The hole seemed to be squeezing the life out of me, and I swore I heard the sounds of my bones breaking twice or even thrice. Sure, the pain was excruciating as hell, and I had to bite my lip to stop myself from crying out as I slowly inched forwards bit by bit. My group had discovered this hole in the wall while walking around for an alternate way outside and it was just big enough for us to get through. I on the other hand… With a strained grunt, I finally popped out onto the other side, slumping down onto the ground to rest and regain my strength. I really envied Luhan for his skinniness.

“Ah, I see it now!” Tao exclaimed, pointing at a white building just a kilometre away, right next to the second main school building. This school only had one level, so the two were separated to fit all the facilities and classrooms. At least that eliminated the possibility of having to clean corpses off the stairs in order not to accidentally slip and break our necks.

We began heading towards the canteen, and I wondered whether it could fit all 12 of us. What if my prediction was wrong after all? If it was, then that would mean we came this far for nothing. The door was locked just like we expected and we had to knock a few times before a deep voice called out from within. “Who is it?” Such a voice could only belong to Chanyeol and I chuckled in relief before answering with, “The oldest but cutest one~” Hey, I had gone on for hours without laughing or smiling, so I felt like I needed such humour to balance out my mind.

The door instantly opened to reveal both the grinning Chanyeol and Baekhyun. The next few minutes were literally all hugging and crying as the Exo members were finally reunited with each other. Well, not quite. Looking around, I noticed that the two remaining guys from the M side were missing, so I decided to ask Suho about it. “Hey, where are Kris and Chen?” The leader gave me a blank stare before erupting into several gasps and oh craps, meaning he’d probably forgotten about them for a moment. “Uh you see…” He seemed rather nervous and jittery as he tried to get the words out. Somehow, I had a feeling that something bad had happened to them, judging from the way he was acting.

“Chen’s dead and Kris is badly injured.”

It was like everything had frozen in time as my mind slowly processed the words he’d just said. Kris injured and Chen…dead? No, no, no… That was impossible… “Y-you’re kidding, right?” I let out a small laugh. None of the K members cracked a smile and just from that, I knew it was true. My legs immediately gave way and I toppled over onto the ground, fatigue and shock slamming into me in all directions. I heard shouts of concern from Suho and managed to give him a weak grin before everything turned black.

“…min! Xiumin! Wake up!” Upon hearing Lay’s voice, my eyes instantly opened to see the worried expression on his face. It was rather fascinating how tense situations brought out the sides of people that were usually hidden from plain view. I raised an arm to signal that I was fine, so he would stop calling my name. With a grunt, I pulled myself up into a sitting position and turned to see Lay standing over me, and Kris lying on a blanket a few metres away.  I suddenly remembered that Suho had said he was severely injured and reached out to him, but was stopped.

“He’s sleeping. It’s best to leave him alone to recover.” Lay whispered into my ear, gently pulling my arm back. I nodded in understanding, ignoring the feeling of my heart beating slightly faster than it normally did. It was probably only because of the fact that I had fainted a while ago. The silence between the both of us was starting to become awkward, and the thumping of my chest was doing nothing to help, so I decided to speak up. “S-so… What’s going to happen next?” I was feeling pretty useless and bothersome at the moment, and I wanted to be of at least some help to all the other members. Now that I thought about it…Just what was taking the police officers so long to arrive? Was there anything interrupting with their arrival? Because I was deep in thinking, I failed to notice Lay leaning in closer to me and putting his forehead against mine. I immediately blushed, and was about to open my mouth to say something when he beat me to it first.

“You have a slight fever, so you are to stay in…bed.” He told me, hesitating when he glanced at the horribly made make-shift bed I was lying on. I didn’t blame him for pausing. “What? But I can’t just –“ He shoved a piece of bread in my face before I could finish protesting, and I reluctantly accepted it, my hunger having gotten the better of me. Wordlessly, I began devouring it like a hungry animal, not caring that it was stale and plain.
“I’m going to go check on the others now.” Lay said, standing up and leaving to go join the rest of the Exo members gathered around the canteen counter. I nodded despite the fact that he was already gone, hardly noticing my eyelids slowly drooping down.

~~

Admin's Note: It feels like everything is going downhill... ;w; And yes, I do plan on having Lay and Xiumin together. Sorry if you don't like or didn't expect that. It's because their soon to be relationship will tie in with the ending so-