“Onew, you grab my hand any harder, my skin is gonna fall off.” He whispered back, glaring through the corner of his eyes towards him for a second.

“Sorry, I’m just really freaked out.”

The two of them ushered another foot back with caution, but Minho raised his hand, making them pause in mid-movement—covered in fear more than curiosity.

“Should we run?” Key whispered. “I feel like we should run.”

“Dido.”

“Wait!” Minho echoed just as the two of them attempted to turn around. Once again, they froze, watching the man with an eerie fascination.

“We just want to know how you did that Key. Are you human?”

Both Onew and Key furrowed their eyebrows, snapping their necks slightly back in astonishment.

“Says the guy who followed us here with his little squad of what-the-hells.” Key snapped back.

“We’re not his anything!” Taemin angered.

The thunder in his voice made Key step back in fright, remembering the moment in the cafeteria. Minho turned, glaring at the boy who spoke and Taemin shrugged his shoulders out of an apology.

“This isn’t the first time you cornered me out of nowhere. Or did you think I forgot?” Key looked at Minho, staring the question down in his eyes.

Onew slightly turned to his friend, looking him directly in the eyes.

“Key, what the hell are you talking about?” He whispered.

He sighed.

“I was going to tell you about it before, but I didn’t think anything of it. But then all this crazy stuff happened and I…” Key shrugged, “I guess I just forgot. Until now…of course.”

“It…It’s ok.” Onew assured. “We can get out of this. Just a couple of creepy guys right?” He whispered.

“Right.” Key whispered back.

“They’re talking about skipping out on us.” Taemin glared to the others.

He moved in closer, but like a uniform movement, the two friends inched back. Taemin rolled his eyes, sighing his shoulders down and arched while snapping his neck up towards the sky.

“Minho, I told you this wasn’t going to work.” He gestured a hand towards the two friends. “Just look at them.”

“Taemin, shut up,” Minho stated. “We can get through this.”

“Like hell you can!” Onew yelled. “Stay away from Key…Stay away from us.”

He circled around his best friend and stood in front of him, the wall of protection that Key had suddenly grown attached to. He looked over Onew’s shoulder as it shadowed parts of the bodies of the others. For some odd, unexplainable reason, he didn’t feel the need to say anything more. Onew had said enough. And with his friend a pillar of strength in front of him, he actually felt relieved, like for some reason Onew was going to magically be able to take them down—though he knew that definitely would never be the case.

“We just want…We just want…” Minho trailed off, watching the two of them.

“What?” Onew asked.

“We…just want to be—I suppose you can say, acquainted with you guys.”

“Acquainted?” They questioned together.

Onew turned his head around towards Key, while still shielding him from the others. Key scrunched up his face, then his shoulders, grimacing with a slight shake of the head.

“No deal,” Onew replied.

Taemin rolled his eyes and huffed.

“See Minho, I told you-“

“Does he always speak for you?” Came Donghae’s sudden voice.

This time, he stepped up, arms folded across his chest, right eyebrow lifted in curiosity. His eyes danced between Key and Onew, the way their mouths twitched as he spoke, or the way their bodies jerked—questioning themselves on whether they should move or not. He eyed Onew some more, starting from his dark cream tennis shoes, up the length of his washed out blue jeans and towards the face that showed more courage than he remembered seeing when he first came to this school.

“Why is he staring at me like that?” Onew whispered to Key.

Key leaned in up to his friend’s ear, his hand, slightly brushing his shoulder.

“I don’t know but I feel like we should get out of here while we still have a chance.”

“Look,” Donghae announced, “we don’t want trouble, we don’t want to fight, we don’t want any of that. We just want to talk to you guys, especially about Key’s little magic trick there.”

“He’s telling the truth,” Minho spoke up. “We just want to talk.”

“If you just wanted to talk,” Key yelled, “you wouldn’t have followed us around the woods like a bunch of weirdos. But then again, this is your property.”

The last bit slipped out of his mouth. He immediately regretted it, covering his lips with one hand.

“Key…” Onew growled.

Taemin narrowed his eyes towards the two, then looked amongst Kai, Minho, and Donghae.

“How the hell did they know that?” He asked them, his breaths becoming heavy.

“Taemin…” Minho warned. “Don’t. If you lose control again, we’re in trouble.”

“I told you something was up with them Minho. I’m done playing nice. Come here!” He yelled at the two of them.

Onew squeezed his friends arm, turning around to face him and looked him dead in the eyes.

“Run.”

Their feet were quick, moving with the waves of the wind, Onew’s hand attached to Key’s arm. Minho watched as the two of them disappeared into the trees with Taemin right behind them and behind him, Kai tagging along for the ride. He breathed in deeply, arching his shoulders down and closing his eyes for merely a second.

“He’s going to ruin everything.” He growled.

With a push of his heels, he sprinted after them, but halfway through the run he stopped and turned around. Donghae stood in the same spot, gazing at the tree where Key and Onew once were. His brows were furrowed, his arms still crossed. His expression fit that of a man who didn’t understand what was going on.

“Donghae!”

He snapped out of it.

“We need to go after them before they ruin everything!”

“Y-Yeah, you’re right.”

Minho scrunched up his face but when the man joined him, he let it go and together they ran after them.

****

The grass rustled under their feet, snagging on the thread of their pants from time to time. Neither one of them talked, their breaths were too rigid, their hearts pounding too fast. Key pushed his legs as far as they could go, but every time he looked back it seemed as though Taemin and Kai were getting closer and closer. How were they moving so fast? He looked at his friend, desperation set in his eyes. And then he saw it as he looked back again, a flash of color in their eyes. But not what he experienced from his first night in the woods. Something different. He looked back again and saw black veins rise to the surface of their skin, covering the corners of their eyes and immediately he turned back, but Onew seemed so stern and determined. He didn’t falter. He carried the two of them through the woods, though Key saw a few scratches that had made their way on his arms from the branches they’ve run through. The horrific sight of their eyes surprised him and without warning he tripped. Onew was so concentrated on them getting out, that he didn’t realize Key’s demeanor and fell down from the weight of his fumble.

Their faces hit the dirt ground like hard water after a sudden fall. A sharp stick scratched the side of Key’s left cheek, causing trickles of blood to leak out. The first thing to hit the ground was Key’s ear, creating a pounding sensation that echoed throughout his sight and sound. Onew scrambled from his feet, bending his knees to grab Key by the shoulders. He turned and saw Taemin and Kai getting closer. That’s when he witnessed them too. Those black veins that surrounded the corners of their eyes, but they suddenly began to merge into the whites of them as well. It seeped into their irises. What once were hazel turned into nothing but a pure snow white—their pupils becoming so small that Onew was sure they were going to disappear altogether.

His vision began to blur out, perhaps hitting his head when they fell down, he was unsure. But a ringing in his ear created a sharp pain in the corner of his eyes. He squinted them, but still attempted to shadow himself over Key like he’d done before. Key, in an attempt to grab the boy’s arm, faltered some more. Through the blur of his vision, Onew witnessed Minho and Donghae’s arrival. Their eyes were the same. Frightening. Horrific. He grabbed Key by the waist and scooted them back as much as he could, but his body was weak. From what, he wasn’t sure. Running wasn’t really his forte but it didn’t tire him out this easily either. Key looked bumped too. As if, all of them together had worn out each other’s energy because from the squints of his eyesight, he could see heaves of breath ushering out of both Kai and Taemin.

He scooted back some more, but his vision was getting worse, Key’s eyelids were fluttering—like a child trying to fight sleep.  His body had become dead weight under Onew’s arms.

“S-S-Stay away.” He struggled to talk, but still he saw the figures coming closer.

Not Kai and Taemin though. It was Minho and Donghae.

“See what you did.” He heard Minho say. “They are injured now.”

“They’ve seen us!” Donghae bellowed.

His back faced Onew—perhaps talking to Taemin and Kai, he could no longer tell, though. Their colored blurry figures became dark shadows.  He heard the sound of footsteps echoing closer, but with his strength depleted and, from the looks of it, Key knocked completely out, there was no moving.

“Finally, we’ll get answers.” He heard— but from who it came from, he was unsure.