[title song: dark & wild concept trailer song - bts]

chapter 13;

“Five more laps.” Jongin says, the moment Hyemi skids to a stop, hands on her knees. She clasps her side and holds up a hand, her intimidating glare coming out rather weak.

“You said that ten laps ago.” Hyemi gasps out.

Jongin eyes Hyemi condescendingly, the soft morning light reflecting off his tan skin in an almost angelic way. Hyemi thinks Jongin’s looks are incredibly deceiving; he’s actually the devil in disguise. Hyemi collapses on the ground, ignoring the scratchy feeling of dead grass, and after a moment, she hears Jongin sigh loudly. There’s a sound of rustling and Jongin is lying beside her.

She stares at the yellow sky and the way the pink clouds drift along lazily. After Jongin had rudely dragged Hyemi out of bed, he had teleported them to this field. It’s a clearing, filled with brown and yellow grass, and surrounded by tall, charcoal grey trees. She thinks the forest is a bit eerie since the trees are leafless and basically look like they’ve been charred up. It gives the impression that they’re surrounded by a cloud of smoke, billowing close to the ground.

“Why are you training me, anyway?” Hyemi asks as she turns her head. Jongin is lying on his back with one of his knees bent and both his hands behind his head. He doesn’t look at her, his eyes fixed on the soft, billowy clouds ahead.

“Honestly?” Jongin says, his tone blunt. He doesn’t wait for her to answer. “Honestly, no one else wanted to train you.”

All Hyemi can respond with is a soft, “Oh.”

“That’s all you have to say?” Jongin asks, his tone full of curiosity. Hyemi furrows her eyebrows. Obviously she has more to say. Obviously she wants to know why Baekhyun doesn’t want to train her because she’ll admit that it hurts her feelings. But she can’t quite get herself to ask Jongin for the reason why. She has a feeling she won’t like to know why.

Hyemi just shrugs and now it’s her turn to stare at the clouds. Jongin speaks again and, for once, he sounds serious. He sounds as if he’s choosing his words carefully. “When that thing showed up…Luhan said it was latching onto you. He said he couldn’t get it off of you. You were being dragged away.”

Hyemi blinks and turns to Jongin, raising her eyebrows. “Didn’t he get it off of me eventually?”

Jongin shakes his head, slowly, his hair falling into his eyes. Hyemi watches as he turns his head just slightly towards her, his eyes glinting almost silver for a moment. “He thinks it was you.”

“Me?” Hyemi repeats, blinking in astonishment.

Jongin just shrugs, one shoulder moving up before falling back down. “Who else could it be?”

Hyemi makes a face at his tone and he cracks out a -eating grin. “You’re telling me that I made everything explode?” Hyemi asks, skeptically.

Jongin rolls his eyes. “Once again, who else could it be?”

“You’re so annoying.”

“But I’m the only one willing to teach you how to control your powers.” Then Jongin grins so sweetly, Hyemi nearly smiles back, despite his snarky attitude. “So you’re going to have to deal with it.”

Hyemi groans and Jongin laughs, loudly.

“Now get up. Stamina and endurance is your number one priority.”

Hyemi gets to her feet and eyes Jongin in annoyance. “I don’t like you.”

“Cool. You still have five more laps.”

~.~.~.~.~

“How was training?” Hyemi looks up from where she’s toweling off her hair in front of one the mirrors in her room. The appliances here wasn’t that different from the ones back home and she’s glad at least something is similar. Baekhyun is leaning against the doorframe, arms crossed and hair messy. He’s dressed in plaid pajamas and a loose white muscle tank. Hyemi smiles before remembering her earlier conversation with Jongin, her smile dropping quickly.

“Why do you care?” She mutters in a clipped tone, as she takes a seat in front of the mirror. The room is decorated in an incredibly old fashioned kind of way and the mirror reminds her of an old vintage vanity, complete with a beautifully decorated ottoman and dark, shiny wood.  Hyemi snatches up a delicately carved comb from the desk and yanks it through her hair, but the knots won’t come out, so she uses her fingers.

There’s a moment of silence before Baekhyun responds, his tone matching hers. “What is that supposed to mean?”

“I don’t know.” Hyemi says, pulling at the knots in her hair a little roughly, thanks to her frustration and anger. “What is this whole ‘Jongin is the only one who wanted to train me’ thing supposed to mean?”

She tries to sound tough and annoyed, but it doesn’t quite work. Her voice shakes just a tiny bit and Hyemi hopes it’s unnoticeable. If not, she’ll blame it on the fact that the damn knots in her hair won’t untangle.

It’s quiet after her question and Hyemi doesn’t look back (out of pride or something else, she’s not quite sure) to check if Baekhyun had left. Then she hears the squeaking of her door before it shuts with a soft click and she stiffens.

She feels a presence behind her, but she refuses to acknowledge him, instead opting to untangle the knots in her hair, her eyes fixed on her own fingers. Then something presses against her shoulders and she looks up, startled. She watches through the reflection of the vanity mirror as Baekhyun leans over her shoulder, his chest brushing against her back. She watches as he reaches for the vanity table and plucks the comb off the counter. Baekhyun gently brushes her hand away, his nimble fingers lightly carding through her hair before he pulls it all back and starts to run the comb through her hair as well. She blinks at his reflection, the way his eyes are fixed on the task at hand, his pink lips jutting out a bit. He’s incredibly gentle, his touch feather-light as one of his hands brushes along the top of her head, pretty fingers playing with her hair, and she’s incredibly confused.

Finally he speaks, a smirk evident on his face, even through the mirror. “Did I hurt your feelings?” He asks, softly, and Hyemi tries to pretend like she doesn’t notice when his fingers linger a bit too long at the nape of her neck.

“No.” She responds immediately, crossing her arms.

Baekhyun laughs then and she has to force herself to stop from smiling. She’s always thought his laugh was contagious. “I did, didn’t I? You wanted me to train you, didn’t you?” He grins and she refuses to respond, figuring he’ll be able to catch if she’s lying anyway. Besides, he doesn’t need an ego boost from her. Hyemi shivers internally when Baekhyun pushes her hair to the side, his fingers brushing along her neck. His fingers are warm and the tips of his fingers are rough against her skin.

“I’m sorry.” He declares, still brushing all her hair over her right shoulder, his fingers lingering.

“There’s nothing to be sorry about.” Hyemi says, stubbornly.

He drops his hand to her shoulder and leans forwards, over her instead of around her for some inexplicable reason, before dropping the comb on the vanity. He rests his chin on her left shoulder and she remains incredibly still, watching him through the reflection in the mirror. She thinks she looks like a deer in headlights. “I’m really, really sorry.” Baekhyun says, sincerely, his eyes locking with Hyemi’s through the reflection of the mirror, even though he’s basically speaking into her ear. “But I thought Jongin would be the best choice for your training. I can’t train anyone for . You should ask Chanyeol.” Baekhyun purses his lips then and wrinkles his nose. “Actually, don’t ask him. I was horrible.”

Hyemi finds herself smiling without meaning to and he grins back, eyes twinkling. “I’ll come by and help you train when you’re more experienced, okay? I promise.”

Hyemi makes a face, wrinkling her nose. She doesn’t want to rely on him anymore. She doesn’t like that his promise makes her smile wider. “You can do whatever you want. I don’t care.”

There’s a flurry of emotions flitting across his face that Hyemi can’t quite catch. Then his expression settles on resignation. Hyemi watches as his right hand flutters through the pile of hair pushed on to her right shoulder. He sighs loudly. “I wish you could forgive me and trust me again, Hyemi-ah.”

Hyemi doesn’t answer and Baekhyun just sighs again, more dramatically this time, his eyes casting up towards the ceiling for a moment. Then he presses his lips against the side of her head before straightening up.

“I am not your enemy.”

Hyemi winces when her door slams shut behind him, suddenly feeling cold.

~.~.~.~.~

“I want you to focus on your core. Imagine that there’s a tiny ball of energy floating inside you. Let it become your center of gravity. Think of this tiny ball of energy, imagine its circumference, its color, its shape, its power, until you can describe every little detail of it to me without hesitation.” Jongin whispers in a soothing voice.

Hyemi frowns, cracking one eye open. Jongin is sitting cross-legged, his hands resting on his knees and his eyes closed. After two full days of physical training, some of which included Hyemi having to catch Jongin while he teleported away (laughing his off every time Hyemi missed him), Jongin had finally decided it was time for spiritual training. She thought that’d mean shooting targets or something. But apparently not. She can’t help but wiggle her knees in anticipation.

“Stop looking at me and meditate.” Jongin orders in that same soft, soothing voice, without ever opening his eyes.

Hyemi huffs, “What’s the point of this? I don’t even know what my abilities are yet.”

Jongin finally cracks an eye open, the look of distaste Hyemi has gotten used to returns back full force. “The point of all this is learning how to find your own source of power from within yourself. Once you do that, you should be able to start differentiating between your abilities.”

Hyemi pouts and Jongin makes a mocking face. Grimacing, Hyemi closes her eyes and tries to imagine a ball of energy but it’s not coming to her. After a moment she groans. “I’m not good at this.” Hyemi says.

“I can tell.” Jongin stares pointedly at Hyemi’s wiggling knee. “You don’t know how to sit still. How did Baekhyun stand you for all those years?”

Hyemi glares at Jongin who only smirks. Then he tilts his head to the side, contemplatively. “Okay. Let me show you what meditation can help you do.”

Before Hyemi can respond, Jongin takes a deep breath and closes his eyes, his hands at his knees. Hyemi watches, mentally counting the seconds as Jongin breathes slowly, chest rising and falling at slow intervals. Suddenly he opens his eyes and grins. “There. Look.”

Hyemi looks. “There’s nothing there.” She says, skeptically, eyeing him.

Jongin grins, as if he has a secret, and lifts a hand. She watches as he brings it right in front of him and suddenly it’s gone. His hand, up to his wrist, is gone. Jongin points with his other hand, across the clearing, and she follows his gaze and squeaks in astonishment. Across the clearing, a couple meters away from them is a floating hand, Jongin’s hand. It’s hovering above the ground and waving at her.

“That’s so cool!” Hyemi exclaims, her eyes wide.

“I know.” Jongin responds.

“Also, kind of gross.” Hyemi adds, looking back at Jongin.

Jongin chooses to ignore that, instead speaking in that soothing voice again (which she decides to dub Jongin’s Mentor Voice). Jongin just brings his hand back and forth, allowing it to disappear and reappear, as he speaks. “This is my ball of energy. With enough spiritual training you can do this too.”

“How long did it take you to do this?”

“Ten human years.” Jongin says, nonchalantly.

Hyemi stares at Jongin in disbelief. “And you expect me to do this in how long?”

“Before Kris barges in here and tries to take you back.” Jongin furrows his eyebrows in thought and Hyemi thinks he looks like a child. “So maybe three days. Kris never does anything on time. He has a method.”

“What the hell?” Hyemi mutters in annoyance.

Jongin nods solemnly. “What the hell, indeed.”

~.~.~.~.~

Hyemi sighs, rubbing her sore muscles tiredly. The house they’re living in is bigger than the last one but it still feels suffocating. There’s furniture that Hyemi honestly thinks is too big for the little space provided. And there are shoes everywhere. Suho won’t let any of them open the curtains and they’re heavy, black curtains that shut out all light from outside. Hyemi can’t help but think she’s in a comfier version of the castle dungeons.

It’s strange being downstairs because Hyemi is never at the house anymore. She constantly training with Jongin from sunrise to sunset and the moment she gets home, she might eat something before she takes a shower and knocks out from exhaustion.

But she’s not exhausted for once so she decides to tour the house a bit.

She walks down the long hall when she suddenly hears her name. Hyemi comes to halt and blinks. The person speaking is obviously Jongin.

“…Hyemi so her abilities are still unknown.” Jongin murmurs, conversationally. There’s a pause in the conversation before another boy speaks.

He has a slight lisp and Hyemi thinks it’s Sehun. “Well, find a way for her to figure them out quickly.”

“You don’t think I’m trying?” Jongin snaps.

“Nope.” Sehun drawls out.

There’s a light scuffle and an indignant “dude, what the ?” before a familiar voice speaks up, tone strange. “Do you actually need me to help you, Jonginnie?” It’s Baekhyun and for some reason Hyemi feels uneasy with his tone.

“You never thought to warn me that she’s stubborn and impatient.” Jongin mutters accusingly. Hyemi rolls her eyes at that. It’s not like Jongin isn’t stubborn and impatient, too. “I have to teach her how to defend herself before we give her to Kris. Because who the knows what he’ll—”

“Your complaining is giving me a headache.” Sehun interrupts, in a whiny voice. It sounds like Jongin threw something at Sehun because Sehun groans in annoyance. “You can’t just throw at me when you can teleport. I can’t throw back!” There’s another loud noise before someone exhales loudly.

“I guess I’ll come by tomorrow. It’s easy to make her listen, Jongin. You just need to know how.”

Before Hyemi can possibly process everything she just heard she hears a bed creaking and footsteps. She jumps, realizing she’s standing in the middle of the hall obviously eavesdropping.

She franticly glances around before she spots a closet door a couple feet away. Hyemi skids to the door and yanks it open without really seeing before she clicks the door shut behind her as softly as she can.

She holds her breath and listens as the footsteps retreat, frowning because she’s breathing really hard for someone who has covered with her hand.

Wait. That’s not her breathing, she’s sure of it.

With wide eyes, she slowly turns in the cramped closet space.

Yixing and Jongdae are staring back at her in shock. Yixing seems shocked, his face slowly turning pink, while Jongdae seems almost amused. They’ve got their arms wrapped around each other and they are both definitely shirtless. Yixing fingers are wrapped in Jongdae’s hair, his mouth still hovering over Yixing’s neck. Jongdae’s hand is still down Yixing’s pants and Hyemi is just glad they’re both still wearing pants, at least. Hyemi opens to say something, anything, but nothing comes out. Then she realizes she’s gaping and figures that’s rude so she promptly shuts .

“What’s up?” Jongdae asks, nonchalantly, and her face heats up in embarrassment.

“Oh my God. I’m. I was. .” Hyemi stutters and knows she’s being ridiculously awkward, but then again Jongdae still has his goddamn hand down Yixing’s pants. She’s allowed to be awkward.

Jongdae just laughs, lips curling up, and Yixing smiles, serenely. “If you wanted to join you could have at least knocked first.” Yixing says, with twinkling frankly evil eyes, after a moment of stretched silence and Hyemi sputters out incoherently, blushing like mad.

“I’m leaving.” She announces as she reaches for the door, face on fire. “Sorry about. Uh. Barging in. I was just. Nevermind.”

“Shut the door behind you.” She steps out of the closet and Jongdae gives her eating grin and an obnoxious wink. She hears a soft moan and she can’t believe she just walked in on that.

~.~.~.~.~

The next morning Hyemi glares at Jongin the moment he walks into the kitchen. “What do you mean you’re ‘giving me to Kris’?” Hyemi asks, not caring that she’s making it obvious that she eavesdropped.

Jongin makes a face. “Were you eavesdropping on me?”

“So it’s true!” She points at a finger at him and he stares, incredulously.

Jongdae, who Hyemi had honestly been avoiding eye contact with for most of breakfast, looks like he’s just had a revelation. “So that’s why you ended up in the closet with me and Xing.”

“Excuse me?” Baekhyun walks in behind Jongin, eyebrows raised and jaw clenched. Hyemi thinks no one should be allowed to look that good in messy bed hair. “Who was in a closet with Jongdae and Yixing?”

Yixing points at Hyemi with his spoon and Hyemi makes a face. Baekhyun shoots Jongdae and Yixing a heated glare, which only ends in Yixing and Jongdae bursting into giggles.

“Stop trying to change the subject. Why are you just going to give me to Kris? I’m not some kind of trophy for you all to throw around.” Hyemi interrupts, loudly.

Sehun nods solemnly, in agreement. “You’re hardly a trophy. Maybe a nice pair of jeans. A wallet?”

Before Hyemi can retort or throw her spoon at Sehun, Baekhyun grabs her hand (the one holding the spoon, unfortunately) and touches her shoulder, gently.

“Kris was right, earlier. We don’t have the means to keep you safe if anyone else comes to get you.” Baekhyun says, softly, as if he only wants her to hear his words. It’s strangely intimate and she doesn’t like how her body immediately relaxes at his touch. Her body and her unconscious mind won’t stop trusting him and it’s frustrating. He knows her so well and she knows nothing about him (nothing that’s real, anyway). Hyemi also knows Baekhyun is right. They could never keep back the monster she saw in her dreams, but she doubts even Kris and his army could keep that monster away either.

“Besides.” Luhan speaks up as soon as he walks into the kitchen and everyone jumps in their seats, except for Sehun who rolls his eyes and mutters something about dramatic entrances. “Minseok’s sharing a cell with you and he’s stronger than half the Royal Guard combined.”

“You know Minseok?” Hyemi asks.

Jongdae snorts and Luhan’s eyes become distant. “Yeah.” Luhan says and when he doesn’t supply any more information, Hyemi shrugs.

“I hope you know that once I figure out how to work my abilities I’m going to practice on you guys if you keep making decisions about me without consulting me first.” Hyemi tries to sound threatening as she gets out of her seat and makes her way towards Jongin.

Jongin rolls his eyes and Baekhyun grins and pats her back. The last thing Hyemi hears is Jongdae laughing at her and she decides he’ll be first on her list.

~.~.~.~.~

“Concentrate, Hye.” Baekhyun says, frowning at Hyemi.

Hyemi stares at Baekhyun and Jongin, who are both sitting across from her and just staring. “I can’t concentrate when you’re both just staring at me. You’re not even blinking.”

Jongin pointedly flutters his eyes open and shut and Hyemi grimaces at him. Baekhyun crawls towards Hyemi on his knees before settling down beside her, his knee brushing hers. “Okay. Close your eyes and listen to my voice.” Baekhyun murmurs, his raspy voice soothing to her ears. One of his hands brushes along her forearm and her eyes shoot open.

He glares at her, pouting slightly, and she sighs, before closing her eyes again.

“Now imagine a little ball. Something like the one we used to play football with in middle school…” Hyemi listens to his voice and just the tone of it is strangely relaxing. She tunes out his words, her mind accidentally focusing on feeling of a finger tracing letters against her kneecap. She imagines they’re writing words, which is actually a bit distracting, so she forces herself to do what they want her to do. Her mind automatically wanders to her dream from earlier, to the golden ball of light that had been so warm and felt so safe, before that monster had come.

It was a soft yellow and she remembers cupping it, she remembers how it had caressed her cheeks and burrowed into her palms. Suddenly she can see it again, the warm ball of energy from her dream.

Something tells her to open her eyes.

It’s a voice.

She slowly opens her eyes and floating in front of her is the smallest wisp of green energy. It’s a sphere but it’s no wider than the width of three of her fingers. There are tiny yellow and white sparks falling off of the ball and floating all around it, shrouding it in soft colors. She thinks of her favorite gardens back home and smiles.

She doesn’t know why but she reaches for some grass and slowly drops it over the ball. The moment it touches the tiny ball of energy, it crumbles. She watches as it falls through the sphere and brown and yellow dust cascades in piles beneath it, resembling sand.

Suddenly her energy dies out and the wisp of green relinquishes itself, turning from smoke to nothing from one second to another.

“Holy .” Hyemi mutters, her hands dropping to her side.

She looks up at Baekhyun and Jongin, expecting them to match her grin. Instead Baekhyun’s eyes are fixed on the pile of grass dust in front of Hyemi and Jongin’s jaw clenches, his eyes hard. Neither of them are looking at her.

~.~.~.~.~

“You have the power of destruction.” Luhan tells her later that day. He smiles reassuringly, his expression soft, but his doe eyes are guarded and it doesn’t go unnoticed by Hyemi.

“Destruction.” Hyemi repeats, disliking the way it sounds. She doesn’t want to destroy things. All of her life, she loved to grow things, she loved to garden, but now she has an acute ability to destroy and it doesn’t sit well with her. It doesn’t seem to sit well with anyone else, either.

“You can break apart atoms, sever even the most indestructible of objects. Everything you touch will be destroyed.”

Hyemi feels cold. “Break apart atoms? Like nuclear activity?”

“If you wanted to, then yes. Yes, you could.” Luhan nods as he rubs the back of his head, ruffling his hair in the process.

“I don’t want to have the ability to set off nuclear bombs.” Hyemi exclaims, standing up. Her eyes drift around the room but no one is looking at her. Yixing is dozing on the couch, feet curled beneath him. Jongdae is lying on his back across the couch, his head resting on Yixing’s thigh, as he reads something. Or at least pretends to, since it’s upside down. Baekhyun, Jongin, and Sehun are nowhere to be seen. Suho is suddenly very interested with the palm of his hand.

“Baek always thought you’d have the ability to recreate. We all believed that, as well, but instead…” Luhan cuts himself off.

“Instead I destroy.” Hyemi states. She realizes that this adds to the destruction her mother had left in her wake. Hyemi’s power is to destroy and judging from Luhan’s expression, everyone already associated that with her mother and now it’s her turn. She is just like her mother. Hyemi’s everything they don’t want her to be. What’s worse is that now she could even become a nuclear weapon if she has enough practice. She’s a threat as well as a liability.

“You can learn to control it.” Luhan says, consolingly. “It’ll be better than becoming overwhelmed and having it accidentally go off.”

“Can that happen?” Hyemi asks, furrowing her eyebrows.

“It’s happened twice with you, as far as anyone knows.” Luhan says, with a nod. When Hyemi stares at him in confusion Luhan continues speaking. “Once back in Labyrinth City with the monster that followed us from Earth and the second time was when you were a baby and soldiers were sent to apprehend your mother. There was an explosion at your house. And your mother. She.... I thought you already knew this—Hyemi? Hyemi, are you okay?”

Hyemi slowly sinks to the floor and grasps the edge of the couch, his words feeling like a stab to her heart. According to her vision from so long ago, there had been no soldiers, but she didn’t know it was her fault that her house had been scorched up. Had it been her fault her mother had burn scars all over her face?

“Sorry.” She breathes out, slowly trying to catch her breath. “I’m. I didn’t. Very overwhelmed.”

Everything is a blur of noise and movements and she tries to focus on her breathing.

Baekhyun’s voice is in her ear, speaking hurriedly, “Calm down. It’s okay. It wasn’t your fault, baby. Shhh, it’s okay. I’m here. You’re okay.”

Her heart skips a beat at the endearing term but she manages to take deep, slow breaths, focusing on the hand drawing large circles against her spine.

~.~.~.~.~

“Hold it. Hold it. That’s right. Keep going. Keep—.”

Hyemi throws her hands up in exasperation, the green wisp of energy deteriorating instantly. “Maybe you should stop talking while I’m doing this.”

Sehun, who had decided to tag along today, nods from where he’s lying on his stomach, his head in his hands. “She’s right.”

“No one asked you.” Jongin mutters.

“At least it’s bigger now.” Hyemi tells them pointedly, stretching her arms as she sighs.

Sehun makes a face, his mouth forming a little ‘o’. “Oh, is it?” He asks, suggestively.

Hyemi throws a handful of grass at Sehun, who flicks his fingers and sends the grass flying straight into Jongin’s face. Jongin groans in annoyance and Hyemi laughs.

~.~.~.~.~

Near sunset, Hyemi starts to feel uneasy. She glances around at the charred trees surrounding the clearing and she swears there’s something in there, watching them.

She looks up at Jongin, to say something, when she realizes that he’s standing very, very still, a few feet ahead of Hyemi and Sehun. Sehun steps right in front of Hyemi, then, and Hyemi peers around Sehun’s arm.

There’s something straight ahead, just along the edge of the clearing. Hyemi can’t quite figure out what it is. All she can see is a shadowy figure blending in with the smoky, grey trees in the background.

It's like it's waiting for something.

Jongin slowly holds out his hand, his fingers splayed out but Hyemi can’t look away from the shadowy figure.

“Come over here as slowly as you can, okay? No sudden movements.” Jongin murmurs, eyes fixed on the figure.

Slowly, so slowly, Hyemi and Sehun inch forwards.

However, the moment they step forward, the shadowy figure seems to grow larger.

Hyemi holds Sehun’s arm, watching as Sehun reaches out for Jongin. Just before their fingers meet, two red glowing dots come to life side by side just at the top of the figure, piercing through the shadows of the trees.

Three things happen at once.

Sehun grabs Hyemi by the wrist and pulls her back, a puff of wind leaves his mouth and sends them tumbling through the air.

Jongin disappears with a soft pop, reappearing at the other side of the clearing.

And the shadowy figure with piercing red eyes zips through the clearing, pummeling through the exact spot the three of them had been standing earlier, tearing the ground apart beneath it.

Hyemi stares at it, shivers running up and down her spine. Its jaw is unhinged, sharp teeth spilling from its mouth, and its red eyes are the color of blood. It vaguely resembles a human, eyes bugging out and moving side to side rapidly. However, its body is made of bones and mangled flesh that reminds Hyemi of awful burns. Its hands curl into stiff fingers, long claws curling into its palm.

Its head snaps to the side, disjointing its neck, the sound of it cracking echoing throughout the clearing. Its blood red eyes land on Hyemi and it snarls, eyes fixed, the rapid movement from earlier coming to a halt.

It growls at her, voice cracking and curdling, and she has a feeling it’s calling to her.

Then it charges, crawling towards them on all fours at an inhuman speed, head turned to the side and snarls ripping from its throat.

a/n: omg this is nearly 5k!! i feel like this is very filler chapter-y but i needed to show some type of development between her and the other exo members (as well as baek x hyemi moments). OF COURSE ALSO CLIFFHANGER I'M SORRY...

please tell me your thoughts and such!! especially how you feel about her relationship with baekhyun (and lmao chenlay!!!) also jongin became much more prominent of a character than i meant for him to be lol he's just so fun to write as annoying but kinda nice.

thank you for reading as always remember to upvote/comment/subscribe if you liked it! especially comments bc those help me out, as an author.

thank you, i love you.

xoxo