The dark shadows emerged, revealing to be what looked like bandits under the sudden grey sky. But what would some mask-donning bandits want with an unconscious girl, so much that they’d risk stepping onto Kyungsoo’s territory and bearing short swords?
  Junmyeon didn’t even take out his sword. The fountain sitting a few feet away on their left started crackling, the water inside unsettling.
  “What do you want with the girl?” Junmyeon tested them, his voice carrying out with the wind. “Unravel your intentions!”
  The masked black men paused, looked at one another, but then proceeded back to pressing in on the two boys and the horse after a nod from which, Kyungsoo guessed, was their leader, who had a wine-red mask on instead of black like the others.
  He scowled at the leader standing in front of him. “I’m sure that means they mean her harm,” he said through clenched teeth. And with that, he lightly pressed the front of his right foot harder on the ground.
  The ground beneath the masked people shook, causing them to lose balance. Seconds later they regained it and were starting to recover; however, those few seconds were all what the two boys needed.
  Junmyeon was fast. He hit the first person on his left with a spray from the fountain, hitting his target hard and far back. He sent another two flying back into a hole Kyungsoo had made in the ground seconds before their crash, taking away their ability to move with another few rocks tumbling down onto their chests and limbs.
  Kyungsoo was about to help Junmyeon with another when all of a sudden he saw something in the hands of the leader.
  Something that made his legs turn weak and heart stop.
  “Junmyeon! Get down – !”
  Emerald light exploded from within the hands of the masked leader. Kyungsoo was blinded by it before he could even crouch down and was knocked backwards by the sudden force, but when his eyes finally adjusted back, the light was gone.
  So were the bandits.
  The clearing displayed in front of them was as clear and wide as normal, as if there hadn’t been a dozen masked men gaining up on them, leaving only the signs of battle that had erupted all for a stranger Junmyeon had found in the woods – 
  Kyungsoo spun around, and only let go half of the breath he had been holding when he saw the girl still lying on the back of the horse, and let go of the other half when he saw his feather-white-haired friend still breathing – and on top of that, fuming.
  “What the bloody hell was that?!” With his eyes blazing with bewilderment, Junmyeon approached Kyungsoo. “What the bloody hell was that?!” He repeated.
  “Jun – “
  “What magic was that? How could they have done that, disappear in an instant? They can’t just get away like that – “
  “They did, Junmyeon.”
  “But they were about to harm the girl!" He raked his hand through his hair. “We need to get her somewhere safe before they come to get her again.”
  Secretly, Kyungsoo had been expecting – also dreading – those words from his friend. “You want to take in a stranger?” He asked.
  “Kyungsoo, you saw what just happened – “
  “We don’t even know who she is or what she is. For all we know, she might even be dangerous – “
  “But you can’t just let her stay out here vulnerable to those evil guys – “
  “What if they weren’t evil? What if they were just going to her back to where she belongs and we assumed wrong?”
  Junmyeon stood firm. “If that were so, then why the need of masks?”
  Struck speechless, Kyungsoo knew that he was persuaded. Again. Damn you Kim Junmyeon for always being so reasonable and persuasive.
  “Fine,” he finally huffed, turning aside to examine the girl with a frown. “But – “

  “I will be responsible for her,” Junmyeon finished, knowing exactly what Kyungsoo was about to say. “And I’ll let her sleep on my bed as I take the floor.”

   When he had seen a wide clearing in the burning flames and charged right through it to the further inside of the castle, he never thought it would lead him straight to another fight.
  A fight Kyungsoo was certain even Baekhyun didn’t know about.
  The sound of water splashing around caught his attention, and Kyungsoo had assumed Junmyeon was doing fine, putting out flames the best he could.
  But as he dashed to aid his friend, he saw that he had assumed wrong when the scene unfolded in front of him.

  Terribly wrong.
  He was there too late; even before he could stop to a halt and understand what was happening, the gush of water from little Junmyeon’s hands slammed into the opposite man and sent him flying backwards. However, with an alarming speed, the man whose face was clouded by smoke to Kyungsoo got back up on his feet and threw a blinding bolt of green light towards the smaller one.
  “JUNMYEON!”
  The force blasted little Kyungsoo backwards, too. He managed to get up although not without effort, and his head was dizzy but he could still see. In the haziness, Kyungsoo could still see what he had seen.

  The previous man nowhere to be seen after his blast of green light.
  Junmyeon’s lifeless body on the floor.
  Panic coursed through Kyungsoo. No, Junmyeon no, no, no, you can’t die, no, nonono – 
 And someone else, in a cloak, crouching down next to his friend’s body.
 Perhaps he had been too stunned to move. Perhaps shock had gotten the best of him and had taken away Kyungsoo’s ability to move temporarily. 
  Either way, he couldn’t move when he started hearing murmuring from the cloaked figure. He couldn’t move when he saw some golden light flow from the person's fingertips to Junmyeon’s body, and he most definitely couldn’t move when the cloaked figure just walked out the blasted part of the back castle, as casual as if exiting the person's own house.
  He could only move seconds after the cloaked figure left. And when Kyungsoo did move, he ran to where Junmyeon was lying, dropping to his knees. “No, no, no – “
  A cough emerged from Junmyeon’s lips, nearly shocking Kyungsoo out of his skin.
  “Who…?” Junmyeon’s eyes opened slowly, as if he were just waking up from a deep sleep. “Ow… massive headache…”
  Kyungsoo could only stare. He didn’t know whether he should be happy his friend was alive when he had seemed as dead as possible a few minutes ago, or shocked because of what had happened and what he had seen that he couldn't make any sense of.
  Junmyeon’s next question made the decision for him.
  “Who… who are you?”

  Waking up to a bucket of water being splashed on her had always been her daily routine, if she weren't waking up earlier than usual by herself for secretive reasons. So when Keira woke up to find herself on a bed with birds chirping around and warm sunlight caressing her face instead, she thought she was having the best – also worst in some ways – dream ever.
  Flashes of scenes unfolded in her mind, but they didn't seem right. She saw a flash of green, a flash of trees - had she been running in the forest? The last, clear thing she could remember was walking to her usual training room, and next she ended up being here.
  A surge of panic shot through her, and as she shot up into a sitting position - ow, was that a bruised rib she felt? - she immediately took in the room she was in.
  That was also one thing that was shocking: she was in a room. A four-walled, door-closed room.
  Her first instinct was to arm herself, but when she strained her muscles to reach for whatever there was on the bedside drawer, her head exploded and she collapsed back onto the bed with a cry. Clutching her head with both hands she tried to make the pain go away by squeezing her eyes as hard as she could, but it wasn’t helping. It was the first time for ages since she had felt such an agonizing pain, and she could feel herself giving into panic for the first time ever since – 
  A wet cloth attacked her forehead and her eyes jerked open.
  The boy standing by the bed she was in had his lips in a tight line. His posture was rigid, but none of those defensive body signs helped how his rather large eyes and dark-brown hair that brushed the back of his neck made him look harmless and concerned. She must've failed to see him standing by the window when she had first woken up. Keira stared at him, shocked, and took in his rather high-classed outfit and special symbol on the left side of his cloak as the boy also stared at her, his expression as unreadable as a rock’s.
  A knock cut through the thick silence between them. The door of the room opened, and another boy with feather-white hair and pale skin walked in with a tray in his hands.
  “Kyung – “
  He paused when his clear brown eyes took in Keira and the boy standing next to her bed, his mouth slowly shaping into an ‘o.’
  “You’re awake,” the boy said as he set the tray down on a table by the door. Keira believed the question was directed to her. “How are you feeling?”
  She still didn’t say anything when the beautiful - yes, she admitted he was beautiful - boy approached her. She wasn’t even sure if she was still dreaming or maybe she had been transported to another world, just like those books she had read even when they had been forbidden.
  The dark-haired boy by her bed shifted back a little and spoke, his tone low and quiet. “Apparently she is still suffering from internal pain, Junmyeon. She cried out when she woke up.”
  “I did not – “ Keira bit her lower lip, but it was too late. Her habit of defending herself to not look weak was still getting the best of her. “It was just… a headache.”
  Junmyeon looked from the dark-haired boy, to Keira, to the cloth on her forehead. “And you did that, Kyungsoo?” He asked.
  The dark-haired boy – Kyungsoo, apparently – looked at the white cloth on her forehead Junmyeon was pointing at. He shrugged. “It felt like the right thing to do.”
  A smile was dangling on Junmyeon’s lips, and he patted Kyungsoo’s back. “I knew there was more kindness in you than you show to others," he said.
  That seemed to be the wrong thing to say.
  Without another word, Kyungsoo spun around and fled the room with composed strides. He even knocked over a few furniture on his way, but he didn’t care because he had to get out of there. He just had to.
  Junmyeon sighed when the door was slammed shut. At least he still closes the door, he thought, and turned to the girl in the bed. Her eyes were wide, and he couldn’t blame her; it was quite a show to wake up to.
  “My apologies for all this,” he said with a warm smile. “My name is Kim Junmyeon.”

  Kyungsoo didn’t want to ‘show kindness’ to a stranger. Hell, he didn’t even want to show any emotions to anyone he didn’t know or wasn’t that close with. But when he had heard that girl cry out in pain, he just… it had just happened. The cloth and the feeling of worry blinding everything else for one damned moment. With another scowl, he told himself it wouldn’t happen again.
  Because what was holding his emotions in was like a dam. And once a tiny stream leaked out, the rest would soon collapse.

[A/N] Hohoho I guess first meetings always turn out to be a bit awkward under my hands but TTTT Hope it's not too bad! Thank you guys for subscribing, reading, commenting and upvoting, I can't wait to just post all the other chapters for explanation and stuff LOL <3 But a very very big filler is coming up soon x) And oh, I won't be able to update next week, I apologize firsthand, but I will try to that weekend as soon as I get back to my dorms, because school is starting again for me in a week! Woohoo... Not ;--; so please wait a little bit longer, and there will be a... scene I really enjoyed writing where Keira will be really badass haha. Thank you so much!!!!!!!!

P.S. I know like, people losing their memories and stuff is so cliche haha, but there will be a reason... /zips mouth/

  LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!