With that, what felt like a meeting inappropriately short for deciding whether or not they would fight Sehun to the death if he returned was ended. The members had a hard time convincing their bodies to move, and several of them, mainly Xiumin and D.O. who would be alone if they returned to their rooms, chose to stay together in the room. Lay, on the other hand, trying his damndest to avoid the white elephant floating between him and Suho, took the first few steps toward his room, paused, and deflated before trudging toward Suho’s.

This time he closed the door behind them fully, a trivial thing that Suho didn’t fail to catch.

Lay smirked slightly. “Here we are again.”

“Well, there’s ways to avoid that,” Suho said, striding slowly over to take a seat on his bed. Elbows on his spread-apart knees, he rested his nose on top of his entwined fingers, looking over them at the man in front of him.

“I didn’t have the luxury of speaking to you before you called the meeting.”

Suho raised an eyebrow. “And you would have brought it up.”

“Actually, in this case, I would have.” Lay felt uncomfortable, nearly in front of Suho’s piercing, judgmental eye, but as good as Suho was at reading emotions, Lay wasn’t completely hopeless at masking his.

“What is it?”

“I don’t think it’s Sehun’s fault.”

Not entirely sure how to respond, Suho settled for merely adjusting himself on the bed, breaking his gaze and forfeiting his de facto battle for dominance with Lay.

“Please go on.”

“What if it’s Chen’s doing?”

Suho kept quiet, giving Lay a silent look that indicated he needed to stop pausing in his natural, polite, if-it-pleases-the-court manner after every sentence he spoke.

“I don’t know if this is possible, but I mean, Chen’s power is electricity, right? Brain waves run on electricity. What if he altered Sehun’s brain waves?”

“You’re missing proof that that’s possible as well as a motive.”

“I know.” Lay’s gaze fell to the floor, and Suho’s eyes narrowed ever so slightly in curiosity. “That’s why I have to go to talk to him.”

“Chen?”

“No, not Chen.”

“…Sehun?”

“Did you forget about him already?”

Suho took several seconds of pause before he realized who Lay was referring to. When he did, his hands fell away from his face and Suho once again locked eyes with Lay.

“He’s not going to help you.”

“It’s worth a shot.”

“You’re better off looking for evidence off of Chen directly.”

“I’ve been trying that for the past several months,” Lay said. “If he’s doing anything suspicious, it’s at his girlfriend’s house.”

“Follow him there. Or get Kai to follow him there.”

“I don’t want them to know until I’m certain as I can be what we’re up against.”

A moment of pause.

“If I can’t get any information, I’ll do as you say anyway,” Lay concluded. “But if this might be able to help, at all, I want to try.”

“…Fair enough.” Suho conceded. “But Kai and I are going with you.”

“No; Kai doesn’t need to know yet, and there’s no way he’ll talk to all three of us.”

“I’m aware of that, but it’s too dangerous to go into the city by yourself. We won’t go in with you, but we’re going there with you. Plus Kai’s going to need to know sooner or later.”

Lay closed his eyes, knitting his fingers together under the pressure of the decision. “Fine. But we’re going now. It’s better to have time on our side.”

A text from Lay caught Kai right before he’d begun drifting back to sleep.

“Get prepared to go out and come over to Suho’s room now. Don’t catch Chen’s attention. Anyone asks, make up a story about where you’re going. Will explain later.”

“Can the explaining please start now?”

The three had managed to get fully dressed and ready while drawing little attention from the others in the group, but leaving the dorm was going to be another issue. While leaving with as little fanfare as possible would be ideal, if anyone came looking for them and they’d up and disappeared it would be even more problematic.

“I’ll explain when we get outside," Lay promised. "Just follow our lead, okay?”

Suho left first, Lay using him and Kai as shields to keep the others from seeing any subconscious strange looks on his face that might raise flags in the minds of the others.

“Anyone want anything from the store?” the leader called out to the members remaining in the living room. Xiumin, D.O., and Baekhyun shook their heads.

“Could you get some more of the yogurts?” Tao asked.

“My mom just sent a ton of them,” Xiumin said, confused as to why Tao could possibly want more at this time.

“I drank all the pineapple ones…”

Baekhyun shook his head. “No one likes the pineapple ones, Tao; that’s why there were only like six in there.”

“Pineapple yogurt,” Tao called out again to the store team, ignoring his newfound haters.

“Got it,” said the boys who, in the controversy, had already made it to the entrance and were breathing silent sighs of relief.

“Explanations…” Kai whined. They'd taken their bikes and were now rolling at high-speed on their way through the park, one of their many typical routes when they didn’t want to be followed by sasaengs on foot or in cabs.

Suho left the floor to the one with the theory. “Lay?”

“The quick answer is that I think Chen’s the one behind this, and I’m going to need your help later in getting some answers.”

“Woah woah wait, by ‘this’, you mean Sehun’s-“

“Yes.”

“What do I have to do with it?” The three took a sharp right, following Suho who had realized they were finally just far enough ahead to hide without being seen by small group of girls who had unfortunately also chosen bicycles as their weapons of choice.

“I don’t need you today per se; that was Suho’s call,” he whispered while hiding behind the large shrubs. “But once I figure out how to handle this, I will absolutely need your help.”

“He wants to alert as few people as possible,” Suho added, eyes following their stalkers as they sailed past, only slowing slightly to make sure the boys hadn’t turned down the straightaway to the left of the main path. “So since you’ll have to know anyway and I don’t want us leaving the house alone, I asked you to come along.

“You two are together, so why do you-“

“You’re here for Suho’s protection while I’m inside. I’m going to go visit him.”

“…Sehun?”

“No,” Lay drawled as the three picked back up down the straightaway the girls had failed to turn down, “Not Sehun. The only guy who might have some answers as to whether or not Chen could possibly be controlling Sehun.”

Kai took pause as had Suho, but he was able to figure it out far more quickly.

“You don’t mean…

“I do.”

“Do you really think he’ll talk to you?”

“That’s what I told him.”

“It’s worth it to try to find out, isn’t it?”

“No,” Kai said sourly, shaking his head to coax some hairs that had gotten on the wrong side of the wind out of his face. “I want my bed back.”

After a couple of moment of Kai sulking in silence, a smile started to creep on to Suho’s face.

“You’re still cycling with us.”

“The only thing more inconvenient than you two right now is being mobbed by sasaengs.”

The three shared a laugh and continued chatting normally, reaching the train station with no more stalker drama, and after a couple of transfers arrived at their destination station in about 40 minutes.

“Uh, Lay?” Suho asked, as they emerged from the underground station into the relatively quiet neighborhood of high-rises surrounding it.

“Hm?”

“Do you even remember where he lives?”

“…”

“…”

“…I figured the way would come to me, or maybe… I….. could….. sense……. him………?” As Suho’s eyelids lowered further and further, the words came out of Lay’s mouth more and more slowly. “Whaaat, I didn’t try yet!”

Suho’s eyes didn’t budge. “Go ahead.”

Lay closed his eyes and focused his energy, but other than the two standing next to him, he received no response. The look on his face said it all to Suho.

“I hate you.”

“I hate both of you hyungs right now,” the stil-grump Kai sighed, beginning down a street as if-

“Kai, you remember where he lives?”

He gave back a half-hearted smile. “I could never forget.”

Eight minutes into their walk, Lay started to be able to sense a third presence other than his. As Kai lead the way down the various streets in the suburb, as expected, it only grew stronger, and along with it, so did the tension in the bodies of the two nearest him. He couldn’t sense the emotion itself, but he could feel the small bursts of adrenaline being released, the occasional deep and slow heartbeat, and he didn’t need his powers to realize it had gotten really quiet.

“It’s that one.” Kai pointed to one of the modern and sleek but identical-looking silver and gray towers. “Floor 11, room D.”

“He won't let us in if we buzz him. Kai, can you-“

Suho’s question was answered mid-sentence by Kai shaking his head. “I used too much yesterday.”

“I can recharge you,” Lay offered, preparing to transfer some of his pure energy to Kai, a technique he had only recently been able to perfect.

“No.” Suho put a hand on Lay’s shoulder, pulling him back from Kai. “More important that this is for you to stay charged in case someone gets hurt next time.” Lay began to open his mouth in protest, but upon meeting eyes with Kai realized that Suho was right. As important as this mission was to him, the more fundamental mission was to keep himself and everyone else alive.

He kept eye contact with the youngest of the three. “Do you think you can see whether or not he’s up there right now?”

Kai narrowed his eyes, counting floors in his head until he reached the rather minimalist balcony that belonged to unit 11D.

“Let’s find out. Come around here,” he said, ducking with the others into an alley where no one who happened to be gazing out of the window of the condos would notice him vanish.

When they were hidden enough for his contentment, crouching behind a set of dumpsters, Kai’s presence disappeared from aside them and reappeared flush against the wall of the balcony to the left of the sliding door, which luckily didn’t have any surprises waiting for him that had been hidden out of his limited line of sight. Another of luck had the unit facing the north side of the building, which meant that although the day was bright with only a few clouds meandering through the skies, seeing through the glass of the sliding door wouldn’t be as much of a challenge as it would if the sun were beaming directly into it.

The bright day posed a challenge at first, but Kai was still able to see inside well enough to make out individual objects. A plain, dark wood kitchen table with four white chairs he knew had never all been used at once. A kitchen that was a bit cluttered, but had everything in a place. Edging his luck further, he inched himself ever so slightly toward the door, increasing his field of vision one degree at a time. Finally, a sofa came into his field of view, as well as the unmistakable individual sitting on it.

Lay and Suho jumped slightly as Kai reappeared slightly further down the alley, but their looks rapidly changed from startled to expectant.

Kai simply nodded.

While it was good news for Lay’s plan, and he and Suho exchanged grins, it was now a matter of getting into the apartment. With a 20-floor high-rise, though, there is always someone coming or going, and it didn’t take long before the group were able to follow a young, rather glamorous-looking couple in the door.

“You two stay down here." Lay ordered as they took a moment to take in the star-studded modern silver-and-black lobby; it had been updated since the last time they'd been there. A place there was not inexpensive by any standards even back in the day, but now it looked to be nearly unaffordable. "I doubt there’ll be anywhere to keep hidden from him on the upper floors.”

Kai and Suho were content to do as they were told, quickly making themselves at home in the luxurious are. Lay couldn’t help but give a small smile, which was quickly swallowed again by the ocean of anxiety that was his emotional pool.

“You’ve dragged us this far,” Suho said with a reassuring smile, bringing a hand with the same purpose down on Lay’s shoulder. “Call me silly, but… I actually have a bit of hope myself.”

Lay could only nod in reply, worried that something other than words would come up if he opened his mouth.

“You’ll be fine.” Suho gave him a small push toward the elevator, one of which was already present at ground level.

“And Lay?” he added as the younger turned to face him through the threshold of the elevator.

“Say hi to Kian for me.”