The two continued walking, hands never loosening a bit. Baekhyun gladly accepted Sehun’s request of guiding him around with a smile. He immediately firing off a list of different things they could do and Sehun could barely keep up with all the options. So he just nodded along hoping it looked like he knew what Baekhyun was saying.

After chattering Sehun’s ear off, Baekhyun fell silent, smile still present on his face. Sehun took this time to look around the market. Finally able to take in the views properly. He spots the fire eater that he vaguely recalls Baekhyun speaking about, wincing when the man begins to lower the torch closer to his mouth. He turns away before he's subjected to the ‘entertainment.’

His eyes find a new point of interest. A small bakery has a table set up outside, full of various pastries and baked goods. He slows down to a halt, pulling Baekhyun back when he continues to walk on without him.

Baekhyun finds his spot next to Sehun again. He doesn't say anything. He follows his line of vision and his eyes soften. A slight tug on Sehun's hand pulls his attention downward. Baekhyun gives him a gentle smile as he tilts his head toward the bakery, asking if he would like to go over there. Sehun doesn't want to. Baekhyun doesn't question it and they move on.

The silence between has become slightly tense as they look at various stalls. Baekhyun readjusts his grip on Sehun when he feel his hand slipping out. Baekhyun mentally berates himself for panicking when he notices Sehun’s blank expression. His teeth dig into his bottom lip as he watches their hands swing between them.

He flinches in surprise when a hand gently pulls his chin down, making him stop the biting. Sehun’s hand moves from his chin to his cheek, caressing his cheek with his them as he looks down in worry. “Is something the matter hyung?”

Baekhyun is quick to shake his head, shaking Sehun’s hand off in the process. “I'm fine.” Sehun quirks an eyebrow at this. “Really! I'm perfectly fine.” Sehun lets out a low exhale, still not content with that answer.

They begin walking again, Baekhyun glancing down at their hands and then back up at Sehun. He adjusts his hand in Sehun’s and swallows down his nervousness. “Do you miss your family?”

Sehun’s grip on Baekhyun’s hand loosens for a split second before gripping it tightly, just enough that it’s borderline painful for Baekhyun. “They're not my family.” His voice is tense, the only indication of his discomfort. “They never were.”

Baekhyun shakes their hands gently and Sehun completely lets go. Baekhyun jumps at the lack of warmth, but stomps down the growing discomfort in his chest. He subtly clears his throat and wipes his hand against the cloth of his trousers. “That doesn't mean they don't mean anything to you.”

Sehun doesn't answer.

“Do you want to go back and see them?” Baekhyun pushes on.

He gingerly tugs on Sehun’s sleeve and he's met with the teary eyes of Sehun. Sehun coughs when he gently dabs the corners of his eyes. Baekhyun slides his hand back into Sehun’s, smiling apologetically up at him. “I'm sorry. You don't have to answer.”

“Of course I want to see them.” His whispers drowned out by the crowd. If Baekhyun wasn't listening carefully, there could have been no way for him to hear that. Sehun was looking away from him, but the hold on his hand was being reciprocated and that was enough for Baekhyun.

“How about this stall?” Baekhyun changes the topic as he leads Sehun toward a less crowded area. The trinkets glitter under the sun, creating mesmerizing colors and patterns along the neutral colored cloth. Baekhyun uses his free hand to examine a small elephant ornament while Sehun uses this time to watch quietly.

Sehun’s head shoots up when something flashes in his peripheral. Baekhyun looks up from the sparkling trinkets laid out in front of them. He glances toward where Sehun is gazing at. An eyebrow going up when he doesn't see anything. “Is something wrong?”

A small shake of Sehun's head is all he gets and he's back to looking at the bracelets and necklaces in front of them. “Are you sure?” A nod. Baekhyun quirks the corner of his mouth up, not completely believing him. “Are you sure sure?” he asks, not letting it go.

“I'm sure hyung,” Sehun assures him verbally and with a small squeeze of his hand. Baekhyun jolts at the sudden movement, looking right into Sehun’s eyes. Sehun nudges his shoulder and he sighs. He guesses he'll let it go for now.

Baekhyun loses interest in the stall before them and he loses interest in many others before they decide to just walk around.

Suddenly Sehun is struck by a rush of cold air that shakes him to the core, making him unconsciously pull Baekhyun closer to his side. Baekhyun looks up at him, puzzled. “Sehun are you sure there's nothing wrong?” Sehun doesn't answer, ignores him in favor of frantically searching the bustling crowd.

“Where's Jongdae?” Sehun ducks his head to whisper to Baekhyun. Baekhyun flinches from the proximity of their faces, but the serious tone of Sehun makes him hesitate in joking around.

“U-Um typically he's just around. Sometimes  he'll join me, but if he doesn't, he's walking around the market to keep a discreet eye on me,” Baekhyun stammers out. “Why is something wrong?” He places what he hopes is a comforting hand on Sehun’s shoulder.

“Can you find him?” Sehun weaves his way through the crowd, not bothering to apologize to anyone he bumps into.

Baekhyun struggles to keep up even though the two of them are joined at the hands. “M-Maybe, but w-we need to slow down in order for me to do so!”

A low growl vibrates in Sehun’s throat when he spots a small alley. He quickly, but as gently as possible, pushes Baekhyun in and blocks the view of Baekhyun by propping up an arm against the brick wall and maneuvering his body sideways. Sehun throws a quick side glance to the entrance of the alley, ducking in when he sees a dark figure in the distance.

“Hurry and find him,” Sehun urges when he digs into his pocket. “There's not going to be much time.” A sigh of relief leaves him when his hand curls around the familiar metal cylinder.

“Time for what?” Baekhyun asks as he scrambles for the necklace around his neck, pressing his thumb into the center. The gem in the center glows blue for a second and Baekhyun releases it. “I found him. I told him where we are. Is that-What are you doing?”

Sehun takes his arm off the wall as he pops open the lid of the cylinder. He taps the edge on his palm and dark green spheres roll out onto his hand. Immediately dropping them to the ground and crushing them with his heel. Baekhyun flinches away from the small golden sparks that fly out from underneath Sehun’s boot.

“What are you doing?” he asks again, pulling lightly on Sehun’s sleeve.

“Yixing masking isn't enough,” Sehun explains. He bends down to swipe at the golden remains. A large cloud of dirt and dust rise, causing Baekhyun cough into his hand as he waves it away. Sehun peers up at Baekhyun, chest constricting as he apologizes in his head. “Whoever is following us shouldn't be able to sense us anymore.”

He stands and cups Baekhyun’s cheeks with his hands as his thumbs smear sparkling dust. “This should do it. Just don't touch your face.” He removed his hands to smear some across his own face.

“What does it do?” Baekhyun asks, hands reaching to touch his cheeks. But slowly lowers them down with an apologetic smile when he sees Sehun’s exasperated expression. “I'm sorry.”

Sehun shakes his head with a small smile. “It’s fine, but,” he drifts off as he looks out into the ever growing crowd. His head sharply turns back to tightly grasp Baekhyun’s hand. “We need to get a move on.”

He pokes his head out of the alley and turns his head left and right. Once he deems it clear, Sehun begins to lead Baekhyun through the crowd. They keep a slow pace, hands never loosening from one another's. Occasionally Sehun will look beside him, each time finding a reassuring smile on Baekhyun’s face. And every time he turns back around, the heavy feeling in chest continues to sink lower and lower.

“I see Jongdae at the bridge,” Baekhyun huffs out. His breathing coming out in and out in slow shallow breaths. Baekhyun is starting to think that maybe he shouldn't have ditched all of those trainings. Meanwhile Sehun seems to be practically unaffected. He mentally curses him.

“Just a bit more,” Sehun breathes out. The way Sehun seems to be holding back his discomfort shows to Baekhyun that maybe he isn’t as unaffected as he seemed to be. A small cheer rises and drops in his head when Sehun suddenly stops, pulling Baekhyun’s hand to situate him behind him.

“What’s going on?” Baekhyun asks, hands slipping apart. He grasps the loose fabric around Sehun’s torso as anxiety begins to build in his stomach. Sehun’s hands press down reassuringly on the one tightly gripping his tunic.

“Nothing,” Sehun snaps, immediately turning around and pushing Baekhyun in the direction they came from. Baekhyun lets him push him around, never questioning a single action.

Baekhyun is lightly shoved into a narrow alleyway. Instead of falling onto the hard concrete, he falls into someone’s body. He looks up and smiles sheepishly when he realizes it's Jongdae. Jongdae narrows his eyes at the smile before looking up at the entrance of the alley. “Where's lover boy?”

Baekhyun dusts off the dirt on his clothing as he turns around to point at the entrance. “He's right....here…” He trails off when all he's greeted with an empty spot where Sehun should be. “That’s weird.”

Jongdae sighs and crosses his arms. “It'd be in our best interest to head back.”

Baekhyun whips his head around to look at the elder incredulously. “Are you crazy?! We can't just leave Sehun. He’ll never be able to get back. Plus aren't you curious about what as all this,” he wildly waves his arms around. “Is?”

He lets out a dry chuckle as he wipes at Baekhyun’s face. He rubs the dust between his fingers as he watches Baekhyun’s face morphs back into his own. No longer some attractive looking dude.

“Strong masking. Who did it?” Jongdae asks as he examines the dust on his fingertips. “Sehun I presume. You couldn't have anything this complex unless you stole it from Yixing. Which I doubt after that time you made half of your body transparent.”

Baekhyun whines and slaps Jongdae’s shoulder. “We promised to never talk of that again.” Jongdae shrugs and looks out past Baekhyun’s head. He sighs and grabs Baekhyun’s wrist.

“Come on now. We have to go through the alleyways now. Your masking completely disappeared.” He leads them further into the alley when a sudden mass falls in front of them with a hard thud. It groans as it turning over, revealing a soot ridden Sehun. Jongdae walks over him while Baekhyun pulls at Jongdae’s grasp.

Jongdae bends down and grabs the collar of Sehun's shirt. He drags along a limp Sehun and a worried Baekhyun. His jaw remains tense as he trudges back.

“You have a lot of explaining to do,” Jongdae demands, cutlery bounces around when he slams a hand down on the wooden table. Which he soon regrets as he cradles his hand to his chest as Yixing observed the splinter in his palm. A sharp glare is given in Sehun’s direction and he shrinks I'm on himself.

A resounding smack and a high pitched yelp has Sehun watching Jongdae rub the back of his head with a frown and Yixing giving him a stern scowl. Yixing pushes Jongdae to sit in the chair across from him and he settled down in the chair on the empty side of the table.

“Now. There will be plenty of time for a discussion,” Yixing states. “Baekhyun will not be disturbing us for the rest of the evening and I want every detail. Sehun you may speak.”

Jongdae doesn't hold back his dislike as he scoffs and leans back against the chair. Sehun glances over at Yixing, who gives him a nod with a face devoid of any expression. He peers down at his soot covered wrist and scratch ridden palms before curling his fingers into a loose fist. A deep breath is taken as he squeezes his eyes shut. “I saw them.”

“Who are you talking about?” Yixing asks, laying a hand on Jongdae’s thigh to stop him from saying anything. Jongdae rolls his eyes, but covers Yixing’s hand with his own.

Sehun’s teeth dig into his bottom lip, uneasiness pouring out of him. His eyes dart around before he hesitantly brings his gaze up to Yixing’s worried eyes. The soot on his wrist begins to burn against his skin, but it doesn’t hurt. It was as if someone’s hand was gently resting against him, reassuring him. But it made him scratch at the remains, itching to get it away and it gradually does. Only when he is sure that the heat on his skin was from his own scratches and not some phantom warmth, he opens his mouth to spill everything.

“I saw my parents. My biological ones,” Sehun chokes out. “They’re here. I don’t know why or how. I thought they were dead. They’re supposed to be dead, I saw them, I swear to whatever deity is there. I saw them, I thought-”

He jumps at an unknown warmth against his hand. “It’s okay Sehun. We are not going to do anything to you. All we want to know is-”

Jongdae slams a fist onto the table, interrupting Yixing and startling Sehun. “Look. What we want to know is why are they here. Are they here to take you back? Are they here to do something to the royals? Are you a part of their plan that you aren’t telling us about?” Sehun frantically shakes his head. Jongdae sneers at him causing Yixing to look at him with confusion. “Look whatever happened in the past, you need to tell us now otherwise your parents are going to do something.”

This time it’s Sehun’s turn to look at Jongdae in confusion. “What do you mean?”

Jongdae throws his head back with a loud scoff. “Are you kidding me?” He points his finger at Sehun. “Your brother, dad, whatever the hell Junmyeon was to you, your parents are going to want revenge for what the royals did to him. And they are going to want revenge against those townspeople. Sehun, they are going to unleash hell.”

Sehun’s voice drops down to a whisper as his complexion pales. “Why?”

The sigh Jongdae releases isn’t from frustration, but rather from sympathy. “Because all of them did something to their children. And you don’t mess with someone’s child.

“The royals wanted dark magic to utilize within Junmyeon, but your parents fostered benevolent magic within him. First off, they were going to do something to Junmyeon to change the alignment, but then your family fled. Second of all, did you not see what the townspeople did to you?” Jongdae presents his palm face up. “Once your parents have you,” His fingers fold into a tight fist. “It’s war from here on out.”

A/N: *Nervous chuckles* SO. UM. You see, funny thing was. I had accidentally deleted this entire chapter. And I kinda wanted to cry. Like really badly. Really. Really badly. And along with the deletion went the deletion of my entire motivation to finish. LUCKILY. I was able to get the file back, but not the motivation. You see the correlation? Yeah it was baaad. But hey! Don’t murder me just yet cause you’ll want to do that later on :D Please don’t ._. I won’t make any promises on when the next chapter will come out because I’m like dying from school and don’t expect it too soon since I’m drowning with my end of the year cramming and college stuff. So yeah! Until then! Maybe expect a one shot within the time that I don’t update this one *more nervous laughter* BYE.