I watched as the last white feathers fell down on the bed and as one of them landed on the mob of blonde hair lying on my chest. I felt another ribcage pushing against mine as I and the teenager sprawled on me were coming down from the high. I haven´t had so much fun for I don´t know how long honestly. This must have been the best pillow fight in my whole life. I gathered some air and then blew the feather on Hyukjae´s head away.

“I´m so tired,” Hyukjae whined, his speech coming out slurred as his face was hidden in my new shirt.

“Then let´s go to sleep,” I said and took freedom to pat his head.

“Can´t,” Hyukjae whined again, “I came here to find out something. There isn´t much time left before they find me here, hyung.” I sighed, the boy was right.

“What do you want to know, Hyukjae?” I asked him seriously. If he risked so much to get here, the matter must be very important to him.

“Some stuff about chimeras,” Hyukjae lifted himself up and looked at me, “is there something you could tell me? I know it´s confidential but I helped you out with the case, didn´t I?” That little rat, already bargaining with me.

“It depends,” I answered diplomatically. Hyukjae sat up and looked down at me seated comfortably on my waist. He crossed his arms on his chest and thought deeply. I guess he himself wasn´t sure of how much he should ask. Maybe he was worried that if he asked wrongly, I would know what he had found out by himself already. I´m being realistic. This is Lee Hyukjae we are talking about, I´m almost one hundred percent sure that he already knows more than he is supposed to. And of course I´m very curious what´s going on inside that smart brain of his.

“Let´s say that there is an ancestor of mine that had the same wings as me?” He asked and looked expectantly at me. I was wrong, Hyukjae doesn´t know much yet. What a relief.

“That´s impossible,” I chuckled and expected Hyukjae to protest but once again he made me realise that I should never underestimate him.

“As I thought,” Hyukjae nodded and leaned forward holding himself up with his arms prompted against my chest. His voice was slightly quieter too, as if he was afraid. “And what if I had friends like that, one wasn´t less than sixteen now and the other wasn´t more than eighteen?”

I gulped loudly and my face surely was enough for Hyukjae to know that he was right. So he already knew that chimeras only exist in this age range. The kids are now somewhere between sixteen and seventeen years old. No more chimeras are being born anymore, the last one sixteen years ago.

“Can I ask some more?” Hyukjae leaned back again and bit his lip. “I know you aren´t allowed to reveal all this, especially not to me, that´s why I´m asking.” Hyukjae, you are really a nice kid, aren´t you?

“I need to finish my wine first,” I said and began standing up. I made sure to do it in a way that Hyukjae would fall from my lap and end up in the bunch of pillows. Then I began walking back to the living room. Hyukjae immediately ran after me with feathers in the blonde hair together with his, and my cats´, favourite red pillow in hands. As I seated myself on the sofa and brought the glass with expensive wine to my lips, the younger threw himself on the pillow and grabbed a chocolate cookie.

“Bring it on,” I said once I finished the glass and poured myself another. Hyukjae´s eyes flashed and serious determination was seeping through him like water through colander. This child, sigh.

“Although being chimera relates to genetics, it has nothing to do with hereditary genes, right?” Hyukjae asked another question he had an answer for. But it took me a few moments to actually grasp the meaning behind the sentence. When I did, I decided to reveal a little bit of the truth to him. He would probably know more than half of what I say anyway.

“Yes, you became a chimera not because you had it in your genes but because they were amended during the mother´s pregnancy,” I told him and took a big gulp from my wine.

I´m talking too much and to a wrong person. What can happen if Hyukjae finds out the complete truth? He might even kill me personally! I´m an idiot but what can I do? I´ve been under a huge stress for the past months and then comes this boy with white skin, blonde hair full of feathers and childlike habits. He smiles at me and forgives me even when I acted towards him like a jerk. How am I supposed to act calm and indifferent?

“So somebody played with our genes? Who? Why did he stop after three years and what was his goal? How many chimeras are there and what does the police do with them? What´s going to happen to those who are eighteen this year? Where are they planning to send me once the spring comes?”

Hyukjae had too many questions, one more painful than the other. To most of them I had an answer to some I didn´t but even like this I was too afraid to tell Hyukjae. Not because I could get into problems but because I was worried about him. Hyukjae knew what kind of question he needed to ask and I was amazed once again by his reasoning. Still I was at loss as what to answer.

“A little bit, I will tell you a little bit, don´t ask anymore after that, get it?” I warned and the latter nodded so feverishly that all the feathers fell down onto his lap.

“Yes, it was a person who did this to you and he stopped because he died. Nobody knows how many chimeras there are, we didn´t know about your existence until the accident either. About your future, it´s not my place to tell you and I wish you wouldn´t ask this of me,” I told him and already felt myself becoming sick. The whole topic was disturbing.

“Hyung-,” Hyukjae started but stopped abruptly as my doorbell rang loudly.

We exchanged a few glances and without saying anything Hyukjae stood up and began collecting his stuff. It´s them already? But it´s only an early morning! I watched from the sofa as Hyukjae dressed himself and grabbed one last chocolate cookie. I followed him to the hall as the ringing on my doorbell became accompanied by furious banging on the sturdy wood. But I didn´t do anything, I didn´t say anything either, I just stood there and watched Hyukjae putting on his shoes.

“Hyung,” Hyukjae then turned to face me, “I have a very bad feeling and I have a really hard time thinking positively about the future but I´m glad I know you. Can I depend on you?” He asked me a hopeful question that made my heart beat erratically.  “Please.” I almost didn´t hear him over the noise coming from behind the door.

“Tsk,” I grinned, “who do you think I am, huh?” I walked to him and gave him a quick hug. “Take care, Fairy,” I said and a wave of emotions caused me to act unreasonably because I leaned closer and gave him a kiss on the forehead.

The confused teenager looked at me with wide eyes and I hurried to cover my embarrassment by unlocking the front door and throwing the poor chimera into the arms of school representatives and ASC members. Hyukjae was too speechless to protest, he wouldn´t anyway, and obediently climbed into the car. I was told to give an explanation to my boss tomorrow which I agreed to do. I myself was too paralyzed to think clearly. Because, oh my god, what did I just do?!

Hello. I´m finally feeling well (much better) so I decided to hurry and update. Thank you for being patient with me and enjoy. This chapter is once again revealing a lot of information about chimeras. Are you still curious? :) Thank you for reading and take care of yourself! - PandaHero