Three candles in the living room, four in the kitchen and a flashlight in his hand, Byun Baekhyun is wiping the blood off the wooden floor before it stains through. Frustrated, he is rubbing the floor hard enough to peel off some splinters and fibers.

"As a way of thanking you for saving my life--"

The kitchen is a mess too. All the ramen packages he has saved up are torn open with their contests littering the bare ground.

"--I will grant you one wish."

The ramen powder packets have been emptied out. Probably into the stomach of the girl ranting away something about a wish. 'Geeze. What is she? Iron stomach? How can she just eat almost nine packets of powder and not have a stomach ache, and why didn't she eat any of the noodles?'

Not sure if the boy has heard her, the girl continues. "It can be any wish." She stops to stare at the young boy cursing her in his mind while furiously scrapping the blood off. Baekhyun's coat is zipped up and wrapped loosely around her body, and his scarf is still messily tangled around her injured left leg.

"Yea, I have a wish." Baekhyun finally responds with a grumble as he fumbles with a trash bag and dumps the bloody toilet papers into it.

'Already? This human is fast.' Gleefully, the girl waits with a smile on her face, anticipating his answer.

Stopping for a moment, Baekhyun leers at her. "Stop bleeding around my house." After warning her, he returns to soaking up the blood off the wooden floor. 

The girl blinks and thinks for a moment.

What a selfless human.

'He's worried about me when I messed up his house and bothered him so much.' Of course, that's not what Baekhyun meant when he said that, but a wave of emotion take over her as she misunderstands, and tears swell up behind her eyes as she fights to hold them back.

She sniffs, and Baekhyun's two perfectly functioning ears hear.

He looks up to find the girl scrunching her face into an gruesome expression to stop herself from crying. Baekhyun freezes and looks shocked, believing the injured girl took offense in what he said.  He didn't mean to be that heartless. "Wait, sorry I take that bac--"

"You're so nice!" The girl explodes, pouncing on the boy and pushing him onto the trash bag. "How can a human be so caring?"

That word 'human' is used again, but Baekhyun does not notice because the bag the girl has pushed her onto pops and the balls of bloody toilet papers fly off in different directions.

She gasps, not sure what to do.

Baekhyun stares at the second mess the girl has made and then at the petite sniffing girl for a bit before his mouth spreads into an uncontrollable smile, chuckling at the girl. "You look lively enough." He laughs, taking her hand, helping her up on her feet and readjusting the coat around the girl's body. "You okay? Are you hungry?" Still smiling warmly, he asks.

'How nice.' Feeling moved by the boy's concern despite her second mistake, the girl shakes her head. "No, no, I'm fine." There really are still good people in this world, is what the girl thinks as she compliments mankind.

"Well, that's good." Somehow, they are they standing at the front door, and Byun Baekhyun's smile melts off his face as he pushes her out the door. "Then, get out, and keep the coat."

Bam.

A loud crisp shut of the front door, and the girl is standing beweildered and confused in the cold.

 

---

 

Morning has already come. Baekhyun rose up from sofa, drowsily beating his aching back. The power is not back yet, but he could see better thanks to the morning sun shining through the windows of his living room.

After seeing his house a little cleaner and brighter, Baekhyun's conscience returns to him, and he thinks that maybe he was a bit too harsh on the girl.

It's the middle of winter, and luckily, it isn't snowing, but the girl is injured with only a coat. No matter how thick the coat is, it can't possibly protect her from the night cold when there isn't even the sun or underwear to wrap you with its warmth.

It's hard to admit, but Baekhyun feels guilt.

On the other hand, she could have find another person to help her... in the forest? Baekhyun feels worse. His house is the only shelter avaliable here, and the forest is easy to get lost in. It's possible the girl got lost in the forest and did not reach the town.

Should he go look for her?

Baekhyun shakes his head to himself, then stops.

No, he should. What if she's freezing out there.

He shakes his head again, trying to deny all the horrid possibilities of the girl ending up as a frozen human popsicle... if she is human at all.

'Wait a minute. Where did she come from anyways? Where's the bird?' The mytery of the disappearing bird and appearing girl still has not been solved. 'She must not be human. Then, it should be alright.' Baekhyun decides to believe that the girl as some magical abilities like control of fire like a dragon.

She sure looked human though. A stupid yet familiar deep rumbling voice of a new reporter makes an announcement in his head: A young petite human girl with long golden brown hair has been found buried under ten inches of snow. This unfortunate soul could have been saved if a person-who-will-not-be-named had offered to help her and not kicked her out of his house. However, this cold hearted bastar--

"Stop being dramatic, Baekhyun. It's not even snowing today," and he ends his thought with that statement.

Suddenly, someone starts energetically knocking at his front door, and Baekhyun knows who it is already: his half annoying brother Chanyeol.

Baekhyun quiets down and stares at the front door. 'I'm not home...' He tries to convince himself.

"I know you're home!" A deep voice roars from outside, and the knocking gets worse.

Baekhyun is silently pondering what to do when a young feminine voice stops Chanyeol from the outside. "Stop, you stupid human. Master's tired, so stop bothering him."

"Master? Why are you ? Wait, did you call me stupid?" Chanyeol fires back from outside.

"Yes, and look like a goblin too. Are you really human?" Her voice is dripping with sincere curiousity.

'Human... Why does that word sound so familiar?' Finally realizing who the second speaker is, Baekhyun rubs his face in frustration but sighs with a hint of relief. 'So she's okay enough to pick fights outside my house.'

There's a loud roar of anger from outside and another voice joins the fight. "Mister Park, please calm down."

"Yes, calm down." The girl reprimands Chanyeol innocently, not noticing how she's the one making it worse.

Baekhyun can imagine Chanyeol clenching his fist and and threatening the tiny girl. "Calm down? I'll show you calm down." He's obviously not calm.

"Yes, please show me." And she's obviously lost her mind.

Finally, Baekhyun gets off his annoyed buns, unlocks the front door and kicks it open, hitting Chanyeol on the back of his head. "Oh sorry. Didn't see you there." He emptily apologizes.

"Did you see that? That's how he always treats me." Chanyeol rubs the back of his head and points at Baekhyun while whining at an older man whose outfit blatantly informed Baekhyun 'I am Chanyeol's butler.'

Chanyeol's butler bows at Baekhyun apologetically.

Baekhyun lazily returns the bow and sluggishly turn his gaze at the girl who is watching him closely. The injured leg the girl is standing on has turned blue from the cold and lack of blood. The dark blood around the scarf has hardened and looked like a mess. Shivering with only the oversized coat hanging off her body, she blankly blinks at Baekhyun with curious eyes.

What is wrong with this girl? Is she an idiot?

Unknowingly affected by the guilt from earlier, Baekhyun grabs the girl's arm and reluctantly pulls her into the warmth of his house. "Can you tell Chanyeol to come back later?" Baekhyun tells the butler, bluntly ignoring the tall boy spoken of who is on the ground and clenching the back of his head.

Chanyeol, of course, feels ignored and complains. "Hey, I'm right here. Talk to me directly if you--"

Bam. Baekhyun closes the door and leaves Chanyeol hanging midsentence.

"Come on, Mister Park. You can come to bother--I mean, talk to Mister Byun later." From the inside, Baekhyun can hear the butler coaxing Chanyeol back home.

He turns around and faces the injured girl and looks up at the ceiling in thought. She's still watching him with curiousity. "Can you stop staring?" He finally says before walking past her and towards the bathroom.

"Oh, sorry!" She apologizes and, not sure whether to follow after him or not, flaps her arms silently at the front door.

Baekhyun turns on the faucet in the bathtub and tests the temperature of the water. It's cold. 'Right, I still haven't paid the bill.' Turning off the water, he sits on the side of the tub and stares at the girl still flapping her arms at the front door. Weird.

Still, he feels responsible for the girl's leg for some reason and brainstorms on where to get warm water for the girl. There is a traditional stove in the outdoor kitchen where he used to cook rice in a large pot by building fire under it, but isn't that strange to bathe in?

Whatever.

"Come on." Baekhyun tells the girl who stops flapping around and rushes over to his side. Leading her in the direction of the second kitchen, he can't help but keep staring at her leg. 'Does she not feel it? Where'd she get that injury?'

'Why is he staring at me? Is he still mad?' On the other hand, the girl has no idea why this human is suddenly being nice to her. When he had kicked her out, she thought she had done something wrong and was feeling bad about it. Is he forgiving her now?

With unanswered questions filling both their heads, they entered the empty kitchen. As if it waiting for this moment, the firewoods, stove and flint stones are already set and ready for Baekhyun's use.

"What's this place?" She wonders outloud and then quickly covers , hoping it Baekhyun did not hear. She doesn't want to annoy Baekhyun more than she already has.

Baekhyun doesn't mind though, but still answers playfully with a sweet smirk. "Since you ate my food, I'm going to eat you."

The girl gasps loudly and starts flapping her arms again. Baekhyun rolls his eyes and turns to boil some water for the girl.