“How about we start with the guy watching us right now?”

It took KyuJong a moment to realize the other man was talking about him, and by the time he had the stranger had already turned towards his hiding spot. Eyes slowly widening, KyuJong ducked back around the corner, heart hammering. Run, or stay? Was curiosity enough to risk being attacked by a ghost electric eel?

The decision was made for him; glancing back towards the corner, KyuJong found himself face to face with the stranger from before. The other man didn’t even look surprised to find him, smiling brightly. His eyes shown a bright gold instead of the brown they’d been that morning.

“Well, what about it? Are you going to accept my challenge?”

“I…” KyuJong took a step back, not sure what to say. Challenge? Why the fighting, anyways? And what about the boy still lying motionless not far away, the one who’s panther had lost the previous battle?

“Come on, let me see your spirit beast!”

The other man lifted one hand and the eel circled around KyuJong, body sparking with electricity. KyuJong gasped in pain as he was given the equivalent of several static shocks, wrapping his arms around himself and trying to be as small as possible. “Stop!”

“Then summon your beast,” the other man replied, not calling off the eel that circled around KyuJong and prevented escape.

“I don’t have one!” KyuJong got out, shutting his eyes tightly.

The crackle of electricity faded, along with the brief jolts of pain. After a few seconds of silence, KyuJong slowly opened his eyes again. The other man was looking at him with a puzzled expression.

“Seriously? Then why can you see Abaia?”

Abaia. The name of the eel? KyuJong looked up and saw the eel floating above the other man’s shoulder, regarding him with gold eyes identical to the man it was with.

“You’re sure you don’t have one?” The stranger continued. When KyuJong nodded, the other man glanced at Abaia, the eel seeming to meet his gaze.

After another long moment, the eel disappeared in a burst of golden light and was absorbed into the stranger’s skin. “That’s so weird. Normal people can’t see spirit beasts.”

KyuJong, watching in amazement as the golden light was taken into the other man’s body, wasn’t quite sure what was weirder. Straightening, he flinched as a dull ache ran through his body.

“Oh, sorry!” An arm supported him, the other man looking entirely worried now. “For the shocks. I thought you were being tricky. You need to sit down?”

“I’m fine,” KyuJong moved away from the support, not so eager to trust the guy who’d just set an electric eel on him. The other man’s lips pursed in a small pout.

“I am sorry though. I’ve never met a non-Keeper who could see our beasts before.”

“Keeper?” KyuJong asked, confused and wary.

The other man nodded, before looking up at the sky. “Oh…it’s getting late. Well, I’m not getting another challenge here. See you around!” He turned to leave.

“Huh? Wait!” KyuJong stepped forward, not wanting the only sign he hadn’t been spending the last decade chasing after his imagination to leave just like that. “Who are you? What are you, and what was that eel?”

The other man looked back at him with a grin, the gold fading out of his eyes and returning them to a chocolate brown. “I’m a Keeper, and that was Abaia, my spirit beast. Name’s DongHae. See you!” And before KyuJong could object, he was gone.

For a long moment KyuJong just stood there, staring at where DongHae had been. He’d just met one of the spirit animals…spirit beasts…he’d spent years thinking about. And just like when he was ten, the sight had filled him with a mixture of excitement, awe and fear. All this time he’d never actually stopped to think about what he’d do if he saw one of the beasts again. Maybe in the back of his head he’d entertained going back to an ordinary life after confirming that he wasn’t crazy, but thoughts of forgetting the night’s events couldn’t be farther from his mind.

A low groan caught his attention, and he remembered the teenage boy who DongHae and Abaia had fought against. There was still no sign of the panther spirit that had accompanied the boy. The teenager seemed to be waking up, and KyuJong sighed in relief. He’d been worried for a moment.

Maybe he could get more answers from this kid.

“Hey…you okay?” he approached the teenager, a little wary about being attacked again.

The teenager sat up, wincing as he rubbed the side of his head. “Ow……” he looked around, eyes landing on KyuJong. “…Who are you?”

“I’m uh…my name’s KyuJong,” KyuJong smiled tensely, crouching down. “How’re you feeling?”

The teenager eyed him warily. “Okay…where am I?”

“Still in the alleyway…I saw what happened. I mean, between that eel and your panther. I’m not a Keeper though, whatever that is.”

“…What are you talking about?” The teenager’s expression was completely confused.

“That…the fight that just happened? Your panther?” KyuJong tried. “I forget what you called it. The eel was Abaia.”

“What panther? What the hell are you talking about?” The teenager stood up and backed away from KyuJong. “Stay away from me, whoever you are.”

“But, what?” KyuJong didn’t understand, stepping forward. “It’s okay, I won’t tell anyone about it. I just wanted to ask a couple questions. I can take you back to my place if you’re not feeling well…”

“I’m not going anywhere with you,” the teenager backed up again. “You’re crazy. Just leave me alone man.” He turned and hurried away.

“Wait!” KyuJong stared after him, not sure what to make of that. Why would the boy pretend not to know what he was talking about? Did KyuJong look that dangerous? He was left standing alone in the alleyway, with far too many questions and no answers.

Sleep didn’t come that night. For hours KyuJong tossed and turned, unable to get the fight he’d seen out of his head. What was he going to do now that he’d finally seen what he’d been searching for? DongHae went to the same school as him, so that was a start, but it was a big university. He could search for a week and still not find the other man. It was obvious he wasn’t going to get any answers out of the teenage kid with the panther, even if he’d known where to find him again.

Neither of those two had been the same people as he’d seen when he was ten…how many ‘Keepers’ were there? How many spirit beasts?

And why had DongHae seemed so surprised KyuJong could see them?

“Hey, where did you run off to last night?”

Looking up from where he was writing notes into his notebook, KyuJong smiled nervously at HyungJoon and closed the book. “Sorry…I remembered I had to make a call to my parents, they were expecting me to call around then.”

“Okay…” HyungJoon frowned at KyuJong, and the older man worried his new friend could see right through his lie. But how was he even supposed to explain what he’d really been up to?

The moment passed as HyungJoon dropped into the seat beside him with a groan. “I’m working tonight, so maybe this weekend we try again? KiBum can invite Kevin back over, you and him get along.”

“I get along with anyone, don’t worry about that,” KyuJong chuckled, pushing his notebook into his bag. “But sure, sounds good to me. What do your brother and Kevin study, anyways?”

“KiBum’s in photography and Kevin’s a model, they’ve been friends since high school so they work together in most of KiBum’s projects,” HyungJoon snorted, picking at the corner of his textbook. “KiBum’s real lucky, he enjoys his program a lot.”

“And you don’t?” KyuJong blinked. He’d noticed that just like himself, HyungJoon’s heart didn’t seem to really be in his work. Sure, he was breezing through the classes without much difficulty, but he didn’t seem to actually enjoy what he did.

“Eh…not really,” HyungJoon shrugged. “But since I’ve got this career path, it gives KiBum the opportunity to do something he’s interested in without worrying about not having enough to feed himself with.” He grinned at KyuJong beside him. “It’s not like I hate the idea of being a doctor, I like helping people well enough. So I deal.”

KyuJong’s lips quirked in sympathy and he patted HyungJoon’s shoulder lightly. “He’s got an awesome brother.”

“And I don’t let him forget it,” HyungJoon laughed loudly, then was scolded by the teacher about to start her lecture. KyuJong snorted as HyungJoon cowered behind his textbook.

He was distracted during the morning classes, still thinking about his next move in his search for the spirit beasts. By the time class had ended, he had decided to use his newfound knowledge to do some research. Saying goodbye to HyungJoon, he headed to the campus library.

Normally the library was full at all times of the day, but KyuJong was lucky this time. There were a couple free computers and he sat down at one, bringing up a search box.

When he typed in ‘spirit beasts’, the first page contained only World of Warcraft references. Interesting, but not what he was looking for at all. Chewing on his lower lip, he tried filtering for news reports, then tried ‘eel’ and ‘panther’. Still nothing.

After some debate, he typed in ‘Abaia’ instead, not really expecting to find any hits. To his surprise, the images were full of eel drawings. Finding a mythology guide, KyuJong clicked on it.

According to Melanesian mythology the Abaia is a type of large eel which dwells at the bottom of freshwater lakes in the Fiji, Solomon and Vanuatu Islands. The Abaia is said to consider all creatures in the lake its children and protects them furiously against anyone who would harm or disturb them. It is said that those who are foolish enough to try to catch the fish from a lake containing the Abaia are immediately overwhelmed by a large wave caused by the thrashing of the Abaia’s powerful tail…

A large, mythical eel that protected fish? KyuJong frowned at the screen. Very interesting, and closer to what he was looking for than World of Warcraft references. But at the same time, he couldn’t see anything here about ghostly, floating eels connected to a human Keeper.

Sighing to himself, he put his head down on the desk and just rested for a moment. This was stupid. He didn’t know what he was looking for, was he seriously expecting to suddenly find a whole online community on spirit beasts all of a sudden? It wasn’t like he hadn’t tried searching the internet many times before, even trying his hand at English. Knowing someone called one of the spirit beasts Abaia wasn’t going to help. But what else could he do? It wasn’t as if a spirit beast was just going to walk right by him.

Half-focused eyes on the library hallway, KyuJong watched as a silvery monkey slunk by in the adjacent hallway, tail disappearing around the corner. Blinking repeatedly, he sat up in shock. It took KyuJong a moment to realize what he had just seen before he grabbed his backpack and scrambled to his feet, hurrying after the monkey.

One would expect complete chaos should a monkey decide to take a walk through a crowded school library. But as he reached the corner and looked around the edge of the wall, KyuJong couldn’t hear any screaming or see any sign of panic. In fact, no one noticed the monkey at all. The creature easily meandered between the moving humans, not so much as brushing against their legs.

It was keeping pace with a man walking down the hallway with his hands in his pockets. At first KyuJong thought it must have just been coincidence that they were walking side by side, but then he saw the other man look down at the monkey and smile. Well, smirk actually.

That was a look of trouble if KyuJong had ever seen one. Wary about getting challenged again, KyuJong started to follow them from a few feet back.

They didn’t get far before the young man beside the monkey stopping by a corner. It was then KyuJong realized they hadn’t been alone. The stranger had stopped beside someone who had been walking a few paces ahead. Stopping as well, KyuJong tried not to be obvious about watching them. The one who’d been walking ahead said something to his companion before lifting one hand slightly.

Something flew down from the high ceiling, and KyuJong’s eyes widened as a crow landed on the man’s outstretched hand. It was another spirit beast, a ghostly outline that let off a deep purple glow. The crow clacked its beak at them before taking off again, circling above.

Still, no one had noticed the two animals, the monkey sitting by the feet of the man who had to be its Keeper. Tiny hands in the man’s own, it swung itself back and forth and watched those going by. KyuJong swallowed nervously, wondering what they were doing. They weren’t going to fight right here in the hallway, were they? Surely someone would notice then. Though even as he thought it, he doubted anyone would. Despite the crowded hallway, it felt like the three of them and the two animals were the only ones there. He hadn’t been noticed yet, thankfully.

One of the other men, the one with the crow, snickered and nodded towards someone else in the room beyond. Leaning over to see who they were looking at now, KyuJong saw some guy around his age pouring over a book by the bookshelves. He looked like the kind of guy who would get picked on a lot, with huge glasses, unstyled hair and very conservative clothes.

The crow’s Keeper motioned with one hand, and KyuJong’s gaze went to the crow as it swooped down towards the unsuspecting target. With a sharp yank, a book fell from the shelves and hit the man on the shoulder. Yelping in surprise, he looked up and around, holding onto his shoulder in surprise. Everyone around him turned to look at him in return.

The monkey raced up to him and in a flash had grasped the stranger’s belt loops, pulling. The man’s pants dropped to his ankles, and backing up in surprise he tripped over his pant leg and fell. Laughter rang out in the hallway, echoing as the poor guy tried to stand up and pull his pants up, red in embarrassment and shame.

All throughout that no one noticed the crow and monkey, or the two Keepers trying to hold in their snickers. KyuJong frowned, watching them. That had been borderline cruel, and very childish. Playing pranks like that on some poor guy. And now they were high-fiving each other, grinning ear to ear, before hurrying off. Perhaps to find their next target. The crow flew overhead, the monkey running to them and climbing up onto his Keeper’s shoulders with cackles of it’s own.

Somewhere in the back of his mind, KyuJong wondered just how many spirit beasts were in Seoul, for him to have already encountered four in his first week. Drawing in a deep breath, he followed the two Keepers.

He wasn’t going to leave without answers this time.

Another chapter! \o/ I'm going away this weekend so didn't want to wait until I got back to update.

Comment if you liked~! I'll update again sometime next week, maybe Tuesday/Wednesday.

@ladybirdcarina: Joonie's always a ball of preciousness =P