"We're here to protect you"

“Why the hell do you need to live with me? I’m perfectly fine on my own!” Hope exclaimed, falling back on the couch and grunting her anger out.

“Are you dumb? Did you forget that we just told you there are others coming from EXO Planet to earth so they can kidnap you and take you back to their planet?” Himchan snapped and Hope glared at him as her top lip twitched and she got ready to spit back a smart remark.

“Hope I know you don’t like the idea of strangers suddenly barging into your home and telling you they’re going to live with you from now on, but we are doing this out of the need to keep you safe. We were sent here by our king to protect you at all hours because they could target your home at any moment and we need to make sure that doesn’t happen” Yongguk used his commanding leader tone to stop the two from creating a long string of insulting words between the two of them and Hope looked at him with the same glare she had given Himchan, until they made eye contact and Hope saw how serious Yongguk was being.

“We’re here to protect you” Yongguk spoke softly, something Hope found to be oddly much too comforting with his deep voice and she found herself becoming relaxed physically as her confused mind continued to spin.

“Does that mean that all of you have to follow me to school?” She asked and Yongguk shook his head before pointing at the youngest three of the group sitting with her.

“These three and Youngjae will go to school with you, and we’ll keep guard of the house” Yongguk gave Himchan slap on the arm with the back of his hand and Hope looked at the other three to notice someone missing.

“Where did Youngjae go?” She asked.

“He’s gone outside to set up this really cool security system that makes the people in this house seem just like every other person on the same street seeing as whoever tries to kidnap you will be looking for you in particular and we can’t have them finding us in the house with you” Jongup waved his arms in circles to gesture to the whole house and Hope nodded as she looked around.

“And do we have to go to school and get the four of them signed up or something?” She asked and Yongguk shook his head.

“Already taken care of by me” Himchan slapped his own chest a couple of times and Hope’s eyes widened.

“Then what about sleeping arrangements? Clothes? Food for seven people? I don’t have enough food to feed all of us” She began panicking and Yongguk shook his head as he reached out to put one of his hands on her knee.

“We’ve already organised where we’ll all be sleeping from now on, you just don’t have those spare rooms anymore and as for the rest, we have all weekend to figure it all out” Hope wondered how much thought they must have all put into this and sagged back into the couch after having shot up in a state of distress.

“Thank god because all the food in the house was eaten by those two” She waved a hand at Daehyun and gestured to the front door where Youngjae most likely exited. Daehyun leant back on the couch, putting his arm behind where Hope was resting her head and she immediately shot up again, this time standing up and walking away from them.

“I need a glass of water” She muttered before entering the kitchen and finding herself a glass and the jug of cold water from her fridge. She shut the fridge door and screamed when she turned to be face to face with Jongup. Jongup quickly caught the jug that she released her grip on and his smile only widened as she stared at him in shock.

“I’m sorry for frightening you Hope” Jongup smiled and she grabbed onto the bench closest to her in order to support her weakened body as it recovered from the shock