DaeHyun groaned as he woke up. He looked at the clock to see that it read 5:34 am. Much too early to be awake. With a yawn, he looked down to see DaeHee cuddling the child version Coco. He smiled warmly at the scene, gently brushing her hair out of her face. The smile disappeared as he revealed the scar on the back of her neck. He stared forlornly at the tip of her scar, tracing it lightly to not wake her up all the way to the edge of her shirt, knowing it goes much deeper down her back.

It was a miracle she was alive.

And he thanked every single moment she was still next to him.

Just as he was about to go back to sleep, he heard footsteps in the hallway. DaeHyun raised his eyebrow suspiciously and silently slipped out of bed to check who was outside (grabbing his gun just in case).

He cocked the gun and rested his finger on the trigger while he cracked open the door, making sure he didn’t wake DaeHee or YoungJae. Both of them were considerably light sleepers (even if YoungJae refused to get up in the morning sometimes) and he didn’t want to alarm them if it ended up being nothing.

A shadow crept through the halls just as he suspected, but his eyes had yet to adjust to the darkness to see who it was, so he laid in wait to see what the figure would do. For a split second, the mysterious person past through a sliver of moonlight, giving DaeHyun the opportunity to get a glimpse of his face.

His eyes narrowed, sneaking out of the door and closing it behind him quietly before making his presence known to the creeper, pointing the gun at him.

“Lee HoWon-sshi, let’s have a talk,” he almost growled, voice low to keep quiet yet also giving him an ominous aura. HoWon stared at DaeHyun, glancing at his gun for a moment before straightening up and holding his hands up to show he means no harm.

“What’s your purpose? We all know about Infinite. Our whiz-kid is no joke. We have no problem with making all the information we found public. But that’s not our purpose,” DaeHyun interrogated with mistrustful eyes.

HoWon chuckled, “And what exactly is your purpose?”

“I’m asking the questions around here,” DaeHyun hissed, frustrated. “Why exactly are you so interested in DaeHee?”

The older male stared at DaeHyun, frozen in his spot at his sudden question.

“…that’s personal.”

DaeHyun scoffed, “Yeah, it’s personal to me, too. Look, she’s had a hard time growing up. Things that happened…things you would never even begin to understand. For someone that grew up so comfortably all their life. You can’t even begin to imagine. So I’m telling you now and this will be my last warning. If you’re serious, I’ll back off. But if you’re just playing with her, I suggest you find another toy because I will place a bullet between your eyes if you hurt her.”

Silence.

DaeHyun finally lowered his gun and returned back to bed, leaving HoWon to contemplate over what he just said.

Truthfully, he didn’t know the answer to DaeHyun’s last question.

~

So he watched her. If asked, he would say it was part of his mission. But of course, no one asked. DaeHyun’s suspicious glares did not go unnoticed.

But that one day when DaeHyun wasn’t there…

HoWon accepted his feelings.

~

“Hyung! Why do I have to go?!” DaeHyun whined to YongGook, who sighed with a frown. The leader knew why DaeHyun was so reluctant, but they had to confirm something with him.

“I’m sorry, DaeHyun…it’ll be quick, I promise…come on…” he said in a soft voice, putting his arm around DaeHyun’s shoulder, leading him to the door.

“DaeHyun? YongGookie-oppa? Where are you going?” DaeHee wondered, rubbing her eyes after uncharacteristically sleeping in. She had been doing that a lot more recently, which was starting to worry DaeHyun. He saw the momentary flicker of fear in her eyes at the thought of DaeHyun leaving her. He smiled affectionately at her, ruffling her hair and bumping his forehead to hers.

“I’ll be right back, okay? I need to take care of something at HQ,” he told her. She nodded reluctantly as he pulled away, leaving with YongGook. Her heart raced for a second. Something didn’t feel right. She grabbed DaeHyun’s hand. He looked back curiously at her.

“Call me…if…anything happens…” she mumbled, feeling a bit ridiculous saying it. It was probably implied that would happen, there was no reason to tell him that. But he smiled at her anyways and nodded.

It’s not like the two of them had never been separated before. In fact, it happened all the time, so there was no reason for her to feel that way. Why was she so worried all of a sudden?

“Umma? What’s wrong?” Coco asked, tugging on her sleeve. She faked a smile and hugged him.

“Nothing. You want to watch a movie?”

“What’s a movie?”

DaeHee laughed, picking him up and proceeded to show him what a movie was.

“Ah, but Umma, I’m hungry…” whined Coco. On cue, DaeHee’s stomach started to growl, too. She laughed again, petting Coco on the head, suggesting they made some food first which Coco agreed to. Knowing how hard it would be to switch Coco back to dog food if they fed him human food, she took out the bag of dog food and placed it in a bowl on the ground for him. No complaints from the little boy, he happily ate his food as if eating on the floor was the most natural thing to do. It may look cruel, but diet was very important and quite frankly, DaeHee had no idea what issues YoungJae could have possibly caused with his accident. Consistency was important though. If it wasn’t broken, no reason to try and fix it.

Now to take care of herself, she looked into the fridge and found very little food in there. She pouted; that’s what she gets for living with 6 other males…and not to mention 2 other people now, the food ran low more often than usual. She sighed, picking out a microwavable meal from the freezer. It was better than nothing and she was starving.

Just as she put the food in the microwave, a bright flash took out the lights followed by a loud boom.

DaeHee screamed.

She fell to the floor immediately, crouched low against the cabinets while protecting her head with both hands, whimpering.

“Umma? Umma, what’s wrong?” Coco asked worriedly, shaking DaeHee a little. “Appa!”

As another roll of thunder and lightning crashed through the sky, DaeHee whimpered, eyes screwed shut, already breaking out in a cold sweat.

“DaeHee? DaeHee! Yah, what’s wrong?” HoWon called out as he got dragged in by Coco. He immediately rushed over to DaeHee and shook her shoulder. At his touch, she flinched and squirmed away from him, crying. He stared in awe at her shivering and whimpering. His mind was unable to process the idea of DaeHee looking so terrified.

Taking it slowly, he crouched down to her level and spoke softly, “Hey…it’s just me…nothing’s going to hurt you…”

He could faintly hear her mumbling, but wasn’t able to comprehend any of the words she was trying to say. Coco whimpered, next to DaeHee, pawing at her in an attempt to snap her out of it. With a pained expression, HoWon pulled DaeHee into a tight embrace. She continued crying into his chest, clinging onto him desperately. If she had claws, he probably would have lost his shirt. (A/N: …/contemplates giving DaeHee claws/…)

“Shhh, it’s okay…it’s just a thunderstorm…” he whispered, her hair as she cried endlessly. He tightened his hug when she started to shake again.

“Umma…Appa…don’t…don’t take them away…don’t take them away…no…please…stop…”

He froze in shock when he finally understood what she was chanting in her wounded voice.

“Umma…” Coco cried out softly, nuzzling up against DaeHee, tears in his eyes at how distressed she was.

She still cried.

HoWon looked out the window. Then down at DaeHee. She flinched visibly every time another bolt of lightning boomed through the sky.

With a sigh, he hugged her tightly against his chest and covered her ears.

“Just pretend it isn’t there. The storm will pass,” he whispered. HoWon felt her uneven breaths slowly calm down as she couldn’t hear the thunderous booms as intensely anymore. Her body began to loosen up as Coco crawled up into her lap between the two of them, throwing his arms around DaeHee’s waist and whimpering softly. He smiled when she hugged him back, eyes still closed, resting her head against his shoulder as he cradled her in his arms.

“Every single time I think I have you figured out, you go and surprise me again,” he chuckled as she fell into a calming trance, eyes drooping sleepily from the stress of the whole ordeal. He had always thought of her as a headstrong, fearless person. She almost seemed invincible and untouchable. Even the whole near incident, she took it much too calmly in his opinion. Yet this thunderstorm had instantly broken her apart. He didn’t know why he so naturally just ran to her. But he wanted to protect her (at least the very few moments that he could).

Not long after, she had fallen asleep in his arms. It seemed she was easily emotionally drained. HoWon gently nudged Coco off so he could carry her up to her bed. Refusing to be apart from her for a mere second, Coco tailed the two of them to her room. As he pulled the covers over her, he grabbed a pair of noise-canceling headphones nearby and placed them over her ears. An adorning smile graced his face as Coco curled up next to her. The little one was wide awake but he refused to leave her side.

“Take good care of her, okay, Coco?” he whispered softly, ruffling his hair. He nodded back with a smile.

Quietly, he left the room and closed the door.

“There was a thunderstorm the day she lost her parents.”

HoWon startled at the unexpected voice. He turned to find YoungJae standing there.

“But that’s not why she’s scared of them. It’s the booming sound of the thunder and the bright flash of the lightening that brings her back to the moment she got caught in the explosion that set her house on fire. Her mind automatically relives the whole ordeal over and over again until the storm stops. I’m surprised how well you were able to calm her down. DaeHyun is usually the only one that can keep her from freaking out.”

He stared at the younger male, smirking at him.

“Are you wondering why I’m telling you all this? I don’t trust you anymore than anyone else here,” YoungJae answered truthfully. “…but I believe your feelings for DaeHee is real.”

“But remember that she’s still a girl. She may put up a tough front and it’s fair to say that she can very well take care of herself. Even if she denies it, she needs to be loved unconditionally because she’s had enough pain in her life,” he informed, glaring at HoWon as if warning him that if he does otherwise there will be consequences.

“What are you to her?” HoWon voiced the question that had been bothering him since he got here, staring back just as intensely.

Not the least bit shaken by his gaze, YoungJae walked up to HoWon and whispered smugly, “Feeling threatened?”

Before he could answer, YoungJae shrugged, the smug look never leaving his face, as he walked into the room to check on DaeHee.

~

DaeHyun stared up at the screen with a sigh.

He turned his head when YongGook placed a comforting hand on his shoulder.

“There’s no way for them to involuntarily turn on, right?” he asked, voice laced with worry. YongGook nodded.

“They tested it and they’re practically undetectable unless you specifically look for it. You would need a considerably large blood sample too,” YongGook reassured.

~

“What’s the status on HoYa, MyungSoo?” SungKyu asked as he looked over his shoulder.

He shook his head as he stared at the screen, doing his best to track their missing member. SungKyu clicked his tongue in annoyance and frustration.

“How can he just disappear off the face of the Earth like this?” DongWoo mumbled in wonder.

Bekah looked over at WooHyun before sighing and making her unpopular comment known, “Have you tried looking up MiHyun’s background?”

All the boys turned to her.

“Look, I just have a bad feeling about her.”

WooHyun stared at Bekah before turning to MyungSoo.

“Find everything you can on Kim MiHyun.”

=====================================================================

I FINALLY UPDATED!

I was…so stuck on this chapter because…geh…I couldn’t find my HoHee fluff. I was trying to put Coco in there but it just wasn’t working like how DaeWoo worked with Bi. XDDD I’m pretty content with how it turned out though.

Infinite has returned!

~Kira :3

P.S. Is anyone still there…;___;

=====================================================================

BAPLOVER: LOLOLOL. I have…yet to figure out what he did. XDDDDDDD I’m sorry for not updating for so long…are you still there…T_____T

xSeobSarangx: They got…mutated into humans. LOL. I apologize about the DaeMi ship. XDDD I’m glad you are able to accept the DaeWoo ship though! :D Give EunWoo loooove~ she’s adooorable~ XDDD /not that I’m biased or anything…/

MaeilYogurt: I DON’T KNOW. I WISH I COULD TELL YOU. BUT IT HAPPENED. BECAUSE I POSTED IT. AND CANNOT UNDO.

-imhungry: YESH! I AGREE! :D DaeJae’s voices in the whole album. <3 Hahaha, you can ship who you want~ don’t force it. XD And EunWoo isn’t…really THAT naïve. :P She’s actually quite intelligent and perspective! She did, after all, figure out that MiMi is DaeHee despite the lack of information she had. ^ ^ DaeHee is a little mental. XD I AM NOT AMAZING BUT I AM SO GRATEFUL YOU THINK I AM! ;A; /gives you lots of cookies/ I always enjoy YoungJae’s beautiful angel voice. ^ ^

Cheoneunnie: I have…no idea why that happened. XD Only Coco has become human since Dubu and Nurungie are at home. Hmm…now I’m curious what those three would be like if they were little kids. XDD But I like puppies more than kids. I hate children. Low tolerance for how annoying they are.

mysteriousshadow: I HAVE NO ING CLUE. I wish I knew what the actual . YoungJae is not a mad evil genius! He’s just…a…accidental evil genius? LOL. /feeds your DaeWoo feels/ XDDDDD She’s still alive, I swear. :P

hiikyoung: You and the rest of my readers…including myself. I never expected this to go fantasy…although…it’s not…really fantasy…lol…it’s a bit more sci-fi. XDD /feeds DaeWoo feels/ NOT YET! …but yes, soon, there shall be an explosion. XDDD You have every right to be paranoid because this is my story and really, when is this ever calm. XDDD /slow claps at your last joke/

Yixicorn: I wish I knew, dude…but I don’t think I was on drugs…not that that would make a difference since the only drugs I ever take is ibuprofen…Only Bi is cat-human! Coco is dog-human! XDDD LOLZ. They’re like…mini Zelo and JongUp. XDDD Probably because I’ve engrained into your mind that the two of them are puppies. XDDDDD I mean…what, I’m not responsible. I kinda want to write more about Bi and Coco but I feel this little divergence has gone on for long enough. XD I wrote that and giggled to myself. Made 2 more children…ahahaha…I’m so funny. :P YONGJI FTW. ALWAYS. YES. /pats your head for the rest of your spaz/ Your comment made me lolz and super happy. I’m glad you liked it so much. XDDD