saw when she woke up was that her room was crowded. Daichi was curled up on it like a cat, fast asleep by her side with cake stains on his mouth, Sloth lying face down on a floating cloud beside the bed. Ari was chatting avidly with Lucy on her couch, a soft blush tinting her cheeks as Lucy smiled. Priyanka was sitting cross-legged on the floor, a book in her hand and stacks of others beside her like a fort.

It was then that Ira stormed, but before she could say anything he threw his hands up in the air, a scowl on his face and indignation lacing his voice.

"You all left me there!" he exclamated," it took me two hours before I realized none of you were coming back."

"To be fair," Priyanka said without looking up from her book," that seems like your problem."

"Don't get mad, Ira," Ari chuckled as she leaned back on the couch," your attention span is so short it's no wonder you didn't even realize we were gone."

"I don't think you realize the kind of torture I had to sit through," he said," two hours never felt so long."

"Try doing that every day," Jasmina yawned.

Everyone ceased talking then as they stared at her, the surprise so obvious that Jasmina blinked in confusion.

"You're awake," Lucy smiled as she looked at her.

"Why was I sleeping to begin with?" she frowned.

Her memory had become foggy somewhere around the time she met Sloth. She remembered talking to him and then the next thing she knew she was dreaming about something she had long forgotten. A frown creased her face as she tried to remember what memory had resurfaced in her sleep, but it escaped before she could.

"Don't you remember?" Lucy said as she glanced at her.

Jasmina slowly let her gaze wander over everyone, settling it on Sloth as the most likely suspect as she rose out of bed. And then, before anyone could say anything, she pushed him off his cloud.

Sloth thumped down on the ground face-down, a loud groan escaping him that sounded highly like he was dying.

"What the hell," he said as he turned his face to her," why'd you wake me up?"

"Why'd you let me sleep?" she said.

He blinked, his face still apathic as his eyes wandered to a place next to her.

"Because," he began slowly, drawling the word out," you see - I had a reason for that."

"And that reason is?" she said.

"The reason," he said, still talking so slow that she wanted to snarl at him to speed it up," that is -" His eyes lit up then as he nodded, no emotion visible on the rest of his face when he spoke. " - I am in love with you."

"False, next," she said without skipping a beat.

"I could be," he said," love drives people to do crazy things, you know."

She lowered herself beside him, eyes unreadable as she smiled and tilted his chin up with her hand.

"I've lived in a world where lying is like breathing for my whole life," she said," so step up your game, I'm not believing this love story."

He parted his lips then and she could see she was this close to cracking him, if only because he was probably too lazy to continue in his bad lies, when Daichi interrupted them.

"You looked tired," he said, before waving a hand at Sloth," Gio found you all drowsy and helped you to sleep. He's just shy, that's why he's lying."

"Shy?" Gio said.

"Yeah," Daichi said as he stared at him with wide eyes," you are so shy that you can't admit you helped her, right?"

Gio blinked, before understanding took over him and he nodded.

"Yes," he said," that's exactly it. I am shy."

Jasmina looked at both of them, before rising to her feet and brushing off wrinkles on her school uniform.

"For the seven deadly sins you are horrible liars," she commented with an eyeroll, before leaving the room.

"Where are you going?" Daichi shouted after her.

"If you or someone else follows me you won't get snacks for all the remaining days," she called back, the threat seeming to have the desired effect as no one joined her on the walk down.

One glance at the window showed her it was still light out, though the night had already started seeping through in a mozaic of saturated orange and soft pink. She grabbed the heels she had apparently discarded somewhere on the journey from the hallway to the bedroom from the floor and snatched her bag from the table where she had set it down. She slowed down briefly though to apply lipstick, check her make up and spray on some perfume, before leaving the house.

Jasmina never had been a person who particularly enjoyed other's company. To tease and play with them, sure, but never for a whole day. So to be stuck with six high-maintenance people twenty-four hours a day brought her murderous tendencies to a whole new high. So no, she wasn't up for another minute of that for the time being, especially now that she was trying to better herself.

She glanced at the car, before deciding to walk instead - a highly uncharacteristic thing to do for her. She never had liked putting more than the minimal effort in for things nor even nature, but right now she just wanted to be at a silent space to clear her head.

So she turned away from the gates and walked towards the large plot of land that her backyard consisted of. She kept walking, the sound of her stilettos muffled by grass as she easily kept her balance. Heels had been her only way of walking around ever since she had practically been able to walk, her mother smiling as she told her a woman in heels was powerful.

She had long known she was already a force to be reckoned with without them, but she loved how they looked and was vain to the point that even the devil himself had called her out, so she wasn't about to wear anything more comfortable anytime soon.

Childhood memories ran past her, materializing in a girl with a midnight ponytail and a dark-haired boy with an all-knowing smirk. Alan had pulled her along to show her a neat place he had discovered on her land and she had eventually followed him out of boredom, walking behind him as he tried to get her to run.

"It has such a beautiful view," he had promised her.

She looked at the ghost of his memory for a second as it vanished into smoke, almost laughing at how ironic it was that Alan used to love nature and now was contributing to a carbon footprint practically the size of her land. Not that it mattered, the world was probably going to go up in flames in about a hundred years anyway. Might as well enjoy it.

She ducked under the vines, the large fields turning into a forest as trees knit together more tightly. The walk continued, but then she was there, at the small lake hidden behind all the trees, flowers blooming beside the water.

And then she sat down, reminding herself to throw away her skirt later as she closed her eyes. The soft sound of shallow water running over stones accompanied with a constant background silence made her feel at peace. It was strange really, especially when she had grown up her whole life in a mess of sounds and lively cities and hadn't visited this place in years, but for a moment she was perfectly fine just staying here.

"It's not safe to just close your eyes in deserted spaces, you know."

"It's not safe to intrude on the land of one of the most powerful people in the world, you know," she replied, eyes opening but still focussed on the sight of water in front of her.

"Your parents aren't here."

She turned her head towards the sound then, already knowing who it had to be before she even saw him.

No one else could get that far on her property.

"I was talking about me," she said.

The guy leaning against the tree blinked, but before he could talk she had already risen to her feet.

"Envy, I suppose?" she said.

He nodded, eyes hooded as he took her in.

She flashed him her brightest smile then, not caring about his brooding attitude as she patted him on the shoulder.

"That makes seven."