CHAPTER TEN

Unusual Greeting

HAEYOON FOUND HERSELF in the middle of their school’s soccer field. 

Standing on her right was Baekhyun, who was still holding onto her hand while on her left was Kyungsoo who seemed to have his eyes wider than usual. Right in front of her was Joonmyeon whose face she can’t see but his rigid back and shoulders told her that he wasn’t happy with their current situation at all.

The wind blew past them, making several grass blades float in the air and trees rustle with the breeze. There was nothing but tensed silence between them and the group of three familiar boys.

They were still as striking as the first time she met them at the icecream parlor but the smug faces they wore rouse a negative feeling in Haeyoon. She was undeniably confused and anxious with whatever it is that’s going on and the lack of knowledge made it worst. 

Who are these guys? Why are they here? Do they know each other?

These are the questions that she voiced earlier and was still asking herself in her mind but none of them answered her. Ever since they stepped into the open field, no one spoke a word. Haeyoon felt like the six males were communicating through their piercing gazes and she can’t obviously understand a thing but Baekhyun’s tight grip on her hand made her assume that something not so good is going to happen.

A shiver ran down her spine when she caught the gaze of the boy with sharp eyes and slightly tanned skin. There was something in his stare that she can’t quite figure out, making her unconsciously scoot closer to Baekhyun.

“Joonmyeon,” a deep booming voice broke the silence. It was the tall boy with spiky dirty-blonde hair. His lips were set in an amused smile, his eyes bright and alert as if he’s enjoying the moment. “It been a while, don’t you think?”

The boy didn’t reply and before Haeyoon could take another deep breath, the boy who spoke to Joonmyeon was suddenly engulfed in a blinding light. It was gone as soon as it came and to her shock and amazement, an enormous twenty-foot winged-dragon turned up on his place.

The beast was breathtaking. Haeyoon couldn’t believe her eyes as the dragon spread its fifteen-foot wings span on either side. It was the sort of creature that she only saw in movies and fairytale books. She once thought that she would be really scared if she saw a dragon in real life but now that it was standing in front of her in all its glory, she couldn’t help but think of how magically enchanting it is. It had a pair of icy blue eyes, huge head, long snout, lean elegant neck, and shiny grayish-cerulean scales that covered the tip of its snout up to the tip of its ten-foot tail.

From then on, everything went by so fast. Kyungsoo transformed into a giant ten-foot lion and she had no time to admire its beauty because it sprinted towards the dragon in the speed of lightning. But her jaw dropped when she saw the difference in size and she was certain that the lion had no match with the dragon.

Haeyoon’s eyes were momentarily torn from the two beasts when Joonmyeon took off and ran towards the boy with a pretty face. She watched in a mixture of horror and amazement when the boy’s water attacks were easily deflected by the other. His attempts were just being hauled back at him in the exact same manner as if he was fighting with himself in front of a mirror.

Amidst the two on going fights, the third boy was just simply standing off to the side with an amused expression as he watched the unfolding scene in front of them.

When Haeyoon noticed that her two friends were clearly at a disadvantage, she started panicking. She looked up at Baekhyun, and to her surprise, he was wearing the same amused look. Her brows furrowed and she was completely perplexed.

“Baekhyun?” she whispered, disbelief lacing her tone. “W-why are you not helping them?”

The boy smirked at the scene, “Let them be, they can handle that.”

The girl’s eyes widened and she noticed the change in his demeanor. He was no longer antsy and he was more like enjoying what was happening.

“What are you saying?!” she snapped. Here he was looking like he was just watching a freaking fantasy action movie while Joonmyeon and Kyungsoo were getting their asses killed. “Are you insane?! They might die!” She was heaving, her heart throbbing inside her chest as she tried to yank her hand away from him. “Let me go! If you’re not going to help them then I will.”

The boy tightened his grip at her but he still made sure that he wasn’t hurting the girl. “No, you’re only going to hurt yourself,” he said as he looked into her eyes. “They are still one of us, sunshine, don’t worry.”

She was taken aback. “What—are they your brothers?”

Baekhyun nodded, turning his attention back to the fight. “Yeah, though for a moment, I thought they turned against us, but I was wrong.”

“Then why are they doing that?” she cried incredulously. “No sane person would attack their own brothers!”

“Let’s just say that it was their own twisted way of greeting their long lost brothers,” he said with an easy smile on his handsome face.

Haeyoon willed herself to calm down as she turned back towards the ongoing fight in front of them. Looking more closely at it, she took note that they were not seriously hurting each other. Although the dragon was firing blue flames at the lion, she can see that it wasn’t aiming directly and even Joonmyeon’s water attacks were not that strong and aggressive.

“But still…” she whimpered worriedly. She was still very much concerned that they might accidentally injure each other.

A gasp escaped her when the lion managed to clamp down on the dragon’s neck and her eyes widened when the latter easily shook the feline off, throwing it on the grass with a loud thud. The lion landed in a heap before it transformed back to its human form. The dragon mirrored its action and the tall guy came towering over Kyungsoo’s sitting form.

“You still have more ways to go, D.O,” he smirked, shoulders squared in dominance, as he offered a hand to his brother. Kyungsoo accepted it with a smirk of his own and he was hauled back to his feet.

“Since when did I win over you when you’re in that form, Kris?” Kyungsoo asked and it was a rhetorical question.

Haeyoon looked on the other side of the field and saw that Joonmyeon and the other boy weren’t fighting anymore; instead, they were sitting on the grass and were both panting and soaked.

“I knew this was a bad idea!” the pretty boy erupted in a whiny voice. “Sparring with you and Chanyeol always result in me ruining my clothes.”

Joonmyeon let out a rich laugh. “Don’t be such a baby, Luhan.” He ran his hand through his wet hair as he released a contented sigh. “It’s been a long time since I last used my powers like that.”

“Same here,” Luhan chuckled, collapsing on the soft grass in exhaustion.

All the girl could do was blink stupidly on the sudden turning of tables. One moment they looked like they were about to kill each other and the next they were chatting happily as if it was nothing.

“So…” she trailed off, catching the boys’ attention. “Let me just get this straight.” She took a deep breath. “Those three guys are your brothers and they are not some kind of enemies, am I right?”

Baekhyun nodded enthusiastically at her. “We were just rattled at first but then we realized that they are still our brothers when we saw them.”

“And what made you think otherwise?” Haeyoon raised a brow.

“Well, Tao there was using his powers and it quite surprised us and made us think that it was an attack—which was clearly not,” he replied and the girl pinned her gaze to the one he called ‘Tao’.

“I have the power to manipulate time,” the boy grinned sheepishly at her and she noticed how his intimidating aura slowly dissipating.

It clicked in her that the reason why everything stopped like a paused movie was because of Tao’s doing.

“You could’ve done a much simpler way to grab our attention, you know,” Joonmyeon commented.

“Where’s the thrill and surprise in that?” Kris snorted.

“And besides, this was a manly way to do things,” Luhan piped up with a grin, “With a fight, right? Like the usual.”

“You and your grand entrance,” Kyungsoo shook his head as he made his way towards Haeyoon and Baekhyun. 

“Do you have any idea how much it scared me?!” Haeyoon snapped and forcefully pulled her hand away from Baekhyun before giving him a series of punches and slaps on the arm which didn’t really hurt him. “I would never understand how men brain work! Ugh!” She huffed and crossed her arms over her chest petulantly. “Fighting? Really? Greeting each other is equivalent to fighting?! I can’t believe you!”

The boys were stunned for a moment by her outburst before they all chortled.

“She’s cute,” Kris said to Joonmyeon. “Who’s she?”

“She’s the girl we met on the icecream shop, right?” Tao recalled as he sauntered over his brothers. “What’s her name?”

“How come she wasn’t affected by Tao’s power?” Luhan got back up and cocked his head, curiosity written all over his pretty face.

“She’s Haeyoon,” Joonmyeon replied with a fond smile on his face as he watched her complain to his two other brothers. “I don’t know why she wasn’t affected by Tao’s power but I’m sure that she was a special girl. After all, she managed to lift the seal on me and D.O.”

“She did?” Tao was amazed and he turned to stare at her.

Kris looked at Haeyoon, too, and said, “She might help us find the others and lift the seals as well.”

“That’s the plan but she didn’t exactly know how she did it,” said Joonmyeon. “It was more like…unintentional…accidental.” Then he paused. “She’s a human, by the way.”

“She’s a human?” Tao blurted. It was a real mystery on how she wasn’t affected by his power.

“Why do I feel like she’s familiar to me?” Kris asked no one in particular but it made Joonmyeon perk up.

“You felt it, too?” he asked eagerly. “The familiarity? The pull?”

The three snapped their head towards him with wide eyes. “How’d you know?” Luhan was the one who asked. “When we first saw her I was perturbed by the fact that I was feeling a pull towards her…the same pull that we had because of the bond…and I thought I was the only one feeling that way towards her…”

“I take it that we all feel the pull towards the girl,” Kris muttered in confusion.

Tao’s eyebrows pinched, tilting his head innocently to the side. The four of them were all staring at Haeyoon who was slowly getting a grip of the whole situation but was still having a heated argument with Baekhyun and Kyungsoo about how a guy’s mind work. “Do you also feel the weird urge to…protect her?”

“Uh-huh, and be with her…” Luhan nodded in a daze. He won’t deny the fact that ever since he saw Haeyoon on the icecream place, he can’t forget about her angelic face.

“Look at them,” Haeyoon said to Kyungsoo as she pointed at the four males several meters away from them. “Are they just going to stand and sit there all day like some, I don’t know, idiots?” It was obvious in her tone that she was still annoyed with what happened and the two boys with her can’t help but smile in amusement.

“Hey, guys! Let’s talk somewhere else,” Baekhyun hollered and motioned from them to come over.

“Let’s take this to the student council room,” Joonmyeon suggested as he got up from the grass along with Luhan. “We need to change out of these wet clothes as well.”

Luhan groaned and ranted again about how his outfit was all messed-up because of Kris’ stupid idea of surprising their brothers.

“WE WERE IN China when we heard the news of the serial killing and the weird deaths of the victims in this place,” Kris explained as he was perched on Joonmyeon’s desk. Haeyoon learned that they found each other in China fifteen years ago. They are not sealed and they felt each others presence but took them quite a long time to actually locate each other.

“We immediately suspected that it was not a human’s doing so we flew all the way from China to here,” Luhan continued. He was sitting on a chair near the window. “At first, we just wanted to check out what’s really happening but then we felt your presence, guys.”

“Yeah, and we saw Haeyoon on the day we arrived,” Tao added as he leaned against the wall. “It began to get odder for us so we decided to follow her today and we realized that your presence got even stronger when we neared the school.”

“And since you didn’t know who among us are here, you pulled that stunt to make us come out,” Joonmyeon concluded.

“Hey, it was Kris’ idea, not mine!” Tao defended himself.

“No offense but you, guys, are weird,” Haeyoon commented from her seat between Kyungsoo and Baekhyun. “And a bit stalker-ish.” Then she cautiously turned her head to Luhan who was then looking intently at her like he was trying to bore holes through her skull. “Why are you…staring at me that way?”

With eyebrows furrowed in deep concentration, he said, “I’m…trying to…”

“Luhan?” Kris called his brother with uncertainty.

After a few more moments of intense staring he gave up and leaned back on the chair. “Why aren’t you affected?”

“What?” the girl cocked her head to the side.

“Wait, are you trying your powers on her?” Joonmyeon asked.

“Yes, but it wasn’t working at all!” the pretty boy exclaimed and he seemed more astounded than frustrated that his power wasn’t working at all.

Haeyoon turned to Baekhyun, grabbing on his arm. “What was he trying to do?”

“He’s trying to control your mind,” he answered. “You see, he controls the mind spirit and everything related in mind. He can control objects with his mind and can also manipulate other’s mind.” Baekhyun continued explaining. “He can even control us if he wanted.”

“Then…why is she not affected?” Tao asked in bewilderment.

“I told you, she’s special,” Joonmyeon remarked, making the girl blush.

“Yeah, she is,” Luhan murmured. He was still deeply mystified by Haeyoon because he had never met anyone who was unaffected by his power except for the Saperians, the royal blood line, who created them Guardians.

But how was it possible for a human to resist his mind control?

“Wow…” Haeyoon was in awe. “That was amazing…and creepy at the same time.”

“We’re deeply sorry for scaring you earlier, Haeyoon,” Kris sincerely apologized in his deep voice.

The girl cracked a sheepish smile. “It’s okay; I’m just a little shock is all. I’m glad that you are finally able to reunite with your brothers again.”

Kris gratefully smiled back at her before turning to Joonmyeon. “So, any info about the murders happening around your city?”

The boy’s face hardened. “We are certain that it was a Tainted One,” he said and it wasn’t much of a shock for the three since they had already predicted that much.

“I had a first-hand encounter with it when it tried to attack Haeyoonie,” Kyungsoo’s face darkened at the memory. Kris, Luhan, and Tao turned at the girl with worried faces. “And it was also the time when my seal was lifted.”

“Why do you think are they here?” Luhan inquired as he leaned his elbows on his knees and clasped his hands together. “And up human souls?”

“We had an assumption and maybe a plausible one,” Baekhyun answered. 

“And that is?”

“They are here to search for the remaining Royal Blood, the remaining Saperians” he told them in a grim tone and his three brothers can’t hide the shock in their faces.

“You mean the Prince and the Princess?” Tao asked breathlessly. “They are here?!”

“It’s highly possible,” this time, it was Haeyoon who spoke. “Baek’s right, the killings won’t be kind of centered in this place for nothing.”

Kris nodded solemnly. “You’re right; and we need to find them as soon as possible.”

“Yeah, before the dark side gets a hold of them,” Joonmyeon agreed.

“And any more innocent human dies…” Haeyoon whispered but they all caught it. She was all the more willing to help The Guardians find their other brothers and their Prince and Princess now that her own kinds are being harmed as well.

“Don’t worry, sunshine,” Baekhyun wrapped a comforting arm around her shoulder. “We won’t let anymore people be harmed. After all, there are seven of us now; we just need to find the other five before we’re complete.”

“Speaking of that, you still have yet to bring us to Chanyeol,” Kyungsoo reminded.

“Oh yeah, I kind of forgot, I’ve been busy with the ‘student’ part of my life,” he smiled sheepishly at them. “Anyway, you, guys, can stay at the dorm where I and Channie are staying, it’s big enough to accommodate all of us.” Then he turned to Joonmyeon and Kyungsoo. “You can come along later if you want to see Chanyeol.”

“You want to come with us, too, Haeyoonie?” Joonmyeon asked the girl with a charming smile. “I’m sure Chanyeol would love to meet you.”

“I guess,” she shrugged with a cute smile.

“Great! This is so great!” Tao exclaimed, grinning like he was just barely containing his excitement and Haeyoon found it really cute. She can’t believe that she got intimidated by his cold and aloof outward appearance when in fact; the boy was such a big sweetheart. “Today is a very happy day, after all those years, I was finally able to see my other brothers!”

His brothers had soft warm smiles on their faces.

“We’re happy, too, Tao,” Kyungsoo told him honestly and Haeyoon can see on their faces how much they missed each other.

“I hate to ruin this moment, dear brothers, but I think we’re forgetting something…” Baekhyun trailed off as he shot Tao a look.

The boy blinked back at him innocently before he realized what his brother was talking about. “Oh .”

Yes, they forgot that the whole school was still in pause.

Author's Note:

Okay, I’m typing this while were watching Insidious 3 (multitasking is much needed) and it was…uh…very much disturbing. LOL! 

And why oh why I haven’t watch DOPE/SICK MV yet?! Like, omg, I’m so busy, I’m lucky I even found time to update. T__T

Anyhow, I really need to know your opinion on this chapter, guys, and please do tell me what you think about the story line so far. I need to know if it’s boring you already or confusing you or anything. Don’t hesitate to tell me if the story is not interesting anymore (which I hope won’t happen. keke)…and if ever something is unclear to you, feel free to ask me, Okay. ^_^

Five more members to goooooo!!!!

Until next chap!