Yoosung yawned, cracking his knuckles and opening yet another bag of Honey Buddha Chips contentedly. He'd just finished yet another event with ease and was feeling pretty good and happy, even though he'd had his doubts about coming at all. The experience had been surreal so far.

While waiting for the next available event, he turned on his phone- now plugged into an outlet, thank goodness- and checked the messenger once more. It had only been about an hour and a half since him, MC, and Seven had posted in it- really? Felt much longer- so he wasn't surprised to see no new messages or chats anyway.

Bored, he opened a chat himself to leave some messages for the other members to return to.

Yoosung has joined the chatroom

Yoosung : I'm so happy~~~~~~!

Yoosung : This must be paradise!

Yoosung : I have a bag of Honey Buddha Chips by my side,

Yoosung : and I'm eating without thinking about how much I have left, lol

Yoosung : Perfect! Seven's super nice.

Outside the chatroom, Yoosung grimaced at his own words, unsure they really fit the context. But... credit was given where it was due.

Yoosung : I had no idea he'd give me Honey Buddha Chips AND let me use his computer.

Yoosung : I thought, since he's such a computer guy

Yoosung : he'd been really ocd about it lol

Yoosung : But he's letting me do whatever I want on it lolol

Now that he'd brought it up, he wondered about it too- it didn't really fit Seven to be so lax about his expensive stuff. Maybe Seven trusted him not to do anything bad- in which case, he was touched. Seven's trust was a difficult thing to earn.

Yoosung : I thought my desktop from Banana was pretty good.

Yoosung : But it's really nothing lol

Yoosung : But

Yoosung : What's Seven doing?

He stared at what he'd typed, not meaning to have sent it, but he had. He glanced over his should to the aforementioned redhead engrossed in his computer screen, as he had been ever since he'd told Yoosung to keep quiet, and grimaced before returning to the messenger.

Yoosung : I wish Seven would give me some attention too.

He blinked at his words under his thumbs, disbelieving that he'd actually typed that, but quickly realized they were true- he hadn't seen his friend in literally over a year, he would have liked a warmer welcome and an environment in which they could hang out more casually, but that wasn't in Seven's plans.

Yoosung : he's been staring at this photo of a building for a while now...

Yoosung : I hope he's not messing around

Yoosung : Instead of trying to catch that hacker.

A pop-up appeared on the screen and his eyes reacted instantly, reading the details before hurriedly typing into the messenger.

Yoosung : I got an alert for an event!

Yoosung : so I'll get going!

Yoosung has left the chatroom

He sat his phone to the side and excitedly started up the event, tapping his finger lightly on the mouse, so enraptured he didn't even hear movement behind him until Seven was leaning over his back, arms loose around his neck and chin on his shoulder. The blonde stiffened, surprised, but quickly relaxed. Not that anyone could ever completely relax around Seven, but he got as close as he could.

"You must be exhausted," Yoosung observed, watching the computer load the game slowly, waiting for more people to fill the lobby. "I bet your eyes hurt."

"'m fine," Seven disagreed, betrayed by the light slur of his tone and the yawn he thought he hid. "Just... needed a second."

"You need a nap," Yoosung informed him, feeling motherly- in a good way, in a way that made him feel like a good friend. "Like, ten."

"That too," Seven agreed, amused, and removed himself from Yoosung. There was a strange bit of mourning felt at the loss of pressure, but then again it wasn't everyday that Yoosung felt physical affection from Seven.

"Are you sure you don't want help with anything?" Yoosung asked hesitantly, stiffening as the game started up at last. "Er- nevermind."

Seven laughed lightly. "No, I'm fine. We probably won't leave until late morning though, so sleep at some point."

"Only if you do," said Yoosung, positioning himself in preparation. The laugh came again, and Yoosung smiled too.

"Uh huh, totally," said Seven, voice farther, presumably returning to his station, and Yoosung's match began.

Fifteen minutes later, Yoosung stretched out his fingers and watched his name flash next to the acronym "MVP", as it always did. He sighed, feeling his eyes shutter shut almost instantly. Normally he was good with staying up extremely late and rising early for school, but it seemed like the trip had wore him out. He jumped to his feet and unplugged his phone to bring with him.

"I'm going to sleep," he announced, walking up behind Seven. The slightly older boy didn't respond, and Yoosung made an expression of distaste, stepping closer and poking Seven's shoulder. "Hyung, I'm going to sleep."

Seven grunted, very clearly distracted, and Yoosung took that as a noise of understanding. The blonde looked over the image on the monitor, actually looking at it for the first time since arriving- the building wasn't just a house, it was gigantic from the look of it. The roof was a calming mint green and the walls were white- it was a very pretty place.

"Find anything?" he asked, genuinely curious but also with a tired yawn in his voice that betrayed his growing exhaustion. Seven shrugged in answer.

"Maybe."

"Better than nothing," Yoosung said, not incredibly bothered by the short response (incredibly bothered by the short response). "Don't stay up the whole night."

"You're not my mom," Seven said, raising a chip to his mouth. Yoosung laughed.

"No, but I am your friend." He sat his hand on Seven's shoulder for about half a second, and then turned down the long hallway opposite of where they'd entered. "Goodnight!"

"'Night~."

The likelihood of Seven coming to sleep was near zero, but Yoosung was still hesitant to take the bed in that case. Instead, he sat himself on the large, soft couch Seven had sitting in the corner of his room, with enough space and pillows to be a bed. He hadn't brought any spare clothes with him, he realized belatedly, but figured it didn't matter too much- he took off his sweatshirt and sat it to the side to feel more like he'd changed anyway, though his unsheltered arms protested by raising goose bumps.

He curled himself up on the cushions and was surprised by the comfort, tucking pillows under his head and anywhere else he felt needed support, and covering himself with a sheet stolen from Seven's untouched-looking bed. he sighed, closing his eyes even as his mind continued to race.

He wondered if MC had gone home from Jumin's yet, and if Jumin was doing better than he had been thanks to her help. He wondered about Zen's dream for a few seconds, contemplating the possibility that Elizabeth may actually disappear- it didn't seem likely, with the penthouse Jumin owned acting like a fortress.

He also worried a bit for Seven. He hoped the guy ate a proper meal every once in a while, despite the jokes about chips. He also hoped the guy got a good night's sleep occasionally, not that he expected that to be truth. He yawned, turned his cheek to press against the pillow he had underneath his head, and sighed tiredly.

He wondered what Seven wanted out of him, and that question was the one he went to sleep thinking about.

It was ten before Yoosung woke up, and several seconds after that before he remembered where he was.

Yawning, he set into the bathroom and swished water around his mouth while he brushed his fingers through his hair, flattening it down to a semi-normal state. He left the clips out for now, not in the mood, and sat them in his sweatshirt pocket. Spitting, he stretched himself out and left the bathroom to find Seven.

Seven looked unaffected by the time that had passed, minus the growth in the number of Honey Buddha Chips and PhD Peppers surrounding his computer table. The screen didn't appear to have changed either, and Yoosung scanned the screen to see if he could find any sort of changes since the night before- nothing. It looked like the most mind-numbingly boring thing he could ever imagine doing.

"Have you taken a break?" Yoosung asked, voice deep and unused, and Seven threw him a look over his shoulder. He shook his head, and then returned to his computer.

"Good talk," Yoosung said, strained and cheery, and snatched a bag of chips for himself before sitting in front of the computer to start up some LOLOL. "How long until we leave?"

"Soon," Seven hummed, distracted as always. "An hour, at most."

"Just let me know," Yoosung said, though the closeness of the time excited him. The computer started up at an exceptional speed and Yoosung wasn't going to complain about it, simply loading up LOLOL. "What are you doing, anyway?"

"Stuff. I'm busy." His voice made it clear he wasn't going t talk further about it and Yoosung sighed, turning away and to the computer.

Fine. Whatever. He couldn't help but worry for Seven's health, wondering if this was really what he did all the time- stay up without sleep, eat chips and drink soda, and stare at a bright screen. Knowing Seven, this was likely a regular thing of his.

As LOLOL finally loaded onto the screen, he opened the messenger on his phone to glance through the chatrooms that had taken place while he was asleep. As he read the latest one, from about fifteen minutes prior, he jumped out of his seat and ran across the room to Seven, squatting on the floor beside his chair. "Hyung!"

"What?" Seven asked, a little too short to be casual- he was annoyed, but Yoosung was undeterred, pushing his phone over to the older boy to see.

"Jimin says Elizabeth is missing?" he said, phrasing it more like a question in his disbelief. Seven yelped, snatching the phone from Yoosung with such force that his chair teetered backwards and Yoosung almost fell over in surprise.

"Elly?!" he cried, scrolling through the messages to confirm what Yoosung had said while the shorter boy nodded quickly.

"Jumin says that she just-"

"- ran out the door," Seven finished, his mouth half-slackened in horror. "Holy shit. She actually ran away."

Yoosung shivered, a little bit freaked out. "You don't think... Zen's dream?"

"No way," Seven disagreed, shaking his head slowly, still scrolling on Yoosung's phone. "No. But- still. Wow."

"What should we do?" Yoosung asked, feeling a little foolish for asking, but still looking for guidance in this situation. Seven didn't answer for a few moments, engrossed in reading over the chat, and then handed the phone back over with a shake of his head.

"Nothing, I guess. Believe me, I'm sure Jumin has it covered. The guy loves Elly more than I do, and that's really saying something."

Yoosung could agree wholeheartedly with that statement. "... Yeah. Alright. Get back to work."

"That's what I do," Seven said with a wink, and mussed up Yoosung's carefully-straightened hair playfully. "It won't be long. Just sit back and eat to your heart's content."

"Sounds good to me!" Yoosung said, grinning, grabbing a few more bags and returning to his own computer to the side. By the time he'd sat back down, Seven was once again entranced by the castle with the green roof on his screen, and LOLOL had fully loaded. Shutting off his phone, he sat his headphones over his ears and went in.

Seven was right, there was no way Jumin would ever let his cat stay lost.

It was noon and Yoosung was bored out of his mind, and it made absolutely no sense.

It was clear now that Seven's estimate of the wait being only an hour was pretty far off, and despite his attempts to be understanding, he was bordering on pissed at this point. He understood- well, he actually didn't understand at all, he assumed- that whatever Seven was doing wasn't simple, and it probably took a lot more work than he could easily see. He trusted that that had to be the case, because he could not for the life of him fathom the reason Seven had been spending the last twelve hours staring at what appeared to be the same few pictures of a castle in a forest.

He stood up from his desk and paced for a few minutes, stretching out his back. Yoosung considered himself well skilled in the art of sitting still and not moving for hours on end, but he was restless here. No new chats had popped up since the conversation about Elizabeth's initial disappearance, and he was refraining as best he could from messaging MC, Jumin, or Jaehee about it, certain they were busy enough anyway.

Speaking of MC, he couldn't help but think of how fucked up it was that Jumin was pretty much forbidding her to leave his apartment now. How long had they known each other? Not even eight days? Creepy. He loved Jumin, but that was more than a little obsessive. He put it down to it being a sensitive period in Jumin's life. Nonetheless, he wondered how MC was doing, locked up in Jumin's gigantic complex like some sort of pet.

Man, he was sounding like Zen. That probably wasn't a completely good thing either.

He could sympathize with Jumin to a point- he also had the deep desire to hold those he cared about close and to never let them go, but he would never actually infringe on their personal well-being like that. That was gross.

He stopped pacing and sat on the steps, dropping his head onto his knees. Shit was fucked.

It didn't take much looking around to figure out what Jumin was doing to find his cat (still missing, evidently). There was an ad on Naver with Elizabeth's photo plastered on it, asking for anyone to contact a number (probably Jaehee's) if they had any information whatsoever surrounding her. Awed, he opened up a chat on the messenger and was pleased to see that it didn't take long for someone to join up- MC.

Yoosung : Did you see the ad on Naver?

MC: He put up an ad already... I hope he finds the cat soon thanks to that

Yoosung : I know!

Yoosung : I think it might work since a lot of people will see it,

Yoosung : but I hope he finds her soon!

Yoosung : I can't believe Elizabeth is missing T_T

Yoosung : I was studying like a good student

Yoosung : ... JK

Yoosung : I stood up all night playing and went to bed late at Seven's place.

Yoosung : So I didn't know about it...

Yoosung : Where the hell do you think Elizabeth went?

MC: No one knows that... I hope he finds her soon.

Yoosung : Yeah...

Yoosung : Elizabeth spent her whole life at Jumin's house, growing up like a princess

Yoosung : So she might not survive long in the wild outside world.

Yoosung : JUmin must be having a nervous breakdown

Yoosung : I was just about to feel happy for eating all the Honey Buddha Chips I want at Seven's house...

Yoosung : But this is so depressing T_T

Yoosung : You would know too, but Elizabeth is more than just a cat to Jumin.

Yoosung : Seven even imagined them getting married someday.

Yoosung paused, looking in the direction of said redhead, and smiling with light amusement even amidst his stress. Seven had been the one to imagine them getting married, but Yoosung and several other members of the RFA would very willingly agree that the possibility was all too real. Well, maybe less so now that MC was involved... and now that Elizabeth had gone missing.

He winced at the reminder and returned to the chat.

Yoosung : He must be having a really hard time right now...

Yoosung : More than anything else, I hope we find her safe and healthy

MC: I'm sure she'll come back safely and see Jumin again!

Yoosung : She meant so much to him.

Yoosung : There's no way Elizabeth doesn't know that.

Yoosung : Elizabeth will come back!

Yoosung : I would have searched for her myself

Yoosung : ... I was supposed to go to school this morning

MC: Shouldn't you at least go to school T_T

Yoosung : I wanted to

Yoosung : But Seven kept asking me to go somewhere

Yoosung : but we didn't actually leave yet...

Yoosung : So I have no choice but to stay here;;;;

Yoosung laughed a little at himself, a mental image appearing of two prisoners talking to each other in their neighboring cells about their imprisonments.

Yoosung : I've never felt this pathetic about myself

Yoosung : And LOLOL got kind of boring after playing so long;;

Yoosung : I wish Seven would just leave soon

Yoosung : Why is he stalling so long?

MC: Where are you two planning to go?

Yoosung : I want to know that too...

Yoosung glanced up again at the redhead. "Hey, Seven?"

"We'll leave before the evening," Seven promised, as though reading his mind. Yoosung was half inclined to believe he had, but didn't voice this.

Yoosung : According to Seven, we'll definitely believe before the evening

Yoosung : I wish we could just go look for Elizabeth together!

Yoosung : Elizabeth...

Yoosung : Wherever you are...

Yoosung : Just be safe and sound!

Yoosung : I don't want any of my friend's pets to get hurt or die

Yoosung : I don't ever want that to happen!

He froze, fingers still, and stared at what he'd just wrote with some amount of stunned horror.

... Oh. So that was what this was about, his whole disordered and restless mental state.

Sometimes, he really wished his whole life and mind didn't revolve around Rika.

MC: That won't happen

Yoosung : Elizabeth is a unique breed, so...

Yoosung : Someone could be taking care of her right now. I hope so.

Yoosung : I need some time to calm myself down.

Yoosung : so I should just go see what Seven is up to now. lol.

Yoosung : He might be able to find Elizabeth, maybe I should ask him.

Yoosung : Now that it's been a while

MC: You might be right. Go ahead.

Yoosung : Okay!

Yoosung : I'll tell you right away if I get some good news!

Yoosung : Then I'll get going!

Yoosung : See you later!

Yoosung has left the chatroom