WARNING!! Another f-bomb ahead guys. >.< Sorry!

               The temperature was dropping rapidly and I couldn’t help but worry about what state Joonmyun ge was is. Did he have a coat? He obviously didn’t have shoes…how badly was he injured? And above all, who was stalking him?

                “Tao! Keep up or we’ll leave you behind!” Chanyeol yells over his shoulder. I pull my coat tighter around myself and hurry to catch up. The snow picked up a few minutes ago and it was making it harder and harder to see the tracks. The bloodied foot prints stopped fairly quickly, much to our relief and disappointment. Relief that Suho wasn’t hurt bad enough to keep bleeding or he had just stepped in the blood on the floor and disappointment that it made it more difficult to track him. I jogged up to see Baekhyun stand and point to the left with a frown on his face.

                “He went that way…” We took off again, following close behind the tiny diva. As we ran Sehun turned to Baekhyun with a curious glance.

                “Hyung…” he said panting. “What’s wrong?”

                “This path…it leads right to a cliff.” the vocalist replied, nodding towards to incoming branches.

                “He should have gone right. That’s the safe route.” After dodging a couple bushes Baek threw out an arm to stop us. He walked forward quickly, pushing a large tree limb out of his face. I trotted up behind them and stood tensely. Baekhyun dropped to the ground before a log and peered out over the steep incline below.

                “Light…?” he asked, gesturing to Chanyeol who pulled out a tiny pen light and shone it down the hill. Sehun let out a strangled cry as he spied all the disturbed snow.

                “Su-Suho…gege…” I whispered. I really hope it wasn’t him who fell over this. Baekhyun growled and searched around the area for a moment.

                “Joonmyun fell, but whoever is chasing him is right behind him.” Baekhyun frowned and looked at the boot tracks following them with his head.

                “Ge?” I asked hesitantly, worried about what the tiny spit-fire was doing. He looked up at me.

                “Yes?”

                “Why are you frowning again?” He shrugged and motioned off towards the trees.

                “These prints head towards the safe way down. Which means that this person either is hoping to get lucky or,” He looks up at us. “He knows the area pretty well already.” Baekhyun stands, brushing off his knees.

                “Fortunately for us, I also know the area. Come on.” He dashed off in the opposite direction of the trail until he reached a tiny path that was slightly less steep. Chenyeol eyed it with apprehension as Baekhyun expertly clambered down, followed by a slightly more cautious Sehun.

                “Oh boy…” he muttered and he carefully placed each of his long limbs on the path. I started to climb down after the giant as a thought hit me.

                “Shouldn’t we let the others know what’s going on?” I shouted as the wind picked up. Baekhyun shrugs.

                “Sure.” He hopped to the ground and looked back at us, a twinkle of inspiration in his eye.

                “Yah! Tell them to follow the other guy’s trail! We’ll keep going after Suho!” he yelled, running over to pick up the tracks again. I tripped a bit as I reached the ground and quickly shot off a text to Kris gege relaying Baekhyun’s orders.

                “Hey Chanyeol…” I muttered as we recovered from the terrifying walk. “Do you think it’s safe to send them after this guy?” Channie grinned and ruffled my hair.

                “Hey, they’ll be fine! They’ve got a troll, a dragon, and a unicorn with them.” He winked at me as he caught my worried expression.

                “Besides, if anything goes wrong Kyungsoo can just beat someone with a frying pan.” I would have smirked if the situation was different. But as it was I just snorted and ran over to the other two who were practically crawling along the ground to follow the trail. For a second I thought it was kind of cool, but then they stopped and stared at a tree and I remembered how weird Baekhyun ge is.

                “Yah!” Chanyeol shouted. “Why are you staring at a tree?” Baekhyun glared at him.

                “You know, for someone who is so observant, you really do miss a lot of things.” He pointed to the base of the tree where a small pile of snow was built up. I looked at it closely and instantly felt that queasy feeling in my stomach. The snow was discolored by more blood.

                in my nausea I walked with them as we followed his steps to another patch of disturbed earth where it looked like someone had fallen over and puked their guts out. I cringed. Only it was now almost frozen puke. Beside the vomit was a red handprint, broken by another footprint. We exchanged glances and silently charged after the trail.

                Suho gege…please be safe.

______________________

                Everyone said that Suho was like my mother. That was true in some respects. He watched out for me, nagged me, comforted me…but in reality, he did that for every member of Exo. Not just me. And I would like to think that I was not just another burden to him. After all, I had to stick up for him a lot to the others when they weren’t treating him right.

                It wasn’t that they had bad intentions; it’s just that Joonmyun was never the type to say no to anyone. And when he did say no it was only because there was going to be harm caused to someone else, he never cared if it harmed him. I remember several times where he took someone else’s chore just because they wanted to do something else. Kris, Xiumin, Luhan and Kyungsoo would always snap at the perpetrator but Suho would just smile and wave it off, saying that one night off wasn’t going to kill them.

It always made me sad to see that happen. Not just because of people being unfair, but because they never noticed how when he was smiling and telling them to go sleep or enjoy themselves he was sitting there with his eyelids drooping. He would only drop his strong mask when he thought nobody was watching. I remember walking into his room without knocking once and I caught him crying. I wanted to go comfort him, but when he noticed me he denied it and said that I shouldn’t worry about him.

“I’m strong, Taotao.” he said. “I’m strong.”

With that I let him be. But I never stopped worrying about him, and when he disappeared…it was almost unbearable for me. I couldn’t stop crying and I even convinced myself he had run out on us just because I was so worried about him. That day when we finally saw him again was one of the hardest days of my life.

______________________

Kris dropped the phone and stared at the wall with a face as white as ice. Luhan sat up in his chair and looked at him in concern.

“Kris…?” Suddenly he collapsed and Kai jumped out of his chair just in time to catch him.

“Gege!” I shouted in shock and ran over to my leader. I patted his cheek and he stared at me dizzily for a moment before he smiled and sobbed.

“They found him…” he grabbed me and shoved me into his chest as my heart swelled with joy.

 “They found him.”

______________________

“Look!” Sehun’s cry breaks me out of my memories. I bend down and peer at the ground. The snow is tousled as if someone had fallen into it and scuffled around. Backtracking with my gaze I found a root sticking out of the ground. When I got a closer look I noticed that it was ripped as if someone’s foot had caught under it. A gasp from Chanyeol drew my attention.

He brushed the dusting of red snow off a sharp rock and looked at us worriedly. Farther down the path we started to see droplets of blood mixing with the footprints that on several occasions were marred by some strange pattern. It took us all of twenty minutes to finally find a disturbed patch that was clear enough for us to decipher what was going on.

“He cut his shin…” Chanyeol muttered.

“Pretty badly form the looks of it. He must have been falling over almost constantly.” Baekhyun added, gesturing to the large spaces of crushed snow. I turned away from the bloodied mark with a twinge of pain and sickness. I’m seriously worried about him right now. Nearby I see a broken branch, but don’t think anything of it until Sehun points out the distinct marks of a walking stick beside the footprints.

“It looks like he isn’t even going in a logical direction…” Baekhyun said. “He’s going the opposite way of any trails we’ve been on.”

As we hurried behind the path the snow blew harder until the wind was practically whistling through my ears. It was almost impossible to follow the trail now and we are getting desperate. At one point we almost lost it but we managed to stumble across a patch slick with blood.

“The blood trail stops here.” Sehun shouted over the storm.

“Maybe he bandaged his wound.” Chanyeol replied loudly. Fortunately though, by the time we picked up the trail again the snow had all but stopped falling. The clouds were still there blocking out any kind of starlight leaving us in near darkness that only Chanyeol’s pen light broke. Linking my arms around Sehun’s I stuck close, afraid that I would get lost.

______________________

We burst into the hospital finally after dodging so many confused and worried fans that were told that Suho had been visiting relatives. Now that news had leaked that he was in urgent care everyone from anti-fans, to hard core supporters, to the crazy paparazzi was trying to find out why. So far we had been able to keep the truth from them, but then again…when you know next to nothing about a situation there’s not a lot to tell.

When we reached his room we were forced to stop sprinting. After a couple minutes they allowed up to go in but not together. They made us go in pairs. I ended up paired with Jongdae while Kris was the odd one out. It took almost a half an hour for our turn and when we finally did get it I was really nervous.

Everyone had come out of the room either in tears, holding back tears, or looking so depressed that they couldn’t cry. It scared me. But Chen just patted my shoulder grimly and pulled me through the door. What we saw broke my heart again. Suho was unconscious, his chest was barely moving and unless you were really watching the only sign of life was the slow beep of the heart monitor.

Jongdae gave a little gasp and covered his mouth with his hands. Warily we walked over and peered down at K’s leader. I felt sick to my stomach. His face was covered with gashes and abrasions, some of which were healing, others looked fairly fresh. His left hand was in a cast and wrapped tightly. The bandages around his arms and neck were slightly red as if blood was still seeping out of his wounds.

I choked and sat down next to him, taking his “good” hand in my hand and his hair gently. He was so thin and broken. I was like someone had all the life out of him and left him a shell littered with scars. I touched his cheek and he moaned quietly.

“Hyung…” Chen said, his voice shaking. “How are you?” He sat down on the bed next to him and started rubbing the skin above the cast.

“We really missed you.” he continued. I let him blab for a few minutes until the nurse was knocking on the door. The whole time I couldn’t say anything to him. It was just too hard, and I was too scared. Suho had been missing for so long and now that he was back….I had just never expected it to be like this. As Jongdae scuttled out of the room I leaned over and pecked Joonmyun gently on his forehead.

“I love you ge…don’t leave us again. Please?”

______________________

The wind was blowing a bit stronger and the air felt thick; as if there was something bad coming. I shoved the morbid thoughts away. That is the last thing we need right now. For the past couple minutes things had been tense since Baekhyun announced that Suho’s trail had wandered into an area that left him completely lost. We were all nervous about what was going to happen if we did get lost. How would we ever get Suho home if we can’t get back?

“Huzzah!” Baekhyun cheered, running forward.

“What? Baekhyunnie, what is it?” Chanyeol cried chasing after the surprisingly fast man.

“I know where we are!” he called over his shoulder. We all shouted in joy and joined him in his headlong sprint that ended with Baekhyun tripping over the air and landing face first in the snow. His lifted his head spitting and growling. The rest of us burst into the clearing ready to laugh at him but stopped when we spotted him face to face with a small red squirrel.

“You again?” the diva snapped grumpily. “Why don’t you go off and find someone else to play with?” The squirrel trilled and ran in circles around him waving his tail energetically. Chanyeol yelped in excitement and jumped in the air.

“Baekhyun is Snow White!” he squawked, sending the squirrel screaming up a tree. He perched on a branch and glared at us. I stuck my tongue out at him and he chirped indignantly.

“Yah Chaneyol…you may need to rethink that. I think someone else is our Snow White here.” Sehun quipped, pointing at the snow. A familiar patch of flattened ground greeted us. Only this time it looked like he hadn’t been able to walk, or even crawl more than a foot from where he fell. I touched the spot where he had kneeled, noting the imprint of where he head had lay.

A sharp cry from my right made me jump and turn to see the squirrel waving his tail around. I looked at him strangely, trying to shut out everyone else’s chattering.

“What’s up, buddy?” I asked, feeling completely weird talking to the overly friendly animal. He squeaked again and jumped a pace towards me before scampering off. I giggled as he ran away and then circled around me to dash off into the bushes. I shook my head with a smile and glanced back at the ground.

My heart stopped.

“Guys!” I shouted. “Look!” They crowded around me; their faces growing pale at the sight of a thick, booted footprint in the snow next to where Suho had lay. With growing panic I followed the trail that continued along the same path Joonmyun had originally been taking. Breaking into a dead sprint we took of down the path, dodging sticks and bushes.

When we finally crashed free of the undergrowth Baekhyun gasped and ran over to a tree. He looked at the prints and traced a faint mark in the bark before dashing off, stopping every now and then to cross check the prints with the marks on the tree.

“Stupid…stupid…stupid…why didn’t you notice, you idiot!” he growled to himself. Chanyeol and Sehun stared at him.

“What’s wrong? I asked.” I’m starting to feel like Baekhyun never tells us anything the first time. He didn’t turn to look at us, he just kept running.

“The cave!” he snarled. “The cave!”

“Whaaaatt…?” Chanyeol said, completely flabbergasted.

“Does anyone have any idea what he’s talking about?” Sehun asked.

“I’m such an idiot!” Baekhyun shouted, suddenly breaking completely free of the trail. I panicked; unsure of weather I should follow my deranged senior or the footprints.

“Baekhyun gege!” I called desperately.

“Just trust me!” Sehun shook his head and motioned for Chanyeol and me to follow the prints while he took off after Baekhyun. We charged away searching through the woods, eventually though they veered right and we popped out of the bushes several paces behind the sprinting duo.

“I told you!” Baekhyun shouted as he zipped by. Sehun shrugged as we joined in and followed the crazy vocalist. He kept staring at trees and randomly yelping about being an idiot and how he should have realized something sooner. Suddenly he disappeared. There was a loud squawk…scream…thing as Baekhyun just sort of ran into the air and fell over the mini cliff. We ran up to see him rolling onto his back and flailing.

“I HATE EVERYTHING SO MUCH RIGHT NOW!” he screamed, struggling to his feet. As he stood as sharp squeaking made us look up. In a tree above us, sat the squirrel. He climbed a couple feet down the tree curiously until a cry made him scamper back up into the branches. I spun on my heel to see a blur of red, white, and pink burst from the entrance to a small cave and race off painfully, away from us. My eyes widened.

“Suho!” we scream. But the howl of the wind pulls our cry in directions unknown. We run forward again, hoping to catch him but someone jogs out of the cavern with careless ease. He glances at us and salutes. A smirk and a cackle are thrown our way before he trotts after Joonmyun’s fleeing form.

“Come to join the game?” he calls. “I won’t go easy just ‘cause you’re new.” He giggles and cracks his neck before breaking into an all-out sprint.

“It’s on boys!” Rage boils in my veins and I start to see red. Beside me I felt muscles stiffening in anger. We bolt forward.

So he wants to “play” does he?

 Well…we’ll show him what Exo does when you with our angel.

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Dun-dun-duuuunnnnn! And the drama thickens! Here's chapter twenty two from Tao's POV, I hope you guys liked it! ^_^ I appologize for the panda's language, I will make him wash out his mouth with soap along with Suho (since i never got around to making him do that from when he said it).

So...thoughts? I love to hear 'em so don't be shy about chatting with me. ^_^

Also, I'm going to warn you guys again because it will be starting next chapter (and will probably only be next chapter) but things are going to happen and I may have to rate the chapter as mature. So...yeah. You've been warned. M rated chapter coming up next. .0.

Thank you all ofr your support and love it means loads to me! ^_^

Cheers! See you all in the next chapter!

P.S. I had people mentioning how they were curious about how Suho looked with the scars soo...I made a picture. With my totally (not) awesome photoshop skills! *flexes* So yeah...scroll down if you want to see it. If not scroll quickly to the very bottom of the page and then scroll up until all you can see is the comment bar. ^_^ Arlighty...

Tootles all! Enjoy!

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