*Chapter 17;

Baekhyun woke up to the sound of his alarm in the pocket of his sauna pants, having forgotten to turn off the daily reminder that always rung at seven in the morning for school. This time, he didn't wake up to the faded plastic stars taped on the ceiling, nor his Charizard clock that swung his tail side to side, every second. He woke up to a warm body next to his.

When he stirred, Chanyeol slowly slipped out of unconsciousness, lazily blinking at him, then smiling. When he spoke, his voice was deeper than usual with a sultry undertone that maybe made Baekhyun blush a little.

"Good morning," Chanyeol mumbled and yawned.

Baekhyun hadn't realized he had been using Chanyeol's arm as a pillow the whole night instead of his towel, with one of Chanyeol's arms draped over him so he was facing him instead. The pink rose to the tip of his ears like steam. Quickly, to avoid further embarrassment, he rolled out of Chanyeol's hold and sat up with his back turned to his stepbrother, pretending that he was so engrossed with his phone to even pay attention to the subtle fact that Chanyeol had managed to make him swoon.

"Don'ttalktomehowdareyoutryandpullthatonmewhileI'msleeping," he blurted out in a rush, angrily scrolling through his list of missed calls and texts.

Most of them were from his mother and a few were from Jongin. Deciding not to call his mom for obvious reasons, he first thumbed in Jongin on speed dial and waited for the ringing on the other end. A dull voice picked up. It was also quite obvious that he had done Jongin a favor by waking him up for school.

"B-Baek!" Jongin stuttered when he finally noticed his caller, the drowsiness gone from his voice, "Hey, where the hell are you, man? Your mom called me yesterday, and I had to pull a fast one for you saying you were sleepin' over; you all right?"

"Oh, thanks," Baekhyun cleared his throat, now rubbing the back of his neck while Chanyeol had flipped himself over onto his stomach to warm his front body on the heated marble, "Yeah, we're fine. Just... some things came up yesterday and I had to take Chanyeol out."

"You comin' to school?"

"We're an hour away from home. Unless you're close with Superman or something so he can give us a lift, I don't think that's possible."

There was a pause on the other end. "Hey, Baekhyun?" Jongin said cautiously, "I know you're havin' a tough time and all, man, but you gotta come to school. The worst they can do is mark you tardy. Coach found a replacement for Woohyun, but you're runnin' with us on Saturday."

"Saturday?" Baekhyun interrupted, "This Saturday?" His heart locked up tight and sunk into the pit of his stomach when he remembered what the institution representative had said the night before, about Chanyeol having to go with them on Saturday. He hadn't realized how long he had been keeping Jongin waiting on the line until he heard faded 'hello?'s on the other end. "Hey, I'll figure something out, all right? I'll call you if something comes up, thanks." he said quickly, I owe you one."

"Damn right you do, and hey... be careful."

They headed out of the spa somewhere around two in the afternoon since it was a little risky to be wandering around with their school uniforms on. Not only did it look suspicious, but there was a high chance that if they ventured into the wrong turf, they would be confronted by punks from other schools. So, to avoid these situations, Baekhyun had both himself and Chanyeol take off their uniform blazers and ties to walk around only in their knit-down vests and dress shirts. Sure, they looked like a pair of vulnerable lambs, but it was better than attracting unwanted attention.

"So... I only have a few coins in my pocket, these aren't going to get us on the next subway train back home," Baekhyun said, gnawing on his lower lip while counting the coins on his palm.

"Wait, wait!" Chanyeol chimed in, pulling off his left sneaker and handing Baekhyun a crumpled, green bill that was tucked under the fabric lining his soles. It was a little damp from sweat, but it was everything they had as far as hope went. "For... For emergencies," he nodded with a bright grin on his face.

"Hey, why didn't you tell me you had this earlier!" Baekhyun snorted, mostly in disbelief because it seemed like Chanyeol just liked making him suffer until the last moment. Then again, he had a feeling Chanyeol had never really forgotten about the money in his shoe judging by the knowing, almost playful grin on his face. He shrugged it off. "Do you need to confess something else, or make a coin come out of your ear?"

Chanyeol clasped his hands behind his back and shook his head, completely satisfied with himself.

He turned the bill over in his hand and grinned from ear to ear. "With money like this, we can go play some games before we're home-bound. Maybe get ourselves some ice cream, too?" Baekhyun smirked, pointing to a neon sign across the street that flashed "Arcade" in red. He tagged Chanyeol with a laugh. "Come on!"

It turned out that it was Chanyeol's first time at the arcade, too, which was surprising to Baekhyun since he had spent the majority of his childhood in arcades, playing retro games with old and new friends.

Chanyeol was so mesmerized by all the sounds that overlapped each other and the brilliant display of lights and color that his glasses had slipped down the bridge of his nose and jaw had slacked open a bit by the time they got to purchasing their tokens.

"Here, you put these coins in your pocket and use them to pay for the games," Baekhyun instructed, dropping a handful of faded gold coins in Chanyeol's pocket and his own. He tugged the taller boy over to the two DDR booths and inserted two in the slot. "Watch this, this one's my favorite," he grinned, choosing one of the difficult levels by pressing on the dome-shaped buttons.

Chanyeol tilted his head in response to a Japanese girl's voice coming out of nowhere, then stepped back in awe when the pads on the ground lit up in red and blue. "Baekhyun!" He was confused for a few seconds until Baekhyun actually started dancing to the arrows lighting up on the screen, stomping his foot accurately on the corresponding pad. The Japanese girl's voice was actually starting to slur together after the repetitive combos of "Awesome!" and "Perfect!" that followed Baekhyun's moves.

Chanyeol clapped a little off-beat to the music, looking completely eager as Baekhyun's song closed. When it was his turn, he pushed in two coins and Baekhyun picked the easiest level for him.

"Okay, move! Step on the arrows! No, not like that! Not with your hands!" Baekhyun laughed.

For a tall guy, Chanyeol was surprisingly clumsy, like a newborn giraffe that hadn't properly learned to use its long legs yet. Regardless, in the off-chance that Chanyeol would score a "Nice!" or even a "Great!" Baekhyun cheered him on louder than the Japanese narrator.

"This one's called the Whack-A-Mole," Baekhyun said after cruising through half the arcade and getting Chanyeol familiar with Street Fighters, Need for Speed, and Slam Dunk, "You have to hit the moles on the head to get the best score."

"Why? Th-That would hurt..."

"They're not real," Baekhyun rolled his eyes, closing Chanyeol's fingers around the hammer's handle, "Come on, you missed one already! Just bop it lightly, then!"

He helped him the first few times, but by the time Chanyeol finally stopped being so sentimental about the plastic moles, he was screaming at them too, using his closed fist with the hammer when the latter wasn't enough.

Chanyeol set the highest score on the Whack-A-Mole, after seven tries.

They got to the newest installment in the arcade, a rather high-tech looking booth called Zombie Slayers. They both held a plastic gun and Baekhyun inserted the last of his coins to pay for a round. "We're both playing in this one, just shoot the zombies, okay?"

Unfortunately, Chanyeol didn't know what a zombie was and ended up shooting everything he saw on the screen, which included pedestrians, innocent dogs, and Baekhyun.

"No more?" Baekhyun asked after he set his gun down, emptying his pockets.

Chanyeol rummaged through his and nodded. "No more."

"That was fun though, right?" the shorter boy, all smiles, said while he and Chanyeol walked out of the arcade.

"Super-duper fun," Chanyeol beamed.

They hadn't realized how late it had gotten when they had left the arcade and went to buy some ice cream at the supermarket, the ones that were cheaper the more you bought. Even after buying two ice creams, they still had more money than they needed for the trip back home. They took their time eating, while Baekhyun thought it was fun to sway a little and bump into Chanyeol now and then, not realizing that this was just another subtle way for him to flirt.

When they came close to the subway station's opening, an old lady stopped them. She had a basket on top of her head teeming with all kinds of fruits, but the problem was that the weight looked too heavy for her to carry on her two thin legs. "Boys, would one of you be so kind as to help me carry this over there?" she pointed to the other side of the street where there was a parking lot.

"Oh, of course," Baekhyun agreed, handing the ice cream wrappers to Chanyeol, "Chanyeol, can you throw these away and buy us two more ice cream? I want the chocolate drumstick, you know which one I like, right?"

Chanyeol nodded, holding the pocket change Baekhyun handed over to him tightly in his hand.

He didn't move until Baekhyun carried the basket and started heading over to the crosswalk with the old lady, which was when he turned around and wandered down the other way to find the convenience store they had passed around the corner. It was farther than he thought, but once he was inside, he set his mind to picking out the chocolate drumstick Baekhyun liked and a vanilla cone for himself. There was a short line in front of the register, so he naturally distracted himself with the mini-television playing the news.

... Local police have warned that a group of organ harvesters are at large for several kidnappings reported this past week... Missing persons have not been found... Do not pursue strangers unaccompanied into empty areas... Report all suspicious activity to the police right away.

The unsettling news didn't bother Chanyeol until he was out of the supermarket with the ice cream in both hands. He found the spot he had left Baekhyun last and didn't find him there, so he spun around in circles, calling his brother's name. The ice cream was melting, and, in a state of panic, he stopped strangers on their way and only muttered 'Baekhyun? Baekhyun?' to them. They ignored him. They called him names.

He panicked as the ice cream oozed all over his hand.

"Baekhyun!" he screamed.

Report all suspicious activity to the police right away.

Report all suspicious activity to the police right away.

Report all suspicious activity to the police right away.

He dropped the ice cream and rushed straight to a payphone. He had never used one before, but intuition came to him first, and he inserted the leftover pocket money he had into the slot, just like he had done in the arcade, and pressed in the '119' he had seen on the screen. When he heard a woman pick up on the other end, he nearly yelled into the receiver, "Baekhyun! B-Baekhyun, my brother! Baekhyun went with someone and I don't know where he is, please!"

"Calm down, sir, where are you right now?"

"I-I don't know, I don't know," Chanyeol cried, looking around frantically and finding the closest words he could read, except he couldn't read complicated letters very well. "W-Woo... Woojangsan! N-Next to..." he squinted off into the distance where he tried reading the store's sign right away, "Mr. Pizza!"

"We'll dispatch officers right away, sir."

"P-Please, hurry, my brother, my brother..."

Soon, there were police sirens wailing down the streets that put every moving automobile on halt. Instead of rushing to Chanyeol, they started deploying officers to the tight corners of the neighborhoods, and by the time Chanyeol ran across the street to see where they were headed, he found Baekhyun, and the old lady getting cuffed beside him.

The police sirens were even louder as two shot after a white minivan.

"Chanyeol, what's going on?" Baekhyun asked, frightened, as Chanyeol ran up to him and hugged him tightly enough to lift his shoes an inch or so off of the ground.

Chanyeol wrapped his sticky hands around Baekhyun and dug his fingers through his brother's hair, holding him as if he was too frightened to let go. "I thought I lost you," Chanyeol said between choked sobs, his entire body trembling, "I thought I lost you."

He said nothing else but those five words, and Baekhyun only hugged him back just as tightly, wondering how many times he had told himself the same thing.

"Hate to break up this picture, but we're going to need you two to come with us."

Baekhyun quickly released a sniffling Chanyeol to face the tall police officer dressed in a black uniform, his sharp features and charismatic gaze looking very, very familiar.

"... Kris?"

Author's Note: Hurray for a longer chapter! Thanks for the nice comments, everyone, it sure is a pleasure waking up to them everyday because they inspire me to write more, faster! Thanks to you guys, I'm starting to see my own story in a new light, thinking of their characters in ways I haven't noticed before. Funny, eh? Anyway, thanks again!