"Doyoung," his voice came out low but firm, "get Jaehyun. Send him to my office!" He paused briefly, his tone sharpening
"WITH HIS LAPTOP!" He added, halfway up the stairs.
"Yes, hyung!" Doyoung called back, startled.
"Is everything okay, hyung?" Doyoung turned around, hand over his chest.
"Wahhh- Jungwoo!" he yelped when the other suddenly appeared beside him.
Jungwoo grinned, slidding into a seat at the kitchen table.
"Relax, man. You look like you've seen a ghost"
"Ha-ha. Very funny!" Doyoung replied dryly..
"Sorry!" Jungwoo chuckled, holding up his hands.
"Hey, Doyoung, what happend again?" a voice asked from the kitchen doorway.
"Jeno nearly got expelled...." Doyoung muttered
"What?!" Mark asked, eyes wide.
Doyoung nodded. "Almost. The principal decided to let him off with a warning... again"
"Again?" Mark repeated.
"Yeah. Remember Monday? That was Chenle's fight."
"Right...but what did Jeno do?"
"I don't know, Kun and Ten wouldn't say. Just that it was about Sungchan's sister again. Sungchan looked... different this time. Angry, but also scared."
"Something serious must've happened..." Jungwoo said, looking at Mark.
"Yeah... and hyung still hasn't told Sungchan about Wonchan's escape."
"What?" Jungwoo asked. "He still hasn't?"
Doyoung shook his head. "No" He grabbed two bottles of water from the counter.
"Kun," he called as the older entered the room, "they're asking what happened.... maybe you can fill them in..."
Then, he left upstairs.
He knocked on the room door.
"Yeah?" came the muffled reply.
Doyoung pushed the door open. "Hyung wants to see you, Jaehyun. In his office. With your laptop. Right now."
Jaehyun looked up, frowning. "Again? Why?"
Doyoung only shrugged, stepping in to set the water bottles on the desk.
"Give one of them to hyung when you go. It's really urgend."
As Doyoung left, Jaehyun grabbed his laptop and the bottles, his chest tightening slightly.
Something in Doyoung's tone unsettled him- it was rare for Taeyong to call him with that voice.
He walked down the hallway, the house ununsally quiet.
Taeyong sat in his chair behind his desk- deep in thoughts, tired eyes, clenched jaw, a weight pressing behind his rips that he couldn't quiet name.
His thoughts were still with the girl.
That girl with the quietees and the way her handds trembled when she tried not to cry.
The one Sungchan would've burned the world for- and Jaehyun would have too, if he knew.
Taeyong's fingers curled loosely around the cup in his hands- gaze fixed on the door infront of him.
He could still see her expression in his mind: that strange mix of fraility and defiance.
It reminded him of something he'd seen once- a storm trapped inside glass.
Beautiful. Dangerous. And somehow, he couldn't shake the feeling that the storm wasn't just around her.
It was in her.
"What is that around you..." he asked himself, leaning back n his seat.
