Time passed, with Kenny acting suspicious around his friends, as usual. Kyle was trying to ignore it, focusing on what Kenny had told him the previous day, but he couldn't. After several more minutes of watching Kenny act strangely, Kyle made up his mind. He had to talk to someone about it; namely Stan. Kyle approached Stan during recess, leaving Kenny alone with Cartman.

"Listen, you must've noticed Kenny's acting strange." Kyle said. "I wanted to talk to you about that."

"You want to talk about Kenny again?" Stan thought. "You know, being your friend and having to listen to you complain, rather than act on your feelings, is hard."

"Go ahead."
"Not here." Kyle replied. "I have to tell you something personal, and I don't want everyone to hear it."
"OK..."

"You could've just said that from the start." Stan thought.

Meanwhile, Kenny approached Cartman about the friend he had recently lost, to gather information about his classmate.

"So, what happened to your friend?"
"He was shot."
"Seriously?"
"Yeah."
"Was he mugged or something?"
"Nah, he... Well, he-"
"Hey, guys!" Kyle yelled as he approached his friends. "We're back."

"Just in time." Cartman thought. "You finally have some use, Kyle."

Once their classes were over, Kenny, Kyle, Stan and Cartman headed back home. Kenny and Cartman each headed to their own homes, while Kyle and Stan went to Kyle's house together. On the way there, Kenny asked Cartman to tell him the story behind his friend's passing.

"So how did your friend die?"
"He... Look, it's personal, alright?! I shouldn't have even told you anything about it in the first place."
"Jeez, Cartman, relax. I was just curious."
"Well, you know what they say: curiosity killed the cat. Be careful before it kills you."
"...Is that supposed to be a threat, Eric?"
"It's a warning, Kenneth. Be careful what you wish for. You might just get it."

The boys arrived at Cartman's house, where he quickly made his way inside. Kenny felt that he was on the verge of something big, but he couldn't put the pieces together.

"I'll find out what you're hiding, Cartman, whatever it takes." Kenny thought.

Meanwhile, as Kenny continued his way home, Kyle and Stan entered the former's room.

"So, what did you want to tell me?" Stan asked as Kyle sat down on his bed.
"Well... It's about Kenny."
"Yeah, you've told me that already..."
"I-I... I kinda... I kinda like him."
"Yes... Not hearing anything I don't already know."
"You knew?" Kyle asked wide-eyed.
"Kyle, everyone knows." Stan replied as he shrugged. "Well, almost everyone." he added. "I'm guessing Kenny doesn't know, since you two are not together yet."
"Do you think he likes me?" Kyle asked as he stared at the ground and blushed.
"I think so, but I'm not sure. If I were you, I'd tell him how you feel. It might all work out for the best."
"I can't do that... What if he doesn't like me? What if he thinks worse of me for liking him?"

Stan sat down next to Kyle and sighed deeply.

"If he did, would you really still like him? I know I wouldn't. As friends, I mean."
"No..."
"Besides, that doesn't sound like Kenny at all. He might not be the smartest guy around, but he's got a good heart."
"I guess..."
"Although, lately, he's been... I dunno. It's like he doesn't trust us."
"I talked to him about that... He said to trust him."
"Trust him? What the hell does that mean?"
"I don't know... I just hope he's alright."

Later that night, Kenny donned his Mysterion outfit and exited his bedroom through his window for his nightly patrol of the town. After several hours of nothing, he found Cartman walking about.

"I'd better follow him." Kenny thought.

Kenny followed Cartman straight to the building he had followed the tall man to. It was all starting to make sense.

"Cartman must've been the other guy I couldn't see. If that's true, then... it is as I feared. My own friends are turning against me... Some of them, anyway. I know Kyle would never work with Cartman, but maybe Stan is... I can't trust any of them. Anything I tell Kyle will end up known by Stan too... If only he knew I've been trying to keep him safe. If only he knew... how much I love him."

Kenny wiped away a tear forming in the corner of his left eye, pushed all thoughts of Kyle out of his mind, and instead focused on the problem at hand.

"How the fuck am I gonna get in there without being noticed?"

Kenny scouted the outside of the building and realized that his problem lain not in how he would get inside the building, since there were no guards that he could see, but rather how he would get around inside the building once he actually entered it.

"It's not like they have maps of buildings... Hm..." Kenny thought.

After a few seconds of pondering, Kenny decided to go ahead and enter the building anyway, even though he lacked a plan.

"Worst thing that could happen is that I get killed. No biggie."

Kenny sneaked through the front door. He could hear faint voices coming from somewhere in the building, so he decided to head toward them. He recognized Cartman's voice, but no others. They were getting louder, a clear indication that Kenny was getting closer to them.

"In here."

Kenny reached a large arc-shaped door with small octopi-like heads for knobs, held his breath and opened it slightly; just enough to see and hear, but not enough to be seen. The first thing he noticed was the long table in the middle of the room. From what Kenny could tell, it seemed to go on all the way to the other side of the room. There were people sitting all round the table, wearing long red robes with hoods on them, embroidered with incomprehensible words. Kenny briefly wondered how big the room was, until a distorted voice, coming from the opposite end of the room, made itself heard.

"My followers, I bring you great news." the voice said. "What we have been searching for for so long has finally been found."

The room roared in cheers at the voice's statement. After several seconds of cheering, the voice cleared its throat, causing the cheers to end, and rephrased its statement.

"Or rather, we've found where it will be. Soon, I will be reborn, and you will be infinitely rewarded."

Again, the room cheered. This time the voice let them cheer as long as they wanted. After almost a full minute of cheers, everyone got up at roughly the same time and yelled a phrase Kenny couldn't understand.

"Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn!" the people in the room yelled in unison.

Kenny realized they were about to leave, so he took refuge in the closest room he could find, a storage closet, while simultaneously peeking through the keyhole to see if the people in the other room were coming his way.

"This is way too cramped. I just hope they pass by without noticing me."

Kenny's unspoken prayers were answered, and everyone walked by him without raising any alarms. The last person to leave the room was someone Kenny immediately recognized: Cartman. He had bloodshot eyes and was gently massaging his own head, clearly in pain. Judging from the time it had taken him to exit the room, Kenny concluded that he was the mysterious voice he had heard.

"I knew it! I fucking knew it! Just what is Cartman up to? And how did he change his voice? Just what the hell is going on here?"

In the midst of wondering what was going on, Kenny knocked over a small cup of coffee that had been stashed in the closet he was hiding in.

"Huh?" Cartman said.

Cartman suddenly stopped on his way out of the building and turned to where Kenny was hiding. He reached for the knob, but was stopped by one of his followers.

"Sir! We need to leave."
"Right..."

"Think, Kenny, think! Where can I hide? I know!"

Cartman opened the storage closet's door anyway, but found nothing except a cup and some coffee spilled on the floor.

"I'm glad he didn't look up here!" Kenny thought.

Kenny had hid in the sub-ceiling, where Cartman couldn't reach him. He dropped back down onto the ground as soon as he couldn't hear any more footsteps.

"Thank you, 'Burn Notice'." Kenny thought.

Several minutes later, Kenny found himself alone in the large building. His first instinct was to exit through the front door, but he found it locked. Instead, Kenny decided to leave through a window that led to a small garden by the side of the building. It provided him with some cover, which he gladly took, before finally leaving the area.

On his way home, Kenny came across Kyle, who was also heading toward Kenny's home. Kenny ran as quickly as he could, to beat Kyle there and keep his secret safe, until he heard screams coming from an alley. He rushed toward the alley, completely ignoring Kyle, and defended the person being attacked. Kenny punched the attacker in the face, breaking his nose instantly, and he fled. The victim thanked Kenny with watery eyes, and then something Kenny didn't expect happened.

"So this is what you've been doing at night, Kenny?"

Kenny froze from hearing Kyle's voice. The woman he had just helped left them alone, as she could see they needed to talk. Once she was out of hearing range, Kenny replied to Kyle in his regular voice. There was no point in hiding his identity.

"Kyle, I-"
"Don't say anything. Do you know how worried I've been? I was going to... I mean, I wanted to..."
"...To what?"

"I can't tell him the truth. He'd find out that I like him." Kyle thought. "Besides, it would sound creepy. Gotta make up a convincing lie."

"I was going to your house to... talk to you. I wanted to know what you were doing. Now I do."
"And you came this late?"

"Smooth as ever." Kyle thought. "Now I have to make up an excuse. Something less stupid than that lie I told him just now."

"I... I wanted to find out if you really were sneaking out at night."
"OK... but that still doesn't explain-"
"Look, Kenny, the important thing is that I'm here. I caught you. Now, do you wanna talk about it, or should I go tell your mom what you've been doing?"
"Like she'd care..."
"You know what I mean."

"Not really." Kenny thought. "It's not like anyone cares about me. Not even my parents, my brother and sister... Nobody cares."

"OK, Kyle... Talk."
"Well..."

Kyle rambled on for several minutes, starting with the fact that he didn't want Kenny to be risking his life for others, moving on to the fact that Kenny was way too young to be fighting crime, finishing it off with a teary-eyed repetition of his first point. All this made Kenny feel even worse than he already did, but he held back his tears, for both his and Kyle' sake. Once Kyle got a hold of his emotions as well and stopped sobbing so loudly, Kenny finally made his opinion heard.

"Kyle, I need you to trust me. I know what I'm doing. I need to do this."
"Why you? Why not call the police, or let someone else-"
"The police isn't doing shit! You know it, I know it, everyone fucking knows it! Our fellow residents are too scared to even leave their own fucking homes!"

Kenny took a deep breath, to calm himself down, before finishing his opinion.

"Nobody is going to help them. Nobody can help them. Except me."
"You're not Superman, Kenny. What you're doing is messing you up in ways you probably haven't even thought of. You can't... You can't keep doing this. If you died, I..."

Kyle felt his eyes tearing up again, so he turned his back to Kenny, so as not to alert the blond boy to his true feelings. Kenny approached him, took a deep breath, taking in the sweet smell of Kyle's curly red hair, and smiled.

"You smell so good..."

"I won't die, Kyle. I promise."
"How can you promise that?"
"Just trust me, Kyle... Please."

"I need you." Kenny thought. "Without you... I have nothing."

Kyle wiped away his tears and turned to Kenny. He looked into the blond boy's bright blue eyes and smiled.

"You've always had the most beautiful eyes I've ever seen..." Kyle thought.

"OK. I trust you, Kenny."
"Thank you, Kyle."

The boys stood in front of each other for what seemed like forever, enjoying their proximity, until Kenny broke the silence with an offer.

"Look, Kyle, it's getting late... I'll walk you back home, alright?"
"Thanks, Kenny."

Kenny and Kyle walked all the way to the latter's house without saying a word. When they arrived, Kyle messed around with his keys, trying to find the right one to open the door, and ended up dropping the whole thing. Kenny reached for it at the same time as Kyle, and the boys ended up bumping their hands together.

"S-Sorry." Kenny said.
"I-It's OK. Don't worry about it."

Kenny had gotten too close to Kyle for comfort. Kyle stared at the ground beneath his feet, unsure of what to do in that situation. Suddenly, Kenny placed his hand on Kyle's face and gently stroked his cheek. In response, Kyle lifted his head and stared into Kenny's eyes.

"Kenny, I..."

Kyle's thoughts and words were soon drowned out by Kenny smashing his lips against Kyle's. Kyle closed his eyes and instinctively kissed back, which only lasted for a few seconds, as Kenny broke the kiss.

"Kenny..."

Instead of addressing Kyle any further, Kenny ran away, leaving Kyle alone to wonder.