EXOPLANET

“Er…”  Jongin looked very apprehensive.  Sehun remained unmoved, merely raising an eyebrow.

“But… I’m not exactly a person a newbie wants to be befriending,” Jongin attempted to protest.  “Baekhyun’s lot will either start bullying him because he’s my friend, or they’ll use him to get at me, because they’re all gits.”

Sehun raised the other eyebrow at him, and Jongin wilted.

“Fine,” he mumbled.  “You’ll probably speak to the Director anyway if I don’t agree, won’t you?”

“Of course I will,” Sehun told him, face still serious.  “I asked him before I came to speak to you and I’ll happily ask him again.  Now come along.  We need to go to the director’s office so you can meet him and show him to his dorm room.  And besides, it’ll be much easier for you to teleport his stuff back here for him than for him to lug it all the way here.”

Jongin gave him the stink-eye and crossed over to the door, definitely unimpressed.  Stifling his laughter, Sehun followed after him.

The boarding corridors were tasteful, with touches of minimalism.  The carpet border was made up of symbols of various superpowers – the teleportation triangle glowed when Jongin passed it, clearly sensing his magic – and various plants clung to the walls so that they framed the windows.  Since they were thriving indoors in midwinter with nothing in the way of soil and almost as little in the way of roots, Sehun concluded that they must be magically maintained, probably by somebody with earth powers.  The walls themselves were a soft magnolia, but the carpet – either new or magically enhanced – was so thick and soft that anyone’s shoes sank right into it and all sound was immediately deadened.  It wouldn’t be a half bad place to live, Sehun mused, but then, the corridors were narrower than the palace and the ceilings were also about half the height, and it made him feel a little claustrophobic.

They had just reached the top of the stairs when one of the border symbols caught his eye, and he crouched down to inspect it.  Jongin was three steps down before he noticed Sehun had stopped, and he came back to look.

“No one’s ever figured that one out,” he said as Sehun traced his finger lightly over the symbol, which centred around a focal point and had straight rays exploding out.  “There’s some thought it might be dynamite or something, but that’s not really a magic power.”

“It feels familiar,” Sehun murmured, removing his finger.  The sign glowed bright blue for a brief second, and then all the rays abruptly contracted, the dark ball in the centre expanding.

“Wha—?”  Jongin sounded a bit freaked out.  “Sehun, what did you do?”

Curious, Sehun tilted his head to one side.  “I don’t know,” he admitted.  “I’m not a mage, but I think it… responded to me?”

“Let’s go.”  Jongin grabbed his wrist.  “I don’t want the janitor to catch me and think I’ve vandalised the wall.”

“Wait—” Sehun tried to tell him, pointing at the still-moving sign as a small tendril s upwards from the ball, but Jongin was disturbed enough by the sign changing to yank him down the stairs in a surprising display of strength.  Sehun barely managed not to trip.

“I was interested in that,” he said tetchily as Jongin continued dragging him down the stairs.  “I barely ever see magic in a non-life-threatening situation.”

Behind them, the sprouting seed that the ball on the side had turned into blossomed into a tree.

The atmosphere in the Director’s office was decidedly awkward when Jongin knocked on the door and Sehun shoved him through so that they could both get in.  The Director was sitting behind his desk, lips quirked into a bit of a forced smile as he surveyed the two people sitting on the plush leather sofa opposite him.

“Ah, Sehun,” he said, rising to his feet.  “I see you found him.”

“Changmin,” Sehun acknowledged with a small nod, automatically drifting closer to the sofa.

“Hello, Sir,” Jongin greeted the Director with a bow.

“I take it Mr Oh has briefed you on the situation?”

Clearly taken aback at hearing somebody younger than him being referred to like that, Jongin shot Sehun an odd look.  Sehun kept a completely straight face; it was something he was used to.  It had been odd back when he was about eight or nine, but not now.

“I’m playing guardian angel to a new boy,” Jongin said slowly.

“Yes,” Changmin agreed.  “And I believe you’ve already met?”

Jongin’s eyes went from Sehun to the sofa and a mass of black hair.

To his utter surprise, he recognised the person sitting there.  No longer in terrible pain and covered with dirt and wounds, the D.O. actually looked pretty young – more or less his own age – and singularly unthreatening.

“This is Kyungsoo,” Sehun told him.  Kyungsoo flinched and looked nervously up at Sehun, and then at Jongin, barely meeting his eyes before his gaze darted back to his lap.  “And you’re not to tell anybody else about what he is.”

“B-b-but—” Jongin stuttered, but then the girl sitting next to Kyungsoo stirred and spoke up.

“Sehun, don’t you mean who?  Kyungsoo’s a person.”

“My bad,” Sehun said with convincing chagrin.  “I apologise, Kyungsoo.”

Jongin’s jaw dropped open.  Blonde hair, green eyes, a dainty little nose and delicate ears – those were features he recognised from the coins that he used every day.  The girl was exceptionally pretty, too, from the natural pink of her small, plump lips to the glowing, healthy hue of her skin.

Either his eyes were playing tricks on him, or that was the princess of Exoplanet sitting in front of him, and what on earth she was doing either at the school or with a dangerous, out of control mage – and in scruffy, nondescript clothes as well – was beyond him.  He’d never even dreamed that his princess, the dearly beloved princess, would roam around in torn jeans and a baggy, off-white blouse with stains and splodges on it.  He pointed and looked up at Sehun.

“Sehun, that’s the princess,” he said blankly.

“Shush,” Sehun told him.

“But Princess Gaia is dressed like… like…”

“Not like a princess?” Gaia chipped in.  “Thank you!  I’m going incognito.”

Jongin frowned, not entirely sure the princess understood what incognito was, especially when her face was so recognisable.  Kyungsoo frowned as well and continued fiddling with the hem of his shirt.  They were obviously both thinking the same thing: unless the princess hid her beautiful and highly unusual golden locks or wore a mask over her face, she would likely be recognised anywhere.

It was a bit of an effort to drag his attention back to Sehun.

“Baekhyun’s met… Kyungsoo,” he pointed out.  In some ways, it was a bit weird that the D.O. should have a name.

“Ye-es,” said Changmin, his voice somewhere between slow and decisive.  “I’ll deal with that, don’t worry.”

Jongin grimaced.  It sort of made sense that Changmin would “deal with” his son on that front, but he wasn’t sure how much it would do.  If Baekhyun decided he wanted to target the D.O. and accidentally let the fact that Kyungsoo was the D.O. slip, there’d be no rectifying that, and Kyungsoo’s life might possibly be in danger.

Silence descended.  Jongin stood there awkwardly; Kyungsoo still looked incredibly nervous; Gaia was looking around her with obvious interest, and Changmin appeared to be lost in thought.

Eventually, Sehun cleared his throat.  “If you don’t mind, her highness and I need to return to the palace.”

“I—”  Jongin broke off with a small sigh, gathered his thoughts, and tried again.  “Is it really necessary to move back to my old room?  I mean, I was transferred to the other side of the school for a reason and—”

“I’m sure it’ll be fine,” Changmin said at once.  “Would you mind showing Kyungsoo to his room and helping him move in?  I’ll give you a note to pass to your teachers.  You’ll continue to attend the lessons you’re in and Kyungsoo will join you.  He’ll be tutored privately in the evenings.  Sehun didn’t think it wise to put him in a class just yet.”

His gaze lingered meaningfully on the D.O., and Jong