"mom, i'm home!" yeosang shut the door behind him and his friends, his prior greeting causing footsteps to approach them.

"yeosangie, sweetheart!" the boy's mother said, entering the passageway connected to the front door. "i see your friends are hanging over again?"

"yeah, we'll be in my room!" yeosang hurried out in attempt to beeline towards the staircase, and it seemed to work as his mom didn't protest when he shuffled past her — jongho and san trailing after him. however, yeosang still managed to make out a quick, "i'll be in the kitchen if you need anything!" he didn't bother to reply, though.

turning a corner to where his bedroom was, yeosang stepped aside, allowing the others to step in first.

san, who'd already grown comfortable in yeosang's home, sat himself, legs crossed, on the elder's bed. slipping his backpack off of the one shoulder it was slung over, he unzipped it swiftly, heaving his laptop out of it.

by now, yeosang and jongho had joined the pear-haired boy, sitting behind him as he switched his laptop on.

"hey, sang; remember to breathe, okay?"

"what?" yeosang's head snapped towards jongho at his voice, brain still registering his words.

"you're breathing too fast, pretty," jongho elaborated, chuckling lightly at yeosang's confusion, finding it rather cute, meanwhile bringing a hand onto the latter's back. "take a few deep breaths, hm?"

"o-oh..." yeosang murmured, feeling stupid truthfully. how'd jongho notice his irregular breathing before him? embarrassed was an understatement as yeosang, extremely conscious about the thumb brushing against his spine, did as jongho had told him to. and with the brunette's eyes glued onto him, yeosang couldn't even remember what had gotten him so nervous to begin with.

causing yeosang's cheeks to flood scarlet, jongho's words played over in his head, endlessly on repeat, the severity of them only becoming clearer the more time passed. jongho thought he was... pretty. that's what that meant, right? 

perhaps it was because yeosang had never been referred to as such, or maybe it was because of how casually the compliment was bespoken, he didn't exactly know. but what yeosang did know, although his own desperation did nothing but humiliate him, was that he liked what he'd heard.

the feeling that erupted within him at the thought was completely different to any he'd experienced before, yet the newly discovered didn't scare yeosang away like it usually would've. in fact, it only made him desire more.

"there you go," jongho said, voice gentle and hushed, stroking his fingers along yeosang's nape momentarily. "why were you so nervous, sang?"

yeosang just shrugged over the clacking of san's keyboard. "not sure... but it doesn't matter now."

jongho hummed. "'kay, i believe you. you don't have anything to worry about, though, yeah? we're close to finding him. i promise."

"i know." yeosang nodded his head eagerly. "thanks, jongho."

"hey, guys..." san's hesitant voice came, intervening with jongho's chance to respond; however, he still directed a soft smile to yeosang before turning to the pear-haired boy.

"what is it, san?" yeosang asked, out of curiosity at the misery in the younger's tone. surely nothing could have gone wrong again, he was certain of it.

but san only ran a hand through his head of hair, sighing frustratedly.

"what?" jongho pressed, growing worried.

"the- the tracker — i don't know how or why, but i-i can't- it won't let me find it's location..."

yeosang blinked his eyes a couple of times in disbelief. this can't be happening. "you can't be fucking serious right now, what do you mean it's not connected, san? out there you literally said—"

"i-i did have access to it back then, i swear i did!" san faced jongho expectedly. "even you saw, didn't you?"

yeosang scoffed at the boy's tries to defend himself, yet when jongho answered, his expression quickly fell: "he did, sang, i was there."

"b-but—" yeosang exhaled an annoyed breath. "so what? you still managed to lose it, why does it matter? it's fucking useless now! we were this close to possibly finding wooyoung's whereabouts, but we're at square one again!"

san shifted his laptop from his thighs to besides him, before collapsing his face into his hands. "we aren't back at square one, d-don't say that."

"why not? i'm right and you know it."

"because you're suddenly the brains here, now, aren't you?" san fired back, standing up, irritated. "if you don't shut up, kang yeosang, i swear to god..."

"what are you gonna do? cry about it again?" yeosang taunted, rising to his feet as well, and neared san.

opposing to what yeosang figured would've happened, san kept his head held high, intimidating glare meeting the latter's. "looks like your lil' boyfriend over there has rubbed off on you, huh? how cute."

yeosang didn't need braincells to know why his face had gone all hot at those words. as he, undeniably flustered, struggled to come up with another witty comment to snap back at san in response, jongho had cleared his throat from behind them, ultimately gaining their attention. "uh, san—" why is he talking to him first? "—does your laptop normally flash like this?"

the confusion drawn on san's features beckoned yeosang to spin around, too, in confusion, the red light blaring from the device sprawled out on his bed causing his eyebrows to furrow.

after exchanging a questioning look with san, yeosang mirrored his steps towards the laptop, nervousness eating up at him. this didn't seem right. whatever was the reason behind the strange, flashing light couldn't be of any good, and he'd be stupid to think otherwise.

san placed himself back onto yeosang's navy blue duvet, the older squeezing into the small space between him and jongho, whilst he inspected the laptop. "hey, yeosang?" san started, glancing at said-boy for a split moment. "my apologies in advance if this, like, blows up your house, or something."

and, before yeosang could even question where san had gotten such an idea like that from, the pear-haired boy switched his laptop on.

nothing happened. yeosang's house hadn't exploded into millions of pieces, nor did the device turn on like san had commanded, for that matter. however, the mysterious red light was still flashing.

yet, as san squinted his eyes to focus his vision as much as possible, he noticed that the light was gradually slowing down. shoulder being nudged, yeosang's brain whirred determinedly to figure out what exactly had san's attention and—

"it's... stopping?" san finally spoke in a mutter. "yeah, i-i think it is? i'm not sur—"

a deep chuckle suddenly broke out into the room, interrupting san, a feared gasp escaping his lips.

on the other hand, yeosang frantically looked around his room, head swivelling from one side to the other in search for what the fuck that just was, whilst jongho's hand clasped around one of his own protectively. "w-what- who was that?" yeosang breathed out, moving to get up, but jongho's arm hooking around his torso stopped him as planned. "s-san? wha—"

"i don't know," the pear-haired boy whispered. "fuck, i—"

again, san was interrupted. however, this time it was more than just a stupid fucking laugh. so much more.

"come on, boys, i thought you were meant to be smarter than this! you aren't telling me a bunch of brainless wits stalked us, are you?" a voice, robotic and dark, sung.

the three behind the blank screen of the laptop froze, petrified.

"who is that?" san whispered, turning to yeosang and jongho with wide eyes, voice breaking in the process.

"oh, don't worry about that, there's no need for you to know who i am, choi san," the cunning voice responded.

afraid, san clutched onto the sleeve of yeosang's jacket — the one he'd borrowed from jongho, precisely. "h-how can you hear us? shit, how do you know m-my na—"

laptop being snatched from his hold, san stopped himself, breathing shakily heavy as he stared back at jongho in shock. the brunette, effortlessly with one hand, then threw the device across the room, it slamming against the wall with full force. after a few, strained words left the wrecked pieces of metal, incoherent no matter how hard yeosang tried to decipher each syllable, the laptop shut down — and permanently.

"j-jongho... what- why would you do that?"

rolling his eyes, the brunette chuckled disbelievingly. "you're kidding me, right? your laptop just got hacked, for fucks sake, why would you even—"

"i have stuff on there," san snapped through gritted teeth, angrily hurrying over to the opposite side of the room and kneeling by the remains of his laptop. "important stuff, i can't believe you!"

"you're such a waste of time, you know?! you don't care about anyone, but yourself! right, sang?" jongho inquired, seeking yeosang's agreement.

however, the boy was too dazed to even hear the younger. he felt as if he was the only one who was bothered to simply acknowledge the seriousness of the situation they were trapped in, the only one who cared enough. and despite the noise of san storming out furiously, jongho then approaching him and warmly wrapping an arm around his waist, yeosang couldn't care less about his two friends.

he could only wonder if finding wooyoung was even possible anymore, or not.

———

a/n: pls don't be mad 💘💖💞💝💓💖💖💕💖💗💓💓💞💝💓💗💖💘💕💓💝💞💗💘💕💘💗💖💖💓💞💝💓 next chapter's a special one ;)) if that makes u feel any better <3