“I wonder what’s taking Kai so long…” Suho says worriedly. He has been pacing back and forth with Baekhyun silently following him with his eyes.

“I’m sure they're okay.” Lay chimes in. He had walked around the room with Xiumin, looking for anything of interest.

“We still don’t have any news of Chanyeol and Dee, though.” Baekhyun says. His arms were crossed in front of him and his brow was furrowed. “I’ve figured everyone from our circle of friends is here. I wonder where Channie and Dee are.”

“Chen and…” Lay starts. But Tao finishes his sentence for him.

“And Kris.” Tao rests on the wall, looking up at the ceiling blankly. “I hope they’re alright.”

Just then, a puff of black smoke appeared in the middle of the room, surprising everyone, and 7 boys appear.

“They’re back!” Suho exclaims.

“They all are!” Lay looks at his friends faces. Tao immediately runs towards Kris and throws his arms around the taller boy.

“Tao, you’re okay!”

“Of course I am!” Tao hugs his friend tighter.

“Channie!” Baekhyun raises his hand up in the air for a high five.

“Baekie!” Chanyeol approaches his friend but instead of giving him a high five, he hugs Baekhyun.

“How was your adventure? Took you long enough.” Suho asks Kai. Kai begins retelling his story.

The seven new comers had broken off their teleport circle. Except Sehun and Luhan, who are still unconsciously holding hands.

“Luhan! Smart thing you did back there, contacting Kai. How’d you know?” Lay walks toward him and Sehun.

Luhan let go of Sehun’s hand and greeted Lay with a hug.

“It wasn't me, Lay. Someone told me to do it. This voice in my head. Turns out, I can contact people through the mind. I’m a telepath.”

“Sweet. I heal things.” Lay says with a laugh. “And who is this? Your partner?” Lay asks, directing his attention to Sehun, who was standing awkwardly behind Luhan.

“P-partner?” Luhan’s cheeks begin to redden. “W-what do you mean?”

“Oh, you know. Everyone was paired off with someone.” He explains, not noticing Luhan’s blush. “I was paired up with your friend, Baekhyun!” Lay says to Sehun.

“Ah!” Sehun nods. “My name is Sehun. Thank you for taking care of Baekhyung!”

Lay smiles.

“Baekhyung, huh? I wonder if he’s older than me…” Lay trails off and walks past the other boys, looking for Baekhyun.

“Where’s Xiumin? I want him to check out my powers!” Chen appears before Luhan and Sehun. Above his hand was a small ball of electricity he was maintaining to show to Xiumin.

Luhan looks around, looking at everyone catching up with each other, but Xiumin wasn’t one of them. He looks around the room and spots a lone figure on the farther part of the room.

“There he is.” Luhan points. Chen smiles and heads over to Xiumin. Luhan and Sehun follow.

“Bao Zi! Check this out!” Chen shows his electric ball.

“Chen! I’m glad you’re safe! And cool power! I haven’t really tried using mine again. The last time I did, I froze a whole room.”

“What’re you doing here, Bao Zi?” Luhan asks, joining the pair.

“Bao Zi?” Sehun whispers to Luhan.

“It’s his nickname. It means steamed bun.” Luhan replies. Sehun looks at Xiumin and realizes why he had the nickname.

“Luhan! I’m glad to see you, too!”

“You, too!” Luhan says, noticing what Xiumin was checking out.

Behind Xiumin was a huge door. Its color was the same as the wall’s and if you didn't look close enough, you wouldn’t even notice there was a door on the wall. It looked like one of those castle doors with intricate designs all around it.

“I’ve been checking this out.” Xiumin points at the door. “Lay says it’s just a wall design, but I begged to differ. I inspected it a bit more and thought I could hear something on the other side. But… there’s no knob or any other way to open it.”

“You could hear something, huh?” Luhan steps forward and touches the door. “Maybe I can see what’s inside.”

He closes his eyes and stretches out his mind, feeling for anything on the other side.

Woof!

He doubles back at the sound in his head.

Xiumin, Chen and Sehun lean in.

“Did you find anything?” Sehun asks.

“What’s his power?” Xiumin nudges Chen.

“He’s a telepath, supposedly. I wouldn’t think of any inappropriate stuff around him if I were you.” Chen whispers to Xiumin.

“I heard something. Woof.” Luhan says.

“Woof?” Xiumin repeats.

“Woof.” Chen echoes.

“Yes, woof.” Luhan says impatiently.

Chen and Xiumin giggle.

“Are you serious?” Xiumin asks. “I didn’t hear a ‘woof’ though.”

“Wait. Let me try again.”

Luhan focuses once more and spreads his mind towards the door.

Woof! Woof! … Woof!

Luhan blinks.

“Yep. It’s a dog in there.” He announces.

“A dog, huh?” Xiumin looks through the crack in the middle of the huge doors. He can’t see anything.

They hear a loud creaking sound and the doors suddenly begin to move. Xiumin jumps back.

“What did you do now, Bao Zi!?” Chen asks, backing away.

“I didn’t do anything!”

The other boys in the other side of the room all turn their heads as the majestic doors slowly part. Light floods into the room. Everyone shields their eyes, except Baekhyun.

As soon as the door had completely open and the boys’ eyes adjusted to the new light, they slowly head over to Luhan and company.

They hadn’t moved. They just stood there, staring at what greeted them at the other side of the door.

A fluffy white dog.

“There really was a dog.” Sehun breathes out.

“What’d you guys do?” Lay asks. The rest of the group is now in front of the threshold, staring at the dog.

“The door opened by itself.” Luhan explains.

“I told you it was a door.” Xiumin said pointedly at Lay.

“Dog!” Baekhyun comes running through the threshold and kneels down beside the dog. He immediately starts patting it.

“Baekhyun! Be careful! It might have rabies!” Chanyeol follows his friend into the other side.

“Rabies.” Kris repeats with a smile. “Silly.”

“Did you say something?” Tao asks.

“Hmm? No.” Kris walks forward and Tao follows him. The rest of the group starts moving in, too.

“Wow. This place is huge.” D.O. scans the room, wide-eyed with awe.

Behind the dog was a huge painted wall. In the middle was a tree and the 12 symbols were surrounding it. Where the wall ended on both sides was a walkway into whatever it was that was behind the wall.

“Cool looking tree.” Suho says, examining the wall.

Baekhyun has convinced Chanyeol that the dog was nice and that he should play with it, too.

“I do like, doggies.” Chanyeol holds out his hand to pet but the dog stands up and starts running away. “I never said they liked me back.” He pouts.

Woof! Woof, woof!! Woof!

Luhan hears it again in his head as he watches the dog run away from Chanyeol.

“I think he wants us to follow him.” Luhan says then he starts walking towards the direction the dog went.

“What’s his name again?” Baekhyun asks Chanyeol.

“Luhan, I think. He’s psychic.”

Baekhyun let’s out a soft ‘oh’ and stands up.

“Well, we better follow them then.” Chen suggests.

Everyone starts following Luhan and the dog, leaving D.O. and Kai checking out the wall.

“Pretty tree, right?” Kai asks.

“Yeah…” D.O. runs his finger over the walls surface.

“Oh… They’re all gone.” Kai says and disappears in a puff of smoke.

“Kai!? Guys!?” D.O. looks around wide-eyed, looking for his friends. “Where’d you go!?”

A ‘psst’ catches his attention and he sees Kai standing at the right side end of the wall, waving his hand.

D.O. lets out a sigh of relief.

Author's Note:

I AM SO SORRY GUYS. This is all I can do for now.

I just wanted you all to know that tomorrow I will be leaving for the US! I will have two-three days of travel time after that, visiting Toronto and Quebec.

Today, I've been busy packing and running around and driving my mom around to do last minute errands.

I seriously, SERIOUSLY, hope that I get the time to write once I'm on vacation! (Maybe during the plane ride? LOL)

Please wait for the next chapter guys and once again I apologize for this one. Nothing much happens. GAH SORRY TAT

Anyways, wish me a safe trip!! 'Til the next update!