When Baekhyun woke up, he felt the whole side of his face throbbing; he tried to felt his own face but he noticed that his hands were restrained, looking at his hands, he found them cuffed to the bed. He actually was almost if not for his boxers. The further he looked, down his own body, the more he realized that his previous bed had been switched to a hospital stretcher. He felt panic bubbling on his stomach and rising to his throat but he managed to keep everything under control, like he had been doing for the last week.

“Finally, you are awake!”

He turned his head, slightly to the side and found Doctor Lee standing there, standing on a chair, hands linked and resting on his lap, looking at him above the lenses of his glasses.

“I have to say I am very disappointed in you. After all the love I devoted to you, to my little angel, my precious doll, you just decided to run and you hurt me and that, I cannot let pass. I have been patient and loving but I have to punish you! I normally don’t like punishment but you have to learn, so that you won’t do the same again!”

The doctor stood up and approached him, the now familiar syringe resting on his hand. Baekhyun tried to scream but found it impossible due to the cloth on his mouth. He couldn’t scream, he couldn’t kick, he couldn’t punch; he was absolutely powerless. He felt the needle go into his neck, like usual, and for a moment he actually thought about how his neck must be all bruised.

“Now, that should be enough to keep calm enough to deal with your punishment.”

Baekhyun’s eyes widened at that; what in the world was the man thinking of doing? He started to lose control soon after and he felt the usual sensation of his body disconnecting from his brain. Until, that his, he felt something slap hard the top of his tights. Doctor Lee had a thin wooden rod in his hand and he had smacked it on Baekhyun. It had hurt! Extremely.

He raised the rod and brought it down on Baekhyun’s body, this time landing it on his stomach. Baekhyun couldn’t help to let a muffled scream past through his lips. And he brought down once more and once again and again. Actually, he hit him so many times that Baekhyun lost himself in a world of pain, mind travelling to somewhere else. It didn’t even hurt anymore because his whole body was the pain itself. He heard himself whimpering and felt tears running through his cheeks.

His eyes rested upon the doctor and he took the man’s features: red cheeks, messy hair, and sparkling eyes; it was such an oxymoron, the way he looked like the calm manifestation of ire.

After what felt like the hundredth hit, the doctor stopped at looked at him. Baekhyun felt the need of hiding himself from the man’s gaze but he couldn’t.

“See, Baekhyun? See what you have made me do? I had to hurt you, even though I didn’t want to. You made me do this. This was all your fault and you casted this punishment upon yourself. I’ll let you rest now but tomorrow, we will repeat this. We will keep repeating this until you understand that you can’t run from me. Also, I have to look for someone and I’ve already delayed it too much. So, rest well my lovely.”

The doctor covered Baekhyun’s battered body with a blanket, and Baekhyun bit back a scream when the heavy cover lay upon the red welts on his body. Gently, he doctor picked the cloth from the younger’s mouth and caressed his cheek.

“See it on the bright side, I punished you but gave you a treat at the same time: I didn’t touch your beautiful face.”

The dotted a last kiss on the paralyzed man neck and temple and left the room, locking the door behind him.

“Save me! Somebody saved me.” whispered Baekhyun before a sob made his chest heave. “Get me out of here!”

The blonde girl hid herself in every empty corner and ducked into every shadow. She knew very well that there were people after her. After managing to escape the forest, she had managed to go to the inn where she was staying, where she grabbed a backpack and stuffed it with clothes and her documents, before quickly leaving again.

She asked for directions before leaving but it had been quite hard to talk to the old lady that owned the inn, since her Korean wasn’t be best. She hoped that the directions she had received didn’t send her to the opposite side; she needed to be in Seoul as quick as she could.

Walking through the streets, she immediately took notice of the men that had begun to follow her. She had to resort to sneak into a store and buy a large hoodie to wear, so that it would hide her hair: it would simple stand too much in a crowd.

She ducked behind a car, after turning a corner, peeking only slightly to see the men bypassing the car. Whoever was the man keeping the young idol locked in Bucheon, he had connections, if he could have some men chasing her around.

After making sure they were far gone, she stood up and ran in a different direction, a little smirk on her face, patting herself on the back for managing to trick them. She ran down the busy streets, hood firmly in place, and arrived to the bus stop. She took the time to look around, inspecting her surroundings before checking the bus schedules, hissing when she noticed that she had just missed the bus.

She wondered a bit, looking at other schedules and found a bus that was leaving soon and it headed in Seoul’s direction. After pondering a bit she decided to get in on that bus; while it wasn’t what she had wanted it bought her time and it helped her to keep herself safe from those men.

She wandered to the back on the bus and sat on one of the last row seats, bringing her hood to cover her face and covering herself with a jacket from her backpack. Only then, she released a shaky breath and allowed her body to shake in fear. She had been absolutely terrified after all that had happened, shocked to the core and near to the point of breakdown but she had promised; she had vowed to help, therefore she would not allow herself to do so until her goal was accomplished and, right now, her goal, her top priority was to travel to Seoul, find EXO’s dorms and talk to one of them, anyone, as Baekhyun had ask her, and get the young man out of his situation.

Kyungsoo was in the kitchen with Jongdae and Tao when he heard a door upstairs slam shut. He sighed and Jongdae try to comfort his boyfriend by giving him a kiss on the cheek.

“When will this door slamming phase will pass? It seems like all we do lately is fight with each other!”

“If hyung was here, none of this would happen!” whispered Tao from where he sat at the table. Kyungsoo pretended not to hear the maknae’s words.

“What are they fighting about now? Better yet, who is fighting who now?”

“No is fighting.” announced Yixing entering in the kitchen and plopping himself next to Tao, smiling at the younger man, who lit up like a candle when he had walked in.

“Then why the heck did the door just slammed?”

“I don’t really know. Minseok was having a conversation with Junmyeon in one of the rooms. I didn’t hear yelling but Junmyeon bolted from the room and locked himself in the study. Sehun is trying to get him out of there along with Jongin. Chanyeol went to check on Minseok.”

“Did Minseok insult Junmyeon again? I really thought that he had apologized yesterday!”

“He did Soo. Junmeyon told me last night.”

“And now they are angry at each other again Dae? That is just…You are right Tao. You are actually right. If Baekhyun was here, none of this would be happening now! He wouldn’t let it happen!”

At with those final words, Kyungsoo his heels and left the kitchen, searching solace in his room.

Jongdae left a big breath leave his parted lips. Things were really not okay on that household and it had been draining to all of them. On the day before, Minseok had apologized to Junmyeon and things were actually okay between him and Sehun or, at least, they hadn’t been fighting over the small things. After that, they all had sprawled themselves on the living room and attacked those diaries that had been found. Unfortunately for them, the diaries had been a bust; all they talked was about Doctor Lee’s obsession with dolls, complementing them, and Baekhyun, praising him to the high heavens thanks to his beauty and his charms. The Doctor called him doll, angel or precious. So, all in all, the diaries let them aware of something that they already knew: the doctor was a complete sociopath and deserved nothing more to be locked, especially after Jongin had read them an excerpt on how the man wrote about wanting Baekhyun to be a doll; it had sicken them all.

However, Junmyeon had approached him, Yixing and Minseok, with a suspicion that he had. Their leader had shown them a passage from one of the diaries where he described one of his dolls and the transformation that his doll had been though. Junmyeon had told them, with a pale face and a shaky voice, that he suspected that the doctor had been referring to a person and not simple a doll. To say that Jongdae hadn’t been able to sleep that night was beautifying it: he had spent the whole night awake because he had truly been afraid to close his eyes and have nightmares about his dear friend being murdered.

He left the kitchen and climbed the stairs, meeting Jongin and Sehun who were patiently trying to either drag Junmyeon out of the study or get him to let them in.

“Junmyeon hyung, please, just open the door.”

“Come on hyung, don’t do this to us!”

“What happened?” asked Jongdae, interrupting their pleas.

“Junmyeon is locked inside the study.” answered Jongin before he proceeded to bang on the door.

“I get that, my question is why?”

“Minseok confessed his feelings for Junmyeon and hyung wasn’t really expecting it!”

“Are you serious? Wait! What? Didn’t he like Baekhyun?”

“Long story short, Minseok likes Junmyeon, thought Junmyeon liked Tao, went to Baekhyun to forget, and realized that he can’t be over Junmyeon. The end.”

“Sehun!” reprimand Jongin “Now it’s really not the time for such jokes.”

“Sorry!”

“I am guessing that Junmyeon didn’t react that well…”

“You guess right, but I think it’s more to shock than anything really. He’s just being a big baby about it!” Sehun stated adding the last part louder purposefully, so that Junmyeon could hear it, from the other side of the room.

Funnily enough, that seemed to do the trick as Junmyeon opened the door and pulled all three of them, even a protesting Jongdae, inside the room, locking the door.

“You are paranoid! Who do you think is going to burst in here? Surely not Minseok, not after the way you bolted after him!”

“What did you expected me to do?” asked Junmyeon angrily at Sehun “He just confessed and I wasn’t expecting it!”

“I would’ve expected you to handle it with a bit more elegance; it wasn’t easy for him you know? He struggled with his feelings for you and even got confused with his feelings for Baekhyun.”

“I know.” whispered Junmeyon “But we just fight the other day, I mean all we have been doing is fight, and he couldn’t have pick a worst moment. Baekhyun is still missing, thanks to that doctor.”

“Still Junmyeon, that isn’t an excuse, you could have handled it better and should have taken Minseok’s feelings into consideration. Let’s get this straight; you don’t have to like him back and you don’t have to like the situation but, as you said, now it’s not really the time to aggravate the whole situation. I made my peace with him, so I suggest you to do the same so that we focus on our real goal here, which is to get Baekhyun here safely.”

“Don’t Sehun me. I spent a lot of time encouraging him to talk to you because I feel that he really likes you and you may like him too.”

“You knew?” interrupted Junmeyon, looking at the maknae.

“I did but that is not what it is being discussed; either tell him you like him or tell him that you don’t, if you don’t have an answer yet, ask him to give you time. Just to something, don’t let him angst over you!”

And with that, Sehun left the room, grumbling something under his breath. Jongin looked at a dumbfounded Junmeyon and gave him a quick nod before exiting the room in search of the maknae or, perhaps, just Chanyeol.

“You got to admit, Sehunnie got you there! He is right!”

“Shut up Jongdae. I know he is.”

“Then do as he told you. He actually gave you good advice.”

Junmyeon grabbed a pillow from the couch and just mumbled something into it.

“Care to repeat that fearsome leader?”

“Can you just leave me alone for a bit please? I need to think.”

Jongdae nodded at Junmeyon and turned to leave but before he could do so, Junmyeon’s voice made him look at him.

“Could you please just check to see if Minseok is okay? Just tell him that I’ll talk to him, I just have to think.”

“Sure.”

Jongdae left the room, almost bumping into Yixing and Tao, who passed through him, holding hands, looking content. He saw Kyungsoo’s door closed and didn’t even dared to get in, knowing very well that the younger wouldn’t appreciate having his alone time disturbed. Finally he knocked on Minseok’s room and the door opened by Chanyeol, who nodded and stepped aside.

Minseok was sitting Indian style on his bed, face hidden by his hands and elbows propped on his knees. When he heard the sound of footsteps, he looked up and gave a small sad smile to Jongdae.

“Hey! How are you?” asked Jongdae sitting beside the eldest.

“I’m…fine.”

“No, you’re not!”

“How is Junmyeon? Jongin told us that you talked to him.”

“Do you want the truth, the lie or the sugarcoated version?”

Chanyeol shot him a glare from the other side of Minseok, where he chose to sit down. Jongdae shrugged at him.

“Truth please!”

“He’s going absolutely ballistics. He locked himself into the room until Sehun got him to open the door. He flailed, flailed again and then a little bit more about the fact that you confessed and that he wasn’t prepared for it. Sehun than proceeded to act like an alpha wolf, telling him that just because he is a control freak who wasn’t expecting it, he should act up and think a little bit more about you. Then Sehun left, Jongin left and I just told Junmyeon that Sehun was right. He asked me to leave him to think and to check on you. I’m not sure how should I give him the news that you are a little ball of misery without intruding on his thinking time, so I think I’ll just text him.”

“Jongdae!” hissed Chanyeol

“Let him be Chanyeol. I appreciate him being his usual trolling self.” muttered Minseok ignoring the ‘hey’ coming from an indignant Jongdae. “He’s fine, isn’t he?”

“Physically? Yes, he is fine. Confused as hell? That too!”

“I didn’t expect him to react like that.”

“Because you don’t listen.” said a voice from the doorway.

“Sehuuuun…” protested Minseok.

“I told you to give him some breathing space before you pounced on him. Did you listen to me? Of course not! Just because I am the maknae, doesn’t mean that I just say dumb stuff.”

“I never said you did.”

“You still didn’t listen. Now it’s going to be awkward as everything between both of you and, seriously, you deserved it! All those words I spent on you, all those advices.” Said Sehun, bringing a hand to his face in a dramatic resemblance of a heroin from a soap opera.

“I get it maknae! Stop with the drama!”

Sehun gave Minseok a little smirk, which was mimicked by the oldest man. Jongdae smiled at the duo; lately he, and everyone else for the matter, had noticed how grown up Sehun had been, calming all sorts of animosity between them, giving good advice and being the mature, rational mind around them. As much as Jongdae didn’t want to admit it, because it was a horrible way of thinking, the missing Baekhyun had brought the best out of the two maknaes, even though Jongin had been already a mature, sensible person. He almost had the urge to laugh: when had to roles been switch and the maknaes became the responsible, mature people in their group?

“Since the moment Baekhyun went missing!” replied Sehun.

Jongdae noticed the look on the youngest man’s face and immediately regretted thinking out loud. While Sehun had the best poker face ever, like the best poker face that ever was, it was clear that this incident had taken quite a toll on him, from the not sleeping, to the not eating properly, bypassing the defeated stance that he wore when he thought no one was around. Yes, Sehun was suffering a lot and he was hiding it from everyone in, what Jongdae supposed was an attempt to keep them from worrying about him.

He wanted to say anything to defuse the tension that suddenly stained the room, and he noticed that both Minseok and Chanyeol were trying to do the same, but before anyone could say a thing, Jongin burst into the room, looking frazzled.

“Jongin? Are you okay?” asked a panicking Chanyeol, immediately standing up and bringing Jongin into his arms.

“I’m fine! I’m fine! A girl just passed through security and knocked on our door! She can’t speak Korean that well but I think she knows something about Baekhyun!”

As soon as the words were out of Jongin’s mouth, Sehun ran out of the room and everybody followed him into the living room, where a blonde girl, who had a big bruise forming on the side of her face, looking a little worse for the wear, sat on the couch, surrounded by Junmyeon, Yixing, Tao and Kyungsoo.

Sehun slightly pushed Tao out of his way, ignoring his protests, and kneeled in front of the girl, gripping her arms.

“You know something about Baekhyun?”

The girl nodded twice slowly before, very slowly, in a broken Korean, speaking the words that everyone was wishing for:

“I saw Baekhyun. I know place Baekhyun is!”









A/N: Here it is! Another chappie of this story! Sorry for the delay *bows*! I hope that you like this new chapter and if so, comment, vote, subscribe! Don't be shy! Also, I wanted to thank each and every single one of you for showering me with kind words and giving me the best encouragement possible. You guys are the most awesome, inspiring of them all and I love you! That bein said, I wish all of you a wonderful day! <3