{August 13th, Seoul, South Korea}
{8월 13일, 서울, 대한민국}

Drip. Drip-drop.
The pitterpattering of rain on the roof of my house was vague in my mind, and I tried to block it out so I could go back to sleep. Very far away, I had the impression of ache and pain, so I guessed that I had the flu or something, and was home from kindergarten. I felt the soothing coziness of my bed and blankets.

Mother's cool, gentle fingers brushed my cheek and forehead, and I heard low murmuring. I wanted this moment to last forever, with my sweet-tempered mother and my just as kind father caring for me.

Wait, hang on a second.
I snapped back to the present time. Mother was gone, and she was never coming back. Why had she gone, anyway? She never even told me. She just disappeared.
Father was like a wild animal, with no restraint or kindness left in his heart. Then... then where was I?

The familiar, nostalgic sound of guitar strings rang out, somewhat clearer in my head than the rain. A sweet, melodic voice sang softly in Mandarin, though I didn't catch many of the words.

"Shi jie shi zuo gu du de cheng bao
"世界是座孤獨的城堡

Bi ci xun zhao
彼此尋找

Dang tian shi chui xiang ai de hao jiao
當天使吹響愛的號角

Kan dao ni de wei xiao"
看到你的微笑"

The music seemed to act like a cord, pulling me back to the real world and full consciousness. Once I was fully awake, though still with my eyes shut, I could pull up a very blurred, foggy memory of what had happened before.

Those five thugs. They had nearly stolen my ity... or had they already? And that stranger. I guess I owed him a lot. Could I thank him, should I ever see him again?

It took a fair amount of time for my brain to process that the voice singing with the guitar was the same voice that had yelled at the thugs.

...Sometimes I am astonished at my own slowness.

Cautiously, I half-opened my eyes. Thank God, the light in the ceiling was fairly dim and not right above me. But when I tried to move my head, horrible, throbbing agony shot through it. A groan of pain escaped from my mouth as I tried to open my eyes fully.

"Oh, you're awake..." The attractive boy, or rather young man (he looked a few years older than me), stopped singing to say, "So... how are you feeling?" as he put the guitar back on it's stand. I noticed immediately a few things: that he seemed to have a habit of trailing off his sentences, and his skin was very pale, even under the dim light. His hair was black and messy.

Goddamn it, I hurt! Not just my head now. My arms, my legs, even my throat hurt a bit. I tried to relax and ignore the pain as I pulled myself into a sitting position.

"I thought you must be pretty sore... I was out at the grocery store a few days ago and I heard yells and screaming. You were getting the hell beat out of you by those thugs... They looked like they were about to you, so I chased them off and brought you back here..."

"Um, thanks for rescuing me, I guess." I replied, my voice hoarse and little more than a croak. There were bandages wrapped around my bare chest, probably to help the injuries.
My old pendant (a present from Mother before she left), in the shape of a white magatama with a black dot in the center, was still hanging around my neck.

I noted my white shirt folded up neatly on the bed opposite.
Then I remembered something. "Wait, where's my violin and bag? Did you see them anywhere?" I panicked.

"It's okay... I saw them and brought them here too. So... who are you exactly, mystery boy?" he grinned. Not to go off the subject or anything, but he had a very bright smile that seemed oddly familiar.

"I'm Henry. Henry Lau."

"Henry Lau?" I could sworn a faint shadow passed over his face as he heard the name. Probably because it was an English name, the guy pronounced it almost like 'Herry'. "Oh, so you must be that Canadian friend of Zhou Mi's..."

"You know Mimi?" That saved a lot of time I would have to spend getting to Mimi's home. I strongly doubted my ability to walk, as it had been agonizing even to try to sit up.

"You're in his room right now. I live on the same floor as him..."

A flash of realization hit me. "Oh, so you must be one of those crazy idiot guys he was talking about, right?" I said without thinking.

He was surprised for a moment, then coughed a few times and gave me a dull look. "So that's Zhou Mi's opinion of the other guys...? It figures... Anyway, you must be hungry. You've been unconscious for two days..."

"It's fine- holy crap, two days?!"

"Wow, you're slow..." he got up as if to leave.

"Wait, who are you?"

"Me...? I'm Sungmin. Lee Sungmin. Okay, I'm going to find someone to make you food to eat..." He got up and left the room, leaving me to bear with my pounding headache.

I pressed two fingers to my temples and winced, gritting my teeth to hold back the little sounds of pain. Defeated, I let myself flop back onto the bed, carefully placing my head on the pillow to keep from jarring it.

It was a while before Sungmin came back into the room, along with another guy holding a steaming bowl of something. This new guy was smaller and more feminine, had soft red brown hair, and a permanent spacey look of confusion on his face. His voice was girly too. Some quality about it made me think of a ringing crystal glass.

"The boy woke up?" Ringing Crystal Voice asked Sungmin.

"Yeah.... He seems to be in pain, but what would you expect after getting beaten up like that..."

"Hey, how are you?" Ringing Crystal Voice sat down on the bed across from me, placing the bowl on the nightstand. I smelled an unfamiliar, but interesting soup.

"I ache all over, and I'm really hungry." I sighed.

"Hungry? Here, you should drink the soup I made. It'll help give you some energy." Carefully, he spooned a little into my mouth and placed the bowl in my hands.

It was pretty tasty, a little bit spicy but not too much, and full of good flavor. "Wow, this is really- urk!" I coughed as some went down the wrong way.

"Hey... Be careful..." Sungmin patted me on the back. I flinched, somewhat embarassed, and grabbed my shirt to put on.

As soon as I could speak again, I asked, "Where's Mimi?"

"He left a few hours ago for a lecture. By the way, he was really worried about you. He kept on saying something like, 'How could this happen? Why couldn't I have been there for him?' You get it." said Ringing Crystal Voice. "By the way, I'm Ryeowook."

"Should we let him meet the others? You know, he technically is living here..." asked Sungmin.

"You're right. Hey," Ryeowook addressed me, "Wanna go meet everyone else? They all wanted you to wake up so you could see them."

"Sure," I started, but when I attempted to get up, the pain intensified again and I slumped back against the pillow. "I- I don't think I can walk."

"Ehm..."he pondered this for a moment before carefully lifting me up in his arms. I blushed at the sudden contact.

"'Kay, let's go..." he glanced down at me and chuckled when he saw my face. I pouted and squirmed a bit.

"Is dinner over already?" he called to someone outside as we slowly walked out of the dark room.

A voice replied loudly, "Wookie, Minnie, we saved you some ramyun. Now get over here before Shindong eats it all!"

We came into a more brightly lit, large room, I guess a living room? Several guys were sitting around a table eating, with a few more watching TV from the couches. A spicy aroma was faint in the air.

My eyes noted how many guys there were. Plus Ryeowook, Sungmin, and Mimi who was not here, we were fourteen in total. Really that many?

I noticed two guys in particular, them being noticeably more... energetic than the others. One had a wide grin on his face that showed his gums, the other with brown hair in a small ponytail. The waviness of the hair looked a little like waves breaking on rocks.

As Sungmin carefully placed me down comfortably on the couch, the two... I guess, bounced over.

"Ohhh, look! The kid is awake!" exclaimed Wave Ponytail. "Who're you?"

"Henry. Henry Lau." I said quietly. I didn't really have the energy to keep up with these two.

"I am Donghae, and he's Hyukjae, but call him Eunhyuk! Good to finally meet you!" Wave Ponytail told me. This person spoke with too many exclamation points...

I sat there for a while as each guy came up to meet me at some point, even a late-returning-home one named Kangin who was apparently working in the military. My head hurt when I tried to remember all their names: Leeteuk, Heechul, Han Geng (a Chinese guy, and thus I found it easier to talk with him in Mandarin), Yesung, Kangin, Sungmin, Eunhyuk, Donghae, Shindong, Siwon, Kibum, Ryeowook.

"Hey, Kyu!" Sungmin called to one last guy who had just come out of his room. "Come and say-"

"-hello to the kid? I don't see why I should." the guy grumped. He was as good-looking as all the other guys, but with a natural look of evil on his face.

"Come on, Kyu. Please?"

"Fine, fine." the guy sounded like he was trying to hide his feelings of- I didn't know what.

He came over, and squatted down slightly so he was eye-level with me. "Hello. Now get out of my face." His voice sounded low, and rich like dark chocolate. But like dark chocolate, it was also bitter.

Immediately, without a pause, he smoothly straightened up and stalked off. "Sorry," Sungmin said apologetically as I stared, bewildered. "Kyuhyun's not too friendly a lot of the time."

I stayed there a little while longer, then Sungmin carried me back to Zhou Mi's room to sleep.

Zhou Mi never showed up.

Late update, just to feel like I'm not being a slug xD

The song that Sungmin was singing is Destiny by Super Junior-M~

By the way, this story is kind of on hiatus while I write KyuWook and other stuff xD Go check it out! /shameless self-advertising