My eyes flickered open, a sense of remorse sneaking through my veins as my vision cleared and the voices became comprehensible.

"...don't have resources for a war!"

I looked to my right and saw Hara furrowing her eyebrows, slapping a hand against her forehead in frustration. She stalled once our eyes met, flying next to me with a sigh of relief.

"Kairi! Are you alright?"

"Calm down, she's breathing now."

Hoya strolled over and gave me a passing glance that sent shivers down my spine. I wasn't prepared for this, the repercussions of surviving a suicide attempt.

"Here have some,"  Nicole murmured, lightly pushing past Hara to to hand me a glass of what looked like lemon juice. I scrunched my face at the funny taste but was forced to finish it off when my eyes met with Hoya's.

"It's glucose," Nicole informed then looked down at my wrist. I pursed my lips and was about to follow her gaze when a hand pulled my chin up.

I felt my cheeks grow warm when Hoya bent down, burning a hole in my face with his gaze. "Do me a favour," he muttered. "Never do that again."

I blinked at him, a receding memory surfacing back as I continued looking back into his eyes.

"Hey! Where are you taking me?"

Joon laughed. "Just follow me will you?"

The two teenagers stepped on each other's shadows and ran away from the noisy club, leaving their drunk friends behind. The good-looking boy and the strange but beautiful girl ran dow staircases that diverged to a tunnel next to the fast lanes of the city highway.

"Where is this place Joon?" The girl had just returned from a foreign place, introduced to this charming young man by her new school friends, infatuated with his charisma and handsome ways.

The boy's grasp on the girl lightened. He watched as she chuckled at the thought of her little adventure, stopping when she caught him staring at her. Slowly the boy moved closer, cupping her chin in his hand and stealing her first kiss.

                                                                                          HOYA

"Kairi?"

I pulled back, stunned by the tears that had started falling on her face and sat next to her as she wrapped her arms around her knees, burying her head inside them. 

In the past three weeks, things had changed. Everything was just hanging now, the General didn't seem to have created any ruckus that would have lead us to any hint on Avalon's whereabouts. Our five year study on the mythical piece of paper was now falling to waste.

Woohyun had no space in his mind for Kairi. She was now a piece of furniture for him and deep inside, he regretted bringing Kairi with us. She was of no use to him and I was confused about whether to be angry at his nonchalance or his previous angry outbursts.

"Why do you care?"

Her voice was followed by a peek from underneath her bandaged arms, the new clothes fitting her like a glove.

"It's not like I'm family," Kairi said in a bitter voice. "I can only see sympathy around me, but for what... even you don't understand. My boyfriend, my father, my friends too I'm sure, don't want anything to do with me. But I should have known. I'm an outsider right? Even among outcasts."

My eyebrows pinched together. "Outsider? But you're from Paragon?"

Kairi shook her head. "I was born and brought up in Hawaii. My mother die--"

She stopped talking, her voice harbouring the acidic tone when she said, "Why am I telling you this?"

An ominous silence settled and a slow realization spread it's tremors in my heart, making me stand up and rush out of the room. 

The General had fooled all of us, including his own daughter. Making us sit and wait was his plan.

And following his plans was not our forte.

                                                                                WOOHYUN

"You knew didn't you?"

I watched Hoya walk into the common room without his shirt on, pushing my shoulders when I tried getting up from the couch.

"What did I do now?" I failed to mae myself sound angry. My energy had lost itself in a black hole inside me.

"You think we're too stupid for you?" Hoya spat at me, catching everyone's attention. Hoya rarely lost his temper but when he did, it was a scary transformation. 

"Hoya," I fumed, taking a deep breath to collect the words with care. "I did not say anything to Kairi, you know what happened three weeks ago--"

"For the past three weeks," Hoya interrupted, narrowing his eyes. "You knew she wasn't a Paragon, right?"

I closed my eyes. A part of me was relieved that I wasn't the one to break the news. A part of me was upset that it had to come out like this. Another part, a suppressed one, echoed the words that had made me lose a small but considerate amount of hope.

"Let's start from scratch," Woohyun asked. Kairi sighed and nodded. The two were not in the common room but in the middle of a tunnel.

"You have never heard of Avalon? Conspiracy theories at least?"

Kairi shook her head, her eyes fixed on her interrogator.

"How is that possible?" Woohyun wondered aloud. "Your father is the General!"

"I have no idea what is going on right now," Kairi said. "I return from Hawaii and all I know is that this half of the world has changed and that my father is responsible. He's my father so I trust him for whatever he's done."

Woohyun shook his head. "Hawaii?"

Kairi blinked at him. "I thought everyone already knew. I'm a Paragon national with American citizenship."

Kairi watched in confusion as the coldness she had seen uptil now vanished from Woohyun's eyes, leaving in it's place exhaustion and conflict. He drew out a shaky breath and ran his hands through his hair and after what seemed like an infinite pause, mumbled, "I don't need you anymore."

"Woohyun."

Yoona crossed her arms and continued, "You know this changes things."

I looked at the floor then up at the sky, dusk settling in. "What do you want me to do now? Go to Paragon and apologize for kidnapping the wrong person?"

Yoona shook her head, pity in her eyes. "Why do you always talk like that? As if everyone is always accusing you of something? You have made a mistake but you don't need to be so--"

"There's only one option."

I turned to look at L, who had quietly emerged from the shadows. Everyone startled, waiting for him to speak. Could the freak of the group actually have an advantage in thinking differently? Could he really have the solution to our problem?

"Let's face it," he started with a shrug. "You got a girl who has nothing to do with Paragon, forget Avalon. You almost beat her to a pulp--"

"--it wasn't that bad plus I apologized--"

"--and then after a fruitless series of investigations, she tried to kill herself. We can't exactly send her back now, she's not our spy and even if she was, it seems that she's unwanted by her own."

"That's the PROBLEM, Myungsoo," Yoona spoke through gritted teeth. "What's the solution?"

Suddenly L turned to look at me, placing a hand on my shoulder. "We all want revenge Woohyun," he said, sounding serious for the first time in his life. "But this time, it's a double-edged sword. We cannot keep waiting for Avalon, we need to act now."

"What are you trying to--"

"He means to say," Hoya intervened, stiffening his jaw, "it's ime we start training."

"Training," Seohyun murmured, "for what?"

Hoya glanced at her and pursed his lips. "A full-scale attack on Paragon."