Tap tap tap.

Tap tap tap.

“Ugh...what the is that…” Mark mumbled in his disturbed slumber.

Tap tap tap.

The redhead groaned in annoyance, and checked his phone for the time.

“3:17am...Who the hell is up at this hour? And on a school night?”

Putting his phone down, he pulled the blanket over his head and buried his tired face into the pillow. He didn’t want to tend to the late night visitor, especially if it was just the stupid and restless Jackson Wang. When it all became silent again, Mark slowly folded the cover down and peaked over to the window; it was pleasingly empty, with only a tree and some of the morning sky being seen.

“Thank God.”

He sighed happily and began to snuggle into his bed once more. However, the peace didn’t last as long as he wished it to, for not even a moment later, a more dominant sound echoed from the hallway.

Bang bang bang!

Bang bang bang!

“What is the name of nine almighty Hells does this er want!?”

Filled with anger, the now fully awake Mark Tuan ripped the sheets away from his bare torso and stomped his way out to the living room. With each step he took, the noise became louder and louder, signaling that it was coming from his own front door.

‘At least he remembers I have a ing door!’

He began to unlock the door as he was plotting in his head on what to exactly yell. He didn’t get the chance to, however, as when he swung the door open, his hateful glare was met with red and puffy brown eyes.

“...BamBam? What- what happened?”

The boy said nothing for a moment, just standing at the door with his eyes staring straight at the latter.

“M...M...Mark-hyung!!” BamBam cried, as he jumped straight into the redhead’s open arms, knocking them both down to the hard floor. There, he began to cry uncontrollably on his elder’s shoulder and clinging on for dear life. Mark was dumbfounded by not only the strength the small one seemed to have, but the fact that he wasn’t even accompanied by Yugyeom.

‘Wait...no Yugyeom...’

“BamBam...where’s...where’s Yug?”

His reply were only made of small sniffles, leaving Mark to only believe the darkest of possibilities.

“...He’s gone too, isn’t he…” He stated more than asked.

He heard another sniffle, and felt the boy nod into his shoulder, along with more of the tears dripping onto his skin.

"I-I went over to his house t-tonight, to, ya know, keep him company...and..."

"Was the house broken into?"

"I suppose so..." sniffle. "I-I was able t..to get into his room through the window, m-more easier than u-usual...and found paper sc-scattered everywhere..."

The poor boy seemed to still be in shock, but something about his words seemed a bit off- besides the small stutters of course -Mark just didn’t know how.

“Did you bring the papers with you?”

“Y-yeah...I-I was hoping that, m-maybe you could help me figure out w-what the papers mean...I-I haven’t even l-looked at them yet…”

Mark hummed at this.

“Come on Bam, let’s head to the kitchen real quick. I think you need something to help calm you down before you forget to eat at all. Then, we can go upstairs and sort those papers out, okay?”

BamBam sniffled once more and nodded solemnly.

‘Poor kid,’ Tuan thought, ‘losing someone like that without even a warning.’

Of course, he didn’t know what was being hidden behind the red and swollen dark eyes.

_______xOperation Kill This Lovex_______

It was a couple hours later, possibly around five, and the duo of BamBam and Mark were looking at the layout before them. After getting the sorrowful boy something to snack on, they’ve spent a majority of their night looking and placing their sheets of information with thoughtful eyes in their proper area. It was almost a shock to Mark at how thorough all of Yugyeom's statistics information were; even Mark Tuan himself wasn't that thought-out with his missions.

The given papers were separated into different groups; the information about the missing persons, the dates and the boy’s notes. Of course, they had also made a missing person’s page for Yugyeom in the process, with a photo of him that BamBam had kept in his wallet.

“How long has he worked on this?” Mark asked, as he peeked through one of the piles.

“I don’t know...” The other replied, drinking the small milkshake in his hand.

“What? You mean he never showed you this? I thought you guys were all buddy-buddy and shared everything.”

“Apparently not when it came to this sort of thing...but, I guess he didn’t want me to worry about him.”

Mark hummed in understanding, pulling out one of the handwritten notes from the pile. It seemed to be slightly damaged, with tears at the sides and erase marks hidden behind the pencil markings that Yugyeom had made. The notes themselves were about the disappearance of Jaebum, which from the look of it, seemed to have been copied from the news and interviews of the fatherly boy’s parents.

‘This boy is definitely smarter than he had let on.’ Mark complimented thoughtfully.

"What're you reading?" BamBam asked as he looked over the other's shoulder.

"Huh? Oh, uh, these are just some notes that the boy took from the recent interview with Jaebum's parents."

"Oh...Aww, look! He color coded on who said what! And there's the little key that he always makes on the side!"

"Does he organize everything?"

"Yeah, of course he does! He organizes his backpack, his textbooks, his clothes, and cleans the hell out of his house every Saturday to the point of organized perfection."

"Oh...is he OCD or something?"

"I think so, just a little bit though. It's still cute...especially when we have projects, then he starts making this mini planner of who does what and when, and how-"

Mark looked over at BamBam, who was babbling away with a dreamy look in his eyes. It was cute how attached he seemed to be with the younger, along with how joyful he would become, despite the sudden event that had happened a few hours earlier.

"-so, I shouldn’t call him OCD, but maybe just a bit more of a perfectionist, since his mom isn’t able to do as much around the house with how much she works and-”

“BamBam?”

“Huh?”

Tuan chuckled. “You’re rambling."

"Oh...sorry..."

"Oh no no, it's fine! To be honest, I think it's cute how fond you are of him."

"Ehe...well, I've always looked up to him, though I may be his elder, sort of. Hell, I don't think I can even imagine my life without him standing by me. Ever since my family and I had moved here, and when I first met him, Yugi and I were 'joined at the hip', as my mother had said..."

He went quiet, which sort of startled Mark. BamBam must've lost himself in the emptiness that he reminded himself of; Yugyeom wasn't going to be by his side for a while. Tuan then regretted bringing the sensitive subject up, but then again, it would probably be inevitable later on in the morning.

"You know, he didn't deserve to get dragged into the mess..." Kunpimook said suddenly.

"H-huh?"

"He doesn't deserve to suffer...he didn't do anything wrong...he never does anything wrong..."

"I know, BamBam, but-"

"Do you now? Because the last time I've checked, you know absolutely nothing about how to even do what you came to this damned city for!"

"Wh-What? BamBam, you probably need to calm down, you probably don't know what you're talking about-!"

"No, Mark, you just don't know what the hell to do now! Don't act as if you don't know anything about what's really going on, because we both know you do!"

Tuan looked at the boy before him in shock. Why did the boy sound so sure with his accusation? Did he actually know who Mark was, or what he was doing?

"BamBam," Mark voiced, "we can talk about that later, but right now, you need to just sit down, and I-"

"Yugyeom can't wait 'till later! Nor can Jaebum, nor Jinyoung, and I don't think Youngjae wants to be patient anymore either!"

"Then how about you shut the up and sit down, because I assure you, yelling at me throughout your little emotional rollercoaster isn't going to save them either!"

The Thai boy then went quiet again, this time with his hands clenching and unclenching out of possible anger. Mark, on the other hand, felt terrible, hateful even; he didn't mean to snap at BamBam like that, not in the state he was in. Having a former psychologist as a mother, he did know it was best to snap the patients back into the reality by slapping them with it, but BamBam was most definitely not one of those patients.

So, as an act of not only forgiveness, but for slight pity, he walked over and hugged the boy tightly.

"I'm sorry, BamBam...I'll find a way to get them back home safely, okay? Please, don't be at me, kiddo..."

He just stood there, with his knees slightly bent to BamBam's height and his arms wrapped tightly around him. Then, he heard the sniffles starting again, and arms wrapping around his lower torso.

"I'm not mad," he heard BamBam whimper, "I'm...scared."

_______xOperation Kill This Lovex_______

(Note: Hey! So, this chapter is more of a filler than anything, because I'm just not in the greatest of moods. You see, there's been some stuff going on within my family, and it's completely stressing me out, so I don't really feel like I have the time to write anything. So, in case that I end up not posting an update for a while, there is a reason!! Thank you for understanding and being patient with me <3 I'll hopefully talk to you later, my lovely Pyschopaths~!!