Usually parents don’t let their six year old daughter outside at eight pm, but then again, your family isn’t that conventional and so you have the freedom of getting ice cream on Thursday nights because you know self-defense.

You beat the eight year old boy in your karate class, so you’re set.

Since it’s so dark, the brightest things intrigue you like the fireflies that glow in the field outside. There’s something enchanting about them to you like fairies to other girls (you scrunch your nose at this) and you automatically run into the field to chase after them.

But then something catches your eyes. It’s big, yellow, orange, and red, but it’s attached to someone’s hand and your eyes widen.

That man’s hand is on fire.

"Mister!" you cry out and said man whips his head around. From here and the light that the fire casts on his face, he’s very handsome, a lot more handsome than the Ken dolls. "Your hand is on fire! I’ll be right back with some water!"

You’re suddenly scared for this big mister(He’s really really really tall!)and run towards the nearest vendor and demand a bottle of water before rushing back to the field. But the man with his hand on fire is gone and you’re left alone with the fireflies.

-

-

"What were you thinking?!" Joonmyun yells. "You’re supposed to watch over her, not blatantly shove fire in front of her face!"

"I didn’t know she would actually see me!" Chanyeol retaliates, burying his head in his hands as the others just watch the two go at it. "She’s the only one that can see any of us," Joonmyun reminds him and he groans. "Now she’s going to be attached to us, especially you!"

-

-

"How are you able to do that, Chanyeol?"

The whole thirteen of the group sit in the field, including you, and you stare at them in eight-year old awe. It’s become a habit over the years that every Thursday night at eight pm, you’ll come out and meet with these handsome men and see their powers.

But you’re a little more attached to Channie because he’s the one you saw that night. Mr. Joonmyun is really nice to you and you like to watch him and Chanyeol go at it between their powers: water and fire. It’s fascinating, and the twelve of them are all like your big brothers.

You couldn’t ask for more.

"I should introduce you guys to my parents!" you exclaim with your sudden revelation. It’s a brilliant idea. Your parents don’t have to know they have powers, but they keep you safe from all the mean, gross, bad guys out there.

You don’t notice the way everybody tenses and Luhan puts his hand on your shoulder with that gentle face of his and shakes his head softly. A pout grows on your face but it disappears slightly when Luhan moves you into his body and he hugs you before positioning you on his hips.

To an outsider, you look like you’re floating, but you don’t know that.

-

-

"We should never, never have gone back—"

"You knew it was destined, Joonmyun," Chanyeol hisses. They’re all attached, but he’s the only one that’s romantically attached since she turned seventeen. He’s stuck in a nineteen year old body, but she knows now.

"We can’t stay here."

"Yes, we can—"

"And then what?!" Jongdae yells out of character. "And then we have to watch her grow old and die and slip through our fingers and wait another twenty years before she gets reincarnated and you have to watch her marry another man again for the seventh time?!"

-

-

When you slip out of your window that Thursday night and enter the field, nobody’s there.

So you wait.

And wait.

And wait some more.

You bite back a sob and rush back home when the clock strikes nine.

Chanyeol watches from above and leaves the area.

-

-

They don’t come the week after that, or the week after that, and you’re left alone. Those twelve boys were all the ones you needed in life to feel complete with your parents. They were your brothers, your comrades, and Chanyeol was your first love.

And they just left without a trace.

One day, you wake up and there’s a jar on your nightstand that’s never been there before. It’s empty so you disregard it at first, but then something sparks in it and you wiggle out of the covers to pick up the jar.

Well, more like it moves into your hands before you can even touch it.

But then a little plant grows inside it, the lid is shining from underneath, the plant wavers in the wind and drops of water fall into the dirt surrounding the green life, and you take all this in before the jar disappears from your hand and onto your bookshelf. You giggle because it’s them, your brothers.

That night at eight pm when it’s dark outside in the field, a flame appears in the jar. You carefully twist the top open and it shoots out of the jar before elongating and dancing around you. Suddenly, you feel like you’re eight again and then everybody’s with you. You’re moving through the air and watching the water and fire go at it while the dirt accumulates into your hand and the wind wraps around you with the fire and water, your scratches healing, sometimes flying and laughing when there’s a small streak of lightning in front of you and bits of snowflakes and when you’re tired from everything because it feels like you’re at it for hours when it’s only been half an hour, you’re teleported back into your bed with and the flame goes back into the jar to act as your nightlight.

You hold it close to you and place your lips against it, watching in delight as the flame grows considerably bigger and it shakes in your palms.

-

-

And so they watch from afar.