He kissed her, in the spur of the moment. He kissed her. Soft and slow and he tasted like november, like hot chocolate on stormy evenings and crisp aumtumn air. Hyemi should react - shove him away, or at the least react in any way that shows that she's mad or hurt. But no, her body is stiff with shock instead.

Deep inside, a part of her still wanted to enjoy this moment, and curl her arms around her neck. She can just try to forget - he will help her forget. But that's not the solution. This will never be it. But that part still insisted in kissing him back, because maybe it knows. It knows that nothing will be the same again, that this will be the last time for her to meet Baekhyun again without being careful with her own actions.

As she draws back, her body goes limp. Baekhyun lost grip on her, and she crumples to the floor. 99 questions surge through her brain in a full-mode crash, and her mind goes slack. With every simple thought, she dies over and over. Gone is the trust, the protection and all that is left is a hollow ache between her ribs. Baekhyun is looking at her like she shoved a bullet into his chest with her bare palms, and his frame is shaking. His chest is rising and falling too fast and he's looking at her like he wants to say something he's not supposed to say. 

Before he can utter a word, a click drives both their attention to what's left behind her. Someone reaches for her sagging arm, and helps her up, only to tug her behind him carefully. His eyes bore into the other male with a mixture of emotions glinting between his eyes. His arm - that was holding the gun - aimed it perfectly on Baekhyun's forehead. 

Luhan.

It would only take him less than a minute for him to shoot, and Hyemi only stares, admiring his lean posture, and tense muscles.

"Get out of here." To describe his facial expression would be like describing a blank sheet of paper, but the anger underneath his voice was smoldering.

Baekhyun, disregarding his command, continued to stare at Hyemi. His face was drained with a gaunt, expressionless glance at Luhan's face - who was exmaining the guy. His stoned face turns to Luhan's, who didn't bother to lower his gun.

"Hello, Lu-"

"Don't. Don't you dare say my name in that ing mouth of yours, Byun Baekhyun. " Luhan spat, his darkening eyes shimmering with ferocity. "You never had the privilege to do so - and you know that."

There's an undying staring competition between the two, and Hyemi is sick to the stomach. She stumbles to grab his arm, and Luhan rotates his profile to meet her desperate eyes. He nods, understanding what her eyes were trying to say. She was half ; tears were staining her now-ruined makeup, and her remaining clothes were splattered to death with mud. The last thing she needs is an other arguement to begin. So with one last blank glare, he shrugs his jacket off only to order the shivering Hyemi to wear it, before leading her back.

As they pass by the doors of the hall, the others spot the pair with shock. HyunRim and Hyuna rush to the silent girl who was tucked underneath Luhan's shoulder to keep her from the unwanted stares, and interrogated her about what happened. The two only obtained a blank stare from the hollow eyes of the girl, who delved her face into Luhan's chest, requesting for them to leave. The 7  shoot peers at Luhan, who only shook his head twice, before gently drawing the girl away.

...

"Since the male's dorm was closer, I brought you here, so you can stay in the guest room. Also I've figured out that you're in no mood to answer unneeded questions from the girls." Luhan expressed to the girl who was now perched at the draped couch. She vacantly ogled the opposite wall, not reacting at all to his explanation - not that he was expecting her to do so. He sighed as he left.

Hyemi was a busy blob of emptiness. Not a tear was shed, not a scream was heard. Grief kept knocking at the locked door of her heart, but no one unfastened it open. Her heart is a door chained with various locks, all made in one day. Instead of a pumping organ, she replaced it with a brick - a scarred, crystal brick that no one could lift.

A slight pressure flopped by her side, and Hyemi averts her eyes to the object. A grey shirt and Luhan who eyes her back before giving a cough. His fingers stretch to her hair, as he untangles a few bobby pins out carefully. She silently stares at his attire : off-white sweatpants that hang, in a way, off his hips and a gray sleeveless T-shirt. If Hyemi still had enough energy, she'd have atleast react more properly rather than staring at him blankly.

She encapsulates a world of nothing.

Everyone is tired of her and her dysfunctional brain. Luhan can't even look at her in the eye. The other 7 are just pitying her state. She caused nothing but trouble since the day she arrived, and she's plain disgusted from herself too.

It's strange.

How hollow she feels.

...

Her hands clutch the sheets of the bed as she opens her eyes, terrified. Her bare, pale legs reverse, and her spine smashed to the headboard behind her - in result of making her groan from the cold ache. Squeezing her eyes shut, she curls into a fetus position as she releases a frightened sob.

But she's not getting attacked by demons anymore, she's safe here - between those twisted bedsheets and dim walls. Hyemi shifts, and winces when her stiff muscles contract. A part of her suddenly realized that she waiting for a pair of arms of a certain person to envelope her into a tight, warm hug. To spread soft kisses against her hair, pacifying her tripping pulse and her tear-stained cheeks. To rock both her trembling body and his in a slow, comforting pace.

Then it slaps her across her face.

And dumps her into a sea of self-loathing, reminding her what has been done.

Tears spring to her eyes, pained and willing to fall with misery. The anguished beast in her stomach is withering to breakout from the cage set around him, and she allows him out. He's searching for something to destroy, to ransom his anger at the world. She struggles to capture him back, but he growls and throws her efforts away.

Hyemi stumbles to the nearest, darkest room to curl alone and sob, trying to find her inner peace again. The door whines as she pulls it open, loud enough to wake the dead. He shifts to rise up, skimming the broken Hyemi.

"Come here." He croaks, his voice heavy with sleep.

She doesn't retort, but tiptoe to his disorientated figure. Before she can oppose, he tugs her hand to sit beside him. Why is she here, though? Hyemi has no idea. She gapes at his rising and falling chest, too embarrassed to stare at his face. His slender fingers find her wet cheeks, moving them idly to her jaws.

"I warned you, didn't I?" His tone is gentle and careful, with a slight hint of the line 'I-told-you-so'.

"Well, I'm sorry for being such a fail." Hyemi snaps, her voice cracking in the middle of the line. A hiccup breaks as tears cascade down.

"No one is a failure, my dear." Her drags her into a tight hug, placing her on his lap. And she breaks down.

She's falling apart, and he's stitching her back as he breathes by her neck, rubbing his hands in small circles on her back. She's crippled with pain when his warm chest swathes her, listening to his slow, rythmic beats. She doesn't fight his arms away at all. Instead, she clings to him because she needs this warmth. Because she needs to fight this terrible, terrible feeling that seeps through her bones, tightening his grip on her heart. She digs her face into his chest, stifling her sobs down.

Luhan doesn't speak for a long time, until her cries subside. His fingers curl a strand of hair behind her ear before he lowers them both to his pillows, and she warps her arms around his waist.

"If you're betrayed, release the disappointment at once. By that way, my dear, bitterness has no time to take root." Luhan hummed a familiar song, and they both drifted away, nestled in their own sanctuary.