She blinked at the light haired male before her, confusion clouding her eyes. Her lips were dry and cracked from the long amount of time she had spent in deep slumber. Her muscles were stiff and slow as she tried miserably to sit up in bed, only to have the light haired male offer his hand again. Taking it and sitting up in the rather comfortable bed, her eyes began to wander about the room, noticing how well-furnished the room was.

“Where am I?” She mumbles, eyeing the male suspiciously. It wasn’t every day that she woke up in a well-furnished room with a male (a rather handsome one at that). The male smiled, washing all the hostility she held towards him off immediately.

“I doubt you even heard me the first time around, which is why I’ll repeat it. I’d like to welcome you to Neverland.” The male leans against the cream colored walls of the room, getting comfortable. “You know, I’m not used to waiting hours before greeting a newcomer. You, of course, are a different case. Not too many people wind up in Neverland when they faint. Actually it’s just you and someone else of course, making you the second one to pass out as you guys come to Neverland. I’m sorry- I tend to ramble quite a bit. It’s just a habit of mine- I always like to make the newcomers feel welcomed.”

“It’s alright,” she mumbles, her voice cracking slightly from her parched throat. “But you still haven’t told me your name.” Her hands play with the white blanket coated with a flowery pattern as she noticed how soft and good it felt.

“Right, I’m Kevin- Kevin Woo. Temporarily part of uBeat with Eli and AJ- they also take care of newcomers so don’t be afraid to approach them if you need any help. Of course, amongst the three of us, I’m the friendliest.” The female couldn’t help but crack a smile at the words that left his mouth. He certainly did make her seem welcomed- though she couldn’t quite wrap her mind around the concept of being in some odd place called Neverland.

“What’s your name?” She blinked at him, her mind suddenly blank. In the midst of all her other thoughts, he had snapped her out of it, causing her to panic slightly before remembering her name.

“Julia- Kwon Julia.” Kevin nods, repeating her name twice and then smiling at her.

“It’s a wonderful name.” His eyebrows quirk up as he notices how clouded her brown eyes are. Biting his lip to keep himself from laughing, he speaks up. “Are you okay? You still seem confused about something.” Her cheeks were turned a light pink before she nods.

“Slightly. I’ve just never heard of a place called ‘Neverland’ on the map or even on the globe. I’ve heard about it in movies, but never really you know- in real life.” Kevin merely stares back at her, not bothering to respond, his mouth twitching upwards. Realizing that the name ‘Neverland’ could very well be the name of the place she was in, she face palms herself and quickly adds on, “I’m guessing the place I’m in right now is Neverland. As in this room is in some building called, ‘Neverland’. Am I correct?”

“The latter wasn’t exactly correct,” Kevin says after laughing for a bit. “Sorry- it’s just I’ve been here for so long, it almost seems odd that someone would ask so many seemingly obvious questions. Anyhow, Neverland isn’t exactly a place on Earth, if that was what you were wondering. Neverland is a sacred haven to those who don’t exactly enjoy their lives at Earth. It’s kind of like taking a break from Earth. Everybody has their own time limit of course- excluding me and several others. Once you die here in Neverland, you’ll be sent back to Earth exactly at the time you left off. So it’s kind of like a pause button on a game. I won’t tell you much for now- you’ll figure it out all on your own just fine, won’t you?”

A sacred haven? She bites her lip, thinking back to her current situation. Images of her mother going completely nuts at her father and her father storming out of the house with most of his belongings hit her. Not to mention, the funeral of her baby sister were still imprinted in her mind. Perhaps that was why she had winded up in Neverland.

“You seem worn out from your journey here or perhaps with whatever happened back at home. I’ll leave you to rest. I’ll also suggest that you shouldn’t move around too much. Preserving energy is important right now. If not, your power may come delayed.” His voice is soft and gentle and she can’t help but nod along with whatever he was saying. Once the bedroom door had clicked shut, a question finally hit her.

What ‘power’?

“What’s for breakfast?” In a second, Kevin was standing besides Kyungjae (Eli), peering over his shoulders. On the table was seven bowls of rice, seven bowls of soup, and a whole bunch of side dishes.

“We’re going to have a Korean styled breakfast today. You know- cause he didn’t eat dinner last night, I thought this type of breakfast would be more filling than pancakes drenched with syrup,” Kyungjae says as he sets down a few more side dishes. Soft footsteps were heard as most of them turned their heads in the direction of a male heading down the spiraled stairs.

Ushering him into his seat and quickly handing him a silver spoon and a pair of chopsticks, the rest of them stared at him for a moment, wondering if he would quickly snap back into his cold attitude and storm up the stairs. The male stayed seated, slowly beginning his meal, not bothering to wait for the others to start. One by one, everybody else sat down in their own seats and began their own meal, talking amongst themselves comfortably.

“So Kevin, I heard Jaeseop (AJ) forced you to pick up the newcomer in the middle of the night. How was it?” Soohyun questions, taking a spoonful of soup and dumping it onto his rice. “You seemed to have stayed up for most of the night.”

“The newcomer was rather- interesting. She passed out during her journey here, so when I went to pick her up, I literally had to ‘pick’ her up.” Kevin shrugs, taking a spoonful of rice. “I brought her over seeing that she was the second person ever to faint on their journey here- which reminds me, Dong Ho, do you want to meet her?”

The male stops in the middle of a mouthful of rice and looks up blankly. The room is silenced as they wait for the male to respond.

“No.”

The male continues to eat, chewing in silence as the others shoot glares in Kevin’s direction.

“What were you thinking?” Kyungjae hisses in the middle of chewing bits of rice. “Why should the girl be of any significance to him? If he doesn’t come out for dinner tonight, it’s on you!”

“It’s just that the girl reminds me of him,” Kevin answers, ignoring the glares before turning back to the silent male. “Besides, Dong Ho, I figured since she must be awfully fatigued by the trip here, seeing that she had fainted, I thought maybe having you show her around would be better. Besides, you’ve been in her shoes before, haven’t you?”

“I’m not interested,” Dong Ho says icily before placing his silver spoon down. “So what if I’ve been in her shoes? Frankly, it doesn’t concern me. Now, thanks to you, I’ve lost my appetite.”

Pushing his seat away from the table to stand up, his heavy footsteps begin to echo about the house. Moving up the spiraling stairs quickly, he was gone, leaving the foul atmosphere behind. The sound of a door slamming shut echoed throughout the house, causing everybody down at the dining room to flinch at the sound.

“Oh nice going, Kevin!” Hoon complains. “Dong Ho doesn’t eat enough as it is! When Xander and Kibum come to check up on us, they’d lecture us for sure! Thanks to you, they’ll probably think we’re bullying him by starving him!” Hoon waves his hands in the air wildly, letting his arms fall onto the table, knocking Kiseop’s bowl of soup over.

The room goes silent as Kiseop, with his mouth filled with rice and bits of kimchi, drops his spoon onto the floor. Looking like a rather shocked chipmunk (with his cheeks sticking out from the food in his mouth), his brown eyes travel from his food to his soup, which was currently dripping onto the cold tiled floor of the dining room.

“Hoon, you idiot!” Kyungjae snaps, hitting Hoon on the forehead with his spoon. “What did we say about throwing tantrums around Kiseop and his food?!” Kyungjae takes the rag from the pocket of his apron and wipes the remains of the soup away from the table as Kiseop oddly and quietly stares at the area where his bowl of soup should’ve been.

“Oh... I’ll go and bring you another bowl of soup, Kiseop. Don’t you worry,” Hoon says, his hands shaking uncontrollably. “I didn’t mean to do that by the way.” Hoon stands up quickly, noticing that Kiseop was trembling.

“DAMMIT HOON!” Kiseop yells, pounding his fist on the table. “MY POOR SOUP’S ALL OVER THE FLOOR AND TABLE! IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE IN MY STOMACH, YOU IDIOT!” With Kevin attempting to soothe and comfort him, Kiseop a deep breath and forced a smile onto his face, with his jaw clenched. Continuing, in the scarily calm tone of his, he adds, “Hoon, you. Have. Five. Seconds. To. Get. Me. Another. Bowl. Of. Soup.”

The room went silent once again as Hoon had stopped in his tracks upon hearing Kiseop yell. His light brown eyes were wide with fear and obvious discomfort as he stared at Kiseop, shocked and scared of his “calm” tone. Even the oldest, Soohyun, was staring at Kiseop wordlessly.

“Five. Four.” Kiseop began counting as he kept that fake and evidently scary smile on his face. Upon hearing the countdown, Hoon quickly turned away and hurried in the direction of the kitchen. “ONE!”

Kiseop began sprinting down the hall as Hoon turned his head to see Kiseop quickly advancing towards him. Panicking and shrieking as he ran down the halls, the rest were left speechless with Soohyun’s mouth left ajar from the scene before him.

“WHAT HAPPENED TO TWO AND THREE?!” Hoon’s voice echoes throughout the house as doors were slammed and opened just to be slammed shut again.

“Hey, watch it! I’m not fixing the doors if you guys break them again!” Kyungjae shouts as he cleans up the mess. “I’m already in charge of making meals guys and fixing things is just an extra chore on top of cooking. Please cut me some slack!”

As Hoon kept slamming the door shut while Kiseop kept trying to open it on the other side, another door on the second floor opened. Poking her head out of her room, she timidly took a step out, quietly looking around. Making her way down the spiraling staircase, she jumped at the sound of the door slamming shut.

“Oh... Julia, what are you doing out of bed?” Kevin questions, stacking the dirty plates together. Remembering Kiseop and Hoon, he looks in their direction before turning back to Julia. “Oh right, sorry about that. They tend to play roughly. So... Is there anything I can do for you?”

“Oh, um...” Julia felt her cheeks turn pink, feeling an overwhelming sense of shyness as she realized there were other people there. “It’s nothing really. I just couldn’t sleep and I- I had nothing to do in the room.”

“Oh.” Kevin’s brow quirks up in interest and smiles. “You know what? I guess we can show you around the house then. We’ve leave the exploration of the rest of Neverland for another day. I don’t want you to pass out again.” Turning to look at Soohyun who was still seated and eager to finish his own meal, Kevin continues. “Soohyun, can you help me clear the table? I’m going to show Julia around here.”

“Whatever. Just go,” Soohyun mumbles, his cheeks filled with food as he stands up to help clear off the table. “By the way, nice to meet you, Julia.” After a failed attempt at smile with his mouth full of food (seeing how a chuck of rice fell out of his mouth as he did so), Soohyun turned away with his cheeks tinted bright pink from embarrassment.

Seeing how embarrassed Soohyun had seemed to be, Kevin tugged at Julia’s arm, causing her to tear her eyes away from Soohyun in mild amusement with a bit of confusion mixed in. As Kevin led Julia towards the living room, Julia bit her lip trying to refrain herself from asking questions. It’s been less than a day since she’s been here and she most certainly didn’t want to annoy Kevin on her first day.

“This is the living room as you can see. We don’t use it often and you’ll see why in just a while.” Julia did see why after the tour, noticing that the house had a very literal, abundance of rooms. Surely a whole town or perhaps even city could fit in this house!

“Oh, this is a very important hallway you have to remember. If you ever wander into here by accident, turn back around. In that room over there,” Kevin says, pointing at the end of the hall. “The room belongs to a very picky person. He gets aggravated really easily and let’s just say... he’s not very forgiving. He’s quiet and likes to keep to himself.” Julia nods, processing the information. “Anyhow, dinner’s in an hour. Why don’t you rest up a bit? Even if you’re not tired, at least stay in your room for the rest of the day. I think you’ve already stressed your body out enough on this tour alone.”

With a smile, Kevin led Julia back to her room.

The moment her bedroom door was closed, she found herself climbing back into bed, indeed feeling very tired. Snuggling underneath her covers, she found herself drifting off to sleep as a few questions popped into her mind.

Why am I here?

Will this peace be temporary or is this merely just “the calm before the storm”?

And...

How long can I stay here?

A/N: I was supposed to update this a few days ago, but I got caught up in work and etc. I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. I tried to incorporate a funny scene (as to lessen the tension that will later occur in the story). There we have it! The intro of the new character in this story! Who exactly is Julia Kwon? Any guesses? Please do comment! More comments= More motivation= Faster updates! I love reading comments and hearing from you guys! Anyhow, enjoy!