When the clock strucked at 4, Sehun found himself still sitting in the cafetaria waiting for his bestfriend who supposed to come around thirty minutes ago. He couldn’t stop tapping his index finger in the table, near the empty glass of kiwi juice that once accompanied him. For several times he looked at his phone screen for Chanyeol’s reply but he found none. He even once tried to activate his power so that he could track the said person, but of course in the end he didn’t. People might run for their lives if he did.

He assumed that Chanyeol must be with that Annisa girl right now.

And he despised him for that.

Sehun hated the fact that he had to went through a lot of shouts, fights, and arguments previously only because Chanyeol kept nagging him about ‘not to be found’, when in the end, Chanyeol just revealed everything to that girl like it was freaking okay to tell one of their biggest secret to other people, especially to a host. Sehun’s intention to punch Chanyeol right on the face was very strong the moment he saw him walking to their apartement and said that he had tell the truth to Annisa.

Since the beginning of their mission Sehun already told Chanyeol that this time, they might have to try other approach, since they’re going to capture one of the most poweful spirits ever existed. He did say to Chanyeol that they might have to use abrupt attacks and ambushes to force Arae to come out, but Chanyeol denied it right away, for the sake of the host’s safety. He didn’t understand why the hosts life are so important to someone like Chanyeol. Not that Sehun is a killer but, a host was destined to keep a Spirit within their bodies, basically they were made and born as a spirit’s container. So, when the Spirits are finally gone from their bodies, the hosts could live on, but, on the other side, Sehun didn’t see something wrong if the hosts life was supposed to end too during the process, since their ultimate purpose to live was already gone.

But obviously, he was the only one with that kind of thought. His fellow Guardians are very strict when it comes to the hosts. Because they didn’t get the name ‘Guardians’ for nothing. When the hosts are made and born to be the Spirit’s container, the Guardians were never born, they were made, to protect the humans and keep the balance on the earth’s surface. So since hosts are humans too, then every single life of the hosts were as precious as the Guardian’s and ought to be protected as well.

So he could say that this is one of the last situation that he ever wanted to get involved into. He always thought that Chanyeol was too kind to those hosts, treating them so well but those clueless people were totally in an oblivion of what really happened.

“Hey.”

Being a Guardian for more than ten thousand years, Sehun didn’t have to look back to see who just called him. He recognised distinctly that sharp and snobby voice. He ly to make sure that he guessed right, and then turn away again.

“Wow, so I was like, invinsible.” Said the person who just been ignored. Sehun didn’t care much, in fact he grabbed his bag and was about to go away. He could see for a split second the extrimely annoyed face in front of him.

“You haven’t say anything and I already hate you with my entire human being.” Though these words was mumbled in a low tone, Sehun could hear it clearly. But he didn’t care and proceed with his walk. This obviously pissed the person who just greeted Sehun.

“Hey! I’m looking for Icha did you see her?!” That person shouted but it didn’t stop the cold Oh Sehun from walking away. Then suddenly in seconds he felt someone bumped him on his back, purposefully. He ly to found that Jasmine, with her annoying pissed face stared at him before walking away and leaving him in an also annoyed state. At this point Sehun thought he must’ve had spent too many times with his fellow guardians away from the outside world, until at this moment, he didn’t know that girls could be an ultimate annoyance for him. Especially the girl who just walked past him.

Right when Sehun was about to pull some little trick on Jasmine, his phone vibrated and he saw Chanyeol’s name on his phone screen. He picked it right away and the first the heard was his friend’s heavy sigh.

“This is bad, Sehun.”  

“Where are you?” The moment he heard Chanyeol, Sehun turned and walked to the opposite direction.

“I’m still in the library.” Chanyeol answered.

“Is this bad thing the reason why you’re late?”

“! Sorry I forgot! How long did you wait? An hour?!”

“Hm.” Sehun responded short.

“I’ll make it up to you later. Anyway, something bad happened.” Chanyeol continued with his worried rant. “Icha just came up to me and she was in a half-trance condition.”

“Half-trance?” There was definitely a tone of shock when Sehun said this. Half-trance is a term they use to explain a situation where a host is half taken by the spirit inside her body. Half-trance rarely happened, because most of the spirit took their host’s body almost instantly and entirely. When someone had a Half-trance, that could only mean one thing, and it was bad. It meant that the spirit wanted to merge themselves with the host. When the spirit merged with the host, It was like having two souls in one body, and two consciousness at once. That wasn’t even the worst part. When the spirit merged with their host, the spirit couldn’t be taken away form their host’s body. If someone still persistent in taking the spirit’s out, Then the host’s soul will tagged along with it. Which could be easily translated as the death of the host.

“Half trance rarely hap . .”

“It happened, okay?” Chanyeol cut Sehun’s doubt right away, “She said to me her sight went blank all of the sudden. And when I saw her I saw flashes of blue in her eyes, and . . . and she said she saw a face. Arae tried to bear out her existence to Icha!”

Sehun shut his mouth after Chanyeol delivered the detail of experience he just had.

“Where is she?” Sehun asked.

“Still in the library, why?”

“Did you tell her what will happened?”

“Of course not.”

“Have you told Suho?”

“No.”

The moment Sehun said this he already reached the library, and he saw Chanyeol stood against the library’s front wall. Their eyes met that moment. Sehun hang up their phonecall and walked towards Chanyeol.

“I’ve told you since the very beginning that we cannot use the usual approach on Arae.” Sehun put his hand inside his pocket as he said this. The only respons he got form Chanyeol was only a sharp glare. Sehun knew at that moment Chanyeol somehow regretted not listening to Sehun’s suggestion at the beginning of their mission, but he was just too proud to admit it.

“If we did what you said since the beginning she would still try to merge anyway.” Chanyeol mumbled, throw his stare away from Sehun.

“But at least we have bigger chance to pull her out before she could think of anything.” This time Chanyeol didn’t say anything in response. In fact, he was about to turned his back on Sehun. “This is exactly what happened in that war, isn’t it? You make the same mistake again even after being a guardian for so long.”

“Shut . . . up!” There was a faint sound of a growl as Chanyeol threw yet another piercing glare to his comrade. Sehun didn’t flatter, he turned the stare with a calm gesture, clinging one of his hand on his backpack’s strap.

“Just don’t drag us into the same problem again.” Said sehun, throwing his face away from Chanyeol.

“I never intended to.” With that Chanyeol disappeared behind the library’s door, leaving Sehun with his light chuckle. Sometimes he had this crazy thought. Even though he knew as a Guardian him and Chanyeol were made and never had a past life, Sehun thought that maybe if they ever had a past life, Chanyeol must’ve been a human. And a sensitive one.

 

***

 

The sweet caress upon her cheek in the previous day wasn’t for her. How did Annisa know? Well, liking someone made her more sensitive, and of course in the end she tend to speculate more. That was why even though Annisa kept touching her right cheek and smiling, she was always reminding herself that it wasn’t for her.

What Annisa remembered the most that day, other than Arae’s sudden emergence of course, was Chanyeol’s word.

“Stay with me. Don’t ever let go.”

And also the way he said it.

Those words slipped Chanyeol’s mouth accompanied with his dim eyes and sad voice. There was an obvious worry drawn into his face, and something weird about the way he looked to Annisa’s eyes. The girl suspected it must’ve been something to do within his distant past, and it was way beyond her grasp as a commoners. So she decided not to dwell about it any longer. Whatever that caress meant, she would just let them be.

Well, of course not completely. Her mind might said so but her heart was betraying her by beating a little faster the moment Chanyeol appeared on her sight this morning. The girl tried to hide her face by looking down to her phone and covered her face with her long locks.

“Someone should told me if we’re in the middle of The Ring’s movie filming.” Said someone in front of her. Who was, obviously none other than the guy she tried to avoid. Annisa raised her head slightly and peeked through behind the curtains of her hair. “Hi, Sadako.” He added.

“Morning.” Annisa replied in a low tone. Inside, she was cursing how Chanyeol looked like he just walked straight from a photoshoot, even with his eye still bandaged. Or is it just her Chanyeol-biased  visual that made the guy always looked good? Because for heaven’s sake he was only wearing a casual gray pyrex t-shirt and fitted black jeans with his usual jansport bag. He supposed to be a damn old creature, and a damn old creature is forbidden to look this good.

“Gloomy morning?” He asked, putting his backpack on the floor beside his chair.

“Not really.” Annisa said, back to her phone and tried not to look Chanyeol in the eye.

“So . . . nothing weird happened, right?”

“Nope.”

“Dizziness? Blurred visions?”

“Nope.”

“Flashes of unknown images?”

“Nope.”

“Wanna have lunch together?”

“No¾what?”

Annisa raised her head immediately the moment she heard Chanyeol’s last question. She hoped she didn’t hear it wrong.

“You wanna have lunch together?” Chanyeol repeated his question so easily while the girl in front of him just got a feeling like she just hit a jackpot.

“O, okay.” Annisa answered quick, like she would lose her chance of she didn’t.

“I’m not sitting with her.” Chanyeol and Annisa’s head automatically turned into the silver haired guys who sat beside Chanyeol. And what Annisa received was an ice-cold stare form the mighty Oh Sehun.

“Like I’m inviting you.” Chanyeol sneered. And even thought Sehun’s facial expression didn’t change, Annisa could see annoyance was dancing in his eyes. She was about to laugh because Sehun could only stare at Chanyeol and had no word to respond.”You can look for your own food, can you, big boy?” The tall guy tease again, and this time Sehun threw his face, and into his phone screen.

“It’s okay Chanyeol I can eat with Jasmine.”

“Of course It’s okay, she’ll eat with us!”

“I’d rather die.” Annisa and Chanyeol automatically scoffed upon hearing Sehun’s interruption.

“You hate her that much, don’t you?” Annisa asked, out of curiousity. This is actually the very first time she heard Sehun at least responding to what people said, so she wanted to know more about the cold silver-haired guy.

“Can’t you see my face?” He answere, eyes still locked on the phone screen. This time Chanyeol was the one who laughed.

“Your face basically said ‘I hate you’ to everyone, and everytime.” Chanyeol added beteween his laugh.

“Yeah, because I hate you too.” It shocked Annisa when suddenly Sehun raised his head and shot a cold stare to her. There was flashes of a crimson iris the moment she unconsciously held her breath. It was a split second of fear.

The fear ended when Chanyeol grabbed Sehun by the shouldher. Hard enough to make his friend almost toppled from his seat, and the chair made a loud creaky noise. Some of their classmates even turned their head out of shock. The once bright morning mood turned grim.

“What  . . . the hell is freaking wrong with you?” Chanyeol looked so tense when he let go of Sehun’s shoulder. Annisa felt like Chanyeol’s fist could fly to Sehun’s face anytime.

“Chanyeol . .” Annisa deliberately touched Chanyeol’s arm and pushed it down slowly, and he finally let go of Sehun’s shoulder. Annisa felt relieved for a bit when Sehun shifted his eyes and back to his previous silent state.

“Sorry you have to see that.” Chanyeol said to Annisa without looking at her.

“It’s okay.” She patted his shoulder in front of her.

When Annisa leaned back on her seat she took a glance on both figure in front of her. She told herself that everything might not as it seem. And how little she knew about Chanyeol and Sehun. They looked picture perfect the moment they arrived, but as everything slowly revealed to her, she just couldn’t deny that something is not right between those two.

 

 

***

 

“She was talking about you, okay? She was like, ‘oh my God, when did he even pay any attention to her?’ you know, with her gossipy hand gesture.”

So back then Annisa and Jasmine was, as usual, on their way back to Jasmine’s apartment. With her parents gone to their second honeymoon, Annisa felt so lonely so she decided to spent a night at her besfriend’s place. While walking through the busy street, Jasmine apparently had a breaking news to tell. 

“Hahah okay, so the point is?” With Jasmine ranting anthusiastically about details when she suddenly overheard Hee-Young’s talk this afternoon, Annisa just had to make her friend talk straight to the point.

“So, the point is . . .” Jasmine stopped when she pushed the main door open, “You haven’t tell me what actually happened between you and Mr. C that made Hee Young so irritated!” Jasmine glared at her friend behind her.

“Well, did Hee Young said what made her so irritated?”

“She said you suddenly barged in the middle of their research discussion, called Chanyeol, and he stormed off with you. Just like that.” Explained Jasmine, pushing the elevator’s button. “I demand explanation.”

Annisa contemplated. Obviously she couldn’t tell what actually happened that day. She did remember the part where she desperately looking for Chanyeol in the middle of the ‘attack’. All she knew that she was panicked, and she needed Chanyeol. Period.

“Uhm . . . well . . “ The girl mumbled in confusion.

“Well? I’m waiting here.” Jasmine still insisted.

“Oh! remember when I told you that Chanyeol plays guitar?” Annisa internally screamed when an idea suddenly popped in her head.

“Yeah?”

“Well I gave him this guitar-cover compilation that I liked.” After saying her reason, Jasmine squinted her eyes and looked at her friend like it was all just a lie. Well, it was. But Jasmine didn’t have to know.

“Really?”

“Yeah, why?”

“So you just, becoming closer to him after that tragedy in the pool?”

“I guess, yeah.” Annisa nodded.

“I’ll let you pass this time, but honestly, I got a feeling you owe me more stories.” Jasmine said, crossing her hand and looking at the changing numbers on the screen.

“You know I can’t hide anything form you.” As Annisa said this, there was a little feeling of disgust, knowing that she almost getting used to lie to her friend. But she thought these lies it won’t last long. After Arae’s gone everything would go back to normal. Or was it?

The elevator’s door finally opened and two familiar faces popped up in front of the girls. Chanyeol’s smile was the first thing that greeted them.

“Hi!”

“Oh hi!” Jasmine replied, to Chanyeol only of course. Annisa knew that Sehun was actually stading behind Chanyeol, but after this morning’s tense-ness she had no courage to look the guy in the eye. So she just nodded to both of them.

“Heading for dinner?” Jasmine asked.

“Yeah, you guys wanna come?” Annisa could see Sehun rolled his eyes in desperation when hearing Chanyeol’s invitation.

“I guess someone won’t like it. May be next time.” Said Jasmine, sarcastically. Don’t ever expect Jasmine to sit in the same table with Sehun unless it was for a research purpose. Or maybe in a life or death matter. And of course jasmine got a nudge form Annisa for her words.

“Okay, see you guys later then. Bye, Cha.” Chanyeol waved his hand to both Annisa and Jasmine. The said girl just replied it wit a smile. There was a little dissapointment. It would be great for them to eat together once in a while.

“Bye.” Jasmine finally pushed the button and the elevator’s door started to close, and just around that time, Chanyeol pointed at her phone, gesturing Annisa to look at it. The girl nodded before finally Chanyeol’s sight was gone behind the door. Jasmine instantly turned to her friend and sent her a smirk.

“Looks like someone’s happy.” Jasmine just loved everytime she could see her friend’s blushing,

“Stop it, Jas.”

“Is it about the guitar-cover compilation or something else?”

“Guitar-cover compilation.” Annia answered short, still with a shy smile. That moment, she felt her phone vibrated. It was a chat from Chanyeol.

 

Meet me at the pool this midnight

 

Her heart leaped, it was going to be her first ever randezvous.