chapter three

“Where to?” Minseok asked. “I have a feeling that place is guarded,” he said while pointing to a certain door, “ I can hear something inside.”

Yifan pressed his ear against the door and listened carefully. “It’s a machine. I don’t think anyone would be inside.”

“Let’s check if there’s a back door or something,” Minseok suggested.

Just as Yifan turned the knob, I grabbed hold of his wrist. “Sehun warned us that Chanyeol and Kyungsoo are in the first floor. We can’t just take stupid risks.”

“Then what do you want us to do , Yixing? We need to find a door, there’s no one inside,” Yifan assured. He turned the knob and peeked inside. The lights were on .

“There’s someone there,” I insisted. “Let’s turn back before he catches us.”

Ignoring what I just said, Yifan grasped my wrist and pulled me quietly. We took quiet, careful steps inside and searched everywhere, looking for any back door or open window. “There’s a window there. We can break it ,” Yifan pointed out to a medium sized window beside an open furnace.

“This is bad, duizhang. I can feel it. Can we please go back?” I tugged Yifan’s arm but , yet again, he ignored it.

“We might never get this chance again, Yixing,” he then turned to Minseok. “Let’s break it.”

Yifan and Minseok searched around the darkly- lit room for an object that would be big enough to throw. Minseok pointed to a small table across the hot room and they hurriedly removed everything on top of it. I stood where I was and refused to move, keeping an eye out for anything suspicious. I heard someone’s breathing nearby and it was surely not Yifan’s or Minseok’s , it was soft enough to be barely nothing. I was about to call for Yifan when a pair of hands covered my mouth and eyes, hushing me. I refused to and scrambled at my place, kicking whatever there was to be kicked.

“Calm down, Yixing! You’re causing a racket!”

He slowly took his hands off me and turned me around. “Luhan! What the hell was that for?!” I asked angrily.

“We saw your group going this way and you left the door open. You idiots, you could have been caught! You should thank us, really,” he laughed. “Why did you choose to go here, of all places? It’s burning hot here, this is where the furnace is, after all. You won’t find a door here,” he then pointed at the open furnace, “you guys didn’t even bother closing it, idiot. No wonder it’s so hot.”

“Oh, s-sorry,” I couldn’t help but laugh at my idiocy as well.

He directed Jongdae to go close it. Yifan and Minseok were counting to three, ready to throw the small table together. “One, two, th—“

Two gunshots were fired.

Yifan and Minseok dropped the table and turned around. We all did.

Jongdae looked down and clutched his stomach . He found his hands to