Chapter 10



*OC (Alexa's) POV*


After seeing Lord Delacroix on the news lie through his teeth everyone had sat back down at the round table. The air was a bit tense. As the new ruler made more media appearances, the more followers he recieved from all his lies. This was the reason why the guys were working so hard and fast to try to decrypt the blueprints. They needed to take him out ASAP.

Thunder spoke up first. "You know all that money he talked about last week? The money he was going to use for the people? I tracked it by hacking into their financial database. Not even half of that money was used to rebuild some cities like he had promised."

This was the 1st time I had seen Thunder with such an annoyed look on his face. This just goes to show how evil this man is. The other guys looked over at him and nodded in understanding.

Joon added, "Yeah he's completely right. I was helping him to track that money and you know where most of that 'missing' money went to? Himself! Aish!" He let out a sigh of frustration and hung his head.

G.O looked between the two and asked, "So does this man buy toilets made out of gold and diamonds or what?"

I managed to laugh a little at his comment, as did everyone else in the room. Leave it to G.O to lift up the atmosphere. Mir who had been sitting next to me on my left, since Seungho was on my right, leaned over and laid his head on my shoulder.

I tilted my head lightly to look at him, he had a bit of a nostalgic looking expression on his face. "I miss the old ruler. He was nice and honest. If only he hadn't gone missing the way he did. Things wouldn't be so bad the way they are and me and the guys wouldn't have to be in hiding all the time." He let out a long sigh.

Seeing Mir like that made my heart break a little bit. I agreed with him about the old ruler. He was the best. Thunder, who was sitting next to him, must have heard the whole thing since he laid his hand on Mir's shoulder in a reassuring way.

The maknae looked over at him and tried his best to smile. Thunder smiled back. "Don't worry Mir. Once we take out Lord Delacroix we will do our best to look for the old ruler. Lord Azure must be still alive somewhere."

Mir seemed to have perked up at that last part. "You're right hyung. He wasn't our ruler before for nothing. Lord Azure is still alive and kicking somewhere. We will find him."

That's when an idea popped into my head. "Hey guys. I've got an idea."

Everyone turned their heads to look at me. "But there's a catch. I have to go back to my hometown."

***

Seungho seemed to be the one taking it the hardest which of course didn't make it any easier for me to stick to my decision. I mean come on, I wasn't planning on staying here forever in the 1st place. It's still hard. Oh how I wish my mind would just shut up for once.

The reason for me leaving so suddenly was for several reasons. One of the main ones being that it was my hometown and I was pretty sure some people were starting to notice I had been gone for over a week. Usually I spent just one week away and then I would come back. 

Another reason being that I missed my best friend Annabeth and I know she's gonna be worrying sick about me right now since I haven't had the chance to communicate with her in some way. The final reason being because of my idea/plan. After hearing Mir and Thunder talk about the old ruler, I just had a moment of epiphany.

When it came down to the missions, I was the least amount of help. The guys always did all the hard work and I was left with the easy parts. But when it comes to this mission, finding the old ruler, I can do that. I have connections in several places due to me being a healer and traveling all the time.

Thunder and Mir both were pretty sad about it too but they were also very understanding after they had given me huge bear hugs. Thunder, being a healer like myself, gave me some really good and high-end supplies. I was very thankful for that and he even gave me some words of encouragement, which was very nice of him.

Mir had been super loud but because I'm so used to it now, I really did not mind his screaming. He was just showing his emotion through voice, in MY opinion. Plus his hyperness is what made him....well him. I was a bit taken aback though when he kissed me on both of my cheeks.

As he tried to plant a kiss on my forehead, Seungho of course had intervened by smacking him in the back of his head and lecturing him on how to respect other people's personal space. Poor Mir. 

G.O was very nonchalant about the whole situation. He came up to me and shook my hand while talking to me as if we were old colleagues. He seemed to break at the last minute though, as he turned the handshake into a hug. 

Joon of course was very timid but he managed to say his thoughts and at the end I got a very strong hug from him. I was literally lifted off my feet. 

Aigoo guys, it's not like I'm leaving for good.

As I had been thinking this, it was Seungho's turn. That's when all the other guys left my room and left the two of us alone. Perfect. Great atmosphere and everything. It's almost as bad as . I quickly brushed off that last thought. No way in hell am I gonna blush and get flustered now.

However, seeing him standing there not even a few feet away from me, made my heart flutter. You two are ALONE in a room. That thought made my body temperature rise. AISH! What is wrong with me really?

Seungho who had been looking at his feet, finally looked up at me. Great, there go the butterflies in my stomach now. He's so handsome. I should just jump on that- GAH! Seriously what is WRONG with me?

I tried my best to smile at him. He seemed to notice my discomfort though and he walked up to me slowly. I bit my lip to keep my thoughts from running astray again. He stopped walking suddenly and it made me curious.

"Something wrong?" I asked with my head cocked to the side.

He ran his hand through his hair before replying, "You know you really shouldn't bite your lip like that."

I gave him an accusing look as I crossed my arms over my chest. "Oh really? What about you and your lip- habit huh?"

His eyes grew a bit wide and he shook his head. "That's not what I meant."

Now I was really confused. "Okay......then what did you mean?"

He scratched the back of his head and kept looking around the room. Apparently he was trying to avoid eye contact. "When you bite your lip....it puts the focus and attention on your mouth. That's why you shouldn't do that."

"Huh?" I looked at him with a million thoughts running through my head. Focus and attention....on my mouth? What's so bad about that? "I don't see what you're trying to say." I added.

He finally looked me in the eye and let out a sigh of frustration. "You can be kinda dense sometimes, you know that?"

He then quickly took the last few steps towards me and placed his hands on either side of my head before putting those full lips of his on mine.

OH I GET IT!!!!

***

I was on cloud 9 after Seungho's, uh, "goodbye" so to speak. I was currently standing in front of the entrance to Grenaria, my hometown. Even though I was already starting to miss the guys, I was really happy to be back. I missed Annabeth the most but there were other people who I was looking forward to seeing as well.

As I began making my way through the town, I heard a familiar voice call out to me, "ALEXA!!!!!!"

Oh lord.

Just then a blur of reddish-brown hair tackled me and almost knocked me off my feet. I literally stumbled around to keep myself from falling over. 

"Annabeth!" I exclaimed excitedly. I hugged her back as soon as I had gained my bearings.

As soon as she pulled away from the hug, she slapped me across my arm. "Where in the world have you been?! You didn't even call once to let me know if you were even still ALIVE!"

She was giving me a really stern look and I automatically cringed and felt like I wanted to go bury myself in a hole somewhere. "I'm really sorry Annabeth! Really! I didn't mean to make you worry, honest! I just had a whirlwind of a time like you have no idea. Just wait until you hear my story, I have lots to tell you!"

I gave off my best smile and in case she felt like hitting me again, I put my hands up in front of me defensively. She seemed to have calmed down however, so I automatically began to relax. 

She took a deep breath before speaking again. "Okay okay. As long as I get a whole bunch of juicy details then maybe, just maybe, I'll forgive you by the end of the day."

I grinned from ear to ear. I then lunged at her with a hug. "Oh thank you best buddy in the whole entire world! HEY EVERYONE!! You see this girl?! She's my best friend! BFF's! She's the best and I love her so- OW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

I quickly let go of Annabeth as she had bit my shoulder. "YOU BIT ME!!!" I pointed at her with an utterly shocked look on my face.

Her face was fully composed as she said, "You were being an embarrassment. I had to do something, people were starting to take notice of us."

Just then we were interrupted by a deep voice from behind us. "You two haven't changed a bit."

We both turned slowly in the direction of the voice. A familiar looking man with blonde hair and a smirk on his face was what we faced. Then we both looked at each other with open mouths and wide eyes. We had both realized who he was at the same time, that's how close we are.

We turned back to face the man in question. "NICHKHUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
(Author's Note): To those who don't know who he is, he's from 2pm. Just saying.

DUN DUN DUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


End of Chapter 10