“Hyung!” Jongin smiled, running up to his big brother, “I missed you.”

“I missed you, too,” Jongdae smiled back, hugging Jongin tightly, “I can’t wait until your first change. Then we can go into the woods together.”

“I wanna have my first change before school starts,” Jongin frowned, “I want umma to be there to see it.”

“Don’t worry, my little puppy,” the boys’ mother smiled, coming up behind Jongdae so she could pull both her boys into a hug, “there’s still plenty of time left before you go to Dark Lake, I’m sure you’ll have had your first change by then.”

“Don’t say that places name in my presence,” growled their father, brushing past the three without even bothering to look at his sons, “I still have no idea how you talked me into letting them go there in the first place.” With that the man was gone, locked up in his office until he decided to retire to his bedroom to sleep.

“Umma,” Jongin frowned, looking at the door that stood between him and his dad, “why does appa hate us?”

“He doesn’t hate you,” his mother tried to explain, “he just has a hard time expressing his emotions.”

“Yeah,” Jongdae faked a smile, “he doesn’t hate you or umma. He loves you.”

“Does he love you too, hyung?” Jongin asked with innocent eyes and his older brother’s smile dropped faster than a brick.

“Of course he does,” their mother jumped in, realizing just how upset such a conversation could make Jongdae, “he loves Jongdae just as much as he does us.”

But Jongin didn’t miss the hurt look in his beloved brother’s eyes or the scoff made by a passing maid.

--

“I hate this,” Jongin frowned as he and his brother sat on the bus heading for Dark Lake Academy, “umma never got to see me change.”

“Shh,” Jongdae whispered in his ear, “keep it down. Not everyone here knows about supernaturals.”

“But,” Jongin started to say but was cut off by Jongdae’s hand over his mouth. He wanted to ask why kids who didn’t know about supernaturals were going to a school for supernaturals.

“I’ll explain later,” Jongdae promised before pulling his hand away, “just sit quiet until then.”

Jongin scowled before glancing around. There was a girl in the seat across the aisle from them whose eyes kept changing colours every so often. In front of her was this really pretty boy who was looking kind of terrified. Several other kids were scattered around, but Jongin was more focused on these two kids in particular.

He knew that the girl was a shifter and he was curious. He’d never met one before and knew almost nothing about them. Did all shifters’ eyes change like that? Or was it just this girl? And Jongin could almost swear that he’d seen her somewhere before. He didn’t think he’d seen her in person, he’d defiantly remember that because she was really pretty. Maybe he’d seen her face in some off his father’s paperwork from the werewolf council. He wasn’t supposed to look at that, but he’d done it anyway.

As for the boy, Jongin was mostly just amazed by how pretty he was. He’d never seen a guy who looked that pretty, so it drew the eleven year old boy’s attention like a moth to a flame. Apparently, Jongdae noticed his brother was staring and lightly hit his shoulder to scold him.

“Don’t stare,” the older of the two hissed, “it’s rude.” Jongin nodded, and looked away with a small pout.

--

“I hate my roommates,” Jongin complained as he sat down beside in brother in the cafeteria, “they’re all so stuck up. None of them want anything to do with me because I’m a werewolf.”

“So you got stuck with some anti-werewolves?” asked Jongdae’s roommate, a squishy boy called Minseok.

“I guess,” Jongin nodded, not too sure how to act around a vampire. Or anyone who wasn’t a werewolf to be honest.

His mother had always encouraged him to try befriending any non-werewolves he might meet, but his father was strongly against it. There wasn’t a day that went by where his father didn’t make some horrible comment about non-werewolves. It was even worse when his father had a few of his fellow council men over to the house. No sooner would the men be settled into the living room then they’d be calling other kinds of supernaturals every name under the sun. his mother was always quick to get him away from them, but he’s heard some of the stuff they said anyway.

“Wow,” Minseok gasped, drawing attention from both werewolves beside him, “I didn’t realize that Sori, Kris, Yuri, and Hyuna went here.”

“Who?” Jongin looked around, trying to figure out who the vampire was referring to.

“Sori was on the bus with us,” Jongdae told his roommate, “but I wasn’t sure if it was her at the time.”

“Just Sori?” Minseok frowned slightly, “why weren’t the others with her?”

“I don’t know,” Jongdae replied, “but that’s why I didn’t know if it was really her.”

“She’s really pretty,” Minseok smiled slightly, “my father said she was pretty.”

“Your father?” Jongin watched the pair talk, pouting as they ignored him.

“My father’s on the vampire council,” Minseok shrugged, “he had some business with the ISBIP and while he was wandering around their Korean office he crossed paths with her. He kept talking for, like, a week about how mature she was and how beautiful she is.”

“Our father is on the werewolf council, too,” Jongdae informed the other, “and he met her once, too. But he didn’t praise her. He called her every bad name under the sun and moon. But then again, our dad called me all of that and worse so his words don’t really hold any value.”

“Ouch,” Minseok winced.

“Who is Sori?” Jongin growled, done with being ignored, “and Kris? Yuri and Hyuna, too?”

“Sori is a shifter,” Minseok explained, “and she’s really powerful. Most people are convinced that she’s going to one of the five strongest shifters in the whole world before she turns eighteen.”

“Kris is an equally powerful dragon,” Jongdae continued, “but he’s already being called one of the ten strongest in the world. Yuri and Hyuna are both fae. Yuri is telepathic and probably the best telepath in the world. Hyuna can talk to animals and it’s a super rare gift.”

“So,” Jongin said, trying to understand what was so special about these four kids, “they’re all really special and that’s why everyone knows them?”

“That’s part of it,” Minseok nodded, “but they were also given up to the ISBIP foster care system. It’s kind of a big deal when a kid ends up there in the first place, but if that kid is Sori level special? It’s the talk of our world.”

“Oh,” Jongin turned to look at the three girls and one guy who he now knew as Sori, Hyuna, Yuri, and Kris.

As he watched them, Sori looked over and locked eyes with him. Jongin flashed a bright smile and she nodded back, a small smile gracing her own lips before her face returned to a neutral expression.

Neither Sori nor Jongin realized that this one simple exchange of smiles would become the ground work for a friendship that would continue for at least the next seven years.

A/N: and I will leave things there. You’ll all just have to wait for another chapter to explain how Chen, Xiumin, and Kai became friends with the rest of the group.