stairs | jaeyong

# ten !¡

7:33 PM | Seoul, South Korea

"Should we take help of cops?" Yuta asked, breaking the heavy silence in the living room. Everyone looked at him, but no one dared to say their response in fear of Yuta bursting out in anger.

"I don't think so... It just doesn't feel like a right thing to do." Taeyong replied, still nervous of Yuta's further reaction. Yuta nodded and threw his head back in frustration.

He will admit that he also felt what the others were feeling too. He doesn't know if it was a coincidence or not that they all have the same gut feelings that calling cops isn't right.

The Japanese stood up, gaining the attention of the others, while walking up to the stairs.

"Where are you going?" Jaehyun asked.

"To my room." Yuta replied without glancing at them. He trailed his way to the room and shut it close, making a loud sound resonate around the whole dorm.

Yuta flopped himself down on the bed, while facing the ceiling. He sighed, ruffling his hair. He bit his lower lip, thinking of all the possibilities that could possibly happen.

Then an idea hit him. He abruptly sat on the bed and took the Chinese's phone. If anyone was there to see him, they would've definitely thought of him as some psycho.

He turned on the phone and the lock screen wallpaper of the Japanese sleeping is what greeted him. A small smile formed on his lips.

But then he got hesitant if he should really go through his roommate's phone or not. Yes, it would disturb his privacy, but he is doing for his good only.

With a wild guess of what the password possibly could be, he entered it and the phone successfully unlocked. The home screen wallpaper was his selfie with Sicheng.

He softly chuckled and opened his call history. The last call was made by the Chinese to his mother yesterday evening. He hummed as he opened the messages app and saw 4 unread messages from Sicheng's childhood friend in China.

He left the message on unread as he scrolled a little and didn't find anything that could catch his attention. Likewise, he then went into his YouTube and Google's search history and didn't really find anything.

Sighing in defeat, he locked the phone and kept it back on the table. The male flopped himself down on the bed again. What was happening?

What can he do? He was so deep in his pool of thoughts that he didn't even notice the door creak opening.

"Hyung..." The boy on the door, who was peaking his head inside, softly called out. The Japanese looked at the door to see it was Jungwoo.

"Dinner is ready." He said as the older nodded and pushed himself up from the bed. Closing the door behind him, they both went downstairs in silence.

Actually, the whole dorm was silent. Ever since the news of Sicheng missing broke out, everyone was in their own worlds of worry and tension.

But he suddenly felt something hitting underneath the stairs. It was like someone was under the stairs and was constantly hitting it.

But the sound died out soon. It was pretty weird to him but seeing Jungwoo who had already finished climbing down the stairs, he shrugged off the unusual feeling, thinking he maybe was hallucinating.

He went and pulled out a chair from the dining table and sat on it. Some were shocked to see him since they thought he won't show up in sadness of his boyfriend missing, while some were happy that he isn't skipping his meals.

Sighing, they all started to dig in. The atmosphere was still heavy due to tension. Truth to be told, they didn't even have an appetite to eat.

How can they eat when their friend is missing and probably starving somewhere?

—

Mark was the last one to finish his dinner. He stood up, taking his plate with him to the kitchen on the left. He went near the sink and kept the dirty dishes in it and turned on the tap to wash his hands.

After he was done, he turned off the tap and turned around, but saw Taeyong looking inside a pot with his brows furrowed. He walked towards him and lightly tapped on the older's shoulder.

The Korean flinched slightly but calmed down after seeing it was just Mark.

"What's wrong?" The younger asked, glancing at the empty pot.

"I made dinner for all of us, even Sicheng in hopes that he might return by dinner, but right now I'm finding that the pots are empty when it shouldn't be because Sicheng didn't eat."

"Maybe someone ate more than they usually eat?" Mark said, earning a look of disbelief from the other.

"No one ate more than they usually eat. And neither did I see anyone entering the kitchen to steal." Taeyong said, crossing his arms, looking at the empty pot.

"Oh my God, what if Sicheng is pranking us all and is hiding somewhere here and ate!?" Mark exclaimed. Taeyong sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose to compose himself.

How can this human being right here can be this stupid? Wasn't he just told that no one stole the food? If Sicheng had done, they would've known.

"Do you think Sicheng is that immature?" Taeyong asked in disbelief as Mark sheepishly smiled while rubbing his nape.

"Whatever... Let's just leave all this and go to sleep." Taeyong said with a sigh and lazily walked out of the kitchen with an obedient Mark following from behind.

—

The Chinese sighed, burying his head in his knees. A day went, and he still couldn't find his way out of the room. Heck, he doesn't even know where he is.

Just when he was about to snatch his hair out of his head, the door of the room opened and someone was pushed inside before the door got closed again on its own.

All the things happened so quickly that it took him a minute to process what happened. He stood up, shaking, and went near the body laid on the floor.

He crouched near it, and with his shaky hands, he slightly shook the unconscious man. He couldn't see who it was, because of the darkness since the light bulb automatically stopped working on it's own a few hours ago.

"Mm... Wha..." A low murmur is what he got from the man, and he froze in there knowing damn well whose voice was it.

"Taeil Hyung?"

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