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190321 1:50 PM

 

“Baekhyunnie!”

 

Baekhyun groaned as his friend—or as he referred to as the devil incarnate—Jongin barged into his dorm room. After him walked in Jongin’s minion—although Jongin rather politely refers to him as a friend—Kyungsoo, and Baekhyun’s best friend Yixing.

 

“You would think that someone who’s spending thousands on a graduate education in linguistics would take the time out of his day to actually talk to people. I’m hurt, really. I thought we were friends.” Jongin mocked Baekhyun with a mischievous grin, while Kyungsoo proceeded to laugh hysterically as if Jongin had told him the funniest joke he ever heard.

 

“Well, unlike you, I’m actually busy. But I don’t really expect a diplomacy major to understand that concept.” Jongin only laughed harder.

 

Baekhyun rolled his eyes, “So what do you want from me now?”

 

Jongin plopped down on Baekhyun’s bed, up close and personal, while Baekhyun bit back an insult. When Jongin came unannounced it meant trouble was brewing; usually at Baekhyun’s expense.

 

“You see, Mr. Byun, I want the rest of your day.” Baekhyun scoffed. Of course he did, typical Jongin.

 

“What? A date? Sorry bro, I’m not—”

 

“Shut up, Baek,” Jongin rolled his eyes at his friend, “you never have any fun. So, I’ve decided that we are all going for a night out. Finals are in a few weeks, and I’m pretty sure we are all in agreement when I say that we could go for a good ole pick-me-up. Am I right?” Jongin and Kyungsoo gave Baekhyun their best puppy-dog face.

Baekhyun sighed, “Yixing, help me here.”

 

Yixing gave him a small smile, “They’re right Baek. All you ever do is study. You know the phrase, ‘work hard, play hard.’ It’s time to go out and play.”

 

“Yeah and you can’t just do the play half. Unless you want to end up like Jongin.”

 

“Yes Baekhyun that is correct, except you never relax. Let’s just go, it’s only one night. You have every assignment in every class until next week completed. You need to chill, bro.” Yixing argued, pulling Baekhyun away from Jongin and Kyungsoo and forcing him towards his closet to pick out a cooler outfit.

 

“Alright, fine. But only this one time.” Baekhyun grumbled as he watched Yixing pick out a few items; it was like this every time.

 

Yixing swung Baekhyun around to face the others once he is satisfied with Baekhyun’s outfit change.

 

“This is it! You look like you have some style now.” Yixing flinched after Baekhyun promptly stomped on his foot.

 

 

190321 2:30 PM

 

The perks of going to school in Seoul were plenty.

 

There were endless amounts of shops that sold all kinds of delicious food, cheap clothes, and a huge wave of musicians that did impromptu shows.

 

Even better was the student discount that all undergraduate students at SNU received.

 

And of course, Kyungsoo and Jongin were taking full advantage of this.

 

“You guys already have 10 bags each, what else could you possibly want to buy.” Baekhyun dragged his feet.

 

Kim Jongin and Do Kyungsoo, otherwise known as the ‘KaiSoo Devil Pairing,’ were two rich kids infamous for their fervent spending and vivid nights in the city. The party boys of the university, basically.

 

The said duo gave Baekhyun an incredulous look. “Want? Byun Baekhyun you are mistaken. We don’t want all of this stuff. We need it.” Kyungsoo said. Although Baekhyun certainly did not look like he was ever going to accept Kyungsoo’s statement.

 

“Yeah, we can’t show our face around campus in old clothes. We gotta spice it up every now and then.” Jongin gave Baekhyun a look that screamed ‘Duh.’

 

“Whatever guys, can we just do something else already? You two have been shopping for hours.”

 

“Fine, fine, fine,” Jongin rolled his eyes, “we’ll put our bags in the car, and then we’ll go and do what you want. Is that okay, Your Highness?”

 

Now it was Baekhyun’s turn to roll his eyes, “Peachy.” He replied.

 

Baekhyun grabbed Yixing and dragged him to the food stand while Jongin and Kyungsoo loaded the trunk of Kai’s matte black Lamborghini with the various items they bought.

 

Baekhyun was stuffing his face with tteokbokki, praising the owner of the stand for the delicious food when the chorus of IOI’s “Pick Me,” started blasting.

 

“It’s Taeyeon.” He said before answering.

 

“Hey Taeyeon, what’s—“ Yixing swiftly moved the phone from his ear as Taeyeon immediately began shouting obscenities at him. Baekhyun noticeably cringed. “Is it that bad?” He mouthed. Yixing nodded.

 

“Tae, I’m sure he didn’t mean what he said,” Yixing took a step back when Baekhyun glared at him, “I mean, well, there must be a reason he feels that way. You could try talking to—seriously dude!” Yixing shouted as Baekhyun kicked him in the shin, then proceeded to make a ‘X’ with his arms.

 

“You know what, I’m gonna have to call you back Taeyeon,” Baekhyun relaxed, “wait where? Yeah, sure ok. Later.” Yixing slid his phone into the front pocket of his jeans.

 

“Next time don’t bother answering.” Baekhyun scowled.

 

“Dude she’s your girlfriend. She said she called you like 15 times already. What happened wasn’t even her fault.”

 

“Whether it’s her fault or not isn’t really the issue here.”

 

“What are we talking about guys?” Jongin wrapped his arm around Baekhyun’s shoulders. “Taeyeon. They’re still not talking.” Yixing explained.

 

Jongin stole a piece of Baekhyun’s tteokbokki, “ooh, girlfriend troubles. This is why I don’t do relationships, too much drama.” Yixing gulped.

 

“Baekhyun, are you ok? I can nearly see the steam coming from your ears.” Kyungsoo said as he approached the group.

 

190321 9:16 PM

 

Baekhyun made sure to keep his distance when the boys arrived outside Taeyeon’s apartment earlier in the evening. Her and her friends wanted to hang out with the guys, but Baekhyun knows she just wanted a chance to get close to him so they could work things out. Baekhyun, however, had no intentions of doing so. Yixing and Kyungsoo tried their best not to cringe at Taeyeon’s various attempts to appease Baekhyun.

 

“Yo, check this out.” Jongin led the group to a seemingly abandoned building.

 

“What is it Jongin? It’s just an old building.” Yixing said.

 

“No,” Jongin motioned them to come closer, “this is the old Seoul Regional building. We’ve hit the jackpot, guys.” Jongin looked up and gave the group one of the most mischievous grins he could muster. That only meant one thing, trouble.

 

“No Jongin, I don’t know what you’re thinking, but I know that I don’t want to get involved.” Yixing backed up.

 

“Fine. Baekhyun!” Jongin pointed a finger at the older man, “go inside.”

 

“What? You want to break in the building of the biggest oil company in Korea? Are you out of your mind?” Yixing protested.

 

“Baekhyun, I don’t think you should...” Taeyeon began to speak, before being cut off with a strong glare from Baekhyun. First last night, and now this. Jongin cast her a glance, promptly rolling his eyes.

 

“Baekhyun. I dare you to go inside. In fact, I can see some machines inside through the glass. Go mess with one and steal something as proof, we’ll stand guard out here.” Jongin smirked, “unless you’re too scared to do it.” He continued, glancing between him and Taeyeon.

 

Baekhyun glared at him. “Fine. I’ll be right back.”

 

Baekhyun pried the door open and walked inside. He coughed slightly as the dust blew from the frame. Looking around, he saw lines of machines that looked more or less out of commission. He walked until he reached the end of the room and entered the first hallway he saw. He was going to turn back around and look another way until he found a doorway at the end of the hall. Inside he saw a lone machine that looked slightly different from the ones in the room he was just in.

 

He entered the room, the door already having been slightly ajar, and neared the machine. It was working, unlike the others. It was definitely newer, and it didn’t seem to function the same as the others. He pressed a random button which brought him to the home screen.

 

Main Menu. He scrolled down. Operations. Click. An alphanumerical list popped up before automatically advancing to a new screen. “Options,” click, “Destinations...Seoul, Beijing, London, New York, Pyeongyang, Shanghai, Tokyo...What the hell..?” Baekhyun took a step back as the screen suddenly went black. He paused for a minute, wondering if he broke it, and just how much it would cost to fix.

 

He started to press random buttons to try and get the screen back up when suddenly it turned back on, this time with a prompt on the screen. It read, “PYEONGYANG. T-4:58:03. PRINTING RECEIPT” Baekhyun raised his brows as a slip of paper exited the machine. He grabbed it, and took a look. “02-239-3429 Contact for instructions.” Confused, he turned around and headed back outside where his friends were waiting.

 

“Here’s proof.” Baekhyun flashed the paper in Jongin’s face.

 

“What the heck is this? And where did you go? I couldn’t see you through the glass.” Jongin asked.

 

“I went inside this room in the hallway. There was this fancy machine. It was weird though. It was just a bunch of city names. It didn’t even let me choose anything, it just kind of did its own thing. Then gave me this slip.”

 

“Freaky.” Kyungsoo shrugged.

 

“Pyeongyang...all it said was Pyeongyang, and then this countdown type thing. I don’t know.” Baekhyun shoved the slip into his pocket.

 

“Who knows, maybe you just set off a bomb or something.” Jongin laughed, slapping Baekhyun’s arm. Yixing rolled his eyes and Taeyeon sighed.

 

Kyungsoo just laughed along, “Yeah and spies from the North are going to come to kill you now.”

 

“Shut up. Just know that if I did happen to set off a bomb I’m bringing you down with me.” Baekhyun said. Jongin only laughed harder.

 

“Can we just go, guys.” Krystal, Taeyeon’s friend said, rolling her eyes at them.

 

“Yeah guys, no more bomb talk. Let’s go eat.” Yixing ushered Baekhyun and Jongin forward, dragging them back to the bustling streets of Seoul.

 

“Drinks on me!” Jongin said.

 

190322 2:09:46AM

 

“Madame President, we have a problem.”

 

“What is it?”

 

“You’re presence is requested immediately in conference room 11. It is of imminent importance.”

 

“What’s going on?” The president rushed out of her office, following her staff.

 

“We have intercepted a large scale threat. It’s Level 1 Ma’am.”

 

~

 

I never thought that a stupid dare would ruin my life.

 

If I had known, I would have never let stupid Kim Jongin and Do Kyungsoo drag me out of my dorm.

 

I wish I never touched that damn machine.

 

I knew something was off when I went inside, but I kept going.

 

Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

 

I created this mess, and now we’re all paying the price.

 

I’m so sorry. So sorry.

 

I should have smoothed things over with Taeyeon.