Sorry it took so long, but I had to build it up for this moment. Just a heads up, I may or MAY NOT make some [M] content. No , but there might be ual content. We will see as the story progresses.

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Despite the tension going on in the world right now, we still remembered to remind ourselves to take some time off from all the training to lounge around and live the childhood that we never had the chance to when we were kids. Even if we couldn’t go outside and explore the great wilderness of the outdoors, we had the greatness of the training camp that had everything one could ever want, whether if you want to go hunting in the forest, train under the snowy mountains of the Great Alps, or swim with the great white sharks, we had it all. The center still had billions of dollars saved up from the Government locked up in the underground vault.

The camp took acres and acres of land, it stretched far and wide, there were places that even I haven’t had ventured to yet.

Although EXODUS was pretty much empty and devoid of any human presences, the village was filled with victims that have been rescued and hunters like us. They weren’t permitted to live inside the training center, but like I mentioned, the Government had prepared for the plague so they had built a separate building filled with dorm rooms next to the center for rescued victims. They too, were given the opportunity to stay protected behind the electrical fences. The victims don't come out often, but when they do it was only to ask for food and that was it. Despite how well mannered they were, the plague had caused most of them to stay reclusive and wary from human interactions.

Though EXODUS once consisted of 5.8 billion people, and now limiting to less than 60, we were still grateful that we weren’t alone in this world. We still had a bit of farmers, doctors and scientists who worked in the training camp to help supply us food, take care of our well beings and create something that could help stop the plague.

It was hard to wake up every day, and pretend that everything in the world was okay when we all knew it wasn’t.

However, on this particular day we decided to ignore what was happening on the outside world and commemorate all of the Lead Hunters on their twelfth year together as Class A Hunters and serving to protect EXODUS. Meaning that, all the leaders, including Kris will be honored tonight at the annual Hunters Association Grand Bell. It was put to our attention that on this night, we will serve as both Hunters and friends to honor our leaders for all their hard work and training. All Hunters, doctors, farmers, scientists and rescued victims were welcomed to enjoy a special feast prepared by the Hunters Association.

Though we were scarce on food, over the past few months the farmers and cooks were working together to help harvest as much ingredients as they could for this night. This event only happens every four years, which gave a lot of time for farmers and cooks to prepare the food. We were short on meat, but that was okay, because we still had vegetables.

As long as we still have the most vital ingredient to keep life sustaining on EXODUS, then we were okay.

This was a fancy event, meaning that we had to look our best tonight. It seemed like a far fetch idea to me, considering that most of us were forced to run away from home and move into the village with most of our clothing left at home.

I mean, except me. I go home every month, so it was no problem for me.

There were dormitories in the training camp, which was where we all slept and dressed, well yeah; it was no problem for the Hunters either I guess… But mostly everyone in the village was traumatized from the plague, and I knew that they had no intention of ever returning home just to get a fancy article of clothing just for one night. I sympathized with them.

I was lying on my bunk bed, in the midst of thinking about what to wear tonight, when my door slid open. Yixing, Xiumin and Chen came in, casually as ever without knocking on my door and sat down. Xiumin and Chen sat down across from me, while Yixing sat on the edge of my bed.

I arched my eyebrow and crossed my arms. “Uh, thanks for knocking guys?”

“You’re welcome,” Yixing smiled innocently, not getting the point that I was being sarcastic.

I rolled my eyes and sighed deeply, “I swear, one day you guys are just going to walk in here while I’m changing and you’ll regret never knocking.”

“There’s not much to see anyways so I don’t get why you’re being so y,” shrugged Xiumin. Chen started laughing and so did Yixing. I threw my pillow at Xiumin who caught it on time. I growled, “Get out of my room.”

“Kidding, Mia. Can’t you take a joke?” Xiumin laughed and hugged the pillow to his chest. Him and Chen pulled their seats closer towards the bed, and watched me. Even Yixing was watching me.

“What, is there something on my face?”

It was Xiumin’s turn to roll his eyes. “Shouldn’t you be getting ready for the Grand Bell tonight?”

I glanced down at my watch, the short tick indicating that it was almost 4pm. “Isn’t it a little early to be getting ready? I swear the bell starts at 7.”

Chen and Yixing exchanged looks of confusion. I couldn’t understand why though.

“But you’re a girl,” stated Chen. “Don’t girls take hours upon hours to get ready? Or is it just a myth?”

“Where did you hear that from?”

“Chanyeol told us so,” Yixing answered.

I rolled my eyes so hard, I felt it hit against the back of my socket. Figures. “Well you tell Chanyeol that his theory is flawed and that he needs to shut up before he gets his kicked by me.”

As I was going on about my rant and feminism, the door to my dorm slid open again. A tall, muscular figure walked in wearing a grey dress shirt and black dress pants. I felt my eyes widened in shock, my breath being knocked out of my chest as I stared at the unfamiliar figure in front of me.

Kris stood in front of us with his usual beady glare and pinched eyebrows. Recently he had been growing out a stubble, possibly due to the stress from Hunting, but I see now that he had shaved it and was back to his clear freckled complexion. He had shaved the side of his hair, too, looking more well-groomed than ever. The moment he stepped into my room, I smelt the fresh Irish spring cologne on his body. I looked at him in awe, unable to stop my jaw from dropping.

All of the boys looked at him with the same expression I was giving him.

“Can you guys stop gawking at me like this? I can’t stand your unwanted looks.”

Instantly, we closed our mouths and sat up, waiting for him to give us an order.

“I’m here as your friend, not your leader so you guys can relax,” said Kris. When he did, we all reclined in our seats. He sat down next to Yixing, and clasped his hands together. My eyes fell upon his large hands, watching as the veins underneath his skin dance with every movement his slim fingers made.

“You changed so early, even Mia didn’t change yet and she’s a girl,” noted Xiumin.

I grew annoyed and threw another pillow in his direction. This time he was caught off guard, so the pillow hit him perfectly in the face. “Stop bringing up the fact that I’m a girl. Some guys do require more time to change than girls, okay? It depends on the person, not the .”

“I was just saying…” mumbled Xiumin as he rubbed the side of his face.

From the corner of my eye, I saw the edge of Kris's lips quirked up into a rare smile. He cleared his throat and said, “It is a requirement for me to get ready earlier so that we can make sure that the area will be safe for tonights event. The nightcrawlers have no chance of entering in, but of course, there’s always a risk. The last thing we’d want is to have nightcrawlers crashing the party.”

Yixing laughed at the thought of it. He was always laughing at things that weren’t very funny.

Kris eyed his friends and then asked, “You all should grab a quick lunch and get ready. Knowing you Xiumin, your moments in the shower are far too long and I doubt Tao would have the patience to put up and wait fo