“You didn’t need to come with us,” Youngjae glared at Chanyeol and Baekhyun. On any normal day, Mi Sun walked the four youngest to school before doing whatever she needed to do or heading home once more. Sometimes, Yong Guk or Himchan would come along but that was mostly because Mi Sun needed them to help her carry something home.

However, that morning the two immortals had announced that they would follow the five humans to school. Several times, Mi Sun had tried to convince them to stay home, but they had insisted and she gave in to their request.

“We wanted to see the neighbourhood,” Baekhyun shrugged, but the way his eyes never strayed too far from Mi Sun told Youngjae that something else made the older male come along.

“Yeah, sure,” Daehyun muttered too low for human ears to hear, casting a small glare over his shoulder at the pair. The whole walk, he’d positioned himself on one side of the older girl while Youngjae had followed his example and taken up the open spot on her other side.

Zelo and Jongup remained unaware of the tension between their hyungs and the immortals. Instead, they talked with Mi Sun about how their classes were going and how their school friends were doing.

“What are you doing after you drop us off, noona?” Jongup asked.

“I was thinking of stopping by that coffee shop that just opened up,” she shrugged, “might as well get something for the oppas, right? Since they’re stressing over bills and all that.”

“They’ll like that,” Jongup smiled brightly and Baekhyun could swear he heard several of the high school girls in the area swooned at the sight.

“Why don’t you call up Hyuna noona?” Zelo asked, “She doesn’t have class today, right? Jiyoon noona should be free, too.”

“None of the girls have class today,” Mi Sun told the pair, “but they have exams that they have to study for. We were planning to meet up over the weekend, though.”

“Oh,” Zelo sighed slightly. All five of Mi Sun’s female friends – Gayoon, Hyuna, Jihyun, Jiyoon, and Sohyun – had gone off to university while Mi Sun had gone straight to work at the boarding house. While Mi Sun was able to make herself available whenever she wanted, the other girls had assignments to finish and exams to study for. Their first couple of semester hadn’t been too hard, so they had chances to hang out, but as time went on it got harder and harder to see each other. Now, they girls only had time to meet up once or twice a month.

“Don’t worry,” Mi Sun laughed when she noticed Zelo’s concern, “I probably wouldn’t get to hang out with them much no matter what. Don’t look so sad, alright?”

The group reached the front gates of the high school and Zelo and Jongup were quick to rush off to their small groups of friends. Youngjae bid Mi Sun goodbye before heading off alone to the library with Daehyun silently following. The oldest of the pair gave Mi Sun a quick hug before sending one last glare at Baekhyun and Chanyeol and following Youngjae to the library.

“Sorry about that,” Mi Sun sighed when she noticed Daehyun’s glare, “he isn’t normally like that.”

“What is he normally like?” Chanyeol asked, “Because he always glares at us.”

“And mutters stuff,” Baekhyun added.

“Well, Daehyun is normally pretty sweet,” she explained, “he doesn’t talk much, even around us, but it’s more his actions that make him sweet then his words.”

“You raised him from a baby, right?” Chanyeol asked, “That’s what Sehun said you told him.”

“Yeah,” she nodded as the group started walking in the direction of the grocery store, “it’s not like we did it alone, the staff helped a lot until he was, like, two. Then it was all me, Yong Guk, and Himchan. His foster parents tried looking after him, but since he always ended up back with us I think it’s safe to say that they never did much.”

“I guess that would make him a bit, err, hostile towards us,” Chanyeol whispered to Baekhyun, “if everyone else in my life dropped me, I’d be pretty darn close to Mi Sun and the rest, too.”

“Yeah,” Baekhyun nodded, “he must think we’re going to try to take his place or take Mi Sun away.” Originally, Baekhyun had planned to take Mi Sun away. However, Kris and Suho had been quick to destroy that plan along with any similar ones the rest of their brothers had created. Their current plan, protecting Mi Sun from a distance, didn’t require them to separate her from Daehyun and the other boys.

“He was like this with Hyuna and the others for a while, too,” Mi Sun shrugged as the three made their way to the coffee shop, “but he got over it in time. I’m sure he’ll get over it soon.”

“I hope so,” Chanyeol grinned, “I bet he’s a really cool guy once you get to know him.”

The rest of the walk to the coffee shop was spent talking about Mi Sun’s life prior to meeting the twelve immortals. More than once she tried to learn something about Baekhyun and Chanyeol’s past, but everything they told her was part of the lie the boys had constructed earlier with their brothers.

“So you’re all run away rich kids?” Mi Sun clarified, not completely believing their story. If twelve kids from rich families all ran away at once, there would be some kind of news coverage of it. Yet she’d heard nothing. No reports of missing people, no crying mothers begging for their kids to come home on the six o’clock news, no nothing.

“That’s right,” Baekhyun nodded, trying to sound as convincing as he could, “Suho got us all into this whole “rebel against the parents” thing he’s got going. I have to say, it’s nice being free of my mom for once.”

“My dad’s just as bad,” Chanyeol added, “he keeps pushing me to do what he wants me to do with my life. Getting away from that feels great.” Mi Sun nodded, but she didn’t really understand. She’d never had parents who tried to control her life, so she didn’t really understand why that bothered the pair. Clearly, that kind of thing wasn’t good because they kept going on about it.

Frowning, Mi Sun simply nodded along to whatever they said, not really paying much attention. It was like hearing a joke and not getting the punch line; you laugh along, pretending you get it so as to not look stupid for not getting it. Their constant ranting about parents also made Mi Sun think about her own parents, or lack of parents as the case was. She didn’t normally let it get her down, not when she had Daehyun and the others, but when someone said or did something that pointed that fact about her out….it just reminded her of what she’d never had.

“Wonder what Yong Guk oppa would like?” Mi Sun wondered as she looked over the menu at the coffee shop. Getting something for Himchan was easy, but Yong Guk didn’t visit coffee shops that often, the only time he drank coffee was when he made a pot of it in the morning.

“Maybe you should get him a donut or something like that?” Chanyeol suggested, trying to be helpful. Helping his master pick out something to bring home for one of her oppas wasn’t exactly what he’d had in mind when he promised to help Mi Sun. On the other hand, helping her with anything still counted as fulfilling his promise. 

“What do you want to do when we get back?” Baekhyun asked, hoping that she wasn’t going to just sit around and read all day like Suho said she often did.

“Himchan said something about taking Yong Guk and me out,” Mi Sun said as they waited for their order, “but I think he just wants it to be the three of us.”

“Oh,” both immortals hung their heads in rejection. Well, they hung their heads until they realized that they could follow her in secret. Thanks to their powers, she would never know. The pair shared a grin before following Mi Sun out of the shop.