“You’re back! What happened? I thought you had died!”

 

Lay was much more vocal about his surprise than the others, who just stood frozen in their places.

 

“Well? What happened?”

 

Now she was the one that was frozen. She hadn’t even thought about what she was going to tell them, she just knew that there wasn’t anywhere else that she could go in this realm. Something told her that it would be a bad idea to inform them of her journey to the realm of the light.

 

“Umm… I just went home for a while that’s all.”

 

She could tell that they were suspicious; that they had seen through her lie. Not that she was surprised, she wasn’t very good at lying yet. However, they didn’t ask her anymore questions.

 

“Pretty inconvenient way to go home if you ask me.”

 

Hearing Xiumin’s comment a smile took over her face.

 

“Yeah, I guess it is pretty inconvenient.”

 

“A little warning next time would be greatly appreciated, do you have any idea how worried we were when you started screaming and then just disappeared?”

 

She turned her surprised eyes to Luhan.

 

“You were worried?”

 

“Yeah, it freaked me the out. I didn’t know what was going on.”

 

Her eyes shifted over to Tao, her eyebrows furrowing in confusion.

 

“I thought you guys could only feel negative emotions.”

 

“We can.”

 

twisted to the side of her face as she thought before continuing on response to Kris’ statement.

 

“But you said you were worried.”

 

“Yeah, so?”

 

“Isn’t that a positive emotion?”

 

“How the hell would that be considered a positive emotion?”

 

“Oh.”

 

She paused for a moment to recollect her thoughts after Luhan’s harsh response.

 

“Maybe I was thinking about it the wrong way, just forget that I said anything.”

 

However, in her mind an idea was starting to form. Planning on exploring this idea later she pushed it to the back of her mind, focusing instead on the boys in front of her.

 

“Oh ! Chen is going to be pissed when he finds out that you’re back!”

 

Xiumin’s exclamation seemed to startle the others, and Kris responded once he processed what was said.

 

“Oh, you’re right. He’s going to flip. We have to come up with a plan, something that will calm him down once he finds out.”

 

The others nodded seriously in agreement, each of them seeming to focus on coming up with a solution to their non existent problem.

 

“He already knows, actually.”

 

“He does? How?”

 

Luhan’s question caused her to chuckle, finding the entire situation quite funny despite its severity.

 

“He got back before you guys.”

 

“And he didn’t kill you?”

 

She managed to sustain another laugh, only smiling slightly at Tao’s shocked face.

 

“Yeah, I mean he screamed at me, but other than that he handled it very well.”

 

“That’s strange, he usually has an extremely short temper, nothing can stop him. What did he say?”

 

This time it was Tao who eyed her curiously while waiting for a response.

 

“He just said that I was lucky that you  all seemed to be in my favor, otherwise he would have already turned me over to those people who were looking for me.”

 

She decided to leave out the remaining threat, believing that it wasn’t something that they needed to concern themselves with. At her response Kris’ face scrunched up in thought.

 

“Chen hardly ever takes our thoughts into consideration, certainly not enough to prevent him from acting on something he feels so strongly about. He must be planning something, and I’m willing to bet that it won’t be good for us. Or rather, you.”

 

Before the group could delve any deeper into the topic Lay cut it off.

 

“Who cares? Even if he is planning something it’s going to be awfully hard for him to succeed with the rest of us on the opposite side. We’ll most likely notice something before anything happens anyways.”

 

He waited until everyone had acknowledged his statement before turning towards Eve and continuing.

 

“The more important question is how and why you’re here.”

 

“I thought we already went through all of this…”

 

Eve felt the nervousness consume her body once again. Lay noticed that everyone else wasn’t following his train of thought either.

 

“Obviously Suzerain Erebus wants to find you, the question is why. As far as I can tell you’re not a threat to the realm, and if you are even you don’t know it. So I find it strange that he is so determined to find you. The other question that needs an answer is how you got here. Once again this is something that even you don’t know much about.”

 

“If Eve doesn’t know what’s going on how does Suzerain Erebus?”

 

They had all grasped what he was trying to say now, but some of the confusion still lingered throughout the group. Tao was the most sceptical, having been the one to ask the previous question.

 

“I’m not sure, but one thing is certain: whatever it is is extremely serious.”

 

Kris released a sigh, he felt as if he was having to pull the answers from the boy in front of him.

 

“And how do we know that for sure? Maybe it’s just a precautionary thing.”

 

“I don’t think so.”

 

“And why is that?”

 

The frustration was beginning to consume the boy, he never was very patient.

 

“Can’t you tell?”

 

The taller male's eyes narrowed dangerously at the other and he opened his mouth to speak his mind, but another boy beat him to it.

 

“Clearly we are not quite as ing brilliant as you, so if you could just explain all this clearly in one statement rather than doing all this cryptic statement bull that would be fan-ing-tastic. No, really, I’m begging you, please do enlighten us peasants as to what the hell is happening, that is if that’s not too much to ask of someone of your status of superiority.”

 

“Well I’m sorry you  don't have the brain capacity to follow my apparently complex thought process Luhan, I suppose I gave you too much ing credit. I’ll make sure to explain everything very clearly so that your tiny little brain can comprehend from now on, would that make you happier?”

 

“Tch, .”

 

Before the argument could continue Kris really did snap.

 

“Just explain it already god dammit! I don’t want anymore of your ing Luhan, but this time I agree. Lay you’re being a nuisance, if you aren’t going to explain something fully then don’t start explaining it at all! Now either walk us through this apparent epiphany you’ve had or shut the up and stop acting like we’re all idiots for not reading your god damned mind!”

 

The silence lasted for only a minute. It was safe to say that everyone was at least a little irritated at this point.

 

“Fine, I’ll explain. But I’m only saying this once, so you’d better ing listen.”