"Eunhyuk!"

The Death element hadn't been able to catch up with the panicked older over the past couple of days. They had left the hospital the day he'd spoken to Leeteuk about Han Geng's attack. He hadn't gotten to talk to Eunhyuk after that. Mainly because Sungmin had been talking to him whenever he wanted to, and he didn't really want to start a fight over a simple chat. They had travelled a fair bit from then, and Kyuhyun estimated it would only be about a week before they touched the border. It would be crucial to sort out their plans before they entered the North. 

He could see the relief flooding Eunhyuk's face as he approached. 

"Hey, did you figure it out?" 

"Yeah, I did! Sorry I couldn't catch you when we're at the hospital," Kyuhyun grinned sheepishly. "Han Geng's panic had me thinking for a bit... And then while we were travelling... Well... Let's just say I needed Jongwoon's help."

"Well, I can't say it didn't make me curious as well," Eunhyuk sighed with a smile. "He's a friend of mine, and he's never had an attack in front of me so... Yeah. He must've been really worried about Leeteuk... And for the travelling. Dude, I'm just glad you figured it out."

Kyuhyun thought back to his talk with the Life element a couple of weeks ago and smiled. Then frowned, because he remembered Leeteuk didn't want Han Geng to worry about him. 

"I see," he settled with for an answer. "Anyway, back to your problem. I know what it is now. I can't fix it."

"WHAT?!" Eunhyuk exclaimed, voice cracking at the end. 

"Calm your farm," Kyuhyun waved off the panicked yelp. "Look, I said 'I can't fix it', I never said that the mark itself was an impossible problem to fix."

"So who can fix it?" 

A tall figure sidled up beside him with wide, curious eyes and black hair. 

"Jongwoon can," Kyuhyun grinned happily. "I had no idea what the mark's purpose was until I saw him talking to Donghae about the capabilities of his powers."

"You have a tantibus?" Jongwoon inquired curiously. 

"Uh, yeah, this thing right?" Eunhyuk rolled up his sleeve and extended his arm towards him. It had grown from his elbow to his upper arm. "Oh God..."

"Yes, that," Jongwoon's hands hovered above his arm like flitting butterflies. "May I?"

"Sure, go ahead," Eunhyuk replied lazily. 

Jongwoon's hands felt cold against his skin, but they barely touched him, brushing his arm as if he were scared to. He examined the tantibus carefully before humming in approval. 

"Wow, this is a rather impressive one..." Jongwoon nodded, looking at Eunhyuk with a raised eyebrow. "When did you get it?"

"... I dunno, a couple of weeks ago?" Eunhyuk shrugged with confusion. "Does it matter?"

"A bit. Just means it could've spread to other parts of your body."

"WHAT."

"Yes, sollicitus, are able to form anywhere else on a hosts body, it's still the same one though," Jongwoon stated informatively. "It appears you have one on your back, about thirty centimetres in length and twenty in width."

"What's a sollicitus?" Eunhyuk scrunched up his face. "And why do I have one on my back?"

"It's the plural form of a tantibus." Kyuhyun answered.

"They sound nothing alike."

"Well, yeah, but Latineo just works like that." 

"I need you to remove your shirt." Jongwoon instructed softly. 

Eunhyuk looked at him with confusion and slight fear which Jongwoon rolled his eyes at. He placed a palm over his face and shook his head.

"The original tantibus appears to be the one on your back. To be able to fix it, I need you to remove your shirt."

Kyuhyun sighed. "Just take your top off dude. He'll fix your tantibus."

Unsurely, Eunhyuk removed his top layers of clothing as Jongwoon hovered over his seated form. He felt tiny under his observing stare and jumped at the hand on his back. A fingertip traced the same shape which was present on his arm. 

"I just traced it. Did you feel it?"

"Yeah. It's huge," Eunhyuk frowned as the finger trailed from his nape to the base of his shoulder blade again. "How'd it grow so big?"

"A tantibus is the growth of excessive anxiety and fear in the body," Jongwoon explained with a blunt voice. "You've obviously been anxious for a long period of time to be able to form one this big..."

"You mean I made it myself?" Eunhyuk asked confusedly. 

"You've been worrying up a storm..." Kyuhyun remarked with a huff.

"There's no other way to make a tantibus," Jongwoon looked at Eunhyuk before sighing exasperatedly. "It's not a terminal disease if you were wondering. Right, you'll squirm at this, so try stay still. It will make this easier for me."

Jongwoon palm pressed flat against his back. And Eunhyuk felt a sort of itching feeling rush through his veins. The Darkness element had been right about him wanting to squirm. Gosh, it felt uncomfortable, like a tickle that he couldn't push away. It was like a swarm of bees inside him being drawn out by the mark on his back. A hand was placed on his shoulder he guessed to try stop him from shuddering. It started to feel better though, the deep pit of anxiety was slowly vanishing his stomach and his mind gradually became blank from negative thoughts. He heard Jongwoon huffed out breathily, Eunhyuk froze up.

"Please don't tell me you're getting aroused by touching my back."

"On the contrary," Jongwoon muttered with a slight snort. "This isn't easy for me to do this though; it takes effort to do this right without making you scream."

"... That's good to know... OW!!! Hey! I didn't mean it!"

"... Now this is just... Slightly awkward..." Kyuhyun coughed out from the side. "Um... You okay Jongwoon?" 

"You're asking if he's okay."

"He's just drained the anxiety and fear from your body into his and you're asking me if I'm asking him if he's okay?"

"... Fine," Jongwoon intervened their stupid conversation. "Never been better, that was certainly an energy boost."

"Okay, that's good," Kyuhyun sighed happily before turning to leave. "Right, I might hit the hay, yeah? Night Jongwoon, Eunhyuk. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Goodnight Pyeha, I'll take shift," Jongwoon called out as Kyuhyun left. "I won't be too long."

"It's okay..."

"... You can used anxiety and fear as a source of energy?" Eunhyuk asked cautiously after Kyuhyun had left.

"In a replacement of food, yes, water, not so much," Jongwoon hummed softly as he handed back his shirts. "The marks are gone. Try not worrying so much. It takes a lot of energy to form a tantibus. It also takes a lot to remove one without sending the person into shock."

"Sorry, sorry, I didn't know... Of course I didn't," Eunhyuk pulled his tee over his head, shrugging his hoody on after. "Wait, if you're absorbing my emotions, how come you're not feeling them?"

Jongwoon looked at him blankly. His face was emotionless. He didn't appear like he'd just absorbed a couple of weeks of someone else's troubles. He looked calm and apathetic. 

"I don't feel emotion." Jongwoon answered as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. 

"Come on, don't be like that, you're human, everyone feels emotion."

"Who ever said I was human?" Jongwoon inquired before standing up and following Kyuhyun. 

Eunhyuk looked at him weirdly as he left. Jongwoon must've been joking or something. Yet he had sounded serious. Sungmin had told him that he suspected that there was something weird about Jongwoon. 

He was determined to find out.

---

A/N:

13/2/14: DOUBLE UPDATE, IF YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT IS GOING ON, PLEASE GO CHECK THE PREVIOUS CHAPTER, THANK YOU!~

Hey! So, managing to pump these chapters out one by one. I’m getting into the swing of… Something, I dunno, I’m savouring how easy it is to update at the moment ^^

So, as well as Sungmin, some of you guys wanted Ryeowook’s thoughts on everyone and I was like, well why not?

Quick reminder if you didn’t memorise what was written in the previous chapter (Don’t worry, I haven’t either, just using the copy and paste technique and adding a few alternations, haha): Each sentence has a person’s name next to it. The person whose name is there, is the person that Ryeowook is ‘talking’ about (He’s talking in a way that it sounds like he’s immediately talking to them, but he actually would never say these word to them). RED means a hostile relationship, BLUE means a positive one, and GREEN means an unsure or unsteady one. Underlined means Cognate (Friend, similar element) and bold & italicised means opposite (completely contrasting, opposite powers, e.g. Water and Fire). Any name that's got both colours in it means the relationship between those two people is kind of teetering between the two statuses.

Ryeowook:-

-> Jongwoon: "You're a ing bastard." 

-> Eunhyuk: "Oh Hyuk… I love you, but you’re such an idiot.”

-> Donghae: “Why Eunhyuk hates you, I dunno, you’re a sweet kid.”

-> Leeteuk: "You should stop wearing yourself out so often. We all worry..."

-> Han Geng: "Hey... Um... We haven't talked much but... You're pretty cool."

-> Zhou Mi: "You don’t really talk to me… But yet you talk to that (A/N: Jongwoon)… Hm.”

-> Henry: "... Um... Are you okay...?"

-> Sungmin: "Min-hyung!"

-> Heechul: "... (I don't think he wants to talk to me...)"

-> Siwon: "... (You're a quiet one too =_=)"

-> Kyuhyun: "I'm not afraid of you."

Annnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnd, done! Ryeowook certainly has a few more hostilities within the group, but not the most.

Thanks for reading!

Love you all~