“Do you think it’d be cool if mythical creatures existed?” I asked Jongin, who was scribbling indecipherable writing onto his notebook. Supposedly, he was to be doing the questions assigned, but he seemed to be writing nonsense. “Like, you know -- stuff from Greek mythology and stuff?”

He choked a little. “No,” he said shortly when he finally regained his composure. “Because half of those things are dangerous and probably want to kill you, and that means people will have to fight them. Would you like to live your life having to constantly watch your back every second, sleep with one eye open, and always be in danger?”

“Well… it’d be less boring…”

He met my eyes. There was a seriousness on his face that I couldn’t quite understand. “Trust me, it wouldn’t be.”

How do you know? I wanted to ask, but when he stared at me, the words died in my throat.

Chapter 3

“When’s she going to wake up?”

“Dunno. Kai said she was scared pretty badly, and either passed out because of that or pain. She broke her wrist, remember? And it’s pretty sudden, probably. I mean, even Kai was scared. He sounded pretty panicked.”

“As he should be. It was a golem, for god’s sake. Hopefully it’s blown into enough pieces that it can’t regenerate. How’d someone even make a golem to go after her?”

“I mean, her aura is really strong, but…”

The world was finally coming into view -- or what I could see, two faces that leaned over me. The one on the right let out a sound that sounded suspiciously close to a squeal.

“Soo! She’s awake!”

“Gee, I never would’ve noticed,” the one on the left deadpanned, turning and giving his companion a look of disgust. Then, in a much kinder tone, he turned to me and held up three fingers. “How many fingers am I holding up?”

Events of yesterday -- no, not yesterday, before I had conveniently fainted -- began rushing full force at me. Lim, the explosion, and Jongin being in a gang. Gang, however, didn’t cover a fraction of what I had seen. I shot upwards, almost slamming my face into left guy’s hand.

A wave of dizziness washed over me, and dark spots danced over my vision. For a moment, I was near blind, before everything seeped back in. There was a sharp pain in my stomach area, and my wrist felt sore.

Sore, but not in pain.

Incredulous, I looked down at my wrist; it had been broken the last time I was conscious, which, granted, I had no idea was how long ago. Even then… apart from the slight ache when I had pushed on it, there seemed nothing about it that was out of place. The unnatural angle it had been twisted in, the bend -- gone.

“So.” The guy who had been previously hovering on the right looked at me. His cheeks were slightly rounded, thin lips, and appeared to be smiling at me, and I stared back. His eyes formed crescent moons, and he looked way too cheerful to match what I was feeling at the moment. “Nice to meet you in person, Mira. I’m Baekhyun, and I was in charge of you not dying! Well, I mean, technically Kai should be taking credit for that, and Yixing, but--”

“Shut up, Baekhyun,” the one on the left snapped. “You’re going to make her wish she never woke up.” He tilted his head at me, almost studying me like one would study an interesting machine, while the word Baekhyun finally computed in my mind. He had been the friend that Jongin had been calling, twice. Panic flooded through me; was this Jongin’s gang? But they had been so nice… I turned my attention to the other boy. He wasn’t looking as cheerful as Baekhyun did, but more on the calm side. “I’m Kyungsoo, and I think you should ignore the beside me,” he stated in such a serious voice that I couldn’t help but let out a slight laugh, despite the situation. It soon died in my throat when I rethought everything. I had just woke up after god-knew-how-long of being unconscious, and laughing or looking remotely close to Baekhyun’s expression didn’t solve anything.

“Never mind Kyungsoo,” Baekhyun interrupted, waving the other boy away. He received a smack on the arm for that. “You probably have a lot of questions, so we’re going to do it this way. You ask one question at a time, and we'll answer each one. But one question at a time, okay?"

I stared at Baekhyun -- did he know what I saw? If he did, how was he so calm about it? If he knew, how could he expect me to patiently ask one thing at a time? If I were to ask one question at a time, we'd be sitting here for hours. There were too many things that I was scared, unsure or completely in the dark about. One question at the time was not a preferable solution to that. In fact, screaming was the most rational thing I had in mind.

However, the urge to yell for help faded (it might’ve had to partly do with the fact that I couldn’t imagine who would come for help. Jongin? Didn’t know who he was anymore). Kyungsoo and Baekhyun were both strangers, but there was just a sense of security around them that I couldn't explain — some connection, even if I had met them promptly three minutes ago (though god knew how long they had been watching me when I was unconscious). So, instead of screaming, I asked in a surprisingly calm voice, "How long have I been out?"

Baekhyun seemed to be have holding his breath, and he let it out when I asked the the question. A smile stretched out on his face, and I bit the words stop being so goddamn cheerful down. "You're pretty calm compared to others," he stated, grinning. I decided not to mention the fact that it felt like a gymnast was doing flips in my stomach, or the fact that my head was spinning and my hands were clammy and I was so, so, so scared and confused. "The last guy I had to break the news too… I think he picked up a pillow and tried to kill me—"

"About sixteen hours," Kyungsoo interrupted, giving Baekhyun a killer glare. They held a staring contest for a couple seconds, before Baekhyun muttered something along the lines of I hate you under his breath and turned away. I could feel my breathing quicken.

“Oh, also, just a piece of advice, also, the question-asking is going to go smoother if you do your best to remain calm-- OW! Kyungsoo, stop it!”

Sixteen hours. The thought took a little while to compute. It had been about five in the afternoon, last class, which meant… it was nine the next day and I hadn't gone home. Jinyoung, I thought in horror. Jinyoung's probably called the police by now!

I forgot all about Baekhyun’s advice about remaining calm, and despite everything they had told me and everything I had seen, I shot to my feet. The sudden movement was too much for me; my vision turned completely black, and, balance lost, I toppled forward.

“Woah,” Kyungsoo’s voice said from somewhere behind me; I couldn’t see.

Someone grabbed onto my arm, steadying me, as I waited for my vision to return to normal. Even when it did so, my head spun, and I was going against Baekhyun’s wishes -- I was panicking, completely. I heard the said boy mumble, “Not really calm, actually.”

“You’re hungry,” Kyungsoo told me, like I didn’t already know from the empty feeling in my stomach area. “I know this is a lot to take in, but you need to calm down.” He spoke slowly, like talking to a child, and something about it made me feel slightly angry. When one had just watched their chemistry teacher turn into some kind of monster, then watch their only friend turn into some kind of -- well, I wasn’t sure what Jongin was or who, so that remained unanswered -- it was a little bit too much to ask of them to remain calm.

Of course, Jinyoung was probably going to kill me the second I returned home -- if that was ever.

I voiced my thoughts at Baekhyun and Kyungsoo, who had successfully made me sit down onto the sofa again, in a not-quite-so-calm voice now. Baekhyun was still slightly smiling, though it looked more forced than before. Kyungsoo still appeared quite expressionless, arms crossed over his chest, like my attempt to stand up had annoyed him.