NuNew picked up the tablet from the floor and was speechless.  He could have expected anything, but not seeing such a familiar face in a sketch made by Gemini in an app.  The feeling of uneasiness triumphed, and this drawing clearly proved to him that he was right, that he had had it all right under his nose all along, but had chosen to ignore it and pretend not to notice.  He couldn't do that any longer.  The remorse was almost eating him up inside.  He felt he had to explain this before it was too late.  He treated Gemini as his own brother.

“Damn it, why didn't I sense it sooner?” — he asked his own reflection in the mirror placed in the three-door wardrobe in the Gemini room.  “Fourth must be one of us, like Phuwin and his brother Gem.  I'm not in love with him at all, what I feel is magic between us, because he must be magical too.  How could I have been so wrong?”

New felt ashamed that perhaps he had misread what they had in common.  He thought he knew everything, that he understood his own feelings.  How could he have been so wrong?  And on such an important matter?

It also immediately occurred to him that if Fourth was one of them, then the same must be true of his older brother, First.  He remembered the words of their division leader: “We must find and bring home as many hybrids as possible, it's for their own safety”.  New didn't believe in such talk, their safety didn't matter that much. There had to be more to it. 

New went back to his room, but he couldn't calm down, his hands were shaking, his knees were as soft as cotton, and with only the last of his strength he made it to his bed, where he fell on his back.  However, he didn't stay there for very long.  A hunch told him to go back to his friend's room, which he did to look at the sketch again.  He reached for the tablet he had put down on the desk and began to scroll through it.  There were many different drawings of the same person, and when he went to the wardrobe to close the door that was not closed (it always annoyed him, the wardrobe door not closed all the way, some lint on the floor, unevenly placed books or crumpled clothes - this was his weakness,  he always felt the need to correct it), but curiosity made him look inside.

Inside, instead of clothes, he saw the back wall of a wardrobe covered with pencil drawings and watercolor portraits, and in the center was written: "Who are you my mysterious prince?"

It felt like it had happened before.  A feeling of dejavu hit him.  For a split second, an image appeared, some memory, but he didn't manage to capture it because he felt someone's gaze on his back.

He closed the door and jumped away from it as if it was burning him alive.

When Gemini entered his room, he found NuNew with his own tablet in hand, looking from him to the tablet to the wardrobe again.  The corner of the vocalist's mouth twitched as if in a tic.  New was standing right by his friend's bed.  Gem had returned from a walk in the hidden gardens some time ago and had just finished eating a meager meal, and now he had recovered himself to pick up some of the most important bits and pieces he thought might come in handy for the evening's training session right after class.

He had joined their unit only a week earlier, introduced by New and his brother, Phuwin, and he was still excited about it, whether it was for a nightly astronomy class or a morning class about Magicals, Hybrids and humans.  After breakfast, he usually had ten minutes to get ready and head to the hall where another student was already waiting, Fluke Natouch, another hybrid, another member of their sorority who didn't know he was a hybrid.  For the time being, apart from them, Kaownah, Cooper and Phuwin, no one else has joined.  It was only their second day of studying together and Gem had already asked Mr. Jakapan, their teacher, why there were only five of them?

Mr. Jakapan Puttha, called Build, was quite a young vampire, though no one knew his exact history or age.  It was said that his disappearance from the human world had to be covered up in a credible way, so there was a scandal with him in the lead role.  Build reluctantly accepted a teaching position at the Institute.  He knew martial arts, lived among people for over 90 years, until Pierre Gasly caught him during a Formula 1 race in Singapore, where he was said to be selling counterfeit amulets, supposedly to protect people from ghosts, demons and all kinds of misfortune.  From what Mr. Puttha had been able to tell them yesterday, such amulets really did exist, but they differed greatly from fakes in that they felt warm to the touch and emitted a faint glow, the shade of which depended on  from the shade of the stone from which they were built.  Each of them also had a small rune on the surface.  Similar amulets could be easily made using the minerals available on Earth, but in order for them to become truly magical, they had to be enchanted by a sorcerer, or some ritual had to be performed on them that only a few knew about.

Gem thought about all this before entering the room.  Seeing New inside, he thought he might have mixed up the rooms, after all, his room was adjacent to New's and his brother Phuwin's, and across from Phuwin's room was Pond's room, which Phuwin often told him about  and whom Gem already knew very well.

“Sorry, I think I got the rooms wrong...” — Gem said, feeling awkward.  However, a quick glance was enough for him to realize that he was not mistaken.  “Wait... This is my room. P'New, what are you doing here?  Did something happen?”

New approached him, showing him his tablet, and on it one of the many sketches depicting an unknown boy that Gemini was looking for.

“Is this the person you're looking for?”

Gemini blinked rapidly at the strangely mismatched sound in New's tone of voice.  Somewhere behind him, he heard the clang of metal coming from weapons used by nearby Knights of the Light training as they prepared for their next mission, remembering various fighting techniques.  He knew that their institute was well hidden and looked to ordinary people just like the ruins of an abandoned and haunted hotel in the center of Bangkok.  Mr. Puttha informed them that most of the Institutes looked like this to the Non-Magic: they were just abandoned buildings, with occasional strange noises, screams, laughter, and even music.  It was Nat the elf who enjoyed scaring the Non-Magical and laughed as they fled in terror, sometimes forgetting to bring cameras or flashlights.  It was no different last night, when three teenagers sneaked in here, betting that they could survive in a haunted hotel.  Of course, they didn't last even half an hour when the sounds of a piano flowed from one of the upper floors, and a moment later a rather massive wooden door slammed shut next to them.  Nat told everyone about it and showed the recordings from the cleverly disguised cameras placed in the building.  He seemed proud of his work.

“Eeeeee?”

“It's a simple question, nong Gemini” — New tried to sound gentle.

“Yes, it's him I'm looking for” —Gem finally replied.  Resigned, he started packing his things into a small black backpack made of a material that was similar to suede.  “But, as I said, I don't know who he is or where to start.  I would love to meet him at least one more time, to know that he is real, that I didn't just make him up”.

Suddenly he remembered what P'Zee had told him. Their boss didn't wanted New to be involved with his case. What if Zee will find out that New is still trying to help Gemini instead of focusing on his own work? What will happen if P'Zee will get mad? He made it clear...

“I guess I can help you more than I could think before”.

“Help me?  How? No, P'New, please, I have to find him by myself, you need to work, your Non-Magical fans are waiting for your music video, aren't they? Don't do this to them, they must love you very much, don't make them wait any longer”— Gemini stopped throwing pens, a small stele, and a few notebooks into his backpack haphazardly and looked at New to see his impresions after what he had said.  But he didn't seem to be joking.

“That's not a problem, my MV is almost done, only I need the dancing part, but I'll do it tomorrow. Don't worry about that. And yes, I happen to know your mysterious boy.  It's... He's.. — Chawarin hesitated, not sure if he should reveal his relationship with the boy who was on the Gemini's sketches.  Some inner feeling told him that it was better to keep this information to himself.  The more that Norawit did not notice his hesitation.  —“This is my friend.  I'll try to get him here today.  His name is Nattawat Jirochtikul, nickname Fourth, and he has an older brother, Kanaphan Jirochtikul, nicknamed First”.

“Wow!  Really?!  Will you bring him?!” —  Gemini exclaimed in a voice filled with disbelief and joy. “Are you really going to do that, P'?!”

“Uhm” —  New nodded and Gem grabbed him, jumping up and laughing.

“So I found him!!! I found my hero!”  Gemini yelled with happiness, completely forgetting that he should finish packing and run to class as fast as possible.  Only one thing interested him now.  — “Hey, P' do you have maybe a picture of him somewhere?  I just want to make sure it's him”.

New nodded again as he reached into his pocket for his phone.  He couldn't show Gemini the home screen wallpaper, but he had enough pictures in his photo gallery of only Fourth himself.  He found one and showed it to a friend.

“YES!” —  Gemini screamed happily again.  – “YES, HE IS MY... MY HERO!  I've been looking for him for so long”.

Seeing his happiness, New couldn't muster up the courage to tell him that the boy Gemini was looking for was his boyfriend.  His heart almost broke when Gem confirmed his worst suspicions.  NuNew fought with himself for a long time on the way to Fourth's house, wondering what he should do.  Even though he knew he had no real affection for Fourth, he never imagined that breaking up with him would be so hard for him.

Before he left to fetch his almost ex-boyfriend, Zee gathered them together for a brief meeting in the main hall to discuss the most important tasks for the next day.

“Remember, your job now is to find three hybrids who probably don't even know they are”. — Their department head, Zee Pruk, hardly ever smiled, and he did this time too: always firm, stern, and serious.  Zee was no joker, only interested in work, rumor had it that he had become so after splitting up with his girlfriend, who had married a man who had no knowledge of their world a little over a year later.  This was said to be a blow to Zee, who from then on chose to focus on getting the job done and moving up the career ladder until he finally got what he wanted most: a management position in a department he had known since he was a child, whose vice president  was his mother until she died fighting a demon.

Max, the only person who could be considered close to Zee, handed everyone blank pieces of paper, which were covered with information at their touch.

“You have detailed descriptions of how to recognize such a hybrid.  Typically, hybrids have some special mark that is common to one group, it can be a scar of unknown origin or a mole located in the same place.  We've learned that two hybrids may be in contact with our people at the moment.  We suspect they are the nong Fourth Nattawat and the nong First Kanaphan, who might be the brothers we are looking for.

As soon as New had  heard those nicknames, his legs buckled.

“Nong Fourth and Nong First?” — He asked weakly.  He was usually confident, his voice always sounded a bit cocky, which only changed when he talked about his boyfriend.

“Yes, thank you New for giving us Gemini's drawings, it gave us a clear trace”.

“But...”

“There are no buts and no questions, your job will be to get Fourth safely to our base.  Once our successor team is complete, we will begin training”.

“Successor team? Who are they?” — Gemini, who was the newest member of the association, wanted to know more.

“Yes, that's how we call them.  They're a group of the top twenty hybrids from Thailand.” — Max walked over to the blackboard and began writing the names and nicknames of the wanted men in both Thai and English.  —“They are the most talented of you, in every country there are such, just as every country has its consulate with us and we have it with them.  Every two or three years we track you down, bring you in for a six-month training camp where you learn our history, learn our martial arts, and train in one profession of your choice.  This year it's acting”.

While Max explained everything in a calm voice, Zee walked between the tables and looked at the notes of his subordinates.  He stopped at NuNew for  longer time, as if he wanted to ask him something or tell him something, but after a long moment of hesitation he just shrugged and went on to look at the notes of Gemini sitting in the next pew.  New gave Zee a long look, trying to guess what the boss might want from him.  As if sensing his gaze, Zee turned and caught his subordinate staring at him.  New didn't seem flustered at being caught.  On the contrary.  He grinned cheekily, challenging Zee, to which Zee just shook his head.  He had neither the time nor the inclination to play such childish games.

“Okay, but what about First?” — Natasit asked sitting in the last bench.

Natasit was a hybrid, but very different from Fourth or Gemini, primarily because his father was a druid and his mother was an elven fairy.  Such blended families were quite common in their world, far more common than they would like to openly admit.  Nat lived in this world from the beginning and knew almost all its secrets, and he was most interested in legends and myths, he enjoyed reading human books in which some of their stories were told with some hypocrisy.

“I think that Khaotung will be the most suitable for this task” – Phuwin, Gemini's older brother by just over a year, suggested.

“Why do you think so?”—  Max was interested.

“Let me tell you something.  Khaotung met First less than a week ago, but he called me right away, saying he had probably found one of the missing hybrids.  However, we were unsure and wanted to put him to a test first, so Khaotung suggested they will go to Italy together, where they would meet with the management of the Ferrari team that Kao drives for.  When you just said it was about First, my conviction turned to certainty.  Also... Iris, could you come to the center of the room?  I want to demonstrate something”.

Iris easily obeyed the command, rising neatly from her place and quietly following the indicated place.  Phuwin stood next to her, turning his back to everyone gathered for a moment to find a file with First's photo on the board.

“Look, this is what our hybrid looks like.  We weren't sure, but now look at that mole under his right eye." Phuwin pointed to the right spot in the photo, then moved his hand to Iris's face in the same spot, and they saw that she had a mole in the exact same location. After that he called Pond and turned out that also Pond had similar mole under his eye.  A moment later, right next to First's picture, he displayed a picture of Fourth, his younger brother.

A murmur ran through the room as the crowd began to whisper among themselves, looking from Iris to the pictures on the board to Iris again.  Phuwin, whose unique gift was an extraordinary perceptiveness, again ordered them to look at Iris and this time showed two closely spaced freckles of different sizes on her left cheek.

“See?  Fourth has the same birthmark, only on the opposite cheek, on the right”.

New involuntarily studied his own face in the mirror set in front of him.  There were identical ones on each bench, and he noticed that they all did exactly the same as he did, checking whether their faces had any distinguishing marks.  Singto looked at Iris, at his reflection, then at Iris again.

“It's impossible...” — Singto whispered.  “How does Iris have each of us's idiosyncrasies?”

“It's my special ability, or rather my curse. Sometimes the marks of the people we are looking for appear on my face”.

“Okay, but you're not looking for me, so why do you have my scar?”

“It's because of our past.  Once, when we were first born, we were murdered in the same way: the same murderer stabbed us in the eyes”.

“What for?”

“Good question, I'd ask the moron, but unfortunately he died before we were born a second time. Our scars remain.  I was able to trace our history, trace the sources, and discover why such a curse was placed upon me”.

“Is there anything that can help lift this curse from you?”

“You'd like me to say it's love, wouldn't you?”

“And why not?  It's quite romantic”.

“Well ... Life is not so beautiful and romantic, it's something more mundane.  I have to find the twelve hybrids that the marks on my body lead to, then they will all be erased and I will only have one: the one leading to my soulmate”.

“Still, it's kind of romantic” — Nat chimed in, who loved not only myths and legends, but anything to do with love or romance.  He himself never hid his feelings for the slightly older Max, and never missed any opportunity to flirt with him, even if it meant earning him a punishment from Zee, who was only extremely possessive of Max.

“Maybe a little” — Iris admitted.

“Okay, don't be distracted, we've got work to do” — Zee reminded them, whose presence they had already forgotten as soon as Max started explaining everything to them.  Zee had the ability to camouflage, he could hide literally anywhere and become invisible even to hybrids, only mages could sense him by his delicate, if slightly acidic aura.

“Oh boss...” —New moaned, stepping closer and clinging to his sleeve.  “Let us breathe.  Nothing happens, it's so calm it's boring, the new candidates haven't all arrived yet, the demons in Bangkok seem to have calmed down.  Please take a break from being a stubborn workaholic”.

No one else would have had the courage to speak to Zee that way, only New, who had grown up with the current head of department, still saw him as the same friend who took him on trips into the human world and taught him everything he needed to know.  needed there.  The others watched this somewhat charming scene with mixed feelings, mostly unease.  If it had been anyone else, he would have been punished by now, but NuNew was the only one who never had to show Zee any respect, and it was clear that the chairman had a soft spot for the boy.

“What do we know about Fourth and First's father?” — Zee asked, trying to organize the information in his head.

“Not much, just that his nickname is Mike, he was an actor and his co-star was Toptap Jirakit.  His gift was that he could change his appearance to suit the age he wanted to show.  He sometimes uses the identity of Perth Nakhun”.

“Something like nong Fourth?”

“Exactly the same.  Nong Fourth can also change appearance, but to a slightly greater extent.  While their father could only change his appearance, nong Fourth can also change the appearance of those close to him”.

“And of course the boy doesn't know who he is or what he's capable of?”

“Unfortunately not.  Fortunately, it's just the ability to change appearance, I had worse when I had to bring Fluke.  This kid set my clothes on fire the first time we met!” —  Max complained, and Nat came over to him, hugging him around the waist and looking at him as if he were the most beautiful wonder in the universe.

“Fortunately, you were able to control it” — Nat said calmly, not taking his eyes off his beloved.  There was pride in his voice.

“Yeah, but that's because I already knew what he was capable of, if Zee hadn't warned me earlier, I might not have come back at all.”

“Why think of such gloomy scenarios? We have a lot of work ahead of us, Kao called to say he needs more time with First, so we'll have to do it ourselves tonight”.

Gem sighed.  It sounded like another dull assignment to the others, but he was already looking forward to the day he set off on his first mission.  It allowed him to take his mind off the topic for a while, which he had called "forbidden" because it was already taking up too much of his time and attention.

Gem quickly noticed that Zee, who was their team leader, wasn't very active.  He would give orders and then disappear somewhere, with Max watching over everything.

New left to prepare whatever he might need to bring Fourth "home".  He looked at his wallpaper with their picture together. He could see Fourth, smiling broadly as their cheeks touched, and somewhere in the background behind them, one could guess the existence of the sea, which heaved loudly and roared, giving them a sense of freedom.

"I won't be able to call you my boyfriend soon," he said, clicking the photo gallery icon and scrolling through the photos of them together.  And although he told himself that he would not cry, he shed one tear, lonely as he was at that moment.

He knew what he had to do. Nong Fourth after all was never fully his, he felt it from the beginning, but he never wanted to admit it. But now it's time to face the painful truth. It's time to give Gemini back what was always his. And after talking with Norawit longer Chawarin understood that for his friend it was matter of life and death. Or rather happiness and forever lasting longing.

Suddenly he remembered where he did see similar sketches as Gem made.

It was like another blow to his face.

Od course he had seen it already. He saw drawings inside white box in closet in their hidden house. These drawings were sketches of...

New had few questions. One of them was: how is it possible that Fourth doesn't say anything about that boy from sketches? Doesn't he remember that he helped him once?

New wanted to know. They say, it's better to know hard truth than believe in beautiful lies.

🥺😭❤️🧡😂😬🤯😍😉☀️🌺🔥✨🥰🤫💙😅💚🤩🙏💔🤗☺️☕🥲😤🌸🤣🐈‍⬛🐈👀🎂🎈🎉🤴🐕

Writer's Note:

You may wonder how did real Gemini Norawit helped me with chapter 11?

Well...

He did something...

Actually...

Actually he sang the song from previous chapter and when he did it, the idea of him searching for his mysterious hero appeared in my mind.

So, dear Gemi, thank you for helping me and for inspiring me ❤️🙏

Love you!

And Annie loves all of her Magical Readers ❤️ I love you Everyone ❤️ Thank you for reading, but please, can you leave some comment for me? Please? The more reads, comments and stars, the sooner you will get another chapter 😉 And I can promise you, at the end you'll understand, that it was worth it to waste your time on reading this fiction ☺️😉

Thank you ❤️

I love you!

~Annie

(Oh, by the way, Pond stole my idea for picture today! 🤣
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Just kidding!
But funny how we had the same idea!
Maybe not even we(me and Pond) but more like me and his team who were working behind this photoshoot)