From the Soul to the Song - Verse Thirty One
From the Soul to the Song
Book One: Melody of the Ensouled
Verse Thirty One
Kangin clenched his eyes shut and waited for the hot lick of flames. Instead of incinerating heat, he felt the cool caress of water, beginning at his feet and working up until it had enveloped his body. His eyes snapped open and his mouth followed before he could stop it, leaving him with a mouth full of water for his trouble. Seconds later he realized could see nothing but water and the air in his lungs was gone. He began to struggle in earnest.
Strong fingers closed around his arm, keeping him from making any progress upward, or in any direction for that matter. Before he could lash out, a bright light flashed at his feet and a silvery portal appeared. Water began to flow out through it, as if a stopper in a drain had just been removed. The flowing water created a suction that dragged him down to and then through the portal.
Kangin had never been so happy to collapse onto pavement as he was a second later. He landed, feet first on the cement and his knees buckled immediately, sending him to the soaked ground. Immediately he expelled a good deal of water and continued to cough up more of it. Water poured onto his back until it slowed and finally stopped, leaving him dripping and gasping for air on his hands and knees.
The hand on his arm loosened and gave him a solid pat on the back to ensure he was breathing. A moment later, it pulled away all together leaving him there. As soon as he regained his ability to breathe properly, Kangin swore to himself, Yesung was a dead man.
~♪~♪♫♪~♪~
Anxiety was something that Leeteuk was very familiar with. However, the normal level of anxiety didn’t involve watching Eunhyuk barely surviving the mass of fans pressed around him and knowing that Kangin and Yesung had disappeared to who knows where with a bomb. He had never been more relieved, then when a portal opened beside him. Yesung stepped out, dripping water.
“What happened to you?” Leeteuk asked anxiously.
“I’ll explain later. Can I borrow your phone?” Yesung held out his hand for the object.
Leeteuk reached into his pocket and withdrew the device. He placed it in Yesung’s hand and the younger man dialed a number before putting it to his ear. “Eunhyuk,” he said, as soon as the person on the other end picked up. “When I tell you step off the bench and walk calmly through the crowd. I’m going to put an illusion of you just in front of the bench that will take off running the other direction. At the same time I’ll change the illusion on you to look different again.”
He paused for a moment, his eyes studying the mass of people near Eunhyuk. “Now,” as soon as he said the word he snapped the phone shut and handed it back to Leeteuk. Across the square, Eunhyuk stepped off the bench. He seemed to blur for a minute before he stepped forward, leaving a second him where he had been standing. Leeteuk knew that the real Eunhyuk would be covered in an illusion, a fact which was confirmed when he began to weave through the crowd unopposed. The fake Eunhyuk turned, seemed to vault over the bench, and began running the other direction. With a scream a great majority of the fans followed.
“What happened to you?” Eunhyuk asked when he joined them and gave Yesung a once over, taking in his soaked form.
“Later,” Yesung replied shortly.
“No one saw anything that happened here right?” Leeteuk asked worried.
Yesung shook his head. “I wrapped the area right around us in an illusion which I am going to get rid of when we are far enough away. They won’t have noticed anything.”
“The bomb?” he had to be sure.
“Exploded high in the air, somewhere over the Atlantic. Some country will have probably picked it up, but even if we were caught on satellite images, we were wrapped in an illusion so they will never know it’s us,” Yesung explained.
“We should go,” Leeteuk told them with a nod before he turned and began making his way back to the alleyway with the other two men following.
“Speaking of images, I’m going to be in so much trouble when all those pictures surface,” Eunhyuk said worriedly.
Yesung shook his head. “Probably not. I’m fairly certain that my illusion Weavings mess with the way a camera takes a picture and distort it. I left the Weaving on you and just changed it to look like you so it is very likely any pictures they got of you will be no good, or so distorted that they will never be able to prove it is you.”
“How do you know all of this?” Eunhyuk asked, impressed.
Yesung shrugged. “Ryeowook likes to take pictures and I like to play around with Weavings,” he said, as if that was an answer in itself.
They turned the last corner leading to the alleyway and Leeteuk inhaled sharply as he saw Kangin sitting with his back to a wall, eyes closed, and soaking wet. “Kangin!” he called as he raced over to the other man’s side.
Kangin opened his eyes and lifted his head to look at Leeteuk. “I am never swimming again,” he said mournfully.
Yesung closed his eyes for a moment before opening them again and waving his hand. A portal appeared just in front of them. “I just got rid of all of the illusions. We should go.”
Leeteuk nodded and helped Kangin rise to his feet. Kangin glared at Yesung in a half threatening way before Leeteuk swatted him in reprimand and walked with him through the portal.
~♪~♪♫♪~♪~
Yesung was impressed at how entirely unbothered SHINee was the moment they stepped back into the room. As soon as the portal closed behind them, Onew nodded. The four members that were standing on the corners of the glowing square lowered their arms and the image disappeared in a shimmer of light. Once it was gone, their bodies returned to their original state, no wings and normal colored eyes.
Onew hurried to the closet and brought out an armload of towels. “Here,” he said softly, sheepishly, as he held a few out to Kangin.
“Thanks,” the older man replied, accepting it and beginning to attempt to dry himself.
Onew handed one to Yesung as well and he ran it over his hair before simply wrapping it around his shoulders.
“We need to get to the recording,” Eunhyuk reminded them.
“What about Kangin? And Yesung is soaked,” Leeteuk replied as he wrapped another towel around Kangin.
Yesung sighed. “If Kangin picks the spot he wants to rest I can wrap an illusion around it and make it seem like nothing is there. I’ll just put an illusion on myself to make me look dry.”
“I thought you said the camera wouldn’t be able to record you properly then?” Eunhyuk asked.
“It won’t,” Yesung confirmed. “But I can just have one of my fade into the background days so that the camera doesn’t record me much and they don’t use any of the shots of me that they have.”
Leeteuk looked as though he was pondering for a moment before he nodded. “We only have one more segment to film anyway. That should work.”
Yesung waited until Kangin had shuffled to the couch and curled up, using the towels as blankets. He placed a Weaving on both Kangin and himself, before indicating to Leeteuk that he was ready with a nod.
“Alright, but you all owe us some big explanations later,” Leeteuk told SHINee. His words were clearly an order, not a request.
Minho nodded. “We will come over after our schedules are done.”
“Good. Let’s go.” At Leeteuk’s words, Minho pulled his hand away from the wall. The surface seemed to shimmer for a moment and then went back to looking as it always had. The wings on Minho’s shoulders had just disappeared when the door burst open.
A rather frazzled looking worker stood in the door way. “There you all are!” she exclaimed, her voice edged with desperation. “We were looking everywhere for you. Well come on! We have to get you all to filming.” She gestured and herded the men out of the room. They were swarmed for touch ups on hair and makeup, all of which Yesung expertly dodged, before they arrived on stage. Yesung settled onto his stool and watched as Leeteuk offered a bright smile to the gathered people. Filming began, a moment later, as if nothing strange had happened in the building.
~♪~♪♫♪~♪~
It wasn’t until late that evening that all of the members found the time to be together and meet with SHINee. The members that hadn’t been present seemed doubtful despite everything they had been told. Leeteuk, with the help of Yesung, had retold the events of the day as soon as they had gotten a spare moment to talk to everyone. There had been mixed reactions to their tale of the Dark One, SHINee, the bomb, Yesung opening a portal high in the air and then a second one underwater in Sanctuary, and how they had gotten away, but everyone was curious to see what their juniors would say.
The managers thought nothing of a late night visit from idols in the same company. They were well used to their juniors and friends stopping by at odd times as long as their schedules permitted. In fact the mangers insisted on sharing a late night dinner and some companionable chat with their guests. It prevented any serious sort of conversation from occurring, almost to the point where Leeteuk was seriously contemplating ordering everyone who wasn’t a member to leave. He was spared the trouble when, a moment later, Minho looked up and caught his eye. He smiled slightly and his eyes flashed bright green for the smallest moment.
“I left something at the office!” one of the managers exclaimed suddenly. His outburst startled Eunhyuk who jumped sideways in his seat. The rest of the members looked equally as puzzled as the man rose and shuffled quickly to the door.
“I left something at home!” another manager realized. One after another the people who were gathered there who were not group members, suddenly remembered something they had forgot somewhere. It only took a minute before every one of them had walked out of the apartment.
“Ok,” Sungmin said slowly a moment later.
Heechul narrowed his eyes. “What just happened?”
Minho stood and brushed off his pants. “We needed to talk without them,” he said by way of explanation.
Leeteuk looked at him for a minute before pulling out his phone. He dialed a number and then held it up to his ear. “We are here and they are ready to give us an explanation,” Leeteuk said after a moment. “I’m going to put you on speaker phone.” He pulled the device from his ear and pressed a button on it before laying it down on the low table. “Can you hear us?”
“Yes,” Hankyung’s voice came from the other side. “I have ours on speak phone as well.”
“Hold on,” Eunhyuk fished in his pocket and pulled out his phone, dialing on it a moment later. “Kibum?” he asked in question. “Do you have a while to talk? SHINee is here and going to explain.” He must have received an affirmative because he pulled his phone away, pressed a button, and laid it down beside Leeteuk.
“Can you hear me Kibum?” Leeteuk asked.
“Yes,” Kibum replied.
“Kibum!” Donghae’s excited voice came from Leeteuk’s phone.
There was a laugh from Eunhyuk’s phone and then, “Hi Hae, I’ll call you when we are done here.”
“Ok,” was the cheery response followed by several chuckling voices.
Leeteuk smiled before nodding. “Alright. Now it’s time to explain what happened earlier.”
Minho nodded and walked to the nearest wall. As he had earlier in the day, he placed his palm flat on the surface, and light spread from where it touched. The small wings once more appeared on his back as the ripple moved over the surface of the wall.
“You weren’t kidding,” Shindong said as he blinked.
“Weren’t kidding about what?” Hankyung’s voice asked.
“Minho just sprouted wings and did something to our walls. I can take a picture and send it to you,” Sungmin told them as he pulled out his phone.
“It won’t work,” Yesung told him. “They won’t show up.” Sungmin looked doubtful but slipped his phone back in his pocket.
“What happened to our managers,” Heechul asked with narrowed eyes. Onew cleared his throat and looked a bit nervous.
“Ignore him,” Hankyung’s voice through the phone was firm. “Heechul is just paranoid about everything now.”
“I have every right to be,” Heechul said darkly. “We know Keiran is coming and for all we know he could have disguised himself as our juniors. They could just be waiting for the right time to strike.” Minho took a step forward, sliding his hand along the wall as he went, his green eyes flashing brighter in response to Heechul’s tone.
“Oh please,” Jonghyun said with a laugh. “If we really wanted to kill you, we would just let your fans into the building.”
“Or you could just be infiltrating in order to catch us off guard,” Heechul countered. “Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t just take you out to be safe.” Minho took another step forward.
Key smirked. “You couldn’t if you wanted to. Both of your Singers are in China.”
“Mine isn’t,” Kangin said instantly.
“Enough,” Onew said quietly. He stood and shifted to Minho, where he placed a hand firmly on the other teen’s chest. Onew then gave Jonghyun and Key a firm look. “Enough. Please believe us, hyung. We are on your side. We are something called Watchers and we were brought together to work closely with teams of Ensouled.”
“Funny, I think we would have heard something like that in Sanctuary,” Heechul replied crossly.
“Enough Heechul,” Leeteuk and Hankyung said in unison. Heechul snapped his mouth shut, looking less than thrilled about the command.
“You wouldn’t have,” Onew told them. “We are a closely guarded secret. I know you are suspicious because of what happened to Hankyung. If you don’t believe we are on your side, you can call Yunho. He will confirm it.”
“I think I will,” Heechul snapped. He stood stiffly from his chair and stormed from the room.
An uneasy silence fell on the room as the men stared at each other. Leeteuk had a calming hand on Kangin’s arm, while Kangin was caught in a stare down with Minho. The younger man wrapped his free arm around Onew’s waist and turned them so that his body was between Onew and everyone else. Onew allowed himself to be shifted and remained against the younger teen’s side. Jonghyun crossed his arms and smiled, almost smugly while Key glared at everyone as if daring them to do something. Taemin simply looked like he wanted to melt into the floor.
“They feel human,” Yesung said after a few moments. “They look normal.”
Taemin offered them a nervous smile. “We aren’t on the bad side, we are just different.”
Eunhyuk smiled and shifted over so that he could drape an arm over Taemin’s shoulders. “I believe you. You guys didn’t hurt us earlier and besides, we have known you for years.”
“Yunho is a bastard,” Heechul declared grumpily as he entered the room a moment later. “They knew about this but thought it would be more fun to surprise us with it.”
“No, it isn’t safe to talk about us, unless we are in one of our shields,” Onew responded.
Heechul flopped back into his chair. “He’s still a jerk.”
“Now can we talk like civilized people?” Leeteuk asked, offering both Heechul and Kangin a reprimanding look. Heechul simply nodded and relaxed into his chair.
“Yeah. Sorry. We just had to be sure,” Kangin said softly. Minho nodded curtly but his arm remained around Onew’s waist.
“I feel like we just completely missed something,” Ryeowook’s voice carried from the phone.
“There was just a massive show down of glares and the threat of death and pain,” Yesung replied as if he was reporting the weather. “But everything is mostly smoothed out now.”
“Oh,” was the response that came over the phone.
“Why do we have to be so careful to not talk about you?” Sungmin asked, in effort to direct the conversation into something safer.
“Because of what we are,” Onew answered. “We are called Watchers, and in its simplest form, that is what we do: watch. We feel Dark Ones whenever they come into the area we are responsible for and if we wanted to we could search them out anywhere in the world.”
“But they don’t know you exist,” it was a statement, not a question, that flowed from the phone in the unmistakable tones of Kyuhyun’s voice. “If they knew that you existed, they would have killed you.”
“Yes,” Onew answered with a nod. “The Dark Ones don’t know of our existence or we would very likely be dead. There are very few Watchers anywhere on Earth. We think there might be only one other team. Our Songs, as I am sure Yesung has noticed are no different than any normal humans.”
“How is that?” Yesung asked in confusion. “Every Ensouled has a Song that sounds and looks different then a normal human, but yours don’t.”
“They couldn’t,” Kyuhyun said. “If they did then they wouldn’t be able to hide.”
“Actually our Song’s are different,” Jonghyun replied. “Songs work a lot like music. Different species are all on a different frequency. Humans have their own frequency. A blade of grass has its own frequency. Cats have their own frequency. You get the picture.”
“What happens,” Key picked up where Jonghyun had left off, “when someone is an Ensouled, is that they add two more layers of frequency to the frequency they have for being human. There is one frequency for the Ensouled themselves and then one more for the element that they possess.”
“Each element has a different frequency?” Leeteuk asked.
“Yes,” Jonghyun nodded.
“That is why we can only work in our teams,” Kyuhyun reasoned. “If our frequencies don’t match, we couldn’t get or use any power from each other.”
“Correct,” Onew confirmed. “Watchers have three frequencies too. We have one for being human, one for being a Watcher, and one for an element.”
Yesung’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t hear anything that isn’t a normal human.”
“As a Spinner of Spirit,” Onew replied, “you can hear a lot of the frequencies. Henry, as a Player, can hear even more. The frequency for being a Watcher is so high that not even the Dark Ones can hear it. Our elemental frequency is silent until we access it by using our abilities.”
“The wings,” Kyuhyun said suddenly.
“What?” Sungmin asked confused.
“Noise cancelation,” Kyuhyun replied. “Yesung said he doesn’t hear or see anything strange, but they were all using their abilities so he should have been able to. Something is causing it to not be heard and I’m willing to bet it is their wings.”
Onew nodded in confirmation. “Our wings work like noise canceling headphones. They play the exact opposite frequency of the elemental part of our Song, canceling it out so that it can’t be heard.”
There was a silent moment as everyone processed the information. “How does your team work?” Leeteuk asked after a moment. “You said it was only safe to talk if we were in one of Minho’s shields, how can that protect you?”
“Minho has the role of guardian,” Key explained. “Watcher teams only come in teams of five. One guardian and four others. We are basically defenseless against the Dark Ones on our own. The guardian is the only one who can create a shield to keep them out, and to keep humans from wanting to get in.”
“So earlier that is what Minho did to make everyone leave?” Sungmin asked.
Jonghyun nodded. “Sometimes we can’t wait to look for the Dark One we feel. If we had to, people might die in that time, so he has the ability to make anyone else in the room want to leave.
“He also, as our guardian, had very strong protective instincts,” Key smirked then.
Heechul snorted. “He is still just one person.”
“We have only seen him really use them once,” Taemin said quietly, “But I don’t think he would have trouble beating all of you.” Sungmin studied the youngest man’s face for a moment and then nodded as if he understood something they didn’t.
“So basically you can see anything?” Leeteuk asked.
“Only if it is a Dark One, a Light One, or a Song we are familiar with,” Key said with a smile. “Technically we could just put our view somewhere and then shift from there to anywhere we wanted, like we did when we found the alleyway for you.
“So you could show us the members in China?” Shindong asked.
Jonghyun nodded and stood. Onew patted Minho lightly on the chest and the teen’s hold on him finally loosened enough that he could pull away. He moved to join the other three members in the center of the room and Minho’s eyes followed him the entire way.
Once they were standing in the shape of a square, they raised their arms as one. For the men who were seeing it for the first time, it was an amazing thing. This time Yesung watched their team more closely. If he was really concentrating he could hear the sound created by the presence of their wings and separated it from the rest of the sound of their Song in his mind. When he focused on it, he could hear that their Songs weren’t just the Songs of a normal human, but contained more just as they had said.
“Awesome!” Shindong exclaimed as he shifted over to the glowing square where the picture was coming into focus.
“Cool,” Heechul admitted as he got up and moved closer.
“What is going on?” Donghae’s voice came from the phone that was currently in Leeteuk’s hand. All of the members had crowed closer to stare at the image on the floor.
“We are looking at you!” Eunhyuk said excitedly. There on the floor in front of them was the image of a hotel room and the seven members of Super Junior M crowded together on one bed around a cell phone.
“Really?!” Donghae asked excitedly.
Eunhyuk watched the excitement play across his face for a minute before smiling. “Donghae, why are you sitting in Siwon’s lap?” Eunhyuk teased.
“He is? Donghae,” Kibum’s voice said with mock anger.
Guilt flashed across Donghae face and he squirmed uncomfortably. Siwon smiled and tightened his arm around Donghae’s waist. Ryeowook smirked. “You think this is bad,” the smaller man said, “You should have seen him and Hankyung earlier. If there had been a way for them to get closer I think they would have done it.” Donghae blushed then.
“Hankyung,” Heechul growled.
Hankyung rolled his eyes. “It was a rough day today, Heechul. He needed stable emotions.”
“Uh huh,” Heechul answered skeptically.
“I think we have learned all we need to for tonight,” Leeteuk said with a smile. “It’s late and we all have schedules in the morning.”
“Great, I need to talk to Hankyung,” Heechul swiped the phone from Leeteuk’s hand, pressed a button, and held it up to his ear, “and unless you want everyone to hear about our very private lives, I suggest you take your phone off speaker.”
They watched Hankyung roll his eyes and pick up his phone from the bed before the picture on the floor blurred and disappeared. Heechul turned and walked out of the room with Leeteuk’s phone to his ear.
The leader sighed. “Well, that was interesting. I think you can drop the barrier now,” Leeteuk told Minho. The younger man waited until Onew nodded his agreement before pulling his hand away from the wall.
The moment his eyes returned to their normal color, he bowed deeply. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be,” Leeteuk said gently. “You are their guardian and we were threatening them. You were only going to protect them.” Minho nodded, knowing it was the truth, but he remained bent for a moment more before he straightened.
“Where did you learn about all of that?” Sungmin asked, waving his hand as if to incorporate everything that had been said that night.
Key shrugged. “We just know it. It’s instinctive.”
“Just like how we couldn’t really tell you anything the first time. It was instinctive to take care of the Dark One first. You weren’t our friends then, you were Ensouled,” Onew said in apology.
“We understand,” Leeteuk reassured them.
The front door opened and then closed. One of their mangers walked in carrying a bag with a triumph look on his face. “I found it!” he declared. Then he paused. “What are you all still doing here?”
“We got busy talking,” Sungmin said with a smile.
“Oh well,” he looked around confused. “Where did your manager go?”
Jonghyun shrugged. “He said he had to go pick something up at the store.”
“Well, I’ll just give him a call. Why don’t you all sleep here tonight? All of you should be getting to bed,” he pulled out his phone and dialed quickly while shuffling off towards his room.
Leeteuk sighed, “Well that could have gone worse. Let’s get you settled.”
“Eunhyuk?” Kibum’s voice came from Eunhyuk’s phone.
“Oh sorry!” Eunhyuk lifted his phone and turned it off speaker, before pressing it to his ear. “Yeah I’m here. Sure,” he waved behind him as he headed out the door to his dorm. Yesung and Sungmin exchanged knowing looks and helped Leeteuk get the sleeping arrangements laid out for their juniors before they followed Eunhyuk home.
Verse Thirty Two
Masterlist
Character Information
AN: Well hopefully that answered a few of the questions about SHINee. Don't worry if you still feel sort of confused on them, I didn't give you all of the details. Hope you enjoyed it. Thanks for all of the comments so far! We are getting close to the end of the first book guys!
Book One: Melody of the Ensouled
Verse Thirty One
Kangin clenched his eyes shut and waited for the hot lick of flames. Instead of incinerating heat, he felt the cool caress of water, beginning at his feet and working up until it had enveloped his body. His eyes snapped open and his mouth followed before he could stop it, leaving him with a mouth full of water for his trouble. Seconds later he realized could see nothing but water and the air in his lungs was gone. He began to struggle in earnest.
Strong fingers closed around his arm, keeping him from making any progress upward, or in any direction for that matter. Before he could lash out, a bright light flashed at his feet and a silvery portal appeared. Water began to flow out through it, as if a stopper in a drain had just been removed. The flowing water created a suction that dragged him down to and then through the portal.
Kangin had never been so happy to collapse onto pavement as he was a second later. He landed, feet first on the cement and his knees buckled immediately, sending him to the soaked ground. Immediately he expelled a good deal of water and continued to cough up more of it. Water poured onto his back until it slowed and finally stopped, leaving him dripping and gasping for air on his hands and knees.
The hand on his arm loosened and gave him a solid pat on the back to ensure he was breathing. A moment later, it pulled away all together leaving him there. As soon as he regained his ability to breathe properly, Kangin swore to himself, Yesung was a dead man.
~♪~♪♫♪~♪~
Anxiety was something that Leeteuk was very familiar with. However, the normal level of anxiety didn’t involve watching Eunhyuk barely surviving the mass of fans pressed around him and knowing that Kangin and Yesung had disappeared to who knows where with a bomb. He had never been more relieved, then when a portal opened beside him. Yesung stepped out, dripping water.
“What happened to you?” Leeteuk asked anxiously.
“I’ll explain later. Can I borrow your phone?” Yesung held out his hand for the object.
Leeteuk reached into his pocket and withdrew the device. He placed it in Yesung’s hand and the younger man dialed a number before putting it to his ear. “Eunhyuk,” he said, as soon as the person on the other end picked up. “When I tell you step off the bench and walk calmly through the crowd. I’m going to put an illusion of you just in front of the bench that will take off running the other direction. At the same time I’ll change the illusion on you to look different again.”
He paused for a moment, his eyes studying the mass of people near Eunhyuk. “Now,” as soon as he said the word he snapped the phone shut and handed it back to Leeteuk. Across the square, Eunhyuk stepped off the bench. He seemed to blur for a minute before he stepped forward, leaving a second him where he had been standing. Leeteuk knew that the real Eunhyuk would be covered in an illusion, a fact which was confirmed when he began to weave through the crowd unopposed. The fake Eunhyuk turned, seemed to vault over the bench, and began running the other direction. With a scream a great majority of the fans followed.
“What happened to you?” Eunhyuk asked when he joined them and gave Yesung a once over, taking in his soaked form.
“Later,” Yesung replied shortly.
“No one saw anything that happened here right?” Leeteuk asked worried.
Yesung shook his head. “I wrapped the area right around us in an illusion which I am going to get rid of when we are far enough away. They won’t have noticed anything.”
“The bomb?” he had to be sure.
“Exploded high in the air, somewhere over the Atlantic. Some country will have probably picked it up, but even if we were caught on satellite images, we were wrapped in an illusion so they will never know it’s us,” Yesung explained.
“We should go,” Leeteuk told them with a nod before he turned and began making his way back to the alleyway with the other two men following.
“Speaking of images, I’m going to be in so much trouble when all those pictures surface,” Eunhyuk said worriedly.
Yesung shook his head. “Probably not. I’m fairly certain that my illusion Weavings mess with the way a camera takes a picture and distort it. I left the Weaving on you and just changed it to look like you so it is very likely any pictures they got of you will be no good, or so distorted that they will never be able to prove it is you.”
“How do you know all of this?” Eunhyuk asked, impressed.
Yesung shrugged. “Ryeowook likes to take pictures and I like to play around with Weavings,” he said, as if that was an answer in itself.
They turned the last corner leading to the alleyway and Leeteuk inhaled sharply as he saw Kangin sitting with his back to a wall, eyes closed, and soaking wet. “Kangin!” he called as he raced over to the other man’s side.
Kangin opened his eyes and lifted his head to look at Leeteuk. “I am never swimming again,” he said mournfully.
Yesung closed his eyes for a moment before opening them again and waving his hand. A portal appeared just in front of them. “I just got rid of all of the illusions. We should go.”
Leeteuk nodded and helped Kangin rise to his feet. Kangin glared at Yesung in a half threatening way before Leeteuk swatted him in reprimand and walked with him through the portal.
~♪~♪♫♪~♪~
Yesung was impressed at how entirely unbothered SHINee was the moment they stepped back into the room. As soon as the portal closed behind them, Onew nodded. The four members that were standing on the corners of the glowing square lowered their arms and the image disappeared in a shimmer of light. Once it was gone, their bodies returned to their original state, no wings and normal colored eyes.
Onew hurried to the closet and brought out an armload of towels. “Here,” he said softly, sheepishly, as he held a few out to Kangin.
“Thanks,” the older man replied, accepting it and beginning to attempt to dry himself.
Onew handed one to Yesung as well and he ran it over his hair before simply wrapping it around his shoulders.
“We need to get to the recording,” Eunhyuk reminded them.
“What about Kangin? And Yesung is soaked,” Leeteuk replied as he wrapped another towel around Kangin.
Yesung sighed. “If Kangin picks the spot he wants to rest I can wrap an illusion around it and make it seem like nothing is there. I’ll just put an illusion on myself to make me look dry.”
“I thought you said the camera wouldn’t be able to record you properly then?” Eunhyuk asked.
“It won’t,” Yesung confirmed. “But I can just have one of my fade into the background days so that the camera doesn’t record me much and they don’t use any of the shots of me that they have.”
Leeteuk looked as though he was pondering for a moment before he nodded. “We only have one more segment to film anyway. That should work.”
Yesung waited until Kangin had shuffled to the couch and curled up, using the towels as blankets. He placed a Weaving on both Kangin and himself, before indicating to Leeteuk that he was ready with a nod.
“Alright, but you all owe us some big explanations later,” Leeteuk told SHINee. His words were clearly an order, not a request.
Minho nodded. “We will come over after our schedules are done.”
“Good. Let’s go.” At Leeteuk’s words, Minho pulled his hand away from the wall. The surface seemed to shimmer for a moment and then went back to looking as it always had. The wings on Minho’s shoulders had just disappeared when the door burst open.
A rather frazzled looking worker stood in the door way. “There you all are!” she exclaimed, her voice edged with desperation. “We were looking everywhere for you. Well come on! We have to get you all to filming.” She gestured and herded the men out of the room. They were swarmed for touch ups on hair and makeup, all of which Yesung expertly dodged, before they arrived on stage. Yesung settled onto his stool and watched as Leeteuk offered a bright smile to the gathered people. Filming began, a moment later, as if nothing strange had happened in the building.
~♪~♪♫♪~♪~
It wasn’t until late that evening that all of the members found the time to be together and meet with SHINee. The members that hadn’t been present seemed doubtful despite everything they had been told. Leeteuk, with the help of Yesung, had retold the events of the day as soon as they had gotten a spare moment to talk to everyone. There had been mixed reactions to their tale of the Dark One, SHINee, the bomb, Yesung opening a portal high in the air and then a second one underwater in Sanctuary, and how they had gotten away, but everyone was curious to see what their juniors would say.
The managers thought nothing of a late night visit from idols in the same company. They were well used to their juniors and friends stopping by at odd times as long as their schedules permitted. In fact the mangers insisted on sharing a late night dinner and some companionable chat with their guests. It prevented any serious sort of conversation from occurring, almost to the point where Leeteuk was seriously contemplating ordering everyone who wasn’t a member to leave. He was spared the trouble when, a moment later, Minho looked up and caught his eye. He smiled slightly and his eyes flashed bright green for the smallest moment.
“I left something at the office!” one of the managers exclaimed suddenly. His outburst startled Eunhyuk who jumped sideways in his seat. The rest of the members looked equally as puzzled as the man rose and shuffled quickly to the door.
“I left something at home!” another manager realized. One after another the people who were gathered there who were not group members, suddenly remembered something they had forgot somewhere. It only took a minute before every one of them had walked out of the apartment.
“Ok,” Sungmin said slowly a moment later.
Heechul narrowed his eyes. “What just happened?”
Minho stood and brushed off his pants. “We needed to talk without them,” he said by way of explanation.
Leeteuk looked at him for a minute before pulling out his phone. He dialed a number and then held it up to his ear. “We are here and they are ready to give us an explanation,” Leeteuk said after a moment. “I’m going to put you on speaker phone.” He pulled the device from his ear and pressed a button on it before laying it down on the low table. “Can you hear us?”
“Yes,” Hankyung’s voice came from the other side. “I have ours on speak phone as well.”
“Hold on,” Eunhyuk fished in his pocket and pulled out his phone, dialing on it a moment later. “Kibum?” he asked in question. “Do you have a while to talk? SHINee is here and going to explain.” He must have received an affirmative because he pulled his phone away, pressed a button, and laid it down beside Leeteuk.
“Can you hear me Kibum?” Leeteuk asked.
“Yes,” Kibum replied.
“Kibum!” Donghae’s excited voice came from Leeteuk’s phone.
There was a laugh from Eunhyuk’s phone and then, “Hi Hae, I’ll call you when we are done here.”
“Ok,” was the cheery response followed by several chuckling voices.
Leeteuk smiled before nodding. “Alright. Now it’s time to explain what happened earlier.”
Minho nodded and walked to the nearest wall. As he had earlier in the day, he placed his palm flat on the surface, and light spread from where it touched. The small wings once more appeared on his back as the ripple moved over the surface of the wall.
“You weren’t kidding,” Shindong said as he blinked.
“Weren’t kidding about what?” Hankyung’s voice asked.
“Minho just sprouted wings and did something to our walls. I can take a picture and send it to you,” Sungmin told them as he pulled out his phone.
“It won’t work,” Yesung told him. “They won’t show up.” Sungmin looked doubtful but slipped his phone back in his pocket.
“What happened to our managers,” Heechul asked with narrowed eyes. Onew cleared his throat and looked a bit nervous.
“Ignore him,” Hankyung’s voice through the phone was firm. “Heechul is just paranoid about everything now.”
“I have every right to be,” Heechul said darkly. “We know Keiran is coming and for all we know he could have disguised himself as our juniors. They could just be waiting for the right time to strike.” Minho took a step forward, sliding his hand along the wall as he went, his green eyes flashing brighter in response to Heechul’s tone.
“Oh please,” Jonghyun said with a laugh. “If we really wanted to kill you, we would just let your fans into the building.”
“Or you could just be infiltrating in order to catch us off guard,” Heechul countered. “Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t just take you out to be safe.” Minho took another step forward.
Key smirked. “You couldn’t if you wanted to. Both of your Singers are in China.”
“Mine isn’t,” Kangin said instantly.
“Enough,” Onew said quietly. He stood and shifted to Minho, where he placed a hand firmly on the other teen’s chest. Onew then gave Jonghyun and Key a firm look. “Enough. Please believe us, hyung. We are on your side. We are something called Watchers and we were brought together to work closely with teams of Ensouled.”
“Funny, I think we would have heard something like that in Sanctuary,” Heechul replied crossly.
“Enough Heechul,” Leeteuk and Hankyung said in unison. Heechul snapped his mouth shut, looking less than thrilled about the command.
“You wouldn’t have,” Onew told them. “We are a closely guarded secret. I know you are suspicious because of what happened to Hankyung. If you don’t believe we are on your side, you can call Yunho. He will confirm it.”
“I think I will,” Heechul snapped. He stood stiffly from his chair and stormed from the room.
An uneasy silence fell on the room as the men stared at each other. Leeteuk had a calming hand on Kangin’s arm, while Kangin was caught in a stare down with Minho. The younger man wrapped his free arm around Onew’s waist and turned them so that his body was between Onew and everyone else. Onew allowed himself to be shifted and remained against the younger teen’s side. Jonghyun crossed his arms and smiled, almost smugly while Key glared at everyone as if daring them to do something. Taemin simply looked like he wanted to melt into the floor.
“They feel human,” Yesung said after a few moments. “They look normal.”
Taemin offered them a nervous smile. “We aren’t on the bad side, we are just different.”
Eunhyuk smiled and shifted over so that he could drape an arm over Taemin’s shoulders. “I believe you. You guys didn’t hurt us earlier and besides, we have known you for years.”
“Yunho is a bastard,” Heechul declared grumpily as he entered the room a moment later. “They knew about this but thought it would be more fun to surprise us with it.”
“No, it isn’t safe to talk about us, unless we are in one of our shields,” Onew responded.
Heechul flopped back into his chair. “He’s still a jerk.”
“Now can we talk like civilized people?” Leeteuk asked, offering both Heechul and Kangin a reprimanding look. Heechul simply nodded and relaxed into his chair.
“Yeah. Sorry. We just had to be sure,” Kangin said softly. Minho nodded curtly but his arm remained around Onew’s waist.
“I feel like we just completely missed something,” Ryeowook’s voice carried from the phone.
“There was just a massive show down of glares and the threat of death and pain,” Yesung replied as if he was reporting the weather. “But everything is mostly smoothed out now.”
“Oh,” was the response that came over the phone.
“Why do we have to be so careful to not talk about you?” Sungmin asked, in effort to direct the conversation into something safer.
“Because of what we are,” Onew answered. “We are called Watchers, and in its simplest form, that is what we do: watch. We feel Dark Ones whenever they come into the area we are responsible for and if we wanted to we could search them out anywhere in the world.”
“But they don’t know you exist,” it was a statement, not a question, that flowed from the phone in the unmistakable tones of Kyuhyun’s voice. “If they knew that you existed, they would have killed you.”
“Yes,” Onew answered with a nod. “The Dark Ones don’t know of our existence or we would very likely be dead. There are very few Watchers anywhere on Earth. We think there might be only one other team. Our Songs, as I am sure Yesung has noticed are no different than any normal humans.”
“How is that?” Yesung asked in confusion. “Every Ensouled has a Song that sounds and looks different then a normal human, but yours don’t.”
“They couldn’t,” Kyuhyun said. “If they did then they wouldn’t be able to hide.”
“Actually our Song’s are different,” Jonghyun replied. “Songs work a lot like music. Different species are all on a different frequency. Humans have their own frequency. A blade of grass has its own frequency. Cats have their own frequency. You get the picture.”
“What happens,” Key picked up where Jonghyun had left off, “when someone is an Ensouled, is that they add two more layers of frequency to the frequency they have for being human. There is one frequency for the Ensouled themselves and then one more for the element that they possess.”
“Each element has a different frequency?” Leeteuk asked.
“Yes,” Jonghyun nodded.
“That is why we can only work in our teams,” Kyuhyun reasoned. “If our frequencies don’t match, we couldn’t get or use any power from each other.”
“Correct,” Onew confirmed. “Watchers have three frequencies too. We have one for being human, one for being a Watcher, and one for an element.”
Yesung’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t hear anything that isn’t a normal human.”
“As a Spinner of Spirit,” Onew replied, “you can hear a lot of the frequencies. Henry, as a Player, can hear even more. The frequency for being a Watcher is so high that not even the Dark Ones can hear it. Our elemental frequency is silent until we access it by using our abilities.”
“The wings,” Kyuhyun said suddenly.
“What?” Sungmin asked confused.
“Noise cancelation,” Kyuhyun replied. “Yesung said he doesn’t hear or see anything strange, but they were all using their abilities so he should have been able to. Something is causing it to not be heard and I’m willing to bet it is their wings.”
Onew nodded in confirmation. “Our wings work like noise canceling headphones. They play the exact opposite frequency of the elemental part of our Song, canceling it out so that it can’t be heard.”
There was a silent moment as everyone processed the information. “How does your team work?” Leeteuk asked after a moment. “You said it was only safe to talk if we were in one of Minho’s shields, how can that protect you?”
“Minho has the role of guardian,” Key explained. “Watcher teams only come in teams of five. One guardian and four others. We are basically defenseless against the Dark Ones on our own. The guardian is the only one who can create a shield to keep them out, and to keep humans from wanting to get in.”
“So earlier that is what Minho did to make everyone leave?” Sungmin asked.
Jonghyun nodded. “Sometimes we can’t wait to look for the Dark One we feel. If we had to, people might die in that time, so he has the ability to make anyone else in the room want to leave.
“He also, as our guardian, had very strong protective instincts,” Key smirked then.
Heechul snorted. “He is still just one person.”
“We have only seen him really use them once,” Taemin said quietly, “But I don’t think he would have trouble beating all of you.” Sungmin studied the youngest man’s face for a moment and then nodded as if he understood something they didn’t.
“So basically you can see anything?” Leeteuk asked.
“Only if it is a Dark One, a Light One, or a Song we are familiar with,” Key said with a smile. “Technically we could just put our view somewhere and then shift from there to anywhere we wanted, like we did when we found the alleyway for you.
“So you could show us the members in China?” Shindong asked.
Jonghyun nodded and stood. Onew patted Minho lightly on the chest and the teen’s hold on him finally loosened enough that he could pull away. He moved to join the other three members in the center of the room and Minho’s eyes followed him the entire way.
Once they were standing in the shape of a square, they raised their arms as one. For the men who were seeing it for the first time, it was an amazing thing. This time Yesung watched their team more closely. If he was really concentrating he could hear the sound created by the presence of their wings and separated it from the rest of the sound of their Song in his mind. When he focused on it, he could hear that their Songs weren’t just the Songs of a normal human, but contained more just as they had said.
“Awesome!” Shindong exclaimed as he shifted over to the glowing square where the picture was coming into focus.
“Cool,” Heechul admitted as he got up and moved closer.
“What is going on?” Donghae’s voice came from the phone that was currently in Leeteuk’s hand. All of the members had crowed closer to stare at the image on the floor.
“We are looking at you!” Eunhyuk said excitedly. There on the floor in front of them was the image of a hotel room and the seven members of Super Junior M crowded together on one bed around a cell phone.
“Really?!” Donghae asked excitedly.
Eunhyuk watched the excitement play across his face for a minute before smiling. “Donghae, why are you sitting in Siwon’s lap?” Eunhyuk teased.
“He is? Donghae,” Kibum’s voice said with mock anger.
Guilt flashed across Donghae face and he squirmed uncomfortably. Siwon smiled and tightened his arm around Donghae’s waist. Ryeowook smirked. “You think this is bad,” the smaller man said, “You should have seen him and Hankyung earlier. If there had been a way for them to get closer I think they would have done it.” Donghae blushed then.
“Hankyung,” Heechul growled.
Hankyung rolled his eyes. “It was a rough day today, Heechul. He needed stable emotions.”
“Uh huh,” Heechul answered skeptically.
“I think we have learned all we need to for tonight,” Leeteuk said with a smile. “It’s late and we all have schedules in the morning.”
“Great, I need to talk to Hankyung,” Heechul swiped the phone from Leeteuk’s hand, pressed a button, and held it up to his ear, “and unless you want everyone to hear about our very private lives, I suggest you take your phone off speaker.”
They watched Hankyung roll his eyes and pick up his phone from the bed before the picture on the floor blurred and disappeared. Heechul turned and walked out of the room with Leeteuk’s phone to his ear.
The leader sighed. “Well, that was interesting. I think you can drop the barrier now,” Leeteuk told Minho. The younger man waited until Onew nodded his agreement before pulling his hand away from the wall.
The moment his eyes returned to their normal color, he bowed deeply. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be,” Leeteuk said gently. “You are their guardian and we were threatening them. You were only going to protect them.” Minho nodded, knowing it was the truth, but he remained bent for a moment more before he straightened.
“Where did you learn about all of that?” Sungmin asked, waving his hand as if to incorporate everything that had been said that night.
Key shrugged. “We just know it. It’s instinctive.”
“Just like how we couldn’t really tell you anything the first time. It was instinctive to take care of the Dark One first. You weren’t our friends then, you were Ensouled,” Onew said in apology.
“We understand,” Leeteuk reassured them.
The front door opened and then closed. One of their mangers walked in carrying a bag with a triumph look on his face. “I found it!” he declared. Then he paused. “What are you all still doing here?”
“We got busy talking,” Sungmin said with a smile.
“Oh well,” he looked around confused. “Where did your manager go?”
Jonghyun shrugged. “He said he had to go pick something up at the store.”
“Well, I’ll just give him a call. Why don’t you all sleep here tonight? All of you should be getting to bed,” he pulled out his phone and dialed quickly while shuffling off towards his room.
Leeteuk sighed, “Well that could have gone worse. Let’s get you settled.”
“Eunhyuk?” Kibum’s voice came from Eunhyuk’s phone.
“Oh sorry!” Eunhyuk lifted his phone and turned it off speaker, before pressing it to his ear. “Yeah I’m here. Sure,” he waved behind him as he headed out the door to his dorm. Yesung and Sungmin exchanged knowing looks and helped Leeteuk get the sleeping arrangements laid out for their juniors before they followed Eunhyuk home.
Verse Thirty Two
Masterlist
Character Information
AN: Well hopefully that answered a few of the questions about SHINee. Don't worry if you still feel sort of confused on them, I didn't give you all of the details. Hope you enjoyed it. Thanks for all of the comments so far! We are getting close to the end of the first book guys!