“How exactly do you intend to search for this guy? You’re under house arrest!” Sehun faltered momentarily,

“Maybe I don’t have to! He might come to me. If I see- hear him around I’ll confront him.”

Sehun had been way to reckless these past few days, and he was driving Tao insane worrying about him, though he tried not to show it when he was on the phone with him, or Skyping. It frustrated him to no end that he was there and Tao was here, and they were both alone. He'd been an unfocused mess without him. It wouldn’t have been so bad if he was somewhere on holiday or something, but he was basically in the enemy's nest.

The time he called after that test thing, he could hear it in his voice that he was crying, or at least had been up till talking to him. Tao was glad that he was able to help, just by talking to him as he calmed down, but he wish he wasn’t there in harm's way in the first place.

It freaked Tao out that they had that kind of footage. If they had that, then they probably had all the other videos of those few days too. The thought made his skin crawl as he pulled his bedsheets up around him, curling into a protective cocoon. He still had difficulty believing that Sehun had grown up in that place.

When Sehun had called him earlier that day, he'd been helping his mum with something, but she'd let him go to his room and talk to Sehun anyway because she knew he was away for the weekend, and he'd probably been moping and stressing over it. Then he'd told him that Mr Evans, his doctor, or something along those lines, and that woman that he still had frequent nightmares about were working together? He was still reeling from shock, but Sehun's determination to do stupid things was bringing him back to reality.

He thought he was going to have to draw some lines for his safety, before he got himself hurt. Because he would: knowing him he’d find the worst place to be at the worst possible time because he'd be looking for it. Most people try to avoid getting into trouble but not Sehun, apparently.

“No, Sehun. Even if you do find him, you do not confront him, do you understand me?”

“What? Why not?”

“Because you might be wrong, what if he’s not on our side at all? It could be a trap or something,”

“But I don’t think he even knows I’m suspicious, why would he be trying-”

“Maybe your wrong! Ok? I just don’t want you to get in trouble. Or hurt”

He didn’t say anything for a moment, and Tao worry that he may have just pushed him in the wrong direction by opposing him like this, due to his stubborn nature. He crossed his fingers, hoping what comes next will go in both their favour.

“…ok fine. I won’t confront him unless I know for sure he’s on our side, happy?” No, but he knew that was likely the best he was going to get out of him. Actually he’d rather he didn’t talk to him at all, but he knew that just wasn't going to happen.

“Good,” time to change the subject, “by the way, when are you getting home? I miss you,” he pouted into the phone, hoping his sister or mum wasn't outside and listening to this.

“Very late tonight, I should probably pack now actually, we’re leaving about four,” Tao checked the time now; it was ten to three. Not long now before he started the return journey then, which eased Tao's mind. Less time he had to spend in that horrible place, “so we’ll get home at, like, uhhh,” he paused to add it up in his head, “ten? sort of around then I think.”

Tao hear him get up and scuffle around, presumably sorting out clothes and things that he’d left laying on the floor, and stuffing them inside his suitcase haphazardly. He moaned at something, frustrated, then Tao heard him trying to shut his suitcase repeatedly, and there was nothing Tao could do to hold back the snort of laughter,

“Try folding them, dear.”

“Shut up,” Tao could see the indignant frown on his face as if he were there with him, which just made all the laugh more, “ok, enough laughing at my failures. What are you doing?”

“Nothing, really,”

“Well what were you doing before I called you? Did I interrupt anything? I'm sorry

“No, you got me out of cooking dinner, so it’s not a big deal,”

“But I thought you actually liked coo-” He stopped abruptly, leaving Tao clutching at his phone, pausing his breathing to listen closely, “yeah sure, whatever,” when he spoke then he sounded distant, muffled like he had his hand over the phone. There must have been someone else there with him.

“Sehun? What’s wrong?” He tried, but he wasn't listening to him. A second later, Sehun answered his question despite not having heard him speak,

“Tao, I'm sorry, they want me to do one last test before I go.” He grumbled, folled by a slamming noise which Tao could only assume was his door.

“Now?!”  There was less than an hour before he was supposed to go, what kind of test couldn’t have been done in the morning?

“Yeah, I don’t know, maybe it’s just a last minute thing. I’ll go do whatever it is they want and call you back, ok? Hopefully it won’t take too long.”

“Ok, talk to you later then. Love you.”

“Love you too,” he made an obscene kissing noise, which had him rolling his eyes, but grinning giddily all the same. Sehun hung up mid-laugh. In retrospect, Tao realised that that may have been done to distract him from worrying about him too much, and it worked for a little bit. But now that he was alone in his room, there was no way of not overthinking what Sehun told him.

That woman, Isla...why was her name on that letter? The whole situation was way out of proportion, Sehun and he were minors, he wasn't going to fool himself into thinking they have any kind of power to do anything about their situation. They were trapped in this mess, and there was almost nothing they could do about it.

Which was partly why he was so concerned about that man Sehun overheard when he was hiding in Mr Evans' office: it felt a bit like it was too good to be true, like false hope. But at the same time they were pretty much stuck unless someone else helped them, so what choice did they have? It was so frustrating, like being at the bottom of a hole and being unable to reach to edge to get out.

And then there was his irresponsible boyfriend to worry about. He knew that he was going to find a way to abuse the loophole in their agreement, about only confronting the unknown man if he saw him again, and there was nothing he could do to stop it. The only thing that could console him was that he should coming home in a few hours.

Tao wondered what the test he had to do was, whether it was going to be another emotional stability test, or something entirely different. He kept imagining horrible scenarios- like him being strapped down, and having injections and scalpels pressed into his skin. These visions were too similar to his own experience in that white room, and he had to stop. This wasn’t doing either of them any good and it wouldn’t happen like that anyway, he had to convince himself of that.

He ruffled his hair crossly and sat up. He ccould smell the food cooking now because he spent so long on the phone, so there’s no point in going back down to help as his mum was probably already done. What would happen if he told his mum about this? Would she be able to help? Would she even believe him?

He decided to go for it, and tell her, and see what good that did him. But not now, after dinner, as that would give him time to think of how to say it. Conveniently timed, she called his name, announcing the food to be ready. Slowly, lethargically, he trudged down the stairs. She gave him a funny look,

“Weren’t you just on the phone to Sehun? “ he nodded, “hm. Normally you’re happier after talking to him,” he shrugged, still stewing, and she dolled out the pasta, “is everything ok?” She proceeded carefully, and he shrugged again. She frowned, obviously jumping to the wrong conclusion- that we had a fight or something.

“I’ll tell you later, if you want,” he promised, glaring pointedly at his sister who has just entered, he didn't want to say anything with her around. She spotted his irate stare, and made a face at him, showcasing her affectionate disgust.

“Look at him, I can’t eat with that in here,” she complained to his mum, who widened her eyes as a kind of warning, and tilted her head towards the table as if to say sit down and behave. She grunted. Tao scoffed at her. Since she had her cast taken off, she’d been even worse than before. He knew she didn’t exactly hate Sehun, she just liked annoying her brother, and if being horrible to his boyfriend got to him, that’s what she’d do.

Dinner went relatively smoothly despite Xing’s persistent attempts to get a rise out of him. He was too busy trying to think of a way to explain everything without sounding crazy. After dinner, he stayed to help with the dishes and clearing things away, hoping that by then Xing would have gone off to her room. Now was as good a time as any to bring it up. He took a deep breath,

“Mum, me and Sehun didn’t have a fight, we’re ok.” She smiled, relieved, “but we think Mr Evans – that’s the guy Sehun went to visit for the weekend? he’s the lead scientist who researches Sehun’s hormone impant or something, or he funds it? I don't know- but he and the people who kidnapped me are working together. Sehun can prove it, he heard them talking and found a letter in his office with the names on and it has the logo of the place I was held-”

There was a crash as a plate fell through his mum's fingers and cracked in the sink.

the exhibition of my final piece (im an art student) starts today (12th june) im so exciteddd

anyway comment and subscribe

my tumblr is here if youre interested, and im wondering if i should get twitter. if i did it would literally just be me about writing fic....