~*Chapter Thirteen*~

The next morning, the Lost Boys had planned to take you on a tour of the island since you hadn’t really seen all of the wonderful places it had to offer. You agreed straight away. Even though it was Baekhyun who had promised to show you these places, you were just as happy, if not happier, to be going with the Lost Boys.

“Wait for me!” Baekhyun called after you as you started making your way through the foliage. All of your heads turned around to find Baekhyun climbing down the ladder hurriedly, holding one hand in the air as if to halt you.

Suho shifted his weight and crossed his arms over his chest as he tapped one foot on the leaf covered ground, “I thought you said you weren’t coming.”

“Well I changed my mind,” Baekhyun huffed as he jumped off the last rung, landing with a small thud on two feet. He blew his fringe out of his eyes before jogging over to the group and resuming step. The truth was, Baekhyun didn’t really want to come at all. He had seen the island countless times and he was more than happy to have a lie in and then go and cause some mischief with Kris when he felt like it. But something in the back of his mind made him want to come along, he didn’t know what it was but he couldn’t shake it so he got dressed and tagged along anyway knowing he’d regret it later if he didn’t.

“Where should we go first…?” Suho pondered, placing a finger on his lips as you trekked through the jungle again.

“What about the Blue Lagoon?” Baekhyun spoke up. He didn’t know why that was the first thing to pop in to his head, but it was. It was like it was nagging his brain and on the tip of his tongue, aching to be said.

You perked up when you heard those words slip out of Baekhyun’s mouth. You remembered that back in the asylum, he had said that that was one of the first places he was going to take you and also one of the most beautiful. You also remembered him warning you about something but it had slipped your mind. You scoffed to yourself at the irony; the memories you wanted to forget, stayed with you and the memories you had thought you needed to remember, were slipping away.

***

Chanyeol grabbed your arm and skipped ahead of everyone else, leading you towards the gap in the trees where the pathway seemed to end. As you neared, you saw that it did end; it was the top of a huge cliff. When you looked down, you let out a small gasp and put your hand to your mouth to stop it from hanging open in awe. Leading down from the cliff were several rocks that were jutting out creating steps that led down in to the bluest lagoon you had ever seen. Surrounding the sparkling water were walls made of plant covered rocks, flowers in every colour you could imagine were draped over the cliff walls like blankets. You could hear the droning, yet hypnotic sound of water crashing on top of water and you spotted the waterfall on the opposite side of the lagoon. You could make out the reflection of a rainbow on the surface of the wall of water and several huge rocks with smooth surfaces jutted out from the top of the water, surrounding the waterfall like stone sofas in front of an aquatic television, like the cliffs they were also covered with colourful plants and moss.

“It’s beautiful,” you breathed.

Soon, everyone joined behind you stood in a line at the edge of the cliff staring out across the water that rippled slightly as the waves from the waterfall travelled to the walls and lapped at the rocks.

“Can you swim?” Baekhyun spoke up. Your head snapped around at him, shocked that he would even bother to converse with you when ‘he didn’t really care.’ You nodded your head in response and a quick smirk flashed across his face.

“Good,” he said simply. You turned back around and faced the view again, breathing in the fresh air, almost tasting the salt from the water.

“Baekhyun don’t-”

You never got to hear the rest of Kyungsoo’s sentence; you were whisked off your feet by your waist and flipped around so you were being carried bridal style in the air. The ground was no longer beneath your feet, instead you were hovering over the middle of the lagoon in Baekhyun’s arms. He smirked down and you and you screamed and thrashed about trying to hit him.

“What are you doing?” you screamed, smacking his arm. He didn’t answer, he just laughed and flew around in circles with you in his arms. You could hear the faint shouts of the Lost Boys telling Baekhyun to bring you back but he ignored them.

Baekhyun didn’t know why he was doing this, all he knew was that the back of his mind was saying he wanted to be closer to you and another part of him was telling him to annoy you. So he did both.

“Put. Me. Down.” You said through gritted teeth. He cocked his head as if contemplating his answer and you nudged his ribs with your elbow. “Why do you have to be so infuriating all of the time?” you asked him, rolling your eyes. “Just put me down you annoying piece of crap,” you snapped, not giving him any time to answer your previous question.

“As you wish,” he said simply, letting you go.

You screamed as you tumbled downwards, clawing at the air with your hands in an attempt to defy gravity. You were hit with déjà vu like a baseball bat to the head when Baekhyun swooped down and grabbed you again before you hit the water. Your heart beat erratically in your chest as Baekhyun flew you back over to the cliff edge.

“You !” you screamed at him as he placed you back down on to the ground, your legs shaking beneath you. Chanyeol grabbed your arm and yanked you back away from the edge of the cliff, to safety.

“Are you OK?” he asked.

You nodded in response but didn’t take your eyes off Baekhyun as you scowled at him, giving him daggers. If looks could kill, he would have died on the spot. He however, was sniggering behind his hand.

“Let’s go see something else,” Kai spoke up, punching Baekhyun in the arm to stop him laughing. You nodded and Chanyeol slung his arm around your shoulder as he guided you back to the jungle path.

After visiting Pixie Hollow, which was just as magical as the Blue Lagoon, the group made its way back to the tree house for a rest since there was quite a distance between them all. You trudged up to your room straight away after thanking everyone for the nice day out, not forgetting to send another scowl Baekhyun’s way. He simply poked his tongue out at you like a child and you rolled your eyes.

You sunk down on top of your bed and closed your eyes to try and relax. Unable to do so, you sat down at your desk and began to draw your recollection of the fairy you had seen. It’s tiny, glowing body was clothes in a magnificent, miniature dress and her white hair, that was also glowing, fell around to her waist in wavy locks. You stood in awe as you watched her flitter about and sprinkle you all with fairy dust so you could fly about for a couple of minutes. You drew her as you remembered her, with a huge smile on her face and soon, you were immersed in the sketch, making sure you had every detail spot on. Time ticked away and you let it and soon, the day was almost gone again.

***

“You should go and apologise,” Suho said before going to wash himself up.

“Yeah, whatever.”

Baekhyun sat, frustrated with himself. He didn’t like the way you would smile at the Lost Boys but then scowl at him. He didn’t like how you would let Chanyeol put his arm around you, but when he would pick you up, you thrashed about and screamed in his face. But at the same time, he couldn’t stop himself from doing the mischievous things he would always do. He was still the same, selfish Baekhyun and he couldn’t stop that.

Ever since he had returned from Earth, he had been feeling strange. It was like he constantly had this small weight on his chest and a voice at the back of his head that drew him to you. But he didn’t know how to act. He didn’t know what to say or do around you so he did what he normally did; he acted like an idiot. It annoyed him to see you angry at him and he felt hopeless not knowing how to act. He tried desperately to remember everything that had happened on Earth, when he had arrived, he found a book tucked in his pants and he read over it having no recollection of ever having written it. It was all memories of Neverland that he was forcing himself to remember, but there was nothing to tell him to remember Earth or you.

He didn’t know why he worried so much; it wasn’t like he cared about anybody but his Lost Boys and himself. Yet here he found himself, walking up the stairs to your room. Here he found himself knocking on the door. Here he found himself facing you again as you opened your door and scowled up at him.

“Hey,” he said awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck. “I’m, uh, sorry for what I did earlier.”

He watched as your eyes widened slightly before returning to their cold state as you leant against the door frame.

“I don’t understand you,” was all you said in return.

“What do you mean?”

“I don’t understand how you can be an one minute, and then be apologising and looking all sad the next. And I don’t understand how even though the Lost Boys didn’t know me on Earth, they still don’t make me feel like crap like you do.”

Baekhyun was lost for words, nobody had ever spoken to him like that. He was used to being in charge of everything, used to speaking to others like that. This was new and he wasn’t sure how he felt.

“Listen,” Baekhyun started, his eyebrows knitting together, “I don’t know what I said to you back on Earth, but I’m not that person here, OK? So stop thinking that whoever I was back there is going to return because he’s not. Neverland changes some people so just grow up and accept it.”

“I think you’re the one who needs to grow up,” you snapped, pushing past him. Your chest tightened as he spoke and you knew that the boy from the asylum was well and truly gone. All the glimmers of hope you had had of him returning had disappeared and vanished, forever. You choked back a tear as you made your way outside again, needing fresh air to distract you from the heat and hatred that came with your anger. His words had stung you, there was no doubt about that, but you weren’t going to let him get to you.

You found yourself walking aimlessly through the jungle again until you came to the cliff edge that you had visited earlier. The evening was creeping in and something told you to stay away and just go back but you were too angry to listen to yourself. Pressing on, you made your way down the rock steps, holding on to the previous ones so you didn’t fall. When you got to the bottom step, you were practically on the water’s edge. You kicked off your shoes and removed your socks, rolling up your pant legs to your knees before dangling your feet in the water. It felt so calm and refreshing and sent a wave of relief over you. It was so quiet and peaceful, you almost forgot about all of the drama from minutes ago. You made a mental note to come back here more often just to enjoy the tranquillity and idyllic scenery.

You leant your head back, closing your eyes as you enjoyed the pure bliss and listened to the crashing sound of the waterfall and far off harmonious melodies of birds perched in the nearby trees. Your perfect scene soon ended however, when a wet hand grabbed your ankle and yanked you in to the water. You had no time to grab on to anything as you were pulled off of the rock, grazing your exposed elbow on the rough surface. You screamed as you were dragged in to the water, quickly closing your mouth as you were dragged under it. You thrashed about as you opened your eyes and found yourself face to face with a woman. Her eyes were a shocking blue and her pale lilac hair spread out in the water behind her in all different directions. She wore a malicious smile as she dragged you further down in to the depths of the lagoon, your eye sight worsening as it got darker. You noticed that as she dragged you, a long, lilac tail that matched her hair also thrashed about and it was then you realised. She was a mermaid.

Your lungs began to burn and you gagged for air, your vision blurring up. You did, however, see two other mermaids soon join the lilac haired one. One had pale green hair and wore three different coloured pearl necklaces around her neck. The other had sky-blue hair that also spread out in the water, causing all three of their curls to blend together into a pastel gradient. You tried desperately to get away once more with the energy you had left but the two new mermaids grabbed each of your arms, and the first mermaid grabbed your legs to stop you from moving.

You were just about to black out when you heard a loud, muffled splash and the mermaids suddenly let you go, swimming  off in different directions. You no longer had the energy to yourself back above the surface, you were too deep down and there wasn’t enough breath in your lungs.

You suddenly felt a pair of arms fasten around your waist and you were brought back up to the surface. Your lungs were on fire and as soon as your head emerged out of the surface of the water, you breathed in desperately, gasping for the cold air to extinguish the flames in your chest. You couldn’t see anything; your vision was still blurred and your eyes stung from the salt in the lagoon. You were brought back to the rock you were sitting on earlier and heaved on top where you laid on your back, still gasping for air.

“What were you doing?” Baekhyun shouted as he pulled himself out of the water, running a hand through his now soaking hair.

“I was just-” your own coughing and spluttering cut you off and you stopped to breathe some more, “I was just dangling my feet in the water to…calm down,” you managed to explain.

Baekhyun let out a deep sigh, “Are you OK?” he asks, the anger that had built up in him originally escaping when he saw you shivering as you sat up. You were clearly completely in shock from the ‘attack’ and he couldn’t stay mad at you when you looked so venerable.

You nodded your head as you rubbed at your stinging eyes and exploded in to another coughing fit.

“I told you not to visit the Blue Lagoon in the evenings, didn’t I?” he said with a raised voice.

That right there.

That was what had slipped your mind earlier on.

That was something Baekhyun had told you on Earth.

“Did you?” you asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Yeah, I think so… didn’t I? I mean, I remember telling you that, yes,” he nodded, sure of himself.

And suddenly, all of the hope you had lost earlier on suddenly came flooding back to you.