s.c.s. ☆ j.jh ☆ ayakashi series | ✔

jaehyun [twenty-nine]

You nervously looked around your living room again. Your protective charm was set up, you'd cleared off your coffee table and fixed up the mess on your couch. Not everybody would have somewhere to sit, but they should all fit, even with the addition of Jungwoo and Mark. You assumed that Sungchan had told him what happened, what Mark had done, since he was coming down from his shrine for the first time in a long while.

Jaehyun emerged from the kitchen to place a hand on the small of your back and press a kiss to your forehead, "When are they coming?"

"Seven. But Johnny said him and Renjun would come fifteen minutes early to set up the food," you reminded him. "I think his constant state of being is cooking."

"Seems like it."

Just a few minutes later, a knock at your door roused Taeyong from his catnap in the corner of the sofa, and you went over to let Johnny and Renjun in. Sicheng was next, as punctual as ever, then Jeno, then Sungchan and Jungwoo, then Yuta.

"That's everybody?" Sicheng double-checked, probably doing a mental roll call.

"No, I told Mark to come as well," you announced, receiving the immediate backlash that you were anticipating.

Jeno and Renjun were the most vocal about their disapproval, while the others joined in at a somewhat lower volume. Jungwoo and Sungchan were the only quiet ones, your mentor clinging to his brother's arm.

"Hey!" You yelled out to silence them. "I know how we all feel about him. But he's the one who started this whole mess, he can give us some more information about it. So please, don't kill him."

"I agree with Lady Onmyoji," Jungwoo spoke up, voice quiet but still commanding the room.

That seemed to calm everybody down a bit more, allowing you to hear the knock at your front door. You moved to open it, letting Mark enter. He was met with several glares and general distrust and disapproval. You didn't really have warm fuzzies for him either, if you were to be honest with yourself.

"Thanks for coming," you murmured to him as you brought him further into the room.

The Onmyoji nervously stood between you and Taeyong, who hissed when he'd accidentally bumped his arm.

"Tell us what the fuck you did, Mark," you ordered, crossing your arms over your chest.

He took a deep breath before speaking, keeping his word speed down unlike a few nights ago, "I was controlling them, and inherently made them more powerful by doing so. When I saw that you guys had actually gotten hurt, I severed my connection with them. But I did it too fast and didn't take the power back."

"So now they're supercharged Wraiths with nobody controlling them?" Renjun spat out.

"Yeah..."

"So what's the plan?" Jaehyun asked.

"The... what?" You couldn't conceal your surprise at his words.

"The plan, to stop the Wraiths."

"What do you mean? Jae, you're..."

"A human? I'm not an Ayakashi or an Onmyoji? Yeah, I'm not. But I'm still helping you, Y/N."

You nodded, taking his hand in yours, "Okay."

Yuta interrupted your heartfelt moment, "Adorable. Jaehyun's right, what are we supposed to do about them?"

You rolled your bottom lip between your teeth, "I mean, do we have to do anything about them? I know it's not ideal for them to be more powerful than usual, but if they're just, you know... chilling, do we actually have to do anything about them?"