This chapter seemed never ending when I wrote it, but I tried my best to piece everything together.  I hope you enjoy.

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“Finally,” Junichiro muttered to himself as he left the first day of training.  It was already 8 PM and all he wanted to do was crawl in his bed and sleep.  Junichiro wasn’t sure how he survived the first day.  Training was strict and rigorous, and here on out would get worse.  As he started to head out he looked around for Noriko but she was nowhere to be found.  “Did she already leave?” he thought.  Instead of waiting around he decided to just head to his dorm. 

He just about collapsed on the bed when he reached his room.  He stared at the ceiling and reflected on the day. “Aish, how am I going to make it,” he sighed to himself while running his hands through his hair.  He was covered in sweat and considered taking another shower.  His body was too worn out to drag himself in there.  The comfort of his bed was calling him to fall asleep.  He couldn’t help but give in.  After what only felt like a few minutes, he woke up to his cell phone ringing wildly on his nightstand.  Groggy from just waking up, he answered it.

“WHERE ARE YOU!?!?” he heard a rather angry tone on the other line.  It was Noriko.  Junichiro looked over at his alarm clock.  It was 9:05 PM.

“Oh crap, I’m late!” he exclaimed as he jumped out of bed.

“You damn well are,” she responded.

“I’ll be there in 10!”  He abruptly hung up.

***

“How do I dress for this…?” he asked himself. What do you wear when you’re invited to a secret event? He couldn’t tell if it was some type of training or something else so he went with his gut. With haste, he threw on a pair of clean khakis and a dress shirt, hoping it would be deemed appropriate. He was true to his word and made it to the dance room.  When he walked in, there were no lights on.

“Hello?” he called, waiting for an answer.  He felt a hand on his shoulder and jumped. 

“Shh,” the person said.  He turned and found it was Noriko.  She grabbed his hand and whispered “Follow me and be as quiet as possible.”  Junichiro was a bit nervous about what was going to happen but he just kept walking with Noriko.  Curiosity kicked in as they reached a building Junichiro didn’t know existed.  It was a place hidden behind the back woods of the training grounds.  He couldn’t help himself from asking “What is going on?”  Noriko stopped for a minute. 

“You’ll probably have a lot of questions, but ask me after this meeting.  I promise you, I’m doing this for you.”  They continued to walk again.  Finally, they reached the door.  Knock knock.

“Password?” a voice asked from the other side.

“Naega chae chalaga,” Noriko responded.

“That’s not the password,” the voice muttered.

“Mir, I know it’s you.  Just let me in.”  The door opened. 

“You’re no fun,” Mir stuck his tongue out at his noona.  “The password was ‘Mir is awesome!’”  Noriko rolled her eyes while Junichiro stood with his jaw drop. 

“Oh my God, Mir hyung!”  Junichiro was a massive fan.

“Nice to meet you,” Mir smiled at Junichiro and bowed his head. 

“I’m such a huge fan!  Aren’t you an otaku?” Junichiro’s talking sped up.  “What stories have you read? What’s your favorite manga?  Do you play gam-” he was abruptly stopped by Noriko smacking him on the head. 

“Ouch! Wae did you do that?” He sharply questioned. 

“We have other pressing matters right now.  You can play with Mir later.”  Noriko snickered and walked towards a long hallway.  Junichiro pouted and followed her, waving to Mir.  Mir decided to tag along as well. 

After walking for a few minutes, they finally reached the room.  Noriko stopped at the door causing Junichiro and Mir to stop as well.  “Remember Junichiro,” she looked right into his eyes, “this might be a little weird at first, but trust me.  Anything you don’t understand now, I’ll explain.”  Junichiro took a deep breath then nodded, still unsure of things.  Noriko was the first to enter the room.  As soon as Junichiro entered, he glanced all around.

There were three people he recognized sitting in front of the room.  His rubbed his eyes to make sure he wasn’t dreaming; that all of this was real.  He immediately wanted to shout out in excitement but decided against it since the mood of the room seemed to be damper.  Noriko grabbed his hand and lead him to a sitting area.  He sat on the floor, still looking at the three.  Other than him, the three men, Mir and Noriko, no one else was in the room.

“Where is everyone else?” Noriko asked Mir.

“Umm, they should be on their way,” Mir responded as he reached for an issue of Death Note he had sitting on the floor.  Junichiro started to glow at the sight of the manga.

“Well, maybe it is better they aren’t here yet.  We have a lot to tell Junichiro.”  Noriko turned her attention to the three.  The man in the middle nodded.

“Ah, so this is Junichiro.  Nice to meet you,” the man had a rather tender voice.  He stood up and caught Junichiro’s attention.  “I am Jaejoong.”  Junichiro was in awe that it really was him.  “Nice to meet you, hyung.”

“This is Yoochun and Junsu,” Jaejoong said as he pointed accordingly.  “You might know us as JYJ.”  Junichiro was now even more confused.

“Wait, I’m honored to meet you but, why are you here? Didn’t you leave SM?”  Jaejoong resumed his sitting position.

“Noriko didn’t tell you anything, did she,” Jaejoong observed Junichiro from afar.  Junichiro shook his head. 

“Well then,” Jaejoong began, “there really is a lot to tell you.”  Junichiro gulped, preparing himself for whatever this was.  Mir was now fully engulfed in his manga and Noriko just sat there observing.

“We did leave SM,” Jaejoong continued.  “In fact, we had a lot of reason to.  We were a part of the society you’re training for now for a good number of years.  You probably saw today that our two former bandmates are basically the heads of the Preserve Squadron.  The three of us were right there with them.”

“Things aren’t all they seem here,” Junsu continued Jaejoong’s speech.  “While all of us see a need to kill Shades and protect the world, I don’t think that’s the true intentions of this place.  Our powers kept getting stronger and stronger but we didn’t realize what was really happening to us and we don’t want them to hurt anyone else.”

“What DID happen?” Junichiro sat there perplexed.

“Our powers were turning us into demons,” Yoochun declared.  “We were pawns to this organization and we still have two members stuck under their rule.”

“Wait, demons?  I know being born with demon eyes gives you that risk but why would they do something like that?” Junichiro pondered.

“If we were to have turned into full fledge demons, whoever would defeat us would receive our powers.  We believe there is someone in the organization that wants absolute power and will destroy everything and everyone until they receive it.”

“And who would that be?” 

“To be honest,” Jaejoong spoke, “we don’t know who it is.  I had a moment when I almost completely fell to my demon soul and remember there was someone above me.  It was an area only a society member would know.  In that state though, I never got a good look.  Junsu saved me but they ran off and he was more concerned for my safety.  We speculate however, it was one of the 8 society leaders.”

“I thought there was only a director.”  Junichiro was still confused.

“There is an entire board above the director,” Yoochun explained.  “The only ones that know about them are this group, Changmin and Yunho.  They are the ones that select who come here and have information on each person, so it could easily be any of them.”

“Is there only one?”

“We can’t be sure, but we believe so or there would be a lot more damage done.”  Junsu responded.

“Junichiro,” Noriko chimed in, “don’t you find it odd that you got invited here despite being someone with no Asian blood?  There are other societies like this, in fact I know there are some in the United States, but they wanted you here.  Do you know why?”  Junichiro just shook his head.  “It’s because you are already half demon like I am.”  Junichiro was in even more disbelief. 

“None of this is real,” Junichiro was startled and jumped to his feet.  Noriko pulled up her shirt to reveal a deep scar on her lower back.  It was engraved in her skin and the shape could easily be made out as an eye. 
“You have this mark on your body somewhere, don’t you,” Noriko looked straight ahead, waiting for Junichiro to respond.

“On my shoulder,” he thought out loud.  “But there’s no way in hell this is all true!  Maybe this is just a weird coincidence, or that you are the real enemies!” 

“I know this is all hard to take in,” Noriko tried to calm him.  “I only brought you here because I wanted you to hear the truth.  We want to help learn how to control your demon side.  I know how you feel. I’m in the same position.”  Noriko managed to calm Junichiro enough to sit down.  He had so many more questions but his fatigue was getting to him.  The rest of the room sat there in silence, a bit overwhelmed by the emotion in the room.  Jaejoong broke the silence.

“I’m sorry to cause you distress, Junichiro.  I can promise you that Noriko will take care of you, I will swear my life on it.  We just want everyone safe and we want our Changmin and Yunho back to the way they were.  We could see how developed their powers were in “Keep Your Head Down,” and we’re really concerned of this person forcing them into demons.”

“Wait, that video is for real?” Mir randomly raised his head from his manga and asked.

“We believe it was made to be a threat to us.  And yes, the powers in that video were real.  For a secret society, SM is never secret about abilities.  It’s like it’s just too farfetched for anyone to believe.  Look at Exo for example.”

“Whoa, cool!  I thought you were just really good with swords,” Mir responded, clearly slow to everything that was going on.

“Mir,” Junichiro glanced over, “Why are you here anyways?  You weren’t even a former member of this company.”

“Because Joon hyung said something about his boyfriend being in trouble or something.” 

“Boyfriend!?” Noriko burst out the word.

“Ya, Onew,” Mir awkwardly replied.

“Oh,” Noriko seemed rather relieved that it was a joke.  Almost immediately after, Seungho appeared at the doorway. 

“I’m sorry we’re so late,” he apologized on their behalf.  He walked in, followed by GO and Lee Joon, then the group was rounded out by Thunder who was clinging to a girl.  All of them sat down by Mir.  Joon sat closest to Noriko, causing her to uncontrollably blush.  She hid her face without him noticing.

“What happened?” Jaejoong asked.

“Aish,” Joon pointed to Thunder and the woman.  “These two wouldn’t stop going at it! It didn’t help that GO wouldn’t leave the bathroom either.  Seriously, how much does a man need to do in there?” 

“Well if you would’ve stopped working out we could’ve left earlier,” GO remarked. 

“I do it to look good,” Joon muttered.  Noriko giggled until she noticed they were all looking at her.

“Ahem,” she tried to change the subject.  “Sooo, MBLAQ, this is Junichiro.”  MBLAQ said ‘hello’ then turned to Jaejoong, Yoochun and Junsu. 

“May we meet this woman?” Junsu asked them.  Thunder and the woman were mid locking lips when this was said, so GO and Seungho had to separate them. 

“Nice to meet you,” the woman spoke.  “I’m Park JaeMin.”  She brushed her long brown to the side to reveal her cute face.  She was a seductress. 
“Oh yes you are,” Thunder responded, half dazed.  GO smacked him in the arm. 

“I’m sorry,” Junichiro remarked, “but what does she have to do with this?”

Jaejoong was ready to answer.  “She’s a secret weapon of ours.  She’s an upcoming talent from our agency that the public doesn’t know about yet.  In this society, she’ll be known as Michiko so there’s no way that can track her in the other company.”

“Hehe, I picked that name because it means ‘a thousand beauties’ which I am,” she confidently replied.  Thunder smirked and nodded his head.

“Anyways,” Jaejoong continued, “starting tomorrow she will be going through training with you.  She wasn’t a part of the original 80 but due to her ability it won’t take much more convincing than that to have her in the running.  For now, it’s vital that the two of you make it in the top three slots.  As long as you’re in the Preserve Squadron our mission will be achievable.” 

“I still have no idea what any of this is, but my goal from the beginning was to make it in the squads so I will not fail,” Junichiro spoke confidently.  It was at the point he would agree with anything because he was tired.

“I will pull as many strings as I can, but most of the work is up to you,” Noriko mentioned.  Junichiro nodded.  “I will do my best no matter what.”

After a few more details were brought up, the meeting finally ended.  It was just about 11 PM and Junichiro could barely stay awake.  “I’ll take you back,” Noriko said as she helped him stand up.  He leaned on her as she started walking.  Joon saw this and grabbed Junichiro’s other side.  “I can carry him if you want,” he suggested.  Noriko blushed and avoided eye contact.

“No, it’s okay, Joon oppa.  He’s going to be my responsibility for a while so I’ll need to get used to it.” 

“Okay, I leave it to you.”  Joon walked away to meet with his fellow members.  Noriko couldn’t fight the smile forming on her face.  No matter how many pop stars she worked with on a daily basis, Lee Joon was the one to make her heart flutter.

After a long walk, Junichiro and Noriko finally made it to his room.  His eyes were barely open as this point so she opened the door and put him in bed.  “Goodnight Junichiro,” she said as she covered him.  “Don’t be late tomorrow.”  She set his alarmed and then left so she could also go to bed. 

“It’s going to be a long week,” she thought, then shut off the lights.

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What does everyone think of the story so far?  Let me know :)