“Actually, I heard about the question of my family…” D.O suddenly started, causing the other eight to freeze all their actions for a few second before continuing what they were doing.

Silence engulfed the room.

“It’s nothing actually.” Chanyeol, having been the longest friend of D.O, quickly recovered from the frost and broke the silence awkwardly.

“Yeah, it’s noth-” “I’m fine guys, and I’m sure you all are dying to know as well.” D.O smiled assuredly at the girls. Awkwardness continued to linger in the air as everyone exchanged glances, nudging each other to start or to be more precise, continue the conversation.

After a few seconds of staring at each other, everyone turned to Suho, whose eyes widened slightly before clearing his throat, “So… let’s start with… with the whereabouts of your family?”

Suho’s statement became a question, his tone going higher than his usual tone towards the end of it. Laughter erupted from the group, erasing every bit of awkwardness as D.O replied the question while wiping the lone tear by the corner of his eye due to laughing.

“I, I do not know.” Laughter subsided, with everyone paying extreme attention to the former’s words. “They won’t bother to tell me anyway.”

“Ever since I could remember, my parents were never the type to show any adoration or concern to me. Instead, it was all on my brother who was four years my elder and my younger sister of two years.” D.O smiled bitterly, as his tale continued.

“Of course, I tried to get their attention, yet no matter what I did - be it being rebellious, scoring perfect scores on my tests, everything I could do, nothing worked. Eventually, I learnt how to stop trying, and I guess I just shrunk into my own shell after that.

“I became so introverted to the point that I ended up being bullied by some people back in the mundane school. But nevertheless, my family - the four of them told me one day when I was fifteen that they were going to travel the world and gave me an option to stay put or accompany them. I chose the former obviously, so I was living all alone when I met Chanyeol for the first time.

“After that, I met Chanyeol and it was always the two of us for a while before you all found us.” D.O concluded his tale slowly, his intonation changing from one filled with sadness to a cherry one.

“Wow…” Sunny whispered softly, yet loud enough for everyone to hear clearly, “And I thought it was bad for me…”

“You had parents and family members that cared, you’re a lot better than me in that sense.” D.O forcefully tugged the ends of his lips, his large eyes clouded with loneliness.

“Its okay.” Sooyoung smiled, placing her two hands on the boy’s shoulders, “You have us now! We are your family now!” The comment earned nods and murmurs of agreement from the other eight, who were saying words of encouragement and care respectively, making the room as noisy as before the conversation started.

D.O smiled from his heart, as he quietly looked on the scene. The boys had started to fool around, joking and disturbing the girls. Kai and Hyoyeon ended bickering as usual, with Sunny and Chanyeol looking on from the side lines supporting their respective genders in the bicker. Taeyeon and Sooyoung, on the other side of the table, started to mess around with Suho and Chen by taking away their food.

“Yeah, I have a family now… My family...” he chuckled breezily.

~~~

“YAH! Why is it my turn now? I was tied with Chanyeol, no?” Birds were alerted and flew away by a high pitched scream.

“Stop complaining, we chose you because you have the same colour as D.O, so we wanted to continue with you.” Chen sniggered softly as Sooyoung dragged Hyoyeon into the same training room. The latter continued to struggle against the force binding her.

“Yah!” A wave of normal autumn leaves aimed at Hyoyeon right before she could press on at her complaints. The girl only looked shocked, her head turned towards her left where her cousin was smiling smugly at her.

“Focus, Hyoyeon. Focus! This is only the start!” Suho chided, him sounding more strict than  usual due to him being in his Merãgean state. The day’s formation had the boy standing in front of the girl, D.O opposite him, Chen at the girl’s right and Sunny at the girl’s left. Kai and Sooyoung on the other hand, played the role of doing close assault for the girl’s training. Baekhyun had unusually requested for a break that day, of which added to the already building up list of question both Suho and Kai had for him.

Hyoyeon immediately dodged another attack from the group, a rush of lighting this time from Chen. Meanwhile, Sooyoung and Kai continued to move around the room, finding every weak and open spot they could find of the girl.

“Why am I still nervous?” Chanyeol sighed as both Baekhyun and Taeyeon smiled funnily at him, apparently finding the boy’s comment amusing as they turned their attention back into the room. Chanyeol sighed once more, his conflicting feelings of both fear and anticipation thrown to the back of his mind just as his eyes darted back into the room.

Slowly, attack after attack directed towards Hyoyeon, she was gradually forced into desperation, her beige eyes at its brightest as her body folded up slightly to better dodge the assaults directed at her. She was hitting her limit.

Water, huge slabs of stones, and snow covered the crunched up girl all at once as the one and final attack directed at her, and a layer of a mixture of all three elements covered the girl similar to that of in Sunny’s Prielom. The room stilled.

“So, what now?” D.O’s blank voice resonated in the silent room, as those within the room returned to their usual state, the colours sparkled for a second before the reappearance of their brown ores.

Author's Note: One chapter for you~