Everyone knew that the Dragon was dangerous. He was hard to get close to. He was a man that was regarded somewhat like a celebrity, although maybe more with a sort of awe reserved for people like princes and generals.

            Nothing much was known about him except for his high rank and no one really knew his power either. Just that he could leave indelible scars on a battlefield seconds after he was supposedly outnumbered. It had something to do with air, Jongdae bet. Because there were six main elements (Earth, Air, Fire, Water, Dark, and Light) and that was what most people believed anyway. The Dragon –  his name was Kris even though it probably was just a pseudonym – was rarely seen walking around although the times that the media and the cameras were able to catch him, he was alone. But there was a silver ring nestled comfortably on his ring finger, and that had always been the source of never ending gossip.

            Jongdae pursed his lips as he strode into the Academy, not even bothering to carry a book bag as many other students did. He had a more convenient way to lug books around. He sighed contentedly as he settled down in his seat and reached into a pocket of shadow for his notebook. The solid wall rippled under his fingers and gave way into his oh-so-nice-and-awesome shadow pocket where he kept most of his stuff (even his keys because he was prone to forgetting them).

            He was prepared for another afternoon of relaxed napping through lectures when the sliding door opened to reveal Junmyeon. Jongdae’s spine reflexively straightened, and all of a sudden he didn’t know whether or not he should look directly at the Student President. His fingers twitched when their eyes ended up holding each other’s gaze anyway, and Junmyeon gave him a little smirk from the corners of his mouth and ohgod Jongdae was forgetting how to breath all over a g a i n.

            It was just one night, just one kiss – and that was all that happened, and yet a heated rush of jittering feelings always consumed him whenever he thought back to it. A masquerade party that he hadn’t planned on attending, even though it was the school’s tradition; he went anyway because Yixing was being his nagging self. It was easy to recognize Junmyeon even with his simply decorated face mask (partly because he had been harboring a crush for years) and he had been dragged off into a dimly lit corner. Junmyeon’s eyes had been wickedly dark and he pulled all sorts of strange gasping noises from Jongdae’s mouth because who knew the Student President could kiss like that? One thing was sure though. He wasn’t all that innocent as he appeared.

            It simply made Jongdae fall that much harder.

            “I’m here to introduce a new transfer student,” Junmyeon said smoothly with that flawless angelic smile. The teacher was respectfully standing on the side, letting Junmyeon do his duty.

            A tall guy who, despite the long limbs, managed to make his movements look strangely graceful was standing next to Junmyeon and gave the class a mismatched wide smile. Jongdae, oddly enough, liked him at first glance. He was a pretty boy, although that was hard to notice when his smile was so wide it could give someone else a scare in the middle of the night.

            “I’m Park Chanyeol.” That voice alone made several students jump and jitter in their seats, for reasons. There was some sniggering from some boys who were probably going to pick on him later on because it had been awhile since they’ve found new prey and they were mean enough to do that. Chanyeol looked like he would be easy to pick on as well. Jongdae was not going to let that happen if he could help it. He was already raising protective hackles over this boy even though he had no idea why.

            “There’s an empty seat next to me,” Jongdae said while lazily raising an arm. The whole class shifted in their seats to stare at him because he rarely was present in class – as in, his body was present, but everything else was not (read: sleeping in class or just plain daydreaming).

            “Thank you, Jongdae,” Junmyeon said. The way his own name rolled off Junmyeon’s tongue like it was an exotic delicacy gave him goosebumps. Was this what flirting felt like? It was thrilling.

            “Jongdae, right?” Chanyeol leaned, all bright and enthusiastically, as he wriggled into his seat. His legs were too long for the desk.

            Jongdae nodded, finding it quite easy to smile in front of his new classmate and possibly friend. There was a kind of contagiousness to the other guy’s smile.

            The class lecture started, and instead of rolling his eyes and putting his head on his arms to sleep as usual, he was distracted with a piece of paper being thrown onto his desk. Chanyeol had neat, elegant handwriting – exactly the opposite of his expectations. Jongdae spent the rest of the lecture trying to explain in writing what the lecture was about and they started delving into other small talk.

            This was apparently Chanyeol’s first time inside this kind of school – a school that taught students how to control their strange powers. I was homeschooled before, Chanyeol wrote in his pretty script.

            Well, I’m sure you’ll enjoy it here, Jongdae wrote extra sarcastically, and Chanyeol seemed to get the sarcasm a little because he chortled next to him upon getting the note.

            “Is he the new guy?” Yixing pointed his fork at Chanyeol, who Jongdae suspected had some form of mild ADHD because he was distracted by every new little thing inside the school. It took them forever to get to the cafeteria.

            “Yup.” Jongdae plucked the banana from Yixing’s other hand and stuffed his mouth with it, earning an offended jab to the side. “Everyone, meet Park Chanyeol. Chanyeol, this is everyone.”

            “Hi!” Chanyeol chirped. And apparently the charm that worked on Jongdae worked on everyone else too, because Kyungsoo was patting the empty seat next to him and Jongin was staring inquisitively at Chanyeol over Sehun’s shoulder. Yixing spared him a smile before going back to his attempt of regaining his lost banana.

            “Oh look, there’s Junmyeon.” Yixing pointed, and Jongdae’s head turned around so quickly he almost gave himself whiplash.

            “Where?”

            Yixing snickered as he took back his half-eaten banana. “Works every time.”

            A horribly strangled sound emerged from Jongdae’s throat and he was just about to leap onto Yixing to strangle one of his best friends when Chanyeol’s head turned to his direction as well.

            “Oh, Junmyeon!” Chanyeol said. This time the whole table turned to see the Student President actually standing there (where the hell did he pop from?).

            “Good to see that you’re adjusting well here.” And holy urmph, Junmyeon’s voice and face and everything always ended up paralyzing Jongdae and giving him sweaty palms.

            “I am, thanks for guiding me around the school,” Chanyeol said, and surprisingly did not say more. His eyes flitted to Jongdae and Jongdae unfroze a little to notice that Junmyeon was also looking at him with an odd light in his eyes.

            When Junmyeon walked away, Chanyeol scooted closer to whisper in Jongdae’s ear: “I think you should ask him out. He looks interested.”

            Jongdae turned bright tomato red and Yixing had surprisingly heard because he laughed and hi-fived Chanyeol because “I had been trying to tell him that the whole past year!”

            A few days into the new semester, everyone in Jongdae’s class had adjusted to Chanyeol’s presence in the room. They had seemingly assessed him and his just-barely-passing test scores and deemed him as moderately insignificant and somewhat of a smiley airhead. Jongdae was still struggling with the fact that there existed someone who could be that bubbly every single day.

            Weirdly enough, he was bubbly but not annoyingly so. That was rather hard to achieve but there was a steadiness about Chanyeol’s tone of voice even though he was always moving in some way. A finger tapping out staccato rhythms on the desk. A knee bobbing up and down and an occasional head bob to go along with it. He also liked to play with a ring that glinted in shades of silver, which was around his neck and was weirdly familiar looking.

            Even though Jongdae clearly didn’t give a , this Academy was one of the most prestigious and students who graduated with top marks often went on to make a name for themselves. The Academy was special to the point that it was its own jurisdiction inside this country. Many graduates hoped to reach the level of the Dragon, or the even more mysterious Phoenix.

            “Your grades are good though,” Chanyeol said dubiously. Jongdae was too slow in hiding his new test this time around. His face at Chanyeol’s statement brought realization on his face. “Oh, did you not want other people to know that you’re some kind of genius?”

            “I just study and take good notes,” Jongdae said steadily. They stared at each other for a good few seconds before breaking out into laughter because they both knew that Jongdae never did that.

            “Well,” Chanyeol shrugged as he stretched, “That explains why you can take the luxury of sleeping during class. You understand everything already.”    

            Jongdae made a ‘humph’ kind of noise, choosing to toss everything (including Chanyeol’s stuff because he got too lazy to lug them back home too when there was practically no homework that day) into his shadow pocket. The three girls sitting in front of them were making some kind of commotion over a magazine article. They were squealing as the middle one turned a page and kept jumping around in excitement. More girls were gathering around them now that class ended.

            Jongdae sighed. Oh, he knew what they were fangirling over. Kris again. He respected him a lot, but just not to that extent.

            Chanyeol, evidently, was ignorant to this weekly ritual. He was blinking and peering to see the pictures they were looking at.

            “He’s so hot,” one girl said, “I’m going to melt into a puddle.” And even the more mature girls were nodding along to the agreeing sighs.

            Before the usual worshipping began where they all started bringing out their cell phone pictures in a competition to see who had more Kris photos saved onto their phone, Chanyeol said, like he was commenting on the goddamn weather: “Oh. That’s my husband.”

            The classroom had never seen that much silence before. And that was saying something, because silence should not be able to be seen, and yet it was that tangible. Even the guys, as they were heading out of the door, swiveled their heads around to stare.

            Jongdae was not really sure how he should react. Laugh?

            That was what one of the girls chose to do, her name was Lauren or Victoria or something of the like? Jongdae was just going to mentally stick with Victoria. “Oh, I didn’t know you liked Kris too,” she said. Her smile revealed a bit of teeth, almost challengingly. “It’s okay, we can include you in our fanclub.”

            She had interpreted his sentence as one of those typical fan claims – many girls called Kris their hubby just because if they say it enough, maybe it will become real.

            “There’s a fanclub?” Chanyeol looked less than impressed, even though one of the co-presidents of the most influential fanclubs ever was extending an olive branch out to him. Jongdae’s eye twitched, because he could save Chanyeol from potential bullies but not fangirls.

            “Let him think about it,” Jongdae said in a rush, already dragging Chanyeol out the door before the bloodshed could begin.

            “What were you thinking?” He hissed once they were outside. “Did you want to be killed? Why did you say that?”

            Chanyeol’s mouth was twitching with amusement, out of all things. “I forgot how scary fangirls could be.”

            “What?” Jongdae could barely believe that he still looked calm even though he just spouted one of the strangest sentence that he had ever heard coming from Park Chanyeol’s mouth today – and there were many, trust him.

            “Oh there’s Junmyeon.” Chanyeol waved one of his lanky arms. “Junmyeon!”

            Jongdae didn’t even get to say another word when his wrist was gripped tightly and he was forcibly dragged to stop in front of Junmyeon (who looked really really good and maybe kind of able in his buttoned up shirt and jeans).

            “Hi guys,” Junmyeon said, adjusting his backpack strap with one arm. He was all nice-smile-guy as usual, and Jongdae felt his blood boil from almost frustration because he knew there was more underneath that smile.

            “Are you free right now?” Chanyeol’s head tilted, almost a bit cutely. “Do you want to hang out with us? We’re going to that café next to the music store right now.”

            Jongdae half-spluttered, because hadn’t they agreed on going straight home today?

            “Yup.” Junmyeon’s eyes were resting rather heavily on Jongdae. He turned back to Chanyeol with an easy-going smile. “I’m free.”

            Jongdae somehow made it to the café without spontaneously exploding from the lingering brushes of his hand with Junmyeon’s as they walked and just his presence was enough to want to shrivel up in the amount of feels.

            Just as they were going to order their drinks, Chanyeol made a gasp. He hit his palm with a fist, almost too exaggeratedly, and said, “I forgot something at school. Don’t wait for me, guys.”

            Jongdae was left to gape after his disappearing figure, and then the cashier was asking him what kind of order he would like. What kind of stuff would Chanyeol have left if they were all stored in his shadow pocket?

            His phone vibrated in his pocket, and Chanyeol’s text read: Have fun with Junmyeon!

            The peace sign next to the emoticon at the end of the message was enough to make him gurgle.

            “Is something wrong?” Junmyeon was looking at him like he knew that Chanyeol had just ditched them so that they could alone together and oh god Jongdae was going to start hyperventilating any moment now.

            “No,” his voice came out kind of steady even though he felt like a mess inside right now. “Not at all.”

            He almost dropped his latte when Junmyeon’s finger brushed purposefully from his shoulder down to his elbow. Junmyeon lightly chuckled, eyes dancing.

            “You’re so sensitive,” he said, his voice lower than before.

            Jongdae’s heart was suddenly pounding painfully against his chest. He was pretty sure he resembled a frozen statue.

            Not to be outdone, though, he retorted, “I’m just ticklish.”

            “Hmmmm.” Was it possible that Junmyeon could make a sound as meaningless as that sound seductive? Yes, yes it was.

            They had somehow reached a park after walking around aimlessly. Jongdae noticed that Junmyeon didn’t really leave a space between them when they sat down.

            “So,” Jongdae said, “Is this a date? Because it’s an awfully quiet one.”

            That startled laughter from Junmyeon. “Yes, it is a date.”

            Whatever courage that he had used with that one question left him at Junmyeon’s simple reply. He opened his mouth but no sound left him. He felt rather like that frog in those fairy tales.

            “Would you like to be my boyfriend, Jongdae?” Junmyeon’s arm was resting on the bench around Jongdae’s shoulder and he was leaning in so close Jongdae could count his eyelashes. “Because just warning you, I’m not the kind of person people usually expect me to be.”

            “I know,” his honesty surprised both of them. “I liked that.”

            There was that dangerous little smirk on the corners of his lips again, and Jongdae had been waiting for that long to see it again. “Was that a yes?”

            “Yes, that was a yes.” And he breathed in and latched onto Junmyeon’s lips. He earned a quick gasp before Junmyeon’s hand was possessively on his back, holding him there.

            “My boyfriend’s rather enthusiastic, isn’t he?” It was obvious that Junmyeon took pleasure in calling Jongdae that. Jongdae also flushed too easily.

            “Shut up,” he said. And leaned in for more.

            “Say it,” Chanyeol said triumphantly tomorrow when Jongdae walked into the classroom. “I’m a genius.”

            “You’re a genius,” Jongdae said resignedly. “Thank you for your matchmaking skills.”

            Chanyeol clapped like a seal. He really clapped like a seal.

            Everyone had apparently heard, either shooting Jongdae jealous looks or calling out congratulations. Not used to the attention, he just nodded awkwardly (because why would people say congratulations? It wasn’t like he won the marathon or anything). At lunch, Yixing was sighing over how he and Junmyeon finally got together and everyone else at the table was either tossing food at each other because the food was disgusting that day or trying to ignore Yixing’s melodramatic rants.

            Oh, and Junmyeon sat next to him.

            Which made his stomach clench and all, but yeah.

            If he thought about it too long, blood would over flood his cheeks.

            It was a special schedule today because they had a class that helped them actually practice their powers instead of being lectured at. Jongdae just remembered that it was also Chanyeol’s first class in this because the instructor was calling him up to demonstrate to the class what his most impressive skill was.

            “Oh, urm,” Chanyeol said, looking strangely nervous for once, shuffling his feet. “Well, this is something that I’ve worked on for years, actually.”

            Everyone held their breath in anticipation, and then Chanyeol raised his arm. A small flicker of fire, just enough to light a candle, danced on his fingertip. He beamed at the rest of the class like it was the hugest inferno fireball ever and some people actually face-palmed while others laughed a bit meanly and almost in relief.

            Jongdae was still in disbelief when Chanyeol settled back into his seat with something like a pout on his face. Was that seriously his best skill?

            “I really did work for years on that,” Chanyeol said, and sulked for the rest of the class because no one else could apparently appreciate a small flicker of flame.

            The next class rolled in and Jongdae jolted awake when Genie by SNSD came on in ring tone. Of course it happened to be Chanyeol’s ring tone. He smiled bashfully at the teacher and excused himself from class. When Jongdae wandered out for the bathroom (and because he was just a tidbit curious), he saw Chanyeol leaning against the doorway of an empty classroom, surprisingly not saying a lot back to the caller. It was the smile that made Jongdae stop in his tracks and do a double take. It wasn’t the typical wide-eyed mismatched smile but a softer kind, with all sorts of lovely memories in the corners of his mouth and the stars that shone out of his eyes. Jongdae felt like he was intruding in on something that maybe he shouldn’t have seen. He only caught a name, Yifan, and teasing laughter following the ends of that name before it faded away with the echoes of his footsteps.

            Of course he wondered who that person was to Chanyeol, but it was quite easy to guess.

            “Did you see the papers today?” Jongdae gestured wildly as he set down the newspapers on Chanyeol’s desk. “It’s on the front page.”

            Chanyeol skimmed the page and nodded, actually really kind of calmly. “Oh yes. I saw.”

            Jongdae started flailing, just barely hitting one of the students walking by. “The Principal of our school doesn’t just get arrested everyday.”

            Chanyeol nodded again. “Took quite awhile too.”

            Before he could bother trying to figure out what that sentence meant, Chanyeol was pointing at something else on the front page and commenting on it. Jongdae filed it away as something to think about later.

            Later never came. Instead, something else decided to come. Or more specifically, someone else.

            It was break time, to be frank, with everyone from their lunch table gathered around Jongdae’s and Chanyeol’s desk because apparently their classroom was the quietest usually. Break time was kind of like an extra period where students could use it for studying, catching up on homework, or maybe just hang out – which was what they did.

            The school exploded into chaos pretty quickly. It was quite like a chain, somewhat like an action potential going up the axons of a neuron. People peeked out of the classrooms and crowded up the hallways, a general sense of excitement filling the air. Most didn’t even know what was happening; they just joined the crowd because the more the merrier.

            “Is there a giant elephant inside the school or something? Why are they so hyped up,” Jongdae said. His boyfriend, who usually was updated on school happenings because he was the Student President and all, gave him a helpless shrug and an amused quirk of the brow.

            Chanyeol had straightened up from the card game that some of them were unenthusiastically playing and cocked his head. He smiled, and Jongdae blinked because it was that same adoring smile he saw in the empty hallway and the cell phone incident.

            “Yifan,” Chanyeol said quietly. Then his expression quickly changed to exasperation. “Why’s that idiot here?”

            “Who?” Yixing asked, echoed almost amusingly by everyone else. But by then, the crowd of students had swarmed into their classrooms and now Jongdae could see why there was such a big commotion.

            The Dragon was here.

            He was actually here, in flesh and bones, Kris – one of the most powerfully ranked men in this country and the one the media would go through hell and back just to snap a few more photos of because he was just that famous.

            A hand covered his and squeezed, assuring Jongdae that yes, this was very much real and not a product of his own imagination and all. He squeezed Junmyeon’s hand back. He probably needed the grounding too.

            The Dragon just didn’t even blink an eye, looking like the classroom was a runway strip and he was still walking towards them until he stopped. A few inches. Away from Chanyeol’s desk.

            “Chanyeol,” Kris said, a lingering warmth in the last syllable. Suddenly, everyone’s eyes were fixated on the tall, slightly awkward boy who everyone had assumed to be utterly ordinary until this. He didn’t seem to be intimidated by the attention at all, and his expression was still that cross between amusement and exasperation.

            “I was in the middle of a very important card game, Yifan,” Chanyeol said, and Jongdae almost choked because that was one of the most boring card games he had ever witnessed, but then Chanyeol kind of just stopped everyone’s thought processes and leaned up to kiss Kris.

            On the mouth.

            It was a peck, but still.

            Lots of people had their jaws wide open, and if Jongdae weren’t in the same unfortunate condition, he would’ve snapped a lot of photos and then laughed over their expressions later.

            Kris – who was also apparently that mysterious Yifan, okay – laughed lightly and hugged Chanyeol with his arms winding around his waist. Jongdae thought he saw a girl pass out into the arms of her friend.

            “Hi,” Kris said softly into Chanyeol’s mouth and Jongdae kind of felt like a voyeur but everyone else was staring unabashedly too. It was just that the couple was clearly in their own world.

            “Did you just trespass into my school?” Chanyeol asked, a note of teasing indignation in his tone.

            Kris shrugged. “It wasn’t like the security guard gave me any issues.”

            A snort in response. “Probably too busy gaping at you to think.”

            “Not my fault I’m so good-looking.”

            “Good looking, my . Just because your mother is a beautiful woman who happened to pass on her genes to you – stop laughing at me!”

            “Missed you too.”

            No one wanted to break their singular concentration on each other but the teacher had marched in. She waded through the crowd, hair a mess, and demanded: “What’s happening here – Oh.”

            She spotted Chanyeol and Kris holding each other and her eyes bugged out. She lost her speech functions like the rest of them.

            “Sorry,” Chanyeol said. “I’ll tell him to alert you guys next time.”

            “Next time,” Jongdae repeated incredulously, and then realized he spoke out loud. Whoops.

            “Ahaha, your face is funny, Jongdae,” Chanyeol said, grinning. He just seemed to take in the reactions of everyone around them. “Actually, all of you look so surprised. I did say that Kris was my husband before, didn’t I?”

            Victoria let out a squeak before muffling with her hand.

            In hindsight, everything was so unbelievably obvious to Jongdae. Chanyeol sat them all down (Jongdae and his other friends, so a lot of people that were left insatiably curious had to hear it second-hand from Yixing who wrote for the school newspaper – and even he edited out some details later) in a bubble tea store and tried to explain everything. The beam he gave Kris after he brought back a drink for the both of them was enough sugar to last Jongdae for a lifetime and he had to lean sideways to whisper-ask Junmyeon if they were like that too as a couple please tell him they weren’t as disgustingly cute like that as well. Junmyeon laughed back at him and told him that sorry to disappoint you, but yes, we are as cute as that. Just with a bit more spice and sarcasm.

            “I,” Chanyeol paused (they were leaning forwards, and Kyungsoo groaned to show that he could feel the suspense) to drink from the taro bubble tea, “am the Phoenix.”

            There was a silence enough to suffocate all other silences.

            “Well,” Jongdae drawled out. “Nice to know. Why am I not surprised anymore?”

            “You guys believe me?” Chanyeol looked up through his eyelashes. “Really?”

            “The Dragon appeared out of nowhere and you expect us not to believe you? Really?” That was Jongin squawking with ridiculous arm gestures. If it weren’t for Sehun his practical twin-yet-not-really-twin hanging all over him, he would’ve hit everyone sitting around the table.

            “He was here mostly for his mission,” Kris said, and his presence was really larger than life. It felt like he could fell a few planets with a few choice words.

            “But I’m staying for the rest of the school year,” Chanyeol latched on. “School was more fun than I thought! Especially with you guys.”

            “That was like an explanation that just gave us more answers, Chanyeol,” Junmyeon steadily said. “Could you go from the beginning?”

            Chanyeol did. He had been assigned the mission of investigating the shadowy potentially illegal going-ons of their ex-Principal, and since the Academy was a jurisdiction of its own, he had to become one of the students in order to do it. The day that he had been matchmaking Jongdae and Junmyeon together was also the day he left them at the café and went back into the school to get more information. Two birds with one stone, in Chanyeol’s words.

            “You’re like a cop undercover,” Jongdae said, making ‘hmm-ing’ noises. “Very impressive. I’m still in shock, actually. This will take awhile to set in. But was it just a joke then? That lesson when you said that little fireball was the best you could do?”

            Kris snickered, obviously knowing what Jongdae was talking about. Chanyeol reddened.

            “Yeah, err. I trained for years to do that actually. Kris helped,” Chanyeol said. Kyungsoo was staring with wide eyes while dredging the last parts of his bubble tea and Yixing’s hand was a blur as he tried to take notes. Chanyeol coughed self-consciously. “I’m actually really horrible at control, so it’s easier for me to set a warehouse on fire than light a candle.”

            Jongdae settled back against Junmyeon’s arm, a strange noise coming from the back of his throat. Set a warehouse on fire. Of course the Phoenix could do that.

            They still wanted more details, naturally (like how the hell did you two get together? And what the hell – how come no one really knows what you look like, Chanyeol? There were tons of photos of Kris but, that was answered later on one of many phone calls between Jongdae and Chanyeol, something about technology not working around Chanyeol when he didn’t want it to and he was better suited for undercover work anyway). But they had thrown out their bubble tea containers and Chanyeol was yawning, and tugging at Kris’ hand and waving them goodbye.

            Jongdae almost half-thought that he wasn’t going to be at school tomorrow, but he was, and their classmates were varying between staring at Chanyeol like yesterday might’ve been some kind of dream and purposefully not staring at him.

            “Eh,” Chanyeol just said. “They’ll forget about it soon enough.”

            And they did, when upperclassmen Kim Heechul was caught in the closet with underclassman Jungmo and Heechul just smirked all through the day. But Jongdae will never forget.