EIGHT HOURS ━ STRAY KIDS

HOUR SIX.

Chan whipped his head around. "Where'd he go? He was just here-"

 "What is that?" Minho asked, pointing at something lodged in the dark corner. 

Chan swallowed and walked towards it, getting on his knees and feeling around the corner. He picked up what looked like a brown box and made his way back to the light, holding it up to see what it was. 

His eyes widened when he realized. "Changbin was never here."

"What?" Minho walked up to where Chan was standing, looking over his shoulder. "Is that a radio?"

The radio was wooden, with two speakers on each side and a panel of buttons across the middle. A handle was attached to the top.

Chan fiddled with the buttons. A whirring sound came from the speakers and they could hear a recording of Changbin saying, "Don't get near me. I know who you are."

"He said that when we were playing mafia earlier. He must have recorded it." 

Minho grabbed it and pressed the button again, repeating it. Minho and Chan looked at each other. "He set us up. It's him. It has to be."

"It makes so much sense," Minho spoke hesitantly. "He wanted to split up at the beginning. That would have made his job way easier. And he always managed to redirect our attention when we accusing each other, even though no one ever accused him." Minho swallowed. "But why was he so aggressive about Hyunjin's murder? I don't understand."

"Maybe it was because he knew he'd be next, and it would have been suspicious if he didn't die when everyone else before him did-"

"It would have hardly mattered. By the time he'd killed me, and you realized, you'd be the only one left. He would have easily pulled it off-"

Chan's eyes widened. "He didn't react when Seungmin was killed. Weren't Seungmin and Changbin close?"

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"Hyunjin. He was so aggressive about Hyunjin's murder but he hardly cared about Seungmin's, even though he was closer to Seungmin. That doesn't make sense."

"He didn't really react to Jisung's either, even though they were best friends..." Minho's eyes widened in realization. "Hyunjin confided in Changbin and me a couple of nights ago."

"What?"

"Hyunjin was in love with Seungmin. He told us that. I remember. He was planning on asking him out after tonight's party." Minho looked at Chan. "Changbin was in love with Hyunjin."

Chan's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "Wait- but he killed him."

"He wasn't planning to. He probably only wanted to kill Jeongin and Seungmin, but then Felix figured it out and followed Seungmin, so he had to kill him too. By then, everyone had thought we were dying in age order-"

"So he had to finish the job."

Silence filled the room.

Chan swallowed. "Let's call the cops. We can show them the radio and tell them what we know-"

He was cut off when Minho jumped away, dropping the radio onto the floor.

Chan flinched, startled. "What happened?"

Minho frowned. "It got really hot, and- why is it smoking?"

The radio started to whir. The recording of Changbin's voice started getting louder and louder before the radio exploded to bits, charring the floor around it.

Chan and Minho made eye contact. "Did that radio just self-destruct?"

Minho nodded. "Did Changbin do that? He's a music major. He wouldn't know how to." He frowned. "Do we know any engineering majors?"

Chan swallowed and turned away, walking towards the door. He jiggled the knob. It was unlocked. Good.

"Yeah, we do." He swallowed and turned the knob, opening the door. "You."