She walked closer to the sleeping young boy. His face was getting paler and paler each second so she panicked. “I’ll save you. I’ll save you.” She chanted. She reached out to the boy and saw her own shaking hands. She was shivering—she had to save the boy.

Yujin jerked back to reality when her eyes opened wide. She sat up immediately, her breathing was heavy and she was sweating profusely. What was that dream? She frowned. Upon calming down, she looked around the empty classroom—it was already dark. The cleaners did not bother to wake her up, she concluded. However, judging the fact that the classroom was not very clean, she knew that the cleaners probably escaped after the last bell. She, on the other hand, fell asleep even before the last class ended. It was Friday anyway—there would be no class the next day.

A sense of déjà vu hit her. It reminded her of what happened a few days ago. She had almost forgotten about that since she and Mingyu did not talk to each other again after that. She had also not seen the librarian anymore after that.

She checked the time with the use of her phone and it clearly said that it was almost seven. Great, she could only grunt. She looked around and the total darkness welcomed her. It scared her but she mustered all her courage to stand up. As fast as she could, she took her bag with her and headed out of the room. She had to run down the hallway and the stairs—the fact that she was from the third floor did not help.

Yujin bit her lower lip, seeing that there was a guard outside, sitting on his chair. She did not know how to explain nor did she want to explain herself. Climbing the gates was tempting yet she had no ability of climbing it. She removed her ponytail in attempt to conceal her identity, letting her wavy black hair lose.

Bracing herself, she walked closer to guard and noticed that he was fast asleep, even snoring his head off. Yujin sighed on relief. “Thank goodness I have such a good luck. Heavens must be on my side.” She uttered. Taking one last look at the sleeping guard, she ran away.

She would have kept on running if not for her growling stomach. Her mother would not be back home soon and she ran out of instant noodles. “I should buy something.” She muttered to herself, pulling up her white sleeves and straightening her navy blue blazer and her red plaid skirt that almost reached her knees. She had to at least look presentable.

She took a sharp turn at the familiar alleyway where she knew she could see a convenient store with not that many people. She had done this many times yet for some reasons, she felt shivers down her spine. She wanted to ignore those shivers but the more she walked, the more she felt it. She froze on her spot upon seeing some teenage boys cornering around ten older men.

Yujin did not want to step up—she was no Wonder Woman nor was she Super girl. Still, she could not find the courage to just leave—no, not when she knew the uniform the teenage boys were wearing and especially not when she finally managed to get a good look at the three teenage boys. She curled her hands into a fist.

It was Kim Mingyu along with his gang, Xu Minghao, and Lee Seokmin. Yujin knew that they were strange but the last thing she assumed was that they were part of some gang.

While she was still pondering if she were to step up or just leave, she almost fainted at the next scene. The old men turned to some huge shadows. Nothing else were seen from them except for their figures. Plus, it was dark so one should look closely in order to see them.

Yujin would like to believe that it was a nightmare of some sort. However, it felt so real to be one.

“Dang it! They’re Shadows!” She heard Seokmin exclaim. “I’m going to use my Force Field.” He said and in a moment, the three boys were surrounded by a red shield.

Yujin felt like fainting but watched the scene nevertheless. It was almost funny—three men fighting with shadows. She would have laughed except it was happening right in front of her. For some reasons, her chest felt heavy and she could not seem to move from her place. She wished that she would be invisible. She wished that everything would go by without her being noticed.

The shadows joined forces, combining themselves to form a bigger shadow monster—it’s a ‘monster’ for the lack of better terms that Yujin could think of. It seemed to be so ready kill the three boys until it turned to Yujin and met her eyes. Yujin could have snorted because a shadow had no eyes. Nonetheless, she could feel its eyes on hers. She could not move so she resorted to screaming at the top of her lungs—her calm facade was thrown away.

She tried wriggling away from the shadow to no avail. She could feel her body being squashed. She was being dizzy and she found it really hard to breathe. She closed her eyes as she struggled.

Die, die, die! Her mind chanted. Her body froze. In a split second, she was released by the shadow and was caught by someone else. Her mind could not function that well anymore. The last thing that she saw was the decaying body of the old men before everything turned black.

“We should have been more careful. She could’ve died.”

“But she did not, not even a bruise, so don’t beat yourself up for it.”

“Just what is she?”

Yujin stirred from her sleep, rolling on the bed a little. It was a soft bed, softer than hers—that simple fact plus the fact that some boys were arguing made her open her eyes. She frowned a little when she noticed that she was sleeping on an unfamiliar red bed. Slowly, she sat up only to see three guys looking at her. She almost screamed but before she was able to do so, someone already covered and met her eyes.

Kim Mingyu.

Recollection of the things that happened before she passed out then came into her mind. She would like to believe that it was just a nightmare. However, she was not a fool.

“What are you?” Someone unfamiliar to her asked. Yujin turned to the stranger when Mingyu finally released her. It was a man with a very pale skin which provided a contrast to his black hair and black clothes. He was short—although Yujin herself was not very tall, she had seen enough guys to consider the man as short. Despite that, his eyes were intimidating, making Yujin feel so small.

“She’s probably confused, Woozi.” Seokmin came to her rescue. “Don’t confuse her any further.”

If it were under any normal circumstance, she would just keep quiet and pretend to not hear them. It was not a normal circumstance though. She moved a little farther from the boys who she finally noticed were wearing black clothes as if wearing any other colors were a sin. Although very likely, she still glanced at her clothes to make sure that she was still wearing her school uniform—thankfully, she was.

“I asked you a question.” The short guy, who Seokmin referred to as ‘Woozi’—a strange name that Yujin did not quite catch, sounded so annoyed.

Yujin finally stopped biting her tongue and snarled. “A person, obviously. What are you?”

“You are not a person.” Woozi stated through a gritted teeth. “Tell me honestly, are you from the Spheres of Heaven?” He asked.

Yujin would have chortled—it sounded like a lame pick-up line. She held back her chuckle and glared at the man who sounded so serious about whatever he was saying. “Are you out of your mind? Why are you picking on me? What on Earth did I do?”

“Woozi, don’t bother her. I already checked her wrist. She does not have it.” Mingyu spoke up, seeming to defend Yujin for a moment.

Woozi finally turned his attention away from her, giving it all to Mingyu. “Then, what is she? She’s not from our Cavern. She must be a monster then.”

“Excuse me?!” Yujin exclaimed.

Seokmin patted Yujin’s head. “Don’t mind them, don’t mind them. They’re some insensitive freaks. Would you like to eat? It’s already eleven and I’m sure that you have not eaten anything yet because your stomach is grumbling even when you were asleep.”

“How can you be so friendly even towards a probable enemy?” Someone else jumped into the conversation. Yujin turned to the owner of the voice and saw Minghao standing by the doorway, hands on his pocket. Like the other three guys, he was also wearing a plain black t-shirt and a pair of black sweatpants.

“She’s our c