“I agree with Kris,” Sori said, frowning slightly, “just know to stay clear of him. He’s……he isn’t a good man.”

“You’ve met him,” Ravi said, “You’ve met him so you know what I mean about that feeling.”

“Yeah,” she nodded, “I’ve come across him a few times. He……I don’t like how he looks at me.”

“What’s his deal? Ravi asked, sitting down beside Sori and looking around her dream.

He hadn’t expected it to look like her dorm room from Dark Lake, but then again that kind of made sence. Dark Lake was kind of like her home after all, why wouldn’t she dream about it when she wasn’t there? Especially when she was at the ISBIP base.

“There are a lot of rumors about him,” Sori sighed, “some say he got his position because he blackmailed his way there. Others say that he has deals with illegal gangs, funding them so that they’ll cause trouble for the ISBIP.”

“Why would he do that?”

“The theory is that he has some….illegal dealings,” Sori frowned, “things like murder and dark magic. Naturally, he would want the ISBIP to be too busy to look into such rumors. So why not make them too busy? If the gangs are causing a lot of trouble, almost too much to handle, then the attention will be on that. Not him, never him.”

“What do you believe?” Ravi asked.

“I know he didn’t get his position through blackmail,” Sori answered, “on each council, there are some seats that are….passed down from generation to generation. Chen and Kai’s father for example. He got his seat when his father retired and he’ll pass it on to Chen when he wants to step down. Xiumin’s father is the same way.”

“So, this guy,” Ravi paused, suddenly realizing something rather important, “wait. What’s this guy’s name? You haven’t told me his name.”

“His name,” Sori sighed, “it’s Kim Jihoo. Remember that name, Ravi. Remember it so that every time you hear it you know to go the other way.”

“You really don’t like him,” Ravi frowned, wondering why Sori seemed to hate him so much.

Sori didn’t hate people without reason. She might be cold, but out right hate wasn’t something she did unless the subject of her hate deserved it.

“No,” she frowned slightly, “I don’t.”

“What did he do to you?” he asked, hoping that he wasn’t pushing too far. The last time he’d pushed too far had really upset Sori and he didn’t want to repeat that.

“He didn’t do anything,” she explained, “he just…….the way he looked at me……it….it made me feel so…exposed. It was like he could look right into me, into my head. Like he knew everything about me. My thoughts, my fears. Everything.”

Ravi nodded in understanding. Sori wasn’t big on sharing, so he could understand why that would upset her so much. Plus, the fact that Jihoo was a member of the shifter council just added another layer of scary to it. Having someone like that working for the council, maybe even with the enemy, would make anyone in Sori’s position feel unsafe.

“I’ll stay away from him,” Ravi promised.

“I wasn’t finished,” Sori frowned slightly, “you asked which of the rumors I believed. I only told you the one I didn’t believe.”

“Oh,” Ravi frowned a little, already knowing that he wasn’t going to like what Sori was going to say.

“Everything but blackmail is true if you ask me,” she said, “murder, drugs, illegal gangs. I’d bet he has a hand in all of that and more. If any member of the shifter council has joined our enemy, I’d bet it was him.”

“So he’d a bad guy,” he summarized, “the worst kind of guy.”

“Even worse than that,” Sori opened to say more, but paused like she was second guessing telling Ravi anything.

“What?” Ravi asked, “What else?”

“He got his position after his father died,” Sori said, “but it wasn’t just his father. His mother and baby brother died too.”

“What?” Ravi narrowed his eyes, “are you saying he killed his family to get on the council?”

“it’s a rumor I heard when I was younger,” she explained, “his father’s car crashed into a river. No bodies were ever found, so the ISBIP ended up writing it off as an accident. But everyone always found it weird that the car was found where it was.”

“What do you mean?” Ravi asked, “Why was that so strange?”

“Mr. Kim was supposed to be someplace else that day,” Sori replied, “there was a council meeting a few miles in the other direction. No one was ever able to explain why his car ended up in that river, so far from the meeting location.”

“Dang,” he said, “that does sound fishy.”

“It gets stranger,” she said, “a couple years ago, two bodies were found not far from the crash site. It was never official, but one of the bodies had Mrs. Kim’s wedding ring.”

“That’s not too weird,” Ravi said, but he expected that Sori would soon explain to him why it was.

“Jihu said that the people hadn’t died in a car crash,” Sori growled, looking both sad and angry, “they had been shot. He said it looked like a single shot to the head, maybe close range.”

“,” Ravi’s eyes widened, “what about the kid? Did they ever find him?”

“No,” Sori sighed, “but that could mean a lot of things. That he’s alive, that whoever killed Mr. and Mrs. Kim took him, that his body was hidden someplace else. Maybe Mr. and Mrs. Kim survived the car crash only to died later, but their son didn’t make it that long. He was only three at the time. The current could have easily pulled him down and drowned him.”

“You really think Jihoo had a hand in that?” Ravi asked.

“Yeah,” Sori nodded, “I wouldn’t put it past him.”

“I hate him,” Ravi growled, “I really hate him.”

“Don’t worry about him,” Sori assured him, “if he’s with the enemy, then we’ll take him down in due time. if he’s just a monster, we never have to deal with him again.”

“Right,” Ravi tried to smile, “good to know.”

“Is that all you want to ask?” Sori said, getting up and stretching, “because I need to wake up soon.”

“No, that’s it,” Ravi smiled, getting up himself, “I need to wake up soon too. Kris said we have training in the morning. I didn’t think that would include me, N hyung, and Ken hyung since we aren’t agents, but…..oh well.”

“Be careful,” Sori smirked, “the agent they’ll put in charge of training you……she’s a real psychopath.”

“What?” Ravi froze, looking down right terrified.

“Don’t worry too much,” Sori laughed, “Haruhi will test your skills and then move onto the next guy. Since you aren’t an agent, she doesn’t have to worry about you. most likely she’ll assign Hyoyeon to help train you.”

“That doesn’t make me feel better,” Ravi pointed out, “just who is this Haruhi person?”

“She’s one of the best agents I know,” Sori explained, “she used to work with Jihu, but after she was injured on a mission she was put in charge of training new agents She……really enjoys training new male agents.”

“Still not feeling better,” Ravi pouted, earning a grin from Sori.

“Ask Kris about her,” Sori laughed, “he’s her favorite student.”

Ravi woke up then, a cold feeling of dread in his gut.

“Kris?” he called out, earning a grunt from the dragon who was just waking up, “how scared should I be?”

“Of what?” Kris asked, yawning as he ran his fingers through his messy hair.

“Haruhi.”

“Be very scared,” Kris said, suddenly very awake and aware, “be very, very scared.”

A/N: next chapter: the cameo of Choi Haruhi, aka Koalance. Poor Ravi. And poor Kris. And I’m with Sori, laughing at their pain.