Taeyeon's POV

This feels so surreal. Living abroad for three years almost made me forget who we really are. Yes, we had our daily trainings there but we never really encountered any problems. We were living like humans - we went to school, did our homework, did some shopping here and there, met new friends, and everything else that humans do. Yeah.. it was great..we lived normal lives free of the complexities of the supernatural world. Actually, in the first few months, we were vigilant and secluded ourselves from the community. Though we went to school, we kept a low profile. We wanted to ensure Soojin's safety especially with what happened with Minho-oppa and Kyesun-unnie. They were among the best of Hae Dal Chi yet they...they died protecting Soojin. We couldn't believe it. They were great fighters..but...they were defeated by the still-unidentified enemies.

Soojin was traumatized by what happened. They assigned another Hae Dal Chi team as her new protectors but she rejected them. She was scared of being around unfamiliar faces. Given that she was going to be sent some faraway place, the High Council leader, my uncle, proposed that we be her new protectors since we grew up together. Her siblings were childhood friends of ours. Soojin was the youngest among all of us and her parents were so protective of her.. so she didn't really get to play with us. Despite the few instances that we got to play with her, all of us treated her as our baby sister. From before up to now, we treat each other as family.

We followed a strict schedule everyday: training-school-training. This was the case until one day, when we fetched Soojin from her last class, we did not find her in the room. She always waited for us in her classroom. We asked her classmates where she was and they told us that she went to the rooftop with a friend. We ran as fast as we could thinking that Soojin was in danger. The kid never deviated from our schedule. In the few instances that she did, she made it a point to inform us beforehand. Our minds were running wild thinking of what could be already happening to the kid. Hyoyeon kicked down the door to the rooftop and screamed for Soojin. We folowed her with worried looks on our faces.

"Where is our Soojin?!" Our hearts were about to explode with worry.

We were in our fighting stance when we stormed the rooftop. We were ready to fight off whoever it was who took Soojin. She was not in sight so we dreaded for the worst. We searched the corners of the rooftop and, to our relief, Tiffany found her at the far end sleeping soundly next to someone I did not know. They were both wearing earphones connected to the boy's mp3 player. Tiffany silently dragged us away from the sleeping teenagers. Being the hopeless romantic that she is, she ordered us to leave the two alone.

"Let's just wait for Soojin at the car lot. Let's not ruin the moment for them." Tiffany said to us with her eyesmile as she giggled in giddyness.

"Oh come on, she's in no harm." She added.

"Fany-ah, are you being nuts? We're going to leave Soojin with some boy who we don't know anything about?? What if he's one of the enemies??" I said to her.

"Unnies, Fany-unnie is right. Let's not ruin their moment. I know the boy, he's the little brother of my classmate Faith Lee. They're good humans and not-related to our elemental Lees. Soojin's not in danger..and if the boy attempts to do anything, I'm sure Jin-ah will be able to knock him out." Yoona said brightly.

Sunny and Hyoyeon chuckled as Tiffany clapped her hands in agreement while I glared at them in disbelief.

"Again, have you all gone nuts?! Even if he's not an enemy, how sure are you that that boy is not going to hurt Soojin?! Soojin must not be distracted with her training especially now that the Harmonic Convergence is fast approaching! She need not be sidetracked with unimportant things." I exclaimed.

They were surprised by my reaction. Their suprised looks slowly turned into sad ones. They looked at me with worry in their eyes. Tiffany placed a hand on my shoulder and sighed.

"Taeyeon, the boy is harmless.. Not all guys are like him Tae.. Besides, I'm sure Soojin can handle herself. We trained that kid well you know." She said to me with a smile.

I was taken aback by what she said. My mind went blank for a second. "I.. I just don't want her to get hurt.." I replied.

Sunny walked up to me and hugged me tightly. "Taeng, we don't want her to get hurt too. However, you know we can't stop her from experiencing life as it is. Soojin's a smart kid. She knows what she's doing."

Hyoyeon stood next next to Sunny. "Besides, you know she can't hide anything from us. If she's gonna be in trouble, we'll surely know about it."

I looked at their comforting faces and sighed in defeat.

"Unnie, we should go and wait at the parking lot now. Soojin might not talk to us anymore if she sees us here right now. It might be awkward for her." Seohyun said.

I sighed for the nth time and signalled them towards the door. I glanced back at the two sleepyheads before leaving the rooftop.

"I can't protect you from this Jin-ah.. I hope and pray that he is nothing like him.." I thought to myself.

When we got to the parking lot, I texted Soojin telling her that we will just wait for her there. She replied after a few minutes saying that she was on her way. We were talking about what we saw when the door of the van opened revealing a nervous-looking Soojin. She bowed to us as she apologized for being late. We stared at her pretending to be mad at her.

She bowed once more and said "I am really sorry unnies! Please do not be mad at me. I lost track of time. I am really sorry! This will never happen again. Please forgive me!"

Yoona grabbed her and made her sit in between her and Sunny. We all faced her with raised eyebrows. "Lost track of time? Hmmm.. why? Where have you been? What were you doing?" Yoona asked her with a mischievous tone.

"Do you know how worried we were? Fortunately, someone told us that you were doing something important so we didn't bother you." Hyoyeon added while trying to hide a smile.

"What was so important that you lost track of time Jin-ah? This is the first time this has happened." Sunny said with a knowing look.

Soojin kept her look on the ground as she struggled to think of answers. "I..uh... I was.." Soojin was cut off by Hyoyeon's remark.

"Hmmmm, maybe she was out with someone special.. doing who knows what. Hahahahaha" Soojin's eyes widened as she became red in embarrassment.

"ANIYO! It wasn't anything like that! We're just friends!" We could not help but laugh at her flustered reaction.

"Aha! So you were with someone! Just friends huh?? Care to elaborate??" Sunny teased as she wiggled her eyebrows.

Soojin could not speak in embarrassment. It was the first time we have seen her so nervous and confused.

"Okay guys, let's not force Soojin. I'm sure she'll tell us about it when she's ready. Besides, she can handle herself. Right Jin-ah?" Tiffany said with a big grin.

"I..uh.. yeah.." Soojin uttered as she remained her focus on the ground.

"Okay, whenever you're ready Soojin. Hopefully, by dinner time. Hahahaha" Sunny told the maknae.

Taeyeon started the car and headed for home.

"I can't wait for you to share about it! You look so cute together!" Yoona said ecstatically as she put an arm around Soojin. The maknae became more red than she already was which made us laugh in amusement.

Yoona kept pestering Soojin about the rooftop incident during dinner. Poor maknae couldn't take it anymore so she blurted out everything that has happened to her.

"There I said it! Happy now?! Sheesh! So annoying." Soojin said with folded her arms as she slumped on her chair in frustration.

Yoona and Tiffany clasped their hands together in happiness. "Aigooo.. our maknae is growing up."

The dinner went on with all the girls teasing the maknae.  

"Okay, enough with the chitchat. Rest up and get some sleep. We'll start training by 0300H." I told them as we headed for our bedrooms.

"Unnie...do we really have to start so early? Can't we move it to at least 0400H??" Yoona complained which earned her a slap on the from me.

"OW! That hurts!" She said with a pout. I could not help but laugh at her.

"Complaining would get you nowhere Yoong. You know how our leader is." Hyoyeon said as she slapped my .

"YAH! You!!" They were all giggling as they scampered to their rooms.

"I will grill all of you tomorrow!" I shouted to them.

I went to check up on Soojin who went to bed ahead of us. I knocked on her door but got no response. I entered her room and found her in deep slumber. She was still holding her phone so I removed it from her grasp and placed it on her bedside table. As I was tucking her in, she received a message on her phone.

"Who could be texting our maknae at this time?"

Being the concerned unnie that I was, I checked who sent the message. Yeah, I know I should not have been nosy but I just wanted to make sure that our maknae was fine. The message was from the boy we saw earlier, Cedric Lee. I placed the phone back on the table and left the room.

"Soojin-ah.. I really hope that you'll be happy..."

Weeks have passed and Soojin and Chanwoo (we prefer calling him by his Korean name) became closer than ever. As a result, we also became close to the boy. Yoona was right about the boy and his family - they were good people. His family adored Soojin like she was their own. They also welcomed us into their home. We became good friends with Chanwoo's older sister Faith, who we also call by her Korean name, Chaerin. She introduced us to her friends and that was how our lives as normal humans began. We found new friends who treated us like family. We were able to be our normal selves with them. We lived as humans like them. We felt free of the burden of our complicated lives.

We were happy and contented living our "human" lives until a month ago when reality slapped us in the face. The High Council ordered us to take Soojin back to Korea. She would resume her training there since all our enemies have been neutralized. Now that she's come of age, Soojin was also expected to resume her role as the Fire Clan's leader. We were sad to leave our new life behind but we were also excited to come back home. We spent our remaining time with our newfound family until the day of our departure. They all went to see us off at the airport.

"You better not forget us! We'll come visit you soon or the other way around arasso?!" Chaerin said as she pulled us for a grouphug.

"We'll miss you so much..I won't have someone to go on buffets with.." Bom sadly said as Yoona put an arm around her.

"Don't worry unnie. We'll see each other again! Come visit us soon! I'll take you to the best buffet in Korea!" Everyone laughed at the two shikshins.

While we were saying our goodbyes to our friends, I noticed that Chanwoo was looking at Soojin silently at the corner. I recognized the sadness and longing in the boy's eyes. I felt exactly the same five years ago. It is painful to see someone you love leave and not being certain if you'll ever see them again. My heart ached for the kid.

"Chanwoo-ah..what are you doing over here? You should talk to Soojin...before we leave.." He sighed heavily as if the weight of the world was on his shoulders.

"Noona..I know you'll always be there for Soojin. Promise me you'll take care of her. Please promise me you won't let anything bad happen to her." I looked at him with a smile as I patted his head.

"I'll do everything that I can. Don't worry.. We will guard her from other boys." I said with a grin.

The boy scratched his head as he tried to cover up his blushing.

"Dongsaeng, we do not have much time. Go to Soojin now.." I said as I nudged him towards Soojin.

I watched as he shyly approached our maknae who was being bear hugged by our friends. Seeing that the two needed some time alone, I told Soojin to buy me a cup of coffee and asked Chanwoo to accompany her. Fortunately, everyone was able to catch on to what was happening so they left the two alone. When they returned, we bid farewell to our friends and boarded the plane. I pray to the gods that us leaving will not mark the end of their story. I hope that those two will have a better story than mine.

Since we left Europe, Soojin has been silent and deep in thought. Based from what happened in the plane earlier, it seems that she's reverted to her old self again. We're now back to our real world. Painful memories that we've set aside are now flooding our minds again. I know that despite the girls' happy appearance, they're all thinking of the same things as me - the past, especially that horrendous night which turned our lives, especially Soojin's, upside down.

AUTHOR'S POV

Taeyeon awoke from her contemplations when she noticed that they are now at the gates of the Kim Estate. The limousine entered the grounds after being cleared by the guards at the gate. The girls exchanged smiles as they neared the mansion. Soojin, who fell asleep along the way, was being awaken by Hyoyeon.

"Jin-ah.. wake up. We're here.."