SHADOWS

Kyungsoo fights his way through the crowd of people with tears in his eyes. Although he sometimes bumps into people, he doesn’t care and continues on his way to get away from the disaster of a scene behind him. Suddenly, there is a powerful tug on his arm that causes him to spin around with a fist ready to have it slammed into the person that touched him. If it wasn’t Baekhyun, Kyungsoo was sure he would’ve gotten into a fight just now. Baekhyun was surprised to see Kyungsoo standing still and not running away. He finally caught his breath before speaking to the latter.
“Don’t run off like that please.” Kyungsoo made no gesture whatsoever and Baekhyun was afraid that he didn’t hear him at all. Before Baekhyun could speak again, Kyungsoo interrupted him by turning around. Baekhyun sighed and then continued to follow his best friend as they both walked off to wherever Kyungsoo was initially headed. 

***~~~***

They end up at the fountain in the center of the market and Kyungsoo sits down on the sides of the fountain which has him looking out into the market. The area is well lit, but contradicts his current mood. Baekhyun waits for the Kyungsoo to break the silence that lingers around them, but the latter doesn’t bother breaking the quiet barrier. He lets out a sigh and decides he should be the one say something.
“Hey,” Kyungsoo looks up slowly at him with sad eyes, “Don’t run off like that next time. You could get lost and then we might not end up finding you.” Kyungsoo nodded and returned to look out into the market. Baekhyun expected his friend to say more, however, that didn’t happen. 

“Tell me what’s bothering you.” It was pretty obvious what had happened and why his friend was acting this way, but Baekhyun just needed to hear it for himself rather than simply assuming the obvious, as silly as it sounds. 

***~~~***

Chanyeol sees the glaring fire of the performer’s fire and is amazed that the performer is doing so well. His tricks are magnificent and so daring that any slip up could end his career. Just like his boyfriend, Jongin is acting the opposite of the environment around him. 
“The fireshow is on the stage, not by your feet.” Jongin sighed and nodded before looking up to be lost in the fire. Chanyeol was sure he was not captivated by the show, but rather distracted by the incident that had just happened. 

If he is going to act this way, why did he even decided to act all tough and push Kyungsoo away? 

Chanyeol wondered if he should push Jongin to vent to him, but it seemed like a better idea to wait. After about 5 minutes of sitting there and enjoying the show by himself, Chanyeol grew tired and then pulled Jongin away from the arena. They walked outside the circle of the seats near a bush and Chanyeol sat the other down. 
“Alright, clearly this is getting to you and maybe we should talk this out.” Jongin sighs and then wipes his eye of the tear forming in it. 

I wonder if Baekhyun is having any luck…

***~~~***

Baekhyun is still sitting in silence while he continually checks his phone for any signs of life form Jessica or Chanyeol. Every time he checks disappoints him because he had so much hope to see a message from them. 
“Stupid Jongin…” Baekhyun leaped out of his seat because he was so glad to hear his friend talk. Kyungsoo was confused as to why calling Jongin stupid had Baekhyun leaping, little did he know, his friend was leaping for joy only because he was finally speaking. 
“Sorry,” Baekhyun cleared his throat, “Why is he stupid, Kyungsoo?” 
“Why can’t he just… why did we fight? Was I wrong?” 
“To be honest, sort of…” It wasn’t what Kyungsoo wanted to hear, but this is what he liked about Baekhyun, he held nothing back. Kyungsoo stared at his friend with one of his eyebrows raised. 
“Go on…” 

“Oh! Well the reason was because it’s like you treat him like a child… He isn’t your child, Kyungsoo. He’s your boyfriend and though there are things you want him to do and ways you want him to act, you gotta let him decide for himself. You do love him no matter what, but why all of a sudden are you being so careful?” Kyungsoo nodded and he knew he had done wrong, but it was terrible hearing this from anyone. Who wants to be told that they’re wrong? 
“Look, I don’t want to tell you what you don’t want to hear, but you have to hear it. It’s going to better your relationship with Jongin. Don’t let things go bad now.”
“I’m just scared… The past… it scares me.” Baekhyun walked over and leaned in front of Kyungsoo where there eyes met extremely close. 
“Don’t let the past shake you up.” Baekhyun grabbed Kyungsoo’s shoulders and shook his friend. “Snap out of it.” Kyungsoo giggled and pushed his friend off of him. Baekhyun smiled after seeing Kyungsoo letting out the fun inside him. 
“There we go, better now?”
“But… What about Jongin?” 

***~~~***

“Let’s go.” Chanyeol pulls Jongin’s arm and out of his seat. The latter is surprised how strong the giant is and can’t seem to find a grip on the ground. 
“Chanyeol, wait! Where are we going?” Channel stops and lets go of Jongin’s arm. 
“To see your boyfriend. I can’t stand this stupid fight you guys are in.”
“There’s a reasonable explanation for-”
“Tell me then.” Jongin looks nervous and purses his lips together.
“Well… Kyungsoo is acting very controlling and your boyfriend, Byun Baekhyun, isn’t helping it at all by saying that I’m whipped…” Chanyeol could flip a table right now, if there was one around.
“You’re serious? That’s it?” 
“It’s a lot more than you think…”
“It’s something stupid and you should go make up with your boyfriend. Let’s go.” Chanyeol begins walking off and Jongin follows while his heart is racing a mile a minute. He doesn’t think he is ready to face Kyungsoo.

***~~~***

Jessica and Hyun Ki finish up their date together as they enter the center of the market where the big, well lit fountain is. There is a bench that faces the fountain itself and so they make their way over there. 
“After you, my lady.” Jessica blushes and then takes a seat before Hyun Ki does. 
“Why thank you.” Hyun Ki sits right next to her and immediately wraps his arm around her, which then Jessica rests her head on his shoulder. 
“This is very nice… This reminds me… of you.” Jessica smiles at the cheesiness of that line and shakes her head. Hyun Ki himself knows that it’s cheesy, but it lightened up the mood a little bit. 
“Can we stay like this for a while?” Jessica lifted her head off of Hyun Ki’s shoulder and then looked at him sincerely. 
“It has been a wonderful time, but I need to get going now. Thank you for everything.”
“Does this mean that we won’t see each other again?” 
“You have my number…” Hyun Ki had totally forgot and laughed off his stupidity. Jessica gets up and looks at the fountain and then down to the boy sitting down on the bench hoping to get more time with the girl standing up. 

“I will be taking my leave now…” 
“W-wait.” Jessica turns around, confused. 
“What is it?” Jessica checks her phone and surprisingly, the boys haven’t messaged her at all. 
“I want to show you one more thing. Take a seat.” Jessica slowly sits back down and is making full eye contact with the boy in front of her. Hyun Ki slowly pulls Jessica in for a kiss, but she pulls away and freezes. 
“I-I’m sorry-”
“No, I’m sorry. I don’t think I should’ve given you that hope…” Jessica gets up and then begins walking away. Hyun Ki gets up and wraps his arm around Jessica’s shoulder and has a knife in the other hand pointed at her hip. This way it looks like they are romantically walking together. 
“Don’t you make a scene, or I’ll stab you.” Jessica breathes heavily and nods. They being walking off towards a dark ally nearby. 

***~~~***

“Well, let’s get going! I’m sure Chanyeol and Jongin already solved their problems.” Kyungsoo nods and gets up. He felt a lot lighter from venting out his problems to Baekhyun. It was a normal thing for the two to vent to each other as with any pair of friends. Baekyung is facing the fountain and sees a familiar figure on the other side of the fountain. Kyungsoo notices him staring at someone and then follows his eyes to see Jessica across the fountain. 
“He-”
“Kyungsoo, don’t say anything. I think something is going on there.” They see Jessica pulling away from the kiss and then getting up to leave. Their eyes widened as they see Hyun Ki run up to her and point something at her side. Baekhyun quickly calls Chanyeol and Kyungsoo is freaking out. He wants to scream for Jessica to run away, or to run up to them and help, but he knows he’s not strong enough to fight off a stranger with a knife. 

***~~~***

“Looks like we’ve got trouble.”
“What’s wrong?” Jongin furrows his eyebrows as he witnessed Chanyeol’s worried side while he was on the phone. 
“Jessica and that kid seemed to have a fight, or something and now this guy is basically threatening her.” 
“What the hell? That’s crazy! Where are they? Why didn’t Baekhyun and Kyungsoo do anything?!” 
“In their position, they can’t. Running up to the guy would be very risky and he could kill Jessica on the spot.” Chanyeol stops walking when he hears footsteps coming from in front of him. He puts his finger to his mouth to indicate being silent to Jongin. He understands and nods. They stand up against a wall and wait for the people to pass by. 

A few seconds later, they see Jessica and Hyun Ki walk right by them. Now that Chanyeol is behind the pair, he is able to attack Hyun Ki and take the knife away before he gets the chance to stab anyone with it. He looks to Jongin and nods, the latter nods back and Chanyeol points to his side and then to Hyun Ki. Jongin understand what the giant is trying to tell him and he clearly sees the knife. Chanyeol then demonstrates that he will take Jessica and the other will take Hyun Ki. 

***~~~***

Hyun Ki and Jessica are near another dark ally when the two are suddenly pulled apart. 
“Jessica, run to the fountain! Kyungsoo and Baekhyun are there!” Jessica runs for her life and Chanyoel stays behind to help Jongin teach Hyun Ki a lesson. 

Kyungsoo and Baekhyun sees Jessica running for her life and they run towards her as fast as they can. Of course, the younger of the boys gets there first and the doe-eyed boy gets there last, but it doesn’t matter. Jessica is safe in their care and Hyun Ki is being taken care of. 

“Oh my gosh, never again! Never again!” Jessica cries in Baekhyun’s chest and lets out all the scared feelings she was holding in. The other boy walks into the ally to see what is going on and realize that Hyun Ki is getting the life beaten out of him. 
“Guys, stop! You’re going to kill him!” Chanyeol stops and realizes that the smaller boy is correct. Jongin is still throwing punches to Hyun Ki. Chanyeol goes over to Jongin and holds him to stop him from going at Hyun Ki anymore. 
“That’s enough, I think he’s learned his lesson.” 

***~~~***

The group returns to the hotel immediately after the scene and comfort Jessica from that horrendous incident. 
“Never again. I am NOT going back to market ever again!” 
“Agreed.” 

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Alright, so hopefully the next chapter is where things start really heightening up and the end of this story will be sooner than you all think. If you’re still reading this„ bless your soul!!!! I will see you in the next chapter!