“Where am I?” mumbled Areum in a bleary voice. She blinked rapidly to focus her sight.

The face of an unfamiliar man was staring at her. His features were sharp and handsome, but his expression was downright cold. “You’re Joonmyeon’s sister?” His disgust was evident. “You look nothing like him.”

Areum frowned. “Who are you? Why am I here?” Then the events of yesterday dawned back on her. She remembered one face in particular. A face half-covered by a black handkerchief with doe-like eyes. Luhan’s face. “You’re Exo-M,” she stated. She was surprised that her voice didn’t tremble.

“Yes. I’m Exo-M’s leader, Kris. It’s not particularly nice to meet you.” His voice was as cold as his expression.

“Why am I here?” Areum narrowed her eyes, but inside, her heart was pounding. She was afraid she was bait for Joonmyeon to come and get beat up like in the dramas.

“Why are you here?” Kris said in a quiet voice that sent chills up Areum’s spine. “It’s your brother’s fault. Him and his lousy gang. They would try to foil every single one of our plans and try to ruin us. Do you think you’re a hostage? Well, technically, you are. We won’t send you back until they leave us alone for a month, during which the main delivery comes.”

A month? Areum’s eyes were filled with horror.

“Don’t worry. We won’t hurt you. We’re not imbeciles.” At least his eyes seemed honest, although they were still cold. “You’re free to do what you want, as long as it’s inside our hideout. Each member of Exo-M will take turns keeping an eye on you. Don’t try to escape; then things will turn really complicated and I might start chopping body pieces.” Areum gasped. “Just kidding,” he quickly said, but his face was expressionless.

Areum fought tears from surfacing and glared at the boy. “You cowards!” she cried out. “You ambushed Exo-K, burned my home, hurt D.O. nearly fatally, and then now kidnap me? How low can you guys get?”

Kris shoved her back onto the bed and loomed over her with a ferocious look. Areum lost her momentarily sense of bravado. “Listen, little girl,” he snarled. “I don’t know why the Exo-K bastards are always blaming us about things we’ve never done. They’ve always messed up our plans for no good reason at all! I don’t even know why they claim we’re their archrivals; we consider them as nothing but pests!”

“But you sent texts that you did! You bragged about all those horrible deeds…” Tears were starting to flow from Areum’s eyes. Suddenly, she sneezed. Her fever was gone after taking the medicine, but her cold was still there.

Kris released the girl and sat up. He crossed his arms. “Did you guys actually try to track down the people who attacked you claiming to be us? Did you guys find out who exactly were behind those texts?” he spat out.

Areum was silent. No, they had assumed that it was Exo-M every time. Areum stared at the ceiling with eyes blurry with tears, feeling confused. “Are you lying to me?” she finally asked.

“Why would I?” Kris hissed in impatience. “Anyways, what did Exo-M have against Exo-K? We didn’t give a da** about them until they started messing our projects up.”

“But you guys receive and deliver illegal drugs,” Areum whispered.

Kris rolled his eyes. “You’re only looking at the outside picture, not the full context.” With those words, he left the room.

Areum’s brain whirled with various thoughts. So if Kris was really telling the truth, wouldn’t that mean that someone or some gang was behind all this? Setting things up so Exo-K and Exo-M would be against each other? But who? And what did Kris mean by her not looking at the full context of his gang’s actions? Her head hurt. She sneezed again.

Areum was at the window, gazing at the full moon. She wondered if her brother and his friends were worried about her. They were probably losing their minds trying to find her. They might suspect that it was Exo-M, but they had no clue of the whereabouts of their enemies’ hideouts. Gang hideouts were an absolute secret in the Underground World. It was each gang’s sanctuary – at least, that was what Chanyeol had told her.

“What are you doing?” A mellow voice made her start.

She whirled around to see a boy walk into her room. She could just make out his features in the dim moonlight. “You’re the guy next to Luhan when I first saw Exo-M,” she whispered.

He nodded, his face just as expressionless as then. “I’m Lay. Why aren’t you sleeping? It’s late.”

She turned back to the moon, as if it was the only thing that could comfort her. “I can’t sleep by myself,” she admitted in a small voice. “I have nightmares.”

“Why?”

His voice was so calm and soothing that Areum found herself telling him her childhood and the incident in the streets late at night by an unknown gang. He nodded again. “I’ve heard of that orphanage. In fact, Kris Hyung used to live there before he escaped. He told me how horrible it was. Once in a while, he would have nightmares about it, too.”

“And for that incident… I’m sorry. But I can assure you it wasn’t Exo-M,” he added. Areum nodded and told him that she knew. “Well, I hope your brother’s gang finds that gang someday and gets revenge.”

He sat down across from her and leaned against the wall. He crossed his legs. “I’ll be here all night if you need me. You can go to sleep now.”

Areum just stared at the serene boy. He looked like a statue in the dark, and it was creeping her out more than comforting her. “Um, I’m fine,” she stated.

Lay stood up abruptly and quietly led her to the bed. He sat down on the floor next to her bed. She turned her head and continued to stare at him. “You might catch my cold.”

Shaking his head, Lay smiled softly. “I’m strong. We were trained to be practically immune to simple colds.”

Areum finally closed her eyes. Suddenly, she felt a hand grab hers. A warm, soft hand. Smiling, she let sleep overcome her, knowing that if she wandered into any nightmares, the hand would rescue her like last time.

I hope you guys are enjoying the story!! Thank you, commenters, for the wonderful feedback! :)