chapter seven

“Yixing.”

My eyes fluttered open and I immediately felt the thirst that burned my throat. The heat in the room made it worse, drowning every ounce of energy I was able to attain from my rest. I wanted to ask for water, but the dryness in my throat made the words impossible to escape .

But instead of Yifan’s eyes staring back at me, it was Tao’s.

“Tao, where –“ I managed to choke out. I urgently stood up and pressed my jeans, shaking his shoulders with all my strength. “Where’ve you been, Tao? Glad to know that you’re—“ I took a deep breath, “—that you’re still alive.”

“What are you talking about?” he hissed, shoving my hands off and glaring at me in frustration.

I bit my lip and looked down, staring at my blood-stained shoes. “They’re dead. Jongdae, Minseok, Baekhyun , and Kyungsoo.”

“Baekhyun . . .” he whispered. His hands were balled into fists and his knuckles turned white. He clenched his jaw and began to breath heavily. “Sehun and Luhan. They were caught, weren’t they? They’re probably dead as well.”

“They’re looking for Sehun. Junmyeon would most likely want to murder him as well. That son of a –“ I cleared my throat. “Well, Luhan gege and I were caught together. I escaped, but he was left
bleeding in the second floor. I think he’s dead as well.”

“Luhan?” he asked, confused. “I saw him and Sehun being dragged to Junmyeon’s room while I was on my way here. He was alive, but Junmyeon would have killed them by now.”

“You saw them?!” I asked furiously. “And you didn’t do anything about it? You didn’t bother helping? What’s wrong with you?! They could have lived but you let their lives slip away from your filthy hands!”

“I don’t have a gun! You wanted me to help them empty-handed? That would have been committing s