12.

LuHan blinks open his eyes, bringing up his hand to shield his face from the sunlight trickling through the open curtains. The first thought that crossed his mind was that he was still alive.

But where am I? He blearily stirs, leaning onto his elbow for support as he tries to sit up on the bed. Its then, when the door of the room suddenly creaks open.

“Oh hey, rise and shine princess.”

LuHan turns towards the owner of the voice, sighing when he meets Chen’s twinkling eyes staring at him from the doorway. He was back at the mansion.

“What happened?” LuHan asks, swallowing air and rubbing at his parched throat.

Chen strides towards the bed, picking up the water jug and glass on the bedside table.

“What happened to you? Or what happened to the intruders?” Chen specifies, helping LuHan sit upright and handing him the water.

“What happened to the intruders,” LuHan repeats, the moments before he out flashed through his memory. He keeps the stirring emotions in check.

“They managed to get away with the chip. Our entire building is gone now, you know, up in flames– heck, the entire half-block went up in flames with it,” Chen explains, crossing his arms.

“Casualties?”

“On our side? A handful of underlings, seems like the other group did a number on us before the building blew up.” Chen raises a knowing eyebrow at LuHan, “And lucky for you, Tao made me and Xiumin check up on you, or else you wouldn’t be sitting here sipping that glass.”

Chen suddenly narrows his eyes. “What happened to you anyway? We found you unconscious on the floor.”

LuHan briefly stills, putting the empty cup back down on the table. “I fought someone. He knocked me out.”

Tilting his head to one side, as if weighing LuHan’s words through his mind, Chen shrugs and dons an, “okay”, before turning back towards the doorway.

“If you’re not hurting anywhere, Lay wants you to meet him upstairs in his office.” Chen pauses, one hand on the doorknob, “seems like he caught a hostage from that group last night, wants you to help with interrogations and stuff –your specialty, right?”

And with a quiet click of the door, LuHan finds himself alone in the room, stomach fluttering with unease at the mention of hostage.

It couldn't be him… could it? LuHan ponders, throat drying once more.

Why he found himself so worried was beyond anything he could fathom.

∞

By the time Jongin stirs, the sun was high in the sky, and the apartment rang a heavy tune of fatigue.

“A laceration on the forehead, two bullet wounds, and a torn ligament,” Kyungsoo quietly summarizes. “You are not to use that right arm until I say so, or else you can forget about ever firing a gun, never mind using it on a daily basis.”

Jongin mutely nods. His entire body was pulsing with a dull pain he barely registered. His mind was preoccupied by more than one concern; and his own body was the least of that worry.

“Is everyone else safe?” It hurts him, his own underlining words dig under his skin and stab into his consciousness.

Everyone else except SeHun…

Kyungsoo pauses. “Baekhyun and Chanyeol just fell asleep in the room next door.”

“JoonMyun? How is he?”

Kyungsoo’s lips are set in a firm line, head slightly shaking. “It’ll take him some time to recover. And…” Kyungsoo pauses, running a hand through his hair and rubbing at his eyes. His sleeves were covered in blood.

“You’ll know when you see him,” Kyungsoo finishes. The man looked like he was ready to fall over any time.

“Can I see him?” Jongin questions. Something about the way Kyungsoo was acting made him more nervous than ever. JoonMyun was alive, wasn’t he? So then why was Kyungsoo acting as if their sector leader was on his deathbed?

Kyungsoo helps Jongin to his feet, but his hand stills on Jongin’s shoulder as he looks at the younger man in the eyes. “When you talk to him, stand to his left,” Kyungsoo whispers, gently squeezing the shoulder as he leads Jongin out the room.

“Why do I need to…” Jongin starts, frowning at Kyungsoo, before it dawns on him. His mouth is slightly parted in an O, as he and Kyungsoo walk towards the living room.

JoonMyun was lying across the unfolding sofa-bed, a laptop on his stomach as his unbandaged hand slowly types across the keyboard.

Kyungsoo hisses, running around the bed, “JoonMyun I told you to rest! I don’t want you to strain that eye of yours!”

JoonMyun helplessly surrenders the laptop. “But