Listen to Beautiful Stranger by f(x) : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78iMHtW6Iyo

                                                                                          KAIRI

I remembered how it had felt when Joon had kissed me. 

It was soft yet terse and it had ended too soon. At that point, it had felt like a dream but the more time passed, everything about Joon and I had seemed intangible, impossible. Before I had lost my trust in him, Joon had already become distant from me.

And then Woohyun had entered my life. He swept me off and as much as I thought that it was a living nightmare, I had felt alive. Everything about that day had moved in slow motion, for the good and the bad. I had no idea which part of Paragon I was in but I found myself blindly revolving around Woohyun, ilke he was the Sun and I was the endangered planet bound to his axis.

My lips followed Woohyun's and at a steady rhythm, the two of us tried to take as much as we could of each other in that moment. We stopped in between, only to take a breath. Woohyun's eyes met mine and I didn't shy away. I felt his one hand laid on my back and the other rest besides my neck. He brought my face closer to his and continued to gaze at me. In that moment, I felt beautiful.

                                                                      WOOHYUN

I was in love with Kairi.

It didn't take more than the fool that I had become to realize this. Kairi was looking back at me and she was cradled in my arms. Everything about the two of us standing there seemed incomplete and I knew what I wanted, what my body wanted.

I placed my lips next to her ear and kissed her neck before whispering, "Come with me."

Kairi didn't have to nod. She looked back at me. To anyone else it could have been a blank stare saying nothing. But to me it was a thousand ways of saying yes.

I took hold of her hand, my heart beating at a pace so fast, it was inhuman. Kairi walked next to me and gave me a wide smile as I lead her through forest.

I didn't know what was going on in my head when we reached the cabin in the middle of the woods. It was the storeroom for our weapons, a little bunkhouse that had earlier been a resting place for travellers. I pushed open the door and for a moment, thought I had heard Kairi say something.

"What?" I asked. Kairi looked at me with wide eyes and shook her head. She glanced at the dark room behind me and her eyes softened. She said something incoherent before shutting the door.

It was pitch black and right behind me was a worn out bed mattress, laid for the lost. The moonlight filtered through the cracked windows and I carefully pushed Kairi's hair away from her face. 

We kissed again and this time, nothing stopped us. 

                                                             KAIRI

Unike what I had been told, making love for the first time wasn't crazy, painful nor was it like being in a trance. 

I never realized my name could sound like a song. Woohyun kept calling out to me in hushed tones, flattering me with words that I had never thought could be even distantly related to me. Beautiful, perfect, love....

The only lamp the two of us had was the half-moon, acting like a curious kid peeking at us. There was no idea of time, no presence of life, no concept of reality. I was measuring each moment in dimensions and when we hit our , I knew I had left myself to be taken somewhere far away. 

As I lay down on my side, Woohyun wrapped his arm around me and snuggled his face in my hair. I thought of the hot-tempered man I had first met, the angry treble that had made shivers go down my spine long ago. I turned to face him and searched his eyes. 

"There you are," I whispered. Woohyun furrowed his eyebrows, not aware of my line of thought.

"Everytime I thought of you," I explained, my arms wrapped around his neck, "or everytime someone called out your name... I would always think of your eyes. That's how I first saw you. Under the black mask, the gun pointed at my face...."

"Oh God," Woohyun said, wincing at the memory. He kissed my forehead and breathed out. "Don't remind me of that."

I smiled. "At first I thought you were mad. Someone who had no idea what he was doing. When I looked at your companions, I realized I was right. You were different from them. I could never figure out what it was that I saw in your eyes because whatever it was, it used to close in on me and silence me. It was incomprehensible, the feeling of being arrested by one gaze."

"And now I understand." I was blushing furiously while speaking but I had to let it out. Woohyun was quietly watching me and I continued. "It was something I had seen many times around me but had heavily neglected. You were a ghost of what I was to become and I couldn't stand to face that. I was struggling, pushing you away, trying not to let you get to me."

I stopped talking and bit my lip. 

"Now?" Woohyun murmured. "Are you still struggling?"

I shook my head and felt my eyes going moist. "I'm giving in Woohyun. I'm letting you take me away. Let all of this end and then---"

This time his kiss held so much promise, I didn't bother saying anything after. The promises were pure and I didn't want to taint them with my doubts. 

                                                                               YOONA

"What the---"

Jiyoon's jaw dropped and behind her Dongwoo began hooting. Everyone else looked at the spectacle behind me and when I followed their gaze, I stumbled in shock. 

Woohyun and Kairi were entering the meeting grounds, hand-in-hand.

Woohyun had changed. Kairi wasn't the same anymore. Their faces were flushed and bright, both of them looking like they could take on the world without any worries. Woohyun shot a grin at all of us and I heard Jiyoon curse. 

"Kris," Woohyun called out. EXO-M's leader raised an eyebrow when he looked between the two. He must have figured out something, the giant psychic.

"When will Suho and The Others be done with the negotiations?" Woohyun asked. Kairi sighed, making Woohyun immediately look at her. He nodded his head, as if asking a question. Kairi shook her head and he smiled, squeezing her hand. 

"Great," L chuckled. "A new pair of telepaths."

"We're not telepathic," Luhan complained. L rolled his eyes and looked back at the two leaders.

"We should start preparing for a leave now," Kris said with confidence. "The Others agreed and are making space for all of us in their headquarters."

The noise that followed was incomprehensible. Was it a shout of celebration or a call for a funeral march? Eitherway, the entire team began hugging each other and talking in loud tones, full of expectation and excitement. Nicole was the only one who looked disappointed. 

Woohyun nodded and smiled. "Alright then." He faced all of us, his eyes gleaming like the last candle in a rainstorm. "Let's start packing. For Avalon!"

"Avalon!" everyone shouted back. People began dispersing in pairs and groups. 

"So I guess it has finally begun?" Myungsoo said. He looked at me and I was taken aback. Something sorrowful caught my eye. 

I sighed. "Finally."

Myungsoo warily nodded. I looked over his shoulder and saw Woohyun letting Kairi go as she left with Hara to pack her stuff. I recognized the look in his eyes and realized that the last time I had seen it was when Seungyeon had been alive. 

How, when and why didn't matter. Somewhere along the way, while helping all of us search for Avalon, Woohyun and Kairi had fallen in love. And from how it looked, there was no turning back for either of the two.