“You can’t be?”

 

They all remained silent, avoiding making eye contact with her.

 

“Do you mean that it isn’t possible for you to feel joy and happiness?”

 

“That is exactly what I mean. We can only feel negative emotions.”

 

“Meanwhile the Blessed can only feel positive emotions.”

 

A gasp escaped her lips. Everything began making sense to her.

 

That’s why they were so rude and mean! They can’t help it! No wonder they are so short tempered and cruel. Why is it they can only feel the negative emotions though? It just seems so wrong. I would have gone crazy if I couldn’t have experienced any positive emotions! How can they live like this? These realms they are telling me about seem to be complete opposites, but how is it the emotions are exclusive to one realm or the other?

 

Any mean thoughts that had ever entered her mind about the boys before her quickly disappeared.

 

“Well I don’t think you’re broken.”

 

Her voice was barely above a whisper and nobody responded to the statement. Whether they felt surprise or not at the utterance of her bold statement, she would never know. They all had trained themselves to hide their true feelings from everyone, so their facial expressions hardly ever strayed from a blank stare or a glare.

 

Seeing past the seemingly emotionless expressions on the boys’ faces, she attempted to change the subject after sensing that they were uncomfortable.

 

“So, how exactly does this realm work?”

 

They all looked at each other, the previous topic seemingly forgotten, as if deciding who should be the one to explain it to her. In the end it was Xiumin that speaks up.

 

“Well, in this realm there aren’t many rules. As long as you don’t do anything that would be considered a threat to Suzerain Erebus or his rule than you can do pretty much whatever you want. If you do something that they don’t like, however, you’re as good as dead.”

 

“Suzerain Erebus?”

 

She gulped, that name was so familiar. For some reason she felt as though something bad would happen regarding this mysterious person.

 

Unaware of her trepidation Xiumin continued on.

 

“Yeah, he’s the ruler of the realm. He took control about twenty-five years ago I think. Like I said, he doesn’t really concern himself with us unless he thinks we pose a threat to the ‘peace’ of the realm. Even then it’s usually his advisors that actually do the work of eliminating the threats.”

 

“Ah.”

 

That is the only response she was able to muster; she had a very bad feeling about this.

 

“So,”

 

Lay spoke up once more after a brief silence.

 

“What did you mean when you said you were ‘seeking other people’?”

 

Cringing, she stayed silent, hoping to avoid answering the question.

 

“Come on, we answered all of your questions, now you have to answer ours.”

 

Heaving a sigh she finally answered the question that had been plaguing Lay’s mind since she first mentioned it.

 

“Well, it’s nothing much. I was just talking about how –“

 

The slam of the door interrupted her, and she felt relief rush throughout her body, grateful for the distraction.

 

Chen stormed into the room, panic clear in his eyes. Still trying to catch his breath he stared right at her. Straightening up and sharpening his glare he spat out a sentence so full of hate that it made her flinch.

 

“Get the out.”

 

The rest of the boys furrowed their brows, confused as to his sudden volatile attitude.

 

“What’s the matter Chen?”

 

“They’re looking for her. She’s going to get us killed!”

 

Their eyes widened in horror and they all looked towards the girl in question, the weight of their gazes making her uncomfortable.

 

“Why are you here?”

 

Hearing the suspicion in Luhan’s voice made her cringe, sensing that things were not going to go well for her in the following conversation.

 

“I don’t have a particular reason for being here. It was an accident and unintentional.”

 

“Bull.”

 

The response was immediate, not even a beat of silence between the two statements, as if he already knew what her response was going to be. Chen was still glaring at her, the others slowly joining in as well until every one of the boys was staring at her with a fire in their eyes. Suspicion rose within all of them.

 

“Obviously you are some sort of threat to the realm, otherwise the abettors wouldn’t be looking for you. So pardon me if I don’t believe that you have no reason for being here. All evidence points to the fact that you are here for a purpose, a purpose that threatens the realm in some way. There is a delicate balance in place at the moment, and you may just ruin it.”

 

“I really don’t! I have absolutely no clue how I even got here! So don’t go around accusing me of threatening you’re realm! If I were really trying to do something harmful I probably would have done it by now! Just because some people are looking for me doesn’t automatically make me some threat to you or the realm. And even if I am threatening this ‘Suzerain Erebus’, why do you care? It’s not as if you’re lives are perfect because he’s in control! For all you know you would be better off without him!”

 

“I don’t care if you know how you got here or not! I don’t care if you actually have a reason for being here or not! It doesn’t matter whether or not you are a legitimate threat! Even if our lives aren’t perfect at least we have them! The point is that they consider you a threat, and if they find out you’re here then we will also be considered a threat, and I refuse to die because of some idiotic girl from some mysterious realm that no one’s ever heard of!”

 

Silence followed his declaration, only broken by a series of knocks upon the door.

---

 

Hello~

Here's another chapter for those of you who are interested. Sorry again for all of the mistakes, I'm still not very good with English.

Anyways, I still have two essays, a three page research paper, and 48 half-page short answer questions to write. I think I might just not do them...

Also people have stared calling me "Meerkat" for some unknown reason. Sorry, I'm rambling again.

---

“Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood.”

Has anyone else ever read anything by Emerson? I'm reading stuff by him and Thoreau right now. Plus Euripedes for fun, I finished Beowulf and the Iliad last week. I'm kind of a nerd, don't hate me.

Have a nice day!

~K