Things went normally for a week. The boys alternated between lazy weekends, late-night shifts at the local restaurant, and showing their powers off to each other.

Kyungsoo forced a smile at the woman across the till. Shin Joon was a regular at the restaurant where he worked, but it didn’t mean he liked her. She was foul-mouthed, rude and loud, giving the guests around her a lot to complain about.

“Next time tell your damn waiter to bring the food quicker!” Joon muttered, handing over a stack of won (Korean money) to an impatient Kyungsoo. “My stomach was growling for five minutes straight.”

“We will inform our waiter and manager, Miss Shin.” Kyungsoo responded coolly, with an eye-roll. When he was around her, it took an incredible amount of effort not to gag with leaves and vines, both of which he could easily conjure up. Or crush the ground beneath his foot for that matter.

“Good.” Joon gave a grumpy nod of the head and exited the shop. Since she was usually the last customer and all the waiters were lazy asses and left half an hour from closing time, Kyungsoo had the restaurant to himself for the last five minutes.

After stacking the tables and chairs and grabbing his coat, Kyungsoo observed the potted plants that lay on the floor of the restaurant. Most of them had withered, so Kyungsoo lazily ran a finger across the stems and they shot up, good as new. He had a lot of practice, courtesy of Tao and Kris.

Locking the restaurant up, Kyungsoo stepped out into the street, the coldness of night hugging him through the thin material of his coat. Deciding he would rather be in the warmth of the manor, cooking dinner with Jongin, he took a shortcut down a small, thin alley he knew no-one walked down, so he was guaranteed not to be mugged.

All Kyungsoo could think about as he made his way down the alley was Jongin. They’d been staring at each other for quite some time now, Kyungsoo regularly chasing Jongin with his eyes until he looked at him. And added amounts of time together in the kitchen had only brought them closer. Now Kyungsoo wanted to take their friendship one step further, but he wasn’t sure Jongin was on the same page with that one.

So enveloped was Kyungsoo in thoughts of Jongin that it came as a huge shock to him when someone, not only taller but stronger than him, leapt onto him and tackled him to the ground. Kyungsoo struggled to breathe under the weight of the huge figure, and nerves hitched in his chest made it even harder.

“Are you Do Kyungsoo?” the mystery attacker asked; a male with a low, raw voice. Kyungsoo nodded; curious at how the man knew his name.

“Don’t move or I’ll shoot.” the man continued, sliding a pistol out of his pocket and pressing it against Kyungsoo’s temple. It was enough for Kyungsoo to shut is eyes and tense up in fear, unmoving. He wanted Jongin – no, any of the boys at home to come now and rescue him.

The 12 boys were meant to take turns making dinner each night, but since Kyungsoo was the most skilled at cooking out of all of them – meaning that the other 11 were hopeless – he cooked dinner every Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Suho was a huge fan of Kyungsoo’s miso soup and Jongin regularly craved his kimchi spaghetti. He’d often volunteer to help Kyungsoo out in the kitchen, solely because he wanted to spend more time with Kyungsoo. As the two remaining single boys in the group, since Lu Han and Sehun were practically dating already, Jongin was determined to make Kyungsoo’s heart beat the way he made Jongin’s.

But on one Friday night, while Kris was doodling and Xiumin was drinking monstrous amounts of coffee, Chanyeol voiced what was in his mind.

“Where’s Kyungsoo? He should be home by now.”

Xiumin looked up from his mug at the clock. As the only coffee-lover in the group, he was addicted to the supersweet, black drink and took it upon himself to make his own coffee, never dropping by a single coffee shop lest the coffee made there wasn’t good enough quality. The clock read 11:30pm. Kris glanced at the clock as well and slapped himself for not keeping track of time. Everyone saw him as the father figure in the group and he felt it was responsibility to look after the other 11 boys as if they were his own brothers.

“He should have been home an hour and half ago.” Kris observed, worrying. “And we didn’t tell him to stop off at the grocery store…unless one of you guys did?”

Baekhyun, who was seated on the sofa, shook his head. “Our fridge is full. Kyungsoo told us he’d prepare some rice tonight.”

“Never mind about the rice.” Sehun said. “Has anyone told Jongin hyung? He’ll be out of his mind with worry.” Lu Han, sat at Sehun’s side on the armchair meant for one person, sighed and got up. His side immediately felt cold without Sehun’s touch. “I’ll go get him. Anyone know where he is?”

“Probably on the ground floor watching some TV with Tao.” Lay answered, tapping a series of numbers into his phone. “I’ll call Kyungsoo.”

Lay held the phone up to his ear and it went straight to voicemail. He pressed the ‘end call’ button, his worry increasing. He turned to the other boys, who looked at him expectantly.

“Nothing.” Lay said disappointedly. “It just sent me to voicemail.”

Suddenly all of the boys heard yells and shrieks being emitted from the staircase. Seconds after, Tao appeared at the door, looking rumpled and exhausted. Lu Han joined him, looking much the same way.

“Never…talk about Kyungsoo in front of Jongin again.” Tao panted. “He shook me by the shoulders and yelled at me like I’d killed someone.”

“Couldn’t you have just done some martial arts?” questioned Chen.

“You try kicking someone when they’re shaking you like a madman.” Tao pouted, going to sit next to Kris and his drawings. He observed them for a second and a smirk played across his face. “They’re terrible.” he pointed out, causing Kris to scowl.

“WHERE’S KYUNGSOO HYUNG?!” Jongin yelled, appearing by the doorway, worry apparent in his eyes. “Where is he?!”

“We don’t know, Jongin hyung.” Sehun replied solemnly. Jongin stumbled numbly over to his maknae and collapsed into his arms, sobs racking his body.

“We really need to find Kyungsoo.” Sehun mumbled to the group, consoling Jongin as best as he could – not very. Lu Han tutted and shifted the crying Jongin over to his lap.

“Sehun’s right.” he agreed, running a hand through his white-blond hair. The stress was evident in his voice as he added, “We can’t deal with Jongin being like this forever.”

“We can’t do much tonight.” Chen said, looking at the time. It had just gone midnight. “If Kyungsoo’s not back by tomorrow, we’ll go on a search and call the police.”

But as all the boys dragged themselves to bed with heavy hearts, they knew that there wasn’t going to be much sleeping that night.

********

AN: *gasp* Kyungsoo got kidnapped! You can probably guess by who hehe^^
I hope this was an okay chapter to really get the story started, as the previous chapter was really introducing the ships and EXO’s various powers. As you can see I want to explore HunHan and Kaisoo a little more in this fic which is why they weren’t together at the beginning of the story.
I have a few little bits of chapter in my mind for the forthcoming chapters, I hope you enjoy. And comment what you think so far in the comments? Some constructive criticism or your opinion would be greatly appreciated! Thank you for reading ^^
much love,
ex00dus xoxo