~ Chapter Nineteen: Reverie ~

The Fallen

Random Rambles: Okay, I had the weirdest dream about the boys the other night. Don't remember much of it, but I distinctly remembered Sehun suddenly being able to speak perfect English which was weird xD Perhaps this fanfic is starting to get into my subconscious now as well ^^; Anyway, here's another chapter!

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Alright, so I was wrong. Consistent with how the rest of my day has been going, I found that luck was still not on my side when I was trying to find my own house. 

I must've walked for about an hour in my smelly P.E. clothes (yes, charming, non?), dragging all my stuff with me. It didn't help that we lived out of the small town of Hanwol, in one of the more remote areas of the island, smack in the middle of a forest. How could anyone orientate themselves in a forest? Really, someone tell me all the secrets. Because to me, every tree looked exactly like the next one, and the roads here were identical. I couldn't even remember whether Mom drove past here this morning, but the road would surely lead to somewhere, right? 

A soft buzzing caught me off guard and I stopped walking. It was eerily quiet in the woods, so I was extra vigilant. Sure the island was small, but you could never know. Girl like me, alone... 

Since I had no clue where I was and I figured I had time to spare anyway, I gave in to my curiosity and followed the sound. It lead me to a wire fence, the logo of E.T. Corp hung on it and I blinked. Dad had said that they were busy installing these fences over the island to prevent the animals from trespassing on farm lands, but despite what he'd been telling me, these things did not look friendly. Period. 

It was obviously high strung with electricity and there was a metal net nearby that looked like it could fall any second. Animal-friendly, my . What was E.T. Corp doing here? Why was there a fence like this in the middle of the woods to begin with? As far as I knew, no one was living nearby and the land it was surrounding was public domain. Odd. I'll ask Dad about it when I get home, or rather- if I get home. 

I continued following the road, playing around with the rose Mr. Tabi gave me, when I finally caught sight of a few houses. Just further away, at the back near the edge of more forests, stood my new house. Sighing in relief, I ran the last part since I just wanted to get a shower and collapse on my bed. This has been one tiring day. 

I was greeted by the mouthwatering scent of a homecooked meal when I entered the house and saw that Dad was already home as well. 

"Tadaima!" I'm home! I greeted in Japanese, to which my Dad smiled brightly. 

"Welcome home, Jade! Your mother and I were starting to get worried, what took you so long?" he asked, putting down the newspaper he'd been reading and looked at me. "Wow, that's an interesting getup," he chuckled at seeing my tired expression, before his eyes glanced over at the rose in my hand. He gave a little frown, you know, the kind that fathers pull when they feel the need to suddenly protect their daughters, and crossed his arms over his chest. "Where did you get that, honey?"

Resisting the urge to roll my eyes, I gave him my rose and walked past him. "Hi Dad, nice to see you too. How was your day?" I retorted, heading to the dining room where Mom was setting up the table. She greeted me with a bright grin. 

"There's my baby! So, how was your first day?" she asked, enthused, even halting her movements so she could focus on me. When she heard me sigh deeply, the smile dropped and she looked at me in concern. 

"Did something happen, Jae?" 

Oh a lot of things happened, but don't think I'll be telling you about those, I thought, cringing a little. 

"What, were the kids mean to you?" Dad came up from behind me, his voice sounding worried. 

"No, it wasn't like that," I assured, taking a deep breath. 

"Did they make an issue about the uniform?" Mom interjected and I really felt like crawling into bed now. 

"No, not exactly..." I trailed off and huffed. "It's nothing, don't worry about it. It's just been a really long day. School's fine," I dismissed, since I was in no mood to have to tell them everything that had happened to me today. I was seriously exhausted. 

"Okay," Mom tried, perfectly reading the atmosphere. "Well, hey, did you make some friends?" she attempted cheerfully and I paused a moment, trying so very hard to not think about the locker room. 

"Eh, I wouldn't necessarily say that...Too soon to tell, you know. Uh, there's this kid called Minho in my class who's pretty nice. And a girl, Lili, who's sweet, so yeah," I made sure not to mention any of the twelve guys, pushing them out of my mind. "Oh, the teachers are nice, so that's cool," I added. I wanted to get out of these clothes so bad. 

"Ah, that's nice to hear. Well, it's only been the first day, right? I'm sure you'll make more friends in no time," Dad said in his undying optimism and I only gave a wan smile. 

"You look really beat, sweetie," Mom finally noted. "Here, I have something that will cheer you right up!" she disappeared into the other room while I looked at Dad. He only lifted his shoulders. 

"Guess what came in the mail for you today," Mom sang, and my eyes widened as a wave of sudden energy crashed over me. 

"Oh my God! Finally! Yes, thank you! Hallelujah!" I exclaimed to which my parents started laughing as I grasped the school uniform, which was perfectly my size. "Oh thank God, thanks, Mom," I muttered giving the surprised little woman a hug as she chortled. 

"Wow, baby, I had no idea you were so thrilled about school uniforms," Dad remarked in amusement and I stuck my tongue out at him. 

"You have no idea what my day's been like," I blurted out in my relief of having a wonderfully girly uniform to wear from now on. 

"What has it been like?" Mom immediately prompted and I shook my head, still heaving deep sighs. 

"Interesting, let's keep it at that," I chuckled, my mood somewhat lifted now. "Hey, let me ask you guys something. Do I look like a boy to you?" I asked, perhaps not all too subtly, but they indulged and scanned my face. 

"In those clothes?" Mom questioned while humming. "They're a bit boyish, but I don't think you look like a boy, honey. Don't be silly." 

"Thank you. Dad?" 

"Whoa, why are you asking your old man these things?" he answered a little nervously. "No, I don't think it makes you look fat," he said automatically, earning a playful smack from my mother but I stomped my feet a little. 

"Dad," I whined and he laughed. 

"Okay, okay, why are you asking this, anyway?" he muttered. "I don't know, Jade, you look fine to me. You do have my jawline, though, and your face is a little round. Maybe you could loosen up the bun and go with bangs to cover your forehead a bit," he suddenly went on a makeover trip. "Oh and relax your shoulders when you walk."

He was starting to take this a little too seriously. "What's wrong with how I walk?" I questioned, taken aback. 

"It's a little stiff, as if you're purposely trying to prevent from swaying your hips, baby," Mom answered instead while she continued setting up the table for dinner. 

"What?" I squeaked. "I am not stiff," I protested. 

"Oh, it's okay, baby, so you're a little tomboyish. I wasn't a girly girl myself," Mom wove her hand. "So, what's with asking these weird questions anyway?" she suddenly paused and a mischievous glint sparkled in her brown eyes. "Did you meet someone...special?" she suddenly suggested and my jaw dropped in shock. 

"What? No! Geez, Mom!" I blurted out, though I think my Dad may have protested even louder. 

"Yeah, come on, Jae has other things on her mind, she's smart, she's not into boys, right, baby?" he flipped, though I was totally cool with him backing me on this as I nodded my head. 

"Well, I'm just saying. I thought I saw a pretty cute guy looking at you outside of the school when I drove away. It was adorable, he was peeking from behind a tree- though he may have been secretly smoking at that time. I saw swirls of smoke around him..." she muttered to herself before shaking her head. "Anyway, all I'm saying that if you want to impress a bit with your looks, maybe you could put on some lipgloss, a little eye makeup, let your hair down-,"

"Oh wow, Mom, seriously, stop," I told her, wincing out of embarrassment. "That was so not the reason why I asked that stuff," I murmured, flushing a bit. 

"Good, keep it that way," Dad sat on his chair, looking relieved. Mom conceded by making a wave with her hand and winked playfully at me. 

I jerked my head towards her. "What's for dinner?" I asked. 

Mom clasped her hands together and grabbed a plate from the nearby table. "German sausage!" she piped up, showing me the dish. However, seeing the smoldering pieces of meat on the plate made way for some traumatizing memories and in an instant my appetite was gone. 

"Ah, uh, yum..."I remarked, pulling a look of disgust and embarrassment at the same time. 

"Something wrong? You love German sausage in a bun," Mom noted and I cringed at her words. 

"Yeah, I know...eh, look you guys start without me, okay? I'm just gonna get a quick shower and put on some clean clothes," I said, walking towards the stairs. 

"Don't take too long," Dad said, already putting some sauce on his food. 

"Got it," I replied, running up to my room. Once there, I neatly hung the uniform behind the door and passed my full-length mirror. Dropping all of my stuff, I started staring at my reflection. I bit my lip and checked myself out in the P.E. uniform. Pulling the shirt tightly around my waist, my more feminine figures became more pronounced, but upon releasing it, they were hidden again. That's it. I'm going to wear push-ups from now on.

I leaned towards the cold surface of the glass to check my facial features. I know it seemed silly, but the fact that people just generally assumed that I was a boy, kind of made me worry and it wasn't doing anything for my self-esteem. I had always thought that my face was rather soft. I did have a strong jawline, but it wasn't masculine. Maybe it was the hair. There was something strangely boyish about my clear face with my hair tied in a bun like that... When I pulled at the bun, my hair fell down, reaching just a little past the shoulders. 

There. No more mistakes. I looked at the school uniform and decided that I had to set things straight first thing tomorrow. I am not getting shoved into a boys' locker room ever again. 

I quickly jumped in the shower after that and got dressed in my PJs, but while I was combing my hair I noticed that it had actually grown quite dark. I moved to the window to push the curtains away and saw the clear night sky, covered in star dust. I tried not to look for my twelve stars, because I knew I wouldn't find them here, but that moon...Wow. It wasn't entirely full yet, but I had never seen it so big and bright before. It nearly made me want to howl at it. I smiled and sat on the window bench, hugging a cushion. 

For some reason I thought to the white wolf I saw when we first arrived here. In that instant, I imagined how a majestic creature like that would get trapped in one of those security systems E.T. Corp designed and shivered. My dad always raved about E.T. Corp because their tech and research were top-notch, but he was never allowed to tell us what they were doing there. Company secrets and such.

I let out a yawn, still looking at the moon. I knew I had to get up to have some dinner, but I was way too comfortable...

When I blinked my eyes open, I found myself still looking at the moon, but it was shining in full now. The odd thing about that was that I wasn't staring at it from my comfortable window bench in my room. I was outside. In the woods. When I tore my gaze away from the mystic moon, I stared straight into a pair of green eyes. The white wolf its lips before running off, dashing into the dark forest.

Only the light of the moon guided me as I tried my best to keep up with the wolf. It stopped near a peculiar looking tree, of which I could only see the silhouette. The tree bloomed, its odd-looking branches swaying from side to side. However, from the base of the tree appeared two arms, clawing its way out under fierce growling. The tree split into twelve shadows, twelve humans that transformed slowly before my eyes. From the darkness, the pack of wolves moved towards me, their eyes shining and glowing menacingly my way. I turned to run, but the white wolf was there, blocking my path. I looked desperate at the moon, but saw a butterfly flit by. It disappeared into the light of the moon and when I turned back to look at the wolves, they bared their teeth at me and I was too late to scream. 

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Nin-Nin
Hi guys~ my first original ebook is available on Amazon and I'm having a lot of feels. If you have the time, check out my previous blog post for more details - I'd appreciate the support <3 Thank you and have a lovely weekend! Love, Nin-Nin

Comments

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Wanderer_bj
#1
I don't even know how many times I have read this.😍
BeckyBooGirl
#2
Chapter 4: This is one of my favorite exo fanfic. I have read this story 5 or 6 times already and still love it like i did when I first read it❤
InspiritCarolyn
#3
This is one of those fics I can come back to again and again without getting tired of re-reading it. Each time I read it, I love it the same as the first time.
aonani_k
#4
Chapter 109: I finished it once again and as before, I enjoyed reading such a great story. Hope all is well. :)
aonani_k
#5
Chapter 2: It's been years since I read the story and today I just felt like re-reading it! Glad it's still here. :)
Sehixneeo
#6
Chapter 109: Argh, I will never ever forget this story. Ever. 🥺💛
Jaerin
#7
Chapter 109: This story will always be one of my favorite, a masterpiece 🤧💞❤️
Pxnellyxq #8
Chapter 107: WHAT IM LEGITIMATELY SHOCKED AND TEARING UP
Pxnellyxq #9
Chapter 100: why is the white wolf making me feel emotional :///
Pxnellyxq #10
Chapter 61: Stinky kumiho