‘Are you alright?’ a child’s voice chuckles holding her hand out to a little boy sat cross legged on the floor.

‘Go away.’ the little boy huffs folding his arms across his chest.

‘I was only asking…’ the little girl sighs in a fraught tone. She glances down at his lap and sees a teddy bear, with golden, honey coloured fur and her eyes light up in delight.

‘That’s so cute!’ she shrieks, leaning down and snatching it from the little boy, cradling the teddy bear in her arms. ‘His fur is a pretty colour, what’s his name?’

‘Why would it have a name? It’s not real.’ The little boy pouted up at her with dark eyes, grinding his little pearly white teeth together.

‘Everything needs a name silly’ the little girl prods at the boy’s cheeks before playing with the teddy bear’s velvety soft ears.

‘What’s your name?’ the boy asks, blinking up at the girl. She tells him, but doesn’t think to ask him his, too caught up in creating stories in her head, of how the teddy bear would come to life. The little boy in fact introduced himself through an inaudible mumble that seemed to evaporate into thin air.

Your eyes flickered open, staring up at the ceiling. That was a weird dream, you thought. You lay there with misty eyes for a moment, trying to remember the dream that reported back to your conscious mind in random fragments, and the more you tried to think, the less you could remember.

Remember.

You looked down at your hands that are clasped tightly around the red satin sheets that were wrapped tightly around you. But, my sheets aren’t red?

Your mind was still a sleepy haze and placing a hand to your head, you felt a throbbing pain that didn’t want to go away.

Suddenly, you slapped a hand to your mouth and sat upright in the bed. This is his room… what was his name? You paused for a second, wondering why it was hurting so much to think.

‘Taemin…’ you remembered, groggily announcing his name out loud. You glanced around the room and your heart skipped a beat in fear as your eyes latched onto those of the boy in question, who glared back at you, a sparkle in his eye reflecting the crackling fire place. He was hunched up on a leather armchair, his knees pulled up to his chest. His hair was a tousled mess of blonde, just as you remembered. He would look childish and adorable if it wasn’t for that twinkle in his eye and the little deranged smirk on his face.

In a sudden movement, the boy leapt off of the chair and after only a few strides of his long legs, clad in black skinny jeans he crouched beside you, that glint of light not yet disappearing from his eyes.

‘You’re awake.’ He smiled, leaning a little too close as you flinch away.

‘Unfortunately, yes.’ You replied. Taemin’s smile faltered.

‘Why is that unfortunate?’ he asked, resting his chin on the mattress.

‘I have to be around you.’ You snapped. You couldn’t quite explain why you suddenly felt so angry at him, even though you had valid reasons really. ‘Can I go home now?’ you ask, throwing the covers off yourself and climbing out the other side of the bed. Taemin stood up and walked around to meet you half way. You clasped onto your head, feeling a stabbing pain.

‘You want to go out like that? Your hair’s all tangled.’ He said in a soft voice, too soft for what he was normally like.

You shut your eyes tightly for a second to try and comprehend the pain in your head and opened your eyes to see Taemin before you, coiling his fingers around the tips of your hair. ‘Yah… get off.’ You grabbed hold of his wrists and pulled him off of you. ‘I told you not to touch me.’

If he wasn’t such a creep, if he didn’t look at you like that, if he hadn’t hurt you already, you would have wanted his touch rather than neglected it and demanded him to stay away. Your head reminded you of that whenever you stared at his clear, porcelain skin for a second too long or watched the way his lips moved when he was talking or even looking into his eyes that seemed to hold more light in them than all of the candles and crystal chandeliers in this house. He was an angel but had the personality of something else, something darker. The anger that radiated from his eyes and burnt into your skin a day ago still glimmered in them and that scared you. Let’s also not forget, you were being kept here with him with no idea who he was, what he wanted. It was okay to be scared, but you tried hard not to show that fear to Taemin. You didn’t want to seem weak.

You tried to walk passed him but took a hold of your head and froze up still, releasing a whimper of pain.

Taemin appeared behind you and breathed softly down the back of your neck, his breath warmer than the fire, warmer than the blood that boiled in your cheeks with anger… was it anger?

‘You said you were going to leave when you were better. You’re not better.’ His voice was calm and smooth and you took a deep breath before stepping away from him and heading for the door. It felt especially heavy to open but you managed. ‘Where are you going?’ you heard him ask as you progressed down the hallway.

‘To get something to drink, or is that not allowed?’ you snapped gripping onto the banister of the staircase and taking steady steps down, focussing carefully on your vision.

Taemin skipped along behind you and you could hear his footsteps down the stairs were much faster and sprightly than yours. He managed to reach the bottom before you and got impatient with how slow you were being.

‘Let me help you’ he said, dragging you off the final step and wrapping his arm around your waist.

You protested, trying to hit him away but he had that firm grasp again and you were still tired. ‘You haven’t eaten or drank anything since you got here.’ He sighed taking steady steps guiding you to the kitchen.

‘Well, it’s not my fault the hospitality is terrible.’ You mumbled into his shirt, trying to ignore how nice his cologne was, before pulling yourself off him and slumping into a chair at the counter.