Here I am again standing in the middle of nowhere; all alone. My eyes scan the area. Where am I? This place looks familiar but I can’t breathe a word of where I’ve seen it. It’s familiar yet strange. As I look around, a sudden intuition tells me that someone is watching, so I tilt my head to the right. No sight of anyone. I slump my shoulders in despair. Why am I always alone?  I look up towards the sky, only to see dark clouds forming. It looks like a storm is making its way. I need to find a shelter, but where? As if on cue, my legs start moving. The place is filled with trees; tall trees. I take careful steps as I make my way across this unknown environment, of what seems like a thick wood.

Without any sense of direction, I follow wherever my legs are aimlessly bringing me to. Suddenly, I sense a presence of someone or something out there. The same feeling I had just a while ago. I turn around and, I see no one yet again. However, just when I thought I’m at a dead end, my eyes spot a small piece of paper on the ground. How rare is it to see a white piece of paper lying among the dead leaves? Curious; I pick it up.

Seek the SUN; for it shines as the brightest STAR.

What is that supposed to mean? I stare at the useless piece of information. Yes, it helps a lot especially when you’re alone out of nowhere and it looks like it’s going to rain anytime soon. Wow, how amazing? I’m slightly pissed of course. In a distance, I catch a movement and I’m pretty sure this time, my sense is right. Someone is out there. Hello?! I run towards the figure. As I approach of what looks like a guy’s back, my heart trembles in fear out of a sudden. Why is here? What if he’s a bad guy? However, I gather all the courage in the world and walk nearer to him. Hello? Hello? Why isn’t he responding? Cautiously, I tap his shoulder. Excuse me, can you help me? He turns around.

“D-D-DAD?” I stuttered. Right before my eyes is the exact same guy in the picture. My dad!

He stretches out his hand and my cheek. I shiver at his touch; his tender touch that I long for.

Without beating around the bush, I jump straight to the question. “Why did you leave me? Where is mom?” A tear slides down my cheek. I’ve always been strong but at that moment, the pain is just unbearable. Dad stays quiet. He looks up with his eyes fixing at me.

His eyes, they are of pain and sorrow. I stare at those painful eyes and uncontrollable tears flow out of my own. Even without exchanging any verbal message, I can feel his suffering.

Suddenly, he gives me the apologetic look before turning his heels and walk away from me. I scream for him but his back is what I see. I run to catch. No matter how fast my legs are running, I can never catch him.

He’s near yet unreachable.

Rain starts to pour and I’m soaked. I call out, “DAD! DAD! DAD! Don’t leave me. Please don’t leave me.” My tears are blended together with the rain drops. I run until my legs could not hold out any longer. Eventually, I crumble yet again.

“Hey! Hey! Lyorin, wake up!” Kai was holding Lyorin’s shoulders and shaking it, trying to wake her up from her nightmare. He heard her shouts from outside and immediately went inside her room, to check whether if she was alright. He found her tossing and turning her head, with her eyes shut. She was having a nightmare, for sure.

Lyorin, jerked her eyes open and stared directly at Kai. Kai felt the pain in her eyes and he straight away embraced her. Her hair smelled nice and soft. He didn’t like how his heartbeat was racing. Pushing away the thoughts, he tried to calm the shaken Lyorin, by her back tenderly as he whispered into her ears, “It’s only a dream.”

After calming herself, Lyorin pulled away from Kai. She was slightly embarrassed at the sudden physical contact but she had to admit that it did make her feel better. “How did you manage to…oh. I forgot, you teleport.” She was about to ask something only to realise how dumb the question was.

“You didn’t lock your door.” Kai stated flatly. Surprisingly, he didn’t teleport inside. He walked right through the doorway just like a normal human being. “I was outside and I heard you shouting, so I guess I got a little too busybody,” he was about to walk away when he realised Lyorin was starting to judge his appearance. He didn’t want her to feel as though he was stalking her. Well, truthfully he was secretly looking out for her all the time.

Sensing a change in his tone, Lyorin apologised, “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to question your presence in such a way.” Kai stopped and turned around. As usual, Kai didn’t smile but gave her a nod, indicating that he was alright. He wanted to leave but Lyorin once again stopped him. “Wh-what was I shouting?” She asked curiously. She just wanted to check.

“Dad.” Kai answered. It was exceptionally painful to say. He knew how badly she wanted to meet her parents. Appearing in her dreams might be the only way to let her see them, but if she had to wake up in cold sweat and a pale face; he would rather a dreamless night for her.

 “Oh,” Lyorin mumbled softly. So, that confirmed her guess. She was already in a sitting position on the bed. She stared down on her bed as she fiddled with her blanket. Obviously, she could not go back to sleep.

Kai looked back at her and sighed. “You should go back to sleep.” He spoke out. Lyorin shook her head while staring down avoiding his eye contact. Kai understood her gesture and wanted to smile at how adorable she was; just like a small kid who was afraid to go back to sleep after a nightmare. However, he quickly erased the feeling. “Never fall for a girl’s cute charm, again.” His mind took control even though his heart was saying the otherwise. “Suit yourself then. I’m going to sleep.”

Reluctantly, Kai walked towards the door but suddenly his ears caught something. “Please don’t go. Stay for awhile please. I-I’m scared.” Lyorin stumbled her words. Her lips were quivering but she tried to remain as calm as possible. She didn’t want to go back to sleep. She was afraid, her dad or her mom would appear and leave her again. She hated showing her weak side but the fear of losing someone would be her Achilles’ heel.

Kai paused and inhaled deeply. His heart sank hearing Lyorin's soft plea. "How could I actually think of leaving when she needs someone the most right now?! Great Kai, you are such a gentleman." He cursed mentally at how stupid he was at the moment.

His heart won over his mind. Tonight would be the second night. The second night spending it with her.

******************************

CARELESS, CARELESS. SHOOT ANONYMOUS, ANONYMOUS. HEARTLEASS, MINDLESS. NO ONE WHO CARES ABOUT ME...

"What the hell is that?!"

"Who sets the alarm for God sake?! Urgh!"

"Someone shut it up before I burn it!"

"Kai hyung, Luhan hyung, please put your powers of good use."

The guys' bedroom went chaotic after an unknown alarm was set. All of them were sharing the same room and with the alarm blasting the air, one by one started getting irritated. It was only 6 in the morning.

"Okay guys, wake up please. I was the one who set the alarm. Come on get up! We're going hiking today!" Suho yelled enthusiastically but the response he got was the opposite. Seeing that no one was listening, he threatened, "Okay. If you're not up by the count to 10, I will give you an early shower on your bed. I mean it! 1, 2, 3...."

One by one scrambled up of their beds. They were well aware of their leader's ability. Of course, no one wanted an unnecessary cold shower.

"Excellent. Get ready and see you for breakfast. Where is Kai?" Suho asked after he realised that Kai was not at his bed.

Chanyeol, who had his bed beside Kai's, shrugged his shoulders. He didn't know where he had gone to so early in the morning. "I don't know." Chanyeol blurted.

"It's alright. He's probably out there. Anyways Sehun, my dearest maknae, help me wake Lyorin up alright?" Suho particularly requested for Sehun on purpose because he noticed that the youngest was trying to sneak back to sleep.

"Urgh. I'm tired." Sehun whined. He was lazy and decided to hide under the blanket.

"Okay, so I will let you have the task of waking Sori instead then. Luhan hyung, can you -"

"No no. I'll do it. I will wake Lyorin up." Sehun quickly jumped up after hearing the threat given. He would never ever wake Sori. The thought of it sent him chills knowing that Sori would probably scream at him.

"Good. Now, go." He shooed Sehun out of the room. "The rest of you, go get ready. Oh by the way, how was the alarm tone?" Suho raised his eyebrows hoping for positive responses.

"The hell was that??! What? Careless? Anonymous?" Shouts of disapproval were heard.

Meanwhile, Sori was already up. The commotion in the boys' room had woke her up. She was walking towards their room when she bumped into Sehun, who was shocked to see Sori already awake early in the morning. "What are you doing here?" Sori questioned Sehun's presence. They were right infront of Lyorin's room.

"Wow. Someone is up early." Sehun stated sarcastically.

"Well, a particular group of boys were being a nuisance early in the morning." Sori shot back. Sehun rolled his eyes and ignored. He was about to open Lyorin's door when Sori asked him, "Where is Kai? Is he up already?"

"He's gone. Not in the room. We don't know where he went." Sehun answered.

"Aish this guy. He keeps disappearing. And why are you going into her room?" Sori noticed that Sehun was pushing the door to Lyorin's room.

Sehun replied, "Duh. To wake Lyorin up of course." He entered the room when suddenly his eyes were greeted with an unexpected scene. "What??!" Sehun jumped in surprise.

Sori who heard his exclamation, decided to check out, only to send her tempers flaring uncontrollably. "KAI OPPA! WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE? OMG! YAH YOU!" Sori was yelling and pointing finger at Lyorin who quickly shot up from her sleep due to the sudden outburst. "WHAT THE HELL DID YOU TO KAI?!" Lyorin was shocked. She looked beside and saw Kai just woke up from sleep. That was when she realised, Kai had been sleeping beside her all night. But it was not like they laid asleep together on the same bed. He was sleeping on the chair located beside it.

Sori grabbed the nearest pillow and threw it at Lyorin but Kai was swift enough to catch and prevent it from hitting her. "Will you stop it?" Kai glared at her. The entire fuss attracted the attention of the rest of the boys. They barged in to the room.

"Okay now, what happened?" Kris calmly asked, trying to mediate the situation.

"They were sleeping together!" Sori accused. She was so mad that she clenched her fists.

"No, they didn't. Stop talking nonsense. Lyorin was sleeping on the bed, ALONE while Kai hyung was here, on the chair."Sehun pointed to the sofa chair and explained what he saw. "Yes, they were in the same room but not sleeping together."

Lyorin turned embarrassed. Even though they did not do anything wrong but having the guys finding them in this situation was making it difficult. She sighed, "Kris oppa, don't get mad at Kai. It was me. I asked him to stay -"

", you did not just ask Kai to stay in your room?!" Sori interrupted frustratingly.

"Sori, mind your language!" Baekhyun warned.

"As I was saying, Kai was here last night because I had a nightmare and I was afraid to be alone." Lyorin continued her explanation.

"You had a nightmare? Are you okay?" Kris asked in concern. Lyorin nodded signalling that she was fine.

Sori grew even more infuriated seeing Kris and the rest of EXO boys accepting her nightmare excuse. She hated how Lyorin chose such a lame excuse just to have Kai stayed with her all night. Her blood was boiling. She liked Kai and would never ever let Lyorin spoil her plans for him.

“Alright guys, get out of the room. Kai, we’re going hiking today so go get ready. Lyorin, you will be following right?” Suho ordered the boys to leave and turned to Lyorin who was already up on her feet.

“Yeah, I guess so. I’ll go get ready.” Lyorin answered.

“Op-paah, why did you choose to stay with her?” Sori tugged Kai’s shirt pulling him out of the room. Kai ignored her grumbling and walked away.

To be continued...