The boys headed inside, none of them paying any attention to the disappearance of Kris. All of them were drowning in anger, betrayal, and sadness. They’d made a pact when they first met; a pact to keep together, to support each other, no matter what hardships were thrown at them.

And now Kris had broken that pact.

They found Tao in his bedroom, formerly shared with Kris. It was surprising how, in a short space of time, his appearance had deteriorated. His skin was usually a tanned colour like Jongin’s, but his pallor was scarily visible. Tao’s eyes had dark circles under them before, but the smudges of darkness under his eyes were more like sickly bruises now. His pale cheeks were stained with tears and he looked exhausted and done with life. As soon as he saw his friends crowding at the door, he turned away, a blush rising rapidly to his face.

“Pass me my sunglasses. I don’t want you guys to see me like this.” he muttered, his voice cracking several times. Baekhyun tossed them to Tao, who put them on without hesitation. Tentatively, Jongin went over to sit next to his distraught friend. Tao didn’t flail around and try to slap him away, which Jongin took as a good sign.

“Hey, don’t stress about it.” Jongin comforted, wrapping an arm around Tao’s skinny waist. “You can share a room with me tonight. And Fairy Chen Godmother’s going to whip up some hot chocolate for us all and we can just stay in and play video games. How does that sound?”

Tao flashed a watery smile at the group, gone as soon as it came. “Sounds great. Thanks.”

“Wasn’t one of us meant to go to work today?” Xiumin questioned as Chen left to make 10 cups of hot chocolate. Chanyeol followed Chen out into the hallway, grabbing his coat. The group was relieved he’d regained control of his anger and wasn’t acting like a crazed, wild animal any longer.

“That’s me.” Chanyeol yelled from the hallway, inserting a key into the door. “I need to go, get my mind off this whole fiasco.”

“We’ll see you later, then.” Suho responded. “Try not to kill Joon for us, yeah?” There was no reply, only the slamming of the front door as Chanyeol departed for work. Suho widened his eyes and turned away from the front door.

“Well, he’s the one making up the alibi when the police asked us who burnt her to a crisp.” he muttered, crossing his arms with a smirk.

***

It was fifteen minutes later when the boys, sipping steaming hot chocolate heaped with marshmallows, were seated in the living room, watching Baekhyun and Chen play video games. All that could be heard was the sound of guns and yells being emitted from the TV and Baekhyun accompanying it, making weird and disturbing war noises at random intervals. He was in the middle of imitating a gun, when he erupted in cheers as Chen threw his controller down in annoyance.

“Yes, I won, I won!” Baekhyun screamed, probably breaking windows ten miles away. Lay winced at the sudden outburst, and Xiumin rushed to Chen’s side before he took the manor down with his bolts of white-hot lightning.

“We know, Baek. No need to yell it to the whole of Seoul.” Sehun rolled his eyes, picking marshmallows out of his hot chocolate and popping them in his mouth. Chen groaned and rubbed his temples. Xiumin chucked his boyfriend the controller and restarted the game.

“Chen, quit and win for us?” he said, obviously tired of Chen’s repetitive whining. Baekhyun, still grinning from ear to ear, passed Lu Han his controller.

“You got it, hyung.” Chen saluted before his eyes locked onto the screen. Lu Han’s gaze was also focused on the TV as his fingers started to fly feverishly over the controller’s buttons.

“You’re on.” he growled.

***

Much later that day, with numerous losses from Chen and victories from everyone else, Tao made the decision to head to bed. The boys were all surprised; it was only 7 o’ clock. Chanyeol had returned at noon; the continuous complaints of Shin Joon and plaguing thoughts of how Kris had betrayed them had sent him home early.

“Let him rest.” Jongin said hastily, when Chanyeol got up to follow Tao. “He needs his sleep, poor guy.”

“I doubt he’s going to do much sleeping after what that betraying son of a did to him. To all of us.” Chanyeol had put his foot down and ended the conversation, plus Jongin was too drained of energy and motivation to argue. The kidnapping of Kyungsoo had haunted him just as much as Kris’ departure. The police were out looking for his doe-eyed hyung, but there was no sign of him. Jongin was worried out of his mind, and upset too. He felt like a part of him had been snatched away when he was informed of Kyungsoo’s disappearance; like a part of his being had been erased and could only be returned when Kyungsoo was. Everyone knew Jongin and Kyungsoo as the double-act, forever making jokes only they understood and spending ungodly amounts of time in the kitchen eating kimchi from the jar rather than putting it in the spaghetti. As much as their acts of affection and joking were strange and unexplainabke, Exo missed the aura of joy and relaxation that surrounded them. They couldn't wait for Kyungsoo to return and bring that back.

***

When Chanyeol hadn’t returned five minutes later, Sehun got up from the couch he was sharing with Lu Han.

“I don’t know about you, but I think Chanyeol’s taking a long time.” he muttered, heading out of the room. Lu Han was quick to follow, along with the rest of the group.

“Hey, don’t leave your hyungs behind!” Xiumin quipped. Sehun turned around, the thunder in his eyes clearly visible to all.

“Would you all just stop with this ‘hyung’ thing?! Kyungsoo is missing, Kris packed up and left, and you’re still thinking about being gentlemen? I don’t know what’s going on in your messed-up minds, but my priority is to get Tao back to his usual self, find Kyungsoo, and slap Kris’ for ever thinking of leaving us in the first place!”

There was an icy silence, colder than the snow and ice Xiumin could ever dream of conjuring up. And one could actually see the wind whipping up Sehun’s rainbow-coloured hair. The fact he could conjure up and control the wind was not to be taken lightly. Sehun his heel and strode out of the room, the seven other boys scurrying after him.

They found themselves at the doorway of Jongin and Kyungsoo’s bedroom, crowded around the threshold. The door was closed, so Chanyeol and Tao’s conversation was barely audible. However, the boys got the general gist and Tao's grief was apparent in his voice, accompanied by an undertone of sobs and hiccups. 

"Why did he leave me, Chan?" Tao asked, his voice high-pitched an innocent. 

"Well, he gave his excuses, feeble as they were. He said things were getting bad around here, right? Well, maybe they are. Maybe someone does know about our powers. But the best thing about there being 12 of us is that we can support each other and love each other when things go wrong. You remember we made that pact? We pledged to always stick together and stay brothers forever. Yes, Kris betrayed us and he's no longer here. But that just means he isn't worth our time and our brotherhood. Being a brother means to ensure the happiness and wellbeing of your fellow brothers, no matter what the cost. Brothers love each other. I don't blame Kris for being scared. Kyungsoo was kidnapped and still hasn't returned. There is a chance someone knows of our abilities. But that gives him no excuse to leave, right?" 

"Right." Tao agreed feebly.

"There you go then." Chanyeol said. "The reason he left isn't because he's scared our powers are going to get discovered and we're going to be sent to the mental asylum. You know all too well we can take down anyone who tries to attack us." Chanyeol let out a sigh. "He didn't leave us because of that, Tao. He left because he realised h wasn't worthy of us and didn't want to be there when we uncovered that and confronted him about it."

"But I thought he loved me!" Tao mumbled, in the voice of a boy half his age. "I thought he actually gave a damn!"

"Maybe he doesn't give a damn but no one said we had to give a damn about him. The important thing is that those of us left give damns about each other. Now, you need to get some rest. You're the most tired-looking little panda I've ever seen!"

Baekhyun's heart melted. It was at moments like these he appreciated his significant other's compassion  and love most. It was once in a blue moon that Chanyeol acted like an understanding older brother, but when he did, Baekhyun would be hypnotized with seduction. The purple -haired boy signed, enraptured. This earned a shove in the head from Suho and mutters of 'shut up!' from the rest of the boys. 

"Sing to me?" Tao asked, keeping up the 'I'm-a-small-child-pity-me' act. Chanyeol chuckled from inside the room. Suddenly the door handle turned and the boys standing outside scattered in various directions as Chanyeol exited the room. It was a hairy moment as he passed the coatstand behind which Lay was hiding. Chanyeol could have sworn he heard a very anxious, unicorn-sounding gasp from behind the group's jackets and coats,  but shrugged it off and, grabbing his guitar from his bedroom, he headed back to a waiting Tao. 

Once the bedroom door was firmly shut, the boys gathered round the threshold again, commending Lay for not being discovered. Chanyeol strummed a couple of chords on his guitar and started to sing. Everyone knew the song - it was 3.6.5, the song Lu Han had sung for Sehun as a lullaby when he first arrived at the manor. He was the only member of the group to have someone know of his power - his mother washed him off her hands after discovering his ability to control the wind, claiming he was 'abnormal' and should be 'locked away where no one can access a 'monster' like him'. He was heartbroken for weeks, often sobbing and hiding in the corners.  Lu Han was the only one who had witnessed this sensitive side of him, so he wrote a song called 3.6.5 to calm his dongsaeng, in the process starting a friendship whose bond was impossible to break. 

Chanyeol's ability to play the guitar as if God himself had taught him wasn't a big secret. But once Baekhyun heard his boyfriend's singing voice, it was difficult not to swoon. And it wasn't just Baekhyun. Every boy standing outside the room listened, hanging on to every word. 

"3.6.5, I'll be here for you,

Every morning and night,

Right here by your side

3.6.5, each time of the day,

Boy, I'm willing to be

Right here by your side

3.6.5, fighting together 

3.6.5, we'll have each other 

3.6.5, by your side forever."

__________________

A.n: annyeong!  I'm sorry this chapter was a fluffy filler with no plotline and ships whatsoever, but I promise next chapter will be better!

Credits to Silv3rt3ar on YouTube for coming up with an English acoustic version of 3.6.5, which I tweaked a bit to fit in with the story ;) you should go check her channel out, she does English versions of Exo songs and they are sooo good! V. jealous of her voice...

Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy! Leave a comment! Much love,

ex00dus xoxo