It was definitely no rabbit, that’s for sure.

Your pupils dilated, your heart beat quickened, your body frozen. You stared up at the large, black, cat-like beast that towered over you; its head alone, bigger than your entire body. Its fangs were drawn—saliva dripping from the sharp canines that glistened in the stream of light peering from the trees above. It let out another low growl as its huge claws dug into the loose ground, it’s wet nose inching towards you.

“N-nice…kitty…” You took a step backwards, making one of its eyes twitch. “Good k-kitty…”

Its large paw thumped towards you and you felt the ground tremor with its weight. You saw another twitch in its eye as it lowered itself on its front paws. Its breathing got heavier and you could smell the putrid stench of raw meat in its breath.

With one deafening snarly scream, the beast pounced at you, claws outstretched—ready for the kill. Gaining an unnatural spurt of adrenaline, you managed to throw yourself out of the way, the large feline slamming head first into the tree behind you, momentarily dazed. You fumbled to your feet and made a quick dash into the forest. You heard another loud roar as the sound of its heavy paws running after you radiated through the ground.

You darted between narrow trees and slid under fallen trunks in hope that your pursuer would be stupid enough to follow you—and hopefully get stuck in the small crevices. Unfortunately, the feline was a lot smarter than you gave it credit for. It knocked down small trees in its way, it jumped over fallen trunks, it dashed around any other obstacle that came in its way.

Just when you thought that this scene couldn’t possibly get anymore cliché, you slipped in some mud and fell limply with exhaustion, hitting your head on a raised tree root.

“Ow.” You clutched the side of your head as pain coursed through your skull. “Seriously…this ’s only meant to happen in movies…”

The beast’s snarl echoed through your ears—tears began to spill from your eyes. You squeezed your eyes tightly together. You gave up on running. You accepted the fact that you were about to be kitty chow in a matter of seconds.

“Somebody…h-help…somebody…”  Your vision began to fade, your eyes drooped as you felt the world begin to spin. You felt a strange, warm stickiness under your hand where you had hit your head. “..s-…”

You heard the giant cat race towards you and you curled yourself into a tight ball, unsure of how this would make your death any less painful.

“KOOKIE, STOP!”

A scream of pain was heard from the cat, followed by a loud thump. You heard a rustling of leaves and footsteps. You blinked your eyes as you struggled to keep them open. A blurry figure rushed over to you.

“Are you okay, Miss?” He sat you up and allowed you to rest your head on his shoulder while he inspected your condition.

“Xiumin, is she okay?” You heard another voice yell. You felt the boy nod.

“Um, head injury, few cuts on her arms. She bleeding, we need to get her to Lay, pronto.  And what about Kookie? How’s he?”

“He’s out like a light…I swear to god, Xiumin, if your tranquilizer dart hurt my Kookie in any way, you’re going to be in so much trouble…”

You let out a small groan as you felt the world spin one last time, your eyes closed and you slipped into unconsciousness.

“Oh crap, Chen. She passed out. Crap, crap, crap.”

Sehun felt stupid. Sehun looked stupid. Sehun wanted to bash Baekhyun’s stupid head in.

He was so angry with Baekhyun for colouring his hair into a rainbow. He liked his natural blonde hair. Whenever the others would experiment with the Saeg Tree, he’d always be the one who sat back and watched as they crushed the fruit into a paste and applied it to their hair. He had no interest in changing his hair colour. Someone had once told him that blonde hair made him look cute and suited him the best. He never believed it of course, but it was still enough to stop him from doing anything to change it.

Sehun sighed as he followed Suho and Baekhyun out of your teepee; time to go back on guard duty. He was going to have a hard time camouflaging himself now with his bright, fluorescent hair.

“Baekhyun, why do you look like a cat?” Suho asked as he wiped at the whiskers Baekhyun had drawn on his face with your eyeliner.

“I’m not a cat! I’m blending in to the surroundings!”

Sehun rolled his eyes and looked back towards your teepee where he saw your head sticking out of the door. He followed the direction in which your eyes were fixed on, only to see Kai running into the forest.  

Kai. Haven’t seen him around here in a while, I wonder—

Sehun’s train of thought was cut short when he saw you bolt off into the forest after Kai.

What is she—silly Angel. Does she really think she can catch up to Kai? Kai’s our fastest runner…

Sehun turned away and continued on towards his lookout post. You were a grown woman after all. You could take care of yourself. He was sure that you’d lose Kai and then turn around and come back.

But she’s still not familiar with the forest layout—what if she—what if the trees do their creepy thing again…hmm…and she’s a bit of a klutz. She could fall and hurt herself—what if she got lost and then got hurt! Or worse…she may be older than me but…

Sehun whipped around and dashed off in the direction where he saw you enter the forest. 

After what seemed like ages to Sehun, he finally gave up on looking for you. He must’ve taken a wrong turn somewhere and ended up losing you completely.

Maybe she already went back. Or maybe she bumped into Kai. She should be okay…Mama, watch over her, yeah?

Sehun took a step back but froze when he heard a crackling of roots. He whipped around towards the sound of the crack but saw nothing. He suddenly felt his skin tingle and a cold breeze rose, lashing around his body. Sehun closed his eyes as the chill travelled down his spine. He listened to the sounds of rustling branches and fluttering leaves.

The trees. They’re doing it again.

Once the wind died down, Sehun opened his eyes to see that the path in front of him had changed. Trees that were once there had moved, forming a winding path that—if his sense of direction was correct—lead towards the border.

Angel…could you possibly have gone—no. You wouldn’t have…

The rainbow haired boy blinked at the new path in front of him and with a nod of his head, he decided to follow it. After all, everything happened for a reason on this island.

Sehun stared at the fence in front of him, the same fence he used to climb over all those years ago. He rested his hands atop the rotting wood and sighed. He hadn’t been back to the border since the incident—he could never bring himself to come back. Any time he thought about the border, he had to try his hardest not to let the memories of him drown him. He looked around in hopes to see you nearby, to save him the pain of having to go into illegal territory. Much to his dismay, you were nowhere in sight.  

Maybe she’s not even in M-territory. What if I climb over and find out later that she had actually just gone back to the K-village.

The trees swayed in the light breeze and a sweet scent of cherry blossoms laced Sehun’s nostrils.

No. The trees wouldn’t have led me here if she hadn’t gone this way.

As if on cue, Sehun heard a distant high pitched scream followed by a cat-like snarl.

ANGEL!

Sehun leaped over the fence and grabbed his bow & arrow that was slung around his back. He bolted through the EXO-M forest, his senses for any movement, any sound to alert him to where you were.

He heard another growl of the beast and took a quick left towards the sound. Far off in the distant clearing, he saw you on the ground holding your head—the 10 foot feline prancing towards you, its claws drawn and ready to hack and slash.

ANGEL!

Sehun opened his mouth to scream at you, but nothing came out.

ANGEL RUN!

Sehun swore to himself. Even in this kind of situation, he couldn’t even form two words to yell out to you. He clenched his teeth and drew his bow back, aiming for the large animal.

Stay away from her you big ugly—

But before he could fire, a small dart went flying through the air and shot the cat in the neck. Sehun immediately recoiled when he saw two EXO-M warriors emerge from the trees.

“KOOKIE, STOP!”

Kookie? That things name is Kookie?

Sehun jumped up into a high tree and watched as one of the warriors the giant feline’s head, the other helping you up as he wrapped an arm around your shoulder.

“Xiumin, is she okay?” The one ‘Kookie’ asked.

Xiumin…? Why does that name sound familiar?

“Um, head injury, few cuts on her arms. She bleeding, we need to get her to Lay, pronto.  And what about Kookie? How’s he?”

“He’s out like a light…I swear to god, Xiumin, if your tranquilizer dart hurts my Kookie in any way, you’re going to be in so much trouble…”

Sehun stared at Xiumins face, squinting his eyes as recognition hit him.

Xiumin…Xiumin…no way. Is that…?

Sehun’s brow wrinkled as unwanted memories flooded back to him.

---

[FLASHBACK]

“Luhan…this stupid deer keeps trying to eat my hair!” The 7 year old Sehun whined as he pushed the small brown deer away from his golden hair. Luhan laughed and pulled the deer away.

“She does that to me too sometimes. I think she mistakes our blonde hair for hay…”

Sehun pulled his lips into a straight line and let out a frustrated groan. He grabbed a handful of his hair and pulled at it.

“Stupid hair! Wish I had normal hair so animals wouldn’t try to eat it all the time.” Sehun made a tiny whining noise. Luhan pouted and crossed his arms.

“Hey, blonde hair is cute! It suits you.” Luhan flicked his own blonde hair back with a cocky smile. “Suits me too, doesn’t it?”

Sehun couldn’t hold back a laugh as he watched his older friend flip his hair from side to side.

“Yeah, yeah. It suits you.” He rolled his eyes. “Now stop with the hair flipping already. You look like a girl.”

Luhan glared at Sehun and pinched his cheeks.

“Hey! I don’t look like a girl. I’m a man—a manly man! Don’t forget it!” Luhan flashed an adorable smile which made Sehun giggle in return.

“LULU!” A distant voice yelled. Luhan and Sehun’s head whipped around in fear, their faces grave with panic.

“Crap..!” Luhan whispered as he pushed Sehun towards the lake. “You have to hide.”

“W-what? I thought this was your secret place that no one knew about?” Sehun looked around nervously, unsure where he could hide.

“There’s only one other person that knows about this place. I’m sorry about this Sehunnie.” Luhan pushed Sehun into the lake and watched as the smaller boy came back up to the surface with a betrayed look on his face. “Hide behind that rock until I say it’s safe to come out. I’m so sorry Sehunnie! I’ll make it up to you!”

Sehun sighed and nodded as he waded to the large boulder in the lake. Shivering, he clung against the cold rock, hoping to steal any little heat that it may have been holding. He peeked around the rock to see a brown haired boy, roughly the same age as Luhan, running towards them.

“Lulu!” Luhan flashed a smile at the boy as he threw his arm around him. “I knew you’d be here.”

“Hey Xiumin! W-what you doing here?” Luhan glanced at the rock where Sehun was hiding behind, glad that Xiumin hadn’t seen him.

“The boys and I were gonna play a game of hoops.” Xiumin dragged Luhan back towards the village. “Told them not to play until I came and got you.”

Luhan pulled out of Xiumin’s grip and gave him a friendly smile.

“Thanks, but I think I’ll pass today, Minnie. You go have fun yeah? I’ll play next time!”

“Um, no. I don’t think so! I can’t play without my bestie. Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go!” Xiumin clutched Luhan’s hand tightly and pulled him into the trees. Luhan looked back at Sehun who had started to come out of his hiding place, his face long with sadness.

I’m sorry Sehunnie. Tomorrow! Luhan mouthed to the sad boy before he got hauled away.

Sehun sighed and glared at the trees.

Xiumin. Luhan’s other friend. I hate him. 

A/N: Annyeong angels~! It was my birthday last week and I'm feeling very old ;~;

Hope you liked this chapter! It's a bit shorter than the others, but I've almost completed the next chapter, so you won't have to wait too long to read more ^_^

Thank you for reading, subscribing, upvoting and commenting! I love you all to bits! Seriously. You make me so happy with your kind words T__T 

Saranghae, angels <3