Right now, I can see the desert and feel its heat from inside the waggon I'm in. 

I think we're on a trip... a long trip, it seems. Every minute that goes by, the sun sets a little more in the horizon. 

This afternoon reflects the bright colors of the summer, the sky is all mixed in yellow and orange and the remaining blue prepares to make room for a black curtain above our heads, adorned with tiny bright dots forming constellations.

 

I look around, inside the waggon, and see... my family? Looks like them. Yes.. that's Krystal, so, the couple over there next to her must be our parents.

My parents... (sigh) What is this nostalgic feeling? 

 

I tremble a little. I turn to look again outside the window. The road seems quiet... yeah... long trip...

 

My eyes are wandering around the landscape again, looking for a distraction to make time pass by faster.

Cactus... glimpses of mountains... dust.. a camping site... wait, camping site?

 

It looks abandoned, but there are people's belongings behind big rocks.

Was someone there?

 

"Hey! Stop!" I shouted to the driver. I quickly ran out of the vehicle, ignoring my family's questions. I don't really know why, but I just feel there's something wrong with this place.

 

Then I heard something. Loud. Echoes of gunshots. Oh my God. 

 

I know that's scary and dangerous, but what if someone out there is hurt?

 

My family panicked while seeing me outside in the open, vulnerable to whatever could happen. Everything became dangerous out of the sudden.

 

"SOOYEON, GET BACK HERE!" I heard my father's voice. I felt guilty I didn't obey him this time, but I stopped the thoughts as I reached the location behind those rocks I spotted earlier and noticed a corpse on the ground. It was a woman and.. there was blood underneath the body.

 

I felt dizzy and disgusted by the scene. But what was going on there exactly?

 

That was when I actually noticed two other people, a male adult and a child who seemed to be the man's daughter. As I was hid behind some bushes, I saw how they looked terrified, with wide eyes. The man was giving his back to me but the girl was loudly crying... because of that body on the ground. She crawled next to the corpse and I heard her say with a cracking voice:

 

"MOMMY! Don't leave me, ple-ease!" she sobbed as she hugged the dead body.

 

That was so much heartbreaking. I felt the tears in my own eyes starting to form.

 

The man standing beside her turned to face her and I could see he had a sad glow in his eyes. But before he could make a move, we heard another gunshot. And then I looked closely to where the man was looking before and saw another man, wearing black from his hat to his boots, aiming a long-range gun at our direction.

 

"I warned you countless times! You haven't paid what you owe me, so now the game is over for you! Your family is the price to pay." the armed man yelled angrily. "One down already!"

 

I couldn't believe what I saw. Those people are going to die there.

 

The guy who was threatened finally spoke something: "STEPHANIE, RUN! I will take care of this, but now, please, you gotta get out of here!" he rushed with his words as he felt he wasn't going to last longer.

"Please, honey," he softened his tone, already sobbing. "Go. And don't forget that I love y---" a bullet crossed his chest, preventing him from finishing his sentence. My eyes widened and my mouth was hanging open.

 

"DAAAADDYYYY NOOOOOOOO!" the girl was now too shocked and her tears fell endlessly.

 

I finally got the courage and decided to step in. I quickly got out of my hiding place and ran really fast to reach the girl before another tragedy.

 

I saw the man who killed the girl's parents, slightly far from us beside a small hill, get in position to fire again. 

 

He aimed at us. I embraced the girl tightly, trying to cover her body entirely with my own, and turned my back to the enemy. I was trying to move the two of us simultaneously out of the way of the incoming bullet. I couldn't and wouldn't let this girl die. 

 

 

I closed my eyes.

 

 

I held my breath as I heard the gunshot. 

 

 

I felt an impact somewhere in my body and hoped I was the only one hit by death. 

 

 

I opened my eyes and realized we landed on the ground as I successfully jumped down somehow, and luckily it was behind a larger rock that provived cover for us. 

 

I felt the girl moving, hugging me closer to her as fear was plastered on her face.

 

 

"Did I hit them?" we heard the murderer saying, as he couldn't see where or how we were. "UGH! Whatever, at least that bastard is now dead and his debt was finally 'forgiven'." he said in a mocking tone and we heard steps. Sounded like he was leaving after... "dealing with his business".

 

 

 

The girl and I kept silent for a few seconds, although she still had tears in her eyes. I finally lifted myself to look around and saw no one. I guess the attacker left by horse as I saw some animal prints next to where he was.

 

Then I felt something strangely warm and liquid on my waist. I looked down. Blood. WHAT? 

 

I got a bit scared, the left side of my waist was bleeding. I was hit and I didn't even notice it in the right time? I guess fear took over me.

But I could take the pain. Luckily, the bullet didn't penetrate my skin, it was only a scrape.

 

 

I looked back at the poor girl and offered a hand. She accepted it and got up, weakly. I immediately hugged her. I felt my shoulder getting wetter but I didn't mind. I was able to save her. 

 

I her hair gently in an attempt to comfort her, as I didn't know any words to say in this situation. I guess there weren't any at all.

 

I lifted my eyes and saw the sky was getting dark already. I backed away a bit from her body and looked at her, trying to smile a bit.

 

"Hi, my name is Sooyeon... I... I'm sorry I couldn't help more... I--" I was interrupted by her voice, which sounded a little stronger.

 

"Please, don't.. Don't blame yourself, for this" she looked down as the images in her mind came back haunting her.

 

"Shh, shhh" I hugged her again trying to make her avoid the thoughts I knew she was having. 

 

"You will come with me, ok? Me and my crew will take care of you. Please, let us take care of you." I gave her a smile.

 

"... thank you." she managed to say. "My name's Stephanie... thank you, Sooyeon." Stephanie continued as she calmed herself. "Ughh!!" she suddenly groaned.

 

"What's wrong?" I asked concerned as I saw her contorting herself. "My waist.. hurts" she held her waist on its right side. I gave it a look and saw it bleeding. Just like mine was. 

 

"Oh no, you're bleeding too! Come on, we gotta get outta here to take care of this. My waggon is somewhere near here." I suddenly remembered my family. They must be crazy looking for me or thinking of the worst.

 

...

 

...

 

(blur)

 

 

 

 

Jessica let out a scream as she opened her eyes in a milisecond. Her heartbeat was fast. She was sweating. 

 

She looked around, it was dark. She felt the sheets and the mattress under her. That was her bedroom and it was late night.

 

A dream. Was it just a dream?

 

"Stephanie..." Jessica whispered, shaking her head a bit and calming down her breathing. She was sort of lost in her thoughts. Were those images she dreamed about... memories?

 

The past.

 

A realization.

 

"I remember." the girl suddenly said. "I... know... I know what was that.. mysterious scar I saw tonight on Hwang's body." she said to herself, the idea was still sinking in.

 

"Oh my God, it's impossible!" her head ached. She put the palms of her hands on her face as she tried to relax and get used to that coincidence. Or twist of fate.

 

 

~~~~~~~~~

 

 

Hyoyeon found herself laying on a thick mattress in a basement's ground in the middle of the night. There was a low light somewhere in the room to make the furniture around visible, and because complete darkness is scary.

 

The blonde felt Yuri's leg entangling with her own, but she couldn't move, she didn't want to wake up the girl next to her. Yuri was sleeping beside her because she insisted that it was safer that way and she hasn't had companion for a long time. Hyoyeon couldn't say no.

 

Still awake, Hyoyeon sighed. She kept thinking about her life. The paths she chose. What she's never had and never will have...

 

*snoring*

 

Yuri, who previously was sleeping with her tongue out, changed her position and unconsciously closed and started purring softly. The blonde smiled in the semi-darkness.

 

She still couldn't sleep. A few minutes passed and she was overthinking again. She didn't regret coming with the unusual friendly stranger to an unknown place at all. There was no danger. No regrets. A feeling of acceptance.

 

Hyoyeon looked to her side. She saw Yuri was no more sleeping, but instead, looking at the blonde closely with an arm supporting her head, analyzing Hyoyeon's facial expressions.

 

Surprised, Hyoyeon looked away quickly. 

 

"Can't sleep?" Yuri asked in a low voice.

 

"Yeah..." the blonde frowned.

 

Yuri brought her body closer to the other girl's and rested her head on the other's chest.

 

"If you wanna talk about it, I will gladly listen to your words" Yuri spoke snuggling even more close. "If you don't wanna, I will listen to your heartbeat, then." The dark-skinned girl closed her eyes and waited for the other's reaction.

 

Hyoyeon was speechless. Yuri was such a sweet person. Slowly, the two of them were breathing calmly, almost at the same pace.

 

"Yuri... don't you know who I am?" Hyoyeon started, a little afraid of Yuri's reaction when she realized who she was.

 

"Am I supposed to?" Yuri joked a little. "Well... I don't judge people, anyway. If you treat me nicely, I will treat you just the same." She stated. "I don't care about the mistakes you've made in the past. I've commited some too. Everyone does. It's life, you know."

 

"Good to know... I wasn't so sure you'd be happy to know about who I am." the blonde said, still hesitantly.

 

"Then try me." Yuri looked up and smiled brightly at her.

 

Hyoyeon smiled back a bit. Then, she sighed and began telling her story.

 

"The thing is... Yuri, I am an orphan." She looked into Yuri's eyes to see her reaction. Yuri listened closely and had a serious, but sad, face. Silently asking the stranger to continue.

 

"I've never met any of my relatives either... It looked like I was all alone in this miserable world." Hyoyeon looked somewhere else, feeling her tears starting to form as she was finally able to speak those words out loud. "I had no friends... no one would want me as their child. I don't even know how I survived my childhood." she was clearly sobbing now. "Nobody has ever looked at me with attentive eyes, or said I was worth something.. Nobody has ever loved me, Yuri." Yuri lifted her head off Hyoyeon's lap and wrapped her arms securely around the girl's body, trying to calm her down.

 

Hyoyeon stopped for a moment. She felt safe in Yuri's arms. She returned the hug and continued her story. 

 

"I had to learn how to defend myself from the world. To get food. To find shelter." Yuri silently shed some tears as she listened to the whole story.

 

"Until one day, when I was around 17 years old... I met this girl. We call her Hwang Miyoung, because she refused to be called by her real name. She had a tragic story too. She also didn't have parents, but her case was, perhaps, worst... her parents were killed in front of her when she was just a child." Yuri gulped while imagining how horrible that must have been.

 

"She helped me." Hyoyeon continued after a pause. "There was also another girl, called Yoona, who seemed to be her friend when I found them. Yoona also had experienced something similar to us in her life... Her parents abandoned her, out of nowhere, when she was really young, with no apparent reason." 

 

Hyoyeon stopped again for a bit. She was reflecting on the details of her past.

 

"Hwang. She proposed something to me. To us, me and Yoona." Yuri was already forming circles with her thumbs on Hyoyeon's back and shoulders. "She said the three of us could be a team, and we would get back everything that was taken from us. But not in form of lives. We wouldn't kill people. That is just.. sick." Hyoyeon frowned at the thought, so did Yuri. "We wanted a better life, we wanted sustenance, money, valuable stuff to keep us living. Not like before when we were miserable. So, we became robbers. We gained a reputation. But we weren't famous for physically hurting people, just for stealing their things." she stated. "And now, we're one of the most wanted bandit groups in the region. I bet the sheriff is going crazy chasing us." Hyoyeon laughed sarcastically a little, and had dried her tears already.

 

"So, conclusion: you have an unfortunate criminal laying on your basement right now, Yuri-ah." the blonde backed away a bit to look into the other's eyes once again. She was feeling vulnerable now, but she didn't care.

 

 

Yuri had her head down, and dried the tears in her own eyes with one hand, as her other was holding Hyoyeon by the shoulder.

 

 

"Hyoyeonnie." Yuri looked up, straight into the bandit's eyes. "You are not alone anymore." she said, smiling reassuringly.

 

 

Hyoyeon let her tears fall back down. She was feeling so grateful for Yuri not judging her, but mostly for giving her the attention she never had.

 

"Thank you..." the blonde whimpered while hiding her face with a hand that tried to dry her tears. 

 

Both girls leaned towards each other for another embrace, and Hyoyeon kept murmuring "thank you, thank you, thank you so much" as she had finally let out every detail that never came out of . She hasn't been hugged for only God knows how long.

 

"You have me, Hyoyeonnie. I am here now. Don't worry, I won't leave you until you get tired of me and tell me to do so." Yuri told her, it was like a promise.

 

They spent the rest of the night like that, with Yuri holding Hyoyeon in her arms, until both of them managed to fall asleep in the barely illuminated basement of Yuri's storage.

 

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

So, what are your opinions on Tiffany's and Hyoyeon's pasts?

This chapter was more intense, I believe. 

Poor girls :(

But their pasts somehow are reflected in their futures..

There's more to reveal about the story of Jeti, too.

 

Well, wait and see (^_^)v

 

and I want Yuri to hug me toooo (´Д｀)