When they entered the building they were met with yellow walls lined with miniscule shoe racks in bright colours. There was an open door that led into a classroom and right in the middle of the circular carpet on the other side of the door stood a black swivel chair with its back towards them. Jongin stepped out of his shoes and placed them on the baby pink shoe rack as Chanyeol and Luhan did the same but they opted for the lime green one. It was completely quiet except for Chanyeol accidentally falling into the wall when taking off his shoes and the occasional crash coming from the restaurant next door.

The light in the hallway they were standing in started to flicker and Jongin couldn’t help but get flashbacks to the last horror movie he’d seen. It’d been horribly cliché which had ruined all the supposedly scary moments but Jongin still felt a tiny bit of panic surging inside him. His life had basically turned into a horror movie and he wouldn’t be too surprised if scary music would start to play to accompany his current mood.

The light continued to flicker ominously as they slowly made their way towards the door and the chair. Luhan had a solid grip around Jongin’s wrist and he didn’t know if it was because Luhan himself was scared or if he wanted to reassure and calm Jongin down. Either way it only made him more frightened of the prospect of this being a trap set out for them that they’d willingly walked into.

Right when they stood in the doorway (Luhan in the front and the two others slightly behind him as they didn’t fit side by side) the chair swivelled around to reveal a man smiling at them (Jongin took notice of the one dimple and Luhan was right about him being adorable. That is if this actually was Lay). He had black hair tied up in a tiny ponytail and he wasn’t wearing anything special, just a printed t-shirt, skinny jeans and converse. What was completely out of the ordinary though was the cat in the man’s lap.

“I’ve been expecting you.” The man said while his white Persian.

Talk about anticlimactic.

“Or, well, not you.” He continued, pointing at Chanyeol who looked really confused at that. The man carefully placed the cat down on the chair as he himself walked up to the three of them. “Unless you’ve somehow grown extremely much since the last time I saw you.” He said as he circled Chanyeol, moving Jongin out of the way when he needed to. “And changed all your facial features. And ears. And everything else.”

The man made full circle and now stood in front of them. None of them had moved a finger since he made himself known to them and even now they all just stood there quietly looking at him.

“I was expecting you two,” The man said and pointed at Luhan and Jongin. “and a third guy. He was shorter than both of you, small frame, eyes to die for and sometimes I have a feeling that he basically was glued to you. ” Cue pointing at Jongin again. “I think I remember his name actually but I’m not too sure. However I think it’s-“

“Wait.” Luhan interrupted the man before he could continue with his description of what Jongin thought sounded too much like Kyungsoo. Then again, everything reminded him of Kyungsoo these days so he could be wrong. “You know us? You remember?”

“I wouldn’t say that. It’s just that I… I’ve dreamed of you. Dreams I can’t seem to forget and that feels much more like memories than anything else. And I just, I don’t know, feel at ease now that I’ve actually met you.” The man looked much smaller now than when he first had showed himself with the cat. His body language screamed of nervousness and uncertainty. “It almost feels like meeting a friend after being away for a long time. I don’t know, you just feel… safe.” He looked up from the carpet he’d previously been staring holes in and smiled at them.

“Anyways, I’m Yixing.” He put out a hand for someone to shake only to be engulfed into a hug by Luhan. Yixing looked as surprised as Jongin felt about the sudden action but he quickly composed himself and hugged the other back.

“I’m Luhan.” Luhan whispered. “Jongin’s the one you remember and Chanyeol’s the one you don’t know.” He introduced the others who waved at Yixing from the background. Yixing was then released from the hug and Luhan took a step backwards to look at him.

“You don’t understand how much easier you’ve made this for me. Thank you.” Luhan smiled gratefully at Yixing.

“Ehm, no I don’t. But you’re welcome I guess.” Yixing answered with a smile. He then peered around Luhan to look at Jongin. And even though Luhan clearly trusted the guy Jongin couldn’t help but feel a bit wary and almost scared of Yixing and he had to fight to not take a step backwards as Yixing came to stand before him.

“Is Jongin really your name?” He then asked. Not at all the question Jongin had expected, but maybe the one he should’ve anticipated as everyone seemed to be interested in his name.

“Yes?”

“Hm… You don’t look like a Jongin.”

“Excuse me?” Was there seriously no one in this world that appreciated his given name?

“I don’t know, I’ve just always thought that you should have a really short name. Like Ian… or Cal… maybe Kai… I don’t know, but if you say it’s Jongin it probably is.” He smiled as if to reassure Jongin that he actually believed him. Not that he fully trusted that though as seemingly no one thought he could be called Jongin. What was wrong with the name Jongin? He himself actually liked it and none of his older friends seemed to have had anything against it but nowadays everyone apparently hated it.

“But seriously though, Jongin,” Yixing clasped a hand on his shoulder as he looked gravely into Jongin’s eyes. Chanyeol took a tentative step towards them as if to interfere if anything were to happen, clearly not trusting Yixing as much as Luhan did. “Where have you hidden D.O?”

~ * ~

The pain.

Can’t breathe.

Drowning and burning at the same time.

What’s worse, light or darkness?

It’s blinding all the same.

Can’t breathe.

What is life?

~ * ~

Chanyeol wanted to trust him, he really did, but he just couldn’t find himself to do it just yet. Luhan had immediately recognized him or whatever, and that should probably be sign enough for Chanyeol to also believe that this actually was Lay they were with. Kai had been suspicious as well at first but had considerably warmed up to him later after Lay had looked on the verge of panic when Luhan explained about the whole D.O situation. There was also something about how Kai acted and talked to Lay that made it seem like they’d known each other for quite some time. Considering that Chanyeol had believed and trusted Luhan from the very first meeting he knew it was kind of hypocritical of him not to do the same with Lay, especially since everything from his appearance to what he told them matched with Luhan’s description of him. He guessed and hoped that it would just come with time.

They were currently at Lay’s place, a small house in one of Changsha’s suburbs, sitting in his living room and discussing their plans of how to get D.O out from B.A.P’s headquarters. He had made them tea and Chanyeol was suspiciously glancing at and considering whether to try one of the weird, grey, rock-like cookies Lay had placed on the table or to stay safe by just drinking the tea. His stomach made the decision for him by making a low grumble at the thought of prospect of food so he grabbed one of the cookies and after observing it for a second and preparing himself for the worst he carefully took a small bite.

And was proven that you should never judge a book by its cover (unless its actual books, then judge away) as these was the best goddamn cookies he’d ever tasted. Trying, and failing, to refrain himself from gobbling down the rest of the cake in one bite he discreetly looked around at the others to see if they had seen him and if they would judge him if he immediately ate another one or ten.

Kai had excused himself to go and look for the toilet and Lay and Luhan were busy doing something at the computer (so Chanyeol deemed it safe to eat some more cookies). Apparently Lay knew his way around computers better than Luhan as he somehow instantly had managed to find a blue print of the B.A.P headquarters and the two of them were now discussing were the biggest possibility to find D.O could be. Inconspicuously Chanyeol took the last cookie and then he got up to join them. He imagined that their rescue mission would be ready to set out quite soon now that they’d found Lay and therefore he wanted to be present in every part of every one of their planning sessions.

The B.A.P building was huge. That much Chanyeol could understand from the blueprint picture displayed on the computer screen. Anything else he was highly unsure of. It all looked incredibly confusing and he couldn’t even guess which room belonged to which floor. Or were they just looking at one floor now and all the thinner lines was just there for aesthetics? Chanyeol really didn’t know but he didn’t want to seem like a nuisance either so he put on his serious face and continued to study the blueprint in hopes of not getting any questions on what he was thinking before he could figure out what it all meant.

“What about that floor?” Kai was suddenly there and pointing at something that Chanyeol believed was a separate floor that all of them had overlooked. Lay clicked on something and now this Chanyeol could understand (or at least he thought so). The floor Kai had pointed at came up as a single picture and it looked to be consisting of only a corridor connected to 13 small rooms. On each end of the corridor there was a staircase that lead to the floor above.

“That looks about right.” Luhan answered while looking intently at the screen. “Either way there must be something of importance there as it’s so secluded and small compared to the other floors.” He continued before absentmindedly patting Kai on his head. “Well done, Jongin.”

“Okay, so now that we know that,” Lay slammed the laptop shut, making both Chanyeol and Luhan jump at the sound “what’s the plan?”

AN:


I'm sorry for this late, short and badly written chapter >.< I have next to no free time right now and the little I have I would like to say that I spend with writing and/or drawing but... no... It's mostly spent with watching master chef while eating candy or socializing (!! be proud of me). But it's awesome having next to no free time :D I'm dancing 8 hours a day rn and I couldn't ask for anything else!! So much modern dance I'm crying :')

But yeah... sorry for this being late (is it any later than usual I don't know I'm always really slow ^^' -.-) and it will probably continue with being like that as I'm having almost no time at all writing and also I've been neglecting my other stories for so long now that I have to go back to them before I forget them completely ^^' (and also I'm thinking about joining a kaisoo fic exchange as I really liked the ficfest I joined last time and if I do I'll have to prioritize that one...)

However if you decide to stick with my slow, sorry I can promise you that stuff actually will go down in the next chapter (oooh what's this? stuff happening? that's unusual! :O)