“Hello? Can everybody hear me? Acknowledgement, please!” Taemin’s voice suddenly echoed through all the EXO agents’ ear piece transceivers.

“What’s up, Taemin hyung?” Sehun asked followed by an eruption of responses from all the other agents.

“We haven’t even left South Korea yet and you’re contacting us already?” Suho asked.

“There’s been an emergency!” Taemin said. “Tell us …” Chanyeol urged.

…

“Baekhyun hyung has escaped!”

All the agents froze upon hearing the news, eyes widening in shock.

“WHAT?!” Chen shrieked. “What happened?!” Tao followed-up.

Taemin groaned, remembering his hyungs’ mess-ups “Long story. For now, halt your missions and go find him! We’re trying to locate him as well here in HQ but he managed to disable his microchip tracker so we need all the help we can get. He must be found before he does something stupid!”

“Roger that.”

“Understood.”

“Way ahead of you …”

Baekhyun was now in a closed construction site, quite a bit of a distance from the EXO headquarters. He was able to hitch a ride on the back of a lumber truck that happened to be passing by when he got out.

Breathing heavily and sweating buckets, he moved while applying pressure on the cut he made on his lower torso. The sweatshirt he used to cover it up was now drenched in blood and the wound was still seething in pain. He mentally cursed himself for mindlessly running out like he did. If he had just grabbed a single emergency pack from the EXO headquarters, he’d survive for a month! But he didn’t and now, he has to find a way to sterilize and treat his self-inflicted wound before he dies of possible infection. Idiot.

Miraculously, he found a small drivers’ inn after struggling with walking a few miles. The owner, who was a kind old man, opposite his very intimidating exterior, offered to clean up his wound.

“Y-You’re not going to ask me anything?” Baekhyun managed to ask, wincing whenever his cut was touched. The old man chuckled “… Injured men who walk aimlessly ‘round these parts are either being CHASED by trouble or they ARE trouble.”

The younger guy couldn’t help but smile at that. “Best not get involved with neither, don’t you think?” the inn owner continued as he finished up the gauze to cover the wound “Now … whichever one you are, I’d say you don’t get too comfortable, Boy. My place might look shabby but I assure you … I’m on the map. And all sorts of people come and go, if you don’t want to be found, this isn’t the place for you”

“I’ll keep that in mind. Thank you” Baekhyun groaned as he sat up and examined his wound. This old man was probably a doctor in his younger days seeing as how meticulously treated his cut was.

“Now, I’ve got customers to get back to. Stay until you’re strong enough to leave. Be seeing you around, Boy …”

“Actually, its--”

“Nah, it’s alright. You don’t have to tell me your name. Like I said … best not get involved” the old man smirked and gave him a small salute before exiting the room. Baekhyun could only smile and thank the elder mentally.

Soojung was sitting on the bed, staring blankly into space. Her eyes reflected exhaustion and dullness.

“Why was Luhan doing this?” she was extremely tired of asking this question to herself over and over and OVER again when no answer would come out no matter how much she thought about it. She was mentally and physically tired of it all.

And that was when she started thinking about something else.

Baekhyun.

The metal door clicked and creaked open and Luhan entered t