Suho stared at the empty parchment, not knowing what to feel. He tried to flip over the paperto see if there was something he missed and it was rolled the wrong way but the other side was as empty as the other one.

Was this some sort of joke? Had one of his brothers switchedhis parchment to pull a prank on him? Or did Eunhye gave him an empty one by mistake?He had been waiting all day for classes to end so he could be alone on his duty by theEastwood. He was still a bit grumpy after their pop quiz in English. He also received the bad news that he didn't make it to the initial list of the auditions for the spring play. He could not even give it his best shot, he was just not allowed to participate.And now this.

This was supposed to be a language lesson but apparently it was something else. A joke, morelikely.He wanted to look for Eunhye, or Gaeil, or the two professors, but he couldn't leave his post. Helooked at his clean parchment again, resisting the urge to crumple it. For some reason, he stillfelt there was something written on it. Invisible ink?Suho made his way to the house's Library. There had to be something. Eunhye wasn't the one to make jokes.

********

The dark shadows of the tall trees loomed over Tao, as he tried his best to keep his feet on the ground even though he had wanted to run away an hour ago. He was scared of the darkness behind him, and the weird sounds coming from it, but he would hate it more if Chen or Chanyeol found out he chickened out and for it. He was tired of being the scaredycat. Although he was the scardy cat, he didn't need to show it.

Kris was supposed to be with him, but he did not show up. Tao figured his hyung might have fallen asleep somewhere. Kris had been having trouble sleeping lately.
There was a rustle behind him, and Tao stiffened. He searched behind him despite the urge in his gut not to look. He battled in his mind whether to take a step inside the woods. Who in the world would set up a school surrounded with all these enormous woods anyway? Tao hated the darkness. But he knew that if there were students playing there, there might be another case of that poisoning. And so he stepped in.

He heard a giggle.

Tao could feel the hairs on the back of his neck standing. He went to the direction where the voice came from. There was another giggle followed by a guy's chuckle. Tao rolled his eyes at himself. They were just students being cozy.

"Hey," Tao said, clearing his throat. "You know you shouldn't be here. The woods are still off limits."

When they did not come out Tao moved to where they were.

"Go back to your dorms," he told them.

"You again?" The male student said, seeing Tao. "You should lighten up, dude."

"I'll get your names and student numbers."

They groaned but they left anyway, grumbling about prefects not knowing how to ease up and be young.

Yet Tao still felt that notion that he was not alone in there. Thinking he should also probably head back himself, he started to walk back the trail. But thrn he saw a shadow, and now he was sure that he was not alone.

He wasn't.

When he stepped off the trail to look back again, he came face to face with someone. Himself.

"You can still stop him."

Tao would have thought he was facing a mirror if the image in front of him wore the school uniform and not a black robe and black pants. "Who are you?"

"You know who I am," the Tao in front of him said. "You can still stop him from leaving."

"What are you talking about? Stop who?"

"Tao!" They heard Baekhyun's voice from the opening. "Where are you?"

"In here!" Tao called back, thankful that he wasn't alone anymore. They could ask the second Tao what he was talking about. However, when he looked he was gone.

"What are you doing here?" Baekhyun had come to him.

"I was..." he looked around but there was no sign of the second Tao. It was as if he had imagined it. "Nothing. Let's go."

***************

"Fifteen new Prefects, huh?" Sunggyu got up from his chair and walked to stand closer to Eunhye. "How did you brainwash them? And two transfers. I'm impressed. You're not trying to take control of the whole school, are you?"

Eunhye snorted. "If that's what I wanted I would have done that a long time ago." She crossed her arms in front of her. "Well, what did you want to talk about."

"You know what."

"Yeah, there's a lot. Which one do you want to talk about first."

"Are we expecting new Guardians?"

She shrugged. "Maybe. But you already know that."

"What's going on here, Eunhye? Why are students being poisoned, and what are you doing about it."

"Oh, I report to you now?"

"Eunhye," Sunggyu sighed. He was used to her pride. "I'm the Student Council President. If our school is in trouble, it concerns me, too."

She sighed. "I'm still working on it. There's two or three things that I know are connected and a couple of theories but I need more time."

"Well, if there is something I can do to help, you know where to find me."

"Speaking of which," Eunhye said. "How's the choosing of your succesor working?" He didn't have to answer her. "Goo Hara? You're seriously thinking about her being the president?"

"Well, she's not the only candidate. Of course I would consider her, she's the vice president."

"And Myungsoo? He doesn't care about anything but himself."

"He does. He just doesn't do anything about it. And just because you hate him doesn't mean he won't be a candidate. If you don't want them to be in the position all you have to do is take it."

"I'm going on patrol."

Eunhye was no politician and she didn't want the paperwork that she saw by Sunggyu's desk. He was a slave of the students, and there was no way Eunhye would take that position. Maybe it would be a good torture for Goo Hara to be behind a desk with all those papers she would need to sign and budgets she would need to balance. If only the position didn't have to be in the circle of trust of the order, she would not care who became president.

*************

Chanyeol watched the kids have fun in the playground. There was something to their innocence that made Chanyeol envy them. He never got to enjoy his childhood that much. He knew he did before he was captured, but he could barely remember that anymore. He couldn't even remember his mother's face anymore.

He felt someone's presence and looked at the right side of the wall. Eunhye was there again, settling comfortably on the top of the wall. How she got up there, Chanyeol had no idea. He was still perched on the tree he had almost memorized and was holding tight to a branch.

"We need a ladder up here," he told her.

"You need a ladder up here," she corrected him. "We never needed it."

"You're not human," he commented.

"Are you?"

Chanyeol gulped. She had him there. Maybe he should just keep quiet.

"When are you going to give me Woods duties?"

"Heeseon decides the assignments," she replied. "If you want to be there so bad, go tell her. I only assign Guardian duties and there's not much going on about that yet."

"My parchment is empty."

"You weren't supposed to tell anyone that."

"You said not to share it with each other. You're not a candidate. Are you even going to give me a serious test?"

"It's a test of commitment and loyalty."

"I thought it was a language lesson?"

"It is." She stood up and brushed the dust off her skirt. Chanyeol tried not to look and went to watch the children. "I'm gonna pretend you didn't tell me that. That way, you're still a candidate." And then she jumped off, landing on the other side of the wall.

Some of the kids saw her and ran to her immediately

"Eunhye-eonni! Are you here to play with us again?" One kid asked her.

"Not today," she replied, poking the girl's dimple. "I have a lot of homework to do."

"Aww," another kid said. "You never go over the fence these days. Is something wrong out there? Do you have to fight the bad guys again?"

She smiled and ruffled the kid's hair. "Bad guys are everywhere, Manse. You just have to figure out which one is really bad, and those, I fight."

"Who is he?" The first kid asked her, pointing at Chanyeol. "He had been here but he never played with us like you do."

"Is he one of the bad guys?" Another boy asked, making Eunhye laugh.

"No Minguk," she said. "He's a friend. He just can't jump over yet." She whisperred something on the boy's ear and he giggled. "But he likes playing, too."

"Maybe we should get him a ladder."

Eunhye laughed again. "Funny you should say that." She walked over below where he stood. "There's a gate over there," she pointed behind him. "Just follow the path and you'll get to their West gate. I have to introduce you to the Mistress here."

"Why didn't you tell me that sooner?"

She just stared at him, the smile she had for the kids absent from her face. Knowinh he better move, Chanyeol climbed down the tree and went out the gate where she pointed. He never noticed that gate before because it was covered in hydrangeas and ferns which he had to move so he could get to the lock. It took a bit of his strength to push the rusted door open and he only managed to open it almost a foot wide and had to squeeze himself out. Apparently, no one had come through here for a very long time. Well, if you knew how to jump over walls, you wouldn't really need gates.

She was waiting for him at the gates and she was still with the children who seemed to like her. They were hovering all over her, talking all at once to get her attention. And unlike her usual reaction to attention she would get on the other side of the wall, she seemed to like it as well.

"Kids, this is Chanyeol," she said as he was walking over to them. "He's going to be watching over you sometimes when I'm not there. You already met Baekhyun last time, right?"

"Baekhyun was here?"

"We played soccer," one of the kid said. Chanyeol thought Eunhye called him Manse.

"These is Manse, his brothers Daehan and Minguk." Eunhye introduced them with an evident mother smile. Chanyeol had never seen this side of her, and he wanted to seebit more. "This is Sarang, Haru and Soeul. Hang on. Where are the two goofballs?"

"Detention," Sarang answered. "They put gumwads on their teacher's hair."
Eunhye laughed aloud after hearing this. It was a laughter full of affection, and Chanyeol was sure those two were also as loved as these children.

"Hey, we have to talk to the Mistress for a bit, okay? We'll see you later."

"You'll play with us, right?" Daehan asked. "And Chanyeol-hyun