Lay raised his brow at the strange sight that greeted him when he walked inside the tiny shop with Luhan in tow, because since when was the neutral zone all chummy with the enemy? The two at the corner table were looking over at him and his company, both of them with pretty poorly concealed curiosity at that, and he let out a deep sigh.

“Great…” He breathed; wasn’t it enough that he had to spend time with Luhan in the first place? He really didn’t have the energy to deal with three weirdoes at once, not today only an hour after he woke up and was dragged outside, and sure as hell not after a mere four hours’ sleep. Damn his luck. He really should’ve woken the third-year back home and made him stick to his promise after all.

But at least he’d get his well-needed sugar fix.

“Let’s see if Baekhyunnie has any news for us.” Lay stared blankly at the chipper third-year for a few seconds before giving in, his shoulders slumping in resignation as they made their way over, joining the two at the rather small table without so much as asking if the pair minded. Not that they received any protests. He watched in glum silence as the blonde engaged in a conversation with the informer, feeling very uncomfortable where he was seated next to Park ing Chanyeol – the source of most of his current problems in life thanks to that moronic declaration of war… or maybe that was one of the first-years – said boy choosing to ignore him as well, a stoic expression plastered on his face.

Pulling out his phone he decided to spend as long as he could playing temple run to pass the time, somehow managing to do quite well at the undemanding game whilst perfectly making sure that his ice cream wasn’t melting all over the place in the meantime. His scores made him frown however - he still hadn’t gotten over the score Junmyeon had managed to mess up the week before.

“Hey, Lay…” His eyes drifted over to Baekhyun’s thoughtful face, raising a brow in question. “How come Junmyeon-hyung isn’t with you?” That’s it? He scoffed and enjoyed the last bite of his peppermint ice cream.

“He was still sleeping when Luhan stopped by… didn’t feel like waking him; rough night and all.” Baekhyun and Chanyeol both seemed to choke, and Lay furrowed his brows in confusion as he turned to the stupidly giggling blonde. “Was it something I said?” The others’ amused faces were getting to him, and he could feel himself scowl at them.

“Say, exactly what sort of rough things were you two up doing?” Luhan asked with a cheeky snicker. Wait. What were they-! His jaw literally dropped as he realized what they were all thinking.

“Oh my god, damnit, hyung, no! What the hell is wrong with you people?!” He grimaced as he finally managed to piece things together, just the thought making him uncomfortable and causing a dark blush to spread across his cheeks – because seriously, that’s the conclusion they jumped to after one sentence? He glared at each of them in turn, Baekhyun smiling apologetically. He didn’t like the look of the boy to his right however, the lanky fellow looking like a real creep as he smirked smugly. “For the love of- look, we just got caught up playing games, alright?”

“I wonder what sort of games that might be…”

“Enough with the ing innuendos!” Lay almost winced at his own voice, not liking the almost pleading tone of it one bit. Chanyeol however seemed exceptionally proud of the reaction he’d sparked, and mister neutral zone was quick to catch on.

“ing innuendos you say?” He clenched his fists in an attempt to keep himself from hurting the giant.

“Don’t mind him Lay - we totally understand if this is a, well…” He narrowed his eyes as Baekhyun seemed to bask in the suspense, the corner of the guy’s mouth twitching slightly. “…Touchy subject.” Letting out a loud groan Lay practically collapsed onto the table, hiding his burning face in his arms. He could hear the snorts and multitude of puffs that signaled forcefully muffled laughter, and in his mind he silently vowed to get revenge on them for their mockery and his current state of extreme embarrassment. He’d never been one to take these sorts of jokes very seriously, but somehow it just felt really wrong this time around. “Seriously though, we’re just messing with you.” He thought he heard the chirp, but it wasn’t perceived as more than a faint whisper. Because mentally he felt as though he just ran straight into a brick wall and his ears were ringing from the impact.

He was embarrassed? What the hell for? Why would this be any different from the other times Luhan or Kris or whoever made a joke on his behalf? It wasn’t like he was lying about the games or anything - it was just a bunch of turds acting like, well, turds. Right?

He wasn’t sure how long he’d been staring down at his shoes as he lay there hunched over the table, but when he finally managed to reach a conclusion after vast amounts of reasoning, subconscious headshakes and mindless muttering under his breath, he could literally feel the color rise to his cheeks again. His brows furrowed as he picked his head up a bit to run his fingers somewhat nervously through his hair, chewing on his bottom lip as he did. The first thing he could properly see when he glanced around was Luhan’s frowning face, the other two having a lighthearted conversation about practical jokes for whatever reason. He was just happy they weren’t paying attention anymore because his thoughts were too jumbled up for him to come up with any snappy comments.

“Are you alright? You look pretty sick, like you have a fever or something…” The third-year murmured, and he let out an airy scoff. Of course he looked flushed, of ing course. Because his day wasn’t bad enough already without the questions and a dumb realization that’d caught him too off guard for comfort.

“Never been better.” He replied gruffly nonetheless just to avoid too much suspicion about his mental state, watching in slight amusement how the blonde picked at what little remained of his ice cream, apparently suspecting the desert had something to do with things. Sighing at the other’s stupidity Lay completely ignored the other two, and was planning to get up and leave for some well-needed alone time when he felt a weight on his shoulders, fingers digging into them as he leaned his head back. He was barely able to keep from grimacing at the familiar face that greeted him. “Xiumin-hyung... how are you? It’s been a while, hasn’t it?” He tried politely, but at the other’s sugary sweet smile he knew he had quite a bit of apologizing to do if he wanted to stay on the elder’s good side.

“Oh I’m fine - I wasn’t woken up by a single call the entire weekend, can you imagine?” Innocent as it might’ve seemed the third-year’s voice was laced with venom as he pulled a chair over from the closest table, waving his hands as a way of telling them to make room for him in what was starting to resemble a circle. Once again Baekhyun was quick to strike up a conversation, and this time the giant to his right joined in as well, Luhan simply crossing his arms with a slight pout at the new company. Lay didn’t feel bad for the guy at all.

“You okay there Lay?” He jumped a bit before turning in his seat, nodding slightly at the boy who stood there with a raised eyebrow. He should’ve remembered - if wannabe librarian was there so would the hacker be. Out of the corner of his eye he could see the informer’s face drop a bit at Chen’s presence, and again, much like he believed Luhan deserved the seat next to Xiumin, he felt like karma may exist after all. Why the two third-years and the two great sources of information were on such bad terms would have to remain a mystery; he was far too tired of them all to ask by now.

Turning his phone over in his hands Lay found himself almost subconsciously opening his contacts and scrolling down until he stopped at a certain name. And now that he knew what was going on in his own mind he couldn’t keep his cheeks from heating up a bit again as he clicked his tongue and put the phone back in his pocket. At some point one person had manage to sneak up and take the place of everyone else, and it was already too late for him to do anything about it. Unfortunately.

Needless to say he didn’t like the look on Luhan’s face when their eyes met again - that look that made him believe the older boy was actually going to stand up on his chair and shout ‘eureka’ or something. Because Lay knew that his so-called friend had caught up on his thoughts faster than he had himself. And he was painfully aware that as far as blackmailing goes, said friend had taught him everything he knew.

There really may not be any way around it this time – he refused to let himself be dragged around to random people’s homes in the middle of the night only to be chased by dogs and old women with slippers and brooms and god knows what. No, he’d had enough of that for a life time. He’d just let things circulate for a while if it came to that – there were so many rumors around the jailhouse that no one seemed to believe them anymore anyways.

“I’m out.” Lay got up from his seat without really looking at the others, especially Luhan. But he could already sense something coming.

“Are you gonna confess your undying love to your dear sleeping beauty?” The third-year was giving him a cheeky smirk, but for whatever reason he didn’t even feel the least bit annoyed. Hell, it might even be a good idea if things were going to get out anyway.

“You know what hyung? That doesn’t sound completely bad...” He hummed, ignoring the others’ stupefied faces to stare blankly ahead as his imagination created images of what the result of a confession might actually be, the possible outcomes almost too many to count. For some reason he didn’t feel like the other would react too dramatically about it though. Maybe some awkward silence and forced smiles. Spending nearly five full days together with the guy had really changed the way they interacted with each other after all – apart from the dumb blonde whose round eyes were glued to him at the moment, Junmyeon was probably the closest friend he’d had. So in all there was really just this one problem to the whole confessing his love thing. “If I was actually crushing on him I’d probably go for it.”

“Wait, you’re saying you’re not? Are you kidding me?” Lay snickered at Luhan’s expression of mixed suspicion and disbelief, noting that the elder was able to pull the look off rather well.

“It’s not a crush. I’m not falling for him or anything sappy like that.” He said with a light shrug. Somehow just saying it confirmed his own thoughts, and he almost facepalmed at his earlier awkward reaction. Love was a complicated thing, and this was really pretty far from it.

“Who are you guys even talking about?” Xiumin piped up, and before Lay could answer someone else cut in.

“Junmyeon - Kris’ cousin, together with whom he gave the big bad blonde his pretty makeover.” Chen said with such a matter-of-factly tone that it was almost funny.

“How’s he looking?” Lay asked with a small scoff, a slight smile tugging at his lips when he thought of the masterpiece. For a second he recalled the little accident that night when he’d happened to land on the other during their evasive maneuver, and furrowed his brows at how dull he was for not understanding his own behavior back then.

“Surprisingly well. He did try to crack his head open against the wall when he saw the video you put up, but he looks much more mature with his hair short. Less like a gangster wannabe.” He raised a brow at Luhan’s information, trying to imagine the huge third year slamming his face into the concrete wall but failing miserably.

A sudden buzzing from his pocket made him jump a bit, but as Lay saw the sender of the text he couldn’t help but leer slightly, and it didn’t go unnoticed judging by the questioning looks he was receiving.

“Sleeping beauty misses me.” He lied with a lopsided grin and sent a quick reply to the actual message he’d received – yes, Junmyeon was free to scavenge through their cupboards for breakfast, and yes, he was free to eat anything and or everything he managed to find.

“What are you gonna tell him then?” The curly-haired giant asked as he started towards the door, and Lay turned for a few seconds to rack his brains.

“That he’s a very attractive person and I would love to see him .” He smirked smugly at the stunned gapes of the group and then his heels, leaving them behind and starting on his jolly way home. He wasn’t at all planning to use such bold phrasing when bringing up the subject, and decided after a moment’s thought to not even do it that day; he was tired enough already and needed a proper night’s sleep to be able to process anything.

But he did wonder what Junmyeon would say when he told him the truth. He figured a little bit of good old shame and modesty would be good to cling to when that time came.

…Or not.

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

Baekhyun puffed his cheeks up a bit, letting them deflate harshly as he kicked a pebble further in front of himself and watched with a deep frown, sending it flying again after a few steps.

Their school was strange – if they could even call it school anymore – but the students themselves were a thousand times worse. He’d made it a point to understand both of them, both the school and the people belonging to it, yet for the first time since he started high school he found himself lost. Confused. He felt like he’d been screwed over by the world, left completely unable to tell what was going on anymore – wasn’t that what he was there for in the first place? Wasn’t he supposed to be the one with all the answers that the rest would dumbly go ‘oh’ at as everything clicked into place in their inferior minds?

That afternoon had really gotten to him, and he knew it shouldn’t have, but it was just too strange, the way everyone had sat down and actually talked without any threats or conflicts. And then the whole Lay-has-a-crush-on-Junmyeon-but-not-really business came around, and god, he still wasn’t sure if Luhan was being serious when he explained on behalf of the second-year that it was just a bout of teenage hormones messing around with the guy; because judging from the concerned expression that the innocent-looking third-year tried his best to conceal Baekhyun knew the elder had a lot more to say on the subject.

Luhan in particular had been acting out of character lately. Not just because he seemed completely unaffected by the presence of Chanyeol, instigator of the whole little alliance the first-years had going on, but because he’d according to said instigator been acting rather friendly with the Oh kid. It just didn’t make sense – was Luhan on Kris’ side or not?

Thoughts about it all were going through his mind at a hundred miles per hour, but he couldn’t make sense of anything anymore. If it was up to him he’d just call this whole ridiculous small-scale war off and let Kris deal with everything as usual; let Tao go back to wandering the halls without a care in the world; let Luhan and the first-year hang out as much as they damn well wanted without having to feel suspicious about it. Heck, he’d even smile at the sight of D.O. going around with his bat and swinging the thing at anyone who so much as breathed too loudly.

“You’ll get wrinkles Baek.” He kicked a nearby trash can to the ground, huffing at the amused expression on the other’s face as he peered over.

“That’s none of your business Chanyeol. Go home, I’m not in the mood for this play date anymore.” He was pleased to see that his grumble had wiped the entertainment off the other’s face, but the wry smile he got instead wasn’t much better. It suited the guy just about as well as the blank expression did; not very well at all in other words.

“You wanna know something?” Baekhyun furrowed his brows and just opened his mouth to spit out a rude ‘no’ when he was cut off. “I have no idea where all this is going.”

And there it goes – confusion strikes again.

“What the hell do you mean you don’t know where it’s going?” If anyone knew it should be the ing giant to his side – didn’t the rebel squad have a freaking plan?! But no, Chanyeol just mussed up his own fluffy hair with a shrug, still smiling slightly as though he was in on some secret joke. Not that that would in any way be surprising.

“Well, we all know what we set out to do, which has gone by almost pain-free until now, but…” Baekhyun raised his brows to give the guy a pointed look, and the other let out a breathy, somewhat hesitant laugh. “We’re stuck.”

“You’re stuck?” He couldn’t do much else but stare at that point. “You’re stuck because of what, exactly? Did someone go missing again? Is one of the little boys you hang out with chronically ill? Did all of you suddenly gain a sense of fear and it’s threatening to eat you up slowly until you’re curled up in a corner of your room, biting your nails for some sort of stress relief?” Chanyeol simply chuckled at his suggestions, waving them off, but a slight frown still lingered on his features to give his uncertainty away.

“We don’t have a plan anymore. We used to have one, several in fact, but most of them are out of the question now. At least in my mind. And I think Tao is starting to drift away from the whole thing as well – he only agreed for my sake after all, and I think Kris’ warning made him think things over again.” There was obvious tension in the air now, and in an attempt to clear his mind just a bit Baekhyun opted for looking up at the night sky, mentally cursing at the brightness of the streetlights as they hurt his poor eyes.

“What was the warning about? He didn’t happen to say anything about ripping you to shreds and feeding you to the dolphins in-“

“It wasn’t a threat. Seriously. It was just a warning, and he seemed pretty honest when he said it too…”

“… Well?”

“He wanted to be sure that we knew what we were doing, I guess – that taking him down meant taking over complete responsibility of the school. He wanted us to be ready for that.”

He sighed. For the first time that day Baekhyun felt like he understood someone else’s actions. Because doing something like that somehow seemed just like the third-year. The guy may be annoyingly emotional, in love with his hair, unnecessarily violent and a strong believer of a religion that in all fair truth had no place at the jailhouse, but he was still responsible. He’d still been in charge for a year without any mishaps, and kept things somewhat stable for another six months despite way too much crap going on.

“You know,” His eyes drifted over towards the other again as the guy spoke, and he was practically holding his breath. “I probably never should’ve started this.” Perhaps he’d sensed it coming, because Baekhyun just let the air leave his lungs when he heard it, a tiredness creeping up on him – there was no element of shock involved whatsoever. Maybe somehow he’d known and understood more than he gave himself credit for, just subconsciously or something, ty excuse as that may be. “I never planned to take charge of the school, although I’m sure that’s still what D.O.’s aiming for, and to be honest it would be easier for me to get back directly at the guys who jumped me back then, but… It doesn’t work that way does it? I can’t just blow it off now, can I?” In his mind he agreed to all of it, fully aware that D.O. was far from the only one who still wanted this to go on, but couldn’t bring himself to speak.

Silence enveloped them as they walked, because although Baekhyun did want to say something to comfort the other, much like Chanyeol had given him a small piece of light-hearted advice earlier that day, he just didn’t know how. He was at a loss of what to say or do in this situation, since like the lanky boy had said – it doesn’t work that way at all. Once you’ve started something that turns everything upside down, you can’t just say ‘I’m out’. Baekhyun knew this all too well from other arguments and clashes between some of the groups at school – the only way to properly end something was by force. The one time it’d been resolved differently had been when Kris and Yongguk had sat the arguing groups down and forced them to agree to something, and even that, despite the lack of physical conflicts at the time, had taken over two weeks to straighten out. This couldn’t, ever, be tackled like that – too many rash decisions had been made, with way too dire consequences to be resolved with a couple of simple meetings.

Feeling the need to say something, anything, however, he gave the taller boy a hard pat on the back and let one end of his mouth curve up a bit as their eyes met.

“Just do what your conscience tells you… or something like that.” He chortled, letting out a small yelp when he got caught in a headlock, hair ruffled to oblivion to his great horror.

“What the hell are you doing throwing my own words back at me, stupid?” Chanyeol was laughing as he held him tightly under his arm as they walked down the street, Baekhyun protesting rather loudly because damn was his back bent awkwardly.

“They’re not even your words, they’re just-… ow- you- ugh- just lemme go .” He finally tapped out, the other grinning almost creepily and messing with his poor hair again until he slapped the guy’s hand away with a small growl. “Just get out of here would you? If I don’t get back soon my mom’s gonna hire someone to stalk me next time I leave the house…” The thought made him shiver – mother dearest had a bad habit of acting overprotective about all of them; his sisters he could understand, but he was a guy, and he went to St. Andrew’s, and he would not for any reason ever need a guy in a black suit watching him from behind the scenes. That one time in seventh grade was more than enough.

“Alright, I’ll let you off this time.” He blinked at Chanyeol in mild, not to mention slightly offended, disbelief as the boy spoke. Let him off for what exactly? “You’ll let me know if anything big happens, right? I’m gonna stay clear of any place Kris might step foot in for now…”

“Just go, be gone, fly away.” Baekhyun snapped with a shooing gesture, changing it to a normal wave once the other shot him a suspicious look and turned to leave. “I’ll keep you posted.” He called, sighing as though it was some tiring chore, and watched as Chanyeol’s face broke into a genuine smile before the guy turned a corner, leaving him alone on the back street. He spun around on his heels then, immediately heading towards the apartment building across the road. For a moment he wondered if the other knew he really lived around here, a somewhat concerning idea, but he shook the thought out of his head, for once deciding to trust that Chen wouldn’t hand out his file to anyone.

What hit him first when he closed the apartment’s front door behind him was the smell of curry, and soon after that a fuzzy pink slipper. Cue his mother’s fury.

“You’re late!” He winced at his mother’s shrill call, slipping past the living room as best he could. “Are you gonna tell me where you were?!”

“I told you – I went out with a friend!” He shouted back, muttering curses under his breath as he heard her stand from the couch. Before she’d have time to give him a proper scolding he hurried into his own room, closing and locking the door behind him. For a few minutes his mother kept knocking on the door, calling his name loudly so many times that he was worried she’d wear it out, before her footsteps finally disappeared down the hall along with a long string of curses, two pairs of lighter steps closing in on his room instead.

“You’ve done it now Baekkie-boy.” He let out a loud groan at his older sister’s comment, waiting for the second one to follow.

“Really done it now Baekkie – if I were you I’d stay in there.”

“I’m planning to.” He told sister number two through the door, doing his very best to ignore their jeers and snickers as he started up his laptop.

All the jokes and teasing and general, normal fun aside, there was something he’d been thinking of the entire afternoon, apart from the obvious strangeness of it all. Because there was one thing he’d decided on doing even before he left home, and after hearing Chanyeol’s thoughts about everything he was even more determined to go through with the idea. It wasn’t a perfect plan by far, and he almost wanted to slap himself for what he was about to do, but he couldn’t leave things the way they were.

This was for all of their sakes, not just his own.

“It’s cool… no one’s gonna kill you for it Baekhyun.” He mumbled to himself as his fingers moved effortlessly across the keyboard. “In fact, some people might actually thank you… some day. In the distant future. You can always follow Lay and Junmyeon’s example and hide out for the rest of the year. Yeah…” He grimaced as he imagined the looks on everyone’s faces, a whimper escaping him despite his attempts to keep calm. He was doing the right thing, no matter what they’d have to say about it… right? “At least I’m not taking sides…”

He’d just have to wait and see if the rest would interpret it the same way.

He strongly doubted it.

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A/N: Look who's back with a load of crap! Sorry for the long wait, and sorry for the totally weird, pointless, cofusing, messy and pointless chapter. Yes, precisely - pointless. You know that little thing called writer's block? Yeah, that nasty thing that strikes when you least want it to, that writer's block. I just had to write something to get my wheels turning again and maybe move on with this, and I will not look back. Although I am freely cursing myself as I'm writing this note. *cough*

For those of you who still remember what's happening (I'm even confusing myself at this point; the title feels very suiting at this point) I'm curious to know if any of you have any idea for what's going to happen or if I've been too vague for that.

Anyhow, thanks to all of you loyal readers and subscribers, I love all of you sweets to pieces~ And you commentists you know who you are are the awesomest! <333 Big thanks also to LittleBrat for all the encouragement because you seriously helped me get this chapter out at all! T-T <3

As for the little guessing game... Thank you, for having faith in me and assuming that I'm a normal person with a normal amount of stories in my head at once. Unfortunately I'm not normal and most of your guesses were extremely far off, but it's all good. òwó<3 So, closest was BrotherBear with a backup guess of 19... which was still not very close but yeah. ôvô" *claps hands excitedly* And I get to choose which character is going to get an extra long chapter~(unless you've changed your mind ofc). For anyone who's interested the answer was 45. Yes. 40 in 5. *empty stare* And I can guarantee that number has increased significantly the past month. *hides under couch* *sob*

Anywho, thanks for reading, lots of love asdfgdjfakjfdl, bye~!

~Fi