Of all the scenarios she had thought of, this was not the one she was expecting. Seeing one-hell-of-a-proud-Grandfather fell onto the ground after the bullet Sehun shot was extremely satisfying, though she was not the one pulling the trigger. In her vision, Sena could see Sehun rushing to her aid with a loud yell, but she could not make out any sound at all. Her head was buzzing loudly. This must be the limit she could go through without passing out after losing so much blood for one day.

            At least he was dead. And with that thought in the back of her mind, she passed out peacefully, despite of the pain stinging her waist and her face. Sena was tired of fighting back. She just needed to be home, and now that Sehun was here, she was ready to let go and sleep it off for a long while. She thought it was nice, being able to trust someone so much in such a long time. She had finally found that person in Sehun.

***

            “She will wake up anytime soon,” Yixing breathed a huge sigh of relief. Sena could see the blurred outline of his face, filled with hope and joy. She extended her hands to reach out to him, but someone was quick enough to prevent her from doing so. His hands were huge and warm, and Sena instantly slumped back knowing who he was. “Sena. Listen to me, Dear. You’ve slept long enough. You ought to wake up now.”

            Kim Joonmyun. Her voice was stuck in my throat. Even though she could not see anything still, she felt greatly comforted with his presence alone. She gave herself a mental push and grasped onto his hands tightly. She ought to wake up now. Her body was hurting from being numbed after a while. The blurs started to make more sense when she opened her eyes and blinked to the sudden invasion of light.

            “You’re right, Xing,” Luhan closed in with fascination. He held a hand to lift her head gently so that he could see her better – not that she would mind. Sena was completely oblivious to anything happening around her, for in her sight, there were only Yixing, Luhan and Joonmyun. The shot was not life-threatening, and soon after the second squad rushed in to finish off whoever was left of her Grandfather’s slaves, the rest of the Elites flew her back to the headquarter where Yixing took care of her for a good few days.

            Joonmyun carefully brushed off the bangs from her face and leaned in with a small smile, “How fascinating! Your eye colour changes, you know? It’s no longer dark brown. But it’s rather… odd. As odd as they could be.”

            Sena always felt unnerved whenever Joonmyun used the word ‘odd’, because what he thought was ‘odd’ would at least be frightening to others. He had a strange fascination towards anything gory and scary, so Sena wondered if her eyes really changed so drastically for him to say it in a no-nonsense manner. Her face was still held by Luhan, and she roughly shook herself off of his grasp, “I need a mirror. Joonmyun is creeping the hell out of me.”

            Joonmyun laughed good-heartedly and caressed her hair as she looked around for a peek of her own reflection. He didn’t bother correcting his words and instead, looked forward to the moment when she finally shrieked in shock when she saw how much she had changed after the surgery. Yixing had predicted that her appearance would somehow change due to the loss of blood and a new supply from Sehun – her closest blood-relative, but none of them had expected a change so drastic that she looked almost entirely different.

            Sena gasped in awe when she examined her new eye-colour. It was a turquoise colour – an impossibly bright shade for someone inheriting black-eyes genetic like her. If she hadn’t known better, she would have suspected that they put on a coloured lens when she was asleep to pull a prank on her, but that was as absurd as it sounded. Her hair seemed to be lighter as well, not that it was noticeable enough on the first glance the way her eyes were.

            “Can someone please explain what is happening to me?”

            “Okay, now that is downright creepy,” Joonmyun remarked lazily and circled around the room like a good feline. He cut Yixing off before the poor guy could talk. “Tell me, Yixing. Did you do something to her during the surgery? Replaced her heart with someone else’s perhaps? Put drugs into her bloodstream? There must be something terribly wrong if Sena starts saying ‘please’. She hardly does it to anyone.”

            “Okay, now you’re asking to be beaten, Kim-ing-Joonmyun. Come here, you rotten !” Sena raised her voice but coughed out loud because was dry and itchy. She lifted her fists weakly and punched him on the arms lightly, and felt her body became a tad bit lighter and weaker. Before she fell down, Joonmyun caught her on the waist and asked her worriedly, “Take it slow, Sweetheart. You woke up five minutes ago and you really don’t want to waste your energy going around and punching innocent people.”

            Her eyes twitched when she heard the word ‘innocent’. Kim Joonmyun hardly was.

            “Kim Joonmyun, get off of her,” Luhan coldly spoke and snatched Sena away. He was stronger, and there was not much fight that could occur between the two, so Joonmyun shrugged it off with a small, sarcastic smile that would have meant very differently with someone else. His voice turned softer when he faced Sena and graced his fingers over her cheeks, “Xing, you can start explaining what happened to her before she freaks out for real.”

            “I’m not that reckless,” Sena rolled her eyes and sat on the bed.

            “I don’t have a concrete explanation, but I kind of guess it would happen – though it definitely sounds absurd. It’s not something scientific. It’s just… I read it somewhere in my father’s old journal that this could happen because you are a Suzakku-Seiryuu born, and your blood doesn’t blend very well with the rest of ours. If we inject Jongin’s blood into yours, it would be problematic, so we have Sehun’s, who bears a greater part of his father’s gene than his mother, to transfer it to you,” Yixing sheepishly smiled.

            “I guess that explains why then, not that I have anything to complain about. Many things are not scientifically justifiable. But Xing,” Sena beamed at him and he almost hid away blushing. His cheeks were evidently red, and they looked even more so under the white lamp light. “Thank you. You stitch better than the doctors in the hospitals. I don’t even feel the pain anymore.” She slowly touched her ribcage and tried not to flinch even just for a little bit. “Yeah, okay, that was a lie. It hurts still.”

            “It would take a few more days to heal, Sena. Be a lil bit more patient, will you, Sweetheart?” Joonmyun sassily smirked and put his arms around her. It was a small, simple gesture, but Sena didn’t miss how considerate he was even when he was trying to put his hands on her. She let out a sigh and smiled inwardly. It might be weeks ago, but she remembered his confession very clearly. It was short, but it took forever to move on from the words he spoke to her.

            “Where is Sehun?” Sena questioned once she remembered. Her face turned solemn when she thought of her other protector, “And how is Jongin?”

            The loud chatter died down at the questions. It was not unexpected, but they thought they would be able to distract her for a while before she noticed. Luhan sighed, his face grim. There was not a hint of a smile, not even the ghost of it, and it scared her so. “Mei, they are… fine. Things happened after you passed out in the island. Grandfather was dead. Sehun shot him. And the rest of the Shadow fighters leaped after him. They left… scathed.”

            In other words, scarred. The first image that appeared in her mind was Sehun and his gentle smiles and how she missed it all of a sudden. She wanted to see him, but she would hate to see him bedridden because of her. And then there was Jongin who owed her a thousand explanation for being so mysterious. He crushed her, betrayed her, helped her, and in the end, he saved her. She owed him her life for the second time. But she was not sure she would trust him with the third – if she was lucky to be alive, t’was.

            “Where are they?”

            Luhan reluctantly looked down. It was Joonmyun who replied, albeit he suspiciously missed out the tone of confidence he usually carried. His eyes were dull, and he tried to look anywhere but her. She would not be able to miss that guilt and regret in his voice when he talked to her, and how his eyes darted at her side instead of her eyes. Kim Joonmyun loved eye-contact, because he was observant and careful, but not this time. “It’s best if you wait a few more days before they are completely… healed.”

            “I want to see them now,” Sena insisted firmly. Her stubbornness always seemed to affect her judgement – something others often called ‘impulsive’. But Sena persisted without breaking the stare. “It doesn’t matter if they are asleep. I just… I want to see their conditions. That’s all. Just a glimpse is fine.” Knowing that she would not get an answer from either one of the three, she went up to Luhan earnestly and grabbed his hands tightly, perfectly aware of the effect she had on him, “Please, Ge. They are injured because of me. I won’t be still until I see them.”

            Joonmyun looked away with a snicker – not that he would be any different if the one Sena was begging to was him. He knew the girl affected the rest of Elites as she did to him. It wasn’t just affection, it was something she was born with – to be cherished and appreciated, to be the beloved of her people, and he was just one of the many. He suppressed the bubble of jealousy down his mind because he knew the moment he left Seoul weeks ago, he had given up on any chance of romance with Sena. That was the sacrifice he had to make for his ambition and greed – and Sena knew it as well.

            “Which one would you like to see first?” Luhan gave in easily. He didn’t hold much power against the younger girl, no matter how difficult it was for him to fulfil it for her. It had been like that since their youth, and Sena liked to think that it was her own privilege to be so close to Luhan. It was both a torture and a blessing for the male. “Just a glimpse, Sena. And I am warning you beforehand; you’re not going to like what you see.”

            The girl solemnly nodded, with a small smile bordering gratefulness and ambiguity. “Sehun,” she whispered in reply and walked out with Luhan hand-in-hand. She wanted to see him first and make sure that everything was alright before she settled her debt with Jongin. Her stomach tightened when she thought about different possibilities that could have happened to both her protectors, but forced herself to toughen up. She could not be so weak. Eyes glistening with a mix of horror and sadness, they both headed to the other room where Sehun was kept.