The Staggering Fall of Youth (sequel to SBA)

20 - Listen UP!

Despite Luhan and Yixing's instructions on something requiring his blood for entry, Junmyeon and the others couldn't find it.

Once they realize about the altercation between Minseok and Zitao, they left quickly, the house feeling even more unsafe than it was a few hours before.

Junmyeon hesitated on taking anything from there, knowing the witch was still alive, but he grabbed the scrapbook that Sehun had told him about, which contained pictures of Minseok, Zitao, and his mother, which, at the moment, he was showing Baekhyun.

"I still can't believe he's never aged ever," Baekhyun said, flipping the pages with Junmyeon. They were outside on the porch, sitting down on the floor with the scrapbook in front of the two of them. "I'm surprised he even let Zitao take these pictures with him. He looks mad in a lot of them."

"Well... you know he..." Junmyeon trailed off, hoping Baekhyun got the hint.

Nope. Baekhyun was as dense as ever. "No, what did he do?"

Junmyeon sighed. He'll have to explain it some other time, considering they were the ONLY ones in the house who did not have super hearing. "He had a lot going on."

Baekhyun hummed to himself, not saying another word as he continued looking through the photos.

"Hey, wait, slow down-" Junmyeon put his hand on the page to prevent Baekhyun from going any further, as if he didn't spend the entire walk back to Baek's house looking at the scrapbook over and over again.

"Haha, my bad-"

The two continued looking at the photos in silence, Baekhyun glancing at Junmyeon every now and then.

He wished he were like that witch Kibum. Imagine being able to read thoughts. That would be so cool. He'd loved to know what Junmyeon and Xiumin were thinking half the time; those two were so quiet.

Chanyeol was an open book, surprisingly. But Baekhyun still wondered if Chanyeol ever hid stuff from him. I mean, considering he was a werewolf who had lived a long time, and knew about this world for ages.

Baekhyun glanced at Junmyeon again, watching the latter flip through the scrapbook slowly, and Baekhyun felt a sudden pang in his chest.

***

Minseok had grabbed a handful of books from the living room, and had them all sprawled out on the kitchen table.

They were standing around Baekhyun's kitchen; Baekhyun and Junmyeon himself were outside, and the younger ones had been banished to Baekhyun's room for the time being. Yifan didn't exactly want them to hear the conversation.

Minseok didn't want any of them touching anything, not even Sehun himself who had been Zitao's lover. He did not listen to any of their protests. Nor did he care.

He had one journal in his hands, flipping through the pages over and over. They were able to read quicker than normal humans (and Minseok had always been a fast reader anyways), but yet they had no idea why Minseok was struggling.

"Are you going to let us read it?" Sehun said, immediately getting shushed by both Yifan and Luhan.

"Do you ever shut the FUCK up?!" Luhan yelled at him.

Minseok ignored them, flipping through the pages again. They didn't miss the huge frown on his face.

At last, he threw the book on the table, landing in front of Yixing. "Was this tainted?"

Yixing frowned. "What?"

"What do you mean tainted, you're the only one who grabbed it," Jongdae said, confused.