It was around midnight. The night was chilly but cloudless. A million stars shone brightly in the purplest skies of Seoul.

The night was passing, almost shading the dark eminence with a pinch of magenta.

"Chanyeol, I think these lyrics will work..." Baekhyun's tired eyes looked down on Chanyeol who didn't hear him at first because of the headphones.

"Chanyeol!" Baekhyun called again, tapping the desk with his hand.

That made Chanyeol look up at him in surprise. His eyes had turned red due to a sleepless night and nugatory stress.

He took off his headphones and confused raised his brows.

"I wrote the lyrics," Baekhyun said in a tone of relief and excitement.

"You did? Can I see?" Chanyeol's sleep was now awakened by the sudden incredulity.

Baekhyun hesitantly handed the paper to Chanyeol and waited like a sleepy puppy while Chanyeol whispered the lyrics to himself.

It was hard to tell what Chan was thinking. His expression was impassive from the beginning to the end. As if he was reading someone's biography with no interest whatsoever.

"Chan?" Baekhyun was somehow feeling uneasy. "How is it?"

Chanyeol let out a tiny sigh and closed his eyes.

He then opened them and with a quick movement of his hands, tore the paper in two and shot up from his seat.

"Baek! You know how much this band means to us, right? Why aren't you able to write any good songs?!" Chanyeol's voice was high enough to scare Baekhyun a little. He took a step back, eyes widening as he examined the unmitigated anger on Chan's face.

"I had high expectations of you for this, Baek..." Chanyeol's sigh shattered Baekhyun's fragile heart, following with a punishing ache. He clasped his chest at once but Chanyeol appeared all the more uninterested in Baek's unforeseen change in health.

I did my best, Chan!" He yelled but his head exploded from inside, releasing a protracted burn. Baek gritted his teeth as to not let any of his tormenting tears fall.

"No, you didn't!"

"Yes, I did! I tried as hard as I could. I gave my all and I have reached my limit, Chanyeol!" Baekhyun's breathing was getting limited. He wanted to immediately get out of the room and inhale some fresh air before insensibility overtakes him.

"This is your limit?!" Chanyeol's underline provoked Baekhyun.

"Fine! Why don't you try writing your own lyrics then?!" Baek screamed and impulsively grabbed his jacket from the couch behind him. It was strange how he wanted to say something else but said something he never intended to say.

"Where are you going now?" He asked annoyingly.

"And while you're at that, why don't you just go and debut on your own! Why need me when I can't even write good lyrics that would suit your grody music!" Baekhyun's last shout made Chanyeol's lip purse in regret over their colloquy. Baekhyun stomped out the room; his hands and forehead were heating quicker than ever and his throat burned from the plethora of pressure and intense screaming.

 

The cold air caressed Baekhyun's cheeks as soon as he left the building.

For a moment, he stopped and turned around to look back at the window whose light was on.

Resentment was filling Baekhyun's lungs upon the thought of Chanyeol's unpalatable words.

He clicked his tongue, indignantly averting his gaze from the window and started walking with no exact direction in his mind.

He might have wiped his tears a few times on the way but eventually, the breeze and the lamps hanging from the denim sky comforted him partially.

Baekhyun suddenly got back to his senses after plenteous pondering and realization and looked up from his feet. He had stumbled in a dimly lit alley he was unaware of.

He decided to look around to find a name of the street or at least just a name that would tell him where he was, however, before he could turn back and get out of the creepy alley, a sound of a lady crying stopped him from doing so.

"Ex--excuse me..." Baekhyun's voice was hushful. He tried again, "Excuse me."

The crying was unexpectedly getting closer.

Baekhyun's delicate heart was beating rapidly. He was afraid that an entity would emerge from the caliginosity. He was at his ready position to run away the moment he felt any presence.

However, a tall, thin lady appeared in the obfuscate light. She seemed to be in her thirty's, more or less. She looked weak and exhausted and she was crying.

Baekhyun took a wary step forward and softly asked the lady, "A-are you alright, Ma'am?"

"Help me..." The lady wailed and stretched forth her hand feebly.

"What is the problem, Ma'am? Is something wrong?" Baekhyun started to walk towards her, "How can I help you?"

As he got closer to her, the lady took a step back, out of the light and into the shadows.

Baekhyun stopped and frowned, "Excuse me, Ma'am?"

There was no response. The crying had stopped and a deadly silence surrounded Baekhyun.

He didn't know what to do. Should he go further into nothingness and find her? Or should he turn back and leave?

Not to mention, in such a furious state, Baek forgot to take his phone with him; it must still be lying on the coffee table or the couch.

On the other hand, Baekhyun's instinct told him to leave.

Since there was no more sound, he reasoned that it might have been his mere imagination. His mind playing silly tricks on him because of torpidity.

In the end, he turned around and decided to walk away, when all of a sudden, out from the darkness ran a shadow with a baseball bat and smacked Baekhyun's occiput in a powerful sway.

At once, an excruciating pain and immense dizziness made Baek fall to his knees. He clenched his head tight, letting out a loud scream to release the burn and looked up at the darkening scene.

The faint light that was the only illumination in the alley showed two individuals; a woman and a man.

The lady that Baekhyun saw sobbing for help was now perfectly fine and smiling an evil smile The man beside her started to search Baekhyun's pockets for stuff he could find useful but to no avail. In his petrified and benumbed state, Baek tried hard to push the man away from him and run. Nevertheless, his movements were fruitless. The man annoyingly smacked Baekhyun's head again, this time even harder than before and escaped the gloomy alley with his partner, leaving a helpless Baekhyun in the solitude of oblivion.

"Chanyeol...help me."  Ran the words in Baekhyun's mind. He was utterly regretting saying such a thing to Chanyeol and now there was nothing he could do to stop his throbbing heart. "I'm sorry...Chanyeol." Cold tears were all he could feel on the sticky ground. Thereupon, blackness covered Baek's eyes and mind. He fell in the murky alley, deep into a slumber where not even Chanyeol could wake him up.