“I don’t feel right about doing this,” Yuri frowned, glancing between Kris and Hyuna in hopes that the pair would take back their request. Even before they knocked on her door, she’d known what they wanted. Now they were begging her to spill all the secrets Sori was keeping from everyone but the resident mind reader – Yuri.

She should have seen this coming, though. As soon as Jihu had taken N away, ordering Kris and Suho to clean up the mess, she should have realized that this was coming. When Sori had been told to follow the werewolf, Yuri really should have realized that someone would end up coming to her for answers. The world of supernaturals might be made of secrets, but everyone still liked to be on the know.

“We need to know,” Hyuna argued, “Sori normally tells us everything.”

“Not everything,” Yuri frowned, “she keeps some things to herself.”

“True,” Kris nodded, “but it’s been a long time since she kept something from us. This isn’t something that happened to us as kids. This has to do with keeping Sori and everyone else at Dark Lake safe.”

“Fine,” Yuri finally gave in, “what do you want to know first?”

“What is up with N?” Hyuna dropped into the seat beside Kris on Yuri’s bed, “Sori seemed to know. Same with Jihu and Minji. But we’re in the dark about it.”

“I hate being kept in the dark,” Kris muttered.

“N is a very rare and special kind of supernatural,” Yuri told them, silently praying that Sori would never find out about this. If the older girl found out……… well, let’s just say that Yuri wasn’t looking forewords to being on the receiving end of the girl’s wrath.

--

“You’re a changeling,” Jihu said, earning a confused look from N.

“What is that?” N asked, looking from the ISBIP agent, to Minji, to Sori and back.

“It’s a very special and rare kind of supernatural,” Minji explained, trying to appear calm even though she was far from it, “and you’re one of them.”

“Changelings have the DNA from all kinds of supernaturals,” Sori took over explaining when she realized N was still confused, “and they can access the power attached to each species. This means their aura changes based on what powers they want to use, too.”

“So,” N tried to understand this new information, “my aura says I’m a shifter, so I could shift into anything I want right now.”

“Yes,” Jihu nodded, “but there is a down side to this.”

“Changelings don’t have long life expectancies, do they?” N tried to keep the fear out of his voice, but they all knew he was terrified.

“That’s why Sori is going to be assigned as your personal bodyguard,” Minji smiled slightly, wishing that she could make him feel better the same way her fae students could.

“She doesn’t have to do that,” N frowned slightly, “I don’t want her getting hurt because of me.”

“With all due respect,” Sori frowned, “it’s my life. If I want to use it to protect a friend, in this case you, then I will do just that. It’s better than the alternative.”

“Sori will only be protecting you for a few weeks anyway,” Jihu shrugged, hiding his frown, “at the end of the month, the shifter council will start getting her ready to take her position on the council.”

“What?” N turned to face Sori who was glaring at Jihu. She didn’t want N to know that, but the werewolf had just spilled the beans.

“It’s like he says,” she grumbled, taking the empty seat beside N, “the council has a seat with my name on it. I don’t want it, but they’ve tied my hands. My life is under their control now. From what job I take to the guy I marry, it’s all up to them.”

“I’m sorry,” N didn’t know what else to say to her. What else could you say when your friend announces something like that?

“Until then, however,” she turned to face him, “I will protect you with my life. In exchange, you can’t tell anyone about what we’re talked about.”

“Why not?” N knew he couldn’t say anything about Sori’s problems with the council, but why couldn’t he tell their friends about what he was?

“If word got out about what you are,” Jihu explained, “it could cost a lot of people their lives. Even telling your friends isn’t safe. All it takes is one little slip of the tongue and we have every power hungry supernatural in the world rushing here trying to take control of you.”

“So I can’t even tell Leo?” N frowned, “or Ravi, Hyuk, Hongbin, and Ken?”

“No,” Sori patted his shoulder awkwardly, trying to comfort him, “we can’t put them at risk by giving them that kind of information.”

“Now get some sleep,” Minji waved the pair out, “it’s been a long day. We’ll figure out a new class schedule for you tomorrow, N.”

“For what it’s worth,” Sori said as the pair made their way back to the dorm, “I know how you feel. And I’m sorry it has to be this way.”

“I guess that’s just part of being a supernatural,” N tried not to sound bitter, “we keep a lot of secrets from everyone.”

“That’s how our world works,” she nodded, “the less others know, the less information out there to be used against you.”

“It’s stupid,” he sighed, “it’s like no one trusts anyone.”

“It’s a lesson our grandfather and great grandfathers passed down to us,” she shrugged, “they grew up in a time period when you couldn’t trust anyone. The secrets and half-truths were much worse then. Plus, everyone was betraying everyone in order to stay one step ahead of the human who were burning our kind at the stake.”

“Hyung!” both turned to find Ken making his way over to them with the other boys following behind him.

“Remember what Jihu said,” Sori whispered before heading off. N nodded. He didn’t like the idea o hiding the truth from his five closest friends, but it needed to be done. If keeping what he was secret kept them alive, he just had to go along with it.

“Did you find out what you are?” Hyuk asked, “Or do they still not know?”

“Still no idea,” N smiled, “Minji figures that I’m developing some new gift that’s messing with my aura. Once my power is finished developing, she’s sure my aura will say I’m, like, fae or something.”

“Cool,” Ken laughed, “in that case, I hope you’re a warlock like me. Then I won’t be so alone. There aren’t many witches and warlocks here because their council likes to send them off to privet boarding schools. Like the super preppy kind.”

N let himself fall into easy conversation with Ken and Hyuk, trying to forget about lying to his friends. However, not everyone believed him as easily as the werewolf and warlock had. Hongbin could read N’s emotions and knew that there was something big troubling the oldest. For a moment, Hongbin felt hurt that N wasn’t telling him anything, but then he glanced over at Hyuk.

The youngest had kept his werewolf blood secret for a long time out of fear that the others wouldn’t accept him. Was that what N was hiding? Did he think that they would reject him over what he was? Hongbin wasn’t sure what he should feel if that was the case. But he wanted to believe that N had a good reason why he was hiding things so he kept his mouth shut and decided to wait for N to tell them himself.

Leo and Ravi were a different matter altogether.

They both knew that N was lying to them. However, they weren’t going to let it drop like Hongbin was. no, they both planned to find out what was going on. Leo was going to corner N and demand answers the second they got into their dorm room. There were no secrets between the two, they’d decided that years ago when their group had first come together.

Now N was keeping things from him and he didn’t like it one bit. It was a betrayal of the trust Leo had in N. Not to mention is was a little disconcerting to know that N was hiding something. N was normally very against secret keeping and was open about everything. Whatever he was hiding must be bad if he wasn’t saying anything.

Ravi didn’t have the same ‘no secrets’ promise with N, but he’d still known him long enough to tell when something was bothering him. He had a feeling that Sori knew what it was, too. After all, she’d been walking with N and has whispered something to him before she left. Ravi had already accepted that Sori knew just about everything that happened on school grounds, so if he wanted to know what was wrong with N he’d have to go to her.

The only problem with that, however, was that he hadn’t spoken to the older shifter since the dreamscaping incident. To make his embarrassment worse, everyone in their group seemed to have figured out what had happened and took ever chance to about it. Ravi wasn’t sure if he could face her yet, but if he wanted to figure out what N was hiding he’d have to.

A/N: poor N can’t say a thing. Not that it matters, they all know he’s lying. Just a matter of who’s gonna wait ‘til he’s ready to spill and who’s gonna make him spill.