[Sooyoung's POV] 

{Flashback}

I lay unmoving in a steel cage, hands and legs bound. From the musky scent, it appeared that we were in the basement of some old building.

“Damn, took long enough to capture this one…”

“Yeah, she nearly sliced me in half with her bare hands!”

“Why don’t we just kill her?”

“No, the boss wanted this one alive.”

“Screw the boss! We almost died!”

“Shut up you two! Do you want to wake her up?”

I scoffed internally. If only they knew that I was awake the whole time.

“She won’t wake up. We shot her with at least a dozen tranquillizers.”

“Then just shut up for my sake. I just want to get my money and go.”

Greedy monsters. That’s all they were.

“I’m gonna go check if the boss is here yet.” One of the men said, leaving.

“I need to go let one go. Watch her.” The second man

I smirked. Fools.

I heard feet near the cage.

“I should just kill you now.” He pulled out his revolver.

I heard a click. I opened my eyes and swiftly grabbed the barrel and pulled him closer to the bars, smashing his face against them.

“What the hell?!” he screamed, holding his face.

“You really thought some petty tranquillizers would actually work on me?”

I easily broke apart the bonds on my hands and feet.

“You humans are so simple-minded.”

I shot the gun, instantly killing the man. It would only be a moment before the others would come back.

I yanked out the keys from his pocket, and unlocked the cage.

“Hey! What’s—Oh my god!” the man from the bathroom called out.

He took out his pistol, taking a few shots but simply dodged them and closed my hand around his throat.

“M-mercy!” he begged.

I smirked. “How ironic… the man who takes innocent lives is begging for his own. How pathetic.”

I snapped his neck and dropped him to the ground.

“Damn you!” the third man yelled shooting his gun. Two of the bullets managed to clip me but I picked him up, throwing him across the room.

He pressed a button on a remote, and suddenly a metal door that slammed shut replaced the only exit. Some sort of chemical was seeping out of the vents. He chuckled before falling unconscious.

“Damn it!” I smashed the door as hard as I could and managed to dent it. I smashed it over and over.

My body was weakening from the fumes. I held my breath as I finally managed to make a hole, large enough to fit through.

I gasped for air and ran out of the building but more bullets hit me.

I turned and there were more men chasing my down the alleyway.

I pushed myself to run away towards a park. My body was ready to give in as I crouched on the ground, clinging to my wounds.

Normally bullets wouldn’t affect me this bad, but I realized that these were no ordinary bullets. They stung as I could feel poison was spreading through my body.

 The men were closing in and I could barely move.

Suddenly a nearby mini-van screeched to a halt in front of me. “Hop in!” the driver shouted to me.

I didn’t have a choice and simply hobbled my way over into the van before passing out.

o----0----o

I could feel small pokes on my cheeks and sun on my face.

“Is she dead?”

“No, she’s sleeping.”

I groaned a little, opening my eyes to see two small children staring at me.

I sat up and winced when the pain from my wounds began to ache.

“Umma says that you shouldn’t move.” One of the girls stated in a ‘matter-of-fact’ fashion.

I growled at her and she jumped back, with tears her eyes.

“WAHHHH!!!!!!!” She cried and ran away.

I sighed and rubbed my eyes, clearing my vision.

The other girl just sat in her chair, reading a Dr. Suess book. She noticed me staring at her and set down her book.

I continued to observe her. She had such a calm aura compared to the other one. “Drink this. Fany-Umma says that it will help you regain some of your strength.” She said handing me a glass of water.

I eyed her cautiously. She only looked to be about 5 or 6 years old but with humans you never know what stunts they may pull. I pushed it away.

“I don’t drink water.” I snarled and she furled her brows pushing it into my hands.

“You need to drink water to keep you hydrated! If you don’t, you’ll shrivel up like a prune and die!” she stated, clearly not going to let it go. Her vocabulary shocked me. Was she even human?

I rolled my eyes, snatching the glass away and chugged it down within seconds.

“Happy?” I growled, but she just nodded triumphantly.

Just then the other small girl returned, but was holding onto another woman’s hand.

“Umma! She’s scary!” she whined.

“It’s okay honey, why don’t you just go help Tae-umma with the dishes.” She said and the two girls ran off.

I tensed up as she drew closer. She smiled. “Don’t need to be frightened, I just came to—“

I grabbed . “Frightened? I think that you are mistaken…” I sneered.

She sighed and easily pulled my arm away. “I don’t think that you’re in the best condition to be making threats.”

I realized how weak my body was. I could barely stay sitting up.

She took my silence as a sign that I understood. “Good. Now if you’ll cooperate, I came to change your bandages.” She pulled out some bandages and began to remove the old, bloodstained ones and put some sort of disinfectant on the wounds.

I yelped a little bit at the intense stinging coming from my arm.

She laughed and I glared at her. “Not so tough are you?” she giggled.

“Just wait until I regain my strength… you’ll regret this.” I mumbled and she just continued to chuckle.

“Yeah, yeah. Turn around.”

I gritted my teeth and reluctantly complied.

-------

When she finally left the room, I glanced outside.

“Better call Yul to come get me.” I thought and slowly got up from the bed.

I snuck downstairs and there was no one in sight. I was about to head out the front door when a voice stopped me.

“And where do you think you’re going?” she tapped her foot.

“I’m leaving… and as a reward for helping me, I’ll spare your lives.” I coolly said and was about to leave again but she grabbed my arm and turned me around.

“You’re not going anywhere in that condition!”

I narrowed my eyes. “Why do you care?”

She seemed appalled by my words. “Why shouldn’t I care?”

“Because I’m a monster… a freak of nature.”

“Says who?”

“Your kind! We can’t live in peace because humans refuse to see us as anything other than a wild animal!” I shouted at her, clenching my fists.

Her gaze softened. “And how do you see yourself? Does it counter what humans perceive you as?”

“…” For the first time, I was speechless. All this time, I had been so bitter that I hadn’t realized that I was living up to exactly what they saw us as. I was the monster they feared.

“I know that what humans have been doing isn’t right either. But that’s what happens when you fight fire with fire. You just get more fire. “ She continued.

“Why did you help me… when you could have just let me die.” I asked suddenly.

She smiled. “Because when you play with fire, you just end up getting burned.”

I never ended up leaving that day and during the week I slowly regained my strength back. I found out that the younger child was named ‘Seohyun’ and the other was ‘Yoona’. Though Yoona was still frightened of me. I also found that their parents were ‘Tiffany’ and ‘Taeyeon’.

“U-umma says to take this!” Yoona said handing me a glass of water with some sort of medicine in it. I took it from her and swallowed the bitterness down.

“Here.” I said a little roughly and shoved the glass back in her face.

I glanced over at her and tears were b her eyes. She began to cry.

Was I too harsh? I glanced around frantically as we were the only ones in the room.

“Uh… don’t cry… I didn’t mean it…” I said trying to comfort the wailing girl.

I glanced around the room and noticed some toys on the ground. I grabbed the plushies and waved them in her face.

“Do you want to play with your toys?” she stopped for a moment. Right when I thought it worked, she began to cry again.

“AISH!” I yelled but covered my mouth when she cried louder.

“Uhh…. Uhh…” I was at a loss at what to do. I tried everything to calm her down. I even resorted to making funny faces, but she just ended up crying louder.

“Get her a treat… there are some cookies in the kitchen.” I heard Seohyun say as she walked past the room.

I instantly got up and went to the kitchen. I opened up several cupboards and drawers when I finally spotted a jar of cookies sitting atop the fridge.

I was grateful for my height as I reached for the jar. My hand was halfway in the jar when a rough slap to my arm stopped me.

“What do you think your doing?” It was Tiffany.

“Y-yoona wouldn’t stop crying so…”

She sighed. “All you need to do is give her a hug and apologize.”

I twisted my brows. “A what?”

She just brushed passed me and urged me to follow. “Come!”

We walked back to the room where Yoona was still crying away on the floor.

“So just give her a hug.”

“Why don’t you do it?” I wasn’t really keen on the whole ‘skinship’ thing, especially with humans.

“She won’t stop if I do it… you have to, since you started it.” She sternly pushed me towards the girl.

I hesitantly got down and placed my arms around the small girl awkwardly. “Sorry.” I mumbled.

She stopped and sniffled. “It’s okay Unnie!” she smiled happily, placing her arms around my waist. That was quick... is she bipolar or something?

I quickly let go of her, but she still clung onto me.

Tiffany just smiled. “She seems to have taken a liking to you.”

I looked down at the beaming girl’s face. ‘What was this warm feeling? Was I having heart burn? No it didn’t quite feel like that… it was something that I read about before. It was some sort of human emotion. But that’s impossible. I barely knew this family, not to mention that they were humans. I should hate humans with all my being… but I feel no bitterness towards them. Not one bit. In fact… I felt… happy.

“Also, if you’re feeling better, you can go whenever you wish.” Tiffany added.

Yoona frowned and looked up at me. “Is Unnie really going to leave?” she asked.

I gazed down at her. “I…”

She clung to me. “Please don’t leave Unnie!”

I looked at her curiously.

“Aren’t you scared of Unnie?” I asked referring to myself.

She shook her head furiously. “Well I used to be, but unnie is actually really nice and I’ll cry if you leave!” it almost sounded like a threat.

I glanced up at Tiffany when Taeyeon came in and joined us in the room.

“So what’s going on?” Taeyeon asked curiously.

I looked around, not sure what to say. “I….uhm…”

Just spit it out!!! I thought angrily.

“If its alright with you… I’d like to stay here a little longer… I mean… uhh… I don’t want Yoona to cry again… and I can help with chores… as a way to repay you—“

Taeyeon got up and patted my shoulder. She turned and glanced at Tiffany who nodded and smiled. She turned back to me.

“I thought you’d never ask!” she grinned widely.

“Yay!!” Yoona rushed in from behind me, hugging my legs.

I was shocked by their acceptance. Never in my life have I met such a family of humans like these. They barely knew me yet they welcomed me with open arms. The warm feeling returned and I held my chest.

For the first time in my life, I genuinely smiled.

{End Flashback}

“So after that, I cut off ties with Yuri and the crew and moved on.” I concluded.

Amber just looked at me with wide-eyes. “Wow,” was all that she could say.