Chapter Text
Evandel was a very smart girl and she knew she wasn’t supposed to be here, but she really missed her appa.
She had promised him that she was not going to go out alone, but she crossed her fingers behind her back so technically she had promised nothing of sorts.
And besides, she wasn't alone. She had Hayang with her. So no promise was broken, even if she had made one.
See? She was quite the smart girl!
Now, after sneaking in between the hallways of the CUBE with Hayang in her arms following her appa’s mana, she found herself in an open area with trees and students loitering around.
Evandel focuses hard, frowning as she amongst all the mana tries to find her appa’s weak, but pure one.
It was hard. Most of the mana here mingled together, tangled up in itself, and everyone in the room was so strong that the colors bled into each other until it was almost nauseating to look at.
Then she saw it.
Her appa’s mana, a small but blue-ish sliver.
She couldn't contain herself. She took off running, Hayang bolting along beside her, and screamed at the top of her lungs, chanting.
“Appa!!! Appa!!! Appa!!!”
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Hajin had been having a nice day. Sure, his gut had been screaming at him to be alert since that morning, but whatever.
He could handle it.
That was what he'd thought, anyways. Before Evandel and Hayang came sprinting toward him in the middle of a practical class.
Evandel flung her whole body at his leg, clinging to it like a lifeline, and beamed up at him.
“Appa!!”
Hajin glances at his surroundings and everyone, even the teacher, was staring at him with different levels of shock.
Oh, yeah. He was in deep shit now.
Suho, oh so kind Suho, tilted his head and cleared his throat, trying and failing to seem casual.
"Uhhh, Hajin. Do you know that kid?"
"No." Hajin replied instinctively, then felt a dread pool in his gut as he heard a small sniffle.
Hajin knew he was a very weak man. That with a single bad move he could die in a ditch, forgotten forever. But still, he glanced down at his daughter.
His daughter had tears welling in her eyes, about to spill over.
His four-year-old daughter, who muttered in a very small voice. "Appa... you don't want me anymore?"
And he immediately folded.
Panic rushed visibly across his face, which only left everyone in the room more baffled, as he leaned down and scooped Evandel up before the tears could fall. He patted her back with practiced ease, shushing her, murmuring comfort.
"Hey! Don't cry!!" Hajin rubs her back faster. "I still want you very much!! I'm so sorry! Appa was lying when he said no!! Please don't cry."
Evandel rubbed her eyes with her little hand and sniffled. "It was a lie?"
Hajin nodded quickly. "Yep. Appa is a liar and a very bad person."
"Appa is not a bad person!!" Evandel defended childishly, tears spilling again.
Hajin panicked again. "I was wrong! I am not a bad person! Please, don't cry."
Evandel pouted and hugged Hajin tightly, this time wiping her tears on his uniform. "So appa still loves me?"
Hajin sighed, staring straight ahead, not meeting the eyes of any of his clearly dumbfounded classmates. "Yes. Appa still loves Evandel very much. So don’t cry."
Evandel nodded and rubbed her eyes again with her little hand. "I want pizza."
"Okay, let's get pizza." Hajin obliged easily, because he was a weak man, and ditched class to take Evandel out to eat.
This was going to make the rumors so much worse. But at least he was going to gain more SP out of this little stunt.
Thank god for his luck that Rachel had been busy with royal matters today, or he would have died from embarrassment the moment Evandel called Rachel "eomma."
Maybe he should have fed Evandel with his own blood instead of Rachel's…
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Nayun wasn't sure if what she'd just seen was real or some collective illusion conjured by a Djinn, but whatever it was, it was absolute insanity.
Nobody seemed to know how to react. Everyone was still staring at the spot where Hajin had left, but Nayun was more interested in her friends' reactions, and whether they found it as shocking as she did.
She looked at Suho, who seemed slightly devastated. Then Yeonghan, who looked like he was recalibrating. Then Jonghak, mentally calculating the possibility. And finally Yeonha, who seemed to be connecting dots.
"Yeonha." Nayun pointed at her. "You knew!!"
Everyone glanced at Yeonha, who was clearly taken aback. She raised her hands like she was fending off an accusation.
"I did see Hajin with the kid, once, weeks ago." She admitted, then winced. "But I thought she was just one of the kids from his volunteer work at the orphanage. He does that sometimes, right? Reads to them, helps out. I didn't think anything of it. I swear, I didn't even consider that she might be..."
She trailed off, unable to finish the sentence, like saying it out loud would make it more real.
Jonghak was still muttering to himself, counting something on his fingers. "No. No, wait. Wouldn't the bastard have been fourteen, fifteen tops when he had her? That doesn't add up. Unless she's not actually his and this is some elaborate scheme, or..."
"Maybe she's adopted." Yeonghan offered weakly, grasping at the idea like a lifeline. But even as he said it, his eyes drifted back to the memory of the girl's face. Those eyes. That exact same sharp, unmistakable blue as Hajin's. "Okay. Okay, maybe not adopted."
"So the rumors about him sneaking around living some debauched double life are true?" Someone muttered from the back of the group, not even bothering to lower their voice.
"Wait, no." Another voice cut back in, indignant. "Wouldn't that mean the rumors are untrue? He wasn't off doing something scandalous, he was sneaking out to take care of his daughter. That's actually kind of..."
"Don't say wholesome." Jonghak warned, voice muffled as he had covered his face with his hands. "I don’t want to consider that scheming bastard someone ‘wholesome’."
Nayun ignored all of them, her attention fixed on Suho, who hadn't said a single word this entire time. That, more than anything, was what unsettled her.
"Honestly, that's the first time I've ever seen Hajin so freaked out." She said, mostly to fill the silence. "He's usually so calm. Isn't that right, Suho?"
Nothing.
"Suho?" She tried again, turning fully toward him.
Suho was just quietly staring at the spot where Hajin had disappeared, his expression unreadable in a way that made Nayun's stomach twist. She opened her mouth to call his name a third time when he finally spoke. It was barely above a whisper, but it still landed like a bomb, and it made everyone in earshot go dead still.
"Don't you guys think that girl looks scarily similar to Rachel?"