Sera

“Sera!” In the midst of the busy and crowded hallway, I hear my name and I turn to see Ava approaching me with a bright smile on her face. Despite the smile on her face, her eyes shows me a tint of bitterness and I find myself questioning it as she approaches me.

“Oh, hey Ava.” I shoot the clock in the hallway a glance. It towers over all the students and just barely touches the ceiling. I have two minutes to get to class.

“I was wondering if...” She hesitates and plays with her fingers. “I could go over to your place to hang out. You know it’s Friday today and it seems as though the rest of my family has individual plans.”

To be honest, I wasn’t too keen on having her over at my apartment again. Not that I disliked her, but then again there was this odd feeling of suspicion towards her. However, I didn’t want to make a bad impression so I forced a smile onto my face.

“Sure. We can meet up by the school library after school today.” I blurt out quickly. My history class was all the way across the school and in a minute, I wasn’t sure if I would be able to make it. The crowd has pretty much dissipated except for a few individuals, standing right outside their classes.

“Alright, well I should get going.” She beamed and she disappeared into a nearby classroom, leaving me to scramble to class.

School ended quickly and I headed to the school library after meeting up with Hailey by her locker. Since Ava was coming over, I figured I might as well bring Hailey over to pass time with me, but my offer was turned down as Ava was heading over to the hospital to visit her grandmother. After wishing her grandmother well and giving her a small smile, I met with Ava who seemed to be excited.

“Sera, are you interested in Korean things?” Ava questioned as we got onto the bus together. She had her phone out and she was looking at me innocently. I nodded.

“I listen to a few Korean songs here and there. Why?” She plugged her earphones into her phone and held one out to me.

“I’ve just discovered Korean pop music and gosh, it’s amazing!” I hold the earphone up by my ear (I was never the type to like these earphones, in fact I found it to be dirty with all that ear wax sharing). “However, I like this one group. Too bad the member I liked the most left a few years ago.” The song hits my ears and I recognize the song.

“Manmanhani.” I blurt out in surprise as I look at her and her smile widens. “I like this group too.”

“You’re a fan of how many years?” She questions and I hold up four fingers and she smiles. “Wow, lucky. I wish I could’ve learned about them earlier. Dong Ho’s my bias.” She admits and I get this odd feeling of suspicion, but I brush it off.

“Is that so?” We arrive at our stop before long and I try to drop the topic about Dong Ho. She talks about him for a while longer before changing the topic. When we arrive to my apartment, I’m surprised to see that my brother had yet to return home.

Grabbing my sweatpants and heading to the bathroom to change, I left her in the living room. I changed quickly and headed back into the living room to see she was gone and it was no surprise where I had found her. She was in my room and there was just one thing that shocked me. She was holding onto something I had no idea I even had in there. In her hand was what seemed to be a sword.

“Oh hey, Sera. I hope you don’t mind me being in your room.” She beams and she holds up the sword. “Look what I found. I didn’t think you were the type to like antiques like these.” I force a smile onto my face.

“I didn’t know I even had something like that.”

What I wanted to say was: Get out of my room. I most certainly didn’t give her permission to enter my room and irked me that she was able to walk in, casually. The project was done a week ago and I was starting to question why I had even invited her over to my apartment.

“What does this say right here? There seems to be a name engraved on it. Is this your grandparents’ perhaps?” She questions as she hands the sword over to me. I am reluctant to touch the sword. It was suspicious after all. However, I couldn’t help but question my behavior these days. Why exactly was I get so touchy and irritated, not to mention suspicious of so many things? Maybe I should let loose for a while. It must be some sort of stress.

I reach my hand out after an internal battle with myself and it’s evident that I’m still reluctant to touch it. Ava seems to take notice.

“I don’t think your parents would know if you touch it. I’ll be keeping my lips sealed.” She promised and I almost want to shoot back at her that it’s not my parents that are making me rethink this. It’s the doubts I have about touching it. I finally decide to reach out and touch it when I hear the front door swing open and my brother groaning.

“Chun- Tyler?” I quickly motioned for Ava to put it back and bounced out of my room, suddenly grateful from my brother’s sudden appearance. “Did you take the late bus again?” He groans and nods.

“Stupid English quiz.” He mumbles. “I was forced to stay after school to take it since I was absent for it the other day. Did you invite someone over by any chance?” He notices the extra pair of shoes by the door and I nod.

“Invited Ava over. Her whole family seems to be doing something today.” I answer and he nods and ruffles my hair.

“Well have fun gossiping about boys and whatever girls like to do. I’ll be in my room playing League if mom asks about me.” He throws his backpack aside and heads into his room as Ava peeks out of my room.

“That was a close one.” She comments.

“Yeah, we should just leave it alone. I don’t think my brother would keep his trap shut without a fee.” I am more than happy to find an excuse to say it. I don’t even want to think about almost touching it again.

When I came home from school on Tuesday, the door was open. It was open. Alarmed, I headed into the apartment and I quickly scanned the apartment. My oh so brave brother, decided to stand outside the apartment, just in case and insisted I do the same. I wasn’t about to spend another three hours waiting for our parents to come home and do something about it. They were busy with work.

So as I went in, my sweet brother told me to scream if anything happened and he would- no, not rush it, but run to the neighbors for help or call 911. How sweet.

“I’m also going to be calling mom and dad, just to let them know.” He states as he pulls his phone out as I join him in the halls after checking the apartment out. “Did anything look out of place?”

“No. It looks like the way we left it.” I felt scared, truth be told. It seemed as if there was a part of me, missing.

“Maybe mom or dad forgot to lock the door before they went to work.” He says as he punches their number in. “They’re getting old anyways.” I shoot him a playful glare and secretly agreed with him.

When our parents got home and we got settled, there was one thing that filled my mind and it was the sword. Where exactly did Ava find it? All my belongings including my piggy bank was still here, but was the sword still here? Why was the sword so important to me anyways?

Instead of spending hours dwelling on these questions, I went around my room looking for the sword. I remembered seeing Ava standing so close to the shelves filled with stuffed animals and I inspect that area first. Failing to find it or any evidence of it being hidden there, I continue to search my room until it was time for dinner.

After dinner, I continued my search, but my eyes constantly wandered over to the shelves with stuff animals. Clearing the shelves out, I noticed how dusty it was back there and that’s when I saw an imprint.

There was this large shape that resembled the sword that was left clean and untouched by the dust particles. My heart dropped. The sword was hidden here. It was gone.

 Dong Ho

There was a persistent knocking on the door to my hotel room and I lazily got off the bed and opened the door. With red hair, I was faced with my small eyed hyung who smiled at me. Moving past me and pulling me into a headlock, he pulled away and gaped at the mess of a hotel room I had.

“Shin Dong Ho, look at your room.” He nags as he picks my clothes up from the floor and finds a plastic bag to put them in and goes around my room picking at things. I sigh and fall back down onto my bed as Sunggyu kicks my bed to get me up and going. “Come on, your hyung flies over to New York and you’re not going to spend some time with him? Talk about being a cold maknae.”

“Please let me sleep.” I mumble, trying to shoo Sunggyu away, but instead Sunggyu sits on my bed and refused to go away.

“Come on. We just want to have some breakfast with you. Hurry up. Jun’s coming over here.” My eyes shoot open and I stare at Sunggyu. “It seems as though the kid really likes you.” He gives me a smile. “He looks up to you, you know. So don’t let him see you like this.” He gets up and throws a shirt at me along with a pair of pants.

“You’re still a fashion terrorist after all these years.” I snickered as I looked at the neon orange shirt I brought along as sleepwear and the black pair of pants he gave me. He raises an eyebrow at me and clears his throat.

“For you information, fans think my fashion sense has gotten better, excuse you. So go change.” I continue to snicker as I move past him and choose my own choice of clothes and change. I was used to changing in front of others. It wasn’t like I was stripping completely. I still had my tank top and underwear on. It was no big deal.

A few knocks were sent to the door as I took my pajama pants off and Sunggyu went to get the door. A tall figure made its way into the room and I hold back the urge to push him out the door. I pull my pants up and he seems to be surprised that I was in the midst of changing.

We head downstairs and we get breakfast and I notice how Jun was playing with the pocket watch I had given him as if he’s contemplating something. As he looks up, I look away and continue to eat the scrambled eggs and bacon. It’s odd how Americans seem to have an obsession with bacon. It was delicious though, I didn’t understand how they could eat a meal without soup. It’s been a week and I’ve been looking for soups that would satisfy me. None of them could beat the soups back in Korea.

“Today’s the first official day of being busy here.” Sunggyu announces and everyone at the table nods in agreement except for me. I was planning on just walking around and going sightseeing. “On the bright side, we have a few days off after the three concerts today and tomorrow.” Sunggyu cheers and I can see the others stuffing their faces. These hyungs.

“Hey, hey, hey- nobody bothers to tell about the breakfast party?” Taking his sunglasses off like any typical “pretty boy” in a drama would do, he sends us a weird face, inducing laughter from the others. It was Xander and he’s been bugging me non-stop. I met him a day after I got to New York as he was checking in and he barges into my room from time to time.

The next few days pass by quickly and the rest of Pollux, including Xander, are all excited to be going around New York. Pollux is pretty much arguing about where to go where Sunggyu wants to hit a clothing store and N wants to go to beach. As if he wasn’t tan enough already.

Since Xander, Jun, and I want to go sightseeing, we were placed in a group together as they didn’t want us to get lost. Great. I’m stuck with Jun. I’m sure the guy doesn’t like me. Either way, Xander attempts to bring us closer together as we hail a taxi and we discuss about where we’re headed too. The driver heads onto this highway and exits the highway when we pause to think about where to go.

“I have an idea.” Jun states.

 Sera

My mom has officially kicked me out of the house for today. We have a day off of school for today, since it was some type o holiday. Not sure what, but no one seems to care anymore. As long as they got a day off of school, everything else didn’t matter. My mom heard Ava by the front door asking me to hang out with her.

“Sera, you’ve been sulking for the past few days. I’m not sure why, but you should go out and have some fun with Ava. She’s a nice girl, you know.” My mother then proceeds to hand me fifty dollars and pushes me out of the house. “Tyler better not see you home before five. If he does, you’re in trouble missy. I want you to have fun okay?”

It was true. I have been sulking. It’s all because of the stupid sword and partially Ava’s fault. If she hadn’t shown me the sword in the first place, I would’ve never noticed that it was gone after discovering that the front door of my apartment was left open. Ava claims to have left it exactly where she found it, so I’m left with no choice but to deduce that it was stolen. I was anxious in fact.

Stupid sword.

“What are we doing here?” I asked as we arrived in Chinatown. She pointed at the ice cream shop not too far away.

“Let’s get some ice cream. The ice cream here is the best.” I couldn’t help but agree with her. I followed her into the ice cream shop and for some reason, the atmosphere in the ice cream shop was suffocating.

Bumping into someone, I felt a pair of hands pull at my arms to keep me from falling. With a light blue denim shirt, he seemed to be staring down at me worried. Thankfully, he wasn’t holding any ice cream. Things could’ve gotten messy fast.

“Are you okay?” My eyes met his and it’s alarming how worried he looks. He seems to be inspecting my arm to make sure he didn’t pull too hard to keep me from falling. I pull away from him and I smile.

“I’m fine. Thanks for helping me though.” He didn’t seem to understand too much of what I said, but I was sure he got my message. He had an accent when he spoke and I was sure he wasn’t a resident here. At least, I was sure he wasn’t here at an early age.

There were two other guys besides him that looked oddly familiar, but the more I tried to remember, the fuzzier things became. As I made my way past what seemed to be his friends, one of them in particular made my thoughts scatter and my mind turned blank. It was as if I couldn’t think around him.

 Figure

Their memories were bouncing off of each other. The pressure between their close proximity was causing this bouncing effect. It was putting more pressure on their minds to not remember. Memory holders may seem to be a good idea, but it had its own side effects.

This was one of them.

Rebound.

A/N: Well, things have finally started to get going! Any guesses to what's going on? xD Is it confusing? If it is, don't be afraid to leave a comment for me below! If not, please leave a comment to motivate me please. :) Enjoy!