Baekhyun ran, he didn’t stop until he reached the park near at the end of the road and he felt like pins and needles had taken over his body. His blood felt like ice coursing through his body, making him break out in cold sweat.

He wanted to run for his life – get away from the flashbacks and visions infiltrating his mind, but he couldn’t.

He can’t run from himself.

His ears muted all the sounds around him. He couldn’t hear anything, not the wind, not the water, nor Chanyeol’s voice calling out his name.

The walls were closing in on him, he felt like he was trapped inside an elevator on fire in an abandoned building. Dying, but no one could hear him scream.

He didn’t register that the person in front of him was Chanyeol, he simply saw a face and furrowed eyebrows and panicked further, his brain taking the facial expression as angry and therefore unsafe.

He wanted to move away from the person, but he couldn’t. He couldn’t move his limbs. His mind went into haywire when the person continued to touch him. He tried to voice out a protest, but his neck felt like someone was squeezing it. Was it the person? Were they the one squeezing his neck? Are they trying to kill him?

He panicked more, moving his arms up in his haste to get away and clawed at his neck to make the person let go. He heard shouts of protest and he swears he heard Chanyeol’s voice yell, “Stop, Baekhyun! You’re hurting yourself!” But how could he be hurting himself? It was the man. The man was hurting him; he was trying to stop the man. Baekhyun wasn’t that stupid to try and hurt himself.

He felt someone grab his arms and hold them in place with a firm grip. “Baekhyun, stop! It’s only me, Chanyeol! It’s okay – you’re okay!” He heard the same voice urge. “I’m not going to hurt you, Baekhyunnie. You’re safe. You’re safe with me.”

Chanyeol. The man was Chanyeol. He is safe with Chanyeol.

“That’s it Baekhyunnie. Shh. You’re safe. You’re okay. No one is going to hurt you.” Chanyeol hushed the pink-haired boy. He was crouching down in front of his shaking friend, holding his wrists to stop him from scratching at his neck. Even in the darkness of the night he could see the pink lines forming. When he noticed that Baekhyun was actually looking at him, not just staring but not really seeing, he let go of the other’s wrists and rubbed his arms soothingly.

“Chanyeollie?” Baekhyun called out in a soft, shaky voice.

“Yeah, Baek. It’s me.” Chanyeol said as he reached out slowly, not wanting to spook the smaller. Baekhyun didn’t flinch or recoil from his touch, instead he clutched tightly onto the front of the taller male’s shirt and refused to let go. Chanyeol wrapped his arms around the other and gently lifted him up. “Wrap your legs around my waist so it’s easier to carry you.”

Baekhyun shook his head against his neck and mumbled out a soft, “Can’t.”

Chanyeol sighed and wrapped his legs around his waist himself. He carried the boy back to the others who were waiting for them. They were leaning on a sleek black car and the man from before was gone, thankfully.

“Is he okay?” Jongin asked with a concerned face.

Chanyeol shook his head, and the others’ faces only contorted with more worry.

“He’ll be okay, though, I think.”

They made their way back to the dorm and were greeted by the worried faces of their other bandmates. Jongdae quickly explained the situation as Chanyeol took Baekhyun to his bedroom so he could rest. He didn’t stay with him, though. He went back out into the living room with the others, but not before tucking the younger in and making sure he was sound asleep. This wasn’t something small. Tomorrow, probably the whole of Korea – if not the whole world would know of the incident. Baekhyun and the rest of the group would be hit with flames from all around. Hopefully, the support would be the water to the flames.

Chanyeol was upset with Baekhyun, though. He knew that the singer didn’t understand social situations, but this was something he couldn’t just brush off. There’s no way Baekhyun didn’t pick up any suspicious vibes from the other man, and he’s even been in that kind of situation before. You’d think he would have learnt, but apparently not.

He knows it’s not Baekhyun’s fault, but he can’t help feeling somewhat frustrated with the younger.

It was going to be tough tomorrow, and they knew they’d have to make an official appearance to talk about the situation. The problem is that most of them have schedules tomorrow, and the only people available are Kyungsoo, Sehun, and Baekhyun himself. Baekhyun sure as hell wasn’t going to be sent out after something like that – not that anyone would expect him to, and Sehun really isn’t good with words.

That’s how Kyungsoo got himself into this situation.

“Why was he left alone? Isn’t it the hyungs’ responsibility to make sure he’s safe? Especially someone with a disability.”

This MC was seriously getting on Kyungsoo’s nerves. He obviously did not care at all for their situation, only for the information he was getting. Kyungsoo knew what he was going to say much before he was even forced to come onto the show, but this MC had been asking him all sorts of dumb questions.

“They didn’t know it was going to happen,” Kyungsoo began. “When they left there was no one around, Baekhyun was completely safe and they were only gone for a few minutes.”

“A few minutes is enough time for something to happen, though.”

Kyungsoo was almost at his limit. Why the hell was the guy blaming them when it was the sick bastard’s fault for trying to kidnap him in the first place?

“Did Baekhyun-ssi not notice that he was being kidnapped?” The MC continued and Kyungsoo sighed.

“Baekhyunnie has a big heart,” He started. “It’s his greatest attribute, but it’s also his greatest weakness.”

“Why?” The MC asked.

“Because people abuse it,” He says with a bitter tone. “He trusts too much, loves too much, gives too much yet never takes. He’s always the one that ends up hurt, for some reason. But he never stops. He just keeps on trusting, keeps on giving, keeps on loving, and keeps on getting hurt.”

“It is understandable, though. His disability keeps him from understanding things such as that.”

Kyungsoo glared at the man. “No. It’s not understandable. The fact that he keeps getting hurt has nothing to do with his disability. It’s everyone else – the people that do the hurting, that are the ones at fault. He’d be perfectly fine if people would stop hurting him and start giving back to him.”

The MC seemed taken aback and Kyungsoo inwardly smiled proudly. He usually doesn’t talk much during interviews, but he managed to nail this one pretty well. The director of the news program decided to stop the interview there before the MC can make it any worse for himself, and Kyungsoo went home happily.

Baekhyun still hadn’t woken up when he got home. He wasn’t surprised, though. From what Chanyeol told them, he wouldn’t be surprised if the singer slept for a month. He’s not unfamiliar with panic attacks at all. He’s had his fair few of them, though probably to a lesser extent. They’ve all had their fair few of panic attacks – it’s normal for people in their profession. It got easier as time passed and they got more used to performing in front of thousands of people, though.

“I watched the interview.” Sehun joined Kyungsoo on the couch. “Everything you said was true. I didn’t think you had the guts to say something like that on live TV,” He chuckled.

Kyungsoo glared at him, “Well, it was easy considering what it was about. I’d do the same for any of you if you were in that situation. And I’d like to think you guys would, too.”

“Yeah. I wonder what’s going to happen from now on.” Sehun said.

The shorter threw him a questioning look. “What do you mean?”

Sehun pursed his lips. “Like, what are we going to do about Baekhyun? We won’t be able to leave him alone at all anymore, and we all have schedules almost daily so that’s not possible.”

Kyungsoo thought for a moment.

“It’s not like we all always have individual schedules, though. If there’s ever a time where we’re all out, it’s a group schedule. And that means Baekhyunnie would be there, too.”

“I guess so. But still, we have variety shows we’ve got to go on, how are we going to hide the marks on his neck? The reports all say that Baekhyun wasn’t harmed. Do we just let them all know he did it to himself? I don’t think he’d appreciate that.” The taller asked.

“I don’t really know. Maybe we could cover the marks with makeup?” Kyungsoo remembered back to the time when they’d visited Baekhyun and he’d covered up a bruise with the expertise of a stylist. “Baekhyun seems to be able to do that pretty well himself.”

“That’ll have to do. Has he woken up at all? Should we wake him up? Check if he’s okay?” Sehun rambled until Kyungsoo shushed him.

“He’ll wake up when he wants to.”

As if on cue, a small figure practically stumbled into the living room.

“Baekhyunnie?” Kyungsoo called out, not knowing if the younger was okay or not.

Baekhyun looked up at the sound of the other’s voice and smiled.

“Hi~” He sang, quickly shuffling over to the two and settling himself in the small gap between them.

The two members looked at each other in confusion.

“Baekhyun, are you alright?” Sehun asked, unsure. “You look overly… happy.”

The small singer looked up at Sehun and tilted his head.

“Why would I not be happy?”

The two were extremely confused at this. “Well, last night… Do you – Do you remember what happened last night?”

Baekhyun’s smile faltered a bit.

“Last night…?” He began, moving his hands up towards his neck and when he felt the ridges of shallow cuts he quickly retracted them. “It- It wasn’t a dream?”

Kyungsoo felt himself beginning to sweat, Baekhyun’s shaking was making him nervous. What if he has another panic attack? Will they be able to calm him down?

“It wasn’t a dream, Baek. But it’s alright, you’re safe now.” Kyungsoo comforted.

Baekhyun looked at him with shocked eyes before seemingly trying to shrink in on himself.

“You’re not mad at me?” He asked in a soft voice.

“Why would we be mad, Baekhyun?” Kyungsoo urged.

“Because I spoke to a stranger… People tell me not to but he just seemed really nice. I didn’t know he was a bad man.”

Just then, the rest of EXO came into the room, all looking either surprised or concerned to see Baekhyun on the couch in between the two other members.

When Baekhyun made eye contact with Chanyeol, he flinched. The other was looking at him strangely, like he was angry but not at the same time. Meanwhile Kyungsoo was mildly annoyed that they’d all interrupted his talk with Baekhyun.

The members picked up on Kyungsoo’s annoyance and one by one filed out of the room. Chanyeol didn’t greet Baekhyun at all, he simply left without saying a word.

“Is Chanyeollie angry at me?” Baekhyun asked. He’d already upset Chanyeol once, he didn’t want to do it again.

“No,” Kyungsoo smiled softly. “He’s just a bit worried.”

The pink-haired singer didn’t reply, only chose to stare at his fingers in his lap.

“Should I go say sorry?” He asked, not looking up.

“To who?”

“Chanyeollie.”

“Why do you want to say sorry to him?”

When no reply came, the two sighed simultaneously.

“Look, Baekhyun,” Sehun began. “None of us are angry with you, we all love you a lot and last night we were scared you were going to be taken away from us. That’s why Chanyeol-hyung is worried, that’s why Jongdae-hyung yelled at you last night. He wasn’t angry at you; he was angry at the man. Okay?”

At this, Baekhyun nodded his head and rested it on Sehun’s chest.

“You should go talk to him, though.” Sehun said and patted the other’s head.