"What's going on? Cheol, is she going to be alright? What if she hates me for lying to her? I can't lose her again..."

"She's alright Han, I can't promise you that I know what's going on exactly, but that I am sure, she's alright. And I'm pretty sure she won't, Han. No matter all what lies you had told her, every one of your actions are from your heart, the lies that you said were only to make her accept you better, remember?"

Sooyeon stared at the group of thirteen, her brows furrowed together as her eyes darted from boy to boy, them barely fixated at a spot for more than two seconds each. Her hands moved to hug her head, trying to block out all the voices that were moving in and out of her head. More different voices continued to ring within her mind, "Is noona okay?"

"I hope so, she needs to be."

"Why is noona always the one to suffer?"

"I hope she's alright."

"Stop! Just stop..." The girl trailed off, her voice getting soft with every word from her initial shout to make the voices stop. The group of thirteen looked as if they had just seen a ghost, no one had been talking out loud in the room right before the girl had shouted. They froze even more when the girl curled herself up, cradling herself as tears started to trail down the girl's face. Her vision started to blur and suddenly, she was warped into a scene similar to that when she was overcoming her control of electricity weeks ago. When her vision finally cleared, she was back to standing in front of the wooden cabin located in the middle of the dense woods.

Sooyeon's hand trembled as it moved to the door knob that led into the cabin, only to have her head snap in the direction where children's laughter were heard. The laughter was captivating her attention, and she found herself taking one step by a time towards where the sound was coming from, away from the house. Weaving through the woods, she eventually found a group of children, fourteen of them, turning in a big circle as they held each other's hands.

The circle spun faster and faster, until the children could not take the speed anymore, each of them collapsing on the grassy plains surrounding them. All fourteen of them were giggling and laughing, leaning against one another to prevent the other from being the first to stand up. The only girl, the same little girl as the one that she had saw the previous them she was in the place, managed to wiggle out of the human stack that the children had formed on the fluffy grass they were lying on. The girl giggled, pointing to the other thirteen, all boys, as she ran around them, dodging perfectly from the countless attempts the boys had tried to capture the girl with. And like the previous time, Sooyeon was an audience. No matter how many times the girl felt any of the children look at her, she went unnoticed as the fourteen children started another game.

Screaming, shouting, giggles, laughter, all of them rang in the dense woods as minutes passed with Sooyeon watching them. It was enjoyable, first thing first, the innocence and naivety of the fourteen children was something that the girl had never thought anyone would possess, not to mention herself. She stared at the little girl, sinking deeper into the belief that what she was seeing was her memories from before she had arrived in the Hwang manor, one that had been rooted from weeks earlier. She had never thought about how her life was before that, not only because she could not remember a single thing about it, but also because she could not imagine any of these happening to her.

She could not imagine having fun, having a loving pair of parents who doted on her, having friends that cared and looked after her. She just could not. She had always thought that she would live the same lifestyle forever, day after day in the Hwang manor. It was only when the group of thirteen boys found her, had she started to understand and enjoy fun, as well as to have trust. Her thoughts jumped to Jeonghan and the supposedly lie he had told, somehow, despite the intense dislike for lies, Sooyeon had still regarded the boy as a close friend and nor was she angry, her heart had told her to trust that the boy had his reasons and she trusted her own instincts.

Laughter stopped, pulling the girl back from her daydream to the realm she was in. The fourteen children had stopped the nth game they were playing, whatever it was since the children changed games so often that it was hard to even keep track with the number. The little girl stood up, her eyes blinking at a direction behind where Sooyeon was sitting at, whilst the other thirteen boys stayed frozen in their spots, eyes fixated on the same spot as the little girl was looking at. Sooyeon turned to look behind, and a new group of children had arrived at the woods.

The average age of the new group was slightly higher than that of the group of fourteen, the boy that was standing in the centre of the new group wore an unhappy face. The first thing that came to her mind was that the group of fourteen were scared of the older group, it was expected after all, with all the expressionless faces found on the children belonging to the new group. Seconds passed with both group of children staring at the other party, and the silence was first broken by the little girl, "Jae oppa!!"

The little girl ran forward, jumping into the arms of the boy that Sooyeon had assumed was the leader of the second group of children. The boy, unlike his unhappy face, moved into a posture that made the catching of the little girl more comfortable for the latter, pushing the girl deeper into his embrace once the girl had jumped on him. The once crazily cold atmosphere that had clouded the place warmed immediately, the two groups of children breaking into different smiles - the group of thirteen boys into awkward smiles whilst those in the newly arrived group into happy smiles, but were smiles nevertheless.

The leader of the second group, or Jae as addressed by the little girl, patted the latter's head adoringly, his feet taking steps forward towards the still somewhat frozen group of thirteen, his face still a little unhappy. The boy stopped in front of two of the boys in the group, the latter two holding each other's hands tightly to fight off the fear that was slowly creeping up their spines. The boy spoke, his eyes looking straight at the two, "What did I say about bringing her out without permission?"

"I-" "Jae oppa! It's not Hannie oppa or Cheollie oppa's fault! I was the one who asked them to come out and play!! So don't scold them, please?" The little girl cut the stammering boys, pushing all the attention onto her instead of the two boys. It was Sooyeon's turn to freeze this time, at the shocking revelation that had just been revealed. It was only then, that Sooyeon had noticed the uncanny resemblance the group of thirteen boys that had been playing with the little girl had with her own group of thirteen boys back in her reality. The only differences in their looks were Jeonghan's long hair that he now had, it was short on his younger counterpart, as well as the more mature and dangerous vibe the boys now gave off which was a complete opposite from the innocence they carried here. It was as if someone had knocked them in their heart, forcing the boys to grow up, to be more mature than what their ages were.

The boy nodded obediently at the girl, sending a look to the two boys that were of similar age to him, before proceeding to put the little girl down on the grass. He continued by sitting down next to the little girl, his actions giving the signal to everyone in both groups the 'okay' to continue playing. Laughters and shoutings resumed in the premises of the dense woods, and everything was back to how it was before the second group of children joined in. Sooyeon collapsed against the trunk of a random tree that gave her a clear view of everything going on in the scene. She had never seen the second group of children, in fact, in all of her dreams so far, only the little girl appeared with the latter mostly playing by herself. It was the first time she had seen the little girl playing with other children, and the thought that Sooyeon might have more friends before flashed in her head.

Minutes and hours passed, with the children playing and playing without taking a single break and drowsiness was starting to get to Sooyeon. The girl was about to fall asleep from all the thinking, when she noticed a pair of eyes moving towards her. Her eyes widened, all sorts of sleepiness escaping her as the familiar feeling of her goosebumps popping out returned to her. Her eyes made contact with that of the little girl's, it was like deja-vu, where things that happened when she had first entered the 'realm' started to repeat itself all over again. Only this time, the little girl merely smiled at her, to which Sooyeon stared at unblinkingly. The older boy beside her seemed to have noticed that the girl's attention was on somewhere else, and he turned as well, in the same direction where Sooyeon had been sitting. The boy's brows furrowed, confused at whatever the little girl was staring at, because there was nothing there. He spoke again, "Yeonnie, what are you staring at?"

The little girl shook her head, the mischievous smirk on her expression showing that things were not as simple as it was, her eyes still fixed on Sooyeon. She then turned to pick up a toy catapult that had been placed by its owner near the two children for safeguarding while he played. A stone that had found its way onto the little girl's hand, moved towards the catapult, placing itself into the spot where the stones should seat itself. The elastic rubber band of the catapult stretched, and the shot was fired. And Sooyeon felt herself falling backwards on her back, against the soft grass. The scenes that had just happened replayed before her eyes, she felt like she could scream - none of them had opened their mouths to actually speak. Her mind started to question the voices she had heard, she was so sure that those voices belonged to the respective people that she knew had spoke earlier on. Sooyeon's eyes widened, an unknown streak of fear lacing the gorgeous brown orbs she had for the first time she could remember as they were frozen, looking straight at the little girl. The smirk on the little girl's face widened, her voice ringing once again, "Stop trying to block us out."

"What-what are you doing in my head?" Sooyeon was on the brink of screaming, her words coming out as an uncontrolled shout laced with emotion. Her hands were hugging her head, it was the same situation with the boys back in reality as well, where voices found their way into the girl's head. She was at a loss of what was happening to her, such things had never happened to her before. Was her young lady's unusual habit finally getting to her? Or was she just too tired from everything that was going on? The girl shook her head like a person gone mad, somehow knowing that those were not the answers to her question. She looked up once more, wanting to find out more answers to her question from the little girl, only to find that the latter had moved to stand right in front of her. The latter was still smirking, her voice ringing once more, "Stop denying, you know perfectly well what is going on. It's a fact that you have to accept in order to grow stronger, my darling."

Sooyeon froze even more, the first sentence was still in the little girl's voice, but the second, was in a more mature, calming voice that sounded somewhat familiar to her. She knew that she had heard the same voice before, but she just could not remember who it was. The second voice seemed like one that belonged to an older lady, but it was not Ahnmi's voice, neither did it belong to any one of the other maids, nor was it the voice of any of her school teachers. The new question added to the many that were starting to flood her head, and Sooyeon could feel a headache coming on.

Just as the girl's brows were furrowed from the unexpected pang that suddenly hit within her head, the little girl before her moved her hand. The hand moved upwards, and unlike the first time Sooyeon had met her, the little girl was able to touch her this time. A special feeling that Sooyeon was unable to describe ran within her veins to every part of her body just as the latter touched her brows. The latter's fingers moved along the older girl's brows, easing the creases as she started leaning forward, her forehead touching that of Sooyeon's, and the same soothing voice of older lady rang yet again, "Stay strong, my darling. This is just the start of everything..."

And everything before her out.

~~

"Is noona going to wake up soon?" Chan asked as he crouched next to the said girl that was laid on the wide sofa in the living room belonging to the thirteen boys. The other members shrugged, hoping that they too, knew the answer to their youngest's question. The girl, or Sooyeon to be exact, had fainted right after she had started to cry, and the boys had moved her to the sofa so that the latter did not had to lie on the hard flooring. The group's two oldests, Seungcheol and Jeonghan, had disappeared right after the girl was laid down on the sofa, probably having moved to somewhere private for the older boy to calm the latter down. Jeonghan had broke into a hysterical fit of tears, blaming himself solely for the girl's predicament, though everyone, including the boy himself, knew clearly that it was not the boy's fault, that the girl was going through something that she had to. Hours had passed since then, and the other eleven boys had been sitting all around the girl worriedly, waiting for the latter to regain her consciousness. Besides, it was getting late, and they did not want anyone to suspect anything about Sooyeon and them, especially Tiffany who had weirdly grew interest for them in the past few weeks.

"Hyung! Hyung!" Minghao's cute voice was the loudest any one of them had heard before. Seungcheol and Jeonghan rushed out from the latter's room, alarmed at the sudden shouting in the house. Minghao pointed to the sofa, and all twelve heads turned as Sooyeon stirred. 

Author's Note: Weeww I'M BACK GUYS! I'm so sorry for not updating last week, I was having my exams and I totally forgot about posting a notice to inform all of you with all the different subject content swimming in my head!! TT_TT

As a form of apology and asking for forgiveness, this will be a double update!! *celebrates*  Enjoy them and till next week!! ^-^