Nobody spoke on the walk to Tao's house, not even Jongin, who was one of the most talkative people Sehun knew. Second only to Tao himself, which led only to more agonising thoughts about his wellbeing. They'd better not have hurt him. He walked faster, trying to calm down before his hormones started attacking his friends.

As their destination came into view, he noticed the sun was starting to set, making the paved ground a sort of tangerine colour, and the shadows were longer and diagonally slanting across the road. He was trying to distract himself, he knew that. There were more pressing matters to attend to.

He stood aside to let Xiao-Xing unlock the door, memory of the first time he came here brought to the forefront of his mind; even though it wasn't that long go, it felt like it. He'd had used his slowness to unlock the door as another excuse to touch him, draping his body over his back when he couldn’t get his keys out of the keyhole fast enough. He was so easy to fluster.

The door swung open and he traipsed upstairs, once he'd removed his shoes, expecting the others to follow him, but only Jongin did. Xiao-Xing headed to the kitchen to put away whatever stuff she'd bought from the shop there. Jongin and Sehun went into Tao's room and Sehun sat on his bed and nestled himself in his pillows, waiting for Xiao-Xing to arrive. In the meantime he gestured for Jongin to join him. He perched warily on the opposite side, still silent and giving subtle looks around the room without turning his head. His silence made it easy to tell when Xiao-Xing was coming upstairs. She opened the door, and leant against it.

“So. What is it?” She looked him in the eye, issuing a challenge. Sehun gulped and dragged his fingers through his fringe, preparing himself for what he was about to confess. It had been hard enough telling Tao, and they were close. Maybe telling Jongin would be ok, but Tao's sister? Who hated him? Where did he even start?

“I-” He stopped and took a deep, pacifying breath, so as not to work himself into a state and trigger the hormone. Jongin nudged his leg in what he supposed was meant to be a reassuring manner. He made a sound of frustration at the back of his throat. Telling Tao was so much easier than this, and at the time he'd found that extremely difficult. Maybe it was because Tao had already seen it happen, so he knew he would believe him eventually. These two had never seen anything.

“I’m. Not human. I mean I am human, just not completely, I'm different.” He winced, having appeared to have completely thrown the pair of them, and Xiao-Xing was looking at him like he'd grown an extra head. That she wanted to cut off.

“Like, uh, I’m a genetic experiment. My parents experimented on me when I was little,” Both of their expressions morphed to horrified, and he rushed to amend himself, “not in a bad way, and-ugh. Wait.” He tipped his head back and pressed the heels of his hands into his eyes. Why was his brain to mouth filter refusing to co-operate today? He was babling.

“Ok, from the beginning; my parents are scientists, ok?” They both nodded hesitantly, “they study…I’m not sure actually but that part is irrelevant, the point is I’m not normal. When my heart beats fast, it sets off this synthetic pheromone gland thing in my brain that releases a hormone. Everyone reacts differently to it.”

Jongin was gaping at him, disbelieving. Xing’s eyes were wide, but she looked like she thought he was telling the truth,

“You better not be lying, ‘cause if you are I would throw you out that window, and not regret it for a second, got that?” Xiao-Xing threatened fiercely. Then something occured to her, “does Tao know?”

Sehun nodded, “yeah, I told him before we started going out,”

She folded her arms, opened as if to say something, then thought better of it, then changed her mind, “so it’s your fault?” she accuses in a whisper, and it hits Sehun like a kick to the gut.  He bit the inside of his cheek, and looked at the floor, and this was enough of an admission for her. She opened the door roughly, and left, but didn't slam the door on the way out, making Sehun feel even more guilty. He thought he saw tears in her eyes, but he wasn't sure.

He clenched his hands.

“I don’t get it. What’s your fault?” Jongin finally spoke. Sehun looked up, having forgotten Jongin didn't know anything about the whole situation.

“It’s my fault Tao got kidnapped,” he confessed, eyes shut against the betrayed face of his friend,

“…what?” he asked, sounding almost as fragile as Sehun felt. He screwed his eyes up tighter, adamant that no tears escaped this time,

“Tao isn’t ill. He’s been kidnapped. Because of me. They want to know how to do…whatever I am, to other people, and they stole him so that I would give myself over to them. So I asked Xiao-Xing for help getting him back. So that’s why we were in town together, I know you were wondering. We were just coming back from looking at where we think they're keeping him.”

He didn't say anything, and Sehun was too scared to open his eyes and see his reaction, afraid he would be disgusted with him for causing all this. The silence bore down on him, until he thought he was going to completely crumble. This is why he's better off not having friends, this is why it would have been better for everyone if he'd just stayed at home and been home schooled.

“How do I help?” Jongin's voice, surprisingly steady, drew him out of the dark.

“Excuse me?”

“Tell me what I can do to help get him back. He’s one of my best friends, you can’t just tell me…this, and expect me to walk away,” his voice gradually rose in volume, until he was nearly shouting, “that’s just-no! Tell me how to help!”

“Um-” Sehun was lost for words. He looked around the room, hoping for something to jump out at him, and luckily something did; Xiao-Xing left her drawing behind on Tao's desk. He didn’t even notice her put it down. He immediately lunged for it, and tossed it onto the bed between Jongin and himself.

“This is where Xiao-Xing and I went today-where we think the kidnappers took Tao,” he stated, pointing at the paper, “it’s that warehouse place, down the road from that game shop Tao likes?”

He nodded, knowing where he meant, “What are you going to do about it? H-how are you going to get in?”

He shook his head, thinking it an impossible task, but he had an idea now,

“We need a distraction. Xiao-Xing and I were going to go in, because I promised her she could, but now we have you,” he looked at him to confirm is loyalty, and saw that Jongin had the most determined look he had ever seen on him; usually he was so carefree it was a strange contrast. But it gave Sehun a confidence that wasn't there before.

“So we need you to distract the guards somehow.” But the next question, the important one, was how to do that.

“Maybe, I could…umm.” Jongin frowned. It seemed like he didn't have any ideas either. Well this was a major obstacle. They needed need Xiao-Xing, so he darted out of the room to fetch her. He knocked on her door cautiously. There was no response, so he pushed it open and peered around, hoping he wouldn't get his head bitten off. She looked like she was trying very hard not to cry, and when she noticed him in the room, she lashed out,

“Get away from me!” She screamed. This was probably the more normal reaction to discovering someone like me, he though, so he endured it, “I hate you!”

As much as he didn’t like her, that hurt. He'd never revealed his secret on purpose before, and having somebody hate him for it-even though he'd expected it- was painful. He bit his lip, but proceeded with what he came there to say,

“Xiao-Xing…we need your help. To get him back." His voice cracked halfway through the sentence. She blinked at him. Then wiped her eyes on her sleeve, nodded miserably and got up. She edged past him, leaving as much space between them as possible. Sehun swallowed, then followed her back to Tao's room to discuss Jongin's role in the rescue plan.

“Well, we could use fireworks?” Jongin suggested,

“No, how stupid are you? Where the heck are you going to get fireworks at this time of year?” Xiao-Xing exclaimed, one step away from hitting him. He shrugged.

“Why don’t you just pretend you need help or something? Like, you could go in and be like ‘help, my friend’s injured, help me!’” Sehun proposed, and Xiao-Xing considered this, but eventually shook her head,

“They’d never fall for that, I think.”

They spent the next twenty minutes wracking their brains, and coming up with nothing useful.

“What if you just go in, shouting and throwing stuff, then we can sneak past while he’s kicking you out?” Xiao-Xing said. This seemed like the most plausible idea so far, because less actual planning meant less stuff to go wrong during the plan. With a script, there was always the risk of failure, because of course, the antagonists tended to have this nasty habit of not following it.

“So when do we do this? As soon as possible, right?” Jongin murmured, anxious because his role in the plan was very dangerous; he could get arrested. Or hurt.

“Tonight,” Sehun told him, decisively, “he’s been in there two days already, and in the last video they sent, he was hurt. They’re hurting him, Jongin, this can’t wait anymore.”

Jongin's face twisted, “Ok. Yes, of course.”

Apparently he had neglected to mention that part. They packed up the papers, and Jongin promised to bring a pair of wire cutters from his dad's shed at home.

They arranged to meet up back there at eleven. Nearly three hours away. When he returned back home, he avoided speaking to his parents, letting them think he was just frustrated and upset, and then spent half an hour in on his bed, unable to focus on anything for more than a few seconds. He moved his files from under his mattress, to a small, dark green rucksack. Ready to hand over if need be.

Just an hour to go before the plan was in operation.