Chaeyoung still didn't know what to do. These days, it seemed like this was true whenever she was within fifty feet of Kim Jongdae, and Chaeyoung didn't like it. Actually, she plain didn't like Jongdae at all, and she told him as much.

“I don't like you either,” the comedian said truthfully, blinking up at her from his seat on the cot without a smile on his face for once in his life. “But here we are anyway, with you cleaning my wounds and me at your mercy.”

She stopped mopping at his face and scowled. What an annoying man. Joking one second, solemn the next, and utterly impossible to read or predict. Was he being serious, or was he just setting up for another joke? Did he truly dislike her as much as she disliked him? (Chaeyoung didn't think that was possible). Was she supposed to keep being a nice person and caring for his wounds, or was she allowed to leave him to fend for himself? Chaeyoung had never been so confused in her life, although part of that she attributed to the residual drugs in her system and lack of sleep.

“Well don’t stop.” Jongdae grabbed the bloody scarf from her hand and dabbed at his cuts, avoiding eye contact. “I’d hate to drip blood all over our hosts’ nice linoleum.”

Chaeyoung stared at him and then at the hardwood floor, disbelieving. “This isn't even linoleum.”

He snorted. “I know. I was just making a joke. Do you know what that is, a joke?”

“I do!”

“Yeah? Prove it, then. Tell me a joke.” Jongdae arched an eyebrow, meaning to look challenging but really just looking pathetic with his eye swelling rapidly.

Chaeyoung hesitated. “No. I don't need your validation. You’ll just make fun of me anyway.”

Snorting, Jongdae dropped the scarf and moved to sit on the floor. “What, like the way you made fun of me and my job, in front of my successful millionaire brother, no less?”

“Are you seriously holding a grudge over that? Just how insecure are you? I'm the one who’s going to lose my job because of you!” Chaeyoung could feel her blood pressure rising.

“Oh, get over yourself.” Jongdae coughed, covering his mouth with a sleeve. “It's not very attractive when a woman is so self-absorbed, you know.”

Chaeyoung fumed. As if her sole purpose for existing was to be attractive to an idiot like Kim Jongdae. What had she been thinking, being a good person and sacrificing her scarf to mop at his cuts when -

“Ah, .” Jongdae’s eyes rolled back a little in his head, skin suddenly much more sallow than Chaeyoung thought was probably healthy, and blood dribbled out the corner of his mouth. He lowered himself onto his back. “I think Donald Duck busted something inside me.”

“Hey, stop it,” she said nervously. “I don’t have any proper medical supplies, so stop that internal bleeding right now!”  

Jongdae had the nerve to laugh at that, although the subsequent flash of pain in his ribs almost made him regret it.

“Now that’s a joke. But something tells me you might not have meant it as one.” He closed his eyes.

“I said stop it! Open your eyes, I don’t want you dying on me!”

Scrambling to her feet, Chaeyoung searched the room again, but there was nothing she could use to stem his bleeding. Anyway, it seemed like the worst of his injuries were internal, and she didn’t know how to deal with those; she wasn’t a doctor, after all.

Jongdae giggled, eyes still shut. “That one was funny, too. I take back what I said earlier about you not knowing what jokes are. Tell me another one, come on.”

“Luhan, Tao!” Chaeyoung pounded on the door as loudly as she could. She didn’t fancy begging her kidnappers for anything, but she didn’t see any other options at this point. “Please, help! Jongdae’s going to die if you don’t come soon!”

“Whoa there, is that a threat? You’re going to kill me?” The comedian’s voice was weak, trembling behind the false humor he injected into his words.

She didn’t respond. Footsteps approached the door, and Luhan poked his head in, hair messy and eyes bleary.

“You know, some people are trying to nap here,” he mumbled in Chinese, evidently not awake enough to speak Korean. “Unless he’s ready to confess something about Jade Dragon, can’t it wait a couple hours?”

“Ooh, you’re speaking Chinese. I know some jokes in Chinese!” Swollen eyes opened just a crack, Jongdae switched into the same language as Luhan and leered at him. “Hey Donald Duck, yo momma so fat, she can’t fit into this joke!”

Jaw dropping, Chaeyoung almost cried. She had no idea where she was, what day it was, or if she was going to survive the next twenty-four hours. Her clothes were soaked in blood, the only other civilian here was both her mortal enemy and mortally injured, and now said civilian had the audacity to insult their kidn