“Where is he? Is he okay!?”

Donghae burst through the room, all the colour drained out of his face. His head snapped left and right, as he panted while trying to catch his breath. Once Donghae’s eyes landed on his friend however, his face went from pure worry to an expression of anger.

“Kim Ryeowook, you ing idiot.” Donghae gritted his teeth as he walked towards Ryeowook who lowered his head in guilt.

Ryeowook’s eyes teared as he looked up at Donghae with an apologetic expression, “I’m… I’m sorry, Hae. I’m so sorry.”

“I told you to stay!” Donghae’s eyes raged with frustration, “I told you not to leave until I got back, didn’t I!? NOW LOOK AT WHAT YOU DID!”

“Donghae, stop.” This time it was Sungmin who was pulling the jock back, struggling as he held onto him. “Please stop making a scene, people are watching.”

Donghae pushed Sungmin’s hands away and yelled loudly. He kicked a nearby wall hard and then slumped against it, lowering his head into his hands as the emotions finally took control of his body and he burst out in quiet sobs. Sungmin glanced at Ryeowook with an unreadable look before he sunk down next to Donghae and rubbed the other’s back soothingly.

“Eunhyuk will be okay, Hae.” Sungmin whispered. “I promise he will.”

“He was ing shot, Min.” Donghae cried in between sobs.

Sungmin continued rubbing Donghae’s back, unsure of what he should say. His emotions were also all over the place. Not knowing where his own lover was, if he was alive or dead or if he was even okay was killing him and now, to top it all off, they received news that Eunhyuk had been shot.

Sungmin couldn’t remember exactly what happened but he knew that the last thing that happened before this was that Donghae and him were stuck in a room at the Sapphire Sanatorium. A fire broke out and that was the last thing Sungmin remembered. When he woke up however, he wasn’t dead. He was very much alive and they were somewhere far away from the hospital. Someone had pulled them up, Sungmin felt it. Donghae was convinced that it was Heechul but Sungmin didn’t want to believe that yet. The news of the Sanatorium catching fire spread fast and thankfully no one was injured and the firefighters were able to come on time and put out the fire. The news reported that they received an anonymous phone call and Sungmin suspected that whoever that pulled them out was also the person who contacted the fire department.

But they received H’s text shortly after they woke up and Sungmin was curious. Obviously, the one that created the fire was H or maybe someone from the H team. The person locked the door before leaving making sure that both Sungmin and Donghae could not escape the room. H wanted to kill them but how did H ended up sending the text a few hours later? How did H knew that both Donghae and Sungmin were alive?

Unless…. Sungmin cursed. God dammit. H must have received a notification about their whereabouts from the GPS tracker from their phones! Sungmin’s phone was switched on throughout the whole night and H must have realized that they had escaped. .

But that wasn’t the worst part of the night. Nope, nearly dying in a fire wasn’t even close to the worst part of the whole damn night. It was that Ryeowook had accidentally ratted out Heechul’s secret – That the body wasn’t his, that Kim Heechul could still be alive. Ryeowook had initially wanted to meet Heechul, wanting everything to end and he fell for H’s trap. H was about to kill him but Eunhyuk and Kyuhyun jumped in and saved Ryeowook. Kyuhyun managed to pull Ryeowook away, however, Eunhyuk was shot in the arm and was brought to the hospital immediately.

Ryeowook explained everything on phone while Sungmin and Donghae rushed to the hospital. Donghae was driving and it was a huge mistake to let him drive. He drove like a ing maniac and Sungmin knew now that he should never let Donghae drive anymore if he’s under a lot of stress. Donghae was shaken by the news of his boyfriend being shot and was currently annoyed and frustrated at Ryeowook for letting something like this happen.

“Ryeowook…” Sungmin quietly begun. “Maybe… Maybe it’s best if you leave.”

Ryeowook stared at his friend, unsure of what he was supposed to feel. Hurt?

Sungmin then quickly shook his head, not wanting Ryeowook to misunderstand his intentions. “I mean… I heard that you collapsed too when you heard the gunshot. Maybe you should get some rest at home.”

Ryeowook shifted his gaze from Sungmin to Donghae. “Maybe… Maybe… I should stay.”

“Eunhyuk is in the intensive care unit. We won’t be able to see him until the doctors say that his condition is stable.” Sungmin reasoned out, “Donghae and I will stay here and wait but you need your rest. You’ve went through a lot, tonight.”

Ryeowook blinked away his tears, gazing at Donghae who had yet to lift his head up and look at him. He swallowed guilty and then nodded. Maybe, right now, Donghae needed space away from him and he would give his friend that. Ryeowook stood up from his seat and then walked over to Donghae, squatting down in front of him. Ryeowook placed his hand on top of Donghae’s, trying to calm his uneven breathing.

“Hae… I’m…. Really sorry.” Ryeowook sincerely apologized. He really was sorry. He meant it.

It took a few seconds but Donghae finally glanced up. His eyes were bloodshot red and his face looked exhausted. Donghae sighed and then squeezed Ryeowook’s hands, telling him with a husky voice, “Get some rest, Ryeowook.”

Ryeowook nodded, feeling his eyes wet. Before he could get up though, Donghae pulled onto his wrist. “Ryeowook…”

Ryeowook glanced at Donghae, waiting patiently for what was coming his way. He wouldn’t mind it. Even if Donghae spat curses at him, Ryeowook knew he deserved all of them.

“Please… Get some answers from Kyuhyun.” Donghae quietly told him. “If he saved you… It means that he’s not working for H.”

Ryeowook nodded, knowing that that was the only way he could do to help them now at the moment. He turned around and headed outside to the hospital’s lift lobby and then leaned against the wall while he waited. Kyuhyun had gone off to the cafeteria to get coffee for Ryeowook and wasn’t back. A little while later, he heard Kyuhyun’s voice.

“Hey Wookie.”

Ryeowook’s eyes slit opened, “Hey.”

“What’s wrong? Why are you out here?” Kyuhyun worriedly asked.

“Donghae and Sungmin wants me to go home and get some rest.” Ryeowook answered and then thanked Kyuhyun as the other gave him his coffee. “Can you send me home, Kyu?”

“Of course.”

Kyuhyun then lead the way to the car park of the hospital and Ryeowook got into his car. They drove in silence and Ryeowook preferred it that way. Kyuhyun must have questions, he knew Kyuhyun was burning with them but thankfully, kept it away from Ryeowook knowing that he was not in the mood to talk about what just happened tonight. Soon enough, Ryeowook found himself drifting off to sleep against the cool surface of the car’s window, the exhaustion of everything’s that happened finally catching up with him.

***

When Ryeowook awoke, he was already in bed. Ryeowook blinked, confused however as he glanced left and right. This was not his room. A second later, he noticed Kyuhyun walking into the room with a small smile formed on his lips. Kyuhyun was wearing different clothes as compared to the day before and his hair was damp, like he had just came out from the shower.

“Hey, good morning.” Kyuhyun greeted.

“Morning?” Ryeowooks sleepily croaked.

“Yeah, it’s ten-thirty.”

Ryeowook tilted his head, “Why am I here?”

“I brought you home.” Kyuhyun replied quietly and then sat next to Ryeowook on the bed, “Wookie… I’m worried for you after what happened last night.”

Ryeowook tensed as the events of last night came whirling through his mind.

“I know you’re still not in the mood to talk about this but… I need to know what happened.” Kyuhyun softly begged, reaching out to trace soft fingers against Ryeowook’s cheeks. “I’m worried for you.”

Ryeowook sighed, avoiding Kyuhyun’s gaze. “It’s a long story, Kyu.”

Kyuhyun smiled, “I’ve got all day, honey.”

“Before I tell you everything I… I have to know… Are… Are you… In the H team?”

Ryeowook’s heart clenched as he waited for an answer. But there was no expression on Kyuhyun’s face that looked like he was surprised. Instead, Kyuhyun looked confused as he asked, “H team? What’s that?”

Ryeowook wanted to breathe out a sigh out relief but he was still too afraid. He wanted to believe that Kyuhyun wasn’t working with H, he really wanted to. In fact, Kyuhyun had even saved him. But… Ryeowook saw it with his own eyes, he heard it when his own ears. Kyuhyun had been at Yunho’s apartment and they were talking about Kibum. He definitely had to have something to do with this mess.

“So why are you working with Yunho?” Ryeowook questioned and then begun revealing everything, “I… When you went to his apartment to return his laptop… I was there… I was hiding in the closet…. I heard you talking about Kibum…. Did you know that Kibum was expelled from school? Were you the reason Kibum was expelled? Were you also a member for the N.E.W club?”

Kyuhyun’s eyes widened as he stared at Ryeowook, paralyzed. “How… How did you know about the club?”

Ryeowook felt his eyes begin to water, “Kyuhyun… Please… You… You have to tell me everything… Even if hurts… I have to know.”

Kyuhyun’s expression fell as he hung his head in shame. “Ryeowook… If I tell you… You have to promise that you won’t leave me…. I… Those mistakes I’ve made… They’re all big mistakes I’ve regretted making in the past. I’m different now. I’m not the person who I used to be.”

“Whether I stay or leave… That’s my decision to make.” Ryeowook strongly told Kyuhyun, “Now… Tell me everything, Kyuhyun.”

“I… I… Yes… I was a member of the N.E.W club. Yunho and Kangin were initially in the club and they took an interest in Heechul’s personality when he first joined the school. Heechul joined them and then he persuaded me to join too. We… We did bad things, Wookie. We shouldn’t have but we did. We wanted to know everyone’s secrets and we-”

“- Provided ‘illegal services’ for secrets.” Ryeowook interrupted Kyuhyun, “I know what you guys did. Don’t ask me how but I know.”

Kyuhyun swallowed, “I did the hacking while the rest did the manipulating and the scheming. We were a good team until Yunho got bored of the idea of knowing everyone’s secrets. He came up with the idea of pranking people and so, we went around taking videos of us playing pranks on everyone. At first, it was funny. But after some time, people starting getting hurt. So… I quit the group. They didn’t need me anyway. There wasn’t any more hacking that needed to be done.”

“I… Wook, you’ve got to know that I felt bad. Secrets are meant to be kept as secrets but I was greedy. I wanted to know about everyone and then… Those pranks that we did… Some people got severely hurt… And I… I just wished that I realized that it was all wrong.”

Ryeowook chewed on his bottom lips, thinking back of the information Sungmin had told him about Leeteuk’s death. “When you said you hurt people… Does that include… Leeteuk?”

“N.. No.” Kyuhyun answered, looking slightly puzzled. “Who is Leeteuk?”

“So… You didn’t kill Leeteuk….” Ryeowook ignored Kyuhyun’s question. “And then… What about Yunho’s laptop?”

“Well… Yunho called me last week. He told me that he found out that someone had hacked into his laptop system and stole the files we kept back when we were in N.E.W club. The files contained everyone’s… Secrets. Yunho didn’t want anyone to know about them, he was over the phase of wan