Four figures appear in the cafeteria. They seem familiar... Luhan was surprised...

"Bo Bo!"

What?

And I was confused...

Somehow those boys seem familiar but I don’t know who they are.

“I missed you, Bo Bo!” One of them, he had this look in his eyes that spelt trouble — a good trouble. He had round eyes and a peculiar smirk to his lips. He jogged up to me and hugged my body a little too tightly as I gasped at his excessive skinship. It wasn’t until I saw his face up close, did I widen my eyes in recognition.

“Hoseok!”

“Bomin!” The rest of the guys joined the reunion hug. I could feel the stares of the other people behind me.

Jungkook, the youngest one, grabbed my shoulders the second the rest of the older guys let go of me. “Are you okay now?”

“Yeah. For now,” I said as I remembered my conversation with Kris earlier.

[Have we met before?]

[I mean like way before.]

[What do you mean way before?]

I shook my head mentally to rid of the expression of iron on his face.

“That’s good. I was so worried about you.” He pulled me into another hug; this time with relief instead of longing. After a few seconds of hesitation, I wrapped my arms around his waist and buried my chin in his shoulder.

“Thanks for worrying about me. It’s nice to hear somebody’s concern for me.”

“Hey! I was worried too!” Namjoon, Hoseok and Taehyung shouted together as they simultaneously ruffled my hair, making the tied hair go all messy and I have to redo it with an angry but friendly glare.

“Now that the reunion has come to an end, Bomin, you mind introducing your new-found friends to us?”  Suho gestured to the guys who have surrounded me. If they are teasing me for being a tiny bit shorter than them, well, they are doing a damn good job at it.

“Everyone say hi to Namjoon, Hoseok, Taehyung and Jungkook,” I introduced them as I pointed to each person when I called their names.

‘Nice to meet you’, ‘hi’, ‘hello’ and ‘hey’ were echoed around the room as everybody greeted each other.

Wow. Namjoon already started a dance battle with Chen, Soohyun and Suho. They all have one thing in common though: They’re all equally as bad as each other. But Soohyun’s fine with the scale gwiyomi. If you know what that is.

 When I saw Kris standing quietly next to the dance battle group, I remembered my problem with him. I walked up behind him and lightly tapped him on the shoulder. “Kris.”

I felt him stiffen under my touch before reluctantly turning to face me.

“Can we talk somewhere more private where nobody can interrupt us?” he replied back instead, already getting the point of my calling him.

I nodded and led us to the furthest corner in the cafeteria. Jessica and the guys saw us but kept to themselves, sensing the private aura around us. Kevin and Kyungsoo had worried looks in their eyes. I felt my chest constrict. I need to talk to Kyungsoo.

“Were we friends when we were kids?” I asked when we sat on the chairs facing each other.

“I can’t remember.”

“Me too.”

“Then do you remember a girl giving you something before she left?” Right after I asked that question, Kris looked at me such large eyes it seemed impossible that it could grow bigger… but it did. His mouth was as wide as his eyes.

“What was the thing she gave?”

“A dragon locket that her Mum gave her.”

His eyes was now reduced to narrow slits and his face was hard, his hands lying flat against the table, he asked another question, “What did it look like?”

I frowned as I tried to recall the locket from my memory. “It was silver. It had wings on it. A very beautiful piece of art. The most distinct feature on it though was the horn coming out of its head.”

It was Kris’ turn to frown. “Mine doesn’t look like that.” His voice seemed so small it didn’t fit his tall frame at all.

“What do you mean, ‘mine’?” I, in turn narrow my eyes at him.

“I have a dragon locket too. It was given to me by a girl who was also leaving. She kept a key of the same design and said ‘Next time we meet, we will never leave each other’s side.’ And that was all I could remember."

My frown deepened as I tried to remember a second boy from that day.

In bit and snippets, a vision of a boy invaded my memory. The hills were replaced by wooden vintage walls and furniture. There was a dragon locket lying and tucked in a box carefully with the key sitting beside it. The box was sitting peacefully on a bed with pretty little flowers dancing across the bed sheet. The dragon looked different to the one I gave to the anonymous boy. The wings were etched with every single fold in the skin like it was alive, reaching up for the sky in its glorious presence. It didn’t have a horn like the last one but rather whiskey eyebrows that made it look as wise as Confucius. The claws looked dangerous but seemed like it could hold a newborn child in its paws. The eyes would be full of life if only it was alive not an inanimate object. The pair of eyes stared back at my face, scrutinising it like a cat. The mouth was wide open, growling at me. A closet sat comfortably in the corner of the room. There were pictures of my parents, Bowan and me and of other people I didn’t recognise. The only major different to the dream I had before of the different boy and the freeze frames of pictures is that in this memory the boy’s face was clear in my mind.

I gasped in utter surprise when I saw the boy’s face. “You were there that day in my bedroom.”

“Yes, I was.”

“And I gave you a locket and kept the key.”

“Yes. We were outside when we said our farewells.”

“‘We will never leave each other’s side,’ was what I said.”

Kris nodded. “All this time I thought that I wouldn’t ever meet the ‘girl of my memories’, but here you are in front of in flesh and beautiful."

What?

Beautiful?

I guess Kris did say beautiful, considering the hand that covered his in mouth in shock.

“You did call me beautiful just then right?” I asked just in case.

He saw how it would be no point if he denied it so he said, “Yeah.”

I just wanted to play around with him for a bit so I replied, “Oh, I know I’m beautiful. Let me just flip my hair in your face.” And I did just that when he lifted his head up of course, immediately bringing up the awkward atmoshpere just then as Kris made a scoffing sound.

“You know sometimes I wonder how your brother puts up with you,” Kris pondered as he held his hands out to stop my hair whacking his body with an expression of annoyance plastered on his face.

“We just get along. No fights, no hard feelings.”

He changed the subject after seeing no point in continuing the conversation. “You said that there was another boy in your memory. Do you know who is it?” 

“No. His face was just black. I didn’t see anything nor heard his voice properly.”

“Mhm. You have my key right?”

I knew he was referring to the key to his locket when he said ‘my key’.

“Now that you bring it up, I'm not so sure anymore. I might’ve packed two keys while I was preparing to move. I can’t remember anymore.” I think my memory is dead because of all the exercise it had today.

“I do wonder what is inside this locket.” Kris brought something out of his shirt.

I gasped for the second time today because it was the exact same dragon locket that appeared In my memory. Kris unlinked the metal string from his neck and handed the locket to me when he saw my face.

“Wow,” I breathed as I stared at it.

All the details looked so much more alive in my hands. The eyes, the mouth, the claws, the wings and the wisdom eyebrows were so… so… animate.

Something came into my mind. A key... the key to this locket. So intricate and full of imagination. Those details so preciously carved. Anybody would have seen why Kris hid it under his shirt, close to his body where he would keep it safe. I held it close to my chest and felt the warmth of it. I closed my eyes to concentrate on the warmth that was starting to spread through my body. So warm…

For the second time that day, the bell interrupted my moment. Seriously, it’s like the bell hates me or something like that. I suddenly have so much loathe for that bell as Kris and I stood up to join the others and go back to class for our last lesson today and I give his locket back.

“You guys were there for a long time,” Jessica, my gossip buddy―not, said beside me.

“We were talking about stuff,” I replied, fiddling with my fingers out of boredom, still walking back to the classroom.

“What stuff?”

“Just stuff.”

“You won’t say anything right?” Jessica asked, giving up on me and life. Haha no. I nodded to show that she won’t be going anywhere with me.

The last lesson we had for the day was Science and we were learning about the Reproductive System. Great choice of topic to learn, Science Department. Good job. But it was rather interesting to hear the comments Yongguk, Eli and Kai made in class

After school was over―Yay!― all of us rushed outside the classroom only to clamber over each other and go back to our dorms or mine because it’s the biggest one.

“Kris come over here!” I suddenly yelled without thinking plus bringing out the child in me. Maybe it’s because I'm starting to instinctively recollect how close we were as little kids. The guys were staring at us as Kris ran over to me and I lead us to my bedroom. It was fine because he has been in it before, so no need to scream at the screen.

I rummaged around in my still partly unpacked bunch of luggage that was stowed sadly away in a corner of my room.

“They gotta be in one of these,” I murmured to myself, those memories playing as fast freeze frames in my head. I saw Kris from the corner of my eye come over to me from my bed to dig through the other suitcase sitting next to me. Luckily, I took out all of my underwear on the first day.

My eyes widened when I spotted a key lying zipped carefully on a pocket on the side.

“I found it!” Kris and I yelled at the same time in eureka. My heart beated irregularly in my chest as we stared into each other’s eyes. Badump badump badump. I don’t know how long our eyes were in contact but it was I who looked away first when I felt the first of lukewarm blood creeping across my cheeks.

This is not a movie right?

Kris cleared his throat loudly and stared at the key in hand. “That’s my locket key right?”

“Yeah. Remember what I said? “When we meet again, we shall open your locket with my key as a sign that our promise has been fulfilled.”  Before I said, “The next time we meet, we will never leave each other’s side.” Does that mean we should be in a relationship or just be by each other’s side to open the locket?” I slightly blushed at the word ‘relationship’.

Why am I even blushing? It’s not like I have strong feelings for Kris.

Or do you?  Luhan’s voice abruptly sounded softly in my head.

What do you mean? There was no answer.

“I don’t know. Do you want to try to be in a relationship with me? “

I knew that was his way to get me to date him. It was so lame. But no thank you.

“Look, I know we are homies but w―”

Suddenly, Kris grabbed me by my shoulder and connected our lips. He makes me blush when I stare in his eyes. He makes my heart race. Kris is handsome and caring but this is just wrong. We’re not in a relationship so I pushed him away harshly as I wiped my lips with the back of my hand with an expression of slight disgust. I was not ready. Neither was Kris.

“You’re welcome.” He winked at me.

I shuddered slightly. “I’ll pretend that never happened.” I took the keys in his hands and stared at it. It was the horned dragon key. I have no idea where these come from but they look so expensive.

“Now we need to find out who owns the second locket,” Kris said as he eyed the key and become more serious.

“I don’t remember his appearance. Just black as his face.”

“So he’s a guy?”

I groaned inwardly, trying very hard to recall any details I missed in my dream that is still flashing vividly in my mind as I muttered a “Yeah.” And part of my groaning was the fact that Kris had not paid attention to the gender of the person the whole time I've been saying 'he'. 

Is there anybody I feel familiar with?

“Wait. What do dragons remind you of?” I asked Kris.

“China.”

“That’s it! The unknown boy may be a person from China. So he might be Luhan, Lay or Tao, given that they are the ones from my memory. If it’s none of them then abandon all hope because I know no Chinese guys other than them.” I know Luhan is not the boy because if he is he would have told me already. So that leaves Lay and Tao. By the way, why are the both of us so hell-bent to find this boy? I don’t know. Maybe we just want to find a sense of adventure.

Kris looked uncomfortable so I asked, “Are you fine with this? I can continue on my own because you look kind of awkward.” I don’t know why he would be uncomfortable with this. He probably didn’t like the boy when he was small.

“Nah, it’s okay,” he reassured me with a small smile as he waved his hands in dismissal.

“Okay then. Do you want to try and ask them? Or go through their stuff?” I gave him only two options. The world is in his hands. Just kidding. But seriously, only my childhood world lies in his power.

“Let’s try number two on the list.”

“You sure?”

“Absolutely.” Kris was already out the door by the time I got my two foot up from the floor, huffing my breath out at his actions then shaking my head.

We rushed out the door again seeing as everybody is still in the living watching some movie instead of doing homework. It was the perfect chance to go through their things. I quickly counted the attached heads and yes, everyone is there. My inner fangirl nearly came out when I saw Baekhyun and Chanyeol sitting next to one other with their arms wrapped around their bodies. Same goes for Luhan and Xiumin but they were more discrete.

Wait a minute. Couldn’t Luhan help in this? I backed myself into the living room and stared at Luhan.

Luhan, you can help us right? I saw his turn to my way a little in response.

Maybe. There was definitely mock in his mental voice. My brother looked to glance at me and smile supportively. He probably heard our conversation.

Could you at least tell me who has the locket?

A certain Chinese.

“Bomin, what are you doing?” Kris whispered loudly to me under the sound of the TV.

“Just need to get some stuff. You can go first.” Kris gave me one more look before closing the door softly.

Oh? Checking out our rooms?

Shut up. Plus a ‘certain Chinese' is very helpful. Very helpful.

Ok. Ok. I’ll give you a riddle. The little anonymous yaks run away. Light is the title of life’s enemy. Anybody nor others next to you shall move out under the shadows. You are Knowledge’s source.

How am I supposed to answer that?

I know you’re smart enough to figure it out.

I rolled my eyes behind Luhan’s back and left quietly but keeping the riddle echoing in my head. Kris was outside, standing next to the door.

He held his left hand out. “Shall we execute our plan?”

Remembering his past attempt of beginning a relationship with me back in my room, I smacked his hand away and sauntered forward.

“Ooh. I like feisty girls,” Kris said with a low growl to his voice as he followed closely behind me.

I stopped in my tracks and glared at him. “Why did I even bother talking to you in the first place let alone finding the locket with you?”

“Maybe because I'm so irresistible.”

“Shut up. Just shut up.” I whipped around and swagged my way to EXO’s dorm.

I opened the door once I reached it and entered to what I think is Tao’s room from my not really poor memory. I took a long and precious gaze around the room. Seems like he is a fan of himself. There were portraits of his photo shoots hung on his walls and sitting on the tables, teasing me and my feels with his stupid smirk. And surprisingly, his room is quite the tidy one apart from the bed. It was messy and undone, the blankets lying about on the mattress in a pigsty ball. Alternatively, there were no clothes strewn about―thankfully― anywhere, his books and papers comfortably lying on the study table. Everything was in place with the exception of a few bodily creams standing out of place.

“Checking it out are you?” Kris’ voice gave me a jump when I unexpectedly heard it next to my ear. I didn’t even hear him walking behind me.

“Why is everyone saying the phrase ‘checking out’? Seriously, am I doing something wrong or are you guys just saying it?” I easily cover my fright with those not-so-random questions that gushed out my mouth.

“Yes, you are doing something wrong.”

Because I was facing away from Kris, still staring at Tao’s belongings, I felt my heart palpitate at such a fast rate it was a wonder I’m still alive when he turned me harshly and pinned my body between him and the wall.

My limbs were paralysed. I couldn’t move my gaze away from his face. I did nothing to stop his inching face. I did nothing to stop his arms slide around me to hold my waist. I did nothing to stop him when he stole my fourth kiss. I did nothing to stop Wu Yifan.

You figured it out already? 

Luhan’s voice brought me back to reality. With a gasp, I pushed Kris roughly away from me. He was caught off guard and stumbled backwards. I did the only I my body willed me to do.

I ran.

And closed my bedroom door.

I pressed my fingers against my lips. I feel so dirty. I went to the bathroom and stared at myself in the mirror. With a disgusted grunt, I washed my face off even used face cream to purify my skin. After I felt satisfied, I went to hurriedly find a piece of paper and pencil and wrote down the riddle that Luhan gave me.

I just stared at the writing before shaking my head. “No. I need something more distracting.”

I need to take my mind off Kris. As if in reply, my thoughts went to Kyungsoo immediately.

That’s right. I need to talk to him and sort things out.

I was about to reach for the doorknob when Luhan interrupted me.

He’s already coming.

I would like you to not peek in on our conversation this time.

Will do, madam.

Thanks.

I barely finished that word when the door groaned, indication that Kyungsoo was at my door. Cold sweat started to bead across my forehead and nose bridge as my heart thumped louder than before, the muscle beating against my ribcage. I reached for the doorknob again and pulled it open slowly and gently.

“Bomin?”

“Y-yeah?”

“Luhan said that you needed to talk to me.”

I nodded and let him in. we sat on my bed in a looming silence. My heart was still pulsing abnormally.

D.O broke the silence with his deep voice. “It’s okay.”

“What?”

“It’s okay of you don’t have feelings for me.”

When he said that, I knew that I have to solve this issue between us.

“No. I-I didn’t mean to run away like that.”

‘What?”

“I was just overwhelmed. I don’t know if I'm infatuated with or have any feelings for you. Something like that happened nit just 10 minutes ago.”

“What ?” he said again, this time his voice sounded hard and sharp.

“K-Kris forced a kiss on me and a while back Kai―”

Kyungsoo stood up, interrupting my sentence as I jumped at his sudden action.

“Those bastards.” His fist was clenched so hard, his knuckles were turning more than just white.

I held his wrist in my hand, restraining him from going down and beating them up. “Don’t. I was the one who let them.”

He sighed and slowly sat back down on my bed as he tried to control his raging anger. “Let me in the light. Do you like me or not?”

His question threw me off guard.

Do I like him?

“I-I don’t know.”

“Good enough.” Was all he said before pulling me into a kiss.

“Because I'm obsessed with you.”

D.O kissed me again and I did not resist.

It felt good.

Little yaks were safe at the end of the day.

∙•∙•∙•∙•∙

Hello! I'm back in possibly the fastest update ever. And YAY! BoSoo? KyungBo? KyungMin? SooMin? are now kinda solved.
Did I throw you all off with the crazy riddle? Took me a long time to figure what to write for it. Appreciated my work.
COMMENTS!~ I would love to see your lovely comments again. I just miss them so much but not as much as you readers.

I've already started writing the 17th chapter, so expect it sonner or later.

Your Author-Nim

ọᴥọ