//Note: There is a lot of swearing in this chapter. 

"Daehyun-hyung." At the sound of the maknae's voice calling for me, I cracked dry eyes open and hummed to let him know I was listening. "Do you know where Jongup-hyung is?"
"Huh? What do you mean?"
"Well I just realized Jongup-hyung isn't here, and then I checked and some of his things are gone too, like his shoes."
"What?" My eyes widened to full wakedness, and I rubbed them while sitting up. "He hasn't returned yet?"
"Returned from what? You know where he went? Yongguk-hyung has no idea."
"Well," I stalled, trying to keep the immense guilt from my voice, "no, I don't know where I went, I just know he went out."
"Oh," was Zelo's reply, along with a tilt of his head. "Well, it's about time you get up anyway," he said before leaving me alone in the bedroom. Cursing under my breath, I hurried out of bed and threw some clothes on before joining the others in the kitchen. 

"Oh, great, alright, so we're all here," Yongguk said before I had time to do more than enter the scene. His voice was uncharacteristically high and tense, like a layer of ice spread thin over a raging current. "Someone tell me why the hell Jongup isn't here. One of you must know something." I exchanged a cringing glance with Youngjae, wanting to explain the situation but finding myself unable to form words.
"He uh," I pressed forth, "he went out in the middle of the night."
"And why the hell did he do that?" The leader rounded on me. "Without his jacket," he added when I did not respond with anything more than a heartfelt wince.
"Ehm," Youngjae said, bringing all the attention from me to him. "We kind of, uh... Daehyun and I, we thought you were all sleeping and we kind of, you know? But Jongup wasn't sleeping," he ended his broken explanation, grimacing. 

"Oh for 's sake." Himchan' voice trembled like a volcano about to erupt. "You guys had in our bedroom? With all of us in there?! Are you ING INSANE?" I glanced to Yongguk, hoping he would calm Himchan down, but was met with an expression no less furious.
"You god damn ing idiots," the leader cursed, seething. "You little mothering bits of . If I could ban you from promotions for a year and ground you for five I ing would. Idiots!" Not wanting to look at the frankly terrifying Yongguk, I followed Himchan with my eyes as he pressed his phone to his ear, clearly dialing. For a moment I thought he was calling the police, then I felt silly when I realized that as big as our offense was, we had not broken any laws. The call did not seem to connect as Himchan brought it down, tapped once and brought it back up. He was trying to reach Jongup, it hit me. 

"Alright, so we made a mistake," Youngjae snapped. My eyes shifted to his face, which I suppose was a red shade similar to my own. "We shouldn't have done it. I'm sorry. But you really don't have to cuss us out that bad."
"You goddamn morons," Himchan hissed, running a hand through his hair, phone still pressed to his ear. I did not know I could feel any worse than I already did until Zelo started crying.
"Oh ," Yongguk muttered under his breath, hasting over to the maknae. "I'm sorry Zelo, it'll be alright, okay? Jongup will be alright." Zelo wiped away one tear and then another, clearly trying to stop them from falling. I could not blame him. The roof may just as well have fallen in on him, and what with all of us cussing and fighting and his closest hyung gone... 

"Jongup!" Himchan suddenly exclaimed, and we all fell silent as the call connected. "Jongup, where are you?" he asked, trying to sound calm. A few seconds passed, presumably Jongup was talking. "Jongup, tell me where you are, okay? I'll come see you." Pause. "Please Jongup, you can talk to me- no, of course I won't tell him." Did he say that staring at me? A long silence later, Himchan was saying stay there and see you soon, alright? before hanging up. If looks could kill...
"Well get going," Yongguk said, "what are you waiting for?"
"I'm not waiting," Himchan replied through gritted teeth, "I'm just trying very hard not to start beating a certain pair of someones into bloody pulps." And with that he left. 

"I don't get it," Youngjae piped up, and I wished he would just not. "Why is this such a huge deal? I've never seen any of y'all so upset. It's not like anyone died."
"Well that remains to be seen, doesn't it," Yongguk snarled. "You two just hurt your dongsaeng so bad it's all I can do to not grab a frying pan and start teaching you how to turn blue and swollen. You should be ashamed as hyungs. If I'd known you'd do something this ing idiotic- Just get out of my sight. Both of you." 

I obeyed, heading for the bedroom. Slamming the door shut in Youngjae's face. I needed time to think. Alone. I had the feeling I had already received all the information I could possibly need to figure out the why:s behind this whole mess. I just needed some time to sort it out.