[Year 19 of Exile]

"Good morning everyone!"

I skipped happily into the kitchen, and smacked a surprised gramma on the lips before enveloping grandpa into a back hug.

Settling between Luhan and Chanyeol, I finally felt the tense and tired atmosphere that was apparent even before I entered. Glancing at Luhan whose eyes were shut and his fork almost dropping out of his hand, I bit my lip and prodded his bulging cheek. He jerked awake and the fork clattered on the table. Everyone looked up and I got to see their faces.

Why did everyone look the same this morning? So tired and… tired.

I tore my eyes away from the window to turn and look at Kris whose eyes were closed and his head lolled dangerously towards the aisle. Sighs, he's gone and dozed off. The bus suddenly swerved and he tilted. I immediately grabbed onto his denim jacket and pulled him towards me. Gently setting his head on my shoulder, I gazed at him as he nuzzled his nose into my neck. Stifling back laughter due to the tickle, I let my eyes wander to the other boys who, too like Kris, were in slumberland.

What on earth happened last night?

My eyes flitted to Chanyeol, whose head was resting on Kai's shoulder. That boy wouldn't tell me what happened. So I can only assume that he had a nightmare.

But could it be possible that all of them had nightmares too?

[Kyungsoo]

"I swear my eyes weren't open for eighty percent of my lessons today." Xiumin-hyung grumbled as he settled into a chair and started to slurp up the spaghetti I had cooked.

"Eighty percent?" I ladled a bowl of mushroom soup for him which he took gratefully. "At least you were sober for twenty percent. That Huang Zitao wasn't even awake for one hundred percent of today's lessons."

Baekhyun-hyung snorted as he took a bowl of soup from my hands. "That explains his absence here. Detention, Kyungsoo?" I nodded with a smirk.

"I feel bad that we totally dissed Jen just to gather here." Yixing-hyung confessed softly as he sipped his soup. "But then again, we can't tell her."

Everyone nodded in silence as I continued to ladle bowls of soup to the boys. Pouring the remainder of soup into my bowl, I leaned on the counter and quietly sipped it. The silence in my kitchen was deafening. No one dared to make a sound as they silently ate the lunch I prepared.

"What are we going to do from now on?" Chanyeol-hyung broke the silence as his eyes darted to all of us. "We need a plan if we want to protect her."

"Let's put out what we know." Luhan-hyung piped up as he placed his empty bowl into the sink before telekinetically getting paper and pen out of his bag. Grabbing the pen in mid-air, he leaned forward on the island in the middle of my kitchen with the paper in front of him. "C'mon."

"Well, we do know that Jen's the prophesied saviour." Chanyeol-hyung started. "But we also know that she doesn't know about this." Luhan-hyung wrote it down on the paper.

"And we also know that Pigalle thinks that she's dead. Otherwise, he would have recognized her in school." Sehun continued, his eyes trained on his spoon that was in his empty bowl. "We should keep it that way — not letting that damned person find out about her existence."

"Yes, that's true." Suho-hyung nodded. "And since Jen is unable to control her main power, she is, to put it bluntly, useless." I scowled at him for his comment and he shot me an apologetic look. "So that means–"

"We are the ones that will protect her." Kris-hyung interjected, his spoon in his mouth.

"Hyung, don't bite my spoon." I frowned at his action and he removed the cutlery from his mouth immediately. He mouthed an apology before putting in the empty bowl.  

"So we have to train." Kai glanced up from his tomato sauce-splattered plate as he pointed his fork at Suho-hyung. "We have to train even harder so as to be able to protect her from that man if he finds out about her being still alive."

"Don't forget about the letter," Baekhyun-hyung's warning echoed in my kitchen. "We also have to be wary of what the letter stated."

Who knew our princess would be someone this important...

"Kyungsoo! Faster!"

She goaded as I swung the playground