A crack.

A crack so loud that it echoed around the room, the sound reverberating off the walls. Something so powerful that it could only be compared to a clap of thunder with the way that it shook the confines of Seonghwa and Yeosang’s apartment suddenly and violently. This sound is what wakes the six boys up from where they’d all passed out in different spots across the living room, hungover and whining about how mother nature and her storms had no respect for their sleep time.

Except, it wasn’t a storm.

This quickly becomes evident when none other than Choi San starts yelling, causing the others who had brushed off the noise and pulled the blankets over their heads to try and sleep more to jump up with a start.

"San what the heck?" Mingi whines, rubbing at his eyes and kicking at the blanket that had wrapped itself a bit too tightly around his long legs due to the sudden movement.

“It’s broken! Which one of you hoes did it?” San asks, annoyance clear in his tone.

He was turned away from them, but by the way his back was rising and falling with deep breaths and the way his hands clenched into fists by his side, anyone could tell he was angry. The rest of the boys look back and forth between each other, no one quite sure what exactly their friend was going on about. That is, until he bends down to pick something up off the floor.

Still mad as ever, San turns back towards the rest of them with two perfectly cut pieces of wood in his hands. It doesn’t take long for everyone to realize just what that wood belonged to. What San was holding was none other than the thing he’d made such a fuss about the night before, in a much less sellable state to put it lightly.

Because now? Now the board game, the antique that got their hopes up (or at least San’s) for a bit of quick cash, was broken. With it split right down the middle, there was no way they’d be able to make anything off of it now.

“This! This is what I’m talking about,” San whines, waving the pieces of wood in the air for emphasis. “Now answer me! Which one of you hoes did it?”

“Woah woah wait a minute,” Seonghwa says, raising his hands in a defensive manner. “What makes you think we had anything to do with it?”

San sets the broken pieces on the coffee table and plops down onto the floor in front of it, arms crossed over his chest like a pouting child. Him being overdramatic was nothing new to the other boys, but acting like this over something so small was a bit overkill. Even Wooyoung, who could 100% rival San in a drama queen showdown, felt shocked by this.

“If not one of you, then who? The witch?” San says, motioning to one of the only game pieces that hadn’t gone missing. “Come on Seonghwa, just admit it and I’ll stop.”

“San you need to chill out, we were all asleep. So unless Mingi started sleepwalking aga- hey!”

Before Yunho could even finish his sentence he’s tackled to the ground by Mingi, who clearly hadn’t liked where it was going. It didn’t take long for the tussle to turn into something less playful and more cuddly. Nothing new to the rest of the boys, but that didn’t mean they wanted to see their friends being all lovey dovey and just plain gross.

“Well on that note, if you’ll excuse me I’m going home to apologize to my grandparents for you idiots breaking their antique. Thanks a lot guys.”

San makes a move to reach for the broken pieces of the board, but Yeosang beats him to it. Before San could even get a grip on it, he’d already snatched it off of the coffee table and made a beeline for his bedroom. The others were all too confused by his actions for anyone to make a move to go after Yeosang, much less stop him.

The room is silent for a minute before they all heard a loud ‘ow!’ from the direction Yeosang had ran off in and Seonghwa rolls his eyes. He’d never understand why his friend thought a hot glue gun could fix everything, especially with the amount of fails he’s had compared to the amount of successes. The man had tried it on pretty much anything and everything they’d broken since they’d moved in together, if he thought he had a chance of fixing it that is. Seonghwa would also never understand why, after he’s used at as many times as he has, Yeosang still couldn’t quite figure out how to work the thing.

“Yeosang! How many times do I have to tell you not to touch the hot end? You'll burn yourself, dummy,” Seonghwa yells and shakes his head, smiling while doing so, showing a mix of fondness for his friend and concern that he’d probably gotten burnt again.

“Is he - you know what, nevermind. I have work at 9 and I’ve got to explain all of this before I go” San says, flailing his arms around for emphasis like that would change the situation. “It’s y’all’s fault if I get yelled at, just so you know. Call me if Mr. Handyman actually manages to fix the thing, I’ll see y’all next Friday.”

With that, San grabs his things and walks out of the apartment without giving his friends a chance to respond.

Something about the way San had acted didn’t seem right, and the feeling that something not-so-good would happen rushes over Seonghwa again. The whole situation was just so...bizarre that he couldn’t wrap his head around it. Sure, Seonghwa had seen his fair share of a pissed off San, but nothing to this extent. The way he was so upset over a board game he’d just found yesterday was a bit, well, concerning and a bit over the top for something that was only just being used to make a little extra cash.

If the looks on Yunho, Mingi, and Wooyoung’s faces were anything to go by, Seonghwa would say they were thinking the same thing.

“So um, I think I’m gonna go check on Yeosang and see if I can find all the game pieces that went missing.” Seonghwa says after a few minutes of the four sitting in silence, and that was how their strangest weekly hangout yet came to an end.

-

Seonghwa couldn’t sleep.

No matter how many times he’d toss and turn, he couldn’t get comfortable. He’d thrown off the blankets several times, only to pull them back over him again. The pillows had been fluffed as much as they could possibly be fluffed, but they’d only sink right back down under the weight of his head after a few minutes.

Needless to say, the struggle was real and Seonghwa was miserable.

He eventually decides to just give up and rolls over, grabbing his phone off of the night stand to check the time. The numbers on the screen read 3:15 and Seonghwa lets out a tired whine. He lays there for a few more minutes before eventually deciding that if he’s not going to be able to sleep, he might as well get up and eat something to pass the time.

All the lights in the apartment were off, which Seonghwa found odd because Yeosang usually always left at least one light on before he went to bed since he was always nervous he’d trip over something if he had to get up in the middle of the night. However, Seonghwa decides to just brush it off and he turns on his phone's flashlight so he can see how to get to the kitchen. It doesn’t take him long to find a bag of his favorite chips packed away in the corner of their snack cabinet, which was the last one unfortunately.

Seonghwa takes out the pen and pad of post-it notes they kept in one of their kitchen drawers to write down that they needed more chips, as well as a few other things they were running low on before he forgot. Seonghwa knew that if he stuck it somewhere Yeosang would see that he’d take it with him when he left for work in the morning. His roommate was the one who typically picked up their groceries anyway, and Seonghwa had left little notes enough times and Yeosang knew where to look by now that he was sure Yeosang wouldn’t miss it.

Seonghwa decides the best place to stick it is on the front of the refrigerator so he does just that, then picks up his bag of chips and heads back to his room.

Seonghwa figures that maybe the reason he hadn’t been able to sleep was simply because he’d been a little hungry. This proves to be true because after he’d eaten the bag of chips without leaving a single crumb behind, he feels the first hit of drowsiness start to take effect and Seonghwa lets out a loud yawn. His head finds its way back to his pillow soon after, and within minutes he’s fast asleep.

-

Something doesn’t feel right.

That was the first thought that had crossed Seonghwa’s mind when he’d woken up that morning, and for good reason.

When he’d went to make himself breakfast, the note he left for Yeosang was still stuck to the fridge. This doesn’t automatically put Seonghwa into a panic because honestly, even though he was sure he’d put it in a place his friend would see it, Yeosang could have missed it or even just forgotten to grab it when he left. So yes, maybe it was a little odd since it usually didn’t happen, but Seonghwa doesn’t let himself think on it too much.

However, when he gets off work for the day and Seonghwa comes back home to a still empty apartment, the worry starts to creep up on him.

Sure, Yeosang was a grown man but his shift ended three hours before Seonghwa’s did so he definitely should have been home by now. Especially considering that he’d likely let Seonghwa know if he was staying somewhere else for the night because if Seonghwa was being honest, he didn’t like staying by himself and Yeosang was well aware of that. With that in mind, Seonghwa sets down his things and makes his way to Yeosang’s bedroom just to check. Maybe he actually was home, but had gone straight to bed for a nap, which wasn’t necessarily something unusual for him to do.

However, after Seonghwa knocks and doesn’t get an answer he decides that’s probably not the case, but he slowly opens Yeosang’s door to make sure he wasn’t actually in there. It doesn’t surprise him when he finds the room empty. What is surprising though, is the fact that he could see Yeosang’s phone sitting on the nightstand, like he hadn’t touched it since before he went to sleep last night.

That’s when Seonghwa really starts to get concerned.

What’s weirder is that the box for the board game was lying, partially opened, in the center of Yeosang’s bed. Curiosity gets the better of Seonghwa and he walks towards it to fully take the lid off the box, wondering why his friend had left it there in the first place because quite frankly, it didn’t make sense. Nothing abnormal sticks out to Seonghwa at first, until he gets a better look and sees it.

The pieces that made up the board were somehow now seamlessly attached to become one again, something that Seonghwa knew was way beyond Yeosang’s hot glue gun skills.

Seonghwa had to get a closer look to see if he could actually be seeing what he thought he was, but before he could even fully get it out of the box, he threw it right back down. In shock, he collapses onto the floor because of the pain that had now started to radiate throughout his entire right hand. Seonghwa tries to quickly shake it back and forth to get the burning to stop, but it’s useless.

After finding the energy to stand back up, Seonghwa makes a run for the kitchen and turns on the tap, letting the cold water run over the skin on his hand. The burn eventually starts to subside, turning into a more numb and tingly feeling instead. But even with the pain fading, Seonghwa was still panicking and he found it hard to calm down enough to where he could catch his breath.

Seonghwa didn’t have any clue what had just happened, but he certainly knew that burn wasn’t from a hot glue gun.