I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t grateful for Sehun, as arrogant as he was, he had saved me two times in a matter of days. We both were holding the orb and I refused to let it go, keeping in mind that I was the one who found it first. Sehun released it, and slowly he floated down onto the ground. I stuffed the orb in my coat protectively, dusting myself off.

“I saw a creature; it was round and fluffy and had a horn on its head,” I told him, trying to explain why I was up on a tree in the first place. He nodded, his hands going into his coat as he shivered and I realized that his coat looked familiar.

“That was a screamer. It’s a good thing you ran, those things bite,” he said, turning on his heels and walking away. My eyes widened and I followed him, scared that screamers would show up any second. It was hard making conversation with Sehun, but there were a few things I was curious about so I blurted it out before I could stop myself.

“So, you can fly?” I asked him, remembering that he hovered in the air with his duel with Lay.

He didn’t answer and just nodded, continuing to walk. His long legs brought him forward faster than my legs could and I stumbled clumsily after him, keeping a close distance for my safety.

“So, you’re like Kris?”

A huff of annoyance escaped his lips but he answered this time, not slowing down.

“I can’t fly as high as he can.” We were nearing the path now, and I recognized the tree that Kyungsoo had sat down against while playing with dirt.

“Oh. So, what else can you do? And where’s Tao?” I asked, suddenly slamming into his back since my eyes were on the ground and he turned around, his eyes flashing gray once more. A gust of air blew and he bent down, his eyes narrowing on my face.

“Look, Gaian,” he warned, his voice low. “I’m not here to answer your questions. Until you find your powers, you’re going to be a waste of space and will be useless in war. So, until then, scram.”

I was bent backwards and I blinked at his demeanor, realizing that he was indeed, very annoyed with my presence. Weirdly, this didn’t bother me and I knew that it was only a matter of time until I would go back to Earth and live the normal life without ever seeing Sehun again. He straightened himself back up and before we knew it, Kai appeared in thin air; waving at us.

“Ms. Tiffany has asked you guys to go to the courtyard! I see you both have got the orb!”

“She got it,” Sehun corrected him and I was happy he didn’t care about winning the event. When we exited the forest, I saw a Kyungsoo waiting patiently for Sehun, dirt smeared on his face. Without even looking at me, he walked up to Sehun and followed him from behind. Talk about having your own minion, I thought. Kai walked beside me and we saw every one crowded in the courtyard.

“There they are! Our winners!” Ms. Tiffany said, beaming down on us. “Since both of you touched the orb, you both are the winners and are given one weekend off to Soul City, use it wisely!”

“Oh, Sehun. Where’s Tao? And why is it you two?” Chanyeol asked, jogging up to us. He looked at me and back to Sehun like he was wondering why we were together instead of our partners.

“She almost fell off a tree and I caught her in time,” Sehun said, shrugging. “Tao was tired and wanted to sleep instead so I let him. I think individual training has been strenuous for him these days.”

“Does that mean you’ll go to Soul City? Can you do me a favor and buy some eggwarts in the market? I’ve been having blisters everywhere. Every time I play with Chanyeol he goes rough and burns me. Senior Lay has been complaining that we’re out of eggwarts,” Kai told Sehun who didn’t seem like he was listening.

“I’m not going,” he said, pushing past the crowd. “I’m heading back to class. I think we’re having the day off so I’m going to sleep,” he said moodily, Kyungsoo turning to glare at Kai who seemed like he about to follow Sehun. Kai stepped back meekly and I watched Sehun walk away towards the dormitories.

“Ong Harin.” I heard my name being called and I turned to see Suho walking towards me. “I’m going to take you to your brother.”

Pushing everything aside in my brain, I nodded. In the end, Seungwoo came first and his health would be my first priority. I bid every one goodbye and followed Suho, walking beside him, my hands gripping the orb in my coat. We walked past a few students who bowed down to him and he gave them a small nod.

“Congratulations,” he suddenly said and I thanked him. “I heard you tried climbing up a tree.”

“I actually did that because I was scared of a screamer,” I replied and he chuckled. “Does that mean I can go to Soul City? Through where? The portal?”

“Sehun knows where it is,” he told me before noticing the frown that began to form on my forehead. “Is… Is he not going?”

“He said he won’t, but that won’t be a problem though, won’t it? I mean, I can take Seungwoo, right?” I asked, praying deep down that I would hear what I wanted to hear.

“The orb is like a key so you’ll have to go either alone or with Sehun. Some one else can’t take his place. And your brother is pretty weak right now, he’s fine but his body is still adapting,” Suho told me and I nodded, biting down on my lower lip.

“I guess I’ll just go alone then. Then I’ll tell Seungwoo all about it when I come back.”

Suho stopped walking and I looked back to see him sighing. “Harin, I—I don’t think you should go if Sehun isn’t going. You don’t know the place very well and even though… even though there are normal people, at least most of them; Soul City is very confusing. The alley’s, the bars. It can be dangerous for a girl.”

It seemed like it was hard for him to say and I respected his honesty. But I couldn’t help but feel sad at my lack of freedom, my heart dropping at his words. my lips, I nodded silently. Suho resumed walking, looking troubled that he had to put my excitement down. We reached an empty wall and Suho pressed his palm against it. Suddenly a door appeared.

“We hid the infirmary,” Suho told me. “So, kids are okay to go in only if they are really truly hurt. Or if someone has permission to see someone.”

No wonder I couldn’t find the infirmary anywhere, I thought, entering the door into the room. Weirdly, the room had a lot of windows. The beds beside each other, the bed sheets white. I sniffed the air to smell the sweet smell of peach just to see Seungwoo on the bed, eating peach.

“Seungwoo is allergic to peach,” I told Suho who shrugged, telling me that he saw Seungwoo in the morning and wasn’t with him the whole day.

“You’re allergic to peach,” I pointed out to Seungwoo who looked at me, his mouth packed with fruit.

“I’m not,” he answered back with a gulp before breaking into a smile. “What? Not happy to see me?” He asked and I smiled, leaning forward to hug him anyway.

“Wooseung,” I greeted, sitting on the bed as Suho kept himself a few feet away to give us privacy. “Did a door slam? Or..”

“No, no. Seungwoo couldn’t take the pain so he told me to switch and he’ll switch back when the body is finally okay. Our heart still hurts, here,” Wooseung said, placing a hand on his heart and I smiled at his use of neutral words like “our”.

“He wrote it on a notebook?” I asked but he shook his head, pointing a finger to his brain. Wiping his mouth and grimacing at the pain as he tried to throw the tissue in the trash can beside the bed, he gripped the bed sheets. Suho, seeing his trouble, came up and brought the trash can closer.

“Thanks, bro,” Wooseung said, patting Suho on the shoulder. “No, we can communicate sometimes now. It’s like, after yesterday I could hear what was happening to Seungwoo. And this morning, I found out that I could communicate with him. Not all the time though, just sometimes.”

“That’s good. It means you guys can now talk about who’ll come up and who won’t,” Suho said, sitting on the bed too, opposite of where I was. “Did Seungwoo tell you about his powers?”

“Nah, man. I heard it though. I also kind of felt it a little when Chanyeol blasted his fire thing on me. Then it felt like I was there but I also kind of wasn’t? It was a weird feeling, really. But what’s important is that Seungwoo’s resting right now but he told me to tell you that he’s fine,” Wooseung said, turning to me and I nodded in relief.

“That’s good,” I said to him, thankful that he was feeling alright. “I won an event today,” I told him and he clapped his hands when I told him what happened.

“Of course, no mage has anything on my sister. She’s very brave,” he boasted about me to Suho who just smiled politely. “Well, when are you going?”

My face fell with the reminder that I wasn’t allowed to go alone, but I didn’t want him to make a scene. Especially when it was Wooseung. I shrugged, cracking my neck.

“Maybe Saturday, maybe Sunday,” I lied and he smiled, patting my head lovingly. Suho had a weird look on his face and Wooseung began to talk about what he learned that day. I spent the time listening to him talk and as time began to pass, Wooseung yawned.

“I think I’ll head back,” I told Wooseung who nodded, his eyes already half-closed. Kissing him on the cheek, I bid him goodbye and he dropped into slumber, Suho already by the door waiting.

When I exited the infirmary, Suho turned to me asking me a question that seemed to be bugging him.

“Why did you do that?” He asked and I looked at him, not understanding what he meant why the question. “Why did you say that you were going when you can’t go?”

“Ah,” I paused. “I didn’t want him to feel bad for me, that’s why. He would have felt bad if I couldn’t go even after winning the event. Especially when he knows I really want to go.”

“Why?” Suho asked again.

“You’ve never had that? Lying to someone because you don’t want them to feel bad?” I asked, frowning. White lies were lies, but they were made with good intention. I wondered if people in Exodus did that too, in the end, Exodes were human too despite their different upbringing.

“I guess we always thought that honesty is the best policy,” he answered and I smiled at his logic. Of course, it was, most of the time. I nodded in agreement.

“Honesty is good. But when you love someone, you put their feelings first.”

“But you’re not ordered to,” he said, still confused and I shook my head.

“Love is beyond all order, Senior,” I replied.

I guess there was a difference between Gaians and Exodes, I thought as I watched Suho grow quiet. There was a difference, but deep down I was proud that I was a Gaian and where I came from—I don’t know if I could say the same for the rest of them.

[Door to infirmary]

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

                                                    The weekend has come and I hated the fact that I woke up early with the feeling that I could be somewhere but I wasn’t. I was starting to hate the look of my ceiling and my adventurous nature was beginning to hate the buildings. Everything was no longer new and even if there was much to learn, I wanted to leave SM to learn more about Exodus. I had woken up early and placed a kiss on Bubbles head.

Bubbles has been used of staying alone these days and I would come back to the room with it happily rolling on its stomach. It woke up sleepily and nuzzled against my arm, its breath on my face. I touched its nose and it blinked slowly, honking.

“I’m going for a run,” I told it and it gave another honk, going back to sleep. I was given sleeping clothes to sleep in but I had no other clothes other than the clothes I came in wearing so I put those on. My jeans and a simple T-shirt with my coat and the running shoes I wore before jogging to the court yard.

I ran for a few rounds, the cold breeze slamming against my face when I heard my name being called. “Oi, Ong Harin!” Realizing that it was Chanyeol’s voice, I searched for him, turning to see him jogging towards me. He too, was also wearing just his sleeping clothes and an echowomp stood by his shoulder.

“Oh, hey. Good morning,” I greeted. I’ve never had a proper conversation with Chanyeol alone, except when he was trying to help me get my powers. His hair fell on his face and I watched him, crack his knuckles. Despite the cold, perspiration dripped down his neck and I realized that he had been exercising. “Echowomp?”

“Yeah, this is Didi. She’s mine. I wanted to listen to music while I ran so.” He shrugged and I eyed the creature on his shoulder. I knew Echowomps could mimic, but I didn’t know they could replay music. “Wanna listen?” He asked suddenly and I nodded, suddenly interested in it.

“Didi, play Celtic music, track 4,” Chanyeol said to her and to my amazement, the creature opened its mouth and the music floated out. It was a mix of flute, harp and soft piano. The creature kept its mouth wide open and Chanyeol moved to the music. “I brought Didi to a music festival two years ago, this is when they played this track. Nice right?” 

“Yeah,” I agreed, just listening to the song it was playing. “Does it remember everything?”

“No, just some songs I tell her to so I can replay it back whenever I need to. I have like 4 echowomps, but I was feeling classical today,” Chanyeol told me, touching the creature and it closed its mouth, the song stopping.

I was kind of weirded out by Chanyeol’s niceness, but I thought that it may be because I was okay with Baekhyun and maybe he didn’t look down on me as much anymore. He walked along side of me when I expected him to leave when he looked at my shirt.

“What are you wearing?” He asked and I looked down on my shirt.

“Tom and Jerry,” I replied, stretching out the T-Shirt so he could take a closer look at the graphics. “It’s a cat and a mouse. They tend to run after each other. It’s a cartoon back on Earth.”

Curiosity flashed through his eyes and he tilted his head, squinting at my shirt. “So, cats and mouses do that on Earth?” He asked and I shook my head, chuckling.

“No, only on TV,” I told him, then explaining what a TV is. That it was a source of entertainment, and people would record things but in pictures and show it to every one in the world. He seemed engrossed in my explanation, keeping his eyes on my shirt as we walked past the dorms.

“So, like theatres,” he said out loud for clarification and I nodded. “But in boxes. Say, aren’t you supposed to be in Soul City today?”

“Yeah. But Sehun doesn’t want to go and I’m not able to go alone so I’m stuck here,” I said naturally, trying to hide the disappointment from my voice when a smile travelled up his lips. A mischievous smile spread across his face and he tapped me on the shoulder.

“Sehun once locked me out of my room so this will be revenge. I know how to make Sehun go with you,” he said sweetly.

I didn’t even want to know why Sehun locked him out of his room, Chanyeol leaning forward to whisper something in my ear. After I heard it, I marched to the dorms to make sure Sehun would come to Soul City with me.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The boy’s dorm was well lit and it was peaceful because every one was still sleeping. Checking the time, I realized that it was twenty minutes past ten. Walking to where Chanyeol told me to go, I went towards Sehun’s room that was located at the end of the hall.

“He doesn’t sleep with anyone because Kyungsoo usually likes to sleep in big boxes or outside. Sehun does enjoy his privacy too,” Chanyeol had told me. The door against the wall had Sehun’s and Kyungsoo’s name on it and I tried the door to see that it was unlocked just like Chanyeol said.

“Since Kyungsoo likes to sleep outside, he sometimes comes early in the morning so Sehun leaves the door unlocked all the time.”

I heard him talking, Sehun’s voice deep in the conversation. I pressed my ear against the door and heard he say something about him losing against Lay. Opening the door slightly ajar, I saw that he held something compact in his hands, and he was talking to it. To my amazement, a man’s sound spoke back and Sehun laughed.

Did