Prologue
Hide and Seek
NOTE: This chapter isn't intended to be funny or cute. It was meant to give you a small look on what each character's personality is like and tell you what happened to a member. I promise that the next chapter will be filled with stupidity and finger vomit I'm sure you'll all love. Now prepare to read the longest prologue in the entire world. JK :)
Prologue : The Calm Before The Storm
ChanYeol's bedroom wasn't an absolutely comfortable place to be at the moment, but it will have to suffice. Today marks the day that ChanYeol becomes one year closer to death, a sweet, sweet release. Of course, that comes from someone that desires that release, but is just too much of a coward to step closer to the cliff. But that is neither here nor there, today is hyung's birthday, and we must celebrate. For the most part, I wasn't the sort to act celebratory about these certain occasions. Or about anything really. But ChanYeol continuously insisted and I just can't tolerate annoying people such as himself, so I complied. With much resistance.
"Hey. So what should we do now?" Chen asked. He seemed to jump from activity to activity, already enthralled in the dull day. I swear, the money I'd pay to leave at this very moment is at an incredibly significant amount. I'm assuming that Lu Han was able to clock it in my eyes, considering he slightly leaned over in my direction and spoke in a secretive voice, "Hey, SeHun. Are you alright? You've seemed upset all throughout today."
I glared at into his large orbs, resulting in him softly giggling. Is my misery worth small value to him?
"Ah, I see. You don't wanna be here, do you?"
"As much as the demons want to meet the gods, Lu Han. Not very much." I spoke dryly, voice deprived of any sign of satisfaction. It wasn't as if being a cheerful person was normal occurrence for me, though. If anything, the guys would be astonished if I showed optimism.
Lu Han smiled a bitter smile, which didn't fit his face very well. He weaved his warm fingers through my own and tightened his grip several times, attempting to give me comfort. Of all the guys in our little circle of friends, Lu Han was the most pitiful. I never understood why but I constantly questioned. He told me the same answer every time. 'You seem very depressed and angry everywhere you go, SeHun. I'm just worried.' or some other variations of those two sentences.
I couldn't stand it. I couldn't stand his nonsensical sympathy. Nothing was wrong with me. Nothing
"Why don't we play twister?" Lay suggested. I snorted quite vociferously.
"Yes, because I came here specifically to get sweaty crotch in my face and probably pull a muscle." My eyes rolled back in annoyance. Who suggests to play Twister anyways? Lu Han lightly smacked me on the arm and threw me a pleading look. Too bad. The last thing I care about by now is being nice.
"Hey, SeHun. Are you angry?"
"No, of course not, JongIn. Why do you ask?" I spat.
"Well, maybe I should ask that water bottle in your hand." He smirked. My eyes promptly trailed down to the water bottle in my tight grip. The white cap had popped of and the water leisurely oozed onto my lap and through my jeans.
"Wow, TheHun! I've never seen you do something that requires so much strength!" At the snide remark, various shouts of laughter occupied the room, including Lu Han. I, on the other side of the spectrum, set my focus purely on my moist jeans. Something about Chen's tone made me want to slowly rip out his teeth from there sensitive sockets one by one. Or maybe shove a churro down his throat.
"H-hey guys. While SeHun is cleaning up, can we go play something else? I-I don't really want to play twister either." XiuMin suggested in a small voice, as if he had feared the other's reactions. But he normally had this 'scared' mentality to him, so I didn't bother to question him.
"Sure, like what?" SuHo's question put XiuMin in deep thought. I didn't have much interest, though, so I zipped to the kitchen and grabbed a handful of napkins. I didn't go back to the room. Instead, I simply dabbed my crotch and sat at the table afterwards. I would just wait it out then return and hopefully by then, they would be in a deep slumber and I wouldn't have to deal with anymore bull crap from them.
✵✵✵✵
It's already been 20 minute and I'm bored as hell.
I'm guessing that my lack of presence had caught Lu Han's attention considering he made an appearance in the kitchen.
"Hey, SeHun. Are you okay?"
I sighed. "Lu Han. Why are you always following me and asking me stuff? You're never gonna get anywhere." My words were laced with slight annoyance, which made me sound a bit more harsh than I intended. But Lu Han didn't mind. He never minded.
"I'm just wo-"
"Worried. Yes, I know. Can I just get some sleep?"
"Yeah, uhhh. Let me ask ChanYeol." He said before standing.
Eventually, I heard shouts and frustrated noises emitting from ChanYeol's room and I knew that he was disappointed in me not wanting to do activities with them. Lu Han sounded quite distressed while ChanYeol sounded wounded. Was I hurting his feelings?
"Ugh! Just let the 암캐 sleep!" I heard Chen scream. He never really had a liking to me, did he? A shush loudly erupted and I'm nearly 100% sure that Lu Han had told him that I could hear. I could, but Chen's opinion was one of unimportance to me, as it always was.
I noted the sound of little footsteps scurrying to the kitchen.
"SeHun. If you want to sleep, just do it. I know that your day has been tiring. Thank you for at least being with us this long. ChanYeol appreciates it." I somewhat blushed at XiuMin's sweet smile and bowed. Him and Lu Han were truthfully far too sweet to befriend a cluster of idiots such as the ones in ChanYeol's room at the moment.
Lu Han and XiuMin had offered to spend a few extra hours with me in order to avoid us the lot of us dosing off at different times. I refused.
Aish~ The couch was so uncomfortable.
✵✵✵✵
As a result of me being the earliest to turn in, I was also the first to wake. The moment I set my right foot on the carpeted floors, I realized that a few others had slept in the living area as well. The most obvious were the two oldest, but I also noted a couple of the others.
I unsteadily stood and lingered for the pain in my... well, everything.. to subside.
"Ah, so you're awake?" A voice questioned. I violently jerked back, alarmed, before frantically glancing around the crowded room. On the opposite couch, a figure lay with it's head propped up by their slender arm. Hmm. I wanted to retort with a 'No. Obviously I'm still in a deep sleep.' But, instead, I simply nodded and continued to listen to his daily nagging that had never seemed to come to a halt.
"SeHun-ah. You really should have stayed up all night. ChanYeol became upset and said he'd never talk to you again."
"He's not being serious."
"Well, even if he was, would you care?"
"No, probably not."
"How rude. What kind of friend are you, SeHun? Is ChanYeol so annoying that you'd say such things?"
"Yes, BaekHyun, now just leave me alone." I spat, although I knew it wasn't true. I loved ChanYeol with all....well a section- of my heart. Yes, make fun of my for that. I just naturally couldn't stand the screaming and the laughing and the speaking and the breathing. It was all far too bothersome.
✵✵✵✵
Eleven of sat in the safekeeping's of the living area. The other one was most likely still dreaming of whatever.
ChanYeol continuously threw me the stink eye without hesitation. I sighed (Not very new) and traveled to his side. He gazed up, into my eyes. He didn't seem too happy. Especially when I snatched his arm and proceeded to drag him out of the room.
"YAAH! What are you doing?!?" He screamed, which put everyone's attention on us.
"I need to talk to you!" I yelled back. I rarely yell, so this put him off the bridge some.
"About what?"
"Alone, Hyung."
"Hmph. If you have to say sorry, you can do it in front of everyone." I remained silent.
"Well?"
................................
"Alright, well if you're not gonna do it-"
"Sorry." I quickly mumbled
"Excuse me?"
"I said.... uhh. I s-said I was sorry. I'm sorry ChanYeol." And I was being somewhat sincere. I wasn't one who smile frequently, but once I noted the little twitch of his plump lips, I rolled my eyes and held both my arms out. He stood and ran directly into them, giving me a colossal bear hug. I hugged him back.
"Omo! Where the hell is my camera!?!" The sound of BaekHyun's teasing yell caused my grip on the giant to falter somewhat.
"Where is Chen? He would love to see this." That was when I released him completely. I honestly didn't want to hear his name right now.
"Go get Chen, Tao. Go get him!." Tao glared at BaekHyun hyung before swiftly moving towards the room Chen had fallen asleep the previous night. It irritated me, truthfully, that BaekHyun had to rely on Chen so often in order to mark something as funny or dull, as though he himself didn't have a proper sense of humor. But, I don't put forth much admiration for either of them, so I couldn't complain in any new way.
Drowned in my own thoughts, I am still able to hear deafened shouts of my name.
"SeHun!"
"Huh?"
"Do you know where Chen is?"
"In his room."
"Aniya, Tao already checked. He's not in there." SuHo hyung wore a confused mask. My face contorted into one of anger. Did he really think that it was okay to leave us like that in the morning?!? He couldn't have told us something?!
"Let me go check." ChanYeol interlocked our fingers and dragged me to the room Chen had been at. I asked whether or not the probability of him hiding under the covers was large enough to check, so we did.
There was no Chen. But there was a note.
This note. It was a small purple note with black writing dressing the majority it. The language the words were written in was unknown to both me and ChanYeol so he ran into the living area and presented the note to everyone.
"Yah, yah, yah! Do any of you know what this says? I swear I found it on JongDae's bed! It was under the blankets! I don't know what language it's in!"
"Alright, alright, ChanYeol! Calm down... Calm down. Just give me the note." XiuMin quietly demanded. ChanYeol obliged.
While XiuMin Hyung studied the slip of paper, a few others gathered around to catch a glimpse as well. At one point, XiuMin gave up.
"I don't know, honestly. I've never seen this language before. I think. It looks sorta familiar."
"Yeah, I think so too. Give it to me and let me see if I can read some of it." Lu Han politely requested. Lu Han was the master of languages, along with Kris hyung, but I wasn't sure if Kris was able to decipher the writing. Lu Han seemed to be indulged in deep concentration. "I-I can understand some words."
"Like?"
"Uhh. I see 'your', 'friend', uhh 'taken', 'me', 'mountain Tz-tzofari?' I'm not sure about that one." Lu Han informed us.
"Mountain Tzofari? Is that what it says?" Kris hyung asked, still unsure of what he was hearing.
"Yeah."
"Is that a real mountain?" ChanYeol questioned.
"Yes. It's out in southern Japan. It's a volcanic mountain." I spoke up. Everything was irritably confusing now and I just wasn't able to piece it all to one another. Was the note referring to Chen abducting someone and dumping them on an exotic mountain? Or was it saying that Chen has ran away with another and now they are living on Tzofari? Either way, it all makes no sense whatsoever.
"Are there anymore words you can read?"
"Uhh. 'find', 'can', 'waiting', 'soon'. That's all I got." Hmmm. Your, friend, taken, me, mountain Tzofari, find, can, waiting, and soon... What?
"U-um. Do you think he took someone to that mountain with him? M-Maybe you should call him Lu Han." XiuMin suggested. I nodded in agreement and waited for him to pick up say that this was all a joke. That this was a prank. He wasn't truly out on a mountain in Japan. He was outside, waiting for us to realize that he had been joking. I mean, after all, it was Chen.
But he didn't answer.
All we heard was his voice mail.
And it wasn't even him.
It was someone else speaking in a foreign language.
"Lu Han. Did you understand any of that?" Kris asked. After that, it was all a blur. Lu Han said something about someone kidnapping Chen and disposing him on a mountain. BaekHyun hyung began screaming at him, accusing him of mistranslating or being in on the joke. ChanYeol hyung attempted to calm him down by telling him to shut up. SuHo hyung had dashed for the door, saying something about finding Chen. I'm not able to remember all of it. I simply stood there. Motionless. Everybody else had been running here and there, but I couldn't move.
At one point, Kai and KyungSoo had even advised that we went on a 'road trip' to find him.
"Ooo!! Let's get food 'cause this might take a while!"
"A-and maybe we should take sleeping bags!"
"What about guns? What if we need to shoo-"
"Ugh, you guys are taking this way too far!! Chen isn't gone!" I screamed. I couldn't take it any longer. Did these guys really think that Chen would really be on a mountain MILES away from here? OVERNIGHT?!? I cannot believe they actually think he's gone. He's not gone, right? He can't be.
"SeHun.... Are you crying?"
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