“Where are you going?” Tao asks you as you put your jacket on by the door.

“School.” You state. “It’s Monday.”

“When will you be back?” he asks, with an almost worried expression.   

“I don’t know. I’ll probably have a lot of homework to do so you guys shouldn’t expect me back until sometime after dinner.” You say as you fix your ponytail in front of the mirror.   

Tao widen his eyes. “What?! I thought you’d only be gone for an hour or so!” he exclaims with a pout.

“Sorry, but welcome to planet earth – school eats you up.” You shrug. 

“But what are we gonna do until you’re back?” 

“I don’t know. Entertain yourself I guess.”

“Not that you ever entertain us.” Kai pipes in to the conversation. You give him a glare. “I didn’t ask for 12 aliens to baby sit. See you later.” You say and leave. 

----

As you arrive inside your classroom, Sooyoung immediately appears next to you. “So~ how did the date go and why haven’t you been answering my texts?” she asks with wide eyes.    

You take out your phone from your backpack. You see that the screen states ‘4 missed calls and 8 new texts’. You really don’t check your phone often. “Sorry.” You mumble sheepishly. 

“Whatever, just tell me how the date went!” Sooyoung exclaims, lightly hitting you on your upper arm.  

You blush at the mere thought of the disastrous date last Friday. “I don’t even want to talk about it.” You say as you sink deeper down in your seat. 

“What? Didn’t it end well?” Sooyoung ask you again with wide eyes.  

You shake your head furiously. “No. It was a true horror, the whole night.” You pout while playing with your pen.

“I’m sure it wasn’t that bad.” Sooyoung tries to comfort. “He went home with soaked pants.” You give her an evil look. She just raises her eyebrows. “Wha..?”  

“And he didn’t pee himself, I spilled Fanta all over him.” You explain as you hid your red face in your hands.

“PWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!” Sooyoung laughs, collapsing over her desk.

“I knew you’d be supportive.” You mutter sarcastically just as your teacher enters the room, so Sooyoung has to gather herself.     

---

The day snails by and by 9 that night you finally leave the school library with your friends.   

“I’m so tired I can’t even walk.” Yoona mumbles with her eyes closed.   

“Mmhmm.” Both you and Sooyoung agree.   

“Can’t we all just come with you home, Julia? It’s so much closer. We could just sleep in your guest room.” Sooyoung suggests. She and Yoona had done that at least 10 times before.  

“Fine.” You mumble as you walk with your head leaning on to Sooyoung shoulder. Then all of a sudden, your head shots up. “No! Wait! You can’t come!” you turn to face the two other girls who both stop in their tracks, looking at you weirdly.

“Why not…?” Yoona asks.  

“Because… My brother’s here on a visit.” You lie.  

“You have a brother?” Yoona asks, furrowing her eyebrows. You nod desperately. “Yes, and he’s staying in the spare bedroom.”  

“So? I can just sleep on the couch and Yoona can share your bed with you.” Sooyoung shrugs and start to walk again.

“No!” you exclaim again, panicking over the fact that they’re just minutes away from meeting your 12 soul mates. “He…He’s sick. So you can’t come. He’s sick.” 

“What kind of sick?” Yoona asks. 

“Ehm…I don’t really know…” you scratch your head. “But… he’s puking.” You lie, knowing that will scare the girls away from coming with you.  

“Euw…” Yoona makes a face. “Fine then.” Sooyoung sighs. “We’ll just walk home. See you tomorrow.” she pulls you in for a quick hug and pats your back. 

As you see them leave you let out a sigh of relief. Then you turn and continue the walk to your apartment.

You pull your jacket closer around your body as a cold breeze sweeps by you and hurry your steps to get home faster. All of a sudden you hear faint voices. That’s weird. There’s almost never people out here at this hour. As you see three men in their late twenties coming around the corner you turn again to walk, just slightly uncomfortable by them.

They laugh about something but then they quiet down as one of them spots you. You hear their fast steps behind you and you seriously consider the idea of just running, but before you actually have a chance to do so, the three figures have catched up with you and now stand around you, and so, you’re trapped. 

You try to act calm. There’s no reason to panic, you can’t be sure they’re rapists.

“Hey there girl…” one of them says, smiling at you. He’s actually not that ugly and neither are his friends but that doesn’t really make you feel any better.     

“H-Hi…” you mumble – barely audible.  

“So why are you walking alone at this time of the day?” another one of them asks.

“Oh… I was just done studying at the library.” You try to say with a steady voice. 

“So you’re a good girl then…?” the first one asks with a smirk and you feel your heartbeat running like Usain Bolt.

-----

“Do we really have to leave?” Tao pouts.

“Yes, they’re closing the mall now.” Baekhyun explains, drinking the last from his raspberry smoothie, before throwing it in the trash.

“Let’s just go home. Maybe Julia’s back.” Sehun says.

“Yes. Come one now.” Kris nods and leads the three younger boys out of the mall.   

They walk there, Sehun and Tao has hooked their arms with each other and they’re joking around with Baekhyun as Kris listens to them, amused, but with his usual poker face.

Suddenly they spot some people maybe 30 meters away and they all stop in their tracks. “Are there other people walking home from the mall now to…?” Sehun tilts his head. 

Kris narrows his eyes, slightly recognizing the figure in the middle. When he realizes who it is he widen his eyes.

“It’s Julia!” he hisses.

“What?” Baekhyun widen his eyes.

“Who are those men?” Sehun asks.

They quietly watch you for a few seconds until one of the males around you pull your jacket so that you stumble closer to him.

Tao jumps, ready to go to attack as they realize the men around you aren’t your friends, but Kris holds him back.

“What Duizhang? Shouldn’t we help her? I don’t think she wants to be with those guys.” Tao shakes his head. Kris doesn’t answer him but instead studies you and the males around you. 

The one that pulled your jacket now tries to pull it off and you try to break free, but another one grabs your hair, which causes you to whimper in pain.

“That’s enough.” Tao runs forward but again Kris stops him. “What?!” Tao hisses.

“You can’t you use your power around humans.” Kris hisses. 

“But we have to save her.” Tao hisses right back. “Not with your power.” Kris shakes his head slowly.

“Fine.” Tao shuts his mouth close but still breaks free from Kris’ grip and hurries forward until one of the male’s spots him.

“Oh shi-“ he has the time to say before Tao whips his leg in the air and swiftly kicks one of the guys in his back, making him fall to the ground and loose his grip on your hair. 

You turn around, surprised, and then widen your eyes in shock when you spot Tao, his eyes dark and filled with hate. Before the first guy he kicked down has any chance to get back up, Tao grabs another one and twist his upper body so that he falls to the ground. Since that was the one that had a hold of your jacket you slightly lose your balance but manage to regain it.   

By now, the third – and only guy still on his feet – has gotten what’s going on and throws himself towards Tao’s back and the two starts to wrestle. It doesn’t take many seconds until Tao manage to push him off, but by then, the first guy that Tao attacked is back on his feet, and it turns out he can actually fight. 

As he and Tao get into a fight you back away, staring at the scene in front of you with a horrified expression. Another one of the guys also goes on Tao and soon all three of your attackers are fighting Tao and he struggles to kick them off.      

“Go…To…Kris…And the…Others.” Tao manage to say to you and you suddenly look up, first now noticing the three shadows watching the fight. You glance at Tao one last time as he manages to swing a punch right in one guy’s face so that he flies to the ground.    

Tao will handle this. You tell yourself as you run past them towards Kris, Baekhyun and Sehun. Baekhyun opens his arms as you come running and you crash right in to his comforting arms. “There, there.” He holds you close to his chest as he pats your hair slightly. You slowly turn in his arms so that you can watch the fight.

One of the guys – luckily not Tao – is on the ground, his chest slowly going up and down so at least his breathing, but he doesn’t look like he’s about to get back in to the fight any time soon.  

“You have to help him.” You whimper. Sehun looks at you before he firmly approaches the three fighting guys but Kris stops him. “You’ll just be more in the way for Tao than you’ll help him.” He states and Sehun seems to realize Duizhang’s right and so he stands back.       

As Tao receives a punch, making him fly to the ground, you turn you face in towards Baekhyun’s chest and hide it there so that you don’t have to watch the rest of the fight. It’s all my fault.