A new school day came and Hyorin returned to class. Hyuk had also returned to protecting Hyorin as best he could from attempts to hurt or humiliate her. That morning she had repeated her apology about what she had said to Ken for Hyuk and the youngest demon had smiled slightly, accepting her apology.

For all his reluctance shown during the talk with Yong Guk the night before, Hyuk was actually very happy to return to how things had been at school before. He hadn’t liked how things had been the week before, hadn’t like Hyorin avoiding him at all. The only good thing that had come of that week was that she hadn’t been at school for the bullies to bother her.

This sentiment died rather quickly as the pair walked through the halls. It seemed that just about everyone they passed commented on Hyorin’s return to school and Hyuk was slowly getting annoyed. He knew what it felt like, to have people tell you that you shouldn’t be someplace, so he knew it was hurting his master when she heard the other students say it.

“I need some air,” she whispered to him later at lunch.

Hyuk nodded in understanding. All through class, the other students had been whispering about her just loud enough for her to hear. Every bad name he could think of had been used to describe his master and if it upset him to hear it he could only imagine the mental state she was in. Letting her have a few minutes to herself seemed like a good idea when she asked.

But a few minutes later he realized that it wasn’t such a good idea.

Hyuk was just about to go and find Hyorin when he felt her pain. He had no idea what was causing her to feel pain, but it couldn’t be good.

Breaking into a run, Hyuk rushed through the halls trying to find her. It wasn’t until he got to the back doors of the school that he managed to hear Hyorin’s small cries of pain. He sprinted as fast as he could until he found a group of seven or eight kids surrounding his master.

“What do you think you’re doing?” he shouted, eyes narrowing as he ran to the group.

Just as he reached them, his brothers arrived. Glancing at their faces, none of them looked overly pleased with the situation. In fact, they look downright pissed. Hyuk can’t blame them because he felt the exact same way.

Hyuk started shoving students out of his way, fighting to get to Hyorin. N seemed to have better luck, though, and soon the leader had his arms wrapped around Hyorin. Someone said something, not very pleased to have some stranger mess up their fun. But Leo was there for that and everyone backed away from the heat demon once they saw the glare on his face.

“Get out of here,” Ravi growled, pushing one of the students to the ground, “and don’t dare come near Jung Hyorin ever again. You got that?”

“We’ll be back if we hear you’ve messed with her,” Hongbin seconded, his normally handsome face twisted into a dark glare that scared even Hyuk. Who knew the handsome demon could be so terrifying?

“Are you alright?” N asked once the human students had left.

“It hurts,” Hyorin admitted, rubbing her ribs where someone had kicked her, “it hurts a lot.”

“We should have come quicker,” Hyuk frowned, “I shouldn’t have let you go get some air.”

“It’s alright,” she said while focusing her attention on her hands, “I can fix it.”

The six demons watched as a faint glow appeared around her hands. They all recognized that glow from seeing Lay heal his brothers so many times in the past. The only question they had was when had she learned to use that power.

“I didn’t heal everything,” Hyorin frowned moments later when the glow faded. Sure enough, she still dawned some bruises to her arms and face.

“When did you learn to use that?” N asked, but found that she had passed out already.

“Must not have been too long ago,” Ravi noted, “her body still isn’t used to the power drain.”

“Let’s get her home,” Hongbin suggested, “we need to tell Yong Guk about this.”

“We should call Lay, too,” Hyuk suggested, taking Hyorin from N’s arms to that the older demon could stand up, “he always had problems healing himself, but she did it so easy.”

“You’re right,” Ken nodded, “maybe Lay can give us some insight about her healing ability, too. I don’t remember him being able to heal himself. Not well anyway.”

When the six demons returned to the boarding house with Hyorin, Yong Guk was waiting for them in the living room. He’d seen N and the boys rushing out of the house and was worried about what that meant for his niece. Seeing her unconscious in N’s arms didn’t help him any as he started yelling at the group, demanding answers. The explanation didn’t help either.

“I’ll call Lay,” Yong Guk finally sighed once they had calmed him down, “he should know what’s going on.”

“NO!” the six demons cried, lunging forewords and shoving Yong Guk back into his seat. They’d realized on the walk home that telling Lay anything wasn’t a good idea and now were strongly against asking the former demon anything.

They couldn’t let EXO know what had happened. The twelve former demons had entrusted them with their child, trusted that VIXX could protect Hyorin better than they could. If they found out that they had failed, that her classmates had beat her up, who knew what EXO would do.

“Tell them she cut herself cooking dinner,” Ken suggested, “or that she tripped and hurt herself heading down the stairs this morning. Just don’t tell them that she got hurt because we couldn’t protect her.”

“They’ll kill us if they found out,” Ravi added, “humans or not, they’ll find a way to kill us.”

“They’re right,” Leo nodded. If EXO had seen Hyorin’s battered form before she healed herself, they would have chased VIXX to the ends of the earth just so that they could kill them, bring them back to life, and then kill them again in an even more painful way then they did the first time.

“Fine,” Yong Guk sighed after taking a moment to think about their request, “but if they find out the truth, I’m not going to take the blame.”

“Deal,” N nodded before picking Hyorin up again, “I’ll take her to her room.” not waiting for an answer, he left the room and made his way to Hyorin’s bedroom.

“In the morning,” he whispered, “I’m going to start training you again.” He wasn’t going to let Hyorin be an easy target for anyone ever again. He was going to make sure she could defend herself.

A/N: I think it’s safe to say that VIXX is going to start bonding with Hyorin now.