All the nine members of EXO, except for Suho, came into the ‘living room’ and made a circle. There was no furniture, just a small table in the middle. The place was tiny, no doubt. Sehun looked around, observing the new place and looked back at the other members with a grateful smile.

 

“This place is cozy,” he commented politely.

 

Baekhyun snorted, “Yeah maknae, it sure is.”

 

Tao and Chanyeol sniggered.

 

Tao came up to Sehun and ruffled his hair. “So you wanna hear us out or do you want to continue showing your gratitude to me for bringing you back?”

 

Sehun raised and eyebrow and pretended to gag.

 

“Show gratitude?” he asked, “To you? Hella no.”

 

Tao looked taken aback. “Well excuse you,” Tao pouted.

 

Sehun grinned. Inside, he actually felt the most grateful to Tao.

 

“So where’s Luhan hyung?” he asked.

 

Xiumin shrugged. “He said he went out for a while.”

 

“And,” Sehun cleared his throat, “Kris?”

 

Kai coughed and rasped a whisper, “Not the right time.”

 

The rest stayed still in the awkward silence. Sehun swore he could hear the tightening of Chanyeol’s fist.

 

“So,” Baekhyun started and broke the silence. “After Suho’s accident, we decided that we should leave the house. You know, for the better? Move somewhere else like nomads, EXO style.”

 

Sehun nodded. “So, you found this place? It’s pretty cool.”

 

“Oh it’s cool alright,” Chen commented, “A bit small, but we can live with that.”

 

“Found?” D.O smiled and gave the others a knowing smile.

 

Chen nudged Sehun with his shoulder. “Dude, look at everything.”

 

Sehun furrowed his eyebrows and frowned, looking at the walls surrounding them. Everything was made out of wood, with moss and vines hanging on the twigs poking out of the walls.

 

“OH!” Sehun exclaimed. He was out of words. Sehun put a hand over his mouth and gave a low whistle. For a kid, he did pretty darn well.

 

Sehun looked down and smiled, shaking his head in sheer disbelief.

 

“You’re meaning to say,” he said and looked up to them, impressed, “That Wujin did all of this? Really?”

 

“Correct!” Kai imitated a show host’s voice, “Ten points to Oh Sehun!”

 

Sehun was impressed. The first time he arrived, he was rather unaware of where and what he was at. And on top of it, it was dark and it was hard for the moonlight to shine through the place since it was clustered with enormous trees.

 

As he entered, all he could think of was the mere wellbeing of Suho. He didn’t pay attention to anything. But now as he recalls, he remembers going through a small entrance of a short, circular hut, which he now realizes as a huge stump of a tree.

 

“Wujin could have made it a little bit more higher,” Xiumin said, “But he says if it was any higher, it wouldn’t be a realistic normal stump, you know?”

 

Lay raised his arms as a sign of defeat. “And we totally respect that decision. Because Wujin knows better of all of this.”

 

As if on cue, a bedroom door creaked open and a kid stepped out, rubbing his eyes.

 

“Hey,” he muttered groggily, “Why’s the lights still burning? What’s all the commotion about?”

 

A boy around six or seven walked into the middle of the circle and bumped into the small table. He groaned in pain and flopped down onto the soft, grass-carpeted floor. He forced his eyes open.

 

“Yah…” he said slowly and looked around, “Why isn’t anybody answering…”

 

Wujin saw Sehun. His eyes widened.

 

“Sehun hyung!” he jumped up and threw himself to Sehun, who was waiting with open arms. “You’re back!”

 

Sehun laughed. “Yes, yes I am!”

 

“Yah Wujin!” Tao suddenly spoke up, pouting at Wujin. “Don’t I get a hug? I brought him back!”

 

Wujin whole-heartedly laughed and jumped on Tao.

 

“Thank you, thank you, thank you, Tao hyung!” He pecked Tao on his cheeks. “You’re the best!”

 

Tao jokingly pulled himself away, pretending to have a horrified face. The others laughed at the scene.

 

“I’m suffocating!” he exclaimed. “Too much kisses! Do you want me to tickle you?”

 

Tao gave an evil face and started wiggling his fingers at Wujin.

 

“Agh no!” Wujin laughed, running away. For once, everybody forgot about the present and enjoyed the fun with each other right on that spot.

 

He exclaimed, “Haha! You won’t get m-”

 

Wujin hit himself on something and fell down hard again.

 

“Oww!” he looked up to see what he hit. And he saw a startled Kris who just came in through the door. The others were startled as well, they didn’t expect him any sooner. The voice of Luhan followed suit behind him.

 

“Kris!” he panted, his voice was coming closer. “This really isn’t the right time!”

 

In a second, Luhan went through the door as well. As soon as he saw the whole pack sitting right in front of the door, staring at Kris with mixed expressions, his face went white with dread.

 

“Guys, calm down. I can expla-” Luhan got cut off.

 

“No Luhan,” Kris said, “You don’t have to explain and you don’t have to take the blame.”

 

Luhan said desperately, “But I knew where to find you and I didn’t for 3 wee-”

 

Kris put a hand on his shoulder. “Luhan, it’s okay.”

 

Luhan stopped talking as Kris turned himself to view the others.

 

“Appa…” Wujin whispered. “Where were you? You just left like that.”

 

Wujin teared up. “You didn’t tell us where you were going! You didn’t even tell us you were going!”

 

The air tensed as everybody shifted attention to Wujin, who for about 3 weeks, had been strong by being everyone’s shoulder. Now, he was finally letting it all out, much to their relief.

 

“Sehun hyung had no choice!” his voice cracked, “He was threatened!”

 

Everyone was speechless by now. They didn’t expect Wujin would know this much about what was happening, regarding their own lack of information.

 

“It would have been me if I had already gotten my symbol!” he added. “But ignore that. What about you? You were perfectly fine! You could have at the very least said something!”

 

He paused, waiting for Kris to react, but instead he looked down as he did on the day of the mentioned incident, to Wujin’s displeasure.

 

Wujin shook in anger. He screamed, “SAY SOMETHING!”

 

Chen touched Wujin’s arm. “Wujin, calm down.”

 

Chanyeol shot up from his spot.

 

“I can’t take this anymore,” he muttered under his breath. He started walking over to Kris. D.O quickly got up and tried blocking Chanyeol.

 

“Yeol, calm down, just calm down.” D.O whispered urgently.

 

“No.” Chanyeol said.

 

“YOU!” he pointed an index finger to Kris harshly. “Why don’t you answer you son right there!”

 

He pushed D.O down to the floor. D.O hid his face in shame and backed away, pulling up his knees to his chest.

 

“YAH!” Kai shouted angrily. “What was that for?! We know you’re angry, but don’t just push Kyungsoo like that even if he’s younger than you!”

 

“You,” Kai poked Chanyeol’s chest sharply.

 

“Should,”

 

Poke.

 

“Control,”

 

Poke.

 

“Your”

 

Poke.

 

“Anger!”

 

“ IT STOP POKING ME!” Chanyeol burst out screaming and lunged at Kai. Kai started attacking back and everyone else tried to pull them apart.

 

Chen stalked up angrily to Kris. “You better explain right here right now, hyung!”

 

“Stop,” cried Wujin softly, but no one could hear him.

 

“Stop,” he cried again, a bit more louder.

 

“STOP!”

 

As he screamed, huge, ghastly roots shot up from the ground and made a barrier between Kai and Chanyeol, separating them. But despite that, they still made attempts to claw at each other.

 

“I SAID STOP!” Wujin screamed his lungs out. The roots then threw both Kai and Chanyeol to both opposite ends of the room.

 

Wujin felt lightheaded. “Stop…” He dropped down and started breathing rapidly. Lay ran to Wujin.

 

“Wujin, Wujin, are you okay?!” Lay gripped his shoulder tightly.

 

Lay asked again. “Are you really okay-”

 

“Guys,” Baekhyun said loudly. “Guys, look!”

 

And at the center of the room, familiar embers gathered. Everyone walked up nearer and circled the place. The embers formed a shape, and slowly lowered to the grassy ground. Slowly, it burned through the grass and then through the soil, until it formed a permanent depression on the ground. The light shone hard that made everyone look away. When the light died down, they looked back. And there they saw, a symbol. A symbol of a tree.

 

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

//gasp//

OMONA.