"Shin!"

                His head jerked up, his entire left cheek covered in syrup, "Huh? What?" he said, disoriented as he looked around the empty dining room.

                 "Geez, I've called your name like a hundred times already," Chanyeol took a seat next to him at the table, "Enjoy your nap?"

                Shin groaned, "Where did everyone go?"

                "I don't know, it’s a big house, they could have gone to another dimension or something," his roommate replied, handing him a napkin to wipe his dirty face. As soon as they were finished eating, everyone except Chanyeol dispersed from the room and left Shin at the table.

                "Do you want to explain why I'm covered in food?"

                "You fell asleep in the middle of breakfast, and your face kind of landed in the pancakes," he laughed.

                The twenty-one year old grimaced in embarrassment, "And you didn't wake me up?"

                "No, the table needed something funny to happen, it was getting really awkward," Chanyeol looked at Shin's tired face, "You didn't sleep last night?"

                "Our room is next to Donghae's, remember?" he said as if that alone should explain everything, "With his constant crying, it's impossible to get any good rest," Shin lowered his voice, "By the way, did he ever come down to eat?"

                No matter how much they tried, Donghae refused to leave his room. Henry even made his favorite breakfast to coax him downstairs, but their efforts were unsuccessful. Chanyeol sighed and shook his head, "No, he's been up there all day."

Footsteps could be heard approaching the dining room. Henry stepped inside carrying a tray of food, "Chanyeol, could you do me a favor?"

                "Yeah, what is it?"

                "Could you carry this up to Donghae for me?" he asked, handing him the tray, "I don't want him to starve himself up there."

                "Yeah, no problem."

                Henry rubbed the back of his neck, "Amber and I already tried on two separate occasions. Let's just say that it didn't work out too well."

                Chanyeol was skeptical, but he took the tray and carried it up the steps. The house was unnaturally quiet to say that so many people lived there. The awkward energy was everywhere and everyone refused to talk about what had happened the day before. Not that anyone wanted to; those were images that everyone wanted to block out for the rest of their lives only if they could.

                When he reached the door, he realized that it was oddly silent on the other side. 

No screaming, sobbing, or coughing to be heard. Chanyeol knocked, "Donghae! Donghae!" he called.

 When he recieved no answer, he slowly opened the creaky door.           

                On the opposite side of the tissue covered bedroom, Donghae stood on his balcony. Back to the door, his eyes remained trained on outside. He never looked behind him to see who had come into his room.

                Donghae was one of Chanyeol's favorite seniors as a trainee. He was always so kind, and gave whatever advice Chanyeol needed whenever he was having a hard time coping with the hardships of the entertainment industry.

                 He tried to keep those years in mind as he approached the singer.

                "Hey, I've got some food here," he said, his voice breaking the silence. Donghae's back remained to him, "I heard it's your favorite."

                "I already told you guys, I'm not hungry," he breathed.

                Chanyeol could sense that he wasn't in the mood for conversation, but he tried to make an effort, "But you haven't eaten since-"

                "I'M FINE!" Donghae exploded, making Chanyeol nearly drop the tray. He turned to face him and Chanyeol stopped breathing for a moment. In all of his years, Chanyeol had never seen him look so pitiful. Donghae's eyes were red, puffy, and b with tears. He tried to choke back the sobs that threatened to spill over and escape, "I'm. Not. Hungry." his voice was scratchy, but his message was clear.

                Chanyeol backed away and left the tray on his bed, nearly tripping on his way out.

                "O-okay, I'm sorry!" he said as he closed the door as quickly as he could. He tried to get out of hearing range of what he knew what was to come.

                Unfortunately, Donghae's violent torrent of tears could still be heard even at the bottom of the staircase.

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                 Hana groaned as she rolled over in bed. The sun shined oddly bright through the blinds, and her eyes took a moment to adjust.

                Amber walked into the room, "Wow, look who's awake," she said in feigned disbelief.

                "What time is it?" she asked groggily

                "Three."

                Hana shot up, "Three? Why'd you let me sleep this late?"

                "Well first, I didn't realize that it was my job to wake you up, "Amber said. Hana wasn't used to other people returning her snide remarks other than Shin. It was kind of refreshing, "And second, this was the first time you didn't wake up before me, so I figured you needed the extra sleep."

                "Thanks," Hana muttered.

                "Don't worry, we saved you a plate in the refrigerator from breakfast. It's not like you missed anything, though. There was a lot of awkward silence and really inappropriate jokes made my Eunhyuk. Oh, but Shin fell asleep on his pancakes, just thought you'd want to know."

                Hana grimaced in second-hand embarrassment. She noticed Amber digging through the drawers and change into a pair of shorts and a tank top, "Why are you changing? Are we going somewhere?"

                "Me and some of the guys are going swimming."

                "Where?"

                "In the bathtub," Amber replied, voice coated in sarcasm, "Have you ever seen what's behind the house?" she asked. She walked up to the glass door at the other end of the room and pulled it open. The two stepped onto the spacious iron balcony.

                In front of them was the best view of their enormous backyard. The property was covered with lush green grass and hills, even a forest could be seen in the distance. Directly beneath their feet was a clear blue swimming pool. Hana could make out the bobbing heads of some of the boys as they played in the water.

                 Hana didn't know when she would stop being so surprised, "This place has everything."

                "If you can imagine it, this place probably has it," Amber said as she went back into the room, "Why don't you come with us?"

                "No, I'll just stay inside," Hana insisted.

                Amber was determined to get her introverted roommate out of her comfort zone, "Come on, it'll be a good way to meet everyone. Plus, you really need to get outside to do more than just kill zombies," she could tell that she still wasn't budging, "Shin said he was coming."

                His name piqued her interest, just as Amber knew it would. Hana remembered that she really needed to talk to him about what happened last night in the kitchen.

                She ultimately agreed, but mainly to stop Amber's nagging. Hana changed into the same tank top and shorts ensemble as her blond counterpart, but under the conditions that she would only "sit and watch the others have fun."

                "How deep is the water?" Hana asked out of curiosity.

                "Henry said that the deepest part is fifteen feet," Amber replied nonchalantly.

                Hana made a mental note to keep her distance if she could help it.

                The two girls went downstairs and opened the back door. They walked onto the patio and down the steps to meet the others.

                "Hey! We were wondering what was taking you so long," Chen said from the water.

                Chanyeol and Shin sat pool-side in lounge chairs exchanging stories. Shin burst into a fit of laughter at something Chanyeol said, and Hana was glad that he had found someone other than her to talk to in the house.

                Kai, Sehun, Chen and Henry were in the water trying to dunk each other.  Their shirts were on the edge of the pool and when Sehun and Hana made eye-contact, he sank deeper into the water to cover his bare chest.

                Without warning, Amber suddenly took several steps back, ran forward and then flipped into the pool. Water splashed everywhere and the boys howled in excitement.

                "Hana!" Shin called when he saw her. He patted the seat on the other side of him, "This is cool, right? I've always wanted a pool."

                ""This is better than I expected," she said while sitting back in the chair with her hands behind her head. As she looked around, she realized that she was living every fan's fantasy. Hanging out by the pool with the country's most famous pop stars had crossed her mind a few times, but never had she thought it would become a reality.

                "You slept through a great breakfast this morning."

                "I heard that you did too. Tell me, Shin, did the pancakes make a nice pillow?" she retorted.

                Shin held his face in frustration. Chanyeol laughed at the pair, "It was hilarious. Eunhyuk was telling this really weird story and then Shin's face suddenly fell right onto his plate. Everyone thought that he was joking, but when he didn't wake up the whole table couldn't stop laughing. Well except for Seunhyun, he just kept eating."

                Hana was tempted to tell Shin what happened with Eunhyuk last night, but he was too deep in conversation with Chanyeol. She would just have to bring it up later when others weren't around to hear.

                Suddenly, the back door opened. Everyone turned to see who was joining them, and their eyes fell upon Eunhyuk and his oddly cheery face. He stalked toward the group sitting in the lounge chairs.

                The entire backyard got quiet.

                "Shin, we need to talk," Eunhyuk said simply.

                The oldest cousin narrowed his eyes, his guard raised, "What do you have to say to me?"

                "Come inside and find out."

                The two locked eyes for a while before Shin got up and followed Eunhyuk back inside the house.

                "What do you want?" he asked in exasperation as they stood in the kitchen.

                Eunhyuk laughed maniacally, "Did you enjoy your nap this morning?"

                Shin scoffed, "If that's all you wanted I'll be going now," he said as he turned to go back outside.

                Eunhyuk grabbed his arm, a smile still lingering on his lips, "No, that wasn't it," he insisted as Shin shrugged him off. Eunhyuk took a deep breath, "I'm sorry."

                Shin gaped at him, "What?"

                "I'm sorry for the way I've acted since I met you. I had some time to think everything over last night, and I realized that I was being kind of-"

                "An ?" Shin interjected.

                Eunhyuk shrugged, "Whatever you want to call it. But I wanted to know if we could start over?"

                "What's been done is done, you can't change anything that's already happened."

                "I know, but we can start fresh, leave everything in the past."

                Shin looked the dancer right in his sleep deprived eyes, trying to see how serious he was, "I don't know."

                Eunhyuk closed his fists tightly, it was almost unnoticeable, but he began to shake,  "Look, Shin, I'm making an effort here," Shin didn't understanding how someone could go from laughing to repressing an outburst in a matter of seconds, "At least meet me half way."

                Shin was at a loss of what to do, "Can I at least think it over?"

                Eunhyuk sighed dramatically, "Maybe we don't have to start over, per say. Maybe we can just start with this," he outstretched his thin hand. Shin knew exactly what he wanted instead, but he wasn't sure which one he preferred at the moment, "Do you accept my apology?"

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"Where's Seunhyun?" Amber asked as she floated around the pool.

                "He's been holed up in the library since this morning. I asked him to come but he declined," Henry said, "I expected it though, just imagine him in a pool. I don't think anyone has ever seen any skin past his forearms."

                As the pool gang laughed, Kai's eyes fell on Hana. Her hair was tied up in a high ponytail and she was reclined in a chair with her eyes closed, "Is she getting in the water any time soon?" he asked.

                "No, the agreement was that she would only come if she could just sit there," Amber replied.

                A devilish smirk appeared on Kai's face, "Well what's the fun in that?" he muttered.

                To cure his boredom, he waved Sehun over. The two swam over to deeper water, out of hearing range from Amber, Henry, and Chen.

                "Have you ever talked to her before?" he asked Sehun, nodding towards Hana.

                Sehun stammered, "N-no, never, nope."

                Kai didn't read into the comment too much. He looked back at the dozing girl on the lounge chair. Her hair wasn't down and covering half of her face like it usually was. Now her features were fully visible.

                She's kind of cute actually, he thought.

                He noticed how she stayed to herself all the time, never talking to anyone really other than Shin.

                He nudged Sehun's arm, "Hey, why don't we welcome her to the group ourselves," from the glint in his eyes, Sehun could tell he already had something in mind.

                The sun felt good on Hana's skin. Whenever the wind blew, wisps of long hair would move around her face. She nuzzled deeper into the chair, letting her drowsiness take over again.

                "Hey!" someone yelled. Hana brushed it off as pool antics and remained unmoving, "Hey, Hana!" they yelled again.

                She recognized the voice as Kai's. Her eyes immediately snapped open in surprise.

                He gave her an angelic smile, "Can you please hand me my towel?" he asked, pointing to the table next to her.

                She grimaced, not believing that he had woken her up for that, "Can't you just get out and get it yourself?" she replied, sounding unintentionally snappy.

                He was taken aback by her aggressive tone. Nonetheless, he leaned against the side of the pool, making his smile even sultrier as he looked up at her, "Please?" he asked, adding a lip bite for good measure.

                 His disheveled brown hair covered his dark eyes as it stuck to his forehead. Hana took in his tanned biceps, deep collar bones, and broad shoulders.

                Taking a deep breath, she swallowed her pride and got up from the chair. She grabbed the towel from the table and walked over to the edge of the pool.

                "Here," as she bent down to hand Kai the towel, Sehun came up next to him and grabbed her wrist, pulling her down. She gasped, taking in a mouthful of air as she plummeted into the water.

                The two boys roared with laughter and high-fived each other, not believing that the plan had actually worked.

                It was all so fast, and she wasn't exactly sure of how it happened. All she knew was that somehow she ended up being tugged into the water after all, despite all her previous efforts. She looked above her, and the sunlight seemed to be getting further and further away. Over her head were several pairs of feet, but her mind was too dazed to count.

                Her feet eventually touched the bottom, and she tried not to panic.

                Its okay, just get to the edge and pull yourself up, she assured herself.

                As she tried to reach on both sides she only felt handfuls of water instead of concrete. In her cloudy vision, she estimated that the edge was probably ten feet above her head.   

                She was in the deepest part of the pool.

                Hana flailed around, trying to get herself to the top. Despite trying her best, she only ran out of energy and her burning lungs pleaded for air.

                Shin stood in front of Eunhyuk, looking down at his hand without a clue of what to do, "I..." he began. He quickly glanced out of the window and saw a figure fall into the pool. When he was about to look away, he noticed the swaying black ponytail he was very familiar with.

                His heart skipped a beat and then sped to troubling levels when Hana didn't come back to the top of the water.

                Shin darted back outside, "No!" he screamed, jumping off the patio, "She can't swim!"

                The smiles were wiped off of the boys' faces as the realization of what they had done sunk in. Chanyeol was closer than Shin, and while the others were frozen in shock, he leaped into the pool after the girl.

                He saw her at the very bottom, moving her arms and legs to no avail. He grabbed her by the tops of her arms and pulled her to the surface. When they reached the top, Shin tugged as hard as he could until his cousin was out of the water and onto the concrete.

                Hana coughed and gagged uncontrollably, trying to get in as much air in as she could. Her head was throbbing in adrenaline and she swayed from side to side as the dizziness kicked in.

                "You idiots!" Amber yelled as she got out of the pool and ran toward the girl retching on the ground.

                Kai and Sehun watched numbly in the water, not understanding how a harmless joke could have gone so wrong.

                Shin and Amber gently got Hana on her feet and escorted her back inside, walking past Eunhyuk and his still outstretched hand.

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               "It's pretty ironic really," Shin said as he adjusted the towel around Hana's shoulders, "Rotting corpses are coming back to eat the living and you somehow managed to almost die in a swimming pool."

                After the fiasco, they decided to sit on the floor in Shin's room as they mused over the unbelievably close call.

                On her one day of relaxation since the whole thing started, danger still managed to find her, even in the simplest form.

                Footsteps echoed down the hallway as they approached the room, and two tall, sulking figures stood in the doorway.

                Neither of the EXO maknaes made eye contact, running their fingers through their freshly dried hair.

                "Hey..." Sehun said timidly, "How're you doing?"

                Hana shrugged, "I've been better."

                "If you need someone to be mad at then blame me. I'm the one that told him to pull you in," admitted Kai, "I just thought it would be funny to seduce you to get you to come over," he chuckled at Hana's reddening face, "I didn't think that it would actually work though-"

                "Is that supposed to be an apology?" asked Chanyeol as he laid across his bed, wanting the boys to get to the point.

                Their heads hung low, "We're sorry," they said in unison. They bowed and backed out of the room.

                "Remind me to wring their necks later," Shin said.

                "Fine. You get Sehun, I get Jongin."

                The two shook hands to seal the deal.           

                "Thanks for everything today, Chanyeol," Hana said.

                The rapper gave his infamous smile, "I'm glad I could help," he said, "Hey, Shin, what did Eunhyuk want to talk to you about earlier?"

                "He wanted a truce."

                "What?" asked Hana.

                "Yeah, he wanted to start over with us and pretend like everything never happened."

                "What did you say?"          

                "I said that I wasn't sure how I felt about doing that," Hana nodded in approval of his answer, "But the weird thing is, he went from smiling and making jokes to looking like he wanted to punch my face in so fast. I just don't get it."

                Hana connected this with what happened last night and all the pieces seemed to fit together more perfectly than she had hoped.

                "And when I said that, he asked if I would accept his apology."

                "So what did you do?"

                "Thankfully you fell into the pool before I could answer. I would have to think about it for a while anyways. Should we accept it, considering how hard he made everyone's lives because he was in denial?"

                Henry suddenly walked into the room carrying a plate.

                "Here you go," he said as he handed her a sandwich, "I figured that you would be hungry."

                "Thanks," Hana rasped, touched by the kind gesture. It was strange having so many people that she had never talked to before be so nice and caring.

                Hana took several large bites, devouring the snack within moments.

                "Glad I could help," he said as he watched it disappear, "Oh I forgot, Seunhyun wants to see you."

                Hana's eyebrows raised in surprise, "See me?"

                "Yeah, he wanted me to tell you to come by his room whenever you can."

                Hana and Shin exchanged a confused look.

                "I'm coming too," Shin said.

                Henry shook his head, "No, he said for Hana to come alone."

                At a loss for words, she raised herself up from the floor and walked out of the room. She looked back to see Shin's concerned expression before going down the stairs.

                Henry's directions brought her into a wing of the house that she had never explored before. She walked down a long, dark hallway to the left of the foyer and looked for a set of tall wooden double doors. Once she found them, she knocked several times but there was no answer. Taking a deep breath, she pushed them open and stepped inside.

                The first thing she noticed was the bed. The king sized mattress was covered in dark silky sheets and plump pillows. Against her bare feet, the carpet was surprisingly even softer than the one upstairs. She felt heat against her arm, and noticed a roaring flame in a fire place by the bed. The dimly lit bedroom was marvelously spacious and Hana roamed around in admiration.

                Suddenly Hana jumped when the bathroom door opened. TOP stopped in the doorway when he saw the girl standing in the middle of his room.

                "Oh," he said in surprise as he dried his damp hair, "Hi".

                Hana stood in admiration for a bit, taking in the idol's chiseled face and the long sleeved shirt that clung to his frame. The countless magazine spreads she had seen did not do him justice.

                Hana cleared , "Hello," she said, basking in the awkward silence.

                He chuckled, "I heard about your near-death experience earlier."

                Hana sighed, keeping her eyes glued on the floor "For such a big place, news spreads pretty fast around here."

                TOP shrugged, "Well you're still alive to talk about it, I'd call that an accomplishment," he threw his towel aside, "Believe it or not, I didn't ask you to come here to embarrass you. I want to show you something."

                He opened up his bedroom door and wordlessly led her back toward the foyer. Next to the staircase was a small door. On the other side were more steps that spiraled down into what Hana could only assume was the basement. Still, it was unlike anything she had ever seen before.

                 As they walked down the wide, dimly lit hallways, Hana peaked inside the open doors of the bottom floor. Disbelieving that she was still somehow in the same house, she passed a state of the art gym, sauna, dance and recording studio. 

                "The things money can buy," she muttered in awe.

                At the very end of the hall, TOP unlocked yet another door. Upon entering, it appeared as if the room had been used as a wine cellar at one point. But instead of alcohol, all of the wooden shelves and cabinets were now stocked with heavy artillery.

                "I did some redecorating," TOP said jokingly as he inspected one of the rifles from the wall.

                "Were all of these in those two duffle bags you carried around all the time?" Hana asked as she looked at the dozens of weapons surrounding her.

                "Some of them are, but most of it is what was left at Jiyong's place."

                Hana didn't understand where she fit into all of this, "Why did you want me to come here?"

                TOP leaned against a counter, "I underestimated how good you were," he said simply.

                "Thanks?"

                "Since you're the only other person in the house with any experience with weapons, I thought you should know about this place and have access to it," he reached in the pocket of his pajama bottoms and pulled out a key. He tossed it to Hana, "Here's the other one. There's only two of them so don't lose yours."

                "Why are you giving this to me?"

                TOP shrugged, "I trust you. Neither of us are firearm experts, but I was impressed by how you stepped up and did your part in protecting the group. I couldn't have done it all alone."

                Hana remained speechless, and just stared at the small metal object in her hand.

                "Wow, don't get too excited," TOP said sarcastically with a grin, "I was actually thinking of giving Eunhyuk access to this place too since it's his house and all, and because he showed so much interest in the guns earlier today. If we didn't have enough space down here, he volunteered to use his room to store the weapons," Hana froze up in horror at the idea, "But we had more than enough space so it wasn't necessary. I don't know, what do you think? Maybe he can share a key with one of us-"

                "No."

                TOP didn't expect for her to answer so quickly, "Why?"

                Hana took a deep breath, her voice getting unintentionally lower, "I don't think Eunhyuk...has been in his right mind since we came back."

                "Well I don't think anyone can be exactly the same after what we saw out there. But I think he’s been handling everything really well, way better than Donghae at least."

                Hana shook her head furiously, "You're not understanding what I'm saying. His new obsession with deadly weapons isn't normal, especially given the fact that he wanted nothing to do with them a few days ago. His personality changes like a light switch. And last night I heard him talking to himself. What happened on that trip was just too much for him to handle all at once."

                TOP's face scrunched up in concern as he tried to process this, "What are you getting at?" he asked, though from the look on the girl's face, he feared that he already knew the answer.

                "I think Eunhyuk has gone insane."

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