Hyorin took a deep breath, trying to calm herself, before stepping through the front gate of her new school. She found herself recalling the stories her uncles had told her of their time at this very same school. Tales of bullying and teachers who let it go on right in front of them, all because the six boys and her mother didn’t have parents or a lot of money. Daehyun had defiantly had it the worse, but that didn’t mean Youngjae and the others got away with nothing. Had things changed, or would she become a victim of the same harassment?

Glancing over her shoulder, she wondered if having Hyuk would make things any better. The demon didn’t look too interested in anything school related and she kind of doubted he’d help her with bullies. His job was to protect her from the people after her, not from human teenagers being mean.

“Ah!” Hyorin felt herself stumbling back as a scream sounded from in front of her. Turning to face whoever had yelled, she found a girl trying to pull her wet shirt away from her, an empty coffee cup at her feet explaining just what the brown substance staining the garment was.

“I’m so sorry,” Hyorin bowed as the other girl turned her angry gaze on her, “I’m so very sorry.”

“Stupid new kid,” the girl hissed as a couple of her friends rushed to her aid, “you better hope I don’t see you again.”

“Get out of here, new girl,” one of the friends yelled, pushing Hyorin away. Not about to argue, Hyorin rushed to get away from the group of girls. As she moved away, she heard whispers from the crowd that had gathered and learned that the girl she’d bumped into was one of the school’s queenkas. She’d dealt with queenka types before, being told to get lost was being let off easy.

“It’s alright,” Hyorin whispered to herself as she made her way to her first class, “I just need to stay out of her way for the rest of my time here. It’s a big school, it shouldn’t be too hard.”

Unfortunately for her, fate seemed to have a different view of things as Hyorin kept bumping into the queenka. From accidently knocking the girl’s books out of her hands to taking her seat in class, Hyorin kept doing things that upset the queenka.

“That’s it!” the girl finally shouted, glaring at Hyorin, “I’m sick of you. You know what? I’m going to destroy you, socially or literally I couldn’t care less.”

“Watch your back, new girl,” another of the queenkas hissed before they walked away.

This was exactly what she didn’t need; more people out to destroy her. Whatever god she’s pissed off in a past life must be laughing at her right now. And things didn’t end there because at least three dozen other students had heard what the queenkas had said.

If Hyorin thought she would have trouble making friends before this, then it would be impossible now. Few people wanted to befriend the new girl who had upset the queenkas of the school. If her social life was doomed, then theirs would be too. It wasn’t worth it and Hyorin couldn’t blame them.

--

“How was your day?” Yong Guk asked when she got home, dropping her weight into the chair on he other side of his desk.

“I hate it,” she frowned, “I messed up big.”

“I don’t believe that,” he smiled trying to make her feel better, “it can’t have been that bad.”

“Well it was,” she told him everything. To his credit, Yong Guk didn’t laugh at how awful her luck was. Hyuk had after the third accident with the queenka. He’d found it very funny and Hyorin had wished she could use the power she inherited from Chanyeol so that she could burn his .

“Just give it a few weeks,” Yong Guk suggested, “maybe this girl will realize it isn’t worth it and leave you alone.”

“And if she doesn’t?”

“Well, that’s why you have me,” he laughed, “I can be pretty scary when I’m mad.”

“Thank you, uncle Yong Guk,” Hyorin smiled, making her way around his desk so she could hug the older man, “that means a lot to me.”

“Just promise me you’ll let me know if they do anything to you,” he requested and she nodded in agreement.

“I’ll get my homework done,” she smiled, “and then I’ll get dinner started.”

“Who says I can’t do that myself?” Yong Guk scoffed. He was the adult here after all, he should be able to get something together. Last night’s dinner – assuming you could call it that – had just been a fluke. A one off.

“Mother. She says you’ve been living on take out and instant meals.”

“Oh,” he blushed lightly. He knew he should have forbidden Himchan and the others from telling her that.

“D.O appa’s been teaching me,” Hyorin smiled proudly, “so I can cook from now on.” Before Yong Guk could say anything – like tell her that she didn’t need to cook – she was out the door and up the stairs.

“Damn,” he sighed, “at least now the others can’t get mad that I’m not eating healthy enough.”

In another part of the house, Hyuk was recounting the events of the day to his brothers.

“You could have stepped in,” Ravi said once the youngest was finished, “the last thing we need is to have to protect her from bullies.”

“I tried,” Hyuk frowned, “but it’s like some force wanted all of that to happen.”

“It’s probably just coincidence,” N laughed lightly, “luck just wasn’t on Hyorin’s side today is all.”

“What if it wasn’t?” Hongbin wondered, “What if all of that was on purpose? At the risk of sounding paranoid, what if someone made all of that stuff happen?”

“Why would they do that?” Ravi rolled his eyes, “what good could come of Hyorin having no human friends?”

“I don’t know,” the empath demon shrugged, “but I think we should keep a closer eye on Hyorin when she’s at school.”

“Agreed,” N nodded, “I still think it’s a coincidence, but I’m not going to take any chances. In addition to Hyuk being with her inside the school, someone will be providing surveillance around the perimeter.”

A/N: what do you think? All of Hyorin’s accidents are just that, accidents? Or something more?