Luhan arrives back at the apartment to find Lay standing outside, looking worried. As soon as he sees Luhan he frowns “What did you see? You look like you’re in shock, Luhannie. Are you okay?”

“Uhh…” it’s all he can do to shake his head slightly and look worried. Yixing puts a hand on his shoulder “Come on, let’s go back to the apartment. We’ll talk later.” Luhan nods and as they walk up the stairs together he discovers that his cheeks are wet. Sometime during all of this he had began to cry.

Yixing sits Luhan down on the couch, takes his shoes, and then goes off to make tea in the kitchen while the blonde sits, wipes his eyes and nose repetitively on his sleeve, and tries to calm down. He can’t get the image of the burning building out of his mind, flames up the sides and smoke funneling out into that horrible grey-black cloud and the smell of burning wood and coffee and melting paint…he thinks of Minseok alone at home, probably pacing and worrying about Jongdae, texting his family members to see if any of them knew Jongdae’s plans for this evening…Luhan feels sick and can hardly hold the mug of hot tea that Yixing hands him a moment later, and ends up setting it down on the table and staring at his knees.

“So…it was intense, huh…?”

“You…could say that…”

“Yeah…if you don’t want to talk I won’t press you.”

“Well- it’s just…”

“…?”

“No one knows where Jongdae is or if he was in there or not ‘cause he’s not answering the phone and he’s not home he-he might be-“ Luhan breaks off again. He can’t do it.

“Oh, god…” Yixing now looks afraid “Has he been reported missing?”

“…I don’t know.” Luhan doesn’t want to talk anymore and gets up, taking his tea with him as he leaves the room. Behind him, he can hear Lay pick up the phone and dial the emergency hotline “Yes, I’m calling to report a missing person, yes, Kim Jongdae, yes…” Luhan plugs his ears and closes the bedroom door tightly behind him, climbing into bed with his clothes still on and curling up. He rubs his eyes, trying to get the horrible scene that has been burned into his vision to go away, but it’s all in vain.

His phone is a dead weight in his pocket and he pulls it out. There are no new messages, and he responds to Minseok.

I went to the fire. Huge. Firefighters told me to go away. Did not see Jongdae. Home now.

-L

He pictures Minseok sitting in his kitchen, maybe drinking a glass of water, feeling his phone buzz, thinking it to be Jongdae he perks up, and then becomes serious again once he sees the missed messages screen. Luhan imagines this and feels terrible, but no matter what Minseok’s reaction was, his reply comes only a moment later.

family is on alert-thank you

-M

And then;

we’re trying to track his phone

-M

Let’s all just hope for the best.

-L

There is no reply from Minseok for several minutes and Luhan thinks that maybe Jongdae has finally responded to everyone’s texts and calls. He sits on the edge of the bed and crosses his fingers, anticipating what the outcome of this will be. He feels his phone receive a message, and says a silent prayer before opening it.

jongdae’s phone isn’t letting out a visible signal which means hes not in town or that the tracking device in it was completely destroyed

-M

the last place they got signals from was the coffee shop

-M

Luhan in a breath, bites his lip, and then lies slowly back on the bed, pinching himself on the arm repetitively. This has got to be a dream. It is so ridiculous and surreal and horrible that it just can’t be true. He can’t come up with the right words to send to Minseok and he writes, drafts, and deletes messages one after