Everything was normal for the first part of the school day. And for that, Hyuk was beyond happy. So long as everything stayed normal, Hyorin wasn’t in any danger. The second things changed, he knew something bad was going to happen and he didn’t want that bad thing to happen to his master.

But like all good things, the normal day had to end.

“What’s wrong?” Hyorin asked when she noticed Hyuk tense up.

“There’s someone watching,” Hyuk replied, “I can feel it. There’s an enemy demon around here.”

“What do we do?” Hyorin asked. She knew she wasn’t any good in a fight right now, so she wouldn’t be able to help Hyuk if it came down to that. Hyorin felt……..incredibly useless.

“I’ll call the others,” Hyuk told her, feeling just as useless thanks to his own power being of no use in a fight, “N hyung will know what to do.” She nodded, also trusting in N to know how to handle the situation.

--

Ken walked through another alley, looking for anything out of the ordinary. When Hyuk had called, N and Leo had been out of the house with Yong Guk. After quickly talking things over with Ravi and Hongbin, it was decided that Ken would be the most useful in this situation.

Thus, the sound demon found himself looking for a threat he could feel, but not hear or see.

Ken couldn’t hear any trace of someone there, but he could feel it in his bones. A part of him was convinced that he was just paranoid, that his brain was being tricked into thinking there was something there when there wasn’t. A larger part, however, knew that someone really was there.

“Dang it,” Ken muttered to himself, “Where are you? I know you’re there.”

Ken turned around when he heard something falling, ready to blast whatever it was with a sound wave. However he was greeted with a simple stray cat that hissed at him before running off. He sighed before returning to his task.

The whole time Ken looked, he could feel someone watching him. He kept using his power to amplify all the noise in the area, hoping to at least hear the other person breathing, but found nothing. It was starting to grate on his last nerve. Ken hated feeling useless and this whole experience was making him feel worse than just useless.

With another big sigh, Ken turned to leave. He was just wasting time and energy on this hunt for a needle in a haystack, energy that could be better spent protecting Hyorin in other ways. He was just getting to the exit of the alley when he heard something drop to the ground right behind him.

Starting to turn around, Ken caught the movement of something being swung at him from the corner of his eye. The next second, he felt pain in the back of his skull and his vision turned back. Ken felt himself drop to the ground and then he was out cold.

Just before he out completely, he silently prayed that the others would be able to find him before whoever had done this killed him.

--

“Let’s hurry up and get home,” Hyuk said, leading Hyorin in the direction of the boarding house, “we shouldn’t stay out in the open for too long.” She nodded, knowing he was right.

“Wait,” Hyorin suddenly stopped as the pair were passing an alley, “did you hear that?”

“Hear what?” Hyuk asked, looking around and hoping that this wasn’t an attack.

“It came from here,” Hyorin started walking into the alley, waving off Hyuk’s hands when he tried to grab her, “it sounded like a groan.”

“Hyorin,” Hyuk called, trying to pull her back onto the sidewalk, “we need to get home. This could be a set up.”

“And what if it’s not?” she countered, not looking back as she made her way farther into the alley, “what if it’s someone who’s been hurt? A totally innocent person who just needs help.”

“We can come back later then,” he shrugged, “with the hyungs. But right now we’re easy targets, so can we please go home?”

“Not yet,” Hyorin said, finally turning to face him.

Because her attention wasn’t on where she was walking, Hyorin stumbled over some trash laying in front of her. Trying to get her balance, she knocked into a trashcan, knocking the miscellaneous items piled on top over. One of the items turned out to be a box full of cans that spilled all over the ground. One of those can went flying and hit something.

Something that let out a small groan of pain both recognized.

“Ken hyung,” Hyuk lunged forewords, pulling the older demon out of the pile of trash he’d been left lying in.

“Oh my god,” Hyorin gasped when they both saw the condition Ken was in.

“Hyung!” Hyuk yelled, trying to get the other to wake up and opened his eyes, “what happened? Who did this to you?”

“Oh my god,” Hyorin whispered once more, moving closer as she looked over Ken’s beaten body.

His hair was matted and stuck to his face thanks to dried blood that appeared to have come from a hit to the head as well as several cuts to his face. His left arm looked to be broken and he had several deep cuts running across his torso. His shirt and pants were ripped in several different places, all revealing cuts and bruises that would have otherwise remained hidden beneath the fabric.

Hyorin dropped to her knees beside the two demons and took Ken’s hand into her own. Looking over his wounds, she felt horribly guilty. Ken had only been out here to protect her. He was hurt like this because of her. It was all her fault.

Hyorin didn’t even realize she was using her healing powers until Hyuk yelled at her about it.

“Stop,” Hyuk told her, pulling her hands away, “you’ll wear yourself out healing him like that. Ken hyung’s too badly injured for you to heal in one go. You’ll either pass out or hurt yourself. When hyung wakes up, he wouldn’t be happy to know you passed out healing him.”

“We need to get him home, then,” she said and Hyuk nodded, taking note that Hyorin already looked a bit weary from the use of her power. The demon took a few steps back before changing into his demon form, a black horse with a mane and tail of fire.

“Put him on my back,” he instructed, lowering himself to the ground to make the task easier on her, “and then get on yourself. I can get us home faster this way.” Hyorin didn’t waste any time in lifting Ken up and onto Hyuk’s back, getting on herself and holding Ken close so that he wouldn’t fall off.

“What happened?” N asked the second they got inside, “Hyuk, who did this to Ken?” Hyuk explained everything he knew as Leo took the sound demon up to their shared room.

“When he wakes up, we’ll ask what happened,” Yong Guk said and everyone nodded in agreement, looking off in the direction Leo had gone with concern.

A/N: oh no. poor Ken (the 'I'm sorry, Ken' goes without saying). Just wondering (might be a little early, but *shrug* I’m curious) do you guys ship Hyorin with any of the guys?