Chanyeol knows he's been in here for days and hours, but he doesn't know if it's night or day on account of there being no windows, just a dark space that he finally realised was the basement. He figured it out when he saw all his old science projects just lying in a corner. 

Chanyeol had given up fighting, he just wanted it all over with, whether it be him dying or just complying with whatever his father said. Mina probably feels the same way, they were both sore and bruised both physically and mentally. They had been unbound but there was nothing they could do anyway because his father always locks the door. He had really only untied them to torture them more, they have barely had anything to eat and it made them weak, unable to fight back or do any damage if they did. 

Him and Mina were cuddled up against the wall, Mina was resting her head in Chanyeol's lap and he was playing with her hair, that was now dry and knotted and if he was honest, smelled. But he also smelled, 

"how about we just end it together?" Chanyeol whispers to Mina who was just staring at the ceiling. The resolve to keep them both alive has long been beaten, whipped and drugged out of Chanyeol. He was drained and he knew Mina was also. 

"wouldn't that be nice" she whispers back. They always talked in whispers in case his father walked in and heard them and got mad all over again. Chanyeol couldn't take another sting of that whip, or another high trip of the drugs his father injects into them both harshly, or even the hardness of his father's fist hitting him repeatedly. He couldn't count the number of times he apologized to his mother for wanting to just off himself and die, grab one of the many knifes his father brings to cut them with and just jab it into his stomach. Or take one of the guns of the many thugs who come down there to Mina and shoot the both of them, so she would stop having to be used like that and so he didn't have to see it any more, there was even a time one or two of them did dirty things to him. 

"nicer than this" he retorts and she nods her head in agreement. 

"do you ever feel like we don't have anything to live for anyways?" Mina asks. 

"yeah, I do"

"but then I remember, even though I don't save parents or friends I can go back to or a lover, I have you" she goes on. 

Chanyeol looks down at her face, her eyes were closed and his hand was still in her hair. She was so thin and bags were under her eyes, she looked sick but he bet so did he. 

"I remember that I have you to love, I have you who can keep me company and that I can take care of and who will take care of me. Even if we killed ourselves one of us would have to go first and how would the other feel?" she opens her eyes to look at him. "what if one of us gets scared after one if us offs themselves, then they'll end up feeling more miserable and lonely than when you were together. I don't want you to die Chanyeol and I don't want to die either, I don't want to leave you alone and I'm sure there are people who you don't want to leave behind either" 

There was. His friends who has always been there when he wanted a good laugh and to escape from reality, who always had his back. He wondered if they noticed his absence, Mina who was the only family he had left and.... And.... A certain black haired boy comes to mind, his feisty nature that hid a soft interior, Baekhyun. The last time he saw the male was in the alley, he had confessed but Chanyeol had rejected him. Did he move on? Found someone else to like? That didn't sit well with him, he didn't have a chance to acknowledge him properly or make moves of his own hearts desires. He didn't want to leave Baekhyun behind, 

Suddenly there was a tiny spark coming back within him.

"then I guess we should live" he says 

"we should. We'll get out of this somehow" she says encouragingly

"how do you know that?" Chanyeol questions.

"I just have a feeling" 

Jongdae, Jongin and Baekhyun all clamber into the the open scarce living room. Baekhyun looked around, this was the first time in Chanyeol's house and by the look from the other two, it was theirs also. It wasn't much but there was a piano near the wall, it was old and rusty and had dust covering it.

"where should we look?" Jongin ask already peeping into what looks like the kitchen. 

"let's try upstairs, he could be held in any of the rooms" Jongdae suggest and the other two agree. 

"maybe one of us should keep watch in case anyone comes in" Baekhyun says looking between the two others. 

"I'll do it" Jongdae volunteers. 

"okay, Jongin and I will head up stairs" they both turn and run up the steps to the second floor. 

"let's split up, you take the two doors on the left and I'll take the two on the right" Jongin nods and heads of to search the rooms. 

When Baekhyun makes his way to the first room and opens the door, he knows automatically who's room it was, it didn't take a genius to tell you. The music posters, one of piano notes and some of different bands. The simple sheets on the bed and the bedside table the only held a alarm clock and a lamp. The closet was near the bed on the same wall. There was a bookshelf but instead of books there were little man-made trinkets lining the shelves and even some figurines. This was Chanyeol's room. 

Baekhyun walks around, the faint smell of Chanyeol still lingered but it also told him the Chanyeol hasn't been in here in a long while and knowing that made his stomach knot. So he wasn't in here? 

Baekhyun walked over to the bedside table, opening one if it's drawers. A bright yellow notebook caught his attention and he takes it out, it had enough pages where it wasn't too thin or too thick. Chanyeol's name was written In the little white space on the cover, but the handwriting was crooked and spacey as if a child wrote it. Did he have this since he was a kid?

He knew he was prying but he was curious. He turned to the first page and was taken aback, the whole page scrawled with the same three words in the same handwriting used to write the name on the front,

I STABBED HER I STABBED HER I STABBED HER I STABBED HER I STABBED HER I STABBED HER I STABBED HER.

It was written over and over again, some over lapping because of the big, crooked print. Baekhyun's eyes grew, what the hell was this? He flipped the page, more filled with the same words, what was going through little Chanyeol's mind when he wrote this? He questioned himself incredulously. He finally flipped to a page with no repetative scrawling, but what was written on that page made Baekhyun drop the notebook and take a step back. 

I STABBED AND KILLED MY MOTHER. HER BLOOD IS ON MY HANDS.

Baekhyun stared at the book. All he could hear in his mind now was Chanyeol telling him the same thing in the alleyway. He looked at the words again, the handwriting was a little neater, did he write this when he was a little older? He goes back and picks up the notebook, only for something to fall out. Baekhyun picked it up to see that it was a photo, one that looked like its been handled a lot and it probably has been.  

Baekhyun flipped it over to see a small Chanyeol. He was chubby, black hair in a neat cut and was giving the biggest grin any child could harbour, he had dirt on his face as if he had been playing outside. Baekhyun looks at the person next him, she was very beautiful, her fair skin, her pretty smile and shinning eyes and the long silky black hair. Her and Chanyeol's cheeks were squished together as they both smiled. He turned the photo back over to see something written on the back.

'A Star In Daylight'  it read.

Baekhyun didn't know what he should feel, but he felt an aching pain inside him that he was pretty sure wasn't coming from him put from the picture. He flipped to a random page and tucked it back into the notebook but before he closed the book, he noticed a much neater and recent writing on the page. 

I don't know who he is but he is annoying, he has a bad attitude and I don't know if I like him. 

I saw him crying by the shed, I wanted to comfort him but I also didn't want to bother him, should I have revealed myself?

Why is he so mean? I can see now that it's just a front, why can't he be himself? 

Should I get closer to him? 

There was a line that divided the page and then more short sentences, like notes and with each one Baekhyun's face grows hot. 

he is cute when he is sleeping. 

I don't think he likes me very much, but he's just so cute. 

Why was he crying in his sleep? Bad dream? 

I kissed him..... I liked it a lot. 

and that was it. There was nothing on the rest of the pages. Was he writing down his thoughts? Baekhyun's face was hot as he put the notebook away. He had spent too much time in that room already, he was here on a mission, to save Chanyeol and he had to find him. 

Just as he steps outside the room a chorus of crashes come floating upstairs, making Baekhyun jump. 

"Baekhyun! Jongin!" he hears Jongdae shouting, more crashing sounding throughout the house. 

He sees Jongin sprinting out of the second room at the end of the hall and rushing down the stairs, Baekhyun follows suit. 

"Aaahhhh!!" a scream comes from Jongdae

When they get to the end of the stairway and turn to the doorway, they see Jongdae being pushed to the floor with a knife sticking out his side. 

"so you guys got in, huh?" Chanyeol's father frowned menacingly at the two males standing there in surprise. 

Jongdae was whimpering and the knife that was still lodged in his side. Baekhyun could see the blood spilling from the wound. 

"Jongdae!" Jongin rushes over to help his friend not aware that a fist was being raised until it comes crashing down at the side of his skull. He falls to the floor beside Jongdae, head spinning and vision blurry. 

"what the hell are you doing!?" Baekhyun exclaims hurrying over to the sinister male, swinging the sock he still had. 

Dokyung caught the sock before the end harbouring the sold soda can could make contact with his head. He looks into the determined but frightened eyes of the boy, Baekhyun, he is now despising to the very core. He rips the sock from the boys fingers and growls

"I've had enough! Of all of you, you pests, nothing but a waste of oxygen" he looks into the helpless eyes of the smaller now feeling a cynical laugh escaped his lips, feeling good that he again had the upper hand. 

"if you want to be with you 'friend' so much, then I'll take you straight to him" Dokyung didn't wait for the boy to say anytjing before swinging the sock with force and hearing the soda can connect with Baekhyun's temple, he too falling onto the floor unconscious with is other two friends. Dokyung laughed and laughed, the sound getting more and more out of control and crazy with each breath. He felt alive, this was fun, this was enjoyable