“hyung did you find him?” jooheon said with a pant. his voice was desperate and irritated, which was acceptable because who wouldn’t be upset waking up at 6am on a free schedule day, to join an impromptu search party to find changkyun. especially hearing that the latter was gone. he remembers being awaken by minhyuk and hearing his short explanation about the event between the eldest and the youngest. now as he was searching, he couldn’t decide if he wanted to find hyunwoo first to kick his or to find changkyun to protect him from harm’s way.  

“no i haven’t” kihyun’s voice came in a muffled short pant, indicating he was taking the phone while speed walking or probably running. jooheon glances on his watch and sees the clock ticking towards 8 o’clock and his heart thump a little faster. this was not good, they’re really running out of time. the neighborhood was a quiet place and usually on a weekend like this, not much people take a stroll around this early in the morning, but they still won’t take any chances.

“i’m going to double check the alley around the west area, hyung try checking the park.” with that, he cuts the line off, running towards the said place he mention. when he arrived, he purposely walks around the alley slower than the first time when he arrived. he tried to see if he misses something from before or if there’s another secret passage, hidden doors around the corner. as he passes the third backdoor from another building, he hears a small rustle further around the corner.

jooheon’s heart lurch with hope and a slight relief to the possibility of finding changkyun. he ran as fast as he could towards the source of the noise and after taking a turn around the end of the alley, he finally arrived at the other side. he’s already scanning around the place. it’s a dead end, only a large dumpster and another backdoor was there, still there’s no sign of changkyun. he lets out a frustrated huff, his heart dropping in disappointment and anxiousness again. just as he was about to turn around to leave the place, a creak of a door was heard. he turns to the source of sound to find hyunwoo coming out from the place.

a sudden fury surges through his body. he wanted so bad to punch some sense on hyunwoo because he made this mess in the first place. because he avoided changkyun and every time jooheon looks at changkyun’s eyes filled with hurt and sadness, he wanted to knock some sense into their leader’s irrational attitude. he restrain himself though, knowing hyunwoo was still his teammate, his friend also his leader. also, as much as jooheon still doesn’t acknowledge this, he knew how much changkyun adore hyunwoo, what they meant to each other. so he didn’t have the heart to make the younger even more sadder. jooheon takes a deep breath, urging his rage to settle for a while so that he could talk more maturely with the elder.

“hyung” jooheon calls hyunwoo and his eyes soften when he sees how much of a mess the elder was. his shirt was inside out (it looks funny honestly and if this was in another occasion, jooheon would’ve endlessly), his hair was disheveled and he looks like a cornered deer caught by a huntsman from how guilty and anxious he currently was. jooheon sees how hyunwoo stayed still, eyes pleading and jooheon anger was thrown to the back of his mind for a while.

“hyung,” his voice more softer than before, “please, tell me why are you avoiding changkyun”

he waited, seeing as hyunwoo was at his wits end from breaking down with guilt and after a long moment of silence from the both of them, the elder finally gave in.

“i’m sorry jooheon, i’m so sorry. i messed up real bad” jooheon hears him mutters slowly, than more frantically, saying sorry over and over again. he hears hyunwoo sounds so broken and sad, each words of sorry’s that he says was filled with so much guilt and regret and jooheon feels bad for almost thinking about beating him up.

“i… i know i’ve been an ” hyunwoo says again, “the reason i’ve been avoiding changkyun was-

hyunwoo’s voice was drown by a loud bang. jooheon looks around to find the source and they both inhaled sharply when they sees changkyun was there.

--

changkyun didn’t know where he was going