Archive of Our Own

Stubby paws pressed onto wet grass as Kayden creeped up and hid behind a large pillar, leaning around it to look at the commotion.

Minutes ago an announcement had gone off in the academy; every student was supposed to return to their individual rooms and not move for the remainder of the evening. He had heard the announcement on the speakers and thought it was weird, but had barely cared, assumed it was a drill of some sort.

Then ten minutes passed and Jiwoo still hadn't returned.

Normally, Kayden wouldn’t worry. But the moment he felt a strong presence outside, he jumped out of bed and raced out to figure out what it was.

When he got there, all the adults were outside. 

Kayden could barely see who was behind this mess, with all the teachers in front of him obscuring his view. Only the edges of a silhouette on the dark grass revealed that it was a man. 

“Give us back the kid, you don't want to do this.” Inhyuk said, he sounded almost desperate like he was pleading with whoever this awakener was.  

“Hah, no. This little brat needs to learn his place.” The man sneered, a small choked sound echoed after the man’s voice, lingering in the tense air. It sounded younger, like a student.

“He's innocent. If you don’t release him, we will have no choice but to take action.” Seongik yelled, Kayden could see his hands balled up into fists at his sides.

It was strange to see Seongik step up too, the old man barely left his office afterall. So, whoever this kid was, he must have been pretty important.

Kayden shook his head, leaning away from the pillar.

If this awakener had simply taken some kid hostage, then the teachers could deal with it. For now, he had to go find his troublesome kid before Jiwoo somehow wound up in trouble too.

He was about to turn away when laughter rang through the air; the awakener was cackling like a damn witch. He sounded absolutely delighted and damn cocky too, it irked some part of Kayden for no reason he knew. 

“Sure, go ahead and try. If your organization wants to go to war with Kayden Break's apprentice, that is. You think my mentor will let it slide when he finds out about this?”

Kayden scrunched his brow, feline eyes widening as disgust and confusion marred his furry face.

What the fuck.

Irritation flowed through his veins, the feeling ached deep in his bones swathed in thin layers of rage. 

He decided to step closer, moving in front of the pillar. He needed to see who the hell had the audacity to claim they were his—

He froze, blood running cold.

The awakener looked familiar, but Kayden didn’t care, fully focused on the boy in the man’s arms.

It was Jiwoo.

Bruises littered his body, and blood dripped down from the side of his face. His eyes were droopy, body held close to the awakener as small laboured breaths came out in puffs. He kept trying to push the man away, but the man wouldn't budge.

Jiwoo’s head was tilted a little to the side, revealing the ripped collar of his uniform and the dried blood, staining the outside of a small wound only an aggressive needle puncture could make. 

The kid the man was holding hostage was his apprentice.

The man had drugged Jiwoo, and used him as a hostage. All while loudly proclaiming that he himself was Kayden’s apprentice, not the innocent boy suffocating in his grip.

Static filled Kayden’s ears as he willed himself to move back behind the pillar and breathe. 

It didn’t work. It didn’t calm him down, every breath that leaked out of his mouth carried small blue sparks.

Quietly, he let the electricity drown him and make him human again. Long fingers pressed against the pillar as he turned back to the commotion. 

The awakener had moved, hands snaking their way around Jiwoo's neck.

With every last bit of his self-control, Kayden snapped his fingers, casting a spatial isolation big enough to cover the entire island and jumped. 

Landing right on the awakener's face while forcibly ripping Jiwoo away from the man.

“You son of a bitch.”  Kayden snarled, staring down at the man beneath his feet, electricty sizzingly and cracking in the air around him.

He recognized the awakener now. 

He was one of the many who had begged at his feet, groveled like a damn dog; always waiting for Kayden to give him any attention. 

When Kayden didn’t give him any, the man would stalk him for days on end. Pitifully begging to learn from him, offering to become his servant in exchange for anything at all. 

Kayden had simply ignored him, laughed in his face, rejected him outright so many times he had lost count.

But the man was as persistent as he was foolish.

Now here he was, squirming underneath the sole of Kayden's shoe, looking up at him as if he were his god. 

“Master.” He said reverently, as if Kayden would ever accept someone as pathetic as him.

“I am not your master, and you will never be anything to me.” Kayden scoffed, words dripping pure venom and disgust. A sick grin spread across his face as navy eyes watched raw agony seep into the man's face at the rejection. 

His grin grew as the man began to beg.

“Please, no s-spare me!”

Kayden let out a low maniac laugh, never taking his eyes off the man. Savouring every bit of the man’s fearful tremors writhing under his foot.

A flash of lightning zapped through the air, and the man beneath his feet was no more than a pile of charred ash.

"Weakling," he muttered under a low breath, turning away as he sensed the many pairs of eyes on him, students peeking through their windows and every teacher in the vicinity staring dead at him.

Mirrored expressions of fear and shock on their faces as Kayden ignored them, glancing over at Jiwoo. The boy hadn’t said a word, barely lucid as he leaned on Kayden’s shoulder.

“Jiwoo.” Kayden says, voice low and as soft as he could manage.

“Mr. Kayden?” Jiwoo slurred, eyes hazy as he shivered in Kayden’s hold.

Kayden set the boy down beside him, resting a hand on Jiwoo's head, thumb brushing the top of cream-blonde hair. 

He set his other hand on the kid's shoulder, a soft blue healing light flowing out from his palm.

Jiwoo blinked, almost stumbling as he tried to take a step. He would have fallen flat on his face if Kayden hadn't kept such a tight grip on his shoulder.

He sighed, fingers gently combing aside the boy's bangs as Jiwoo almost melted into the touch, clarity slowly returning to dazed amber eyes.

Gosh, this kid is so much trouble.

Kayden glanced over and saw Seongik staring at him, silver eyes clear as clouds when he stepped forward.

“Kayden.” The man said, face impassive despite the shock colouring his tone.

“Seongik, we need to talk.” 

It's been a couple days since the attack on the academy and almost everyone was still talking about it.

It was an obvious fact that the person who attacked was a rampaging world awakener who worshipped some all-powerful man. No one knew who it was since most of the situation had been kept secret from the students, but people still talked.

That wasn’t the only thing that had changed, ever since the attack more unaffiliated and affiliated students started hanging out together. The teachers began grouping them together more for the safety of the students, and for increasing overall safety measures.

During most evenings students would hangout in the lounge, where both unaffiliated and affiliated would talk for hours and hours.

Jaehyuk, surprisingly, didn’t hate it by any means. Even now that more and more students were joining the academy, it just meant a lot of new teachers too.

Which leads to Jaehyuk's current problem.

“Hey,” he called out from his place on the couch, getting various grunts and sounds of acknowledgement, only Jiwoo actually responded.

“Yeah?” Jiwoo said, leaning back against the couch, swiftly ignoring Jisuk and Subin fighting over a cushion right beside him.

“Who is that? Isn’t he the guy who saved you?” Jaehyuk asked, pointing at the man a few yards away talking with the principal and a couple other teachers.

“Oh! Uh, I have no idea.” Jiwoo shrugged, before quickly turning away. He sounded… off, it was weird but Jaehyuk opted to ignore it.

“Hell if I know.” Jisuk grunted before throwing another chip at Subin, who almost kneed him in the spine for that.

“He kind of looks familiar.. maybe a new teacher, or bodyguard? I mean how else would he have gotten here in time, he even saved Jiwoo from that crazy awakener guy.” Boyoung muttered, squinting at the man.

Jaehyuk nodded, she did have a point. 

But no matter how hard Jaehyuk wrecked his brain, Jaehyuk could not remember where he'd seen this savior man before.

Everyone in the school knew that Jiwoo was the kid the awakener had taken hostage, chopped it up to his incredibly weird luck. But then some even more skilled awakener had dropped out of the sky and saved him, but no one knew why. 

Only made it more confusing when they had visited Jiwoo’s room after and saw him being healed with the man who saved him sitting in a chair nearby.

He was kind of terrifying though — Jaehyuk could never admit it out loud for the sake of his pride, but it was true.

A shiver had crawled down his spine when dark eyes regarded him coldly, cataloguing every small movement in the room before stepping out. 

Jaehyuk could feel the man’s presence outside the door as Subin, Wooin and Jisuk had all crowded the boy. It made him feel uneasy even as he tried to ignore it.

Yeah, definitely terrifying.

Jaehyuk heard a loud sigh breaking him out of his thoughts. He saw Jisuk and Subin flopping onto the couch from the corner of his eye, both worn out from almost ripping each other to shreds.

The windy bastard sighed and turned to Jiwoo, Jaehyuk saw the exact moment a germ of an idea popped into Jisuk's mind.

Why's he smiling like that?

“I dare you to go hug him.” Jisuk said, eyeing Jiwoo with a huge grin on his face.

The hell!?

Jaehyuk blinked, then glanced at Jiwoo who was just as lost as he was. 

Wooin, who had been peacefully eating a bag of chips, stopped chewing and slowly turned over to look at Jisuk as if he'd asked Jiwoo to go fight the devil. 

“No.” Wooin protested, with more emotion Jaehyuk had ever heard from him.

“Whaat? It's just a hug, what's the problem?” Jisuk said, with a tone filled with faux innocence.

“Huh? What, w-why?” Jiwoo said, tilting his head in confusion.

Jisuk just shrugged. “Why not. I mean, he saved you.”

Wooin just kept looking at him like he was crazy, and tried to say something else but Jisuk grabbed a few chips and stuffed them in his mouth. Effectively shutting the guy up.

Then, he turned back to Jiwoo, smiling at him like the gremlin he was. “I'll give you five boxes of that expensive premium cat food you were talking about if you do it.”

Apparently that was all he needed to say because a second later Jiwoo shot out of his seat and was already walking in the direction the man was.

When he was out of earshot, Sunin whipped her head over to Jisuk, staring incredulously.

“Okay, why did you make him do that?” 

Jisuk shrugged, snickering. “I was bored, thought it'd be funny. That guy looks like a damn hardass, can't imagine someone hugging him.”

Wooin choked, coughing up some water he had somehow inhaled while trying to swallow a mouthful of chips. Subin just patted him on the back, while not taking her eyes off Jisuk.

Then, she smirked devilishly.

“Oh! You're jealous that guy's sexier than you.” Subin cackled and Jisuk shoved his foot in her rib.

Jaehyuk shook his head, scrolling on his phone to try to ignore them.

Idiots.

A minute passed before they stopped fighting and crawled back onto the couch.

“Okay, but seriously why?” Subin said, narrowing her eyes at him.

Jisuk raised his hands defensively as she leaned closer to him.

“What— why're you looking at me like that? I just told you!”

She stared, he blinked, but she kept staring.

Jisuk sighed, “alright fine, get out my face.”

He shoved her away and got more comfortable on the couch.

“I bought a fuckton of cat food and now I have leftover boxes,” Jisuk grumbled like the absolute weirdo Jaehyuk always knew he was.

“How many boxes?”

“A few..”

Hesitantly, Boyoung asked, “how many is a few?”

“Fifteen..”

“Pfft—”

Jisuk scowled when Subin snorted, cackling as she yelled “cat-obsessed maniac” and held her stomach.

Jaehyuk rolled his eyes, glancing over at Boyoung who was being unusually quiet.

She gasped, staring wide-eyed and making everyone pause to turn over and look at her. Boyoung looked so horrified that even Jaehyuk was a little concerned.

“What? What's wrong with you?” He stressed, but now she was pointing in the direction Jiwoo had gone, almost hysterical.

“Kayden Break! That's Kayden Break!” 

Jaehyuk blinked, jaw parted open, “What?”

Boyoung ignored him and looked Jisuk dead in the eyes instead. Jaehyuk was half convinced she wasn't even breathing.

“You just told Jiwoo to go hug Kayden Break.”

Something in Jaehyuk's head clicked and a memory flashed through his mind. Jaehyuk had been a few years younger and had overheard a conversation. Being as curious as he was, he went to his dad’s office to ask about it.

“Hey, Dad… who's Kayden Break?”

His dad paused from where he was sorting files, looking up at the boy from his spot in the office.

“Where did you hear that name?” He asked, wearily and Jaehyuk shrugged, feigning nonchalance as nerves swam in his stomach.

His dad sighed, rummaging through a drawer before pulling out a beige file from underneath his desk, and setting it in front of the boy. 

He opened it and pointed at a picture of a man. Tall and Pale. Long dark hair pulled into a ponytail, big black hoodie and dark jeans. Cold, dark eyes staring dead on at the camera, like he knew he was being watched.

“This is Kayden Break. He is a notorious awakened one, known for his temper and power. He's a ruthless man. If you're ever even in his area, run. I don't care how dangerous it is, Jaehyuk. You get out of there immediately.” His dad warned, the air turning chilled from the gravity pouring out of his words.

Jaehyuk winced, hands twitching behind his back. His dad had yelled at him before, but this was the first time he had done it like this. 

It wasn’t fair, he was just curious!

“I don't understand, why—” Jaehyuk tried to say but his dad interrupted him.

“You don't have to understand. You just have to know, he won't spare you.” His dad spat at him. 

Jaehyuk flinched, nodding as he slipped out the door and shut it hard behind him.

He never mentioned that name again.

The lounge went silent and immediately everyone was scrambling off it to run after Jiwoo.

“You idiot!” Subin yelled at Jisuk as they sprinted a few feet ahead of the group.

“How was I supposed to know!?” Jisuk screamed back while Wooin sighed behind the two.

“Why would you even ask him to do that!?” Subin wailed.

“Shut up! Jiwoo, no—” Jisuk screeched, but it was too late.

Jiwoo had already gotten both arms around Kayden Break's torso, bravely hugging him from the side.

Everyone froze. 

Jaehyuk saw it all play out. 

How Jisuk and Subin stared in horror, hands covering their mouths as if they were about to witness a tragedy. Wooin freezing in place, solid like the heat of the situation alone had turned him to stone. Boyoung was gripping Jaehyuk's sleeve tightly in her hand, almost shaking from trepidation. 

All of them were too scared to move, even Jaehyuk could feel his heart thud against his ribs.

He barely liked Jiwoo, but he didn't want the guy to die like this either.

Jaehyuk swallowed nervously, carefully watching Kayden's expression for even a twitch of anger, or even a small sign that he was gonna let loose and fling Jiwoo across the damn academy.

But, nothing happened.

Kayden didn’t seem murderous at all, just slightly startled. An arm slowly came down to rest around Jiwoo's back.

The man glanced down at Jiwoo, raising a brow as the boy squeezed both arms around his waist tight.

“You alright?” He asked, far more gently than Jaehyuk ever thought The Kayden Break could ever be capable of.

He sounded cautious too, confusion seeping into his tone. Jiwoo pulled his head away from where it was buried in the man's side and stared up at Kayden. Expression more serious than anyone had seen on him before; pure conviction practically pouring out of sparkling amber eyes.

“Premium cat food.”

“Premium cat food.” Kayden parroted, though he looked far more confused.

“Five boxes, and it’s the expensive kind too!” Jiwoo exclaimed, then promptly buried his head back into the man’s side.

Kayden blinked, slowly patting the boy on the back while looking up confused. As if he had just noticed all the people gawking openly at the two as if they were a hallucination. 

Jaehyuk couldn't blame them. His brain was barely processing any of this.

Dark eyes regarded the crowd disinterestedly before turning to the group of teens. 

Jisuk almost fell over as he literally bowed in a show of absolute respect.

Jaehyuk didn't even know Yoo Jisuk could even be polite, apparently Boyoung didn’t either since her jaw had dropped open when he did.

“I-I’m sorry, I told him I'd give him five boxes of premium cat food if he hugged you. Uh—”

Kayden didn’t respond, staring at Jisuk in disbelief as Jiwoo pulled away from him. A huge smile still plastered on the boy’s face as if he had just been offered a ticket to wonderland and not five boxes of cat food.

Kayden glanced at Jiwoo, sighing.

“You're so strange, kid.” The man deadpanned, ruffling Jiwoo’s hair and the boy laughed. If anyone heard the obvious fondness in his tone, no one thought to mention it. 

Most of them were far too busy processing the fact Seo Jiwoo had just hugged Kayden Break, and lived.

“Premium cat food, Mr. Kayden.” Jiwoo muttered, nodding at Kayden like it would automatically make him understand, Jaehyuk could have sworn he heard the man snort under his breath.

Then, abruptly, Jiwoo turned over to stare at Jisuk expectantly. He didn't even have to say a word before Jisuk was nodding and pulling out his phone.

“You'll get them by Monday.” 

“Yess!” Jiwoo cheered.

Boyoung coughed, staring back and forth between Kayden and Jiwoo.

“Wait, hold on.. Jiwoo, you know — you know Kayden Break?” She asked, her voice raising a few octaves into a borderline screech.

The area went silent and Jiwoo froze, lips thinning as a bead of sweat trickled down his temple.

“Uhm..” Jiwoo was laughing nervously now while Kayden just regarded the two with a blank stare.

“Oh my god! You do! That's why he saved you!” Boyoung sounded absolutely delighted like she had just figured out a big mystery.

“Uhhh… no?” Jiwoo said smartly, trailing off as he looked away. As if he weren’t hugging the man mere seconds ago.

The man in question was now pinching the bridge of his nose, shaking his head at Jiwoo’s response, mumbling something between the lines of this stupid kid or need to teach the kid to lie better, oh my god under his breath.

Jaehyuk had never been more confused in his life, he glanced over at Jiwoo who was rubbing his neck sheepishly. Kayden sighed deeply, then gave the boy a small nod that had Jiwoo lighting up like a damn lightbulb.

He gave the group a shy smile and gestured to Kayden.

“Sorry, hehe… yeah I do know him. He's my mentor!”

A beat of silence lulled through the air, as everyone with working eyes turned to stare at the pair.

This time, it was Jaehyuk who broke it.

“HE’S YOUR WHAT!?”