Jongin thought it was impossible, but he finally had a class where Kyungsoo wasn’t present. He sighed in relief just looking around the classroom and finding just unknown faces. Things had been uncomfortable after Kyungsoo took Jongin home. He kept replaying the day in his head, but he didn’t find any reasons as to why Kyungsoo would act that way.

There was no way to find out.

He pulled a book out, trying to distract himself from the weird things going on lately. However, his brain couldn’t focus on the words, re-reading the same sentence over five times before he finally decided to close the book. It bothered him; he didn’t want to admit it but after he was alone at home, he felt uneasy. He had to continuously remind himself that it wasn’t his fault.

Jongin then felt a slight tingling sensation on the back of his neck. He could somewhat now identify the feeling of being watched. However, he didn’t look up to see who it was, he was even afraid it could be Kyungsoo again just magically appearing inside the classroom. Considering how he had been following him, Jongin wouldn’t be surprised at all.

Although he didn’t think he would after yesterday.

The teacher walked into the classroom then, somehow making the sensation dissipate. Jongin tried his best to focus on class, listening to the lecture and the teacher talking about the project they would have to do for the semester, and that they would need a partner to do so. For a moment Jongin felt anxious, Minjoon and Jongwoon didn’t share this class with him either, so he would have to find someone among these strangers. He wasn’t the shy type, but this was uncomfortable.

Luckily for him, the teacher then informed he would be assigning the partners.

He let out a relieved sigh.

Jongin waited patiently until the teacher called his name. Standing up, looking around the classroom until his eyes landed on this tall guy that would be his partner. Jongin couldn’t tell much from his expression, blond hair pushed back, and uninterested eyes returning his gaze. The guy gave him a nod, and Jongin returned it, both sitting down once the teacher started to call the rest of the students.

Once class was over his project partner approached Jongin, he was way taller than him, and there was such a peaceful vibe to him, but at the same time, it made Jongin kind of uneasy.

“Hey, Jongin right? I’m Yifan,” he offered a hand that Jongin accepted almost instantly. “Nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you too,” Jongin smiled, standing up as well.

“I would like it if we could start getting settled on this right away, the sooner the better,” again the blond didn’t have much of expression when he said this but looked like he was responsible so Jongin was relieved.

“Sure, I have some time now, we can hang out at the library and decide our project.”

Yifan nodded. “Let’s do that.”

And just like that Jongin found himself walking next to Yifan towards the library. Jongin’s phone was buzzing inside his backpack, a quick look confirmed it was Kyungsoo. He finally gave in the day before while they were spending time together, but he was not in the mood, so he decided to ignore it. He didn’t have time nor energy to deal with him.

Yifan pulled out his phone as well, sending a text and then putting it back inside his pocket.

“I hope you don’t mind; I have a friend waiting for me there,” he said and Jongin shook his head with a smile.

“Oh, I don’t.”

“Are you new in the city?” Yifan turned to look at him and Jongin just blinked for a second.

“I am! How did you know?” Jongin shifted the weight of his bag a little. Yifan shrugged, the hint of a smile in his face.

“Just a hunch.”

“Is it on my face or something?” Jongin chuckled. It wasn’t like he was asked this often, but he wanted to know.

“Not really,” was Yifan’s only response and Jongin nodded.

Yifan didn’t say much else as they walked to the library, it was a nice change of pace, after spending time around people with a lot of energy, and even Kyungsoo who had a lot to say. Yifan spotted his friend sitting at one of the tables closest to the door, they sat with him.

“This is Zitao,” Yifan introduce. “Zitao this is Jongin, we’re partners for a project.”

“How exciting!” the complete opposite to his friend, Zitao gave Jongin a warm smile. He had dirty blond hair and his skin was slightly darker than Yifan’s. He appeared to be friendly. Jongin smiled back.

“Nice to meet you.”

 Yifan pulled out his laptop and a notepad, going over with him what they had to do and how to divide the workload for them to get through it effectively.

Jongin was impressed with the way Yifan quickly drafted a schedule and divided the project between the two, with constant checkups just so they can see how it’s going. He of course agreed to everything because there wasn’t much he could say to that.

“If you need any help then I’ll give you my number,” Yifan wrote it down on a piece of paper, sliding it over the table towards him.

“Thanks,” was all Jongin could respond. He had just been hit with a ton of information and he didn’t know what to do with it. Jongin quickly dialed the number so Yifan could have his number as well and put the piece of paper inside his bag, he then smiled at the taller guy.

“Do you have any questions?” Yifan closed his laptop, putting it back inside his bag.

“Not at the moment, but if anything comes up, I’ll call you.”

“Be sure to use my number for anything you need,” for some reason he made it sound like he was talking about way more than just their project. Jongin didn’t want to dig into it so he nodded. Just as Jongin stood up from the table they shared, he felt an itching sensation on the back of his neck.

Oh no.

Then there was a hand on his shoulder. As he expected, Kyungsoo was standing there in all his handsome glory. Jongin discovered that the more time he spent with the other, the more attractive he appeared. Kyungsoo had his hair pushed back carefully, his dark sparkly eyes staring at his partner and Zitao.

“I was looking for you,” Kyungsoo said, however, he did not look at Jongin once. There was so much of him that was starting to attract Jongin, his voice, his eyes, even his scent seemed to be calling Jongin. Every single alert inside his body was on, but he paid no attention to any of them. Kyungsoo finally turned to look at him and the weight of his stare made Jongin blush slightly. “We have a place to be.”

“I-I was just finishing here,” Jongin cleared his throat, not wanting anything else to come out of his mouth with that raspy voice of his.

“Sure, you were,” Kyungsoo smiled sweetly. The hand he had on Jongin’s shoulder sliding down until it reached his hand, intertwining their fingers together. They were practically strangers but for whatever reason Jongin didn’t mind.

“Remember to text me Jongin,” Yifan reminded. His face was expressionless, however, there was a certain coldness in his stare as he watched Kyungsoo’s every movement.

“I will,” Jongin smiled at the blond one last time before being pulled by Kyungsoo towards the exit. Kyungsoo’s hand was squeezing Jongin’s a little too tight as they walked towards the main street. It was almost like he was rushing out. Jongin was confused, Kyungsoo was acting weird, just coming out of nowhere after it looked like he was over him the day before. For a second as Kyungsoo dragged him away, he was second-guessing his second impression of the other. Jongin didn’t even get to say goodbye properly. “Where are we going?”

“There’s a place you need to be,” Kyungsoo replied, he was frowning. They soon reached the entrance, as Kyungsoo stopped a taxi for them.

“Does this place have a name?”

“It does, but you’ll see when we get there,” Kyungsoo opened the door for him, letting out a sigh. “Get in.”

Jongin took a deep breath, not knowing what to do. He was curious so he ended up getting inside the taxi. He didn’t know Kyungsoo very well, however, despite that he didn’t feel uneasy about the place they were heading to. It was the way Kyungsoo was acting now which regardless of not knowing each other seemed kind of out of character. Kyungsoo always had this cool expression, he was always calm and moved around like time was nothing to him.

He watched as Kyungsoo walked around the car, getting in, and closing the door a little too hard. He didn’t look in Jongin’s direction once as he told the driver where they were heading. Jongin noticed him chewing on his bottom lip.

There was nothing but silence inside the car, both sitting in the back seat looking out the windows, no music was playing which made the situation a bit more tense for them.

“When did you meet him?” Kyungsoo suddenly asked. Jongin frowned not fully understanding the question.

“Who?”

“The guy you were with Jongin,” Kyungsoo sighed. “The dude at the library.”

“Oh,” Jongin’s eyes widened. “We just met today in class; we are doing a project together.” he didn’t know why he was giving Kyungsoo so many details, it wasn’t like he owed him any explanation. Kyungsoo hummed in response, Jongin couldn’t tell what he was thinking from his expression. “Why do you care?”

“I don’t.”

“Then why are you asking?”

Kyungsoo sighed once again, finally glancing at Jongin for the first time since they left the library. “I was just curious.”

Jongin didn’t believe that at all.

“That’s bull but okay,” he crossed his arms over his chest, deciding to ignore Kyungsoo for now. The way he acted sometimes was so weird to Jongin. He couldn’t figure out what he was thinking or feeling, and out of that flirty façade, he could never tell, and that frustrated him a lot. None of them said anything else until the driver parked in front of a closed bar. It was still early afternoon so that was probably the reason why it was still closed.

Jongin got out of the car, noticing the place felt awfully familiar to him. It took him some time to finally realize that this was the place he went out to with his friends the night he can barely remember. There are goosebumps on his skin and a shiver running down his spine as he feels Kyungsoo’s presence next to him.

“What are we doing here?” Jongin asked him, he had both a good and a bad feeling about this. Kyungsoo smiled, wrapping an arm around Jongin’s shoulders.

“You’ll see,” he said. “Follow me.”

Despite part of his body alerting him against it, Jongin still followed Kyungsoo into the bar. They walked through the empty tables and the bar area. The neon lights were off and the shelves where the bottles were displayed were now empty. Soon Kyungsoo reached a door, walking into some sort of storage room with several boxes of liquor and other stuff for the bar. Jongin looked around confused. Was it okay for them to be there? Kyungsoo walked in like it didn’t matter so he assumed it was.

On the far end of the storage room, there was another door, a door Kyungsoo needed a key to open. He looked over his shoulder at Jongin for a second before pulling a key out of his pocket and opening the door. Jongin frowned, he didn’t like this situation not even one bit, if his brother ever found out Jongin had been in a place like this he would make him go back home.

The door finally opened, Kyungsoo pushed the door followed by a cracking sound of the wood giving in under his hand. It looked like that door hadn’t been used in ages, so why was Kyungsoo opening it now? He took a few steps in, Jongin couldn’t see past Kyungsoo and his common sense finally started to kick in.

“I’m not sure I want to follow you anymore,” he said, taking a step back. Being alone in a dark room with a person he barely knew was a recipe for disaster. He could be drugged or killed, or God knows what else, he wouldn’t risk it.

“I promise there’s nothing bad here, I’m not going to hurt you,” Kyungsoo said, and somehow, even with how crazy and suspicious this was, Jongin felt like he was telling the truth, like some sort of epiphany feeling inside of him like he knew this was true. With just one look into Kyungsoo’s eyes, Jongin believed him. If that was good or bad, he was about to find out. Jongin took a deep breath. Would he be crazy enough to go in with him? His brain was telling him to just run away and call the cops or something. “Jongin, it’s okay.” Kyungsoo offered a hand, a playful smile curving his lips, and his weird eyes attached to Jongin’s.

Jongin sighed, taking Kyungsoo’s hand and following right behind him. It was like his body was ignoring everything his brain had to say and decided to do this on its own. Turned out past the door there were some stairs, leading to a basement. By the look of this place, Jongin wouldn’t believe there was a basement anywhere.

They walked downstairs, he could barely see anything, so he tightened his grip around Kyungsoo’s hand, not noticing the smile on the other’s face. They finally reached the basement, it looked like some sort of living room, there was a flat screen tv on a wall to the left with a few old couches in front of it. A coffee table in the middle with a few magazines and books on top of it. To the other side, there were just a few more couches and a minibar with a few empty glasses on top of it. There was a dark hall leading somewhere Jongin could only imagine.

“Oh, you guys are here,” a low voice said right in Jongin’s ear, he turned around to find another guy. Someone that looked rather familiar but that Jongin knew he had never seen at the same time.

How?

Kyungsoo smiled, pulling Jongin towards him. “I brought him as you guys requested.”

Jongin’s eyes widened at this, he was sure he didn’t know this guy, so why would he want to see him. Also, were there more people here?

“Good, we’ll do it here,” The guy glanced at Jongin, one corner of his lips lifting into a half-smile. He then did a full scan on Jongin’s body, his eyes sparkling just like Kyungsoo’s.

Jongin was going to die.

He was sure of it, they were going to kill him and sell his organs on the black market just because of his stupidity.

“I haven’t explained anything to him yet,” Kyungsoo mentioned and the other guy groaned in response.

“You should’ve done that before bringing him here,” he looked completely unimpressed, a sigh escaping his lips.

“I figured Junmyeon Hyung would do it,” Kyungsoo shrugged. “He’s good at telling this story.”

“Whatever then, I’ll tell the others.”

Of course, there were others. Jongin started to tremble, his breathing picking up as he realized he was probably in trouble. It was stupid of him to believe a person he had known for a few days. Kyungsoo noticed Jongin’s discomfort and smiled at him.

“Relax, as I said we’re not going to hurt you.” Kyungsoo ruffled Jongin’s hair and ended with his hand being slapped away by the other. “Can we get Baekhyun here or someone?”

The other guy nodded, walking down the dark hall. They stood there waiting for something to happen when another person came out of the hall. He was blonde, his fluffy hair falling over his forehead, giving him a more innocent look. His eyes sparkled like the other two, but his smile felt way welcoming and warm than the other guy or even Kyungsoo’s. He made his way towards Jongin, one step at a time, not rushing it. He was smiling at Jongin like they had been friends since forever.

The blond guy offered a hand.

“Hi, my name is Baekhyun,” he greeted, his smile not fading one bit. “Has Kyungsoo been treating you nicely? I’ll get him in trouble if he hasn’t.” Jongin was suddenly filled with a warm feeling, he felt like he was okay, like he was calmed. He let go of Kyungsoo’s hand to shake Baekhyun’s.

“Of course I have, he wouldn’t come here on his own if I didn’t.”

“I guess that’s true.” Baekhyun patted Kyungsoo’s shoulder and pulled Jongin towards one of the couches. “Are you hungry Jongin? Do you want to drink anything?”

“How do you know my name?” Jongin frowned, pulling his hand back.

“Kyungsoo has been talking to us about you, I hope you don’t mind,” Baekhyun’s presence was so warm and embracing, it made Jongin feel so calm, even when he was trying to keep his alarms on, it was like he did not have any other choice but to feel calm.

“I don’t,” was all Jongin could answer. He relaxed against the couch and Baekhyun gave Kyungsoo a look. Kyungsoo left them alone, walking down the hall.

“Don’t worry too much, we’re not going to hurt you,” Baekhyun patted Jongin’s knee. “Let’s just wait for the rest to be here and we’ll talk properly.”

Jongin nodded because he honestly didn’t know what else he could do. Soon more people started to appear, there were at least eight people in there with Jongin and there was a rush of something swimming through his skin and veins. His body was reacting to these people in different ways and he didn’t know if he liked it. His eyes scanned each of them, some of them looked normal, while the rest looked like people you shouldn’t mess around with.

One of them took a step towards them and Jongin grabbed Baekhyun’s hand as a reflex. The guy was maybe as tall as Baekhyun, he was wearing high waist dark pants and a vest only over his toned chest with a golden chain hanging from his neck. He had the deepest eyes Jongin had ever seen in his entire life, but not in a good way, they looked… empty.

Baekhyun placed a hand over Jongin’s letting him know everything was okay and for some reason he kind of believed him. A quick look at Kyungsoo told Jongin he wouldn’t get any help from him either. The redhaired finished closing the space between them, standing right in front of him with a raised eyebrow.

“My name is Junmyeon,” the redhaired smiled, but it was too sinister to Jongin’s liking. “I know you’re probably wondering what you’re doing here, but before we get to that let’s do some presentations and there’s a little story you need to hear.”

Jongin frowned. A story? What kind of story could he possibly hear from these people? Why were they all just staring at him like that? Like they were expecting him to recognize them?

“You already know Kyungsoo and Baekhyun,” The redhaired, Junmyeon, continued. “That’s Jongdae,” he pointed at the guy that had greeted them earlier, he was now wearing a double chain attached from his lips to his right ear and his hair was tied up in a bun. He sort of looked familiar. “Chanyeol,” he said pointing at the tallest one among them, the guy did not look happy seeing him, he had pink hair and there was too much leather covering his body. “Yixing and Minseok,” Junmyeon pointed at the other two blonds standing in the corner, they both waved and smiled at Jongin. “And Sehun,” this last one was the one standing the farthest from him so Jongin could barely make anything out of his expression, coal-black hair, his face looked bruised, but he wasn’t sure.

“Hi,” Jongin said, not knowing if he should say anything else. The rest of them didn’t say anything.

“Now, listen carefully… this story is long, and I don’t have all day.” Junmyeon sat right in front of them, crossing his legs. Jongin couldn’t tell if it was his imagination but it appeared as if his hair had suddenly turned into horns.

Jongin held his breath for whatever was about to happen.