Chapter 16: False alarm
Changbin was seated at his usual table in the cafeteria. And for the love of all the gods above heaven he just wanted to have a quiet break for once but Ryan along with the other vampires, who always followed the black-haired prince just couldn't leave Changbin alone for fifteen minutes. So the short male just sat at the end of the table looking out of the big window on his left with a blank expression while making a few snappy remarks if someone dared to talk to him.
"Worst combo of the school just entered the cafeteria", Ryan, who sat on Changbin's right, commented. This actually got the vampire prince's interest and he turned his head to follow Ryan's gaze. Changbin had to refer from laughing when he saw that Ryan was looking at Seungmin and a blond male.
Changbin already knew that the blond was the infamous kitsune Yang Jeongin, who at some point had scared the shit out of Ryan. The black-haired vampire observed the two younger males quietly. They seemed to have fun judging by the smiles on their faces and the occasional laughs. For some reason Changbin noticed that he kind of liked Seungmin's smile. He looked so cute and innocent while smiling. It somehow reminded Changbin of a cute little puppy.
Changbin noticed that his observation of the two had slowly morphed into just staring at Seungmin and well he was caught doing so by none other than the redhead he was staring at himself. Seungmin looked into his direction letting their eyes meet for a short moment. The black-haired vampire immediately looked back to the window on his left, hoping that the redhead would not say anything about it.
Nobody of the other vampires noticed how Changbin's cheeks became a light shade of pink, mainly because he managed to keep his blank expression up right and focused on the snowy trees he could see through the window.
"Hey, why is Kim Seungmin heading for our table?", Chantelle, a young female noble vampire with long dark brown hair asked while eyeing the redhead with an irritated expression. Changbin looked to Chantelle, following her gaze until his eyes once more landed on Seungmin, who was confidently walking up to the vampire table with the ghost of a grin on his lips. The other vampires mumbled among them while already glaring at the redhead, who seemingly ignored them and just focused on Changbin.
Seungmin wordlessly rounded the table so he stood in front of Changbin, which caused the older male to slightly look up to the redhead. "Care to join me and my friends?", Seungmin asked with a little smirk on his lips while offering Changbin his right hand. To say the rest of the vampires were surprised and shocked was an understatement but nobody dared to say a word because Changbin still had his blank expression on, meaning he looked cold and intimidating while internally he forced himself to not smile or show that he was really happy to be asked to join Seungmin and his friends.
"Sure", Changbin answered in a rather cold tone while internally he was cheering Seungmin seemingly knew he was faking because his smirk slowly turned into a happy grin. The black-haired vampire casually took Seungmin's hand so the redhead could pull him up, which he did gladly while glancing at the dumbfounded as well as slightly shocked expressions of Ryan, Chantelle and the other vampires on the table. Seungmin didn't let go of Changbin's hand and just pulled the vampire along with him. Changbin didn't even say bye to his little followers he just let Seungmin guide him to the table of his friends.
A kind of nervousness overcame Changbin when he saw Seungmin's group of friends but he internally pushed that feeling away and kept up his blank expression. Maybe the vampire even held Seungmin's hand a bit tighter to get his nervousness under control but nobody except Seungmin noticed it.
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Everybody of the group of friends was surprised when Seungmin came back to them with Changbin except for one. Jisung, because he saw this exact scene not so long ago. That was why his eyes immediately flicked to Minho, who sat opposite him but the cat hybrid had a neutral expression on his face. He wasn't glaring at the vampire in the slightest.
"This is Changbin, a friend of mine", Seungmin casually introduced the vampire even though he was aware of the fact that everybody on this table knew the black-haired male more or less.
Jisung was a bit confused after the feeling of déjà-vu passed. Seungmin wasn't the person to easily call someone his friend and until now Jisung had no clue that the redhead even had contact to the black-haired vampire but he slowly connected some dots while Changbin was kindly greeted by Byungho, Chan, Hyunjin and Felix. "Is Changbin the friend who help Seungmin track down Valentin King?", Jisung thought. His eyes immediately flicked to Changbin.
The vampire had an expressionless face but showed small smiles towards the people, who talked to him which were mainly Chan, Byungho, Hyunjin and Felix. Chan and Byungho asked some basic questions because even though they were in the same class with the vampire they knew nearly nothing about him. Felix was just being an angel like always and wanted to get to know the newcomer as well as Hyunjin, who took turn with Felix asking the vampire questions. Jeongin said nothing but he seemed to watch Changbin's every move with a neutral expression. Minho seemed to do the same. Seungmin just stood next the vampire and occasionally joined the conversation.
So, leave it to Jisung to just stay a little awkward and miss the most important part about Changbin's appearance. He was holding hands with Seungmin. The warlock only noticed this when Seungmin pulled the vampire to the free space on the table, so the two could sit down. Yes, Jisung was pretty out of it. So much that it took Minho to lightly kick his shin under the table to get him out of it.
The blue-haired male immediately looked to the cat hybrid on the opposite side of the table and wanted to complain to him about the kick but he shut his mouth when he noticed that the older tried to subtly nod to Chan. Jisung looked over to the wolf hybrid and noticed the other's worried gaze, which laid on him.
"Everything alright?", the male with the silver hair asked. Jisung blinked in confusion before he realized that the attention of all his friends was on him. "O-oh. Yeah, I am totally fine. I just spaced out a little", Jisung answered and sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck.
His friends wanted to ask him more questions but the bell rang and they had to go back to their classrooms. But well he went to the same class with four of his friends therefore he couldn't escape further questions.
"You know you can always talk to us, right?", Felix said while sliding his arm over the warlock's shoulder when they were walking down the corridors to get to their class. They said bye to their hyungs and Changbin when they left the cafeteria.
"Of course I know", Jisung responded. "Then talk to us when something is wrong", Hyunjin said, who walked on Jisung's other side. "Sometimes it isn't that easy", the warlock mumbled more to himself than his friends. "Alright. Give the man some room", Seungmin suddenly said and freed Jisung from between Felix and Hyunjin by pushing the siren and cat hybrid to the sides.
The siren and cat hybrid stopped in their tracks while looking like kicked puppies when Seungmin had to more or less save Jisung but they didn't protest against it. Jeongin also stopped and looked kind of guilty but he remained quiet.
So the friends stood there in the almost empty hall way, split in two halves. Jisung felt bad when he saw his friends sad. He knew that they just wanted the best for him but sometimes it was a bit much. He wasn't really used to having them around. After all the only friend he had since middle school was Seungmin. The two always have been a duo but now he had a whole group of friends, who worried about him but hadn't known him for that long. But despite all that he really appreciated their concern.
"I know you only want the best for me but sometimes it isn't that easy to just open up, you know", Jisung explained, avoiding to look directly into his friends eyes. He wasn't used to people trying get him to talk. Seungmin for example wasn't like that. He waited until Jisung talked to him but if it was an emergency like the incident with the bite he would get the information one way or another. It was a weird way to be supportive but until now the more or less only kind Jisung knew.
Hyunjin and Felix looked at each other and wanted to apologize but Jeongin beat them to it. "Sorry that we are being so intrusive, hyung", Jeongin apologized for the three of them with his gaze casted down. The siren and cat hybrid looked at the youngest of the group and then to Jisung to nod in confirmation.
"Nononono. Don't apologize. You did nothing wrong just ... just know that I appreciate your worry and I would be stupid to not do so", the warlock panicked at the beginning but became calmer in the end. "I will tell you everything about me one day in the future. I promise you that", Jisung added to his little speech.
Seungmin lightly smiled and put his hand on the warlock's shoulder. This was the best representation of the changes Jisung had gone through throughout the years since Seungmin had become friends with the warlock but the redhead wouldn't be himself when he didn't mock the blue-haired male for it.
"Squirrelboy has matured so much. I am proud", Seungmin mockingly said while wiping away a nonexistent tear. This was also kind of mean because Jeongin, Felix and Hyunjin looked really like they were about to cry.
Jisung hit the redhead while calling him a brat, which made Seungmin only laugh. "I hate all of you", Jeongin stated while wiping away the tears that had formed in his eyes. "Naw. Jeonginnie was nearly crying", Hyunjin said but his eyes were also glossy.
"You are also nearly crying", the youngest shot back and started hitting his cousin's shoulder. Felix lightly laughed at the two but he wasn't any better than them. "Stop laughing", the two said in union to the freckled boy, which only caused the ginger to laugh harder.
Jisung and Seungmin watched with amusement how Jeongin and Hyunjin tried to tickle Felix for laughing at them. Which was kind of ironic if you think about it. "N-no. Stop. Jisung, Seungmin help me", the cat hybrid called out for the warlock and redhead while laughing. Seungmin and Jisung looked at each other for a brief moment. Somehow Jisung wanted to stand by and do nothing but he had no idea if Seungmin was thinking the same. Spoiler, he didn't think the same.
"Of course we will help. Here, take Jisung instead of Felix", Seungmin said and pushed the warlock towards the two cousins and the cat hybrid. Hyunjin immediately caught him while he left Felix to Jeongin. "Seungmin, you traitor!", Jisung complained while laughing because Hyunjin had no mercy and immediately started to tickle him.
In the end Jisung managed to also pull Seungmin into this mess as revenge. Nobody knew how or why but the five friends ended up in a group hug. They were in their own little world at the moment but it didn't last because someone, who cleared his throat brought them back to earth.
It was a quite tall, skinny male with silver hair as well as a pair of white round cat-like ears on top of his head. He looked like he had just escaped from a runaway but Jisung was pretty sure he was a teacher.
Felix instantly recognized him as his transformation teacher, Mr. Chae. "Hello, Mr. Chae", Felix greeted his teacher politely while ending the group hug. "Shouldn't you all be in your class?", Mr. Chae asked, putting a hand on his hip. The five friends knew the answer to that question perfectly well but they hadn't noticed how much time had passed.
"We got distracted", Seungmin answered quickly and it wasn't even a lie. "I could see that", Mr. Chae answered and lightly smiled, which embarrassed the teenagers to a certain degree.
Suddenly an alarm went off. The teenagers immediately covered their ears at the loud noise. Especially Felix. Mr. Chae just looked alarmed. "Go to your class now", the teacher said with a certain urgency in his voice. This slightly scared the five teenagers and they took off fast.
They ran to their classroom, which nearly resulted in them crashing into their history teacher, who just left the room with Haechan, YangYang, Jeno, Jaemin and Renjun following behind him. "Where have you five been? Get in there immediately", Mr. Kim scolded and shooed the five into the classroom where they were met with their equally scared classmates.
"What just happened?", Felix asked in a hushed voice when Mr. Kim closed the door behind the five friends, which silenced the alarm a little bit. "I have no idea", Jisung answered while slightly shaking his head.
The five went to the back of the classroom to Seungmin and Jisung's seats where they sat down, waiting for someone to explain what the hell just happened. Felix was at some point tired of just waiting, hoped down from his place on Jisung's desk and walked to up to Lee Junyoung, who sat alone at his desk listening to music through his headphones probably to distract himself.
"Junyoung?", Felix tried to get the werewolf's attention by calling his name. The brown-haired male looked up to Felix and slipped the headphones off, letting them hang around his neck. "Yeah?", he asked in slight confusion. "Do you know by any chance what happened?", the cat hybrid asked with a light smile. "I got no clue. I only know that after the alarm went off not long after the lesson started and we were told to stay put by Mr. Kim. He wanted to go out but then his husband came and told him something I couldn't pick up on because of the loud alarm before he speeded off again. So, Mr. Kim called Jaemin, Jeno, Haechan, YangYang and Renjun to follow him but the rest shouldn't leave the classroom. Then you and your friends came and the alarm quiet down at least in here", Junyoung explained while playing with the hem with his sleeves. "Thank you", Felix thanked him with a kind smile. "No problem", the werewolf responded almost shyly.
Felix sent the werewolf a kind smile again and went back to his group of friends. "Did you hear everything or do I need to repeat it?", the ginger questioned with his hands on his hips when all his friends were looking at him like he was an alien. All of them shook their head. They had listened to the little conversation mainly because Felix just walked up to Junyoung without saying a word.
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Seungmin weighed the possible options while taking all the informations he knew into consideration. A rather scary possibility dawned to him. "What if all the NCT members of our class were called because something is wrong with the barrier between our world and the human world?", the redhead then asked out loud.
"I-isn't that a little far fetched?", Hyunjin stuttered a little bit, obviously not liking this theory at all. But the siren wasn't the only one who hoped this suggestion wasn't the case. Nearly every student hoped the alarm wasn't serious and the teacher were fussing over nothing.
After Seungmin's suggestion the little group of friends was more or less quiet. They weren't the only ones though. A lot of students sat quietly together with their friends or like Junyoung, distracted themselves by listening to music or drawing something into their notebooks.
At one point the alarm was tuned off and it became so quiet in the classroom that Jeongin just hoped down from his place on Seungmin's desk and walked over to Felix, who was sitting on the ground, letting his back rest against the wall and wordlessly demanded a hug. Of course the cat hybrid didn't decline and let Jeongin settle down in front of him, so he could wrap his arms around the kitsune.
Seungmin guessed that Jeongin couldn't stand the quietness any longer and decided to seek comfort in Felix's arms. He couldn't blame the blond for that since Felix's aura felt always bright and comforting even in situations like this one.
Hyunjin, who was sitting on Jisung's desk, caught Seungmin's attention by hoping down from the desk and walking over to Felix and Jeongin. He sat down beside the two and the looked at Seungmin but also Jisung. He patted his thigh lightly, signaling the, to come to him. Jisung sighed lightly but didn't hesitated long to stand up and walk over to Hyunjin, laying down beside the siren so his head was resting on Hyunjin's thigh.
Seungmin couldn't help but lightly smile and stand up from his chair to join his friends. Jisung scooted closer to the wall and then patted his stomach. The redhead understood the little unspoken message and laid down, letting his head rest on Jisung's stomach.
Now they had a perfect arrangement because Hyunjin could calm down his nerves by running his fingers through Jisung's hair, which also made the warlock feel at ease and Seungmin could stare at the ceiling and think in peace.
It took two hours of this waiting before their history teacher, Mr. Kim walked back into the classroom along with YangYang, Jaemin, Renjun, Jeno and Haechan, saying that everything was alright and luckily it was only a false alarm. This was a huge relief for the whole class because everyone had created a worst case scenario in their head.
The school day was continued normally but all the NCT members who went to Miroh High were asked a lot of questions by their classmates because all of them were called like Jeno, YangYang, Renjun, Haechan and Jaemin but they didn't say much about the incident, basically telling everyone that it was a false alarm.
But the members of NCT weren't the only ones who were asked to follow their teacher shortly after the alarm went off. No, there was one more person and this person was Seo Changbin. The difference was that he didn't return with the NCT members of his class.
As soon as they could Byungho, Chan and Minho went to check up on their younger friends and siblings. Meaning Chan went to the 6A class to check up on his younger brother while Byungho and Minho went straight to the 7B class to check on Felix, Seungmin, Jisung, Hyunjin and Jeongin, after that Byungho excused himself and went to the 6B class to check on Samuel. Everybody was fine, which was a huge relief to the older males.
"This false alarm was super scary", Hyunjin commented when the group of friends met up again while slightly shivering. "Chan and Byungho were more worried about their younger siblings and you than scared. Was quite funny to watch how they paced up and down like two parents", Minho told the younger ones of the group casually, which earned him some chuckles while Byungho and Chan narrowed their eyes at the cat hybrid.
"Well, our Minho here", Chan began and laid his arm around the cat hybrid. "Couldn't sit still because he was so worried about-", the wolf hybrid wanted to finish but Minho elbowed him in the ribs him, which cut him off. The silver-haired male lightly laughed while holding the spot Minho hit. "He was worried about Felix and Jisung especially", Byungho just finished what Chan wanted to say without caring about the glare he got from the cat hybrid with the hazelnut brown hair.
"Minho-hyung", Felix cooed and went to his brother to hug him but the older dodged. "Don't believe him. He is lying", Minho huffed. "I would never to something like that", he added while continuing to dodge Felix, which resulted in a little chase between the two Lee brothers. The rest only laughed but soon Jisung and Jeongin joined the chase and Hyunjin got Chan to play along as well.
Seungmin and Byungho walked beside each other while the others ran around in the halls. "Do you know where Changbin went after class?", the redhead asked the older a little out of the blue. Byungho looked at the younger with an unreadable expression. "Since when do you care so much about Seo Changbin?", the older asked a question in return but his younger brother was having none of that. "Long enough to be concerned about his well being. So were did Changbin go after your last lesson?", the redhead asked again.
Byungho huffed but seemingly knew that it was pointless to argue with Seungmin. "Not long after the alarm started he was told to follow Mr. Yoo along with Hendery and Xiaojun but he didn't come back with them. He returned a minute before the last lesson ended, to grab his things and leave with the rest of us but he was faster gone than I could realize", Byungho told the redhead. Seungmin nodded in understanding while he let some possible theories run through his head, why Changbin was called and then disappeared in a seemingly hurry. Maybe it was because he was the vampire prince and was therefore under special protection?
When the group of friends reached the school gates they were back to walking and talking normally among each other but soon enough everybody went home their separate way except Chan because the wolf hybrid would help Hyunjin study maths at the siren's house, or apartment to be more specific, like he promised the black-haired siren.
They shouldn't be the only ones though who studied for school, after all test and exams would soon come one after another while trying to suffocate the students in school work.
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