“Where have you been? We’ve been looking all over for you! JongIn is worried sick. What happened? Why did you disappear all of a sudden? Are you hurt? Why have you been crying? Where are MinJi and her friends? They kidnapped you from school just now, right?” SeHun bombarded her with questions, not to forget with his arms akimbo, making him look like he was scolding his child.

ByulHee in the meantime, only stood there, staring at the ground. She didn’t mean to worry everyone but it wasn’t as if she had a choice. Despite wanting to answer SeHun’s questions very much, she didn’t have any energy left in her to do so. She just felt extremely tired and hungry, but she didn’t want to go home just yet.

She was still angry with her parents, and she knew that the feeling was mutual, hence she decided to let both sides cool off before she could face them again.

Only that, she didn’t know where to go now.

Seeing how she didn’t intend to answer his questions, SeHun just shrugged it off and pulled out his phone. As promised, he dialed JongIn’s number to inform him of the good news. And JongIn’s reaction was just how he’d expected.

“WHERE DID YOU FIND HER?”

“Just by the roadside. She was walking aimlessly without a direction.”

“IS SHE HURT?”

“No, she’s not. Stop screaming, JongIn or I’ll sue you for making me turn deaf.”

“PUT HER ON THE PHONE NOW.” As expected, he ignored SeHun.

SeHun looked at ByulHee, who only looked at him back with empty eyes and wondering what was going on, but seeing how tired she was, the boy figured that she wouldn’t be up to talking at the moment.

“Look, I don’t think she can talk right now. I’ll take her to your place and tell the others for me that I’ve found her. Okay?” SeHun said instead, pressing every single word to make sure that JongIn heard him.

But JongIn was having none of it as he kept shouting, “WHY CAN’T SHE TALK IS SHE HURT YOU SAID SHE’S FINE SEHUN-”

“And with that, we end the call.” SeHun said then, pressing the red button, which automatically cut the call between him and JongIn. ByulHee looked at him in disbelief, regardless of finding the whole thing humorous. JongIn’s voice was so loud that even ByulHee could hear. She wondered how SeHun was fine with it though.

“Each time that happens, ending the call would be the best way. That’s what we usually do when one of our friends is losing control like that. JongIn’s never lost his marbles before, so each of us found this rather amusing actually.” SeHun explained even though ByulHee never asked, but still the girl nodded her head anyways.

Putting his hands in his pockets, SeHun added, “Well, you heard me. I have to take you to JongIn as a prove that I’ve found you safe and sound. You don’t mind not going straight home, do you? Where were you from anyway?”

“Home.” ByulHee answered as SeHun began leading the way. She was surprised to hear her own voice then, and wondered how much she cried for it to be that croaky. She couldn’t even remember the last time she cried so much, and even after her mother’s death, she only shed tears for a while, as Chen was there to comfort her.

SeHun tipped his head in curiosity at her answer. He wanted to ask her to embellish but then thought that maybe she would explain more once they gathered with the other boys. There was no point of asking her to clarify the same thing twice. Besides, that was only the second time they had an exchange, so SeHun figured that she might feel awkward for having to open up to someone other than JongIn.

Silence accompanied their walk to JongIn’s house, and while SeHun tried to think of a general topic to break the ice, ByulHee beat him to it. “I’ve been meaning to ask you this but I didn’t know how. Why aren’t you and JongIn at school? It’s still school hours right now, isn’t it?”

SeHun nodded his head. “Well, you should’ve figured it out by now, ByulHee. We were looking for you, of course. Besides, it’s not just me and JongIn, but the whole gang too. All of us were worried.” Turning to her, he continued, “A friend of JongIn’s is a friend of ours.”

Silence enveloped them again and finally they arrived at JongIn’s house. ByulHee was in awe when she entered the gates and followed SeHun as he led the way to the backyard. This was the first time she went to a friend’s house, and though a tad bit smaller, she found JongIn’s house rather welcoming and warm.

“BYULHEEEEEEE!!!” A voice yelled from afar, causing both of them to stop on their tracks. They looked for the source of the voice, knowing who it was, and SeHun sighed while shaking his head. “Here comes the headless chicken.”

“SeHun!” ByulHee scolded him, and watched as JongIn came running towards them. He looked extremely concerned, all right, and ByulHee felt bad for making her friend worried. Behind JongIn were the other four boys, who relieved a sigh once they saw her.

Each of them threw her a smile and ByulHee returned them. She was about to raise her hand to give them a wave when JongIn grabbed her shoulders and began shaking her non-stop. “THANK GOD YOU’RE ALL RIGHT WHAT HAPPENED JUST NOW WHY DID YOU DISAPPEAR I LOOKED ALL OVER FOR YOU-”

“For goodness’s sake, JongIn! She’s safe now, isn’t she? Try to calm down once for the day, can’t you?” JunMyeon nagged once he and the rest of the boys caught up with JongIn. “Seriously, you’re like a freaking ahjumma when you’re in panic.”

“Yeah, never again would we let JongIn lose his control if he’s going to be like this. The chicken maniac loses his head when he’s chaotic.” BaekHyun added and all of the boys laughed including ByulHee. Except for JongIn who was now sulking as they were all making fun of him. “Yah!! I am not a chicken maniac!!”

“Yes, you are! Out of all of us here, you love chicken the most. Unless ByulHee here can eat more than you do.” ChanYeol said with his arms crossed, as if challenging JongIn. BaekHyun nodded his head in agreement and added, “He’s right! Who wants a showdown to see who can eat the most chicken between them? I root for ByulHee!”

“I still vote for JongIn! Once a champion, always a champion!” ChanYeol enthusiastically made his point.

“I think ByulHee doesn’t eat that much.” SeHun said, tipping his head at ByulHee. “But then, we never know. It could be that this small rabbit can eat more than we think.”

“I am not a rabbit. And why am I included in this?”

“Oh, no. Not another stupid ‘showdown’.” JunMyeon sighed and practically trying to pull his hair out.

 “Okay, okay, simmer down and let’s get into business now, you guys.” KyungSoo said seriously, destroying their happy moment there and then. All of them turned quiet when they heard KyungSoo’s stern voice, and two of them groaned in annoyance.

Ignoring the irksome glare that came from BaekHyun and ChanYeol, he continued, “As much as I’m happy to watch your so-called ‘showdown’, I think we’re all missing the important point here. Now that ByulHee is here, don’t you think it’s time for us to know what happened regarding her disappearance at school? I don’t know about you people but I’m dying to know. Don’t you?”

All of them looked at each other in silence and somehow agreed with what KyungSoo said earlier. Well, they had to admit that though they somewhat knew what happened based on JongIn’s predictions; still they wanted to know the real story from ByulHee herself. Besides, they spent all the time looking for her, and even skipped school regarding that matter, so surely an explanation from her would’ve helped.

ByulHee sighed as she recalled what happened, and couldn’t believe tha