The five of us walked back leisurely. We'd waited for Chanyeol to pass us so we didn't have to worry about him catching up, and even though we hadn't gotten more than a few blocks away from Kris' house, the sun was already beginning to set. We made the trip in silence, each of us probably consumed in thought about what we had come across earlier that day. Something was just so suspicious about it all, the book, the drink... I turned back to Kai, the younger boy not noticing my gaze as he kept his head tilted towards the concrete.

"Kai, that drink-" I began, finally breaking the tense silence that had settled between us.

"What were you thinking sticking your finger in there?" Suho cut me off, sounding just like my father whenever I would do something wrong.

Kai shrugged. "If Chanyeol could drink it I'm sure it won't melt my skin off or anything," He mumbled, clearly not in the mood to be told off.

"Well we can't be sure of anything with Chanyeol right now. For all you know, that man could be giving him poison and he'd drink it like it was water," Suho retorted angrily, giving the younger a stern look.

My steps faltered as I took in what Suho had just said. Poison? You don't think... Before even I knew what I was doing, I turned and took off in the direction of the house once more.

As I pushed through my friends they stared at me in shock, but didn't miss a beat as they quickly chased me.

"Baekhyun what are you doing?" D.O. called out, the worry evident in his voice.

I ignored him, keeping up my pace until I reached the noisy gate.

"Baekhyun!" Suho's hand clamped around my arm, jerking me around to face the now furious man. "Are you insane? Why could you possibly want to come back here?!" He spoke in a low hiss now, all too conscious of the house looming next to us in the near darkness. Now that night had almost fallen, everything appeared much more sinister.

"That drink, it can't be..." I was having a hard time catching my breath after sprinting so quickly, and I didn't want to waste time on an explanation as I freed myself from the bruising grip and leapt over the iron fence, not wanting to bother with any noise. 

"I was joking," Suho groaned, staring at me pleadingly. I knew he wouldn't have the guts to follow me over the fence, however, and continued my trek through the weeds.

Unfortunately, I wasn't anticipating the sprier of our friends, Kai, to leap after me. "Baek, even I know this is a terrible idea. He'll catch you and cook you or something!" He tugged on my arm, sending a concerned pout my way, but I shook my head at him.

"I don't know what that is, but I need to make sure he isn't hurting Chanyeol," I argued.

"Don't get hurt in the process." He sounded so mature then, gentle yet authoritative, and I was compelled to listen.

"Kai," I began, staring at the house longingly.

"Please."

I glanced back at my friends, seeing Suho and D.O. staring at me with wide eyes. My gaze wandered to the youngest of our little group and noticed with surprise that he wasn't focused on the two of us. Instead, he was watching the house, fear clearly written on his face. My stomach twisted with guilt. The poor boy hadn't even really wanted to come, it was unfair of me to drag him back. I sighed, relenting, and Kai's face lit up with relief. 

"Let's go," He said, pulling me away before I could change my mind.

We both made it back over the fence, and I suddenly felt a weird prickle on the back of my neck. I turned, and my blood ran cold as my eyes made contact with another pair, staring at me through the glass of a darkened window. I would have said something to the others, but the moment I blinked, the eyes were gone. Was it possible that I was imagining things? In my mind, I crossed my fingers, and followed the others silently, trying to ignore Suho's lecture.

***

I hadn't gotten a wink of sleep last night; not only because I was worried about Chanyeol, though that was a large part of it, but also because whenever I closed my eyes, I would see a chilling pair staring back at me. Those eyes had appeared inhuman. Dark slits resting in a ball of fire, reminding me of the monsters from my darkest nightmares. The more I thought about the eyes, the more uneasy I got when I thought about my friend's future. Just what had he gotten into? I knew I needed to find out. 

Chanyeol probably suspected something of us when we acted as if nothing was wrong the next day. I suppose we may have taken our innocent act a little too far, but the tallest boy seemed to appreciate being able to act like he did months ago, before any of this happened, before he vanished from our lives without so much as an explanation.

Now, I was determined to get one, no matter how sneaky and underhanded I would have to be. The moment the last bell rang, I packed up my bag and threw on my coat, heading to Chanyeol's locker before the boy could get ready to go home. It was time to put the plan in motion.

"Channie, can I come over tonight?" I asked, knowing full well that he was occupied. "My parents are both off work and they want alone time," I shuddered after I spoke, putting my best acting skills into play.

The dark haired boy frowned, shaking his head slowly. "Sorry, Baekhie, I've got to stay after school and work on some projects," He said apologetically.

I tried not to smile. He was playing straight into my hands. Mentally thanked any higher power that as distant as my Yeollie had gotten, I still knew a lot about him. "Oh okay, I'll stay with you then, I don't really have anywhere to go anyways," I said, shrugging.

"No! I- Uh," He bit his lip, panicking a llittle. "I'll be really busy and you'll be bored. Here," He reached into his bag, fishing out a set of keys. "You can go to my place and watch tv or something if you want?" We'd both been at each other's houses unsupervised before, and this was exactly the outcome I'd hoped for.

"Thanks, Yeollie," I said with a smile, giving him a hug as I ran outside to where the rest of the boys were waiting.

"Why'd you tell us to meet you here?" D.O. asked, waving his phone in my face, the text message I'd sent earlier still on the screen.

"Tell me you aren't planning on going to that place again," Suho gasped, disbelief etched into his expression. I swore that boy was going to have worrylines by the age of twenty.

"That's a really bad idea, Baekhyun," Sehun spoke with a frown.

I shook my head, slightly irritated at them for not giving me a chance to explain. I glanced back at the school; Chanyeol would probably wait ten minutes to be sure that I was gone before he left, so I had to get everyone away from the school quickly. "Just follow me, I'll explain on the way."

***

"You sure that you aren't taking it a little too far?" D.O. said, eyeing me as I slipped one of the keys into the front door. After many months, I hoped I could still remember which was which. 

The lock turned with a click, and I let everyone in, quickly glancing back over my shoulder. "If I want to get some answers, I have to go pretty far," I replied, ushering everyone up the stairs to where Chanyeol's bedroom should be.

Once we entered the room, I put everyone to work. We began searching through drawers, digging around in his closet and under his bed, searching for any clue as to who this Kris was and why Chanyeol had gone missing. Half an hour into our mission, nothing had turned up.

I was in the middle of going through Chanyeol's bedside table, when I heard a loud groan from Kai who'd been invading Chanyeol's textbooks and notebooks that laid scattered across his desk. "This is hopeless," He whined, throwing the textbook he'd been holding to the floor.

I sighed, starting to believe that maybe he was right, when Sehun let out a gasp. He rushed to the place where the book had fallen, lying open on a page about isotopes. "Guys, look at this!"

He motioned us all over, taking a seat on the edge of the bed. "Lookie," He pointed to the bottom of the page, where Chanyeol had scrawled something in blue ink. My eyes widened at recognizing the writing. It was in the same language that had been in Kris' book. 

"What does it mean, though?" Kai huffed in frustraition. "This doesn't tell us anything."

I eyed the characters. The letters were unlike any I had ever seen before, puzzling me greatly. I had an idea. "Search the rest of his books." If there was one thing I was sure hadn't changed about Chanyeol, it was that he tended to get very bored in class. And whenever he'd get bored, he took to doodling on any nearby piece of paper. I was willing to bet that more clues were hidden in the pages, as I began flipping through the book.

"Already ahead of you," I heard Suho's voice from behind me, and glanced over my shoulder to see him holding one of Chanyeol's notebooks. "Wu Fan," He said, tossing the notebook onto the mattress next to me. Before I could ask what he was saying, I saw it etched into the margins of his history notes. 

"Wu Fan," I read aloud, my finger tracing the carefully printed handwriting.

"What's a Wu Fan?" Asked Sehun, peering over my shoulder curiously.

"Sounds like a name," D.O. suggested, opening Chanyeol's desk drawer. "This boy is so messy. You know, maybe he'd let me come over and organize this stuff for him."

"At least he won't really notice if we don't put things back exactly where they're supposed to be," Suho said with a sigh, walking over to the neat freak to see what he was talking about. "Oh wow this is a mess." He picked through random papers with a frown. "I think I found his report cards from like the fifth grade."

I chuckled quietly, smiling fondly at the thought of Chanyeol's messy habits, and resumed my work of thumbing through his notebook. Wu Fan had been scattered throughout many pages, making me feel uneasy with Chanyeol's seemingly obsessive thoughts. Besides that, the book was clean of any other clues and let it fall through my fingers, hitting the ground with a thud. Why could things be easy?

"Woah, what's this?" D.O.'s voice caught my attention once more as he pulled a set of papers out of the drawer.

"Medical files of some sort?" Suho guessed, frowning as he read the first page. "Woah, according to this, Chanyeol's really sick..."

My heart sank as his words dawned on me. "What do you mean?" I stood, walking over slowly although I wasn't really sure I wanted to find out.

Suho handed me the page with a grim look on his face and my heart pumped painfullly. I scanned over medical terms that my mind wasn't fully ready to digest at the moment, until my eyes fell on something that stuck out for me. "Acute Myelogenous Leukemia," I read out, the term slightly unfamiliar. Although I wasn't sure of exactly what it was, the word leukemia stuck out to me. From what I knew, that was a really bad disease. I scanned the papers again, hoping for something that would help me understand just what I was reading about my best friend.

"Baekhyun," Suho looked at the second page of the report, his face now deathly pale. His voice cracked, causing my heart to sink to the bottom of my stomach with dread. Instantly, my mind began to conjure up thoughts of what could possibly be making him react like this, but none of the scenarios in my mind could compare to what he said next. "This says Chanyeol's dying."

***

"A type of cancer that causes the body to make a large number of white blood cells, called leukemia cells, that build up in the body, replacing healthy blood cells. This can cause infections, anemia, and easy bleeding," D.O. read from his cellphone screen, the rest of us gathered behind him as he continued researching the disease. "It apparently gets worse really fast and sometimes the cause is unknown... And with the stage Channie's at, treatment is gonna be really hard..."

My heart ached painfully at the thought of my friend having such a disease. The idea that I might possibly lose him terrified me and I grew angry with the fact that he hadn't even thought to tell me. I took a shaky breath. If Kris had anything to do with this, I was going to kill him. But then again, how could he?

Kai, it seemed, had the same train of thought as me. "Do you think Kris has anything to do with this?"

"That's impossible, Kai," Suho answered, taking D.O.'s phone and scrolling through the page. 

I frowned, thinking back to the events that led up to this. Chanyeol disappeared and reappeared two months later romantically involved with some stranger who lived in an extremely scary house and fed him a weird drink. Maybe the impossible wasn't so far off right now. 

"Who's Luhan?" Sehun asked suddenly, interrupting my internal monologue.

"What, Sehunnie?" I asked, my voice coming out as extremely tired. I felt emotionally and physically drained, and more lost than ever.

"Luhan." Sehun picked up the page of the medical report that I'd been reading. On the back was the name Luhan and a phone number, scrawled in Chanyeol's handwriting. 

"I don't know, Sehunnie, but we're going to find out," Suho said determinedly, pulling out his phone and copying down the number. "Besides, I'm beginning to think that there's something here we're missing."

"Something unnatural?" D.O. asked, catching the older friend's train of thought.

"Something supernatural," Kai interjected, throwing in an idea that had crossed my mind, although I hadn't given it much thought. 

I thought back to the mysterious occurences, to the drink, the book, Chanyeol's suprising illness and engagement, the name 'Wu Fan', printed so neatly in Chanyeol's notebook. "I'm staring to think you're right, Kai," I muttered.

Suho sighed and stood. "We've searched everything, I think our work here is done," He said.

Everyone agreed and I glanced out the window. It was getting dark again, meaning that our secretive friend was due back soon. "You guys go ahead, I'm gonna chill here for a bit, think about some things."

Suho placed a comforting hand on my shoulder and led the others out, leaving me with my thoughts.

***

Leukemia, I sighed, wondering just what our Chanyeol had gotten in to. Could I even help him at this point? If whatever that drink was, was poisoning him, then could he get better if he stopped drinking it? Why was he even involved with Kris in the first place? Why was Kris hurting him? And who was Luhan? I stretched out my legs, lying on the couch and making myself comfortable.

Although I discovered some secrets, I was no closer to the truth, and I knew I wasn't going to be sleeping for a while. I was too worried, too confused, even too angry. I thought that Chanyel and I were best friends, that he could tell me anything. It seemed that I was wrong.

I wondered how long Chanyeol knew that he was sick. Did he realize that Kris may be potentially killing him? Did he care? An idea suddenly surfaced in my mind and made me feel sick what if he'd found out at some point during the summer and was still staying with him even now. Kris may have manipulated Chanyeol into some twisted form of love and now the poor boy was trapped and dying. My blood felt on fire, I was going to hurt this man, I threatened mentally.

Just then, the door opened and I was face to face with a furious looking Chanyeol. For some reason, his expression only enraged me further. I was the one being kept in the dark, I was the one trying to help him. What right did he have being mad at me?

"Baekhyun, we need to talk." Chanyeol's voice was a low growl.

I sat up, feeling the frustration that had been simmering in me finally boiling over. "Yeah, we do."