HYUNGSEUNG WOKE UP FROM the licks that he was receiving from his pet cat slash guardian, Luxuria. He opened his eyes, his body aching like crazy since he fainted on the floor. He sat up and looked around, glad he was still in his room.

     Hyunseung looked down on his hand to see the ring still in his index finger. He then looked at Luxuria who was just looking back at him with a curious expression.

     "What? You thought I died?" Hyunseung asked Luxuria who only meowed as an answer.

     (NOTE: JS and Hyunseung are the same. I'll use Hyunseung in the book, but the characters will sometimes call him JS.)

     Something inside him felt hot. And when he stood up from the floor, his legs felt weak. He held onto the wall for support, confused by the fact that he feels like he ran a whole marathon.

     Last night was the most confusing night for Hyunseung, and it definitely was a night that he would never forget. Not only did he turn 18, but he also found out that his father was a demon and he was given a mission to find the rest of the human-demon children. 

     It was a hard task, but Hyunseung accepted it wholeheartedly without question.

     "What happened to me?" Hyunseung asked himself as he walked his way to the bathroom with all his effort. The moment he turned on the lights, he instantly fell on the floor from complete shock on what he just saw in the mirror.

     He grabbed onto the sink and stood back up. He stared at his reflection for quite some time, but he still couldn't believe that something like that happened to him overnight.

     "Why the fuck is my hair red?!" He shouted at the top of his lungs.

     Hyunseung was shocked and angry, but no words could explain how furious he was. You could say that he was close to the 'Sunggyu type' of furious, but it wasn't that extreme yet.

     Hyunseung stared at himself in the mirror and touched his hair. He hated it, not because of the color, but because his hair HAS a color. He never did anything to himself because he already stood out on his own, and Hyunseung doesn't like attention. But with this flashy red color, attention is definitely something that he'll get.

     "Luxuria!" Hyunseung quickly shouted as he ran to his pet who was peacefully lying on his bed. He carried her up and looked straight into her eyes, "Why did you turn my hair red?! Is this even necessary?!"

    *Meow*

    "This is hopeless!" Hyunseung shouted in frustration. He placed his pet down and went to the bathroom to take a quick shower. He tried putting a lot of shampoo and conditioner on his hair but nothing happened because his hair still had a bright color of red.

    Hyunseung got tired of trying to wash it away and just thought of explanations that he'll give to people who would question him about his new look. Especially to his friend Minhyuk, who fusses over everything.

     "I guess this is better than receiving horns," Hyunseung said to himself to at least find something positive in this frustrating situation. He massaged his temple and relaxed. He thought that someone else was bound to experience something worse than his own experience...

     "WHAT THE HELL!"

     And he was right.

     "M-Mom! My...My..."

     Minhyuk's mother quickly rushed to his room to check on his son who was obviously panicking, "What's going...Minhyuk?! Well you're...a lot more handsome than I expected you to be," his mother weirdly said to him, and Minhyuk looked back at her with an are-you-serious-right-now expression.

    "Mom! Do you think something's different?" He asked, trying not to panic any further than he already was.

     She looked at Minhyuk, examining him from head to toe, then she concluded, "Something's different with your body structure like you've grown a few muscles. The hair is different too, but don't worry, it suits you quite well."

     She paused and looked at Minhyuk's pet hamster, "Do you agree with me, Gula?"

     "Mom! I'm serious!"

     "But you look perfectly normal! Why don't you just go take a shower and brag about your new look at school? Tell them you went to the parlor yesterday and had your hair done," his mother casually suggested as she started picking up the scattered books on Minhyuk's room and neatly placing it back at the shelves.

     "But..."

     "No buts. Now go and take a shower. You still have Saturday classes."

     And Minhyuk did take a shower and never questioned his sudden transformation again, afraid that his mother would scold him.

     After fixing himself up, he went downstairs and proceeded to the dining room where his mother was already eating her breakfast.

    "Come and sit here Minhyuk, let's eat breakfast together," Minhyuk's mother stated as she patted the chair beside her.

     "Its okay mom, I'm not hungry," Minhyuk answered while grooming his hair. His mother nodded her head in understanding, but then she paused when she realized what her son just told her. She slowly placed her cup down and asked in disbelief, "You're...not hungry?"

     Minhyuk quickly stopped fixing his hair on the sudden realization of what he just had told his mother too.  

     He wasn't hungry. NOT HUNGRY was never once part of Minhyuk's dictionary.

     "Mom! I'm not hungry!" Minhyuk shouted from complete shock, now looking back at his mother. He went to her and hugged her tightly. Minhyuk knew that it was because of the ring his father had given him. He knew that it was going to change him, but he never thought that it would be to this extent.

     "I need to thank dad if I ever get the chance to meet him," Minhyuk said with a smile as he looked back at his mother who was smiling with him.

     "I'm so proud of you Minhyuk. So, should I throw all your chips away?"

    Minhyuk lets go of his mother and happily nodded. If it wasn't for this ring he might have gone crazy if he found out his mother threw all his food away, but he didn't, and it felt great for him.

     "Then I better go to school and tell JS abo..." Minhyuk quickly stopped in the middle of his sentence. He realized that having a demon father wasn't normal, and his always serious best friend would flip for sure if he found out that Minhyuk – his closest friend – was a human-demon child.

     "Never mind. I'm heading out mom!" He said instead.

     Minhyuk went out of their house and walked his way to school. As he was walking, he walked past the house of a boy who was also having problems with his transformation, Wang Jackson.

     Jackson was all set for school, but he wasn't all set at all to face the other students. 

     His hair changed, and somehow he became a little taller than before. How would he explain the reason why he became a few inches taller overnight?! Pills?!

     "Jackson darling, when are you coming out of your room?" His mother asked, now aggressively banging on his door since Jackson hasn't come out of his room since this morning.

     "Just a second mom!" Jackson replied as he kept on staring at himself in the mirror. He was about to touch his hair when he suddenly remembered the ring. He stared at the ring and stated, "What kind of sorcery is this thing? If I take it off, will I be back to normal again?"

     The room was silent, but his pet Invidia hissed, like she actually answered his question.

    Jackson nodded his head in determination and tried to take the ring off. But when he did, nothing happened, so he wore it back again.

    "So it's a permanent transformation. Wait, what time is it?" Jackson checked his watch and saw that it was already 7:17. I guess he stared at himself a little too much.

    "Shit, I still need to fetch Taeil!" Jackson shouted as he took his bag.

    "Thankfully I wouldn't be worried about him because I bet Taeil would only be too lazy to even realize that I changed," Jackson thought to himself as he hurriedly went out of his room, only to see his mother still waiting for him outside.

     "Well, you look different." His mother commented, but Jackson didn't have time to talk to her anymore.

    "No time. I still need to fetch Taeil. I'll see you later okay?" He said, kissing her cheek and heading out. He hurriedly went outside and ran to his friend's house. Good thing their houses weren't far from each other.

    Jackson arrived at Taeil's house and rang the doorbell. He was pressing their doorbell for quite some time now, but no one still answered. Jackson grew impatient. He started knocking at the door even harder, hoping that someone would finally open it up. When he was going to slam on the door for the last time, the door opened.

     "Taei... Mrs. Lee!"

     And it was Taeil's mother who welcomed him.

     "Oh, good morning Jackson. I'm sorry if it took a while for me to open the door. I was preparing for Taeil's breakfast," Taeil's mom explained, wiping the sweat on her forehead.

     "Taeil's breakfast? But Taeil only eats cereal," Jackson asked confusingly.

     Taeil's mom scratched the nape of her neck. She tried not to look straight at Jackson's eyes as she answered, "Well, my son is kinda..." As Taeil's mother was hesitating to answer, the front door opened wider, revealing Jackson's forever lazy best friend, Lee Taeil.

    "Jackson! You're here!" Taeil shouted enthusiastically, surprising Jackson.

    "Yeah...I'm here?" Jackson answered with a confused expression, staring at his friend who was just radiating this weird positive vibe.

     "Mom! I'll eat my breakfast later okay? Jackson and I will be leaving," Taeil explained as he quickly kissed his mother's cheek before joining Jackson outside.

     His mother smiled, "Okay then son. Have a nice day today," she said as she patted Taeil's head and closed the door. 

     Something felt weird, and Taeil was obviously the reason behind it.

     "Jackson, you're taller than I expected you to be," Taeil suddenly stated out of the blue while the two were walking their way to HAU.

     (NOTE: To those who don't know, HAU is their school,  Holy Angel's University)

    'Shit, he noticed?!' Jackson thought as he avoided Taeil's gaze. He didn't really expect that his lazy friend would notice something like that, especially when Taeil's the I-don't-give-a-shit-about-life type of guy.

    "Hey, Jackson..." Taeil called out, making Jackson flinch.

    "What now Taeil? Are you gonna talk about how my hair changed too?" Jackson asked as he stopped walking. Taeil stopped walking as well and looked at his best friend with a surprised expression, "Really? I didn't notice. But now that you mention it, it did change a bit. Huh, that's strange." 

    'Dang it!'

    Jackson was about to explain himself when he suddenly noticed something about Taeil too.

    "Wait a second. Your hair grew longer," Jackson pointed out, and Taeil happily messed it up and said, "Yeah, I know! I'm even excited to go to school today!"

    Jackson looked at his friend, dumbfounded.

    "You're excited? When did you get excited?"

    Taeil smiled from ear to ear and answered, "I don't know! When I woke up my body felt great! Then the next thing I knew, my hair grew longer and I had the sudden urge to move everywhere!"

    Jackson stared at the person in front of him, squinting his eyes because of what he heard. Something felt weird about what he said. That was the exact same thing that happened to him earlier too. Well not exactly...but you get the point.

    While he was staring at Taeil, Jackson's eyes widened on the sudden thought that passed through his mind.

    "Taeil...what did your mother tell you yesterday?" Jackson quickly asked.

    "Oh, that?"

    While Jackson waited for his answer, Taeil pretended like he was trying to recall it, when in fact, he remembered everything clearly. When he couldn't think of an excuse, he looked at Jackson with a grin and said, "That's a secret!" Then he started jumping around the place, making Jackson feel even more irritated than he already was since this morning. 

     Jackson followed his friend and grabbed his arm tightly.

     "I'm serious Taeil. What did your mother tell you? Did she give you something? A box perhaps?" Jackson asked, trying to squeeze something out from him.

     Taeil was starting to feel nervous. He pushed Jackson away and said, "Why are you so interested anyway? It's not even important. And come on, we'll be late for class."

     Without waiting for Jackson's reply, Taeil made a run for it so he could abandon his best friend. But Jackson was quick, he grabbed Taeil's arm again with no effort, and out of nowhere, he slapped his best friend on the right cheek.

    "Aww! Why did you-"

    Jackson realized what he just did and quickly regretted it, making him sigh.

     "Look, Taeil I'm sorry, I didn't mean to slap you. I was just really shocked that you're acting like this. Can you forgive-"

     Taeil suddenly cuts him off and said, "Your hand."

     Jackson paused and looked at Taeil with furrowed eyebrows, "What about it?" Jackson asked, then he looked at his perfectly normal hand. Was it red because of how hard he slapped Taeil?

     "Your hand...has a ring," Taeil pointed out, immediately making Jackson hide his hand inside his pocket. 

    "Oh, that? It's nothing. My mother bought it for me last night for a birthday gift. I didn't want to wear it, but it will hurt her feelings if I don't," Jackson lied, hoping Taeil would believe him.

    "No, that's not what I mean," Taeil said as he went closer to Jackson and took his hand from his pocket. He held it tightly and stared at the ring on his finger.

     "Taeil, if you hate it that much then-"

     "It's glowing," Taeil quickly pointed out, making Jackson look at him with shock.

     "What? That's impossible..." Jackson took his hand from Taeil and saw that the ring WAS lighting up. "What could this mean?" Jackson asked himself as he stared at his also confused friend, Taeil. Then Jackson noticed that something was also lighting up on Taeil's finger, and like what he assumed, it was a ring similar to his.

    "You're a human-demon child?!" Both shouted in unison.

    "No way..." Taeil said in disbelief, his eyes wide from the sudden revelation.

     The two stared at each other with shock. Was it fate that brought them together? Could it be that the reason why the two felt at ease with each other was because they were destined to be united?

     "Jackson, what's the name of your father?" Taeil asked, starting to become more excited by his new discovery.

     Jackson hesitated, but he awkwardly scratched the back of his neck and answered, "L-Leviathan, ruler of the realm Envy."

     Everything was now connecting. The reason why Taeil's friend was acting like how he always does was because he was the prince of jealously. It makes perfect sense now!

    "Let me guess, you're sloth, aren't you? And the reason why you're excited was because of the ring, it suppressed your ability of laziness," Jackson assumed as he looked at Taeil, and Taeil looked at him impressively and answered, "Yup! Son of Belphegor, at your service. So, did the letter tell you that we needed to find the rest of the seven deadly sons?"

    Jackson didn't say anything and nodded his head as an answer instead.

    "Then what are we waiting for? We better head to the university and look for the others!" Taeil said excitedly as he started running off again.

    Jackson thought that his friend was too excited about their almost-impossible mission.

    Were they even sure that they'd see the sons there?

*****

"JS! Is that you?!" Minhyuk asked when he arrived at the bicycle area where he saw his friend wearing a hoody.

   Hyunseung locked his bike and looked back at Minhyuk with confusion. He stared at Minhyuk from head to toe and asked, "Minhyuk, what happened to your hair?"

    Minhyuk avoided his friend's stare and answered, "I went to the parlor to get my hair done yesterday. How about you? Why are you covering yourself? Is someone stalking you again?"

    The two started walking to head to their building as Hyunseung answered, "That's the weird part. No one is looking at me anymore."

    "Then shouldn't you be happy? Or did you actually like the attention that the guys were giving you?" Minhyuk asked with a smirk, making Hyunseung glare at his best friend's comment.

    "Of course not. It's just weird. But how about you, where are your morning chips?" Hyunseung asked next when he noticed that Minhyuk wasn't filling his mouth with food like how he usually does in the morning.

     "Oh, I wasn't hungry," Minhyuk casually answered, shocking his friend.

     "No way, that's impossible."  

     "Well, I guess people could change overnight," Minhyuk casually stated, and Hyunseung immediately stopped walking because of what he just heard from his best friend. 

     It was strange to hear something like that from Minhyuk. Could it be that...

     "JS...is that...red?!" Minhyuk asked out of nowhere as he pointed at a strand of Hyunseung's hair that was sticking out of his hoody.

    "You dyed your hair last night?!" Minhyuk shouted, and Hyunseung quickly covered his mouth with his hand and said, "Minhyuk! Could you be quiet just for a second?!"

     Before waiting for Minhyuk's next move, Hyunseung suddenly shifted his attention to the ring he was wearing. He was going to scold his best friend some more when he noticed that his ring was glowing.

      As Hyunseung was concentrating on the glowing ring, Minhyuk looked at Hyunseung and followed his gaze. He almost shouted when he saw the glowing ring too.

     "No freakin' way," Hyunseung stated, letting go of Minhyuk's mouth.

     "You're a son of a demon too?!" Minhyuk shouted again, making the students who were surrounding them look at their direction, giving them weird looks.

    "What the hell did he just say?" One of the students asked when he overheard their conversation, but before Minhyuk could answer him, he saw Hyunseung's reaction and said, "Fuck." 

     Hyunseung was clenching his fist in anger. Minhyuk gulped and quickly ran away from his best friend because he knew that Hyunseung was going to beat the shit out of him.

    "Minhyuk you idiot!"

    Minhyuk ran with the speed of light, but Hyunseung was able to catch up with him with no worries. He grabbed his arm to stop him, and both of them were panting like crazy.

     "Run away from me again and I'll kill you," Hyunseung said while trying to catch his breath.

     "I'm sorry for saying that in front of everyone," Minhyuk stated, and Hyunseung calmed himself down and replied, "It's okay. Just be careful next time."

     Minhyuk was glad that his friend wasn't mad at him, but he was happier by the fact that he found one of the sins, and it so happened to be his closest friend.

    "So who is..." before Minhyuk could continue, Hyunseung stopped from saying anything further. He moved closer to Minhyuk and said in a soft voice, "We'll talk about this later, but right now we need to head back to class."

     "But your hair, what will you-" Hyunseung ignored his friend's concern as he grabbed his hand and dragged him to their classroom. As they were running, the two ran past a boy who was just as confused as earlier, Wang Jackson.

     "Well I hope people won't notice that I became a little taller," Jackson told his friend Taeil.

     "Whoa Wang, you've gotten a little taller," said one of his classmates who happened to walk past them.

     "Dang it!"

     While the two continued walking, Taeil asked, "So Jackson, what else did your father tell you?"

     "Well, he told me that someone is going to kill us, which is the archangels. And I'll have greater power or something like that," Jackson answered, making Taeil realize something himself, "Looks like our fathers said the same thing."

     When the two arrived at their classroom, they instantly saw a prideful guy named Kwon Jiyong, who was quietly seated at the back. He wasn't in a good mood, and everyone could sense it. The seats that surrounded him were empty since everyone avoided him, so every other chair was already occupied. 

    Jackson and Taeil looked at each other with worried expressions, but since they didn't have a choice, they walked at the left side of where Jiyong was seated and took a seat there.

    Jiyong arrived earlier than usual. He was so pissed off about what happened last night that he didn't even want to stay at home. But thanks to that, he didn't notice Jackson and Taeil.

     "Where the fuck is my earset?!" Shouted Jiyong as he was searching through his bag, making everyone flinch. While searching for his earset, Jiyong grabbed something small. He took it out of his bag and saw that it was actually a weird looking ring.

    "W-What the fuck is this? I don't remember having..." Jiyong quickly paused when he remembered the box from yesterday.

    "No way, was this inside that box?" He asked himself as he continued to stare at the ring. But as Jiyong was staring at it, Sunggyu and Suho entered the room. He quickly placed the ring inside his pocket to hide it.

    "Mornin' Jiyong," Suho greeted as he threw his bag on the floor and sat down.

     "Oh...yeah, good morning," Jiyong greeted back, pretending to check his phone when he clearly didn't have anything to check.

     "So Sunggyu, about your skin...it's paler than yesterday. Are you sick or something?" Suho asked as he pointed at his friend's face. Sunggyu angrily pushed Suho's hand away and answered, "I'm not feeling well okay?!"

     "Okay, I get it. You don't need to get angry," Suho stated, trying to calm his friend down.

     "Anyway, aren't you guys going to ask me about my teeth? Look, it's pointier than usual," Suho said as he pointed at a tooth like it was something to be proud of. 

     The two pretty much didn't care and did their own business. Jiyong puts on his earset so he wouldn't be able to hear Suho's nonsense anymore, while Sunggyu just continued scanning his phone. Suho pouted from their reaction and just sat down on his seat in silence.

      "Whoa! Lee Taeil went to school today!" Someone suddenly announces, making the three friends look at Taeil and Jackson who were sitting just across them. They didn't even notice that they were there if no one said anything.

     Suho was more surprised to see Taeil since he doesn't really remember him. Everyone was looking at their direction, so Taeil had to cover his face while Jackson did the same.

     When the ruckus died down, Sunggyu looked at Jiyong and asked, "So Jiyong, what did your mother tell you last night?"

     Jiyong removed the earset on his left ear. Without looking at Sunggyu, he answered, "Oh, just some fucked up crap."

     "Looks like dinner went well," Suho sarcastically stated while eavesdropping on the two's conversation since he's being left out.

     Sunggyu tried to ignore Suho's comment as he proceeded, "How about you Suho? What happened to you last night?" He asked so Suho could stop sulking.

     Suho finally looked at his friends with an excited smile and answered, "Last night was the weirdest thing that ever happened to me. Mom revealed something to me, and my dad that I haven't seen since forever suddenly left me this antique box as a present."

     Sunggyu and Jiyong looked at each other confusingly, then they looked back at Suho.

     "Your father? Didn't you tell us that he left you?" Sunggyu asked.

     "I know. I was surprised at first but after reading the letter that he gave me, I finally understood his reason," Suho answered, and Sunggyu finally look shocked.

     "Letter?" Sunggyu asked. He obviously knew that he was also given the same present. 

     Before Suho could elaborate further, their homeroom teacher arrived and started with their attendance. When the lecture was over, the trio stood up from their seats so they could head to the cafeteria and eat their lunch.

    Jackson and Taeil did the same. But now that Taeil was feeling enthusiastic about everything, Taeil was moving and jumping around, annoying the fuck out of Jackson just for the fun of it, which brought him to accidentally hit Sunggyu who was standing just a few inches away from him.

     "What the hell do you think you're doing?" Sunggyu asked angrily as he quickly grabbed Taeil's wrist.

    Taeil was shocked, and so was his friend Jackson. These three are Holy Angels University's most popular students, and getting in trouble with them would be the last thing you would want to do in this school. Especially with their leader, who Taeil slapped by accident.

    "Do you think you could get away after hitting my face midget?" Sunggyu said with full rage as he was about to hit Taeil back, but two times the strength this time. But before he could even do it, Sunggyu noticed something on Taeil's hand. 

     It was a glowing ring. 

     Suho and Jiyong saw the same thing, but Jiyong acted like he wasn't familiar with it at all.

     "It was an accident, now let him go will you?" Jackson tried to say, but Sunggyu ignored him since he was stuck staring at Taeil's ring. So Jackson quickly grabbed Taeil's hand from Sunggyu, and there Sunggyu saw a glowing ring once again, but this time, it was on Jackson's finger.

     To make sure he saw it right, Sunggyu slowly lowered his head down. He was shocked to see that his ring was also lighting up like Jackson's and Taeil's.

     "This can't be possible," Sunggyu whispered under his breath, his mind suddenly blank from what he discovered.

     "S-Sunggyu...you know about it too?" Suho asked, unsure whether he was having the same thoughts as his friend Sunggyu. But Sunggyu lifted his hand and showed the ring on his finger, shocking the four of them. Jackson even felt his leg weakened on the sudden realization that not only did Sunggyu have the ring; he was also one of the sons that he was looking for.

     "So all of us have it?!" Suho shouted in shock.

     Then the three – Sunggyu, Taeil, and Jackson – looked at Suho who also had the same glowing ring.

     "The four of us are part of the seven deadly sons!" Suho declared, and the three of them just stared at each other, unsure of what to say after their unexpected discovery.

      "Well that escalated quickly," Taeil stated as he looked at the people in front of him. At that moment he realized that he has to unite with the same people to defeat the archangels. But how on earth could they do that if the four of them aren't even that close? And one of them even tried to punch him?!

     "So, now that we found four of us, what do we do next?" Jackson asked, but Suho suddenly went in between in them and pointed out, "Guys, why is the ring still glowing? Shouldn't it be done by now?" Then the four of them stared at the ring and noticed that it was still glowing like what Suho said. 

     The four men slowly looked at Jiyong who was just scanning his phone like nothing was even happening. They were going to ask him about it but then they saw something glow inside his pocket.

     "You're a son of a demon too aren't you Jiyong?!" Sunggyu asked, but Jiyong ignored him and placed his phone back inside his bag instead, making Sunggyu clench his fist, trying his best not to get angry. Well ever since this morning he's actually been doing a pretty good job with it. If it wasn't for the ring he would have already exploded

     "Answer me Kwon Jiyong!" He shouted as he looked at his prideful friend.

     "This is stupid," Jiyong stated as he scratched his head in irritation. Since he wasn't planning to say anything, Sunggyu grabbed him and took the ring out of his pocket.

     "Hey! Give that back!" Jiyong shouted as he tried to snatch it away from Sunggyu's hand.

     "I knew it! You've been caught red-handed and you still kept quiet about it. Why aren't you wearing this Jiyong?!" Sunggyu shouted as he looked at Jiyong angrily.

     "Because it's stupid!" Jiyong said again but with a louder voice this time.

     "You need to wear this idiot!" Shouted Sunggyu as he was showing Jiyong the glowing ring.

     "You believe in this crap Sunggyu? Even you Suho? Are you guys out of your minds? There's no such thing as demons and human-demon children. It's just a fucked up reason our mothers made so we could forgive the fathers who left us," Jiyong suddenly told them, angering not only Sunggyu but the rest of the boys too.

     Jiyong ignored their reaction. He pushed Sunggyu away from him and said, "Fuck this." Then he ran off.

     "Kwon Ji Yong!" Sunggyu shouted, but Jiyong was already out of their sights.

- END -