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Living in Korea is dangerously easy. Putting aside the fact that it took Mayu near to two years to adapting with their language alone, it's been terrific. She's got all she planned since she transferred here; a career, a considerable salary, and a living space. Probably a tad too much for a beginning, but she'll take what she's given while she's at it.
Tired is an understatement of what her day was today. Threading the path to become actually successful as a model have required her to sacrifice a lot of time transferring from studio to studio. When her last shoot was done, all she wanted coming home was a cold plate of salad, or if she wanted it greasier, she'd take a box of pizza. But upon returning, she was greeted with not only the salad she wanted—there's a decent plate of homemade kimchi and other dishes she couldn't name. In normal situation, this would be creepy, wouldn't it? It should be. But at that time it felt like blessing from god.
Until she saw not only a tall, but half-naked man standing before her pantry.
Mayu have never screamed so loud in her life.
The mysterious man raises his eyebrows upon seeing the woman screaming, he then cringes a little when the high pitched scream went louder as he tries to approach her.
"What a scream." he comments and yawns. "You took too long, I got bored waiting in front of your apartment."
The super tall guy ignores Mayu's frantically panic hands along with the things she throws at him. He only moves when he notices that Mayu is about to throw a plate-- along with its content-- at him.
He grabs Mayu's hand tightly and whispers, "Don't throw this, I like this one."
Not only she was scrambling with what was fear and dread, but also plain confusion. As much as she's terrified for her safety, Mayu couldn't help but to question this course of events. If this man truly came to harm her, did he plan to dispose of her and make this living space his? Other than that being the most ridiculous motive for this sort of crime—if barging into one's house is not enough crime—she couldn't have the beginning of her modeling career ruined this way. Whether it's rape or murder, she'll have to get out of it.
"I'm calling the police! I'm calling the police!!!" she roared, but in that state of panic, she doesn't even realize her phone was feets away from her. Upon reality setting in, she knew her means of defense would be using whatever weapon to hold him back. And at that time it was the food.
Mayu was pretty sure she'd make a good aim. But when the said target swiftly locked her hand that's now missing the plate, only to notice the plate was returned safe on the table, the fight she totally thought would win began to falter.
"What do you want?! I barely have money!!" Mayu screamed again, with her futile attempts of escape.
"I know." the mysterious man chuckles, mocking her. "Wait, nobody told you about me?"
Mayu shook her head furiously, "NO?! Who the hell are you and what are you doing in my place?!"
"I'm from the-- uhh, you might not know this, but let's just say I'm a person sent from the Defense Security Command. Not exactly that, but it will be hard to explain. You really didn't get any notice about this? From family? Or someone from the office calling you or emailing you?" the tall guy raises his eyebrows, doubting Mayu.
Before Mayu gets to answer him, the man continues rambling, "Or are you one of those assholes who barely pick up their phonecalls if it's anonymous number, because they are being called by debt collectors and never check their emails?"
In addition of creeping her out, this man is rude. Incredibly so. Because over her two decades of living, this is no proper way to greet a woman—or any human in general. Mayu grits her teeth. "No emails, no calls, I would be the first to know if that comes up because I'm turning in for jobs!!" she resumed to exclaim with her eyebrows furrowed. "For the record, I might barely have my rent covered but I was never indebted! Get out, you creep!" with that, Mayu gathered the last of her will to kick him on the shin.
"That was weird." the man said to himself and was about to check his phone inside his pants-- just to realize how he doesn't even wear one. Now that makes sense, of course this client would be afraid.
"Can you excuse me for a second? I need to retreive my clothes. I was just taking a bath when you walked in here." he /politely/ asked.
Being left at that, all Mayu could do was shudder. It's practically chilling that this person took everything this unnatural as normal as morning stroll.
"What.......??" she questioned both herself, the stranger, and the situation simultaneously.
The stranger just went past Mayu and gets his clothes, then he went into the bathroom and comes back just minutes later.
"Here's my badge." the stranger shows him a namecard and badge, protected in an elite looking leather case. "My name is Kang Hyunjae."
Mayu stares at him, still dumbfounded.
"Wait my bag.... ah, here it is." Jae takes his backpack and unzips it, taking out documents. "Here are the details. Are you smart enough to read or you want me to tell you exactly what happened?"
Badge? Mission? Coming from someone whom a moment ago was a naked man, it sounded delusional.
"Just.... Just what is this about??" barely accepting what she was given, all Mayu wanted was clarity. "So you're an official? Wh— wasn't there any protocol instructing you how to enter someone else's house?!" accepting the document, flimsy in her hand, Mayu read the contents like swallowing some fever dream. This couldn't be real.
"I'm.......... What the hell," she sighed in mixture of disbelief and anxiety. Why is she an interest of some fabricated organization related to the.. Law? Protection squad? It makes little to no sense. With both palms covering her face, she muffled a scream of frustration. Just when everything in life was about to go right, it got very, very wrong.
"There are protocols, but you were out for so long and I thought someone from the office might have told you." Jae shrugs. "I guess they forgot. This is just a short mission anyway, you are suspected of having mana in you. There are only two choices, either I stay with you to give you protection or you come with me for quarantine for three months, as you have read there."
"Can I choose neither?" Mayu sighs exasperatedly.
"You don't have the right to choose that. We are being nice by offering you a protection here, or else we would have kidnapped you and erase your records. Even your rich parents couldn't do anything about it." Jae explains. "This is is a big thing, Mayu, your life might be in danger."
The corner of her mouth twitched. Yeah, rich parents, whom she had flew to Korea to avoid. Mayu despised having to have that tied to her even when she started a brand new life from the ground up.
"You... Next time start with that." dragging her palm towards her forehead, she sighed in defeat. "Just what is this Mana you mentioned about? I lived my life never knowing what that is, so as far as I'm concerned, it's bullshit to me." Mayu pursed her lips and scowled. "Also if you haven't noticed, I have a job to do. I'm up to something! Having you tag along will give me nothing other than a load of trouble, if I don't have enough already."
"It's a classified information that only several class of people knows." Jae takes a seat on the chair in front of him. "Do you believe in magic, Mayu?"
"No."
Hyunjae ignores her and continues explaining, "It's similar to that. It's a life-force, an energy, it's an unlimited source of clean energy that can be used for humanity purposes or its doom. Like.... for example, like nuclear bomb. It was made from extracted mana. You’ve studied physics right? You think uranium and atoms themselves can cause those kind of reactions and explosions? The governments and scientists who actually studies energy conceals those kind of informations in the form of basic physics. It’s kind of difficult to explain, but that’s mana manipulation. Human has been using mana all their life, and mana-users in history are usually seen as ‘god’, ‘prophet’, ‘king’, or something similar like that. There are two types of mana user as—“
Seeing Mayu’s dumbfounded expression, Hyunjae exhales. “Someone should've come to your place yesterday, this is not my job to educate you. My job is to protect you as a temporary Lunarium assigned to you. I'm really bad at explaining. Just read all the documents first, I want to eat.”
“Wait! So basically, I’m a magician who can use this energy called mana? I don’t want this, I just want to live my life independently and crawl my way up to become a supermodel! You can go to hell with your magician bullshit. If you’re here, then what about my job? Am I supposed to have you strut around watching me as I work?” Mayu frowns.
“As for your job... I don't give a shit. You're not exactly a supermodel whose scandal would attract public. It's not like I would cause trouble to you, I'm just here to keep you safe."
Now if she didn't wake up with a bad concussion, she'll question just about everything she sees. "I'm not a supermodel, /yet/," Mayu stressed that out. "But with your presence I can already sense a handful of trouble I will have no time explaining to my coworker. Look at how you barged into my house. How would you think you'd stand guarding me like a watchdog?"
Hyunjae then took a seat on the dining chair, ignoring Mayu’s confused looks. His mind is occupied, he couldn't help thinking about how and why nobody from his office told Mayu. Someone should've come at least a day without him. Something is off here.
Mayu, being ignored again, felt a migraine building in. She was partly sure this matter is legit, but a larger part in her still wanted to believe this is a dream. Or some sort of crazy hallucination.
"You know what, you don't fuck with my work, I don't fuck with you. If you don't behave, I'm calling the police on you." she's surprised she didn't do it right then and there. If this is in her head, this should go away the next morning, no? Not to mention, upon looking, this man..... Is ridiculously hot. More reason that this is a sick dream. What was his name again? Hyunjae? Jae-what? She just wanted her sleep for the day. The food doesn't look as appetizing anymore, and she wants shower. So she headed to it.
"Take a bath and go to sleep early, turn off your lamps and don't go out of your room until next morning." Jae instructs her, while Mayu answers him with a middle finger and a slammed door.
Once Mayu is in the bathroom, Jae takes out his touchpad and does his job-- making sure that this apartment is completely safe. Through any legal and illegal means, he doesn't care. He really wish he could investigate about why nobody went to see Mayu, but he decides that staying by Mayu's side for is more important.
Because he's afraid Mayu has been targeted from the start.
After her shower routine that took longer than a full course meal, she stepped out of the shower, fully clothed, mindful of the other...... Strange presence in her house. This is already troublesome.
Mayu rolled her eyes at whatever antics Hyunjae was pulling; she had a feeling she doesn't want to know. However her head is clouded with exhaustion anyway, so making her way to the bedroom, she alerted the....... Companion? Why is she acting so casually as if she forgot this was closer to a robbery than a friendly guest? "I'm going to bed. Suit yourself."
"Sure." Hyunjae ignores her and focuses on his gadgets. Now that Mayu is asleep, he can finally start doing his job.
Mayu couldn't sleep at all.
She tried her best to fall asleep, but it's hard. Too hard. She had cases of insomnias before, especially when she's stressed and overthinking, and this time it's also probably the cause. She wonders how is she going to live her life after all of these bullshits. Sure, it said three months of surveillance with a guard on her side, but what if it's gonna take longer than that? Is she going to be quarantined and kept as a rat lab forever? Like those sci-fi movies? All of these feels unreal, but she knows this is not a dream.
Then, a hand grabbed her mouth shut while pulling herself down under her bed.
"Stay still until they all leave." Jae whispers in Mayu's ears. "We might have a guest here."
Fuck, that word’s going around in her mouth. Is she truly in danger this quick? That will only make sense if it's really. Because it'll be consistent to what she experienced just hours before.... Even that on it's own felt really surreal.
Mayu felt like screaming. Hearing Hyunjae warning her for the upcoming danger through the whisper doesn't make it any better. She wanted to flee on her own, if anything. But a part of her mind is telling her not to, that she could trust this guy. This is growing worse and worse.
"Hmmp..?" she was trying to make out 'who?' but that wouldn't do much, would it. All she could do in the meantime, if she wants out alive, is to listen to him.
“You’ve been targeted from the start. I’ll explain later, but stay here and don’t be found.” Hyunjae whispers and lets go of his hand from Mayu’s mouth. Then, he crawls out from under the bed frame and left.
Mayu grits her teeth, wondering what’s currently happening. She keeps waiting, her drowsiness left her completely. Her heart jumps when she heard gunshots and screams from afar. “I-is that—no, it couldn’t be.” Mayu mumbles to herself. She thought it might be Jae, but the voice screaming is different, it couldn’t be him. That means it’s the bad guy. Jae probably managed to catch the bad guys already.
Mayu continues waiting there for around 15 minutes before she sees someone walking into the bedroom. Her heart beats really hard, could it be Jae? A friend? Enemy? Will she die here? Will she—
“I know you’re there, missy.” The stranger with long black hair and tatoos kneels on the floor to peek who’s hiding under the bed frame. Just before he got to see Mayu, he find a fist flying into his face.
“FUCK!!!” The stranger screams and fell onto his back as Mayu pushed him. Mayu saw the man’s eyes crying blood and she’s thankful to herself because she kept her nails long. She wishes that the man would go blind, or at least lost his eyesight temporarily until Mayu can run away from this ruined apartment.
Mayu kept running and didn’t dare to look back because she’s scared that the man is chasing him. She runs her way towards the front door and the damn door opened right before Mayu got there, revealing a very large built man. He’s tall, hairy, and looks exactly like a ferocious beast with his fangs.
Mayu stops running and fell back onto her feet. Her face is completely pale upon seeing the beast-man. She’s done now, she’s alone and she’s going to die. The beast-man grins and was about to reach for Mayu. Mayu closed her eyes and then she heard a scream, but it’s not hers.
Mayu opened her eyes to see blood spreading onto the beast-man’s shirt, and in the middle of it, there’s the point of a knife—no, dagger. The large man turns his back at Mayu and growls loudly at the person who stabbed him from behind. After that, Mayu could see the beast-man punched a guy with the power enough to break a wall. The wind resulting from the punch is enough to push Mayu down, but she stays still, watching everything. Mayu can barely see who the beast-man is fighting, because the beast-man’s body is too big, but Mayu already knows that it must be Hyunjae.
Jae got punched directly and flew off, almost fell down from the apartment building. He didn’t fall, instead he managed to hold onto the rail and lifted his own body up in a somersault, jumping right onto the beastman’s shoulder and slit his throat with the blade he hid in his soles. Then, he flew past Mayu. Everything happened so quickly and she couldn’t react at all. Mayu heard screaming, so she turned her head back and found the long haired man from before, falling down with his throat sliced too.
Then, Mayu noticed that the long haired man’s hands are glowing in red, and the glows flies with a fast speed towards the beast-man that Jae fought before. Mayu’s eyes followed the glows, she has no idea what is she supposed to do now.
“You shouldn’t have seen that, I’m sorry.” Hyunjae hopped over the dead body, and walk limply towards Mayu, holding his broken right arm with his left hand. He looks horrible, like a car-crash victim, his clothes are stained with blood, both his and the enemy’s. “It’s over now.”
“No.” Mayu looks at Hyunjae and bites her pale lips.
“What do you mea—“
“The glowing—The beast-like man- I think-- The man you just killed, there’s glow and--!!” Mayu’s fear became real in an instant, as the beast-man went back up again. His sliced throat and stab wounds are glowing in red, as they rapidly heals.
Hyunjae grits his teeth and takes out his gun as he shoots several times right into the beast-man’s heart, but it’s no use, the bullets couldn’t even penetrate his skin.
“YOU’RE GOING TO PAY!!” The beast-man’s eyes are glowing red as he starts roaring and crying, probably over his dead friend. The beast-man jumps towards Hyunjae, and starts attacking him with his claws, Hyunjae can only avoid him and occasionally defend himself with his daggers.
“J-Jae!!” Mayu screams his name and was about to help when Hyunjae glares at him.
“Back off!!” Hyunjae grits his teeth when the claw managed to hit his sides, he’s now bleeding badly and probably won’t last long.
Hyunjae shouts, “Mayu, I know it’s going to be hard for you but please give me your mana!!” He said as he jumps to avoid the beast-man’s attacks.
“How?!!” Mayu asked him, she sounds like she’s going to cry anytime soon.
Hyunjae didn’t answer. It’s hard for a beginner Solis to give their mana to their Lunarium, it’s almost impossible for Hyunjae to ask Mayu to give him her mana, so he decided to keep his mouth shut.
“Hyunjae answer me!!!” Mayu orders him, “Or else I will run toward you right now!”
Hyunjae hestitated for a while before answering, “Do it exactly like the dead guy did, you saw it didn't you?! The glowing red light! Collect your mana in your hands!" Hyunjae's dagger clashed with the beast-man's claw, "Wait there, I’ll come to you!” he shouts before he jumps towards the wall to avoid beast-man’s attack, and then he hops towards the beast-man and steps on his shoulders, stabbing beast-man’s shoulders with the blades on his soles. Then, he uses beast-man’s body as a spectacle to step and hops all the way towards Mayu.
“Hyunjae, I managed to— Aaaaah!!” Mayu shouts as Hyunjae picks her up and carries her on his shoulder, like a potato sack.
“Let’s run away from here, I called for help already. With my level, I won’t be able to defeat hi--”
Hyunjae stops talking, his eyes widen as Mayu shows her glowing white hands towards him proudly. “I did it, now what should I do?!”
“H-how--?” Hyunjae looks really surprised. Mayu shouldn't be able to do this, her powers barely awaken.
“Just tell me what to do, idiot!! He’s chasing us!!!” Mayu screams at the dumbfounded Hyunjae.
Hyunjae stops running after they managed to get a decent distance from the beast-man, and puts Mayu down. Then he takes Mayu’s glowing hands and puts them on his chest. The glows suddenly disappears from Mayu’s hands and now, Hyunjae’s whole body is engulfed in white lights, as if he’s some kind of god who descend onto the earth.
“W-whoa—“ Mayu stares at her protector, completely speechless.
“Give me an order.” Hyunjae suddenly spoke.
“W-what?”
“Just do it.”
Mayu went silent for a while before she finally raises her hand and points at the beast-man who stopped after he saw Hyunjae’s new power.
“I order you to destroy him.”
“As you wish, my sun.” Hyunjae suddenly disappear from Mayu’s sight.
It happened so fast, the beast-man couldn’t even fight back nor let out a scream. In an instant, the beast-man is lying down on the floor, defeated and half-dead.
Not finished, Hyunjae aims his palm towards the beast-man as glowing light starts accumulating on his palms. Harsh wind blows from Hyunjae and beast-man’s direction, strong enough for Mayu to be pushed back a little bit if she’s not holding onto the ground.
Mayu’s eyes widen, she has bad feeling about this. She stands up and run towards Hyunjae, planning to stop him from literally destroying the beast-man’s body and proably destroying the whole area. She doesn’t know if that thing will really have that amount of power, but somehow she just knows, that it’s a very dangerous thing.
“Hyunjae, stop!!” Mayu tries to call for him, but the wind is too strong, she couldn’t even move from her position. At this point, Hyunjae could’ve killed her too.
Then, Mayu heard an explosion and everything turned white.
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“You should’ve listened to your Solis, Jae.”
Mayu heard a man’s voice and then she saw a silhouette of a tall man. The white light disappears and Mayu could see everything clearly now. There’s a good looking man, he looks probably around 30 year old, he could easily be a model with that look. His hair is short and jet black, his eyes… Mayu has never seen anyone with bright gold eyes like his, he looks otherwordly. Behind him, there’s dark purple lights that looks like a wall that stands in between them, and Hyunjae’s direction. Mayu also notices that the similar walls are surrounding the whole area, as if it’s a shield that keeps them inside this area. She's alive, and this man probably has just saved her life from the explosion from before.
“Are you okay, Miss Mayu?” the man offered his hand, “I’m sorry for what Hyunjae did to you. I’ll be sure to reprimand him later. Ara, can you help her and take her back to the heli? I’ll deal with Hyunjae.” He sounds firm and commanding, but his smile never left his face.
“I’ll be back soon, Miss. Once again, I’m sorry.” The man bows down towards her before leaving her, probably to take care of Hyunjae.
“Miss Mayu?” a woman’s voice calls for her, and Mayu turns his head towards the voice. There, a woman with shoulder length light brown hair kneels beside her, she looks very beautiful despite her stern look. Actually, this lady looks very familiar, it feels like Mayu saw her somewhere…
“Can you stand up? We need to go to our helicopter for safety.”
Mayu only nods, and accepts Ara’s helping hand. They both walked towards the helicopter, Mayu can see people whose appearance looks like soldiers running around, but that’s the least of her concern. Mayu hopped into the helicopter with Ara’s help and sits on a seat in there. Then, Ara gives Mayu a warm blanket and hands her a warm can of drink. “Drink that, you’ll feel better.”
Mayu accepts the blanket and covers herself with the warm blanket first, before opening the warm can of drink and drinks the content. It tastes like sweet chocolate. Mayu didn’t have the energy to talk at all, she feels drained from this cursed night. Mayu peeks at the woman in front of her. Unlike the man from before, this woman barely smile at all, but honestly Mayu feels much at ease because it means Mayu doesn’t have to pretend to smile either.
“Can I ask you something?” Mayu finally opened her mouth to ask.
“Of course.” Ara answers in an instant.
“Who are you guys?”
“Hyunjae’s boss.”
That makes sense but it’s really obvious, Mayu could’ve guessed. It wasn't the answer Mayu wanted.
“Why does those people wants to kill me?”
“They didn’t want to kill you, they wanted to kidnap you and use you.”
“Oh. Just like what you guys are going to do to me now, since you know that I have the mana thing?”
Ara turns silent for a while before answering, “...No, we’re not going to do that to you. I promise that you can live freely, but you have to go to our place first, because you just awakened your power.” Ara answered firmly.
Mayu only laugh at her answer, but somehow Mayu feel like she can trust these people. At least more than the other party, who brought that scary beast-man in order to kidnap her.
Both of the women turn silent as they both look at the outside, where the sun starts rising from the horizon. Then, they saw silhouette of two men going closer towards their helicopter. Mayu can guess who they are from their silhouette.
“Hyunjae, apologize to your Solis.” The older man orders his subordinate.
Hyunjae nods and bows 90 degree towards Mayu. “I’m sorry.” He mumbles.
“For?” The older man asked again.
“For ignoring your orders and almost killing you.” Hyunjae continues, “If General wasn’t here on time, you would’ve died too.”
Everyone there turns silent. Talking about life and death, and near death experience is usual thing for them, but to tell a civilian that she was about to die earlier...
Mayu’s face turns paler, and she grits her teeth. The General was about to scold Hyunjae’s insensitivity before Mayu stands up and jumps down from the helicopter. Then, she raises her arm to slap Hyunjae’s face, loud and crisp. All of them, The General, Ara, and Hyunjae, are dumbfounded.
“You son of a bitch!!! I can’t believe you almost killed me!!!” Mayu screams in high pitch as she pulls Hyunjae’s ear, “Bowing down isn’t enough you little shit! Beg for my forgiveness! Bow down and lick my feet, then I’ll forgive you!!!” Mayu slaps Hyunjae’s dumbfounded face one more time, but nobody stops her, not even Hyunjae himself.
Unexpectedly, The General closes his mouth with his hands and laughs, earning surprised stares from both Hyunjae and Ara. They stare at him like he’s even weirder than Mayu who’s currently torturing Hyunjae. Seeing that, Mayu also stop and stare at him.
“Ah, sorry. She's so funny I couldn't help myself.” The General coughs, embarrassed. “I haven’t introduced myself. My name is General Shin Daehyun, my subordinates usually call me General but you can call me Daehyun-ssi or perhaps ahjussi.”
“I’m the leader of Mana Defense and Security Intelligence Unit, a special unit to take care of everything mana-related in this country. We are a unit under the government, but we act independently and we have organizations all over the world. Don’t worry, I promise you that you’re under good hands.”