Chapter 6:

"Do you believe in reincarnation?" You turn to look at Peter sitting beside you with a confused look.

"Reincarnation?" You ask perplexed, pulling your knees to your chest and resting your head on your arms, while still looking at him.

You were facing his side profile, he was looking up at the moon and looked ethereal. You knew you shouldn't be staring, but how couldn't you. He had this special feeling about him, it made you want to know more about his story.

He was about to answer you when something fell from the sky to your feet. You both flinched, not understanding what just happened. But when you looked closely you understood that it was a squirrel and that it didn't fall from the sky but rather from the tree you were leaning on.

You smile, and carefully pick up the little furry animal in your hands and start caressing it. The squirrel seemed to enjoy the affection as it snuggled in your palms.

"Can we keep it?" You asked excitedly to the boy sitting next to you who was staring at you the whole time.

"Huh?" He asked, seeming to get out of his daze. "I-I mean, I guess yeah…"

You grinned at him and focused your attention back on the squirrel.

"Tell me, Peter, what's your full name?" You asked, still playing with the tiny creature in your hand.

"Um… Peter Han… why?"

"We'll name him Han!"

"What? Why would we?" He asked not knowing where this was going. You were going to talk about reincarnation a few seconds ago, and now there you are completely distracted by the sudden presence of a squirrel.

"It looks like you…" You said, glancing up at him to find him already looking at you.

The look in his eyes was indescribable, it had this dreamy glow about it and you found yourself slightly blushing under his gaze.

"Do you think I could be reborn as a squirrel in my next life?" He asked, trying to get you back to the original topic.

You looked down at Han and then back up at Peter. And with a firm nod, you confirmed his theory.

You inched closer to Peter, to give him the squirrel but he flinched, making you stop in your tracks.

Peter looked at you with unsure eyes, not exactly knowing what your next step would be. So you just went back to your previous spot and simply reached out your hand to him, with Han still cuddled in it.

Peter stared at you for a while, not knowing if he should accept the animal or not. Dropping his eyes to his possible future appearance in a future life, his eyes glistened with such affection towards the animal that he ended up picking him and snuggling him closer to his chest.

You liked Peter. You realised that his company was pleasant and that maybe it wasn't all that bad that he tagged along with your journey. You kept admiring the two playing with each other and this sudden warmth filled you up.

Maybe you confused it with nostalgia because you remembered how Chris used to play with his dog- Berry- and it kind of resembled how Peter and Han are playing now, which made you feel a little sad.

You shook your head as if throwing away thoughts of Chris, and got up from your sitting position making Peter look up at you.

"Where are you going?" He asks, with Han now propped on his shoulder and snuggled up to his neck.

"I'll go pick up some branches so we can light up a fire… it's starting to get cold." You answered and without leaving him time to reply, you went off to accomplish your mission.

You tried not to think a lot about your family and home, people you know. It was only the start of your journey and you didn't want to feel weak or feel the need to go back because you couldn't. There was no going back now. It was just you, Peter, Han and… faith.

"You know how to make a fire?" Peter asked, resting his head on the tree behind him.

"Yeah, I used to go to this beach house in summer and it was just necessary to learn how to make one for bonfires and all." You said, finally seeing a spark of light coming out of the friction you were making by scratching two branches together.

"Woah! Did you see that Han? It's fire!" Peter exclaimed, waking the poor animal from its peaceful sleep.

You laughed at his excitement and mentioned for him to get closer while you threw more branches in the fire to make it expand more.

"Too bad we don't have marshmallows," Peter whined, patting his tummy.

You reached for your backpack and searched for some snacks you had stuffed in there before escaping, and got out a bag of chips and two bottles of water.

"Here. It's not marshmallows but it'll take away the hunger." You said, passing him the snack.

His eyes lit up and he immediately started digging into the chips, you laughed at how puffy his cheeks would get when he stuffed too much food in his mouth. It was adorable and it made him look like a squirrel even more.

Speaking of the squirrel. Han was trying so hard to get a bite from what Peter was eating, but the latter was too engrossed in his snack to care about his furry friend now.

"Come here buddy, I'll give you some of mine." You said to the animal, taking him in your hands and giving him a portion of your snack.

Peter licked the salt out of his fingers and threw the trash in his backpack. He looked at the squirrel apologetically. "Sorry, I was hungry." He said, shyly scratching the back of his neck.

For the next hour, you kept talking and just kind of getting to know each other. You learned that you were the same age, from the same city and that you both wanted to study nursing next year. You found out that he didn't have a great relationship with his family. He also still didn't meet his soulmate and you confirmed that he also wasn't fond of skinship or people being all that close to him either.

During the whole time you talked, you could notice that whenever you repositioned yourself in your place, he would flinch and make sure you weren't too close to him. But for whatever reason, he found himself enjoying your presence and wanting to know more about you.

You told him that you ran away from home, but you didn't quite tell him why. It was just you telling him that your life was kind of complicated lately and him relating to you. And just like that, you clicked, you didn't need words to understand each other's pain, it was all spoken through the wind passing between you.

There was a short moment of silence between you, Han was already sleeping on the top of your head. You picked him up just as Peter started yawning. You placed Han on the ground and turned to look at Peter.

"You should go and sleep, I'll stay awake. I already slept on the train, you need to rest." You said, stretching your arms behind your back.

"You sure you don't need to sleep? I can guard if you want." He asked, worried that you might need more sleep than he does.

"Don't worry, I'll be fine. If I ever do get sleepy tho… I'll wake you up." You informed him, ushering him to go and sleep.

He half-smiled at you and went to pick up his sleeping bag. You were surprised he even had one, that's something you didn't think of when you were packing.

He carefully got in and brought Han with him, snuggling together before falling asleep.

You yawned, staring at the fire for what felt like an eternity. You were lost in your thoughts. Thoughts about what was gonna be the next step. You didn't quite know where this would take you in the first place, you didn't have a certain destination in mind when you planned your big escape. And now with Peter being there, it was all the way more confusing. You'll have to talk to him about it in the morning, you couldn't just keep straying away.

You suddenly remembered your phone. You took it out of your pocket and powered it on. You had multiple missed calls from Rosé and your mom.

Rosé probably told your mom what happen, thinking that maybe she could save the situation by doing that.

You ignored all the worried messages from your family and went to your gallery.

There were a couple of photos of you and your friends. Mainly Rosé and Judy. Judy was a friend of yours that you met recently at your mother's flower shop. She's so sweet and cute that you immediately got along.

Scrolling down, there were some photos of Chris that you sneakily took of him. You knew he wouldn't be so happy to take pictures with you, he was just like that. So instead you would snap one or two pics of him when he wasn't looking. You stopped at one certain photo, one that didn't hold such good memories.

Flashback:

"How many fucking times do I have to tell you not to bother me when I'm playing games with the boys?" He screamed at your face, making you flinch with every rise of his voice.

"I-I'm sorry… I-I just came here to spend time with you… the door- was open and I just came in, I swear I didn't know I-" You stuttered and trembled. It was the first time he screamed at you like that and it was scary.

"And now you even take photos of me without my permission…? Why? Are you a spy or something? You're working for the authorities, right? They paired you with me as a soulmate and asked you to kill me because I don't believe in this shitty love thingy they call soulmates, didn't they? Answer me!" He had held you from the shoulders and slammed you against the wall.

You winced at the compact and tears were flowing down your cheeks like a river. When he let go of you, you fell to the ground, shaking as your sobs resonated through the living room. You thought he was about to hit you, so you curled up into a ball, clutching your sweater so hard that your knuckles turned white. You sobbed so much that at the end of the day he took you to the hospital because you blacked out.

When you woke up he was the first person you saw. He was holding your hand ever so gently, his face was holding a look of regret, confusion and anger at the same time.

"I'm so sorry Yn, I don't know what got into me… I am so sorry." He apologized. If it were someone else you probably would have forgiven them, but it was your soulmate and the way he was sitting close to you and holding your hand made you forget whatever had happened in those previous hours.

You caressed his hand with your thumb, finding it kind of hard to even move it due to how numb your whole body was. But you still reassured him that it was okay and that you forgave him.

A few minutes of silence passed before Rosé and the rest of your family barged into the room, their faces painted with worry and concern.

End Flashback.

Quickly wiping away the tears that started forming at the brim of your eyes, you glanced at the time before shutting off the phone for once and for all. The last thing you wanted was to have your location determined, you certainly didn't want your family looking for you, it would ruin the plan all along.

It was 2:30 AM, there wasn't one sound that resonated through the dark forest at that time, except for the occasional whistling of the wind. But you keep your guard up, you wouldn't want to have something attack you and Peter all of a sudden, it would ruin everything and if you ever even survived from whatever attack that would be, the whole escape plan would get more difficult to accomplish.

You could hear Peter mumbling and shuffling in his sleep, you just shrugged it off since it happens to you too, to talk in your sleep.

But as minutes pass the mumbling gets louder and louder until it becomes screaming.

"No! Don't touch me! Please!" Peter was screaming and thrashing in his sleeping bag.

The view in front of you pained you and your heart shattered at the miserable situation Peter was in, making you sprint towards him to wake him up and release him from the unreal world of pain he was trapped in.

When you approached the sleeping bag you noticed that Han had already jumped away from the sleeping guy, staring at him with a confused and disturbed look. Soon enough he ran to the tree and climbed it.

Looking back down at Peter you didn't know how you would wake him up, you certainly didn't want to startle him by shaking him awake, seeing as he hated being touched. So you decided to call him out.

"Peter… Peter, are you okay? Peter wake up, you're having a nightmare. It's all fake, please wake up." You tried to speak louder than he was screaming but it didn't work out.

At this point, you were afraid that his screaming would alert some dangerous creature from around you. So you were left with one choice.

You carefully put a hand on his shoulder to stop him from moving, only to have him shoot his eyes open, getting up and backing away from you until his back hit the tree.

He was shaking his head furiously, sweat dripping from his forehead while little cries escaped from him.

"Peter… Peter, don't worry it's just me… I won't hurt you. I promise, here take my hand." You said, keeping your voice soft to not scare him away.

He looked at your hand and then back at you. "They all always say the same thing… but they end up hurting me so badly, please just stay away." He stuttered, voice almost inaudible if it weren't for the absolute silence you wouldn't have been able to hear him.

"Peter I am not like the others, I certainly don't know who they are and why they hurt you. But believe me, you don't deserve the abuse you are getting, whatever was the mistake you made that let them think you needed to be punished, you don't deserve it." You reasoned with him, trying to earn his trust with your hand still reaching out for him.

"I will never, in any way hurt you, Peter Han. I promise." You continued, expectantly smiling at him.

His breathing had come back to normal, it was as if your voice had somehow calmed him down. But he was still shaking. You attempted to step closer to him, and when he didn't flinch or move away, you proceeded to sit closer to him.

With hesitant moves he shakily held your hand in his, squeezing it tightly. You could sense that his tensed body had somehow relaxed at your touch, and that's when he completely broke down.

You just sat there, with your hand softly stroking his trying to calm him down as he sobbed. But what happened next was something you didn't expect at all.

He inched closer to you, burying his face in the crook of your neck and snuggled closer to you so that your whole body was engulfing his, protecting it.

Shocked by his sudden action, it took you a while to wrap your arms around him and soothingly started caressing his hair.

"It'll all be fine Peter. I'll guarantee you that you and I, we're gonna survive this and go through it together." You mumbled slowly, before resting your head on top of his and drifting away to sleep.

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A/N: An other update yay!

Well, just wanted you to know that if the last interaction with Peter seemed kind of rushed to any of you, just know that it actually isn't. Everything will fall into place with each 'past event' chapter that will be posted, so stay tuned for that.

As always if you enjoyed this chapter, please vote and comment!