“Everyone keeps staring at me,” N pouted. All day people had been looking at him, trying to figure out what he was. Well, if they did manage to figure it out, maybe they could tell him because he had no idea. Even his teachers stared, some more obvious about it than others.

Thankfully he’d had Kris and Sori around since both had pointed out to the teacher how unprofessional staring was. N had thought the teacher would scold them, but they’d back down right away. One had even cowered under the unimpressed looks the shifter and dragon had given them. It made him wonder just how powerful the two were if even the teachers wouldn’t stand up against them.

“It will go away in time,” Hyuk smiled slightly, trying to make the oldest feel better, “that’s what the shape shifter who gave me and Taeyang a tour of the school said. Once the novelty is gone, people will forget all about it.” That just made N more upset. He didn’t want to be a novelty to these people. He wanted to belong.

“So how’s your first day going?” everyone turned to find Baekhyun and Chanyeol had joined them.

“This place sure is interesting,” Ken smiled at his roommates, “I can’t wait for my power specific classes.”

“Just be careful what you’re pointing at when you cast a spell,” Chanyeol laughed, “I fried Baekhyun’s a couple of years ago because I got careless with a light spell.”

“Got careless?” Baekhyun scoffed, “you were trying to show off for Lina and used a spell you weren’t ready for. Put a massive crater in the ground, too. Not sure who was more upset, Minji or Sori.”

“Can I ask you a question?” N asked, turning to face to two fallen.

“Sure,” Baekhyun shrugged, “what do you want to know?”

“What do you think I am?” N frowned, “I mean, the fact I can see ghosts should be a clue, right?”

“It narrows things down a little,” Baekhyun nodded, “it means you aren’t a werewolf, or a shifter, or a vampire. None of them can see ghosts. I’d almost say you were a necro, but we can’t be sure until we can see your aura.”

“So until then, I’m a freak,” N sighed sadly, dropping his head into his folded arms.

“You aren’t a freak, hyung,” Ravi patted the elder’s shoulder.

“He’s right.” Chanyeol nodded, “you’re just developing slowly. It might be because of your gift. Sometimes a supernatural will get a really awesome gift, but while that gift is developing it messes with their aura or their other gifts.”

“Then I hope my gift finishes developing soon,” he sighed, “I’m sick of everyone staring at me.”

“Be careful how loud you say that,” Baekhyun laughed, “Sori might hear you.”

“Why does that matter?” Ken asked.

“Sori wants to be a teacher here someday,” Baekhyun explained, “help other kids the way Dark Lake helped her. Part of being a teacher here is looking after the students, making sure they’re all happy and healthy both psychically and mentally. At least, that’s how Minji runs things.”

“Clearly, all those people staring at you is messing with your happiness,” Chanyeol continued, “so Sori kind of feels compelled to fix things for you.”

“She might also see some of herself in you,” Baekhyun added, “when she first came here, everyone stared at her, too. Not for the same reasons, but it had the same kind of impact.”

“Sori and Kris called the teachers out on staring at N,” Leo told the two fallen, “the teachers backed down right away.”

“Of course they did,” Baekhyun shrugged, “Sori is strong enough to take any of them on. Well, that’s what they think, anyway. Don’t know how true it is.”

“And Kris is an ISBIP agent,” Chanyeol added, “him and Suho got recruited a few years ago. They’ve been on a few big missions, so everyone’s a little scared of them now.”

“They’re ISBIP agents?” The warning Sori gave about ISBIP rang in all their heads. Daesung’s words from that morning rang in Ravi and Hongbin’s heads, too.

“Yeah,” Baekhyun frowned slightly, “but I don’t know why they joined. Neither one is a big fan of ISBIP. Kris down right hates them.”

“The theory is that ISBIP has something on them,” Chanyeol added, his frown matching Baekhyun, “I mean, they had Kris all his life through their foster care program. There must be something in his file that they’re holding over his head.”

“Can you explain this foster care thing to us?” Ravi recalled something Sooyoung had mentioned about Sori and the ISBIP’s foster care program.

“It’s simple,” Baekhyun sighed, “the ISBIP run a supernatural kids only foster care system and Kris was part of it. Same with Sori, Hyuna, and Yuri. They don’t like talking about it, but sometimes you get the feeling that some pretty bad stuff happened to them.”

“That’s why I’m happy my family adopted Lina,” Chanyeol smiled slightly, glancing over to the table Lina was at, “I don’t want to think about what would have happened to her if they hadn’t.”

“How many of the kids here are from the foster care system?” Hyuk asked. How many has the same bad luck that Sori and Kris had? How many were lucky like Lina?

“Not that many,” Baekhyun explained, “if a kid doesn’t have parents or the parents give them up, the council of their species generally assigns them someplace to live. Each council would much prefer to deal with those kinds of things without the ISBIP.”

“Most of the kids would prefer it, too,” Chanyeol added, “but sometimes the council doesn’t care and sometimes they don’t have any idea what to do with the kid either. The shape shifter council and the dragon council didn’t know what to do with Sori and Kris, so they handed them over to the ISBIP and never looked back.”

“The shifters sure like to boast about Sori, though,” Baekhyun scoffed, “pretending that they didn’t clean their hands of her ages ago.” Baekhyun was about to say something else, but he noticed the look Sori was sending him and shut his mouth. Damn her shifter hearing.

“What’s this council you were talking about?” Ken asked, getting the feeling that any more foster care questions would be met with silence for now.

“Oh, they’re just the old farts of each species,” Chanyeol shrugged, “they like to pretend that they still have power and can force their ‘old world’ values on us. They’re all still stuck in the old days when each species hated each other.”

“It’s not that different from how some human society works at times,” Baekhyun added.

A bell rang, interrupting Ravi before he could ask any more questions about supernatural society. He had so many questions about the world he was now a part of, but they would have to wait for later.

“You should talk to Minji about this stuff,” Baekhyun suggested, “She probably wants to talk to you as it is. See how you’re adjusting and all that.”

“See you later, Ken,” Chanyeol waved as the pair left for their flying class, “bye guys.” As they left, they passed by Sori’s table and Lina, Kris, and Suho joined them

“Let’s go, Wonsik” Sori called, standing up and waving Ravi over. Luhan did the same with Hongbin, both leading the person they’d called to their class.

“Let’s go,” Kai smiled, grabbing Hyuk’s arm and dragging him off, Kai’s older brother following them along with Heesun.

“I can walk you to your class,” a vampire who’d been sitting with Sori’s group smiled at Leo, “our class is right next door.” He pointed between himself, D.O, and Tao.

“Alright,” Leo nodded, leaving N and Ken.

“Looks like it’s just us,” Ken smiled.

“Nope,” Sooyoung grinned, pulling Ken to his feet, “we have class together. Come on, oppa.” As she dragged him away, rambling on and on about how much he would love casting spells, Ken waved goodbye to N, wishing him luck with his own class. Before the left, N could hear Ken asking about how Sooyoung had changed her hair overnight.

 “We can wait here,” N turned to find Sehun taking the empty seat beside him, “Minji will be here soon anyway to get her own lunch.”

“So you’re Oh Sehun,” N clarified, “the guy who can see ghosts.”

“And you’re Cha Hakyeon,” the younger countered, “the guy who can see ghosts and doesn’t know what he is.”

“Yeah,” N sighed, “I’m the guy everyone’s talking about.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Sehun suggested, “they’ll stop in a few days. Probably be too creeped out by your gift to even come near you, too.”

“What?”

“Yeah, most supernaturals aren’t comfortable around ghosts,” Sehun shrugged, “they think it’s unnatural or something stupid like that. When I first got here, I got moved to a bunch of different dorms because my roommates got creeped out by the ghosts who kept dropping in. See, supernaturals can feel the unnatural cold that follows ghosts around, so my ex-roommates always knew they were there and blamed me for it.”

“What ended up happening?” was Sehun in a room by himself, or did he find someone who accepted his gift?

“I got put in a room with Tao, D.O, and Kai,” Sehun smiled slightly, “they don’t mind my gift. They even encourage me to talk to them about it. I mean, at first they were a little creeped out, but they got over it after a few months.”

N wondered how long it would take people to get used to his weirdness.

A/N: awww, poor N. hopefully people stop talking about him soon