“We saw the King.”

No one dared to let out a single sound, creating a complete silence in the living room. Those words just now, made Ravi and Hyuk went rigid in an instant. They could feel their veins tensed up as nightmares from when they were still caged inside the filthy hellhole replayed inside their heads. Their bodies shuddered in fear when far from pleasant memories of the unimaginably gory tortures entered their vision and left ghostly yet painful sensations to their pulsating skin.

The oldest noticed the youngest’ reactions and could only blow a sigh. He knew that Hyuk was not overreacting, since he experienced pretty much the same thing when his owner appeared in front of him; eyeing him and his fellow voodoo dolls with those menacing eyes that he wished he could forget for the rest of his life.

“D-don’t joke a-around…”

Ravi finally said with a cracked voice, being totally denial. Although his older brothers’ firm expression were clear enough to make him surrender to the fact that they were not, in any possible way, joking, Ravi naively hoped that in the very next second, a loud laughter would break out in the room. With one of those depressed-looking souls telling him that they were just messing around with him and Hyuk.

But nothing was heard. Not even the faintest chuckle.

“I told you… you won’t believe this. We hope we were wrong too…” Ken mumbled weakly with hands balled into fists.

“B-but why… Why did he show up here…? And why now?!”

All eyes were quickly directed to the youngest, they saw how the red-haired boy got his thin arms wrapped around his hunched and trembling body, badly terrified. It somewhat surprised them, how they had pathetically used to seeing each other smiling, pretending that nothing happened to their lives. Yet the second their master made his presence visible to his slaves’ eyes, the six were reminded on how freedom had long left their side. How they were meant to spend their immortal lives in never-ending fear.

N slowly shifted to Hyuk, burying the shaking figure in his body before the youngest could pass out and fell down to the floor.

“We don’t know either… but we will figure it out soon.” N sighed and gave Hyuk a weak smile. “Don’t worry. I swear I will protect you, all of us… I won’t let him hurt any of you… or ___. So don’t be scared, alright?”

“W-what did he said then…?” Ravi’s voice was trembling, his breaths started to grow heavy and the others could tell that he was not different from Hyuk, already losing half of his soul.

Hongbin shook his head. “We just saw him from across the street. He dressed in all black, with his hoodie covering half of his face. Both Ken and I tried to chase him… But when we saw him made a turn to an alley and about to confront him… He was already gone.”

“Then how can you guys be so sure that it was really him?!”

Ravi’s voice sounded insecure, wishing that his brothers were really wrong when they thought that it was the King that they had seen.

“Ravi… It’s really him…”

N looked at him and bit his lower lips. “We felt numb all of sudden when he stared at the four of us… That’s enough to be a prove that it was hell… him. Besides… you do know that feeling too, don’t you?”

Ravi’s shoulders slumped in disappointment as he ran his palms to cover his face and let out a frustrated groan. He does know that feeling well. That feeling when the King pierced his stare to their eyes; the feeling of someone mentally ripping their hearts apart; the feeling of losing what’s left of your sanity, leaving only groundless pool of terror.

“Then… w-what should we do…?” Hyuk looked so frustrated and the others actually felt the same, they were simply afraid.

What if the King suddenly came back to tell them that he would bring them back to their cages and torture them again day and night? What if the King actually came to hurt you? What would they do if whatever the King was planning to do to them would separate them away from you?

“We should just-- just calm down for now…” N slowly rose and looked at each of his brothers, trying to assure them that this wasn’t the right time to be frightened.

“We don’t know why the King suddenly showed up… But this could be some kind of warning for us…”

“W-warning…?” Ravi and Hyuk replied in unison as the word penetrated their minds.

Hongbin nodded and his lips formed a thin line. “He probably showed up to warn us that although we are no longer inside the cage… we are still his possessions… his dolls…”

“Or maybe… he just wanted to check if we do our mission well or not…” Ken sheepishly added.

The six of them then stayed silent, lost in their own deep thoughts. If it was true that the King came to give them a warning, then they need to be freed as soon as possible, before the King called off his plan and brought them back to their tormented lives.

“No matter what happens…”

Leo finally opened his mouth and immediately received stares from the rest of the dolls.

“…We will protect ___ from the King and his underlings.”

The rest of the boys nodded, totally agreed with Leo’s idea. If anything happened, you would definitely be their first priority. Because these boys were more than willing to do everything to keep you safe, even if they needed to sacrifice their lives for you.

“Okay, then…”

Hyuk stood up all of the sudden and ruffled his red hair with a sigh, still fighting off the trembling. “All of us need to stay alert start from now… If one of us happens to see the King again… or maybe his friends… then we need to tell each other fast and ready to protect ___ at all costs.”

“If we want everyone to be safe, then we need to get rid of this curse as soon as possible…” Hongbin spoke his opinion out, only to hear endless grouses in return.

“It’s easier said than done, man…” Ravi had his eyebrows tangled while giving Hongbin a distressed look.

“True love… isn’t it?”

What N said made the others’ eyes perked up in the very next second. N was right. The King had told them that only true love could save them from spending their immortal lives as voodoo dolls, the only light that could be the way out from the eternal curse.

“We need to make ___ fall in love with one of us. That’s all. That’s the only condition the King gave us…”

Once again, the living room immersed in silence. A ‘true love’ was not something that could be forced; it was not something that could easily bloom in one’s heart after a couple of romantic confessions.

“This means war, then…” Ravi chuckled before pushing himself up from the coffee table and walked to the stairs, ready to hit the bed.

Those words from Ravi made the rest of the boys looked at each other. They didn’t need the thickest dictionary to understand what kind of war that Ravi actually meant. With eyes flickered in determination, there was only one thing inside the boys’ minds at the moment.

You.

If they want to put an end to their miserable lives, then accomplishing the assigned mission would be the sole answer. As to be freed from the curse and the triggers, to have their sins forgiven, and to cut their fate from turning into voodoo dolls, were things the boys could ever wish for in their forsaken lives.

And in order to make them happen, you were the only key for their liberty.

You were the only one who could heal them; cure them with your true love.

___… I will definitely make you fall for me…

A few days had passed and you were back to your normal life. N, Leo, Ken and Hongbin were no longer acting weird, and you somehow felt thankful that you could continue living peacefully with them. Although the immense increase of members in their so-called fan club these days does worry you, even just for a bit.

But little did you know, the boys were still not letting down their guards down. Currently in full anticipation in case the King showed up again. Because it would be bad if, this time, it didn’t stop with just a mere check up. Judging from how merciless he could be, hurting you to the point of dying would be an easy feat for the King. But the boys had swore to anything up there to protect you with everything they had, even if doing so would cost them their lives.

And when you thought everything was finally back in order, you got another question popped up in your head.

Their getting even intense skinships.

Surprisingly, the boys had become even touchier lately. You did wonder but you didn’t say anything about this. Although the way they abruptly changed their usual morning greet had you shocked for good. Because this morning, the regular ‘good morning’ hugs had drastically turned into warm pecks on your cheeks. Hongbin was the first one to do that and you assumed it somehow made the other boys drown in jealousy, not wanting to lose from the dimpled boy. Except for Leo, who didn’t act less cold like he always does. It felt as if they were trying hard to get your attention. No, scratch that. They were eager to win your heart.

“Honey, what do you want to drink?”

Ravi’s baritone voice welcomed your ears and your answer made him fetch a can of cold lemon tea. The blue-haired boy then pressed his fingers to the buttons on the vending machine happily before walking back to the table with your order.

“Is it good?” Hyuk blinked his eyes at your spaghetti, probably regretting his decision for ordering curry as his today’s lunch.

“Yeah, it is. Do you want to give it a try?” You pushed your plate to him but he instantly pouted.

“I want you to feed me!” He demanded and you swore you were dying to pinch those chubby cheeks.

“You rascal-- come here, let me chop those useless hands off of yours for good--” The eldest glared as he jumped onto the youngest and locked his neck with his firm arms, earning him a loud laugh from you.

You suddenly felt something heavy propped your shoulder from above, and as you turned your head up, you were greeted with a brown-haired boy with abnormally sharp nose, planting his head on you.

“I’m so full~~~ I think I’m about to throw up…”

A smile formed on your face before you patted his cheek gently, “You shouldn’t eat too much, Ken…”

“Can’t help it…” He snuggled his head more, resulting his face to rest on the crook of your neck. He then slung his left arm around your waist, drawing you closer to him.

Your cheeks quickly flushed pink, yet you didn’t have the guts to push him off. Strangely, you felt comfortable with their touches.

“Ya, ya, ya! How is she supposed to eat with you hogging onto her like that?! At least let her finish her lunch first, you dimwit!” Hongbin, who sat right beside Ken, flicked him hard on the forehead, making the roman-statue-looking boy groaned and finally detached himself from you.

“Fine! Fine!”

Ken made a face to Hongbin before stared back at you with a grin on his face. “Eat a lot, princess~~”

He ran his hands to pinch your cheeks and you just chuckled while savoring your spaghetti again.

“Watch your steps, you moron!”

A loud yell could be heard in the distance and the six of you immediately turned around to the source of the voice.

“You better use your eyes before I rip them off from your thick skull!”

The whole cafeteria suddenly stopped its bustling, anticipating the two bickering boys to erupt a fight again. You quickly stood up from your seat when you realized that one of the boys had nearly entire of his uniform smeared in brown while the other one was holding an empty plastic cup that you assumed as the source of the whole problem.

“Seriously, how did you get accepted in this school when you can’t even walk properly? Geez, your parents sure did a poor job teaching their son. Use your eyes to walk, you idiot!”

Ravi felt his blood boiled inside his body, “Look at this retard talking. People walk with their feet, you rotten . Get your fact straight, for God’s sake…”

Finally losing himself, Ravi then threw the empty cup away and stormed to his mortal enemy, hitting him right on the face.

“R-ravi!”

Your eyes widened as you rapidly ran to him. The other five boys followed right behind, approaching Ravi who was sending a death glare to his sprawled nemesis, Yong Junhyung.

Your life was peaceful, but not without Ravi getting into fights against Junhyung every single day. Sometimes they were good with only throwing mockeries, but when things gone north, they would be trying to kill each other, just like today. Forget about seeing the boys in a good term with him, they wouldn’t even accept the fact that things were good between you and Junhyung now. Because the boys would never let you befriend someone whom they greatly despised.

“You--!”

Junhyung grabbed Ravi’s collar, eyes intensely pierced the latter’s, but the blue-haired boy just smirked at him.

“You think you scared me? Hell no, …”

Ravi chortled and Junhyung instantly shoved him hardly, but a mere push was nothing to Ravi, as he didn’t even budge and stood firm on his feet.

“Stop!”

You held Ravi’s arm and sent a glare to Junhyung. “Yong Junhyung! Don’t be like this!”

“Wha-- he was the one who bumped into me! And I’m dead sure he did it on purpose!” Junhyung jabbed his finger to Ravi, earning him a sinister laugh from his opponent.

“Bumping into you? Pfft… come on, why would I want to touch your filthy body anyway?  Remember your place, you stinking piece of .”

Junhyung raised one of his fist and was close from sending it to Ravi’s rim but you were quick enough to halt him.

“Stop it, Junhyung! There’s no way he did it on purpose!”

You saw Junhyung reluctantly pulled his fist down, and for that you sighed in relief, but Ravi didn’t seem to know when to stop messing around. As what he did in the very next second literally ruined everything.

“Yeah~ and if I really did, I wouldn’t just pour freaking lemon tea on you, dude. That’d be too lame. I’d rather throw your grubby body onto a pile of . Now am I not nice? Letting you have a nice swim with your kind.” Ravi smirked and you could see Junhyung’s eyes burned in fury, ready to explode.

“YOU-!”

“No!” You spread your arms to protect Ravi from Junhyung’s attack, but a loud voice suddenly interrupted the fight.

“YOU TWO! COME TO MY OFFICE NOW!”

Cold sweats rolled down from your temples the second you spotted your teacher on the cafeteria’s arch. Both Ravi and Junhyung cursed silently under their breaths before walking unwillingly to follow the fuming teacher.

You gripped on Ravi’s sleeve and the stopped his steps to look at you. Worries were all over your face and Ravi knew you were upset. He hated himself for making you sad, he hated himself for not being able to control his temper. Ravi then sighed, bending his body down as he pecked your flushed cheek.

“Don’t worry… I’m sure it will be just another short detention…” He patted your head with a weak smile and you just nodded.

The other boys could only shake their heads, completely fed up with their brother‘s short temper. What just happened was far from new for them, and the result was not surprising either.

Kim Ravi… when will you be able to control your temper?

You smiled from ear to ear since the long awaited bell rang throughout the school building. Your hands expertly shoved all the books into your bag and some of the students even already had their bags slung onto their shoulders, ready to storm out from the classroom.

“Your Jeju trip is on Friday! Make sure no one is absent if you want to graduate! Oh, and one more thing, don’t be late!”

Your homeroom teacher shouted before finally walked out, giving all of you a last reminder for the exciting soon-to-be trip.

The grin on your face grew wider upon hearing the words but then your eyes landed on one person who might be the only person who didn’t look that excited with this trip. He had his head hung low and he looked even more depressed as the day of the trip came nearer.

Ken…

Your smile instantly faded as you let out a loud sigh. You still didn’t know what made Ken refused to go to Jeju. And hearing what your homeroom teacher just said, it was clear that any kind of excuses wouldn’t work to exempt Ken from the trip.

“Yo! Ready to go home?”

You looked up to see Hyuk standing right behind you with both hands gripped on your shoulders. Seeing his smile made you smiled back at him, eventually stood up as well while holding your bag.

“Yep! Let’s go~”

“Honey! Should we go to Myeongdong today and pick some good bikinis for you in Jeju later?”

N remarked all of the sudden and your face blushed madly because some of your friends giggled upon hearing his words.

“Y-ya! Don’t say something like that!” You glared at N and the dark-skinned boy just stuck his tongue out at you.

“Hey! Don’t go without me! I got detention today, so let’s go tomorrow, okay? You guys do know that I’m the only one who have good eyes for something like that, right?” Ravi wiggled his eyebrows wittily before sending a wink at you.

“Stop it, you two!”

You groaned in annoyance while watching the two erted boys busily discussed what kind of bikini would suit your body the most.

“Guys, hold your horses. We can talk about shopping later, do keep in mind that we have a team project to be done.” Hongbin suddenly dropped the atmosphere, rending the boys to grumble in frustration.

“Aishhh… do you really need to ruin the mood?!” N blew his bangs in anger.

Hongbin just chuckled at the oldest, showing his adorable dimples as he looked at you.

“Come to think of it… have you decided who will be your partners for this project? We can’t have more than three people in a group though…”

“Me! Me!” Ravi quickly ran behind you and hugged you tightly.

“Omo!” You slightly stumbled backwards and quickly took a grip on Ravi’s arms. He then lunged an arm to Hyuk’s neck as well and pulled him closer. “And I will take Hyuk too! This group will be the best group ever!”

“Heyyy! Not fair! How can you take the two smartest amongst us to your group!?!” N had his eyebrows immediately furrowed, totally disapproved Ravi’s decision.

“Aww, come on! I’m in detention today, so please have some mercy on me!” Ravi pouted his lips, still hugging both you and Hyuk tightly.

N then muttered some incoherent curses and about to pick out his choices too, but someone halted him.

“Hongbin, Ken and me.”

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