(A/N: I altered the plot slightly so that Miyeon approaches D.O a little less than a week later than I originally had it- reread the last chapter for changes)

A few minutes after Miyeon and D.O left, two new presences came to rid the room of loneliness.  However, it was not company that Tao would have wished upon himself. Two wolves strode in, then morphed into the two leaders, Suho and Kris.  From a guarded ten feet away, they looked at the young boy for a long time before the former addressed him: "Tao."  

"Hyung."  Tao acknowledged hoarsely. He cocked his head towards Suho, yet his gaze was directed towards Kris. Those eyes were pleading and sad.  Kris looked down at his feet, but he couldn't completely ignore the silent plea sent to him.  

"We're not going to hurt you." Suho said cautiously, and took a step towards Tao.  Contrary to the words just spoken, Tao flinched in fear.  Then he followed the urge to growl at this possible threat even though he was currently a weak human.  Suho looked as if he had been struck in the face.  Tao almost looked guilty for the outburst, but then remembered how he had been famished for the past week because of this man... these men.  Yes, he remembered that too- Kris was also a part of this, and it had originally been his idea to starve him. Ignoring the hurt written plainly across Suho's face, Tao uttered another inhuman sound, this time low and warning accompanied by a glower filled with so much scorn that Suho stepped backwards. 

"Look, we just wanted to ask you a few questions-" Suho then whistled softly, and Xiumin appeared long enough to drag a large piece of meat next to Tao and bound away.  "-and to give you this." After a questioning look and a small nod of approval from Suho, Tao transformed into a wolf to gobble up the raw meat. He transformed back as Kris got the water pail and refilled it.  Tao looked at it but made no move to drink out of it.  He would spite them with this small action-or rather lack of it.

"Why did-"  Suho seemed to disapprove his word choice, and restarted, "-are you protecting this girl?"  Since Tao was usually such an interesting person to talk to, they were surprised when he just shrugged.

Suho's shock quickly turned to anger.  "What if she escapes and tells all of the humans about us? And we can't keep feeding her! She should be feeding us."  Tao looked at his brother sharply, propelling him into silence.

"Kill her, and this is all over."  Kris spoke up for the first time. He looked Tao directly in the eyes, conveying a message that he couldn't verbally: We can't kill her because of you. If we did and you weren't okay with it, it would destroy our family. Therefore, you must do it. 

This time, Tao didn't bother to give any sort of response.  His two hyungs waited for a moment, then turned to leave.  

After he was sure that they had completely gone, Tao confronted himself with the same question Suho had.  Why am I protecting Miyeon?  

He took a step back from the question, and analyzed the situation. He then pictured Miyeon's face in his mind.  The answer struck him almost immediately.

Finally allowing himself to acknowledge and embrace this new found knowledge, Tao whispered the words to himself.

His voice sounded foreign even to himself, but the thought, the idea of such a thing was even more alien. "I've fallen in love with a human."

Kyungsoo set a leisure pace that allowed Miyeon to wallow in her awe of both being free and the beauty that she didn't know dwelled right beyond the entire existence of the cave. Towering trees filtered the morning sunlight into a greenish white. Shadows fell in such a picturesque way, that it could have been a scene from a movie.  Insects buzzed in the moist air, and their feet crunched against the rocky soil.  It had a dreamy and timeless feel so incredible that Miyeon could have lived the rest of her life in that moment.

She wanted to enjoy the peace that had spread over the area for as long as possible, so instead of breaking the silence herself, she was content with waiting for Kyungsoo to do it.  It seemed as if he had the same idea as her, or perhaps it was just because of his quiet personality, because it was a few minutes before he stopped walking and finally spoke. Miyeon continued to walk and it took her a little while to figure out that her companion was no longer next to her.

"Miyeon, I'm so sorry that this happened to you."  His voice was so soft that the words didn't register in her mind for a moment. Once it did, she looked at him.

Kyungsoo easily covered the space between them with a few steps.  Once he was a foot apart from her, he looked into her eyes and said, "You seem like a really good girl."

Rather than blushing at the compliment, Miyeon said, "Thank you.  But that doesn't change anything." She looked away.

Suddenly, Kyungsoo was into a deep ocean of confusion and helplessness. When he saw that the girl was shaking, he put his hand on her shoulder.  The steadying action didn't benefit only Miyeon. 

With open eyes, Miyeon asks quietly, "Kyungsoo... will you help me?"

'Help' is such a broad term, that 'helping' Miyeon could've mean anything. However, it was so obvious that she needed some kind of support that Kyungsoo froze with indecision.

He made up his mind when Miyeon took his hand off her shoulder and squeezed it.

Wordlessly, Kyungsoo nodded. 

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A/N: So there it is: Tao is in love with Miyeon!  I know that there hasn't been much interaction between the two (honestly, there's more between her and D.O), but that will change soon.  Also, there is so much tension between Kris, Suho, and Tao, what do you think will happen?

Thanks for reading! Please comment, subscribe, and if you like this story, it would mean a lot to me if you upvoted!  Thank you to the four people who have already done so!