Jiyoo could hear the muffled voice of Yixing barking orders at the others saying that there was no time to be standing around and that someone should follow Jiyoo after she'd stormed off like that. Someone else commented that Jiyoo had said she wanted to be left alone and Tao said he didn't want to get hit by a pillow again. After a few minutes of silence, Yixing said, “I guess that means you have to do it.”

“No,” she heard someone reply. Then, a moment later, she heard a sigh and footsteps approaching the room she was in. Jiyoo placed a pillow over her head in a poor attempt to block out whoever it was that was approaching.

A light knock on the door filtered through her pillow-shield and Jiyoo tried to bring it closer to her to drown out all noise. Why wouldn't they leave her alone? Didn't they understand that she didn't want to be there? She didn't care that her life was in danger. She just wanted to go home. She wanted to see her family. She wanted to see her friends. She wanted to be oblivious.

“You're still crying,” the man on the other end of the door said. Jiyoo reached up and wiped the tears away from her face. How long had she been crying? But more importantly, how did he know she was still crying? “I'm coming in,” he announced. Then, before Jiyoo could even reply to him, the door opened and Jongdae entered the room.

“If you're here to kiss me, I'm not in the mood,” Jiyoo grumbled.

Jongdae laughed. “Kiss you?” he clarified, “I'm not here to kiss you. Unlike those other men, I have some self-control.”

Jiyoo removed the pillow from on top of her head and she glanced up at him. “Then what do you want?”

“Weren't you listening earlier? I'm here to protect you.”

Jongdae made his way over to the chair Luhan was sitting in earlier and sat down in it, crossing his legs. Jiyoo scowled at him. “I don't need protection,” she asserted, “I'm fine on my own.”

“Yeah right,” Jongdae chuckled, “if we hadn't been watching you and protecting you your whole life, you would have died many times.”

Jiyoo’s eyes widened. “Wait,” she said, “when you say my whole life, do you mean –”

“That's right,” he interjected with a cocky grin, “most of the time it was boring but sometimes it was so hot! And speaking of “hot”, I was the one who got to watch you learn how to mas—”

“Enough!” Jiyoo yelled before he could finish his sentence. Jiyoo sighed and placed the pillow back on her head. “Yet you wonder why I don't trust you,” she mumbled.

Jongdae sighed and looked up at the white ceiling. “You wouldn't be the first person to not trust us,” he stated.

Once again, Jiyoo removed the pillow. “What do you mean?” she asked, sitting up on the bed.

Jongdae glanced at her. “What do you know about Outliers?”

“Outliers?” Jiyoo asked, “You mean those who aren't fully human?” Jongdae nodded. “I grew up thinking they were all gone. The government killed them all because they felt threatened.”

Jongdae smirked. “Good.”

Jiyoo scooted closer to Jongdae and examined him. There was something different about him, she realized. With a quick glance, he certainly appeared to be human, but, looking carefully at him, something was off. “You're one of them,” she muttered, “You’re an Outlier.”

“Ding ding ding, we have a winner!” Jongdae teased.

Jiyoo’s eyes widened in surprise. She didn't think her guess was actually right. Eagerness welled up inside of her and she crawled closer to him. She wanted to know more about this Jongdae character. "So," she began hesitantly. She wasn't sure if she was allowed to ask this to him, "What are you exactly? I mean, if you’re not human."

Jongdae chuckled. "I'm what you might call a 'water elf'," he replied with a smug grin. Jiyoo relaxed as she realized that Jongdae didn't actually mind talking about himself.

She pulled herself over to the edge of the bed and examined him closely. "If you're an elf," she said, "why do your ears look so normal?"

At that, Jongdae glared at her and snapped, "What am I, some Tolkien character?" Jiyoo was taken aback at the sudden change of character. "We elves are very proud beings," he continued, "Sure some of us like archery and have long hair but we don't live in the forests or have pointy ears!” By then, Jongdae had stood up in anger and his face became red as he spat out, “And we don’t live forever, either! We live just as long as normal humans. And we don’t have our own language! The only major difference between elves and humans is our connection with nature and our DNA. That’s it! I swear, the next person who asks me about that Legolas dude will get a swift kick in the face and they will drown and suffocate by my hands! I don’t care who it is! These hands have been longing to taste the infliction of death once again!”

Jiyoo's eyes were widened and she had returned back to her pillow by the end of Jongdae’s rant. All she did was ask about his ears. Was he really safe to be around? Were any of these guys safe to be around? A few minutes ago, Jongdae was talking about how he would protect her but then he snapped at her and said he might kill her!

Only once Jongdae cooled down and returned his attention back to Jiyoo, did him notice that she had backed away from him in fear and her eyes had begun to water. "I-I'm sorry," he stuttered calmly, knowing very well that just saying sorry wouldn't help, "I didn’t mean to scare you like that." He slowly approached the edge of the bed and reached out to touch her cheek. She backed away a little and Jongdae frowned. He placed his knee on the bed and pulled himself a little closer to her and cupped her cheek in his hand. This time, she didn’t back away. "I'm sorry," he repeated, looking her in the eyes, "I would never hurt you." Jiyoo tried to blink back the tears in her eyes as Jongdae gently her cheek with his thumb, "I love you. You can trust me."

Then, Jongdae bent down and kissed her on the lips. His hands and lips were cool but not cold and it was a rather gentle kiss – the opposite of Yixing's warm one. It only took Jiyoo four seconds before she realized what was going on and she pushed him away harshly. "You said you weren't going to kiss me!" she yelled at him. That was her third kiss from a stranger that day.

Jongdae grinned knowingly. "Actually, I said that I didn't come into the room to kiss you," he stated, "I came in here to watch over you. Kissing you was just a bonus for me."

Jiyoo groaned and tossed herself back down on the bed dramatically as she threw the pillow back over her head. It was late and Jiyoo was tired but she still needed time to process everything that had happened that day. As she thought about it, she began to feel lonely again and she couldn't help but think about her best friend, Kai. At the moment, Jiyoo would give anything to see him and have him hug her and tell her that everything is alright. Kai was good at that. She didn't even have to tell him what was wrong, he just knew.

It was then that Jiyoo noticed that rain was hitting the window next to the bed and she smiled, removing the pillow so she could hear it better. "It's raining," she said to Jongdae.

Jongdae was sitting down in the chair next to her and playing a game on his phone. "No it's not," he replied without looking up. Jiyoo furrowed her brows at the statement. Could he not hear it? Jongdae chuckled slightly, knowing how confused she was. "I'm a water elf, remember?" he said, "I know you like the sound of rain so I'm making water hit the window. Now go to sleep so I can finish this level in peace."

She sighed loudly and turned her back to him as she tried to get comfortable enough to fall asleep. Jongdae confused her greatly. His attitude towards her changed so fast, Jiyoo started to wonder if this was all the same person. He went from nonchalant to angry to loving and then back to nonchalant in just a few minutes.

Suddenly, Jongdae moved and the bed dipped down behind her. Jiyoo stiffened and closed her eyes to make it seem like she had been sleeping. Jongdae lay down on the bed behind her and wrapped his arm around her waist, pulling her closer to him. “I know you’re still awake,” he whispered. Jiyoo shivered. “Yixing’s not here right now,” he continued, kissing her ear gently, “we can do anything we want.” Jiyoo squirmed but said nothing.

The door then opened and Jiyoo opened her eyes. Luhan entered the room and Jongdae sat up quickly. “I knew you’d be doing something erted to her in here,” Luhan said to Jongdae, approaching the bed.

“Relax,” Jongdae replied, getting himself off of the bed, “I didn’t do anything to her.” Jiyoo thought she heard him mumble the word “yet” at the end of that sentence but she dismissed it.

“Either way,” Luhan said, “Yixing needs to see you. I’ll watch her tonight.” Luhan motioned to Jiyoo and, for some reason, Jiyoo felt more relaxed. With a sigh, Jongdae nodded before grabbing his phone and walking out of the room. Luhan smiled and looked at Jiyoo. “Yixing didn’t have to see him,” he admitted, “I just figured that he was bugging you.”

Jiyoo smiled at the gesture and watched Luhan as he sat in the chair next to the bed. “So what are you?” she suddenly asked him.

“What do you mean?” he replied.

“Jongdae told me that you guys are Outliers,” she explained, “So what are you?”

Luhan blushed and scratched the back of his head. “It-It’s hard to explain,” he said after a moment. He then looked at her mischievously and moved towards her. Jiyoo tried to back away but when Luhan placed a hand on her head, she stopped. “Just know that I can make you feel good both mentally,” Jiyoo’s mind suddenly felt numb and all of her emotions seemed to drain out of her, “and physically.” Then, all at once, her emotions came back to her but one seemed to stick out more than the other. Jiyoo’s heart began to race and a warm sensation overcame her body. At that moment, Jiyoo seemed to want nothing more than to feel Luhan’s skin on her own and as she moved forward to kiss him, the feeling suddenly vanished.

“No,” Luhan said, removing his hand from her head, “you don’t really want to do that. Trust me.”

Jiyoo looked at Luhan with a pained expression. “So you can control my emotions?” she asked. None of this seemed fair to Jiyoo. Was she in control of anything here?

“Sort of,” he answered, sitting back in the chair, “Like I said, it’s hard to explain. But you really should go to sleep. Don’t worry, I won’t do anything to you. I promise.”

Reluctantly, Jiyoo lay back down on the bed and turned herself away from Luhan. Most of her emotions had returned to normal, but the feeling of lust still seemed to be raging inside of her as she finally closed her eyes and fell asleep.

“We cannot fail Father again,” the leader of the group stated as the seven boys gathered around a small pool of water, “We must decide who will be the next to go and fulfil Father’s orders.”

The boys looked at each other in anticipation. There used to be hundreds of them but now they were down to seven – the seven strongest. Suddenly, the pool of water began to ripple. None of the boys moved as the water shook and splashed their feet as the intensity of the ripple grew. Then, a black ooze started to form at the bottom of the pool. “So, who is it?” one of the boy asked, “Who did it choose?”

“Be quiet Sungjong,” the leader snapped at the youngest. Sungjong’s mouth closed as everyone peered into the pool as the blackness formed a word – a name – that started to rise up to the surface. Then, everything stopped. Six of the boy’s eyes glanced up from the pool and they looked at the seventh. “Nam Woohyun,” the leader spoke with certainty.

Woohyun looked up and clenched his fists determinedly. “If Father requests it, I’ll do it,” he said, nodding his head. “It’s been a long time since I saw Jiyoo,” he added, “I wonder if she’ll believe me when I tell her that her secret admirer missed her dearly.”

Yoohoo! Hello! Big summer blowout! Just kidding. Well, I finally finished chapter 2. Yay! According to my computer, this document was created many months ago so I apologize for not writing it. Originally, Luhan wasn't supposed to appear in this chapter but I was a few words short from my goal so I decided to add him in. But what's this? Jiyoo feels lust? How strange! And Chen is a Tolkein character water elf? Even stranger! So here's what we know so far:

• Jiyoo's house burned down because of Inspirits/Infinite and EXO saved her.

• Her grandfather told them to watch over her since she was born.

• Chen is a water elf.

• Luhan has weird brain powers.

• Her BFF is Kai

• Lay, Tao and Chen have all kissed her because they love her (or so they say).

• She is now lusting over Luhan for some strange reason.

• Woohyun is Jiyoo's secret admirer?

What will happen next, I wonder! Stay tuned!