“Are you sure…. She’s human?”

“How would I know?”

The voices came somewhat distant and echoing in my head. I could barely distinguish their words, but I could make sense out of the speeches without focusing much on it. I was immersed under an intense darkness, and even though I could finally feel my own body my eyes were too heavy to be opened. I felt something cold and wet on my forehead, but the rest of me was actually pretty warm and comfortable. Except for my stomach, which was pretending to have a war with my guts, making me seriously nauseous, for certain everything that was left inside of it would come off if I didn’t manage to control my impulse. I grunted a little, still feeling a soar and dry throat, and the voices were shut immediately. I knew all attention had been turned to me.

I didn’t know where I was, I didn’t know why I was waking up and neither could be sure what was my last memory; but everything seemed so insignificant besides my aggressive nausea, which seemed to become even worse by the moment. Like my system was reacting to something new and wasn’t accepting it at all.

“Hello?” Someone very close to me asked in a scared tone. Instinctively I opened my eyes, feeling my eyelids slightly rend. But it was so unexpected that the person that greeted me got scared and I only had a slight glance at his figure fall behind, and it was followed by a loud bang, due to his body falling onto de floor. “S-S-She’s awake! Kihyun-a, she’s awake!” The same voice repeated, completely terrified.

“aish! I’ve seen it, I’ve seen it!” The other replied angrily. “Let go of my arm, you’re hurting me!” He added in the same toned. I felt the urge to cough and they went quiet again.

I blinked a few times, adjusting my eyes to the light. The ceiling seemed strangely close, almost like I was inside a box, but then I realized I was actually lying on the lower mattress of a bunk bed. The light around me seemed too natural making me understand that it was probably daylight coming from a window somewhere on that room.

I raised my upper body, leaving my head down, feeling hurt deeply. Like my brain was being pushed from the inside and the topped of my head was being hammered. I felt dizzy and anguished, my sickness wasn’t lighter after I got up, on the contrary.

“Are you okay?” The voice that moments before seemed angry questioned me and I finally rose my eyes to see both masculine figures I shared the room with. They faced me with distrustful stares, but also confused and curious. The one that questioned me came closer and eventually seat in front of me trying to look soft and worried, but I knew he had many questions behind his eyes. Now the other one, kept his eyes wide open, still on the floor and watching every little move I made closely.

I gulped, not being able to talk or make any sense in my own mind. I didn’t know them at all and my head and stomach kept hurting and crumbling.

“W-where…” I tried to ask but my throat didn’t let me, making me cough again.

“Easy there… I think you’re still recovering from whatever you went through.” The boy said and took something from my lap, making me finally notice the white towel. It should have been the cold and wet thing on my forehead moments ago. I felt confused and lost, no portion of me could puzzle everything into place at that moment. “Can you tell me who you are?” He asked quietly and folding the towel.

“Hm?” I grumbled without understanding a word. My brain seemed completely drained out of any logic or thinking abilities.

“Your name! He asked your name! Who are you? What are you doing here? Where’s Daniel?” The man on the floor started shooting the questions, progressively getting up. He seemed frustrated and terrified while looking at me and that me equally scared.

“Hyung!” The other one yelled at him and he shut up reluctantly.

Wait… Daniel?

“Daniel?” My brother’s name came out louder than I thought I could do. My insides were bursting again at the possibility of finally finding my brother. But somehow I knew that it was too good to be true, too easy. “Where? Where is he?” I then asked excitedly and ready to leave the mattress, shoving the sheets and pulling my legs out. Both men tried to stop me, while the one seated on the bed tried to tell me I shouldn’t be ready to get up yet. But I ignored them, I wanted to find my brother so badly, I wouldn’t let myself get stopped by two strangers.

And even though they wanted to stop me, they couldn’t really touch me, afraid of any misunderstandings or of hurting me. My legs were so weak, and my knees were ready to give in and let me fall to the ground, but the impulsive adrenaline kept my blood rushing and making me stand. I turned the doorknob and faced a living room, very similar to my brother’s apartment. But with less … technology.

The doors were all in the same places and the white walls remained the same, but there was no central system, no robots and gadgets. Somewhat it seemed so simple with a sofa, a small table and a TV being the main objects inside of it. The boys rushed behind me and one of them grabbed my wrist.

“What do you think you’re doing?” The Purple haired one asked and a strange feeling started forming on my stomach. “How do you know Daniel? Who the hell are you?” He added angrily but I couldn’t focus on his voice. I felt very, very, dizzy and it was hard to focus on anything but that weird and awkward feeling that was ready to make me embarrass myself.

“Easy there,” The other boy came in, rescuing me from the other’s hand and helping me keep my balance. “yelling at her when she’s about to faint won’t give us answers” He explained, trying to guide me to the couch. But I stopped him and tried to look around. If that was one of the rooms, and the divisions were the same as my brother’s house, the bathroom should be…

“I need… bathroom…” I managed to tell him, getting away from his hands once more and praying to all cosmic subjects that there could be for me to be right. I could almost sigh in relief when I saw the toilet in front of me and could bend over it, throwing away any bit of content left in my stomach.

I could swear I saw both of them exchange disgusted glances, but neither came to intervene. My mouth had a bitter taste and my stomach felt like it was housing a fire inside when I finally was able to seat on the floor, leaning my back and head onto the wall. It hurt so bad. All my body seemed like ripped pieces glued together, my head was about to explode, and I felt strangely exhausted. It felt like an eternity until the nicest boy came in and crutched down in front of me.

“Are you done?” He asked closing the toilet and pressing some button. I nodded, closing my eyes again. “Here” He said making me face him once more. He was very close to me since the room wasn’t much for the two of us. I finally could have a whole minute to realize how beautiful he actually was. With a dark blonde hair that felt with bangs over his forehead, a pointed almost sculped nose and very thin eyes that I could bet would disappear once he smiles. He carried two earrings also, one for each ear.

I then glanced at the cup in his hand with a bubbled drink. I raised an eyebrow and flinched. I didn’t know him, why would I accept anything from him?

“Seriously?” He asked with a mixture of anger and surprise. “You appeared in our place, just threw up in our place, alone, and now you’re scared of us?” He pointed out with small gestures and I gulped. He’s right, if they wanted to murder me they would have done it already, probably. “This is only to protect your stomach, nothing else.” I ended up trusting him and grabbing the cup bringing it to my lips to drink. It had no flavor and the bubbles picked on my lips angrily.

“Where am I?” I suddenly asked looking around. My brain was still trying to measure what had happened and why was I there exactly, since all could be just a real mess.

“In the… bathroom?” The boy asked with a raised eyebrow making me feel slightly stupid and I sighed. But before I could make myself clear, the other one showed up at the door.

“Are you gonna take all day?” He asked with his arms crossed under his chest. He had purple hair, but on a similar cut as the guy in front of me, with bangs over his forehead.

“She’s done, take her to the living room. I’ll put this in the kitchen.” The blonde one said getting up and leaving the bathroom.

I immediately tried to get up alone by pulling myself up, with my hands on the basin’s counter and focusing all my strength on it. But my whole body hurt, my legs had no feeling and my back were aching like crazy. The boy kept his presumptuous smile, with crossed arms, apparently amused by situation. It was like he was calculating until when would my attempts to get up last.

I finally managed to find some balance on my knees and pulled my body up, remaining highly dependent of that counter. My legs were too weak, my whole self was weak and kind of lost.

“You know,” he said coming closer, and leaning on the counter as well, still with crossed arms, making me notice how much developed his arm muscles were. He really must spend many hours in the gym, maybe goes to the fit stores and gets automatic machines. Wait, do those exist at this time? “you could have just asked.” He pointed out, still stupidly amused. I ignored his rudeness and bent down, pulled my hairs out of my face, and prepared to wash. But when I put my hands under the water tap, nothing came out. I raised an eyebrow and shook my hands. Why wasn’t water coming out?

I bent down a little more to look for the sensor, but there was none. The silver material was clean and had no sign of a sensor, nor the sink.

“Do you want water?” He asked like I was the strangest person in the world and easily pulled some lever attached to the tap, making water come out of it instantly. My eyes went wide with the occurrence of the facts and I went closer, making sure it was clear water.

So they need to pull a lever to have water? That’s so much work though…

I pushed the lever back to place and the water immediately stopped, surprising me again. It was so fascinating how it worked, there were very little places in the world where these still existed. It was like pulling a lever to open the gates of a castle but inside a water tap. So fascinating.

I kept pulling and pushing the lever, still amazed how it worked perfectly with no corrosion coming out of the water.

“Ya-“ The boy called out but I didn’t listen. I made it over and over again, trying to catch the real mechanism of it, until he finally put his hand over my hand obligating me to close it. “Stop it. You’ll break it!” He complained angrily and confused with my actions. He should think I was some kind of weirdo.

“Sorry.” I simply replied with my head down. I reopened the water and washed my face and mouth. He watched me closely, making sure I wouldn’t do the same thing again, until I was done.

“Are you guys gonna take long or what?” The other boy called out from somewhere in the house and I finally closed the tap again looking at the guy by my side. I still had to keep my hands on the counter to keep balanced and he noticed it, but my scared eyes probably made him give up his tease.

“C’mon, I’ll help you.” He said bringing one of his arms around my waist unexpectedly and pulling me with a lot of strength. My full body moved by his order, ignoring me as the real owner. In one second, I had one arm over his wide shoulders and was slightly pulled out of the ground still with his hand grabbing my waist tightly.  

I gulped with the sudden movement and I swore I could have felt something pass through the right middle of my heart, crossing my full chest from one side to the other, when I noticed how close our faces became. He turned to face me too, with a serious tone on his stare, like he was analyzing, calculating, tearing apart and dissecting every single bit of my soul. His cat-like eyes, of a deep and strong brown were facing mine and I could notice his beauty from every small detail of his face. It wasn’t a perfect skin, but its was light and seemed so soft. His lips were tempting they were a bit chubby, but not too-chubby. Tainted with a soft pink color.

“We should go.” I saw his mouth move, pulling me back up to his eyes. I felt embarrassed for what I had just done and my cheeks must have turned bright pink as well. I nodded facing the front and he helped me leave the bathroom to meet the other boy in the living room, with a tray full of food over the small coffee table.

The purple haired one helped me seat and the food smell instantly filled my nostrils. It felts so good and so bad at the same time. I was hungry and I knew that my weakness came probably from not eating anything and throwing it all up. But my stomach was too hurt to have anything on it just yet.

“You don’t need to eat right away, but you should eat something. I don’t know how you still had anything on your stomach” the blonde one said, seating beside the tray, in front of me, on the left space of the table. The other one kept himself on his feet, crossing his arms again. “You slept for three days.” I almost choke on air when he mentioned it looking at him surprised. He just nodded, in a small I know, right? And I faced the food once more. “Come on, no need to be shy. You already embarrassed yourself enough.” He pointed to the food and I felt my whole face burn in shame. I wanted to dig a deep hole and hide myself on it. The purple haired one chuckled and I felt an urge to punch him.

I eventually ended giving up and pulled one of the plates and the chopsticks, starting to eat the noodles.

“you should drink water too. You had fever and must be dehydrated.” He added opening the bottle of water for me. I thanked him almost in a whisper and drank almost the whole bottle, finally noticing how thirsty I was. “Will you please tell us who you are? And How do you know Daniel? Why do you want to find him?” He asked politely while I kept eating. I finished chewing for a few seconds and gulped before talking.

I left the bowl over my lap and faced it.

“Daniel is my older brother.” I shortly answered and both boys exchanged surprised looks. The one with purple hair was still skeptical about me. “I came looking for him because he vanished from home two years ago.” I added looking up to both of them. I was sure the tallest one didn’t believe me, but the other one seemed to be considering.

“What’s your name?” He questioned calmly, making the other one sigh, frustrated. It took me a few minutes to answer, while I was still considering if it was safe or not to say it. “Look, if it makes you feel better I’m Kihyun, and he’s Wonho” He presented both of them. But the oldest one didn’t seem pleased with it.

“Alice” I replied again in a small tone.

“Hyung… Daniel did say he had a sister called Alice.”

“He talked about me?” I asked surprised and excited. If these people knew my brother, they knew what he has been through and if he’s been alright.

“He did talk about his sister, now if it is you…”  Wonho replied still trying hard not to believe me.

“Where is he? Please, I just want to go back home with him” I explained feeling the knot coming back on my throat. I felt nervous and nauseous again, because somehow I knew I wouldn’t like the answer.

“We don’t know where he is. The night you appeared, your brother disappeared with the same light.”