One

-01-

“Thanks for helping out, Jongdae,” Kyungsoo closed the car door after throwing his bags inside. He heaved a big, anxious-sounding sigh as Jongdae approached him with his set of bags, a small apologetic smile on his face. “You’re our only chance of getting to Seoul as for now,”

“It’s fine,” Jongdae said softly, placing his bags in the trunk of his car. “I’m glad I could help,”

“You better go now if you want to reach Seoul quick,” Baekhyun advised, squinting his eyes at his phone. “You’ll reach Seoul by ten if you go now, nine if you’re lucky.”

“Yeah, we better go now if you want to catch Chanyeol’s sister,” Jongdae took a glance at his own watch worriedly.

“I know, but we’re waiting for Chanyeol. What’s taking him so long?” Kyungsoo frowned, turning to look at their house in hopes to see the said male come out in vain.

Instead, Sehun was the one standing by the staircase. “About that, I don’t think he’s going to come out any time soon,” the younger announced, turning their heads out of surprise.

“What?” Kyungsoo retorted sharply, the frown on his face quickly forming into a scowl.

“He’s stuck frozen on the couch,” Sehun jabbed a thumb to the door.  “He’s been like that since his sister called,”

Kyungsoo couldn’t help but widen his eyes after hearing his words. Hye Joo called? Just now?

“I heard his conversation with his sister. She was… bawling,” Sehun added rather uncomfortably. “I think you should go check on him.”

In response to that, Jongdae quickly shot Kyungsoo a knowing glance, which the latter caught. “Go to him,” he nodded his head at the direction of house. “I’ll wait in the car.” Jongdae told him before rushing inside his car, turning the engine on.

However, Kyungsoo didn’t move.

Frowning, Baekhyun approached him. “Kyungsoo?” he placed a hand on his shoulder. “You okay?”

“… Yeah,” he replied after a few seconds, his voice barely audible. “I’ll get him.” he mumbled as a response before running inside the house.

As soon as Kyungsoo got inside the house, he could feel the shift in the air.

This isn’t good.

Taking a deep breath, he walked inside and found Chanyeol sitting on the couch, shoulders slumped, head hung low, his face buried in his hands—this look is enough to tell an idiot that things are not going to turn well. He should’ve seen this coming, though he was hoping that Hye Joo would’ve called them when they were already in the car.

“Chanyeol,” he wished he didn’t have to call him with a sigh, but, to be frank, he couldn’t help it. “We have to go now,”

Chanyeol didn’t answer. Instead, he slowly turned his head to face him, and Kyungsoo closed his eyes harrowingly at the sight of him. He hadn’t seen Chanyeol look like that since the first day the taller got kicked out of his house. His eyes were red and welled up, clear evidence that he’s been trying to hold his tears.

“What did she say?” Kyungsoo muttered a bit lifelessly, the sheer atmosphere of the room draining his energy.

Chanyeol shook his head, burying his face back into his hands. “She didn’t say anything,” he rasped with a weak voice.

Kyungsoo frowned at him. “What do you mean?”

“She didn’t say anything,” Chanyeol replied a bit sternly this time. “She was just crying during the entire phone call.”

“… Well, what did you say to her?”

“Not much,” he shook his head again before locking eyes with him, whispering, “I just told her that I’ll be there as soon as possible.”

You can tell how close someone is when they each know exactly what the other is thinking, be it when they’re separated by distance or time. In most cases, family couldn’t agree more with that statement.

Regardless of how long they’ve been separated, or how much a person can change overtime, it didn’t stop Chanyeol from knowing exactly what’s running inside Hye Joo’s head. Time may pass and the world may grow old, but siblings—they live outside the touch of time. 

Although, honestly, Chanyeol wishes that this isn’t true. 

He doesn’t know if it’s just his guts or the somewhat ‘magical’ sibling bonds that the world usually speaks of, but if there’s one thing that he knows for sure that day, then it would be something’s not right. He didn’t know what it was, the cause of the unpleasant feeling that he couldn’t shake off, but whatever it was, Chanyeol didn’t have a good feeling about it.

As the day started to close, he decided to contact his sister. With their current schedules, phone calls were somewhat of a luxury, and the two of them usually wouldn’t call each other even after their schedules are free in hopes that the other would use the time to rest, but Chanyeol couldn’t even think of it that night and decided to give her a call.

No answer.

He tried again, only to fail once more. By that time, the horrible feeling bubbling up inside of him built up, and he hurriedly texted her, asking her if she’s busy or if something’s wrong. About an hour later, he got a text message that answered all of his questions.

“Mom and dad got into an accident.”

Chanyeol couldn’t even think after he read th