They were all in the living room, even though no one had gathered them there. Humans were adaptable creatures and they easily fell into a new routine. It was only the third day (maybe it had been longer, or maybe it had been shorter, Lay wasn’t sure. Time didn’t matter anymore; maybe it was at a standstill.) and it already felt natural to gravitate towards the room after waking up in the morning.

“I keep getting weird dreams,” Lay complained to Xiumin.

“Ooh, what did you dream about?” Luhan asked, stepping between the two.

Lay made a face and Xiumin muffled a snicker. “I don’t actually remember,” Lay admitted.

“Oh,” Luhan said with a pout. “You’re no fun.”

“I never said I’m any fun!”

“You gave the impression that you are!”

“Yes,” Xiumin agreed with a straight face. “His reaction when he saw me the first day was hilarious.”

“Really? Tell me,” Luhan pleaded, as Lay groaned, hitting both of them.

Dodging the punches with a laugh, Xiumin continued, “Yeah, his expression was priceless and –”

Chanyeol burst through the door, crying, “Kai! Kai’s gone!”

Confused gasps filled the room and Lay gaped at the man.

“What do you mean?” Kyungsoo asked, deathly calm as he stood up to approach Chanyeol.

Chanyeol paled, sputtering, “I- I just woke up and he just-”

Kyungsoo cut him off, grabbing him by his collar. The taller man seemed to shrink into himself, shivering like a leaf. It would have been laughable, if not for Kyungsoo’s blood chilling tone. “What do you mean,” he repeated, enunciating each word deliberately.

“I really don’t know!” Chanyeol cried, eyes wide with fright. “He disappeared!”

Kyungsoo tightened his grip, knuckles turning white.

“Did you see him disappear? What if he’s just hiding and you can’t find him,” Xiumin interjected quietly. The entire room held their breath, anticipating what would come next.

What did come next was too long of a pause, and then Kyungsoo throwing Chanyeol down onto the ground before storming out the room.

“Oh my god,”Luhan breathed. “Look! Look at the countdown!”

The number sixteen was projected onto the wall, blatantly as if taunting them. This is just a game and you are all being played, it seemed to say. And this observation shook them out of their thoughts. Lay held his head as everyone began talking, wondering, arguing, shouting over each other.

“When did that change?”

“Why didn’t anyone notice it?”

“What the what the what the .”

“Is it a countdown of our lives?”

“So it goes down every time someone disappears?”

“But there’s twelve of us!”

“Umm . . . eleven.”

“Shut up.”

“We’re gonna die!”

“Shut the up!”

“Oh, !” Lay gasped quietly.

The room continued in their panic, but Xiumin shot him a questioning gaze. “Let’s get out of here,” he proposed and Lay nodded.

His whirlwind of thoughts was deafening loud in the quiet corridor. He paced back and forth, knowing there was something in his mind, just out of reach.

“I guess I can’t just pretend this is a vacation, huh,” Xiumin muttered, chuckling dryly.

Lay barely spared him a glance. “I hope he escaped, but if anything did something to him, it’s definitely Kyungsoo. He seems violent and the type to do that ,” he muttered, sorting through his thoughts out loud.

“Yeah, he’s kinda creepy.”

“Kai talked to me yesterday. He begged me to save him and then ran away. He –”

“Save him?” Xiumin echoed.

“He said that Kyungsoo hits him and it hurts. And then he made me promise to protect him and- oh ing hell!”

“W- what,” Xiumin asked, a little afraid of his new friend.

“I dreamed that he died!”

“Who?”

“Kai!” Lay exclaimed, abruptly stopping his pacing and turning to Xiumin with shock written all over his face. “I dreamed that he died and then I wake up and he’s gone. This is so ed up,” he moaned, pulling at his hair.

“That’s . . . odd?” Xiumin offered.

“Oh, wait! But Kyungsoo was acting really ing creepy yesterday after I talked to Kai. He acted like he was going to –”

Xiumin cut him off. “Speak of the devil.”

Lay promptly shut his mouth and Kyungsoo strode towards them purposefully.

“Lay,” the man called out.

“Uh . . . Did you find him?”

“No,” said Kyungsoo, stopping in front of Lay. “So I wanted to ask you some questions, since you were one of the last ones to see him”

Lay’s eyebrows shot upward.

“I’ll just go back to my room then,” Xiumin said.

“Wait, Xiumin!” Lay protested, but his friend was already speed-walking away, leaving him alone with . . .

He was shoved against the wall, a hand around his throat within an instant. “Kyungsoo,” he choked out.

The man leaned in. “I heard you promise to protect him from me,” he whispered, hot breath against Lay’s ears. “Did you hide him away? Did you think that is the right thing to do? To take away what’s mine?”

Lay struggled and the hold tightened, constricting his airway. “I didn’t!” he gasped.

“And then you dare accuse me for his disappearance?”

 “You’re still the same,” Kyungsoo spat out. “Sticking your nose into other people’s business as if we really are under your control. And you don’t even remember, you poor thing.” He shook his head as Lay stilled in his hold. Lowering his voice again, he said, “I’ll make sure you learn your lesson this time, once I find where you hid him.”

“I didn’t do anything, I swear! But you – I don’t know what you did, but if you scarred Kai like that, you deserve to die!”

“Why?” Kyungsoo sneered. “You don’t remember anything, you don't know him, you don’t know me, so why do you care? Is it because you want so badly to be a hero? But it’s too late. He’s already dead.”

Lay struggled, but spots formed in his vision. “If I can’t protect him, I’ll avenge him.”

Kyungsoo’s laugh slapped Lay in the face. “Cute,” he cooed. “Very cute, very valiant, and very laughable. If he had heard you say that, then maybe he would’ve died in peace. But too bad now he’ll only come back as an angry ghost!”

After his threat, he loosened his grip and straightened his clothes, walking away as if nothing had happened. Lay, on the other hand, dropped to the ground in a haze of confusion and relief. Kyungsoo’s words echoed in his mind as he in lungful after lungful of oxygen. Lay was involved in this somehow, but it seemed as if he was involved in everything that went on in this building.

But he didn’t know what to think, didn’t know how to think and didn’t want to think. After being so close to death by asphyxiation, all he wanted to do was find that son of a Xiumin and demand an apology for leaving him alone.

~ ~ ~

Xiumin listened sympathetically as Lay recounted what just happened, but kicked him out with a laugh when Lay began saying, “And also, how ing dare you just leave me alone like that? I could’ve died!”

He could only return in a huff, slamming the door, hoping to keep the drama out. But things never went as he wished. Crackling filled the room, and then, “Greetings, men and boys.”

“ my life,” Lay wailed as he threw himself facedown onto the bed.

The voice continued streaming from the unseen speaker. “You all must have had a scare this morning, but fear not! Your friend Kai has merely found the only way out. Don’t you wish you know what it is?” The voice giggled. “But alas. I cannot tell you and Kai cannot come back to tell you his secret. However, I can say I’m quite pleased by what has happened so far. It is all unraveling so beautifully! So now, please continue!”

Lay buried his face into his pillow.

It was a little comforting to learn that Kai’s mysterious disappearance had nothing to do with him nor Kyungsoo, but it was only little comfort. He found himself hoping that Kyungsoo, in his search for Kai, would find the way out too. Lay would be less anxious without the man around, putting him in choke holds, threatening him and speaking in riddles. Maybe things would become clearer.

But the other side of him hoped it wouldn’t happen. If Kyungsoo really did disappear, just as he wished, Lay would most likely go insane.

oh xingie, you seem to be involved in everything because you're the main character lol

thanks to all the readers and thank you for commenting! <3