Seeing no reason to rush, Yixing navigated through the crowd in a leisurely pace.  If he ran, he had a feeling that his arms and legs wouldn’t hold out until the guild.  His mind then drifted off towards dinner - or more precisely, the dinner he would cook.  Based on what he observed while making breakfast, there was no way that he’d have enough to cook for four (or was it six?), assuming the man in his arms and the tattooed pursuer counted.

As Yixing mused over what’d he make to feed the supposed six mouths, he didn’t notice Joonmyeon staring at him, observing his features.  Joonmyeon had stopped squirming in Yixing’s arms; trying to get out of his captor’s firm hold seemed useless, since Joonmyeon had no muscle anyways.  So, he settled for being carried bridal style; even if it was mortifying to have a man carry him.  

As Joonmyeon continued watching, he noticed that Yixing was devoid of the coldness that he initially saw in the captor.  Instead, Yixing looked thoughtful, even harmless (if he wasn’t carrying Joonmyeon with such a firm grip).  He decided that if there was anyone he could trust (among his captors), Yixing looked like the more truthful and nicer of the two.  

As Joonmyeon opened his mouth, he was cut off by a grumbling sound.  Startled, Joonmyeon and Yixing both stared at Yixing’s stomach, the source of the grumbling.  “Ah!  That’s right!  We never got anything to eat…“ recalled Yixing.  He guessed his thoughts of food made himself feel hungry.  Before he could say anything else, another softer growl could be heard; this time from Joonmyeon’s stomach.

Said man blushed and sheepishly asked, “Um… I-is it alright if we get some food?  It’s apparent that the both of us are hungry and um… I’d like to ask you some questions, i-if that’s alright with you, I mean.”  He stumbled over his words, flustered that his hunger was so apparent (and because he was still being carried like a bride).  

A bright smile graced Yixing’s features as he replied, “Sure!  Let’s get some food.  I’m starving anyways.  But… uh… if I put you down, will you run away?”  He wasn’t sure if Joonmyeon was going to use this chance to bolt; after all, it seemed like the most logical thing to do.

Joonmyeon pouted a little and restated, “I said I had questions.  If I ran away now, I wouldn’t get to know the answer to those questions now, would I?”  Although it should’ve excited him to be free of this awkward and embarrassing position so that he could run away and find Kris, something about Yixing’s demeanor made him contemplate actually finding answers first instead of finding Kris.  After all, Kris was one of the top fighters at Asline.  Although he flubbed up his last fight, stripping him of the chance to become ‘Champion of the Year’, Joonmyeon believed that Kris’s powers and skills would be good enough to keep him safe.  After all, Kris had been protecting Joonmyeon for a while; surely he could do the same for himself.

“Okay.  Here you go.”  Yixing carefully set Joonmyeon back on his feet.  True to his words, Joonmyeon didn’t run away.  Instead, he intertwined his hands with Yixing’s and started tugging him towards a resturaunt.  “I heard the food here’s good.  I’ve been meaning to go check it out with Kris, but we just haven’t had the time.  So, if it's alright with you, I'd like to eat here,” requested Joonmyeon.  He usually felt weird around other people since he was always being guarded by Kris, who didn't allow him to make other friends easily.  However, he was definitely enjoying this change of pace.

“Sure, why not.  I’ve also heard a couple a rumors about this place while working.  It can’t hurt to test them out!”  exclaimed Yixing, as the duo headed towards the entrance.  

His head hurt like ing hell and there was some sort of buzz in the back of his mind.  Ugh, why does my head hurt anyways.  He opened his eyes only to be greeted by beige?  He definitely didn't recognize anything.  Suddenly, he registered that the hum was actually voices; their speakers using hushed tones to discuss something.

He tried to shake off the haze in his brain before he attempted to understand the conversation.  The voices paused, replaced by sniffles.

"Ugh, Tao. How are you still crying?  You've already bawled your eyes out for like, what, a half hour?  Shouldn't you be totally dried out by now?" complained a female voice.  Her voice was a bit coarse and sounded bored, as if she had to put up with this "Tao" and his tears for a while.

"B-but hi-his face was so s-s-scary!!!  All I-I did w-was go up t-to him, and he was al-already glaring at me!"  It was bad enough that "Tao" was sniffling almost every word, but it was even worse when he burst into tears once more, sobs wracking his body.  

At this point, Kris was starting to truly understand the situation.  He was captured, evident by the gag stuffed in his mouth, sack covering his entire body, and the fact that he was bound so tightly, the rope would dig into his skin if he struggled.  The throbbing in his head had already dulled, but he still felt a little dazed, not quite recalling the events prior to losing his consciousness.

Oddly, he did manage to extract this quote from his memories: "Sometimes, head injuries can lead to temporary memory loss.  Although, remembering might take a long time, due to possible post-event trauma."  With that, he concluded that his memories could've been so dramatic (and traumatic) that he lost them.  However, he had no time to contemplate this quote (that he just realized must be from his professor considering he was a psychology major) because of a third voice.

"Anyways, Hui Qi.  What did you do to him?"  Kris heard someone chuckle before the female voice replied, “Come on Sehun, isn’t that obvious?  I knocked him out.”  He assumed the one who had asked the question was called Sehun and kept listening.  “You know, a simple chop to the back of the neck does wonders.”  That explained why his head hurt.

Kris was getting impatient eavesdropping.  He wanted answers, especially those regarding his bestie friend, Joonmyeon.  He began to struggle in his bonds, wiggling on the floor, ignoring how much his wrists started to hurt, and yelling into his gag.

“Oh .  Hui Qi, he’s up.”  He heard (probably) Sehun say above his muffled yells.  Next thing he knew, he was being pulled by the shoulders out of the sack and roughly placed onto a very lumpy couch.  Someone took the cloth gag out of his mouth and he opened his eyes, squinting at the sudden brightness while trying to examine his surroundings.  He saw two figures standing in front of him; one was crying (That’s probably Tao) and the other was standing with his hands in his pockets.  (And this is probably Sehun… what’s up with his hair…?).

“I know what you’re thinking, and let me tell you right now: It’s freaking ironic.”  Sehun narrowed his eyes at Kris, he saw how the other was looking in confusion at his rainbow dyed hair.  Kris’ eyes widened at Sehun’s sudden statement.  Can he read minds?  He scanned the room once more but couldn’t find the last voice he had heard.  Where’s the girl?  Hui Qi?

“Boo!”  A voice suddenly yelled in his ear.

“JESUS ING CHRIST!”  Kris yelled as he (almost) jumped out of his seat.

“Ahahahahaha! Oh my ing god, Sehun, did you see the look on his face?  , you should have taken a picture.”  Hui Qi laughed as she walked around from behind the couch.  She plopped herself down on Kris’ left side before swinging an arm around his shoulder.

“Welcome Kris!  Gasp in awe, as you, a simple pleb, have been given the honor of being in the one and only: Mirage guild!”  Hui Qi stretched her arms out as if to showcase the run down building he was in.

“...This is a guild?  It looks more like some abandoned warehouse.”  Kris warily asked.  Sehun snicked and Tao had finally stopped crying enough to give a small smile in amusement.

Hui Qi ignored his statement and continued on.  “You, dearest Kris, are our newest member! Congratulations!  Let’s welcome him everybody.”  All three of his kidnappers began to clap enthusiastically.

“Wait. What the ?  Since when was I a part of this ty guild?  From the looks of it, you guys don’t even have the minimum 9 members required to be considered official.”

“Hey, hey, HEY!  I’ll have you know that two of our members are out at the moment.”  Hui Qi countered.

Tao spoke up, for the first time since Kris had woken up.  “That’s still less than 9, Hui Qi.”

“Shut up Tao.  That’s not important right now.  What’s important is that Kris and his dearest boyfie are the newest members of Mirage, bringing our count to…six?”  She looked at Sehun for confirmation and he gave a slight nod in agreement.  “Yeah! We have six members now!  Aren’t you guys excited?”  Tao let out a slight squeal of joy at the prospect of being only 3 members and 25 jobs away from official status.

“Woah there,”  Kris interrupted, “What’s this about my ‘boyfie’ joining as well… are… are YOU GUYS TALKING ABOUT JOONMYEON?”  Hui Qi winced at Kris’ sudden increase in volume before nodding her head.  “Yep!  Your boy toy has gotten pretty comfy with one of our members already.”  She brought her arm down from around Kris’ shoulder before pulling out her phone.  She opened up a text from Yejin and showed Kris the screen.

He stared at the phone for all of 10 seconds before bursting out in anger.  “WHAT THE IS GOING ON HERE!?”  On the screen was a screenshot of Asline University’s own online newspaper.  The picture focused on the headline: Kris’ Boy Toy Caught Cheating With A New Hot Piece of Man!!??”  Below the headline was a blurry picture of what Kris could make out as Joonmyeon and a taller man walking out of a restaurant.  In fact, Kris noticed, it was the same restaurant his best friend had been pestering him to go with for days.

Hui Qi was laughing her off at Kris’ reaction.  Yejin was right, he was whipped for this Joonmyeon character.  “Oh man, don’t hold your breath, it gets better,” she added with a grin, “this is on the main page!  I bet everyone in the entire school knows about your cheating wifey now!  , this is hilarious!”

By now, Kris was fuming at the ears while the rest of the guild members were still laughing.  “I’m gonna kill whoever that is.  How dare he go to that restaurant with Joonmyeon!” Kris forced out between his gritted teeth.

“Oh man, Yixing is going to be in for it when he gets back.”  Sehun not so softly whispered to Tao.

“That’s his name?  , I’m going to kill that Yixing if I ever get my hands on him!”

The door creaked open just then to reveal Yixing and Joonmyeon, both holding bags of groceries.

“What’s going on… and why does someone want to kill me?”

A/N:  I can honestly say that this chapter is one of my favorites so far XD  I just love the love triangle being formed here >_<  If you all enjoyed that chapter, please support us by commenting or subscribing!  This is one of our lengthier chapters, so don't expect too much content next time.  Thanks for reading and we'll seeya next time!

Haha let's hope Yixing gets through this alive.