“Kyungsoo he knows about the demon,” Chanyeol says, bursting the door open to his friend’s room. For a moment, all Kyungsoo can do, is stare at him. Not only did he scare the hell out of him by so suddenly coming in, but also–

“Everyone knows about the demon, Chanyeol,” he says, furrowing his brows. Why is this such a big deal to him? Then, though, Kyungsoo sighs, because it’s not uncommon for Chanyeol’s childlike personality to turn small things into obstacles he’s afraid he won’t be able to overcome. That’s why Kyungsoo can’t keep seated and he stands up to give Chanyeol a short hug. “He already saw you outside, didn’t he?” Kyungsoo asks, referring to the incident at night that his tall friend still hasn’t elaborated about, but he isn’t exactly stupid. “Why do you only realize now that he knows what’s going on?” he probes, because Baekhyun isn’t stupid either. Kyungsoo keeps his voice mild and soft, because he knows Chanyeol can’t handle very much else right now, in fact, he doesn’t even answer his question.

“But what if – what if it’s all over now?” It’s that desperation again, it’s not at all unfamiliar to Kyungsoo. With a hand on Chanyeol’s lower back, he guides him to sit on his bed, to at least be a little more calm.

“What is going to be over?” Kyungsoo asks, staying calm. The least Chanyeol could use right now, is for him to get pulled in that stream of his own fears and insecurities. Besides that, Kyungsoo always sees a light at the end of a tunnel, whereas Chanyeol sometimes has difficulty seeing anything at all.

“Baekhyun–” he starts, then an incoherent stream of mumbles leaves his lips and Kyungsoo frowns, but doesn’t interrupt just yet, “and now he knows and will never remember.” Chanyeol just stops there, panic in his eyes and he’s about to stand up to pace again, but Kyungsoo makes sure he doesn’t do that. He takes the tall boy’s face in his hands, making him look in Kyungsoo’s larger eyes.

“You need to calm down because I don’t understand a single thing you’re trying to say,” he says sternly and finally, Chanyeol seems to snap out of it and show a little bit more maturity. Kyungsoo sighs in relief, but the look of guilt in the tall boy’s eyes doesn’t sit well with him.

“God. Sorry. Really if I could do something to stop that from happening–” Kyungsoo cuts him off with a shake of his head.

“You already would have, it’s fine.” Chanyeol sighs at those words, resigning. Sometimes, it seems it’s all becoming too much for him, but he doesn’t give up. Instead, Chanyeol works harder every time, he works harder than anyone and it’s one of the reasons why Kyungsoo stays by his side as a friend. Other reasons are much more obvious – Chanyeol is a good kid and maybe even more importantly, Chanyeol is not a demon, despite what other students might say.

“You know I told you about that kid, about back when I was young,” he starts and Kyungsoo thinks about it for a bit, but he does remember that. There was a boy who told Chanyeol to be proud of what he could do, instead of trying to hide himself. It was around the time Chanyeol’s mom started becoming more distant from him and basically, the boy was an insecure mess. “It’s Baekhyun,” Chanyeol tells him. Kyungsoo isn’t as surprised as he could have been. After all, he has seen the rather unnatural interest Chanyeol has in the short boy ever since he transferred – but he hadn’t quite figured it’d be because of something like this. And he knows for a fact that it’s not just because of this.

“Why is that a problem? And can you tell me what you think is going to be over?” Kyungsoo doesn’t mean to be impatient, but he believes it might be a big detail that Chanyeol could overlook if he doesn’t point it out again. Chanyeol apologizes again and Kyungsoo waves it away, though he feels terrible for his friend. The rest of the school sees the tall boy as a danger and that danger has been inflicted upon Kyungsoo – but he also seems to be the only one who doesn’t see Chanyeol as just that.

“Well if he doesn’t remember… and if he only sees the demon inside me, then… then what chance do I have to ever repay him?” Kyungsoo thinks for a while. This is yet another case of Chanyeol being unable to see the bigger picture and the short student will have to point that out to him.

“Chanyeol,” he says, seriously and as if he tries to lure his friend out of that protective layer, although he’s not behaving like a child at this moment. Still, it makes Chanyeol gulp and his eyes are large and attentive, if a bit scared. “Baekhyun doesn’t ‘only see the demon’, if that much isn’t clear to you yet by now… maybe you should behave properly around him, stop hiding yourself behind that mask, actually talk to him,” Kyungsoo says. He bites his lip because he feels he might have been too hard on Chanyeol, knowing that it isn’t all his fault. “Sorry,” he mutters, looking down, somewhat afraid to see the look on Chanyeol’s face now. To his surprise, his friend doesn’t take it the wrong way at all.

“No, you’re right,” Chanyeol says, sighs deeply and puffs up his cheeks before deflating them again. “I need to get my act together. And you know what – maybe I can even do something about that damn demon,” he says, though with the slightest bit of hesitation audible. Kyungsoo nods to that and decides now’s as good a time as any to ask what’s been on his mind ever since Chanyeol came barging into their room.

“Where did you come from just now? What happened that made you think Baekhyun suddenly knows about the demon?” he asks, keeping his voice gentle again, now that the biggest issue is out of the way.

“Oh,” Chanyeol says, recomposing himself and a frown etches itself on his face. Kyungsoo does the same because that’s the effect Chanyeol has. “We saw some things and went to Kris,” he says, as vaguely as he possibly could. It takes Kyungsoo a little while to even figure out who Chanyeol talks about, because nobody refers to the headmaster as Kris. Nevertheless, when he figures it out, he only raises his eyebrows in question, prompting Chanyeol to elaborate. “Dead animals, leading to the pillar of Life.” Kyungsoo needs another moment. The tales about those pillars, they’re only legends, but still. He swallows when his face drains of all blood, because this is bad.

“So, what needs to be done?” His voice sounds strained so he clears his throat briefly. Chanyeol chuckles humorlessly and before he says anything, Kyungsoo can already guess. The headmaster seems quite the eccentric man, after all.

“He sent Baekhyun to go and fix the mess and I have to go with him.” Of all people, Kyungsoo thinks, it has to be Baekhyun? He feels guilty somehow and worried, most of all. That’s why he has an answer ready that probably would not be his best answer ever.

“I will, too.”

Baekhyun has gotten himself healed up by the healer. A very nice man called Yixing, dimpled smile and gentle, caring hands. Baekhyun is more than a little glad that the staff at the school is kind and the healer hadn’t asked him any questions. Though his skin still feels a little sore in some places, he had expected this would be impossible to heal at all.

For now, he retreats to his room. He doesn’t know if Chanyeol will come to him or if they should meet at the front door of the school – he hadn’t even had the time to discuss it with him. Thankfully, Jongin isn’t in their room, so at least he has a little bit of privacy right now. Because what the hell is he supposed to do? And why should Baekhyun have to do it? Maybe it would be nice to have some company after all, he thinks when he sits on his bed and just looks at the damn package. He wouldn’t mind to have someone to rant to.

The second the light in the room starts to flicker heavily, though, and eventually blasts out of the lamp entirely, Baekhyun realizes he has to calm down. The fading daylight from outside his window remains and because it’s natural light, it helps the student relax. Taking deep breaths, he stands up to walk around his room and sets the package on his desk.

He passes by Jongin’s desk and his eye falls on the open notebook. Of course he remembers the other boy’s words never to look at the things he leaves there, but he can’t help his curiosity. He leans down just a little and he catches the two, angrily written sentences. Kyungsoo’s still mad at me. What the hell am I supposed to do?

Baekhyun tears his gaze from the words. This isn’t going to help him out, in fact, it’s only confusing him more. Kyungsoo doesn’t look like he gets angry at all, but when Jongin’s concerned, he’s always snappy and if Baekhyun was in the tall boy’s shoes, he’d have backed off ages ago. It’s none of his business though, he reminds himself, and picks up his package again. Something that is his business is waiting for him and since Chanyeol isn’t coming here for him, all he can do, is go find the tall student.

Baekhyun doesn’t get to leave his room though. When Jongin opens the door, at the exact moment Baekhyun wants to leave, the smaller boy is left trembling for a second or two. He’s terribly on edge and he doesn’t blame Jongin for looking at him like that. All wide-eyes and blinking at him like Baekhyun was just caught stealing jewelry or something.

“What’s wrong?” Jongin asks and Baekhyun forces himself to snap out of it. He doesn’t have time for this, he has already wasted too much precious time by waiting here for Chanyeol.

“Some things happened and I have to go. Like – go,” he says, a little awkwardly and unsure if he should say goodbye now. Would that be weird? Inappropriate maybe? For some reason, he forgot that Jongin would never be satisfied with the explanation he just gave, so even if Baekhyun were to say goodbye now, he wouldn’t  just let him pass. He still tries.

“What are you talking about?” Jongin asks, grabbing Baekhyun’s wrist in a possessive manner that has the shorter student frown up at him.

“I’m not even sure, okay?” Baekhyun knows his voice sounds hostile by this point, but he doesn’t like this and he was pretty sure he had let Jongin in on that earlier. Still, he elaborates and while he does so, his anger dissipates. “There are things going on, apparently, and I’ve got this,” he says, holding up the package and shuffling past Jongin to prove the point he’s in a hurry, “and I’ve got no idea what to do with it and I need to take Chanyeol and–” The door swings against Baekhyun’s shoulder. The short student winces and shuts up, wanting to rub the sore skin, but both his hands are occupied and even tugging on his hand won’t prompt Jongin to let him go. Apparently, his roommate hadn’t properly closed the door behind him.

“I’ll go with you,” Kyungsoo announces out of nowhere, unaware that he’d hurt Baekhyun just now and unaware that the other two hadn’t followed his train of thought nor his conversation with Chanyeol. Then, though, he frowns when he sees the position Jongin and Baekhyun are in. “Get your hands off him, Jongin,” he bites, but he keeps his voice down and Baekhyun picks up on an underlying tone that he can’t identify. Jongin obeys and Baekhyun can only frown more. Jongin always listens to Kyungsoo, always does whatever the short boy asks of him and yet, Kyungsoo can’t stand the sight of him. Strange.

“It’s alright,” Baekhyun tells Kyungsoo, even though the hand on his wrist wasn’t alright at all. He wants to take the opportunity to tell Kyungsoo he shouldn’t come though. “I don’t know what all this is about, I don’t know if–” he stops. He doesn’t know if this is worth it, if it’s worth for Kyungsoo to get hurt over. Yet, the words won’t leave his lips because he wants Kyungsoo to come, even if just because Baekhyun doesn’t always know how to deal with Chanyeol.

“I’ll go with you,” Kyungsoo repeats nevertheless. He takes Baekhyun’s arm gently and leads him away from Jongin, all the way outside the building, where Baekhyun knows he’ll have to go. “I don’t know if it’s weird that I want to come with you, but I guess my guilt would eat me alive if I’d let you go without even trying to help,” Kyungsoo explains, a somewhat sheepish grin on his face, but Baekhyun is more than reassured. He’ll at least have someone around who is sane.

Speaking of sane and maybe insane, Chanyeol joins them outside soon after. Even Jongin. Baekhyun is too much absorbed in his thoughts to say something about it though, he doesn’t even notice Chanyeol’s eyes on him. Instead, he breaks the silence when he thinks it takes too long for anyone to say anything.

“So… what is all this about?” he asks, feeling he’ll never get a satisfactory answer to that. True, he’d rather have asked what the hell Jongin was doing with them, but that’s not the most important matter right now. Eventually, Baekhyun’s eyes settle on Chanyeol and the tall boy finally speaks up, his voice immediately giving away he isn’t in any of his childish moments.

“Well there’s this legend about two pillars,” he starts and Baekhyun frowns at the absurdity of that single sentence, “one of Life and one of Death. And, well, long story short – if bad things happen near the pillar of Life, the dark side is getting stronger.” The dark side. Baekhyun raises his brows and Chanyeol continues, his voice starting to sound defensive. “Most people don’t believe it, but I’ve noticed my demon getting stronger, so I guess it has to be true…” He’s now already looking down again, the tone of his voice bordering insecurity and Baekhyun isn’t aware it’s because of him. Chanyeol feels scrutinized by the last person he wants to be judged by. Added to it, Baekhyun’s mood caused the light around them to be up and the day is as bright as it would get on a rainy morning. “We have to stop it.”

Baekhyun, incapable of seeing what he’s doing to his fellow student, merely frowns. Is that really all? Is there really nothing more he’s going to say? Even after… after what Baekhyun has done for him? Absorbed that energy, made the demon subside inside of Chanyeol – and this is all the information he’s going to give him?

“Don’t you think that’s a little too vague? How are we going to stop all of that? Why am I supposed to stop all that? And how are we going to get there? And where are we supposed to go?!” Baekhyun’s voice cracks out of pure desperation. Nobody answers his question and Chanyeol looks down, looking like he’s never failed more majorly in his entire life. Of course Baekhyun feels bad about that.

For the sake of Chanyeol, he calms down, feeling the pressure that surrounds him, dissipate and when he breathes properly again, he feels the sunshine on his skin. He blinks and mentally hits himself over the head. Before he can apologize for it, though, Kyungsoo takes the package from his hands.

“We need to take a look at this, at least,” he says and everyone focuses on it. Baekhyun feels a hand on his back though and a startled glance at Chanyeol, who now stands beside him, shows him a solemn look. They briefly meet eyes and Baekhyun feels heat creep up his cheeks, wants to apologize, but Chanyeol beats him to it.

“Sorry,” he whispers and Baekhyun feels a full-blown shiver and goose-bumps erupt all over his body. He doesn’t even care whether Kyungsoo and Jongin notice his dumb-struck expression.

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I'm so sorry for being terribly late!! T_T I had something major happening to me and it made me lose all kind of focus, so I've been all over the place :c 

I hope you can still enjoy the update! And thank you so much to everyone who has subscribed, upvoted and left me a comment! <3 you're the best! I hope you can continue to let me know what you think! <3