Hyunjin was just staring at the dark ceiling of the room he shared with his mother and Jeongin. He couldn't fall asleep even though it was already very late. Jeongin and Ms. Hwang fell asleep hours ago, but he just couldn't stop thinking about what happened earlier.

Chan, Changbin and Jisung had told Taeyong and the others about what Seungmin found out. According to the three, Taeyong had told them to get some sleep and that they would take care of it tomorrow but part of Hyunjin told him he was missing something.

It frustrated him to be this clueless. He just had this feeling that something wasn't entirely right. Sure, he didn't believe that Chan, Changbin or Jisung were lying to him but he had missed something his gut feeling told him was important but maybe that was just worry.

Worry about the members of his group, worry about him not participating in the rescue mission and therefore not helping his friends. He was especially worried about Seungmin, Changbin, Jisung and Byungho. All of them had behaved somehow strangely. Seungmin, who seemingly tried to avoid telling them the truth, Changbin, whose eyes had turned red again just some hour ago, Jisung, who obviously was disturbed by the fact his uncle may have connections to Zendala and Byungho, who was even more quiet than usual and seemed unnaturally calm for someone, who had recently lost his mother.

The longer he thought about this the more he felt suffocated by the air in the room. He threw the covers off himself and quickly and quietly walked out of the room. Taking deep breaths, he tried to sort his thoughts.

"Just make a mental list", he told himself. His mother once told him that when he felt like everything was gettin to much he should make himself a mental list. The top spot belonged to the thing he thought was the most important and from there he should sort everything that was on his mind.

Hyunjin tried to do that, but he kind of failed since he felt like all of his friends were equally important. Frustrated with that, he sighed and decided to clear his head by walking around for a bit. To his surprise, when he turned on one corner he saw a familiar figure.

"Changbin-hyung?", Hyunjin questioned as soon as he spotted the black-haired vampire. Changbin turned around facing the siren with surprise written all over his face. "Why are you still up?", Hyunjin asked the slightly older male, tilting his head to the side.

"I could ask you the same thing", the vampire replied. Well, he had a right for that question but somehow Hyunjin was glad he was here. The siren sighed again when he walked closer to the vampire.

"I couldn't sleep", the taller of the two admitted and sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck. Changbin showed a little, sympathetic smile, which made Hyunjin noticed that the vampire's eyes had their normal dark color with only a little trace of red in them.

"I couldn't sleep either", the vampire sighed. "I will probably be scolded to death when my vampire hyungs find that out and Chan-hyung will probably join them on that", the vampire lightly joked. Hyunjin chuckled, picturing the scene in his mind for a short moment but then he was reminded of the fact, that his mother wouldn't be thrilled if she knew he was walking around at night either.

"I can imagining my mum getting irritated too", the siren added with a little smile on his lips. The smile came almost natural and the siren was once again amazed by the fact how easily Changbin could distract him and make him smile. It made him remember how happy Changbin had seemed when Hyunjin hugged him as a greeting for the first time back when they still went to Miroh High. At the time they had just begun to become friends. It almost felt like it was an eternity ago.

"Do you want to go to the grotto?", Changbin asked Hyunjin, gaining the siren's action again. Just hearing "grotto" made the siren smile widely. He would love to go to the grotto. "The best idea you had so far", the siren answered cheekily to tease the vampire. Changbin huffed, acting like he was offended by that but made it obvious that h was joking.

The two walked to the grotto in a comfortable silence. The corridors of the NCT headquarter were absolutely silent and seemed almost empty, even though Hyunjin reminded himself that he had never seen them packed with people either. The siren also noted that the lights were dimmed a bit but not turned off, probably to prevent any accidents caused by not being able to see.

When the door of the grotto came into view Hyunjin became a bit faster and opened door quicker than lightning. The first thing he did when he stepped into the cool room was taking in a long breath. The air of the grotto just seemed calming to Hyunjin but the thing that would make the siren feel better in an instant was something else.

Almost automatically did the siren's eyes fall onto the clear surface of the pool. The water seemed to almost call Hyunjin, coax him to just leap into the fresh, cool water and enjoy the almost soundless world underneath the water's surface.

"Hyunjin?", Changbin calling his name ripped the siren out of his trance and made him look towards the vampire. "What are you thinking about?", the older male asked, when he walked up to Hyunjin, so he could properly see what the other was looking at. He seemed mildly worried but Hyunjin couldn't blame him for that. He probably was a bit too excited for someone, who should have been in dreamland hours ago.

"Honestly I just want to go swimming", the siren admitted, looking back at the ever moving but somehow still surface of the water. Hyunjin took some steps towards the pool until he was standing on the pool's edge. The water swapped over the edge in a calming rhythm, touching the siren's bare feet lightly every time.

"What keeps you from going swimming?", Changbin asked rather dumbfounded. The siren laugh lightly and turned his head to look at the confused expression of the vampire. Wasn't it obvious why he couldn't just jump in? He was in his pajamas.

"I'm wearing a pajama and no swimming trousers", Hyunjin laughed and gestured to his cloths. "My fins would screed my top into pieces when I transform", the siren added, thinking about his siren form. His pants would be fine for the most part since he could just roll them up a bit to not hurt the fins on his lower legs. The fin on his back, on the other hand, could surely rip his shirt or get caught in the fabric, which wasn't good either.

"Well, you could take your top off", Changbin suggested while looking up to the ceiling of the grotto. Hyunjin was ripped out of his thoughts by the vampire's voice. It took him a long second to understand what Changbin said, which made him chuckle, because the older but shorter male now refused to look at him. Did the vampire just get shy? Sadly, the siren couldn't tell if the other was blushing due the dim, cold lights in the room, but maybe he could make it more visible.

"Well, if you insist", Hyunjin teased the other and slipped out of the white shirt he was wearing as a pajama. Changbin seemingly wanted to say something when he looked back at the siren but was interrupted when he noticed the other was shirtless.

"By all the good gods. You really took your shirt off", the vampire commented while once again avoiding to look at Hyunjin. The siren only laughed at that, especially because he noticed the light shade of pink on the vampire's ears. So, he really did make Changbin shy and blush.

Hyunjin wanted to smile and be happy about that, but he knew better than anyone that Changbin had a crush on Seungmin and it surely wasn't one sided. Knowing this, the siren silently cursed his ability to see things like that instantly. After all, Hyunjin hadn't only developed feelings for Changbin but for Seungmin too. It wasn't unusual for a siren to do this, since they tend to have multiple crushes at the same time but Hyunjin was unlucky enough to have a crush on two friends of his, who liked each other and he didn't want to get into the way of that.

Just being reminded of this made Hyunjin just throw his shirt to the side and jump into the coolness of the water. Being engulfed by this almost soundless, calming world let him forget everything for a precious moment.

With his eyes closed, Hyunjin could feel his fins slowly forming on his back, legs and arms as well as feel his shiny scales appear on his skin. His lungs connected themselves with his gils, which became visible on the sides of his neck and let the restricting feeling in his throat disappear in an instant.

When the siren reopened his eyes he was met with the dark but clear bottom of the pool, which was covered in smooth stones. Hyunjin turned around, so he could look up to Changbin. The vampire got probably a bit scared when he jumped into the water out of nowhere.

Hyunjin sucked in a bit of the clear water and let his gils be filled by it. To Hyunjin, having the cool water run through his gils was calming and made him focus on the important things, which in this case weren't the feelings he had for Changbin and Seungmin.

With that done he swam up to the surface effortlessly, poking his head out of the water to show Changbin he was fine.

"Did I scare you, hyung?", Hyunjin asked while he swam back to the edge of the pool, so Changbin could hear him better. The vampire shook his head as an answer, even though he clearly had been surprised enough to walk closer towards the edge of the pool.

"I was just surprised you jumped in so suddenly", the vampire admitted, while taking off his socks and once again avoiding eye contact with Hyunjin. The siren noticed that but didn't think about it any further.

"Sorry about that", Hyunjin apologized and laid his arms over the edge of the pool, so he could rest his head on top of them comfortably. Changbin just shook his head and bent down to pull the lower parts of his pants up.

"Don't be sorry if being in the water calms you down. You should go for a swim whenever you feel like it", the vampire answered and sat down beside Hyunjin, letting his bare feet tangle in the water. Hyunjin couldn't help but smile a tiny bit. He got to know Changbin as this dark, intimidating vampire and now he was just a huge softie, and in the siren's opinion also a cutie.

"What are you smiling about?", Changbin huffed, glancing at Hyunjin before looking over the water again. Why did Changbin avoid looking at him that much? Didn't he like his siren form? Did he think it was strange? Hyunjin mentally shooed this thoughts away in an instant. Changbin was too nice and too smart to think bad of his siren form.

"I just thought about how you acted so tough when I first met you", the siren answered honestly. Changbin scrunched up his nose a little. The vampire probably tried to look displeased but he just looked adorable in the siren's opinion.

"Who said I was acting like I'm tough", Changbin argued but he kind of used a rather pouty voice, which made him sound like a child. Hyunjin chuckled at that and once again noticed Changbin only glancing at him.

There was a short period of silence between them. Only the sound of the tiny waves, which reached over the edge of the pool was audible along with the dripping sound of the wet stones on the ceiling.

The silence was calming but Hyunjin was still a little bit irritated by the fact Changbin didn't look at him at all. He couldn't explain why it annoyed him that much but it did and he couldn't take it any longer.

"Hyung?", Hyunjin spoke up. Changbin replied with a simple "Hm?" but his focus remained on the water and not the siren beside him. "Why won't you look at me?", the taller of the two asked in a straightforward manner.

Being a bit surprised by that question Changbin automatically turned his head and looked into the siren's eyes. There was a silence when the vampire's dark orbs with the red glimmer in them met Hyunjin's shiny, ocean blue eyes with the playful glint.

Hyunjin always knew Changbin's eyes seemed to be deeper than they actually were, but right now he was just lost on this pool of darkness with only a little red light to guide you. They sparked the siren's curiosity and made him want to take a closer look.

Subconsciously, the siren heaved his upper body out of the water just to see what caused him to get so curious. He knew Changbin's eyes were able to turn from their usual dark brown, almost black color to a scarlet red but this little red glimmer was always there. It seemed kind and warm just like the vampire himself.

Suddenly, Hyunjin noticed how close he had gotten to Changbin and backed off in an instant, which also caused him to dive back into the water because he wasn't moving his feet. While being underwater the siren slapped both of his cheeks, adding more red to them.

What was he doing? He couldn't just get that close to Changbin! The vampire had a crush on Seungmin! Hyunjin couldn't just interfere in that. By the gods, what if he subconsciously used his siren charms on the vampire when he told him to look him into the eyes? What if the other had been forced to look at him without the siren realizing?

"Stop being so stupid Hyunjin! There is more important stuff to think about!", Hyunjin reminded himself and slowly swam back to the surface to face a very red Changbin. The siren cursed at himself for doing that to the vampire.

"I'm sorry about that", Hyunjin mumbled to himself, gaining Changbin's attention, who had seemingly been in a trance. The vampire lightly shook his head and looked to the siren. The smaller male's eyes were full of surprise and a little bit of panic as well as something Hyunjin couldn't put his finger on.

"Don't be sorry I wasn't any better", the vampire laughed awkwardly and rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. Hyunjin slapped himself mentally. He made the situation awkward, very awkward. He really did have to ruin it, hadn't he? Hyunjin dunked half of his face back into the water, so he could hide a bit from the vampire. Without even noticing he also avoided looking into the other's eyes.

"Hey, Hyunjin", Changbin called his name to get back the siren's eyes back on him. Only timidly did the siren look back to him. The vampire smirked a bit when their eyes met.

"Why won't you look at me?", the vampire repeated the exact question from Hyunjin but in a very different tone since he wore a little teasing grin on his lips while asking. Hyunjin huffed as a response, creating some bubbles but even if he wanted to he couldn't hide the smile on his lips.

———————————

Seungmin was standing in the entrance hall of the Kims mansion. After he had talked with his group about the things that had happened at the Kim mansion and told them the information he found out through his father yesterday, he had called Changbin once again after the vampire, Chan and Jisung had talked to Taeyong.

Changbin had told NCT's leader as well as Chan, his own group leader, about the book of vampires since only Jisung, Taeil, his vampire hyungs and Seungmin had known about it being in Changbin's possession. The uncrowned vampire king had explained to them what it could do but also pointed out it's current limits, because he was still unable to use it's full potential.

Seungmin had called the vampire to talk to him about the old vampire artifact and Changbin caught him up on everything regarding this particular book, which made the redhead change his plans a bit. Over call, they tried to figure out how to unlock the book but didn't get very far, which was why Seungmin had promised he would get to the NCT headquarter to help Changbin as soon as possible.

The redhead planned on keeping that promise, but for that he once again had to ask his father for help. Even though, Seungmin wasn't fond of the idea of relying on Lucifer, the devil had said he would help if he was asked. Despite being the devil, who was seen as the evilest being in existence, Lucifer was a man of his word.

Wonpil and Dowoon would come with Seungmin, even if Lilith disliked that, since Dowoon had some explaining to do after his fellow group members were told by Wonpil what had gone down at the Kim mansion. Wonpil had called their group members after the vampire had woken up on the previous evening. Even though, Seungmin only heard the last part of the phone call Wonpil and Dowoon had with Jae, Younghyun and Sungjin, because while they had talked Seungmin and Byungho had searched for Lucifer, it must have involved a lot of yelling. At least the redhead had guessed that by the part he had heard.

Of course, Byungho was tagging along too, not because the brunette said so by himself but, because Seungmin more or less made him do it by using Chan as the main argument. It was a very low blow but it served it's purpose.

While impatiently tapping his foot, Seungmin waited for Byungho and Lucifer to show up. He asked himself what took them so long but he would never say that out loud, at least not in the current situation. The redhead huffed and turned his phone's display on, looking at the time. Only two minutes have pasted since he did that the last time.

"Don't stress so much", Wonpil tried to calm his younger brother for the fifth time. The older demon as well as Dowoon waited together with Seungmin but they were much calmer than the redhead. Dowoon had given up on trying to tell Seungmin to relax a bit but Wonpil hadn't, at least not yet.

Suddenly hearing footsteps, made Seungmin look up from his phone in an instant. Both Lucifer and Byungho appeared on the stairs at the same time and the young demon knew why they took so long when he noticed that Byungho's wings were hidden again. Lucifer had probably hidden them under a strong spell, since Byungho still wasn't in the right mind space to cover them up himself.

Seungmin's horns and devil's tail had hidden themselves over night when he was focusing on how to get the book of vampires to unlock itself while Byungho's wings had stayed visible. It was a bit of a new experience to lay down next to someone with such large wings but it wasn't a unpleasant one. Byungho's wings could serve as a warm, feathery blanket, after all.

"On time as always, little demon", Lucifer mused while he walked up to Seungmin with his signature smile adoring his face. Even though Lucifer had been a great help the last few hours, Seungmin still had the urge to step away when he saw his father's signature smile. It was almost a reflex at this point.

"Is everyone ready to go?", Lucifer asked looking around to meet Wonpil's and Dowoon's eyes too. Both older males nodded as an answer. Lucifer's smile widened a bit before he simply raised his hand and snapped his fingers. In less than a heartbeat, did the whole groups get teleported into the lobby of the NCT headquarter. This was probably the fastest teleportation Seungmin, Dowoon, Wonpil and Byungho had ever witnessed.

"Have fun and don't stay too long. I will teleport the mansion after the three of you have returned safe and sound, so please do return home together or just call me, so I can pick you up", Lucifer stated and it was one of the very rare occasions where he sounded like a very regular father, despite him being the devil, which wasn't obvious for now, because Lucifer too had hidden his devil's tail and horns. When had he done that? Seungmin didn't know but didn't really care either. He had more important things to do.

"We will let know", Seungmin simply replied to his father. He took Byungho's hand, so he could drag his brother to the headquarter's true entrance. In the corner of his eye did the young redhead see his father's smile again before he disappeared into thin air as well as Wonpil and Dowoon following him.

Entering the NCT headquarter was something the Kim brothers got very much used to, and Seungmin couldn't decide whenever that was bad or not. The magical door appeared and opened itself because it seemingly knew them good enough to trust them to enter the headquarter without the supervision of an NCT member or someone, who had already been inside.

Seungmin had always marveled at the many genius magical aspects of the headquarter when he entered but today his thoughts were too occupied for that. While dragging Byungho up the stairs, he took out his phone and dialed Changbin's number. They had agreed on meeting up after all. It didn't take long for the vampire to pick up.

"You were fast", was the first thing the vampire commented with a little bit of humor in his tone. Seungmin lightly rolled his eyes and let an amused huff escape him.

"I was desperate enough to ask my father for help, so yeah. But not the topic now. Where are you and how much time do we have until the big meeting starts?", Seungmin asked, purposely switching the topic rather quickly to avoid questions he didn't know how to answer. For example, why Changbin never met Seungmin's father or something along the lines of that.

"Currently, I'm in a little meeting room at the end of the hallway on the right side on the third floor. Taeil told me to work here if I needed some peace and quiet for it", Changbin replied. Seungmin nodded even though Changbin couldn't see that.

"I will be there in a minute", the redhead ended the call and pocketed his phone. "Seems like you got everything planned out", Wonpil commented while chuckling a bit. "I did plan it to not waste time. Where will you two be heading?", the younger redhead asked, looking over his shoulder to his oldest brother.

"Day6's room", Wonpil answered with a little smile on his face. Dowoon on the other hand looked like he wanted the ground to shallow him. Since he woke up he had felt guilty, even though Wonpil had reassured him that the incident with Zendala wasn't his fault. He had been tricked, after all.

"Alright let's meet in the lobby around 8pm to get home together", Seungmin quickly threw into the room (or staircase if we wanted to be specific) before he made a turn and entered the third floor, parting ways with Wonpil and Dowoon.

Byungho was still with the young redhead, since he had let Seungmin drag him along quietly until now. The redhead seemed to have almost forgot that he was still holding the other's hand in a firm grip, therefore kindly forcing him to follow. Seungmin slowed down a bit and loosened his grip on Byungho's wrist.

"Do you want to go and find Chan-hyung? We could ask Changbin-hyung where he is?", Seungmin asked, while turning around to face his brother. Byungho lightly shook his head as an answer, even though Seungmin could see in his eyes that he did want to see the wolf hybrid. Did Byungho not allow himself to see Chan for some reason?

"I think it would be good for the both of you if you talked to each other. You are mates after all", Seungmin argues softly, using a more soothing voice than before. The redhead knew the effect Chan and Byungho had on each other ever since he got to know Chan better. The two just were a perfect fit in his eyes, which was also why he believed that Chan could help Byungho a lot just by being by his side.

"I don't think I can face him right now", Byungho sighed, avoiding to look into Seungmin's eyes. The redhead let a breath escape him. He understood that for the most part and decided to not pressure his older brother any further.

"Just promise me you will talk to him. It would help you. Both of you", Seungmin rephrased his previous statement and continued walking, gently pulling his older brother along.

"I know... I know", Byungho mumbled more to himself than Seungmin.