It was late in the evening when Kyungsoo entered the kitchen, and almost as if she couldn't help it, let out a loud groan. She had been poking around the small kitchen for barely ten minutes, and she had quickly came to a conclusion that their stock of groceries were close to non-existent. Understandably, they had six growing teenagers in the house - Kyungsoo included obviously - and two of them ate like there's no tomorrow. So, their dwindling groceries shouldn't really came out as a surprise, really, but that doesn't mean Kyungsoo had to be happy about it. With a sigh, she dragged herself out of the kitchen, and headed straight to the living room.

“Guys, I need to go to the supermarket for some groceries.” She began, halting behind the couch where Baekhyun and Tao were seated. “Is there anyone willing to come with me?”

The other two looked up to stare at her for a short moment before shifting their attention back on the television. 

“Nope.” said Baekhyun first.

“Ditto.” Tao agreed without looking.

Kyungsoo glared daggers at the backs of their heads, but if they felt anything, they didn't show it. Not wanting to waste her time, Kyungsoo relented and deliberately went out of the house.

The supermarket was a short walk ahead, but she still had to take her time to navigate the way since she was fairly new to the neighbourhood. Thankfully, she managed to get there without much problem. She wasted no time to cross off a few items off her grocery list as she toured all around the moderately packed supermarket. Lastly, she trotted toward the oil section in search of the last thing on her list ; sesame oil.

“Well, well, aren't you a rotten one, you little devil?” muttered Kyungsoo once she found what she had been looking for. Apparently, the workers there didn't think there would be short people shopping here, which would explained why in the hell they placed things so high up the air. (“Stupid worker, stupid height, stupid friends..” Kyungsoo thought furiously.)

After a moment of deliberation, she eventually decided to reach for it anyway by tiptoeing as much as she can. It proved quite difficult though considering her petite stature, and the shelve had to be at least three inches taller than her. She groaned with frustration as her fingers only grabbed air before there was suddenly another hand reaching for the bottle of sesame oil. Taken by surprise, Kyungsoo nearly lost her balance if it wasn't because of the strong arm wrapped around her waist to prevent her from falling. The stranger quickly released his hold once he was sure she was not on the brink of falling, and Kyungsoo was thankful for that. Even through the thick material of her sweater, she could still felt shivers running down her spine because of the stranger's cold skin. Kyungsoo briefly wondered if the guy had been playing hide-and-seek and decided to hide in the fridge or something.

“Here. Is this what you want?” He handed her the bottle of sesame oil, but Kyungsoo quickly became distracted by his voice that was as smooth as velvet. Stunned, Kyungsoo accepted without thinking and placed it in her cart. By the time she snapped out of her trance, the guy was already walking away. 

“Wait!”

The guy stopped short in the middle of the aisle, but refused to turn his body.

“T-Thank.. you.” Kyungsoo spluttered in a hurry, feeling the wave of heat pooling in her cheeks.

“You're welcome.” There goes Kyungsoo's sanity out of the window as she heard the smooth voice all over again. She swore it was so beautiful that she might considered on crying right then and there - and possibly begged him to stay as well. Unfortunately, she was much too dignified to do that, and the stranger was already hurrying away as she trailed her eyes after his disappearing back. 

“I'm so dying alone one day.” Kyungsoo muttered to herself, resenting her inability to interact with the opposite gender. “Maybe I should start adopting cats from now. If I'm lucky, I can be the lonely, lame grandma that reeks of cat's poop.” She grimaced at her own idea, and shuddered slightly. With slumped shoulders, she trudged toward the cashier and paid for everything, not even bothered by the high amount.

“Excuse me, miss?” A tall man suddenly approached her as she passed by the parking lot.

Kyungsoo glanced all around to confirm that the guy was indeed talking to her. “Me?” She pointed to herself with a bewildered expression, causing her naturally large eyes to grow even wider.

“Yes, I meant you.” The guy assured with a smile. “I don't mean to bother you, but I really need someone to help me with my stuff. If you don't mind, could you please help me just for a moment? I swear it will only take seconds.” The guy pleaded, bringing his hands together in front of him as if he was trying to apologize to someone.

“Uhh..” Kyungsoo hesitated, noticing for the first time that it was pretty quiet and vacant around her.

“Please?”

Kyungsoo was not used to interacting with a stranger, let alone trying to lend her helping hand, but the other was asking so politely and she couldn't refuse that.

“Sure, I guess.”

The stranger's lips immediately stretched into a wide smile before he guided her to his car. He made her stood at the back of the car as he went to open the trunk. Not knowing what to do while she waited, Kyungsoo tapped her feet impatiently and made the mistake of turning her back against the car. Within seconds, her eyes were suddenly covered from behind, and  stuffed with cloth that smelled strangely damp and sweet. She can also felt the quick little prick on her left arm before there was an overhelmingly dizzying sensation around her mind. Amidst the hazy state of her mind, she was vaguely aware of someone carrying her bridal style before placing her on a hard surface. The trunk, she realised with a start. That and also the fact that she was obviously being kidnapped in broad daylight.

“Holy crap, I'm being kidnapped!” was Kyungsoo's only coherent thought as she tried without much success to move her limbs around. Her voice also got stuck in , and she felt the rising panic fighting to take control of her hazy mind.

But, she was slowly losing the fight and she knew it. The dizzying sensation had transformed into a numb sensation instead, creating a huge void of blackness that was starting to spread all over her mind. She was also starting to hear things that doesn't really make sense such as the sound of someone's bone being crushed. How she really wished that it was real, and belonged to her kidnapper. And, that voice.. 

“Stay with me! Do you hear me?” The smooth voice was no longer as velvety as it was before. It was tinged with sheer desperation, and rough emotion. “Stay with me, damnit!”

She managed to decide in seconds that she didn't like this new sound. Not because she was being shallow, but it was because she somehow knew it was all because of her and she hated to be the reason that voice lost its beautiful quality. The last thing she was able to register was the sudden feel of a cold sensation on her cheek before there was the inky blackness.                                                                     

~~+~~

It felt like a million years had passed when she finally managed to pry her eyes opened. The inky blackness was quickly replaced by a blinding white light, and her eyes instantly shut close out of reflect. As she took comfort in the familiar darkness, her mind slowly began spurring to life and pieces by pieces of her last memory began assembling itself into a complete puzzle.

Kyungsoo realised with a start that she had not been imagining things. The voice had seemed so real, so vivid in spite of her numb mind at the time that it could only meant one thing. It was real. The voice was really there next to her before she lost consciousness, which meant that the beautiful stranger had somehow found her in time of her self-inflicted peril. And, those cool sensation on her cheek. She could almost felt her cheeks burning at the thought because there was no mistaking his cold skin against her warm one now that her mind was no longer all fuzzy and out of order.

“Kyungsoo? Are you awake yet?” A soft voice suddenly squeaked right next to her ears. To say that she was surprised would be an understatement. Her eyes flew open, and recoiled under the glaring stare of the bright light. She nearly shut her eyes close back if it wasn't because of the sight that welcomed her.

Five pair of concerned eyes bore right through her soul when her eyes finally adjusted to the light, enough for her to make sense of the situation. It was her friends with their heads huddled closely together to make a tight circle around her. Kyungsoo's first reaction after blinking a few times was to scream her head off.

“What? What is it?” shrieked Tao first, flailing around to regain her balance when her instinct took over, and she backed away without thinking. She unconsciously pulled Baekhyun along with her, and the other was quick to fight her off.

Meanwhile, Minseok and Luhan jumped away while clutching their heart. “What the , Kyungsoo!”

“Language.” reprimanded Suho before she shifted her attention back toward Kyungsoo. “Are you alright? Are you hurt anywhere? Do you feel dizzy or nausea or anything?”

“I'm fine.” Kyungsoo grumbled when she finally managed to calm herself. “I'm not pregnant, Suho.”

Suho just shrugged. “It doesn't hurt to ask.”

Kyungsoo replied with a roll of her eyes before she began scanning her surrounding. One look at the white decor of the room, and she immediately became sure that she was definitely in a hospital at the moment. The small room only consisted of the bed she was currently occupying, a small table on her right side, a small locker on her left side, and a long couch near the window. Suho was seated on the only chair in the room next to her while the rest of her friends made a beeline for the couch after they were over their shock. Except for Tao, who approached the bed all over again.

“Tao, are you.. crying?" Kyungsoo asked incredulously, unable to find one solid reason behind it. The said girl's eyes were all red, and puffy.

“Well, I'm sorry for having a heart.” Tao bit back though it was lacking the usual venom she usually carried in her tone when she was annoyed.

“What exactly happened?” Luhan chirped in. “The hospital suddenly called to say that you were admitted here. Suho nearly had a heart attack!” Luhan chuckled once, probably remembering the look on Suho's face at the time. “When we arrived, they won't tell us the details. They said that they didn't know either, but they assured that there's nothing wrong with you. Just knocked out by some drug with a weird name that I can't be bothered to remember so we didn't argue when they asked us to simply wait for you to wake up. Tao couldn't stopped crying though. She was fully convinced that you were nearly kidnapped by a whole bunch of creepy aliens from Mars.” Luhan snorted, and shot a pointed look toward the tall girl.

“It's not impossible.” Tao muttered sulkily under her breath.

Kyungsoo heard it, but she paid no heed to it. Instead, she was much more interested in Luhan's story. “Is that it?” She asked hesitantly.

“Yeah, why?” came Luhan's immediate reply before she squinted her eyes, suddenly growing suspicious of the other.

“Not a single word on who sent me here?” There was a hopeful glint in Kyungsoo's eyes, which didn't go unnoticed by Luhan. “I meant, I can't possibly walked all the way here by my ownself when I'm knocked out cold, right?”

“Is he handsome?” blurted Luhan.

“What?” said Kyungsoo anxiously. “I don't know what are you talking about.”

Luhan rolled her eyes. “Oh, please. I've known you since like forever, Kyungsoo. You're not exactly the hardest person to read either whenever you get all flustered like that. I'll bet on Tao's latest Gucci collection that you saw the guy before you fainted, don't you? And, now he's all you could ever think about, that little prince charming of yours.”

“Hey!” Tao protested. “Take my innocent baby Gucci out of the question, you uneducated peanut!”

Unfortunately, nobody paid much attention to her. Kyungsoo and Luhan were having an intense staring contest between themselves before Luhan admitted defeat.

“Just admit it, Soo.”

Kyungsoo glared at her. “Or maybe I'm just wondering who's the brave soul that had enough courage to save me - an accidental damsel in distress thanks to her friends that won't even accompany her to the supermarket - from being kidnapped in broad daylight.”

The reaction was instantaneous, Kyungsoo noticed smugly. But, she regretted it almost immediately afterwards. Suho looked like she was having a relapse while Minseok, Baekhyun and Luhan had a matching stunned look across their features. And Tao, well, it took a few seconds as she simply stared at Kyungsoo, probably trying to digest the words. Then, she abruptly threw herself toward Kyungsoo, and began wailing on top of her voice.

“Oh my God, I'm so, so sorry, Kyungsoo-ah.. It's all my fault. I should've gone with you when you asked. I should've insisted—no, begged to come with you!” She rambled on in between her muffled sobbing. 

“She's right.” Baekhyun said with a guilty look. “I'm so sorry too, Soo. I'm glad nothing happened to you or I would've to throw myself off a clock tower.”

“It's alright, guys.” Kyungsoo assured awkwardly. “This should serve as a quick reminder to you guys to not be lazy again to accompany me to the supermarket next time though.” She added jokingly, trying to lighten up the atmosphere. Unfortunately, the remaining girls' sense of humor could be classified as an extinct species at the moment.

“I swear that would never happen again.” Luhan vowed with a serious look.

Kyungsoo mentally facepalmed herself. 

“But still,” Kyungsoo suddenly began again. “Are you really sure that you really have no idea on who's my.. savior?”

Luhan and Baekhyun exchanged a brief glance with each other.

“The nurse at the information desk did mentioned about a guy..” Baekhyun trailed off, unsure whethere it was a good idea to disclose the information.

“He was the one who brought you here.” Luhan interrupted. “But, the old maid at the front desk said he wished to remain anonymous so he refused to give out his informations. She couldn't stop gushing about him though. Apparently, he was the most beautiful person she had ever encountered in her entire life, and she even still had those slight dazed look when we arrived earlier.”

Kyungsoo stopped listening somewhere after Luhan mentioned about the anonymous part. She vaguely heard about the beautiful part though, and nearly snorted out loud. She didn't have to hear something that was already as clear as the day for her. With a voice as smooth as that, it was just natural, and quite expected for him to have a gorgeous appearance to go along with it. Kyungsoo was actually much more concerned about the fact that he had chose to keep his identity as a secret, almost as if he preferred not to have anything to do with her anymore. Against her own wishes, she experienced a sharp pang of disappointment, which puzzled her to no end because it doesn't make sense for her to be upset over a random stranger she barely met a few hours ago. She mentally facepalmed, wondering if she had hit her head hard somewhere during the failed kidnapping attempt. That had to be it. It had to be.