“Don’t blame yourself,” Suho comforted N as the pair sat by Yuri’s bedside, “you couldn’t have known this would happen.”

“I should have at least been open to the idea that Sori might not be the target,” N replied.

“You did what you thought was best,” the dragon tried again, “even Kris thought it was Sori.”

“This is all my fault,” N finally yelled, “I should have realized Yuri was the target. I could have stopped this, Suho. She almost died because I couldn’t understand the information my ghost gave me.”

“Oh, will you shut up.”

Both turned to see the two other girls in the room; Yoo Hyojung and her younger sister Hyojoo. N had never really talked to the pair and he didn’t have any classes with them. In fact, he didn’t know they existed until he came into Yuri’s room in the medical building – a room she shared with Hyojoo.

“This isn’t any of your business, Hyojung,” Suho frowned, willing her to shut up.

“Well he’s been ing for the past hour,” Hyojung scoffed, “it’s giving me a headache so that makes it my business. SOME of us are trying to recover from a broken arm.” She pointed at her younger sister, “and we would like to do so in silence. I’m sure even the mind reader would like him to shut up.”

“Yeah,” Hyojoo nodded, “why should we care if the shifter dumped him? Why should we have to hear him whine about it?”

“She didn’t dump me,” N muttered, thinking back to when he’d told Sori everything the ghost had told him.

She’d been beyond furious with him. She’d yelled at him, demanding to know why he’d kept this from her. She’d demanded to know why he hadn’t even considered anyone else as a target. Then she’d started cursing him out. And N just stood there and said nothing to defend himself. Eventually she raised her hand to hit him, but Jihu had stepped in and pulled her away.

As the pair walked away, he heard her talking to Jihu about him. More specifically, he heard her say that she would no longer be his personal protector. Jihu had nodded and told her he’d get Suho and Hyoyeon to watch him. That probably had to hurt N more than anything. Sori no longer wanted to be near him, that’s how angry she was.

And he couldn’t blame her after looking at Yuri.

“I have a question for you, Suho,” Hyojung called, crossing her legs and leaning back in her chair with her arms crossed.

“What?” Suho replied, but his tone made it clear that he didn’t want to hear any questions she could ask him.

“Why do you listen to that shifter?” Hyojung asked anyway, “she’s a better-then-you .”

“And you’re a dragon elitist,” he countered.

“Can’t help it if it’s true,” she smirked slightly, “our kind are better than just about any other species out there. Can you blame me for wanting to embrace that and celebrate it?”

“You’re so narrow minded,” Suho scoffed, “and I refuse to talk about something like that with someone like you.”

“Whatever,” she scoffed before getting up, “come on, Hyojoo. We’re going to get something to eat.” The younger dragon girl nodded before following her sister out of the room.

“Didn’t know people like that went to Dark Lake,” N said after they had left.

“There are more like them here then you’d think,” Suho sighed, “I think the councils send them here in hopes of converting others to think like them.”

“They really don’t seem to like Sori,” N added, “is it because she’s a shifter?”

“Who knows?” Suho laughed slightly, “Maybe that’s the reason. Maybe it’s because Sori’s better than both of them, stronger than both of them.”

“Both are stupid reasons to hate someone,” N frowned.

“But people use those reasons every day,” Suho shrugged, “humans and supernaturals alike. We all hate people for stupid reasons like that. Someone will bully another person for getting better grades. A group of people will hate another group whose of a different race or religion. We all know it’s stupid, but it still happens.”

N nodded in agreement.

“Quit the serious talk,” both turned to find Hyoyeon entering the room, “I think we’ve had enough serious stuff for one day. Talk about something happy.”

“Like?” Suho laughed.

“Don’t know,” she shrugged, “just nothing thought provoking or depressing. The mood around here already .”

“We could talk about the test coming up in math next week,” Suho suggested and Hyoyeon through her shoe at him.

“I said something that isn’t depressing,” she hissed, “and math tests are depressing.”

“Only if you get a bad mark,” the dragon argued, “and I’m not going to get a bad grade.”

“Oh, shut up,” Hyoyeon rolled her eyes, “of course you aren’t. You’re the perfect student.”

“I am,” he nodded with a playful smirk, “and I’m proud of it.” Hyoyeon just rolled her eyes again before taking a seat on the other side of Yuri’s bed.

“Have they figured out how the shooter got in?” N asked. Even though Hyoyeon had requested no conversation relating to unpleasant matters like that, he had to know. His curiosity couldn’t be stopped.

“Not yet,” she replied, a deep frown on her face, “Jihu made a call to the witch council to see if they know who could have cast such perfect invisibility and incorporeal spells.”

“Do you think they’ll know?” N received shrugs from Hyoyeon and Suho.

“The witch council likes to keep track of all powerful casters,” Suho explained, “but sometimes witches and warlocks slip through the cracks. They go rouge and no one can find them unless they’re rouge, too.”

“The witch council doesn’t like to dirty their hands,” Hyoyeon scoffed slightly, “if there’s a bad witch, they clean their hands of them and let the ISBIP take care of it.”

“That’s a cold way of putting it,” Suho sighed, “but that’s exactly what happens. They don’t want to risk their own lives taking care of problem spell casters, so they let everyone else take the hit.”

“That’s awful,” N frowned.

“A lot of the councils do it,” Hyoyeon replied, “if some powerful whatever starts making trouble, they drop ‘em and leave it up to the ISBIP.”

“Then they talk trash about ISBIP agents,” Suho added, “admittedly, not all agents are good and the ISBIP has done some pretty rotten stuff in the past. But for the councils to talk about us like we’re trash after we took care of their mess?”

“That really ,” N said. He kind of wanted to ask what kind of stuff the ISBIP had done, but didn’t feel like it was the time. He could always ask Suho later since he’d be seeing a lot of the dragon from now on.

“Are you going to go back to your dorm room?” Hyoyeon asked, looking up at the clock on the wall, “it’s getting late and we all need to sleep.”

“I was planning to sleep here,” N explained, “I don’t want to leave until Yuri wakes up.”

“You don’t have to do that,” Suho told him, “no one blames you, you don’t have to try to make it up to us or anything by punishing yourself.”

“He’s right,” Hyoyeon nodded, “Sori will calm down in a few days. She’ll feel really bad if she finds out you’ve been punishing yourself by staying here without proper food or rest.”

“I’m not doing this for anyone else,” N replied, “I want to make sure Yuri isn’t alone. Maybe she can hear my thoughts and finds it comforting after almost dying.” It was about seventy percent lie, but at least it was still partly true. Right?

Suho and Hyoyeon shared a look before agreeing.

“I’ll run to the cafeteria and get us some real food,” Hyoyeon offered, getting up to leave, “if I see Leo and Luhan, I’ll ask them to stop by with a change of clothes for you. Suho, you can take care of yourself, right?”

“I’ll get my stuff when you come back,” he nodded and the blond shifter left the room.

“You don’t have to stay,” N told him, “I’m sure you want to sleep in your own bed tonight.”

“Not gonna lie, I do,” Suho smiled, “but if Yuri can hear our thoughts, I’m sure she’d be comforted by knowing two of her friends are right here.” Which was code for: I know you lied to us, but I’m not going to push the matter so you can tell me when you’re ready.

N simply nodded in agreement.

A/N: poor N. He feels so responsible for what happen (even though it really isn’t his fault).