After a well deserved shower and a change of clothes, after you had been completely smothered by Chen and Chanyeol, you went to find Mrs Lee. She was waiting in the restaurant for you with an old shoe box. The boys had followed you, and you didn't even try to stop them. You wanted them with you just as much as they wanted to be with you. Mrs Lee didn't seem to care much and she beckoned you over to the table that she was sitting at, pulling you down into the seat next to her once you were within arms reach. She was very excited and that seemed to make her quite jittery. You saw the boys throw each other mystified looks, you hadn't actually explained why you were here to them. "Ok, so I actually went to school with your Mother, until she dropped out. Her health was never great and she had to drop out half way through the first year of high school. She got tutored at home after that, but I still visited her all the time."

She opened the shoe box and dumped its contents on the table. Hundreds of photos fell out and spread across the surface, Mrs Lee started going through them immediately. "We didn't have any fancy phones or digital cameras back then, so we had to use film. These are mostly from high school onwards, but your Mother sent me heaps of photos after she adopted you so don't be surprised if you see yourself in here." She was rifling through the photos, flipping them the right way round and sorting them in some way. The boys looked on in interest, probably keeping an eye out for a picture of you. You, on the other hand, were sitting in stunned silence. The entire table was covered and all you could see was a younger version of your Mother's smiling face. There was one of her and Mrs Lee at some kind of gradutaion, and another of the two wrapped in a white sheet as they rolled around the floor. You caught sight of one that piqued your interest. Your Mother was standing next to a handsome man, who had his large hands wrapped around the smaller hands of a young boy.

The boy in the photo had black hair and white skin, his eyes sparkled with a delight that only childhood could bring. "Suho Oppa?" It came out as a whisper, but the boys heard it and crowded around you immediately, peering at the picture for themselves. "Ah! Mr Kim always was a bit stiff. Even when he rang me to ask if you could all come here." You looked up at her, a question that had been on your mind for many years finally coming out of your mouth. "What exactly was it that my Mother did to cause Mr Kim to owe her so much?" Mrs Lee smiled. "She gave birth to his son." You froze, mind going completey blank at this new, shocking information. "What?" Her smile didn't drop, she waved a hand casually. "Don't freak out. Mr Kim's wife was unable to give birth, so your Mother offered to surrogate for them. Unfortunately there were complications, and your Mother was unable to bear any more children after that. That's why Mr Kim supported her so much finanically, and why he promised her he would look after you, should she pass away." Tears pricked at your eyes, but you refused to let them fall just yet.

"There should be a picture of them somewhere." She mulled over the photos, snapping her fingers when she found the right one. "Here. This is Mr Kim's wife and Joonmyeon's Mother. Such a shame that she passed before you could meet her, she was a lovely lady." Your eyes blurred and you had to blink so you could focus on the photo. Mr Kim stood behind a beautiful woman with his arms wrapped around her waist, his chin resting on her shoulder. For once, a broad and goofy grin was spread across his face. The woman was gorgeous, with smooth alabaster skin that was contrasted by her ebony hair. You could finally see where Suho got his looks from, she seriously rivaled Luhan's mother in terms of looks. Actually now that you thought about it, almost all of the boys took more after their Mothers than they did their Fathers. Only Lay really bared more resemblance to his Father. Of course, you weren't sure about Xiumin and Chen, since you hadn't seen their Mothers, but Chen did look quite like his Father too. Nor did you know about Chanyeol, Baekhyun, or Jongin, but that was a given since they were orphans like you and none of them had ever showed you any photos that they may have had.

"Wow, no wonder Suho is so good looking." Chen's voice in your ear broke you out of your thoughts and you let your eyes roam over the photos once more. There were so many of them, and you picked through them for about an hour before people started coming in for dinner. You helped Mrs Lee pack them up, handling each one with the utmost care. She closed the lid once they were all safely in the box, then she turned and handed it to you. "Here. Keep them." You eyes widened. "I-I couldn't. They are your memories." She smiled, and it was a smile that was so full of love and pain, that you nearly started crying then and there. "I had so many years with your Mother, but your time with her was cut short. Please take them, I know she would be happy knowing that you have them." You nodded, letting a tear or two fall as Mrs Lee wiped away her own. With one last smile, she got up and waddled across the room to where her husband appeared out of nowhere. You didn't even have to say anything before you were pressed into Baekhyun's chest, his arm holding you tightly.

Thankfully, you were too tired to cry properly, and you just sat in his embrace until dinner was served. Seeing you back with Exo caused the whole of your year to break out into curious murmuring, but none of you cared. Honestly, you just wanted to go back to your room and go to sleep. That didn't happen nearly as soon as you hoped though, even though it was your own stubborness that kept you up. After dinner, you dragged the boys to your little hiding spot out the back. You made yourselves comfortable on a set of steps that were covered by a small awning that kept you dry from the drizzling rain. You were leaning back against Chen's side, with your legs thrown over Lay's lap and a hand tangled in Chanyeol's hair. Baekhyun sat next to Lay and had a hand on your ankle, absentmindedly drawing circles on your skin with his fingers. You had your phone in the other hand and had called Suho, both of you putting each other on speaker so everyone could hear. "Jeez Ahri, you've been on an emotional rollercoaster today." "Xiumin! What did I just say about being discreet?" "Oh, sorry." You snorted out a laugh. "It's fine Oppa, he's right." "You wanna tell us what happened?" With a sigh, you started, explaining everything that happened from the moment you hung up earlier that day, all the way up to where you were now.

You only left out the conversation you had with Mrs Lee regarding Suho's Mother, feeling that you should probably have that discussion with him in person. "How the hell did that thing from your nightmare get into the forest?" You sighed. "I really don't know, Kris, but it can't be a good thing. Those things are really freaking creepy, I was hoping I'd never have to see one of them ever again." A shudder ran through you and the boys leaned into you unconsciously. "We need to hurry up with unlocking the seals. Do you know who is next, Ahri?" Suho sounded stressed. "I don't know for sure because they showed up at exactly the same time, but it's either Sehun or Baekhyun Oppa." You heard a squeal of delight as Sehun celebrated to himself. It was swiftly followed by a muffled clap that you could only assume was someone slapping him on the back of the head. After that, the conversation became light, and the boys started talking about some video game. It wasn't long until you drifted off, completely comfortable in your huddle with the boys.

The next day wasn't too bad. It seemed that Miyoung had told a similar story to your own, which surprised you because you were sure she would use the opportunity to try and get you in trouble. She spent the night in a different room so that the teachers could keep an eye on her, worried she may have a minor concussion. That just left you to deal with her four followers, but thankfully they just kept to themselves and glared at you from the other side of the room all night. They seemed less than pleased to see you appear at the door just before 9 with the Exo boys, but they didn't say anything about it. Miyoung didn't speak to you either, happily ignoring you throughout the day. You really could not care less, as long as she wasn't trying to bother you or the boys. The best thing about that day was that you were assigned to the same job as your boys, and thus spent all day painting that vast hallways with them.

If there was one thing that you learnt that day, it was that you would never, ever, allow for Chen and Chanyeol to get anywhere near paint again. Unless it was watercolours. By the time the five of you had finished your section of hallway, you were covered in paint. Of course, they were no better off. Lay had a huge blob of white paint on his right brow, and Chen had attacked his arm with a roller. Baekhyun had Chanyeol's hand prints on his and chest, thankfully he was wearing old clothes. You had gotten your revenge on the two trouble makers and various flecks and blobs decorated their arms and faces, and their hands were absolutely covered in paint. Then there was you, who had copped it the worst by far. You had it all over your arms and clothes, Chenyeol had signed his name on your left calf while Chen had held you down. Your face had a love heart and something that was supposed to be a star, but looked more like a weird spikey blob that had been smeared in several places. They had spared your hair though, which was good because this was house paint, and house paint was almost impossible to get out.

Needless to say, the teachers had flipped when you walked into the restaurant for lunch looking how you did. Yours and Lay's maths teacher had screeched at the top of her lungs and forced you to sit outside with a bottle of turps and scrub it all off of your skin. You were a bit dubious about the strong smelling chemical, but it did they job well enough. It hurt like hell when it got into your cuts though. As punishment, you had to wash up after lunch, though you ended up saturated once Chen got his hands on the dish hose. Seriously, that boy needs a sugar free diet or something. He was always so damn hyperactive. Luckily, Baekhyun and Lay managed to wrestle the hose out of his hands and make him clean up the water on the floor before any teachers came in. The only problem was that you were wearing a white shirt, which was now see through and was displaying your bra to the world. You didn't care about your boys seeing, even though they were a bit flustered, but you weren't keen on your whole year seeing. It was an extremely hilarious sight to watch them try and smuggle you back to your room unseen, especially with Chen's running commentary.

That evening, the teachers set up a large TV in one of the big common rooms and allowed you all to watch a movie. You were amazed that so many people could cram into one room like that, but that just went to show how enormous this place was. Most of the teachers disappeared, leaving only four behind to supervise. It seemed like they went lax on their 'no fraternization' rule, because there were people cuddling everywhere. You spotted a few different couples huddling together, and there were mixed groups like yours that had thrown themselves all over each other. You had settled at the back, away from the main crowd. Chen was leaning back against the wall, he had pulled you back by the waist and you were now comfortably nestled against his chest. Chanyeol had thrown the top half of his body across your outstretched legs, and Baekhyun was draped over him completely. Lay was sitting next to you and Chen, but you had taken hold of one of his hands. The movie didn't interest you much, so you occupied yourself with Lay's hand, playing with his fingers and tracing its contours with your nails. He seemed to be enjoying it, and ended up falling asleep next to you.

Despite it being a bit dark in the room, you could still see the frosty glares that the girls around you were sending your way. It seemed that a few fangirls had thought they would be able to snag a seat next to one of the boys, only to be bitterly disappointed that all four were wrapped around you. You couldn't see Miyoung or her friends though, they were probably on the other side of the room. A content sigh escape your lips as you let your head drop back onto Chen's shoulder. He shifted a bit, and bent his head down so he could whisper in your ear. "What are you thinking about?" His breath tickled your ear, causing goosebumps to spread across your skin. "Not a lot. I'm just glad." He cocked his head to get a better look at you, and you turned your own head so that you could look him in the eye. "What are you glad about?" You shrugged. "I'm just happy. I know things are messed up because of this Tree of Life nonsense, but I'm glad that I met you all."

The anxiety from being away from Suho, Xiumin and Tao was making you very emotional. Your eyes burned as they began to water, though you didn't cry. Chen smiled softly, and pressed his lips to your temple for a long, gentle kiss. "I'm glad I met you too, we all are." Your lips curled up into a natural smile and you snuggled into him closer, nuzzling at the side of his jaw with your nose. Chen let out a giggle and tightened his grip around your waist, not uncomfortably so. The movement made Lay shift in his sleep. He rolled into you and Chen, throwing a leg over you both, only narrowly missing kicking Chanyeol in the face. This adorable little noise came from Lay, it was like a high pitched moan set right back in his throat, and he burried his head into your stomach. You gave Chen a look that told him you found Lay to be hopelessly adorable, and he giggled again. You were satisfied for now, but you couldn't wait until you got home to the others.

Your bliss was short lived though. Thursday was the worst day yet. You were so close to going home, only one day away, but it felt like an eternity. It started before the sun rose. You were in your room, sleeping, as were Miyoung and her friends, when that blissful slumber was rudely interrupted by an airhorn, or rather, several airhorns. The sound was piercingly loud and you could hear loud complaints coming from all over the place. "RISE AND SHINE BRATS! GET DRESSED INTO SOMETHING YOU DON'T MIND RUINING, YOU HAVE 20 MINUTES BEFORE I WANT YOU ALL STANDING OUTSIDE YOUR DOORS!" Your teacher's voice boomed down the hall, you briefly pondered if he had gotten a bigger megaphone. Miyoung and her friends started complaining straight away, saying that it was absolutely outrageous to be awakened in such a manner, and at such an hour, and that 20 minutes wasn't long enough. You rolled your eyes and scooted over to your bag, rifling through it for clothes that you didn't mind getting dirty.

You were sure that whatever was going to happen today, you were going to get very dirty. It seemed the teachers were taking great pleasure in messing around with the pampered rich kids. You had seen a few kids that had been covered in horse poop after cleaning the stables, the satisfied grin on the face of the teacher that followed them gave away her immense glee. You were also positive that you wouldn't be eating breakfast any time soon. So as soon as Miyoung and her friends had crammed themselves around the mirror in the bathroom, you shoved as much of D.O's food into your mouth as possible. It was a good thing they took forever to do their make up, because you ate pretty much everything in the cool bag, and you definitely didn't want to share. They would probably lose their little minds if they found out that food cooked by D.O had been sitting in their room the whole time.

You changed quickly after you had finished stuffing your face, and went to wait outside the door. There were quite a lot of people out in the hall already, they all looked sleepy and pissed off. A mental image of the teachers trying to wake up Xiumin popped into your head, no doubt that would be a funny sight. The thought just made you depressed again as you realized that you still had to make it through the day before you would be able to see Xiumin and the others. You had to admit though, you were impressed with yourself. You had yet to have an emotional breakdown, even though you had been teetering on the edge of the proverbial cliff that was your very fraglie mental state. The door to your room opened, interrupting your thoughts, and Miyoung strutted out with her friends. Apparently, she was feeling like herself today, because the first thing she did was insult your wardobe choice. All you did was snort out a laugh.

"Alright ladies! March yourselves onto the buses outside. You must be seated next to your buddy, no exceptions!" Miyoung groaned dramatically and glared at you, you just shrugged and started walking. It didn't take very long at all for you to realize that none of the boys were here. The teachers had only woken up the girls. You were all packed onto 4 buses and swiftly wisked away. In no time at all, all of the girls were lined up military style, watching a surly looking man dressed in an army uniform march back and forth in front of the crowd. "I hear there has been some tension between you ladies. Cat fights and the like. Well, that kind of behaviour is unacceptable, so it is with great pleasure that I get to whip you all into shape. First things first, where are our two main instigators?" Everyone whipped their heads around to where you and Miyoung were standing, quite a few of them pointed as well. "Come up here please."

You obliged immediately, Miyoung lagged behind. "You two will demonstrate for the other girls here first. Twenty push ups, twenty sit ups, twenty squats. Now." You sighed but did as told. Usually it would be very easy for you, but you were so exhausted that you were actually struggling a bit. Not that you were going to show that on the outside. "Uh, I am not getting on the ground like that. I just fixed my nails last night, and it's far too dirty." Miyoung showed off her nails, but was met with the most unamused look you had ever seen. "Oh, I'm sorry Princess. Did that sound like a request? Get on the ground and do it, or I'll have you do fifty, then I'll make you clean out the men's bathrooms." Miyoung blanched, looking like she was ready to argue back, until one of the teachers added on that she would be doing the dishes tonight if she didn't comply.

It took a while for the two of you to finish, well not you so much as Miyoung. Her posture was all wrong and the instructor made her start over a few times until she got it right. When she finally got off the ground, all sweaty and gross, the instructor said the worst word ever. "Again!" Miyoung fired up straight away. "What?! But We just did it!" "I know, and now you're going to do it again. You will keep doing it until I am satisfied. This is only the beginning." He was not joking about that last statement. Five times, you had to repeat it, and the rest of the girls only had to join in on the last two rounds. When you finished your last squat, you fell to the ground in a heap, looking just as worn out as Miyoung. "Good job, ladies. Now we move onto the real fun. Follow me." He pivoted and somewhat pranced off, he was far too happy with your torture.

Your suspicions from earlier that morning about how dirty you were going to get were proven correct when you reached the top of a small hill. Down below was an enormous obstacle course. 95% of which involved mud. Screeches of protest erupted out of the prissy girls, Miyoung and her friends included. The man would have none of it though, and quickly shut everyone up with more threats of the horrors of the men's bathroom. With everyone quiet, he lead you all down the hill to the start of the course. "Line up in your pairs, starting with you two of course." He motioned to you and Miyoung, who was glaring at you like everything was your fault. You seriously didn't regret punching her, not even as something locked around you wrist and you looked down to find yourself handcuffed to Miyoung. Literally. "This course is approximately an hour long. You and your buddy must help each other through the course. If you leave your buddy behind, you will be punished." You noticed that you and Miyoung were the only ones cuffed together. "Have fun ladies, we'll be watching you." You swear you saw a look of pity cross some of your teacher's faces before you were all shooed off to start.

Miyoung started complaining as soon as your were out of ear shot of the teachers, her friends were trotting along her side, agreeing with everything she said. "Ugh, this is all your fault. You better not slow me down." You couldn't help but laugh. "You can't even do a push up. If anyone is going to need help or slow us down, it's you." She glowered at you but couldn't retort as you came up to the first osbtacle. It was fairly simple, just a large stack of hay that you had to climb over, but doing that while attatched to Miyoung was difficult. She refused to cooperate and in the end you just tried to match her pace. She was so afraid of breaking her nail, she didn't grip onto the hay properly and kept slipping. By the time you reached the other side, your wrist had been yanked so many times that it was really starting to hurt.

There were a few more simple obstacles after that, some small hurdles and some weird rope balancing thing. The fireman's pole was particularly difficult to do. Not only were you one handed, but Miyoung had a fear of heights and it took some coaxing to get her to drop two meters down the pole. In the end you just yelled at her, telling her she was useless, and she got mad enough to forget her fears. It was good timing too, because you had been clinging to your pole for a while and were starting to slip, Mind you, you wouldn't have minded dragging her off the side with you if it made this horrible experience end. After that near disaster, the mud started. You would think that someone was killing a large group of cats with all the screaming going on. The first one was simple enough, you just had to wade your way through a bog of knee deep mud. You took great pleasure in pushing one of Miyoung's friends in when she was taking too long, and even more pleasure in pulling Miyoung in with all of your strength. She ended up tripping and falling in sideways, and her whole right side got covered in thick mud.

It was war after that, you and Miyoung trying to push and pull each other into the mud on every obstacle. You managed to dodge more often than not, but she managed to get you a few times. The two of you laughed maniacly whenever the other stacked it, and the others girls were looking at you like you were insane, which you probably were. It was during the last obstacle that you both really lost it. You had to climb up this huge skate ramp and get to the top, but of course it was nearly impossible with all the wet mud all over you. You had tried several times to run up the slippery ramp, but failed everytime. In the end you took off your shoes, finding it easier to grip onto the ground with your bare feet, rather than the rubber of your shoes. At least that was the idea. Unfortunately, it didn't quite work out, and you ended up slipping over in the most spectacular fashion, dragging a flailing Miyoung down with you. It took a second for everyone to process what happened, and it was was completely silent while it sunk in. Then someone snorted, and everyone who had seen it burst out laughing, including you and Miyoung.

It really hit you then, that maybe Miyoung wasn't all that bad. You realized that the two of you had really had fun during this course, even though you were throwing insults at each other the whole time. It had been more light hearted, less nasty. Miyoung seemed to realized it too, and her laughter died down. For a second you could have sworn she was going to smile, but then something flashed in her eyes, and you definitely saw it this time. It was like she went completely blank for a second, her eyes literally clouded over, and then it was gone and she was glaring at you. You didn't have time to process, to figure out what it was you saw, when she stood up and yanked you to your feet. "Hurry up! I want to go home!" You frowned. Something was up, and you weren't sure how, but you had a feeling it might be related to all this Tree of Life business.

The boys were horrified and confused when all the girls returned covered head to toe in thick mud. You all trekked into the pension, feet dragging tiredly. All the while, the boys were watching from their various positions around the estate, though most of them had been retiling the roof. You rushed ahead of Miyoung, knowing that you wouldn't get a shower if you didn't get there first. That shower was probably the best shower you had ever had in your life, despite it being rather short lived. Once you were clean and freshly clothed, you trudged off to find the others. It was nearly lunch time so you figured they would be around the restaurant somewhere, and you weren't wrong. They were sitting at a table with two boys that you didn't know.

Chanyeol spotted you and called out your name, even though you had already seen him. There were no seats within the immediate vicinity but that didn't bother you, you just threw yourself down on Baekhyun's lap and draped yourself over his shoulder like an overly tired child. Which you kind of were. Baekhyun just shifted to accomodate you and continued whatever it was he was telling Chen, not even flinching when you burried your head in his neck. The two boys they were sitting with just looked at him in the most confused manner possible, which made Baekhyun laugh. "She gets clingy when she's tired." And apparently that was all to be said about it because they went back to talking about roof tiles after that.

You had just dozed off when a teacher came by and demanded that you remove yourself from Baekhyun, successfully waking you up and putting you in a bad mood. So you ended up falling asleep with your head on the table in your own seat after turning down all offers of food. You had no appetite at the moment. Lay was concerned by this and ended up forcing you to eat half a sandwich before lunch was over. You were so drowsy, he had to keep reminding you to chew because you kept spacing out. You weren't the only one who was exhausted though, all of the girls were dead on their feet. One girl from Lay's class accidentally fell asleep and face planted her lunch, she had to have another shower to get the kimchi sauce out of her hair.

The afternoon was just as full on. The teachers had announced that pretty much all of the work was done, and that the afternoon would be jam packed full of "super fun" activities for each class. The teachers clearly had a very different idea of what fun was to the students though, as your teacher's joyful idea of a long afternoon hike was met with complaints and death glares. He didn't seem ruffled though and you ended up spending 4 hours getting dragged up and down a mountain, literally. You were too tired and stumbled along the dirt path, tripping on rocks and sticks. The boys never let you fall though, having both of your hands claimed and someone standing behind you at all times incase you needed to be caught. Which you did, several times. When your head hit your pillow that night, after having Lay feed you dinner, you were out in a matter of seconds. Completely dead to the world.