“Welcome,” the ISBIP agent tried to smile, “this is going to be your room from now on.”

“Mmm,” Jihu nodded, glaring at the space before it.

It was clear that this place was never meant to be used as a bedroom. After all, what kind of bedroom had cardboard boxes lying around and a name plate reading ‘storage room’? Jihu might have been a stupid eight year old, but he knew enough to know that this was not a bedroom. It was just whatever the agents had thrown together at the last minute when they heard he was being placed here.

“I’ll leave you to unpack,” the agent said, passing him his bag and leaving as quick as he could.

“Home sweet home,” Jihu sighed, tossing his bag onto the ty cot they’d dug up and falling down beside it, “thanks a lot mom and dad. Really love the whole ‘giving me up’ thing you did.”

“Oh!” Jihu sat up, surprised to find a young girl smiling at him, “you’re the new kid, right? I’m Lee Hyemin, but my friends call me Euaerin. Or even just Erin. Anyway, I’m a fire nymph.”

“Jihu,” Jihu said after a pause, “Kim Jihu, werewolf.” He paused, “there……there are other kids here?”

“Not many,” Erin sighed, “the whole foster thing is still really new so…….it doesn’t hurt that the councils like to keep kids within their control.”

“True,” Jihu sighed, “which begs the question, what did we do that was so awful that they’d send us here? Hey, your room any better than this?”

“So true,” Erin laughed, “and my room was just as bad when I got here. But since then me and my roommate, Son Sungah, have added our own personal touches. You should do the same.”

“Noted,” Jihu managed a little smiled, deciding that things might not be so bad. Not with someone like Erin around.

A/N: I said that I’d try to get more members of Nine Muses in the story, and I’ve done exactly that with Erin and Sungah.