• Chapter 21 •
Cho-a peeked into the room full of grim reapers and guardian angels cautiously.
Behind her waited Jeno and Jaemin who looked a little unsure themselves.
Leaning back, she looked at Jisung with a raised brow.
"Remind me again why you want us to join your little supernatural meeting." She didn't doubt his intention, juts doubted his reasoning.
Or the lack of reasoning, rather, given that Jisung had a habit of being somewhat taciturn.
"We are going to talk about how we will deal with the murder cases. We need to do something about them," he explained.
"And you want the two human boys and me in there with you because...?" she pressed further.
Inside, the chatter got louder. Cho-a noticed how some of the guys were leaning back in their chairs in order to peek around the corner to see who Jisung was talking to.
So Cho-a moved back a little.
Jisung smirked softly, leaned a little closer to the girl.
"What? Are you shy?"
At which Cho-a just frowned.
"Idiot, I just don't want to waste my time."
"You wouldn't be wasting your time if you decided to use your power to help us," he retorted swiftly.
Behind them, Jeno breathed in sharply in surprise, creating a high-pitched sound in all his confusion.
"Powers?"
Cho-a nodded and glimpsed back.
"He's talking about my overhelming charism." Which was obviously sarcasm but still made Jeno purse his lips and let out a soft oh~ before he grinned knowingly.
Soon though, Cho-a turned back to Jisung, crossed her arms in front of her chest and tilted her head to the side.
"So?"
Jisung rolled his eyes before he gave in with a defeated sigh.
"When you were attacked last time it was because no one knows that you are my friends. I want to introduce you to them so they won't pull a Taemin on any of you."
"Makes sense," Jaemin agreed quietly and Cho-a nodded, getting the boy's point. Yet, it didn't feel particularly logical to her.
"I thought you kept that a secret on purpose?"
Jisung nodded, glanced into the room briefly, eyes running over all the boys inside quickly.
"Because I don't trust everyone," he said thoughtfully, tone going somber for a moment. "But I trust them."
Cho-a hesitated.
"Are you sure?" He just nodded. She took a deep breath, then agreed hesitantly. "Well then."
When Jisung made his first step into the large hall-like room, Cho-a was right behind him with Jeno and Jaemin tailing them closely.
It grew quiet inside, whilst Cho-a made an attempt to count the boys inside as she walked.
Twenty?
Twenty boys. Taemin was missing. Renjun, Haechan, Chenle waited patiently. They had a light expression on their faces - no worry, just calm excitement.
The glances on the three outsiders felt heavy. They burnt. And they screamed curiosity without even a hunch of animosity.
When they got to the large table, Renjun patted the empty seat next to him, looking up at the girl with a smile. She smiled back as she sat down with Jisung next to her, then Jaemin, Jeno.
It felt odd there with all of them.
"Huh," one of them breathed out in surprise. He looked intimidating. Tall, muscular built and carried a strict expression. He looked around. "New members~!" he suddenly said loudly. His strict expression turned bright, puppy eyes and an excited grin.
"But I thought we were the new ones-" another one started to say a little confused, yet got quickly interrupted by Kun.
"Shotaro. Attention," he ordered, index finger pressed against his lips. Then he nodded towards Jisung and made a sweeping gesture, telling him to go ahead.
Said boy soon leaned forward, pressed his elbows into the table before him. He eyed everyone inside shortly ere he began talking.
"As you know, I asked you to come here because we need to figure out who is behind all these murder cases," Jisung reminded, gaze somewhere in the air as he spoke. His voice was a little deeper, his tone stricter now where he acted as a person of authority.
"Kun and I assume it's not a human, so unless whoever is doing this is just extremely bored they will have a good motive to actively do this all."
One of them hummed loudly, thoughtfully.
"What motive? The only thing we gain when humans die is extra work."
"Great! Then we can already rule out Haechan as the perpetrator," one of them joked, an adoring gummy smile flashing at the other one from across the table.
Haechan laughed lowly.
"Let's rule out Yangyang too then while we're at it," he retorted, at which the other boy nodded amusedly, smile never faltering.
"Does it have something to do with those rumours?" another one asked.
He was fierce looking, incredibly handsome with a memorable face.
Cho-a didn't know what to make of him. He seemed polite as he talked but also seemed like he could very well be the leader of the group.
If it wasn't for Jisung, of course.
"About that," Jisung began, then paused as he sat up straight in his chair and looked at Jeno and Jaemin first before his eyes landed on Cho-a.
"There are rumours about humans that can see grimp reapers even once their eyes turned grey," he explained, then glimpsed at the three again, his eyes lingering on Cho-a a little longer than on the other two. "That's them."
Huh?
The girl glanced at Jisung who was no longer watching her. She raised a brow at his seemingly innocent lie. Why did he depict her as a human when he was so convinced that she wasn't?
It made her curious.
Did he want to keep her safe?
Or did he have a different reason?
Cho-a grew suspicious of his behaviour, felt herself feel paranoid underneath all the stares she was getting.
"They are human?" one boy asked with wide eyes, letting out a soft woah as he looked at the three. He leaned forward, then glimpsed at Haechan. "Hey, you don't look surprised."
No, but he looked disappointed instead.
"Took you a hot second to notice, Mark."
Poking the inside of his cheek with his tongue, Mark leaned back in his chair, arms crossed in front of his chest.
Then another boy spoke up. A beautiful man, delicate yet fierce like the one that talked before him.
"Do you know about the other rumours too then?"
Jisung hesitated ere he nodded.
"Yes."
"Ten," Yangyang called, leaned forward a little to face the other. "What rumours?"
Taking a second before he replied, Ten seemed surprised that especially the younger ones seemed to not know about it. So he sighed before he continued.
"It's said that there's someone out to take revenge on Jisung," he explained. "Not just a grim reaper but someone cold-hearted with a nasty temper. Someone who wants to see us suffer."
Whilst the older ones just nodded, the younger ones still seemed a little lost.
Meanwhile, Cho-a swallowed hard. She tried to seem as unimpressed as possible as she tried to ignore whatever they were saying. She didn't even know whom exactly they were talking about but she took a wild guess.
Kun's comforting look felt heavy on her. Renjun barely moved at all, he didn't seem to care.
"It might be because I am new-" Shotaro stopped, hands on the table before him as he looked at another one of the boys. "Sungchan I don't get it."
Sungchan shook his head, shrugged lightly.
"That makes two of us." He frowned, rubbed his palm over the back of his neck. "Why would anyone be out for revenge on Jisung? He hasn't done anything bad besides being a little too arrogant and scary."
Jisung seemed taken aback.
"Scary?"
"Well-" Sungchan stopped talking, leaned back in his chair as he tried to avoid the younger one's gaze. "No offence."
Yet, since Jisung didn't answer the question himself, another boy came forward. He looked familiar - seemed like a grim reaper but Cho-a recognized him as a friend of Kun's.
Yuta.
"It wasn't anything that Jisung did," he said, his voice soothing but the topic made it sound rather frightening. "It's because years ago, the former king killed a child's parents out of spite for breaking his rules. If he had gotten the chance to, he'd probably have killed the kid too."
Cho-a's breath got caught in her throat, eyes fixated on the table before her. Jisung glimpsed to the side, carefully and subtly watching the younger one who hid her terrified expression well.
It made him upset again - seeing her like this.
But he didn't know what to do. He didn't know things would work out like this. He didn't know they would talk about it like that.
He didn't know.
He didn't want to hurt her.
"Which rule?" Yangyang asked further, eyes on Yuta now who glimpsed over to Jisung to prepare a proper response.
"With all due respect for Jisung," Yuta began politely even though his tone was somewhat monotone. "But his father was an intolerant asshole."
Jisung raised a brow, tilted his head to the side ere he nodded. He seemed unimpressed because, well,
Yuta was right.
"So when a grim reaper and a human fell in love it was unaccaptable for him. Even more so, when they ended up having a child together."
Mark's lips parted in surprise, the gasp that left his mouth too faint for Cho-a to hear. She didn't look up.
"Are you saying that..." but he didn't finish his thought, just stared at the older one for confirmation.
Yuta nodded.
"That kid is half grim reaper, half human."
• Rules •
[kinda unedited!]