HOYA

Kairi fumbled in her sleep, alerting me a bit to the situation. I must have dozed off and rubbed the back of my head as I blinked up at the sunlight. I stretched back, amazed at how I had taken a nap while sitting straight. But at the back of my mind, short-term memory called for the noise in the common room. I remembered Nicole and Woohyun shouting at each other. An argument no one thought they’d be alive to hear or see, but Nicole had pawned my not-so-dear friend. The words she used were harsh, but it was the truth.

I watched as Kairi woke up, clutching her head in her hands. As soon as she partly opened her eyes, she sat up in full attention and looked around at her surroundings. I grimaced when she frowned. Did she think we were some sort of a dream?

“It’s real.” She jumped a bit when I spoke and I sighed. “How are you feeling?”

Kairi stared at me, making me feel uneasy. Her eyes… they weren’t exactly green. There was no light in her eyes, fire was probably the appropriate word. It was like watching a bonfire of wild emerald flames dancing, her gaze piercing me when she shivered in fright. Kairi wrapped her arms around herself, flinching when she moved her left arm.

I lifted the cold compress off her and wrung it. “Wait here,” I said and threw the used towel in the bin. I didn’t exactly know what to do but I had been in the medical room enough to know that for now, a gauze would do.

Kairi stared at me as I folded the gauze around her bruise. “I’m guessing it still hurts,” I murmured. She didn’t say anything before nodding meekly. I gave out a humourless laugh. Woohyun had surely knocked the confidence out of her.

Suddenly Kairi whimpered. I followed her gaze and pursed my lips. Standing at the entrance was Yoona, looking like an Amazon warrior in her black tank top and khaki shorts.

“I need to talk to her.”

I shrugged and was about to leave when something pulled me back. I turned around to see Kairi tugging onto my shirt like her life depended on it, shaking her head from side to side. Don’t leave, she mouthed.

I looked down at Kairi and with a sigh, pushed her hands away from me. “I’m not your friend,” I muttered and walked past Yoona, who blocked me with her arm. I stopped and without looking at her, tilted my head a bit. “What?”

“You don’t need to leave,” she whispered. “I was hoping you would make her feel a bit comfortable before..”

“… before what? Woohyun beats her again?”

                                                                                                             KAIRI

“… before what? Woohyun beats her again?”

My ears perked up at the words, twisting my insides. I remembered him. Never before had I been faced with something so… inhuman. Back in Paragon, if a man had even given me that look, I would have sent him behind bars. Now, I was trapped. I looked at Hoya’s back and felt all my senses draining away.

“I’m not your friend.”

I didn’t hear what the girl said. She was stunning, that’s the first thing I noticed. Her cold stance didn’t intimidate me and I wondered if like Nicole, the girls out here would have some sense of empathy for me.

“Hippocrates’ oath, Hoya.”

Right. Hippocrates’ oath. A doctor was compelled to help a patient no matter where and when. At that time I was one, now I was just a prisoner. Nicole had eventually left me with Hoya and that didn’t make me feel any less better. The new girl and my sort-of caretaker hissed at each other until finally, Hoya threw his hands in the air and marched out of the room. This left me and unknown girl.

“I’m Yoona,” she said, walking towards me with her hands next to her thighs. She didn’t exactly smile but she didn’t scoff at me either. I nodded and whispered, “Kairi.”

“I came to apologize on behalf of Woohyun,” she said. Something inside me unlocked.

Without thinking, I ripped the gauze away from my arm and shoved my bruise under her nose. “Apologize for THIS?”

I felt incomprehensible joy when Yoona made a sound from , something that was normally overseen as nausea. She recovered but the look in her eyes didn’t change as I shook my arm at her and in a shaking voice, spoke again.

“I want to go back to Paragon NOW. This is kidnapping, it’s a crime and I understand you all to be smart enough to let me go before things get worse. Once my father hears about this…”

CRASH!

“Woohyun…” Yoona panicked.

“YOU STILL HAVE THE GUTS TO TAKE HIS NAME??” I felt my heart stop beating as I watched him walk towards me with an engraged face, his eyes red with fury and his body shaking with anger.

“WOOHYUN!” Yoona pushed Woohyun against the wall, surprising me with her strength. Five more figures approached from the tunnel, moving towards the struggling Woohyun.

“I came here to apologize,” Woohyun said. “And I hear you talk to our senior like that…”

“She’s not my senior,” I muttered. Woohyun lunged at me but SungGyu and Dongwoo quickly held him. I glanced at the third and fourth person, L and Sungyeol. While Sungyeol stared at my bruise in shock, L just sat down next to me.

“It’s worse than I thought,” he murmured.

Woohyun fumed as Sungyeol joined in to prevent him from getting closer to me while I sat motionless on my bed. Everything froze when Hoya walked in.

Hoya looked between me and Woohyun. His gaze landed on me for longer but before I could open my mouth, he said, “You should know better than to act smart. You’re our hostage now.”

As I stared at Hoya’s eyes until I could take no more, an understanding crossed my mind. I was foolish to think he was different. He was just one of them.

                                                                                                                 WOOHYUN 

As SungGyu pushed me against the wall to stop me from shaking, an understanding crossed my mind. I was foolish to think she was different from the Paragon parasites. She was just one of them.