Once again, she was back to numbness. She felt nothing - there was no sadness, no contempt, no fear, no guilt. Nothing.

 

The room she was in was as empty as her feelings - bare, white walls stared back at her. She was sitting on an equally white bed, not wrapped up in the sheets, even though she felt cold. She knew she was hiding from the others, but she couldn’t act like everything was okay, at least not for some time. She just wanted to stare and nothing and hope her heart calmed down from the regret and his anger.

 

She doubted she would’ve moved for hours, had she not heard a soft knock at her room’s door. She didn’t want to deal with anyone. She knew that her current numbness would turn into pushing everyone away, because she did not want anyone to see her like this. Not because her face was still red and wet from tears, because its scars were invisible and the tears had dried hours ago at the windy Scottish hill, but because right now, she was not herself. She could not control her emotions, though ironically, until recently it was quite the opposite, the wind being the one thing she could not control.

 

Now, everything was still. She missed it so much. He probably did, too, and she suspected that he was angry because of that, too - because the one thing that tied them together was dying now, and neither of them could do anything about it.

 

She would push all it down for now and deal with it later.

 

Now, she opened her eyes just to see a very worried pair of hazel eyes staring at her.

 

She sighed loudly as her kindest friend hopped on the bed beside her too-still form and took her hands in his. She could push away everyone, anyone, except him. He would force her to deal with things and she hated it, but she would do anything he asked her to.

 

“How long has it been since you’d had anything to eat?” her friend said gently, rubbing her ice-cold hands to get the circulation going. He couldn’t even look at her, but she knew it wasn’t because he felt ashamed of her or angry at her - he was just as embarrassed as usual.

 

Lamiya couldn’t help but smile. When Aya had first described him to her - man, that seemed like it happened ages ago - he seemed to be a cold-hearted mafia boss who hated everyone and could murder the people annoying him with the flick of a finger. Truth be told, when Lamiya first saw him, she absolutely understood why - the guy kept staring at everyone from under his eyebrows with such a focused look that screamed words of, What are you looking at, you punk?

 

But Kyungsoo was absolutely nothing like that. He just had astigmatism, so he couldn’t see far objects clearly and that was his way of coping with it - another thing typical for dear, small Soo. He couldn’t hurt a fly even if he wanted to, except when he summoned up earthquakes, but even when he did that, he took care to only affect the person he was aiming it at, not the innocent being around. That’s exactly who Kyungsoo was - caring and gentle and so very understanding, always understanding everything even if he didn’t get an explanation.

 

Soo probably realized she wasn’t going to answer - she didn’t want to, because she didn’t care about food and he already knew the answer - so he tried again. “Okay. Let’s do this, then - I will bring you freshly made chicken soup, an awesome cabbage pot I know you love and apple pie. And as a bonus, you get to spend some time with me!” he cheerfully concluded, still looking at her as if she was a bomb that was about to blow with those huge eyes of his but also fearing she’d deny him this chance of making her feel better.

 

Lamiya sighed. “Okay,” she said in a raspy voice. She coughed, trying to get rid of the feeling in . Soo looked ecstatic - she couldn’t deny she needed this.

 

He left and came back very quickly, as if he had everything prepared already, which was another thing typical for her small, kind-hearted friend. He was obviously very worried about her and wanted to help, and she would let him, but she was exhausted. Too much had happened in such a short time, she’d already cried so much that she was sick of it but it hadn’t helped a bit and it seemed that things were only getting worse. How did she deal with any of that, let alone everything at once?

 

But there was a reason she’d let herself put all defences down in front of Soo. He would not throw it all at her at once - he would focus on what he thought was the most important thing to get over and then move onto the next one when she was ready. She didn’t know why she opened up to him about Kris - it might’ve been a coincidence, but she’d stopped believing in those a long time ago. One thing she did know was that she didn’t regret it, not a single bit.

 

Soo ran his hand over his now nearly-bald head, having shaved the red-and-brown strands after the incident, or rather, incidents. How many were there even, since this whole drama started? Since Kris approached her that day, asking her…

 

“It’ll come back,” her dearest friend said softly, taking her hands in his again, after she finished - if taking a few bites out of everything he’d so generously prepared - her lunch, or was it dinner already?

 

Lamiya moved closer to him almost unconsciously, letting out another sigh. “I’m not worried about it, Soo. Honestly, I don’t care if it never even comes back. I had no idea I could even do any of those things until a short while ago. Perhaps I’m better off without it and this is how things were supposed to be since the very beginning.”

 

She did not believe her words at all, and neither did Kyungsoo. Her eyes were already swimming with tears again just by thinking she’d never be able to touch wind again, hear it sing and do as she pleased. It was always a part of her, she just never considered it something special, something she needed to use to protect or hurt or show off, like they did and taught her.

 

But now it was gone, and perhaps she’d never get it back again. She was honest about one thing, though - in the big picture, it didn’t matter at all. There were so many far more important things she wanted to get back than the wind.

 

“How does it feel?” Soo said as he started running his hand through her hair. It felt soothing and familiar, contrary to everything she’d been experiencing since a long, long time ago. “Is it like… just not having it at all or you feel like it’s there but can’t materialize it?”

 

Lamiya nodded, closing her eyes and letting the feel of his hands through her hair be the only thing in her mind. “I can feel it’s there, but I can’t reach it. It’s like I forgot how to speak a language I hadn’t used in a long time… I did manage a small breeze today. Or at least, that’s how I think it happened. It might’ve been my imagination, since things got pretty… messy.”

 

“Hey, it’s okay,” her friend said as he embraced her. “You two just need time to get used and process everything. Honestly, all of us need some time. Junmyeon’s also feeling pretty bad, but he’s trying to sort everything out and try to fix everything he can. He’s being hopeful, saying maybe we’ll be able to find out where those two are and-”

 

She whined, not wanting to think about that, and Kyungsoo laughed. “Alright, alright, I won’t talk about that anymore. What do you think of hearing a story? I promise it won’t be too boring.”

 

How could she say no? Kyungsoo was a badass storyteller, plus it was probably going to be something sentimental she could relate to, again because that’s who he was and she loved every single fiber in his body.

 

“‘Kay,” she said as she began to rock her gently, her head now in his lap. He was still running his hands through her hair, and her lids were already becoming heavy, so she kept them closed.

 

“A long, long time ago,” Soo began, “there was a planet with beautiful nature and it was filled with all kinds of life. There was a big, big forest and at the center of it was The Tree of Life, which was connected to the planet’s core, nurturing life and sustaining balance.”

 

He paused for a moment, whereas Lamiya was already halfway asleep, the exhaustion finally catching up to her.

 

Soo smiled to himself. “But no story exists without villains, right? So in this story, the villains who showed up from outer space are called SM. I think it stands for Southern Managers or something, but they are evil to the core. They came to that beautiful exoplanet and wanted to exploit it, destroying all life and taking every resource until nothing was left but hard, cold rock.

 

The Tree of Life immediately recognized their intentions so it was quick to form a plan how to protect its beautiful world from destruction. While SM was wreaking havoc, The Tree of Life took a bit of its planet’s essence and created twelve guardians, each supplied with a unique power to be able to fight with SM evenly, for they had scary dark magic which could not be easily beaten.

 

The twelve guardians fought against SM bravely and managed to drive SM away from their planet, but SM did not give up. Every once in a while, they would come back, checking whether The Tree of Life was still able to create new guardians to fight them. Thankfully, it always was, and the guardians were victorious every time, sustaining world peace and order.

 

But such a thing did not come for free, and there was a price to be paid. Since the planet’s essence could not be given back to it and the guardians could not be one with it again, they ventured out into outer space, searching for SM soldiers in hopes that someday, they would find their headquarters and destroy them once and for all, therefor ending the sad life of the guardians.”

 

Lamiya was already asleep, but Soo kept telling the story he’d never let a human hear ever before. It was their secret, their truth, and it felt liberating to finally let it out, even if it was of no use.

 

“Don’t get me wrong - being a guardian is super-cool, you have superpowers and everything, but you are not allowed to ever return home unless you destroy SM’s headquarters and end the threat to our planet’s life. We are the 17,882th generation of guardians, continuing our quest through the universe where our ancestors have left it. Coming to this planet was our mission - we were going to monitor you for a little while, which we did for about ten years, in our base at the dark side of the Moon - and then determine whether the planet was suspicious and needed to be checked out for SM presence or not.

 

Suho insisted the planet was safe. After all, how could SM leave a planet full of life and coexist with it without exploiting and destroying it? But Kris said No, he said there were signs of destruction and exploitation, and how not all human beings were as kind-hearted as Suho thought.

 

So here we are, and would you believe it, Kris was right. I bet that wherever he is, he is so proud of himself right now. I just… wish things would’ve happened differently, you know?”

 

Soo paused to sniff, not wanting to cry because he was a man, but there was no one to see him and things looked pretty bad. “I just don’t get… why he did what he did. How could he not tell anyone, not even Tao? He’d used him as a tool and now the poor boy is walking around as if he’d been dreaming this whole time and has now been woken up with a bucket of cold water, with Kris throwing the bucket at him. And what do I do now? What do any of us do?

 

Sehun is a walking zombie. You are incapacitated, and just to make things worse, the two of you are fighting instead of patching things up because you’re both alive and well, which can’t be said for some of the others!”

 

Kyungsoo finally broke, putting a hand over his eyes and letting the tears fall. He was careful to stay silent, lest he woke up his friend, who already had enough on her plate.

 

He could not watch his family fall apart. He thought they could all be honest to each other and stay together. What have you done, Kris? He thought.

 

After a little while, he dried his tears and softly moved Lamiya to the bed, and then he got up and left the room she was isolating herself in, just like the man who loved her. He did not understand why things were so broken between them. Yes, Lamiya did become Kris’ girlfriend in hopes of forgetting about Sehun, who was being very harsh towards her but she still felt attracted to him regardless, but he thought things were clear about her intentions regarding that story.

 

There must’ve been something else, something he could not forgive her. Junmyeon kept repeating that Kris had provoked him at the maze somehow, which was when the whole mess happened, and nobody knew exactly what had happened, apart from Sehun, who of course refused to talk about it.

 

Was it somehow tied to Kris flying out of there and leaving all of them, lost and trapped? And what did Luhan have to do with that, who seemed to have lost his mind, too, leaving a whole different drama for the others to solve?

 

Lost in thought, he unconsciously reached the next room he was going to visit today - again, it was a room containing a broken, lost and isolated person, but this time, beside that person was another one.

 

Jongin was in front of the door, pacing around it like a confused puppy, not sure what was the right thing to do.

 

“Is everything okay?” Soo asked hesitantly after standing there for a while and not being noticed by Jongin, who was biting his lip and constantly running both of his hands through his - now freshly-dyed blonde hair.

 

“Oh, hyung, it’s you,” he said sheepishly, looking apologetic but still confused. He scratched the back of his neck, his other hand pointing at the door. “I, uh, wanted to visit, but he told me to get out in a pretty nasty way. And I still want to visit so, I’m kinda not sure what to do…”

 

Soo nooded patiently. “Perhaps it’s the best if you leave him alone for now. I’ll go talk to him. He needs to eat or else we’ll have another life to worry about.”

 

Jongin’s eyes widened. “Are you nuts? He called me a retarded-”

 

Kyungsoo put a hand in front of himself, stopping Kai from saying the whole insult. He did not need the details. “He doesn’t mean it, Jongin. He’s just out of his mind and doesn’t know how to deal with everything. I’ll help him, and you can go now.”

 

As Kai nodded and turned to leave, Soo called for him one last time and smiled when he turned around. “You’re an amazing friend, Jongin, and you’ve helped a lot. When he’s back to being himself, he’ll be thanking you, too. Don’t forget that, okay?”

 

When Jongin was gone, Kyungsoo took a deep breath and prepared to open the door. He would not knock, because he’d end up like Jongin if he did. So he nodded at himself, telling himself, You can do it, Soo, and opened the door.

 

The freshly-dyed brunette immediately started shouting, nearly deafening Kyungsoo. “I said get away, you freaking bastard!”

 

Soo did not expect a vase to be thrown at him. And then a chair. And then for Baekhyun to start screaming again.

 

Soo’s stomach dropped. He wouldn’t be acting this way if there was a possibility he could wake her up…

 

He wouldn’t be acting this way at all.

 

He glanced at the not-moving form safely tucked into the sheets on the bed, a beautiful beige shawl with a flowery pattern wrapped around a sleeping head. A sleeping head Baekhyun thought could not be woken up.

 

“What did Lay say, Baekhyun?” Soo said as he quickly approached the raging boy. His whole face was raging hot, veins bulging out at his forehead and neck, his eyes ringed with redness and constantly flickering to the side where the girl was sleeping.

 

Baekhyun continued throwing a tantrum and calling him a midget and a stupid clumsy penguin until Soo touched his shoulder. “Calm down and tell me what he told you! What’s wrong with her? Did he heal her?”

 

Baekhyun sank to the floor, sobbing loudly. Soo sank with him and let him embrace his stomach and start crying for God knows what time that day.

 

Everything was a huge mess. It was impossible to think that just a week ago, they were safe in a high school in Sarajevo, and now it was just the eight of them, one of which was unresponsive and three of which were on autopilot, and everything had fallen apart.

 

“He says he can’t fix it,” he said in a very high voice, but very silently. “He says it’s not her body that’s causing the problem - that it’s not me. He says it has to do with what Luhan did, and since we don’t know, he can’t help.”

 

He suddenly looked up, taking Kyungsoo by the collar and starting to shake his frame. “I swear to God, Kyungsoo, I made him try to heal her for hours, and then made him come back four times just in case. I tried waking her up, giving her adrenaline, I tried everything. But that… that pretty-face grass-eater did something to her, and I don’t know what. I just don’t know.”

 

Kyungsoo was wondering whether Baek could control the Earth, too, since he was experiencing an earthquake. He put his hands over his, which were desperately grasping at the hem of his shirt and not letting him go, and made him stop shaking him.

 

“I just don’t know,” he said with another sob and then balled up in front of Soo, who was patting his back and telling him everything would be okay.

 

He was starting to doubt his own words. Would everything really somehow get righted? How would they solve any of the puzzles when the only people who knew the answers were gone? How would they find the others, when they had no idea where they were and they couldn’t track them by the powers anymore?

 

Kyungsoo felt like breaking down and crying himself, but there were too many people suffering for his liking, too many people he wanted to help.

 

They would figure it out somehow. But first, they needed to find out why Kris and Sehun were the only ones able to use their powers at the maze, what Kris had said to Sehun and what Luhan had done to Aya that led her to this state. When would she wake up and why wasn’t she waking up already?

 

For now, he would comfort his friend, but later, Sehun had some explaining to do. And so help him, Kyungsoo would make him talk, even if it took a good beating-up and his powers to make the maknae start acting like one and help them sort out this whole mess.