The ride to the bar was done in complete silence, except the few notifications and occasional texting Kyungsoo was doing. Jongin was looking out the window, letting his body rest against the seat. He had no energy left inside, nothing to hold on to except for the man next to him. The taxi pulled up in front of the bar and being dark already people were chatting and drinking inside.

Jongin suddenly remembered he had to meet his friends, but he didn’t want them to see him like this. His voice was a mess and he was sure his neck looked like an art piece.

Kyungsoo paid for the taxi, getting out and helping Jongin do the same. They walked towards the entrance but Jongin stopped a few feet away, glancing at the shorter man with worry. He thought Kyungsoo got the hint because he sighed, grabbing his hand. He pulled Jongin away from the main entrance.  Jongin felt a tingling sensation crawling up his arm, a feeling he ignored for now.

They reached the back of the bar, to a door that possibly led to that storage room Jongin had been in before. Kyungsoo was still holding Jongin’s hand when he opened it and pulled him inside. It was indeed the storage room; they didn’t waste any time getting to the basement. Kyungsoo made him sit on one of the couches and a few seconds later they were no longer alone.

“So, what happened?” the redhaired guy questioned as he stood next to Kyungsoo. Jongin forgot his name.

“He was attacked, I have reasons to believe it was one of them,” Kyungsoo replied. What did he mean with one of them?

“,” the redhaired sighed, looking away for a moment. “So, they found him.”

“They did, I don’t know how, but we can’t leave him alone anymore,” Kyungsoo ran a hand through his hair. “Also, Hyung, where’s Yixing?”

“I’ll send him over. Try to get in contact with Sehun and Baekhyun, I want them here now,” the redhaired left looking terribly upset, leaving Jongin alone with Kyungsoo again. The other sat beside him and sighed as he examined Jongin’s bruised neck.

“Yixing has healing powers, he will be able to help you,” Kyungsoo said. Jongin wanted to thank him, but he was sure his voice would not help him to get any words out. If this Yixing guy had healing powers, then he would thank them later. Kyungsoo texted some more, his eyes nervously going back to Jongin occasionally.

The redhaired came back then with another blond guy, which Jongin assumed was Yixing. The blond sat down at the other side of Jongin offering a hand.

“Give me your hand so I can heal you,” he said, his voice was so peaceful and sweet, almost like a lullaby. Jongin took his hand and Yixing gave him a dimpled smile, quickly putting his other hand over Jongin’s. He closed his eyes, and after a few seconds Jongin started to feel some energy rushing into his body, it felt fuzzy and warm and it soothed his aching throat slowly.

Jongin could feel the other two just staring at them as they waited. A few minutes later, Yixing let go of Jongin’s hands and smiled.

“You’re all good now,” he looked up at the others. “Is he staying here tonight? I can prepare his room.”

“Please do,” the redhaired said. “I don’t want to risk him going back home, they could be waiting.”

This made Jongin’s body shiver.

“Okay,” Yixing gave Jongin a warm smile. “You’ll be safe here.”

“Thank you,” was all Jongin could respond. The blond left, leaving him with Kyungsoo and the redhaired. He didn’t have a clue of what would happen next, other than him staying the night, but could he? Especially with all the people he knew lived there.

“I’ll take care of him,” Kyungsoo gave the redhaired a look Jongin could not understand.

“I’m not sure that’s a good idea, remember what happened last time,” the redhaired avoided Jongin’s eyes. There was more to this story, things they weren’t telling him.

“I learn from my mistakes quickly,” Kyungsoo sighed. “Junmyeon Hyung… I won’t let anyone touch him.”

They stared at each other for a few seconds before Junmyeon sighed and took a step back, glancing at Jongin once. “Fine, you’re still in charge of his safety for now.”

Kyungsoo nodded and just like that Junmyeon disappeared down the hall. Jongin wasn’t sure at all of what was going on, and he didn’t know why it looked like Kyungsoo cared so much but maybe he could give him some answers to what happened.

“Can I ask you something?” Jongin’s voice was back to normal after Yixing did his magic voodoo thing. “Who was that at my apartment? Why did they try to kill me?”

Kyungsoo sighed. “That’s complicated. Are you hungry?”

Jongin frowned, a pout forming on his lips when he didn’t get a direct answer, but then he realized he hadn’t had dinner yet and he was very hungry indeed. “A little, but I still want you to answer my question.”

“Let’s do that after dinner,” Kyungsoo smiled at him, like a real smile for the first time, no arrogance or anything else behind it, and Jongin didn’t know why he felt like that was a punch straight to his stomach. Kyungsoo wasn’t the type to smile, a smirk maybe, but not real smiles like that. “follow me.”

He disappeared down the hall and Jongin just sat there for a good five minutes, not knowing if he should indeed follow. In the end, he decided to follow him because he was going to be staying the night there apparently. He would protest but he was also kind of scared to go back to his apartment. The intruder could still be waiting nearby, the mere thought gave Jongin goosebumps.

Walking down the mysterious hall, he found out that the first door led to a kitchen, fortunately, the light was on, illuminating half of the hallway with it. There were other closed doors that he assumed were probably bedrooms and bathrooms since they seemed to be living down there. He slowly made his way inside the kitchen where Kyungsoo was already making dinner, according to what he could see it was probably pasta.

Jongin’s stomach growled at the lack of food, and he really liked pasta.

Jongin sat on one of the stools, watching the other work in silence, completely concentrated on the food. He had so many questions.

“Why did you save me?” Jongin heard the other sigh at his question. He couldn’t help it, he needed answers and he just couldn’t put them on hold.

“Because you’re one of us… Junmyeon told you,” Kyungsoo didn’t look up when he said this. Jongin’s eyebrows knitted on his forehead.

“How are you guys so sure?” It didn’t make any sense to him. He could just be a random person and the things he saw… well, what assured him he really saw them, and they weren’t implanted in his head by them.

“Well you saw it yourself, didn’t you?” Kyungsoo replied and Jongin was about to interrupt him. “Today when I arrived, you used your powers on the traitor.”

What powers? He didn’t even think he had such thing; how could he have used powers that he didn’t know he had?

“I know what you’re thinking. I think it was mostly because you were at risk, so your body took over… but you did,” Kyungsoo turned around, opening the fridge behind him. Jongin was still confused. At what point while he was being strangled to death did he use said powers?

Wait…

Did he mean that white light that got the intruder off him? Did he produce that white light on his own? Was that the confirmation he needed to believe what he really was?

“Okay, let’s say I believe you… you weren’t supposed to be my babysitter. You said you would send Baekhyun so, why were you there?” was Jongin being stalked by several people? He wouldn’t be surprised at this point.

“Because Baekhyun couldn’t make it but that idiot couldn’t send a text until way later,” Kyungsoo shrugged. “I went back as fast as I could because I felt something like that could happen and looks like I was right because you were attacked the second they knew you were alone.”

Kyungsoo had such an intense stare, his eyes as dark as the night just piercing a hole through Jongin’s soul. Jongin looked down, fidgeting with his fingers when he couldn’t stand the weight of his stare any longer. There was an unsettling feeling of déjà vu running inside of him like his stare felt familiar. It was too intense to ignore and maybe Jongin had to start thinking that they were probably right and that it was his memories from a previous life waking up.

He wanted to remember and at the same time, he didn’t.

However, the way he talked about it, it made it seem way more personal to him than it was to the others. Well, he couldn’t talk about the rest, but Sehun and Baekhyun didn’t look like they felt as strongly as Kyungsoo. He was just about to ask when Sehun and Baekhyun rushed inside the kitchen.

“Jongin!” Baekhyun ran over to hug him, Jongin was surprised for a few minutes, patting Baekhyun’s back awkwardly. “Oh my God! I can’t believe what happened. Are you okay?”

“I’m fine… Kyungsoo saved me and Yixing healed me,” Jongin tried to smile but it came out more like a grimace.

Sehun glanced at Kyungsoo, and the other held his stare, like daring him to say anything. Sehun eventually looked away, sighing. “Are you sure you’re okay? You’re not going back are you?”

“I’m fine. Looks like I will be staying over,” Jongin shrugs. “It’s okay.”

“It’s not okay,” Kyungsoo interrupted, there was obvious anger in his voice. “I should’ve made sure someone was on the way and stayed with him until that someone arrived. Won’t make that mistake again.”

“It wasn’t intentional, you didn’t know they would try something so soon,” Sehun sighed sitting next to Jongin.

“Who are they?” Jongin asked, but he was completely ignored.

“We have to assume everything Sehun, I will keep watching him,” Kyungsoo went back to the pasta. Sehun scoffed.

“So, you’re going to be his shadow and get yourself killed too this time?” Sehun didn’t look pleased at all. “You were lucky last time, but luck runs out. Let the rest of us take over.”

“If you guys really want to help then why don’t you guard his apartment? I’m not leaving him,” Kyungsoo turned around, letting Sehun know the conversation is over on his part.

Baekhyun and Jongin exchanged a look, not saying anything that could worsen the tense mood. Jongin was feeling a little frustrated, his questions were not being answered and they just kept talking about him like he wasn’t even in the room. It bothered him.

“Okay, let’s not fight when we have a guest,” Baekhyun said, smiling at Jongin. “So, you’re staying.”

Jongin nodded. “My apartment is a mess and… Kyungsoo thinks whoever attacked me might be waiting to do it again.”

Baekhyun sighed, thinking about this for a moment. “I’ll tell Jongdae and Chanyeol so we can go secure the area. You will have to go back eventually.”

“Thanks,” Jongin decided he liked Baekhyun, out of the ones he had officially met, he was the only one that seemed to be reasonable.

“It’s nothing,” Baekhyun smiled. “I’ll keep you guys updated,” he then left the kitchen. Sehun still had his eyes on the back of Kyungsoo’s head, not saying anything so Jongin was surprised when he just jumped out of his seat and left the kitchen as well.

“Is Sehun going to be okay?” Jongin questioned, he felt some tension coming out of him, a tension that he didn’t quite understand.

“He’ll be fine,” Kyungsoo just shrugged it off, finishing dinner and setting a plate in front of Jongin, before sitting next to him. “Eat.”

Jongin glanced down at his plate, it looked very appetizing and he was hungry, so he wasted no time in digging in. Sitting there, in a basement kitchen with a guy he barely knew but now trusted with his life, Jongin wondered where had his common sense run off to. However, this guy next to him saved his life, and with the way he was going against everyone it looked like he cared a lot.

Why did Kyungsoo care so much?

Jongin sighed, eating more pasta, gaining a look from the other.

“You don’t like it?” Kyungsoo asked looking down at his plate.

“Oh no, I was just thinking…” Jongin dropped his fork. “I want answers.”

There was a moment of silence between them before Kyungsoo nodded.

“I’ll tell you what you want to know.”

Jongin was determined to know everything.