When D.O. enters his room to check on the girl, she is already sitting up in his bed.  He’s carrying a bowl of soup, because even though he’s waiting until the right time to send her off, he should still be chivalrous and take care of her.

“Oh good, you’re awake,” he says cheerily as he flashes her a warm smile.

The girls turns to him suddenly at the sound of his voice.  Her eyes seem to bore into his, strangely unwavering and unafraid for someone who’s supposed to be disoriented.  He stumbles just a bit because he feels some sort of familiarity for such a strong gaze, if not slight intimidation.

“Where am I?” she asks confusedly.  Her voice doesn’t even show signs of anxiety.

The boy clears his throat to gather his bearings.  “You fainted outside.  I was walking behind you, and since we were near my house, I decided to take you in,” Kyungsoo explains, walking to sit next to her.  “I brought you some soup.”

“Thanks,” she smiles slightly, before hesitation crosses her face.  “Um...”

“You can call me D.O.,” he answers, letting her nod at his name.  The boy finds it strange that she doesn’t question his nickname, but he waves it off as her not wanting to pry.

“Stephanie,” she returns the favor.

He picks up the spoon and holds it up to her lips, like how he does to his brothers when they get sick.  She glances at him questioningly, making the boy realize his mistake.  “Oh-I’m sorry, it’s a habit.”  He puts the spoon down and places the bowl into her lap.

The girl takes one look at him and softens her gaze.  She draws soup into the spoon to feed herself.  “Why did you take me in?  Why didn’t you call a hospital?” she presses.

The boys thinks how to answer her question.  Strangely, he doesn’t feel the need to lie to the girl, but he’s still embarrassed.  “Honestly…  I wasn’t really sure I wanted to do that.”

“Why not?”

Kyungsoo fiddles with his fingers.  “You see… I...wasn’t supposed to have met you today.  My parents...they forbid my brothers and I from leaving the house.  Today was the first time I’ve been out, and I panicked because I didn’t want to expose myself to too many people.  I’m sorry if I’ve upset you.”

The girl’s eyebrows raise for a moment before she says cryptically, “Maybe your destiny was waiting for you to finally come out so it can greet you.”

D.O. blushes, not knowing what she’s implying.  “I guess…”

“But even more weird,” the girl furrows her brows, “Your parents never let you out of the house?”

“Yeah, they don’t,” the boy sighs.  “I mean, my brothers still go out all the time anyway.  Our parents aren’t home most of the day to catch us.”

“And you’ve respected that rule until today,” she states, staring into his eyes curiously.  He nods in response.  “Why do they want to keep you in here?”

“We don’t really know,” Kyungsoo shrugs.  “They just did it.  We’ve been homeschooled and everything.  They never really gave us a reason why.”

“I see.”

Silence surrounds them.  Kyungsoo doesn’t want to seem weird or awkward, so he clears his throat to carry on the conversation.  “So what about you?  Is it normal for you to pass out randomly like this?”

She seems to hesitate, before shaking her head.  “This is the first time.  But I guess it was bound to happen given my...circumstances.”

The wide eyed boy an eyebrow at her, signalling his question.  She looks down at the almost empty bowl, tucking her dark brown hair behind her ear.  “I don’t remember anything before the past year.  I woke up in the hospital after I had gotten hit by a car, nobody came to find me, so I just escaped and found a place to stay with an old woman at a restaurant.  I work there and pay rent.”  She shrugs casually and resumes eating.  “It’s comfortable, I guess.”

“Wow.  That’s...tough,” D.O. responds dumbly.  He felt a wave of tenderness wash over him as he hesitantly reaches over to her.  She flinches in surprise, but the boy places his hand on her shoulder.  “But I hope you know I’m here if you need me.”

The girl measures him carefully, darting between his hand and his face.  “Thanks, D.O.”

Kyungsoo realizes he’s made her uncomfortable and retracts his hand.  “Sorry about that,” he mumbles.

The girl lightly laughs at his flushed face.  It isn’t an outward laugh, but more quiet as her eyes scrunches closed.  “You’re quite the awkward one,” she teases him.  “I’ll go put the bowl back in the kitch-”

“No!” Kyungsoo suddenly exclaims.  The girl stares at him, bewildered at his outburst.  The wide eyed boy even shocked himself.  “I mean, someone might see you.  I didn’t tell anyone you’re here,” he explains.

The girl frowns.  “So you want me to stay in here?”

“Just until I can get you out without anyone seeing you,” he answers quickly.

She sets into a line and settles back into the bed.  “Alright, I’ll just stay put I guess.”

D.O. gets up and takes the bowl from her.  “I’ll be back soon, just sit tight.”  He exits the room and closes the door behind him.  As he makes his way down to the kitchen, he greets one of the maids.  “Please prepare an extra plate for dinner and send it up to my room,” he instructs. The maid bows at him in acknowledgment, and Kyungsoo continues to the kitchen to wash the bowl.

~*~*~*~

Meanwhile, the girl glances around the room, a bit irritated that she was told to stay put.  D.O.’s neutral-colored room is tidy and organized, just like his personality.  He doesn’t have many things, save for the books on a small shelf in the corner.  His nightstand holds a few more volumes, one of them with a bookmark.  His bed is in the center of the room, his desk across from it on the other wall.  But she isn’t here to sightsee, she needs to investigate.

The mysterious girl gets up out of the bed and goes over to the bathroom to wash her face.  With a blink of her eyes, the lights turn on and the sink flows with water.  A bubble of water gathers from the stream and levitates into her hands as she steps up to the sink.  She splashes her face with the cool liquid and the faucet turns off.  Not wanting to leave any evidence of her wandering, she summons a slight gust of warm wind to dry her face and hands.

The girl then ventures out of D.O.’s bedroom, first peeking to make sure no one is in the hallway before stepping outside.  She follows the hallway down to where she guesses the main living room would be, taking in the simple and spacious layout.  She notices that the house has a somewhat symmetric layout, with a balcony overlooking the living room below and the main staircase in the middle.  The balcony also connects two separate hallways, one of which containing six bedrooms including the one she emerges from.  She makes her way across to the other side of the balcony to find an identical hallway, save for the double doors of the master bedroom at the end of this hallway.  She laughs dryly to herself when she notices there isn’t anyone home.

But the girl also notices something a bit strange about the house.  Sure, the hallways are decorated simply with neutral paint colors, plants, and light fixtures, but there aren’t any family photos to be found.

She doesn’t notice two boys coming towards her until she hears them on the balcony behind her.  She doesn’t panic, instead she stops and waits for them to notice her.

“I guess everyone’s out today,” Xiumin comments on the silent house.

“I know, I don’t even see Kyungsoo,” Chen replied.  “I guess he finally decided to come out and smell the roses instead of being a homebody.”

“Jongdae, don’t be so rude!” the elder reprimands him with a slap on the arm.

The two boys notice the strange girl casually standing away from them in the middle of the hallway.  Immediately, they know she isn’t a maid from her dark jeans and casual shirt.

“Excuse me?” Xiumin calls to her.  “Who are you?”

As soon as the girl turns around to face them, Chen audibly in a sharp breath.  Images of his strange dreams rush back into his mind and he’s frozen in place.  The girl has the same face he remembers from his dreams but can never recreate.  It can’t be!  She’s real?

The girl’s lips seem to twitch upwards for a moment before her expression returns to its neutral position.  “Oh, I’m sorry, I must have wandered too far,” she apologizes smoothly.

“How did you get in here?” Xiumin questions, raising an eyebrow.

“One of your brothers brought me in.,” she explains.  “D.O...stumbled upon me today after I fainted outside your house.  I guess you can say he’s a friend now.”

The round faced boy measures her for a moment, but he trusts Kyungsoo’s judgement enough to not bring a hostile body into their house.  “Well, any friend of D.O.’s is a friend of ours.  I’m Xiumin, this is Chen.  We’re his brothers.”  He bows respectfully at their guest.  “It’s good to meet you.”  He notices Chen staring dumbly at the girl and elbows him.

Chen awakens from his stupor, clears his throat, and bows politely at the girl.  “Nice to meet you,” he mutters.

“Stephanie, nice to meet you both,” the girl returns the gesture to the boys.  She looks around at the corridor surrounding them.  “It’s a nice place you have here.  But it’s odd that there aren’t any photos with you and your parents,” she comments.

“Well, our parents are never really home during the day,” Xiumin explains.  “They’re very busy corporate people, they never made time for us to take a family photo.”  He shrugs.  “I guess it isn’t that important anyway.”

The girl raises an eyebrow.  “Still, even a single casual photo would suffice.  But I guess that’s their preference.”  She takes one mo