By the Will of Love (A KaiSoo Fanfic)

Chapter Ten

Even though spending time with Chanyeol helped a little, Baekhyun still found himself worrying like crazy over Kyungsoo. The guilt was hitting him hard and in every which way, and the fact that Xiumin had yet to acknowledge him with anything other than a scowl wasn't exactly helpful either. 

But the more he thought about it, the more Baekhyun came to understand Xiumin's stance. He only had to make Kyungsoo stay or go with him. But no. He let him, he let his best friend walk home alone and now he was probably locked up somewhere and scared to death--or maybe even already dead. His best friend: the one person in the world he was supposed to watch over. But what did he do? He let the alcohol and the drugs and the partying overwhelm him and he let Kyungsoo down, the worse thing he could possibly do. 

He stared down at his food and then over at his unfinished homework and back again. The lunch table was completely silenced by worry, guilt, anger, and blame; no one spoke. Secretly, they were all blaming themselves for not paying closer attention to Kyungsoo, but there was no point in beating themselves now. At this point, they just wanted him back home and safe, not a person to point the blame at. 

Deeply disturbed by the silence, Luhan looked up from his lunch. His eyes scanned over his friends, who were either playing with their food or staring at the table blankly. "Okay, this needs to stop," he said suddenly, slamming his hands on the table to gain their attention. "What are we doing? Kyungsoo's missing and we're sitting here giving each other the silent treatment like children."

"What else do you want us to do, Luhan?" Tao said with a small shrug of his shoulders. "It's not like we can go and search for him. We don't even know where it happened."

"He's right." Baekhyun agreed. "We were inside the house. We wouldn't know where to start looking."

Xiumin sighed. "That's what happens when you abandon your friends," he said, mumbling at first but then speaking loud enough for the others to hear him. 

Baekhyun frowned. "I didn't abandon him, Xiumin," he said in his own defense.

"Yeah, sure," Xiumin retorted with a scoff, making eye contact with the younger. "That's about as believable as someone with a ski mask leaving the scene of a robbery and saying, 'I didn't do it'."

"Hey, hey," Luhan said as he held out his hands, bringing a stop to their words before things could get out of hand. "Xiumin, I know you are mad at Baekhyun and Baekhyun, you should feel like shit, but this is no one's fault besides that asshole who kidnapped him in the first place. Okay, maybe you guys should have paid closer attention to him and maybe Xiumin should have answered his phone when he called, but it's not like you arranged for this to happen, so let's stop blaming each other, alright? We all fucked up and now is not the time to pity ourselves. We should be out there looking for him or making posters or something that will bring him home faster. So, unless you want to keep acting like five-year-olds, I suggest you all shut the hell up and stop being so selfish." They were all taken aback by Luhan's statement, but they couldn't help but agree with him. 

"We can meet at my house after school," Tao suggested in a soft voice. "My parents will be out, so you guys can come over and we can make posters."

"Yeah," Lay said, nodding his head. "And I'll bring the crayons." The others looked in Lay's direction but didn't comment. Chanyeol came out onto the lunch deck to join his friends at their table, but Baekhyun stopped him for a minute.

"Have you gotten any news from the police?" he asked him. 

"No." Chanyeol shook his head. "Have you?"

"No," Baekhyun said. He sighed and pushed his hair back. 

"Hey, don't worry," Chanyeol said, nudging him lightly. "They'll find them, I know they will."