I stood in the field, Yuta’s hands around my wrists as he whispered in my ears.

“Close your eyes and let it go.”

All my life I thought that maybe allowing myself to think deep thoughts was bad but apparently it wasn’t. Yuta had tightened his arms around my wrists and told me to think about my deepest darkest secrets.

“How angry are you?” he asked and I stiffened. “Let it go and ignore your fears. Let it go.”

Every time he told me to let it go, my mind went back to the way I ended up on the streets. My mother telling me she was suffering but she had no choice—she had two children to take care of. Her begging for them to stop touching her because she hated it.

“Put down the bottle!” she once screamed to a man and we walked in just in time for him to slam her on the bed. I gulped, my hands trembling when a surge of power erupted from my arms and an energy shield began to form.

“Good girl,” Yuta told me but he spoke too soon and both of us flew into the air at the power of my shield, falling onto the ground and rolling multiple times when he grabbed me to stop me from moving. “Good girl.”

He repeated it as if it would help but all I could do was cry.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

My whole body hurt when I made my way back to my dorms and all I could think of was to have a good rest. The whole day of practicing control over my energy shield, all I could think of was trying to find ways to direct the shield towards places that I wanted. Whatever happened, Yuta’s way worked and I found myself being able to conjure up shields when I wanted to by the end of our third hour.

Yuta lazily deflected my shield anytime I sent it his way, the male mastering the ability to stop my energy disks halfway. As I trudged up the stairs, I heard a loud sound just to see Lee Haechan standing in front of our room with Lee Jeno looking gruntled by the male.

“I’m saying, all I want is a name!” Lee Haechan yapped, a squeal sounding from what seemed like the back of Lee Jeno’s cloak. When I reached them, I saw that Lee Jeno had an abnormally large . “Kim Bunny! Get out from Lee Jeno’s cloak—”

“I mean…. All I wanted was to give her the glass of milk and now I’m being used as a shield?” Jeno asked, stepping away when Kim Bunny wailed, Lee Haechan finally reaching down to grab her ankle and pulling her forcefully from Jeno. “I’m off—”

“NO! NO, JENO!” Bunny wailed. “Don’t leave me!”

“Oh, don’t be dramatic. Give me a name!” Haechan demanded.

“Suzy and Amanda!” Kim Bunny gasped out loud making Haechan glare at her.

“Suzy is a blue and Amanda is a green,” he pointed out. “The girl I want is a yellow!”

“Well, beats me!” She threw hands in the air. “Not my problem!”

And with that, she pushed herself off the ground and ran into the room, leaving Lee Haechan and Lee Jeno looking very confused. Kim Bunny seemed like she was having a tough day and I sighed, greeting the two men before entering my room. She was crying, the female tugging on one of her pigtails when I saw Dana frowning.

“What’s wrong, Bunny?” I asked, the female hiccupping through her tears. “Who is Suzy and Amanda?”

“es,” Dana told me, rolling her eyes. “I swear to god. Did they yell at you? What did they do?”

“They stole my cloak.” Bunny gave a sharp inhale before her bottom lip trembled. “I don’t know what to do! My brother told me to stand up for myself and said that if I keep being this way, they’ll just keep bullying me! My brother doesn’t understand! He doesn’t…”

She sniffled.

“…Love me!”

“If your brother wasn’t Kim Doyoung, I’d give him a piece of my mind,” Dana huffed, her hand lovingly going to undo Bunny’s hair. I followed suit, both of us combing through the strands. “Don’t worry, I’ll handle them for you. Suzy is horrible. I heard she has a thing for Lee Jeno but thank god, he’s so unbothered.”

Bunny crawled to the side and grabbed her glass of milk, drinking from it as she sobbed. Her tear-stained cheeks made her look so vulnerable and she shook her head before she lowered down the glass and a milk mustache stained her upper lip.

“I’m going to die! I’m going to be bullied for the rest of my life!”

“Oh, Bunny. I won’t let that happen,” Dana told our roommate. “Right, Aera?”

“Right.”

That night, we fell asleep after putting Bunny to sleep, Oh Dana telling me I should get some rest. After some catching up on what I did with Nakamoto Yuta, Dana asked me how I was feeling.

“I mean, some girls would worry about rumors and all and it seems like everyone knows that you and Jaehyun have a thing going on.”

“Words can’t hurt you if you don’t let it in, Dana,” I told her and Dana chuckled, telling me that she was guilty of that. That words hurt her a lot because she was a woman of pride. I didn’t say anything, remaining quiet when she slipped on her eye mask and smiled at me. After exchanging good nights, I finally fell asleep.

The next morning, I woke up to see that Kim Bunny and Oh Dana had already gone. I guessed it was because Kim Bunny said she had to practice for a game of palet… Palet, she told me. Pronounced as “Palei” like ballet. I first thought it was such a graceful sport but Oh Dana told me that it was nothing close to graceful.

“You’ll see it yourself,” she told me, chuckling. “Kim Bunny is playing. Besides, we have a game in a few days so the tradition between houses will begin. Shin Aera, you are in for a treat.”

It was a Sunday and I knew I had some kind of potions practical on my schedule. Unlike how normal schools were, Saturdays were the only days that students could rest. However, there were some days of the week where I had only one or two classes per day. I walked down to enter The Great Hall when I saw Kim Bunny by the side.

She was getting cornered by two women that I didn’t recognize, my roommate’s eyes widening at both of them. I guessed they were Suzy and Amanda and before I could intervene, there was a bellow and I could see Oh Dana marching towards the two women.

“OI! Stop right there!” Dana yelled, her eyes flaring up. “How dare you bully Kim Bunny! Pick someone your own color!”

Suzy and Amanda seemed shocked by the sudden presence, Dana growling when she finally reached both of them. I knew Dana was aggressive, that was what everyone said… I just didn’t know she was this aggressive. She grabbed the back of their heads and pulled their hair with so much force, both Suzy and Amanda hissed out in pain.

“I will show you what hell is like, you little es, ” Dana roared, dragging them into The Great Hall.

“No, Dana! No! Let them gooooo!” Bunny cried when she spotted me. “Aera! She’s going to kill them! We have to stop her before she gets blood on her hands! Not again….”

I nodded, rushing after Oh Dana just to see that she threw Suzy towards Doyoung. Kim Doyoung was confused, Dana not letting go of a distressed Amanda who was still being held by the hair. I reached them in time to hear Dana snip at Doyoung.

“You call yourself a brother yet you can’t protect your sister?” she began. “She’s getting cornered and bullied and all you do is tell her to stand up for herself?”

Dana glowered at Doyoung when his eyes fell on Suzy.

“You’ve been bullying my sister?” he asked and Suzy whined, the male standing up and straightening to his full height. “How dare you bully a yellow? Out of all colors, you bully a yellow? How about bullying someone your own color?”

“That’s what I said!” Dana yelled out. “Now, let’s bring you to the Corsivas, you little .”

And with that, she began to drag Amanda away as I followed her, wanting her to deal with it a little bit more calmly. But no one would be able to handle Oh Dana and her anger, the female stopping in front of Nakamoto Yuta and Lee Haechan who looked up.

“You!” She pointed at Yuta with her free hand, throwing Amanda towards the benches. “If you’re going to sleep with someone, tell her to stay on her lane!”

Her words made me look back at Amanda and I realized that it was the female I saw on Yuta’s bed the day before. Yuta looked amused but Lee Haechan was alert and he stood up, Dana nodding at him.

“She has been bullying your best friend and you have no idea how shattered Kim Bunny is!” Oh Dana hissed, Lee Haechan’s eyes morphing into a dark green. This was the first time I’ve seen someone’s color change right before my eyes and I saw Lee Haechan’s bracelet turn into a darker shade of green.

“You. Just because you’ve been sleeping with the head boy does not mean you have special privilege,” Lee Haechan said to Amanda. “And out of everyone, you bully Kim Bunny? A yellow? Have you no shame? At least bully a smart blue or an aggressive red, you coward! They can’t even fight back!”

Amanda whimpered at the Captain of the greens, Haechan narrowing his eyes on the female.

“I swear to god, if you do it again, I will find a way to decapitate you and no one will ever trace it back to me. Mark my words, Amanda—”

“Mark? You mean, me?” A voice asked and I looked up to see random red sitting by Haechan, the male stuffing his face with bread. Haechan waved a nonchalant hand before telling Dana to let go of Amanda.

“I’ll handle her,” he said to Dana. “Thank you for bringing her to me. See you in potions practical.”

Dana pushed Amanda towards him, giving out a huff and I saw Nakamoto Yuta smirking. I shook my head, Dana grabbing my elbow.

“Let’s go, Aera,” she told me and before I knew it, I was being led back to the table of the Veritas, Doyoung still lecturing Suzy about why bullying was bad and that he had no toleration for it. “Oh, will you look at that? Once a red takes the initiative, a blue just has to take over. He wouldn’t have done anything if I didn’t demand him to. ing credit stealers.”

Dana rolled her eyes before turning to me.

“Wanna sit with the reds with me?”

“No.”

“Fair enough. I’ll pick you up after I eat my breakfast,” she told me, patting my shoulder and giving me a flying kiss. “We have potions practical together today!”

And that was how I ended up eating breakfast and then finally heading to potion with Oh Dana. It seemed like Suzy and Amanda were also in our potions class, both of them giving us looks that Dana returned. Once we reached the classroom, Dana pointed at a photo above the desk.

“That’s Jisung! My stepbrother,” she told me and I looked up to see that Jisung had gotten an award. “He’s very good at potion-making. I mean, he has no idea what he’s doing half of the time but then again potion-making is trial and error, no?”

“True.” I had no idea what potions were about because it would be my first class but then I was greeted by a presence behind me, Jaehyun winking at me. “Hey, Jeffrey.”

“Hey, girlfriend.” He smiled and I made a face. “You want to be paired with me? You know, make it a little bit more believable that we’re all lovey-dovey?”

“I am not going to be paired with Johnny.” Dana butted in, giving her fellow friend a glare. “The last time I did, he made the cauldron explode!”

“Hey, the only thing I did was put fire nuts into liquid, and apparently you put those things into whatever that is liquid form and an explosion happens!” Johnny shrugged and I couldn’t help but laugh at how nonchalant he was. The door opened and I saw Nakamoto Yuta walk in with another green. “Don’t worry though… We blamed it on the closest yellow.”

“Oh, not again,” Dana murmured and I laughed, Suzy and Amanda walking in and taking a table right beside ours. “Look, it’s the es.”

“Relax, Dana,” I told her and she grumbled.

Potions was hard and complicated but was also pretty fun considering that Jaehyun, Johnny, and Dana were around. Integritas were easy to get along with and they always seemed like they were the life of the party. Upon Advisor Suho telling us to try making the potion on their own, I waked to the cabinet just for Suzy to knock shoulders with me, the girl turning and glaring at me.

That was enough for me to realize that she liked picking on those that were vulnerable. But I wasn’t Kim Bunny or Oh Dana and my anger wasn’t an explosion but something more discrete. I pressed my lips together and when I reached the cabinet, I saw a bunch of firenuts tucked away at the corner.

I grabbed them, thinking of what Johnny told me, and when Suzy and Amanda were not looking, I dropped two in their cauldron. I looked up to see Nakamoto Yuta staring at me and I smirked, Yuta shaking his head. At least I knew he wouldn’t say anything and that was that—a massive explosion sounded, Suzy and Amanda finally getting yelled at by Advisor Suho.

Amanda, like every other green out there, blamed it on Suzy who was a blue. “I thought you said you knew what you were doing!”, she said while Suzy tried to understand what went wrong.

Despite telling Advisor Suho that she had no idea what went wrong, both of them had to clean it up because it was somewhat of a messy explosion. Oh Dana looked happy and took it as a sign from god but little did she know that it was just me. I turned back to my potion, mixing it when the potions practical ended and classes were over.

Dana and Johnny excused themselves and I saw Jaehyun rush over to his common room for a moment. I went to see Aro for a while, my little brother telling me that he was having an amazing time with Moon Tae-il and after a few hours, I made my way back to the dorm rooms.

Little did I know that Jung Jaehyun was waiting for me in front of my room.

“Jeffrey?” I asked, Jaehyun turning to me and flashing a smile my way.

“At your service.”

“Ahuh. What’s up?”

“Dude. Listen up.” He placed a hand on my shoulder. “I need your help.”

“What’s wrong?”

“So… I think Dana told you that we have a game of palet coming up, right? Okay, now so… Listen up. Every time there is a game of palet, we have this tradition of stealing flags from other houses. Last year, the yellows found a way to steal all our flags.” Jaehyun droned on. “Don’t even ask me how they did it. ing Na Jaemin told the Corsivas that he would clean their common room and they believed that bastard. He jumped out of the window, Aera. He jumped out of their window with their flag.”

I blinked.

“And now the yellows also got the blue flags. Before they could put a containment spell on it, one of our people entered the library and just… snatched it away! But then the blues were smart enough to put a color-changing spell on the flag and it was actually a fake red flag.” Jaehyun fumed. “Throughout all the chaos of realizing that it was a fake, the yellows swooped in and grabbed our flag.”

“Ahuh.”

“And the blues also have this thing that if you solve a riddle, they’ll give you their flag. That’s what pisses us off so bad. I mean, it’s in plain sight! Our red flag is in plain sight as well but Johnny guards it and no one ever wants to mess with Johnny.” Jaehyun said this with a hint of pride and I nodded, wondering what he wanted from me. “And no one ever solves the riddle… But now, we have a blue on our side! You!”

“Right.”

“You’re on our side, right? You’re my friend.” Jaehyun asked eagerly and I nodded slowly. “So, all in all, once a house gets the other flag, we shred it up and put it on a pole to show… dominance, I guess?”

“Mhmm…”

“It makes people go off their game. A fight for pride and power.” Jaehyun beamed at me. “So… I need your help. I need you to help me get the Corsiva flag.”

“And where is that?”

“The greens used to put their flag in the common room but then again, like I said, Na Jaemin pretended to clean their common room and jumped out of the window. Guy broke a leg but apparently, it was worth it.” Jaehyun paused to catch his breath. “I think Nakamoto Yuta moved the flag to his room. With the bet going on, I bet you’ll be able to get into his room and steal his flag to give it to me, no?”

“Ahuh. Maybe.”

“Because you don’t care about these kinds of things, right?” He asked again and I nodded, a smile plastered on my face.  “Great! So, if you ever find a way to get the flag from the Corsivas, I’ll be anticipating it from you, right?”

“Right.”

And with that, Jaehyun pinched my cheek and happily headed back to his common room.

But he was wrong and I did care.

With that, I headed to the library to see the people of my own color.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

It was right as Jaehyun said. The Verita flag was in plain sight and it seemed to irked those that wanted it… The greens, especially. Lee Haechan stood in front, pacing back and forth when he saw me. Kim Doyoung sat by the flag, the containment spell surrounding it while he read a book.

“I told you the answer!” Haechan said and Doyoung shook his head.

“It’s wrong.” He told Haechan, the male throwing his hands in the air. “I told you, get the right answer and you’ll get the flag.”

With a grunt, Lee Haechan his heels and exited the library. The blues were a tad bit too relaxed and I walked closer to see Doyoung pass me a nod.

“Hey. Don’t mind this… This is just tradition. I take it either my sister and Oh Dana told you about it?”

“Do you have any plans to steal the flags from other houses?”

“You got the talk to Jeno for that.” Doyoung shrugged, motioning to the back of the library. “He’s handling it, being captain and all.”

With a nod, I went over to the back of the library to see a guy humming to himself. He had a book in hand, sorting the books out when he looked up and saw me.

“Oh. Aera,” he greeted and I smiled, stopping in front of him. “What’s going on?”

He looked concerned and it was true that Veritas really did worry about their own people. I caught a glimpse of his bracelet, Jeno at the same time, looking at mine. Suddenly, it was like we were mirroring each other and we both lifted it up.

“Oh. You’re pretty dark,” I found myself saying. Jeno chuckled, nodding before looking down at his bracelet. It was a shade lighter than mine, Jeno telling me that it was usually this shade until it would cloud over.

“It was a little bit darker until I had a few sessions with Janitor Moon. We’re a bit awkward now, though.” He frowned at the thought. “It’s the Verita stubbornness. It’s kind of like how Renjun is awkward with Doyoung. All because Doyoung forgot Renjun’s name.”

“That kind of . I was just here to ask you if you have a plan in order to get the flags of the other houses.”

Jeno looked shocked that I was asking but he quickly changed it to suspicion.

“Are you working for the Integritas?”

“What? No!” I shook my head, Jeno relaxing.

“We do have a plan.” Jeno nodded. “The Integritas put their flags out in plain sight and it’s being guarded by Johnny, the Vice-Captain of Integrita. I take it you know him?”

I nodded and Jeno smirked, motioning me to follow him. I quickly tried to keep up, Jeno leading me further back into the library. It was like a maze, shadows deepening into a darker shade of gray when I heard a whine from a corner.

“We kidnapped Park Jisung,” Jeno told me and I froze, my mind reeling back to where Oh Dana said that Park Jisung was her stepbrother. “Don’t worry, he’s in good hands. We just needed someone to make a sleeping potion for us.”

Once I stepped closer, I saw that Jisung was sitting on the floor with a cauldron in front of him while he sniffled. His yellow coat stood out like a sore thumb, Renjun beside him, keeping watch. Renjun perked up when he saw Jeno, passing Jeno a small glass vile to which Jeno sniffed.

“What are you thinking of doing?”

“We’re going to put this in Johnny’s morning coffee,” Jeno said, running a hand through his hair. “Oh, Johnny. Johnny loves his morning coffee but once he takes a sip it’s… Goodbye, Johnny. Goodnight, Johnny.”

There was a reason why Jeno was on the darker spectrum of the blue and this was the exact reason why. I saw a flicker of darkness on his bracelet when Jeno finally passed the vile back and it went back to a brighter shade of blue. I frowned, leaning forward.

“It changed so fast.” I tapped on Jeno’s bracelet, the male looking down.

“Meditation helps but there are times when my soul relapses—”

“Try putting him in the same room as Kim Bunny. His bracelet going straight to almost a black. There is nothing Jeno hates more than having to deal with a yellow and that yellow being Kim Bunny.” Renjun said from the ground, Jisung not even looking up. When he caught me staring at Jisung, he chuckled. “And don’t worry, Jisung doesn’t know he’s kidnapped.”

“I do.” Jisung’s small voice rang out. “You took out my bracelet so I won’t be able to SOS my people.”

“And the yellows? How do they protect their flags?”

“Like they do every other year. Yellows are all for teamwork, you know? They pass the flag around from person to person and since there are a lot of them, it’s literally impossible to find. They work so well together,” Renjun said to me before sighing. “And the greens… We can’t pull off what the Justicias did last year to steal their flag.”

“Na Jaemin pretending to clean the Corsiva common room and grabbing the flag and jumping out the window?” Jeno shook his head. “Iconic.”

“And how about how he blasted you before you could do the containment spell on the fake flag? You guys did not talk for two weeks,” Renjun reminded Jeno, the captain of the palet team scowling.

“It wasn’t the fact that the yellows stole the flags. It was how they sent us cookies after! Imagine succeeding in stealing flags and sending cookies to the respective houses with a small note “Sorry for stealing your flag!”. How infuriating,” Jeno grumbled and Jisung lifting up another vial to show that it was done.

“Can I go now?”

“No,” both Renjun and Jeno said, shaking their heads. “We won’t let you go until we get the red flag.”

“I can try to help you guys get the Corsiva flag,” I offered suddenly, both of them scoffing at me.

“Please, Aera. To do that, you’ll have to go to the heart of the snake trap—Nakamoto Yuta’s bedroom. Now, tell me. How exactly are you going to do that?” Jeno asked and I blinked.

I forgot they had no idea of my bet with Yuta and I was pretty sure that they’d go all pissy if they ever knew. The Veritas hated drama and the fact that I agreed to be caught up in it with my own accord may make them look at me in a different light.

“He’s training me.” It wasn’t a lie but it wasn’t the whole truth either. “I just got my shield from one session with Yuta so we’re kind of acquainted.”

“I mean, nothing works better than to be trained by someone whose soul is dark as yours. No offense to you, Aera, but that shade of blue is alarming.”

“I mean, yeah. I’m working hard though.” My words seemed to soften Jeno up, the male patting the back of my shoulder to show support as if he knew what it was like to be a dark shade of blue. “Anyway, I was thinking that it would be easy to get into his bedroom. It’s just about how to steal it.”

“Mhm…” Renjun bit on his lip before his eyes lit up. “How far can you go?”

“What do you have in mind?” I asked, Renjun suddenly faltering.

“Ah, but I’m afraid you can’t do it, considering you’re dating Jaehyun and all.” He his chin and I raised an eyebrow at his words. “I mean, I was thinking, the kiss of death. But if you do that, the world may break loose if Jaehyun finds out.”

“What’s the kiss of death?”

“It’s a poison that is inserted on the tip of a person’s tongue that puts the person to sleep when kissed. A queen once used it in the olden days to kill her husband one night. I mean, we won’t use poison, obviously. At most, we’ll use a harder dose of sleeping potion.”

“How does that work? I mean, won’t I fall asleep too, if it’s my mouth?”

“We coat your tongue with a film-like substance. Just be careful not to breathe in through your mouth. If you do kiss him, spit out the remaining and you’ll be fine.” Jeno paused. “Wait, we are not doing this. You’re with Jeffrey!”

“I’m sur