“WHAT DID YOU JUST DO TO BYUL?! I’M GOING TO KILL YOU!” Sehun yanked Chanyeol off the ground by grabbing a fistful of his collar. He bared his snarl right in Chanyeol’s face. Sehun was so overcome by anger that his fists were shaking.

“You’re so stupid!” Chanyeol shoved him away by his chest. “It’s not what it looks like! Get the off me!”

“Sehun, cut it out! What’s gotten into you?” Byul lurched to her knees upon witnessing the commotion and reached to push Sehun off of Chanyeol with both arms.

Sehun remained on the ground, staring at her with complete amazement. He opened his mouth, but he didn’t say a word. His eyebrows furrowed like he didn’t believe what he was seeing. He was still catching his breath, his chest quickly rising up and down. Sehun’s whole frenzy had literally knocked the air out of him.

“W-Wait. You’re alive?”

“What? Why would I be dead? I’m—”

“Dammit, Byul.” Sehun interrupted her in a tight, suffocating hug that caught her by surprise. “Why were you laying on the ground like that?”

She could barely move her arms in his grip. “It’s my costume! I’m a dead girl.”

He pulled back to fully take her in, only then noticing the wrongly colored fake blood and the smudged makeup that were supposed to be bruises. “You smell like a hamburger.”

“This is ketchup.”

“I thought—”

“That I would kill her?” Chanyeol quickly staggered back on his feet and dusted himself off. He gave Sehun a hard glare. “Thanks for trusting me, Sehun.”

“Hold on,” Sehun called out, but Chanyeol was already storming inside of Eight Point without looking back.

Byul sighed, reluctantly peeling Sehun’s hands off of her. “Go run after him.”

He blinked at her. “Are you sure?”

“I’m fine. Just go.”

Sehun knew he messed up—really messed up. He thought that he trusted Chanyeol tremendously, and Chanyeol himself was sure Sehun did. They were partners in a career that often faced them with life and death after all. The two would take bullets for each other. After that, it seemed Sehun trusted Chanyeol less than he thought. It was reasonable that Chanyeol was upset. Apparently, Sehun didn’t trust him all that much.

“Sehun, seriously. Go.” Byul nodded towards the building in encouragement.

He left after a moment of hesitation.

While Sehun hurried in Eight Point after Chanyeol, Byul wandered around the place to find a bathroom just to wash away all the ketchup on her. She was smelling like a hamburger. After drying her hands off and patting spots of her dress dry as best as she could with tissues, Byul wandered to the basement to search for Chanyeol or Sehun. From just standing on the staircase, she knew it was hopeless because the place was covered in every inch with bodies.

Byul spotted a familiar figure of a man. It wasn’t Sehun or Chanyeol, but it had to be someone she knew. He was dressed as Zorro—he had a black hat and a mask laid over his eyes. His dark cape moved with every motion he took. They made eye contact that lasted for a second before the man turned to mix into the crowd.

“Wait!” she called out, following him toward the bar where she saw him disappear. She couldn’t quite figure out who it was, but the familiarity was so striking that it got her curious. Byul knew him from somewhere, but she couldn’t put her finger on it. His name was on the tip of her tongue.

“Eunbyul! Is there a Seo Eunbyul here?”

She turned to her name. The bartender was calling out for her above the noise. Bewildered, she shimmied her way through the bodies and raised an arm once she got to the front. “I’m Eunbyul!”

“I’ve been calling out your name for the past ten minutes.” The bartender passed her a drink that was peach in color. “Someone named Sehun bought you a drink.”

Byul sipped on the drink curiously. It was a fruity alcoholic drink that reminded her of a tropical island. She decided to wait by the bar. Maybe that was Sehun’s way of telling her to wait for him there. Byul turned to face the crowd, wondering where the two boys could have gotten to and hoped that they could get over whatever argument they were in. Her eyes landed on the Zorro once again. He seemed to be intently staring at her from a distance. He had to know her too, didn’t he? Byul squeezed through the crowd towards him, getting in within the sea of people. When she looked around, Zorro was gone once again.

Her head felt like it was swimming. Byul wobbled in her step and bumped into somebody who cursed. She apologized quickly before they went on their own way. She was tipsy before, but she was definitely drunk out of her mind by then. She had to fight to keep herself from falling over sideways. How was it possible that she felt completely hammered off two sips of her new drink? It was like the alcohol hit her in less than a minute.

What had Sehun given her?

Byul looked in the cup and saw a fizzing tablet.

Sehun found Chanyeol outside by the second-floor balcony of Eight Point after much searching. Chanyeol had his back turned to him as he stood by the railing. Sehun knew that he had heard him approach, though Chanyeol didn’t react at all.

He took a deep breath. “Chanyeol—”

“Don’t even try to apologize for that.” His voice was firm.

Sehun ignored him. “I’m sorry. It really looked like you got to her,” he muttered, moving to stand beside him. Chanyeol didn’t inch away and instead stared ahead. Sehun recalled seeing Byul on the ground, sprawled out with her eyes closed. Her dress was dirty with splotches of red and her face looked like she had taken a beating. The distance from where he saw her in his car fooled him.

“That still doesn’t answer why you think I would kill Byul for the money. I don’t want to see her dead,” Chanyeol said, crossing his arms tightly around his chest. “She’s a friend.”

“It’s just…” Sehun didn’t know how to put together his words. His mind was a jumble as if someone physically shook his head so hard that words were flipping around in disarray. “I’m so paranoid that someone is going to come and get to her and I won’t be there to stop them. She started school and I feel like I have to text her every minute if she’s fine and… and… I just don’t want anyone to take her away from me.”

He noticed Chanyeol swallow hard though he didn’t say a word. Instead, he seemed to be absorbing his words.

“I’m sorry that my paranoia got to you too.” Sehun leaned with his arms folded on the banister, looking down at the ground below them.

Chanyeol turned to face him after pondering for a long moment. “You really like Byul, huh?”

Sehun didn’t know what to think of his response. Did Chanyeol accept his apology and come to understand him, or was he speaking as if Sehun had liked her too much to a point that it affected their friendship negatively?

Chanyeol’s wide grin answered Sehun’s question. “Aww, I can’t believe my little Sehunnie is growing up.” He reached out to wrap his arm around Sehun’s neck in a hold to give him a noogie, messing Sehun’s hair with his knuckles.

“Stop!” he yelled in protest, half-heartedly trying to push his friend away for making him feel like a five-year-old.

“About this whole thing with Baekhyun,” Chanyeol carefully began and watched Sehun’s expression to his every word, “don’t you think it would be better if you let them talk?”

“What?” Sehun’s brows drew together in genuine confusion. He thought that he must have heard his friend wrong.

“Why not just let them sort out whatever happened to them?