[title song: baby don't cry by u-kiss]

chapter 7;

Hyemi wakes up to a dark room, feeling strangely slow. She blinks, sitting up and frowns because she can’t see anything. She’s sitting on a bed but that’s all she can really decipher at the moment. Hyemi rubs her eyes and stumbles off the bed, holding her hands out in front of her as she carefully treads along the carpet. She presses her fingers along the cool wall until her fingers finally wrap around a doorknob.

She barely turns the doorknob when the door swings open, creaking on its hinges, the noise grating to her ears. There’s light in the halls but it’s still poorly lit, dim light casting long shadows up and down the hall. She doesn’t remember how she got here. She doesn’t know where she is. It makes her skin crawl.

“Hello?” She calls, peering down both ends of the hall, annoyed that all she sees is darkness. She’s honestly sick of all these creepy situations she keeps getting into.

“Hi.” An unfamiliar voice speaks in a cheerful tone and she shrieks, caught off guard, as she spins on her heels. Sitting on the bed, legs crossed beneath her body, is a little girl Hyemi can only describe as a version of herself, but younger. Kid Hyemi stares at her with wide eyes, hands clasped in her lap and eyes unblinking.

“I’m dreaming, aren’t I?” Hyemi asks, suddenly, blinking at her younger self.

Kid Hyemi smiles with a sort of solemnity that seems entirely out of place on such a young face. “Yup.” Kid Hyemi says, nodding slowly.

Hyemi frowns at the little girl, crossing her arms, “Okay. Then how do I stop dreaming?”

The little girl just shrugs.

Hyemi glares because this is annoying. She hates this. Before Hyemi can say anything, her younger self yelps. “Don’t go with them.” Kid Hyemi says in a panicked voice, eyes widening in horror. “Don’t trust them. Don’t. Trust. Them.”

As the panic on Kid Hyemi’s face begins to build, so does the anxiety in the pit of Hyemi’s stomach. The world around her feels off kilter almost, and Hyemi watches in horror as everything seems to just melt away. Kid Hyemi keeps repeating her words over and over again. Don’t trust them. Don’t go with them. Don’t. Hyemi blinks rapidly, backing away, as her younger self seems to burst apart before her, roots and branches sprouting from her every pore. The words are still echoing in Hyemi’s head, the pitch changing with every passing second, from high to low to a screeching shriek.

Hyemi gasps when her back hits the wall, her eyes fixed on Kid Hyemi, who seems to be exploding into a gigantic, full grown tree with leaves of gold and soft green as she screams like a broken record machine. Then the bedroom door slams shut and Hyemi can finally breathe, her body going limp as she slumps against the wall.

“Hyemi-ah? Are you okay?” Baekhyun’s familiar voice drifts to her ears and she immediately responds to his voice, glancing up at him. He’s looking at her with such sincere concern that her heart twists almost painfully.  He holds out a hand and she takes it, letting him pull her up off the ground, her eyes still fixed on the closed bedroom door. “Hyemi-ah? Look at me.”

Something tells her she shouldn’t look. This is a dream. It’s not real. This Baekhyun is not real. Except when she glances up at him, she can’t help but scream, her skin crawling. It’s still Baekhyun, but his eyes are gone, replaced by bottomless pits of black. She tries to push away from him, but his fingers are digging into her skin, leaving red marks scattered along the skin there. He leans down towards her, the dark holes where his eyes should be swallowing up her attention. She can’t breathe as she watches Baekhyun slowly break into a smile; pink lips curling back to reveal teeth filed into sharp points, as his nails dig into her skin, twisting her wrist in a painful grip.

This isn’t real, she tries to tell herself. But he leans closer, his sharp teeth barely a centimeter from her skin, and the bottomless pits where his eyes should be paralyzes her. Baekhyun opens his mouth and she squeezes her eyes shut.

“Wake up.” His voice resonates in her mind, sending a shiver down her spine.

“Wake. Up.”

~.~.~.~.~

Hyemi gasps awake, throwing the blankets off her legs as she attempts to tumble out of the bed. She feels arms tightening around her forearms and she immediately begins to thrash and claw and scream, shaking her head rapidly. When the hands don’t let up and reality seems to sink in, when she realizes that she’s not dreaming anymore, that she’s in a soft bed and the hands pinning her down are entirely too familiar, the adrenaline rush seems to disappear as quickly as it came. She’s still breathing heavily, but she’s so tired. She stops fighting the tight grip on her arms, until she’s lying limp on the bed and the arms digging into her skin are now wrapped around her body, slender fingers carding through her hair.

“I’m here.” Baekhyun’s voice reaches her ears, fingers brushing along her cheeks, and it takes her a lot longer than she would have liked to realize that she’d been crying. That she was still crying. She feels the softest pressure against the top of her head. “You’re safe.”

“You’re lying.” She responds, her voice sounding scratchy and too hitched for her liking. She pulls back a little and finally looks up at him. His hair is a little messy, as if he’d been asleep, and his lips are turned up into a wry smile, chocolate brown eyes unwavering. Hyemi pulls away from him, sitting up on her knees on the soft sheets as she furiously rubs at the tears falling down her cheeks. “You’re lying.” She repeats, her voice steadier, more accusing.

Baekhyun stares up at her with unfathomable eyes and all she can do is take deep, calming breaths and attempt to rub away the tears that won’t stop falling down her cheeks. “You’re in shock, Hye.” Baekhyun finally says, voice soft and extremely calm. “Come here.” He holds out his arms and Hyemi shakes her head again, dodging his outstretched fingers, and scrambles closer to the edge of the bed.

“I’m not safe.” She hisses, blinking rapidly. “I’m not going to be safe wherever we’re going and I’m not safe here. I’m not even safe in my own ing dreams. I’m not safe.” She thinks she sounds a bit hysterical and the way he’s looking at her, as if she’s a child having a temper tantrum only makes her angrier. “I hate you. This is your fault. I hate you so ing much, Byun Baekhyun.”

There’s a long moment of silence until he finally speaks, his tone frigid. “Are you done?”

Hyemi’s gaze snaps to his and he’s watching her with this look in his eyes that she can’t quite pinpoint. She doesn’t know what gets over her then, but she finds herself balling her fists against the sheets and looking away from him, her gaze fixed on the doorknob across the room.

“I’m scared.” She whispers and a weird sense of relief washes through her. Because she’s terrified and she’s finally told someone. “I’m so scared.”

The silence that follows her words is suffocating. Then she feels warm hands pulling at her fists, slowly flattening out each finger until her palms are visible. Then he intertwines his fingers with hers, tugging at her hands, and she can’t look at him, her cheeks heating up as his soft, slender fingers interlock with hers. He nudges her chin with both of their hands, knuckles brushing along her jaw, but she can’t look at him, for whatever reason. Instead of giving up, Baekhyun tilts his head forward until he’s in her line of vision, chocolate brown eyes melting softly as his bottom lip juts out a bit. She tries to turn away but he’s determined to stay in her line of sight, head tilted to the side and eyes gentle.

“What if I told you I’m more scared than you?” Baekhyun asks in a playful tone, his forehead bumping against her chin.

She makes a nose of disagreement and he laughs, the sound making her relax a bit. “You have cool superpowers. You can fight them.” She mutters, eventually, when the silence feels like it’s stretches on for too long.

“That’s true.” He says in a distracted voice and she’s suddenly hyperaware of how close he is to her. She should pull away from him, but a part of her doesn’t want to. Because, no matter how much she wants to deny it she missed him so much. “It’s okay to be scared.” He breathes, thumb rubbing soft circles into the back of her hand. “But you’re going to be safe. I’m here, right?” Baekhyun winks at her and Hyemi makes a face, smiling despite herself. Baekhyun then sighs, “Besides, there are five other people with cool superpowers just downstairs. We won’t let you get hurt.”

Hyemi stares at him, at his sincere expression, and blurts out, “Thank you.” Then she blushes, frowning because she’s supposed to hate him; she’s not supposed to trust him.

He breaks into a pretty grin, eyes crinkling into crescent moons and fingers tightening around hers. “You’re welcome.”

She can’t look away from him, then, and she’s not entirely sure why. They’re so close, she could count his eyelashes if she wanted to and the thought makes her face heat up and she doesn’t miss the way his lips turn up in a small smirk nor does she miss the way his eyes keep flickering downwards. Alarms are going off at the back of her mind, but it’s like her body is moving forward on its own accord. He’s leaning closer and time seems to slow down, her heart fluttering in her chest.

Then there’s a soft cough from their right.

Hyemi jumps back and Baekhyun flinches, pulling his hands out of hers immediately.

There’s a boy standing at the door, brows raised and an obviously amused grin plastered across his face, his dimple pronounced. “Am I interrupting something?” He asks, smoothly, eyes flickering to Hyemi before it lands on Baekhyun.

“No.” Hyemi exclaims at the same time as Baekhyun. Hyemi glances at Baekhyun, who has the decency to look a little embarrassed, and quickly looks away. She can’t believe she nearly went there.

Dimple Boy just smirks, “Okay, sure.” He says in an unconvinced tone. “I heard screaming and decided to check up on Hyemi-ssi.” He looks at Hyemi, smile gentle and eyes strangely blank. “My name is Yixing, by the way. Are you okay?”

Hyemi nods, smiling in greeting. “I’m fine, Yixing-ssi.”

“You don’t feel fine. The tension is making me queasy.” Yixing mutters, pursing his lips and knitting his eyebrows.

“He’s empathetic. He can feel what you’re feeling.” Baekhyun clarifies, taking pity on the confusion written all over Hyemi’s face.

Then Yixing smiles, serenely, “Which means I’m going to need you to leave her alone for a bit, Baekhyun.”

Baekhyun looks like he wants to protest but the moment Yixing crosses his arms, Baekhyun sighs. “Fine.” He mutters. He turns to Hyemi, “I’ll be right downstairs if you need me, okay?” He waits for her to nod before he turns away.

As soon as Baekhyun leaves the room, Yixing eyes Hyemi with a sort of pity she thinks looks wrong on his face. He sits down at the edge of her bed. “You’re lucky I interrupted when I did.” Yixing pauses, tilting his head slightly. “Aren’t you?”

Hyemi lets out a deep breath she didn’t know she was holding, suddenly feeling extremely relaxed. “Are you doing that?” Hyemi asks, softly, smiling even though she doesn’t know why she feels so happy.

Yixing gives her a serene smile. “Yup. I can project emotions. It works really well with healing.” Yixing looks amused, lips curling up, “I used to get paid to make people feel like this, you know, way back in the day.” There’s a pause where Yixing’s eyes become distant. “Wow, I’m old.”

Hyemi giggles, her mind clouding with a hazy sort of happiness. Then she frowns, watching Yixing tiredly. “Why did you interrupt, anyway?”

Yixing’s blank eyes morph into an expression that makes Hyemi feel exposed. “You’ll find out why later, Hyemi-ssi. And maybe one day you’ll thank me.”

~.~.~.~.~

The bedside clock reads two fifteen in the morning when Hyemi pushes out of bed, her empty stomach growling uncomfortably. She reaches the door and ignores the intense sense of déjà vu. She’s not dreaming. She knows she’s awake. Nevertheless she still peeks into the hallway, cautiously, frowning when she realizes that the hallway is so dark she can barely see her hand in front of her face.

Hyemi stares down the hall, pushing away the anxiety, before she slowly makes her way down the hall. She’s at the top of some stairs and she feels a wave of relief when she spots the splash of light at the bottom of the stairs.

Hyemi makes her way down the stairs and to what she assumes is the kitchen, where she can hear soft voices but can’t quite make out any words. She stops just before the doorway and takes a deep breath. She doesn’t know why, but she feels strangely nervous.

As soon as Hyemi steps into the kitchen, the voices stop and she finds herself being stared at by Luhan, Sehun, Jongin, and Baekhyun. Hyemi grimaces slightly, a little self-conscious because these boys are actually unusually attractive. It’s distracting. “I’m hungry.” Hyemi says, eventually, her frown deepening. “And please stop staring at me. Take a picture, it’ll last longer.” She adds, glancing around the bare kitchen. Where are they anyways? The kitchen window is boarded up and the kitchen looks practically unused.

Sehun snorts, rolling his eyes. “Yeah, no. I don’t want to break any cameras.” Sehun says in a bored tone.

Jongin starts to laugh with his whole body, leaning against Sehun, and Hyemi honestly feels like punching both of them. She’s too tired for this. Before she can open to snap at Sehun, Baekhyun interrupts from where he’s seated on the kitchen island counter, swinging his legs. “We don’t have any food.”

She frowns at him, “Are you planning on starving me or something?”

Luhan snorts from where he’s sitting across from Jongin and Sehun, at the kitchen table. “Nah. Jongdae and Yixing are on a food run. They should have been back by now, actually.”

Jongin rolls his eyes. “They probably got distracted.”

Hyemi blinks in confusion. Baekhyun grins at her, eyes twinkling. “You don’t want to know.” He tells her.

Hyemi looks at Baekhyun for a moment and memories from earlier flood her mind. She can’t help but blush and Baekhyun suddenly smirks at her before patting the kitchen counter beside him. She doesn’t really know why she ends up joining him, jumping up on the counter beside him. She doesn’t know why her body keeps doing things without consulting her mind first, if that’s even possible. She ignores the fact that his fingers are brushing along her arm, almost absentmindedly, as he watches Jongin and Sehun banter about something; instead she takes a cursory glance around the kitchen, noticing a few framed pictures of people she’s never seen before hanging from the wall.

“Whose house are we in?” Hyemi asks as she looks over her shoulder and peers at the cute baby photos on the refrigerator door.

Baekhyun just shrugs, turning his head to look at the baby pictures, too, chest brushing against Hyemi’s shoulder. “I dunno. They’re on vacation or something.”

Hyemi gapes at him. “You broke into someone’s house?” She squeaks, eyes wide.

“I told you she’s a nerd.” She hears Jongin whisper to Sehun in a tone that’s obviously not a whisper.

“This has nothing to do with being a nerd. Which I’m not.” Hyemi snaps at Jongin, frowning when he seems unconvinced, before she turns to Baekhyun. “You can’t just break into people’s homes, Baekhyun!”

Baekhyun looks at her like she’s mental. “It’s not like they’re using it. We’re just borrowing it.”

“Borrowing it?” Hyemi repeats, a little flatly.

“Borrowing it.” Baekhyun responds, nodding slowly, his smirk a tiny bit infuriating. “We’re not hurting anyone.”

Before Hyemi can respond, the front door slams open and a loud laugh drifts through the hall. “We brought breakfast!” Jongdae calls, appearing at the doorway with ruffled hair and a wide grin.

“Took you long enough.” Sehun mutters, immediately lunging for the food in Jongdae’s hand.

Jongdae grimaces, swatting at Sehun. “Don’t make me electrocute you, kid.”

Sehun just stares at Jongdae blandly and Jongdae rolls his eyes, still grinning.

Hyemi leans against Baekhyun a little, watching as Jongin plucks the food straight out of Sehun’s hands. “You should eat.” Baekhyun’s voice is right next to her ear and she jolts up, frowning at the proximity. “And sleep.” Baekhyun adds, a little pointedly.

“I could say the same thing to you.” Hyemi responds. “Why are you all awake at two in the morning anyway?”

Baekhyun grins, “The time difference between home and here is hard to get used to.”

Hyemi blinks, the realization that he’s from a different planet hitting her very suddenly. “You really are from a different planet, aren’t you?” Hyemi mutters, almost to herself.

Baekhyun nods, eyes growing distant, a small smile on his lips. “So are you. Well, half of you, I guess.”

“This still doesn’t seem real.” Hyemi says, frowning.

Baekhyun looks a bit sympathetic when he looks at her. “You’ll see tomorrow.” Baekhyun then reaches out and tucks a strand of hair behind her ear, his expression stony and strangely distant. “We’re leaving for EXO tomorrow. Or I guess it’s today, isn’t it?”

Hyemi’s stomach flips and she wishes she could somehow crush the anxiety bubbling up inside of her. She forces her eyes off of Baekhyun (because she feels like he’s staring straight through her) and locks eyes with Luhan, who’s watching her with sparkling eyes that seem a lot more knowing then she’d like them to be.

a/n: i think this my (terrible) attempt at fluffy angst u h omg i am sorry

i guess you can consider this a bit of a filler chapter, but her dreams are always extremely important and hey! she's finally warming up to (insert suggestive eyebrow wiggle here) baekhyun again woooooo

as always i'd love to know your thoughts

and the fact that theyre leaving earth very very soon

Comment, subscribe, & upvote if you like this so far!! <3

xoxo