You were half-asleep when a quiet creak roused you from your slumber. You turned toward the door and watched as it slowly slipped open a crack, revealing a pair of eyes peeking in from the dark corridor outside your room. The door opened a bit more when you raised your head off the pillow to see Gikwang standing rather shyly in the doorway. "I'm sorry," he mumbled just barely loud enough for you to hear. "I had a dream and I just wanted to make sure you were okay. I didn't see you at all after, well, after Hyunseung made me leave. I was worried..." He continued to ramble on for a few more minutes.

You knew why he was doing this. He had a night terror and needed to be around someone. He didn't want to impose on you, though, and he was probably already upset that he had woken you up. It didn't really matter since you had only been sleeping restlessly anyway. Nightmares kept plaguing you with bad memories and horrible imaginings that could become reality in a heartbeat. You shivered lightly.

You sat up, rubbing at your eyes sleepily, and waited for Gikwang to cease his rambling. When he finally stopped for a breath, you held up the covers of the bed next to you. He blinked at you in confusion. You scooted over a bit more and looked pointedly at the empty spot next to you. The anxious demon got the message when you turned back and looked at him with raised eyebrows. "I can?" he asked you, seeming unsure of your intent. You nodded and tilted your head toward the empty side of the bed.

Gikwang smiled warmly, looking like a huge weight had dropped off of his shoulders. He stepped into your room and carefully closed the door as softly as he could before walking over to the side of the bed you had allocated to him. Grabbing the covers from you, he quickly slid into the bed and snuggled in. A faint smile graced your lips as you watched him pull the blanket up, bunching it under his chin like a small child. The demon pouted slightly when he caught sight of your amused look. He opened his arms to you and made a grabbing gesture with his hands. You huffed a heavy exhale and scooted toward your master. His arms wrapped around you, one resting across your shoulders and the other around your waist, as you let your hands rest in loose fists against his chest. You tucked your head into the crook of his neck as his hand traced patterns on your back.

He started humming softly, and you had to smile slightly at that. You did like it when he hummed. It lulled you into a calmer mindset. You were just about to slip under when suddenly the humming stopped. Glancing up at Gikwang, you saw the troubled demon staring at the ceiling. You knocked your head into his and gave him a concerned look. "I'm fine," he assured you. "I was just thinking about how nice this is. Having someone who understands and is willing to let me stay in their bed." You allowed your lips to curl into a half-smile and brushed your fingers over his eyelids. His eyes closed, and he smiled softly as you nuzzled back into his neck. The humming began again, and sleep pulled you under.

You were standing alone in an empty room, the walls stark white in contrast to the charcoal cement floor. There was a mirror in front of you with a black door lurking in its depths behind your reflection. You walked towards it, watching as your reflection faded in and out of focus. The harder you tried to hone in on the outline of your body, the more it swam in your vision. You eventually gave up and turned to face the black door. It looked more foreboding the closer you got to it.

Your hand reached out slowly to touch the black, shiny doorknob. You jerked back and gasped in shock as the freezing cold feeling jolted up your arm. The doorknob twisted of its own accord and slowly swung open. You didn't move, staring out into the darkness with unease. You took small baby steps out into the unknown.

The darkness lessened as you continued walking forward. When you got far enough, everything was bathed in bright white. The walls were white; the white tile floor clicked under your shoes. You looked around the wide vacant hallway. People started walking through doors that blurred in and out, seeming to not actually be in existence at all and appearing out of nowhere. The people themselves were in black and white, like out of an old time movie. Their mouths were moving as they talked to each other and waved at you, but you could hear no sound. You kept walking down the hallway, watching familiar looking people canter past you. These people seemed inexplicably recognizable, yet you couldn't place them or remember their names. More and more people walked by you as you continued down the never-ending stretch of white hallway. The silence pressing in from all sides was unnerving with so many people wandering around.

The number of people slowly decreased until you were alone again, the doors ceasing to appear out of nowhere. You turned around to see if you could still see the door you had entered the hallway from. Your eyes widened in shock as you in a startled breath. You knew you had been walking at least ten minutes, which made what you were seeing even more frightening. No more than three feet away was the same black metal door that you had come out of.

You scrambled back as quickly as possible, but your retreat was halted in its prime when your back smacked into something solid. You took a step forward and turned around, jumping back in surprise at what greeted you. There was a black wall in front of you where there had previously only been a long stretch of white hallway. You glanced back over your shoulder at the wall behind you. Your eyes widened to the size of saucers, and you found yourself spinning around on your heels before you could even take a breath. The black door you had originally entered from was gone.

You walked forward and placed your hand on the wall where the door had been, feeling nothing but the cold surface of a painted wall. You dropped your hand and slowly turned in a circle. On the black wall, there was now a white door. Without any other options of places to go, you walked forward and stood in front of it. Your hand reached out, hesitant to touch anything in this strangely shifting world.

As your fingertips brushed the flaming hot surface of the dull black doorknob, you felt a pulse travel through the room. You looked around to see the white walls had changed to black, and the tile floor had been replaced by white concrete. Stepping away from the door quickly, you looked around.

There was a mirror opposite the door. This time, you could see yourself clearly reflected in its surface. You had on a black dress, and there black tear tracks running down from the corners of your eyes. You rubbed at the dark trails, but they didn't smear or fade. There was no wetness on your cheeks or any sensation to suggest that the marks you were seeing were even there at all. You blinked and found yourself looking through the eyes of a stranger.

The stranger in the mirror tilted her head to the side and rested her face in the hand that had been scrubbing at the strange black lines. Her eyes had no pupils but instead had sparkling gold orbs. Her hair was the fairest shade of blonde you'd ever seen, falling straight to her lower back. Her bangs were cut straight across, so they fell just above her eyes, the hair framing her face falling straight to match the rest but curling in a single spiral at the very end. Her outfit was pure white, from the baby-doll dress down to the bows on her shiny ballet flats. Her skin was the color of porcelain, flawless and unblemished. You blinked this stranger's eyes and were returned to your dull, dark self, faintly missing the alien brightness of the other girl.

You dropped your hand that still rested on your cheek and turned around quickly. You marched with determination toward the white door and grasped the black doorknob tightly. A scream ripped itself from your throat as heat flared across your skin. You snatched your hand back and looked at the skin scorched from the heat. When you looked up at the door, you found it missing. Your hands curled into fists, and you winced as pain shot through your right hand. You slammed your hands against the wall where the door was only seconds before. There was no hollow sound; it was like the door had never existed. You didn't know how you were going to get out of here now. You ran your hands along the wall but felt no flaws or inconsistency with the plaster.

"Stop chasing after things you don't need to know," came a voice from behind you. You turned around slowly and glanced about the room. There wasn't a person to be found. "Do a little self-reflection." You looked into the mirror and found a pair of lilac eyes looking back at you. The eyes were accompanied with alabaster skin and jet-black hair. It was a girl about your age but taller by about four inches. She was wearing tight black pants, a silver halter top, and knee-high black boots. Her hair was cut off just above her shoulders. It curled in a slight wave, and she had side-sweeping bangs.

The girl in white reclaimed your body when this dark being stared you down. "Who are you? What do you mean?"

The girl in the mirror tossed her head and stepped out of the glass. "I mean that you should stop wasting your time chasing after memories that are only going to hurt you in the long run. You'll be much happier if you just keep living like you have been. When you find out who you are, I'll come find you." The girl from the mirror approached you as she talked. She stopped in front of you at the end of her speech.

"But I don't know you," the girl in white said through your possessed body.

"No, you just don't know that you know me. I have to leave now." The taller girl turned and walked back to the while your legs forced you to follow along. "You can't come with me," she said as she back-stepped into the frame of the mirror. "See you later."

The other girl's hand moved without your consent and stretched to touch the glass of the mirror. There was a moment where time stood still as the mirror-girl looked back at you and the girl whose body you were inhabiting, stunned. The shock was immediately replaced with anger. opened in a scream of rage, but the mirror seemed to contain the noise. Her eyes rolled back, and her hair flew out in all directions. All the surroundings of the room crumbled into darkness except for the small area between your feet and the mirror. The only light came from the constant lightning flashes from inside the depths of the mirror, behind the girl. Her eyes turned to dust, leaving behind black holes. Blood flowed from the holes and her hair blew away in an intangible wind. Her skin began to curl away from her face, revealing only her skull underneath. The skin on her arms came off in spirals, and her teeth clacked together with a horrible noise. Her clothes started to dissolve like sand until she was just a skeleton with red dripping from its eyes. The ground seemed to open up and the bones fell down, out of sight. The mirror cracked and the pieces slowly fell out and dropped out of sight as well. The frame fell backwards and tumbled out into space and out of sight. You watched it go, and the floor opened to swallow you up.

You sat up, waking with a gasp and butterflies fluttering like mad in your stomach. Trying to slow your breathing, you waited for the falling sensation to end. "Hey, Lae, what's wrong? Are you ok?" you heard a concerned voice ask from beside you. You glanced over at the demon who you had completely forgotten was sharing your bed. He sat up as well and slung his arm around your waist while his other arm went up toward his face, so he could rub at his eyes. "Did you have a bad dream?" Gikwang asked and laid his head on your shoulder.
 

You thought for a moment and shook your head. It hasn't been overly threatening. It was more confusing than scary. You leaned your head on top of his, but he shifted you until you had your head against his chest and tucked under his. Then, he fell back onto the pillows, dragging you with him. He pulled the blanket over the two of you, and you snuggled sleepily into his warmth. His arms wrapped around you, and a soft humming lulled you back to sleep.

You woke up far more agreeably with sunlight streaming through the windows. Your head was still resting on Gikwang's chest, and his arms were resting comfortably around you. Yawning silently, you started to pull yourself up. A sharp whine stopped you, and the arms tightened around you, pulling you back down. You made an irritated face but sighed. It wouldn't hurt to snooze for a little longer.

You were just starting to drift off when the door crashed open. "Gikwang! Why are you in here? I was looking all over for you!" You stared at the youngest in confusion. The grip around you left for a moment as the blanket got pulled over both of your heads. You had the decency to keep the amused look from surfacine on your face. "Hyung~ come on!" The blanket was whipped away to somewhere out of sight.

Gikwang released you and sat up. "You better have a good reason for waking me up. Otherwise, there may be bloodshed," the irritated demon replied to the maknae's whining.

The boy's face shifted into the kind of look you would expect from a kicked puppy. "I just wanted to hang out. You disappeared yesterday, and you didn't come to breakfast. It was like you died."

Gikwang sighed and ran a hand over his face. "Dongwoon, it's not like I don't disappear for long periods of time."

Dongwoon frowned and whined, "But that's always with warning!"

"Well, I'm here now. What do you want to do?" Gikwang relented. "What time is it?"

"Almost one. You guys slept for a loooong time," Dongwoon said with raised eyebrows, as if this news had surprised him quite a bit.

Gikwang looked at you and smiled. "This is officially the longest I've ever slept in. And also the most sleep I've ever gotten in one night." You smiled back at him, glad that you had been able to be of some help. It was nice for you, too, to have someone there when you woke up from that really weird dream.

"Hyung! Let's go visit people! I haven't seen our friends in ages! We could all meet at the mall!" the younger exclaimed happily while bouncing on the edge of the bed. "I'm so excited! I want out of the house with my favorite hyung!"

"Dongwoon, it would be rude to just leave when Laeri probably wants lunch. I'm going to walk her down to get some food, and then, we can go play, okay?" You almost laughed at the pout your hyperactive master was sporting. Your laughter stayed carefully trapped in your mind as you made your face as impassive as possible.

Gikwang got out of bed and held a hand out to you. You allowed him to help you off the bed. He tried to pull you out the door, but you dug your heels in and tugged at his sleeve. His eye were questioning, so you gestured to your clothing. You were still in pajamas, and unless you directly ordered to, there was no way you were leaving your room without changing.

He looked at you for a minute with a blank expression, as if he was trying to figure out what you were trying to get across. His eyes widened as an epiphany hit him. "Oh! I'm sorry. Do you want to change clothes first?" You nodded and pressed your lips together. "Ok," he said with a half-smile. "We'll wait outside for you." He grabbed Dongwoon by the arm and dragged him out of the room, closing the door behind them.

You walked to the wardrobe and started to dig through the clothing. After several minutes of near frantic rummaging, you pulled out a lilac blouse with three-quarter sleeves and little bows at the end and a pair of light gray skinny jeans. It took a few minutes to find the pair of shoes you wanted, a pair of high top converse, but you eventually managed to free them from the confines of the shadows to pull them on.

You checked yourself in the mirror once and ran the brush through your hair a few times. When you deemed yourself respectable, you walked to the door and pulled the door opened. Dongwoon had scampered off somewhere, and Gikwang was waiting patiently by himself, leaning against the wall a few feet down the hallway. You wondered briefly where the younger had vanished off to. He usually liked to stick around you when he could, or at least, he certainly hadn't passed up any opportunity afforded to him. You walked up to your remaining master and quirked your head to the side. His eyes glanced over you from head to toe, and he smiled warmly at you. He held his hand out to you, which you took, and began walking you down to the kitchen. You resisted the urge to start swinging your conjoined hands with the barest sliver of your will power. Your master rubbed his thumb in little circles on the back of your hand, a soothing motion that chased away any misgivings you might have had about Dongwoon's sudden disappearance.

The walk to the kitchen was passed in comfortable silence, the kind that no one felt the need to break with mindless chatter. It wasn't in your nature to make conversation when you had the option not to. You liked the silence because there was less expected of you; no one expected you to know the right thing to say or to know the proper way to address a certain person. You weren't necessarily quiet only because you were mute. It was brought on more by the circumstances you were dragged into.

You reached the kitchen in only a few minutes. Gikwang held the door open for you and waved you on through. He didn't follow to the other door but instead said his goodbyes at the first door and went off in search of your youngest master. You walked through the second door and were pleased to see the group of girls that you normally sat with were there in their usual corner. With only slightly hurried steps, you walked in their direction. Emi caught sight of you first and squealed eagerly.

"Laeri! Come talk to us! I haven't seen you in forever~! Where have you been?! Why didn't you come to breakfast?!" Her face was alight with questions and happiness.

Lingfei pulled her friend back down into her seat. "Emi, we saw her yesterday. Remember? She ate dinner with us instead of up there," she said, nodding her head in the general direction of the front table.

"Oh yeah," Emi said dreamily.

"Hello Laeri," Addy interjected, always one step ahead of the conversation. She had been deep in conversation with Michelle about one thing or another. The latter girl looked up with a smile and gave you a pleasant wave. With their greetings done, they became engrossed in yet another discussion punctuated with gasps and the occasional giggle.

You smiled at their comradery and went about picking out something to eat for lunch. There were different pots of soup down the length of the table and little plates of sandwiches. You took your bowl and ladled some tomato and basil soup into it. After glancing over the wide assortment of sandwiches, you picked up one at random and started eating. As you ate, the girls talked about various interesting or funny things while you tried to pay attention. You were having trouble paying with everything that was on your mind. The dressing on your wrists probably needed changed, and your conversation with Junhyung kept surfacing, prompting you to make a decision. The girls finished while you were lost and the youngest had to get your attention.

"Laeri? Do you want one of us to wait with you?" she asked politely. You held up a hand and shook your head. They smiled and waved goodbye as they turned and walked away, leaving you alone to finish your lunch.

You finished and sighed. Steeling your nerves, you stood up and walked out. You knew where you needed to go and what you had to do.

A/N:

Hiiiiiiiii! I didn't want to interrupt your reading by putting two this time so I'll adress comments here.

Comments!:
@kwonnie: So? Was I right? You likey, non? Lots of Gikwang lovels for you! And yes, I saw Thriller, and yes he looks Psychotic! I like Minhyukkie though so.... (Whispered) Did you know that in the dance video for Wow Ilhoon is like feeling Sungjae up!? It's the part where they bend over and.... ehem back to on track now... OMG BANGTAN BOYS!!!!! I GET TO BE A NOONA!!!!! YAY!!! I like Jungkook and Jimin. EEP. With Kiki, I'm going to bring up the "not-being-protective" thing in a chapter or two. AND about Junhyung? yea... Bet nobody saw that coming, even though I left hints. Remember how he left in like... chapter 5 ish? 6 ish? No point in being able to read signs if you can't see.
@obliviate-:THANK YOU I WAS HOPING IT WOULD BE SURPRISING! and oh? he's your bias? well, he will be showing up quite a bit. My friend is like upset with him because he keeps making Lae uncomfortable lol. and again yes Ilhoon looks psychotic. I guess now the question is... Will he be a god guy or a bad gy? *evil smile*
@kimbap01: Hi new commentor! I think. forgive me if I'm wrong. Thank you for commenting your poll answers! Your choices now hold more weight! ^_~
@KPop_luverr: AWWW thank you! I'm glad you like it! I work hard for y'all.
@KamiLau: ditto ^ that. And literally every time I see your name i go "Henry?" *looks around* lol. Kami.... I had a friend at school named Kami.... and I forgot her name a couple times. But she forgot mine too! so it was ok ^^

WOW! dont break! o ay o ay o ay! WOW! I got 5 comments! woo! and apparently i have 3 upvotes! whatever those are/do!

Again important Information at the end! Look for this color if you want to skip stuff

Ok so French! Help me is Aidez-moi. (ay-day mwah) (by guys, hi ladies! mwah!)

Sing language for HELP. Make a thumbs up and lift!

IMPORTANT STUFF

Ok First off, and you might hate me, but this story is going to go off on hiatus probably until a week into November at the earliest. The reason why is because I am working on an October Thriller Fic in honor of Halloween. If you want to check it out, and please do, click the little house picture below.

Ok so the results of the polls thus far:
8 to 6 in favor of second person, guys this isn't a big enough gap for me to decide definitively. Even adding 2 points for extra weight from a comment doesn't give me enough certainty to say yes to either. Therefore, the next chapter will be a trial chapter for 3rd person and I will make you vote again. I need a bigger gap so I can tell what you guys want.

5 to 2 to 2 in favor of up to 20 min, bless your hearts you guys! I don't have the attention span for that! regardless, I'm going to try to stick around 15 to kind of even it out for everyone.

SO HOW SHALL I DIRECT YOUR COMMENTS TODAY?
LIST YOUR MOST RECENT FAVORITE MUSIC VIDEOS/SONGS IN KPOPDOM.

added note: Nyokopuppet, where'd you go? I miss you so.... Seems like it's been forever, since you showed interest here :( I miss you my lovely commentor!