28 — WAKE UP!

stay sane, control your emotions.
this is gonna be a hell of a ride.

—

"alexa, play despacito." yohan says.

seungyoun scoffs as he rolls his eyes. "alexa, shut up."

the three boys are now hanging out at the tv room, with junho resting in bed right at the side corner, still left unconscious. seungyoun forgot how much of a burden it was babysitting kim yohan, now when he's gotten the chance to interact with him again. they were fighting over seungyoun's new toy alexa that he got from his father who got it from a business conference in america. seungwoo on the other hand was just busy with himself, switching over tv channels to see if there's anything interesting.

"alexa, your owner's annoying. change the settings."

"alexa, this kid you're talking to doesn't even live here!"

"guys, please." seungwoo sighs. "can we please rest for the day? poor junho's going to wake up listening to y'all spewing nonsense."

".. but isn't that the thing though?" yohan coincides. "aren't we here to make sure junho does wake up?"

before seungwoo could answer anything, the doorbell rang. "ah, that must be wooseok." seungwoo grins. he gets up to open the door.

"alexa, open the door." seungyoun chimes.

the front door opens before seungwoo was able to reach the handle. seungwoo turns and gave them a 'seriously?' look.

"what? you should've asked." seungyoun shrugs.

wooseok gets in with his eyes still glued onto his phone, ignoring his surroundings.

"hey wooseok-ah," seungwoo calls him.

"hi."

"wooseok-ie's back~" seungyoun chimes.

"yeah, whatever."

"wooseok-hyung!"

wooseok who clearly was in his own world previously immediately shifts his eyes towards where the voice came from. "jesus christ, who brought the pest in here?" he says in disgust, shooting a deadly glare to a very hyper yohan. "and who's that in bed?"

"...yeah, you missed quite a lot." seungwoo scrunches his face.

"i'm actually curious of something, do you guys live here or what?" yohan asks as he taps his foot on the floor rhythmically. "i mean, going home to a place like this everyday? i get why you're so into it... but you must have your own reasons."

"well, we don't technically stay here every night, we still have our own lives and jobs." seungwoo says as he grabs wooseok's hand, yanking him to the sofa.

"we live here because middleschool seungyoun is scared sleeping alone and wants his friends to be with him at all times." wooseok says in a joking tone.

"okay, that's not true. you guys were the one who begged to stay here." seungyoun repudiates.

"free real estate!" wooseok raises both of his hands high as if he's proving a point.

"tiny baby seungyoun living alone with his five nannies, i mean, he must've felt kind of lonely." seungwoo explains clearly. "and as me and wooseok both have guardians who usually don't even notice their kids disappearing—"

"plus with seungyoun's dad who's always not home in long periods of time," wooseok adds.

"that's how we end up living together; at least we wouldn't feel that lonely every night," seungwoo finishes as his arm rests on wooseok's shoulder.

"oh, can i join in?" yohan asks excitedly.

wooseok laughs hysterically. "HAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAA no."

"it's not as fun as it looks, kid." seungyoun tells him. "every night there needs to be someone who washes the dishes, and we always go through it with a classic game of rock, paper and scissors."

"seungyoun always loses." seungwoo says, hiding the smile on his face.

"i'm the one who always has to wash the dishes, the owner of the house." seungyoun sighs. "without me their asses wouldn't even be in that comfortable bed every night, never."

yohan tilts his head. "but hyung, aren't you able to read their thoughts during rock paper scissors?"

wooseok's mouth falls open. seungwoo curses under his breath. seungyoun's eyes widen. "oh yeah, why have i never thought of that?!"

"kim yohan, why did you tell him that?!" wooseok grumbles. "that's how we've been able to win all this time!"

"YES, i ain't gonna wash the dishes tonight!" seungyoun raises both of his hands in celebration. "i ain't gonna wash the dishes forever!"

after half an hour of squabbling and such, suddenly the bell rings again, and now yohan's the one who comes and gets it. they're now greeted by dohyon and hangyul who had eunsang sleeping on his arms. "aye, lee hangyul!"

they quickly brought in unconscious eunsang to the bed, with wooseok staring at him in shock. "lee eunsang? wow, what happened to him?"

"yeah, what exactly happened to him?" seungwoo asks. "you said you found him on the subway."

"i didn't really see much but witnesses say he just.. collapsed." hangyul explains shortly. "without notice. he definitely looked real tired though, like as if someone had sucked the life out of him."

"poor kid," seungwoo murmurs as he caresses eunsang's hair gently.

"yah weasley, wake up." yohan says as he pokes on the boy's cheeks. "you're way stronger than this, wake up."

"he definitely needs some rest." seungyoun says as he checks on the latter's pulse. "i can't do much because of his powers, so healing him wouldn't make much of a difference. he needs time to recover."

"does anyone have any clue of what actually happened?" dohyon scratches his head. "i missed the latest episode of antm today, so it must be for a good cause."

seungyoun hands him the remote. "it's all yours."

"YES!" dohyon immediately took control of the

"that's the thing, no one does." seungyoun sighs as his eyes shift on the two boys. "only these kids knew what happened."

"maybe yohan knows something after seeing eunsang in person earlier?" seungwoo asks, glancing at yohan.

"me?" yohan points at himself.

"yeah, you were summoned by him, right?" seungyoun questions him. "you must've seen your surroundings. where was he?"

"ah, yes, the place did look familiar.." yohan hums. "it's a neighborhood, kyochon district i think? the one still close to school."

hangyul raises his eyebrows. "really? that's my neighborhood."

"oh yeah! that's why it looked so familiar." yohan chimes. "i felt like i've been there, it's definitely because of that day when i walked with you and got captured by mad scientists."

wooseok raises his eyebrows. "why would they be there, though? there must be a reason."

dohyon switches channels in a fast rate, ignoring their conversation. seungwoo's attention shifts on the television. "dohyon-ah, return back to the previous channel, the news anchor one."

"but—"

"just do it."

and so he did. "what's with this one—" dohyon pauses the moment he sees the headline.

this place.. it looks familiar..

"hyung, isn't that our house..?" dohyon mutters, his eyes meeting hangyul's.

"yes, that place!" yohan points at the screen. "i met up with eunsang somewhere over there, he was already limping whilst holding unto junho in his arms."

yohan looks happy that he's finally able to trace back the place. the news that comes out of it however doesn't seem that jolly. the woman on the screen had their questions all answered for them. "this evening, the police found a corpse of a woman brutally murdered in her own house. the body of the woman with the initials kja was sliced unevenly except for her head. local police are trying to find out the one behind all of this, so they encourage everyone to stay calm as there is nothing to fear."

eunsang's eyes flutter open, him being able to hear bits of the news. he gets up slowly, surprised by the sudden change of place. he was also quite shocked by the amount of people surrounding him.

"weasley, you're awake!" yohan says happily, slapping the boy's face to check if he's really conscious.

seungwoo gazes to hangyul who had his eyes glued unto the tv. "hangyul, are you alright?"

dohyon doesn't seem alright either. "kja.. kwon jia.."

seungyoun gets up and immediately wraps his arms around hangyul, clearly aware of what's going on. "okay, calm down. calm down, gyul—"

hangyul lets go of the latter's grip, his hands immediately yanks over eunsang's shirt. "what did you do to her?! what did you do to her, what the fuck happened.."

"yah, gyul!" yohan tries to pull his friend away. "what are you doing?!"

dohyon doesn't seem to be calm either. the tables and sofas surrounding them starts floating around, showing that the boy's indefinitely mad.

"okay everyone please calm down," wooseok gestures calmly. "fighting won't solve anything."

eunsang was off his feet, with hangyul raising him up high with no mercy. "you know something, right? you know something!"

"i.. don't.."

"hangyul, stop." seungyoun forces him to let go of eunsang. "please, you're unsteady. don't let your emotions cloud your senses, the boy doesn't know anything."

hangyul lets go of eunsang quickly, him shaking out of breath. his eyes immediately shift to yohan. "yohan, help me. bring me back to my house, i need to see her."

"what? hangyul—"

"yohan, p-please." hangyul gets on his knees. "this is all my fault, this is mine. please, get me to her."

"don't worry, it's alright, he'll take you to her." seungwoo says as he heads to hangyul, assuring him. "i'll come with you both, we'll get through this."

dohyon gets up, the objects going further up alongside with him. "i'm coming too."

"no, you're staying here." seungyoun says, forbidding him.

"but she's my mother—"

"yes, and she definitely knows you're not safe." hangyul cuts him off. "dohyon-ah, you stay here. i'll get you when the coast's clear."

dohyon looks clearly dissatisfied, but he nods.

"okay, we're all in good terms, right?" seungwoo says as he scans over everyone. "good. yohan, take us to hangyul's house."

yohan doesn't know how he ends up getting dragged into such important events, but he agrees anyway. "alright you both, hold unto me." they did what they've been told and suddenly they disappear into thin air, leaving wooseok, seungyoun, eunsang, and dohyon alone.

"i woke up.. to this," eunsang mutters under his breath as he fixes his clothes.

"dohyon, you're alright?" seungyoun asks in concern. "it's okay if you're not."

dohyon turns to him. "i'm fine."

wooseok gazes at the boy intently. he heads towards him with both of his arms open wide. without thinking twice, dohyon wraps his arms around the older boy, as he immediately goes off to cry.

"i understand, i understand it completely." wooseok murmurs as he caresses his head. "i know how it feels. it's okay, you're not alone in this. you're alright."

dohyon cries over his shoulder, sobbing quite frantically to the point he had his own trouble to breathe.

eunsang heads over seungyoun, letting the both have their own space. after all, they know wooseok and dohyon has their own similarities when it comes to their parents.

they both lost their father in a young age,
thus lost their mother when they're teenagers.
both of their parents are dead.

their similarities can't be left unnoticed.

—

175 for next chap~