It was a rough night for EXO. Plagued by the mysterious disappearance of Kyungsoo, all 11 boys tossed and turned, occasionally drifting off but jerking awake five minutes later, so unable were they to chase Kyungsoo out of their minds.
It was around three in the morning when Jongin padded out of the room he and Kyungsoo shared. The emptiness of the room and the heartbreak he felt were more than enough to keep him wide awake. For the past three hours he’d kept his eyes plastered on the ceiling, paranoia raging inside him that if he fell asleep his dreams would be filled with screams and guns and blood.
To Jongin’s surprise and relief, someone else was up too; he could hear the low drone of his voice and saw the tall shadow illuminated by the flickering hallway lights. It could only be Kris, his height one of the things that distinguished him from the other boys. Jongin teleported closer, appearing in the doorway meters away from Kris. What is Kris hyung doing up at this hour? he thought to himself. He listened to what Kris was saying – it seemed as though he was on the phone to someone.
“He’s been missing since yesterday evening, at around 10 o’ clock. That’s when he usually returns home from work.” A pause, during which Jongin tried not to sob as the reality hit him once again. “Yes, we tried to contact him last night – multiple times, actually. My roommate Lay rung him quite a few times but the calls all went straight to voicemail.” Another pause. “Yes, that would be appreciated. If you could start the searches as soon as possible that would be great. My friends and I are worried beyond words.” One more pause, a muttered thanks from Kris and the call ended. Kris put the phone down and turned around. Upon seeing Jongin, he pulled a pricelessly shocked expression and jumped.
“Jongin…” Kris trailed off, blanketing the two boys in an uncomfortable silence. Jongin didn’t know whether it was because he was delirious with exhaustion and sorrow, or because he needed it himself, but he walked over to his hyung and enveloped him in a hug.
“Jongin!” Kris exclaimed in shock. Jongin nearly – nearly - laughed. Tao was the protective type and he was sure if he saw Jongin and Kris hugging in the middle of the night he’d go berserk.
“Thank you.” Jongin mumbled into Kris’ shirt. “Thank you for everything.”
“Everything? I did barely anything.” After a silence from Jongin, he continued to say “But you’re welcome nonetheless. It’s the least I could do.”
Jongin pulled his face out from Kris’ chest curiously. “What do you mean?” he asked, like a little kid. It made Kris want to get down on his knees, kiss Jongin’s feet and beg for forgiveness for what he was about to do.
He flushed a deep shade of red and hesitated before replying with, “Kyungsoo…Kyungsoo is…uh, missing. It’s the least I could do to alert the police. Besides, I couldn’t wait till morning.” Jongin had the nagging feeling that Kris wasn’t completely telling the truth but he decided to let it go and play along.
“Why can’t you just wait a couple more hours? It’s nearly 4.” Kris’ expression suddenly hardened and Jongin knew that he’d pushed it too far. Kris’ transition from flustered to pissed wasn’t pretty.
“Because it’s in my best interest to keep you guys safe. I am only concerned for Soo’s welfare, just like you. It’s just that I actually took action instead of sitting on my conjuring up horrible scenes during which Kyungsoo will either get robbed or killed.” Kris snapped. Each word was like a dagger plunged into Jongin’s chest and he tightened his grip on Kris, wrapping his arms even more firmly around his waist.
“I’m sorry.” Kris muttered, running a hand through his hair. “I just….I don’t know. This whole thing has just upset me too much. I should be looking after the remaining 10 of you douches.”
“Tao’s really lucky to have you as his boyfriend, you know.” Jongin said. This only seemed to aggravate his blonde-haired hyung even further.
“Bed, Jongin.” Kris commanded, nearly shaking. “Now.”
Jongin detached himself from Kris and headed back to bed. One of the things he knew about Kris was that he couldn’t keep his guard up for long. His suspicions that Kris was hiding something were confirmed when he heard raw sobs coming from the living room.
He just wished he knew what Kris was hiding.

___________________________________

Chen snapped his eyes open in alarm. He knew something was up even before he woke up. Number one, he could clearly hear yelling and screams from the front porch. Number two, he knew a pair of his socks was missing from his wardrobe. Chen had a superhuman sense when it came to what items in his closet were missing. And he knew which roommate had taken his pair of socks.
“SUHO!”
Suho didn’t need calling twice. He raced up to Chen’s bed, threw his pink socks patterned with seemingly pinker Piglet faces at him and pulled Chen up. He looked incredibly flustered; Chen wondered if it was something to do with the yelling.
“Come on, you slowcoach.” Suho stressed. “Kris and Tao are having an argument, and Chanyeol looks like he could beat Kris up any second now. And I want to be there to tranquilise him when he attacks.”
Chen and Suho made their way hurriedly to the front porch, where Kris and Tao were having a shouting match, the latter with tears streaming down his face. Everyone was there with the exception of Kyungsoo. But Chen had no time to lament over the disappearance of his friend before feeling anger towards whoever had caused Tao to become like this. Every boy in the group knew Tao was the most emotional of the 12 of them and they’d sworn silently (and behind Tao’s back) never to provoke or hurt him.
“I can’t believe you’d do this, you coward!” Tao screamed, tears continuing to spill from his eyes. “Kyungsoo is missing and you decide to pack up and clear out?!”
“Wait, Kris is leaving?!” Chen shouted in surprise. He knew Kris was his hyung but at a time like this there was no time for niceties.
“He wants to.” Chanyeol growled, and Chen could immediately see why Suho wanted to hold Chanyeol back when Kris pushed Tao too far. He looked like a lion that had been fed lettuce for a month.
“You don’t get it.” Kris responded, equally as loudly. He looked close to tears himself. “Things are getting bad around here.” He lowered his voice. “I think someone knows about our powers.”
“No they don’t, you damn liar!” Tao sobbed, his voice breaking several times. “We swore when we met to keep our abilities secret.”
“Why would you do this to him, hyung?” Baekhyun asked softly. He didn’t even look angry. His expression was just disappointed and hurt. “You’re his world. You mean everything to him.”
“I told you already!” Kris replied, getting more flustered with each passing second. “Things are going to get worse around here. And unless you want to get your sorry asses kidnapped and tortured, you’d come with me.” He looked pleadingly at Tao, whose entire body was racked with sobs. “Please, Tao. Please come with me.”
Tao only stared at Kris, expressionlessly. All signs of love toward his boyfriend had disappeared, along with the hurt and grief. He stood across from Kris, his expression unreadable but still with tears pouring down his cheeks.
“No.”
And with that, Tao turned tail and pushed past Sehun and Lu Han, back into the manor. An eerie silence followed Tao’s departure, during which Kris started to cry. Silently, he swayed on the spot with tears seeping out of his lids.
“That’s it.” Chanyeol snarled. “I thought I’d leave you alone while Tao was here because I didn’t want to break his heart more than you had already. But he’s gone now and I can pull whatever bull I want.” Without warning, Chanyeol charged at a stunned Kris, cusses and insults spilling from his lips.
“You betrayed all of us when we’re our most vulnerable. We’re one man down, and you have to go and make it two? And then you start to cry and hope we’ll mop you up and pat your back and say it’s okay for you to just pack up and leave?!” Chanyeol shrieked like a banshee, leaping on top of Kris and issuing punches to the latter. Chen, surging forward with the remainder of the boys to restrain Chanyeol, was glad that their mansion was the only building within in an eight-mile radius.
“You disgusting, betraying, cowardly bastard!” Chanyeol screamed, kicked and flailing his limbs around wildly. As Jongin grabbed onto Chanyeol’s shoulder, the former swatted the latter away and yelled, “Let go of me, you son of a ! Let me give this pathetic little a lesson!”
Luckily Kris managed to wriggle out from underneath Chanyeol’s death grip and flew up into the air out of anyone’s reach. There was something purple and black swelling underneath his right eye and his lip was cut and bleeding. Chen felt some satisfaction that Chanyeol had given Kris a piece of his mind, but that pleasure was immediately washed away by guilt at seeing his friend like this. He was determined to keep Kris a friend, no matter how much he had betrayed the group.
“See? See what this whole thing is turning you into?!” Kris pointed to Chanyeol, a few meters below him. "Chanyeol is normally sweet and funny. Now I’m making my own decision, my own choice and he’s turned into a monster!”
“Don’t you dare call my Chanyeollie a monster! You’re the monster, Kris hyung!” Baekhyun wrapped a protective arm around Chanyeol, who was also being restrained by Xiumin and Lay.
“I was hoping for a more emotional parting.” Sehun muttered sarcastically. “Maybe hugging, some tears…but you know what? Kris betrayed us. I say we go inside, go sort Tao out, make some hot chocolate and forget Kris was ever in our lives.”
The biting sarcasm of Sehun was a bit harsh to Chen, but he could only follow the group of boys as they made their way inside.
And when Chen looked to the skies again, Kris was gone. 

******

AN: glad to finally get this chapter out ^^ it's one I've been planning since before chapter 1 ^^ except I gave myself Taoris feels writing it -_-

it would be really nice to hear your thoughts. Is it too dramatic? To fast-paced? Are the chapters too long or too short? Anything would be good so leave a comment with your thoughts, it would really mean a lot. Much love,

ex00dus xoxo