‘Look at her, just sitting there!’ Hoya growled in annoyance as he roughly ran his hand through his hair then clutched the black strands. ‘Does she not realise what she has done!’

 ‘She didn’t do anything, she was bored and went for a walk. Then she came back,’ Sunggyu placed his hand upon Hyunsu’s shoulder and lightly squeezed it. She blinked and tilted her head slightly as she continued staring out the doorway, watching as the rain pounded upon the leaves making their green tips warp inwards as they pointed to the ground. Then as the raindrops caressed the edge of the leaves they dropped falling to the ground, making the leaves bounce back to their original position only to have the process repeat faster, and faster, her head spun with the imagery before she shook her head and closed her eyes.

 ‘We all know that’s not what happened,’ L sighed and rubbed his temple, grimacing at the level of noise that was flowing among the eight of them.

 ‘She ran away and he,’ Sungyeol’s arm snapped out as he pointed his finger at Dongwoo accusingly, ‘was supposed to be watching over her!’

 ‘I’m not about to sleep in the same room as her, what was I supposed to do,’ Dongwoo’s lips pulled down into frown as he crossed his arms. ‘She wasn’t even able to open the door this morning.’

 ‘She’s not an idiot, you couldn’t have thought she wouldn’t have figure it out anytime soon,’ Sunggyu unknowingly mimicked L’s sign of aggravation as he rubbed his temples.

 Hyunsu lazily watched the seven brothers interact, she was far too drained to do much else. Her lips quirked up in a small smile as she caught the brothers reacting the same to exasperating situations. She had always enjoyed watching the similarities between people, like how Jinki and Aeko both had a habit of leaning their heads back when they felt angry, as if they were physically removing themselves from the situation in order to do the same mentally. She could feel Hoya’s indignant gaze burning holes in her head. She doubted she would ever get on his good side.

 ‘Really? Could have fooled me,’ Dongwoo winced as Sungyeol smacked him upside the head then stepped away from him and looked into the trees as if something was catching his attention. Rolling his eyes Hoya bumped Sungyeol's shoulders, not exerting any real force.

 ‘What do we do now?’ Sungjong tapped the tips of his boots against the ground as he hummed a tune.

 ‘She still needs to learn a few things, first thing in the morning Hoya will teach her.’ Sunggyu answered the youngest with a sharp tone, challenging anyone to oppose his decision.

 ‘Alright,’ Sungjong dropped down off the table he was sitting on and started walking away. Sunggyu had his own way of punishing people, and clearly, he deemed Hyunsu’s actions worthy of being punished. Even though he was insisting so heavily she had in fact done nothing wrong.

 ‘Larva,’ Dongwoo started walking away after his short call to her.

 ‘Dongwoo,’ Dongwoo stopped and turned around to face Sunggyu. ‘Stay in the room and watch her tonight, make sure she actually sleeps.’

 ‘Yes, Brother,’ he nodded in affirmation, barely concealing his annoyance.

 Hyunsu’s lips pulled together as she stared after him, it was annoying that he couldn’t even spare a few words to her. He always attempted to speak as little as possible to her, the only way she would be able to get anything out of him would be by learning their language. Hyunsu followed him, walking slowly as she ran through her vocabulary list mentally. She really didn’t know enough to speak to him, she momentarily wondered if perhaps there was some magic trick they could do to infuse her with their language. But really the stories she heard about the Fae doing magic could very well be fake. She had not seen a single spell nor charm been done the whole time she had been with them.

 Dongwoo watched Hyunsu stomp along the bridge to his room, he couldn’t believe she had actually run away. Did Sunggyu have to knock her out? Was she dragged back? What happened? Sunggyu didn’t reveal any details, the only thing the six knew was created by their own assumptions. Sungyeol had said something about her almost running into the humans, was Sunggyu the one who held her back? He hated how he was left in the dark. Shaking his head he banished his thoughts, he could just ask Sunggyu after- with a heavy sigh he accepted his fate.

 Hyunsu, out of her own annoyance, ignored Dongwoo’s sigh. She could already guess what he was annoyed with. Obviously the burden of keeping the late starter safe was too hard on him, she sniffed and pressed her hand onto the bark of the door. She was unable to sense any difference between the strange doorknob and the rest of the tree but clearly she had done it right. The door slid open giving Hyunsu a sense of satisfaction, she walked into the room and sat on the bed. Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion as Dongwoo stepped into the room the door closing behind him.

 ‘What are you doing?’ Hyunsu questioned, she felt her lips pull into a proud smile as Dongwoo’s eyes widened.

 ‘I-’ Dongwoo his thick lips then scratched the back of his neck still recovering from the question she asked in perfect Nymphean. ‘Just sleep,’ he walked towards the bookcase that was across from the bed and started looking at the books.

 ‘Just sleep,’ Hyunsu mimicked him as she tugged off her coat and laid it down beside her. She leaned against the wall and stared at Dongwoo as he pulled a book off of his shelf then dropped onto his seat.

 His eyes narrowed at his book as a sense of foreboding ran through him, he had a bad feeling that she was going to be a whole lot more trouble when she could speak fluent Nymphean.

 Sungjong sat on a branch unravelling a thin bright red bracelet off of his wrist, when it came off his wrist it sent a pure chime through the air as the strands collided with each other. If Sungjong wore the chain as a necklace it would have reached mid chest.

 ‘What’s that?’ Hyunsu questioned, quite proudly, in Nymphean.

 ‘Yuelao’s string,’ Woohyun picked at a golden chain that was wrapped around his own wrist. ‘Yuelao is the orchestrator of fate, it’s said the people who can master the chain can master fate.’ Hyunsu sighed, pulling to the right in dissatisfaction. She didn’t understand a single thing he said.

 ‘Yuelao’s string,’ Dongwoo spoke slowly from behind the duo.

 ‘Yuelao’s string,’ she repeated before going silent watching as Sungjong flicked the string with his thumb sending a high pitched note through the air. Hyunsu watched enthralled as Sungjong weaved the string through his fingers, every time he flicked the chain it would release a pure ting of noise and every time the threads rubbed against each other it released a pleasant hum. After a few moments of playing around he started pulling on the chain, warping it into multiple shapes as he plucked the strings.

 It was beautiful, Hyunsu had never heard anything like it before. But she had seen it before, what he was doing looking originally like the string game, cats cradle. he managed to make music while forming rudimentary images in the string, she could see a snake, then a palm civet, and even a bird make it’s way across the string background as he played.

 ‘Look how amazed she is, I can do better,’ Sungyeol huffed and frowned at Sungjong as L smirked keeping his thoughts to himself.

 ‘Please, you couldn’t use Yuelao’s string if your life depended on it,’ Hoya walked up behind them then tapped Hyunsu’s shoulder. ‘Come on, lets start.’ He guided her to the middle of the clearing then pulled out his knife. ‘Get it out,’ Hyunsu hesitantly pulled the knife out, gripping the handle loosely. The knife felt uncomfortable in her hands, it seemed too smooth as if it would fall out of her hand the minute she moved it; she was amazed she managed to throw it at all the day before.

 ‘Starting with the knife?’ Woohyun questioned as he watched the two in the middle of the area. ‘Shouldn’t she learn how to fight?’

 ‘She is learning how to fight,’ Hoya’s bottom jaw started to slide to the side as he refuted his brothers comment. It wouldn’t take long until all six were trying to control the session and telling him what to do and exactly how to do it.

 ‘I think she should learn how to use throwing picks,’ Sungyeol beamed as he patted the pouch that held his beloved throwing needles. When he was young he was always stuck making clothes so eventually, being the easily bored child he still is, he learned how to throw the needles and utilise them as a weapon. Since then his overly precise aim was used to attack whatsoever he wished with his thin picks.

 ‘Those pathetic needles you use? Please,’ Woohyun waved his hand dismissively at Sungyeol, ‘she should be learning how to use a bow and arrow, that would be more natural.’

 ‘Bow and arrow? Our brother is known for his hand to hand combat skills, so obviously that’s what he should be teaching her.’ Sungjong piped in, still playing his favourite instrument.

 ‘Or the sword,’ Dongwoo added in.

 Hyunsu watched the brothers talking, completely ignoring her. Being unable to understand a word of their speech she resorted to lifting the knife, testing it to determine the difference between it and the ones at home. For one it was much lighter, she lightly pressed her thumb against the blade testing how sharp it was. It really was an amazing knife, the blade was sharper than any of the ones at home had been, however, the handle was really too much. Rubbing the slick wooden handle of the knife it slid in her hands easily without the copious amount of sweat that made knives so slippery when used in dangerous situations.

 ‘Will you all leave me alone?’ Hoya rolled his eyes ignoring the advice his brothers were offering him. He appreciated their opinions, he just wanted to get the whole thing over and done with.

 Hyunsu scanned the area, immediately catching sight of the targets at the edge of the wooden balcony they were on. She raised her arm and practiced the motions of tossing the knife a few times. Her eyebrows furrowed in concentration as she started to adjust her movements to make up for the amount the handle was slipping in her hands. in a breath of the moist forest air around her she breathed out again, steading her nerves. Keeping control was important, nodding to herself she went through the motions necessary for throwing the knife, releasing it she watched as it flew the air then imbedded in the wooden target with a soft thump.

 ‘I don’t know, I still think the bow and arrow would be more appropriate,’ Woohyun mused remaining oblivious to Hyunsu’s successful efforts with the knife. L stared at his brothers with raised eyebrows before scoffing quietly, he wasn’t surprised they had remained oblivious to her activities. They always seemed to tune others out whenever they get involved in something, it wouldn’t be long until they started fighting with each other.

 L pulled her knife out of the target and walked towards her before mutely showing her how to properly hold the knife. Hyunsu nodded and adjusted her hold, whereas previously she was gripping it as tight as she could, as if she was tugging on a rope, he had shown her to hold it a little bit looser. He adjusted the way she held the knife so her thumb was running up the hilt, and her other fingers were curled lightly around the base. ‘Now try,’ he whispered in her ear. L stepped back and watched her practice throwing again. His gaze flickered to where his brothers were still arguing, ignorant of everything but themselves.

 Just before Hyunsu threw the knife he stopped her by holding out his hand. L patted her left leg and motioned for her to put it in front of her body then motioned to do the opposite for her dominant leg, the right. Then he took her arm and gently copied the motion she had been doing previously. When she practiced throwing again he physically guided her, stepping back he watched her practice then nodded when she looked to him for approval.

 Nodding stiffly to him Hyunsu practiced a few more times before throwing the knife. It pounded into the target closer to the middle than before.

 ‘Good job,’ Hyunsu beamed at Sunggyu’s praise. She wasn’t surprised anymore that he had come out of nowhere she was trying to accept that she just wouldn’t be able to hear them approaching.

 ‘Good job?’ Sungyeol craned his neck so he could see around Hoya’s strongly built frame. Instantly his keen eyes caught view of the dagger that was imbedded in the target. A small grunt escaped his lips as he rolled on the balls of his feet, looking back at Hoya.

 ‘What was it?’ Hoya didn’t bother to look, instead he had his arms crossed across his chest.

 ‘Nothing, L was just throwing knives around.’

 ‘Alright, L why not you throw again,’ Sunggyu handed his knife to Hyunsu and nodded to the target. Now try,’ Woohyun stepped away from his brothers, curious by Sunggyu’s flat tone. His eyes narrowed as he focused on Hyunsu who drew back her arm in the proper fashion before continuing in the throw, releasing the knife just a little too late. The result, he was surprised to find, was she hit the target closer than she had before. However, she was still not that close to the center.

 ‘She’s throwing it too late,’ he walked to the target and pulled out the two knives before marching over to them prepared to help in their group training session.

 ‘I was thinking that as well,’ L nodded and pulled out his own knife, he tapped Hyunsu’s shoulder so she watched him. ‘You,’ he pointed to her, ‘throw like this,’ he mimicked the way she threw the knife. Hyunsu stared at him, tilting her head curiously. She must have been throwing her knife wrong but she didn’t see anything wrong with what he was doing, she had always done it that way. His eyes drooped as he caught onto the blank look on her face, ‘no, you’re doing it wrong.’

 ‘I am not!’ She huffed ignoring the annoyed looks that flashed across their faces at her use of the human language. Neither Hyunsu nor L found it strange that they could decipher the others words despite the language barrier.

 ‘You are, do it the way I show you,’ he mimicked throwing like her before stopping and pointing at her, ‘you do it like this.’ He mimed throwing it properly and stopped sooner, ‘release here.’ Reluctantly she mimicked him and nodded when she caught on to the focal point of his lesson, she was releasing too late. ‘This is how it should work,’ he mimed throwing it right then threw it properly. Hyunsu’s eyes widened as she watched the knife cut through the air, imbedding itself in the center of the target almost instantly.

 She laughed and pressed her palm to the side of her head, she was never going to succeed. They could not expect her to actually be as good as them, they were superhuman and she was simply human. ‘Why’s she laughing?’ Sunggyu frowned and crossed his arms.

 ‘Maybe she went mad,’ Woohyun watched as Hyunsu breathed in deeply, a scornful smile still implanted on her lips as she practiced throwing the same way L had shown her.

 ‘She thinks its impossible,’ L smirked as he watched the knife imbed itself inches from the center of the target. He felt it amusing that she imagined that she was incapable of matching their skills. When they were done with her, not one of the humans in her old prison would be able to recognize her, and if they did well enough, she wouldn’t want them to.