After Sojin told them her story, Ahyoung and Sanghyuk understood better a lot of things. They all went back together to their respective classrooms.

During the break, Sanghyuk and Ahyoung decided to go together to the cafeteria to eat something. Sanghyuk was the first one to exit the classroom, Ahyoung stopped right before crossing the door and looked back, towards Hongbin’s seat, the boy wasn’t looking at her, actually he was leaning on his desk over his crossed arms. Ahyoung sighed.

“Ahyoung hurry up.”

She heard Sanghyuk calling her from the hall. The girl then followed Sanghyuk, unaware that Hongbin lifted his gaze to see her just before she was gone.

Sanghyuk and Ahyoung were walking towards the cafeteria when Hyeri stood in front of them, cutting their pace.

“You two have to come with me.” She said with an innocent smile.

“Where to?” Ahyoung asked with a lifted eyebrow.

“Jonghyun wants to have a talk.” Hyeri vaguely answered, changing her tone to a serious one.

“What does he have to talk with Ahyoung now?” Sanghyuk asked frowning.

“Actually, the one he wants to talk to is you, Sanghyuk.” Hyeri looked at him with a smirk.

Sanghyuk snorted and also smirked before answering.

“With me? Yeah sure.” Sanghyuk said with a chuckle, then looked at Ahyoung. “Let’s go.”

Sanghyuk started to walk but Hyeri quickly positioned herself behind him, took out a dagger and put it against Sanghyuk’s neck. The boy stopped on his tracks.

“Don’t complicate things for me.” Hyeri said in a melodic voice.

“Hyeri!” Ahyoung angrily said in shock.

“You want to make a fuss here? Or will you willingly come with me?” Hyeri turned to see her with a serious expression.

“Let him go first.” Ahyoung demanded with the same seriousness.

Hyeri snorted with a smile and let Sanghyuk go, putting away her dagger.

“Sometimes I forget that you’re a heiress, you look scary when you put that face.” Hyeri said tilting her head.

“There’s no need for something like this, we’ll go with you.” She answered walking towards Sanghyuk.

“Great.” Hyeri said with a smile, as if she hadn’t just threatened Sanghyuk a moment before.

Hyeri started to walk and they followed her, the few people that witnessed the scene were looking at them with surprised expressions, but Ahyoung didn’t pay attention to them, she had more important things to think about in that moment.

“Are you okay?” She asked Sanghyuk in a low voice.

“Yeah, she didn’t do anything to me, don’t worry.” Sanghyuk assured her, with his gaze still over Hyeri.

“How come she can carry a weapon here?” Ahyoung asked him, also looking to the front.

“She’s a bodyguard, so she’s allowed to carry them.”

“Wait, so you also carry weapons with you?” Ahyoung asked him in surprise, turning to see him.

Sanghyuk chuckled upon her surprise.

“A few.” He vaguely answered with a smirk.

Ahyoung chuckled, she must have imagined it, though hearing it ,was different.

Hyeri led them to the garden where Jonghyun and Ahyoung usually met. Jonghyun was standing at the middle of it, not facing them. Hyeri walked to him while Ahyoung and Sanghyuk remained some steps behind them.

“I’ve brought them.” Hyeri told Jonghyun.

The demon turned around and fixed his gaze on Ahyoung, the girl was making a great effort to remain calm, she also constantly reminded herself not to look directly at his eyes for more than two seconds. Then Jonghyun looked at Sanghyuk, who kept his gaze over him.

“Sanghyuk.” Jonghyun called him with a serious voice.

Ahyoung looked at Sanghyuk, the boy remained silent.

“Why did you call us here?” Ahyoung asked, returning her gaze to the demon.

Jonghyun looked at her, softening his gaze a bit.

“There’s something I have to make sure of.”

“And that’s why you had to bring us here that way?” Ahyoung asked a bit angry.

Jonghyun frowned and looked at her in confusion.

“What do you mean?”

“Hyeri even threatened Sanghyuk with a dagger, what is that thing you want to make sure of for you to drag us here by those means?”

Jonghyun widened his eyes in surprise and turned to see Hyeri, who averted his gaze the moment she felt it over her.

“I don’t remember ordering you to do something like that.” Jonghyun angrily said to Hyeri.

The demon sighed and looked back at him with seriousness.

“Sanghyuk wasn’t willing to come, so I had to force him, I had to fulfill your order.” Hyeri firmly answered.

“That doesn’t mean you had to go to that extent.” Jonghyun scolded her.

“Really? Don’t you remember what happened last time I couldn’t fulfill one order of yours? That made me realize I couldn’t fail anymore.” Hyeri answered to him with an annoyed tone.

“That was before, I don’t do those things anymore.” Jonghyun said scratching his head.

“And how am I supposed to know that?” The girl almost screamed at him.

Ahyoung and Sanghyuk remained silent looking at the scene in front of them and then looked at each other in confusion to return their gazes to the demons.

The girl found strange the way Hyeri was talking to Jonghyun, by what she previously told her, she wasn’t allowed to talk to him like that. What was happening just made her hypothesis of Jonghyun having changed stronger.

“Excuse me.” Ahyoung said, Hyeri and Jonghyun stopped their rambling and looked at her. “I don’t want to interrupt your talk but, what is this all about?”

Jonghyun returned to his seriousness as well as Hyeri.

“Do you remember what I told you last time?” Jonghyun asked her.

Ahyoung frowned when she got what the demon meant.

>> “Is everything alright with Sanghyuk? Hyeri thinks there’s something off with him.”

After remembering those words Ahyoung chuckled and relaxed, everyone looked at her puzzled, she then looked at Jonghyun again.

“You didn’t have to do all of this, everything’s alright now, you don’t have to worry about that anymore.” She said with a smile.

Ahyoung then turned to see Sanghyuk and gave him a little punch on the arm, to what the boy looked at her with surprise.

“See? I told you, you created a lot of misunderstandings.” She said with a smile.

“Care to explain what all of this is about?” Sanghyuk asked her in confusion.

“Jonghyun and Hyeri here thought something about you was off, because you were behaving weirdly, so Jonghyun is trying to make sure you won’t do anything against me.” Ahyoung calmly explained.

“Oh…” Sanghyuk just answered.

“What, he convinced you?” Jonghyun questioned.

Ahyoung frowned and looked at him, she didn’t like the way he asked that.

“You don’t trust me?” Ahyoung asked back.

It was a weird question to ask him, she was aware of that, but it was the first thing that came to her mind.

“I trust you, but not him.” The demon firmly answered.

Ahyoung was taken aback by his answer, he didn’t even doubt it.

“Well I trust Sanghyuk with closed eyes, so you’ll have to also trust him.” Jonghyun fixed his gaze on Sanghyuk, the assassin did the same. “There’s a reason why he behaved the way he did a couple of days ago but that’s something between us.”

The demon sighed heavily, looking back at her. After meditating it for some seconds, he finally nodded.

“Fine, if you say everything’s alright, I trust you.”

Ahyoung smiled to him and nodded. Jonghyun and Ahyoung kept looking at each other for some seconds, unaware of the curious look Sanghyuk was giving them and the smile on Hyeri’s face.

Two months passed by and some things changed.

Ahyoung and Jonghyun no longer argued with each other, the girl came to accept the prideful attitude of the demon: while he was always attentive to what Ahyoung didn’t like to try to improve it.

All in all, they started to understand and get to know each other better.

However, since they were constantly being spotted together, some rumors started to be heard here and there. Those rumors reached ears that weren’t really pleased with them.

“Hey sweetie, if you keep frowning like that you’ll start to have wrinkles.”

“Shut up.”

Wonshik and Tiffany were together, they started to get along about a year ago, not long after Tiffany entered high school. They shared some goals in common, like being the leaders of their respective realms and not liking the whole equality thing.

Tiffany was standing with crossed arms, leaning on a tree while Wonshik was sitting on a branch, looking at her from there.

“You demons are so rude.” Wonshik said with false sadness.

“I swear the next stupid thing you say I’ll rip your head.” Tiffany said with annoyance.

“Alright, alright, I’ll shut up.” Wonshik answered leaning down on the branch and looking to the leaves of the tree.

They remained silent for some seconds until Tiffany spoke again.

“So, how’s it going with Sojin? Has she accepted you?” She asked with intrigue.

“If she had already done it, would I be here with you?” Wonshik said with irony.

“Maybe, it’s not like you actually like her.”

Wonshik didn’t answer to that, so Tiffany looked up to him, Wonshik wasn’t looking at her.

“Don’t tell me you fell for Sojin.” Tiffany said with a smirk.

Wonshik then chuckled and sat again, he looked down to Tiffany and also showed her a smirk.

“No, but I admit I’ve taken an interest in her, she’s different from the rest and that’s fascinating to me.” Wonshik said thoughtful.

“That’s the same as saying you fell for her, idiot.” Tiffany replied, looking to the front again.

Wonshik then jumped from the tree, landing just beside Tiffany, the girl didn’t even bothered to see him. Wonshik also leaned on the tree, looking to the front.

“Well, at least I’m not overshadowed by a mere human.” He venomously said.

Tiffany immediately tried to hit him but Wonshik managed to dodge that attack, so Tiffany’s fist ended up landing on the trunk, making a little hole in it. Wonshik whistled while looking at the hole in the tree.

“That was a nice punch, I’m glad it didn’t land on me.” Wonshik said with fun.

“I told you I would rip your head for the next stupid thing you said.” Tiffany angrily answered.

“Damn girl, you’ve got quite the attitude.”

“Anyway, what you said makes no sense, that mere girl hasn’t overshadowed me.” Tiffany said with a haughty tone.

“Really? I don’t think so.” Wonshik said with a smirk.

Tiffany turned to see him and was about to punch him again when Wonshik signaled to the front with his head. Tiffany looked towards there and frowned while clenching her fists.

Just in front of them, Jonghyun and Ahyoung were walking and talking together, with Sanghyuk and Hyeri following them. Tiffany followed them with her eyes, once they were gone, she snorted and looked away.

“I’ll get rid of her.” She venomously said.

Wonshik chuckled and denied with his head, he then looked to his side and smirked when he saw something.

“Maybe someone can help you with that.” He said with malice.

“The hell are you talking about now?” Tiffany angrily asked.

She then looked in the direction Wonshik was looking and was able to see Hongbin, who was also glaring at Jonghyun and Ahyoung from afar with clenched fists.

Tiffany chuckled and smirked.

“Oh? That’s interesting.”

A/N: A short chapter this week, though it's a linking chapter to start the new arc of the story, I hope you like it ^^

As always, thank you so so much for reading, comments are appreciated ^^ stay safe and have a beautiful day <3