[A/N] Thank you so much to BeautifulColor who kindly made this poster for us! *hugs*

A loud sigh escaped your lips as you stared blankly into the empty space. You felt a tap on your shoulder, but you didn’t feel like replying or even turning your head. Your head was simply too occupied with something. You were both confused and worried, wondering what to do after what had happened last night.

What if… oppa showed up today? What if he’ll be home once I come back from school…? What should I do…? What should I say about ‘them’…?

“Princess--!” Ken’s voice was piercing your ears, but you were still trapped in your own world.

You heard another voice called for your name, but your mind was far from where you were right now.

Would he believe me if I told him that the boys are a bit ‘different’ from us? That they’re technically not ‘humans’? Aishh… What should I do?!

“Ya—___!” A high-pitched voice echoed from behind, followed with a series of nudges. Yet you weren’t responding at all. A loud sigh was what you heard next when Sujin pinched the hem of your shirt, “I swear if you don’t answer now you’ll be—”

“___, I WANT YOU TO STEP FORWARD NOW!!”

An even louder voice roared, this time right from your front. And thanks to it, you were finally back to your senses and instantly gasped on the spot. Blinking your eyes, you noticed that nearly all eyes were focused on you right now.

W-wha… what is happening!?

“COME. HERE. NOW!”

You saw your teacher jabbed his finger furiously to a spot in front of him with anger all over his face. Confusion filled your head as you gulped nervously and glanced at your best friend for a clue.

“Told you that you’ll be punished… What were you thinking anyway!? He had been calling your name a hundred times…!” Sujin kept her voice low while giving you a frown, later pushing your body forward.

You warily stepped your feet, now facing with your fuming teacher with arms already firmly crossed in front of his chest.

“Are you deaf!? I’ve been repeatedly calling your name yet you weren’t moving at all!” His finger motioned you to walk even farther, “Now go!! It’s your turn!”

The moment you followed where his finger pointed to, you finally realized that you were in the middle of PE subject; practicing tennis as today’s game. Again, your body stayed petrified for another few seconds, requiring more time to stomach what actually was happening. Too bad your teacher had lost his very last bit of patience.

“I said-- NOW!!”

His earsplitting yell certainly made you flinch, and it didn’t take you a long time to rapidly walk to the middle of the court. Grabbing the racket your classmate handed you, you meekly answered, “Y-yes, sir!”

Hongbin sighed as he whispered quite loudly for his brothers to hear, “Do you think she will be okay?”

Leo calmly exhaled while craning his neck to get a better look of you, “She will… only if she could get her brother off her thoughts…”

The dimpled boy pouted his lips before furrowed his eyebrows together, “She’s been dazing out like that since this morning…”

“Wrong. She has been like that since she stepped out from her room.” Hyuk cockily corrected, resulting on N staring at you with a set of worried look.

He could see how your face slowly began to focus on the ball which soon would fly to you, with hands tightly gripped around the racket. But it wasn’t even hard for N to learn that not even the tiniest part of your mind was here.

“I guess the sudden surprise from her brother last night really shocked her to the bone… She must be confused on what to do…”

“Come on, guys…  let’s just admit it. Our eyeballs were close from popping out too last night…” Ken joined in the conversation, earning himself heaps of stare from the rest of the boys, “It’s just we are too good at hiding our emotions. But in fact, we are exactly just as confused as her.”

Ken was right. The news had the six voodoo dolls shocked for good too. They were clearly puzzled; far from prepared with the fact that your older brother was more than ready to break their wall and rock their entire world with his sudden arrival.

-----Flashback-----

“My older brother came!!!”

Three good seconds of silence passed in the whole living room, only to be followed with a synchronous yelps.

“WHAT!?!?!”

As if someone just shot them right in the heart, the boys’ faces remained shocked. None of their sane minds were able to tell if this was all true or just a mere nightmare.

“I-I think… o-oppa returned while we’re at J-jeju…”

The boys noticed your trembling hands as you stuttered in front of them. Your face was as white as sheet, yet they couldn’t do anything to calm you down. N’s attention was later shifted to the paper on your hands. Taking it from you, his eyes were narrowed at the messy handwritings.

The rest of the boys quickly gathered around N, trying to catch a glimpse of the crumpled note your older brother left you.

To: ___,

I got two days off and initially wanted to make this secret trip home to surprise you. But where in the world are you?! I tried calling your phone thousandth of times but always got directed to your voicemail instead! Do you even know how worried I am?!

The ahjumma who lives right next to us said that you went to Jeju with our cousins… Mind to explain since when do we have cousins…?

Call me back in 3 days or I will fly back to Seoul and call the police to look for you.

You really owe me a lot of explanations, young lady.

P.S:

What happened to my room!? Did someone slept there?! I found so many clothes and things… and they’re all boys’!

ARE YOU KEEPING A BOYFRIEND IN OUR HOUSE?!

I WILL DEFINITELY KILL HIM.

From: Oppa.

The six voodoo boys gulped nervously, exchanging awkward glances with each other after they read the letter.

“…” Ravi breathed out as he threw his limp body to the sofa, “We might get killed for real this time… I mean, this guy won’t just be seeing his sister’s boyfriend-- he’ll have six hormonal boys running around his house!”

“He’ll definitely kick us out from this place…” Ken closed his eyes. Frustration was all over his face.

“W-what should we do…?” Hongbin muttered as he grabbed the back of his neck. It wasn’t even the threat that scared him, but the thoughts that he might get separated from you did.

Leo’s expression darkened as he looked at your pale face. The boy walked closer to you before tapping you on the head to make you turn at him.

“Contact him as soon as you can. Letting him know that you’re safe is the first priority.  Still… don’t mention anything about us. At least, not now…”

“Your phone was dropped into the pool, right?” N gripped on your shoulders gently while leaning his body forward. You weakly nodded and the eldest caressed your head. “Don’t worry, we will get it fixed tomorrow or maybe I’ll just buy you a new one.”

You didn’t answer him. Your head was too dizzy at the moment and your throat was somehow too dry to produce a sound. Guilt slowly crept onto you as you recalled how you had foolishly forgotten about your own brother, just because you were having too much fun with the boys.

Yet in the other hand, you felt somewhat excited on how your brother’s reaction would be when he met the boys. But the excitement didn’t last very long when your mind reminded you again how it had been too occupied with the boys that it failed to leave some space for your brother. 

“What if he still comes back even after ___ called him?” Hyuk suddenly said as he leaned on the sofa and crossed his arms. “I barely think of any plans for this… I mean, about what we should say or how we should explain to him about us…”

Ken plopped next to Ravi, rereading your brother’s letter again and again.

… One problem after another keeps coming at the worst moment… This is not good… What if the King and his underlings hurt her brother too…?

“We will think about it… Later.” N squeezed your hands, later raised your chin to look into your eyes. “For now, you should rest, because we still have school tomorrow. Got it?”

You bit your lips but eventually nod at him, letting him dragged you upstairs. To be honest, his suggestion didn’t sound that bad and it wasn’t like you got anything better to do, so you decided to relax yourself a bit. Considering how your brother had just returned home, there’s no way he’d be back again anytime soon. At least, you wanted to believe it that way. Because you were definitely not ready to explain what had happened in these past few months. 

-----End of Flashback-----

“___!” Ravi shouted as he held the tennis ball up in the air, “Focus!”

That was the last word he said before he hit the yellow ball to your direction. You tried to hit it back but miserably failed.

“Heads on the game, baby!” Ravi chortled again and you nodded at him before he smashed the ball again.

You tightened your grip on the racket and eyed the round object homing to you. But much to your unfortunate, the Goddess of Fortune didn’t feel like giving you her blessing today as the ball just flew passed you.

Ravi’s face formed a frown when the blue-haired boy heard you grunted. He stopped throwing the balls then just stood there; watching you mumbled silently, probably cursing yourself.

“If you missed again, I will make you return all these stuffs to the storage room—” Your teacher threw a warning, his fierce stare clearly showed how serious he was, “…Alone.”

You gulped as you mentally encouraged yourself to hit the ball for real this time. You were usually good in tennis, but you wondered where your athleticism had gone to.   

“It’s coming!” Ravi yelled from the other side of the court before he threw the yellow ball to the air and hit it in the most perfect stance you had ever seen, showing you how good he was in sport.

You took a deep breath, eyes glued to the ball. Clenching your grips on the racket, you gritted your teeth and were ready to swing your arm to hit the flying target, hurling to your direction in full speed.

Come on, ___! Focus!

“Stupid…”

That was the only word you could mutter since 15 minutes ago, repeatedly slipping out from your slightly gaped lips like a mantra.

___, get your grip together!!

A loud sigh was produced as you bent down to grab the scattered tennis balls around the empty court. You were about to snatch one next to your foot when a hand suddenly invaded your vision, grabbing the motionless ball before returning it to you.

“Are you sure you don’t want us to help? Or …me?”

You looked up and a smile appeared on your face almost immediately when his perfectly sculptured face welcomed you.

“No, Hongbin… I can do this by myself. This is my own fault and I definitely can’t make guys help me. Besides, he is watching me…”

You were referring to your teacher who had his hawk-eyes glared at you from outside the court.

“But—” Hongbin sighed before throwing another ball into the basket. “I don’t know what’s wrong him… but, God-- you are a girl…! How could he tell you to clean this whole court alone? He even told you to bring all of these things back to the storage room…”

“Trust me, I can do this.” You put the last tennis ball into the basket, flashing Hongbin a wide grin. “Just go change your clothes… I will see you and the others at the cafeteria later, okay? Oh, and order a curry for me, will you? I promise this won’t take too long.”

Hongbin caught your playful wink and slowly softened. He could only stare when you stood up with bags of racket on your shoulder and dragged the folded net with one hand, while your other one was already occupied with a basket full with tennis balls.

“Hwaiting!” Hongbin shouted as he walked to the opposite direction.

You smiled to yourself as you threaded your steps to the storage room. Putting down all the equipments, you pulled out the key your teacher gave you from your jersey’s pocket.

“Annyeong~”

You were close from jumping when you found a figure standing right beside you, smiling from ear to ear while holding two basketballs on his hands.

“H-hello…”

You awkwardly greeted him back after you failed to recognize him. You actually found it weird how his face was somewhat new to you. There weren’t many students in this school to begin with, and that alone made you felt beyond sure that you had never seen this person before. But the fact that he was wearing the same training suit as you forced you to assume that he was probably a transfer student from another class who simply happened to be burdened with the same duty as you.

You pushed the sliding door open and motioned him to get in first, but the latter threw his luggage to the ground instead and quickly snatched both the net and basket from you.

“H-hey-what—” You eyed him confusedly, but it didn’t make the rather witty grin on his face disappear.

“Do you think a gentleman like me could stay still when he sees a distressed lady right before him?”

With that, he indifferently walked inside the storage, forcing your dazed self to blink confusedly at him.

“But… I didn’t ask for your help, you know…” You mumbled, yet had no other choice but to let the unfamiliar boy finished what was supposed to be your ‘job’. Briefly squatted down, you picked the bags of racket on the floor and followed him inside the storage room as well.

“Is it here?” Pointing at an empty space between the mattress and rows of lockers, the boy asked you where to put the net and basket at.

“Yes, just put them there…” You reluctantly answered with a nod while putting the bags back to their place. Your lips suddenly curled up and formed a smile when you later saw him struggled with the net.

“I’ve never seen you around though… Are you new here?”

The boy retorted with a smile which you actually found as attractive. “Hmm… Something like that…”

“So which class are you in?” You bombed another question since you couldn’t really tell if he was a freshman or a senior like you. Because if there was something that you could point out from this boy, it would be his baby-face.

Strangely enough, he didn’t show any signs of answering that question. Soon after he was done shoving the net onto the cupboard, the boy walked out and picked the basketballs he left outside. “I don’t think that’s important…”

“Huh? What do you mean?” You frowned, but you heard nothing but a hitched laughter from the boy as he motioned to the corner to put down the brick-colored balls.

“Come on, at least let me know where my hero’s class is…” You leaned on one of the cupboard with both arms crossed together.

“Really, it’s not even necessary for you to know…” Again, you heard him laughed. This time, even louder than before. Dusting his training pants, the grin on the boy’s face widened and you could only sigh at his stubbornness.

“Mwoya… Why are you being like this? So weird…” You asked the person who now had his back leaned on the spring board.

“I’m afraid I will need to correct you for that one, missy. I’m not weird…” His eyes formed a reversed crescent as he smiled.

“I’m extraordinary…”

You rolled your eyes upon hearing his reply, and that made him laughed again. It wasn’t everyday for you to meet someone whose confidence was in par with N’s. Although something had been telling you that this boy weren’t just fooling around. That he was more than showing off.

That he really meant what he just said.

“Anyway… thank you for your help.” You slightly bowed your head at the boy, flashing him a smile.

“No problem.” He playfully winked and you unexpectedly blushed. Weird, because that wasn’t even the first time for someone to wink at you.

You got to admit that this boy was sure blessed with an attractive face. His eyes might not as big as Hongbin’s and his nose might not as sharp as Ken’s. Neither was his body as buff as Ravi’s. But there was something magical in his cat-like eyes. The same happened with his thin lips which looked even tantalizing with a set of a smirk perched on them. Not to mention how his disheveled blond locks fit his pale skin perfectly. This boy was clearly born as a walking ‘magnet’.

Trying to hide the reddened cheeks, you pulled your back from the cupboard, ready to leave the storage room. “U-uh… so… are you done yet?”

He chuckled, staring at your eyes deeply. “No. I’m not done yet…”

“Oh… okay. So what else then? Because you see, I need to lock this room and return the key to the teacher…” You leered at the half-closed door.

“No no… I mean…” His smirk turned somewhat devilish as it was followed with his arms suddenly pulled your wrist forcefully, “I’m not done with you…”

“W-what…?” You were clearly taken aback with his action and before you knew it his face was already inches away from you. The boy leaned even closer and you retreated backward in reflex.

“What a-are you doing?!” You tried to push him with your free hand, but he didn’t even budge. Worse, he tightened his grip on your wrist and pulled you even closer to him.

An invisible knot appeared inside your heart when you noticed that his eyes had menacingly turned dark and his stare had no longer made him look like a regular sweet-tempered boy. In fact, it had long changed into one those maniac murderers in the horror movies usually had.

“Y-ya! Let me go! This is not funny!” You glared at him. But instead of feeling daunted, his smirk grew even wider and wider.

“Sure… I will let you go—” He abruptly let go of your wrist, resulting on you to stumble backwards.

You didn’t even get to yell at him when he suddenly pushed the stacked springboards to your direction. For a second there you did wonder how those thin hands were able to make such heavy boards sway so easily. But your mind was quickly shifted to the hurled objects, all ready to mash you flat.

“—after I see you suffer!”

That was the last thing you heard from his mouth before you finally shrieked in surprised, covering your head.

WHAM!

A few of drops of tears ran down to your cheeks as the springboards hit the concrete floor, producing boisterous noises inside the cramped room. Squatting down with both hands securely covered around head, you were expecting pain to engulf your body. The weird part was, you didn’t feel hurt or anything at all.

A low groan was what greeted you from above and that made you jerked your head up instantly.

“NO!!”

You screamed in horror when you saw him fell on his knees beside you with a scrunched face, trying to cope with the great pain he just received on his back.

“Oh my God!!” You quickly wrapped your arm around him. “A-are you okay!?”

He lifted his face to take a good look at you and guilt was quick to strike you when you witnessed his hurt expression.

“I-I’m okay…” His trembling hand grabbed yours as he studied your face and body. “H-how about you...? Are… are you alright?”

“Babo! Of course I’m alright! You saved me!” You helped him to stand up and he hissed in pain. Head whirled left and right as he looked at the messy surroundings.

“Ottoke… Now we have a lot of things to clean up…” He said with a chuckle and you hit his head lightly.

“Ya! Why did you save me?! Look! Now you’re the one who got hurt!” You bit your bottom lip while scanning the reddish bruises on his arms. You didn’t even dare to imagine how his back would look right now, considering how those boards were seriously heavy.

“I don’t want you to get hurt… That’s why…” He flashed you a weak smile and you could swear it made you felt even guiltier.

“But look at what happened to you… And it’s all my fault…” Your eyes turned sad, hand reaching for his bruised arm.

“Hey, I’m okay. Trust me. A couple of mere bruises won’t kill me…” He patted your head and you lowered your head in shame. Again, someone got hurt because of you.

Right when he was about to bend down and pick the scattered springboards on the floor up, you stopped him by grabbing the end of his shirt, forcing him to turn his face to you.

“T-thank you… Junhyung-ah…”

His smile went even wider as he pinched your cheeks. “You’re welcome.”

Junhyung then squatted down and started to arrange the springboards back to its place, but you rapidly caught his arm, forcing him to stand up.

“Just leave this to me! Just go to the infirmary and get your injuries healed!”

“I have nothing to be healed…” He stated firmly and you frowned at him as he continued to clean up the mess you made; oh wait, it wasn’t yours.

You instantly looked around the storage, only to spot no one but you and Junhyung. With both eyebrows tangled, your heart beat in restlessness as your eyes failed to find the person who nearly gave you a nice crack on your skull. He was no longer there. No. More like, he had never been there to begin with.

“How could you be so careless? Good thing I was happened to be around… But what if I wasn’t? People will find a crushed body here by tomorrow morning instead! Aishh… I think we need to tell Lee seonsaengnim to tie these springboards with ropes together so they won’t crumble down again next time…”

Expecting to hear your opinion, Junhyung’s steps met a halt with his baffled face turned at you. His eyes became even rounder as he learned how confused your expression was when you looked around the small room, searching for something.

“___?”

“Junhyung-ah… Tell me, did you see a boy when you walked inside earlier…?”

“Huh? What are you talking about?” He now had his neck craned around as well, trying to find this invisible stranger you had been worrying about.

“D-did you see one or not…?”

“Hold on, I was there when teacher told you to bring the equipment here alone.  So who is this ‘boy’…? I don’t get it…”

Just like that, your legs went jelly in an instance. Thank God that Junhyung was quick enough to catch you before your body collided with the cold ground.

“Y-ya! What’s wrong?! Are you okay?”

You just nodded mindlessly, trying to get back on your feet. “Y-yeah… sorry… I-I’m fine…”

What the hell… Was I hallucinating or something!? Or… was that a g-ghost!?

“Come on, let’s get everything cleaned up so we can get out from here… We don’t have much time left to get ourselves changed either. Lunch break is almost over.”

Junhyung patted your shoulder and you obediently nodded. But somehow, you still couldn’t just brush that boy off your mind. The boy who turned from a gentle life-saver to a total malice.

But the problem now was, how come that Junhyung didn’t see anyone when he walked inside the storage room? There was only one sliding door, so it was actually impossible for those two to not bump into each other.

Okay, this is weird… I should tell the boys about this…

“So, how’s the trip to Jeju? Was it fun?”

Your nearly stumbled before blinking at the tall figure right next to you. “Why did you ask? You were there too—”

You covered your mouth and gasped loudly, yet Junhyung just laughed upon seeing your reaction.

“What? You didn’t even realize that I wasn’t there? Goodness…”

Junhyung was right. You weren’t even aware that Junhyung wasn’t around during the whole three days stay in Jeju. All because you were too focused on the boys. Their presence was strong enough to make you forget about everything. Not only about your brother, but also Junhyung.

“Ya, are you crazy!? You won’t be able to graduate if you missed the trip!” You got your eyes intensely beamed at his, but Junhyung just smirked, not even taking your words seriously.

“Going to school trips is so not me, you do know that…” Junhyung stated and you leered at him in disbelief.

“It was only for three good days, for God’s sake…”

Not wanting to miss your lunch, you created a new world record in changing clothes. You later met up with Junhyung at the corridor next to the girl’s locker room and walked to the cafeteria together with him. You actually insisted on taking him to the infirmary first, but his answer was still ‘no’. No matter how many times you begged him to go, he always found a way to convince you that he wasn’t hurt at all.

“I got something more important to do. Can’t help it…” The copper-haired boy chuckled and you playfully slapped him. By now, you were digging for the reason why he skipped the school trip.

“Oh, reaaaaally? Are you sure it wasn’t just another ‘lazing around at home’?” You playfully pinched his arm and Junhyung’s lips curled even higher.

“___!”

Turning your head, your attention was now shifted to the familiar voice, belonged to a blue-headed boy with both hands gleefully waved at you. You quickly marched to his direction, but the second he learned that you weren’t completely alone, he suddenly didn’t look as amused as before. In fact, he was now glaring. Not at you, but at his eternal enemy behind you.

“Why are you together with this bastard?”

Ravi gritted his teeth, still not breaking  his eye contact with Junhyung who just smiled smugly in return.

“Ravi… I can explain, alright?” You carefully touched his arm and motioned him to sit down before he could throw a table to Junhyung’s face.

“You should thank me, you moron…” Junhyung scoffed and glared back at Ravi. “She nearly got herself killed in the storage room… If it wasn’t because of me, your baby would be in the hospital by now…”

“What!?” Hongbin and Hyuk shouted in unison, eyes narrowed at you. Curiosity was all over their faces, both clueless and frantic at what in the world just happened to their precious girl.

“Umm… Junhyung was right… He helped me…” You scratched your hair and immediately received worried stares from the boys.

“See? I escorted her here because I don’t want her to get hurt again…” Junhyung raised his chin, now asking Ravi in the most sarcastic tone, “Where were you guys when she needed you? I thought you guys were her knights in shining armor? Tch, bull…”

“You--!”

“Ravi, stop!” You speedily pushed Ravi down. You didn’t even dare to imagine how furious the teachers would be if those two started another war at the cafeteria again.

“Junhyung-ah… Thank you…” You softly whispered, signaling him to leave before everything got even worse.

Luckily, Junhyung got the hint and just smiled sweetly at you. “You’re welcome. Next time, just call me when you need help. I promise you I’ll always be there whenever you need me…”

It ended with a wink and he later walked away to join his gang at the table in the corner. Meanwhile, Ravi’s hands were trembling in anger, his clenched jaw chattered as he swore to himself that he would never leave your side again. Ever.

After you made sure that Junhyung was already ‘safe’ with his friends, you sighed and finally claimed a spot beside Hongbin.

“I should’ve stayed with you…” Hongbin’s voice was full with regret but you just flashed him a smile.

“I’m okay…” You tried to assure them but the boys' worried eyes still hadn’t left yours, “Look, I’m really okay… I didn’t get hurt at all, in fact… Junhyung did. He helped me and got hurt for my sake, and for that… I feel more thankful to him.”

Deep down, Ravi felt something pierced his heart when you stood for his enemy, yet he knew that he didn’t have the right to argue. It was his fault that he wasn’t there for you, and he cursed the fact that he had to thank Junhyung for saving you. In fact, all the boys felt the same.

“What happened?” The eldest scooted closer, his distressed expression remain unchanged, even after you countlessly told him that you were completely alright.

You reluctantly explained how you met with a strange boy at the storage room. He was friendly at the beginning, but somewhat turned into a whole different person later on and magically disappeared after he tried to bury you with stacks of heavy spring boards.

Their eyes were all perked, sensing the same bad feeling behind whatever just happened to you. Too bad they were experts in hiding their emotion. All because they didn’t want to further worry you.

“Are you sure you’ve never see him in the school before?”

Hyuk’s question forced you to think deeper, but the result was still the same, “Yeah… today was the first time… that’s why I was sure that he was some kind of transfer student or… I don’t know, something like that…”

The boys exchanged glances with each other again. None of them said a word, yet they were all aware of what kind of danger they might be facing right now.

“Okay, princess… I’m glad that you are safe and I think it’d be better for you to forget about that boy…” Ken pushed your plate closer to you, “Your curry will get cold if you don’t eat it now…”

“Oh, right!” You giggled and quickly savored your lunch.

The boys were actually grateful that you were no longer worrying about your older brother, but their minds were now occupied with something else.

N jabbed his fork blankly to the ddeokbeokki on his plate. Staring at his own lunch, his mind had long left his head, wandering around.