~*~

“Sshh! He’s already here.”

“Ouch, you step on my foot,” Chanyeol cried.

“Oh sorry,” said Sehun.

“Guys, why are we exactly here anyway?” asked Baekhyun.

“Yah! Didn’t I tell you to stop making noises?” Kai shouted at them.

“Sshh…you’re making too much noise,” the three whispered.

“Oh snap! He’s going here,” said Chanyeol as he tried to stoop down. The other three also did the same, pretending not to notice Tao passed by them.

“Finish your ddeokbokki. We’re doing some spying thing,” said Kai as he throws his empty cup into the trash.

“You pay,” Chanyeol tapped Sehun’s shoulder and so did Baekhyun as the two followed Kai.

“Why do I always have to pay?” Sehun asked himself as he took a couple of bills from his wallet before bowing to the owner of the food stall.

The four followed Tao secretly as he entered a famous student-hangout café located a few blocks away from their school.

Kai was already on his way towards the café door when Chanyeol stopped him. “Where are you going? You are not planning to enter the café, are you?”

“Of course we’re entering. We’re observing him, remember?”

“Are you nuts? What if he notices us? What would we do?” Chanyeol asked him.

“Yah, yah, yah. Before you continue what you are doing, I hope you should at least tell us why we are here. And who’s that guy anyway?” asked Baekhyun.

“I’m not the one who dragged you here. It’s Chanyeol. Ask him.”

“Well, we’re following that guy because Kai doesn’t like him. I brought you two along because I thought the more, the better. And that guy, he’s Tao.”

Although Baekhyun and Sehun still couldn’t comprehend the situation, just the name ‘Tao’ and they had the slight hint of what it was all about.

“So that’s Tao, Seyoon and Kyungsoo’s club mate, and Seyoon’s new found buddy,” Baekhyun teased Kai.

Kai glared at him, “Are you coming with me or not?”

“We’re here to support you dude. Way to the café,” Baekhyun pushed him as the four entered the café.

The café was filled with students, mostly high schoolers. But, lucky for them, they were tall enough for them to be mistaken as high school students, well, except for Baekhyun. They observed Tao as he get other people’s order from a table just a few feet away from them. Kai was busy looking at him when a body blocked his line of vision.

“May I take your order?”

“Ahh! What are you doing here?” Chanyeol shouted in surprise.

“Oh! Why are you all here?” Kyungsoo asked them.

“Since when do you work here?” Baekhyun asked him.

“Since when do you start drinking coffee and hanging out in a more ‘for high school students’ place?”

“Sshh…don’t make too much noise,” said Kai as he grabbed Kyungsoo to sit beside him.

“Why are you here?” Kyungsoo asked again.

“Because Kai hates Tao and Chanyeol wants more people,” Sehun said in monotonous voice.

“What?” Kyungsoo asked confused.

“If you don’t understand, neither do we. Why are you working here?” said Baekhyun.

“Ah…the club president, Taemin, own this café. He says that if we volunteer working here for a week, we don’t have to attend next week’s meetings. I’ll be busy next week so I am here.”

“Yeah, typical of Taemin to use his subordinates for personal use. Wait! If you’re here then that means…” Kai looked around nervously as he searched for an expected figure but she was nowhere to be found.

“She’s not here if Seyoon is what you’re looking for. She said she has things to do. But we serve cakes that she baked.”

Kai’s expression relaxed for a bit after knowing that Seyoon was not there. But that didn’t last long because someone called Kyungsoo from afar.

“Kyungsoo-sunbae!”

“Oh snap! Kai, hide!” said Chanyeol as he gave Kai the menu to cover his face.

“I’ll be right there,” said Kyungsoo. “If you want to stay here, at least, order from our menu.”

“Just get us whatever drinks you have beside coffee,” said Kai. “Oh, and Seyoon’s cakes…”

“Okay! That would be four glasses of water and four slices of Strawberry shortcake,” Kyungsoo listed the order as he left the table.

The four observed as Kyungsoo talked to Tao. It seems like he’s explaining some parts of the menu to Tao. They exchanged a few words and smiles before Tao went to another table.

“Hey look! Even Kyungsoo was close to him. I really don’t understand why you hate him,” said Baekhyun.

“It’s like this…” Chanyeol was about to explain when Kai stopped him.

“Let me explain,” said Kai as he explained what happened that day in the bakeshop.

“So, is his expression like this?” Baekhyun teased Kai.

“No wonder why you two get along so well,” Kai said to Chanyeol and Baekhyun.

“No, seriously, why would he show that face to you? Or maybe, he doesn’t like you like how you don’t like him back,” said Baekhyun.

“I don’t know.”

“Whatever it is, its Kai’s manly instinct so we have to trust him,” said Chanyeol.

After a while, Kyungsoo went back with their orders. Chanyeol happily ate the cake that Seyoon baked, saying that it’s best he had ever tasted. Meanwhile, Baekhyun noticed that someone’s fork was digging in his cake only to find out that it was Chanyeol who was pleading him to give his cake since Chanyeol already finished his. And Kai noticed that Sehun was busy checking something on his phone.

“Hey, what are you doing?” Kai asked Sehun.

“I’ve been checking on the recent news about that maniac roaming around here. It seems like the suspect has victimized three new students these weekend. And the surprising thing about it is…” Sehun stopped for a moment when he saw a fork cutting a piece of his cake. He held the wrist and lifted the fork up to shove the cake into his mouth.

“Hey, I just want to have some more,” said Chanyeol.

“Go order for more,” said Baekhyun.

“What are you saying again?” Kai asked Sehun.

“Well, they say that…”

“Waiter!” Chanyeol shouted, trying to get the attention of whomever waiter was available.

“Ssh! I’m listening to Sehun here,” said Kai. And then he felt Chanyeol’s hand continuously tapping his shoulder. “What now?” Chanyeol looked at the direction of Tao reaching their table. “Aish! Why did you call him here?”

“Sorry. I don’t know he is the one coming here,” Chanyeol apologized.

The four set their gaze on each other’s plates as Tao reached their table. “Anything you want sir?” he asked them with a smile.

“Ahh…” Chanyeol spoke lightly. “Can I have another slice of your Strawberry shortcake?”

“Okay…anything else?” Tao looked at the other three. Baekhyun and Sehun swayed their heads. And Kai was only looking at his plate. “How about you, sir?” he asked Kai. Kai lifted his head to meet Tao’s warming smile which somehow irritated him. “Oh, Kai-sunbae!”

“No, I don’t need anything," Kai muttered. 

“Alright. I’ll be back in a minute,” Tao said before he left the table.

“Wooosh…that was close,” Chanyeol sighed.

“He looked pretty weird up close,” said Baekhyun. “Have you seen his eyes? They were so keen and so intense-looking. Now I know why you don’t like him.”

“Uhhmm…” Sehun thought loudly.

“Why? What’s wrong?” Kai asked him.

“I don’t know. But he looks familiar. I just can’t remember where I saw him before.”

“That’s impossible. He just came here from China,” said Kai.

Sehun shrugged his shoulder. “Okay. Oh like what I was saying earlier, they said that the victims were last seen here on this street. And they were found unconscious in the park the next day.”

“On this street?” asked Baekhyun. “But…” before he even say anything; Tao came back with Chanyeol’s order.

“Thank you,” Chanyeol smiled at him and looked at the cake happily.

“If you need anything just tell me,” he said before he left with the tray.

“Why this street?” asked Baekhyun.

“I don’t know. Maybe because this street is full of cafes where students usually go. Besides, there are three schools near here, including ours.”

“So you mean the suspect might be here, right now, at this very moment?” asked Baekhyun.

“Sshcwary…” Chanyeol said with his mouth full.

Kai wasn’t able to hear their conversation as he was busy observing Tao. Tao was getting orders every now and then, showing how clumsy he was. Sometimes, the customers would complain that he gave the wrong order. Sometimes, he would forgot to give sugar, milk, and even spoons or forks to the customers. But despite of it all, he never saw him get mad. He just smiled all the way.

‘Maybe Seyoon is right,’ he thought. ‘No! I should still be careful.’

“Stop staring at him or else you’ll fall in love,” Baekhyun said to Kai.

“What? No way!” Kai looked at their table. “I’ll pay all of our orders,” he said as he stood up, ready to go to the cashier.

“Wait! So are we leaving?” asked Chanyeol.

Kai nodded at him. “We’re done here. Besides, I need to go home early. We’ll be having dinner with the Jins.”

“So you really fell in love with him,” teased Baekhyun.

“Yah, stop it. Do you want me to pay or I’ll let you pay?” Kai asked him.

“Yay, we’re going home. Let’s go,” Baekhyun said, completely ignoring Kai.

Suddenly, a girl went to their table to ask something. “Excuse me? This is the table we’ve been sitting on a while ago. By any chance, have you seen a phone and a comb? I’ve been looking for it but I can’t find it. I just thought maybe…”

“No. We haven’t seen anything,” said Sehun.

“This table is empty when we get here,” said Baekhyun.

“Oh, alright. Thank you anyway,” she said before she left.

“That girl is cute,” said Chanyeol.

“Right,” said Baekhyun.

“Unfortunately, she’s already a high schooler,” said Sehun. Chanyeol and Baekhyun looked at him with the how-did-you-know face. “Just look at her uniform. She’s from the high school department.”

“It’s okay. My crush is still in middle school,” said Chanyeol.

“Same here,” replied Baekhyun.

“Let’s go,” Kai said to them. “I already told Kyungsoo that we’re leaving.”

As the three sendoff Kai at the bus station, Sehun pulled Baekhyun and Chanyeol to an empty bench.

“Are you tired? Why do you drag us here to sit with you?” Baekhyun asked Sehun.

“I’ll just show you something,” Sehun pulled his phone from his pocket and show a blurry picture of someone.

“Okay, so what exactly are we looking for there?” Baekhyun asked him.

“Look closely,” the two moved their head closer to Sehun’s phone, stared at it for a minute. “Look at the masked man behind those two girls. That’s the only picture taken of the suspect and one of those girls was a victim.”

“Oh…so what about it?” asked Chanyeol.

Sehun looked at their dumb faces and sighed. “Look closely, does that look familiar to you? Look at the emblem of his uniform, that!” Sehun maximized the photo, clicked a few options, and the picture became clear in an instant.

“Oh! That’s our uniform!” Chanyeol shouted.

“So that means that the suspect is a student of our school?” asked Baekhyun.

“Yes. But there’s also a possibility that he’s just using our uniform to put blame on us. But if you look at the suspects form, doesn’t he remind you of someone?” asked Sehun.

The two looked at the picture again, and again with those dumb confused face. “Hmmm…”

“Ah!” Chanyeol seemed to notice. “That looks like…how the heck would we know?!” Baekhyun swayed his head. He thought for a second that Chanyeol became more attentive than him but he was wrong.

“Look, he’s not wearing glasses so maybe you didn’t notice. Those eyes look familiar,” said Sehun.

“You mean, he’s…he’s…”

“What? Just tell us!” pleaded Chanyeol.

“Tao…” Sehun muttered the words. The two looked at him shocked. He just nodded at them.

“Why didn’t you tell us earlier so Kai would know?” asked Chanyeol.

“No. He’s thinking too much. If I say this to him, we don’t know what he might do. We’re just speculating anyway. I’m just saying that he looks like Tao,” said Sehun.

“So what do we do now?” asked Baekhyun.

“We have to go back to that street now,” said Sehun.

“Wait, what?!?” asked Baekhyun.

“Don’t tell us we’re going to…”

Sehun nodded at him. “We’re going to follow him tonight. I already told my driver to bring me clothes. And by the way, I’ll be staying at your dorm tonight.”

“What?!” another one from Baekhyun.

“This is exciting!” said Chanyeol.

“What are you saying?” Baekhyun nudged Chanyeol.

“Let’s go!” said Chanyeol as he dragged Baekhyun with him. The three went to the street where Tao was currently working on. And they stayed in another café just across him, waiting for the night to come.

---

“I’m so happy that you two are getting along very well,” said Mrs. Kim as he looked at Kai and Seyoon, who were sitting side by side without looking at each other.

“Yes. I think Seyoon was able to adopt well here in Korea because of Jongin’s help. That’s why we are very thankful of him,” said Mrs. Jin. “Right Seyoon?”

“Huh? Ah…yes…” Seyoon gave a forced smile to their mothers.

“Oh not only you. I am also thankful that Seyoon would come here to help Jongin with his homework. That kid rarely finishes his homework at home. But ever since Seyoon is here, she is a great help to him. Right Jongin-ah?” said Mrs. Kim.

“Yes…” he said with a forced fake smile, the best he could pull off all these years.

“I’ll go get the food,” said Seyoon as she tried to get away from the awkwardness in the table.

“What are you doing there? Help Seyoon,” Mrs. Kim said to Kai. Kai stood up to follow Seyoon in the kitchen. He looked at Seyoon as she was busily arranging the food on the plate. Kai went beside her as he stared at what she was doing. They were silent for a while.

“Uh…” the two muttered.

“You go ahead,” said Kai.

“No, you go ahead,” said Seyoon.

“No, you go,” he said again.

“No, you…”

“Alright, I’ll start,” said Kai. He thought that maybe he should be the first one to talk. After all, he should be the first one to say, “I’m sorry. About what happened the other day, I’m sorry. I think I’m being too skeptic about the whole thing and…”

“It’s alright. Actually, I also wanted to say sorry to you. I know you’re just concern to me. And I should be thankful for that,” she said to him.

“Oh…” Kai didn’t know what to reply to her.

“Well actually, I’m luckier that you are the one who’s been concerned to me. I mean, my brother actually called me yesterday after he found out about the roaming maniac at school which one of his former classmates said to him. And I had an hour of scolding, questioning, and a lot of things. He even gave me numbers of who I should call in case of emergency. He even gave me the principal’s number. And then he said to me which places I should avoid and stuff…you know, a lot of things. So I guess you are milder than him,” she said shyly.

“Haha!” Kai laughed heartily which could be heard from the dining room where their parents were smiling to each other.

“Why are you laughing?” Seyoon asked him confused.

“No…it’s just that I never thought that Suho-sunbaenim was like that. He seemed to be the calm type but I never thought he panics when it concerns about you.”

“Yeah. Now you know.”

“Well…so that means, I am your official guardian now?” Kai asked her.

“What?” Seyoon chuckled a little. “What are you talking about?”

“I’m milder, not the psycho-type. So that means I’m a better guardian than your brother,” he .

“What? No! Of course he is different. But…it’s alright. If you want to be my guardian, no, my bodyguard, as long as it is for free, I’m okay with it,” she said smiling at him.

“What? Bodyguard? No way!” Kai said as he stuck his tongue out to Seyoon and left.

---

“What’s wrong with those three?” asked Kai as he and Seyoon entered the room and seeing Chanyeol, Baekhyun, and Sehun sleeping on their seats. Baekhyun and Sehun were sleeping with their heads on the desk while Chanyeol was sleeping with his mouth gaping.

“I don’t know. They went to the dorm late at night. The dorm head scolded them because they went past the curfew. And Sehun had a sleepover in their room. They must have done something yesterday that’s why they looked so tired,” said Kyungsoo.

Kai finger flicked Chanyeol in the forehead which caused him to fall from his chair. “Yah, who did that?!?” he cried angrily. When he noticed that the class’ attention was on him, he bowed his head and went back to his seat. Baekhyun and Sehun woke up after hearing Chanyeol’s voice.

“What happened to you?” Kai asked Chanyeol.

“Well, someone tagged us to do something with him,” said Chanyeol with a stern face. Sehun signaled him not to say anything.

“Sehun made us do something weird yesterday and we end up finding nothing at all,” said Baekhyun.

“What exactly did you do?” Kyungsoo asked.

“Oh nothing…just some treasure hunting if that’s what you wanted to call it, OH SEHUN,” said Baekhyun, trying to hide his frustration.

“If only he didn’t bring us,” said Chanyeol.

Baekhyun hit Chanyeol’s head. “You’re the one who was excited yesterday. Don’t just blame him. Blame yourself too.”

“It’s nothing. Don’t mind them. We’re just experimenting. So it seems like you two are already fine,” Sehun said to Kai and Seyoon.

“We’re always fine. Just a little misunderstanding,” said Kai.

“Yeah, that little misunderstanding could lead to a lot of things. Just like what happened yesterday,” said Baekhyun.

 “What happened yesterday?” asked Seyoon.

“Don’t mind him. It’s nothing,” said Kai.

“By the way Kyungsoo, are we having a meeting later?” asked Seyoon to Kyungsoo.

“No. I never received a message from the president. I don’t think we have an activity later.”

“Oh, okay.”

“So that means we’re going home together?” Kai asked her.

“Yes,” she replied with a smile.

---

Seyoon was already on her way to the school’s entrance where she would meet Kai when she received a message from someone.

“Seyoon, this is Taemin. We have an emergency meeting. Please go to the home economics room immediately,” she read the message. “Oh no…I have to tell Kai,” she said. But before she left, someone called her name.

“Seyoon-sunbae! Are you going to the emergency meeting?”

“Tao…yes, I’ll be there. I’ll just tell Kai about it. He’s waiting for me outside,” she said to him. But Tao grabbed her wrist and stop her.

“It’s an emergency. Let’s go. Just tell him later,” he said as he grabbed Seyoon and went to their meeting place.

~*~

 

 

 

 

 

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Love EXO's latest IVY CLUB photos...^^

I really love his eyes...which are my favorite part of his face ^^