It was certainly a very odd thing when you knew something that you thought never exist, actually existed. Somehow you’ll started to consider stupid little things like, can animals actually talk? Or, is everything we have experienced in this world was only an illusion? That was pretty much what had been in Annisa’s mind since ‘the talk’ he had with Chanyeol. When she woke up this morning, things were so absurd, it was like she didn’t  wake up form a sleep, but awaken in another dream. That was actually the first day she ever feared something might go crazily out of control. Before this she always thought that her day would went ‘same old same old’ but since truths had been unveiled to her last night, she knew those ‘same old same old’ days won’t come for at least a few months, well, she didn’t knew actually, it depended on how fast Chanyeol can persuade Arae to come out of her body.

 

“I really need your cooperation since this is one peculiar case even for me.”

 

Chanyeol said that night before they went their separate ways. Oh and one other thing, the thing Annisa thought would be the most difficult yet challenging one,

 

“Don’t ever tell Jasmine about this.”

 

There he goes. At first Annisa was really happy when Chanyeol didn’t say anything about Jasmine, and she already had the intention to blurted out whatever she had heard to her dear friend. But alas, Chanyeol finally said that right before she walked away.

Without her realizing, her weekend passed just like that. Yesterday she escorted both of her parents to the airport for their second honeymoon trip to Maldives, in this time of the year, which was totally not a holiday season. Too bad since Annisa was kind of thinking to ask her Mom about the spirit thing, she just wanted to make sure that her Mom was positively oblivious to the presence of it. But she hoped that Arae could come out of his body before her parents’ return from their too-sudden second haneymoon trip, so that she didn’t have to ask anymore.

Sudden popping questions was also something that she already accustomed with for these past two days. To sum it up, Annisa’s head was buzzing with thoughts, questions, and worries, and she tried not to think about it too much. Well, as mush as she didn’t want to think about it, unfortunately this weekend she ended up staying in her house, alone, worrying about things, and studying for the quiz on Monday. And it was Monday already. Damn.

“So what’s the overview of Freud’s theory?”

“Huh?”

“Gosh, Cha. I know you’re not in a good term with your Yoda prince but please concentrate.” Jasmine’s remark only made Annisa rolled her eyes. Of course Jasmine thought that she and Chanyeol are somehow still in the ‘silent’ condition regarding to the last situation they’ve had. Of course she hadn’t told her about the talk with Chanyeol. Well, she didn’t know if she would ever going to tell Jasmine about that.

“I’m listening to you, Jas. I’m just reading something else right now.”

“Has he talked to you?” Finally taken by her own curiousity, Jasmine decided to close her textbook and asked her friend a totally out-of-quiz-context question. There was a frown appeared right away on Annisa’s face, and also a smile.

“Look who said they wanted to study in the morning before class?” She said, while giving Jasmine a knowing look.

“Hey, I’m curious, okay? First yesterday you told your Yoda prince to go away, and then you didn’t tell me what happened between you and Chanyeol, in detail. As a bestfriend how am I not curious?!” Blurted Jasmine, being honest. Truthfully Annisa really wanted to be honest to her friend too, but she couldn’t and it made her feel guilty.

“Yeah yeah.” Annisa rerturned to her book, but her friend took it away from her and gave her a look.

“I want explanations. In detail.” Annisa let out a heavy sigh responding to Jasmine’s demanding request. She was thinking what kind of explanation that she had to give to Jasmine.

“Didn’t I told you I just . . . you know, suddenly fainted when I’m treating him?”

“Yeah that part you’ve told me. But I didn’t get it when you told Chanyeol and Sehun to get out, I mean, you looked . . . no, you were mad at him.”

“Well about that . . . we . . . kinda . . .” Okay, Annisa had to come up with something good to cover this up, “I kinda asked him about his personal life and he actually didn’t like it and we had a little argument after that I passed out.” She talked pretty fast to make sure Jasmine didn’t realy catch it. That was basically the best excuse that she could came up with.

“What?”

“The point is. We had a little argument. That’s it.” Anisa tried to sum it up so Jasmine won’t as further. But instead of a knowing look Jasmine’s frown only grew deeper.

“After that you just fainted?”

“The argument and the faint part is different okay? I didn’t faint because I argue with Chan . . I mean, Yoda prince.” With that she snatched her textbook back from Jasmine and look to the page where she last opened.

“I smell something fishy and I’m going to find out.” Said Jasmine in a melodious tone, it made Annisa smile a little.

Yeah. Goodluck with that. She said jonkingly in her head, she knew that it was almost impossible for Jasmine to  actually find out what really happened to Annisa two days ago.

“Cha do you have any resume for this quiz?” There was someone who hurriedly put his bag on the seat next to Annisa and it shocked her at first that Chanyeol just took a seat right next to her. Right then she sat at the front row in their class and as long as she knew Chanyeol never took the front row seat, well, obviously except for now.

“Huh?”

“Well this smart is too lazy to teach me the subject so I ended up scanning the whole chapter last night. You got any summary?” Said Chanyeol while pointing at Sehun who was, of course, took a seat on Chanyeol’s right side with his mouth shut and looked totally uninterested to Chanyeol’s little mock. That day the cold guy looked somehow fancy with his silver hair pulled back and wearing fitted black t-shirt with grey cardigan. While Chanyeol, well, looked stunning as usual only with his T-shirt and NY snapback even though he still had one of his eyes bandaged. Annisa didn’t know that a ten thousand years old creature could look this . . . up to date.

“Sorry, I didn’t make any.” Annisa raised her shoulders.

“It’s okay, just ask Icha to teach you, she’s so prepared for this quiz!” All of the sudden Jasmine came up with the suggestion. Annisa knew that her friend did this on purpose, so that was why she turned her head for a sec and gave Jasmine an annoyed look before she looked back at Chanyeol.

“Really?!”

“Well . . . umm . . .” The girl stuttered from nervousness.

“Doesn’t look like it.” Out of nowhere the cold Oh Sehun opened his mouth without even looking away from his textbook.

“Well excuse me but you don’t even want to teach your friend.” Snapped jasmine.

“Do I talk to you?”

“What the f . .”

“Whoa, guys! Really, it’s frickin Monday, and we’re gonna have a frickin quiz.” Annisa cut the heating conversation between Sehun and Jasmine right away before that two person started to do a kill-stare to each other.

“And I’m still in one research group with this guy.” Jasmine let out a heavy breath while saying these, purposefully said it out loud so that Sehun could hear.

“Enough with you too, Jas.” Said Annisa, shook her head half didn’t belief she had to face this childish argument first time in the morning.

“Yeah, you’re annoying too.” Replied Sehun, unexpectedly.

“Just concentrate on your reading there, Bro.” Chanyeol, holding his laugh probably because an unimportant fight involving Annisa’s and his bestfriend just because he asked for a summary for their quiz. He grabbed the back of Sehun’s neck and squeeze it several times in a brotherly gesture, while he saw Annisa was talking to Jasmine to stop being so irritated everytime Sehun’s around. Out of nowhere Chanyeol found these situation quite funny, where he and Annisa had to handle both of their friend.

“You know, Cha. I think we’re gonna be really close, don’t you think?”

 

***

 

“So she knew?” Chanyeol could hear the the buzz of the radio static getting louder and louder from his phone’s speaker, so he got out from the discussion room which was located inside the library and he walked to the open space nearby.

“Yeah. Luck was totally not with us. Even Ghost appeared much faster than I thought.” He opened the door that led to a small open garden in the middle of the library. He stood there while waiting for reply from someone that just called him.

“You know the consequences¾”

“Yeah, I know.” Chanyeol chimed in right away. Consequences. Was one thing that he had been thinking about since she talked to Annisa about the whole truth. Well, not everything, she didn’t have to know everything.

“What are you gonna do about it?” Said the voice from the other line. Chanyeol went silent for there was no answer that passed in his mind.

“I think for now the best way is to get Arae as fast as we could from the girl’s body.” Chanyeol sounded a little unsure with his own answer, and he also knew the man that he was talking too could hear the doubt from his voice, “after that . . . well, we’ll think what’s best for her after we got Arae.”

“Is the girl alright now?” He asked.

“She did look totally scared when I first told her, but after that I think she’s fine. She showed no weird symptomps or anything.” After Chanyeol aswered, for a moment the man on the phone didn’t say anything in reply.

“I think some of us has to go there. We’ll check on things.”

“No! I mean it’s not¾”

“You’ve been considered failed on your mission, Guardian.” These sentence shut Chanyeol’s mouth right away. It was true. Since their subject, which was Annisa, was fully aware about the real presence of Chanyeol and Sehun, they’ve been considered not ony failing their mission, but also put the whole Guardians existence in danger. And Chanyeol was fully aware of that.

“Okay . . . whatever you say.”

“Alright. We’ll be in touch right away.”

“Wait! About Sehun . . . I’ve told you about him, right?” Chanyeol asked, while carefully looking at the door, afraid that someone might go in there while he spoke about something importnatn.

“Yes. But I think we’ll decide after some of us got there.” The person answered Chanyeol’s question in a calm tone.

“But he endangered the life of this girl. He attacked her without my command!”

“I said we’ll wait until some of us get there. Then we’ll decide wether to withdraw him or not.” Even though he felt somehow annoyed, Chanyeol chose to just listen to the man’s word and accept the fact that he still had to work along with Sehun until help comes.

“Alright. Don’t be long.” Chanyeol said, finally.

“We won’t. Please take care.” Said the man form the phone, “and one more thing Chanyeol, please limit the information that you’ll share  with this girl.” He added.

Chanyeol exhaled before answering, “Alright, Suho.”

 

***

 

“So the participants will be boys only? Or girls only?”

“I think both is good. So we’ll see the difference between boys and girls.”

“No no no, we have to search for another reference if we’re going to do that.”

“So what do you think, Cha?”

“Uhm . . . agreed with Bara. No more references.” Annisa answered while tapping her already messy head with her pen. What a ‘perfect’ way to spend an afternoon after lunch with research discussion. Truthfully, she had been feeling a little bit dizzy since morning.

Annisa and her team were now sitting comfortably in the terrace that was located at the back of the library for the discussion. Today, their statistic professor, Ms. Tata was kinda in good mood, so she told her students to do discussion outside the class. She thought that this discussion would be some kind of refreshment outside the class, but actually her team’s discussion turned out to be really serious since Chang Soo suggested to add more reference to their research.

“But it’ll be greater if we can see the difference between boys and girls right?” Chang Soo had been quite persistent with his idea for the past 30 minutes.

“Yeah I think so too, but it’ll take more time and effort if we want to pull things right. And we’re nearing the deadline for research proposal.” Bara spoke out.

“I’m sorry Chang Soo, I’m with Bara, it’ll be a lot of work if we have to change the proposal again.” Jenny added. Annisa could see the dissapointment in Chang Soo’s face but the guy seemed to look okay with it. He nodded slowly hearing his teammate’s opinions.

“So I guess we can start to continue working on the proposal?” Jenny suggested while opening her laptop, and their group started to gather closer around Jenny. It was about then when Annisa’s vision started to shake, she stopped moving for a while. Maybe her low blood pressure started to take a toll on her.

“Cha, you printed the journal I gave you, right?” Asked Chang Soo.

“Yes it’s right he . . .” Annisa had to blink her eyes several times whe her vision went blurry again.

“Cha? Did you brought it?” Chang Soo asked again.

“Yes yes, It’s right here.” Hurriedly, still with her vision blurred Annisa grabbed the journal and give it to Chang Soo right away, before her vision got worse. She moved closer, joining her other teammates.

“Jen, open your email, I’ve sent all of our references, in case we have to see it again.” When Annisa said this, her vision was almost lost. It was so blurred the only thing she saw was only fragments or shadows of different colors. The girl tried hard to get her vision back to normal by shaking her head or blinking her head several times. When it doesn’t work, she started to panic.    

“Icha, are you okay?” Annisa was sure as hell it was Jenny’s voice, but she couldn’t see her. The worst part is, the light in Annisa’s vision started to went dimmer and dimmer each second. When she could feel Jenny’s hand in her arm, Annisa grabbed it hard.

“Jen . . help, I’m . . . I’m dizzy.”

“You are? You look a little bit pale are you okay?” Jenny’s voice was still crystal clear, but Annisa’s vision was getting darker and darker.

“I think I have to  . . I . . .” Annisa stopped talking entirely when finally her vision went totally blank. She could see nothing except for the endless darkness. That was also the moment when the speed of her heart beat jumped higher. Once again an intense fear visited her.

“Cha, Icha you okay?!” Yes she could hear Jenny’s worried call but her voice also started to fade, like Jenny had went farther and farther.

Then came the moment when Annisa was being shut out of her senses.

She saw no sight, heard no voice, felt no touch. Blank. Only fear. She tried hard to scream but her voice was stuck somewhere in the middle of .

It was when inside the intense darkness Annisa saw a face, more like someone getting closer and closer to her. Before suddenly the face appeared in front of her, only inches apart. She swore her heart stopped beating when she saw that face. Unknown, but with an odd deep dark blue eyes.

It was a face of a women, and she was smiling. Darkly.

“Annisa dinia!”

It was like being pulled out of a water. The feeling of suddenly being taken away from darkness into the realm of her consciousness. It was like she’s finally breathing after a long time. Annisa gasp when the suddenly all the sight, sound, and touch finally came back to her, like she was being hit by a full speed train. Overwhelming.

“Icha you looked really scared.” She could see Bara’s worried face now, even thought still not clear. All of her teammates were gathering around her. She must’ve looked really panicked.

 

“The moment you feel the black out, was actually the moment she took over your body. After that, your body wasn’t collapsed as you thought it was. Your physical body was very much awake, but under the control of Arae.”

 

Arae. It must be her. She tried to take the control of Annisa’s body.

Even though Annisa got her senses back again, her heart beat didn’t slow down to the fact that Arae was trying to take over her. She was realizing that now, especially at the part where she saw a face during her sudden-brief black out. The facts were dawning to her, that all of it was real, very much real, she could almost feel there was something inside her, something that wasn’t her at all.

“I’m feeling really dizzy . .” Annisa said, holding her forehead.

“I think you should rest for a while.” Chang Soo chimed in when he saw Annisa’s worried and pale face.

Annisa was terrified. The spirit inside her had started to move. She couldn’t let this pass, “I think I’ll go to the bathroom.” She had to find Chanyeol.

“You want me to come with you?” Offered Jenny, but Annisa already stood on her wobbly feet.

“No, thanks.” With that, she walked fast inside the library. She remembered Chanyeol and his group was discussing together in the discussion room inside the library. So, still with his spinning head and blurred vision, Annisa walked to the discussion room and knocked it right away.

“Who is it?” Hee Young’s bright voice was the first thing that welcomed Annisa, she could her the noises inside the discussion room stopped when she knocked.

“It’s me, Icha.” Annisa opened the door without waiting for any permission, she spotted Chanyeol right away, still with smile attached to his face, “Chanyeol . .”

“What is it?”

She didn’t know how to explain what happened to her, not in front of these people. But Chanyeol  knew right away what happenned when he saw flashes of dark blue on Annisa’s eyes and so he stood right away. He stormed out of the room and grabbed the girl’s hand. Chanyeol  left his research team in both confusion and shock, because as long as they knew, Chanyeol wasn’t close to Annisa. Especially Hee Young, after Chanyeol left the room without questioning anything from Annisa, unconsciously a frown plastered to her face.

Outside, Chanyeol walked Annisa to the book collection area, where the gigantic oak bookshelfs stood, shadowing one after another. They both stopped when they arrived at the very back of the collection area, where the tall bookshelf and the wall somehow hid them away from other’s sight.

“Look at me.”

Annisa had to looked up to catch Chanyeol’s eyes. Her sight was still unstable. Sometimes it was blur, sometimes it was clear. Her eyes was like a camera with a broken auto-focus. But she was sure it was Chanyeol who stared back at her, who was cupping her face inside the warm hold of his big palm. The feeling of calmness rushed in, soon replacing the intense fear she felt before.

Annisa didn’t know what Chanyeol saw in her eyes, but the guy was eaten by silence. All Annisa could hear was a faint whishper somewhere in the library, behind all the looming height of these bookshelfs.

“You okay?”

“ . . . yeah.” Chanyeol’s answer sounded really soft almost unheard. Soon after that Annisa could feel the pressure on her cheek from Chanyeol’s hand had started to loosen until it was no more. Still with her blurred vision and spinning head she could see Chanyeol took a step back.

“What did you feel, Cha?” He asked finally.

“Hmm . . . my vision went blur at first. Until it goes darker and darker until I can’t see anything, feel anything, hear anything.”

“You sure you didn’t see anything?”

Annisa went silence when image of a peculiar face appearaed in her memory, “I saw a face.”

“Whose face?”

“I don’t know. It was a women’s face, with dark blue eyes.” 

Annisa didn’t know why, but she could hear Chanyeol’s heavy sigh. When she was about to ask why, her vision started to get clear, and that was when she could see that there was worry tainting the face in front of her. 

“It’s all Arae’s doing, isn’t it?”

The moment she asked this, she swore there was unreadable expression on Chanyeol’s face. It wasn’t clear whether it was sadness, or anger. One thing that she was sure about was the gloomy stare he directed at her, she was convinced that there was something about his past swimming within his dark brown eyes.

But what shocked her the most was Chanyeol’s sudden gesture. He grazed Annisa’s cheek with the back of his hand. It sent chills down her spine right away. But his eyes . . . existed somewhere else.

“Stay with me. Don’t ever let go.”

He said, still with his hand on her cheek.