Chanyeol’s POV

I was worried. To the point of feeling sick. Alix seemed to have some kind of epiphany in the car and since then she hadn’t spoken more than two words. We had been at her house for over three hours now.

At first, it was okay - she was freaked about something; she’d gotten like this before. I was worried but I could deal. But now she was gazing through the kitchen window, having not moved from that spot for nearly an hour, with fear, anger, and determination etched onto her face all at once. And I was scared.

“Yeobo...” I tried again, for what must have been nearly the hundredth time. And for nearly the hundredth time, she didn’t respond. “Please, yeobo, you’re scaring me... You said you’d explain.”

“Later Chanyeol.”

And there, the same two words she’d been mindlessly chanting back to me all night. She wasn’t even dismissing me - I could deal with that - she just wasn’t hearing me. Nothing was getting through to her.

I approached her and wrapped my arms around her from behind, not expecting a response and receiving none.

“Please Alix...”

Her finger was tapping incessantly against the kitchen counter. I moved my hand to cover it, and finally got her out of her daze. She turned to face me.

“...Chanyeol?”

“Alix! Oh, thank God.”

I don’t think she expected me to crush her into a hug like that, or cling on; fully intending to never let go.

“Chanyeol, what-”

I pulled far enough back to look at her, no further.

“Explain.”

“What?”

“Today. That kid. What happened.”

“Chanyeol... I said I’d explain later.”

“No, you’re telling me now.”

“Chanyeol-”

“You’ve not spoken to me for four ing hours you are telling me what happened now!”

She flinched. I don’t think I’d ever yelled at her before. We just didn’t argue. Not like this, anyway. She’d never scared me like this.

“Chanyeol, I need to go.”

“You’re not going anywhere until you tell me what the happened! In fact, you’re not going anywhere, period! Do you know how worried you’ve made me? How scared I am right now?! Tell me what the happened!”

“I’ll tell you later!”

“No! You’ll tell me now!”

“Chanyeol!”

“You may think you pull the wool over my eyes most of the time Alix Adair but I promise you I always, and I mean ing always know what’s going on with you, so don’t you dare try to keep this from me because you are scaring me ing less right now!”

“I can ing handle myself Chanyeol! If you know so much about me you must know that!”

“I know it but it doesn’t mean I have to like it! Let me protect you for once!”

“I don’t need ing protected!”

“Everyone does sometime-”

“No they don’t Chanyeol! I don’t! And clearly you don’t know me if you don’t know that!”

“I know that it’s bull when you tell me not to worry about something! I know you constantly worry about my lower social standing because you’ve seen how some of the other guys try to pick a fight with me! I know that you want to protect me even when I can handle myself! I know you’re not really from Tallahassee! I know that you don’t live with your father - that you’ve not seen him in years! I know that your mother’s dead and you blame your father-”

“How do you know that?!”

Her voice was strained and she looked terrified. I regretted airing my knowledge but I was only more determined for it. My voice was calm.

“Because I know you.”

She stared into me for a while, her eyes never leaving mine even as they darted about in fear; searching for the meaning behind my words. Then, without another sound, she left.

*

Alix’s POV

I was a ing idiot. I couldn’t believe I hadn’t picked up on how much Chanyeol had been noticing. Even now I had trouble working out how he had. Some things were obvious and I should have been less careless in avoiding - for example, he was often at my house yet not only hadn’t once met my parents, but had also never seen any traces of them actually living there; so of course he was going to eventually work out I didn’t live with them. But some things made no sense to me: like how did he know mum was dead? ...How did he know it was my father’s fault? No matter how many ways I looked at it, I could fathom an answer.

And that wasn’t even the worst of my problems right now - the worst consequentially being the reason Chanyeol and I had argued: Kai. And his ability to twist the dimensions. I’m talking teleportation, or disapparation, or some other highly dangerous magic that involved disappearing in a puff of black smoke. No doubt was in my mind now: Kai, and Sehun, were very, very dangerous, and most likely inhuman. I had seen it with my own two eyes.

My mind buzzed.

I looked up into the now darkened sky - refusing to go home as I knew Chanyeol would still be there waiting for me, and I couldn’t face him right now - and spotted something. Something large, moving. Keeping to the shadows; but definitely there, definitely moving, and definitely fast. It took me a second longer to realise it was moving towards me.

“!” I gasped; the pain blossoming on my skin. It was very, very fast now. Too close. The first strike caught me unaware, the second unprepared. He sped up then, but I started to move, and I moved faster.

It - what I now could identify as a person - kept pace, but couldn’t catch me. The sense of being prey from earlier that day was back. I moved even faster. Then suddenly it was in front of me, and the third strike knocked me down. I coughed up crimson and stared into the face of my aggressor. He was an attractive boy with angular features and tired eyes, holding a deadly wooden pole.

“Who the are you?” I hissed. His response was to bring the pole down towards me. I only just managed to roll out of the way, before I was up again and sprinting.

A wisp of black hurtled past me. I twisted to see Kai facing off against the newcomer. He stood his ground as the boy glared past him to me; his body magnetizing my way.

“Zitao,” Jongin growled, and the boy’s attention snapped back to him. He snarled; an entirely animal sound, before speeding back into the night. As soon as he was out of sight, Kai was by my side.

“,” he whispered, eyes trailing down my blood-stained form. There was a blow on my arm, on my shoulder, but the worst was my stomach; gushing red through my fingers even as I clutched at it.

“I’m fine,” I gritted back, and he looked at me as if I was delirious.

“Alix-” His voice was panicked.

“I just need...” Mine was fading.

“What? Tell me, I’ll get you it.”

I couldn’t tell him. I couldn’t ask. I couldn’t hurt him like that. I couldn’t in case he was like me. I couldn’t, but I didn’t have much of a choice. I opened my mouth and showed him my secret. His eyes widened in understanding, before a relieved smile spread across him.

“I knew there was something about you,” he breathed, his breath tickling my neck as he offered me his. I bared my truth and bit in.

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