“I don’t want you going out alone right now. I’m going with you.”

Hao Yi shook her head as she walked around her apartment, grabbing things she would need for her grocery trip.

“I’m just going down the street to get a few groceries for dinner. I’ll be fine. I won’t be more than an hour.”

Luhan opened his mouth to argue, but quickly thought twice when he saw the look on Hao Yi’s face.

“Will you at least ask Yixing to go with you? Please?”

She shook her head, exasperated.

“No, I’m not going to hide out in my apartment just because I’m scared, and I’m not going around with bodyguards, human or otherwise. I need some time to think, and I need groceries. Two birds, one stone, or however that phrase goes.”

Luhan sighed as he watched Hao Yi slip on her shoes and wave to him, closing the door behind her. He thought about following her without her knowing, but quickly pushed the thought away. He did not want to get on her bad side.

He slowly walked towards Yixing’s apartment to check on his friend. He glided through the door without a thought and looked around. Yixing was sitting on the couch passed out, the tv playing in the background and his phone laying open in his palm. Luhan walked over and bent over, peering at the phone.

Heading out for groceries. I’ll be back in an hour. I’m cooking us dinner tonight, so be sure you’re hungry!

Luhan chuckled at the childishness and innocence behind Hao Yi’s text. He sat down and mindlessly twiddled his fingers, not paying attention to the show playing.

“You know, you’re lucky, Xing. If I were still alive, we would be fighting over who got to be with Hao Yi right now. I love you, but for a girl like her, I would have put up a hell of a fight.” Luhan peered over at his sleeping friend and smiled sadly.

“Just don’t mess this up. She’s good for you, and y’all are perfect together. She’s a keeper.”

Luhan busied himself for the next hour, which then turned into two hours, then three, then four. The worry grew in the pit of his stomach as he kept glancing from the door to the clock on Yixing’s phone.

An hour. She said no longer than an hour, and it’s been nearly five hours. Something’s not right,Luhan thought as he paced the floor of Yixing’s and his living room.

“Okay, it’s tie to wake up, Yixing, come on,” Luhan frantically waved his hand in front of Yixing’s face, forgetting momentarily that he was invisible to everyone but Hao Yi.

“,” he whispered, running a hand through his already disheveled hair, the other hand placed on his hip.

“Okay, how do I do this without letting him know about everything?”

Luhan tried for the next few minutes to solidify his finger, poking the sleeping man obnoxiously in his cheek. After multiple failed attempts, he gave up. Then, he had an idea.

Luhan quickly removed Yixing’s phone from his hand with his own solidified hand, messing with it for a few seconds before quickly shoving it back.

After exactly one minute, an alarm started blaring from the phone’s tiny speaker, startling Yixing from his slumber.

He yawned and stretched, peering down at his phone. “, how long was I out for?”

He stood quickly when he noticed the time. Almost 11 in the evening. He checked his unread message from Hao Yi, noting the time it had been sent.

“Weird, maybe she went back to her own place when she saw I was still asleep,” Yixing said to himself out loud, as he slipped on his shoes and made his way out the front door and down the hall.

Luhan looked around frantically, trying to figure out how to clue Yixing in on what could have happened to Hao Yi. He ran into Yixing’s bedroom and quickly pulled down one of the newspaper clippings from the wall, the headline reading something about racial attacks on Chinese people in downtown Seoul, and ran back in the living room to place it haphazardly on the coffee table right as Yixing opened the front door again.

He had his phone to his ear, and was dialing repeatedly, and Luhan could vaguely hear a dial tone coming from the other end of the line. Not a good sign,Luhan thought bitterly. He just hoped, no, needed for Yixing to notice the newspaper article.

Yixing sat on the couch and sighed dejectedly. He spaced out for a minute before his eyes flicked down to the piece of paper. Yixing quickly scooped it up and, after reading it, shot up from the couch.

“Oh no, oh no, no, no, no,” Yixing muttered, his eyes going wide, frantic.

“, what do I do?”

Luhan watched desperately from the front door, egging his friend on. “Come on, connect it, you have to. Get to the police station. Come on, Yixing, we don’t have time to waste!” Luhan yelled, tears b in his eyes as he watched his friend slowly losing it.

“Police station!” He yelled so loudly, he scared himself.

Yixing stopped at once, as if he heard Luhan’s voice ringing in the empty apartment around him. “Luhan, is that you?” He quietly whispered, a tear trailing down his cheek. He quickly shook his head and shoved the newspaper article into the pocket of his pants while simultaneously pulling his shoes on quickly.

“Alright, to the police station.”

Luhan smiled triumphantly as the two quickly headed out into the night.