A few days had passed since Tao’s big break out and your leg had finally healed. Everyone in the village was on edge due to the captive’s escape and the warriors were put on permanent patrol duty. The strongest warriors were to guard the border and the ranged warriors stayed on the village site, positioned on high pedestals overlooking the entire village. The whole village of EXO-K were kept on their toes, waiting for EXO-M’s rebuttal attack.

No one knew how the EXO-M prisoner had escaped.  When Kai woke from his drugged daze, he had no recollection of what had happened. Luckily for Sehun, the last thing Kai remembered was standing alone in front of the dungeon. He had no memory of Sehun being with him at all.

Unfortunately, this mishap resulted in Kai’s expulsion from warrior duties. He was transferred to solo animal hunting and was prohibited to be involved in anything related to their precious angel.

 

 

“…close the void…”

That voice again…such a pretty voice. But…void? What’s a void?

“…It’s…time to start…”

“Start what?”

“…go now. Be yourself—you’ll be fine.”

 

 

The weather was slightly humid when you woke up that morning. You brushed the sticky fringe off your damp forehead and attempted to dab away the perspiration with the back of your hand.

Close the void? What’s that supposed to mean?

You didn’t know where these sudden reoccurring dreams were coming from. You’ve heard the voice of a woman speaking to you in your dreams almost every night since you got to the island. You couldn’t help but wonder if they meant something or whether it was just a memory of some TV show you had watched when you were back at home.

You sat up and rubbed the sleep from your eyes. Rustling through your bag, you pulled out your compact mirror—you looked absolutely horrible. Almost all your makeup was lost in the plane crash--all that was left was a half stick of khol eyeliner. Up until now, you hadn’t bothered much with your appearance as you were always too busy with helping D.O. in his garden or practising your aim with your sling shot with Sehun. Today though, you felt like you really needed to do something to spruce up your sleep deprived looking face.

You sorted through the contents of your back pack blindly, feeling around for your eyeliner, worrying when you thought it wasn’t there.

 “Ah-ha! There you are you sneaky little .” You smirked cockily at the half used eyeliner pencil and blew on the tip to remove the tiny speck of lint that had stuck to it. “Thought you could hide from me, well think again.”

You pulled your eyelid taut but just as you were about to start drawing a line, you were interrupted by the sound of a faint wheeze.

“Angel…!” You heard Baekhyun’s voice call from outside your teepee, a sense of urgency in his voice. ”Can I come in?”

You looked at your pale face in your compact mirror once more before sighing and putting it down.

“Uh sure Baek, what is it?”

Baekhyun’s head peeked through the opening in the teepee entrance, his eyes possessing a guilty twinkle that showed he had been up to no good. He bounced in, peeping outside once more before pulling the door flap closed and scuttling over to you. You eyed him suspiciously as he sat down next to you with a nervous smile on his face, his breath slightly uneven, as if he’d been running. You noticed his eyes glancing towards the door a few times as he sat there in silence. He flinched and grabbed your arm as you heard something crashing from afar.

“Baek,” Baekhyun looked at you with all too innocent eyes. You exhaled. ”What did you do.”

“N-nothing…!” You didn’t miss the slight stutter in his voice and the uncontrollable nervous twitch he had every time he heard a sound from outside.

“Baek.” You crossed your arms and gave him a scrutinizing scowl.

“Okay, okay, but it wasn’t my fault! I swear!” The boy exploded, speaking almost too fast for you to understand him. “…okay, maybe it was my fault, but, but, but, it was just for fun! He’s a deep sleeper and I just wanted to play a little prank but oh my Mama, he’s so pissed and now—“

A loud crash was heard from outside silencing Baekhyun into a catatonic statue.

“Sehun! What the hell are you doing?!” You heard one of the town’s folk yell before the young man himself bulleted through the teepee door with a rag tied around his head like a loose turban. Baekhyun let out a pathetic, all too feminine scream and jumped behind you, using you as a human shield.

“C’mon, Sehunnie, it was just a joke!” Baekhyun wailed, clinging onto your shoulder for his life. Sehun’s eyebrows were furrowed, his eyes filled with a rage you’d never seen him in before. You gaped at the crazed boy in front of you, wondering what on earth Baekhyun could have done to receive such an animated response from the usually chipper, smiley Sehun.

Sehun darted around you and tried to pounce on Baekhyun but the smaller boy just bounced backwards away from Sehun as if they were two magnets of the same charge.  

“Sehun…please. Listen to me for a second okay?” Baekhyun held his hands in front of him, trying to reason with him. “You’re getting older now and I think it’s time you learnt how to take a joke—OOF!“

Sehun tackled Baekhyun to the ground, pinning him down using his knees to clench around the smaller’s waist. Sehun grabbed his bow and arrow that was slung across his back and pointed the loaded weapon at Baekhyun’s face.

“SEHUNNIE, BAEKIE LOVES YOU, DON’T KILL ME, PLEASE!”

You thought it was time you intervened.

“STOP.”

Sehun froze in his place, still shaking with anger. You saw his eyes glance at you for a second before going back to glare at the quivering Baekhyun under him. Baekhyun let out a nervous laugh. He looked at you with fearful eyes and mouthed the word ‘help’.

“Lower your bow, Sehun.” But Sehun didn’t budge. “Excuse me, young man. I said. Lower. Your. Bow.”

The boy with the rag on his head glanced at you one more time before deciding to listen to you.

“Oh sure, I’m older than you and I tell you to stop and you don’t listen to me, but as soon as Angel tells you to stop, you—“ Sehun raised his bow again, silencing the boy beneath him. You frowned at the older one.

“Baekhyun. Shut up. Sehun, weapon down. Now can someone please tell me what the heck is going on here?!”

“Yeah, Sehun. Tell her!” Baekhyun flashed a cheeky smile at the mute boy and earned a shove in the shoulder. You sighed and rubbed your temples.

“Seriously guys, you’re acting like a couple of 5 year olds. And Sehun, why on earth do you have that rag wrapped around your head? Isn’t it making you hot—“

Your eyes widened, your mouth dropped. Baekhyun slapped his hand over his mouth, muffled laughter seeping through his fingers. Tears built up in Sehun’s eyes as he desperately reached for the cloth that you had just yanked off his head.

You couldn’t hold back anymore; you burst out laughing. Baekhyun dropped his hands from his lips and laughed freely along with you, unable to control himself from pounding his fist against the floor.

Sehun’s hair looked like a unicorn had thrown up in it. Patches of fluorescent green, pink, orange and aqua blue were scattered all over Sehun’s mop top, as if a team of 3 year olds had gotten a bunch of highlighters and had a colouring party on Sehun’s head.

“R-rainbow hair…Baek…you…Sehun….” You managed to get out between your laughter. You slapped Baekhyun on the arm, unable to scold him too harshly, as you had to admit that Sehun’s new do looked kind of cute on him. “T-this is what all the fuss is about?”

Sehun got off Baekhyun and curled up in the corner of the teepee. He sat there grumpily, trying desperately not to let his tears spill.

“Like I said before, he’s a deep sleeper and I thought it was time for a new look. I don’t know what he’s so angry about. I thought it suited him!”

Your laughter subsided and you wiped the tears from your eyes. You walked over to where Sehun was crouched and threw your arm around his shoulders, the other hand ruffling his new rainbow mop of hair.

“Sehunnie,” He turned his head away from you, feeling betrayed by your laughter. “Sehunnie, it’s okay. Don’t be upset. Baekhyun’s right. It does kinda suit you!”

Sehun grabbed chunks of his hair and made strange nasally noises as he pulled at it angrily. He let out a loud exasperated sigh, unable to believe that you were siding with Baekhyun. You pulled him in closer and rubbed his shoulder to comfort him.

“Baekhyun, I think you need to apologise to Sehun.”

“But he looks so good—“

“—now.”

Sehun crossed his arms and shot a tearful glare at the shorter boy.

“Okay, okay. I’m sorry for making you look totally fabulous—OW” Baekhyun rubbed the spot on his arm where you hit him. “I mean…I’m sorry for changing your hair without your permission…”

“Good. And Sehun, apologise for trying to shoot Baekhyun.”

Sehun opened his mouth in a silent protest, his eyes begging you to come back to his side.

“Don’t give me that face. Pointing your weapon at your friend was very dangerous. Even if you were angry and Baek shouldn’t have done that, you should be the bigger man and handle your anger better. Now apologise.”

Sehun pouted and stared at the ground for a bit before giving in and bowing his head to Baekhyun.

“Good boy.” You ruffled his newly dyed hair. “Why are you guys here anyway? Shouldn’t you be off on guard duty or something?”

“What’s that?” Baekhyun asked, ignoring you as he watched Sehun pick up your black eyeliner. Sehun sniffed the pencil from one end to the other—a little too closely at the point. He ended up with a black tipped nose. Baekhyun crawled over to Sehun and stared at the tip of his nose.

“Mud?” Baekhyun snatched the eyeliner from Sehun and stared at it in awe. Sehun blinked and stared cross eyed at his nose where the small black dot was.

“No, it’s not mud, it’s—wait—what do you think you are doing?!” Your eyes widened as you watched Baekhyun draw lines on his face, imitating the typical army style face paint technique.

“Oh my goodness, it’s like, instant camouflage mud but without the mess of getting it all over your hands! This is amazing!” You snorted. He didn’t look like he was trying to camouflage himself—he looked like he had whiskers.

“It’s so cool how all the mud is in this tiny little tube thing.” The way Baekhyun was staring at the eyeliner made him look like a loon. “How’d you put it in there? Is this some weird, freaky angel magic like the light magic you gave me before?”

 Baekhyun leant over to draw on Sehun’s face but you snatched the eyeliner from him before he tried to make Sehun into a cat too. It was hard enough not to burst into squeals with Baekhyun looking like a cat. You didn’t think you’d survive having two cute little kitten boys staring at you cluelessly, thinking that they were ready for battle.

“No. That’s not what it’s for. It’s called eyeliner. You line your eyes with it to make your eyes pop!”

Both Sehun and Baekhyun’s eyes widened.

“What?! It makes it pop?! What do you mean? Why would you want your eyes to pop?! Oh my gosh, my cheeks aren’t going to pop right?! What do I do? What do I do—WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!” Baekhyun and Sehun simultaneously tried to pry the eyeliner out of your hands as you began to apply it to your upper lash line.

“Oh, stop it!” You knocked the camo kitty and mute rainbow clown on the head with your hand held pocket mirror and continued working on your eyes. The boys stared in horror, waiting for something big to happen. You finished up and flashed a wide smile at their awaiting faces.

“And there you have it! Eyes that pop!” You fluttered your eyes at the boys and flicked your hair behind your shoulders.

“I…don’t get it. It’s not doing anything.” Baekhyun tilted his head from side to side, in hopes to see the popping from a different angle. “It’s just…black.”

You let out a sigh and put your compact mirror back in your bag.

“It’s cosmetic. It doesn’t do anything, just makes your eyes stand out.”

Sehun scrunched up his nose and gave the thin black line on your lid a quizzical look.

“I think it looks kinda odd. You and your Angel ways. So odd.” You glared at Baekhyun and grabbed him by the chin to hold his head still. “Hey, what are you—“

Baekhyun held his breath as he watched you colour a triangle on his nose. Sehun burst into hushed giggles at seeing Baekhyun transform further into a cat with his newly drawn triangle nose.

“Baekhyun! Sehun! Are you in there? You’re meant to be on guard duty!” You heard Suho call from outside. “Sehun…you didn’t actually shoot Baekhyun, right? I told you that your new hair looks cute on you.”

Baekhyun stuck out his tongue at Sehun as he glared back at him.

“I think we gotta go back to duty now before Suho drags us out. We’ll see you after okay?” You nodded and flashed a smile as the two boys waved at you and left the teepee. You heard Suho’s fading voice question why Baekhyun looked like a cat. You stuck your head out of the teepee to answer Suho’s question with a snarky remark, but stopped when you saw a familiar hunched figure run into the trees at the far end of the village.

Kai.

 

You hadn’t seen Kai in days since his banishment from the EXO-K warriors and as much as you hated to admit it, you were very worried about him. You felt absolutely awful for what you did to him to save Tao. Of course technically it was Sehun that drugged Kai, but it was you who asked him to help out and honestly, how else were they meant to get passed such a skilled warrior?

Your heart ached with guilt as you watched Kai disappear into the forest and before you realized what you were doing, your legs had started to power forward towards the cluster of trees.

Your feet sunk into the moist ground below you with every heavy step you took, sweat already dripping from your forehead.

Far out, I’m unfit as hell. Need to start working out.

You snorted.

Me? Work out? Na, screw that for a joke.

You slowed your pace when you finally saw Kai in the distance. You were sure you wouldn’t catch up to him when he took off running, but it seemed the boy had decided to walk the rest of the way to his destination.

You stalked him for a good 10 minutes, making sure to keep your distance. You watched as he trudged forward, stopping every now and then to check out the bushes around him before moving on. You were so caught up with watching him that you hadn’t realized how close you’d gotten to him until a broken twig under your foot caused him to freeze in his tracks. Within seconds, Kai had whipped around and lunged towards you with his dagger in hand; his face contorted in an angry scowl. You let out a loud screech as you recoiled backwards, falling on your behind.

Kai looked down at you as you looked up at him, quivering with fear. He swore silently to himself and threw his dagger to the ground.

“You stupid woman, are you crazy?!” His fists balled by his side, his words strained through his clenched teeth. “I could have killed you! As if sneak up on a warrior like that. Far out.”

You felt your heart drop as you took in his appearance. His forehead wrinkled into lines of anger, dark circles had formed under his defeated eyes. Dried mud and dirt crept up his legs and was smeared on his face and chest. There was a large crusted gash on his cheek and bloodied claw marks on his right arm.

What on earth happened to him?!

Kai saw your eyes sweep over him and instantly felt overly conscious of his current condition. He picked up his dagger from where he’d thrown it and turned his back on you.

“Why were you following me?” Kai’s voice was hoarse, as if he had just woken up from slumber. But something told you it may have been that he hadn’t spoken to anyone in days. You stood up and brushed the back of your skirt clean from your fall.

“Haven’t seen you around for a while. Just wanted to know where you were off to.”

Kai turned his head to the side and glowered at you, resentment oozing from his brown orbs.

“Where do you think I’m going? You know I’ve been set to hunting duties. So obviously I’m going to hunt.” Kai looked at the path in front of him and continued forward, hoping that you’d be satisfied with that answer and that this conversation would be over. “Go back. It’s dangerous where I’m going.”

Kai trudged away in hopes that you’d listen and leave without saying anymore, but he knew you enough to know that you were more persistent than that. He sighed when he heard your soft little footsteps behind him.

“You’re not coming with me,” He spoke as he continued to walk forward. “Didn’t you hear what I said? I said I was going hunting. Meaning wild animals. Meaning not safe. Meaning you’ll get yourself killed if you come with me.”

“What are you hunting?” You asked, ignoring his warnings. He let out an agitated sigh, ignoring you in return as he quickened his pace.

“Kai?”

 

“…”

 

“Yo, Kai.”

 

“…”

 

“Whatcha hunting, Kai?”

“I DON’T KNOW YET.” He yelled, his fists turning into balls yet again. “Whatever I can find.”

You kicked a rock in front of you, continuing to go out of your way to keep kicking it while walking.

“Have you been hunting every day?”

“Yes.”

“But we’ve been eating vegetables and fruit all week”

“Uh huh.”

“I don’t like just eating vegetables and fruit.”

“ to be you then, huh.”

“But hey if you’ve been hunting all week, why haven’t we had a proper meal?”

“Because I haven’t been able to catch anything.”

“Why not?”

“Because.”

“Because why?”

“Because.”

 

“…because…why?”

Kai spun around and sent the rock you were kicking flying into the bush, his eyes ripping your head off with its sharp glare. Your head shrunk into your shoulders as he took a threatening step toward you.

“Why? Because it’s friggen hard to find anything to catch lately, that’s why. I’ve been trying my hardest to find something to hunt that wouldn’t swallow me whole while trying to hunt it and I’ve come across nothing. I’ve looked high and low and all I could find was a measly little bunny and some birds. And there’s no way I’d take their life because their death would be in vain if it couldn’t sustain the whole tribe. If you haven’t heard already, our tribe is kind of struggling to survive thanks to the curse EXO-M has put on us. We’re trying our best under the circumstances. So if you would kindly shut up and let me do my job so you can have a decent meal—that would be great.”

You took a small, slow step out from under Kai’s towering nose. His fists trembled with fury.

“Please.” His voice softened but the bitter tone never left. “Go away. You following me will only make things worse for me.”

The gnawing guilt rose in your chest again, squeezing your insides, reminding you of the troubles you brought to Kai. Your eyes drooped as the troubled boy turned his back to you again.

“I’m sorry.” You murmured, clasping your hands together tightly. “I really—“

“—go back.” Kai started walking away again, not wanting to hear any more of your meaningless apology.

“W-wait…Kai?”

Kai stopped in his tracks yet again and let out a loud frustrated sigh.

“What?!”

“…which way is back?” You looked around, taking in your surroundings for the first time during your little hike with Kai. The boy ahead of you palmed his face, irritated at the fact that you were so useless.

“We walked in a straight line. Turn around and walk in another straight line and you’ll get back to the village. Pay more attention to your surroundings next time. It could save your life.”

You took a step towards the still statue in front of you but tripped on a raised tree root and stumbled forward slightly, your forehead knocking into Kai’s back. He turned his head and stared down at you.

“I prove my point.”

You rubbed your forehead and glared back up at him.

“Yeah, yeah. Okay. I’ll be more aware of my surroundings. Got it. ” You stuck your tongue out at Kai’s still turned back and did a 180 to head back to the village. “Guess I’ll see you ‘round—with food hopefully.”

“No detours okay? Walk straight and don’t wander off. Make sure you get back in one piece. You seem to get hurt whenever you take the scenic route. So don’t, ‘kay?”

Your eyes fluttered with astonishment; a small smile escaped your lips. Was that a hint of concern in Kai’s voice? It couldn’t have been. You were pretty sure Kai hated you, yet as much as you tried to deny it, the apprehension in his words was not ignorable.

“One piece. Got it.”

You both walked your separate ways.

Maybe Kai wasn’t so bad after all. D.O. did say he was a good person if given the chance. Maybe you were starting to see a tiny glimpse of what D.O. saw in him.

“Stupid girl…”

“I HEARD THAT. JERK!”

 

Nope. Tiny glimpse gone.

 

“I don’t believe this!” You picked up a thick fallen branch and flung it towards the fence that was blocking your path—the border. “How the hell did I end up here again?!”

You’d done exactly as you were told. You walked in a straight line just as Kai advised you to do but somehow, the path didn’t quite go in the straight line that you’d thought it did. The path had started to veer left and the light dimmed as you seemed to get deeper into the forest. You knew you were definitely headed in the wrong direction when you came to a split in the road that you swore wasn’t there before.

“What is this, Hogwarts!?” You yelled at the trees around you as you felt a sense of mocking coming from them. “At least in Harry Potter, when the moving staircases moved, you knew they were moving! What the hell, man, this stupid island hates me.”

You looked over the fence and thought about Tao. Was he okay? Did he make it back to his village? He was pretty hurt when you let him go. What did he tell his tribe members?

“…go…”

What the actual was that? Did I imagine that or…?

Your blood ran cold. Your head whipped around in search for the whisper you’d just heard. Was it the wind? Were you hearing things?  

A sudden gust of powerful wind whipped around you, sending your hair into tornado frenzy. You pulled your dress down to prevent it from flicking upwards and you swayed forward towards the border with the force of the wind’s blow.

The wind dissipated almost as fast as it came. You combed your hair back into place with your fingers and you looked around warily. The faint scent of cherry blossoms filled your nostrils. The birds whistled soft, melodic tunes. The slightly moist air tingled along your skin. An odd serenity overcame you as you felt a shiver roll down your spine.

The trees on the other side of the fence—in EXO-M land—danced invitingly in the breeze. You gulped a second time—the urge to cross the border had never been as strong as it was now.

Before you knew what you were doing, you had already jumped the fence and were standing in M-territory. For a second, you swore you had lost control of your body. You looked back towards the K-village, unsure if you were doing the right thing. You closed your eyes and took a deep breath in.

“I’ll be back soon, guys. You won’t even notice that I left. I promise.”

And with that, you ventured off into the unknown depths of the other half of the island. You knew this day had to come eventually. You just didn’t know it would be so soon.

Another thing you didn’t know was that EXO-K weren’t the only ones defending their side of the border. A large pair of dangerous, hungry eyes detected your presence. It stared at the redness that your body heat exuded as its long tongue slapped against its sharp canines; saliva dripping down the side of its open jaw. You were alerted to its presence when the beast let out a low growl—you froze in your tracks. You heard the sound of tree branches braking and leaves crunching; whatever it was, it was big and it was behind you.

“P-please…please let that be a rabbit.” A large shadow engulfed you. “A…really…really…big rabbit.”

 

 

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A/N:  I feel like this chapter is a bit anti-climatic after my little hiatus. But, but, but! Next chapter you finally get to explore EXO-M side of the island :P 

Thank you so much for reading and subscribing and thank you to all you beautiful angels who upvoted this story!

I feel like I don't deserve all this love you're all giving me, but I appreciate it SO much. Like, you don't even know how much I almost cried when I saw how many subscribers my last chapter got. Thanks so much for liking my story, even though it's a bit of a potato. 

Saranghae angels <3