After hearing about D.O’s confrontation with Leo, none of the demons had any idea how to handle the situation. They’d always just assumed that they could shield Mi Sun from their darker nature. That she would never have to see how truly heartless they could be. The small mercy was that Daehyun hadn’t been there too or the situation would be a lot worse.

Daehyun had started looking at them as family, but his trust in them was still shaky at best. If he had seen D.O rip Leo’s side open like he had, the human might never trust them again. The same could probably be said for Yong Guk and the others.

However, the problem was that Mi Sun had seen what D.O could do. Naturally, she would start to wonder about how brutal the others could be. Naturally, she might start seeing them for what they really were; demons.

“That’s exactly what Leo wanted,” Kris growled, eyes flashing red, “he wanted D.O to attack him. He knew seeing it would scare her.”

“But why?” Baekhyun sighed in exasperation, “why would making Mi Sun scared of us be important enough for Leo to let himself get hurt like that?”

“It puts doubt in her mind about us,” Suho explained, “whoever Leo and N are working for wants her to doubt us. I’m sure that they think she’ll let us go, renounce her ownership of us, if they put enough fear and doubt in her mind. If she lets us go, then they can come and sign our contract.”

“They get exactly what they want,” Xiumin frowned, “and they don’t even have to kill Mi Sun and Daehyun. If she lets us go out of fear, then he will go along with her.”

“I’m going to go check on her,” Kai spoke up, getting up from his seat, “I’m not going to let them make her doubt us.” The others nodded their agreement, letting Kai teleport out of the room.

“Kai!” Mi Sun screamed when he appeared before her. The dark haired demon blinked, confused as to why she was in the hall. Shouldn’t she have been in her room? Then he looked down and realized she was in nothing but a towel. Blushing madly, he turned around, stuttering out an apology. Apparently, he’d been too focused on his thoughts about removing Mi Sun’s fear to hear the sound of the shower being and off.

“C-Can you just wait out here?” she stuttered, blushing brightly, “I’ll, um, call you in when I’m, err, dressed.” Kai nodded. Mi Sun rushed to open her bedroom door, glancing back a couple of times to make sure Kai’s back was still turned, before slamming it shut behind her in her rush to hide her blushing cheeks.

“What did you do to her?” Youngjae growled. He’d come out into the hall way when he heard the door to Mi Sun’s room close and was less than pleased to find Kai standing in the hall.

“Nothing,” Kai attempted to defend himself, but the blush that lingered on his face told another story.

“Why did you even come here?” Youngjae hissed, “Mi Sun was fine without you. Daehyun was fine without you. We were all fine without you. We were happy. And now you’ve all gone and messed everything up.” Kai flinched at the harsh tone the younger used.

“We didn’t mean to,” Kai sighed, unaware that the door behind him had opened slightly, “we know how selfish we’re being, forcing ourselves into Mi Sun’s life, into all of your lives. But we don’t want to destroy the happiness you’ve all found. We want to be a part of it.” Kai fell silent, watching Youngjae as he waited for a reply.

“My parents ditched me,” Youngjae finally said, “but you already knew that from the files you took, right?” Kai flashed a sheepish grin.

“Sorry,” he said, unable to explain why he’d taken the files and kept them secret, “if it helps, I haven’t told my brothers about them.” Youngjae just nodded before letting out a sigh. He leaned back against the wall before sliding down. Kai followed the other’s example, taking a seat beside him.

“Mi Sun noona and Daehyun hyung were the first people who tried getting close to me,” Youngjae started talking again, “I didn’t want to believe anyone cared about me for a long time, but they kept pushing. They kept trying to get me to trust them. The others tried, too, but they’d leave me alone if I yelled enough. Noona and hyung didn’t listen. They kept trying to become friends with me.”

“I could never replace you in their hearts,” Kai replied, “none of us could. And we would never want to either. You’re their family, their brother.”

“You’re family, too,” Youngjae countered.

“So?” Kai asked, “Do you stop loving your big brother just because your parents gave you a new one? I think Mi Sun and Daehyun have enough room in their hearts for all of us.” Youngjae just sat there, thinking about the demons words. Finally he nodded.

“I’m going to find Daehyun,” he said as he got up to leave, “maybe I can help him with his homework or we can just hang out.” Kai smiled to himself as he watched the younger go. He wouldn’t say he’d fixed the situation with Youngjae with just one heart to heart. He knew that the boy probably still hated him and his brothers, still didn’t accept them into his life. But Kai had managed to soothe the younger’s anger a bit and that was a good start.

“That was nice,” Mi Sun said, opening her door a bit more so Kai could see her. The demon jumped in surprise.

“How long have you been there?” he asked, getting to his feet and making his way over to her.

“The whole time,” she smiled, “and I have to say, that was a good thing you did.”

“I want Youngjae to stop hating me and my brothers,” he shrugged, trying to play it cool, “it’s a pain in the trying to live here and listen to him ed about us to anyone who’ll listen.”

“Really?” she raised an eyebrow, seeing right through Kai’s lie.

“Doesn’t matter,” he told her, ending the conversation, “that isn’t why I came up here. I wanted to talk about what happened with Leo today.” Mi Sun’s face paled slightly as she remembered the sight of the blood pouring out of Leo’s side thanks to D.O.

“I know D.O did it to protect me,” she muttered, “and I know you guys would never hurt me. Or any of us. But the way D.O cut into him….”

“We are demons,” Kai sighed, “but that’s only a small part of who we are.” Mi Sun moved to the side, letting him into her room. Once inside, he looked around just like Baekhyun had done the night before.

“I know that, too,” she told him, closing the door after he took a seat on her bed, “You guys aren’t monsters. I guess it’s just that I’ve never seen anyone do that to another person before.” Kai nodded. He’d seen plenty of things like that in his long life. Heck, he’d taken more than a few lives in a similar fashion.

For a long time, before he’d met the Jung family, that kind of brutality had been his every day. Then came the day he and his brothers had met the family they now served. They’d been attacked at night by some villager and the event had left many of them injured. Most of the brothers had been too hurt to be of any use in a fight, which is exactly what they were needed for. With no other option the twelve demons had taken shelter in a barn, hiding with the animals and hoping that the persistent villagers wouldn’t find them.

But they had been found. Not by the villagers, but by the owner of the barn. Jung Daewon, their first master, had found them when he arrived to feed his animals. The demons were so sure he was going to kill them or alert the ones hunting them, but he hadn’t. For some reason, he’d helped them by telling the people hunting them that they had headed north. Then his wife and child had helped by tending to their wounds. Within days, all twelve had recovered and were trying to think of how to thank the Jung family for what they had done.

It was Suho who suggested the contract. At first, not many of the others supported this decision as a contract would bind them to the Jung family – or to whoever signed it – until it was burned. If Jung Daewon put in in their contract, they would even have to follow his every command, regardless of their own free will thanks to the magic power the contract possessed. However, within a few weeks of staying with the Jung family they all decided to agree, seeing first-hand how kind Daewon and his family were.

Kai told Mi Sun all of this and wasn’t the least bit ashamed to admit that life had become much better after the contract was created. Before, his existence hadn’t had much purpose beyond killing and destroying. Now, he protected a master who treated him and his brothers like equals, like something more than monsters.

“So,” Mi Sun asked, hesitating as she tried to find the right words, “it’s thanks to my family that you and the others aren’t heartless creatures?”

“Yeah,” he smiled, “you make us want to be more than just monsters. You make us want to be good.” Mi Sun noticed how he only said “you” and didn’t use “your family” in his statement, but she smiled none the less.

A/N: the only thing I can think of for that last bit is “every girl wants a bad boy who is good just for her.” I feel kind of bad that D.O and Kai’s one-on-one was used more to further the plot or mend Youngjae related relationships, so I think I’ll give them more one-on-one time later to make up for it.