The first rays of light of the day shone brightly through the windows of a room painted in purely white. The morning air breezed inside, filling in the space with nature. A few number of leaves passed to get inside and twirled in the air.

On a lone bed on the side of the room, lies a young lady, covered with her softest blanket, cuddled on her pillow. Her body, slender and quite fragile, lay motionless except for the soft breathing on her chest.

“Hey, Miyoung.”

There was a loud knock on the door. She didn’t move an inch.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

Still, there’s no response.

Suddenly, there was a click on the lock and the door swung open. A young man on his late 20s entered the room, and stared hopelessly on the girl’s figure on the bed. He moved closer and started shaking her body.

"Miyoung-ah. Up now. You're going to be late again," he whispered in his monotone voice.

She moved a little and began stretching her arms subconsciously which almost hit him on the face. Her eyes opened slowly, rubbing it and tried to make a clear view of the man beside him.

"Oppa" is the only word that escaped . She looked at the clock beside her. The longer arm points at the number 7 with the shorter one somewhere between 5 and 6.

"Oh crap."

Realizing that she's already late for her work, she instantly jumped off her bed, passing by her oppa, grabbed her clothes from the cabinet and head to the bathroom without any word.

Yoochun sighed and softly smiled. "I wonder when will she get rid of this habit of hers? What do you think, Donghae?"

He turned his head towards the small study table in the corner of a room where a man, who wasn't there at first, was leaning on the edge of the hardwood, suddenly appeared out of nowhere. His sight didn't seem to surprise him for he is sort of used to it already. The young man chuckled and looked straight to his hyung.

"Well, I dunno. She's been like that since we're kids. Miracle can only change that," Donghae messed his own hair.

Yoochun crossed his arms, not taking his eyes off the other man. "You seem to be getting faster travelling from one place to another."

Donghae continued to mess his hair and answered, "Well, the arrows are my strength. It's quite normal that I should act just how I use them."

"I see. Jungsoo is doing great on training you then. Your lot must have gone into serious hardships while being on the training grounds. I can't see myself possessing what sort of abnormality you have, but I can say that you are too brave to take the job."

"I didn't take this job. This is a bloodline duty and you know that well, hyung," Donghae gave a snort of impatience.

Yoochun didn't answer for a while and waited for a few seconds before he agreed with his words, "Yes, I perfectly know it."

Silence crept in except for the sound of the distant shower noise. They both can hear her soft humming voice in between, sounding so sweet on the early morning. Yoochun shuffled his feet and cleared his throat, inviting Donghae to resume their conversation.

“How are your brothers?” he said.

Donghae’s head turned towards the window where he saw a bird perched on the windowsill. “They’re doing great. Fulfilling the same duty, I guess, or probably some other business. I dunno. I seldom see them now,” his voice faded. Yoochun nodded after his statement.

“And your sister?”

“She’s the smartest,” Donghae smiled at the memory of his only dongsaeng.

The sound of the shower being turned off reached their ears; Donghae straightened his body up as both of them turned their heads towards the door.

“Let’s move downstairs, shall we?” Yoochun said.

Donghae nodded, understanding what he meant. Yoochun closed the door behind him and head down to the kitchen, where the younger man was already sipping on his cup of coffee.

-----

The streets started to get crowded as the sun rose behind the distant mountains from the city, blessing everyone with a new day of work. Business became the center of human life. Everyone has to work; even a small job would do. The important thing is that everyone contributes for the Planet to continue its life. When the bustling activities of the humans stop, the Planet’s lifespan is being shorten.

Adults, clad on their usual black and gray overcoats, were walking faster as they hurry down the sidewalk to their respective work places, a suitcase on one hand and a phone pressed on their ear on the other. Only a few children now go to school for the memory of the war sixteen years ago still brings fear to the parents. They, the children, were often left in their houses and were asked to work home than to study. It is like a repetition of the Old Ages. History literally repeated itself.

Although it has been a long time since the said war had been silenced, being brought up in the traditional way, they stuck themselves in it, for only few were convinced that it was over, and formed a status quo.

It has been like this for sixteen years already.

A black motorbike sped up on the long highway, swerving from one lane to another. The cars which it passed by blew their horns, annoyed by the loud screeching sound it makes. The male rider menacingly stuck out his tongue on one of the angry drivers that the man’s face boiled up red. But nothing can be more ear-damaging to the rider’s ear than the screams of the female passenger who had her arms encircled on his waist and was in between tears, pleading the man to stop.

“Donghae-ah!” screamed Miyoung at the top of her lungs, her head buried on his back.

“What?” Donghae shouted on his back, pretending not to notice the fear on her voice.

Miyoung tried to shout back but her hair was being blown away to her face that a few strands kept on blocking to speak.

“Ple.. ase s.. slow down!”

“What?”

Finally, they had arrived at the city but with the mass of people entering it at the same time, traffic blocked the streets and Donghae was forced to slow down. Miyoung heaved a sigh of gratitude to the build-up ahead of them, and suddenly started pounding his back.

He, on the other hand, didn’t seem to bother about the girl’s growing tantrum but was more concerned on getting away from the traffic as soon as possible.

“Aish,” he said annoyingly to himself.

Miyoung kept on hitting him but immediately stopped when he straightened his back.

“I can’t wait here. We need to take a shortcut,” he said, more to himself than to her.

“We will what?” Miyoung blinked her eyes, baffled by his words.

But before he answered her, he already turned the motorbike into 90 degrees and head for the small street on their right. Miyoung immediately grabbed his waist again and started screaming as they crammed themselves in a meter-wide alley. Reaching the other end, Donghae turned left, right, crossed an intersection and then turned right again.

Catching a sight of their destination, Donghae finally decided to slow down as they go nearer to the corner of the street where a plain, old grayish white building with small circular glass windows stood. He stopped and Miyoung hurriedly get off, brushing off the dirt from her white blouse and trying to comb her hair with her hand. He, still on his seat, just merely watched her, quite amused.

After a minute, of random fixing, she darted a sharp look on him. She snatched her bag hanging on the side of the bike, murmured a hesitant “thanks” and turned her heel around, but Donghae pulled her hair before she could be a meter away from him.

“Hey, just leaving me like that?” he was obviously teasing her. He just hoped he won’t get overboard.

She turned around to face him again, her eyes narrowing, “Why? Do you expect me to bow down to you after that ride?”

He raised his hands in surrender and tried his best not to laugh on her face, “Calm down. I’m just being responsible for bringing you safe into your office, okay?”

“Safe? SAFE?” Her eyes grew round as if he just said the most stupid thing she will ever hear, “You call that safety? I nearly had a taste of after life, thanks to you.”

“Well, I wouldn’t be doing that if you just woke a bit early, right?” he smirked, slightly annoyed with the attention they were causing on the sidewalk.

Miyoung rolled her eyes and crossed her arms in front of her, “So it’s my fault now? You could’ve been more ‘responsible’ with your antics.” Her eyebrows were meeting at the center.

Donghae was about to answer when someone suddenly called her.

“A morning tantrum, Miyoung?” said a low, manly voice, “That won’t be a good start for a work.”

Both Miyoung and Donghae turned their heads to his direction. A tall man also clad in a black overcoat, with thick rimmed glasses resting on the top of his nose and was holding a suitcase, walked slowly toward them. Miyoung’s frown instantly turned into a small smile as he recognized the man as her colleague.

“Oh, it’s nothing, Yunho oppa,” her eyes drew crescent moons, “Just a slight bad start, but nothing to worry.”

Yunho sighed and returned her smile, “I see. Well, that’s good. A fresh start is always the best.”

Miyoung nodded and agreed, “Yeah, it’s always the best.”

“Ehem,” Donghae cleared his throat loud enough to interrupt the two. He massaged his neck, pretending to be slightly choked. Yunho’s attention shifted on him, as if he was surprised by his presence.

“Oh how are you? It’s been a long time,” he stepped forward towards him and stretched out a hand. Donghae eyed his hand with disgust and turned his gaze away to stare back on the street, ignoring the other man’s gesture.

Slightly offended, Yunho pulled back his hand and said, “I guess I’m not yet forgiven.” He forced on a smile and went back to Miyoung, “Want to get inside now?”

Miyoung, who was a little furious over Donghae’s rude response, turned her back on him and nodded on Yunho’s suggestion, “Oh sure, oppa. We better get going now, and also I want now to be away with people who think highly of themselves and can’t even greet an old friend properly.”

She pulled Yunho’s arm and hurried on the steps when suddenly, Donghae’s voice halted the both of them.

“I don’t have a friend who betrays me easily,” there was a sound of bitterness on his every word. The two turned their heads slightly back at him as he was mounting his motorbike properly and started the engine.

“I can’t fetch you this evening after work. I asked two friends to do it for me. Don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll be glad to meet them,” he said without his gaze on them. And without another word, he dashed to the right of the fork, leaving the two silent on their place.

-----

The door chime swayed lazily as Donghae entered the small, ancient-looking bookstore, where small rows of wooden shelves almost occupied the whole space. The place had never been crowded, or maybe had been used to. Occasional visitors drop by on the place every half of the year, searching around for just five minutes, and immediately leave.

At the end of the center aisle was the counter with the cash register. A young lady sat behind it, reading a dirty, old newspaper and a lollipop stick stuck out from . She folded the upper part of the paper, revealing her bored face on the sulking Donghae. She plucked out the lollipop from and her lips; her eyes still on him. Annoyed with the silence, she tapped the hardwood in front of him to get him to talk.

“I don’t read minds, mister. Would it be better if you tell me what’s with that face?” Impatience was evident on the tone of her voice.

Donghae leaned his back on the counter, arms crossed. He remained silent, without returning a word to the younger girl.

“Aish! I thought that if you came back, I would have someone to talk to now!” She put down the newspaper, grabbed a tote bag on the small cabinet under the counter, and walked towards the door.

“You two are boring me to death! Why should my life be surrounded with such people?” She nearly pulled her hair out before storming out of the store.

Donghae didn’t move an inch as she left and just watched the door lazily swing to stop. He stretched his arms upward, letting out a yawn, and shook his head as if trying to get rid of the memory of the encounter earlier that day.

“I’m not in a mood to talk to grumpy girls today,” he said to the silence filling in the nearly abandoned place.

“They are always grumpy anyway. Girls. We will never understand them,” a voice of a young man came from the darkest corner of the room.

Donghae smiled while nodding his head. Sure, he really agrees with it. His sister is no exception. He pouted his lips as the kid in himself started to kick in again, recovering from the small fight he just had with his friend. He softly massaged his knuckles, staring at the dim light on the ceiling.

“How long have you been here?” he asked the man who was still hiding from the light.

“Just this morning. The travel was quite risky that’s why I have to be cautious with my every move before getting here,” the man replied.

Donghae nodded again, “I see. You can rest for a while now. I’ll just settle some things with a couple of friends…”

“You mean, the other guardians?” the man cut him off.

Quite surprised by the mention of the word, he put on a playful smile and began messing his hair again, “Sort of,” he paused, “You still surely can remember that, huh?”

A chuckle escaped from the other man’s mouth, “You might be forgetting but I’m your master, hyung.”

 “Of course, I’m not forgetting anything,” Donghae pulled himself off the counter and began pacing between the shelves. The man silently stepped forward out of his stance and walked towards him, revealing his tall figure from the darkness.

“And I properly know my job,” he continued, “Kyuhyun.”