Chapter Twelve

She waited until she felt the familiar sharp tug pull her back into Sehun’s flat. She opened her eyes and sighed. Her body felt rested,  but her mind was aching for some rest. She stretched and got off the couch. She quietly made her way over to Sehun’s room to check up on him. She was glad to see that he was still sleeping soundlessly. She quietly closed the door to his room and walked to the kitchen. She opened the fridge and saw strange vegetation she supposed was EXO’s versions of fruits and vegetables, along with different sauces and spreads.

So much for making him breakfast…She thought and closed the fridge door. Her eyes caught her pant legs and she remembered that she needed to find a change of clothes. So, she went into the entrance way, shoved on her boots and headed downstairs with the goal of finding new clothes.  She hoped Sehun wouldn’t mind if she borrowed some.  She entered the main area in the shop and was surprised to see Kai sweeping away at the floor.

“Good morning.” She greeted him with a small wave. His eyes didn’t meet hers because they were stuck on her stained pants.

“What happened?” Kai demanded sharply, straightening up and pushing his broom to the side while hurrying his way over to her.

“Are you always this friendly in the morning?” She awkwardly scratched the back of her head. The small smile she was wearing dropped as soon as she saw Kai’s stare had turned more severe.

“Why is there blood on your clothes?” His tone meant no more funny business. But she didn’t really feel like she should tell him the truth about Sehun. She was aware that, even for a robot, Kai was capable of feelings such as worry and discontent. And she thought that Sehun was the type of person that did not want people to worry unnecessarily over him. If Sehun wanted Kai to know what happened, she decided it’d be from his lips.

“Um,” She paused piecing together a story, “Sehun managed to cut himself on something upstairs. He bled all over the floor and even on his couch. I treated him and told him to go to bed while I cleaned up the mess. But I kind of didn’t pay attention to my clothes while cleaning, and thus got these.” It wasn’t the truth but it was close enough. Kai’s expression showed that he wasn’t exactly  convinced, but she was glad when he visibly loosened up. “So, the reason I came down here was to find a change of clothes. Do you know where I can find some?” She asked, looking around the store. Kai nodded and walked past her. She quickly followed after him

Kai led her to another door which was attached to another room. If the shop was an organized mess, this room was a chaotic dump. There were mountains and mountains of plain old stuff.

“What is this room?” She asked peering around in wonder continuing to follow after him. Kai smirked over his shoulder.

“Our stock room, I happen to sleep in the back corner over there.” He said pointing in a random direction. But she couldn’t see anything but the piles of merchandise.

Kai navigated through the maze with no difficulty. Before long they found themselves in front of a number of racks filled with clothes. She looked at Kai hesitantly before advancing towards the racks. “Don’t go anywhere! I don’t think I’ll be able to find my way out without you…” She firmed stated over her shoulder with a warning glance. Kai just smirked and shrugged.

It took longer than expected to find something that she deemed tolerable enough to wear. It seemed like Sehun had picked out the most average looking clothes in the stash because she was only finding some weird articles of clothing among the racks. She picked out an oversize beige sweater along with leggings with a bearable mosaic print.  She peeked over her shoulder and saw that Kai was innocently observing her. She wanted to change, but didn’t want to have to go all the way back upstairs in order to do it.

“Hey Kai? Could you turn around?” Kai shot her a look of suspicious before hesitantly following her request.  She immediately stripped her shirt off and ed her pants. She shoved her pants off and her eye caught the inside of her elbow. The tattoo had changed again, the sapling grew even more with three leaves sprouting from it. She lightly rubbed her thumb over it and smiled. She was still on track.

She stopped her train of thought when she realized she was still standing in her underwear. She peeked over her shoulder and gasped.

“KAI!" She yelped, trying to cover herself with her hands from his curious eyes that were still being trained on her. “I asked you to turn around!” She quickly leaped in between clothes on the racks next to her, trying to conceal what she could.

“I was curious about what you were doing.” Kai innocently blinked toward her, looking completely unfazed.

“No excuse!” She shouted trying to put on the legging while minding the hanging clothes around her.

“I don’t understand why you’re so upset. I already know what female anatomy looks like.” She popped her head up and glared at him.

“Yeah, but watching a girl change is considered an invasion of privacy! It’s different from having some impersonal data being inputted into you!” She snapped back. She managed to slip on the sweater over her head. Now that she was dressed, she stepped out of the rack and grabbed her old clothes before stomping her way over to Kai.  

“I suppose you’re right. Your figure is much nicer than the image that I had inputted.” He nodded, his eyes roaming up and down her body. She gapped openly at his statement. Her hand shot up and was supposed to hit its target, the back of Kai’s head. But instead, Kai the-super-robot grabbed it in mid swing and gripped it tight before dragging her away.

“Let go you!…You y robot!” She struggled to free himself from his strong grasp.

“Weren’t you the one who said they wouldn’t be able to find their way back without me? I’m just leading the way.” He smirked, squeezing her hand lightly. She pursed her lips, showing her discontentment and let him continue to drag her back into the main shop area.

When they entered the area, Kai ran up to the front of the shop and some lights and turned around what she assumed to be the open sign. The shop was now open.

She heard a ding and was surprised to see a customer enter after just opening. Kai went up to them instantly and offered his help. She continued to stand there awkwardly.

She then noticed something. She was hungry. And getting hungrier by the second. She didn’t want to wake up Sehun and have him cook in his condition. Her cooking was out of question considering she didn’t know any of the ingredients. She couldn’t have Kai leave the shop unattended in order to help her. Plus, he might start asking questions about Sehun’s condition.

So, when no one can cook... how do you get food? Back home, she knew there were restaurants and cafes that she could go to. She wasn’t exactly sure if EXO had those. Plus, she didn’t have money to buy food. She really wanted to do something for Sehun though…

She heard another ding, signaling the customer's exit. She zeroed in on Kai and made her way over to him.

“What is it?” He asked, closing his till. She shuffled her feet and peered up at him with what she hoped rivaled puppy eyes.

“Kaiiiii, does EXO have places where you can buy premade food and take it home?”

“We do…But most of them are in Sector M.” Kai raised an eyebrow, immediately becoming cautious.

“Could you possibly tell me where I could go to get food? And could I borrow some money to buy it? I swear I’ll find a way to pay you back!” She slapped her hands together, slightly begging. Kai’s stare switched between her hands and her expression before sighing.

“Okay, but why don’t you ask Sehun to make you something?”

“He’s still asleep and I don’t want to wake him up. I’ve been troublesome enough for him lately, so I thought I should give him a little treat.”

“With my money.”

“That I will pay back.” She shot back, her hands still clasped together. Kai looked her up and down before tsk-ing.

“I can’t leave the shop. I, and probably Sehun as well, aren’t really fond of the idea of you walking around alone between the Sectors.”

“I swear I’ll be okay! Just draw me a map and I’ll be back before you know it!” Her words sounded more confident than how she really felt. After a bit more convincing, Kai did end up drawing her a detailed map and giving her a loose change purse full of coins. She beamed up at him before hurrying out of the shop.

She walked for maybe 20 minutes, making constant references to Kai’s map before she ended up at the tea shop he suggested. It was in a more upper class neighborhood and she realized it was very close to the club she went to the night before.  It had a cute exterior design with a simple sign saying “Tea Shop” above the entrance doors. She nodded in determination. She was half way done her mini mission and there was no use turning back now. So, she pulled on the door handle and entered the shop.

It wasn’t too full, but it had a decent crowd inside. She took her place at the end of the line of people. It didn’t take her long to get to the cash.

“Hello, what can I get you?” The employee greeted. She lightly smiled.

“Hi, can I get two of your most popular food items and two mediums of your most popular teas to go?” She ordered. The employee gave her an odd look before nodding and punching in her order in the fancy screen lying flat on the counter.

“That will come to 5010 redbits.” She felt her smile falter. She pulled out her change purse and realized that she had no idea what the quantity each coin was. The coins didn’t have any numbers on it, just fancy engravings.

“Um, I’ll let you take the right amount.” She said, putting the open change purse close to the cashier. They looked at change purse and her puzzled. They began rummaging through the purse with slightly shaking hands, picking up different coins.  The hand pulled back and the cashier flashed her a quick yet forced smile.

“Your order will be ready soon.”

“Along with her change I hope.” A voice cut in from behind her. She jumped maybe a foot in the air and whipped around. She tried hard not to show her surprise. She recognized that jaw anywhere. Yet again, she met with another boy from the vision. She processed what he said and turned to look at the cashier confused, who was now shooting Mr.Strong Jaw with a look of annoyance.

“Sorry, I accidently took too much.” The cashier mumbled, handing half her coins back. She looked between the coins in her hand and back up at the cashier in disbelief. He just tried to steal from her (or from Kai in actuality)! She pursed her lips shut, not wanting to cause a scene.  She glared at the cashier before moving to the side where customers were to pick up their orders. Mr. Hero of the Day joined her not long after.

“Um, thanks by the way.” She directed in his direction.

“Hmm?” He lifted his eyebrows.

“…With the coins and stuff.” She elaborated, holding up her coin purse.

“Oh, you’re welcome. I’m not exactly a fan of others being scammed.” He smiled which only accentuated his high cheek bones. She smiled back and nodded. She heard her order number being called and walked up to grab it. Mr. Chiseled Facial Features’ number was also called.

“Um, good bye. Thanks again.” She said, bowing her head slightly and walked out the exit of the shop. She took her steps slowly, processing the man she just met. He was one of the men from the vision. Wasn’t he going to be of some importance to her? Did he not recognize her? Was that his only purpose to her, for him to protect her from stealing cashiers?

She continued to walk, but her train of thought abruptly stopped when a searing pain came from the inside of her elbow. She immediately found a place to put down her items and pulled up her sleeve. She panicked when she saw the tattoo was changing. What was worse was that the growing sapling was starting to wilt and it wasn’t showing any signs of stopping. She looked around her, unsure of how to stop it. What did she do wrong?

Okay, keep calm! I’ll just retract my steps! She thought and went back to the tea shop. The pain began to lessen as she grew closer to the shop. When she stepped inside, the pain stopped altogether. She looked around and saw that Mr. Defined Bone Structure was sitting by the shop window, very much enraptured by his tea.

It clicked.

This man was important to her, important enough that her entire mission would fail without him.

She had to interact with him no matter what. So, with a few deep breaths and taking a step by hesitating step, she made her way over to him. 

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MAMA IS OUT! I am soooooo happy with it! It's soooo epic! Amazing, fantastic (baby), marvelous *inserts numerous adjectives*. Also, I think the video does actually match my story well enough :D AND I watched an eng sub video of MAMA and the Korean verison was talking about a war and how it should stop. I'm not sure how accurate the translation was, but oh my god. LOVE IT! Maybe the part where Kai scares the living daylights outta me could have been tweeked a little.

A new character has been introduced! YES! And you all can probably guess who it is. Hint:

THAT Y MAN RIGHT THERE. Goodness Chen, how did your face create such beautiful lines. Envious~~!! And your voice...goodnees. *dies.

Kay, not too much pictures today. I got a new bunch of subbies from my last update to which I thank a million times over!!! Along with all my wonderful fanstastic *pulls out thesaurus and continues* commenters. You guys are my motivation for getting out these chapters as quickly as I do (maybe not as quick as others, but I usually am a slow writer...)

Anyways, tired. Good nigggghhhttt <3

Giveaway of the day:
*gives coupons to private lessons on how to roll like a buffalo with y instrutor Tao*