(( //slips in// Hey look, we're not dead~ ))

“Will that be all for you?” The waiter asked, Yifan looking around the table to the other three. When no one asked for anything else he nodded, handing over the four menus given before settling his arm over Yixing’s shoulders again. It didn’t stay there long before the screen of his mobile lit up, vibrating against the table and Jongdae cracked a smile.

“Even during family lunch you’re still doing work,” the brunet teased, Yifan looking over the email he had received, eyes widening a little.

“Something wrong?” Yixing asked, the older shaking his head.

“Not wrong. I’ve been having a couple of people tracking someone in China.”

“Who?” Junmyeon asked, Yifan turning a small smile up to him.

“LuHan.” The blond’s jaw dropped a little while Yixing perked up.

“Really? You found him?”

“I didn’t. An old friend that always had a knack for eavesdropping owns a coffee shop, and apparently LuHan happened to start to frequent it,” he replied. Once he had scanned over all the contact information that resided in the email, he pulled out a pen from his pocket, scribbling down a number on one of the table napkins. “I told Minseok-Hyung I would let him know as soon as I found anything, this’ll just take a moment,” he added, closing out of his email and opening his address book. Once he found the one he was looking for he held the device to his ear, the line ringing only a couple of times before there was a soft click.

“Hello?”

“Hey Hyung, it’s Yifan.” A pause.

“How did you get… ZiTao,” the older answered his own question before giving Yifan the chance to.

“He gave it to me so I could call you when I found something.”

“Found something? Something about what?” Yifan took a slow breath.

“About LuHan.” He was met with silence, so he simply continued. “One of my colleagues in China found him, and I have his new mobile number now if you want it.” There was the sound of a few papers shuffling, then Minseok responded.

“What is it?” He asked, scribbling down the digits. Once he had he read them over several times before he spoke again. "You’re sure that's it?" Minseok asked, eyes scanning over the numbers he had scribbled down.

"It’s what I was given," Yifan replied. "I’ll have my colleague email you the rest of the info he found, his address, work place, everything." There was a short pause, the light brown haired male was sure he could hear the older taking a slow deep breath.

"Alright." came the others answer eventually, Yifan nodding to himself before he started to lower his mobile, stopping when he heard his name.

"Yes, hyung?" Another paused silence, and he looked at Yixing when the blond squeezed his hand, smiling up at him.

"Thank you. I know ZiTao asked you to do this, I’m sure the kid's been worried about me... but still, thank you for caring and tracking him down."

"I’m glad I could help. Let me know how things go, and if I need to arrange a plane for you to go get him." Yifan's attention was brought back to the table when their server started setting plates in front of them, and he offered a soft thank you. "I have to go now, but I hope things go well," he added, ending the call once Minseok had said goodbye.

"I still can’t believe you found him." Yifan looked over at the brunet, who went to rest his chin in the palm of his hand when Junmyeon tugged his arm so his elbow wasn’t resting on the table to keep his head up.

"It is something quite amazing," he agreed, not sounding the most thrilled about the compliment, but a compliment was a compliment and Yifan offered a small smile.

"The perks of having connections," he mused, picking up his chopsticks to start munching on the vegetables on his plate. When he noticed the way Yixing was looking at the orange glazed chicken he had ordered, he picked up a piece, offering it to the younger. "How are things between you two? Yixing told me that you two finally got a house together," he said innocently, looking over at the pair. That seemed to pull a smile onto Junmyeon's face and he looked down shyly at his own plate.

"Yes, Jongdae put me on this wild scavenger hunt that lead me to a beautiful two story house. It looked like one straight out of those country home magazines, and it’s just... well, perfect. Almost as if he had been designed to what we needed and wanted," Junmyeon rattled on, Jongdae letting hot a short snort of a laugh as he turned to his own food.

"Yifan-hyung would know all about that kind of thing," he mused, seeming a little startled as three pairs of eyes fell on him and he realized what he had said.

"What do you mean he would know about that kind of thing?" Junmyeon asked, Yifan finding himself unsure if he felt better that the suspicion wasn’t turned or him, worried that the brunet might let more slip. The brunet thankfully had shoved a large piece of pork into his mouth before the question was asked, and was taking his time chewing, Yifan’s stomach knotting up a little as the younger swallowed.

"You know... he comes from a rich family... so knowing that, he probably had a nice house growing up, one that had everything he needed. Isn’t that right, Yixing-hyung? You got to see his family house when you visited with ZiTao, didn’t you? I bet it was huge with a couple dozen rooms or something," he said, looking at the other who laughed, snuggling into Yifan’s side.

"I don’t think there were dozens, but there were quite a few rooms,” Yixing replied, turning his smile up to the older. “It was nice, I would love to visit China again and see it once more. Meet your parents while I’m there,” Yixing added, jumping a little when there was a small thud on the table, pulling everyone’s attention to Junmyeon.

“You haven’t met his parents?” the blond asked Yixing shaking his head. “After all this time?” Yixing offered a shrug to the second question.

“His mother was still sick both times I visited him in China, and his father was either busy with work or taking care of her,” he explained, Junmyeon turning a small frown to Yifan, who held his hands up in surrender.

“She told me that no one other than family was allowed to see her while she was ill. She’s always been big about first impressions and didn’t want to meet Yixing while still on bedrest.” That made Junmyeon awkwardly force himself to settle back in his seat, Yifan lowering his hands.

“She’s gotten better since then, I’m sure she would be more than happy to meet you the next chance we get.” he said, smiling softly at Yixing.

Minseok stared down at his mobile, long enough for the screen had gone black, lit up with a message from ZiTao and go black once again. He didn’t want to get his hopes up in the chance that the number was wrong, or if it was the right one there was still the chance that LuHan would recognize his number and block him, and they would be back to square one. He tried to bite back his worries, unlocking his phone and reading over the text he had received.

From TaoZi (13:37) > Is everything alright?

Forcing a deep breath, he typed out a simple reply of ‘everything’s fine, I’ll fill you in later’ before opening his dial pad, typing out the number he had been given, erasing it before locking his mobile and setting it down, rubbing his face with his hands before running them through his hair. He looked at the number once more before dialing it and holding his mobile to his ear before he could chicken out again. There were four painstakingly slow rings before a soft click.

“Hello?”

“What the hell is wrong with you?” He snapped, a silence filling the air after.

“M-Minseok?”

“Who else would it be? Why-” a click silenced his next question and he lowered his mobile to see the message ‘call ended, duration 0:37’, then the screen faded to black and his grip tightened. “He hung up on me!” he exclaimed to the empty breakroom, the few seconds that followed being far from enough to calm him down before the alarm he had set went off telling him that his lunch break was over. He clicked his tongue in irritation, tossing his mobile onto the table, standing and putting away what was left of his lunch, retrieving his mobile on his way out of the lunch room.

CLACK CLACK… CLACK CLACK CLACK CLACK…

He couldn’t hear anything over his keyboard- or more so, over how harshly his fingers were slamming down on the keys. He didn’t even hear the figure that came up behind him, coughing to announce his presence; his eyes never left his screen as the figure moved from behind him to the front of his desk. When there was a hand suddenly blocking the view of his screen he shot a sharp look up at the silver haired male frowning at him.

“Minseok, what’s going on?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” the copper haired male grumbled, trying to push the hand away from his line of sight, huffing a sigh and leaning back to look up at Hakyeon when the hand persisted.

“Minseok, I think you should head home for the day.”

“What?” Minseok asked, not realizing how much bite there was to his tone.

“You need to go home,” Hakyeon corrected, the younger gritting his teeth.

“And what makes you think that?”

“Think it? No, I know it,” Hakyeon said with a sigh. “In the last hour I’ve received numerous… concerns about your state of wellbeing. They said that you’ve refused to respond to them, and that they’re worried about you breaking your keyboard with the force you’ve been typing with.”

“Who’s been saying those things?”

“That doesn’t matter.” 

“Then neither does this conversation,” Minseok snapped. “I’m doing my job, so if you would be so kind, leave me to it.” Hakyeon shook his head, placing his hands on his hips.

“You’re not doing your job, you’re scaring your coworkers. These are grown adults, how do you think children would react to such behavior? Coming from someone who is supposed to be a symbol of help for them? Either you need to come with me to my office and tell me what’s going on, or your need to leave for the day.” Minseok’s grip on his desk tightened, his skin crawling like his blood was boiling under it.

“No.” Hakyeon arched an eyebrow.

“Are you undermining my authority?” He asked. “Because that is grounds for suspension, and then you’ll not be doing your job for even longer than a simple afternoon off.” The gentle threat caused Minseok’s snarl to fade and he lowered his attention to his desk, releasing it from the death grip. “You’re one of my best workers, Minseok. But this is not a line of work you can be in if you’re going to bottle up your feelings and lose your head like this. I care about you and want to be sure that you’re alright. So go home. Spend time with ZiTao-ssi and come back tomorrow with a clear head.” Minseok nodded, saving the work on his computer before shutting it down and making his way out of the office.

“Hyung?” The blond greeted in confusion from the place he way laying on the couch, pushing himself into a sitting position. “Not that I’m unhappy to see you, but, why are you home so early?” he asked, Minseok sighing as he slid out of his shoes, setting his briefcase on his work desk.

“I may or may not have yelled at my boss.” The reply was met with ZiTao’s laughter as he stood, padding over to the older.

“You yelled at Hakyeon-nim? Who’s the child now?”

“I really don’t need this right now!” ZiTao paused, arms having started to reach out to grab onto Minseok, hesitating before they dropped back to his side, his playful grin falling.

“Hyung… what happened?” he asked. “You never answered me about why you had to go when I called you during lunch,” he added, watching Minseok’s hands ball up into fists at his sides. “Hyung?”

“Lu… LuHan… I- Yifan he… he was able to track him down and he gave me his contact information, but when I called him he... He hung up on me as s-soon as he realized who I was…” His shoulder shook, and ZiTao saw a glint in his eyes, pulling Minseok against his chest tightly before the older’s tears could fall; his heart ached at the way that Minseok trembled in his arms. “He’s really… done with all of us… isn’t he?” ZiTao’s mouth opened before slowly closing as no words came to mind, and he let out a slow breath, resting his chin on top of Minseok’s head, holding him long enough that his feet started to groan in protest.

“Everything… it’ll work out. You’ll see, Hyung.”

“No it won’t, you have no way of knowing that,” Minseok snapped, pushing against ZiTao’s chest to get out of the embrace. “You have no idea what this is like.” Something glinted in the younger’s eyes before he looked down, wrapping his arms around his waist.

“You platonic soulmate running off to China without a word? Changing his phone number so you can’t contact him? Watching as it tears apart his romantic soulmate while you suffer as well because neither of you can help each other?” he summarized, looking up at Minseok through his bangs. “I know exactly what you’re going through. The only difference is Ge and I fought hours before he got on a plane with the intention of never coming back, and I blamed myself for every minute of loneliness Yixing-Hyung and I had to endure.” Minseok swallowed hard as his throat tightened, his shoulders dropping from their defensive position and he sighed as he hung his head.

“I’m sorry,” he said, taking a step towards the other to pull him into a hug. “Just because I’m hurting doesn’t mean I have the right to overlook your pain.” he continued, ZiTao slowly hugging him back.

“You helped me get through things with Ge. I’m here to help you with things with LuHan-Ge. You just… have to let me help you.”