The Monster From The Nightmares

14. I Wonder

A week passed. Everyday when Autumn arrived, Sehun was in his seat next to her. Sometimes, Jongin was talking quietly with him. Today was one of those days.

Autumn makes her way to her seat quietly and pulls out a book she borrowed from the library. As she begins to read it, somebody taps her shoulder.

"Class is starting," Sehun informs.

She sighs and places the bookmark in her book. Their teacher writes two big words on the whiteboard.

'Group Projects'

"As I'm sure you've figured out," their teacher starts, "For the final two weeks before winter break, you will be working on a book report with a book I assign to your group."

Students start grabbing each other and raising their hands.

"I will be assigning the groups."

A collective groan fills the room. The teacher looks down at a sheet of paper

"The first group is Ravi, Minhyuk, Ilhoon, and Peniel. Next is Hyuk, Hongbin, Yoona, and Jessica. Ren, Amber, and Krystal...."

Autumn stops paying attention until she hears her name.

"Sofia, Luke, and Kai..."

Her head shoots up like a lightning bolt. No way. This could not be happening.

🔹🔹🔹🔹

"Sofia, Luke, and Kai..."

Jongin glances back at the named girl and sees her staring at the teacher with wide eyes. Sehun is sitting next to her with a slight frown on his face.

While they didn't hate her, there was just something off about the way she behaved when they were around. Cautious and nervous. What's even weirder, her brothers had acted the same way. Could they...?

No, they couldn't be Autumn and the boys from the basement. Autumn was a smart cookie, no way she would put them out in the open like that. Besides, Sofia looked nothing like Autumn.

Autumn had long, thick blonde hair and grass green eyes. Sofia had short, thin, blueish black hair and storm blue eyes. And the boys from the basement all had black hair and brown eyes. Her two brothers had red and blond hair and gray eyes. Besides, neither of the boys were tall enough to be Kris.

Kris.

At the thought of his name, Jongin's heart clenches. He didn't know if it was in anger or sadness. Anger that had sparked at what had happened to Kyungsoo. Or a sadness that had been numbed by Kyungsoo.

When he was kidnapped, he was drunk. He had carelessly been using his power to get home. He couldn't remember clearly, but he knew he had been jumped. When he woke up, he was tied up and unable to use his ability. A tall man was towering over him. He gave Jongin the choice of join them or be locked up. Jongin had refused to join, which resulted in him being stripped and tortured.

When he was about to break, Kris and Luhan were thrown in with him. They weren't much older than him. They gave him a temporary strength. Temporary. He eventually broke and agreed to join the Exo clan.

After he did, he was brought upstairs. Yixing and Kyungsoo both were in charge of cleaning him up and healing him. Kyungsoo had comforted him while he cried. He felt so guilty about leaving Kris and Luhan.

Kyungsoo hadn't openly comforted him, but he didn't do nothing either. He helped Jongin get through the guilt and depression in his own way. Now that Kyungsoo was gone, all of the emotions that the older boy had helped him bury were flooding back.

He wore long sleeves to cover what he was doing to himself. The wounds were ugly and hurt like hell, but he didn't care.

"Mr. Kai, did you hear me?" the teacher asks, snapping him out of his thoughts.

"Sorry sir," Jongin answers, "I got lost in my thoughts."

" Well, I said to get with your groups and make your way to the library," the old man repeats.

Jongin gets up and walks over to Sehun and Sofia. Sofia is picking up her books quickly, an anxious look on her face. She was quite pretty, he notices. He doesn't realize he's staring until she glances up and gives a small smile.

"You guys can go to the library without me if you want, I'll meet you there," she offers, a hopeful tone in her voice.

Sehun shakes his head, "No, we can wait. Besides, we don't know where the library is."

Her pretty face falls and she mutters a faint 'okay' before she finishes packing hastily.

" Let's go," she says, then leads the way out of the classroom.

As they're walking down the hall, she asks, "Inside or outside?"

The two boys freeze in confusion.

"What?" Jongin asks curiously. She stops as well and glances at them.

"The library has tables inside and outside available, do you want to sit inside or outside?" she clarifies.

Sehun shrugs, "As long as it's shaded I don't have a problem with working outside, do you agree Kai?"

Jongin nods and she gives a stiff smile before turning back around and finishing the walk to the library.

What's her deal?

〰〰〰〰〰〰〰

Towards the end of the day, Sehun and Jongin approach Sofia again. She is sitting under a tree, clearly waiting for someone. Her eyes widen when she sees them and she quickly rises.

"What's up?" she asks, trying to sound cheery. She failed miserably.

"Do you want to come over to our house to work on the project?" Sehun asks, her eyes widen even more while she frantically shakes her head.

"No, no, no, no," she says quickly, "My oldest brother doesn't let me go over to people's houses."

"Your brothers don't seem old enough to dictate what you do," Sehun states skeptically.

"I have three older brothers," she answers, "My oldest is twenty three."

Sehun makes an 'oh okay' face. A car horn beeps, all of them turn to it.

Yixing was waiting in the car. Sehun turns back to Sofia, "We have to go. Bye Sofia."

She waves a bit in response and walks over to her brothers, who were waiting by the entrance.

"Who was she?" Yixing asks, eyes on the road.

"Sofia. We're doing a group project with her and I sit next to her in class," Sehun answers, a smirk on his face.

"She seemed anxious," Yixing comments.

"She's always like that," Jongin answers quietly.

"I wonder why?"

I wonder why too.