My apetite dissolved as soon as I saw Jimin enter the dining room. I didn't know what to do for a few minutes as I sat there, but I knew she was glaring and that several of the boys were looking between us almost nervously. There was that anger bubbling inside of me like it had before, and my eyes glanced towards the window. If it wasn't still storming outside, then I would leave and forget all about Jimin and her nasty attitude.

She had been furious when she saw me sitting at the table, and though I didn't like her for obvious reasons, the EXO boys liked her for their own reasons. I had found myself wanting to be invisible again, since her attention usually meant harrassment for me, but she stared at me openly and it was getting more and more unbearable for me to sit there as moments passed.

"Well? Aren't you going to have her leave?" She asked, her foot tapping impatiently. As much as I couldn't stand the way she looked down on me, I couldn't help but to agree with her in that moment. Wouldn't taking me home now make things a lot more comfortable for everyone?

"It's raining too heavily." Kai explains, and I lift my head just slightly to look at him. His gaze isn't on me at all, but Suho. I wonder why, but when I look over to Suho, there's that same smile that's always on his face and I can't read anything past it.

"What's with that, anyway?" Jimin scoffs, flipping her hair over a shoulder as she glances towards the front door,

"They said it'd be beautiful out today, but all of a sudden there's a thunder storm?"

That sparked my interest, obviously. What was that supposed to mean, anyway? Then how was there lightning earlier when I was on the roof with...? My eyes flicker over the boys that had been with me on the roof, and my eyebrows furrow in confusion. They hadn't been surprised by the storm, but surprised about my reaction to it.

"Not like it hasn't happened before." Chanyeol laughs, and I cringe as I hear him. His laughter is loud, almost forced. And then I remember how he had panicked at my expression, and I didn't get it. What did any of this mean and what did it have to do with me?

"Well it doesn't matter now." Kris speaks up from where he sits, and his eyes flicker over to Suho for a moment,

"With rain like this, it's obvious we'll be stuck here for at least another few hours."

Luhan releases a chuckle and crosses over the space to where Jimin stands, wrapping his arm around her shoulders, "Then I guess Minnie and I will be in my room, if anyone wants to join us."

"I'll grab my game station." Sehun replies, and he skips out of the dining room with Kai hot on his tail.

"Those idiots, what if the power goes out?" D.O sighs, and that strikes a cord of fear in my chest. No, I'm not scared of the dark, but I'm scared of what would happen to me if I stay here any longer with the people that I wanted to get away from.

"Dae can come with us, he knows what to do in case of an emergency." Xiumin reassures everyone, but I'm left unassured. First of all, I don't know who "Dae" is, and I don't trust anyone in the house.

Suho waited for another moment before his eyes roamed around the room of remaining boys and then his eyes landed on me, "I should stay with Myung Ji, so Tao, you can go with them and play in Luhan's room."

Tao's face shown brightly with gratitude and he ran up the stairs with Luhan, Xiumin, Chen and Jimin following him. I was a little relieved to know some of them would leave the room so I wouldn't have as many people around me, but that left me with six men that I also didn't trust.

"You should eat a little bit, Myung Ji," Lay's voice calls, but I refuse to look in his direction after earlier today, and just every other time I've spent with him while injured. The food before me seems unappetizing in a way, but they've made it and I can't just let that go to waste,

"and then I'll check on your bandages."

Right, because I was beat up by the very person who had taken several of their brothers upstairs. Because I totally want them to be the ones taking care of me after that.

"I'll check them when I get home." I answer, and I can hear someone sigh, and then a chair is scratching against the wooden floor. I follow the direction of where the sound is coming from, and it's Chanyeol who stands, his eyes narrowing at me.

"Chan, don't." Baekhyun says gently, but Chanyeol ignores him and steps closer to me. I didn't flinch, because I knew he wouldn't hurt me. He had plenty of chances to do so already and hasn't.

"I don't get it. Why can't you just accept our help? It's not like there's anyone else who bothers to take care of you." Chanyeol scoffs, and he's standing right beside where I sit. Of course, the way he talked made me a little upset. It wasn't like I couldn't take care of myself, and they only began to care for me themselves recently.

"Why do you care for me?" I ask, and immediately, Chanyeol stills. Not just Chanyeol, either. All of them still, like my question catches them off guard. I don't expect for them to answer, because they never do. I just release a sigh, and then I bring my gaze back to the food before me. I would have asked to just go home, since I was uncomfortable where I sat, but I could still hear the sound of the pouring rain and wasn't interested in checking to see if the lightning stopped falling.

"We don't want you to be alone anymore." Suho answers quietly, and it's my turn to scoff. A few of them inhale sharply at the sound, others remain quiet and watch me.

"I was perfectly happy on my own. Until the twelve of you appeared in my life, I didn't exist. I liked it that way."

"Did you really?" And I'm surprised to hear D.O asking, but when I turn to him, his gaze isn't even on me but the table before him.

And I was stunned to silence, because I didn't say a thing to counter him. I don't know why I didn't, perhaps it was the way he looked like he were drawing into himself. He didn't look up, but a small smile tugged at the corners of his lips upon my silence.

"We may just be a nuisance now, but maybe... maybe one day you'll see us as something good." Lay finally speaks out, and my gaze reaches him. I feel that familiar tingle that I do whenever I look at him, but I ignore it for the time being.

"Why does my opinion of you matter?" I furrow my eyebrows as I ask, and I assume they understand what I mean. When girls like Jimin are upstairs throwing themselves at EXO, what worth did my opinion hold?

"I've been wondering that myself for the past few days." Jimin suddenly calls, and I turn to see her at the head of the dining room, resting against the archway with her arms crossed over her chest and a blank expression on her face. I don't see anyone else with her, but just seeing her there makes my heart constrict in discomfort.

"Is she your new plaything?"

All of a sudden, I can see some expressions crossing into irritation. EXO? Being upset with Jimin? Whoa, I didn't think that were possible.

"Watch your mouth, Jimin. She is our guest." Kris says, his lips pressing into a firm line after he finishes, and yet, Jimin merely shrugs.

"Well hey, if you want to hang out with a freak like her, that's your business." And then she promptly turns around and exits the room like she never offended anyone.

Everyone's silent for a few minutes, and the tension practically chokes me. I find that my heart drops slightly at the thought of being EXO's plaything, and I mentally berate myself. How had I let myself start hoping to be more than just another girl to them? Why had I let my guard around them at all?

"Are you okay, Myung Ji? You can just ignore her, she-" Suho sounds a little frantic as he speaks, or perhaps desperate, but when I stand up and grab my phone, he cuts himself off.

"Thank you for letting me stay." The forced politeness burned my tongue as I spoke and I turned to leave.

"The storm hasn't ended, Myung Ji, how are you going to leave?" Suho's second attempt to have me trust him sounded even more desperate than the first, but I ignored this as well. No one else said a thing. There wasn't anything to say. I knew this wouldn't work out, and Jimin's words were enough to reassure me of that fact.

But why did my heart feel so heavy?