D.O. pursed his lips in annoyance and shifted a bit where he lay on the unoccupied bed at the far side of the room with his back to his mom and Kai, pretending to sleep as he listened in on the conversation the two were having – apparently he’d looked tired enough for his mom to actually scold him for going to parties if it kept him from getting enough sleep, after which she made him lie down and try to get some rest. He strongly suspected the real reason was because she wanted to talk alone with Kai.

The most irritating part of it was that the puppy actually didn’t seem to mind his mom’s interrogation, answering every question without hesitation. Hell, D.O. could even hear the guy’s simpering smile. Yeah, he could hear it; it was unfortunately just that easy for him to envision Kai being bright and friendly, despite how he hadn’t given the er much space for acting all bubbly and nice during the time they’d spent together at Chanyeol’s. He found himself wondering though, were the answers the other gave real or just something he pulled out of his ? Because if they were real, D.O. now knew more about Kai than he’d known about most of his friends from middle school.

From what he’d managed to properly pick up Kai lives with his parents, older brother and a cocker spaniel lady by the ridiculous name of Coco – he might very well smack the guy around a bit if he’d been the one to suggest the name – in a four bedroom apartment all the way over in Ilsan. His brother is a law student who never knocks on the door before opening it, his parents are nice enough and never get very upset with him no matter what he does but apparently takes off a bit from his allowance which he claims he doesn’t spend anyways. If he could choose one thing to eat for the rest of his life he’d pick bibimbap – D.O. almost rolled over to question that one – and he used to have a quite serious addiction to diet coke back in middle school. His favorite color is green, favorite movie seems to be a tie between somewhere around fifteen American action rolls, his most treasured belonging is an old teddy called Joe and what he hates most in the world is either spiders or the feeling of peanut butter sticking to the roof of his mouth – with the latter option, he remembered, followed a long rant about how stupid it was for something so delicious to be so hard to eat properly and how the boy’s brother had been trying to figure out the trick the past three years with little success.

D.O. crinkled his nose a bit as he thought long and hard about why his mom would send him to bed to ask simple questions about his pretense friend’s family and random personal opinions on whatever, when it clearly hadn’t made any difference if he heard it or not. He in another deep breath and tried his best to make it seem like he wasn’t hearing a word of the story the puppy was telling, one of how he’d recently tried to bathe the dog and ended up with a bad cold and an infected bite on his left hand, because D.O. wasn’t sure he wanted to know any more about the other. He had to admit though, that if Kai was making all of it up the kid had an impressively imaginative mind.

“Your hand looks like it’s healed nicely; pity you two had to go get roughed up at that party.” He couldn’t help but smile slightly at his mom’s soft laugh.

“Yeah, well, to be completely honest they were acting like complete douchebags – please excuse my language but they really were full of it.”

“I’m sure they were… but tell me Kai, how do you and Kyungsoo really get along?” For the first time since the questioning started there’s a long pause, and D.O. grimaces as he imagines the stare off the two behind his back are having – his mother calm and collected and the puppy troubled, hesitant. He could just feel that something wasn’t going the way he wanted it to. “Don’t worry, he’s asleep. Also, there’s no need to lie around me – I know what Kyungsoo can be like; I’m fairly certain he was the one who picked a fight, whether the others were douchebags or not.”

. What? No. No. Just no… what? D.O. caught himself holding his breath and forced himself to in some air again, breathing out slowly as he attempted to calm himself. His mom did not know what his role in school was. She didn’t know about the bats or the pointless scuffles in the school’s corridors. She couldn’t know. He bit down harshly on his bottom lip and focused in on the conversation again, finding it increasingly hard to act as though he was sleeping.

“I- uh… he-… Sorry, it’s just… I don’t really know how to answer that.” His brows furrowed further at Kai’s strange answer.

“Is he violent and badmouthed?”

“Violent is an understatement – if he’s not a sadist I swear I’m a fur trader from central Russia…” D.O. tasted blood as he chewed on his lip. He wasn’t sure whether he wanted to laugh at the revelation and the thought of Kai in one of those fur caps or if he wanted to give the guy a proper beating for slander – they were in a hospital so at least the er would get instant treatment. How could the jerk just give in and throw him under the bus like that?! “I can’t even remember how many times he’s lashed out at me for no reason.” Oh. Right, that might be a valid excuse. His mom giggled, but her voice was uncharacteristically sly when she spoke.

“It’s curious how much like me that boy turned out to be – I always thought he took after his father what with his fondness of cute things and the way he’d look after the younger ones so patiently… maybe he’s taking out all of the pent up frustration from the past year.”

“… That son of the devil – no offense – likes cute things?” D.O. gritted his teeth at the insult, and more so at the unfair disclosure of a rather embarrassing part about himself which he under no circumstances wanted anyone from the hellhole they called school to find out about. Just the thought of the rest of the student body finding out about it was making his heart thump uncomfortably, and he shifted stiffly.

“He would never admit it, but I’ve raised him. I know him better than he knows himself.” He got a bad feeling from way his mother laughed airily. “I have this adorable picture of him cooing at a rabbit when we were at the mall two years ago… here, see for yourself-“

“Mom! Please!” D.O. pleaded as he sat up abruptly, fully aware of how desperate he must be looking. She didn’t seem very bothered however, and he could see Kai glancing at his mom’s phone before peering back at him, a barely noticeable smile playing on his lips. The key word here was barely. “If you say a word to anyone about this I will personally ensure that you will never speak again. Ever. And wipe that ing smirk off your face before I do it for you.” He seethed with a dark glare, pleased that he got the same reaction he was used to – a cower and the averting of eyes. His mom however didn’t look too happy with him, her lips pressed together in a thin line as she stared at him.

“Kyungsoo…” He threw his head back with an exasperated groan at her tired voice and sad expression, because how could his own mother try and guilt-trip him like that? “Honey, I don’t want to see you fight with your friends.”

“I know mom, I know. I’m sorry.” The way she glanced over at the puppy after his half-assed apology stumped him for a moment before he realized what she wanted him to do. “No.” Apologizing to Kai for a stupid threat was too far a stretch for him, despite the situation. What surprised him however was his mom clicking her tongue with a sour pout as she leaned back. Somehow that look seemed very familiar. “How exactly did you mean I turned out like you?” His usually angelic mom simply sighed with a nostalgic expression on her face, which soon changed into a knowing smirk.

“It’s quite some time ago, but I used to have something of a reputation of my own. Mind you I didn’t use any bats or other tools and my language was much more polished, but I knew how to pack a punch.” D.O. felt his jaw drop and he buried his face in his hands before tugging on his hair in a mixture of confusion and frustration. Was this true? How could his mom have kept something so important from him?! He was her oldest son for crying out loud, and he’d practically been bending over backwards to keep her from knowing about his not so proper activities!

“Does dad know about this?” He asked weakly, too bothered by it all to even slap away Kai’s hand as the guy patted his shoulder in a supposedly comforting manner. It didn’t really help any though. At least his mom seemed entertained enough, seeing as she was giggling profusely.

“Your father knows me better than anyone; he was the one who helped me change when I was expecting you – I couldn’t very well pass on my bad habits, could I?”

“Uh, I don’t mean to be rude, but I’m pretty sure that didn’t work.” D.O. jabbed Kai sharply in the side at the other’s scoff. “What? I thought we were being honest with each other.” And there was that stupid pout again.

“Kai,” His mom called softly with a knowing smile, and he understood right away what she was thinking. “I think you should stop making that face – Kyungsoo gets flustered very easily.” True to her words D.O. could feel his cheeks heat up, and when the puppy turned to look at him he let out a big huff, gripping the guy’s chin and forcing his eyes back to the other bed. He almost wished he hadn’t though, because his mother had this dazed look on her face that he recognized. He got off the bed he’d been stuck on the past hour give or take, walking over to his mom to give her hand a light squeeze, earning an apologetic smile. “I’m sorry Kyungsoo, but I think I want to sleep for a bit.”

“Yeah,” He ran his thumb over the back of her hand, pursing his lips at how thin she’d become the past few months. Her new habit of tiring quickly was worrying him immensely. “I’ll be back tomorrow with everyone. Love you mom…” He mumbled, turning to leave as soon as she gave a small nod, more than ready to let her get some rest – she needed it. Kai was looking oddly troubled as he dragged him away – it sort of reminded him of the worried face the guy had been making when Sehun disappeared, strangely enough.

The minute they were out of the sterile environment of the hospital the chill of the night started creeping up on them; it was early fall, but the winds from earlier hadn’t stilled at all. They walked in a sort of tense borderline awkward silence, which to D.O. was as welcome as it was confusing – Kai had been very talkative around his mom before he ‘woke up’ after all. He’d been surprised when he first met up with the guys on their way to school, never having seen the puppy so moody, and now the guy had gone from concerned to completely lost in thought. D.O. let him be for once though, seeing as he had dropped quite a bomb on him with the visit. Not that Kai hadn’t been curious, because he’d obviously been very intent on getting to know him all this time. And now the jerk knew more about him than anyone outside of his family.

“Hey, Kyungsoo…” He snapped his head towards the other, glaring at him for the casual usage of his given name. This apparently went unnoticed however, as Kai continued carefully, staring out into space whilst voicing a quite reasonable question. “What’s wrong with your mom for her to be in the hospital? You seem to go pretty often…” This did deserve to be answered D.O. concluded, letting out a small sigh before answering.

“Terminal AML.”

“AML?”

“Acute myeloid leukemia.”

“Cancer? By terminal do you mean…” By the way he trailed off it was clear that the other struggled with actually posing the question, and D.O. snorted at the boy, smiling wryly.

“Yeah; we’re counting down the weeks now.”

“… Wow… that . Sorry.” A frown was plastered on Kai’s face as he spoke, but D.O. simply shrugged at the unrefined expression of the guy’s condolences.

“We’ve known about it for some time – the treatments just wouldn’t work. I guess we’ve come to terms with it, seeing as mom seems fairly calm as well.” He explained, in his mind replaying the sole time he’d seen his mom break down and cry – Kyungmi, his adorable seven year old sister, had given her a drawing of what she’d look like on her wedding day; since their mom wouldn’t be able to be there. She’d soldiered through it at first, smiling and thanking the girl, but it didn’t take long until she asked if she could have a moment’s rest. D.O. had watched through a small crack in the door how she’d covered tightly with both hands to keep them from hearing her sobs, her fragile form bending over on the bed, shaking violently. But that was months ago now, and she hadn’t cried since. Not as far as he knew in any case. The memory still had a way of dampening his mood though, and he furrowed his brows as they came to a stop at a crossing, waiting for the lights to turn.

“… Okay?” He peered at the other questioningly as he heard him say something, earning an insulted huff. “I asked if you’re okay? You look a bit out of it.” Kai told him with a shrug and a slight smile, apparently starting to revert back to his own bright self again.

“It’s nothing.” D.O. grumbled in turn at the simple thought of having to deal with the upbeat and overly energetic boy again. The serious gaze that landed on him however was slightly unsettling, yet he forced himself to meet the other’s eyes.

“You can talk to me if there’s anything you know? We’re friends after all, right?” Letting out a deep sigh D.O. faced forward again.

“Yeah, right… friends. I don’t need your help or pity – I only brought you along because mom insisted on meeting my friends, not because I really wanted you to know about all of this; don’t think into it too much.” He explained, hoping that this all could be forgotten because he didn’t want Kai of all people to feel bad about his situation.

“What? Suddenly we’re not friends anymore? Why do you always have to be so hard to deal with Kyungie?” D.O. cringed at the nickname he hadn’t approved of and most definitely never would, shuddering with a quiet groan as he looked over to see the other jutting his bottom lip out in a childish manner.

“First of all; don’t you dare call me Kyungie again or I will ing rip out your tongue and feed it to the first stray I can find. Second; if you don’t stop making that damn face I may very well staple your lips together as soon a-“

“That doesn’t make any sense!”

“And that doesn’t matter one – if I tell you to stop you stop!”

“But why?” D.O. huffed at Kai’s whine, shooting the boy a dirty glare and pursing his lips.

“Because I can handle loud and annoying. Cute and clingy – not so much.” He scoffed, starting across the street when the lights changed, and leaving the other frozen in place with a vacant expression. Hell, that wasn’t so hard. Maybe the truth really was the most effective way to shut someone up.

///////////////////////////////

Chanyeol woke up by himself that morning, for the first time in almost a week. It was a strange feeling, opening his eyes to the sunlight streaming in from the window, and not hearing a sound from the other side of the door. It was obvious that he’d overslept now that Tao wasn’t there to wake him, his alarm was still lying broken by the wall on the opposite end of the room and his parents had left early for work as usual – they’d come home late the night before and were still up and gone the next day like always. His mom had been pretty mad about the broken vase and the general mess the group had left behind, not that she knew the others had been there of course; she’d just put all the blame on him instead.

He sat up with a soft groan, stretching his arms high above his head before stumbling out of bed. The floor was cold, one of the boards in the hallway still creaked when he stepped on it, and the living room was blaringly empty. He continued on to the kitchen, fixing himself a bowl of cereal and slumping down in a chair.

The night before Sehun had been the first to leave, packing up what little he had and going off right after D.O. and Kai had disappeared to wherever. Tao went next, about an hour later, giving him a crooked smile and wishing him good luck with his parents. Fortunately the younger also promised that he’d offer up his own apartment next time, instead of letting everyone trash Chanyeol’s. Then just twenty minutes or something before his parents got back D.O. came barging in, the puppy following behind with a goofy grin, the two of them seemingly back to normal… unless Kai had actually stepped up his game and become even more irritating – judging from the scowl on D.O.’s face and the way the little guy was constantly trying to get the other out of his face it was a possibility. Chanyeol had been really curious as to where they might’ve gone to, but decided to stay out of it for once - it seemed pretty personal.

All in all there was only one word he’d use to describe how he felt when his eyes scanned the apartment: lonely. It was almost disturbing how attached he’d become to them all, despite not really showing it that well; not that this could be helped seeing as he hadn’t had much contact with people the past couple of years. But now he found himself hoping that they’d stick together even after everything was over, that very hope being reinforced by his short but relatively nice chats with Tao, Kai’s extreme conviction that all of them shared an important friendship, and the loyalty of D.O. and Sehun – although both latter boys seemed to be hiding something, and Sehun got along suspiciously well with Luhan since he got back from the kidnapping.

He let out a deep sigh and pushed any thoughts of the others to the back of his mind. They’d already agreed to take a few days of rest before continuing to plan Kris’ demise, and he wasn’t sure any of them wanted to hear from him at the moment. Still, since he didn’t very much feel like lounging around the empty apartment he got to his feet with every intention of changing into his uniform and heading off to the music room – at least there he could keep himself busy for hours on end.

By the time he was heading back to his room though he could hear his ringtone and had to quicken his steps to get there in time, fumbling with it and cursing at his suddenly clumsy fingers for a few seconds before picking up with a big puff of air.

“Hello?” He grimaced at how coarse his voice sounded, but soon grinned as the other started talking.

“Chanyeol? It’s me. I just wanted to check if you were alright? Yesterday seemed pretty bad and all…” Ah, the ever so thoughtful Baekhyun. Though he usually had a snappy comment at hand whenever he called, Chanyeol did enjoy talking to the guy. It was a nice change of pace from all the swears and strategic meanderings.

“I’m good, got some fresh bruises but it’s nothing much. You disappeared on us, where’d you go?” He dropped onto his bed in a flimsy manner, sighing at the warmth of the previously sunlit covers.

“It got a bit too gory for me, and I figured Kris would want to know about it all so I stopped by to show him the video.”

“Oh, right… the video.” His eyebrows knitted together – he wasn’t quite sure how to handle the existence of evidence that supported their, quite frankly, criminal acts. If it got out they’d be in some deep . He’d just have to trust that the informer wouldn’t allow it to spread. After a few seconds of silence he had to ask what the other had called for, and listened as Baekhyun cleared his throat.

“Well, I guess I wanted to give you a heads up – if you were thinking of going to school, don’t; Kris is in one hell of a mood today and I’m pretty sure you’d be a damn good target.” Was that guy ever in a good mood? Chanyeol doubted it. Then again that fact didn’t exactly make running into the third year any more of a tempting prospect. “I’m pretty sure it’s got to do with Junmyeon and Lay again; those two are still missing.”

“Really? He’s pretty good at holding grudges huh?” A couple of moments passed without either of them speaking. The quiet, albeit a bit awkward, allowed him half a minute to gather his thoughts, and he drew in a somewhat nervous breath. “So… uh… are you, ehm, doing anything?” Very smooth.

“…Oh. Um, right now?” Chanyeol mentally slapped himself at the way the other sounded so taken aback. It wasn’t like they were friends. In fact they were just barely acquaintances. But he was bored, wasn’t that a good enough reason? Besides, Baekhyun was a decent guy – they’d gotten along pretty well last time they met in the music room in any case.

“Sorry, I’m just-“

“No.” He blinked a few times as he was abruptly cut off. “No, I’m not doing anything. Well, nothing productive anyway. I was just surprised I guess; I’ve been a bit off today so don’t take it the wrong way, alright? Did you have anything in mind?”

“…You’re pretty weird, you know that?” Chanyeol breathed, chuckling at the offended grumbles that he could just barely made out. Racking his brains for a bit he cracked a smile. “Ice cream. Let’s go have ice cream.”

Since they ended the call it took roughly an hour for them to meet up, Baekhyun refusing to go anywhere in his school uniform. Chanyeol would’ve given him a piece of his mind for wasting time like that, but it did mean that they’d stand out less – lately people seemed to walk off in the opposite direction as soon as they saw someone with the grey blazer and blue and green striped tie… or maybe that was just because they were covered in blood and dirt yesterday. Either way it was annoying, and he was glad they could walk down the streets without turning too many heads.

They made their way leisurely to a hidden away ice cream parlor, one of Chanyeol’s personal favorites that he used to frequent back in middle school, chatting lightly about the current state of things. It seemed like Baekhyun was still curious about what happened after he left the rooftop the day before, and Chanyeol gave a hearty laugh when the other commented on Tao’s flirting with the camera.

“Seriously Chanyeol – it really creeped me out! Hell, even Kris looked grossed out!”

“I’m telling you Baekhyun; Tao isn’t like that – he was just pulling your leg!” He sighed at the inquisitive glare he received, holding up his hand as a prop as he explained. “It was his own blood – I helped him clean the cut afterwards - right on the side of his hand, all the way from the knuckle here - and he told me that Zelo kid’s teeth were sharper than he thought; he was even laughing when he told me you got it all on film!” His friend’s chortle had been infective last night; they’d ended up going back to snicker about every shocked or scared expression they’d seen that day until the younger had decided it was time to leave. Chanyeol figured he’d have to think fondly of that day’s events in the future – it seemed to have brought not only him and Tao closer again, but left all of them at better terms with each other.

“Still…” Baekyun was making a disgusted face, nose crinkling cutely and eyebrows knitting together. “Blood tastes horrible.”

“Oh come on; it’s just like biting the inside of your cheek – you can’t tell me that you’re grossed out by that? Or are you really squeamish?” He teased the shorter, poking his side lightly as they finally walked inside the shop, earning a surprisingly hard punch on the shoulder. He’d almost forgotten how the boy managed to pin him down the first time they met by now, but it was clear that he wasn’t as weak as he looked.

Once they’d gotten their treats, Baekhyun having unexpectedly chosen cherry flavor whilst Chanyeol stuck to his usual double chocolate, they claimed one of the round corner tables. After a few minutes of continued bickering however, he noticed the other growing a bit distant, and when he then kept quiet for a moment the boy seemed to space out completely. And this wasn’t like the time they’d been in the music room, he could tell the difference by the almost invisible frown Baekhyun was sporting whilst staring out the window, chin resting on the back of his hand.

“What are you thinking about?” Chanyeol’s quiet question seemed to bring him back to life, a small yet cheeky smile tugging on his lips.

“Stuff.” He cocked a brow at the unsatisfactory answer, the other rolling his eyes tiredly before turning his attention back to the world outside the window – not much more than a back alley but apparently more interesting than Chanyeol himself was. “Sometimes it’s hard for me to decide how far I should push my impartiality… there are a bunch of things I can’t do but what kind of person am I if I ignore the things I can do as well?” The sudden deep question threw him off, jaw slacking a bit as he tried to form some sort of response.

“Uh… I guess… just do what you need to keep a clear conscience? Something like that…” He tried, very unsure of what nonsense he was actually spouting. At least Baekhyun seemed to find it amusing though, seeing as the guy chuckled under his breath, giving a short nod.

“That might actually work for me.”

“…Really?” Chanyeol was a bit skeptic of how good his advising skills were, and was surprised that his suggestion had been taken somewhat seriously. It was a good feeling though. “Wanna tell me what the dilemma is?” He pressed, but got a simple shake of the head in reply.

“Not right now.” Baekhyun peered over Chanyeol’s shoulder, and he turned to see a familiar figure walk inside, understanding why the other wasn’t so intent on maintaining a serious conversation. “Looks like we have company.”

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A/N: Why would you look at this? It's a post! *jumps for joy* And Mrs. Do's condition is revealed! I in no way claim to know how this illness actually works since I can only learn so much from online research and generally wikipedia so feel free to beat me up if something seems wrong though I will not be mentioning it too often. 

Alright then, uh... gosh, where was I going with this... ah, right! I feel I owe you an explanation for why it took so long, because the idea's been there in my head waiting to be written down and it only took me a few hours once I got into it. The simple explanation? I start too many new stories. *ties stone to self and jumps in river* No but seriously, I do. And then I thought "well, to make myself take this story even more seriously why not play a little guessing game?" So! The person who can guess the closest to the current number of EXO fanfics I'm working on (includes phone, PC and paper - triple P. Ha.) gets an extra long chapter for their bias or just random character of their choosing!

Therefore, if you comment, why not throw in a random number and the person whose chapter you want to increase the length of? Easy, right? I'm counting today's number, so don't think about whatever I might be starting until the next update, that'd be troublesome on all parts, right? For a golden star throw in the number of stories I have less than 5 pages of. LOL. Deadline = whenever the next chapter is up, m'kay? (ówò)

Okay, thanks for reading guise~! And ehrmegehrd - 200 subs!<333 *le shower of kisses* Love every single one of you guys~! Always! thanks for the support~! Especially you wonderful people who comment - you darlings brighten my days~! Thank you sweets~! <3<3<3

~Fi