With a pleasant-sounding voice announced the news presenter of the best-known television station in Korea today's news. Her voice echoed through the large canteen of the same company the news presenter works for, but almost no one of the few people present were interested in the latest news. Only a few of the many employees were still working at this late hour as most of the staff already went home a few hours ago. Most of the people in the canteen had been working on the currently running program and therefore already knew very well what the news presenter will talk about in the next fifteen minutes. Tired and a little bored sat a few employees together in smaller groups and started talking silently with one another. Only occasionally would someone turn his or her head toward the TV to listen what the presenter was saying.

HyukJae, a young man in his mid-twenties, sat alone at a long table, which wooden surface still had some clear visible traces of the lunch on it that took place a few hours ago. Bored, he supported his head with his left arm and pecked with the other hand at a small serving of fried rice in front of him. Again and again he put a small heap of rice between his chopsticks, but when the rice was halfway to his mouth, he sighed and lowered the long metal sticks into the bowl. After several attempts he finally gave up and put the thin metal rod next to the small but still warm bowl of fried rice.
With his fingers he ruffled briefly through his hair and leaned himself back against the chair. He let his head sink slowly to the upper edge of the chair and closed his eyes shortly after wards. He wanted some peace to think about his current, to fail doomed project, but to find something as precious as calmness in a hectic company as this one was is extremely rare to find.

The thoughts in his head were constantly spinning around that future project. A project which concept simply didn't fit into the picture of the station at all. He desperately tried to think of a new concept and topic for the series, but his original idea was simply to strong to be forced into one of these 'safe' pattern that the broadcasting channel likes to show to it's audience so much. Nothing seemed to fit even slightly. To his biggest miserable was his executive producer expecting him to file a brief report on the improvements and the progress of his work in less then an hour.

With a deep sight he opened his eyes and started to flinch hard when his eyes met someone else's the second he had opened his eyes.
Only a few inches away from his face was the wide grinning visage of his best friend Kyuhyun. Satisfied with HyukJae's reaction began the slightly younger male to laugh out loud.
"You should have seen your face. It looked as if you had seen a ghost or something”, the brown-haired cried as he grabbed for the chair next to HyukJae and dropped himself on it. Visibly happy pulled the younger the tray with the fried rice towards himself and looked very interested at the remainings. His eyes sparkled with joy at the sight of the small but delicious meal.

"That was not funny!", the redhead said pouting playfully and watched how the younger gently lifted the small metal bowl with rice and began to sniff it with great anticipation. Without hesitation, he took the same sticks HukJae had used and pushed a small bite of the warm meal in the mouth. A satisfied smile crept on HyukJae's face as he watched how the brunette twisted his face in disgust. With a loud crash put the younger the small bowl back on the tray.
"I'll tell you what's not funny: The smell of this nasty stuff"
"Didn’t it match your expectations?", the elder asked gleefully with a big grin on his face which earned him a contemptuous snort of the younger. Disgusted pushed Kyuhyun the tray back to its original place and threw the small metal bowl another contemptuous look.
"You know that this stuff tastes like ashes in my mouth", the younger replied with a slight whining sound in his voice and shuddered briefly at the thought of the taste of the meal.
"And yet you were the one who had stuffed those grains into your mouth", the redhead said visibly amused by his best friend who didn’t seem to enjoy the situation as much as he did. Clearly annoyed turned the other towards his friend and hit him unbelievably hard on his left upper arm. Cursing, he rubbed with his other hand the now slightly throbbing spot. He knew Kyuhyun well enough to know that he had not meant to hurt him. They were fooling around like this quite often but he would have to wait for quite a long time to receive an apology from the later.

"You're very early today, Kyuhyun", HyukJae remarked after taking a quick glance at his writs watch which told him that it was shortly after 9.30 PM.
Kyuhyun, who was still muttering hateful words about the small bowl in front of HyukJae, suddenly became silent and looked up at his best friend. A renewed broad smirk appeared on the face of the younger and revealed with it two pointed teeth, which were one of the many reasons why the brunette had only a few friends at the company. The young man was a vampire. One of the few who had been employed by the broadcasting channel over the last few years.

Since the agreement of peace in 2015 between humans and various creatures, of which many people had hoped that they were only figments of their imagination had not much time passed by. Although every government in the world was trying to unite it’s people, the reality was shockingly different. Just as before the agreement, the ‘normal’ people preferred to stay away from the so called ‘monster’. Many even avoided leaving the house at night. Too big was the fear of the unknown. The fear that the terrible stories they had heard as a child could be real.

The vampire grinned mischievously and confirmed with a wink, that there is a very good reason for his unusual early appearance at work. HyukJae looked at his best friend with curious eyes and waited for the other to tell him the reason, but the younger kept silent. The only hint he gave was that the redhead would see or rather hear why he decided against his usual habit to arrive after the time he’s supposed to, soon enough.
HyukJae wrinkled his forehead. He knew right away that what ever his friend was planning wouldn’t end good. He had a bad feeling about this and he didn’t know why but somehow he thought that KyuHyun’s obvious evil plan must have something to with the somewhat snobbish, new boss of the younger. The mere fact that the later had started to harass Kyuhyun from the moment their eyes had met told him enough. HyukJae knew his best friend far too well to know that he wouldn’t put up with a person like that for long.

Just as HyukJae wanted to warn the vampire about the consequences he would have to face if he did something stupid, made a softly spoken word of the television presenter stop him from his action. For a short while he sat there and listened to the news. He hoped to have misheard that word, but only few more sentences from the presenter about the unplanned special announcement confirmed that he didn’t. He immediately turned to the flickering screen and froze when he saw the amazing as well as horrific images on TV.

A medium-sized multi-family house had caught fire and was threatening with total destruction. Playful dancing flames came out of every window of the house and coloured the light grey walls black as the night. People were standing in a safe distance to the burning danger. Some were shedding bitter tears of sadness and held each other thigh in their arms. This seemed like an ordinary tragically event that included fire, but what looked like an regular fire for most people was by far more than that. One look at the yellow-red flames was enough for HyukJae to know that this was a magical fire. Phoenix fire to be exact; the most dangerous fire in the entire world.

HyukJae wasn’t the only one that noticed the breaking news. Many of his colleges suddenly started to turn their heads towards the TV to listen to what the news presenter is going to report. Soft whispers began to erupt as soon as they saw the images. Although the redhead could not understand the exact words of his colleagues, one penetrated word came to his ears more often then others: Phoenix.
Theories and information about the long believed to be extinct fire bird were shared with their neighbours. Curiosity and fear could be heard out of the few sentences that the few people present exchanged. The noise increased rapidly. It even got so noisy in the room that that the following words of the reporter became completely inaudible. A big hulk-like man, however, got so annoyed by the forever talking crowd that he got up and went closer to the TV to turn up the volume.

"According to the property management were ten parties living in the building behind me. Eight of them were families with younger children. It is not known if some of the parties were in the house at the time of the outbreak. The fire was reported to the fire department of Suwon at 7PM this evening. Despite all efforts were the firefighters not able to take the fire under their control, which lead to the guess of it is a fire caused by a phoenix. A local whit sorcerer was able to confirm the suspicion just a few minutes ago. He is trying to extinguish the fire with the help of his magic at this moment. The local police also reported that other whit sorcerers as well as some publicly known waterbenders are travelling here to help out"

"I can’t believe that there are still some of these fires birds alive", the redhead heard his best friend quietly mutter and turned to face him.
Spellbound was the vampire starring at the coloured pictures of the fire. His face looked serious, but in his eyes sparkled a glint of compassion for those who had lost everything by this horrible incident.

"It has been years since they last reported on a phoenix fire. How could the so-called sharp eyes of the police miss that these arsonists were still living among us?"
"If only it was normal fire. Why does it have to be phoenix fire? Those poor souls of these families. Through this incident, they can never be born again. It's such a shame!"
"I hope they get the culprit once they slack the fire. If there will be no phoenixes in the future it will be the best for all of us”, some people in the canteen exclaimed with loud voices to which most murmured approvingly. More and more started coursing the so-called fire birds with angry voices. Many even started discussing about how they could find, report or even kill such a threatening being the easiest. HyukJae's vampire friend eagerly joined the discussions of the other employees.

HyukJae listened to every word his colleagues were saying without stating his opinion on this subject. Each of their words echoed in his head. Every word they said felt like a slap in his face. Breathing was getting harder for him by every passing second. The reason for that was a well-kept secret. A secret that would make him lose everything he holds dear if anyone would find out about it. He was one of those beings who were described by many as the bird of death. He was a phoenix.

"Maybe there more of these creatures. Do you remember the reward that was posted on them? Those were the days, I tell ya. Maybe there will be a new tender posted soon. I could make good use that money right now", KyuHyun said excit