Chanyeol's sorrow levels peaked after that, in such a way that sometimes he would light up random things on fire, otherwise there would be small fireballs hanging in the air around him wherever he walked. Yixing had made him stay in his room to rest and forget about this entire ordeal. Everyone else, meanwhile, is worried, and Minseok constantly has to be by Chanyeol's side in case something lights up and burns.

A serious aura floats around the air. Jongin is especially frustrated, seeing how he had admired Chanyeol from when he was young and now, to see him reduced to something like this, is immensely disappointing.

All because of that half-blood. He thinks to himself. Now Leader can't train or fight ... he can't even lead us now, in this state.

Jongin had been so excited ever since he found out that Chanyeol and Yixing were finally returning from that horrid Lab, because he believed it was finally their time to shine and kick ass. All the surviving Monsters had survived because of Chanyeol's passion and resolve to keep them safe and wait for revenge, which was why the respect for Chanyeol was great and the anticipation for his and Yixing's return just as great. But now ... they aren't moving at all.

Jongin wants to criticise Chanyeol and question why Chanyeol is their leader, when the older was never able to completely control his emotions and therefore his powers, and he's sure the others might be thinking the same thing. However, in the end these doubts would quash themselves, because above all, Jongin still respects Chanyeol as their Leader, the Leader that all of them have chosen. They chose Chanyeol for his emotional drive, not only for his capacity think with his mind but also with his heart. Even if it was a huge flaw, it was also his greatest strength.

Yixing, on the other hand, is immensely bothered by Baekhyun's change and how greatly it affects Chanyeol. He knows that Chanyeol believes it was his fault that Baekhyun had changed like this, and told himself to forget loving, which is why he's dejected to the point where his powers are slightly out of control, a problem that has always plagued Chanyeol but never to this extent.

As he takes off his bandages to change into new ones for his arm, his raw skin is a reminder that there is a problem hanging in the air that won't be solved by itself.

"I taught myself to forget how to love."

After Baekhyun had said that, Chanyeol had seemed normal, but then fire had appeared out of nowhere and latched onto Yixing's arm, until he had to look for ways to get the fire off. Chanyeol, although looking normal, had been dazed and out of his mind in such a way that Yixing could not get him to stop the fire, no matter how loud he shouted. In the end, Yixing had to take off his shirt to pat the fire away, but by then his skin had suffered severe burns.

And the whole time, Baekhyun had watched emotionlessly, not doing a thing to help.

It wasn't everything that changed about him.

It was one thing.

With that realisation sticking into his mind and not leaving, Yixing finally decides to confront it. Setting down his bandages and not bothering to bandage himself up again, Yixing leaves to find Baekhyun, now knowing exactly where the boy is after that fateful night.

That night that Chanyeol had searched for Baekhyun, so did Yixing.

Opening the doors once more, he finds Baekhyun jogging along the track again, sweat glistening on his skin and golden eyes looking dreamy yet focused at the same time as he continues to run. Yixing can tell that the boy has noticed him, yet the younger pays no attention as he continues to run around the track.

"Come here." Yixing orders, watches as those golden eyes flitter to him for a second then flitter away as Baekhyun continues running, totally ignoring Yixing's request. Knowing he should've anticipated this, yet still shocked, Yixing leans against the door, in the end deciding to wait for the younger to finish his workout.

When the boy finishes, he's panting lightly, taking a towel to wipe away the sweat along his neck, around the muscles that are naturally there for a Monster.

"I know you've got a lot to say, but I don't have time." Baekhyun says, empty eyes flitting from Yixing towards the door, as if changing his focus completely.

"Tell me how your training is going." Yixing says instead, and Baekhyun stops in his tracks. "Seems like you want to improve quickly."

"You can help me?" This time, the boy sounds more interested, those curious eyes watching Yixing, gold meeting blue.

"I grew up in a place full of Monsters. I would know exactly what to do."

This time, Baekhyun turns around completely, looking like the inquisitive Baekhyun that Yixing had known.

"Please help me then." Beakhyun says, inching closer with a smile on his face. "I was about to start training for that."

"Take me to where you train." Yixing says, and Baekhyun does, leaving the room and winding around the hallway until he arrives at a small room right at the very end of the submarine.

"Why hasn't your arm healed yet?" Baekhyun asks once he enters the small, dark room. "I thought that was your power."

"I can heal everything but myself." Yixing replies. Baekhyun doesn't ask anymore, moving on to another topic as if that's really it.

Only one thing changed about Baekhyun.

He stopped caring.

From people hurting, to people throwing hatred towards him, to people excluding him or loving him or wanting to make him feel unnecessary. He doesn't care, couldn't care less about any of this. The overwhelming kindness that once defined Baekhyun, and set Baekhyun differently from everyone else, is gone.

"So I've only developed a little bit." Baekhyun explains in the darkness. "How to control lights in light bulbs – their luminosity, how much area light can expand to, how concentrated the light is in certain areas ... but I can't seem to be able to make little balls of light move wherever I want it to, if you get what I mean."

"Show."

At that, the lights in the room slowly turn on, very, very slowly. The source of these lights come from the lightbulbs above. Then slowly, the lights all move towards the centre of the room, right below the lightbulbs, forming an intense light, like a laser, in such a way that light isn't scattered, but focused on one specific spot under every lightbulb. Then the light spreads again until it paints the entire room, except this time there are laser-like points at certain places, and then the lights turn into different colours, sort of like a disco ball that Yixing remembers seeing pre-war days when everyone had fun dancing on the floor. The light turns slowly from a yellow-ish white slowly into red, then orange, then yellow, and into all the other rainbow colours, blending so smoothly into one another that Yixing almost doesn't notice it has changed colour. Then the light seems to get sucked slowly back into the light bulbs, until only the top half of the room is filled with light, and the bottom half is dark. This continues slowly until the light disappears from the lightbulb in a fading fashion, and darkness fills the room again.

"That's it." Baekhyun shrugs.

Speechless, Yixing stands there, shocked. Monsters had always been slow learners, and this is truly reflected in Baekhyun, who has been the fastest learner of every Monster that Yixing has known. Even Sehun, who had begun training at least a week before Baekhyun, has only just learned how to not let his power go out of control.

"You seem shocked." Baekhyun notes, a little cheeky smile on his face. "Did I do better than you thought?"

"Still have a lot to work on." Yixing says, letting his shock melt away. "You'll have to work hard."

"Of course!" Baekhyun chirps,

Yixing teaches him meditation techniques that will help with focus, especially if Baekhyun were to make little balls of light. He watches as Baekhyun learns faster than Monsters, slower than Lucky Ones, yet being just in between gives him an advantage to everything.

By the end of it, Baekhyun had progressed to the point until he can make a spark of light appear, until the entire room would be littered with them, harmless little bits of light that make the room look like a tiny universe that Yixing used to see in the night sky.

After summoning one ball of light above the two of them, Baekhyun takes out snacks from his bag and passes some to Yixing, sitting down to eat. The older guesses this must be what Baekhyun had been doing to make him disappear for the past few weeks, never coming up unless occasionally needing to. His hardworking nature had not changed despite Maturing.

"Tell me why you stopped caring." Yixing says, watching as the boy eats quietly.

"... Don't know, can't remember." Cracking his neck, Baekhyun looks up at the light above them. "Probably felt like it was too tiring, to care."

At that, he whips his head down to meet Yixing's eyes.

"Are you like them? You want me to start loving Chanyeol again?" Baekhyun pipes up. "Or do you hate me like they do?"

Yixing stares back at him, watches those youthful eyes watch him with fearlessness.

"Do you hate that I've changed, like Chanyeol does?" There is no hurt or pain in Baekhyun's eyes, nor worry and anxiousness, as if he's only genuinely curious and nothing else, something that Yixing finds so foreign.

"Whatever you've done to shield yourself from the hurt and pain," Yixing says eventually, "I understand."

Closing his mouth, Baekhyun tilts his head, gaze still not wavering. Then he smiles, as if really satisfied with the answer.

"You know of all people, you're the only one that's truly, genuinely, been kind to me." Baekhyun says, taking another bite of his sandwich. "Without faking."

"I think that deserves some respect, don't you think?" Baekhyun continues thoughtfully, inching closer into a squat and tilting his head once more. "Hyung?"

Yixing blinks, not sure what had happened.

"Wow, your reactions sure are slow." Baekhyun leans backwards again, grinning. "It's a little cute."

A little shocked at the fact that someone so young had called him cute, Yixing flushes slightly, not knowing how to react.

"I can't believe I was so scared of you back then ... and even suspected that you were the bad guy." Baekhyun stands again, picking up his rubbish and putting it in his bag. "But then ... I was right, wasn't I? You were the bad guy.

"Then again, there's never complete good and bad in everything, is there?"

This time, Baekhyun morphs a ball of light from his hands until it hovers over his palm, floating mysteriously. Then he passes it to Yixing.

"Here. As a little present." Baekhyun chirps. "See you tomorrow!" Then he grabs his bag and walks out into the darkened hallways until Yixing is unable to see him anymore.

Holding the ball of light, Yixing uses it to lead him back to his bedroom, and the moment he arrives to his bed, the light disappears and he is left in the darkness.

Baekhyun has already mastered his skill to a level where he can will his power to cease after its mission is completed.

From then on, Yixing constantly meets up with Baekhyun to help him with training. Of course, the desire to protect the smaller has always been there, really, ever since he first found out that Baekhyun was one of them, but that was a desire that he had always pushed down, for fear that it might develop.

Yet, ever since his meetups with Baekhyun had become a daily thing, he's starting to realise that he can't avoid this desire anymore. The soft spot for Baekhyun is there, clear and at the forefront every time he would watch the smaller eat, or train, or talk. He doesn't want to think about why he wants to protect Baekhyun so much.

Baekhyun calling him hyung doesn't help at all.

Chanyeol, meanwhile, is aching to see Baekhyun again, his furious desire to check if the smaller's okay so strong that it would make him go dizzy. Every time he announces he wants to leave his room, however, Minseok or someone else would convince him otherwise.

"It's because of him that you're having mood swings, Leader." Minseok or anyone else would say, whenever he made up his mind to leave. "It's best not to risk it, or else this entire submarine is at risk of crashing."

"I just want to see him – why do you have to make it so hard?" Chanyeol growls one day, fingers searching for the door, but he flinches when he's met with ice instead.

Chanyeol isn't afraid of ice or water, but he despises the touch of it.

"Everyone's lives in this submarine are at stake here, so don't let your feelings get the better of you."

"I would be able to rest, if at least one of you would tell me what's happening with him."

"Yixing is taking care of him." Minseok explains. "Somehow, the boy has taken a liking to Yixing, and he had invited Yixing to train with him."

"What?" Chanyeol's voice is calm, but inside he's burning with jealousy.

"Hey, watch out." Minseok warns, but Chanyeol doesn't listen. The heat in the room is rising until Minseok is shouting.

"Jongin!" He shouts, and Chanyeol can feel steam in the air and water under his feet. "For fuck's sake, Jongin!"

"What?" Jongin's voice appears. "Oh shit."

"Get Yixing." Silence. "Calm down, I was just saying that –"

"Yixing can see him, but not me?" Chanyeol growls, knowing he should calm down but not knowing how to.

"Don't." Yixing's voice appears this time. "I'm the only familiar person he knows, other than you."

At that, Chanyeol deflates until he doesn't feel so hot anymore. Slowly, the water under his feet dissipates into steam until everything's back to normal.

"Why can't I see him?" He asks.

"Because you will react like this." Yixing responds.

"Is he doing well?" Not wanting to think of this new special relationship that Yixing shares with the little one, Chanyeol changes the topic, because even though he knows Baekhyun doesn't belong to him, he still can't help but react in such an extreme way every time he feels the smaller slipping from his fingers.

"Yes, he's training hard." Yixing says, sounding so systematic, as if there are no feelings attached. "Training hard every day to improve his power."

"You're teaching him?"

"Yes." Silent, Chanyeol slowly sits on his bed, frustrated.

"He's still ... like that?"

"Yes. Doesn't sound like he's going to change himself any time soon." Once again, Chanyeol is silent, and if he could see, then he would be glaring hard at the floor. "It wasn't your fault."

"Yeah ... Leader, it wasn't your fault, so don't blame yourself anymore." Jongin cuts in, sounding like a kicked puppy. "He changed because he wanted to be stronger, not because you hurt him."

"Enough." Chanyeol says quietly, not wanting to hear it because he doesn't believe in it. "I don't care what he does, and who he does it with, as long as he's not hurting himself."

A few weeks later, Chanyeol finally lets himself out of his room without the purpose of seeing Baekhyun. Of course, no one has complained about his antisocial behaviour nor made fun of it, because they're sure their Leader must be going through a lot of inner turmoils – after all, sight is a very crucial element in mastering a Monster's power, and without it, a Monster may as well be as helpless as a Lucky One.

Chanyeol had only decided to leave his room and stop his sulking because of Minseok's constant implications that he needs to 'train' or else his powers will be out of control too. In the end, Chanyeol had to suggest that the two of them should train together so that Minseok would stop complaining.

At first, it was frustrating because Chanyeol had no idea where to target his power, and many times he had almost burnt everything down out of frustration, but thankfully Minseok is there to quench his anger every time, literally with his own ice.

After an entire week with absolutely no progress trying to control his power while blind, Chanyeol had wanted to give up and return to his room to sulk (but of course, he will never admit that's how he's behaving).

"You really need to learn to meditate, so you can control your power even when your emotions are unstable." Minseok suggests. "Honestly, that is your biggest problem right now. After that, you can learn the rest."

Feeling as if he has nothing else to do, and desperate as fuck, Chanyeol decides to try meditating, something that he had always said he had no time to do. Even so, this was always a method that Chanyeol felt as if he could not trust, because to him, it was difficult to see the changes in someone's emotions, as they are to be triggered and cannot be summoned on its own, so for the first week or two he was meditating without knowing if it actually improved anything.

However, the time comes when he can be angry again, much quicker than he thought.

"Has Joonmyun-hyung woken up yet?" Chanyeol asks, when he realises that he hasn't asked about the older at all ever since they escaped from the Lab.

"No." Kyungsoo replies. "I think before you took him away, they inserted a substance in him that will cause him to constantly dream, and keep him in a coma until he overcomes his nightmares ...

"... It is a method of torture."

Tightening his hand into a fist, Chanyeol does his best not to slam it down out of anger and guilt. It was him, 24 years ago, that brought his best friend Kim Joonmyun into the Lab to be taken in as an Experiment, in EX'ACT where he could live a carefree live pretending to be a Lucky One, living the next 24 years prestigiously and well-respected whereas his best friend was treated less than an animal.

With this level of anger, Chanyeol would've started burning something by now, but instead he tries to detach his anger from his physical self and then not be so affected then. It works, because he feels himself calming down without needing any warnings.

"Are you ... okay?" Kyungsoo asks carefully, and Chanyeol nods.

"Do everything to make sure he wakes up." Chanyeol says, now feeling even more motivated to have his revenge on the Lucky Ones.

Meanwhile, Baekhyun has completely mastered the making of balls of light without the need of using light bulb lights as a source. Now he can create lights with a click of his fingers, or make it shine out of any part of his body or any part of anything. Of course, the possibilities are endless and that's why training must always continue.

With mastering basic light as a finished goal, Baekhyun decides to venture further, with a slight idea of what exactly he wants to do with his power. Even though Yixing is closest to him right now, understanding him and patiently training him, Baekhyun still keeps his ultimate goal from the older.

He hasn't completely stopped caring about anything – just that the only thing he cares about is to find justice for his dead parents.

Yes, the once gentle, peaceful Baekhyun's only goal now is revenge.

How easily can one turn to revenge when met with a personally tragic situation? Baekhyun once never understood, but is now letting it eat him up.

Maybe it's because it's easier this way – to just focus on the anger and hatred – to get rid of his pain by killing rather than to continue to become a kind and forgiving Baekhyun that he once was. After all, it's only after he found out his parents had been tortured to death did he realise how courageous he would have to be to just let it go and forgive the murderers.

And ... Baekhyun's not brave enough for that.

His parents have raised him up as their own, and whether they knew Baekhyun was their own or not, Baekhyun doesn't know, even now. They must've suspected something in the past 24 years raising Baekhyun up, because being able to see in the dark was a skill Baekhyun always had, and he was sure there were moments when his power had gone out of control. Even though no one outside of EX'ACT Lab knows what Monsters looked like, Baekhyun's sure his parents would've suspected something. If they did, they still cared for him and treated him like their own, and for that, Baekhyun owes them more than his life.

In the end, they died because of him. Even if before, Baekhyun had been the type of person to never kill for any reason, he would've felt obliged to, because otherwise his parents would have died for nothing, without nothing. As nothing.

The world is just ... too unfair.

Panting, Baekhyun breaks out of his concentrated trance, hands against the floor to steady himself as he blinks the dizziness out of his eyes. Maybe the reason why Monsters are physically stronger is because they need to be, to be able to develop their power; and maybe the reason why Monsters aren't very smart is because they need to have a large brain space to be able to handle the high intense concentration training for the development of their powers. Baekhyun is lacking in both but also is fortunate to have both, so although he can develop his powers at a much faster rate, he is easily worn out.

Still, Baekhyun forces himself up despite seeing droplets of sweat drip onto the floor and darkening the carpet. The world is still swimming around him but Baekhyun tries to steady himself, and once he does, he closes his eyes, resuming his training once again.

It doesn't work as effectively as Baekhyun had wanted, because soon after his head starts burning and his limbs start shaking until he is forced to break out of his concentration. His vision is fuzzy but once again he can see sweat droplets on the carpet, mixed with blood.

Sighing internally, Baekhyun closes his eyes to rest a bit, sitting up to wipe the blood from his nose, frustrated that his body is too weak to handle this. After one minute's rest, Baekhyun starts up again, totally uncaring of the consequences and how damaging it can be to his body. Never had he ever thought about his own health and safety in his entire life, let alone care about it now. And now, he truly doesn't care, or doesn't want to care, about anything except revenge. Who cares if he's attacking his own race? Who cares if everyone on this submarine hates him and wants to exclude him and may even come to kill him one day? Who cares if he dies soon?

Baekhyun realised that caring meant hurting, and he had hurt too much while caring.

He likes this calming feeling of not giving a fuck about anything, even if it renders him empty inside. Empty, because once it was his caring personality that filled it.

Soon after, his body breaks down again, and he decides to rest for a little bit, clutching his head because it feels like it's splitting. Even for his other training sessions, it had never been this bad before, maybe because the difficulty level wasn't as high.

Even so, Baekhyun doesn't give up. He needs to do this, and he needs to master this, because to him, this is everything. So once more, Baekhyun pushes himself up to once again resume training. This time he lasts much longer, maybe because he keeps telling himself to not break not break not break. Little by little, the fatigue eats up at him and the pain creeps up at him, but all he's focusing on is how to control his power to his liking.

Maybe that makes everything worse, because then his body starts jerking out of control and he loses consciousness.

The next time he regains consciousness, he's feeling much better, and not wanting to delay his training any longer, he starts up again, ignoring the bloody taste in his mouth and the dried blood on his nose. His whole life he had trained himself like this, for EX'ACT, pushed himself way to the limit so that he can achieve the results today, and that's what he's going to continue to do until he can achieve everything that he should achieve, and more. Nothing stopped his ambition back then, and nothing will stop it now.

For the first half an hour, Baekhyun trains with no problems, but then gradually his muscles begin feeling sore and his brain starts to burn again. Taking a deep breath, Baekhyun tells himself to hang in there, shutting his eyes again and concentrating on his goal right now. Slowly ... slowly ...

When he opens his eyes, everything is black.

Taking a deep, shaky breath, Baekhyun closes his eyes (not that it makes a difference) and tries to remember just what he had done to make this work. Then, slowly, he tries to reverse the process.

At first it doesn't work, but Baekhyun has expected that already, having trained for so long for the past few weeks. Slowly, he tries to reflect on what he had done and then he tries again. Once again, nothing works.

For the rest of the day, Baekhyun tries to restore his eyesight, and it is not until the very end of the day that he is able to do so. Quickly taking out his food to wolf it down, because he still needs energy for tomorrow and the day after and every day after that, Baekhyun eats it all and then curls up into a ball on the floor to sleep, feeling a bit more satisfied with himself.

He's able to confidently give and take away the light in someone's eyes by the end of the week, but his body ends up feeling very weak. Deciding to finally give himself a break in the form of grabbing an actual meal from the kitchen that he had come across several times before, Baekhyun heads over there, not realizing that this is a mealtime and that there will of course be a lot of people.

He sees many people walking in and out along the hallways, and then he remembers that there are many more people on this submarine than the ones he's met. Everyone here is a Monster, their hair and eye colours ranging in every way, making them look just as intriguing to Baekhyun as he had first imagined it.

Ever since he had matured, Baekhyun still hadn't the time to look at himself in the mirror, so he's still unsure of what he looks like, sometimes even believing that he still has black hair and dark brown eyes.

Watching many people walk towards a certain place, Baekhyun decides to follow, curious. The door they walk through opens up to a huge cafeteria-like setting that reminds him of the EX'ACT cafeteria, except this cafeteria is not white, but wooden and almost cosy-like. Everyone sitting there is eating, chatting to each other happily and looking so calm and relaxed, as opposed to the busy atmosphere in EX'ACT that Baekhyun was used to. Back in EX'ACT, the cafeteria was often quiet, because somehow it had become etiquette in there to eat as quietly and as quickly as possible.

Finding that people who don't have food are walking through another door, Baekhyun follows, and in there, there are two Monsters serving food. Grabbing a tray like the others, Baekhyun follows in line towards the food and finally gets towards the front. The only problem is that there aren't any vegetables or carbohydrates, something that Lucky Ones eat to energize themselves, but should it be okay if he takes a little bit more food? He can come back for seconds, right?

It's not easy being a halfie amongst complete full-bloods. For Baekhyun, he must have a balanced diet of both Lucky One and Monster foods to be sufficiently energised.

Too tired to think of this further, Baekhyun leaves this room back to the large spacious room in which everyone eats. Setting himself down on an empty table like what he always used to do back in the Lab, Baekhyun sits down, staring at the food sitting in front of him.

The people who were behind him on the line sit beside him automatically, still engaged in conversation, as if unfazed that they are sitting so close to a stranger. Before he can begin to eat, however, something inside him rushes up to his throat and out of his nose, spilling all over his food before he can reach a hand up to stop himself.

He lifts his hand to clutch his face anyway, his face that's now wet with his blood. The Monsters beside him gasp and everyone turns to look, gasping along when they see the blood all over the table and all over Baekhyun's food.

Baekhyun pushes the chair back so he can stand up, but the world gets dizzy and he almost falls. Luckily, a Monster beside him grips him by the shoulder.

"Healing or know anyone that Heals?" The Monster asks, and Baekhyun's so weak that he has no choice but to lean against her.

Immediately the Monsters leave one by one to look for Yixing, as if they had trained themselves to act so promptly and calmly in an emergency. The Monster winds her arm around Baekhyun's shoulder, pulling him in strongly.

"Did you train yourself too hard?" She asks kindly, but Baekhyun has no more energy to answer her as his eyes roll to the back of his head and he falls unconscious.

When he wakes up, Baekhyun finds a note next to his bed.

You overworked yourself and gave yourself internal injuries. Do not train and rest for a few days.

No. Baekhyun thinks to himself stubbornly as he pushes himself off the bed and then moves to stand. He must master every power he's learnt so far, to make sure he doesn't forget how to use them. There's no way he's resting now – it will just push all his achievements back to zero.

With that thought in mind, Baekhyun once again sets off to train, making sure to revise everything that he's learnt so far before he moves on to his ultimate learning goal. Everything goes on smoothly, probably because Yixing had fixed whatever problem he had inside of him. He knows he might be depending too much on the doctor, to the point that he can almost accuse himself of using the doctor, but Baekhyun must get things done even though he's taking advantage of someone else's power. This is an advantage to him and he's going to use it to the fullest because it's not hurting anyone.

This time, for some reason, progress takes much longer. He finds himself learning things at a much slower pace, and then he gets tired too easily, and having nosebleeds is becoming too often now, but he doesn't let this faze him.

Because he knows, once he masters this last thing, he will be able to carry out his revenge.

Baekhyun reappears again one day at their dinner table. Chanyeol tries his hardest not to react or speak, in case the smaller runs away again.

"I think I might join you more often now." The boy says cheerfully, and if Chanyeol isn't blind he would be able to see the frowns on his friends' faces when the boy sat down. Even so, Chanyeol's heart skips happily, hoping that this means Baekhyun is more okay now.

"Are you finished ... with your training?" Kyungsoo asks carefully.

"One's never really finished doing anything, but I've finished what I wanted to do, at least for now."

"Ah, so have you learned how to control your power very well, for example how to take and give eyesight?"

"Mm."

Everyone turns silent, and Chanyeol lifts his head up.

"You could do that, but you haven't given Leader his eyesight back?" Jongin shouts, sounding very annoyed.

"Jongin." Chanyeol growls warningly.

"Please give Leader his eyesight back." Kris says softly.

"Can you give it back?"

"Of course." Baekhyun's voice is casual. "I mastered it quite recently."

"Then – " Several voices start, but Baekhyun cuts them all off.

"But why should I?" Baekhyun scans around the room, watching every single person on the table that had lifted themselves off their seats slightly, watching him in anticipation. "Give me a reason why I should restore his eyesight."

"You little fucker –" Jongin growls, wanting to lunge at him, but Luhan restrains him with an invisible force.

"He was your professor, Baekhyun." Yixing speaks up for the very first time.

"Is that it?"

"He saved you from them." Minseok says calmly, even though Baekhyun can tell his eyes are flashing dangerously, like a warning.

"It's all his fault, you know." Even though everyone has stopped eating and is now staring at him, Baekhyun continues to eat his food, as if that's more important than what he's saying right now. "He didn't save me, he ruined everything."

Heart thumping so loudly in his chest, Chanyeol feels a dull stab but he doesn't know where it comes from.

"I didn't want to be saved. I was fine over there, where everything was perfect – I had a family, I had a friend, and I was achieving my dream. I didn't need someone to come in and take it all away. I could've lived there my entire life, as a Lucky One, while possessing all those things that I used to have. He took it away from me."

He took it away from me.

Dejected, Chanyeol sinks back down into his chair, head lowered because it's true. He had never for a second considered that Baekhyun might have wanted to stay and continue living his life there, because he had based all assumptions of Baekhyun's feelings on his own feelings.

"You would've Matured and you would've been exposed." Someone hisses angrily, and Chanyeol's too guilty to even figure out who it is.

"Then I would've gotten Yixing-hyung's pills and lived with it for the rest of my life." Golden eyes turning to meet Yixing's blue ones, he grins confidently. "Right, hyung?"

Hearing Baekhyun treat Yixing differently from everyone else triggers something in Chanyeol until he breaks the arm of his seat from his massive strength.

"You ungrateful little –"

"Look, all of you know deep inside that you don't welcome me here, because I'm just a filthy half-blood. And if I'm honest with myself, I don't really want you back. All I wanted was to live peacefully with my family and friends, and my biggest dream used to be finding peace between both of the races that I am. I guess I see now that it's impossible." Taking a the last few bites from his plate, Baekhyun finishes it and then leans backwards, watching everyone without wavering. "I guess that's the only thing I have to thank Chanyeol for."

Hearing that breaks Chanyeol's heart, but he doesn't even have time to process it because suddenly he hears a loud thud on the right side of the room, and then a duller thud.

"Hyung!" Kyungsoo whispers, horrified. Icy silence hangs in the air, and Chanyeol hears the slightest sound of shifting from the right side of the room.

"We don't tolerate disrespect in this submarine." Luhan's voice enters, sounding very soft but menacing. That's when Chanyeol realises that Luhan had used his power to throw Baekhyun into the wall. Before he can move, however, he realises that he can't anymore, because Luhan is holding him down.

"I can respect that." Baekhyun replies very softly. "But I don't tolerate bullying."

Then nothing happens, at least to Chanyeol.

Everyone starts whispering and cursing around him, and the invisible force leaves his body.

"Baekhyun." Chanyeol calls out, wanting to get the little one by his side first before he decides to burn anything, in case Baekhyun's hurt. "Baekhyun!"

"He's gone." Yixing says, taking a hold of his arm amidst the chaos of furious cursing and shuffling of his friends. "And he took the light with him."