“Is this thing safe?" "Safe as life," Gansey replied.

- Maggie Stiefvater, The Raven Boys

"I bet he knows. Do you think he knows?" Kai mumbled, his lean figure resting against the sandy wall of one of the buildings. "Knows what?" you asked. You were leaning next to him, not too close, just close enough for the two of you to share the shade being provided the fabric awning above. It was still scorching hot out. "Knows that we're going to talk to him about his manifestation," he responded, brushing strands of his sweaty black hair out of his face. It had been a while since you had seen Kai. Well, you had always seen Kai. You saw him everyday. Practically every waking moment you had contained Kai somewhere in either the background or foreground. But this was different. You weren't just looking at Kai. You were seeing him, analyzing him, watching the way his right eye would twitch when he was thinking hard about something. You were noticing how much longer his hair had gotten since you had first met him, how unruly it had become. It was wild, in complete contrast to his personality. The juxtaposition almost made you chuckle. "Gosh," you thought, "It really has been that long, hasn't it."

"Probably. He's said a lot of dumb things, but he isn't clueless," you answered, shrugging your shoulders, "And we did spend a tedious amount of time with him checking those who have fire manifestation, so he probably knows we're going to check him as well." Kai sighed, glancing out at the crowds of people. "It just ." You blinked. "Why does it ?" "Because..." he breathed, "it might be him." He turned towards you, his deep brown eyes pouring sorrowfully into your own. He didn't have to explain any further. You already knew what he was referring to. He was worried about Sehun. Sure, the rest of you we're too eager to converse with Chanyeol, but none of you held as much resentment as Sehun did. Hatred was a terrible thing. The longer you had it, the deeper it festered.

“It’s a no go,” Kris called as he shuffled his way back to the two of you. The tall boy had an exasperated look on his face. Lips tightened, brows furrowed, and a hand running through his hair. It was the look he had when he attempted to do something, but somehow fell short of his expectations. You didn’t really like this expression on him. You much rather preferred the calm, carefree Kris to this stressed version of him. “What? We can’t talk to him?” You asked, lips frowning. The taller male shook his head. “No, at least, not today. Apparently there are family rituals that follow the manifestations, so we won’t be able to talk with them until tomorrow,” he answered. Kai let out a long, exhausted sigh. “Figures.”

“Oh the bright side,” Kris quickly added, “I was told we can meet with Chanyeol and his family first thing tomorrow morning at their residence before the festivities start up again.” You gave him a small shrug. “Well, that’s better than being turned down,” you hummed, “Do you guys want to roam around a bit? Suho took Tao and Luhan on an ‘explanatory excursion,’ as he called it.” Kris’ eyes turned up as he grinned, a laugh escaping his lips. “That’s his way of eloquently saying he gained a captive audience to lecture.” Kai snickered, “Rest in peace Luhan and Tao. You will be missed.” You shoved him over lightly, laughing along with him and Kris.

As the three of you caught you breaths, Kris heaved a “yes” to your previous question. “As long as we’re all together, I think everything should be fine. We’re three strong, so if they try something we’ll have each other’s backs.” Kai gave a nod, agreeing with the older boy. “And we can use this as another opportunity to scout the area,” he lowered his voice, “for when we get Baekhyun, Lay, and Yeja.” You pursed your lips and hummed in agreement. Kris saw the darkened expressions on both your face and Kai’s. Smiling warmly, he rested his hands on both of your shoulders. “We’ll be fine. Everything will work out,” he reassured the two of you. Kai and you both looked up at him, then to each other before glancing back at Kris with eased grins. “Yeah,” you hummed softly in response. And you believed it. As you stared at their smiles, you couldn’t help but feel at peace as you stood in their company. If felt as if, as long as you were with them, everything would work out the way it was supposed to. “Yeah,” you repeated in your mind, heart warm, “We’ll be fine.”

-

Sehun was better. Compared to yesterday, he felt exponentially more functional. While the others had been at the festival, Sehun had managed to take a total of five long naps, amounting to around 13 hours of sleep in total. Although he always woke up disoriented and groggy, his body had defiantly reaped the benefits of him taking a day to rest. Of course, emotionally he was still exhausted. Many of the aforementioned naps contained images of Yeja in them, causing Sehun to wake up to the crushing realization that she was still being held captive. In response, Sehun would proceed to reason with himself. “Yeja is fully capable of escaping her captors, but something is preventing her from doing so. Yes, there’s something wrong with her, but I will search the world for a solution after I rescue her.” Sehun was later informed, when the rest of you had returned that evening, that something known as the Stem was being fed to her and the majority of the slaves within the Hawks Eye, which explained when she and hadn’t recognized him at Chanyeol’s birthday celebration.

Speak of which, the others had gone back to Chanyeol’s home to test his core energy. And although it was tempting to go back to see Yeja, Sehun knew his limits. If he saw that tall idiot touching her in a degrading way like he did at the party, he would probably go berserk. Kris, who was also aware of this, suggested that he stay back to rest a bit more, to which Sehun agreed quietly. He knew that the older male didn’t actually think he needed to rest any longer, but he appreciated Kris’ consideration.

It had been about an hour since everyone had left, and Sehun was feeling, ironically, restless. He needed to do something. He sat up from his position of being sprawled out on his bed and quickly changed his clothes, making sure to covers his eyes with his head wrap before he headed down the stairs and slipped out the main door.

Sehun wandered around the city streets aimlessly. There weren’t very many people walking about where he was. Most of the population was already at the heart of the city celebrating the second day of the festival. Still, Sehun did his best to avoid contact with any stragglers heading to the festival late. Everything was closed - the markets, the slave selling platforms, the apparel shops, all shut down for the celebration. Honestly, he wasn’t sure where he was going or what he was looking for. After several minutes of wandering, Sehun was feeling bored. He was beginning to think about walking back when he suddenly hear his name being called.

“Sehun!” the warm voice of Auntie Mai yelled as the woman waved him over. Sehun glanced at her and bowed his head before scurrying over to her. “Good morning Auntie Mai,” he greeted, smiling from underneath h