"Hyung hurry up!", Jeongin urged his cousin, standing in his room's doorframe while jumping up and down like an excited child. It was a wonder he didn't hit his head with his high jumps.
"Don't stress me. I can't use magic to pack my things, remember?", Hyunjin sassed stuffing a fresh, white T-shirt into his bag along with a pair of sport shoes. "You are still taking forever to pack your things. We are literally just training with the hyungs. Well minus Chan-hyung", the kitsune retorted and stopped his jumping so he could cross his arms over his chest and pretend to be mad at the siren.
Hyunjin rolled his eyes before he stood up from his crouching position, draping his bag over his shoulder and joining Jeongin. "As happy as I am to have the majority of our friends back, it's still a little scary that Felix's and Minho-hyung's parents as well as Changbin-hyung's parents send them to NCT because they were safer with them here in Yellow Wood", the siren said shuddering a bit when he walked beside his younger cousin to the kitchen, where two bottles of water were waiting for them.
Jeongin was quiet for a little while, seemingly thinking but before Hyunjin could ask what he was thinking about the blond opened his mouth again. "As long as they are safe and well I don't care", the kitsune stated, grabbing his water bottle from the counter and stuffing it into little pocket on his backpack's side, where it was sticking out a little. The siren silently agreed with that statement while putting the water bottle into his bag.
A smirk formed on the older's lips when a special thought crossed his mind. "By the way, Innie", he mused, just getting a hum as response because the young kitsune was already in the hallway, putting his shoes on. "I bet you are excited to see Felix again. It has been a while since you have last seen him", the siren said, trying to sound like he was simply saying that without much thought but he couldn't hide the teasing undertone and of course the younger picked up on that.
The blond turned his attention away from his shoes and back to his cousin, who was now putting on his coat while acting casual. "Well, hyung I am but I think that you too will be excited to see a certain someone", the kitsune answered while finishing putting his shoes on with no special expression on his face.
Hyunjin froze for a minute, praying that Jeongin was just messing with him. There was no way Jeongin could have figured out how Hyunjin was slowly developing crushes on both Changbin an Seungmin. Hyunjin quickly shook that thought off. He wasn't even sure if he started to like Changbin and Seungmin in a romantic way, so why would Jeongin know. He wasn't a siren after all.
"I don't know what you mean, Innie. I am just happy that we can hang out with most of our close friends. There is no certain someone", the siren responded, slipping into his shoes easily and picking up his bag from the floor. He wasn't looking at Jeongin in hopes of not showing what he was really thinking.
"There sure is", the kitsune mused putting on his jacket while keeping a straight face. "There is not", Hyunjin huffed and crossed his arms over his chest. Jeongin only snickered, making Hyunjin glare a little at him. The younger said nothing though, just raised his hands in surrender while a knowing smile was plastered on his face, which was enough to tell Hyunjin that the other had confirmed what he had wanted to know.
"We should get going before Auntie comes back and changes her mind about us going outside", the kitsune then changed the topic. Hyunjin's mother had been a bit unsure about agreeing to the idea of letting her son and nephew train with NCT when the two young males proposed the idea to her after hearing it from Changbin yesterday. In the end she agreed because she thought it was better than keeping them both at home at all time.
"She did say she thought it was a good idea to start effectively training our abilities so I don't think she would go back on her word", Hyunjin responded, looking at Jeongin. "Let's not take that risk", Jeongin huffed, walking to the apartment door with the older following him. Hyunjin couldn't disagree and closed and locked the door behind him when they left the apartment.
The two walked on the streets of Yellow Wood like they always have since they didn't seem like anything supernatural at the first glance. Jeongin's actually natural blond hair could be dyed for all the humans knew and Hyunjin was just a natural beauty.
It was still a little bit strange for them to see so many humans or at least so many people that didn't look like they were something supernatural. They also noticed that some humans (the two could tell they were humans because of their especially odd behavior towards them) gave them a lot of seemingly special attention.
If you believed Jeongin, who could hear as well as a fox if he wanted, a lot of people started to talk about them when they walked by. For example, most of them always discussed if Jeongin and Hyunjin were some sort of idol because they were both so good looking. This didn't bother the two that much since it was a kind of compliment after all.
—————————
Jeongin began using his good hearing sense almost automatically when they stepped onto the rather busy Main Street of Yellow Wood. Normally Hyunjin and Jeongin would avoid the Main Street but to get to the NCT headquarter it was necessary to walk some meters on this always busy road if they wanted to avoid strange alleys.
Hyunjin was looking at his phone to check their current location again while Jeongin listened to his surroundings, trying to figure out if they were safe here or not. The young kitsune heard some girls giggle and a lot of other conversations. It was almost impossible to hear anything special or concentrate on one conversation in this mess of voices and noises.
The younger huffed in frustration, which gained him the attention of his cousin. "Is something wrong?", the siren asked sounding a bit worried, looking up from his phone to face the young kitsune beside him. "It's a bit loud here", Jeongin answered, which sounded normal to someone who was listening into their conversation but for Hyunjin it basically meant: "It's too loud. My fox hearing is useless here".
The older wanted to seemingly say something because he attempted to open his mouth but closed it when a female voice spoke up from behind the two young males. "Excuse me?", the voice asked, letting both Jeongin and Hyunjin turn around. Not far behind them stood a girl with dark hair and a bright smile on her face that didn't really reach her dark eyes. It was strange to Jeongin letting get a bit suspicious of the girl.
The kitsune noticed, even with the many people that were walking past them, that this girl didn't really have a specific scent. It was odd but maybe even the kitsune's nose had trouble picking out one single scent in this mass of people, which were walking down the Main Street. But the next thing the blond noticed seemed a bit more important. It was the violet crystal, which was dangling around the girl's neck.
It was a strange crystal. Not by it's looks of course, since it seemed like a normal necklace charm but it had a rather weird aura surrounding it. At least that was what Jeongin felt but he could be mistaken.
The kitsune was ripped out of his thoughts when the girl continued to speak. "I think you lost this", the girl said holding up a water bottle. To be more specific, Jeongin's water bottle, which must have fallen out of his backpack.
"Oh. Thank you very much. It must have fallen out of my bag", Jeongin thanked the girl politely, taking the bottle out of her hand and casually stuffing it into Hyunjin's bag because the kitsune didn't want to take off his backpack right now. The siren looked a bit at the blond with a bit of confusion because of that but he said nothing.
"It's no problem", the girl responded, waving it off while still smiling with her eyes seemingly holding no emotions. Jeongin returned the strange smile but it pretty soon dropped from his lips when he noticed the little flash of a phone camera behind the girl.
Why was this important? Well, if you take a picture of a kitsune with a flash you are able to see the fox spirit's true eyes. And they really weren't pretty. At least to humans.
The person, who seemingly took the picture of Jeongin and Hyunjin was another girl with dark brown hair and dark eyes but she was rather short. Still, the thing Jeongin immediately noticed was the green crystal, which was dangling from her right wrist. It looked like the violet one from the tall girl just in a different color and a slightly different shape.
"Is that your friend?", Jeongin asked the girl with the violet crystal, nodding towards the other short girl. The tall girl looked over her shoulder to the short one, who took the photo and then nodded, turning her head back to Jeongin and Hyunjin.
"Yeah, why?", she asked, sounding almost a bit too innocent for Jeongin's liking. "I think she just took a photo of me and my friend, so could she please delete that?" the kitsune asked in a sweet tone, obviously using his persuasive side. He hoped it would work without an issue or someone noticing.
Jeongin could almost feel Hyunjin's nervousness beside him and it really didn't make things better at that moment. The siren wasn't in trouble because of the photo since the pictures of creature, who could breath underwater but lived on land couldn't reveal who they really were but the right amount of water would make their skin start to glimmer.
"Why? You are both so handsome I am sure a lot of people secretly snap photos of you", the tall girl said, lightly tilting her head to the side. Jeongin was a bit irritated because his persuasion didn't affect the girl just yet.
"That's not okay either, so please tell your friend to just delete the photo and we can go our merry ways", the blond kept up the sweet tone and topped it with an even sweeter smile but he made sure his eyes showed that he was indeed serious.
Suddenly Jeongin noticed a little wave of energy wash over him, which made him glance at the violet crystal of the tall girl almost automatically. The kitsune thought he saw the crystal glow a little for a short second but he wasn't sure at all.
"Alright. I will tell her to delete it now. Sorry about this", the tall girl then apologized, walking back to her friend. Jeongin as well as Hyunjin heard their little conversations, which ended in the short girl deleting the photo with a pout on her lips.
"Thanks for understanding", Hyunjin thanked them loudly, so the girls could hear him while he had one of his prettiest fake smiles on his face. The girls giggled at that but Jeongin didn't let them interact more. He took his cousin's hand and dragged him out of the girls' sight into the next alley he could find. Screw their initial plan to avoid those alleys.
"We need to get away from the Main Street, now", the kitsune insisted and Hyunjin didn't object. The older let himself be dragged somewhere, probably understanding that Jeongin felt a bit threatened now and needed to get away from the "dangerous" zone.
Jeongin couldn't help but feel nervous and a little afraid. This encounter with the human girls had been a very close call and for someone reason non of the kitsune's strategies had worked. The tall girl with the violet crystal seemed to have been immune to his powers. He couldn't convince her to do anything until the very last moment.
Suddenly the kitsune was pulled back by his cousin just halting. Jeongin let his head snap around to face the siren. Hyunjin looked worried, which covered the fear he must be feeling too.
"We are far enough away from the Main Street, Innie", Hyunjin said softly. Jeongin reminded himself of that and glanced around for a short moment. They were alone in one of the smaller streets of Yellow Wood. Nobody was here at the moment so for now they were safe here.
The blond took a breath to calm himself down. "I know", the younger mumbled, releasing the breath. "I just got scared a little", he added, looking at the ground. "You still reacted very professional while I stood at the side being useless", Hyunjin lightly laughed. Jeongin mirrored his cousin's light laugh and looked up again. "I guess you are right", he agreed, showing just a bit of a smile.
"But now let's get to the NCT headquarter so I can teleport us there next time", the kitsune continued, earning a nod from his cousin.
—————————————
Seungmin was a ball of energy and Byungho couldn't decide if that was a good thing or not. Ever since the redhead had been to the NCT headquarter he was working on a lot of different things. For example was he researching a lot about hunters and even more about magic along with Wonpil.
Luckily Byungho knew why the young redhead was so even more eager to learn and study all sorts of things since Wonpil was kind enough to fill him and Woosu in on what was happening at the NCT headquarter and what was going on in general. The only one left in the dark was Samuel since everyone felt the need to protect the youngest and if that meant not weighting his mind down with the frightening knowledge of hunters attacking and kidnapping supernatural creatures then there was no place to argue for them. Of course they still told him some things, so he wouldn't feel left out but the majority of the terrifying information just weren't mentioned when the young siren was in the room.
Currently all five Kim brothers were gathered in Byungho's room. Wonpil, Seungmin and Byungho were preparing to go to the NCT headquarter to train with not only the NCT members but also Byungho's and Seungmin's close friends. It had a bit of a bittersweet taste for Byungho since he would see all of his friends together again but not his precious boyfriend.
"It's so unfair you get to train with NCT", Samuel complained while rolling around on Byungho's bed. "It is, especially when we have to help you sneak out", Woosu added, crossing his arms over his chest looking at his three brothers, who were almost ready to climb out of the window. Byungho felt a bit bad for the warlock since he really was doing them a big favor by helping, especially because Woosu also needed to get his mother of his back.
"We will make it up to you. Don't worry", Seungmin almost beamed and it made Woosu pout a little. "I want to met the amazing warlocks too, you know", the warlock with the white hair mumbled, walking over to Byungho's bed and just flopping down onto it, barely missing Samuel. The young siren made a little complaining noise but didn't say anything.
"Don't worry, hyung. I will organize a meeting with them for you if that's possible", Seungmin replied to the warlock, grinning a bit at the other. Woosu just huffed and looked away from the redhead like an mad toddler, making Byungho as well as Wonpil, who stood by the window, chuckle.
"You really are excited to meet Yuta and Winwin, huh?", Wonpil asked with a little bit of an mocking undertone. Seungmin nodded frantically, ignoring the mocking undertone completely even though Byungho was sure he had heard it. "Absolutely. They are pure geniuses just for setting up the spells surrounding the NCT headquarter", the young demon almost squealed.
"Just get going, would you?", Woosu huffed, still pouting. "Sorry, Woosu", Wonpil apologized, walking over to Byungho's bed to ruffle through the young warlock's white hair. The younger male didn't duck away and the ghost of a smile was seen on his face.
"We will be sure to be back on time, so you don't have to keep up the illusion spell that long", the oldest of the Kim brothers reassured. "You better be", Woosu muttered, being back to pretending to be mad.
"We really owe you", Byungho stated while smiling warmly at the warlock. Woosu's eyes fell on Byungho in less than a second. "You really do", the warlock answered and mirrored the older's smile but it resembled more a light grin.
"Alright. I got everything. We can go", Seungmin said, checking his bag again. Byungho had stopped counting how many times Seungmin had checked his bag. It made him almost nervous that he forgot something.
"Let's go then", Wonpil said, shouldering his backpack and walking to the window after ruffling Samuel's hair, letting the youngest giggle. The older demon jumped out of the window with an ease while being surrounded by special spells, which kept him hidden from even his father's eyes.
Seungmin and Byungho followed their older brother after saying goodbye to Woosu and Samuel. They also were surrounded by a certain spell, which made them undetectable to even their parents.
The trick to get out of the mansion without being seen was fairly simple in the Kim brothers' opinion since you just needed to combine five types of spells. An invisibility spell, a black magic spell which gave you the ability to go through barriers without being harmed while also staying undetected (it was Seungmin's and Wonpil's part to cast it), a barrier spell, a speed spell and an high class illusion spell.
This was very hard for a ordinary magic user but of course the Kim brothers found little difficulty in using these spells at the same time. This plan just always required a magic user and a siren to stay back because the magic user had to keep up to the high class illusion, which showed the room being filled with all five Kim brothers and Samuel had to use his voice to let whoever entered think, that all of them were really there by imitating all of their voices.
This ability of Samuel was special even among sirens since it required a lot of training but somehow Samuel kind of just had this ability from the very start. Seungmin had already voiced his theory of this ability being activated from the start because of the demonic blood, which was running even through the youngest Kim brother's veins. But it did come in very handy for Seungmin's "escape" plan, which did work perfectly until now. No one of the parents seemed to have notice it. Not even Eve, who was the greatest danger because she was quite observant when it came to the five Kim brothers' behavior.
It had been quite hard for Byungho to keep this thing a secret from his mother but he managed with the help of his brothers. Besides she still didn't know that he went out to say goodbye to Chan a little less than two weeks ago but in all honesty he could only keep that secret because nobody asked about it.
Byungho, Wonpil and Seungmin left the mansion's ground rather quickly thanks to their speed spell. They kept up their spells until they reached a safe place near the NCT headquarter, where they could resolve all the spells without being spotted by anyone.
"This worked well", Byungho signed when he checked the surroundings again just to make sure nobody saw them. Seungmin rolled his eyes a little. "Of course it did, hyung. It was my plan after all", the young demon said, lightly punching the older's shoulder. "Excuse me for questioning your brilliance, Seungmin", Byungho replied almost ironically.
"Come on now", Wonpil said with a little smile on his lips before taking the lead again. "Looks like Wonpil-hyung wants to get to training quickly", Seungmin mumbled, so only Byungho could hear him. The younger's tone was obviously hinting that Wonpil wanted to get to a certain someone as fast as possible, which made Byungho chuckle a little. He could understand the older though since he wouldn't be any different if Chan would be at the headquarter.
The two followed Wonpil into the NCT building, where they found themselves in the lobby with the four elevator doors. Byungho couldn't help but look around a little. The lobby seemed painfully normal and he couldn't feel any magic around here.
"Where is this door?", the redhead asked out loud, letting Byungho's attention wander to the young redhead. Seungmin stood at the very end of the lobby, letting his hands trail over the smooth surface of the wall like he was searching for something.
"Maybe we need to wait for someone to get us", Wonpil voiced his thoughts, joining Seungmin's side. Byungho on the other hand looked around a little more, noticing the four names written above the elevator doors.
"Maybe it has something to do with the names?", the brunette suggested, looking back to his two brothers. Both just shook their head. "I guess those names are just some kind of symbol" Seungmin said, while still letting his hands wander over the surface of the wall.
Suddenly a door right in front of Seungmin and Wonpil was opened, letting both redheads instinctively jump back. In the door stood Jeongin along with Hyunjin. Both of their faces lit up when they saw the three Kim brothers.
"Byungho-hyung", Jeongin immediately greeted the older and ran up to him for a hug, which he received. Byungho couldn't help but smile when he hugged the younger blond. He really missed hugging his friends as a greeting.
In the corner of his eyes Byungho saw Hyunjin running up to Seungmin almost immediately. He almost swept the other off his feet with his hug, getting a surprised noise out of the redhead.
"I missed this so much", the siren stated while hugging Seungmin close. Byungho swore he had seen Seungmin smile a little brighter but he wasn't sure.
Of course after Byungho had let go of Jeongin, Hyunjin also greeted him with a little hug while Jeongin did the same with Seungmin. Wonpil was greeted rather politely by the two, which made the older smile a little. He maybe also told Seungmin and Byungho with his demon voice that this was very cute.
"Heartwarming greeting. Really. Ten out of ten would recommend", a rather familiar voice teased after the greetings were over. The group turned towards the voice to see Jae from Wonpil's group and Kun, the second in command of NCT. Jae had a little smirk on his lips while Kun seemed more or less professional but also nice with the light smile tugging at the corners of his lips.
"Stop teasing them, will you", Wonpil said, walking up to his blond friend to playfully punch his shoulder. "Rude. I am still your hyung, brat", the blond huffed, making almost everyone laugh a little.
"Well I am greeting everyone present. For the ones, who don't know me. I am Qian Kun, NCT's second in command and I will take you to our training halls every day since the NCT headquarter can only be entered, when the door is opened from the inside or if you are in possession of the NCT group symbol. But enough said. Please follow me to the training halls", Kun said, in a very professional tone but you couldn't say it didn't suit him.
The group followed NCT's second in command through the door, Seungmin seemingly had previously tried to search. Jeongin and Hyunjin were pretty awestruck when they entered the actual Headquarter, which indicated that they haven't arrived long ago. Byungho got why especially Jeongin seemed amazed. This place was oozing with magical energy. Seungmin had been right of the warlocks here being geniuses.
————————
Kun lead the group down the hallway on the ground floor to one rather large door, where he stopped. "For some the training already began so be careful you don't get hit by anything", Kun warned with humor in his voice and opened the door.
You could immediately hear shouts, heavy things getting thrown, the squeaking of shoes along with the scratching noise of claws on the smooth surface of the hall's floor. It also smelled like something got burned and there was a lot of magic in the air.
"I swear to the gods Jaehyun. If you burn down this damn puppet again will rip out your scaly tail", you could hear someone shout from above, which turned the group's attention upwards where a Demi-dragon, probably called Jaehyun, was laughing while flying away from a rather angry warlock with purple hair, who was hovering in midair.
"The changing rooms are right there", Kun said, getting back the group's attention. He pointed at a door not far from them on the right wall of the hall.
Seungmin scanned the hall one more time before walking with the rest of the group to the changing room. Jae stayed with Kun in the hall while the rest changed their coat, boots and everyday cloths for trainers, sport shorts and T-shirts fitted for physical exercise.
"I can't wait for this training", Jeongin said when they walked out of the changing room again but the kitsune's attention soon laid itself onto a certain cat hybrid with ginger hair, who stood at the entrance of the hall along with three other familiar faces.
"Felix-hyung!", Jeongin called out and sprinted towards the ginger. The cat hybrid was a little confused when he turned around and was almost knocked over by the younger's sudden hug. Seungmin, Hyunjin and Byungho followed Jeongin to their four friends. Hyunjin immediately hugged Changbin while Byungho greeted Minho and Jisung playful tussled through Seungmin's hair, making the redhead protest.
"It's good to see all of you again. Even though this would be even greater if Chan-hyung was here too", Felix said after Jeongin released him and he had the chance to also greet Hyunjin, Byungho and Seungmin. Everyone of the friends agreed on that.
"It's just a reason to give our best so we can show him what we have learned as soon as we see him again", Jeongin said with a bright smile. "Innie is absolutely right", Felix agreed putting his arm around the kitsune's shoulders while mirroring the younger's bright smile.
"Listen up everyone. Could you gather here, please", Kun raised his voice which let everyone in the hall stop what they were currently doing and go to the brown-haired werwolf. "We will start training in groups, which will be switched and changed from time to time, so we can cover various techniques and fighting styles more quickly", he explained, making everyone nod in agreement or agree verbally.
"Good. We will begin with sorting the groups depending on the primary fighting style. Meaning werewolves and hybrids will train with me. Magic users with Yuta and Creatures with natural abilities with Doyoung and Ten", Kun said, gesturing to Yuta, Doyoung and Ten, who joined their second leader's side after he mentioned them.
Seungmin had to refer from bouncing up and down when he heard that he could train with Yuta. One of the magical geniuses of NCT. This day couldn't get better.
"With that said. Let's begin the training", the werewolf concluded.