For the past two weeks, since the package incident, Junmyeon had felt a little ball of dread floating above him like a dark cloud. He was just waiting for something to happen; of course he didn’t really want for something to happen, but this feeling was too strong for him to ignore. And Baekhyun had been so content these last days, when Junmyeon approached him yesterday morning the younger male had smiled and told him that he had slept beautifully, no dreams. Junmyeon didn’t dare to tell him that Chanyeol, after countless nights of hearing Baekhyun scream away the night, had slipped one pill into Baekhyun’s food. The giant had felt horrible, guilty as they come, but Junmyeon and Jongin had assured him it was for the best, since the tiny male had been much more like his usually bright, sweet self.

Today, everyone was gathering in the practice room, taking a break from dance practice. He was resting against one of the mirrors, Sehun at his side, completely quiet. He hadn’t been making jabs at Baekhyun lately since the talk he had with the maknae; he had been short and straight to the point: the younger was forbidden to upset Baekhyun in any way, shape or form. Junmyeon had also implied that the consequences, if Sehun didn’t listen to him, were going to be unpleasant. The maknae had been very docile these past weeks, interacting politely with his hyung. Baekhyun had been surprised at first and even confessed that he was so used to argue with Sehun at all times that it was almost abnormal the lack of screaming Sehun in their conversations. Junmyeon had smiled but only felt sadness at the sentence; how could someone find normal being screamed at by your love interest?

His thoughts were swept aside for a moment when Jongdae run past by his legs, almost tripping, after a giggling Baekhyun. Apparently Baekhyun had found funny to drench Jongdae’s t-shirt in water. Normally, Baekhyun would hide behind Kyungsoo’s back who, with a glance, would stop Jongdae, but Kyungsoo had gone with Tao and their manager to buy them something to eat. He saw Baekhyun’s eyes divert to Yixing but he was chatting with the cuddling couple, Chanyeol and Jongin, so Baekhyun moved his feet at the last moment, launching himself at the oldest of them all. Minseok, in all his grace, just caught the younger in his arms, not even blinking.

“Hyuuuuung, Jongdae wants to hurt me.” complained Baekhyun smiling at the older.

“And why would he do that Baekhyun, hmm?”

“It’s because he’s such a wet blanket!” laughed Baekhyun “Get it hyung? Wet blanket!”

Minseok had to laugh along; Baekhyun was in really good spirits today, which hadn’t happened for a while.

“You should stop doing that Baekhyunnie! One day Kyungsoo is not going to be there to help you out, nor I.”

“What are you talking about hyung? You’ll always have my back.”

“That, Baekhyun, is very true.”

Junmyeon knew very well that Minseok had a very, very large soft spot for Baekhyun, it was as clear as day, such as Baekhyun devotion to Sehun. However, what Junmyeon couldn’t really tell was that it was if with was just brotherly affection or borderline love. He was torn about choosing which option was best, on one hand, brotherly affection would save them all a lot of trouble with Sehun and they had one more recruit to smack the maknae when he was on his “ignore-Baekhyun” mood; on the other hand Minseok could be the push that Baekhyun needed to let go of Sehun, to have someone to treat him better.

He was absolutely immersed in his thoughts and didn’t notice Sehun’s heated gaze on the pair. At some point, Minseok had grabbed Baekhyun tightly by his round hips and lifted him, spinning him around, much to Baekhyun’s delight. The youngest of the pair was laughing without any restrain; lips stretched wide in a giant smile and almost shut eyes sparkling.

He felt angry, so angry. Baekhyun had told him multiple times that he likes him, the other members had told him the same as well and now Baekhyun was being all nauseatingly cute with Minseok? He felt someone sat beside him and looked to see Jongin.

Sehun liked Jongin, he thought the older mas mature for his age and, all in all, he was an enjoyable person to be around but their friendship had been strained for a while now, mainly because Jongin was very disapproving of his way of dealing with Baekhyun.

“You seem angry…”

Sehun tilted his head back, resting it against the mirror and closing his eye before replying.

“I am not angry.”

“You are. What I don’t understand is why.”

Sehun’s eyes opened at that and he locked his furious gaze with Jongin’s calm one.

“Are you serious? Look at him! For someone who says he likes me, loves me even, he sure is quick to grab someone when my attention isn’t on him.”

“Of course he does it; after all he was always very good at managing to divide his time equally for us. At least when you’re not trying to usurp him from us with your clinginess”

“I am not clingy.”

“Yeah, right!” snorted Jongin “You hog all his attention whenever you feel he’s not paying much attention and when he does you let go.”

“He wants more of me than I can give him, of course that I’ll steer away from him from time to time.”

“That would be a valid argument if he was the one seeking attention, which he’s not.” Jongin let out a sigh and for a moment Sehun thought he looked older than he was. “You are truly wearing him off. He’s trying so hard to hung on to you, hoping that you’ll look his way. Chanyeol told me that Baekhyun’s not ready to let you go, even after all the arguments, all the fights, he’s still waiting for you. And that pains me; it pains me to see someone as amazing as Baekhyun wasting his love on you.”

Sehun felt as if he was being slapped; Jongin didn’t yelled nor he said those words with malice, his tone of voice was sad.

“You know” said Jongin, not looking at Sehun’s face “sometimes I wish that someone sweeps him off his feet and love him like he should be loved. Other times I want you to man up and admit that you feel something for him.”

“I don’t have feeling for him.”

“Who are you trying to lie to? Me or yourself? If you didn’t feel something you wouldn’t feel the need to pull his attention to you when you feel him fluttering away from you. Think about that.”

And Jongin stood up to join Baekhyun and Minseok, leaving Sehun behind.

Baekhyun was finally having a very nice few days, he slept well, his therapy sessions were manageable and everything seemed brighter. He was currently discussing ice cream flavors with Minseok and Jongin, sprawled on the floor, well at least Minseok and Jongin were, he had managed to lay himself on top of Minseok’s, when the older had laid himself on the floor, on his stomach.

“I’m telling you Jongin, you have got to try the new Nutella flavor because it is the best thing ever.” said Baekhyun resting his chin on top of Minseok head.

“Isn’t it weird on ice cream though?” asked Minseok, tilting his head a few inches back to look at Baekhyun.

“Not at all, it’s absolutely delicious.”

“You can’t convince me, I like acidic flavors.” replied Jongin.

“Blasphemy!!”

“Baekhyun” called a voice from the doorway. “There’s a delivery for you.”

Baekhyun looked at the tiny girl who had brought a gigantic bouquet of flowers on a cart.

“It’s sad that you are so tiny that you have to bring a cart to deliver flowers, Minji noona.” joked Jongin with ease as Minji was a well-known back up dancer that everyone adored.

“Very funny Jongin but it’s not my fault.”

“Who gave you this?” asked Baekhyun, rolling of from Minseok’s back and approaching the flowers.

“Your manager, he was downstairs going through the fan mail and he knew I was coming to train on this floor. He asked me if I didn’t mind bring this with me since it’s very big and it was making him sneeze.”

“Did he tell you who gave it to him?”

“No, he actually said it was already downstairs on the cart when he arrived, he just saw your name and sent it.”

“Oh, okay. Thank you Minji.”

“You’re welcome, bye!”

Baekhyun, now joined by Jongin and Minseok, was inspecting the flowers; it was a beautiful bouquet filled with yellow zinnias, burgundy roses, forsythias, cardinal flowers and white anemones. Gently, he picked the bouquet from the cart; however, as he approached his nose from the fragrant flowers, he noticed a small card resting in the middle of the flower. He gripped at the base of the bouquet to pick up the card and felt something break under his fingers.

Baekhyun knew something was wrong when someone gasped loudly; he looked down to his eyes and found a red sticky substance slipping through his fingers and onto the floor. Images of blood sprayed all over his face and clothes flashed in front of his eyes and he remembered the metallic scent of blood of all of those innocent people.

His mind went completely blank; he even dropped the flowers on the ground not remembering that he was holding them on the first place, and breathing was suddenly harder; it seemed that all the air in the world was not enough for his lungs.

“Get it off of me. GET IT OFF OF ME!” he yelled.

He clutched his chest tightly with his finger and pain began to spread through his chest and fell to his knees, precisely when the door opened and the rest of the members stepped in, only to freeze at the scenario.

His vision was beginning to blur when a smack on his cheek made him look into Minseok’s eyes.

“Breathe.” the other commanded, placing his hands on Baekhyun’s cheeks and looking at him straight in the eyes.

When Baekhyun failed to do so, Minseok grabbed the younger close to him, placing one of Baekhyun’s hands on his own chest.

“Breathe!” he commanded again, making a point of exaggerating his breathing motions so that Baekhyun could feel it.

It was a very farfetched idea of conventional but it seemed to work as Baekhyun breathing calmed down and slumped into Minseok.

“I want this off of me Minseok. Please.” Croaked the younger in a whisper.

Minseok nodded but it was actually Jongin who offered to go with Baekhyun to the toilets to help his hyung removing the red liquid from himself.

As soon as Baekhyun left with Jongin, Minseok grabbed the tiny card and read it:

“May the memories of the past live in your present my precious little doll.”

And this was it, Minseok couldn’t restrain himself any longer, he walked up to Chanyeol and Junmyeon, the little note crumpled on his fist, and threw it to them.

“What is the meaning of this?” when he was met with silence, he repeated the question “What the hell is this? Last time I gave you the benefit of doubt, this time I won’t tolerate any bull. You explain this to us right now.”

“I’m quite curious too, you know?” commented Jongdae from his spot near the door. “I didn’t really buy what you try to sell us the first time.”

Again everyone was met with silence as Junmyeon and Chanyeol stared at each other, communicating through gazes and little nods of the head.

“Junmyeon!”

“We can’t tell you okay? It’s not something we get to tell you. It is not our story to tell.”

“Then who is it? Baekhyun? The same Baekhyun that guards his secrets like a vault, even if they hurt him?” asked a serious Jongdae.

“Yes, it is. I refuse to betray his trust!”

“You refuse to betray his trust?” interrupted Sehun mockingly “Not breaking his trust is going fantastic but he’s going absolutely mental. He is having panic attacks and hyperventilating like crazy.”

“What would you know about that?” spat Chanyeol “Do you even care about him in the first place.”

Sehun felt himself heating up at Chanyeol’s words; just because he didn’t love Baekhyun didn’t mean that he didn’t care about him, he was his friend.

“I care about him!” retorted Sehun angrily “Do you? You claim yourself as his best friend, as his guardian, but even with him entrusting you a secret, he manages to get hurt more than my words would ever hurt him, so stop being so damn patronizing to us all.”

Sehun didn’t listen to anything else because Chanyeol had thrown himself at him, leaving everyone screaming and trying to disentangle them.

“You’re a brat! You’re just a huge dumb brat.” spatted Chanyeol, when Yixing and Tao managed to pull him apart from Sehun.

“You want to talk about who is dumb, you hypocritical mammoth!” retorted Sehun, struggling to break free from Minseok, Jongdae and Junmyeon’s hold.

“You think you deserve to know everything but you don’t. You don’t get the right to know the truth. You couldn’t handle the truth because you’re a freaking coward.”

“I couldn’t handle it? What about you? You handle it so well that you turned into a guarding dog of a broken shell of a person.”

“That’s enough.”

The soft voice made them stop to turn to the door where it stood a clearly tired Baekhyun, still dripping with red liquid, and a speechless Jongin.

“You want to know the truth? I’ll tell you the truth because I’m going out of my damn mind with this fighting and yelling. Long story short, I am the only survivor of a shooting in a bus that took place when I was fifteen. It was hell on earth and I’m still feeling the aftershocks, like the constant nightmares, the screaming myself awake, the phobia of blood. And guess what, someone thinks it’s funny to remember me of the thing I want to forget the most and it’s driving me insane. So congratulations to you all, mystery solved.”

Baekhyun clapped twice before turning on his heel and leaving the room. Jongin turned to them.

“Well done! Brilliant job you guys. You know that he heard the majority of what you guys said. We didn’t make to the end of the corridor. You’re all morons.”

“We needed to know Jongin.” Stated Minseok.

“Why not asking Baekhyun though? Why not confronting him? He’s already afraid to crazy over this and there you go treating him like he is actually a crazy person, talking behind his back, as if he isn’t able to answer, as if he’s going to break. He went through a lot more and survived; don’t treat him like an imbecile.”

With that Jongin turned away from them, following the path that Baekhyun had went just t few seconds ago.

Silence spread itself like a disease in the room. Realization dawned on them, Jongin was completely right, instead of asking directly to Baekhyun, they had done it behind his back, fearing that the pressure of answering would be too much for the man and that he would crumble because of it, disregarding Baekhyun's feeling.

The guilt and the shame began to fill them and they stared at the door.

“What the hell have we just done?” 





A/N: Here's a new chapter. I'm sorry I took so look but really work had been killing me lately! Anyway I hope you like it and watch out for more! As a side note, the flowers in the bouquet have a meaning, hence me picking them,