It was a rough night.

First, Min Jee was more shook up over the whole ordeal than she let on and Chen noticed it when her hand kept shaking as she drank some hot chocolate that he made. He was sympathetic over it and sat beside her silently, as if reassuring her that she was alright especially when the man that attacked her was sitting a few ways away from where she was sitting.

Second, Jaehyo kept silent no matter how much Luhan threatened to cut certain parts of his body off even though it was obvious that Jaehyo was frightened by the way he shook in his seat. He did his best ignoring the male questioning him until Chanyeol had to pull Luhan away when he grasped the young man’s shirt in anger for not answering any of his questions.

“It’s late and we can try again tomorrow, he’s still going to be here after all,” Chanyeol said trying to talk reason into Luhan.

Luhan just glared at Chanyeol but he did let go of Jaehyo’s shirt.

By then it was a couple of hours into the dark of the night already and Baekhyun retired to his bedroom already. In terms of Chen, he seemed to have a lot of energy to keep him going for a while as opposed to Min Jee who was trying not to doze on a very comfortable sofa cushion after she finished her hot coco.

At that point Luhan’s frustration has risen to the point he just stalked away furiously to burn off some steam after Chanyeol had forced him to let go of Jaehyo.

“What now?” Min Jee asked, trying to suppress a yawn.

“Chen, do you have a spare room?” Chanyeol questioned the male instead.

Chen nodded. “Tons, just take your pick.”

“Okay,” Chanyeol said then turned to Min Jee. “Luhan and I will take turns watching Jaehyo tonight.”

“And then?”

“We’ll wait and see.”

Min Jee’s eyes narrowed at him, and Chanyeol shrugged.

“I actually have no clue,” the male admitted. “Luhan told me nothing, other than the fact we’re meeting someone tomorrow.”

“Shouldn’t you know more?” Min Jee asked. “I mean, you’re colleagues of sorts aren’t you?”

Chanyeol sighed. “Everyone has their secrets apparently. He’s entitled to his own.” The male travelled to Jaehyo then who was watching silently. Chanyeol grabbed him by the ties around his hands as he loosened the ones that wrapped around his waist and chest, connecting him to the chair. Afterwards Chanyeol hauled Jaehyo up, pulling him along. “Let’s go hotshot, time for your beauty sleep. Looks like you’re in desperate need of it.”

When he left with the male, Chen finally spoke up. “In other words Luhan doesn’t trust Chanyeol enough.”

Min Jee raised an eyebrow. “Really?”

Chen nodded slowly while he rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “They’re more dysfunctional than I expected, and I thought we were bad.”

“Excuse me?”

Chen scoffed. “You have to admit, you have been keeping things from me.”

“Not anymore!” Min Jee defended. “You’re a part of it as much as I am.”

“Yeah I know. I just needed to be reminded of that fact once in a while,” Chen responded with a smirk.

She narrowed her eyes at him. She wasn’t in the mood to banter back, not that she did the first place. “I’m leaving now.”

Min Jee got up only to pause when Chen grasped her hand. She glanced at him confused.

“You alright? I mean, if something’s bothering you, just tell me. That’s why I’m here.”

Min Jee couldn’t help but give him a small smile. “I just need some sleep.”

Chen didn’t push—she was thankful for that—instead letting go of her hand. “Okay well sweet dreams,” he replied.  

She repeated the sentiment before she left for her room.

Sleep however, would not come to her so easily. The moment she shut her eyes, her mind conjured up horrendous images of everything falling apart before her eyes and there was nothing she could do to stop it. People she cared about, whom she knew fell into an abyss of the unknown—gone from existence. Repetitive scenes of raging storms and fires that scorned the lands around her burned into her mind.

Anxiety gripped Min Jee and it kept her up for almost half of the night as she stared at the ceiling, gripping the sheets of her blanket tightly within her hands.

It was only around dawn that her body was exhausted enough that she fell into a light slumber but the last thing on her mind was that she had to get the box back no matter what.

Fuelled by a few hours of sleep, Min Jee was groggy and less than cheerful as the sun greeted her through the windows and she was reduced to cocooning in her bed even further. When Baekhyun appeared at her door to wake her up, she threw a pillow at him and he quickly ducked out of sight out of fright from her very good aim.

It was silent after that but because of the startle of Baekhyun’s loud voice greeting her Min Jee was fully awake even though she didn’t want to be.

However on the bright side, the new day would mean getting more information from Jaehyo and thus bring them one step closer to finding the stolen box.

As Min Jee sat up in bed, she stopped in the middle of rubbing her eyes and thought to herself, when did interrogating someone become a normal occurrence for her?

She let out a sigh. The moment she found the box, she supposed, that everything she once knew changed after that.

When Min Jee entered the kitchen, she instantly found Baekhyun who waved at her by kept a certain distance between them, obviously still wary of her. She would have laughed but from the lack of sleep, she wasn’t exactly in a jolly mood.

Chanyeol was present sitting at the table reading something on his phone, but Luhan and Chen were notably missing.

As she prepared herself a bowl of cereal (apparently with Kyungsoo not around, the residents of the mansion couldn’t cook to save a life) Min Jee inquired about the two.

It was Chanyeol who answered her over a sip of his coffee. It was black, she noticed. She didn’t take him as the type of guy to drink the caffeinated beverage without at least some sugar or cream to dilute the strong taste. But no wonder he seemed exuberant from the days she had spent time with him.

“Luhan is keeping watch of Jaehyo and I think Chen is still sleeping?”

Chanyeol glanced at Baekhyun for a confirmation of the fact but the male shrugged.

“He wasn’t in his room when I checked so I have no clue where he’s gone,” Baekhyun said.

Min Jee nodded. Feeling as though she had nothing to contribute to the idle morning chitchat th