Kai and Suho stood immediately when they realized who was getting off of the escalator. Lay didn’t stop walking, and the two pulled in behind him.

“Did you guys talk?”

“What did he say?”

“Did you get what you needed?”

“How is he?”

“What’s he doing?

“D-“

“Yeees, I got what I needed,” Lay finally interrupted. “And he’s fine.”

“I’m guessing by his lack of not being down here he’s still not interested in talking to us.” Suho said.

“He probably didn’t tell him we were here,” Kai reminded him.

“I didn’t have to. He knew you were here, Kai.”

The youngest’s eyes widened. “What- how?”

He looked up at the balcony just long enough to see the solitary glasses-wearing figure standing, looking down from his 11^th floor perch.

The memory of Kian’s head turning to catch sight of him out of the corner of his eye, just before he teleported back to safety, was suddenly clear in front of him. By the time he thought to focus his vision back on the balcony, it was empty.

“I don’t know,” Lay shrugged.

“Does he still hate us?” Suho asked.

“…I don’t know.” Lay said again. “But he didn’t demand my using of our birth names. You can take that for whatever you will, I guess.”

It was Kai’s turn to ask again. “So did you guys figured out what was happening?”

“He thinks Chen has a rare form of power buildup where the electricity has triggered a neurological disorder, and that it’s possible for him to be controlling Sehun.”

The two Korean boys nodded slowly.

“So then why does Chen plus crazy equal Sehun trying to kill us?” Kai asked.

Lay blinked as he was taken off guard by Kai’s very logical point. He’d gotten to ‘Chen is using Sehun as a puppet for murder because he’s psycho,’ and completely ignored the next question: ‘Why does psycho Chen want us dead?’

“I think that’s something we’ll have to hear from him. Speaking of which, I have no idea how we can fix this. If he uses up all of his power at once, he should go back to normal, but do you guys have any idea of how to accomplish that?”

“Ask nicely?” Kai joked. When he didn’t receive a response from either of his hyungs, he looked over to Lay, who gave him a look.

THAT look.

“No." Kai said. "No, talking down a mentally unstable guy with the ability to shock us all to a crisp is not going to end well. It just won’t. ”

“Why couldn’t D.O. restrain him until he agreed to do so?” Suho asked as if it were simple.

“That’s what I proposed earlier to Kian, but he acted like it was an equally bad idea.”

“He also hasn’t seen D.O. in five years,” reminded Suho. "He doesn't know what he can do."

“What is that guy up to now, anyway?”

The rest of the trip home mainly involved plaguing Lay with a trivia assault’s worth of questions about his fifteen minute interaction with Kian, and when the three finally crossed the threshold into the dorm, laughing about some memory or another involving their old friend, they noticed immediately that the physical mess, to the extent that was possible, had been removed, but a heavy atmosphere still hung over the area and the three out of six members who made up its current population. Their depression conflicted with the fact that they had various activities planned for later in the day, and with them all having been pent up in the dorm for many more days than they were used to, the return to regular activities was greatly appreciated. If there were a time at which they were best at acting like everything was okay, it was during their activities, in the public eye.

“Well don’t you guys seem chipper,” Tao said, intending to say that he was happy to see them happy, but the halfhearted smile on his face saying otherwise.

“Not exactly the word I’d use, but I can see how you’d get that,” Kai replied.

One of Tao’s eyebrows rose as he realized that all six hands of the members coming in the door were empty. “Where’s my yogurt?”

“They were out,” Lay replied quickly; he had clearly been the only one to remember that they’d forgotten Tao’s request. “Where’s everyone?”

“Activities,” replied Tao and Chanyeol simultaneously, not a question even worth taking their attention away from the glow of the TV screen.

“Mmkay.” Lay replied. The rest were so preoccupied that the only one to notice Lay duck into D.O. and Sehun’s room was the sole remaining resident.

D.O. was one to read atmospheres very closely, and this rather strange situation in which Lay was seated on Sehun’s bed giving him a very serious look was no exception.

“Any particular reason you’re in here?” D.O. asked in a muted tone, as not to draw attention over the now increasing level of noise outside.

“Yeah. I need to talk to you about something.”

D.O. sat on his own bed and Lay explained everything about the situation to him, from the theories to the evidence backing them to his ideas for what D.O. could help him do about it.

“Do you think you could handle that?”

Wide eyes and a closed mouth with its lower lip bitten in thought were the response Lay got. He hesitated before speaking.

“I… The short answer is yes, but whether or not I can do it without the others noticing is a whole other story… Why can’t we tell them?”

“The more people who know, the more chance Chen has of catching on,” Lay replied, knowing that D.O. wouldn’t have asked such an obvious question without some reason for disagreeing.

“But you know, for some of us, the only way to keep their mouths closed is to tell them to,” D.O. said. Lay was fully aware that ‘some of us’ referred to a particular duo of the Beagle line, and in thinking, he agreed. Chanyeol and Baekhyun would be the first to gab loudly about D.O. acting ‘strange’.

“You’re right,” he admitted. “But what if you could do all of the hard work during filming?”

D.O. raised an eyebrow. “The variety show filming today? I’m going too.”

“You don’t have to. I’m pretty sure the manager still hasn’t called in to tell them your OST recording was postponed.”

“That’s just plain irresponsible,” D.O. huffed. “If I can go and they want me there, I should go.”

“You know I would normally be the first to agree, but this is a matter of Sehun’s life. Not to mention, possibly any or all of ours as well.”

D.O. groaned loudly and fell onto his side. “Are you sure about all of this? I mean, why would Chen do that, even if he is mentally unstable?”

Kai’s earlier question came back to him. “…I don’t know. But I won’t ask you to actually do anything until later. I want to send Kai to track him to his girlfriend’s. If he goes today, great. If he doesn’t, we’ll just have to see the hard way whether or not he’ll cooperate.”

D.O. looked up at him from his sideways position. “You’re sending Kai to track him?”

“Not alone, of course. I was thinking Baekhyun should be the one to go with him. If something happens, he can create a diversion big enough for Kai to get them out of there. It also eliminates the issue of at least him accidentally spilling the beans later on.”

“This is crazy.”

“Kyungsoo-“

“It’s crazy, but I’ll do it.”

A grin spread across Lay’s face. “If I’m wrong, I owe you big time.”

“Well, let’s just hope you’re right,” D.O. replied with a smirk, as he stood up, adjusted his shirt, and moved to open the window, beginning to funnel up the dirt he would need in order to fully contain Chen and render his power inert. “It’s about time for you guys to go, so let me get to work.”

“Gladly. This would be nearly impossible without you.”

The smirk stayed on.

“I know.”