“Deal?”

Jaelle stood her ground by standing up from her place and dangerously approaching Kris. He did not step backwards despite his whole body telling him to do so and he did not blink when he felt the warmth of her body close to him.

“Deal.”

“Good… good! Glad we have that settled,” Kris took a step backwards, away from her heat, away from her. “Wouldn’t it be time to go, Tao?”

“Yes,” the driver looked at the sky before opening the door on the driver’s side. “I think we could go some kilometers before sun sets. Everyone in?”

“Ugm, where will she sit?” Chanyeol looked at the girl who had taken his place next to Lay.

Kris looked at Tao who just shrugged. He was too exited about the trip to give a about who sits where. “You,” he pointed at the girl, “go sit on the luggage in the back.”

“Have I no rights in this car?” Jaelle looked at him with her black eyes, sending shivers down his spine.

“Look girl, I don’t know what you’re after, but Chanyeol has been here long before you,” Kai snapped while shifting on his seat. “And going by the rule ‘first come, first served’ –”

“Says who?” She cut him while arranging her long skirt around her legs.

“Girl, I’m in no mood to argue with you, but if you continue to –”

“Cut the crap already, Kai!” Kris frowned at him. “And you, go sit where I told you or I’ll tie you to the car on the outside!”

Throwing him the look, Jaelle went to sit on the luggage in the back, while Chanyeol took his seat back with a trouble face.

“What?” Lay whispered without looking up from his book.

“How come I am the one feeling guilty over her sitting in the back?” Chanyeol could only peak at the girl in the back of the car.

“Do you want to sit there?”

“No?”

“Alright then! There’s nothing to feel guilty about, Chanyeol,” Lay turned the page with a frown. “It was Kris’s call to send here there and I like to think that he had a reason for doing so.”

“Like?”

“Like keeping her away from Kai’s acid comments? Or keeping her away from him? I don’t know yet. We’ll have to wait and see. What?” He turned to his seatmate when he noticed the look on his face. “Something on my face?”

“You observe way too many things for your own sake,” Chanyeol shifted on his seat, closing his eyes in preparation for a well deserved nap.

☾ ♅ ☽

Once the darkness set over the road, Tao pulled over, decided that he wasn’t going to drive at night again.

“What? What? We’re there already?” Kai grumbled, trying to open his eyes, while Sehun just flicked his forehead. “What was that for?”

“That was for sleeping and not paying attention to our discussion,” his friend rolled his eyes at him while dragging him outside the car where the others were already stretching their legs. “We decided to build a camp fire. Isn’t it exciting?”

“Exciting my ,” Kai grumbled and went back inside the car. “Let me sleep, will you?”

“Jackass,” Sehun sighed before joining the others in search of wood to make fire.

They were all tired. But there was something more burning into their veins: expectations. They were curious to learn more about Jaelle’s stories, curious to learn more about her. But the girl had this strange aura around her that seemed to keep them all away from her while she seriously continued to strum the strings of her guitar into a background song their did not recognize.

“So, your name is really Jaelle?” Chanyeol sat next to her on the truck, sipping from his bottle of water.

She continued moving her fingers up and down the strings, humming an unknown tune. “What if it isn’t?”

“Well, I’d love to know your real name,” the boy laughed carelessly while stretching his long legs ahead.

“Why?”

“Because we’re traveling together?” He scatched the back of his head.

“That’s not too good for a reason, you know that, right?”

Chanyeol blinked confused before bursting into laughter. “You’re right. Not too good for a reason. Then how about curiosity? I’m curious to learn more about you, Jaelle.”

The moment she turned to him with that pair of black eyes of hers, Chanyeol found himself wishing the ground would open up and swallow him whole. “Curiosity can be deathly. But it’s a good reason,” she said after some seconds of staring at his face as if she was trying to read his thoughts. “I’ll make sure you’re the first one to know my real name when I’m ready, alright?”

Chanyeol nodded, troubled by her calmness.

“Go find the others, please,” she placed her guitar aside and stretched her hands towards the fire. “It’s time for me to pay with my first words of wisdom.”

The boy complied, not sure if her tone was bitter or annoyed or sarcastic. But either way, it was indeed time to see if she was worth to keep around or not, even though Chanyeol found himself wishing she’d stay a little longer with them. being six guys in a car was no fun and the teasing could go wrong at any minute.

The others sat around the cap fire they build, having strange expressions written on their faces: they weren’t going to be easily fooled by her and her strange guitar no matter what words she’d say or sing. Only Chanyeol was sitting next to Jaelle, earning glares from his fellow companions.

“Before I start, I’d like to ask you to keep silent while I tell you the story,” Jaelle picked up her guitar, arranging it comfortably on her knees. “If you don’t like it, then get up and leave. No words. Understood?”

“If we won’t like it or consider it too little to pay for the gas,  you’ll remain here while we drive away,” Tao reminded her with a provoking sparkle in his eyes.

“Got that, boss,” she muttered with no smile. “Now, let’s start, shall we?” She strummed her guitar’s strings, humming that very tune they all heard during the preparations for the camp fire. “Once, long before this world was born, long before the mountains fell asleep, while Gods were still present on Earth, a strange creature used to live in the Dark Forest. A half man, half horse man, with kind eyes and silent reasons.

He was the forest and the forest was him – nothing could have pass by him without him knowing everything about him. The animals were his one family since he had none. He was born a freak and abandoned at his bi