“Look at you two, you’re back on track!” Kyuhyun greeted Donghae and Jessica who were also having their morning jog. Jessica panted and halted jogging for a few seconds and greeted Kyuhyun back.

“Thank god we’re not the only ones running this early.” Jessica said as she held onto her knees for support. She then straightened up and smiled at Kyuhyun’s trainees. “Preparing for mock battles, aren’t we?”

Kyuhyun glanced behind him and looked at his trainees who were still at least fifty feet away from them. “It’s better to keep them in shape.” His hands rested on his hips. “What about you guys? Hey, hyung!” He nudged at Donghae. “You should join the mock battles. It’d be nice to see you back in action.”

Donghae looked surprised and Kyuhyun’s idea appealed to him. “Well, that’s kind of a bit too much step to take, don’t you think?”

Kyuhyun just shrugged, “I don’t think so. Some SJ hyungs joined. I just thought you’d like to join too.”

“Did you join?”

Kyuhyun just shook his head, “I need more time to train these kids.” He started to loosen up to carry on jogging when his trainees came nearer. “Anyway, I gotta run. See you guys around!” He waved as he went back jogging, this time with his trainees.

Donghae waved back and turned to Jessica, “One more mile?”

Tension grew inside Yunho’s office. The red wallpaper seemed to be deeper crimson at the moment. They burned Kris’ eyes. They burned Heechul’s widened eyes. Yunho could only pour himself another glass of wine.

“Well,” Yunho finally broke the lingering silence. “Well, this is something new. It’s rare, you know?” He sipped his wine and added, “I know this has been an adventure for you but I didn’t expect this to happen now.”

Kris looked down, “I apologize but it seems that my strength is not enough for this. You are right though, that this has been a great adventure to me.”

“Yunho-shi, please don’t listen to him. I apologize, and it was rude for us to come here without any notice.” Heechul pleaded, “I apologize in behalf of my trainee.”

Yunho put a little smug smile in his lips. “No, there is no need to apologize. I think I can fully understand what Kris here is trying to say.”

“No! It’s wrong! He cannot do this and you cannot approve of this!” Heechul raised his voice, alarming the guards outside Yunho’s office. However, Yunho gestured to them that it’s fine so they just left again.

“I’d like to remind you to tone down your voice.” Yunho said as he took another sip from his glass. “Now, before signing you a failed mission,” Heechul gasped hearing this. “I’d like to tell you I’m considering the fact that you’re new to this town and that you needed more time to grow and adjust to this kind of environment.” Kris nodded, still looking down. “I am considering filing you an abolished mission instead of a failed one. I think your trainer worked well enough and he doesn’t deserve a fail on his list of accomplishments or credentials.”

“Whatever you think is better, I willingly oblige to have the same opinion.” Kris humbly said, this time, he looked up at Yunho with apologetic eyes.

“It’s not over, I know there is a punishment for this.” Heechul mumbled for Kris to hear as he scoffed silently.

“However, for you, as a trainee, your rank goes down again. I thought you were different, Kris. But after this,” Yunho shook his head lightly. “I think I’m going to give you the punishment you deserve for failing a mission.” Kris looked down again, ashamed of what he did.

“I understand and I fully accept whatever penalty you may give me.” Kris humbly said.

“You’re automatically blacklisted in the mock battles for the rest of the year. And for the record, you’ll also stay in the city for two weeks.” Yunho noted and signed the paper, he handed it to Heechul as Kris’ trainer. “I’m afraid I won’t let you have trainings for the mean time. I guess you need to be a better leader first—if you haven’t heard, some of your brothers failed their missions too and received a few days of stay in the city as punishment.”

Kris looked surprised but he swallowed hard in order to hide this. “I—I understand.”

“But I want you to know I am proud of you to have come this far in this mission I gave you. This one’s really special and I was expecting you standing right here like right now, giving up the mission to break Seohyun’s heart, one week after I handed it down to you. But look at you, it took months.” Yunho grinned at him. “Now, Heechul, don’t feel bad. Just focus on your other trainees for the mean time, and prepare them for mock battle.”

Heechul was so close to rolling his eyes. He felt really down because of Kris. It’s like someone just burned his pride to ashes. He just bowed slightly and stomped out of Yunho’s office, clutching the files of the abolished mission in his hand.

Kris and Yunho just watched Heechul stormed off but the senior just chuckled while the younger one was astounded.

“You don’t have to worry about him. He’ll come around.” Yunho said as he pulled out his chair from the desk.

“I will leave now, then. It was a pleasure working on this mission.” Kris bowed lowly before straightening up and turning his back when Yunho called him back.

Seohyun was walking alone along the busy streets of Seoul. She just settled in a new apartment and she just couldn’t stay inside any longer. The space inside was too limited and her thoughts were puzzling her too much she just had to take her mind off things.

The sun was about to set and she was waiting for Kris to call. She glanced at her phone but when she saw no one left her any message, she put it back in her pocket.

She walked a little further. Somehow, that second, she realized how beautiful it was the people around her to live. Living at the moment, it was like that for the people. It was different for vampires like her because they get to live forever. A single moment isn’t very special because anything can happen in their lifetime. Living for hundreds of years? How can one even identify a special moment?

The sun was starting to set completely when Seohyun spotted a familiar face in the crowd.

“Unnie!” She called out and walked a little faster towards her.

“Seohyun-ah!” Jessica called out too. When they met, they embraced each other tightly. “I missed you so, so much.” She said before releasing her. She handed Seohyun a bag of blood packs from her hunt this afternoon. “Blood of fawns, sweetest as promised.”

“Thanks, unnie.” Seohyun said as she took the bag from Jessica. She also received her own cup for the night as she was really thirsty and good thing Jessica did bring something ready to drink.

“Look at you,” Jessica held Seohyun by her arms and checked her. “You look beautiful tonight. Your coat compliments your eyes—if only they’d shine gold right now.” Jessica whispered the latter part and Seohyun just chuckled and looked down on what she was wearing. She did cover up by wearing red trench coat and black leather boots and all else black underneath.

Seohyun finally decided to fix herself earlier that day. She put on a light make-up and dabbed red lip gloss on her lips. She kind of grew tired of putting crimson red lipstick so she decided to lessen the makeup. She just had to put color to her porcelain skin.

“You don’t look bad yourself.” Seohyun returned the compliment as she hooked her arms with her sister and they walked towards the railings of the lake beside the street. “Anyway, it’s not that I don’t want to see you, because I heard about the good news from my mentor earlier about Donghae-shi, but I was informed earlier this week that Yoona-unnie’s going to fetch me my food.”

Jessica smiled back at Seohyun and looked ahead, “I don’t know but maybe Yoona’s busy these days with her missions so she cancelled. I volunteered in her place, besides I told you, I missed you.”

“Well, that’s so sweet of you, unnie.” Seohyun put an arm around her sister’s shoulder for a moment then they finally leaned against the railings. They stood there in silence for a few minutes as Jessica just let Seohyun finish her drink for a while. They were contented with the company of each other.

“You know, I want to ask you something.” Jessica spoke up and Seohyun faced her this time. “It’s just that at our place back in the town, everyone’s worried about you. Especially Taeyeon, she just doesn’t show it most of the time. How are you, really?”

Seohyun looked away and then faced the lake once again, “I’m hanging on.” Then she glanced at Jessica for a second before looking back at the lake. “I’ll complete these missions like how I’m supposed to. I’m just taking all the time I need before everything blows over.”

Jessica held Seohyun’s hand and squeezed it, “Nothing will blow over, okay?” Jessica assured their maknae. “I trust you, we all do. You’re going to do whatever you’re best at with Kris, and then you’ll bring Jaejoong back to SM Town.” There was a different expression in Jessica’s eyes—anxiety and fright at the same time. But Seohyun couldn’t read them because her lips were pulled up into a sweet smile.

“Speaking of that man, I think he mentioned it to me before that you had his picture in your wallet. Is it still there?” Seohyun asked casually, as if it didn’t upset her to talk about Jaejoong at all. She just had to endure because curiosity is consuming her insides.

Jessica looked away this time and smiled a little, “Well, I already changed the picture but it’s still there, somewhere.” Seohyun did not answer so Jessica just continued, “Seohyun,” this made Seohyun look at Jessica, “Jaejoong’s the one who turned me.”

Seohyun’s eyes widened and hung open before she found the words to say so Jessica spoke first. “The life I have now, I owe it to him. And because of this life I have right now, I met you, girls, the eight of you. I don’t know how to say it, but I guess I just couldn’t be any more grateful to him.”

“W—wow, well, I—I don’t know what to say,” Seohyun stuttered thinking of all the possibilities inside her head. They came in like a fast-forwarded movie, everything just came flashing through her mind. Did Jessica know Jaejoong before she did? Did Jessica know about the betrothal too? Was she together with Jaejoong before she became a vampire? She wanted to know what was her life like when she was friends with Jaejoong. Needless to say, she felt uncomfortable with the fact that Jessica obviously shared some moments with Jaejoong, some moments that will never come back but still, existed in history. Now she regrets ever opening the topic.

“I couldn’t exactly remember every detail about our past when I was still human but all I know is that Jaejoong isn’t exactly the worst person you’ll meet. He’s kind to special people, I guess you’re special to him too because he doesn’t hurt you, does he?” Jessica asked.

This time, Seohyun looked away. “I don’t know a lot about him, unnie.”

“Well, you should try to get to know him. Can you promise me something, Seohyun?” Jessica waited for Seohyun to agree before she continued, “Promise me you’ll get to know him first before you bring him back to our town. We don’t know what’s going to happen to him when he gets back.” Seohyun knew she was pertaining to Jaejoong’s death or imprisonment in the dark dungeons in SM Town. “You should get to know him.”

“Okay,” was all Seohyun could say but it was enough for Jessica to hear. They were surrounded by silence once again before Jessica decided to break it.

Seohyun stood there, still on the same spot where Jessica left her. She was playing with her phone when it started ringing. She quickly answered it, only to realize it was Donghae on the screen before she slid her fingers to answer.

“Why are you so stared?” Donghae said on the other line which automatically made Seohyun look around her. There just a few feet away from her stood Donghae. He smiled at her and he looked really happy. Seohyun finally ended the call as Donghae started walking towards her.

“What are you doing here in the city?” Seohyun smiled at him.

“Oh, I trained myself for the mock battles and yes I decided to join.” Donghae put his phone inside his pocket. “I decided to run to cool down after.”

“It’s so nice to hear that from you.” Seohyun said. Everybody in SM Town knows how shy and kind Donghae was, he never really joined mock battle, not even once. But clearly, everyone also knows this was a good comeback for him.

“Hey, do you happen to meet Jessica? She told me she’s going to meet you and I—I kinda wanted to return this to her.” Donghae showed Seohyun a brown leather wallet. “She might need it while she’s in the city.”

Seohyun smiled bitterly at the thought of Jaejoong’s photo somewhere inside that wallet. “Oh, its’ with you.”

“Yes, and what’s that look in your face?” Donghae smiled again widely.

“What look? Look at you, oppa! You’re the one smiling like a creeper. Tell me, did you see his photo?” Seohyun lightly slapped Donghae’s arm.

“Well, I accidentally saw our photo together—wait, whose photo are we talking about?” Donghae’s smile slowly faded.

Seohyun realized what she just said might have upset Donghae a little. “I was talking about the photo you were talking about.” Seohyun tried not to stutter but it came out like a question instead.

“Did she tell you where she’s going?” Donghae was serious this time. Seohyun was trying to put two and two together: Jessica did not tell Donghae she was looking for Jaejoong and Donghae did not know about the photo of Jaejoong in Jessica’s wallet. Seohyun did not want to get in between the two.

 “She did not.” Which was half-true because Seohyun was the one who told Jessica where to go.

“Oh, I forgot she has a mission tonight.” Donghae rubbed the back of his head, “Yeah, I think she has. I hope she has.” He muttered the last part of his statement. “Maybe I should just go back to the town. She’s going to call me anyway if she needs anything. Yeah, I hope she calls me.” Donghae started muttering in a soft voice which made Seohyun see how in a matter of seconds, Donghae’s light mood became gloomy.

Seohyun smiled sadly at Donghae. She just caught him lie again to cover up for Jessica when he didn’t even need to. He cares a lot about her sister and it saddened her that maybe Jessica cared a lot more about Jaejoong than how she cared about Donghae at some point in her life. “Look, Donghae—“

“I have to go. I hope to see you back in town soon.” Donghae faked a smile one last time before turning his back on Seohyun. She just watched him disappear around the corner of the block before heaving a sigh.

Kris’ hands rested inside the pockets of his black leather jacket as he walks. He blew an air and smoke filled his vision. It was really cold and his warm body wasn’t warm enough. His eyes narrowed when he saw a familiar figure from the other side of the street. Her red trench coat was eye-catching. And she looked really beautiful with her hair straight and kept in place. She was stared for a while when a familiar vampire greeted her. It was Donghae. Kris stood there for a while and just admired her from afar. They walked about something which momentarily gave Seohyun different expressions and Kris could only wish he could memorize them all.

She was always beautiful in his eyes.

Later then, he watched Donghae leave her alone. Then she was stared once again.

Kris finally took his phone and dialed a number. It took three short rings before the other line answered, without looking away from Seohyun, Kris said on his phone, “Listen, I can’t do this.”

“What? Hyung! We already established a concrete plan earlier. You gave up the mission to get free weeks in the city and for us not to be suspicious to be absent on the mock battle.” Suho said on the other line.

“Listen, I already gave up too much. I gave up my spot on the mock battles, I voluntarily failed a mission and—and I don’t know, I think I don’t have to deal with her anymore since I’m basically done with that mission.” Kris sighed. He was confused at the moment since he’d been going through a lot lately.

Suho sighed too, “Some of EXO also failed missions intentionally for this. You just have to stay with her until tomorrow. Deal with it, please.”

“No, I can’t.”

“Well then, what do you suggest for us to do? You’re already in the city, aren’t you?”

It took a few seconds before Kris came up with a new plan, “You go meet her, Suho. Tell her about the plan and you stay with her for the night. Besides, it’s time for you to make amends with her.”

“What?”

“That’s final. I’ll text you where she is right now, and you have to go and meet her right away.” Kris said and ended the call. Suho was even about to complain some more but he didn’t want to hear them anymore.

Just then, Seohyun’s eyes almost meet Kris but he was fast enough to turn around. Slowly then, he started to walk away. He quickly sent Suho a text containing the exact location of Seohyun. He put back his phone inside his pocket and continued walking further and further until he reached a dark and empty alley.

There, he unfurled his vast and glowing wings. Without any hesitation, he launched himself soared higher through the sky and disappeared in the dark clouds as he flew higher and higher. He just needed that at the moment, he needed to escape. He wanted to escape.

He then stopped on the edge the top of a sky scraper. He looked at the city lights. He saw how beautiful they were as lights twinkled. It was a joyful city but it was an irony knowing there are sad individuals out there. It is undoubtedly unfair to see this bright city when in reality, people out there have darkest secrets.

It finally came like flashbacks at the back of his mind…

“I am quitting the mission to break Seo Joohyun’s non-beating heart.”Kris said as he entered Yunho’s office, with Heechul beside him. “It has been hard on me, but I think it’s just impossible and quite unfair to break an accomplice. We are both residents in this town, we should be acquaintances. It may have come really difficult but I refuse to continue this mission for the reason that I respect her as a sunbae and nothing more.”

“Is your decision final? Did Heechul here agree on this?” Yunho asked and paced behind his desk.

“I—I didn’t really—“ Heechul tried to explain but Kris cut him off.

“I don’t really need his permission because it’s a special mission given to me, but I did seek his affirmation too.” Kris’ jaw clenched as if something was holding him back all of a sudden—remembering everything he’d gone through in this mission. “Seohyun is amazing, she’s a good fighter, she’s strong and just—herself. It’s absurd to try to make her care and stir that emotion just to break her.”

“Well,” Yunho finally broke the lingering silence. “Well, this is something new. It’s rare, you know?” He sipped his wine and added, “I know this has been an adventure for you but I didn’t expect this to happen now.”

Kris’ jaw clenched remembering what happened earlier.

“Duizhang, it is decided then.” Luhan stood up and Xiumin followed.

“We are going to reveal ourselves to the witches and to Seohyun.” Xiumin said.

Chanyeol put a hand over his shoulder, “We’ll come prepared, if Jaejoong suddenly comes, we’ll be ready for a battle.”

“We’ll be ready.” D.O. assured and Baekhyun nodded in agreement.

Sehun stood beside Tao, both their arms are crossed against their chests. “We’ll fight side by side.”

Suho finally stepped up, “Well, I still hope there won’t be any clash during the ritual. Our intention is to have Lay cured. Tonight, you tell her our plan, we’ll meet you tomorrow after she talks to the witches.”

Kris’ eyes finally shone in bright yet deep silver, they were burning in bright hue.

“We’ve known your brothers and you are angels.” Nicole told him when he dropped by the Kara’s mansion.

“We are witches, we know everything.” The other witch beside Nicole added.

“We are not asking for anything in return, it is Seohyun we are worried about The ritual to curing your brother involves her.” Nicole said.

“It is a pact then, we’ll keep both our identities secrets. Whatever it is, I put my trust, as EXO’s leader, in you.” Kris said as he offered a handshake which all one of the witches took. He assumed she was the leader.

“We’ll do the ritual in an open ground in the middle of the forest, opposite the SM Town so we’ll be as far away as possible from your place. That way, we’ll be keeping the deal.” The leader said.

Kris finally jumped off the building and let a few seconds pass before he pulled himself back higher in the horizon.

Last night by the window, he saw Jaejoong with his arms draped around Seohyun from behind. That was then, he finalized his decision to quit his mission. He cannot break her heart. She was already breaking his.

He flew faster and higher and the wind brushed through his entire body but he wanted nothing right now but to fly away.

[A/N: I haven't heard a lot from you guys. =( I hope you voice out your thoughts on the previous chapters to know where I'm getting at. =) I missed updating this so I try my best to upload at least twice a week. I have gotten a lot better after the accident last year. Thanks for your wishes. I love you all!]