Anamnesis [a-ˌnam-ˈnē-səs] n. - the power of retaining and recalling past experience

“Let’s play a game,” Baekhyun suggested rather suddenly.

Cocked heads turned to stare at Baekhyun with curiosity and interest.

“What kind of game?” Jongin asked as he stretched his long legs across Kyungsoo’s lap in an attempt to bother him. After being introduced to the ‘angel’, the two Noyes found themselves spending more time in Sehun’s cage than they did their own.

“I don’t know,” Baekhyun responded with a shrug. All interest was then lost, and everybody returned to their own little activities. Baekhyun pouted at the sudden loss of attention, and he quickly pulled Mihyun to his side, jerking her away from her tutoring of Kyungsoo.

Kyungsoo had requested that Mihyun aid him in his speech the second she had walked into the cages that morning. No longer did he want to speak with that horrible stutter, even if Mihyun had referred to it as cute. Kyungsoo pouted when his teacher was pulled away from him, but made no effort to protest. Instead, he smacked Kai’s legs away from his lap to relieve his annoyance, and smiled victoriously when the other let out a cry of protest.

“Give us a game to play, Mihyun,” Baekhyun ordered as he stared at the girl with gleaming eyes.

Mihyun cocked her head and slipped her arm out of Baekhyun’s much too tight grip, “What game?”

“That’s what I’m asking you! You’ve been out in the real world for your entire life, you should at least know what kind of games there are, right? Tell us, I want to be up to date with the things going outside of these walls,” Baekhyun stated, his head bobbing in excitement.

Despite the eager tone that was used to say his words, Mihyun couldn’t help but feel sympathy for the others. When would they be able to see the world without the constraints of being a Noye? She knew the answer to her own question the second it passed through her head. They never would.

“I…” Mihyun began to say uneasily as she glanced at the eager faces staring back at her. “I don’t know any games. I never played any.”

Baekhyun’s face immediately fell at Mihyun’s confession. “But… but!”

“A-Ah! There is one game I know. I used to play it with my younger cousins,” Mihyun stated quickly, not being able to bear the look of disappointment on Baekhyun’s face.

Baekhyun’s face resumed its previous shine and his eyes curved into tiny crescents. “Tell us about it!”

“It’s… It’s not a game that everybody can play,” Mihyun explained slowly. “But you guys can play it because you have me.”

Chanyeol cocked his head at the girl’s vague explanation. “What do you mean?”

Mihyun gave him a small smile before she climbed to her feet. She patted the dust off of her skirt and walked to the front of the room. Her eyes traveled from corner to corner of the cage for 10 seconds before she her heels. “I want you to change any aspect of the room.”

“What?” Jongin questioned Mihyun’s back, not understanding the point of the game. “Why?”

“Just do as I say,” Mihyun responded curtly. “Change something in the room. Anything you’d like.”

Chanyeol scratched his head and wondered how what they were doing was a game, but he got up to do as she ordered nonetheless. He picked up a bottle of water that had been tucked under the table from Mihyun’s earlier visit, and moved it to another corner of the room.

“I’ve done it,” Chanyeol announced as he sat back down next to Baekhyun.

Mihyun then turned around, and her eyes scanned the room to look for the difference. “You’ve moved the water bottle.”

“That’s what you call a game?” Sehun stared without amusement. “That wasn’t even impressive.”

A knowing smile slipped onto Mihyun’s face. “You didn’t let me continue, Sehun. Baekhyun is now leaning on his left arm when he had been leaning on his right. Kyungsoo’s pencil is now 3 inches away from where it previously was, my assumption is that Chanyeol accidently kicked it with his foot when he got up. I’m guessing that Luhan noticed the smudge of dirt that was on his hand because he’s wiped it away, and Baekhyun, the bug that had been next to Chanyeol’s hand earlier is now crawling up your leg.”

Jaws dropped in amazement – Baekhyun’s coming a little late seeing as how he had first jerked to get rid of the bug.

“H-H-How d-di-did y-you d-do th-tha-that?” Kyungsoo asked in amazement.

“I have a photographic memory,” Mihyun replied as she sat back down in her spot next to Kyungsoo.

Sehun stared at the girl in amazement. How did she manage to acquire so many talents?  How could she possess flawless looks, a charming personality, and intelligence to match? Sehun was in complete awe in how the girl could contain so many abilities in such a petite body frame. Sehun immediately snapped out of his thoughts and scowled in realization. What was he thinking? This girl wasn’t perfect – far from it, and he was foolish to almost fall into her trap once again.

“Do it again, do it again!” Chanyeol cheered happily as he clapped his hands together like a child. “I’m going to make the changes even harder for you this time.”

Mihyun let out a small smile at the boy’s eagerness, and climbed back to her feet to satisfy his cheers. Her talented memory was one of the best qualities she saw within herself, and was always glad to put it to use for others. Her eye for beautiful people was a side effect of her impeccable memory. After the large numbers of people Mihyun had been exposed to during her life time, she knew quite a lot about human kind. Mihyun was capable of labeling every lip bite, every eyebrow raise, every nose twitch, every facial movement or expression that could ever cross one’s face with a different emotion or thought, and it was all due to her photographic memory. People, she had realized much long ago, were more similar than they would expect.

Their game was interrupted, however, when a Noye came to announced that Sehun, Chanyeol, Baekhyun, Kyungsoo, and Jongin would have to go pick up the week’s supply of meals from the vans out front.

Chanyeol pouted, but quickly climbed to his feet. “We’re going to keep playing once we get back, okay Mihyun?”

Mihyun’s nod was enough to satisfy Chanyeol, and he quickly made his way out of the cage with Baekhyun, Kyungsoo, and Jongin behind him.

Sehun was uneasy with the idea of leaving his hyung with no other companion except for Mihyun. Although he did admit that he liked the girl the tiniest bit, he still wasn’t so absolute in trusting her with his fragile hyung. Nevertheless, if there was anybody he was to leave his Hyung with, she would immediately be his first choice.

“I’ll be back soon,” Sehun whispered into his hyung’s ear as he climbed to his feet. He uncurled Luhan’s fingers that had attached themselves to the sleeve of his shirt, and gave him a smile of reassurance before he followed the others.

“The two of you care about each other quite a lot,” Mihyun’s voice caught Luhan’s attention, and he turned to look at the girl.

“I admire your relationship greatly,” Mihyun stated ruefully as she stared at where Sehun had disappeared to. “To have a mutual relationship of care must be one of the best things in the world. I’m envious.”

Mihyun was satisfied when she saw the corners of Luhan’s lips twitch upwards in the slightest motion. She opened to ask Luhan a question, but quickly closed it once again. There was only one question in Mihyun’s head that she wanted to know the answer to, but she knew that it wouldn’t even be the slightest bit appropriate to voice her thoughts when she hardly knew the other. Mihyun definitely wasn’t classified as nosey, but her interest in Luhan was just so intriguing that she couldn’t help but let the question corrupt her thoughts. With a small sigh, she forced the thought from her head to think of another conversation she could engage in with Luhan.

She would find out why Luhan was a mute another day.

“Ah!” Mihyun stated as she suddenly dug through her bag. “I have something I wanted to give to you.”

Luhan’s eyebrows rose at her words, and he crept forward the slightest inch to find out what it was that Mihyun wanted to give to him.

She pulled out a pair of mittens and shyly tossed them into Luhan’s lap. When he stared down blank faced at the wooly cloths, she explained herself with embarrassment. “I noticed that your hands shake often whenever it starts getting a little chilly down here. I hope you will use them, Luhan.”

It was the smallest token of a gift, really, but Luhan was completely appreciative for the present. He didn’t like the girl at all when he first saw her, but she was beginning to grow on him, and this new gift managed to melt his ice wall just the tiniest bit. Much to Mihyun’s satisfaction, he slipped his hands into the wool and instant warmth spread through his body. He raised his now clothed hands up to his eyes and stared at the badly stitched “Luhan” that was sewn onto the exterior with blue thread.

“I… I’m not the best at sewing…” Mihyun admitted quietly when she caught Luhan’s line of sight.

Luhan found it utterly ridiculous that a petite, delicate looking girl like Mihyun couldn’t even sew. He now noticed the small bandages that were wrapped around Mihyun’s finger tips and almost laughed. The corner of his lips perked upwards as he imagined the girl constantly pricking herself in the efforts to spell out his name. It made him feel warm, the fact that Mihyun had spent so much time and pain into doing something as small as writing out Luhan’s name for him. It was a nice feeling.

Luhan wanted to express his thanks, so he slipped the mittens off and used his finger to trace out “Thank you” against the dirt of the ground. Mihyun was too far too see what he had written, so he gestured her forward with the crook of a finger.

A bit too eager to see what Luhan had written to her in return, Mihyun scrambled to her feet. Her sudden motion caused her leg to trip over the other, and she fell forward before she could stop herself. Luckily, there was a rather soft body to break her fall, but Mihyun’s eyes immediately flew open in realization.

“I’m so sorry Luhan! It’s my fault that I’m so clum—”

The rest of her words caught itself in as she stared at the engraving and scars that decorated Luhan’s skin. She had acknowledged the marks before hand, but never until now had she been able to actually get a good look at the dark fragments of Luhan’s skin.

Were those bite marks?

Her eyes trailed down the boy’s scarred skin. They certainly were. It would have been hard to distinguish the overlapping scars as bite marks from far away, but now at such a close proximity, she could easily make out spots that dentures had clamped onto over and over again.

Luhan registered the look in Mihyun’s eyes, and followed her line of sight to a particularly large bruise that he was sporting on his upper arm – a bruise in the shape of a hand print.

Bewildered, Luhan’s hand shot out, and he pushed Mihyun away from him with all of his strength. Once the girl flew backwards, he quickly scuttled to the corner of the room to be tucked away and enveloped by the darkness.

Mihyun winced at the pain that jolted up her arms when she fell back on the palms of her hands. She was in even more pain, however, once she got a glance at the pure look of horror and fear that stretched itself across Luhan’s face.

Instant guilt flew to her heart as she stared at the other’s face. How rude and insensitive of her to have stared at the other’s scars! She should have known better than to let her gaze linger on the dark marks.

Feeling immensely apologetic, she opened to call out his name, but was interrupted by the angry shout that came from Sehun.

“Luhan!” Sehun exclaimed as he came running into the cage. He skidded to a halt in front of his hyung, and dropped to his knees to pull the now sobbing boy into his arms. His head turned to stare at Mihyun, and she felt a pain jolt through her body at the strong look of contempt and hatred Sehun was glaring at her with.

“What did you do to him?!” Sehun barked angrily, practically seething as he rocked his crying hyung in his arms.

Mihyun opened but no words came out. She didn’t know what to say. She hadn’t meant to harm the other on purpose, and was incredibly apologetic towards the mental anguish she must have caused the older male.

“Get the hell out of here!” Sehun growled in a low tone as he soothingly caressed the older’s hair. “Get the out, or I’ll throw you out of here.”

Mihyun took a deep gulp of air and gave the boy a small nod before climbing to her feet. She winced when her weight put sudden pressure on her right ankle, for it had landed in an awkward position when Luhan had thrown her backwards.

She wanted to explain herself to Sehun, but she knew that at this very moment that wouldn’t be a good idea. The tinge of madness in Sehun’s eyes told her so.

“Don’t you dare ever come back,” Sehun’s cold voice hissed out to her back.

For the first time ever, Mihyun regretted the fact that she had a photographic memory, for the look of hatred Sehun had given her would be etched into her brain for a long time.

“What did she do to you, Luhan?” Sehun demanded as he stared with worry at his nearly hyperventilating hyung.

“Sehun? Luhan? Luhan what’s wrong?” Baekhyun asked with concern as he entered the cage with the others closely behind him. “Where did Mihyun go?”

“Hyung! Tell me what she did to you!” Sehun exclaimed as he shook the shoulders of his hyung.

“Sehun! Sehun, what are you doing?!” Baekhyun exclaimed as he pulled Sehun away. “Calm down! You’re making it worse for Luhan! How do you expect him to calm down when you’re not calm yourself?”

Sehun let out a loud growl and pulled away from Baekhyun and Luhan. He knew that Baekhyun was right; he being angry was only making it worse for Luhan. It was just… he wanted to know what Mihyun had done. He liked Mihyun, he really did. He saw that she was a good person, and although he wouldn’t show it on the outside, he did trust her more than anybody else, with the exception of Luhan, of course. That’s why he was so frustrated to see that his trust had been betrayed. He wanted to know if it really was Mihyun that had caused harm to his hyung because a little part of him didn’t want it to be true. He wanted to continue his fondness for the girl, and would have no excuse to do so if she really did impose harm to the elder.

“Good, you’re calm now, Luhan,” Baekhyun smiled as he gently coaxed the other to calmness. “Now Luhan, tell us what happened. Write it down.”

With a slow, shaky finger, Luhan slowly wrote out an explanation on the ground.

It wasn’t her fault.

Sehun felt instant relief consume his body as he stared down at the messily written words, and he felt the anger and frustration immediately vanquish.

“What made you so upset, Luhan?” Baekhyun asked as he gently ran his fingers through the other’s silky locks.

Luhan stayed unmoving for several minutes until he finally held out a shaky finger. 5 pairs of eyes watched carefully as he carved out shaky letters into the dirt.

She saw my scars. She knows.

They fell silent as they read the messy letters, and slowly they exchanged eye contact with each other. Luhan’s shaky finger engraved another message into the ground.

She probably thinks I’m dirty.

“Silly child,” Sehun chuckled gently as he crouched down in front of his hyung. “That is it? That is why you cried as if you had been stabbed?”

Luhan’s bottom lip jutted out at Sehun’s scolds. How dare the younger treat him as if he was a child? If anything, it should have been the other way around.

“Luhan Hyung, you like Mihyun, don’t you?” Sehun smiled lightly as he pressed his hand against the other’s locks.

Luhan hesitated for a few seconds, but slowly nodded his head.

“Then you should know by now that she doesn’t judge people by physical attributes, but by what is in the heart,” Sehun lectured. Ironically enough, he was lecturing his hyung on the girl’s good nature despite nearly screaming at her just minutes prior.

“Sehun’s right, Luhan. She found the contrast of my deep voice to my childish face charming,” Chanyeol quickly stated.

“A-a-and sh-she c-called m-m-my-my st-st-stu-stutter c-cute!” Kyungsoo piped up.

“Mihyun doesn’t care for your scars, Luhan, at least not in the way that you think,” Sehun assured the other as he gently wiped the other’s tears away with his thumbs. “And she definitely doesn’t think you are dirty. Do you understand me?”

Luhan let out a small nod, and Sehun smiled. He kissed the other’s forehead and patted his hair. Luhan closed his eyes and enjoyed the gentle touch before crawling down to rest his head on Sehun’s lap, exhausted by the effects of his mental breakdown.

Sehun continued to gently run his fingers through Luhan’s hair, knowing that the elder enjoyed his gentle touch.

He let out a sigh, regretful of acting so rashly against Mihyun earlier. He should have calmed down to see what the problem was first, rather than blame the girl right off the bat.

He would apologize and explain himself to the girl tomorrow, definitely.

Little did he know that he wouldn’t have that chance tomorrow.