Chanyeol gripped Chen’s wrists more tightly as he glanced at Baekhyun.

“Please don’t tell me you actually know this guy,” he said, “because if you do then you need to choose your friends more carefully.”

Baekhyun looked down at Chen who apologetically raised his eyebrows.

“I’m telling the truth!” Chen sobbed against the floor.

“He’s not really a friend.” Baekhyun gnawed on his lip. “More of a work colleague.” Baekhyun rocked back on his heels and stood up. He started pacing back and forth, picking up a frenzied rhythm.

“Okay, so why do you think he’s after you?” Chanyeol probed as his eyes followed Baekhyun all over the kitchen.

“I think he had some money issues,” Baekhyun began, but stopped. He slapped his hand against his forehead and widened his eyes. “I’m so dumb, ugh!”

“What?” both Chen and Chanyeol asked. They looked at each other. Ordinarily, Chanyeol would’ve laughed but now he simply looked back at Baekhyun.

“So we’re kind of rivals,” Baekhyun said slowly, as if piecing the puzzle together. “He’s an underground singer, and he made a song about me a while back, about how I’m an idol and not a real artist, blah blah blah. I made a diss song about him, and it got a lot of traction.”

Chanyeol felt his jaw drop in disbelief.

“Let me get this straight,” Chanyeol said, struggling to close this mouth. “This dude is literally trying to kill you over a stupid song?”

But Baekhyun folded his arms and stopped pacing.

“Well, the song did ruin his career, and his life. A lot of people started looking into him and they found out he owed a lot of loan sharks money to get his career off the ground, he never paid anything back so the creditors came for everything. I had heard he was trying to avoid jailtime for his unpaid debts.”

“And so he thought he could make a quick buck and ruin your life by leaking a bunch of celebrity secrets from your phone,” Chanyeol finished for him.

“Why not? Kill two birds with one stone,” Baekhyun responded despondently, now leaning against the wall of the kitchen. He hung his head and heaved a sigh. “I can’t believe he actually got people to threaten your family and convinced you to come after me,” Baekhyun directed at Chen.

“Well my family’s dead for all I know,” Chen said, voice stifled against the floor. “I don’t know what to do!”

Chanyeol thought hard, gears in his brain working in overtime. He snapped his head up at Baekhyun.

“Okay, well first thing’s first, let’s figure out if Chen’s family is safe. I think we need to get the police involved in this one,” he suggested.

“We can’t do that,” Baekhyun cautioned.

“Why the hell not? Chen came into my apartment with a freaking GUN!”

“Because!” Baekhyun blew up. “Think! If we went to the police then Kyungsoo might kill Chen’s family for all we know! H