The elfin body of a boy slammed hard against the wall. Shivers ran down his spine as the tall, dark figure closed in on him. He adjusts the spectacles on his face, pushing it up his nose but never making eye contact. He starts rummaging through his bag for what he knows the taller man wants from him.

“Next time I won’t be so kind, Taemin-ah…” Minho said, the cold edge in his voice causing more tremors of fear in the smaller boy. Minho was already feeling like a saint for not punching the boy who had put up a fight against him just moments ago.

“Remember what happened to your last pair of glasses?” Minho asked, satisfied with the whimper of fear the boy in front of him let out as he handed him the money that he took none too gently.

Minho heard the cheering from his friends at the sight of the boy’s surrender. He felt victorious. He only had to be present to emanate so much power and cause fear in his victims (the lucky one being Taemin today, the boy with the full-rimmed glasses and the pathetic backpack full of books he couldn’t even carry himself.)

“N-ne, Minho-shii…” the boy stuttered out, looking at the ground helplessly, tears forming in those pretty eyes. It only added to Minho’s pride. That is right, he was Choi ing Minho and no one had the balls to even question him here. This is his territory where he is king and people ran by his rules.

“Good boy!” Minho said, patting the boy on his cheek with more force than necessary. He turned to his group of friends at the back and they looked at him in awe as they followed him out of the cafeteria, like the loyal, spineless posse they were.

~~~~~

Higher up in a place where all can be seen, way above where the cruel scene had just unfolded, the sound of a heavy sigh being released was heard.

Jinki watched as the tall boy clad in black from head to toe with a leather jacket on, walked out of his school cafeteria like he had just won some trophy. The roof of the school or the kilometers of clouds in his line of sight did not obscure his view one bit as he followed the prideful teenager with his eyes. Another brat that came to be from family issues. What has the world come to if humans couldn’t even have the patience to be with the people they themselves chose to be with, leading to problematic children like this?

“Tough assignment this time?” a musical voice floated to his ears. Jinki turned to his side and saw his best friend approaching him the same way his voice had, hovering of the silver lining of the clouds beneath their feet. His aura would have been too bright for human eyes to see but Jinki’s eyes adjusted just fine, for his eyes were not of mortals’. Besides, he had the brighter aura between the two due to his seniority over the other, which meant that Jonghyun’s aura was not too bright after all.

“Same old. Bratty teenager with the parents to blame,” Jinki answered him, glancing back down at the tall boy who was making eyes at the girls that were crossing his way now.

“But?” Jonghyun asked simply, seeing that Jinki was contemplating something.

“But he’s pure. You know, how pure ones are harder to guide, right? They are so easily tainted and so difficult to cleanse…”

Jonghyun joined him, looking down at the boy as well. He scoffed when he saw Minho slap the bottom of a girl as he walked out to the parking lot, the girl returning him with a dirty smile. Jinki sighed again.

“Looks like you’re going to have your hands full for some time now, doesn’t it?” Jonghyun asked with mirth. Jinki would have glared at him like how the humans did, if it was possible for him to hold malevolent energy. But he couldn’t. And so he only gave Jonghyun a disapproving look, to which the other laughed out loud.

“Good luck, Jinki. I’ve got my own subject to attend to,” Jonghyun said, before disappearing among the clouds.

It was going to require a little more than luck, as Jinki would come to discover soon enough.

~~~~~

“Dude, it’s going to be awesome. Dongwoon’s got some college chics attending and there’s gonna be booze and all! It’s gonna be fantastic!” Mir crooned from the back seat. Thunder and Joon roared in excitement, turning up the already loud radio. Minho only drove, keeping his cool as he watched the road. He couldn’t be acting as juvenile as the others were. He was ‘flaming charisma’ and ‘flaming charisma’ don’t do excited jumping and screaming.

A party on a weekday? With an assignment due by the end of the week too? No damn problem. Minho was too cool for school anyway. Besides, he had a reputation to maintain as the school soccer captain and the heartthrob of the girls. Parties were a requirement in his life to maintain his role as the alpha male in his pack.

It wasn’t like the fact that his dad would be returning from a business trip today was going to stop him or anything. All the more reasons for him to go. It felt better hearing the sounds of his silly friends laughing when they were drunk and some random girl like a as he felt her up, rather than the sounds of the never-ending arguments and blames that he heard at home.

“Yeah man! As long as he doesn’t try pulling the same he did last time to overthrow my reign in this damn place!” Minho said, looking out his window and then back at the road in front.

“He wouldn’t dare. You showed him who’s boss!” And with that, louder cheering ensued. Minho smirked. He did teach Dongwoon an unforgettable lesson for his… misconduct last time. He deserved it. The school was his ing territory.

~~~~

“She’s been checking you out for the last past hour, dude!” Joon slurred, drunk.

The music was loud. The temperature was soaring and the musky smell of sweat lifted from the crowd. The place was a mess, crawling with hormonal teenagers only made worse by the alcohol. Minho was one of them, although he could hold his alcohol quite well. But tonight, even he seemed to have had a bit too much. His senses swam in an ethereal manner, like he was here and not here at the same time.

“Last or past, Joon,” Minho said, openly eyeing the blond chic who was sending him flirty smiles from across the living room. She had big assets, curvy at all the right places. (Perhaps even a little too curvy, unlike someone else he could think of who was just perfect. A certain someone that was too good for him.)

Minho shook the thought of the beautiful smile from his head to focus on the girl across the room. Looks like he had scored big time tonight.

“Huh?” Joon asked intelligently after what seemed like ages.

“You either say last or past before hour. You’re being redundant using both…” Minho repeated, sipping his beer one last time before pushing it into the hands of a confused Joon. It didn’t register that he had just given a lecture on grammar as he pushed his way through the crowd to the busty blonde.

~~~~~

Jinki stepped around the chips and the beer bottles scattered on the floor of the living room on his way to the room upstairs where he knew his subject was. Jinki wondered for the millionth time in his existence, how it must feel like for humans to totally let go and go crazy like this. Like how his subject did last night.

Jinki finally reached the bedroom on the first floor. The door was closed but it made no difference since he walked right through it anyway. At least a dozen people were scattered in various sleeping positions in the room. On the bed, laid his subject with his mate for the night (and another male on the other end who looked like he had passed out there) wrapped up in the sheets. It barely did anything to cover the bodies underneath.

Jinki looked at his subject’s troubled expression as he slept. He sat down at the foot of the bed, near his subject’s feet, crossing his legs Indian style and folding his arms on his chest as he waited for his subject to awaken. Soon, his sweat covered chest began to rise and fall with breathes that were getting more uneven. He was waking up.

~~~~~

Minho rubbed his eyes feeling like his head weighed a ton. He groaned, cracking an eyelid open to see a blonde chic sleeping very unattractively beside him, drooling on the sheets. Did he her last night? Because he really couldn’t remember.

Minho tried to sit up, immediately regretting it as a numbing sensation went up to his head and the world spun as the incessant pounding took over.

“Ugghhh….” Minho groaned, clutching his head with both his hands as he fell back flat. Even amidst all the dizziness, he registered a small sound. Like bells chiming. Like windchimes swaying in the breeze.

Minho forced himself to sit up then, his eyes still closed. Slowly, he cracked them open looking down at his own lap. Success. His eyes were finally open now. He moved his gaze from his lap to his front and instantly jumped, arms flailing as he landed on the floor.

The room filled with a little scream that Minho didn’t know he was capable of making. Minho rolled onto his front to relieve the pain on his back.

“I heard that it’s not a good idea to get so excited when you’re still hungover,” said a smooth, velvety voice. It was so gentle, so pure that Minho thought he was imagining it. When he looked above him, he proved to himself that he wasn’t dreaming.

A man, robed in all white like he was the priest of a church or something, stood in front of him. The sleeves were too big and the end of the robe reached only his shins, revealing white trousers underneath and dress shoes, also in white. He looked too clean, all white and bright like this.

The man wore a look of judgement, as if he was reading him and it seemed like he really was doing just that. Minho felt , bared under this man’s gaze and he was sure that it had nothing to do with his lack of clothes.

Then it struck him. Minho was .

“Dude, what the ? I’m here!” Minho said, scrambling to cover himself up. He didn’t feel like putting his good assets on show for this stranger, who was still staring at him unabashedly.

“So?” the man asked, innocence exuding from every pore of his gorgeous face. Minho couldn’t see every single feature on his face (blame the hangover) but he could tell that this man was simply gorgeous. It was a gut feeling and not just a mere notion.

Wait, gorgeous? Did his brain die last night? Why was he calling a man gorgeous?

Minho couldn’t even form a sentence in reply as he was too flabbergasted by this man’s nonchalance about seeing another man, one that he didn’t even know, . He looked around for his discarded pants, finding it beside the bedside table. He got onto his feet, pulling the pants on while turned away from the other man.

“Okay, who the hell are you and why were you watching me sleep? You some gay ert? Or some creep with a weird ?” he asked all at once, pointing an accusing finger at him while his other hand rubbed his head.

“No.” the man answered him simply, moving to clasp his hands behind him. H