CHAPTER SIX

Black Cloak and White Beast

“OH, LOOK! THEY’RE following you,” Haeyoon chirped as she pointed her index finger to the group of Koi fishes on the small pond located near the back of their school building where students rarely go to. Joonmyeon was showing her some fascinating ways of controlling water on his hands when she noticed that the fishes are swimming towards wherever direction the boy would go to. “Is controlling water creatures part of you power, too?”

The boy stopped juggling five small water spheres on top of his hands, making them disappear into a mist, before answering her. “Yes, but I’m not really controlling those fishes right now, but you could say that they are behaving like that because of my powers.”

“I’m just curious,” she cocked her head to the side as her eyes travelled to Joonmyeon’s clothed arm. “What does the mark on your arm means? It kept on glowing whenever you’re using your powers.”

“Every Guardian has a symbol marked on them that represents their magic or spirit, if you may,” he explained. “I have mine on my forearm while the others have it on other different parts. In our world, we call our magic or powers, spirits and all twelve of us possess different spirits. Mine is water and pretty much everything related to it.”

“That’s so cool,” she said, dipping a hand into the water. She yelped in surprise when the fishes crowded around her hand like they are asking her to pet them. She whipped her head to Joonmyeon who had a grin on his face.

“Now, you could say that I’m controlling them,” he chuckled at the girl’s cute delighted expression. He was amused at how she was getting so happy and excited at every little things. She would smile brightly everytime he did something with his powers and somehow…it made him warm and fuzzy inside.

He continued watching her giggling every time a Koi would brush her palm until he saw a figure move from the corner of his eyes. He snapped his head towards the direction of the school building, suddenly afraid that some human might’ve witnessed his supernatural stunts but then he…felt it. 

That familiar aura and presence.

A sudden thought crossed his mind. Their powers might be sealed but he would still be able to feel his brothers’ presence if they are near enough. They were created with a special bond that binds them to each other and to the members of the royal line. Hope surged through him that maybe one of his brothers was in the same vicinity as him, near enough that he could feel him. He turned his head around, the bright mid-day sun making him squint until a glinting object on the ground caught his eyes. He walked towards it and bent down to pick it up.

A silver name plate.

Do Kyungsoo.

“D.O,” he mumbled the name of one of his brothers when he read what was written on the pin. It was achingly similar and he can’t help but think that this guy may be his brother who also lost his memories and had his name changed by the people who took him in just like what happened to him. His real name was Suho but since he can’t remember anything when the kind Kim family found him, they named his Joonmyeon.

“Is something wrong?” he was pulled out of his thoughts when Haeyoon came up beside him with a worried look.

“Uh, I saw this,” he said showing her the silver name plate. “Someone must’ve dropped it.”

“That guy is my classmate,” said Haeyoon when she recognized the name. “He’s a new transfer.” Then her brows furrowed as she mused, “How did that get here?”

Joonmyeon stilled and his eyes landed on the girl. A new transfer kid wouldn’t easily know the place where they were on his first week because the pond was situated on a quite secluded area in the campus…unless…

Do kyungsoo, for some unknown reason, was following him.

Or Min Haeyoon.

MINUTES BEFORE LUNCH break end, Haeyoon decided to return to her class to avoid being late. Before she parted ways with Joonmyeon, she can’t help but take note of his preoccupied look and when she asked him, the boy brushed her worries off with a smile and said that it’s nothing. 

Just as she entered the main building, she was greeted by a sight of many students, majority of which were girls, and it looked like they were crowding over something that she can’t see from her position.

“Oh my gosh! You’re so cute!”

“Can I take you home?”

“Are you lost?”

“Aww, I want to squish him!”

“Come here and let noona take care of you, handsome!”

“Haeyoon!” she whipped her head to see Shinhye and Gaeun waving her over, beside the vending machine.

“What’s up?” she asked, nodding her heard towards the crowd which was, she noticed, either squealing giddily or having a dreamy look in their eyes. It was a rather familiar scene to her since she was always around Yoongi and the other boys.

“There’s a really, really, really cute guy there,” Gaeun said as she tried to suppress her own excitement. “I don’t think he goes here. If he did, I bet I would notice him right away.”

“And he seemed lost or searching for someone,” Shinhye added, “Look.” The girl pointed and she followed her finger through a gap in the crowd and saw the person in the middle.

Haeyoon’s jaw dropped the moment her eyes landed on the figure.

“Jungkook?!”

“You know him?” her two friends blurted in unison.

“Uh…Well, I’ll explain later,” she said to them, not taking her eyes off the boy who looked like a lost scared puppy despite his towering height. “I just have to get him out of there.”

The two girls stared after Haeyoon as she approached the crowd.

“Good idea. I think those girls wanted to eat him alive,” Gaeun agreed.

“Why does she have so many cute boys as her friends? Shinhye asked no one in particular.

“Jungkook!”

The boy perked up at the sound of that familiar voice calling his name. He looked around frantically until his eyes met her caramel brown ones, relief rushing through him. “Haeyoon,” he breathed, a sweet grateful smile curving on his lips as she squeezed through the crowd towards him. He wanted so much to run, hug her and hide in her arms but his feet were stuck to the ground like glue. He didn’t like being crowded by so many people. It scared him and made breathing hard.

“What are you doing in here?” Haeyoon immediately questioned him as she grabbed his hand which she noticed was cold and shaking. “How’d you get in here?” She began pulling him away from the crowd, earning herself death glares and annoyed whispers from some of the girls but she didn’t seem to notice any of it as she tightened her hand on Jungkook’s. She can just imagine how scared the boy was when he suddenly got mobbed by so many unfamiliar faces.

With her friends in tow, she led Jungkook towards the library, the safest and most peaceful place she could think of the moment. Once they were inside she started bombarding him again with questions.

“Why are you here? Did something happen back in the house?” she asked him again. “How’d you manage to get in here?” She knew that Jungkook never left his mother’s house or their house without company and the first time he ever got out was when her mother took the boy to take exams. It was a real wonder for her how he managed to find their school without getting lost in the way.

“No, nothing happened. I…I just wanted to see you,” he said as his doe-like eyes looked up into her own orbs through his thick lashes. “I felt where you are…so I followed it…”

It was a weird answer but somehow, she believed him, after all, they can feel whenever the other one is hurt. She wanted to ask more questions but she remembered that her friends were there, listening to their conversation. She considered things for a moment before she said, “Will you be fine if leave you here for a while? I still have a few more classes and I can’t skip.” She reached over the table and squeezed his hand reassuringly when she saw panic flash in his eyes. “Don’t worry, you won’t get mobbed in here, the librarian won’t allow it. I can’t possibly send you back home alone so I’ll just fetch you right after my class, hmm?”

Jungkook stared at her for a while before slowly nodding his head. “Okay, I’ll wait for you.”

Haeyoon smiled. “There are many book in here, you can read all you want.”

The boy reluctantly let go of her hand when she pulled away and then she patted his head before leaving the library. Once they were out, Shinhye and Gaeun started throwing questions at her.

“He’s a distant relative,” she blurted a lie when they suddenly asked if Jungkook was her boyfriend. “A…cousin, yeah, he’s my cousin.” She glanced over at them as they walk towards their class, hoping that they buy into her bluff. “Look, I’ll explain more some other time, we’re already late.”

The whole period, Haeyoon wasn’t able to concentrate on her lessons. Her worried mind kept on drifting towards Jungkook. Her other classes went by in a blur until the final bell rang. She was the first one to get up and dash out of their room.

As soon as she was in the library, she went to the table where they left him and she was relieved when he was still there, sitting and quietly reading a book like she told him to. Haeyoon smiled when she saw a few books lying on the table in front of him. It looked like he quite enjoyed his time in the library.

“Hi,” she said, making Jungkook look up and smile at the sight of her. She slid on the chair in front of him before sending a message to Yoongi.

After a few minutes of comfortable silence as she watched Jungkook read, Yoongi came. He didn’t ask anything but Haeyoon knew that he would fire questions at them once they got home.

“JB, WHY DOES Haeyoonie have that Marked Seal on her?” Bambam asked curiously as they lounge around their dorm’s living room area.

“Is she like us, too?” Yugyeom added, making the others listen intently to what the leader was about to answer.

Ever since the day they saw the mark on Haeyoon’s wrist, they all became confused and worried for the girl. He, Mark, and Jr had been digging through their old documents and books that might answer their questions but to no avail.

“I don’t know and I doubt she’s like us,” he replied with a serious expression. “But that mark means that she was sealed or she was being used as a host to seal someone.” He chewed on his lips as a frown made its way on his handsome face. “But since she’s…human, I think it’s more of the latter.”

“But if it was the latter, then who?” Jackson asked, mirroring the same grim look as JB, his usual playfulness gone. “That person must be someone powerful…”

“Shouldn’t we tell her?” Youngjae suggested which earned him a firm “No” from both Mark and Jr. “Why?”

“She’ll be safer physically and emotionally if we keep the truth from her,” Jr reasoned out. “I wouldn’t want to scare her by telling her that having the Marked Seal would mean that her life is in danger. I can’t afford to do that to, princess.” Then a shadow casted on his face as he said, “And by telling her about the mark…we also have to tell her who we really are…”

“Who would even choose a human as a host?” Bambam pouted as he drew his knees closer to his chest and leaned against the foot of the settee. “They’re fragile and can’t use powers to protect themselves. Using a weak host means a weak seal.”

“I don’t even know that aside from us, there would be another sorcerer in the human world,” Jr said as he shifted on top of the recliner. 

“Maybe it was because of the war,” Jackson offered from where he sat on the carpeted floor. “I wonder what happened after that…”

“I can’t believe we would be dealing with some sorcerers again after a long time,” Youngjae sighed as he spread his long legs beside Yugyeom. “I thought we would be able to live peacefully among with the humans.”

“We still can,” Mark spoke for the first time as he travelled his eyes on each of them from his spot on the settee beside their leader. “If we could only know who put the seal on Haeyoon, we could start from that.” He looked at all of them with a determined face. “We can’t let any human be harmed by any sorcerer…especially her.” He shook his head. “No, not Haeyoon.”

“Does that mean that we would also hunt the serial-killer down?” Yongjae cocked an eyebrow. “We all know that the killer wasn’t human.”

“Yeah, I don’t want to wait until Haeyoonie become the next victim,” Bambam nodded, liking Youngjae’s idea.

“I have a feeling that it’s not only one killer we’re going to deal with,” Jackson muttered and the room grew silent.

“It’s the Tainted Ones, isn’t it?” Yugyeom’s question sounded a lot more like a statement. “Why would they even do something like this?”

“That’s a good question,” Jackson stated.

“I know that we promised not to use any of our powers again and not involve ourselves in anything related to sorcery but…” JB trailed off as Haeyoon’s beautiful face flashed in his mind. If there’s one human that they all cherished, it will be her. He won’t let any harm come to the girl, his heart won’t allow that. “If it’s for Haeyoon then we’ll do it.”

THE SKY WAS painted in a beautiful shade of orange, red and yellow as the sun was already half-way into setting beyond the horizon. Yoongi, Haeyoon and Jungkook were on their way home.

“Let’s buy some icecream first,” Yoongi suggested as they passed by a convenient store. He still had a paranoid feeling that someone was following them even as they left the school and he figured that a tub of cold sweetness might help him relax a bit.

There wasn’t that much customer and the place was really quiet. While the boy was having a hard time choosing between mint chocolate and coffee crumble with Jungkook awkwardly watching him struggle with himself, Haeyoon’s phone rang. 

It was Jackson.

“I’ll just take this call outside, I’ll be back in a jiffy,” she informed the two boys before walking out of the store.

When she was about to take the call, a cute little girl standing in front of the alley beside the store caught her attention. Haeyoon scanned their surroundings to see any adult around but it seemed like the child was alone. Phone forgotten, Haeyoon walked towards the girl and she saw the lost look in her small pretty face.

“Hey,” she softly called as she crouched down in front of her. “Are you lost?”

The little girl didn’t answer, instead, she ran towards the dark alley, alarming Haeyoon.

“Where are you going?!” she scrambled into a standing position before running after the girl. “It’s dangerous there!”

She felt her heartbeat quickened when she saw the child plunging deeper the long eerie passageway. The serial-murder case happening around crossed her mind and she instantly began to worry and panic for the small girl. She doesn’t know whether to feel relieved or crept out when the girl stopped in front of a wall.

A dead-end.

Her heart was pounding against her chest and her mind was telling her that something was very wrong in the situation. She cautiously approached the child and said, “Come here, sweetheart, I won’t hurt you, I’ll help you find your mom and dad.”

She was a few steps away from the girl when she felt a sudden drop in temperature making her skin crawl and her steps halt. The alley grew silent until all she could hear was her own increasing heartbeat.

“Hey…” she called in a soft voice but the child didn’t show any kind of movement as she stood in front of the wall with her back on Haeyoon. She almost jump out of her skin when she heard a small noise from her back and when she turned out of instinct, she was met by darkness. “What the…” Cold dread washed over her like a bucket of ice when she can’t see the entrance of the alleyway anymore.

A soft small giggle pierced through the dead silent and Haeyoon turned in time to see the girl be engulfed by a black mist. “No!” she ran towards the child but was immediately frozen mid-way when a tall figure in black cloak and hood appeared on the spot where the little girl was previously standing. Her blood ran cold when the figure faced her with a sinister smile and coal-black eyes. All she can see was his face because the cloak was covering his body and the hood was pulled over his head. He looked like someone from an evil cult in a horror film and Haeyoon would’ve found it lame and stupid if only this was a movie. But no, this was reality and she was scared out of her wits.

“No…” she gasped with her eyes wide as saucers. The man’s ominous stare summoned goose-bumps in her skin and his disturbingly beautiful face made her take a step back. Everything about his face is painfully stunning but his eyes sent an awful shiver down her spine. Unlike humans, his eyes were a frightening pair of black orbs with no trace or even ring of white around it.

But the man was beautiful.

…Horrifyingly beautiful.

…If that was even possible.

When the man took a step forward—no, scratch that—he freaking floated towards Haeyoon and she instinctively took a step back only to trip on her own feet. She cursed herself for being such a klutz and when the cloaked figure started advancing towards her again, she began scrambling backwards. Her heart lurched in and a bloodcurdling scream tore through her chest when the man appeared in front of her in just a blink of an eye. Haeyoon began shaking in fear when the man grasped her chin with ice cold hand and leaned his ashen face towards hers. Immobilized in terror, all she could do was to stupidly squeeze her eyes shut and wait…for her death.

A sudden loud menacing growl made her eyes snap open in time to see the man being pulled away from her. He was flung towards the wall by an enormous immaculately white wolf. The animal’s white fur was a stark contrast against the man’s dark appearance.

Haeyoon’s mouth fell open but no words came out. Everything happened so fast and when the wolf sunk its sharp fangs on the man’s neck, instead of spurting blood, the man became a black mist and disappeared.

“Oh…my…god…” she whispered in between deep breaths. Her heart picked up its pace again when the enormous five-foot white creature started treading towards her. “No…please…d-don’t hurt me…” she pleaded as she dragged her self against the ground.

The wolf stopped a few feet away from her and stared at her with its round black glossy eyes. But unlike the cloaked man, the creature’s eyes didn’t instill fear on Haeyoon. And if she wasn’t shaking out of fear at the moment, she would have found its eyes warm, kind and…familiar.

As crazy as it might sound, Haeyoon stayed sitting on the ground as she leaned on her arms while the wolf stood there and quietly watch her calm down. Yes, Haeyoon realized that the wolf wasn’t scaring her like how the man scared her. It’s weird but she found herself actually calming down. She flinched when the wolf closed the remaining distance between them and though she wanted to run, her still wobbly legs won’t obey her command. The creature slowly leaned its huge head towards her and she squeezed her eyes shut as her heart skipped a beat in slight fear. She waited for the pain…that never came.

“Huh?” she peeled one eye open when she heard a soft whimper, like that of a puppy asking for something. “…what?” The wolf carefully nudged her bent knee with its muzzle and made a soft whimpering noise again. When she didn’t do anything, it leaned closer to her face, making her flinch again, before gently her cheek. Something clicked in her head and she tentatively reached out her still slightly shaking hand towards the animal’s head. Her hand hovered in the air, still unsure of what to do until the wolf pushed its wet black nose against her palm. “Okay…” she exhaled before carefully the top of its huge head. The white fur was so soft and fluffy and as she ran her fingers through it, the wolf whimpered in utter satisfaction.

Haeyoon watched the white large beast in front of her act like a little puppy as she pets it. A gasp escaped her lips when she saw a glowing blue symbol on its white chest. It was like Joonmyeon’s symbol but of different design. Her hand unconsciously travelled down to its wide chest, touching the symbol that looked like a head with two horns…like a bull or something.

“Could it be…Joonmyeon’s brother?” she looked at the wolf’s eyes before the creature’s whole body glowed in a white blinding light. “What…”

The light slowly disappeared, revealing a familiar boy sitting in front of Haeyoon. Her eyes almost bulge out of its sockets for the umpteenth time as she took in his uniform, wide bright eyes and heart-shaped lips. 

There’s no mistaking it…

“Do Kyungsoo?!”

Author's Note:

Uwaaa….This chapter went on different ways, isn’t it? Kinda crappy….oh gawd. I can only sigh…sorry, guys. I’ll try to do better on the next chap…

I know it’s late but I’m still reeling with BTS’s ‘For You’ and EXO’s ‘Love Me Right’. lmao! I kennat—ugh!

PS: Rest assured that there will be no werewolves. There’s an explanation on why D.O became a wolf on this chap and it’ll be explained on the next. :)