When he woke up, all he saw was bright lights. He wondered if he was dead.

It was warm, and it smelled slightly of antiseptic.

He tried to move, wondering what the afterlife looked like and if it was anything that he imagined it to be. But he immediately stopped when he felt a sharp pain in his right arm.

He looked down to see an IV inserted into his vein. He blinked a few times, this time looking more closely at his surroundings.

He was on what looked like a hospital bed. There were medical tools and medicines that lined the counter next to him.

It could smell the rubbing alcohol and clean smell he always associated with hospitals.

And he could hear voices.

“He’s the missing boy from the plane crash, isn’t he? And the person responsible for stealing our supplies.”

“Got to hand it to him. He managed to stay alive for almost two weeks in this weather and a plane crash. I’m surprised he didn’t die any sooner.”

“He’s not dead, Jackson. Plus, he’s on his way to recovery. He should be waking up anytime.”

“But what did you think about it all? That nibra, it shouldn’t have lived like that for so long. Even if it couldn’t die, it still shouldn’t been in that much pain.”

“And that boy. How could he survive living with a nibra?”

“It wasn’t as if the nibra could attack the boy. It literally could not move.”

“Still, there was evidence of burnt food in front of the nibra.”

“So, you’re saying he gave the nibra food.”

“I don’t think we would have known any better.”

“But why? If the nibra was the cause of the plane crash, the boy should have known that.”

“Then you think the nibra did something? They aren’t capable of feelings.”

“Why don’t you all wait until he wakes up before speculating?”

The boy froze. He remembered that voice when he was drifting in and out of consciousness.

He remembered a face. Female.

He remembered asking her if he was going to die.

And he remembered her response.

“You’re not going to die. You’re going to live. I promise. So, you must not fall asleep, do you hear me?”

He thought it was all a dream.

She continued talking. “No wonder you’re all on Jo Kwon’s team. You all can’t help but to hypothesize.”

“It’s not a bad thing! If we aren’t curious, where would the world be right now? Aren’t you curious?”

“Yeah, but I’m more worried about the boy.”

They voices faded out as he laid back down on the bed.

He didn’t know where he was or who these people were.

But he didn’t feel scared. Just curious.

The curtains drew back a little, startling him, and he was met face to face with another male. He had dark hair that hung haphazardly over his eyes. His eyes were oddly light-colored but dark. The stranger didn’t say anything, only staring at him.

When he finally said something, it wasn’t to him.

“He’s awake.”

A flurry of moments could be heard.

The first face he saw was of a young woman, probably no older than he was. “Are you ok? How do you feel?” She cupped her hands on his face, staring wildly at him.

She was pulled back.

“I’m the one with medical experience, Leader Jay. So if you would.”

The girl pouted but complied.

The next one was a male with light-sandy brown colored hair. He took his pulse and shone lights in his eyes.

“He’s fine. He just needs a little bit more rest.”

The young woman sighed. “That’s good.”

“Who are you?” the boy finally asked.

They looked at each other with surprise before answering.

“I’m Jay,” the girl replied with a smile. “We found you in the caves.”

“Mark,” the one who took his pulse answered. “I’m glad you’re looking well.”

“Seungcheol,” the solemn boy who had opened the curtains said in a murmur.

“There are more in the back, but they don’t matter now,” the girl, or now known as Jay added.

“Hong Jisoo.”

“What?” she reflexively asked.

“Hong Jisoo,” he repeated. “My mom always told me that introducing yourself is the proper thing to do when you’re being introduced to strangers.”

Jay looked at the others. “We can talk later, Jisoo. You need rest.”

“No, what I need are answers, if you don’t mind.”

Jay laughed. “He’s like a more polite version of you, Seungcheol.”

Seungcheol was not as amused as Jay, but he let an eyeroll get through him.

“We won’t be able to tell you unless you tell us what happened,” Mark interrupted.

Jisoo paused. He didn’t know if they would believe him. He almost didn’t believe in himself.

“Trust me,” Jay spoke, taking Jisoo out of his thoughts. “What you tell us won’t surprise us. We’ve been through some more bizarre things that you can think of.”

Jisoo stared at Jay as she smiled at him, deciding to trust her.

“I heard you out there. And you’re right, I was in that plane crash. I didn’t even know what was happening when it did. All I remember was screaming and yelling and having that feeling of your stomach dropping like when you’re on a rollercoaster.”

He looked down at his hands. “I thought I was going to die. We all did. But when I opened my eyes, all I saw was white.” His voice started to waver. “Everyone around me was dead. Blood and smoke was everywhere. It literally smelled like death. I think I… emptied my stomach a few times.”
“How did you survive?” Mark asked with a narrow of his eyes.

“I..I...I don’t know exactly. But I think it was that horned creature.”

“The nibra,” Mark deadpanned. “The nibra saved you.”

“Like I said, I don’t know exactly how. But when I opened my eyes, it was under me, like it was shielding me.”

Jisoo could tell that something was wrong. While Seungcheol was keeping a poker face, he could tell that his expressions changed ever so slightly. Jay’s eyebrows were furrowed, and Mark just looked at him in disbelief.

“I’m sorry. I’ll be back. Leader Jo Kwon is going to want to hear this. Don’t continue until I come back!” he shouted as he raced out the room.

It was quiet, and Jisoo felt bad, like he did something terrible.

“What’s wrong?” Jisoo finally asked. “Did I say something wrong?”

Jay looked at him and gave him a gentle smile. “No, you didn’t do anything wrong. It’s just the nibra. If what you’re saying is right, then it’s a big deal.”

“Nibra,” Jisoo repeated with scrunched up nose. “You keep saying that. What is it?”

“Jisoo, do you have any family? Someone you can go back to at the end of the day?”

Jisoo froze. He wasn’t expecting that question, and it made him remember that moment he could never forget. The wide eyes of her face, the bloody wound on her stomach, and her lips in the form of his name.

“No,” he whispered, eyes down, unable to look at her. “My mom was on the plane with me. I know nobody survived.”

“No father?” she gently asked.

He shook his head. “It was always just my mother and me. I mean, I have relatives, but I’m not close to them whatsoever.”

She studied him deeply. Jisoo could feel her eyes on him, and he almost felt embarrassed. Like she was looking at him exposed, as if she could see everything about him.

She finally looked him in the eyes.

“Jisoo, I am going to give you a choice.

Seungcheol looked at her in surprise. “Wait, Jay. You can’t mean…”

She interrupted him. “Yes, I do. Are you alright with that?” she asked.

He looked away, eyes heavy and serious.

“I guess. My opinion doesn’t matter does it?”

“Seungcheol,” she repeated, this time, her voice was heavy. “You are part of my team. I may want to take him on, but if there is some reason why you don’t want me to, I will listen. You have a choice in this matter too.”

Seungcheol looked at her with bewilderment. “Are you going to ask me every single time you find someone you want to join?”

She paused. “That is a good point. Perhaps it’s the circumstances we are in. You are here at this moment. If the circumstances make it so that I am the only one that can choose, then so be it. But you are here; and therefore, you have an opinion.”

“Why are you so fixated on choices?” he asked softly.

She looked at him sadly. “Because maybe I was never given them.”

She shook her head as if to end the matter. “Well, what do you think?”

Seungcheol looked at her and then at Jisoo then turned his head away. “I’m ok with it.”

She left it at that and returned her gaze to Jisoo. “Sorry about that. However, I will not tell you everything until you choose.”

“Choose what?” Jisoo asked. “All of you are talking about choices, but I don’t even know what exactly we are choosing.”

“Whether or not to join my team,” she answered. “It holds consequences, however. Choose to be on my faction and will never be able to go back to life as before. You could return to your life, live with other people who care about you peacefully, normally. But you will not know what we do, you will have to keep what happened a secret. However, if you do join. You are putting yourself in harm’s way. Every time you fight, it’s against something dangerous. But with that, you will know everything. Understand what a nibra is. What really happened. In all, you will leave your old life for a new one.”

“I...I...don’t know,” Jisoo lamely replied. “Where will I go if I join you?”

Jay smiled. “You’ll be with Seungcheol and I. I have my own place where we live.”

“As a family?” he asked.

She looked at Seungcheol in amusement. “Hmm. That was what I was aiming at. Do understand, Seungcheol and I only met a few days ago.”

Jisoo blinked at them as Seungcheol snorted at her words.

“Do you feel like you made the right decision?”

Seungcheol looked at Jisoo as he posed the question to him. “I’m not going to say anything that will sway your decision. It’s up to you to decide. That’s what Jay did to me. But I guess I’ll say this. I did the only thing I thought I could.”

Jisoo watched them. He couldn’t have seen that those two were almost complete strangers, just a few days separating the days they knew each other. And yet, they were comfortable in each other’s presence.

He always wanted that. Being so comfortable that you could understand each other with a single look.

It wasn’t that he didn’t have friends; he did. Plenty of them.

But he wouldn’t call them close. He would see his friends in their own groups having fun, having a connection so much more family like than just friends.

“I’ll do it.”

They looked at Jisoo who was staring Jay straight in the eyes.

“Please. If you will, allow me to accompany you.”

Jay smiled, albeit a bit sadly. “Then I welcome you, Hong Jisoo, into the Azure Dragons.”

Jisoo was about to say thank you when he starting to cough roughly.

Jay looked concerned as she muttered, “Let me get you some water.”

She left the room, and Jisoo looked at Seungcheol.

“So,” he said. Seungcheol's eyes riveted back to him.

“Do you think you made the right decision?” he asked, repeating the question he posed earlier.

Seungcheol stared at him, for a long while that Jisoo felt a slight discomfort.

“I don’t regret it, if that helps,” he finally said.

Jisoo smiled. “That’s good enough.”

Jay came back with a glass a water in her hand, and a somewhat amused look on her face. In tow were Mark and Jo Kwon.

“You are serious, though? I do not appreciate any sort of shenanigans of any sort,” the black coated man was telling Jay.

She shot him a look of pure amusement. “Shenanigans? What are we in? Kindergarten?”

“You will have to ask the boy,” Mark answered for her.

“Hmm,” Jo Kwon hummed, entering the room and now face to face with the boy who was apparently was saved by a nibra. It sounded like blasphemy, but it was true, well, Jo Kwon, just maybe, could believe in hope.

“But know this,” he heard Jay’s voice say. He looked at her, wondering what was going to come out of this time.

“He joined my faction.”

He almost choked but recovered quickly. He shook his head. He should have known. But then again, Jay was unpredictable. Which may explain why all of them were subconsciously scared of her.

“Of course he did,” he opted out saying. “With the pace you’re going, I believe you will recruit in less than two weeks.”

She laughed. “Who knows. Maybe I’ll surprise myself.” She handed the boy the water, and he drank it gratefully. He heard the boy ask Jay about an explanation to which she responded she would explain everything when they got back home.

He looked weak, scrawny and no meat on his bones. He would have been dead in less than a week’s time if they didn’t find him.

Jo Kwon scoffed. It looked like Jay had a knack of picking up near dead boys. He had hoped that it wouldn’t be a habit, but perhaps these boys and her had more in common that he thought. Stubborn to the core.

“What’s his name?” he asked.

“Hong Jisoo, sir,” Mark answered, pulling out the clipboard and handing it to him. He scanned through the data and looked at the boy again. Like he had expected, the boy was thin, malnourished, and dehydrated.

But that didn’t matter. What did was his story.

“Boy,” he called out thinly.

He looked at him.

“Explain from the beginning. And spare no detail.”

I'm finally on break, so now I can focus on this. School really kept me busy. 

Thanks for reading.