“Let me show you this room!” Chan-yeol giddily pulled on your arm and led you to a large bright room with a blue tint on the walls from the lights, “My gosh! Why are the lights in your house so bright?” I whined as I squinted my eyes at the sudden brightness. Chan-yeol waved his hand, “You’ll get used to it. Right now, we’re supposed to be weapon training, but I want to show you our weapons before I start.”

He led me to a room lined up with weapons on every wall covering every inch of the white surface. A white sword, however, appealed to me as it sat on a stand. It vaguely reminded me of my dagger for it had small intricate designs on the handle. I ran my fingers on the wedge, “What are you doing here?”

I turned and saw Kai glaring at me with two swords sheathed wrapped on his back. A devilish smile curled on his lips and I glared back at him, “What do you mean what am I doing here? Chan-yeol invited me, and I intend to have a small spar with one of you. I want to know how good you guys can fight.” Zhitao stopped in his tracks near me and Kai and cocked his head, “You want to have a swordfight with me?”

Kai shook his head, but I smiled, “Sure! Can I use this sword?” Zhitao hesitated, but he sighed and shrugged, “Whatever. Follow me.” He walked out of the room and back to the white room and unsheathed his sword. It was thick and heavy, but he held it in his hands as if it weighed just as light as mine. I was shocked to see the sword I held to glow blue like my dagger.

Zhitao blinked at my sword, “That’s strange. That sword never glowed when we used it...” I swung my sword at him, but his reflexes were faster than I had expected and Zhitao had blocked my hit and pointed his sword at my throat, “I see you’re pretty impatient to start this. Go ahead and take a shot.”

I swung my sword again at his arm and it slightly grazed his skin making him bleed, but he focused his eyes on me and he blocked my next swing and the compact of his sword and mine made me fly backwards. I grunted and aimed for his throat, but Zhitao did the same and I twirled my sword and quickly angled it towards the right making his sword fly in the air and land on the floor. He held his hands up and chuckled, “Your fighting ability is much better than expected. I see why you survived in those woods.”

There was a slight applause coming from the others and I bowed trying to hide my smile. Sehun and Chan-yeol approached me, each trying to reach me faster than the other.

“Hei-ryung, you were really good! Maybe we should—”

“Hei-ryung, don’t listen to him. Why don’t we go back to the kitchen to get you some water?” Chan-yeol interrupted pushing Sehun out of the way. The others, however, stared at me in suspicion and soon the ashy blonde male walked towards us.

“Kris,” Zhitao mumbled and avoided the boy’s gaze. I looked at Kris and averted my eyes from his and my cheeks burned. I could sense he was smiling and then he patted my arm, “Good job, Hei-ryung. We might need you to help us train.” I lifted my eyes and saw him gazing deeply at me. Chan-yeol and Sehun began to tug on my arms causing me to lose focus, “Hei-ryung, let’s go get some water for you!”

“What about me?” Zhitao asked, but Chan-yeol ignored the boy. I rolled my eyes and shook off their strong grips, “I’m not the one who’s thirsty. Why don’t you two go get Zhitao a bottle of water and then I’ll decide what I want to do next.” Chan-yeol and Sehun began to sprint out of the room. Zhitao and I glanced at each other and snickered. Maybe I could get along with this kid.

“Here, you can have this sword. If you run away, I’m sure Kris would be okay with this and some of the others too, but you should know that you mustn’t speak of us to anyone if you bump into other people. Although you haven’t said anything yet, I know that you’re going to escape tonight and so I had Kyung-soo prepare some to-go meals for you so you don’t have to scavenge for food.” Joon-myeon said and handed me the white sword I fought with before.

“Why are you doing this? Why are you being so nice to me when I did nothing to help you and your friends?” I asked. Joon-myeon chuckled, “Sometimes, it’s nice to just be nice to other people for no reason. Now, I’m guessing you’re going to head out soon?” I nodded and gripped onto the sword. He patted my shoulders and closed his eyes, “I wish you the best of luck. You can always come back if you feel the need to do so.”

I exhaled and nodded my head again.

After Joon-myeon left, I quietly slipped out of the house and into the forest. Someone their room light and a shadow casted on the window and I crouched behind a bush. After a few minutes, the light turned off and I quickly sprinted deeper into the forest where the sound of crickets hummed over the dead-silence of night. As I ran, a loud whoosh sound flew past my left ear and an arrow appeared on the tree next to my head.

“Where do you think you’re going?” A voice asked. I reluctantly turned and saw Kai with a bow and arrow in his hands. I sighed and crossed my arms, “Why are you following me? You should be asleep by now.” Kai neared me and snarled, “I asked you a question first.”

I averted my gaze and scratched my head, “I’m leaving. I can’t stay for long like you said before.” Kai pinned me against the tree and my breath began sharp, “What are you doing? Why are you out here?” I noticed that both of his swords were wrapped onto his back and I bit my lower lip.

“I decided to keep my eye on you. Who knows what you can do while you’re away.” He simply mumbled. I took this chance to run away so I pecked his lips and whispered, “See you later,” and sprinted to the area where I had met the beast that almost killed me. I slipped into another small opening and panted silently under the tree closing my eyes.

“You’re really fast, but I luckily found you again.” Kai’s voice suddenly said over the loud hum of the crickets. I jumped and hit my head on the tree and rubbed my head, “I thought I lost you. Why are you still following me?” He grabbed my hand and pulled me into him, “There was a reason why you kissed me before you ran, so would you care to explain or should I do so myself?” I pouted my lips, “I didn’t kiss you for a reason... I mean—I only kissed you because it was an easy way out if I shocked you for a couple of seconds longer.”

Kai pulled me closer into him and I could feel his hot breath tickling me, “Should we replay the kiss?” I pushed him off of me and groaned, “I don’t have anything for you, Kai. The most I would feel for you would be uneasiness. You’re so strange.” He smirked, “Speak for yourself!”

I grew quiet and heard rain quietly fall, and I looked at Kai. I could only see his shadow in the dark and my dagger began to glow along with the sword. I took them both out and saw the designs on the metal of the weapons and furrowed my brows, “What is this?”

Kai grabbed for my dagger and flipped it in his hand, “This isn’t normal. Whenever I hold these kinds of weapons, it gives a negative energy and makes me instantly tired, but with you it just glows!” I blinked at him and raised an eyebrow, “You have weapons like my dagger and this sword?”

He nodded and handed me back the dagger, “We have a lot! However, we never used them so we hid them somewhere. The—”

Kai stopped in the middle of his sentence and covered my mouth with his hands. He held his finger up to his lips and we listened to our breathing and the light rain drops. Seconds, minutes passed by and we sat in total silence until there was a subtle thundering sound.

“It’s—”

A sharp claw-like hand grabbed me from behind and my heart pounded against my chest and I felt the claws dig into my skin. Kai grabbed for me, but more claw-like hands reached in the openings of the roots and swung at the air until they scratched some sort of surface. Kai unsheathed his swords and cut some of the hands off, but a nasty skeletal white creature crawled into the root and hissed at us. I opened my mouth to scream, but the hands that grabbed me pulled me out of the tree and I looked at the foreign animals that their lips.

I quickly stood up and swung my sword at them. Their skeletal bodies awkwardly dodged my sword and they hissed their red-stained mouth at me. Their black eyes glared deeply into mine and I could hear the nasty snarl from the creatures as they lunged for me. Jong-in crawled out of the hole and his foot was grabbed by another claw and he grunted as he sliced his sword at the hand.

A nasty screech filled the air and the skeletal creatures suddenly screeched back making my ears pop and ring from the high eerie noise. Kai and I covered our ears as they screech became louder and we sunk to our knees and slowly moved towards each other. The creatures stopped and turned to our attention. Kai and I began to quickly get on our feet, but they grabbed us from behind and twisted our arms behind our backs.

“Do you know what these are?” I grunted and tried to shake off their grips, but failed to do so. Kai grunted as well and moved all about, “They’re Exotics. They usually aren’t harmful unless they sense something from the creature they meet. I don’t know what we did, but I’m guessing your weapons are a threat.”

I gritted my teeth, “Well, as long as they don’t—”

My vision blurred and I felt myself give up suddenly, and I sank to my knees and felt the grass tickle my cheek as I fell to the ground. My mind went blank, and a nasty snarl was the last thing I heard before Kai shouted my name.

“Hei-ryung! Hei-ryung! Hei-ryung!”