The search for clues was a dead end, and D.O. was unable to log on to Sehun’s computer, even with some suggestions from Tao for slight alterations to the password.

“AHHH I’m so hungry…” Chanyeol whined as he allowed himself to fall backward spread-eagle onto the common room floor. The pillow he let his head fall back onto was significantly thinner than he’d ever realized, and he grabbed his head as the pain seared through the back of it when it made contact. A grin spread over Baekhyun’s face, but Chanyeol didn’t have to see it before responding with, “Laugh and I’ll kill you.”

As if fate itself were looking out for Chanyeol (and Kai, who had entered a low blood sugar-induced borderline trance-like state,) Chen came in with the food and Suho’s change soon after. The nine ate in relative silence; whether it was the lack of energy or just not wanting to think about where in the world Sehun was, no one could know, but one could probably assume it was both. At the very least, to their knowledge no sasaengs had posted a picture of their kidnapped maknae, so there was a chance that he had left of his own volition. But why? Dinner finished in the same quiet it had began; Tao tasked himself with rinsing the disposable bowls for the recycling as the others meandered off to their rooms.

When that was finished, he went back to his own room to apologize to D.O. (who was in the midst of reading an e-book) for everything that had happened earlier; he was happy that D.O. forgave him, but to his slight dismay he had also already returned everything to its pre-Tao-nado state. With little else to do, Tao, who’d already started idly tucking in the sheets on Sehun’s bed finished the job, then moved on to organizing the rest of his friend’s things. When D.O. got up to take his shower about two and a half chapters later, he saw that Tao was gone, but he did a double take when he realized that the other side of the room was even cleaner than his. He looked outside to see that the common area was getting the same makeover treatment, and against his first instinct to see if Tao was okay, kept his mouth shut, deciding that opening it likely wouldn’t change a damn thing anyway.

“Not going to sleep tonight?”

In a house of nine, if you didn’t do something, someone else was liable to pick up where you last thought.

Chen took a seat on the opposite side of the couch from the obviously drowsy Tao, who was now going the same route as he had when he just woke up: Rubbing his eyes and speaking in a voice that had a shocking amount of aegyo for the man who owned it.

“Can’t… He might come back…”

“Guess there’s no choice then.” He sighed contentedly as he settled into the sofa, opening his laptop to resume where he’d left off on his various chat conversations.

“You don’t have to…”

“And if he comes back and you’re asleep?”

“I won’t…”

Chen smiled and rolled his eyes. “Uh-huh.”

After about ten minutes of quiet, Chen was surprised to hear the ever more groggy voice of Tao speak up once more.

“Chen…?”

“Mm?”

“Thanks…”

“Mm.”

Within another fifteen minutes, the light snoring coming from the other side of the sofa indicated to Chen that Tao had finally conked out. Smiling to himself again, he closed his laptop, and headed back to his room, the door to which he opened to reveal a half-asleep Lay in the mini-fridge.

“Chen?” Lay murmured in response to the man in the door. “It’s late…” He was half-correct; while the night-owl members could usually be counted on to still be up at that hour, everyone had gone to bed early due to the energy-draining revelation earlier.

“I know,” Chen whispered back to avoid waking Kai, “I’m going to bed. I just wanted to make sure Tao could go to sleep without any worries. What’re you doing up?”

Lay blinked in surprise. This wasn’t what he would have expected in light of the younger’s recent trends. “Thirsty,” he replied simply, and Chen nodded back; Lay getting up for something to drink in the middle of the night was no uncommon occurrence.

“Gotcha. Well, goodnight.”

“Goodnight.”

As Chen placed his laptop down on his desk and cocooned himself in the covers of his bed, Lay couldn’t help but feel-

Jeez, if he didn’t get some water in him soon, his throat was going to declare a mutiny. He grabbed a bottle from the fridge and took a drink from it, using the permanent marker they kept above it to draw an L on the cap to indicate that it was his. Thirst quenched, he slipped back under his own covers and turned over for what he hoped was the last time that night.

It wasn’t.

Lay wasn’t the lightest sleeper in the group, but Xiwang’s squeals along with the noise coming from the other side of the room was more than enough to stir him. He sat up to peer through the darkness at what he wasn’t able to see until he finally flicked on the light a few seconds later, and what he finally saw, he wasn’t prepared for at all.

“LAY…!”

He stumbled out of bed, but with a sudden burst of air was thrown back against the wall as papers swirled through the room in the aftermath. The combination was finally enough to wake heavy sleeper Kai, who a moment after looking angrily at the scene was on his feet as well.

“Sehun…?”

The younger launched Kai so hard at the bedroom door that the particle board layer splintered and the whole door broke clean off the hinges. He did an involuntary somersault before coming to rest on his stomach, momentarily dazed. Tao, still groggy with sleep, groaned at all of the noise before opening his eyes to recognize Kai, tracing the debris path and noise back to the door (now door frame) to his room.

Getting to his feet as quickly as he could, he stopped just before the doorway, first seeing a half-conscious Lay foaming at the mouth, and then a blue-faced Chen being held down by the throat by none other than Oh Sehun himself.