Demesne ¦¦ Hunhan, Taoris, Kaisoo, Baekyeol

5

//AN casually listening to Baby Don't Cry while writing this. Please don't hate me, readers!!! Thank you for reading!//

The news about the temple spread faster than the fire the explosion had caused. The students were sent home immediately. Xiumin ran his hands through his hair repeatedly, sputtering nonsense trying to calm himself down as the professors made their way to the scene. Yixing put an arm around him and shushed him.

"Hey, hey! It's ok, Nobody was at the temple so no one was hurt. Ok? It was probably just..." He looked to Suho for guidance but received none from the distressed looking teacher. "It was probably just a candle that fell over and caught a curtain on fire and knocked some stuff over and..." He drifted off when Xiumin looked at him, clearly having a hard time believing his words although Yixing could tell he desperately wanted to. "It's going to be ok." He felt like a liar.

People were crowded around the center of town. The professors pushed their way through to the front of the crowd. Military prevented anyone from getting close, but you didn't have to get close to see the destruction. Xiumin whimpered as he took in the scene. Fires crept towards the sky from the roof of what was one the most beautiful building. The left side of the building was in ruin, it was probably where the explosion happened, Xiumin reasoned. He saw Chanyeol crossing the field, clearly shaken. He stopped in front of several of the military officers and began to discuss. At one point, one of the officers said something to him and his eyes widened and he stumbled backwards. As he did so, he looked towards the ground. When he looked up, he looked at the people. He made eye contact with Xiumin. Xiumin gasped when he saw the pain in his eyes. He mouthed something to him, but Xiumin couldn't read it very well. About that time, from the left side of the building, a figure was lead out by two soldiers. The white robes hanging several inches off the ground immediately informed the professor who it was, and his heart sank.

"Kris..." Suho and Yixing looked at him when he spoke and followed his line of vision. Yixing gasped and began to whimper with his hands to his face while Suho stood, blank faced. Xiumin continued to watch the figure when his head came up. Kris had tears and soot on his face, but he appeared unharmed. Xiumin's heart jumped into his throat. He knew Kris. Kris. Doesn't. Cry. He couldn't stop himself.

"Kris!" He shouted and tried to get past the soldiers blocking his way. Their arms grabbed him. "Kris!"

Kris looked up and found him. "Xiumin..." A small smile ghosted his face before turning into a grimace. He broke away from the soldiers leading him and slowly walked to Xiumin. He limped badly and began to cry harder. Xiumin eventually made it past the guards and ran to him. The officers around Chanyeol began to move to stop him but the the new general put his hand up and shook his head to them, smiling sadly.

"Kris!" The little teacher threw his arms around the priest. "Kris, what happened?"

"Tao... Tao, he...." He began to weep.

"What? Kris, look at me. What happened? Where's Tao?" Xiumin caught the towering figure as he fell. He got to his knees and held him while he wept. "Kris... What. Happened." He enunciated each word gently, with all the gentleness he could muster.

"Xiumin. Tao was ... he was inside. Someone did this on purpose. Xiumin, Tao was inside when the bomb went off."

Xiumin felt the color drain from his face. He didn't even notice that Chanyeol had joined them. "Bomb? How do you know this was on purpose?" Chanyeol's voice shocked them both. Kris froze for a moment before drawing and burnt piece of paper from his pocket. "This was in his pocket."

"The note!" Xiumin exclaimed.

"What?" Chanyeol took the paper and read it.

"At the ceremony today. One of my students came to me afterwards and said that he had seen several figures dressed in black behind the stage. Once he pointed them out, I saw one behind the priests on stage and he..." Xiumin stopped. He began mentally hitting himself for not acting sooner.

"Xiumin, What happened?" Chanyeol put two hands on his shoulders.

"I was going to tell someone but it happened so fast and I didn't know what to do! I was scared too and it was all just so absurd."

"Xiumin..."

"One of the men went on stage. He didn't move like a normal person though. It was... different. And he slipped something into Tao's bag. And I saw him put a note in his pocket. I'm so sorry, Kris! I was going to do something! I'm so sorry. This is all my fault."

"Tao is dead because of you. If you had done something sooner, He would still be here and not in there!" Kris shouted as he pointed to the burning temple. As if on cue, one of the walls collapsed and released a new cloud of smoke into the air. Xiumin fell backwards off his knees and stared at him with fear. Chanyeol spoke up. "This is no one's fault. Kris. We will do all we can to find who did this. Please. I know you are upset..."

"Why was it Tao? Tao never did anything bad. Tao was the greatest person I knew. He was the best thing to happen in my life." Kris yelled louder. Xiumin knew people were no doubt staring at them now. He turned around and saw Suho and Yixing together. Yixing was crying into Suho's shoulder while the shorter tried his best not to cry. It's ok Suho. Today, our nation cries. Xiumin turned back around and hugged Kris. "Kris. I am so sorry."

"Your pity won't bring him back." Despite the venom in his words, he hugged back.

"You need to go to the hospital for your injuries." Chanyeol waved over some soldiers who helped Kris to his feet. He nodded silently and looked at Xiumin with eyes full of unreleased terror and pain. As he walked away, Chanyeol help Xiumin to his feet. "You need to come with me."

"Of course. Anything to make up for this."

"Xiumin, This isn't your fault. Even if you had told someone, we wouldn't have had time to stop it. The Priests left before anyone and without telling anyone." As he talked, he lead Xiumin to where the other officers were. Xiumin saw the General of the Army there. Well, the old General of the Army now that Chanyeol was the new one.

"General Choi. This is Professor Kim." Chanyeol explained what Xiumin had told him about the men at the ceremony. General Choi took in every aspect before turning to Xiumin.

"Professor, Would you mind tell us which student it was who first saw the figures?"

Xiumin panicked. "Please, this isn't his fault either. He's my best student and e is a wonderful person, he was just concerned..."

"Professor." General Choi cut him off. "His name?"

Xiumin sighed. "General Choi, it was Zelo. It was your son."