“That doesn’t make it better! Nobody should have to go through something like that! It must have been terrible, I can’t even imagine being all by myself for an extended period of time.”

 

The boys looked distraught and extremely upset. Eve took notice of this, and ended up zoning out, missing the rest of the lecture.

 

That’s strange, they seem upset, but I thought they could only feel positive emotions. Were the others lying to me? Or did I misunderstand what they were saying? Would it be rude to ask them? What if they find out that I have been to the other realm? Will they hate me? Can they hate?

 

She began to get a headache from all of the questions swimming through her mind, so she tried to focus on the boys in front of her instead.

 

“Don’t worry Eve, we’ll make sure you never have to feel that way again. We promise.”

 

“Don’t make promises you can’t keep. I know that you think that you will be able to, but trust me, there is no guarantee for my situation.”

 

“Maybe we should talk to the Doyens, they might know what to do.”

 

“The Doyens?”

 

“Hmm? Oh, the Doyens are the secondary rulers of this realm; they help the Head Luminary with keeping this realm in order. Their sole purpose is to make sure everyone is healthy and the realm is in good condition.”

 

“How is it they do that?”

 

At this point Suho took over, explaining further.

 

“Well, they don’t really have to do much, they lead the Appreciation Assemblies, but other than that they don’t really do anything. If anyone misbehaves or compromises the purity of the realm, the realm takes care of it.”

 

“The realm?”

 

“Yeah, whenever anyone threatens the purity of the realm they disappear. It’s said that they are taken to the other realm, but nobody knows for sure.”

 

“The other realm?”

 

Her question was more one of surprise than confusion, but they didn’t know that.

 

“Oh, yeah, the other realm is a terrible place filled with terrible people. Only those who have disobeyed the rules of the realm go there. As a punishment their ability to experience positive emotions is taken away. They have to experience the feelings that we can’t. We call them the Broken because, let’s face it, that’s what they are.”

 

Eve found herself getting angry as he spoke about the others like that. Despite the fact that they had been rude to her, she couldn’t help but feel attached to them, after all they were the first people she had ever met. And they had helped her hide from the government officials. She knew that it would be too suspicious if she were to try and defend them, so she took a deep breath and restrained her emotions.

 

“If they’re Broken what does that make you?”

 

They all look at her surprised, and slightly confused. Sehun scrunched his eyebrows together before answering.

 

“We’re just us, they’re Broken. It’s their fault that they did something wrong, if they would have just followed the rules they wouldn’t be in that situation.”

 

“So you’re normal then? If they’re Broken then you must be the normal ones, right?”

 

“Yeah, I guess so. I never really though about it that way.”

 

So they don’t know about their little nickname then. But, if they don’t know about their nickname then how do the others? Did they really once inhabit this place, and the name carried over? If they are I wonder what they did to be sent there. It seems like a really harsh punishment, so it’s probably just for the extremely malevolent people. They really didn’t seem that bad though…

 

“What exactly constitutes being sent to the other realm?”

 

They looked at her for a moment before Kai spoke up, seeing that nobody else was going to answer.

 

“Anything that goes against the rules.”

 

“Anything? Don’t you get any warnings? Is there not an intermediate punishment for those who just make a mistake one day?”

 

“No, we get the warnings before we make the first mistake, so if you mess up you’re out. Even one little mistake can get you sent to the other realm. We have to be very careful, they want the realm to be perfect so anything that disrupts that is disposed of.”

 

“Who wants it to be perfect?”

 

Kai froze and the others turned to him in alarm. She glanced at them suspiciously, sensing that she was on the verge of a breakthrough. Kyungsoo released an awkward laugh and tried to sort out the apparent problem.

 

“What do you mean?”

 

“He said that “they” want it to be perfect. Who was he referring to?”

 

“Nobody, just a slip of the tongue I’m sure. The realm takes care of the rule breakers.”

 

“How does the realm know the rules?”

 

“Excuse me?”

 

“If the realm is the one that punishes the rule breakers, then it must know the rules. Otherwise it wouldn’t know who had broken them. So how does it determine that?”

 

“Well, umm, we based the rules off of the realms preferences…?”

 

He sounded unsure of himself, and the others still looked uncomfortable with the direction that the questions were going. She was determined to learn more about this, but she didn’t want to push them too far, after all they had just met. So she changed the subject instead of pursuing it further.

 

“So if the people in the other realm are those that have broken the rules of this realm does that mean that nobody starts out in that realm?”

 

They all visibly relaxed at the change of topic, and Chanyeol took over the explanation.

 

“Not that we know of, to be honest we don’t really know much about the inner workings of the other realm. We don’t really associate.”

 

“So there’s nobody who can go in between realms?”

 

The tension returned.

 

So this is another uncomfortable topic for them. I seem to have a knack for discovering the things they don’t want to talk about. Are they capable of lying? I feel like they are, but that wouldn’t really make sense.

 

“Absolutely not.”

 

Baekhyun had answered, his face devoid of that cheerful smile that had adorned his face when they met.

 

“Oh, really?”

 

“Yeah, and even if there were someone who could they wouldn’t. I mean who would want to spend time with a bunch of derelict delinquents anyways? They probably kill anyone that crosses their path. They lack the capability of caring for anyone or anything. They probably just wander around on their own constantly. The realm is probably like a battle zone, everyone fighting and killing mercilessly like the horrible, cruel beings they are.”

 

As he made his little speech she felt the anger rise up within her. She didn’t like hearing them talk about the others like that. Sure they weren’t very nice, but they didn’t just slaughter her when they found her lying on the ground. And they even protected her from the authorities. She was convinced that they weren’t as bad as everyone here made them out to be. In fact, she believed that they weren’t even as bad as they believed themselves to be. The longer his rant went on, the more upset she became. She felt the dark emotion consume her and, just as she had anticipated, the pain returned.

 

They looked startled when she started screaming. She curled up into a ball, hoping to dull the pain, but it didn’t work. It never did. They started to panic, unsure what to do or how to help. Their cries faded away as she surrendered to the darkness once more, a strange calmness now invading her body.

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So here's another chapter, I hope you enjoyed it and please point out any mistakes I may have made. I appreciate you taking the time to read this and I hope you've had a wonderful day so far!