I sat on my bed and watched as they looked around my room. When Kris had ordered Lay and Luhan to take me to my room, my protests were once again ignored. I thought it was okay, since the two of them didn’t seem like a threat, but when Sehun and Kai tagged along, I realized I was overestimating them.

The four of them had dragged me to my room before I was tossed onto the bed and ignored. My room was boring with plain white walls and no posters on my walls, but they opened my wardrobe and flipped through my notebooks as if to study my life.

Sehun made a face as he looked at the clothes hanging in my wardrobe. Most of it was out of fashion, I knew, but they were the only things I could afford to buy with my salary. The twelve of them had a lot more money than I did, so it was expected of them to make faces, but I was a little offended.

“What kind of style is this?” he asked, and a moment later, he had pulled out a sundress that reached my knees. I never actually wore it, but it had looked good on me when I tried it on.

“You take so many notes.” Kai muttered, and I turned to see him flipping through one of my old notebooks. There were notes on ever line of paper, and Kai was physically cringing as he read through them,

“How are your grades so average?”

 No one seemed to realize that he had spoken about my grades other than me. Why did they know so much about me? How did they find out so much about me and why did they care? My eyes flickered over at Lay and Luhan, then. Lay was also reading through one of my older notebooks, though he seemed to be much more interested in what I was writing than Kai had been. On the other hand, Luhan was in front of my vanity.

There were little bottles of makeup that had been there because of when I was younger and thought that wearing makeup would make me fit in. I was wrong, and was tempted to throw it out when I had realized the truth, but everything remained where it was until this day. That included the small jewelry box that had caught Luhan’s attention.

When disaster struck and destroyed my house, firefighters were shocked to see that the only thing that made it out unscathed was the jewelry box. It was a strange little thing with twelve breathtaking symbols adorning it. They had tried opening it to see what was inside but without the key, nothing worked. I had kept it since then, as a reminder of everything I had lost.

“This is-” Luhan let out a soft gasp as he reached out for it, and the other three boys turned to him, but I was quick to jump over and cradle the jewelry box against my chest.

“Don’t touch that!”

They had already seen it, though. Their expressions changed as soon as they had seen it, growing stiff and possibly even afraid. I never wanted for anyone to see the jewelry box, as it contained the memory of such a dark and lonely time.

It was silent for a few minutes as they stared at me, then shifted their gazes back to each other. What were they thinking? Did it have to do with me?

“We should go; the elders are calling for us.” Lay cleared his throat and opened the door. He was the first to leave, after a quick bow of his head.

“We’ll come get you for school tomorrow.” Luhan’s voice was quiet and his gaze was focused on his feet as he spoke.

I wanted to say I was physically capable of getting to school on my own, but I knew they wouldn’t listen to me. Luhan left the room right after that, leaving me with Sehun and Kai.

“I guess it is you, after all.” Sehun’s eyes were dull as he spoke and his smirk was one of exhaustion. I wanted to know what he meant, but his eyes were so full of sorrow that I bit my words back.

“Sorry.” Kai was the only one who hadn’t left, and when I turned to him shocked by his words, I could have sworn to see tears forming in his eyes,

“But now we really can’t leave you alone.”

“Are you okay?” I really wanted to ask him what he meant by saying those words, but tears would always be a weakness of mine

I couldn’t tell what emotion was swimming in his eyes when he looked up at me, but it was something that had my heart drop in worry.

“Kai!” Someone called him from outside of the room, and after wiping his eyes, Kai ran out of the room.

What was that about? Why were those boys so strange? As I put my jewelry box down in its spot, that’s what I wondered. They had always acted strangely around me, but this was almost ridiculous. What did the little jewelry box mean to them to have them all react like that?

Dinner was tense that night. It usually was tense, but the air was thick tonight. It was strange, really, because I didn’t rebel against the caretakers. Usually, I took care of groceries and other small cleaning duties when the women were taking care of the children.

The children didn’t look at me at all throughout dinner and the caretakers gave me spiteful glances, pretending to ignore my presence. I ended up excusing myself before I could take even a single bite of my food.

I tried to sneak down for food later when everyone was asleep, but everything had magically disappeared. It worried me for a while, since I hadn’t eaten properly because of the EXO fiasco earlier.

Due to the time, all the shops were bound to be closed and I didn’t think it would be safe to go out this late by myself, either. I eventually fell asleep although my stomach was growling and the pain all over my body had gotten worse.

EXO was in my dream. All twelve of the EXO boys were in my dream. I didn’t understand it at all, because the boys in my dream had strange spiral tattoos all over their bodies and the tattoos glowed. They were standing above the clouds and I could see that below them, was the world. I didn’t know what any of it meant, but I saw that slowly, their glows faded and their bodies fell back down to the world below.

I woke up as their bodies fell, gasping. Why did I see them in my dream? Why was that image so realistic? What did EXO have to do with me?

Groaning, I looked over at my alarm clock, yawning. I had ten minutes to- ten minutes?! I was supposed to have woken up over half an hour ago to give myself enough time to get everything I needed.

Stumbling my way out bed, I surprisingly got myself together in those ten minutes I had given myself. My hair was a mess, but I didn’t think anyone would care that I merely ran my fingers through it. When I got down to the kitchen to look for my lunch, the food was still gone.

Did that mean I had no lunch? No. Thankfully, because of all the work I did, I had money to buy food from the cafeteria. That just meant I had to go into the cafeteria.

Thinking of how I could avoid going to the cafeteria, I left the house. I was still bruised and battered after Jimin’s confrontation, so my body ached after every step I took.

That’s why when I saw EXO’s van outside and sighed in relief, I wasn’t surprised. Though EXO annoyed me and were far too mysterious to make sense, they were useful at times like this. Climbing down the stairs slowly, I stood by the vans. The door to Kris’s van had opened yet the window in Chanyeol’s van had rolled down.

“Myung Ji!” Slowly, I stepped over to Chanyeol’s van, noticing that Suho had stuck his head out of the window in order to greet me. There was that gentle smile on his face, and his eyes crinkled upward.

“Kris will take you to school!”

I reconsidered it then, because they were strange. Kai was looking at me from behind Suho, though his eyes betrayed no emotion. The others were looking elsewhere, though Chanyeol had turned from the wheel in order to watch me skeptically.

“I can walk.”

There was a snort, though I didn’t know who it came from. I didn’t bother checking, either, and when I turned to walk away, the door opened and I was yanked inside.

“Kris is going to love this.” Baekhyun groaned, and I glared at the boys beside me. How they pulled me in is beyond me, but I sat there in the back between D.O. and Sehun.

“We already saw this coming.” Suho laughed, and my eyes narrowed at the back of his head. Was I really so predictable?

It was silent, for the most part. Kai had earphones in, Chanyeol and Baekhyun were silent as Chanyeol drove. Suho had a book in his hands, and the two on either side of me were staring at the window. It was a tense silence, one that had me wondering what I had done wrong. After seeing my jewelry box, it seemed the lot of them had become more silent.

As I was considering the events that unfolded, my stomach growled. It wasn’t a quiet little rumble, but a growl. Like the kind an animal would make. I didn’t realize I had been that hungry, but I felt my face flush as the six of them turned to me. Chanyeol, after realizing it had come from me, continued focusing on the road, though there was a grin on his face.

“Was that you?” I slowly nodded as D.O. asked, my hair covering my reddened face in embarrassment. The boys already didn’t like me, and I didn’t want them taking care of me more than they already tended to do.

“I guess it can’t be helped, then.” Suddenly, there was an apple in front of my face. I blinked at it twice and then turned my attention to Sehun. Was it the same apple I had refused to eat the day before? Was it really still safe for consumption?

His eyes hardened when I sat there, but before he could take the apple back, I reached out and took it, bowing my head in thanks. His eyes widened in comedic surprise, and a small bit of pink dusted his cheeks, but he turned away without another word.

“Suho?” The male was surprised that I addressed him. In fact, everyone but Chanyeol had turned back to me and I leaned forward so I could talk to Suho.

“Did you say anything to the caretakers to make them upset with me?”

His body tensed, the smile quickly fading from his face and his eyes going dull as he stared at me. The van had already pulled up to the school, but no one had moved a muscle. As quickly as his behavior changed, however, it changed once more and I stared in perplexity at Suho’s grin.

“No, Myung Ji. Perhaps they had a rough night?”

What was that about? Why did the tension disappear like that so suddenly? Before I could question it, the door opened and I was pulled out of the van by Kai.

“The bell’s about to ring. C’mon, Sehun!”

Why was Kai holding onto me like that? Was there something he wanted to say? Sehun ran directly behind us, though a couple of the EXO members were walking behind us leisurely. People were staring at us as we ran, but the two beside me didn’t seem to care for any of them.

When lunch time rolled around, I stood by my locker in order to get out enough cash for lunch. EXO confused me. Everything happened much more quickly because of them. Before, it felt as if my life dragged on, but so many events rolled in together now and I didn’t know what to make of it.

“I have a question to ask you.” I was surprised by the deep voice beside me and turned to see Baekhyun there. It surprised me to see Baekhyun there since he didn’t seem to be too fond of me, but there was a bag of food that he held out for me. I stared at him for a moment before taking it, wondering why he suddenly seemed interested in me.

“What happened yesterday after we left?”

I swear I broke a couple of things in the bag, or at least I smooshed them. Why did he want to know about that? His eyes hid emotions, but his hand was shaking at his side. Why?

“Why do you care?” I asked, but when I turned to walk away, he didn’t stop me. Heck, his voice was so small and afraid that I almost didn’t hear it.

“We don’t want to be the reason why your life is getting hard again.”

What did he mean by that?