Kris’s jaw dropped when he entered Areum’s new room that morning. Lay was sitting next to the bed with his head against the wall, sleeping, while the girl was on the bed, sleeping as well. But that wasn’t the surprising part. Kris rubbed his eyes, unable to believe the sight in front of him.

“Lay!” he roared. The two people’s eyes flickered open in surprise. “Why in the world are you holding hands with the sister of Exo-K’s leader?” Kris exploded.

“Hyung.” Lay rubbed his eyes sleepily. “Did you come to check on her? Did you know that she came from the same orphanage as you did? Don’t worry; I was right next to her all night and chased away her nightmares. “

Lay was surprised to see Kris’s eyes widen. It was rare to see the leader of Exo-M look so shocked.

Kris suppressed a shiver as horrible memories threatened to resurface. “So?” he snapped. “Who cares?” He whirled around and stomped out of the room.

Turning to face the girl, Lay said, “Did you sleep well? You look quite well today; maybe your cold is gone. By the way, what is your name?”

“What?” Joonmyeon cried out. He felt like his world was crumbling. Areum was missing.

“I said, Exo-M took her to their hideout. We have no clue where it is. All we know is that Luhan and Xiumin kidnapped her and we were too late. We’re really sorry, Hyung.” Chanyeol hung his head.

Putting his head in between his hands, Joonmyeon shouted, “It doesn’t make any sense! Exo-M wasn’t the gang that had been so against us! It doesn’t add up! Why would they take her?”

“Well, although everything about their side is a mistake, we’ve been foiling their plans for real for quite a long time. It’s understandable that they would become frustrated and resort to last measures,” Baekhyun reasoned.

Chanyeol waved the piece of white paper that he had tried to straighten out after crumbling it. “The note Exo-M left says that they’ll return us Areum safe and sound after a month if we keep our hands out of the Underground World during that time period.”

“We need to find her now! I don’t give a da** whether we misunderstood them or not; I still don’t trust Exo-M!” Sehun snarled.

D.O. spoke out. “But how can we when we don’t know where their-”

“Wait,” Joonmyeon interrupted. “What we need to do now is find a way to contact Exo-M.” His expression was serious and determined.

“Eat,” Luhan snapped.

Areum was sitting at a table with all of the Exo-M members. They were all eating breakfast, which were sandwiches that Xiumin bought from a nearby street vender. Save the fact that the meal wasn’t an assortment of D.O.’s savory dishes, she felt like she having breakfast with the Exo-K members.

Luhan rolled his eyes at the girl, who was like stone in her seat. He ripped open the plastic covering of a ham sandwich and shoved it into her hands. “Eat,” he repeated.

“Luhan Hyung, it’s not like you to care about someone,” Tao smirked.

“Shut up! I’m only doing this because if she starves to death, Exo-K will be after our necks instead of leaving us alone like we want.” Luhan gave the Exo-M maknae a deathly glare.

Areum just stared down at the sandwich. “If you don’t like ham, you can trade with me. Do you like tuna?” Tao asked.

Slowly, Areum took a small bite out of the sandwich. If Sehun had seen her then, he would say that it was so unlike her to eat slowly.

“How old are you?” Tao piped up.

“Eighteen.” Areum’s voice was barely audible.

Tao grinned. “I’m nineteen, but that means we’re only a year apart. Let’s still be friends!”

Everyone else at the table groaned at the childish maknae. “She’s the sister of Joonmyeon Kim,” Kris muttered. He never understood why Tao had wanted to join their gang when he was always so friendly and cheerful. The more he thought about it, he began to also wonder why the peaceful and calm Lay had joined their gang, also.

“Her name’s Areum.” Lay’s mellow voice interrupted Kris’s thoughts.

‘Speak of the devil,’ Kris groaned in his head.

“I’m Tao,” Tao cried out. “And this is Chen Hyung and Xiumin Hyung.” Tao pointed to the two quiet boys respectively. “You already know Kris Hyung, Lay Hyung, and Luhan Hyung, right?”

“That’s enough chit-chat. Shut up and eat your breakfast,” snarled Kris. Everyone obeyed.

That night, as Kris passed Areum’s room, he could detect whimpering coming from it. With a frown, he peeked inside the room, for the door was open.

The girl was lying on her bed. She was obviously sleeping, but it wasn’t peaceful; she was tossing and turning while tangled in her sheets. Incoherent words tumbled from .

“Please stop.” It was more of a plea than a murmur. “Don’t hit me anymore; I promise I won’t steal bread again!” As Kris stepped closer, he could see that her face was ghastly pale in the moonlight and her expression, though her eyes were tightly shut, was one of pure terror. He had a feeling he knew what she was dreaming about.

The nightmares from the orphanage… He was quite used to it at his age. Even nowadays he would wake up in a cold sweat. Standing next to the bed, he bent down and wiped the sweat from her brow with a hand. He clasped both hands around one of her tiny ones. He stayed like that until the nightmares subsided and she stopped whispering.

Kris stood back up and sighed. He remembered what he had said to Tao that morning. She’s the sister of Joonmyeon Kim. He had been rummaging around in the Underground World’s news warehouse all day. Reading the some of the article, he had a suspicion form in his brain. Maybe what he was predicting was right. Maybe the mess with Exo-K had been a misunderstanding. A simple misunderstanding that had turned into hate and rivalry.

How is the story coming along? I love feedback!! ^.^