A/N: Chess…I think I should’ve mentioned this long ago, when I write about the pieces on the chessboard, there are two sides, white and black, and each piece has a default position, either on a light or dark square of the checkerboard. So when I write “black’s/white’s dark knight”, I mean the knight that starts out on a dark square, b8 for black’s side of the board and g1 for white. This helps best for the bishops, because they are designated to move only on one of the two options, so “light bishop” only moves on light colored squares, and so on. For the majority of the pieces this detail doesn’t matter, but I think it gives order and it’s easier to understand the game by identifying the pieces.

Update 28/02/19: I had confused the names of the chess openings. All this time I had written that starting with pawn c to squares (c2 to c4) was Sicilian defense, when in fact this opening is called “English Opening”. Sicilian defense is when you advance pawn c AFTER your opponent opens with pawn e, “King’s Pawn”. So, all this time Baekhyun starts the game with English Opening.

-March 27th, 2015. Paris 09:01.

Baekhyun dreamt of flying boggers gliding above him as ran, ran and ran. Out of breath, out of luck; he felt the tips of their claws graze against the top of his head right before the earth opened beneath him. He jolted awake, gasping for air and reaching out to grab onto something to save himself from the fall, but all he managed to feel was his bed, half empty. His hazed mind wasn’t nearly awake enough to remember his name, but alert enough to realize and assure himself that he was safe and sound.

The scare was enough to force him out of his bed, only then realizing that Sehun had left the bed before him. He quickly grabbed his phone, almost out of reflex. He needed to keep it with him at all times, but he also hoped to hear from Moon.

He shuffled into the bathroom, locking the door behind him. After relieving himself, Baekhyun leaned against the sink, facing away from the mirror, and his phone.

He had two pending messages.

‘Not in Changsha. Kunming, YN. M.’

Baekhyun took a moment to process the words, trying to recollect names from his foggy memory.

His mental gears finally clicked in place. “Perfect,” he muttered to himself -voice thick and dry.

The second message read.

‘Castled King. Dark Rook f8. M.’

Baekhyun stared at the words on the screen until the message automatically vanished. Slowly he turned around, stuffing his phone back in his pocket. He put the sink stopper before turning the faucet to its maximum capacity. Water pooled up quickly. Baekhyun turned the tap off, held onto the edge and dipped his face into the water.

He yelled into the water, tensing his whole body until he was completely out of breath. He pushed himself up to gasp a quick gulp of air, and dropped back into the water, letting out everything he had.

When he was out of breath, he refused to breath. He kept his gut tight, mouth closed, and looked up into the mirror.

He could see fire in his eyes.

Baekhyun counted in his head, slowly. When he reached six his throat began to make involuntary gulps, dragging inwards, searching for air, but Baekhyun wouldn’t relent. He felt his face grow warm beneath the droplets of cold water.

He reached twenty. He still had fire in his eyes.

Baekhyun in a breath, shallow and hard, barely alleviating the burn inside his lungs. It took a couple of breaths to ease the tension he built inside.

He reached forward to open the medical cabinet, but stopped midway when he felt his vision blur. Baekhyun closed his eyes and gripped back onto the sink to control his breathing, feeling each droplet slither down his face.

He wanted to take a pill -he needed it.

He had slept in today and that was reason enough to swallow a pill -that and the message he just read. He needed to focus. He didn’t want to think of the dull ache in the pit of his stomach, nor in the sudden dizziness that halted his movements; depriving himself from oxygen might’ve not been the brightest of his ideas, but he didn’t want to dwell on that either. No, he needed to spend his thoughts wisely, and worrying over every little feeling he had would do nothing but distract him.

He forced himself to move again, reaching for the bottle and taking half an Adderall, just for the sake of not overdoing it.

He dried himself off before leaving, wanting nothing more than to check his board and figure out what to do.

Baekhyun felt his heart stutter when he saw Sehun sitting at his desk, moving the pieces on the chessboard. He held himself back from yelling out in surprise, blunt nails digging into the skin of his fisted hands. He took in calming breaths, mind working double time to assure himself that everything was fine for he had memorized the game set.

He remembered how Sehun observed his chessboard with great interest the day before, and that had caused a stir of suspicion in Baekhyun’s mind. He already had his reservations regarding the younger boy, and wasn’t fond of the idea of having to keep an eye on him.

Once he was able to breathe without feeling his heartbeat against his throat, Baekhyun relaxed his expression and approached the younger boy.

Baekhyun raked his fingers through Sehun’s hair to let his presence known -the shiver down Sehun’s body didn’t go unnoticed.

“What are you doing?” Baekhyun asked as he leaned against the back of the chair, hands resting on Sehun’s shoulders.

“I, uh, just, practicing,” Sehun said sheepishly, clearly taken aback from Baekhyun’s sudden proximity.

“I see,” Baekhyun lilted, resting his chin on top of the younger’s head.

Sehun had indeed moved the pieces on his chessboard. From what he could tell, Sehun probably started a new round, playing both sides. Baekhyun took a quick peek to the side, checking to see that his notebook remained closed -but part of him doubted that said object had remained untouched.

He returned his attention to the board, noticing how similar the moves were from his game, It was a variation of some sort, as if he had tried to copy his game but got some steps wrong.

Black had it’s pieces nearly in the same formation, the damn bishop in g7, knight in front of king in e. But he had moved black’s pawn e all the way to row 4, confronting white’s pawn in row 3 -move Baekhyun was certain he hadn’t made yet. And the dark knight was now in position a5 instead of c6.

As for the white side, Sehun had moved the dark knight to h3 and didn’t move the light knight like Baekhyun had in his set. He also hadn’t move pawn b, but he had pawns a, c and h to row 4. He also moved the queen to b3, which made no sense at all to Baekhyun.

“I, uh, back at my foster home, my father and brother knew how to play, but I didn’t get many chances to practice with them,” Sehun explained, hands fidgeting with his sweatpants.

“I can tell,” Baekhyun commented as his eyes scanned the game. “You .”

“Hey,” he said affronted, but Baekhyun only chuckled.

Even if Sehun got the steps wrong, possibly not even trying to copy him, Baekhyun felt he had to take over Sehun’s curiosity; steer Sehun to see things the way he wanted him to see them.

“Look,” he said while leaning forward, pushing Sehun down with him.

“White’s queen isn’t protected by pawns a and c in the row in front. Black’s dark knight can simply jump to b3, and take your queen.”

Baekhyun reached forward, moving the piece and chucking the queen away to the side.

“You could try to threaten the knight with your rook,” Baekhyun said as he slid the rook from a1 to position a3, to the left of black’s knight. “But then I say it, I don’t care, and take your dark bishop. You should’ve advanced that piece,” he explained, jumping the knight to position c1, taking the bishop that hadn't been moved from its initial place.

“You can come at me with your king, to try so scare my knight off into the rook’s range,” he demonstrated, pushing the king one step, from e1 to d1, and standing at the knight’s right. “Any possible jumps for the knight end up in the rook’s range, or this diagonal at e for the king to take.”

“Oh,” Sehun muttered, noticing how the knight ended up being trapped.

“But, I ain’t going down on my own,” Baekhyun said and moved the knight to jump to position d3, three squares to the rook’s right. “Frustrated from losing two important pieces, you’d probably want to knock my knight out for good. But see here?” Baekhyun indicated to the two pawns facing each other on the e column, black pawn in row 4 and white in row 3. “I don’t know what you intended with pushing these pawns forward without an attack or defense development to back them up. But if you dare take my knight, I’ll take your rook with my pawn e.”

“Oh,” Sehun said deflated.

“You could take the pawn out with your bishop first, but by then I can escape and keep my knight,” he added. “Anyway, I can easily wreck you with just a knight and a pawn, because you weren’t paying attention to both sides,” Baekhyun explained, leaning back and taking his weight off of Sehun. “That was a ty use of your pawns, too many gaps. And why the did you put your queen there? What were you trying to do?”

“I wanted to sneak forward and have the light knight as backup,” he explained with a pout.

“Well, you should’ve left it on c, or moved pawn b first to shield,” Baekhyun said and moved to the side to be able to rearrange the pieces on the board without having to lean over Sehun again. “You do stupid things when you play against yourself, you don’t see possible attacks because you inadvertently root for both sides. It’s not a real game.”

“But then, how do you practice if you play by yourself?” he questioned.

“I don’t play against myself, Sehun,” he said with a shrug as he pushed black’s pieces into the default formation. “I play against Mama.”

“Really?”

“Yeah,” he admitted. “Sometimes I play against Moon too, when I want to just chill and play for fun,” he chuckled at the thought, but Sehun looked confused. “Mama’s always a challenging opponent, she never relents and never goes easy on me. I don’t think she even knows what it is to relax or take a break is. Didn’t even take one while she was pregnant.”

Sehun’s eyebrows shot up, “Really?”

Baekhyun gulped hard, clenching his teeth tight together. He slipped up. He hadn’t even thought before mentioning that. It wasn’t like it was some deep dark secret though, but he had no business telling Sehun that.

“Yeah,” he said softly, clearing out his voice. “She, umm, well, being a woman and all, she didn’t want that having a child would slow her down.” He scratched his neck. “Something about proving that a woman was more than capable in a competitive, predominantly male environment.”

“Oh, that sounds...tough.”

Baekhyun smiled. “She had to be pretty badass to get far in her life.”

Sehun nodded in consideration. His attention fell back on the board. “How do you, uh, how do you play against her if the board is here?”

Baekhyun smiled knowingly -Sehun wasn’t even trying to hide his interest.

“She doesn’t need a board to play. I just tell her my move and she retaliates,” he said and sat on his desk, next to the board. “I also study past games,” he pointed at his notebook, making sure Shun’s gaze would follow, “Which is the best way to learn on your own.”

“Can you...teach me?” Sehun asked, looking up at him hopefully.

Baekhyun hesitated. “Now?”

“It’s not like I have anything better to do,” Sehun shrugged.

Baekhyun hummed, taking his time to consider this. “Good point.”

Baekhyun scratched the back of his head as he contemplated on what to do. Ideally, he wouldn’t indulge Sehun into becoming better at chess, but at the same time he saw a window of opportunity he hadn’t even fathomed on before.

It was a gamble he could take advantage of later on; seeing that the odds were in his favor.

Baekhyun turned the board so he could play the white side.

“First of all, never let the opponent take total possession of the middle of the board,” he said as  moved pawn e two spaces forward to e4 -King’s Pawn opening. “A typical option to defend this, is using a Sicilian defense for you opening, by advancing pawn c. Or, you could go French and face your opponent directly.”

“You mean like this?” Sehun moved his own pawn e to position e5, right in front of his king’s pawn, turning it into an open game.

“That works, but it’s better to keep some distance so you can have a chance to move further on,” Baekhyun explained and pushed back the pawn one space, to e6. “A typical follow up is for white to want to lead the center by pushing pawn d forward to d4, and then you can push your own pawn d to d5, that way you’ve trapped pawn e.” Both d pawns were directly in front of each other, meaning white’s pawn e was diagonal to black’s pawn d. “This way you force your opponent to attack your pawn d, in favor of getting at least one pawn off the board, before being taken by your pawn on e5. This way you make sure that only two pawns remain in the middle, your pawn e and your opponent’s pawn d, facing each other and being unable to move.”

“Oh, I see,” Sehun said, and moved the pawns from both sides the way Baekhyun had explained.

“But, it’s boring that way,” Baekhyun said and moved to put pawns d at their default position on both sides, and left white’s pawn e facing black’s pawn e, positions e4 and e5 respectively.

“Now, you can start strong in your opening. Your previous game wasn't that bad, but you left many gaps behind.”

Baekhyun moved his light bishop diagonally to the left, from position f1 to c4. Sehun frowned at this, analyzing the board for a couple a seconds before looking back at him confused.

“You’d be tempted to move pawn d, but it’d do nothing to my bishop and would leave your king’s diagonal unprotected. If your pawn isn’t there, then I could move one space and check your king.”

“I noticed,” Sehun mumbled. “And moving my bishop would be pointless, since it only moves on dark squares. I can’t get the light bishop out either, because I’d have to move pawn d, or pawn b, but that diagonal is exposed to your bishop.”

“Correct,” Baekhyun said with a mischievous smile. “You can either move some other pawn to get access to a heavier piece, or use a knight to advance.”

Sehun nodded, moving his dark knight from b8 to c6. Baekhyun’s smile grew wider.

“Good. It’s always convenient to have both knights out there, because they can cover a great deal of the board. There’s an aggressive defense called Two-Knights defense,” Baekhyun explained as he picked up Sehun’s light knight and moved it to position f6 -knowing it wouldn’t do jack to protect Sehun’s king from what he was planning. “From here you’ve got many ways to attack and keep hold of the center,” he pointed at the six possible positions. “You can easily take my pawn or scare my bishop to fall back. You could also attack or threaten any other piece I try to put out there. You’ve already reduced my queen’s range just by being there,” he pointed at the diagonal of squares his queen could move on, reducing its range in half.

“Cool,” Sehun said, perking up to pay closer attention.

“Yeah, but it’s my turn,” he chuckled and placed Sehun’s light knight back to its initial position. “Before you had moved your queen rather unintelligently. You made it step out without really having a development plan to back it up,” he commented.

“I had a plan,” Sehun argued. “It just...was under development,” he muttered bashfully, causing Baekhyun to laugh.

Baekhyun grabbed his queen and moved it diagonally to the right, from d1 to h5. It was a bold move, he knew it and Sehun knew it too. A rather stupid one too, for there was nothing protecting his queen nor any piece around it to backup a discernible attack; as if he was mocking Sehun about his earlier statement.

He wasn’t. He had a fragile plan that could end the game right there and then. He gauged at Sehun’s reaction, wanting Sehun to see, to truly see what was happening on the board.

Sehun’s eyes flickered between the board and Baekhyun, brows forward and lips pressed together in a thin line as he tried to understand what the hell Baekhyun was up to. It was amusing; -eating grin never faltering from Baekhyun’s face.

His queen only had three options to attack, and two to bail. All attacks were towards pawns, two of them would lead to his queen’s imminent fall, by knight or rook. However, one particular pawn was blocking the queen’s way to attack Sehun’s king; pawn f7, otherwise known as the Achilles Heel in black’s position. If Sehun didn’t defend his pawn correctly, then Baekhyun could seize it with his queen, having his bishop already aligned, ready to turn the offense into a checkmate.

Baekhyun had already baited Sehun into using his knight, which was meant to force his queen back, but actually wouldn’t protect him at all.  He wondered if Sehun had been fooled enough to fall for his trap, or if he actually understood what he was doing.

Baekhyun’s skin vibrated with anticipation as Sehun reached forward. He picked up pawn g and pushed it one square forward to g6, threatening Baekhyun’s queen and creating an extra hurdle between it and his king -an extra hurdle with two pawns ready to backup and attack the queen if Baekhyun dared to advance.

Baekhyun was beaming with delight. Out of the three moves to defend against his attack, Sehun picked the most aggressive one. The one that surely told his queen to off.

Baekhyun laughed gleefully while clapping his hands together.

“Wha-what?” Sehun asked baffled, checking the board to see if he made a mistake.

Baekhyun shook his head, waving his hand in the air as he recomposed himself. “You did perfect.”

Sehun frowned, eyes darting from the board to Baekhyun and back. “It was simple,” he said slowly, as if he was doubting himself.

“Yeah, it’s simple. But you weren’t fooled by it.”

Sehun tilted his head to the side, regarding him with skepticism. “Was that a test or something?”

Baekhyun shrugged. “You’re the student, so…” He left his words hanging as he paid attention to the board again. “Indulge me for a moment,” he said while pushing Sehun’s pawn g back to its default position. “You saw that if the queen got to your pawn f,” Baekhyun moved his queen and took away said pawn, “then I would’ve won with only four movements. Right?”

Sehun nodded to agree.

“This play is called Scholar’s Mate or the Four-Move Checkmate. You’d be surprised by how many players have fallen for this checkmate.” Baekhyun chuckled at the genuine astonishment in Sehun’s expression. “There are three ways to block this attack, queen to e7 or f6, which would only annoy your opponent because it ruins the play. But pawn g to g6 is a different story,” Baekhyun put the pieces back as they were, pawn g out on g6 to threaten his queen on h5. “This is an aggressive defense, forcing your opponent to back out to salvage the queen.”

Sehun nodded as he listened to his explanation.

Baekhyun smiled proudly at him, reaching forward to ruffle his hair. “Impressive,” he complimented.  

“I figured you wanted me to use my knight, since you talked so much about it. So I knew something was up and I needed to move a different piece,” Sehun explained with a smug smirk.

“Guilty as charged,” Baekhyun chuckled, lifting his arms up in faux surrender.

Sehun’s smirk shifted into concern. “Hyung,” he called out cautiously. “What happened?” he asked as he leaned forward to hold onto Baekhyun’s left arm.

Baekhyun retracted his arm, holding it against his stomach. “Don’t worry about,” he dismissed.  

“How did I not see it before?”

He shrugged. “Eyes are deceiving.”

“What do you mean by that?”

Baekhyun wetted his lips, thumb rubbing against his scar. “Just that, sometimes we see what we want to see and not what really is in front of us.”

Sehun nibbled on his lower lip worriedly. “Did you...Did you hurt yourself?”

Baekhyun let out a loud sigh. “Yes. But it was for an experiment. Nothing else.”

“What kind of experiment?”

“Just drop it, Sehun.”

Sehun looked like he was about to say something else, but Baekhyun moved his queen back to h3, continuing the game.

“Your turn,” he pressed on.

Sehun huffed, turning his attention back to the board. He took a moment to consider his next move, and then placed his light knight to position f6, next to his pawn g. Baekhyun felt a smile forcing its way across his lips, Sehun had inadvertently blocked his own queen’s diagonal. Baekhyun moved his dark knight to f3, mirroring Sehun’s play.

This move cleared the space between his king and rook, giving him the chance to castle his king. Which was exactly what he needed to do in his real game, but he wanted his knight on e where a pawn was still in place. He also had his dark bishop to worry about, possibly move it to b2 behind his pawn, but he knew he needed to attempt castling first, especially since the game-changing message he received earlier. But the damn knight was in the way. And the damn pawn e was in the way of the damn knight. His set was terribly inconvenient at the worst moment.

“Hyung?”

“Huh?”

Baekhyun snapped back to reality, realizing that Sehun had already made his move, placing his dark knight to position a5, threatening his bishop. It could still be a valuable piece, especially at the position it was at, so Baekhyun guarded it with a pawn on b3.

“You should fianchetto,” Baekhyun said after a quick glance at Sehun’s pieces.

“Fianche-what?”

“Develop the bishop, following your knight,” he explained, pointing at Sehun’s bishop at c8. “It’s no good keeping the bishops locked behind.”

“Oh, okay,” Sehun agreed, and brought forward his pawn to b6, opening the side for the bishop to pass.

Baekhyun immediately castled his king for his next move, switching sides with his light rook and placing the king on g1, protected by three pawns in front and guarded by the rook on f1. Perfectly protected, for now.

“You can do that?” Sehun asked amazed.

“You didn’t know this?” Baekhyun asked, sounding even more surprised. “It’s rudimentary,” he laughed. “Castling the king is a neat way to shield it, and it’s the only time the king can move two spaces. But you need to clear the squares between both pieces to be able to execute the move.”

Sehun nodded enthusiastically, wasting no time into moving his dark bishop out of the way, up to c5 in front of Baekhyun’s light bishop, gaining more power at the center of board.  

Baekhyun bit his lower lip to refrain from smirking. He moved his dark knight forward to g5, a position that posed no real threat at the moment. Sehun was too distracted into castling his king to notice his vital mistake, but Baekhyun saw it. He anticipated it.

He just had one pesky little knight he needed to get rid of before winning the game, but he didn’t want the match to end so soon, he wanted to drag it out before crushing Sehun’s hopes.

“Sehun-ah.”

“Yeah?”

“There’s something I’ve been meaning to talk to you about,” he said carefully, while he pushed forward his pawn d to position d4, threatening Sehun’s dark bishop. “It’s about Lu Han.”

Sehun immediately turned his attention towards him. “What?”

Baekhyun hesitated, wondering just how much it would hurt the other if he just blurted out the truth. A lot, he figured.

No, if he was going to do this, if he was going to help Sehun, then he would have to be careful with his words -but not too careful. It would have to hurt first for it to heal.

“He asked me to…” help you get over him, he finished off in his head.

God, this is so ed up.

“He asked me to take care of you,” he said instead.

Sehun frowned in confusion, Baekhyun shook his head to straighten out his words.

“At first I didn’t understand what he meant either.” He scratched his neck, thinking his words before speaking. “You see, I did get the chance to talk with him before. I convinced him to give Doctor Murdock a chance and all that. And the thing is that, we talked and he asked if I knew about how you were. I did.” He looked at Sehun cautiously, gauging his reaction with thermal reading. “I knew about how you’ve lived these past years -mostly.”

Sehun frowned, lip tucked between his lips as he considered Baekhyun’s words. “You...You spied on me?”

“No, kind of, but no,” he chuckled at this. “Mama wanted to keep a close watch on all of us, you know, to make sure the agents were keeping their word and doing their job right. So I read your agent’s records.”

“Records?” Sehun repeated, but didn’t wait for an answer. “Did you get to read everyone’s records?”

“Yeah, but only recently,” Baekhyun admitted, knowing there was no use denying it. “That’s how I knew where everyone was.”

Sehun nibbled on his bottom lip, “Where...Where did Lu Han live?”

“Beijing,” Baekhyun informed.

“Oh,” he said, dropping his gaze back t o the board.

“Anyway, he wasn’t too glad about the report,” he said with a shrug. “I...I have faith that he’s going to get better and he’ll come back, but he’s worried about what happens to you in the meantime.”

“I don’t mind waiting for him,” Sehun said without missing a beat, shocking Baekhyun a bit.

Sehun shifted in his seat, leaning forward to take Baekhyun’s pawn d with his pawn e, protecting his dark bishop -just like Baekhyun had wanted. He forced Sehun’s pawn e out of the way, allowing him to advance his own pawn e and force Sehun’s knight to back out. Because of the current pieces at play, Sehun would come to realize that his knight was trapped, only having one possible position to save it, having to back away all the way to e8 and snuggle between his queen and dark rook.

“Yeah, that’s the point,” he said somberly, pushing forward his pawn e to e5, threatening Sehun’s light knight. “You don’t mind waiting. You don’t mind, so you don’t live your life.”

Sehun eyes widened. Baekhyun didn’t need infrared to read his emotions, the younger was an open book to him. It was amusing to Baekhyun in some twisted way. For him, the younger was easy to understand, he wasn’t a challenge at all. Which was rather comfortable, and probably why Lu Han grew fond of him, he wouldn’t need no read Sehun’s thoughts to understand him, Baekhyun figured. That could be refreshing for the telepathic, but created a dependance neither of them were ready for.

“If love is a sickness, then one can die of a heartbreak,” Baekhyun said sagely, remembering the basics of the book he discovered Sehun had read. “Not because of the pain, but because of the inability to live without the other.”

He gauged Sehun’s reaction, but the other tried his best to remain stoic, eyes on the board as he tried to figure out his next move. Baekhyun reached forward for his hand, but Sehun pulled away, as if his touch burned his skin.

Baekhyun leaned back, letting out a disappointed sigh. “I don't want that for you, Sehun. I don't want you to be so dependent of Lu Han.”

“Why are you saying this?” he said, voice strained as he tried to keep his emotions in check.

“Because he’s afraid...” he’ll never get better. “He and I are afraid that you’ll waste your life waiting for him.”

“It’s not a waste-”

“Really?” Baekhyun cut in, feeling frustration bubble up inside. “Tell me then, what have you done these past years?” he challenged.

Sehun visibly gulped. His hands fisted tightly on his lap, holding back his trepidation. “I…”

“You dream during the day and live vicariously through the books you read,” Baekhyun answered for him, knowing full well he was indirectly confessing to having spied on the younger -a small price to pay for a greater good, hopefully.

Sehun gaped at this, opening and closing his mouth, unable to come up with an argument.

“But have you experienced any of the things you’ve read about?” he pressed on, almost provoking him. “Have you ever tried to truly live your life? Have friends? Go a little crazy? Expand your boundaries?”

“No.” Sehun finally admitted, jaw tensed.

“No,” Baekhyun repeated, loud and clear for the other to take in. “You’ve been sulking over Lu Han this whole time.”

“It’s not like that,” Sehun raised his voice, glaring at him. “You don’t know what it’s been like for me. I-I’ve been happy.”

“You’ve been living in a bubble, shielded by your foster-”

“You leave my mother out of this,” Sehun snapped, slamming his fist against the armchair.

“You depend too much on her.”

“Like you don’t,” Sehun scoffed.

“I stand my own ground,” Baekhyun argued, feeling his control slipping. “I share my life with her, but I don’t depend on Mama.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“You will.”

Sehun frowned, taken aback. Baekhyun held his tongue between his teeth, schooling his features to remain serious and confident. He slipped up, he knew that but he wasn’t going to show he did.

Sehun huffed annoyed. “Well maybe I needed it. I needed a family.”

Baekhyun shook his head, “You took it too far, Sehun. You’ve lived your life passively, letting the years go by and staying the same. You haven’t grown, Sehun, you haven’t learned to be independent.” He paused his rant, taking in a deep breath. “You can’t depend on someone else for you to start living your life. You can share your life, but not this.”

Sehun refused to look at him, keeping his attention on the board. Baekhyun waited for a moment, keeping his emotions in check. Baekhyun read his thermal signature, observing him to be crestfallen and demoralized, which he expected but regretted nonetheless.

Sehun reached forward and moved his light knight to position e8, at the end of his side of the board, just like Baekhyun wanted him to. Baekhyun felt a little bitter at himself for this, he had discouraged Sehun with his words and it reflected in the game. The younger could have decided not to yield, to put up a fight or disrupt his plans, but Baekhyun had pushed him into backing out.

Baekhyun might’ve cleared the way to assure his triumph, but he sure as hell didn’t feel victorious.

“Sehun-ah.” Sehun looked up surprised at how softly Baekhyun called his name. “Live loud, Sehun-ah.”

“Live loud?”

“It means don’t limit yourself,” Baekhyun smiled, trying to lessen the sullen mood. “Do the things that make you happy, even if it scares you a little to try them out. There are so many things to experience in this life, don’t keep yourself from trying them in fear of failure or getting hurt.”

Baekhyun couldn’t help his smile from spreading wider. He felt satisfied with his choice of words, like a proud hyung passing valuable knowledge to the younger one; which was quite juxtaposed to how Sehun was feeling. Baekhyun didn’t need to read his thermal signature to see the hurt and sadness.

“Can you say you’ve lived loud, Sehun-ah?”

Sehun looked up at him with glossy eyes. “No,” he barely whispered.

Baekhyun let out a small sigh. “Didn’t think so,” he muttered and slid his queen forward from h3 to h7, taking the black pawn and trapping Sehun’s king.

From here, Sehun’s king couldn’t move out of his queen’s range, trapped within his own pieces and none being able to take the queen down. And if Sehun attempted to use his king to take his queen, he had his dark knight on g5 to protect his queen, making the king’s attack invalid.

“Checkmate.”

Sehun said nothing as he stared at the board, lower lip quivering and knuckles white from his tightly fisted hands.

Baekhyun couldn’t help another sigh escape from his lips. “I can’t say I’ve been a saint,” he said, “I’ve ed up many times, but I can say I have lived loud. I’ve grown.”

“Oh,” Sehun muttered lifelessly. “So you’re saying that because you’ve ed around with your life you’ve grown, huh?” His tone was hostil, almost mocking him. “That because you’ve had so many ‘experiences’, you suddenly have all the answers.”  

“Wha-”

“That because you’ve slept around you’re an expert on relationships.”

“Hey!”

“We’re not the same, Baekhyun,” he said dryly, wiping away the tears that rolled down his cheek. “Just because I haven’t ed around with my life doesn’t mean I’ve completely wasted it.”

“That’s not what I meant.”

“Oh, you did,” Sehun argued back, standing up from the chair. “I don’t care whatever the hell Lu Han told you to do. He doesn’t get to decide what I do with my life. If I want to wait for him, then he should respect that, not ing give up on me.”

“It’s not about giving up on you. It’s about letting yourself enjoy your life to the fullest,” Baekhyun quickly tried to explain. “Just because you’ve given your heart away doesn’t mean you can’t open up to other people. You shouldn’t keep yourself hidden from the world.”

“Didn’t you ever think that I just didn't want to do that?” Sehun raised his voice again, nearly shouting this time. “That I didn’t want to get close to others and make a bunch friends because I knew it would be temporal. That it would be meaningless. That it would ing hurt when I’d leave again. That I-” He stopped talking to harshly rub his face with his sleeves. “That I don’t want to get over Lu Han!”

Baekhyun’s heart clenched painfully as he processed his words, mind working double time to understand everything.

“It wouldn’t hurt if it were meaningless, Sehun, that’s the point,” he found himself saying even though he could still feel himself thinking. He stood up to hold Sehun by his shoulders, thankfully the younger didn’t push him away. “I’m not saying you have to get over him. I’m saying that you’ve been missing out on your life because you only focus on him.” Baekhyun held onto Sehun’s cheek to force him to look at him. “I don’t want you to keep missing out, Sehun-ah.”

“I don’t care what you two agreed to,” Sehun said as he pulled his hands away. “You can’t belittle my life just because it’s different from yours.” He turned to leave.

“Sehun.” Baekhyun grabbed onto his wrist.

“ off!” Sehun pushed him back with a gust of wind.

Baekhyun felt like a brick wall slammed against him. His feet elevated from the floor as he fell backwards, lower back hitting against the edge of his desk. He didn’t even yelp in pain, too shocked to understand what had just happened. He fell to the cold floor on his with a breathless ‘humph’. He heard the pieces of the chessboard scattering across the desk, some even flew off the desk, hitting the wall before making contact with the floor.

Baekhyun watched Sehun leave his room as a dark-red silhouette of anger and hurt.

He took a moment to recompose himself and then slowly stood up, carefully stretching his throbbing lower back.

“,” he muttered under his breath, head hanging low.

He picked up all the pieces of his chessboard and ordered them back into their default position.

He finally had the board to himself.

His workout session had managed to clear his mind and focus his thoughts, but it hadn’t gotten rid of the guilt settled in his gut. He had taken it too far with Sehun, he knew that. He knew he had to be harsh, but he felt his control over the situation derailed somewhere along the way. He had been surprised by Sehun’s reaction, to say the least.  He kept replaying their disagreement in his mind, trying to figure out where he could have slipped up. Maybe his approach hadn’t been the right one; maybe he had chosen the wrong words and caused this horrible mess.

Oh how he blamed Lu Han for putting him in this uncomfortable situation.

Having freshen up, Baekhyun made his way to the kitchen to finally eat something -a late lunch or an earlier dinner, either way it was food.

He found Jongin already seated at the table, eating chicken galbi and with another plate set in front of him.

“Is this seat taken?” Baekhyun asked as he made his way around the table.

“All yours,” Jongin spoke through a mouthful, not even looking up to see who it was.

“Gross, but thank you.”

He sat down, serving himself some spicy chicken. He ate a few mouthfuls before finally observing Jongin. He seemed, different. He looked tired, though that wasn’t a surprise anymore, but this time his facial hair had grown out into a visible stubble. His hair looked greasy and unkempt. It seemed like Jongin had been locked in the isolation room for a week instead of two days.

“You’re staring.”

“Huh?”

“Staring,” Jongin drawled out.

“Oh.” Baekhyun didn’t look away. “You look like-”

“I haven’t showered in a week.”

Baekhyun’s eyes widened in surprise. “You haven’t?”

“I have,” Jongin glared noncommittally. “Just haven’t cared much about my overall appearance.”

Baekhyun nodded languidly, slowly processing his words. “Why?”

“Not enough time. Not enough will,” he shrugged languidly. “And yes, I know that’s the same as being lazy, but I’m allowed to not give a damn,” he said dryly and then chucked a piece of chicken into his mouth.

Baekhyun couldn’t shake feeling flabbergasted. Jongin knew exactly what he was going to say, right before he even had the chance to say it.

Oh…

“Yes,” Jongin answered his unspoken questioned. “This is the moment you realize I’ve already lived this day. How many times, you ask? A whole ing week,” he stabbed a piece of chicken, punctuating his words with his actions. “Oh, no wonder you’re all moody. Yes, I’m allowed to be tired and moody after living the same freaking day for a week, thank you very much.”

“Geez, you’ve been spending too much time around Tao-”

“That I sound like him now,” Jongin beat him to it. “His sass has rubbed off on me, yes, unfortunate, truly unfortunate.”

Baekhyun stabbed a piece of chicken in faux indignation. “, at least let me have my-”

“Your remarks aren’t witty,” Jongin interrupted with a smug smirk.

“They would be if you stopped spoiling it for me,” he grumbled annoyed, and Jongin had the courtesy to chuckle.

Baekhyun resumed eating, just for the sake of gaining some time to come up with something that he hoped would be new.

“So, you expanded a day into a week,” Baekhyun commented. “How’s that work like?”

“Ask Tao.”

“ you.”

Jongin laughed. “It’s us just Zitao reversing time, repeatedly.”

Baekhyun huffed. “Obviously.”

“I feel like my sleeping pattern is all messed up,” he said, picking up a rather big piece of chicken, only to stop midway. “I know it shows on my face, it’s not a funny joke, hyung,” he quickly added.

He scowled at him. “Let a man live,” he whined.

Jongin smiled over a mouthful.

Baekhyun softly shook his head. His attention caught on Jongin’s stubble again, the most noticeable change in him that assured he had in fact outlived Baekhyun for seven days.

Seven days spent in that godforsaken isolation room.

The mere thought of being inside that room was enough to make Baekhyun shudder.

“Did you spend the whole week inside?” he couldn’t help but ask; voice dropping a few octaves to show he was serious.

“No, we took breaks in between,” Jongin answered immediately with unexpected calmness, making Baekhyun believe he’d already known he would ask. “Don’t worry, hyung. We took it easy and only stayed long enough to get used to it without being unbearable.”

Baekhyun let out a tight breath. “I ing hate that room.”

“I know,” Jongin said with a sympathetic smile.

“I already told you?”

“No, Mama did,” Jongin admitted, and then continued eating, clearly not wanting to say anymore about the matter. “The best thing about reversing time is unlimited food.”

Baekhyun snorted amused. “Been eating chicken all this time?”

“Zitao’s sick of it,” Jongin snickered.

Baekhyun chuckled at the thought. He played around with his rice, pushing it side to side instead of eating. He had eaten enough -well, maybe not enough considering how much he ran, but it was all he could stomach without feeling nauseous from the pain in his gut.

Guilt was going to be the death of him.

“Jongin.”

“Hmm?”

Baekhyun waited, wanting to see if he already knew what he was about to ask.

“It works.”

“What?”

“The time travel stunt,” Jongin clarified while rubbing at his tired eyes. “We haven’t done it yet, but we finally manage to do the thing we needed to learn to be able to do it. Each time, without fail.”

“Oh, good,” Baekhyun said, finally catching up. “That’s great.”

Jongin nodded, but he looked like he was trying to figure out something. “Mama knows.” He paused, but Baekhyun said nothing. Jongin squinted his eyes at him, “You can't finish off the chicken, we’re not reversing time again, so I want to savor what’s left.”

He chuckled. “I couldn’t eat more even if I wanted to.”

Jongin looked at him confused. “What were you going to ask this time then?”

Baekhyun blinked surprised. “I’ve asked different things?”

Jongin nodded. “At first it was amusing, but then it became annoying.”

“Rude,” Baekhyun scoffed.

Jongin smiled innocently, and then continued enjoying his meal.

“I was going to ask about Sehun.”

“Oh, right,” Jongin nodded knowingly. “Yeah, don’t worry, Zitao’s talking with him right now.”

“So I did ask this before,” Baekhyun muttered.

“Yeah. It’s not easy to remember all the things you’ve said, hyung. You talk too much.”

“Hey!”

“I don’t know how Tao handles this,” Jongin admitted, ignoring his protest.

Baekhyun let out a long breath. “Yeah, I can’t imagine either.”

“He kept reversing time right before he’d have his talk with Sehun, just to skip dealing with his emotions.”

“That’s-”

“Mean, but also kind of genius,” Jongin said before him.

“I already said that?”

“Yeah. I’m quoting you,” he joked, causing Baekhyun roll his eyes. “And you’re right. Don’t say of course you are,” Baekhyun frowned, hating how Jongin kept killing his vibe. “He had a week to come up with what to say to Sehun.”

Baekhyun nodded, thinking it was a pretty damn good idea but didn’t want to voice his thought, in case Jongin already knew and would steal his thunder again.

“Do you know what’s it about?” he asked instead, figuring that it was a possibility that Zitao or Sehun had already spoken with Jongin about it.

Jongin nodded to say yes. “But I only got his version. I never took the chance to ask you before.”

“Oh…”

“Can you?” he asked.  “I think it would be better to hear both sides before speaking to him.”

Baekhyun thought this over. He didn’t want to be seen as the bad guy, so maybe telling his version could help clear things up. Knowing Jongin, his best approach would be of admitting he had done wrong, but not intentionally. Maybe he could even get Jongin to help him get Sehun to forgive him. He knew he’d have to apologize eventually, he needed to be on Sehun’s good side, but Jongin could ease Sehun into forgiving him. The only reservation he had, was that it would be difficult to keep Lu Han’s request a secret -considering that Sehun hadn’t already mentioned that detail.

No, clearing his name would certainly end up dirtying Lu Han’s. He’d already made enough of a mess, he didn’t want to make things worse. So he went for the safest option.

Baekhyun shook his head. “I did wrong, I need to fix this,” he said levely. “I’ll wait for Sehun to cool off before apologizing. You don’t need to worry about this.”

Jongin nodded with a soft smile. “Okay, hyung.”

“Finish your chicken,” Baekhyun said as he stood up, picking the dirty dishes to put them away.

“Where are you going?” Jongin asked.  

“You don’t know?” he asked amused. Jongin shook his head. “Well this should be fun,” he grinned. “Hurry up.”

“Why?”

“To come with me.”

Jongin chucked a piece of chicken into his mouth. “Don’t wanna. Too tired.”

“Not an option,” Baekhyun said, taking away Jongin’s plate.

“Hey!”

“Just do this and then you can go take a nap or whatever.”

“I want to finish my food,” Jongin whined.

“If you promise to come with me,” Baekhyun said, teasing Jongin with nearing the plate to his range.

“Alright, alright. I will.”

“Excellent decision,” Baekhyun smirked, handing him back his food.

Jongin rolled his eyes, but cleared his plate nonetheless. He lazily followed Baekhyun to his room, dragging his feet just to prove the point, and then into the bathroom, where Baekhyun drew a shower.

“What are you doing?” Jongin asked confused.

“You need to shave,” Baekhyun said nonchalantly, checking the water temperature. “Showering helps open the pores for a clean shave.”

“I know,” Jongin muttered under his breath, crossing his arms in front of his chest and cocking his hip to the side.

Baekhyun straighten his back. “Well? What are you waiting for?”

“You seriously want me to shower? Right now?”

“Yeah,” he said without hesitation and sat down on top of the toilet. “It’s just a quick shower to freshen up and look like a decent human being, you know? Loosen up your body and help you relax before taking a well deserved nap.”

“That...sounds nice, actually.”

“Of course.”

Jongin stared at him for a moment. “Are you just gonna sit there?” he asked nearly scandalized.

“Yeah, don’t mind me,” he waved him off.

“You can’t be serious,” Jongin deadpanned.

“What? Never been to a public shower before? Like at a spa or some locker room?” Baekhyun teased, rather immaturely.

“Plenty,” Jongin answered, taking on the childish challenge.

He phased out of his clothes, letting them drop into a pile on the floor. Baekhyun watched his translucent body step into the shower, only materializing to shut the frosted-glass slide door.

“Wow, neat trick,” Baekhyun laughed.

“So I’ve heard,” Jongin said, voice slightly distorted by the pouring water.

Without thought, Baekhyun watched Jongin’s silhouette soak under the water, arms raised to slick his hair back.

“Stop staring, you .”

Baekhyun guffawed, and turned to stare at the wall in front.

“So…” Baekhyun dragged out, curving his back comfortably to reached down and roll the ends of his sweatpants up to his knees. “What did Sehun tell you?”

“I thought you didn’t want to talk about it.”

“Changed my mind,” he simply said. “I just want to know what he said, you know, so I don’t it up even worse when I talk to him.”

“Good point.” Baekhyun heard the cap of a bottle being open. “I’m surprised you managed to make him angry.”

“He was so pissed. He indirectly said I was a ,” he recalled, sounding more amused than he should be while he proceeded to pull off his shoes and socks.

“Really?”

“Yeah. Some sarcastic remark about how sleeping around had made me some kind of an expert in relationships,” he recounted rather bitterly. “Which is bull, by the way. I did have a real relationship.”

“Did you though?”

Baekhyun saw something move from the corner of his eye. He turned to see Jongin’s head phasing out of the glass door, hair all foamy.

“Did you sleep around?”

“Oh, I did,” he admitted. “I was kind of a , but that doesn’t mean you can use it against me. It’s a derogatory term, not nice at all.”

Jongin made a weird face, something between surprised and appalled, and maybe a tad bit judgemental.

“It was a phase,” Baekhyun justified and then took his shirt off.

“That’s...Okay, whatever. What the hell are you doing?”

“I’m gonna scrub your back,” he replied nonchalantly.

“I’m not a kid.”

“No, but you’re a brat, which is pretty much the same.”

Jongin grumbled under his breath before phasing back inside the shower, blobs of foam stuck onto the outer side of the glass. Baekhyun made his way inside the shower, making sure to stay far away from the water. Jongin handed him an extra exfoliation mitt, so he could work on his back while Jongin tended his arms and torso.

“So? What’d he say?”

Jongin took a moment to rinse his hair before replying. “He said that you told him that he wasted away his life waiting for Lu Han,” Jongin said, speaking over his shoulder to look at him.

“I did,” he admitted and then began rubbing on Jongin’s shoulder. His skin was damp enough for the outer layer to be rubbed off easily.

“Actually, I’m not surprised you did.”

“You’re not?”

“You were harsh with me too. I figure you have your reason to say that,” he explained. “I just wonder if it was reason enough to excuse you of being an .”

“I…” Baekhyun deflated, focusing his work between Jongin’s shoulder blades. “No. No matter the reason, I still shouldn’t have spoken to him that way.”

“Did you mean it though?”

“No. Yes. Maybe,” Baekhyun rambled. “I just...It’s not that he wasted his life, I just worry he might have wasted opportunities.”

“You mean as in he kept too much to himself, that he might regret missing out on some stuff he would’ve wanted to try?”

“Yes, exactly,” Baekhyun sighed relieved. “Thank you for understanding me.”

Jongin let out a small chuckle. “It’s not me, but Tao. He regrets many missed opportunities from having been stuck in that monastery,” he explained.

“Oh...Well, then I guess it’s good that he’s the one to talk with Sehun.”

Jongin kept silent for a moment.

“Sehun did say something I thought was strange,” Jongin continued. “He said you wanted him to get over Lu Han.”

“I never said tha-” Baekhyun stopped abruptly.

He stared aimlessly. He never said he wanted Sehun to get over Lu Han, he realized. In fact, he changed his words to not let Sehun know what Lu Han had truly requested of him. Baekhyun wondered if he said anything to make him think such thing, but then he remembered Sehun had used the word ‘agreed’, as in an agreement struck between Lu Han and him. Baekhyun was sure as hell he never spoke of an agreement.

“Oh, that sneaky bastard,” Baekhyun whispered to himself.

“What?”

Baekhyun vigorously shook his head to clear his mind. “I didn’t say those exact words,” Baekhyun answered instead, getting back to work on Jongin’s middle. “I said a bunch of that might have led him to think that, but it wasn’t my intention, Jongin.”

“It didn’t make sense to me that you’d want him to do that, but if it was just a misunderstanding…”

“It was a misunderstanding,” he confirmed. “The whole thing feels like a big misunderstanding.”

They fell silent. Baekhyun focused on clearing the expanse of Jongin’s skin, trying his best to keep eyes above his hips and refrain form ogling at his firm and long, slim legs.

“Baek.”

“Hmm?”

“That girl that was at your apartment, was she your girlfriend?”

Baekhyun was taken aback for a second. “Yeah. She was.”

“How long did you guys date?”

Baekhyun snorted. “Why do you care?”

“I’m just...trying to imagine it, I guess,” he shrugged. “I can’t really picture you dating.”

“Nearly eight months,” Baekhyun found himself answering. “I broke it off because of...you know.”

“I thought I walked into your break up.”

“No, I had already ended things with her, but I wasn’t...honest about it. And then happened and I dragged her into it, so I felt like I owed her at least that, a real explanation.” Baekhyun let out a suspiration, keeping his emotions in check as he remembered that dreadful and long day. “It did feel like this was the real break up, though. We finally spoke about the things that had remained unsaid and got some sort of closure,” Baekhyun said with a sad smile.

“Oh,” Jongin scratched his neck. “Eight months is still impressive, though.”

“What? You pegged me for a month or two kind of guy?” Baekhyun asked amused, slipping his mitt off.

“Yeah.”

“ you,” he bickered and slapped Jongin with the exfoliating mitt right above the dimples of his back.

He got out of the shower, drying his feet before heading over to the sink to prepare the shaving cream to get it all light and foamy.

“What about you?”

“What about me?” Jongin asked back, towel already wrapped around his hips.

“Ever dated or something?”

“Umm, something,” he replied, drying his hair with a smaller towel. “What happened to your back?”

“Fell off the treadmill,” he quickly replied. “What happened to your something?”

Jongin let out an airy puff, letting the head towel drape around his neck. He made his way to stand next to Baekhyun to apply the foamy cream.

“Nothing serious. I’d hang out with my friends, go to parties where stuff happened sometimes,” he lamely explained. “I never took things too far though.”

“You mean you never hooked up? Like, really hooked up and gone all the way,” Baekhyun asked curiously, crossing his arms over his chest and leaning back against the sink counter.

“Never dated, never had a one night stand,” he admitted.

“Prepubescentes,” Baekhyun groaned into his hands. “All of you. Prepubescentes. I’m surrounded by them.”

Jongin guffawed wholeheartedly, foam falling off his chin from the force. He pooled the sink with water and Baekhyun handed him a razor.

“There was this guy though, in my modern dance class, that really made me struggle,” Jongin confessed, looking rather bashful but keeping his gaze on the mirror to not accidentally cut himself with the blade. “You know what I mean, right?”

“Not at all,” he shook his head. “I never struggled with temptation.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. The best way to rid of temptation is by falling for it,” Baekhyun said with a purr while he dragged his fingers across Jongin’s bare chest, only to have his hand slapped away. “Ouch! I was joking,” he whined as he cradled his pained hand.

Jongin kept quiet, focused on his task, but there was something in his gaze that caught Baekhyun’s attention. He shifted his sight and observed the rush of red in his chest, neck and face, bright orange and yellow at his cheek, and darker hues of blue descending his arms and back. He was embarrassed, but not just that, Baekhyun could see a shift towards feeling ashamed.

“Oh,” he muttered, letting his arms fall loosely to his side. “You actually did.”

Jongin looked surprised at this. “How can you tell?”

“I’m good at reading people,” he explained casually. “So you’re not as innocent as you led me to believe?”

“He wasn’t just a hook up, if that’s what your thinking.” Jongin leaned both hands against the counter and looked down at this sink. “We didn’t date either. It was sort of a grey area.”

“Like friends with benefits?”

Jongin nibbled his lower lip in thought while rinsing the razor with water. “Yeah, something like that.”

Baekhyun didn’t ask any more questions, noticing how uncomfortable Jongin was with the topic. His behavior did make him wonder why though.

“I won’t tell Kyungsoo, nor anyone else about this, if you don’t want them knowing,” Baekhyun said, taking an indirect approach.

Jongin gave a weird look as he shaved the underside of his chin. “Of course you won’t, because I will tell Kyungsoo. Eventually.”

“You will?”

“There’s no reason to hide it. People have past relationships, it’s nothing to be afraid to talk about,” Jongin explained.

Baekhyun nodded in agreement, for he thought the same.

“Have you...Have you thought about him lately?” he asked cautiously, remembering how bad Jongin felt about their predicament.

Jongin took a moment to reply. “I’ve tried to not think much about him, more for Tao’s sake than mine,” he admitted. “I needed to be completely focused for our practices. Worrying about Kyungsoo could’ve been more of a problem for him than me.”

“Yeah,” Baekhyun smiled lightly, “Maybe it’s best not thinking much about it. In a few days you’ll be away, and we’ll wait here for you guys for as long it takes. A couple of days at best.”

“Days?” he asked, placing the razor away.

Baekhyun scratched his ear. “Well, I guess so. I mean, time spent there is the same here, right? Same planet, same conditions, same gravity, just a few years difference.”

Jongin nodded, slight frown denting between his eyes as he stared at the sink absentmindedly. “Yeah, yeah. You’re right.” He leaned forward so splash some water on his face, quickly rinsing it off. “I just didn’t consider being away for long. I didn't think it’d take days.”

“Oh,” he pondered. “Well, you guys were there for the whole ordeal, so it was two or three days.”

“Be gone the 30th, back by April,” Jongin calculated while drying his face.

Baekhyun felt his mind begin to wander back to his board, making it an effort for him to keep within the conversation. He knew the dates, but hearing it come from someone else’s voice made his brain spark back to an idea he had before and confirm it.

“Yeah,” Baekhyun said, blinking to refocus his attention on Jongin. “You’ll come back by the first, or the second at the latest.”

Jongin hummed in consideration while checking his reflection on the mirror, feeling his skin  to make sure it was all smooth and even. Then he began tidying up, and Baekhyun took it as an indication that he was finished, so he went to pick up his shirt and shoes. When he turned around, Jongin was staring at him with an unreadable expression.

“What?”

Jongin blinked slowly, gaze still trained on him. “I’m trying to remember if...if I ever saw that before.” He pointed and Baekhyun knew he meant the scar in his arm. “Is that why you always wear long sleeves?”

“Yeah,” Baekhyun simply answered while shrugging his shirt back on. “It’s nothing. Don’t worry about it,” he dismissed, making his way to leave, but Jongin blocked the way.

“Because I already got enough to worry about?” He raised a brow, crossing his arms and cocking his hip to the side. “Baek, that scar is literally the length of your arm.”

“And it’s a scar,” Baekhyun stressed. “Which means it’s all healed up now. It was a one time thing; done and over.”

“Why?”

“Why what?”

“Why’d you do it?”

Baekhyun shrugged. “I was just trying something,” he said and finally made his way past Jongin.

Baekhyun exited the bathroom, letting his sneakers drop near the closet.

“You .” He heard Jongin exclaim before being shoved.

Baekhyun was half surprised to see he had quickly changed into comfortable clothes, clothes that hadn’t been in the room before -knowing Jongin could teletransport was the only reason he wasn’t completely flabbergasted.

“You were trying that healing thing you gave Junmyeon, right?”

Baekhyun couldn’t help but snort at him. “Yeah, so?”

“So? You made me worry about your sorry , you ,” Jongin complained, mock punching his shoulder.

Baekhyun shook his head in amused disbelief. “I told you not to.”

“But it’s huge,” Jongin commented, holding onto his wrist to raise his arm.

“That's what he said,” Baekhyun joked with a lewd expression, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively.

“Oh my god,” Jongin muttered mortified, dropping his arm instantly. “I can't believe you just ing said that,” he exasperated, unceremoniously dropping on top of the bed.

Baekhyun laughed loudly, bending forward as his stomach spasmed tight, almost painfully so.

“I was being serious,” he said as he turned around, leaning on his elbows. “That’s a big scar. It must’ve hurt like hell.”

Baekhyun merely shrugged his shoulders. Jongin rolled his eyes and then relaxed against the mattress.

“You don’t mind me napping here?” he asked as he snuggled against the pillows.

“Nah, it’s alright,” Baekhyun replied casually, fighting back the urge to head to his desk and force himself to put on a pair of slippers. “I’m just gonna check on Junmyeon, keep him company.”

“Good,” Jongin said, already sounding drowsy.

Baekhyun was about to leave the room when Jongin called out for him.

“Yeah?”

“Thanks,” he said with a sincere, sleepy smile. “I really needed that shower.”

Baekhyun smiled, “Anytime.”

Baekhyun moved quickly and smoothly, taking advantage of being the only one walking around the common areas to get to the surveillance room instead of the laboratory. He stopped before the door and surveyed his surroundings, double checking he was alone. Baekhyun took out his phone first, checked the time first, reading it to be five in the afternoon already. He quickly calculated the time difference, and when he was sure it would be alright, he typed a message.

Once it had been sent, he knocked on the door three times.

-March 27th, 2015. Denver, Colorado 09:01.

Moon had nudged him awake a minute or so ago, but Chanyeol remained slumped lazily against the car door, watching the change of scenery through his tired eyes. It wasn’t until Moon parked the car that Chanyeol stretched his long limbs to wake himself up.

He saw Moon jerk suddenly, and then the agent picked out his mobile phone from his chest pocket, he gave the device a minute of his attention and then shoved it back into his jacket.

Chanyeol wanted to ask about it, but Moon ordered him to get out of the car. So Chanyeol stifled a yawn and followed the agent.

They left the car in the public parking lot and walked the rest of the way to an old, unkempt apartment at a sketchier neighborhood of the city. Chanyeol would’ve thought it to be a deserted area if it weren’t for some people loitering around the streets.

The building was small, five stories high, but it was surrounded by other apartment blocks, making it look like a big complex rather than a single building. There was a small courtyard with overgrown grass and shaby trees, connecting the apartment blocks at ground level. Agent Moon lead the way through the path, taking him to apartment block 1.

The inside of the building was cold and dark, light barely bled through the dusted windows to illuminate the pale-mint walls. The agent ascended the staircase, made of lateritious stone steps and maroon wood railings. Chanyeol followed, listening to the echo of their tired steps and trying to ignore the throbbing in his right ankle.

Moon walked down the corridor of the third floor, reaching the door to the residence A33. He felt around the top of the door frame, until he found what he was searching for; a key. The agent unlocked the door and ushered him inside.

The interior of the apartment was completely furnished, Chanyeol could easily picture someone or a family living inside -if it weren’t for the thick layer of dust covering all the furniture; clearly the place had been abandoned for some time.

Agent Moon placed their bags on top of the kitchen table and checked the cabinets.

“Is this your friend’s place?” Chanyeol asked as he walked up to the window.

Outside he could see the courtyard they came through and the apartment block in front. The way the buildings were placed, made it seem they were very close, leaving no room for privacy. He could see the other residences from there, their opened windows, their style in curtains and interior decor. He could imagen people going on their daily lives, cooking, tending their rooms, lazing around, hanging their clothes to dry or occasionally smoking at their balconies, but he had yet to spot anyone.

“Not a friend, acquaintance,” Moon corrected as he hunkered down, voice slightly muffled from sticking his head into the fridge. “And this place is for meetings.”

“Meetings,” Chanyeol repeated as he turned away from the window. He could see dust motes floating in the beam of light that bled through the curtain. He could feel his nose beginning to itch.

His mother would’ve had a fit if she ever saw a place as filthy as this, he thought as he swiped his finger against the surface of a wooden nightstand.

“Bingo!” the agent exclaimed, and stood up with a sick pack of beer bottles. “Want one?” he offered as he proceeded to uncap a bottle.

Chanyeol shook his head, “No, thanks.”  

“Suit yourself,” Moon shrugged. “There ain’t much here to eat, but I can scrap something up.”

Chanyeol nodded. He felt rather awkward standing in the living room without knowing what to do.

“Umm, when’s you acquaintance coming?” he asked, scratching his nose.

Moon took a sip before checking his phone. “Around noon, so we’ve got a couple of hours to spare.” He looked over at him, checking him out from head to toe and back. “You should take a shower, kid. Freshen up or something.”

Chanyeol couldn’t help himself from tsking his teeth.

“I doubt there’s hot water, but that shouldn’t be a problem for ya, right?”

“I’ll be fine,” Chanyeol assured. He picked up his backpack.

“Alright, you do that and I’ll make us something to eat,” he said as he put two beer bottles in the freezer. “And we’ve gotta change your bandages,” he reminded.

“‘kay,” Chanyeol nodded and left to find the bathroom.

The apartment had three bedrooms; arguably two and one office turned into a bedroom, for it was half the size of the single room. There was a shared bathroom in the corridor, but Chanyeol prefered to use the en suite one of the master bedroom.

There was a closet to the right, a desk and a window to the left, before the conjoined bathroom which only had frosted-glass sliding doors to separate it from the rest of the room. It seemed really decent to him, if he ignored the ugly beige tiles, with a grey and red star-flower design, and the smell of mold. Chanyeol wouldn’t have been surprised if he spotted cobwebs in the corners or roaches skittering by, but luckily he didn’t.

Chanyeol set his bag on the desk, and then undressed carefully, making sure to not cause his stitches to open up. He peeled off his bandages, seeing that the thread sewed into his red, swollen skin was still pretty visible -he had thought it would dissolve by now.

He was going to end up with a big, nasty scar.

The water was mind-numbingly cold, but felt refreshing against his feverish body, causing steam to rise at the contact with his skin. Chanyeol cleaned himself as best he could with his limited resources, and even managed to wash his clothes with soap.

He didn't linger under the water, he stepped out of the shower as soon as he was finished. Chanyeol put on his damp clothes and carefully heated up, drying himself and his clothes as if he got fresh out from a dryer.

Back at the living room the place smelled of whatever Moon was cooking; hopefully something more nutritious than instant ramen and burgers.

Moon gave him a glance and turned back to his cooking. “Take your shirt off. The med-kit is in my bag,” he instructed.

Chanyeol didn’t need to be told twice and took it upon himself to take care of his healing wound.

When Agent Moon made his way to the living room, he had a bowl in one hand and a beer bottle in the other. “Here you go,” he handed Chanyeol the dish.

Chanyeol frowned at the mushed up food, “What is it?”  

“Fried rice sans the rice.” The agent answered, and Chanyeol could only looked back at him dumbfounded. “I don’t know man, I just stir-fried everything edible I found in there.”

“Okay,” Chanyeol said warily.

“Hey, I might not be a chef like you, but I’m a decent cook; okay? That’s how I got Baekhyun to put up with me all these years, through his stomach,” Moon joked.  

Chanyeol felt the corners of his lips twitch upwards -the mention of his best friend immediately reassured him. “Did Baek ever cook?” he asked out of sheer curiosity.

Moon guffawed, shaking his head as if imagining Baekhyun in a kitchen was hilarious by itself. “Just give it a try,” Moon nudged.

Chanyeol scooped up some of the mysterious stir-fried food, enjoying the savory taste, probably from the addition of soy sauce and salt. “Definitely tastes better than it looks,” Chanyeol commented. “It’s a bit salty, but it would balance out better if it had some rice.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment,” Moon chuckled. “I need you to lay down,” him pointed at the couch behind him.  

Chanyeol wrinkled his nose in disgust. “It’s filthy.”

“Doesn’t matter, you just gotta sit on it,” Moon said, pushing him forward to move. “Worse case scenario, you get bitten by a mite.” The agent forced him to sit down, ignoring his protests. “Here,” he offered him the beer.

“I don’t drink beer,” Chanyeol frowned, not just because of the bottle being waved in front of his face, but because he shuddered at the thought of sitting on a decade of dead skin.

“I know you don’t,” Moon rolled his eyes. “It’s for your ankle.”

Chanyeol stared up with wide eyes. “What?”

“Your ankle. We’ve been walking plenty and I’ve seen you limping, kid, I know it must still hurt,” he explained. “I don’t know how effective it is to put ice against ya, but it’s worth a shot. And I ain’t got ice packs, so...” he offered the cool bottle again, and this time Chanyeol accepted it.

Chanyeol stretched out his right leg and wedged the bottle between his ankle and the cushion to keep it in place. The surface of the bottle felt cool against his skin; droplets of condensation slithered down and then gradually evaporated from the contact with his body.

Would it help to ease the swelling? Chanyeol doubted it, but the gesture was kind enough to make him comply.

“Thanks.”

Moon shook his head with a smile on his face. “Just doing my job, kid.” He said, and then made his way back to the kitchen.

Chanyeol ate pensively, still unsure of what he was swallowing but it was food nonetheless. The agent came back with a bowl and sat on a chair beside the couch.

“How long have you been working at the NIS?” Chanyeol asked curiously, half expecting to not to get an answer, for none of the other agents he met ever spoke of their private life. Chanyeol doubted his guardian, Jeon, had a life of his own.

“Why you ask?” Moon questioned, raising a brow.

Chanyeol shrugged nonchalantly. “Just curious.”

Moon squinted his eyes at him as he munched his food. “Is it because I look younger than Jeon?”

Chanyeol took the bait. “Are you?”

Moon nodded. “Jeon’s my senior.”

“Really? It didn’t seem like it the other day.”

“We’re the same rank, so age difference just…” Moon flourished his hand in the air.

“Agent Jeon is in the same rank as you?” Chanyeol said with faux disappointment.

“Hey, I’ve been doing this long enough, kid. Maybe not as long as Agent Jeon, but I know my ,” Moon muttered annoyed. “Jeon could’ve easily advanced in ranks, but he’s committed already. That’s what happens in jobs like this.”

“Committed?”

“He doesn’t want to leave the field,” Moon vaguely explained. The agent set his bowl aside. “It’s easy to say it’s just a job and keeping up with it is a choice, but after doing it for so many years, it stops being a choice.”

“What do you mean?”

“What’d you do if you were attacked? You’d probably heat things up, right?” he said with a small smirk. “What if one of your friends were in danger? You’d react, you’d do something about it.”

Chanyeol nodded, “Yeah, I would.”

“Normal people don’t do that, kid,” he said seriously. “Flames aside, normal people don’t react to the way we do. We’re trained for this, and it becomes ingrained inside.” He paused, getting up to take the bottle from Chanyeol’s side. “I do this job because it stopped being a choice, it’s part of who I am.”  He took a swing of his beer, “Same goes for Jeon -and , this is hot,” he said sloshing the beer with distaste.

He left the living room again, leaving Chanyeol to finish his food alone.

After an hour or so of waiting, Jeon left the apartment to head down stairs, instructing Chanyeol to stay hidden inside.

Less than a minute went by and Chanyeol was itching to do something. He picked out his pack of cigarettes from his bag and made his way towards the window. He lit up the stick between his lips and stared out towards the courtyard, but he didn’t find Agent Moon out there.

Chanyeol moved to the main bedroom and walked out to the small balcony, but he couldn’t spot the agent out there either. Apprehension began to twist at his guts -cigarette already consumed to the filter from his uneven breaths.

Chanyeol went through every window in his way, searching for the agent at the distance, until he got past the kitchen, finding a window at the end of the laundry room that looked towards the parking lot. Chanyeol let out a breath of relief when he spotted Agent Moon out there, right under the window. He was standing next to another man, behind a black SUV.

Chanyeol pressed his body against the wall, trying his hardest to keep out of sight while trying to listen to their conversation.

“-that’s a lot.” A raspy voice that definitely wasn’t Moon said in English “It’s gonna be hard to ship it all, y'know?”

“I’ll pay what I got to pay,” Moon said confidently, speaking each word slowly and carefully. “Show me.”

Chanyeol heard movement. He scooted closer to the window, poking out his face just enough to see. The man had opened the trunk of the car and pulled a duffle bag closer to the edge without taking it out. He opened the bag and then stepped aside for Moon to get close. Chanyeol struggled to see what the agent picked out of the bag, the agent’s back was blocking the view and whatever he he had taken out was small enough to not be seen from Chanyeol’s angle.

“It’s really small. Looks thin. You are certain it works?” Moon asked.

“Yeah, it filters out amazingly. They use this when working with viruses.” The man explained, moving close to pick through the bag, blocking Chanyeol’s sight even more. “It’s compacted, military grade, easy to fit with this.” Chanyeol heard a tapping thud.

“Great. And the cans?”

“Different qualities. Depends on what you need’em for.”

“Extermination.”

“Insects?”

“More like big, fat rats.”

Chanyeol heard a strange, wheezing, inward laugh.

“I got exactly what you need.”

“Good.”

Chanyeol watched the man shut the trunk close, and then both men moved out of his sight.

Chanyeol let out a shaky breath and crouched to the floor, feeling his legs go weak all of a sudden. He didn’t understand what he had just witnessed, but something uneasy stirred inside him. It had been sketchy, everything about that interaction felt illegal in more ways than Chanyeol wanted to think about.

He had imagined that Moon would get into some shady business to get him fake documents, which was illegal enough for Chanyeol’s standards, but this had been something completely unexpected and unnerving.

Chanyeol quickly made his way back to the living room, not wanting to get caught eavesdropping when the agent would return. He fidgeted with his hands before deciding to have another smoke to ease his anxiousness.

He heard the front door creak open. He gulped hard, heart beating against the back of his throat.

“Chanyeol?” He heard Moon call.

Chanyeol turned away from the window, cigarette still tucked between his lips.

“Good news. Got your docs,” Moon smiled handing him a zip-lock bag with a fake passport, ID and driver’s license.

“Park Beomsil?” Chanyeol read out.

“Just roll with it,” Moon shrugged.

Chanyeol nodded and stored his documents in his wallet and backpack.

“So…” Chanyeol started off, taking in a lungful of smoke and regarding the agent with caution. “When are we leaving to Paris?”

“Well,” Moon sat on a chair by the table, “we’ll have to stay here for the night. Leave tomorrow and head to Brussels first, then Paris.”

“Why do we have to stop at Brussels? Why can’t we just go to Paris?”

“It’s all about timing, kid. We can’t just hop on a plane and drop off in Paris. We have to take an indirect route and get there when they’re ready to receive us,” he explained.

“How will we know when?”

“I already know when. Don’t worry, kid, it’s all arranged,” Moon declared.

Chanyeol merely nodded. He turned away, trying to conceal the jitter running through his hand as he smoked.

The cigarette wasn’t helping.

“What’s up with you, kid?”

Chanyeol hesitated before working up the courage to speak his mind.

“We didn’t come this far just for freaking documents, did we?” Chanyeol wetted his lips nervously. “What are you up to? Are you really on Baek’s side? Why should I even trust you?”

“Hey, hey, calm down,” Moon muttered. “One thing at a time, yeah?”

“What are you up to? Who was that man?” Chanyeol insisted.

“I can’t really tell you that yet.” Moon joined his hands together, shoulders relaxed. “All I can tell ya, is that I’m just making sure we get all the help we need. Okay? This is all Baekhyun’s idea.”

Chanyeol held his gaze with a glare, trying to see the truth behind the agent’s trained demeanor, like Yifan would.

He wasn’t Yifan, but he was stubborn as hell.

Agent Moon let out a sigh. “Baek had some of your clothes in his bag.”

“Wha-what?”

“Baek, he had some of your stuff packed in his bag. Still has them as a matter of fact.” Moon chuckled, “He wore a freaking grey scarf in summer. Wore your shirts that were way too big for him.”

Chanyeol leaned against the wall for support. He remembered. He remembered stuffing clothes into Baekhyun’s duffle bag before they were tricked into separate cars. He remembered the grey scarf, even though he never had a chance to wear it.

But Baekhyun did. Baekhyun did wear his scarf, his clothes, and that knowledge made Chanyeol’s heart ache a little bit more.

Moon laughed, shaking his head at a memory. “It took me ing forever to get him to use other clothes. And when I tried washing them, he nearly scratched my eye out trying to stop me.”

“You guys would fight?” he asked surprised.

“All the time,” Moon stressed. “We didn’t get along at the beginning. Baek was ing over everything. He’s a handful. He threatened to hurt me many times.”

“That doesn't sound like him,” Chanyeol said, stubbing what little was left of his cigarette.

“Desperation can do that to a man,” Moon sagely said with a shrug. “It was so amusing though. He’d threaten me at gunpoint with just his fingers, like a child. But then he shot freaking lasers, so…”

“Actually…” Chanyeol couldn’t help the massive grin stretching through his lips. “That does sound like something he’d do.”

Moon walked up to him, cigarette in hand. Chanyeol kindly lit it up for the him, and after a silent moment, the agent decided to speak.

“I really meant what I said the other day,” he said, leaning against the wall in a similar fashion. “You’ve got to man the up.”

“What does that even mean?”

“It means to grow a pair.”

Chanyeol snorted. “That’s rather ist.”

“You think women can’t grow a pair?” Moon asked amusedly.

“No?”

“Now who’s being ist,” Moon tsk-ed his teeth. “It’s a metaphor. It means to grow up, get down and not cower away from adversity.” Moon poked his chest, right over his bandages, drawing out a pained gasp from Chanyeol. “You got your chest ripped open, you stitch it up. You get your heart severed, you keep fighting back.”

“Is that some metaphor?” he asked annoyed.

“What can I say? I live for metaphors,” Moon smirked, cigarette hanging between his lips.

They fell silent once more. Chanyeol still had many questions running through his mind, but he doubted he’d get an answer from the agent. At least he felt assured that Moon truly was Baekhyun’s guardian, and that was enough for now.

“I’m gonna ask you to do something, kid. Not for me, but for Baekhyun. Alright?”

Chanyeol nodded. “I’d do anything for him.”

Moon smiled gratefully. “I need you to support him. He’s been under Lu Mei’s influence for long and I know the other kids are gonna suspect him because of her.”

“Lu Mei? Mama?” Chanyeol repeated. “He’s been with Mama?”

“Yeah, she’s been around for some time now,” Moon shrugged. “Your friends need her guidance to time travel, right?”

“Ye-yeah,” Chanyeol stammered out. “Yeah, I almost forgot about all that.”

Moon regarded him carefully. “I always felt like that was her excuse to show up. I never liked her,” he admitted. “She appeared into his life two years ago, and has done a great ing job acting like she cares about him, making him fall head over heels for her mother act,” Moon shook his head disdainfully. “He adores her.”

Chanyeol remained silent for a moment, thinking of the implications of the agent’s revelation.

“You’re afraid she’s using him.”

Moon nodded. “Baekhyun came up with this whole goddamn plan just to make her proud of him, even if he won’t admit it,” he explained. “Don’t get me wrong though, this plan is important. It’s just that it won’t work if you boys don’t trust him, and with her around, I can’t help but see that it’ll be difficult to lead you all.”

Chanyeol nodded understandingly. “I’ll help him out,” he promised.

“Thank you.”

Chanyeol rubbed his arm. “What’s the plan about?”

Moon hesitated. “You’ll find out sooner or later, so what the hell,” he shrugged. He looked at Chanyeol cautiously. “You might wanna sit down for this.”

He gulped; worry etching through his features. “Why?”

“Because I lied to you before,” he admitted. “Not all of your friends are safe. One got captured.”

Chanyeol held onto the window sill to keep himself standing.

“Who?”

“Kyungsoo.”

His chest just might need some new stitches.