on.”

“I know. I was joking,” I told him. “But I will sleep with him if I have to.”

“I love the dedication and it is your choice.” He turned back to me. “We have a deal then?”

“We do.” I nodded and Nakamoto Yuta smiled smugly.

“I guess we’ll be spending a lot of time together in the process then.”

There it was.

There was no reason why he would say that unless he had something in mind, that is wanting me to fall head over heels for him.

“Why? Why would I spend time with you if Jaehyun is my target?”

“Keep your friends close, keep your enemies closer,” Yuta told me. “You are my friend. Jaehyun is my enemy and I’ll keep him closer through you.”

“Makes sense.” I smiled at him, Yuta removing the containment spell. “I have to go to class.”

“We have the first period together. Strategizing Psychology with Advisor Kyungsoo.” I moved out of the closet, Yuta discarding his shirt as he spoke. “I’ll talk t