chapter eleven: xi. amnesia

I woke up, feeling incredibly hot and stuffy. I realized that I was covered with heavy thick blankets. I kicked them off of me, before realizing that I had just drained all my energy doing so. What had happened? I remembered Junmyeon, and the Suho lock. I remembered falling asleep. After that, I had no other memories.

I groaned, getting out of bed and taking a step. This must be like what Jongdae felt like, trying to relearn how to walk. I commanded my legs to move, and they did, but it seemed they couldn’t hold me. After my third attempt at a step, I collapsed.

“Jooeun-ah!” Tao’s voice shouted.

Someone’s arms wrapped around my weak frame, helping me stand.

I looked up to see Tao’s worried eyes, and smiled weakly. “Good morning.”

“It’s not morning, actually. It’s afternoon. You slept for a day. And you should be more careful! Why are you overexerting yourself, babo?” He flicked me on the forehead.

“Don’t do that Tao, that’s not very nice,” Kris scolded.

“My legs won’t hold me for some reason. And why did I sleep so long?” I asked.

“You caught Suho’s cold thing, and you were asking people to kiss you,” Kris said.

My jaw dropped. “I went around asking people to kiss me?!”

Kris and Tao started laughing. “In that baby voice. Going, ‘oppa, gimme a kiss! Gimme a kiss now!!’ It was cute though.”

I blushed, holding my face in my hands. “That’s so embarrassing!” I groaned. “How many people suffered through that?”

“All twelve of us, excluding Junmyeon hyung of course, and even Amber. Didn’t know that was your taste, but okay!” Tao teased.

“You guys are never going to stop teasing me about this, are you…” I groaned. “Someone take me to Junmyeon oppa, I need to lecture him about giving me the thing.”

“Oh, he’s still sick. You just recover freaking fast,” Tao said. “Besides, it’s your fault for going into his room in the first place.”

“Help me to Lay’s room then,” I announced.

“Why him?” Kris asked.

“Because I don’t want you blabbermouths hurting my ears, and I know he’ll be quiet,” I answered cheekily.

“I’m offended. We’re leaving you here!” Tao said, before letting go of me and marching away.

“I’ll get there eventually, and if I get hurt, it’s your fault!” I called after him.

Tao glared at me, before saying something to Kris in Chinese. He whirled around and left.

“What’d he say?” I asked, curiously. When it was only the two of us together, we spoke in English, as both of us were more comfortable with it. Besides, it was good to speak English again, after so long. Sometimes, though, we spoke a mix of English and Korean, what we English Korean speakers liked to call Konglish.

Kris laughed. “He told me to take you to Lay’s room.”

I took a step forward, before Kris blocked my path.

“You’re not walking there,” Kris said firmly, looking down into my eyes.

“Then how in the world will I get there? Will I fly or something?” I asked sarcastically.

“You can fly on me, because I’ll piggy back you. Besides, flying is my power.” Kris smirked at me. He crouched down in front of me, and motioned for me to get on.

“You guys are so freaking weird,” I muttered, before getting onto him, looping my arms around his neck and wrapping my legs around his torso weakly. He adjusted me so that I wasn’t slipping off of him.

“We call ourselves… Exo. Actually, we’re aliens from a planet called the Exoplanet, just like Superman and all that, and since we all have our own powers, together, we’re invincible. But when we’re separated, we’re not. I guess that’s the symbology of our friendship and all that, like we are one, and with just one missing, we’re not invincible and instead vulnerable. One of us missing is the kryptonite, but together we can do anything. We’re basically superheroes,” he explained.

I nodded. “That’s actually kind of cool… but now I feel jealous. You guys all have your own powers and all that, but I don’t have anything. I feel left out.”

Kris laughed, and proceeded down the stairs. “What do you want? We kind of have all the powers occupied, though. I’m flying, or the dragon, Xiumin is ice, D.O. is earth, or strength, Baekhyun is light, Chanyeol is fire, Tao is time, like he can stop and control it, Lay is healing, which is why he’s a unicorn, Luhan is telekinesis, so he can move things without touching them and stuff, Chen is lightning, Kai is teleportation, Suho is water, and Sehun is wind. That’s where some of the nicknames came from too, despite what Xiumin and Chen say. They say that they have those names because they’re good at Chinese, which is true, but it’s actually because they didn’t like their own name and wanted a super hero name but couldn’t think of a good one so we thought of Chinese names for them. We used to play superheroes all the time when we were younger.”

“Yah, that is everything! How do you guys manage to think of everything? Where do you get those powers anyway?” I asked. “It doesn’t make any sense.”

“Well there’s this thing on our planet called the Tree of Life, and we get all our energy and power from there. Hey, you should be the Tree of Life! You give us our energy and stuff! Without the Tree of Life, we wouldn’t be strong, and without us, you wouldn’t be the Tree of Life! That works, doesn’t it?” he exclaimed, obviously excited.

I laughed as he opened the door to Lay’s room. “Sure. Anyway, I like the idea of giving you guys energy. Without me, you guys wouldn’t be so powerful.”

“You woke up, Jooeun? Are you better?” Lay asked.

His hair was wet, and he had a towel around his neck. He had obviously just showered. Luckily, he had clothes on.

“I’m all good. Just… a little weak,” I smiled at him.

Kris let me down on Lay’s bed, and I splayed myself on it, sighing at the softness.

“Anyway, we got this idea, and I’m the Tree of Life in your Exoplanet thingy,” I said, grinning a little.

Lay said something to Kris in Chinese, in which Kris retorted, “Well that could end up badly,” and went to the washroom and yelled something in Chinese to whoever was inside. Which was probably Jongdae. Who was probably showering, by the sound of the shower running. Which was bad, because depending on whether he had his clothes in there to change into or not, he would come out with only a towel or whatever. Of course, it was good to stand for a long time and walk, but he was already getting pretty good at it, and could walk quite a bit without any assistance at all. To confirm my thoughts, Jongdae’s voice shouted something back in Chinese. No, Jooeun, Mandarin, I corrected myself.

“He doesn’t have his clothes,” Kris said.

The sound of the shower running stopped. I sat up. My plan was to escape this room with no further embarrassing things.

“I’ll cover her eyes,” Lay said, before sitting on his bed, right in front of me, and covering my eyes with his slender fingers.

“Please tell me that the reason you’re covering my eyes is not the reason I think you’re doing this,” I groaned.

“Well why do you think I’m doing this?” Lay asked.

“Well, my Angelicorn oppa, I think it’s because Jongdae oppa showered and didn’t take his clothes with him into the shower which means he has to come out here but I’m here and you can’t let me see him so you’re covering my eyes.”

“Well, Joo Joo, you are completely correct,” Lay replied, laughing.

“Oh no, please say you’re not catching onto the calling me Joo Joo thing. I mean, Jun oppa did it, and so did Baek oppa, no, tell me this is not a thing.”

“It’s a thing,” Kris said. “Chen, hurry up. And wait, who’s Jun oppa?”

“Who other than Junmyeon oppa?” I said, searching for Lay’s face with my hands. I found them easily, and then I chubbed his cheeks.

“I’m trying,” Jongdae said exasperatedly. I could hear him fumbling with the closet thing, getting clothes. “Are you sure she’s not peeking?”

“Why would I peek? Do you think I want to look at your body?” I asked, scowling.

“Well yeah, I have a pretty y body, so…” Jongdae said. I could practically hear him smirking.

“Why do you have nicknames for Baekhyun, Suho, and Lay, and you don’t have one for me?” Kris asked, obviously outraged.

“Oh, you have one. You probably won’t like it, though. You’re Fanfan.” I grinned.

“How about me?” Jongdae asked.

“Well… I was considering just going along with your thing about calling Kai Kkamjong, because he’s dark, and since you’re Jongdae, I wanted you to have matching names. So you’re Hajong, okay?”

(a/n: Kkamjong is a nickname for Jongin and it stands for Kkaman Jongin, meaning dark Jongin, if you didn’t know. Hajong is one that I made up for Jongdae, because it stands for Hayan Jongdae, meaning light Jongdae. I thought it was a bit ironic.)

Jongdae groaned. “Why do I have to have such a bad nickname?”

“Hey, at least you’re not Fanfan,” Kris complained.

“Isn’t Hajong better than Chenchen? And isn’t Fanfan better than Fanny?” I asked, smirking a little.

“I take back the comment saying my nickname was bad,” Jongdae said immediately.

I heard his voice coming closer to me and Lay, as well as footsteps, and the scent of shampoo was getting stronger. It was different from Lay’s shampoo. Why was I even observing things like this?

“If you want a peek of my chocolate abs, now’s the chance, before I put on my shirt,” Jongdae teased.

I felt Lay remove one of his hands from my eyes and pull my head forward with that hand so that that my face was buried into his chest. I was unable to move or say anything, too shocked.

“Too bad. I won’t let her see anyone’s other than mine,” Lay joked. “Now put on your shirt.”

Evil Angelicorn in the works. Although, in a way, I was thankful.

“Aw, okay. I put it on; you can stop hugging her already.”

I felt someone collapse onto the same bed, causing me to bounce up and down a bit. Lay let go of my face, and I pulled away, blushing a little. “So… um… Hajong oppa, how are your legs?”

“That nickname though…” Jongdae choked. “They’re good. I can walk. I can’t run yet. I can’t walk for long periods of time yet. But it’s getting better. Now come sit.” He patted the bed space between his legs, motioning for me to go sit in between his legs.

I blinked several times, before scowling at him. “No, you .”

“How is that erted? Anyway, I bet you’d let Chanyeol do it.”

Well… that might be true. But Chanyeol was my Skinship Monster; skinship with him like that was natural and normal. With Jongdae on the other hand… I sighed, before scooching over to the space, sitting with my back leaning against his chest, head leaning slightly on his right shoulder.

“Why does it seem like everyone’s doing skinship with you except for me?” Kris asked, amused.

“You piggybacked me here. That’s skinship in itself,” I muttered. “Besides, I’m only here because Hajong oppa’s guilt-tripping me.”

“Whatever, as long as I can call you mine,” Jongdae said jokingly, before wrapping his arms around me, backhugging me in a way.

“You know, there’s no point of even saying anything against you Exo people, because you guys are going to do it anyway. What’s the point of being the Tree of Life if you guys don’t listen to me?” I sighed.

“What’s up with this Tree of Life thing?” Lay asked.

“Oh… Kris and I decided that since you guys took all the powers, I should be the Tree of Life. I was jealous that you guys all had a thing and I wasn’t in it, so I put myself into it. So without me, you guys will have nowhere to get energy from.” I smirked.

Sehun walked through the door, starting to say something, until he saw me and stopped right in his tracks, face growing red.

“Hoon-ah, come save me from Hajong,” I said, flailing my arms towards him.

“Hoon?” Jongdae asked, amused.

“Hey, I like the nicknames I make! Anyway, Hoon-ah, save me!” I exclaimed, flailing my arms once more.

“No, never! You shall be mine forever!” Jongdae announced, grabbing my arms with his two hands, and using his legs to trap me instead.

“Angelicorn oppa! Do something!” I said desperately, trying to get out of his wrath.

Sehun came over and untangled me from Jongdae, lifting me out with ease. His ears were really red for some reason. He dropped me on the other bed, beside Kris, before leaving.

“Yah! You can’t just leave me like that!” I shouted, glaring at where Sehun had once been. “What’s wrong with him? Fanfan oppa, take me to Kkamjong!”

He crouched in front of me, and I clambered onto him. “Why Kai?”

“Because if there’s something wrong with Hoon, than Kkamjong will know,” I said, wrapping my arms around his neck tightly.

“Too tight—” he choked.

I loosened my arms from around his neck, laughing a little. “Why do you always piggyback me so much, anyway?”

“Well, like you said, it’s the only skinship we get… so…” Kris trailed off. “Anyway, piggybacking is my style.”

I rolled my eyes. “You have to initiate the skinship, like my Skinship Monster, or Pandtao.”

“You know? I think you’re actually pretty good at nicknaming people,” he said, grinning.

He knocked on Kai’s door, and Kai came to answer it. “What’s up?”

“The sky,” I answered before Kris could say anything.

Kai shot me a weird look (I doubted he had even understood what I had said. He at English), before turning to Kris. “Is she still sick? I thought she got better or something?”

“Hey, I’m perfectly okay now. Now let me in, Kkamjong, before I punch you,” I threatened, making a fist at him, before laughing.

“Well seeing as she’s not asking for a kiss, she’s okay. Anyway, come in Kris hyung, you must be tired from holding such a heavy girl,” Kai teased.

“Let me down, Kris, I’m going to go punch that Kkamjong! Besides, even if I was still sick, I wouldn’t want a kiss from you. Who would want a kiss from you?” I sneered, fighting to get down from Kris’ back.

“Whoa there, calm down, Jooeun. You’re going to get yourself hurt again at this rate!” Kris said, before hurrying to let me down.

I stumbled over to Kai, making punching motions and not making more than two steps before falling onto him, head ramming into his chest. His arms hooked under my own just in time, and he pulled me up, before ruffling my hair and shaking his head at me. “You’re the most accident-prone person I’ve ever met in my life.”

I glared at him, before mumbling a thanks and a you clearly haven’t met my brother, using him as a support before going to Sehun’s bed and lying down on it. “Do you have any idea why Hoon’s avoiding me?”

“You don’t remember?” Kai asked, shocked.

“I don’t remember anything since falling asleep beside Jun oppa,” I responded.

“You know, those nicknames are really weird, but you can still tell who you’re talking about with each one,” Kai said, laughing.

“Why’s he avoiding me?” I asked.

“You kissed him,” Kai replied, snorting.

“WHAT?!” Kris and I both exclaimed.

A/N: Ayyy so okay that was my chapter... hahahahah

Tell me which EXO member you're rooting for Jooeun to end up with, and why!

As for when my next update will be, well I started school again (ugh high school) so I'm probably going to update once a week. I'll try to update at least once a week, and if I can't, sorry but I have my own life, you know? :) Anyway thanks for all the support (30 subscribers ayyy) and don't forget to subscribe, comment, whatever. :)

Oh and I wasn't going to mention this, but I felt like this required an explanation. I'm not going to pinpoint anyone but let's just say that if you comment something like 'update please' or anything like that, I'm just going to ignore your comment instead of replying like I do with every other comment, because as a writer, I'm writing for fun and taking it out of my own time. It's a big step to actually upload it online to have people reading and judging it. When people say stuff like 'update please' it can get stressful and then writing becomes something that's not fun for me anymore. And I want to keep it as something I enjoy. Anyway, just a heads up if you're going to comment that or are wondering why I didn't reply to your comment.

~Jinny Out