Areum had slept the rest of the day and into the night. She woke up at dawn, feeling refreshed for the first time since the horrible incident.

She walked out of her room and was surprised to see Chanyeol sitting on the couch, reading a book. He stood when he noticed that she was up. He gave her a grin. “Slept well, sleepyhead?”

“Do you even sleep?” It was the first thing that popped into her mind and out of .

Chanyeol’s grin grew wider at her astonished expression. “Of course I do. No one can function without sleep. It’s just that our bodies are trained to function on no more than five hours. Sometimes, when we’re, um, busy, we can do with four.”

Areum gaped at him. Four? She couldn’t even function on six. Grinning, Chanyeol walked over to her. He found himself towering over her.

“You’re so short,” he laughed. He purposely loomed over Areum. He was a good twenty-five centimeters taller than her.

“You’re so tall,” Areum shot back, slapping his arm like she did to Sehun. She froze, as she hadn’t meant to do that. However, Chanyeol just laughed harder.

“What did I miss?” Yawning, Sehun came out from Chanyeol’s room. It seemed like he had really listened to his Hyungs and slept in Baekhyun’s bed.

D.O. popped his head from the kitchen. “Good. I’ve just finished making breakfast.”

Areum’s jaw dropped. “This early in the morning?”

The boy nodded. “Since you missed dinner yesterday, I thought that you would be hungry once you woke up.”

The girl was speechless. Feeling touched, tears sprang in her eyes. “So this is what it feels like to have a big family,” she whispered.

Chanyeol patted her head, making her automatically frown – she never liked being petted. “We’ll be your family from now on. You’ll be our little sister.”

Areum’s frown disappeared. She looked up and smiled at him. “Thank you, everyone,” she said.

Kai walked out of his room, yawning. “What did I miss?”

“Can I wash the dishes?” Areum asked D.O.

D.O. scratched his head, as if thinking. Chanyeol nudged Areum. “The kitchen is his kingdom. He doesn’t like intruders, although when he’s busy he has to allow some of us to walk in,” the tall boy whispered.

“Although I can’t cook well, I can wash dishes!” Areum said in a cheerful voice.

“Okay,” D.O. said. He walked into the kitchen with Areum following.

Chanyeol gaped at them. “How come she gets to help you but I’m not allowed to step one foot into the kitchen?”

Sehun came over and threw an arm around his Hyung’s shoulder. “It’s because you’re clumsy,” he said slowly, as though explaining to a little child. Chanyeol glared at him.

Areum managed to wash all the dishes without breaking a single one. Kai did the drying, for he was the only person allowed inside the kitchen by D.O. other than the gang’s leader. Delighted that she was able to help, Areum smiled and went into the living room, where Chanyeol and Sehun were. The two were playing against each other on a video game.

“Would you like to play?” Sehun asked quickly. Who knew – she might start asking again to call her brother or become curious and wander around, finding unusual items that she’d undeniably question.

Areum seated herself on the carpet next to him and Chanyeol handed her a console.

An hour later, D.O. exited the kitchen and sighed at the three in the living room. Sehun and Areum were high-fiving each other while Chanyeol was muttering a string of gibberish that was obviously curse words changed for Areum’s benefit. ‘And he’s the oldest person currently in this house,’ D.O. thought as he looked at Chanyeol. He shook his head.

When the clock read one in the morning, Joonmyeon and Baekhyun entered the house with weary looks.

“So was the mission a success?” Chanyeol jumped to his feet. He had been sitting on the couch reading a book.

Baekhyun sighed tiredly and nodded. “We managed to foil the deliveries of Exo-M. We even cleanly eliminated their messenger. If we had gotten there a little later, the boxes of drugs would’ve reached those scoundrels of a gang.”

“Congrats,” Kai spoke out.

“Did any of you get hurt?” D.O. asked.

Joonmyeon shook his head. “How’s Areum?” he asked. He glanced at the closed door to her room.

“She’s fine. She’s asleep,” Sehun replied. He rubbed his eyes. “I need some coffee.”

Baekhyun and Joonmyeon sat down and related the details of the mission to the younger boys. After they finished, D.O. served green tea.

“Hyung, I’m just curious, but… What exactly happened to Areum when she was living in the orphanage?” Chanyeol had heard from Joonmyeon before that the people there had beaten him up for not the slightest reason at all, but the older boy had been loathed to describe any more.

Joonmyeon’s eyes looked hollow. “She was only three when they started beating her with brooms for the smallest things. They would slap her for asking for more food. And they would starve her for days just for fun.” The boys could see their Hyung turn pale with suppressed anger. “They would lock her in the dark cellar with the rats for days. Once it was a week.” He closed his eyes as painful memories resurfaced. “And the bruises…” He let out a shaky breath. “I could only hold her and try to comfort her. I would give her food from my portion, but if I was caught, we would both be beaten.”

Everyone shivered. It was like the temperature of the room had dropped several degrees. “That’s horrible,” Baekhyun whispered, breaking the chilly silence.

Grimacing, Joonmyeon cracked his knuckles. “When we gain more status and backup in the Underground World, I might go pay them a visit.”

“We’ll support you,” D.O. said. “Like we’ve always done.”