"Psst. Jae Ren. Open the door."

Jae Ren groaned and threw a pillow at the source of the sound.

"Jae Ren, wake up!"

She jumped out of her bed in shock and scrambled for the switch on the lamp beside her bed.

"Well if you can do that I assume you're not sick anymore..."

" What are you doing here?" She gaped at him through the glass of the balcony doors. Because of that, she was now having an adrenaline rush.

"Can you let me in first? It's cold and I've been waking you up for half an hour."

"That's not my fault, is it?" She unlocked the doors and blinked when he went inside without hesitation to look around her room.

"I didn't know the houses in the forest district were this nice... It's warm and cozy with the carpet floors and wooden accent."

"Yeah, that's nice." She waved it away. "What are you doing here? It looks like it's midnight." She glanced at the dark outside. "And how did you climb up?"

"Black is waiting for me outside." He said, looking at the pictures on her desk. They were mostly pictures of scenery and a few of VIXX and her. "Hey, who're these?" He picked one up.

"Topp Dogg." Before they first left, Hongbin took a picture of them. She stepped outside to see who he was talking about, but it was too dark. "Who's Black?"

GD put the picture down and picked up another. "My pet. A medium-sized dragon. I usually set him free around this time of night. It's 2 o'clock, by the way." He added. "Are these your parents?"

"Jiyong. What are you doing here?" She asked again, sighing tiredly. Her thoughts weren't exactly oriented on what was happening yet. "And how did you know I was sick?"

"Ravi told me." He showed his phone briefly before putting it back in his pocket. "I came to give you something that could help but you don't really seem sick anymore." He shrugged. "Take it anyway. I went through all the trouble to collect it."

She accepted the vial of clear liquid curiously. "What is it?" It looked suspiciously of water.

"Potent dragon venom. It can cure almost any disease with just one swallow." GD said.

She blinked. "Thank you. I mean it. Though it was only a fever, I appreciate your effort. And you got this from... Black?" She didn't dare look outside where it could be. Though she had learned that the information of dragons killing her parents were false, the years of fearing them didn't disappear.

"Well, yeah. He won't hurt you. Or anything, actually... He's not violent." He noticed her changing expression and growing stiffness. "Jae Ren, he'll stay outside. He won't move until I tell him to." He reassured.

"No, it's okay." She shook her head. "Thanks, again. But why did you have to come here this late? It didn't occur to you to come at maybe in the afternoon?"

"It's not like your guardians would let me walk in here so freely." He scoffed. "So I snuck in."

She sheepishly grinned. "Right. I'm sorry. This must be a bother for you. Are you sure you want me to keep this? If it's so hard to get, it might be valuable."

"I don't need it. I collected it for you. Just accept it so I can leave." He heaved a sigh.

"Thanks." She laughed. "Again. If you came earlier, I might've introduced you to my other 13 guardians. They should be asleep now."

"Wow. 13 other guardians. I would've wanted to meet them. Considering how welcoming and warm the first 6 are." He sarcastically drawled. "You're really into guardians, aren't you?"

"No. I wouldn't say that." She chuckled, sitting at the edge of her bed while he continued to look through her pictures. "They just... needed a home. Topp Dogg doesn't really need me except for being their master by title."

"Don't guardians need a master to live?" GD asked.

"Not them." She shook her head, though she didn't expect him to see. "They're dependent on each other. I guess that's how Seomin made them."

"How would you know that?" He turned around, curious. He didn't think there were other kinds of guardians. He didn't really care. That was evident.

She shrugged. "It's complicated. I'll just let you believe what you want."

"You really have a lot going on in your life." He stated. “I’m almost envious. If that wasn’t so troublesome, I mean. Also, you look a little off.”

"I was sick."

"Is that it?" He mumbled, more to himself than to her. "You sure you're not just tired of living such an... 'eventful' life?"

"It's more fun this way. I don't want to live a long, sad, boring life." She light-heartedly smiled. It was being around people who wanted her around that kick-started her life in the first place. She needed them, too.

"Right..." GD murmured with a nod. "I'm off. Good night." He abruptly said and left through the balcony doors where he entered.

"Good-" Jae Ren was surprised to see he was already gone so fast. "... night." She sighed and put the medicine in her desks drawers. She noticed a picture G Dragon had left lying flat on the desk instead of its normal upright position.

He must've been looking at this when he left in such a hurry... Jae Ren didn't expect him to be so interested in her parents picture to have kept holding it the whole time.

Partly, she felt guilty that this would be the first time in a while she had felt sentimental about the picture. It wasn't that she didn't miss them, probably because she didn't feel as alone.

She didn't feel as empty.

But crossing paths with the monster she created in her head was making her head spin.

"Someone was here. Your door is also not locked."

Jae Ren was almost surprised.

"He just gave me a gift. Nothing else. Go back to sleep." She smiled, "I expected someone else to notice, actually." She admitted.

"I was in the kitchen and I felt something." P-Goon explained. "Did I disappoint?"

"No-not that." She laughed. "Are all of you sleeping in the living room?" She wondered how all of them would fit.

"8 are sleeping with your host until a vacant house big enough to fit us is available for use. He came to visit earlier but you were asleep." He shrugged. "Jae Ren, are you okay?"

"Yeah. Why?" She blinked.

"No, I mean... I didn't get to ask earlier because Xero was like glue sticking to you." He rolled his eyes, making Jae Ren chuckle. "But I'm just curious because... Leo-ssi and what happened. I may not be as close to you as Xero or VIXX, but I understand."

"How?" A tear trickled down her face before she even knew she was crying. "How would you understand? I didn't think anyone would notice, actually." She smiled.

"I didn't mean to make you cry." He grew more panicked. "I just know because I... don't know?" Jae Ren laughed. "I'm trying to say I understand, okay? That's it. I don't know how or why. I just know that it feels like you want to yell at someone- specifically Leo- but you don't because you don't think you have the right. But you want to."

Jae Ren looked down in shame.

"I think it's okay to feel that way." He added. "And I think that you do have the right. Jae Ren I think he's still yours. Onew kept saying that Leo was just second-guessing about coming here because he thought you wouldn't want to see him anyway."

"He was never mine." She whispered.

"But he'll come back. You just have to tell him that he could."

She nodded. "Right. Thank you, P-Goon."

"It's all right. I mean, we won’t be here for long anyway." He sighed.

"You can stay if you want to." She didn't see why they had to leave if they didn't want to.

"Well, Sanctuary sort of gave us a job." P-Goon shrugged. "The administration concerned with the job distribution told me that Topp Dogg has to contribute to Sanctuary as a pardon for our past... crimes."

Jae Ren blinked. "Crimes? What did you do to Sanctuary?"

"The younger members don't know this but..." He hesitated. "Jenissi, Seogoong and I used to steal from here. I recall a time when we also set this place on fire-"

"What?"

"It was a small fire, okay?" P-Goon defended, though he didn't seem too convincing because of his nervous laughter. "We started a fire for our escape. Just as a diversion... That's kind of how we also met Onew. He really did a number on Seogoong that time."

"P-Goon..." Tiredly sighing, Jae Ren didn't know what to make of the situation.

"Don't worry, we'll be fine." He waved it away. "Only the three of us are supposed to go, but the others wanted to help. We're all sure VIXX would take care of you just fine." He smiled. "For now, just sleep. We'll talk about this later."

"P-Goon-"

"I know, I won't tell anyone. I promise. If anyone asks, I'll say I just brought you a glass of water." He said as he was closing the door behind him.

"No, I wanted to say thank you." She smiled. "Thank you."

"You're welcome. And I'm sorry we can't be your guardians anymore. Frankly, I don't know what we are." He snorted.

"You're a soul." She stated, catching him off guard.

"... A soul?"

"A soul with a body. That's enough, isn't it?" She smiled.

He laughed.

"Just think of me as someone you can always come home to." She never intended to keep them forever, she just wanted them free. And they are. "You're free. Isn't that great?"

"Is it?" P-Goon stopped. "I'm old. Really old. Not as old as N but... I feel tired. I'm not planning to die any time soon but it gets hard." He shook his head. "Forget that. I'm sorry. Good night."

"Good night." Jae Ren whispered but P-Goon was already gone by then. Truthfully, she had wondered about that for some time. Also why people never seem to wait for her to say goodnight.

But besides that, she wondered how someone doesn't get tired of living. Would she one day feel that?

“Jae, thank you for being nice to Xero.” P-Goon suddenly reappeared, “I know what he told you earlier. Thank you for going easy on him.”

“I wasn’t really going easy on him.”

“Yeah. I guess that was just who you really are.” He smiled, “Thank you for that, too.”

She just smiled. “I don’t even know what you’re thanking me for.”

“Also, I kind of agreed with him.”

“About what?”

“Hojoon, Kidoh and Seogoong aren’t really that great-“

“Good night, P-Goon. I will forget this conversation happened.”

“Of course. Good night, Jae.” P-Goon laughed.

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