Voices. I could hear them loud and clear from right outside of the bedroom; and yet, the door remained shut and I remained sitting up on that bed staring ahead of me in absolute confusion. How... why... since when? What exactly did EXO want from me to be... protecting me? If they're even protecting me, that is. That part still remains unclear, since they aren't exactly my first choice in making friends.

My eyes roamed around the room once more. It was about my fifth time trying to learn more about the space I was currently in, and I had no idea why. It wasn't like I actually wanted to stay there... right? Who cares if being with EXO meant being with someone and not living through a sudden hurricane that could take everything away from me all over again. I preferred to be alone, to be invisible.

Didn't I?

I wasn't so sure anymore and the reason why was simpe; EXO. Despite the lack of connection between us, they cared for me for some reason. Even if they did nothing to stop the bullies, they were always there to take care of me after something bad happened to me, and I was dying to find out why.

Okay, so maybe I wasn't dying to learn more. I kind of wanted to just run away, but at the same time, I didn't want to get up or move because I had no idea of what was actually going on outside. I could hear the rain hitting the pavement even from where I sat and I could also hear distant crashes of lightning. It made shivers crawl up my spine and made me not want to be where I was.

And then my attention was diverted when the doorknob turned. The EXO boys had been out there for hours and yet no one had even attempted to open the door to the room I was in until this point. What did they want from me now that they couldn't get from me hours before?

"Myung Ji?" Suho's hesitant voice calls, and he peeks around the door at me. He smiles, then, because I'm not asleep, and quickly steps into the room. The door is slammed behind him and I can hear someone whine but Suho ignores it as he steps closer to me.

"What happened?" I ask him, and he shifts on his feet as he thinks of something to tell me and my eyebrow raises because why is he just getting more and more suspicious as time passes?

"Because we are the wealthiest family in town, the council designated us as a volunteer rescue squad of sorts, so we've been running around to make sure everyone was somewhere safe and then we had found you."

I nod my head because I did hear of this once before, but it didn't make sense as to why I was in their house. Surely there were shelters made for this kind of thing, so why bring me to them of all places? I'm about to ask, when the door is creaked open and I'm instead watching as Lay slowly walks in with a mug in his hand.

The mug isn't actually for me like I had expected for it to be, and is instead passed over to Suho, and Suho grins at Lay before taking a gulp of the hot liquid. I can't take my eyes off of Suho because there seems to be a lot of steam coming out of the mug and yet Suho doesn't even flinch.

"There's lunch downstairs, if you're hungry, Myung Ji." Lay says suddenly, and I want to refuse but the growl of my stomach beats me to it.

"That settles it! " Suho laughs, and I actually feel my lips quirk upward because why is it so amusing to Suho anyway?

Lay is asking me questions about how I'm feeling but I get the sense that he thinks I'm fine because he doesn't look in my direction once on the way downstairs. Suho is walking ahead of us with a grin on his lips and he's basically skipping down the stairs on his way to the dining room. There's loud chatter coming from the room we're headed into and I'm reluctant to go in because I'm not exactly on the best terms with these boys but when Suho and Lay enter the room, I just take a deep breath and follow them in.

The chatter stops instantly, and I'm just standing there with my head bowed because maybe if I don't make eye contact they won't bother with me.

"Myung Ji! Sit next to me!" Chen calls, and I look up at him from under my eyelashes. There's a glint of mischief in his eyes but the smile on his lips is genuine and I supposed sitting next to him was better than sitting next to the more indifferent boys.

So I do as he tells me and sit next to him. When I look up to Chen, he's a little surprised that I chose to sit next to him after all, but neither of us say a thing about it. There's no time for words, and especially not when delicious looking kimchi stew is placed before us. They bascially turn into wolves and I watch dumbfounded as they attack the several pots of kimchi stew. I can't even get a spoonful out for myself, because the twelve of them are acting like they hadn't eaten in a lifetime.

I can't help but to laugh. I'm sure that anyone would laugh after seeing the kimchi flying about and all the stains on the boys' faces. They freeze, all twelve of them freeze and that only causes me to laugh harder because they look like they've been betrayed by their food.

"It's the first time I've ever heard you laugh." Xiumin says from the other side of the table, and I stop laughing as soon as he says it because he's right. I'm letting my guard down around people I don't want to let my guard down around.

"Don't stop laughing on our account." Kris says dismissively, and he lifts a napkin to his face to clean it, and I'm a little disappointed because he look the funniest when there's food on his face.

"We finished the kimchi." Sehun says in a monotone, and I turn my head to him and he's holding up an empty pot. It was almost overflowing with kimchi earlier and yet after just a few minutes it's been emptied?

"These are empty as well." Chanyeol sighs in disappointment, and the other two pots are in the same state as the first one. I'm not as disappointed as Chanyeol is, apparently, but I am still hungry.

"I'll go and see if there's more in the kitchen." D.O says with a firm tone and he hurries into the other room for extra.

There's a small bowl of rice in front of me because the boys had missed it in their eating frenzy so I just pull that closer to me and lift a spoon. Even if it's just rice, it is food. But as I eat a spoonful of rice, silence resumes and I look up to see Chen's staring right at me with his jaw dropped.

"We always save the last bowl for D.O! He's going to be so mad when he sees you eating it!"

And I panic because I wasn't trying to cause any problems and I already ate a spoonful but if I just push it away and pretend I hadn't eaten a bit of it it won't work, right? So I just do what I think is the smartest thing and push it in Kai's direction just as D.O walks in.

With the spoon gripped in my hand and hidden under the table, I plaster on my best poker face and watch D.O place another pot of kimchi stew on the table. Kai is hissing at me and some of the others are muttering under their breaths about something, but my attention is on D.O.

"Where's the bowl of rice that was here?" D.O asks, and I feel my hands twitch under the table because I'm not very good at lying.

"Well I-" Kai starts, holding the bowl up in surrender.

"He was passing it to me and-" Sehun continues, reaching out for the bowl of rice.

"You know the rules. The last bowl goes to the altar." D.O says with a frown and both Kai and Sehun look at the table in guilt.

"I was the one who took it." I tell him, because there's no point in having the others get in trouble for me.

"You took the offering?" D.O asks, and his glare is heavy as he turns to me.

"Sorry." I say as I drop my head, because woah, I thought he was one of the nice ones.

Then laughter rings around the table and it's my turn to stare at them in betrayal because they're wiping at their eyes and holding onto their stomachs. I kind of hoped they'd puke what they had eaten with how hard they're laughing.

"You should have seen your face!" Tao hollers, and my lips press into a firm line.

Why did my heart feel warm even though they were laughing at me?