Jonghyun stood there, confused. It was still dark. The realization that he had been nodding off didn’t hit him after some times; and he looked at the sky to see the shining moon, as if trying to denounce the identity of his as a stalker in the middle of the night. He wondered to himself how on Earth did he let Chaerin influenced him to watch over that son of the ambassador’s for the entire night while she and the others were sitting in front of the cozy fireplace of the house trying to think of a proper plan for finding that. Jonghyun closed his eyes again in attempt to recall what he had been seeing before the sound of a broken twig startled him. In his dream he heard someone singing. The memories of that voice were all blurry and barely noticeable; but Jonghyun swore he saw a figure as he had stood there in the middle of those scattered feathers. It was a petite, shaking figure, all covered in white cloth, which made those brown strands of hair stand out remarkably. It was very familiar to him; he has been seeing that figure again and again, continuously in every dream as if there was a tape inside his brain just waiting to turn the scene on everytime he falls asleep. He told Chaerin about it also, but the latter just patted his head as if he was still a little child and told him it was all just dreams. A great leader she is, but Chaerin is too much of a realist to see things from a spiritual perspective and see what her ‘son’ was trying to say. It hit the latter a long time ago that Chaerin herself actually hates who she is and that she was only trying to save her normal self from descending to that immeasurable depth which all of them helped to create. Though she stands somewhere higher than people of Jonghyun’s ability, to Chaerin it was all just to fulfill her duties as a Guardian. ‘Ciel’, she told others to call her so; but Jonghyun never obeys that and ended up never using a name to call her. He does see the Guardian as a sky; but a sky like her doesn’t bring him the feeling of safety and freedom like those others. This sky is always confined as it brings him a mysterious feeling, something that could be called as curiosity towards the determination of Jonghyun’s to find out what was there hiding inside Chaerin’s toughly, yet attractively persuasive outer cover. He was startled one more time as his phone vibrated and he soon found out that Chaerin called him, the second time before the moon of that night went down. He took a step back, moving closer to the bushes inside the garden without making a single sound before squatting down behind a perfect copy of the Venus of the Milo.

   “Yeah, I’m here.” He spoke up, hugging his knees in attempt to find a comfortable position, yet not to be seen by any of the surveillance cameras. “So what did you come up with?”

   “Nothing.” Replied Chaerin tiredly as a sound of what seemed to be of clothes being rubbed against something was heard. “Instead, we decided to join you tonight, Jonghyun. We are going to give the Hwang family a nice little visit.”   

   “Well that’s good because to be honest I’m getting a bit lonely here.” He grinned and began to move towards the back of the house in extreme silence, as flexible and fast as a cheetah hunting down its prey. “I’ll see you guys in the back of the house, okay? From there we can get to his room a lot quicker.”

   “Three minutes and we’ll be there.” Said Chaerin before she hung up. Jonghyun clumsily turned off his phone, but only ended up throwing it across the yard. Flying some feet away, finally the phone decided to stop right next to a rose bush. Its owner was glad that it didn’t fall straight in; it wouldn’t be good for him if he had to make a heroic jump into all of those thorns. He rushed there and reached for the phone, only to see that it was nowhere to be found. His eyes almost popped out as he began to crawl around to find it again, knowing that Chaerin would be furious if he didn’t return her continual calls.

   “Are you looking for this?” A voice resounded behind Jonghyun’s back; and he saw a hand reaching out with his phone on it. He grabbed the phone as quickly as possible to make sure that Chaerin didn’t call him in the last two minutes. She said she would be there in three minutes, but probably she managed to gather the others quicker than she thought it would take. Again, the owner of the hand helped Jonghyun stand up.

   “Thanks, bro.” He said when sliding the phone back into his pocket without even looking up, because he was completely sure that the person was on his side anyhow.

   “Heh, you’re welcome.” The other replied; but as Jonghyun looked at him, he failed to choke out any other word. It soon hit him that the prey he was hunting now came back to be the hunter, as Jonghyun himself sarcastically turned into the helpless prey.

   It was no one else but Hwang Minhyun standing in front of him, his smile lit up his face. It was beautiful, but not in a peaceful or happy way. It was indeed the kind of smile that would send chills down your spine and have goosebumps appear on your arms.

   Jonghyun was experiencing the same thing as the young man of his age examined every square inch of him, a frown of surprise glided through his forehead.

   “Jonghyun!” Chaerin appeared out of a corner nearby, but her voice slowly faded out as soon as she saw the target of the plan. Looking anxiously at one of the cameras, she signaled the two beside them to step back as she herself also did such thing.

   It was just only tense silence wandering around in the air as minutes past by felt like years and years. Jonghyun managed to show out his best straight face, watching every movement of Minhyun’s as the latter turned around to confirm the appearance of three more strangers. One of them tried to take a step ahead but was instantly stopped by Chaerin. Should he be alone at that moment, Jonghyun would collapse down under that calm but mischevious gaze. He realized one thing that looks could actually kill; and he was preparing to be announced dead and got buried. But contrary to what he expected, Minhyun smiled again and tilted his head gently before speaking in a tone that exactly took after his father’s, Jonghyun saw the latter on TV a few times. They were both gentle and swift, yet showing some kind of strong demand that gave other people a feeling that something would eventually go wrong if they didn’t follow what the person said:

   “Ah, it’s cold out here. Why don’t we go in for a casual chat and then see if I should tell apoji-nim about you or not?”

   Jonghyun still kept silent as Chaerin moved in closer. She looked at Minhyun fiercely and went straight into the topic:

   “We are here for you. Like it or not, you have to come with us.”

   “Come on in.” Minhyun said and walked past Chaerin, almost ignoring her words. The latter looked surprised, she was used to the fact that everyone had to listen to her; but again she just smirked and followed the young heir of the enormous property. Jonghyun was left without any choices, so he began to catch up with them as the other two also got out of their position and started to head into the house. Legally, through the front door.

♥

   Jonghyun glared suspiciously at the cup of tea Minhyun had just poured him, almost as if doubting the latter for putting some kind of poison there. Though they had been keeping silence up till then, there was still some kind of tension wandering inside the air. They watched every movement of one another’s carefully; their stiffened body ready to spring up if a threat was posed. Chaerin nodded quickly as Minhyun offered her some tea, but yet she just held it with her two cold hands while observing the interiors inside the house. One of the two that came with Chaerin was Bom, who was smiling at Minhyun lovingly as a mother would do to her children as she calmly took a sip from her cup. Jonghyun’s eyes met Chaerin’s in silence, and as her head merely bent down – for one centimetre or so – he followed Bom’s action, taking his tea in slowly and cautiously. The hot liquid streaming down his throat almost made his eyes teary, but yet the bitterness attracted him. Unlike the other’s elegant gestures, he nearly covered his face with the cup as he continued on to, like somewhat, devouring the drink. Despite the fact that his entire throat and face were on fire, his fingers were still icy cold as they moved the now empty cup away. The other guy coming with Chaerin looked at him and grinned when Minhyun lifted the teapot up with a swift move and smiled at him:

   “Do you want some more?”

   Jonghyun slowly shook his head, and the elegant teen slowly put it down. The latter studied him one more time and then turned back to Chaerin and Bom, facing them in silence for a few moments before the blonde spoke up with her left hand brought ahead:

   “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Minhyun-ssi. My name is Lee Chaerin.”

   “The pleasure is all mine, Chaerin-ssi.” Minhyun took her hand and shook it politely, later he bowed at the woman. “Still, I’m afraid that I can’t help myself but asking you this: Why did you all sneak into my house in the middle of the night like this?”

   Jonghyun eyed the guy in the corner, and just like some kind of telepathy, smirks instantly spreaded across their faces. This boy is tougher than we thought he would be.

   “We are here for you.” Simply replied Chaerin, her hand busily playing with the end of her hair. “You are one of us, Minhyun-ssi, but you are different from the rest of the world.”

   Minhyun frowned, leaving no replies. Swiftly, Bom took two long strides forward and boldly took the younger boy’s hand. Without letting him have a chance to react, she lifted something invisible to Jonghyun up and stuck her tongue out rather cheerfully. Minhyun jerked back a little, obviously startled by the new discovery that he wasn’t the only one who could see special things.

   “What do you want from me?” He whispered, and Jonghyun couldn’t help but being amused at the frail side of the person who seemed to be so indifferent at his first sight.

   Chaerin stood up from her position of leaning against the kitchen counter, slowly explaining everything the newbie needed to know. Yet Minhyun showed his poker face back out, not even letting himself move a single muscle on his face.

   “So basically we are divided into two groups. One that wants to be set free and one wants to stay the way they are.” Chaerin ended her speech sharply and stared Minhyun down, as if she could burn flaming holes into the latter’s eyes. “Since this is a free country, yes, it’s your free choice.”

   “What if I don’t choose your side?” Minhyun smirked and retorted. In spite of getting familiar to the way the teen acts, Jonghyun still found himself startled at the question.

   “Then I’m afraid I have to take a little care of you, Minhyun-ssi.” Youngjae stepped out of his place, flashing the younger a threatening face. His sharp eyes mimicked Chaerin’s way – almost drilling through the person opposite him.

   “So in order to make it fair, you will choose first and then we’ll tell you which side we’re on.” Bom concluded with her angelic smile, as Youngjae shrugged and Chaerin blinked rapidly as if to keep her eyes open constantly for the next scene.

   “It’s obvious. I want to get out of this .” Minhyun said confidently, his chin held up high. “You have no idea what I’ve gone through. You have no idea what I’ve done. If someone can set me free from this, trust me, I would do anything for them.”

   “Congratulations. You’re going with us.” Chaerin smiled as Jonghyun stood up from his seat and got next to Youngjae. “You have all the time you want to bid your father goodbye and then we will handle the business. All those threads connecting you to you father and the staff here needs to be cut, as fast as we can.”

   “I’ll do it myself. Give me ten minutes.” Whispered the teen dressed in white as he turned his back and walked away. The rest looked at one another, satisfaction glowing in their eyes. Mission accomplished.