Kai forcefully pulled his girlfriend by her elbow, twisting and turning her around to meet his cold glare, “Apologise.” He muttered through gritted teeth, tightening his grip enough for the message to be sent without hurting her.

“No.” Krystal rolled her eyes, prying and crossing her arms. She raised an eyebrow as if expecting Kai to retort back, but the latter simply heaved a sigh and balled his fists by his sides.

“Forget it,” he huffed, massaging his temple. “I don’t want to argue with you; it’s pointless.”

Turning his back, Kai left the scene; leaving a dumbfounded Krystal to watch his back getting smaller and smaller.

.

.

.

“Hey Baek!” Kai answered his phone with a light tone, as if he felt all the burden was being lifted off his shoulders at the one call he received from his close friend. “I was getting worried you wouldn’t be able to contact me—”

“Kai, I only left yesterday.”

He heard Baekhyun chuckle over the phone, and he too laughed; he felt as if so many things had happened yesterday.

“How’s Shixun coping?”

Kai opened his mouth to answer, but closed it back not knowing how to answer. It has barely been a whole 24 hours spent with the brunette; but he was unable to even keep his promise to Baekhyun to look after her well.

“Kai?”

The man simply gave a light giggle, claiming that she was doing fine and that she has yet to wake up from her sleep because of training the day before. Baekhyun responded with the same laughter he did earlier.

“Anyways, I called to tell you we’ll be meeting the farmers we deployed here at noon later.”

Kai noted, realising that it would be 3 hours to noon.

“But, it may difficult now to bring the supplies back. Ever since the change in ruler; security has been tight.” Baekhyun’s voice was laced with worry. “We might need to fight.”

The leader of the Resistance gritted his teeth, it wouldn’t be a great time to start war with China. The kingdom was a small country of its own; and Kai doubt they would be time to fit in war and the mission in the same month without sacrificing one.

“We’ll try our best Kai,” Baekhyun realised his friend must’ve been thinking about the mission as well. “Besides, you know I’m a smooth talker.”

Kai shook his head and carved a beam on his lips. “Yeah, and you better come back alive and claim the key you gave from me.”

The tanned man curled his fingers around the key that hung around his neck; it was what Baekhyun left him as a token. It was some sort of tradition they did ever since they knew they would be required to leave the country for supplies the kingdom couldn’t offer.

A token in exchange for the other’s promise to come back alive. By which they could only claim, if they come back well and alive.

And every time they had to leave, Baekhyun would leave his key— to which Kai is unsure what it’s supposed to lock or open. Kai on the other hand, would leave his father’s broken watch when it was his turn to leave the kingdom.

“You still haven’t told me what it opens though.”

Baekhyun went silent at the other end of the line, chortling briefly for a split second before uttering his last line.

“Look after Shixun for me; make sure you feed her iron foods— I don’t know the when’s the next time I can call you again.”

Kai frowned. He was about to ask why Shixun needed to be fed iron foods, but—

“She’s just… anaemic.”

Before Kai could respond, the line had gone dead. And he could only hope and pray things would go smoothly in China. Things were getting more and more unpredictable as the days go by.

Would they be able to even find the antidote in time before Luhan goes?

~”~

Luhan wiped the Shixun’s forehead sheened with beads of perspiration with a white cloth as Irene got ready a needle to extract blood samples from the still unconscious child.

“I think we should wait until she wakes up,” Luhan told, brushing off the strand of hair from Shixun’s forehead. She had been unconscious for the whole night; and it was almost close to 10. “We should request her consent; it’s the least we could do after what our sister has done to her.”

Irene nodded, putting away t