~  ❂  ~

There was a small pain in Donghae's ear making him wake up with a jolt. Tiny fingers were yanking on his ears. Donghae groaned knowing immediately who it was. He was sleeping on one of the seats in the hospital room. Mr. Lee was sitting up in his hospital bed talking to his wife and daughter happily. Donghae turned his head to the right to see Ari with a huge grin plastered to his face and his fingers pulling on Donghae's ears.

"What are you doing?" 

"You have pretty ears. DongDong, do you work for Santa Claus?" the little boy asked.

"No, why would you as-" Donghae paused remembering what had happened in Sinro. "You can see my pointy ears can't you?" he sighed and covered his face with his hands when Ari nodded. Just to make everything worse, ChonChon the blue orb flew up and rested on Ari's shoulder. It was not a good thing that Ari could see things.

"So, if I tell you what I want for Christmas you would make sure to make it right?" Ari asked with bright, hopeful eyes.

"I'm not Santa's elf. I'm not an elf at all, my ears were just born this way." Donghae lied and sat up stretching. He had fallen asleep in a very uncomfortable position. Ari pouted not really looking like he believed it but he didn't ask anymore questions concerning Donghae's ears which was a relief.

"Donghae, you're awake! Good." Mrs. Lee leaned to her right to see Donghae wearing an annoyed expression while Ari rambled about the little adventures he had went on with ChonChon. "We're going to be staying in Seoul for a few days until your father is well enough to be on crutches for long periods of time. And since we're here I was thinking about going shopping how does that sound?" she asked looking around at all the kids. Donghae was still trying to process his mind to get used to having Mr. Lee be his father. Kairi's face immediately brightened whereas Ari sulked.

"I don't like shopping, shopping is for girls." he huffed making Kairi turn around with her eyes narrowed.

"Ari don't be like that. We have to buy Donghae some clothes and a bunch of stuff for his room. You have to be happy for your brother now." Mrs. Lee chuckled when Ari smiled brightly and looked at Donghae giddily ready to go shopping with his big brother.

~***~

The next few hours in the day were spent on shopping of course. Mrs. Lee took the kids around Seoul picking out clothes here and there then furniture and decorations. Donghae really wasn't interested in the shopping at all. Why buy stuff that he wasn't going to use? The Lee family would surely try to get rid of him once they find out that Ari was probably seeing things thanks to him.

It was already around noon when the shopping was done an they were walking along the streets back to the hospital. Ari had chatted the entire time with Donghae telling him about any random things. He even mentioned ChonChon once or twice earning curious looks from Kairi but Donghae was able to shut the little boy up before his twin could get curious. 

"Then Kairi had to take the chocolate syrup and pour it all into her bowl and there weren't alot left in the bottle so I got really mad..." Donghae was beginning to nod off while he listened to Ari ramble off his stories. They were riding a bus back to the hospital now and due to too many people Donghae had to stand up instead. Donghae was growing sleepier the more he stood there. Suddenly he lost his grip on the bar and swayed to the side bumping into someone. Fully awake now, Donghae looked up to see a tall lanky boy who looked about Donghae's age with black hair and eyes. He had caught Donghae by his arms holding the boy to his chest.

"I'm sorry!" Donghae apologized quickly stepping back blushing like crazy. 

"As long as you're okay." the boy smirked though he didn't look mean. He had the badass aura around him with a black leather jacket, black skinny jeans and messy yet slightly curly hair. Donghae blinked trying to understand the words that flowed out of his mouth. He made it sound like they already knew each other. Donghae tried to push it out of his mind and focus on Ari's extremely boring rants but he couldn't help but notice how the boy wouldn't stop staring at him and it wasn't like Donghae could really stare back due to the blush that had formed on his cheeks.

~***~

It was night already and everyone was tired from the shopping. Mrs. Lee had found a hotel near the hospital to live in for the time being. Donghae was glad that they didn't have to sleep in the hospital room again. But to his luck, Ari wanted to sleep with his dad and wouldn't take 'no' for an answer. Unfortunately, Mrs. Lee asked Donghae to watch Ari so he ended up sleeping in the hospital room again. The little eight year old had stolen ChonChon again and had sung a lullaby trying to make the blue orb go to sleep but ended up falling asleep first. The blue orb glided over to Donghae who was getting ready to sleep in his chair that he woke up in this morning. ChonChon nuzzled against Donghae's neck warmly making the boy smile.

"I've missed you though I don't want to admit it." Donghae chuckled as he petted the smooth surface with his forefinger. Suddenly, it drew away from Donghae's neck and and glided down to Donghae's pocket nudging it. Donghae remembered now, that Angel of Love had snuck something in his pocket before waking him up. He reached into his pocket and retrieved a tube of lipstick. On the side it had small words. Donghae squinted his eyes and made out the words 'Love is but a kiss away'. He rolled his eyes and shoved it back in his pants deciding he would deal with it later.

~  ☪  ~

Donghae woke up on a horse. It wasn't really a comfortable place to wake up on. He groaned and rubbed his eyes to suddenly find out he was sleeping against someone's back.

"Finally, you gained some conciousness!" Donghae looked up to see Eunhyuk snickering at him. Freaking out, he leaned back removing his hands from Eunhyuk's waist and his face away from his shoulder. What in the world was he doing sitting on a horse behind Eunhyuk?

"What in the world did you do to me?" he freaked touching and hugging his arms with wide eyes.

"Well...I sorta..." Donghae hugged himself tighter fearing for what he was going to hear. "When you woke up in Phire, I sort of got in a fight with some elves and while chasing after me you got trampled and went unconcious." the angel shrugged laughing nervously. "But it's all good now! You're awake so yup it's all in the past." Eunhyuk grinned and turned back around to guide the horse. Donghae only narrowed his eyes. He had gotten knocked out thanks to his supposedly guardian angel.

"Let me get on my own horse." Donghae jumped off the horse once it stopped and attempted to climb onto his own that was trotting along behind. It was a failed attempt and resulted in Eunhyuk trying to heave Donghae onto the horse.

"Yah! You're heavy." Eunhyuk grunted as he finally got Donghae on the horse. The boy only glared at hima nd gathered the reins in his hand before smoothing his hand over the horse's mane.

"You're weak. So, where are we off to? How are we going to get to the Death Mountains so I can stop having to deal with the likes of you?" Donghae asked once they had started moving again. From what he saw they were in the middle of nowhere. Behind, he couldn't see Phire and before him all he saw was a trail and grass and flat land dotted with trees here and there. Nowhere could he see any signs of mountains.

"We have alot of land to cover. The Death Mountains are in the southwestern part of Sinro meaning it's technically a part of Hell. It's just ruled by someone other than Heechul, in a way. We should try to settle down in the Elf towns before waking you up to make everything easier." the angel paused while he pondered on what else he might need to add. "Also, I guess I'll have to teach you how to use a sword since my powers would gradually become useless the further we travel. Now, we're heading towards the Infinite Forest. Be careful to stick close to me or you'll never find your way out." Eunhyuk said the last part with a spooky voice and a smirk.

"Yeah right, you can't scare me." Donghae laughed but the guardian angel only scowled at his reaction. He was hoping that all this magical stuff would scare the human but the boy was completely unaffected.

"Whatever you say, just don't think you can take advantage of me just because I have to protect you." Eunhyuk rolled his eyes and galloped forwards picking up the speed. He wanted to get his human to the Death Mountains as soon as possible. It would make his job so much easier and gain him his wings much quicker. If only Donghae was going to be an easy human to protect. That seemed unlikely though since the human had already fallen off his horse when he tried to catch up with Eunhyuk.

There were trees everywhere. The trunks were straight as sticks petruding into the air at alarming heights. That wasn't the bad part about them though, it was the leaves. They practically blocked out any possible rays of sunlight only allowing a few stray rays here and there. Though it was enough to make out the surroundings but it was still uncomfortable. Donghae couldn't stop squinting and rubbing his eyes while he stared around at the neverending trees. Sure there were a few landmarks here and there like a large rock or a small creek but it was all soon swallowed by more endless darkness and trees.

"When will we get out of here?" Donghae groaned as he leaned on his horse. It was smart enough to trot around on its own without any help from his useless owner and Donghae was grateful for that since everytime he tried to take control of the horse he would fall right off.

"Just be patient and stay close." Eunhyuk ordered. They had been in the forest for what seemed like an hour and there still wasn't any sign of an exit. The angel didn't want to admit it but he was growing impatient too and slightly scared. But he knew the forest well enough. He had traveled through it mutiple times, though everytime he had freaked out and nearly had a mental break down.

There was silence after a while. Eunhyuk twisted his neck around to check on Donghae. He was expecting to see the boy asleep again on his horse but instead there was no horse. There was no Donghae. Panic struck through Eunhyuk as he stopped his horse and looked around in a frenzy. Wandering off alone in the Infinite Forest is extremely dangerous espicially when not familiar with the place. Legends told many tales of dangers that lurked in these woods. The most famous one of all: once a traveler wanders after a light in this vast forest, then he will be lost in infinite darkness.

panda: so sorry this chap was short and didnt have much >.< but i had to find a way to perform a vanishing act on hae >:D nd hrm who do u think the boy on the bus was ;D anyone special? lol anywho i was wondering does Sinro sound confusing? im throwing all this fantasy magical crap everywhere in every chap im hoping it adds up or else damn it must be confusing if it doesnt ><