T h e   I n s t i t u t e

Chapter Eight

Kangin woke up with a jolt. He rubbed at his eyes in the murky half-light, trying to combat the weighty pulls of sleep that still lingered there. He heard a pained groan from beside him and realised what had awoken him in the first place. He turned and saw Leeteuk tossing around in the sheets, a frown worrying his forehead and a string of nonsensical murmuring falling from his mouth. He must have been having a vision or else a bad dream. Kangin waited for a few moments to see if he’d wake up on his own but whatever was plaguing his mind must have gotten worse.

‘Teukie?’ He watched the other boy furiously move about the mattress, the sheets getting tangled in his thrashing limbs. He kept muttering the word ‘no’. ‘Leeteuk?’ Kangin moved across and pinned his arms down. He repeated the psychic’s name several times until eventually, Leeteuk’s eyes flew open and he shot up to a sitting position, panting heavily.

‘Wha… what ha-happened?’ He shakily got out.

‘You were dreaming.’ Kangin explained, releasing his grip on Leeteuk’s wrists to move back and let him have his space as he tried to calm down.

‘I… yeah. Dreaming.’ Leeteuk agreed but then he shook his head. ‘Wait no. It was a vision. I’ve had them enough to know the difference. It must have been-’ He suddenly gasped.

‘What? What’s wrong?’ He swallowed and looked anxiously over at Kangin.

‘I saw Hankyung.’

‘Hankyung?’

‘His eyes… they were red. He just looked s-so angry and there was fire… everywhere. Someone was screaming. I think he…’ Leeteuk shut his mouth quickly. His chest was heaving up and down as he breathed rapidly through his nose.

‘What is it?’ Kangin prompted. He was getting worried as well now.

After a minute of trying to control his breathing, Leeteuk looked at Kangin again. ‘I think he’s going to kill somebody.’

‘What?!’

‘I didn’t see it exactly but I just had this feeling.’

‘But he’s so… so stoic. He doesn’t seem like the kind of person that would commit murder.’ Kangin protested.

‘Maybe he’s passive for a reason. Maybe he’s trying to hide what he’s really like. I mean we’ve only known him a few weeks, who knows what he was like back in China.’ Leeteuk wondered. ‘I could be wrong but… I know what I felt.’

‘Perhaps we should just keep it between us.’

‘Good idea. I don’t want it to become an issue. You should go check on Heechul.’ Kangin nodded in acquiescence. He leaned across the bed to press several kisses against Leeteuk’s forehead then smiled at him as he got up and pulled on a t-shirt.

It was part of Kangin’s morning routine nowadays to slip across the hall and make sure that Heechul was ok since his nightmares had increased. He ran the risk of injury if he dared to wake up the shifter if he had actually had a good night’s sleep but fortunately – or unfortunately, depending on how you looked at it – Heechul didn’t usually have pleasant dreams and after a rough night, the only thing he hated more than being woken up unnecessarily, was waking up alone.

Kangin left his and Leeteuk’s bedroom and shuffled the short distance along the corridor to Heechul’s where he quietly opened the door. Heechul was buried under the fuchsia pink duvet, giving him the appearance of a misshapen lump. He was muttering in his sleep like Leeteuk had been doing, however, and Kangin knew that he was still being tortured by a nightmare. It killed him every time he saw Heechul like this. He wanted to protect him from the hurting and the pain but as yet, no one had found anything to help give his oldest friend a dreamless sleep.

‘Chullie?’ He called out as he wandered further into the room. He sat down by the side of the pink lump and looked around at the heavily decorated walls. Heechul had a lot of posters varying from J-Rock bands to kittens. Kangin liked his photograph arrangement the best. It was above his bed and included photographs of all of them – the special agents. As much as Heechul liked to pretend he was a cold-hearted bastard, he still loved them.

He didn’t wake up suddenly like Leeteuk had done. He merely slumped out of the quilted cave he’d made, revealing portions of his body from out of the sheets. Kangin settled himself back against the pillows, partially lying next to Heechul. He reached out a hand and the long tresses of his vibrant auburn hair. This was one of the very, very few times he was allowed to go anywhere near Heechul’s hair and it was only because he had special privileges as a best friend/brother.

‘Have you killed the elves yet?’ Came a sleepy murmur. Kangin snickered.

‘Not yet.’ He replied.

‘Well you’re no use.’ Heechul began to steadily emerge from under his covers so that he could sit next to Kangin on the bed. He blew the hair out of his eyes as he blinked slowly with a fed-up expression.

‘I didn’t know you still wore your Tom and Jerry pyjamas.’ Kangin commented.

‘They’re comfy.’ With that, Heechul got up and starting digging around in his wardrobe, picking out items of clothing and then disappearing into the bathroom for brief moments. Kangin watched him go about his business, wondering whether it was worth asking about the nightmare. He had noticed dried tear-tracks on the other’s cheeks but that was common. Instead he went with another question that he’d been itching to get an answer to.

‘What are you doing with Siwon?’ He asked bluntly; it was better to just come out with these things, Heechul didn’t like it when you deliberated for too long. The latter pretended not to hear him and continued rummaging in his drawers. As he went back into the bathroom, he stopped to take a look at the Disney princess calendar on the wall where Jasmine was smiling back at him.

‘It’s a full moon next week.’ Heechul turned to give Kangin a pointed look and then shut himself in the ensuite, presumably to get dressed. Kangin rolled his eyes.

‘Seriously, Heechul, what’s the deal with Siwon?’ He raised his voice to be heard through the door.

‘How do you even know about that? Has Leeteuk been spying on me again?!’

‘No. Sungmin told me.’

There was a long pause. ‘Why are you interested anyway? I thought you said you didn’t want to know about my life.’

‘I’m worried.’ Kangin huffed a sigh.

‘Worried about what?!’

‘I’m worried that you think this is going to help you get over Jay.’ Another silence. This time it was broken by Heechul opening the door and returning to his bedroom again, now dressed in something Kangin had been told was a ‘playsuit’. Its deep red colour made the paleness of Heechul’s skin stand out dramatically in contrast.

‘I’m over Jay.’ The shifter snapped. He threw his pyjamas at Kangin’s head.

‘That’s a lie and you know it.’

‘Who’s to say that Siwon won’t help anyway?’ Heechul protested, now moving over to his vanity mirror and settling down to do his hair and makeup.

‘Me.’ He snorted. ‘Sungmin. Leeteuk, Kibum. Hell, even Kyuhyun thinks this is a bad idea.’

‘Oh of course Kibum has to put in his two cents. That kid needs to stop snooping in people’s brains and maybe have a proper conversation with somebody for once.’

‘Stop ing about Kibum and tell me what’s wrong. Why are you sleeping with Siwon? What changed that made you think about Jay again?’ Kangin pleaded. Heechul scowled at the mirror, furiously attacking his eyelashes with mascara. He had the expression that signalled he wanted to get something off his chest but was being stubborn about it. ‘Please, just tell me. It’s me. You can tell me anything. God knows you tell me far too much sometimes.’

‘You were the one that asked why I was buying duct tape.’ Heechul retorted and the mood lifted as they both sniggered. Kangin didn’t say anything more but he the puppy eyes – an instant game-changer. Heechul took one look at him and sighed. He put down his makeup but carried on staring into the mirror. He wasn’t looking at himself though; he could see something in his mind that Kangin wasn’t privy too. ‘Something changed ever since… ever since Hankyung got here.’

Recalling Leeteuk’s vision, Kangin proceeded with caution. ‘Hankyung? Why?’ Heechul sighed again.

‘I don’t know. Every time I talk to him or I’m alone with him, he reminds me of Jay. The way he just… doesn’t really say anything and he stares like he’s trying to see inside… I…’

‘I know what you mean. He’s got that tall, dark and mysterious thing going for him to a tee. But, Jay wasn’t like him, he was more playful and-’

‘No it’s not that they’re similar personality wise. It’s…’

‘What?’

Heechul let the side of his face drop against his hand. He looked miserable. ‘It’s how he makes me feel.’ Kangin raised his eyebrows slightly at the revelation. He wasn’t sure whether Heechul had realised he liked Hankyung more than a friend, only that he knew he had an effect on him. Now it made some amount of sense that he would go looking for Siwon as a source of comfort because the guy was hopeless at caring for someone properly. He could give you what you wanted in the bedroom but aside from that, feelings would not be involved and, clearly, Heechul wasn’t interested in feeling anything.

‘Look, I’m not going to tell you what to do but, as your friend, I think you need to take a chance on properly moving on from Jay and Siwon isn’t going to help you do that. Perhaps Hankyung will.’ Kangin said, getting up from the bed and moving closer to the vanity table. He put his hands on the back of the chair and looked into the mirror at his and Heechul’s reflections.

‘I’ll just get my heart broken again.’ Heechul murmured quietly. He bit his bottom lip.

‘You don’t know that.’ Kangin leant down slightly so his chin was resting on the other boy’s head. ‘I think Siwon’s more likely to break your heart than Hankyung considering what Sungmin went through.’

‘I’m not like Sungmin. I won’t get attached.’

‘You can’t know that for definite either. Please, just… think about it. Jay would want you to be happy and so do I.’ Kangin stepped towards the door and Heechul turned around to watch him go.

Even so, it wasn’t until now as he disappeared from sight and snuck into Master Chen’s office, that Henry realised he was actually quite adept in the field of espionage. He had just left the library and was heading back to his room when he heard raised voices coming from the head office and, being curious as always, decided he might have a listen in to see what all the fuss was about. Now he was stood in the corner of the room by a rubber plant taller than himself and watching Master Gong getting flustered as he talked to Master Chen about the Elves.    

‘I mean, honestly, it’s getting ridiculous this not knowing business. I don’t know about you but I’ve been having trouble sleeping at night wondering if I’m safe. The fact that they managed to get into The Institute to leave that horrid mark on the wall is terrifying. They could have put up cameras. They could be spying on us right now!’ Henry stifled a laugh at the thought of Master Gong’s face if he jumped out at him right now. He decided not to, however, since he’d rather be spared Master Chen’s wrath. The latter was sitting calmly in his high-backed chair with his chin resting on top of his steepled fingers.

‘I doubt that. It’s not their style. We’re the ones with the dirty tricks and sneaky tactics.’ He said, barely showing any kind of expression other than impassive. ‘They have too much pride and they like to put on a show with everything. Their methods may be dark but that doesn’t mean they’re clever about it. I wouldn’t be surprised if we do get a break-in in the near future though it’s beyond me what they might want to steal from the Adamantium Vaults let alone how they’d go about it.’

‘But we can trust the security there, surely? I mean it’s the best in the world. That place has some of the most valuable artefacts in history and if it can’t be protected then I’d question the safety of, well, everything.’ There was a pause and Henry wondered whether he’d heard enough before Master Chen began speaking once more and he found himself glued to the spot.

‘The question still remains as to how they got here in the first place. They were banished without any contact to the Netherworlds whatsoever. I can only guess that they found something in Lemuria that has allowed them to travel through the realms. It’s not like anyone has ever been there to know what kind of a place it is so, for all we know, they could have access to levels of magic we’ve never heard of.’

‘It can’t be anything with too great a power, though, when you think about it.’ Master Gong said.

‘How so?’

‘Well, you’re right, they like to do things with grandeur. If they’d found a way to send more than maybe one or two of them back at a time, we’d have an army at our doorstep this very minute.’

Master Chen nodded slowly, considering what had been said. ‘We still have to be careful because even just one Dark Elf on the loose in our world is dangerous. They’ll have been sent here to let us know they’re coming with the defacing of our library but also, to figure out a way to bring the army to us and who knows what they’ll do to achieve that.’

‘They’ll have been stirring up rumours throughout the Netherworlds if those vampires in Borneo are anything to go by. The supernatural world knows something big is about to happen. We can’t afford to let them take sides and I’ll bet good money that that’s what the Elves are trying to make them do.’

‘That’ll send things greatly out of hand.’ Master Chen agreed, his brows furrowing in anxiety. ‘We have to keep this contained, keep it personal. This is between the Institute and the Dark Elves like it was before but this time… this time it’s kill or be killed. No banishment. No second chance. We have to destroy them before they get a chance to destroy us and our world.’

‘What… like a boy’s haircut?’ Kyuhyun immediately paused Grand Theft Auto.

‘No, don’t be stupid. I mean like to here kind of..’ Sungmin tried to explain what he meant by curling the ends of his hair up to demonstrate the length he was thinking about chopping it to but Kyuhyun was none the wiser. He gave him a bewildered look and then returned to his game.

‘I like your hair the way it is.’ He said and Sungmin smiled, letting his hair fall back down. He bounced over to Kyuhyun’s beanbag that he was lounging on and leant on the side of it to watch the television screen where a great amount of destruction was being unleashed.

‘Maybe I should die it blonde…’ He mused, spotting a e in the game with blonde locks. Kyuhyun clucked his tongue as a small indication of annoyance and pressed pause for a second time.

‘You’re perfect the way you are.’ He said seriously, looking straight into Sungmin’s eyes who felt his breath catch in his throat. ‘Why the sudden need to change your hair anyway?’

‘Well now that Siwon’s revealed his true – dickhead – colours, I feel like I need a fresh start. Changing my hairstyle is the next best thing to getting a tattoo and that is something I would only consider while drunk off my .’ Sungmin gave a melodramatic sigh.

‘So either changing your hair or getting a tattoo are your only options?’ Kyuhyun questioned.

‘Well what do you suggest oh wise one?’

‘You could take up something like a new hobby or maybe do your makeup a different way or, I don’t know, buy some new clothes- wait. Scratch that last. You do not need any more clothes.’

Sungmin giggled. ‘I always need more clothes.’

‘Yes but you’re still on probation from when Master Chen found out you were using the Institute’s money to fund your shoe obsession so I’d be careful.’ They both laughed until Kyuhyun got a sincere look in his eyes. ‘Maybe you don’t need to do anything for a fresh start. A fresh start might find you without you even realising.’

‘That’d be nice. I like things that require no effort on my part.’ Sungmin grinned and Kyuhyun rolled his eyes but he was smiling too. All of a sudden there was a knock at the door and Sungmin got up to answer it while GTA flared back into life. He was taken off guard slightly when he opened the door to find Siwon standing there. ‘Oh… hi.’

‘I thought I might find you here.’

‘What’s that supposed to mean?’

‘Err, a- …nothing. Look. Can I talk to you? I think it’s about time we got everything out in the open.’ Sungmin took a glance back at Kyuhyun who was purposefully keeping his concentration on what was happening in the game.

‘Fine. Let’s go to my room.’ He led the way out of Kyuhyun’s bedroom to his own next door to the left, allowing Siwon to step through and then shutting the door behind them. Siwon awkwardly stood in the middle of the space until Sungmin pointedly went and sat down on the end of his bed, signalling the other boy to do the same. ‘This had better not be the ‘I hope we can still be friends’ speech.’

Siwon gave a nervous laugh and then cleared his throat. ‘I-it’s not. I think maybe I should just say everything I want to say before it gets all mixed up in my head.’

‘Fire away then.’ Sungmin replied in an aggressively sarcastic tone.

‘Ok, well um… so we’ve never actually been in proper relationship. We had a mutual agreement that it was just . I didn’t want feelings to get involved but now I realise that they inevitably did, at least, for you. Perhaps if you’d told me about it, things might have been different but there’s no point arguing over that now.’ Sungmin scoffed but Siwon ploughed on. ‘The last couple of months I honestly thought things were coming to an end between us because we hung out but we never really did anything.’

‘I was trying to get to know you better as a friend.’ Sungmin stated in irritation.

‘I get that now. I just misread what was happening. So, anyway, about a month ago I was talking to Heechul late one night and he was upset about Jay. I was comforting him at first but then I just… took things a step further. I just wanted to make him feel better.’

‘Oh I bet you did.’

Siwon ignored the slight. ‘We only… a few times… then around two weeks ago, about the time Hankyung and ZhouMi got here, he kind of avoided me for a while. But the night you caught us, he was even more upset than before.’

‘ isn’t the answer, Siwon.’

‘I know that.’ Siwon grumbled. ‘But that’s what happened.’

‘So am I supposed to feel better now? Now that I know all about your little ordeal with Heechul behind my back.’ Sungmin folded his arms and raised an eyebrow.

‘I just wanted to be honest with you. I’m really sorry. I’ve been a .’

‘And you’ll continue to be one if you keep sleeping with Heechul.’

‘Why should that concern you now?’ Siwon quickly replied in affront. Sungmin ground his teeth.

‘Can’t you see that Heechul needs someone to talk to? You can’t fix any of his problems with what’s in your trousers. He needs someone he can open up to and be himself around. Me and Kangin have been trying so ing hard and you’re screwing it up.’

‘How?!’

‘Because you’re making him think that is meaningless! He’s convinced himself that love will only ever cause him pain.’

‘But if he wants to have with me then I’m not going to stop him if it makes him happy.’ Siwon’s words made Sungmin pause. He remembered something from not too long ago and faltered in what he was previously thinking about. He could feel anger coursing through his veins, boiling out from a place of agony in his heart that had settled there and never left. Then he saw Kyuhyun’s face in his mind, knew what he would say and suddenly, a flash of courage filled him up.

‘You told me I didn’t have to eat if it made me happy.’ He swallowed the bile rising in his throat and despite the shaking of his voice, continued on. ‘Once I didn’t eat for almost three weeks but then… then I… I kept getting really dizzy and I would faint all the time. I-I fainted and fell down the stairs and broke ribs. I fainted in the shower a-and cut my head open. My throat is ed up from h-h-how many t-times I’ve… I’ve..’

‘Sungmin… you don’t have to-’

‘Donghae put that down!’ He cried when he suddenly noticed the child playing with a bag of saline. Donghae jumped at his sharp tone and nearly dropped what he was holding but, luckily, just about managed to set it down in a safe place. Kibum rolled his eyes. The both of them were down in the medical room to accompany Eunhyuk who had his physical check-up that day. The nurse was running various tests on him while he sat on the bed with a sullen look on his face. Kibum was apprehensive about what might happen since that expression usually meant Eunhyuk was about to have one of his moods.

‘I’m bored.’ Donghae whined, flopping down on the other spare seat.

‘Why did you come down here then?’ Eunhyuk snapped. Uh-oh. Shouting at Donghae was the next stage.

‘I wanted to say hello to Victoria.’ The nurse gave Donghae a bright smile as she wrapped the blood pressure monitor around Eunhyuk’s arm. He winced when she tightened it and glared at her. Kibum wondered whether getting ZhouMi to come down and relax his mood would be beneficial.

‘How’s the ankle?’ Victoria asked. She’d been the one to take a look at Donghae’s injury after they had returned from Borneo and had confirmed that it was nothing more than badly twisted. However, since Donghae had kicked up such a fuss, he’d been given special treatment… and a lollipop.

‘It’s better now.’ He replied, grinning. Suddenly, he gasped and was bouncing up and down.

‘What?’ Kibum asked.

‘We need to go on a night out. Everyone does.’ As if a switch had been flipped, Eunhyuk suddenly cracked a smile.

‘Hey, yeah, that’s a good idea.’ He agreed happily. Kibum was incredulous. He also briefly wondered whether someone should take a look at Donghae’s brain patterns because going from a twisted ankle to a night out couldn’t even have a tenuous link.

‘Bummie, ask everyone to come for a meeting in the common room so I can tell them we’re going out tonight.’ Donghae said, putting on a supposedly cute face.

‘Fine. Whatever.’ Kibum sighed, ignoring the aegyo. He closed his eyes and concentrated on sending out a message to all of the special agents. It was times like these he sometimes wondered whether he actually needed a mobile phone. When he’d locked on to each of their minds with the exception of Donghae, Eunhyuk and himself, he projected what he wanted to say.

Family meeting in the common room. Ten minutes.

‘Did you do it?’ Donghae immediately asked when he opened his eyes again. Kibum nodded. And so, ten minutes later, when Victoria cleared Eunhyuk to leave after assuring him he was still in top condition, the three of them headed upstairs to find the others.

The common room was buzzing with chatter when they arrived. Everyone had dragged themselves over there on time and were now all sat in the middle on sofas, armchairs, each other… Kangin lay in the centre of them all in furry wolf form getting a lot of attention from Heechul and Sungmin. The latter was receiving his own attention as a result of sitting between Kyuhyun’s legs on the floor who had his arms wrapped around him protectively. Ryeowook and Yesung made a similar picture in one of the armchairs while the others were all sporadically dotted around.

‘Are we all here?’ Leeteuk asked when he saw Kibum, Donghae and Eunhyuk enter the room. There was a ripple of agreement. ‘So what did you call us here for?’ Donghae bounded over and took up a seat next to Leeteuk on the sofa though he was still fidgeting in excitement.

‘I wanted everyone here because I’ve decided we’re going out tonight.’ He cried with glee. All at once people started cheering and whooping, shouting ‘yes!!’ and bouncing as much as Donghae. Kangin even let off a celebratory howl. The room swelled with noise once again as everyone started talking enthusiastically about the night out to come. Kibum caught a glimpse of Henry looking a little uneasy and, although he really shouldn’t, he searched the boy’s mind for the cause. He sighed when he found that Henry was worried about their safety from what he’d apparently heard that morning.

‘So, we’re allowed out? To get drunk?’ ZhouMi asked in the midst of the excitement.

‘Well we have to have chaperones but yeah!!’ Eunhyuk told him. Kibum noticed the threat of a temper from earlier had completely vanished, however, he knew that once Eunhyuk got a few drinks in him things would be a rather different story.

‘Oh my god I need to get ready!’ Heechul promptly exclaimed, quickly getting to his feet and holding a hand out to Sungmin to pull him up as well.

‘Heechul it’s half three in the afternoon. We won’t be going out for another seven hours.’ Leeteuk said with a dubiously raised eyebrow.

‘Exactly!’ Dragging Kyuhyun along with them, Heechul and Sungmin flounced out of the common room to do god knows what leaving several incredulous faces in their wake.

‘I’m going to ring Seungho to get us in the VIP lounge.’ Shindong announced, already bringing up the contact number on his phone as he rose from an armchair and made his way out of the room as well. Kangin padded after him which made Leeteuk follow along.