The Staggering Fall of Youth (sequel to SBA)

18 - Zitao's House

"Are you sure it's around here?" Sehun said. "All I see are trees."

"No fucking shit, it's almost like we are at a forest."

"Hey, don't sass me, Chen!"

"I CAN DO WHAT I WANT-"

Junmyeon glanced at Minseok, who was ignoring the whole group. For being one of the youngest out of all of them in terms of their immortality, he sure was acting a lot older than the rest of them.

There was a lot more on Minseok's plate than Junmyeon realized. From what he could recall, any extreme emotion could provoke the demonic blood flowing through Minseok's veins. He must force himself to keep his cool at all times, which is... sometimes easier than done.

"-and don't start touching anything, Zitao hated it when people left dirty greasy fingerprints all over his stuff," Sehun continued.

"Yeah, he was particular about his clean dishes," Minseok muttered softly.

"You're acting as if I have herpes or something," Jongdae said. "Besides, that's if we find the house-"

"Don't start."

Yifan sped past them, already feeling suffocated with the people around him. "We're finding the place and that's final. I don't want to be hearing about what-ifs."

Minseok raised an eye but didn't say anything, having already told himself not to participate in any more arguments.

He had already tried countless times in the past two decades to find Zitao's house, but to no avail. How unfortunate that the place that had become his second home, after the death of his mother and the village got destroyed from hunters looking for the werewolf, was nowhere to be found during the time he needed it the most.

He remembered when Zitao was murdered, how he spent his time wandering the woods, searching before giving up. Junmyeon was barely an infant, and they wouldn't meet till years later, but Minseok had to make the move to the same city to keep an eye on him from a distance.

"I hate walking through these stupid woods," Jongdae started complaining again.

"I really don't understand how you've survived decades at this point," Yifan replied.

Yixing sighed. "I wonder if he takes advantage of me."

"No I DON'T!! I WOULD NEVER!"

Junmyeon stole a glance at Yifan, who hadn't really spoken much the entire walk. He asked Junmyeon how he was, was he okay, etc etc, but other than the occasional shut the fuck up to Luhan, Jongdae or Sehun... nothing.

We never become good at coping with loss.

Why was Yifan thinking about loss and death recently? Was he losing confidence? Were they having doubts?

Yifan... didn't really tell him much. And Junmyeon didn't know how to feel about it. Sure, he didn't know anything, or couldn't help it in any way, but...

Junmyeon felt helpless.

He was a Demi-Angel, son of Angel Gabrielle, and he was useless.

But he didn't want to be involved, he just wanted his loved ones safe. Was that too much to ask? Why did everything have to be so- so complicated?

"Are you okay?" Junmyeon looked at Minseok to his right, who was staring at him with those concerned eyes. "What's the sudden change in mood?"

"I'm fine," Junmyeon said rather quickly. "Just thinking."