“Neverland is always more or less and island, with astonishing splashes of

color here and there, and coral reefs and rakish-looking craft in the offing,

and savages and lonely lairs, and gnomes who are mostly tailors,

and caves through which a river runs, and princes with six elder brothers,

and a hut fast going to decay,

and one very small old lady with a hooked nose.”

― J.M Barrie, Peter Pan

She was playing with her brother when the waves had swept her off her feet, causing her to float backward, losing her balance. She tried to swim back but she couldn’t do it. Her tiny, little body could not fight against the strong currents.

She had nearly given up on hope when she saw him. She knew she would always remember that face. She didn’t know who he was, but she saw his face, the look of concern as well as worry on his handsome face. Her eyes hurt, due to the stinging salt water, but his face was clear in his mind.

He was a beautiful creature.

She watched as he wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her up to the surface. It didn’t seem to have taken that much of an effort. She felt air filling up her lungs and she coughed, trying to get the salt water out. She kicked her little feet and realized she couldn’t touch the ground.

Scared, she clung onto him, wrapping her arms around him, crying.

“It’s okay, it’s okay,” he soothed her.

She struggled to stay up and would’ve drowned again if not for the stranger. He didn’t seem that older than she was. He let her cling onto him as he swam away. She remembered trying to help but she was just too tired from fighting against the waves earlier that she kind of just flopped her arms. She was so tired, so exhausted. She wanted to sleep.

The boy rearranged her position until she was on his back, her arms around his neck to keep her from falling. She snuggled her head against his neck, feeling his body warmness. Her eyes began to droop and he murmured to her in a soft voice, “You’re safe now.”

His voice was smooth, and comforting, a lot like her Oppa’s voice.

She felt safe in his arms so she closed her eyes and allowed sleep to overtake her tiny frame. The last thing she remembered was being rocked against the waves, the boy’s body warmth, being away from her Oppa, and almost dying.

Then her whole world out.

“Is she dead?”

“She’s dead?!”

“No, I don’t think she is.”

“How sure are you?”

“Look! Her chest is heaving up and down! That means she’s still alive, right? That means she’s not dead!”

“Hyung, get off me!”

“But she’s dead!”

“Shut up, she’s alive, you idiot!”

Voices . . . all guys’ voices . . . but I don’t know their voices. They’re not my Oppa’s voice. I want my Oppa. Where is he? I remembered swimming, before a wave came over me, making me to lose my balance and was being dragged away from Oppa . . .

Why is it so dark?

“Is she awake?”

“Maybe she’s unconscious.”

“Pant . . . pant . . .”

“Are you okay?”

“I just dived in to save her from drowning, and I’ve barely got time to recover before you started to jump on me. What do you think?”

“I was worried!”

“Hyung, be quiet!”

“She can’t hear us.”

“Oh . . .” Now that was a sound that didn’t come from their voices, but hers. She stirred a bit, their voices becoming clearer by the second.

“She’s awake! She’s alive!”

“Shut up,” five other voices chorused together at the same time.

Lights fell over her eyes and she raised a hand weakly to shield it before she opened her eyes. She saw her palm. She slowly removed it, to see —

Six boys staring at her.

The little girl shivered, trembling, from the cold and from the realization that she did not know any of them. They were not her brother.

Where is he?

Most importantly, where is she?

One of them, probably the oldest, gave her what seemed to be a friendly smile and said in a very low voice, “Hi there. Do you remember who you are?” He reached out to touch her but she flinched so he dropped his hands back to his side.

She nodded tentatively, not daring to speak. Why do their curious eyes stare at her like she was some kind of insect to be looked at?

“O – Oppa?” The frightened girl sat up and looked around at her surroundings. From what she could tell, she was at a shore very much like the one she saw her Umma and her lady friend chatting on, with six boys who were not her friends. She looked left and right and saw nothing but stretches of the ocean and more sand. She looked ahead and saw more water. There was no sight of land besides the island she was on.

Panic rose. She was miles away from home.

One of them, a boy with dark hair, pushed the boy in front of her away. “I can be your Oppa if you want me to!” he exclaimed cheerily.

The boy who spoke to her first shoved him aside. “Seriously, Chanyeol, get away from here,” he said, annoyed. He turned back to her and tilted his head. “You nearly died. Sehun over there rescued you just in time.” He pointed over to a boy who was a few feet away, panting hard, with droplets of water dripping everywhere.

The little girl met his eyes and he smiled softly. She remembered that face. It was him who rescued her and she felt somewhat safe. But she flinched and looked away the next second. She shouldn’t feel safe with a stranger, even if he had rescued her. Instead, she should be scared. She couldn’t see her Umma or Oppa. In fact, she couldn’t see anyone other than the six boys in front of her. She turned to the other three boys. They were smiling awkwardly at her. She didn’t get a good look at them partly because she was scared.

Umma told her to never speak to strangers. Well, they’re kinda strange. All their clothes were tattered and torn and one or two of them even wore a shirt with leaves sewn onto them like it was to cover up the holes in their shirt. What weird dressings they were wearing.

“Ahem.” The leader turned to the others. “I think we should introduce ourselves to her. She looked a little bit scared. Maybe if she knew what our names are, she wouldn’t be that scared.” He turned back to me and bowed.

“Annyeonghasaeyo, Kim Joon Myeon imnida but you can call me Suho. I am the leader of EXO-K — don’t ask what that means, though.” He chuckled. “Well, that’s what the six of us think that we are. What’s your name, little girl?”

The loud one skipped back, beaming. “Annyeong, I am Chanyeol, but you can call me Oppa, like I said earlier!”

“Ignore him, we all do,” one of the other three quiet one said. He came over to the little girl. He hadn’t seen a girl for so long. How long ago has it been, years? “I’m Byun Baekhyun. They are Kim Jongin and Do Kyungsoo.”

“But you can call me Kai!” Jongin piped up, smiling awkwardly.

“You already know that’s Sehun,” Baekhyun continued, jerking his thumb to her rescuer. “He’s a little shy at first but you get to know him, he is a really nice person.”

 “What’s your name?” the boy whose name was Kyungsoo asked curiously. He blinked and smiled at her. He looked safe, and nice. They all did. They had that sense of comfort and safety when she was with them, like she knew they would not harm her.

She took a deep breath, wondering if she should tell them who she was. Maybe they know her Oppa. “I . . . I am Sohee,” she said in a small voice, her voice cracking a bit. She held eight fingers up to them.

“You’re eight?” Suho asked and she nodded. “I’m twelve years old,” he told her, still with that warm smile plastered on his face. “Baekhyun and Changyeol are eleven, Kyungsoo is ten, and Jongin and Sehun are nine.”

“When were you born? Since you’re younger than us, you have to call all of us Oppa!” Baekhyun told her, excited that he was going to get a little sister.

“I am born in June,” Sohee replied. She looked down but not before she saw Chanyeol smiling broadly.

“I’m going to call you dongsaeng!” he said gleefully.

“Um . . .”

“You’re overwhelming her,” Kyungsoo frowned. Suddenly he shooed everyone away. “Okay, I think we need to bring her back to our house.”

“Where are we?” she finally gathered the courage to ask the six boys. She glanced around the place. “And where is my Oppa? I don’t see him.”

Kyungsoo’s smile faded and everyone turned to him. “You’re far away from home, Sohee.” He took her hand (they were rough, but nonetheless warm) and dragged her away from the shore. “Sehun was out swimming when he saw you. He rescued you and brought you back here. It’s a good thing he’s really good at swimming. It took him, what, an hour to reach back here with you?”

She stopped walking and turned around so she could gape at Sehun — only to crash into him instead. He held her to steady me from falling as she stumbled backward a bit. “Y – You swam for an hour?” Sohee squawked. How could he not be tired, especially when he had someone on his back.

But he shrugged like it was the most common thing in the world to do. “I’m used to it. It is like second nature to me.” He placed his hands gently on her shoulders and turned Sohee around before he lightly pushed her forward to keep walking as they entered into the jungle.

Suho was in the lead and he cleared the path for them. About ten minutes later, the seven of them had reached this huge hangman’s tree with a handle near the root of the tree. When did trees have handles?

He pulled on the handle and the bark of the tree opened — revealing a dark hole. Sohee’s mouth dropped as we walked inside. She glanced around before she saw steps leading them underground. Amazed, she followed the rest of the boys until they reached to what would seem like a hollow, underground house. She looked around her again.

This was so amazing.

There were actually beds and tables — made out of wood, of course—but there were even kitchen utensils like cup, plates. Oh, wow, there was even a small room with the words “bathroom” imprinted on the wood. How did the boys come across such haven?

Baekhyun smiled. “Suho hyung found this place,” he told me, knowing that Sohee was wondering how this place was made. “We don’t know who did it, but we guessed that there had been people living here before us.”

“Pretty cool, huh?” Chanyeol grinned.

“Wow . . .” was all she could say.

“The rest of the island is really cool,” Jongin told her. “We should take you on a tour soon, so you’ll find your way around and not get lost. Maybe we can even teach you how to navigate your way with vines and trees and bird calls.”

“Navigate?” She tilted her head at the unfamiliar word.

“It means to find your way around here,” Kyungsoo came to the little girl’s aid.

Sohee thought about the word in her mind before she turned back to the boys. “How do I . . . navigate . . . my way back home?” As much as she liked them, as friendly as they were, all she really wanted was to go back home. Umma and Oppa must be really worried about me. They must be wondering where I am. I don’t want them to worry about me.

Everyone glanced at each other, wondering what and how they were to tell her the news that it was almost impossible to get home. They tried. Suddenly five pair of eyes all unanimously turned to Suho, the leader of EXO-K.

He sighed. Being the leader had its perks and disadvantages and this was one of those disadvantages. He turned to Sohee and made her sit down on a chair. He frowned thoughtfully. “Sohee-ssi, I don’t know how to tell you this but there isn’t a way to go back home,” he said, trying to make it sound like it wasn’t entirely a bad thing.

Sohee frowned too, her lips quivering. “Y – You mean . . . I can’t go home?”

“I’m sorry.”

She started to cry in anguish. She can’t believe it. She will never see her Umma and Oppa ever again. She will never be able to tell them how much she loves them. She will never hear her Oppa’s laugh and feel his love ever again.

She was separated from them forever.

“This is your new home, Sohee,” Kyungsoo said, coming over to where they were.  He couldn’t stand seeing her upset. He put his arms around her and motioned for the other boys to come. “We’re your new family. We’ll take care of you.”

Sohee hiccupped and tried to stop crying. After all, it wasn’t their fault that she was here and she was grateful that they were willing to take her in. She looked up, her visions still blurry from her tears until Suho gently wiped her tears away. “Where am I?”

Jongin gave a thin smile. “You’re on an island where there aren’t any grown-ups to tell us what to do. Welcome to Neverland, Sohee.”

Her ears perked up and her eyes gleamed brightly at the familiar and most favorite word of hers recently. “Neverland? We’re really in Neverland?” she wanted to know. Has her wish to go to Neverland really come true?

“Aigoo.” Jongin laughed gleefully, pinching her cheeks and she pouted, blinking and wondering why he would pinch her. “No, silly. This isn’t Neverland. We just like to think that it is, because there aren’t any grownups!” he frowned. “But it would be totally cool if there were fairies and pirates and mermaids and if we can fly.”

“I want to be Peter Pan!” Chanyeol chimed in helpfully.

Suho chuckled, ruffling the little boy’s hair. “We don’t know where the island is located,” he explained to Sohee. “One day we were all swimming when we found an abandoned boat. We climbed onto it just as a big storm hit and the next thing we knew, we were all here. We’ve searched around the island. It turned out that there were people living here before, like how Baekhyun had said earlier. We’ve found some clothes and this place here.” He gestured around to the tree.

“Oh, maybe we have some girls’ clothes for you!” Kyungsoo added happily, taking her hand. He made her stand up and dragged her toward the entrance. “Come on, let’s go get more clothes for you otherwise you will freeze in that.” He took her out of the tree and the seven of them began walking back to the beach.

Kyungsoo led the group round the beach until they reached a cave. Jongin lit a stick on fire and led them inside. He didn’t lead them very far inside until they came across many boxes that seemed to look a lot like treasure chests.

Suho pointed to a couple of treasure chests at the lighter side of the cave. “Those are where the girls’ clothes all are,” he told her. “You can choose from a range of girls’ jeans to dresses and everything. It’s all there. No makeup, though.”

Chanyeol smiled down at her. “Sohee already pretty enough,” he declared. “She doesn’t need makeup to be pretty.” He beamed cutely at her.

Sohee smiled tentatively as she wandered over to where Suho had pointed out and searched through them to look for clothes. There were a lot! She couldn’t believe her eyes the variety of clothes laid out before her. How was she going to be able to choose? Finally she picked a couple of shorts, shirts and dresses that looked like they were her size and went back to the boys. She looked at them.

Suho looked intimidating, Chanyeol was cute, Kyungsoo looked a little too over-friendly, and Baekhyun was blur and didn’t know what was going on half the time, Jongin seemed to be nice. And then there was Sehun, her rescuer. She somehow felt so much safer with him.

Sehun smiled as she went over to his side. He ruffled her hair. “Welcome to Neverland, Sohee,” he said softly.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And, EXO-K finally appeared o// if you guys wanna imagine their "house", just remember what it's like in Peter Pan (: btw, sorry, not going to put any magical creatures or powers or whatever here. They're just actual humans but not celebrities or whatever, just normal ordinary people (somewhat otl)

^w^ cheers o//