I took a deep breath and knocked on the door to Kris's room. He opened it almost automatically, as if he's been expecting me. I jumped back in surprise.

"Hello, there, Romi. How did you find my lair?" he asked. I rolled my eyes.

"I followed the evil whispers and the dark mist, and somehow my feet led me here," I told him with obvious sarcasm. "Suho told me, what did you think?" Kris tapped his chin.

"How did he know about my whereabouts?" he thought out loud. I pushed him out of the way and rudely barged into the room.

"Anyway, you weirdo, I have something for you."

"Yes! Excellent! I knew hiring you was the right choice!"

"Hiring? Let me make this straight once again: you don't freaking pay me anything. What exactly do I get from joining your little team?"

With the corner of my eye, I saw Tao twitch slightly and made a mental note to be a bit nicer to Kris. I didn't want to get on Tao's bad side.

"Trust me, dear, it will all be worth it in the end. So whatcha got in there," he pointed to the bag.

"I suggest you call your other three friends for this," I told him. As if on cue, Chen and Lay walked into the room.

"What's in there?" they asked together.

Creepy.

"Your shovels. We're digging our way out of this prison," I said with a straight face. They gaped at me for a moment and I sneered. "Right in here are your tickets home, boys."

I tossed the bag to Kris, and he caught it swiftly. He took out a rock. His eyes grew.

"Oooh interesting symbol," Lay took it from him. "A unicorn?"

I shrugged.

"I didn't make them. But either way, they're yours."

"What do we do with these... kind gifts, Romi?" Kris frowned, as each of the four guys held his rock.

"You break them."

They stared again.

"And I thought Kris-hyung's requests were out of ordinary," Chen mumbled. They all looked toward Kris, who was eyeing me suspiciously. Seeing that I was serious, he nodded. All together, they threw their rocks at the perfect tile floor.

The rocks shattered and revealed four marbles. The boys each grabbed their marble and I felt a wave of heat hit me as four powers united with their owners, all at the same time. They gasped simultaneously. Chen blinked and thunder rolled across the room. I screamed, despite trying to hold it in.

"Storm," he mumbled to himself and sat down to catch a breath.

It was kind of freaky. Lay started glowing with a bright white light and I remembered Bacon. But nothing else happened.

"How do you feel, Lay?"

"I don't know... stronger? Healthier, I guess? Invincible? Is this normal?"

I laughed.

"We all feel a bit stronger with the energy flowing through us, but... invincible?"

"Do you think you have super strength?" Chen asked quietly, and Lay shrugged. I thought back to the diary. What powers were left? Flying, Time, and... Healing.

"No wonder you feel so strong. You're probably the healthiest of us all here," I smiled. "Your power is healing, Lay."

His eyes grew. He looked nervously at Kris, and I realized what I had said. Lay wouldn't be useful in planning out an escape. He wouldn't be useful in a fight. What would Kris say to that? Did this do anything to his precious plan?

But if Kris had any concerns about Lay's power, he sure didn't show them. He was too occupied trying to hold his feet on the ground. I had to hold back my laugh at the sight. He was holding on to the bed, gripping it like his life depended on it. And no wonder, as his feet were being pulled upwards by some invisible force which now had him dangling upside-down in mid-air.

"OHMYGAWDROMIYOUPUTACURSEONME!" Kris spat out and I laughed. He sounded so much like Chanyeol at the moment, except Chanyeol usually begged for my help rather than blaming me for his problems.
"Did not! Just let go, Kris! Let go!" I called. He cursed, but did as I told him. Immediately, his body was pulled towards the ceiling and he crashed into it. Right after, he fell right back down, into Tao's arms. Tao was pretty big, but how he managed to catch a dude as huge as Kris, I had no clue. He set him down on the ground while I was rolling like a buffalo on his bed.

"Whahaahahah, Kris, that was epic," I wiped away my tears. "You call that flying? Looks like our leader is going to have the most trouble adjusting to his powers."

He looked a bit pissed off and I almost regretted saying that, but then he looked at Tao.

"What about you?"

Tao frowned.

"I don't know. Nothing happened."

"Time control," I said without thinking. "The time probably stopped for a moment, but you might have not noticed that since the linking only lasts for a short time."

Kris narrowed his eyes.

"Romi... I was already wondering this earlier, but... how do you know exactly what powers belong to whom?"

Crap.

"I'm pretty smart for my age," I said quickly.

"No, you're not," Kris argued. I looked at the others, but they didn't bother to defend me.

"Thanks, guys," I mumbled.

"Well?"

"Lucky guess?"

He tilted his head.

"What are you hiding?"

"Nothing," I blurted and headed for the door. Automatically, Chen and Lay were standing in front of it, and Tao dragged me by the elbow back to Kris. Kris took a seat on his couch and observed me. I laughed nervously. He would continue bugging me for a couple of minutes, until I finally told him about my aunt's diary.

"And you kept it from us this whole time?" he scolded.

"Hey, we've only been here for two freaking days, alright? I'm still getting used to things too," I tried to make excuses, but he shook his head in disbelief.

"Romi, you must trust us. We're a team, right?"
"Speaking of that..." I started, and his jaw dropped.

"You're breaking up with us?!"

I turned red and raised my hand to smack his head. Before I could, of course, Tao was by his side. I sighed and shook my head.

"No, I'm not leaving the group, but if you think about it... why can't we all be in a group? Wouldn't be easier to run away if we had all thirteen of us on one side?"

"I thought I already told you, Romi. The other guys are losers. They won't be able to help."

Something boiled inside of me. Not that I disliked Kris. In fact, I partly looked up to him for taking initiative in such a dangerous situation. But he had absolutely no right to insult my other friends when he didn't even see what they're capable of.

My friends.

"Kris," I tried to stay calm. "You don't know how useful they can be. I don't know how you concluded that they're losers but I assure you, they're really great people. Think about it. What if you were in their situation?"

"I am in their situation," he argued. "We're all in the same y situation here."
"My point exactly! How can you abandon them, knowing what they're going through?"

But the guilt didn't hit him on tiny bit. He coldly shrugged it off and stood his ground.

"Kris, listen to me!" I was losing patience. I don't even know why I was so angry. So far, being on both sides hadn't bothered me at all. I had been fine following Kris's idea and doing things behind his back with the others. But now, that I saw how similar they were... how scared we all were... how much we needed each other's support... I wasn't going to let it go. "They have really great powers, Kris," I put my hands on his shoulders (yes, I did manage to reach his shoulders) and tried to talk some sense into him. "They can teleport and move things with their minds, for crying out loud! And they have the four elements, too."

He thought about it.

"The four elements, huh?"

"Yeah, water, fire, air, and earth. They're really powerful."

"Earth?" Kris's eyes narrowed. I tilted my head. What was he thinking now?

"Kris?" Tao asked him after a long moment of silence. "What are you thinking?"

"Tell me, what do you think the most powerful element is?" he asked, as if it he actually cared about our opinion.

"I'm guessing you think it's earth?" Lay suggested as if it wasn't obvious.

"That's right, Lay! Earth! The unstoppable force. Romi," Kris looked at me with a creepy smile. "You disappointed me a little bit earlier by keeping secrets. And I still don't know how the hell you managed to get these," he held up his marble. "BUT. I am willing to forgive you everything, allllll of your mistakes, if you bring me the earth boy. He can be one of us," he giggled evilly. "We shall take care of him from then on."

"How kind of you to be so merciful, Kris," I scoffed and left the room. When the door closed behind me, I took a deep breath and leaned against it. What was I going to do? Get D.O. to trust me and take him over to Kris's side? Or have him finally open up to everybody else, the way I was hoping him to?

Before I could figure out the answer to that, another problem appeared. I was snapped out of my trance when two people on both my sides coughed in unison. I looked around and saw Baekhyun on my left and Suho on my right. Both were looking at me disapprovingly.

"So, Romi," Bacon whispered. "What were you saying about sticking together?"

Thank you everyone for the subscriptions and comments :D like for most writers, they are what encourages me to keep going on to the next chapter :P ha ha i have a feeling the next one is going to be a bit longer though so please wait a bit longer @_@