Between the awkward adolescent pains of getting up and confessing the fact that she had overheard everything completely, to the mature passover of the current situation, Kiha was tightly bind in between her two options. She was so unsure that neither choice sounded appetising. It was a battle between dumb and dumber. But whatever saint in her had awoken in the midst of the crisis, and hence, she chose to valiantly bring herself forward.

"Um," she started, humming against the tune of the tide as the two male, plus Johnny, continued their little eye contact and inward bickerings. 

She wasn't noticeable for a long while. Humming slowly escalating into crescendo as she piled the waiting seconds up against each other, rolling down the mountain like a ball of snow. She did, and yet, did not, want to in. Her scalding confidence met a point of evaporating as she bit down her lips in the accent of habits.

Shutting her eyes tight whilst bringing every bit of extrovertedness she had in her, Kiha drowned her truly introverted personality whilst lifting two arms up to support her body.  She was floating for a millisecond or two, before the quivering muscles on her arms detached her positive state into null. 

All eyes were on her. 

Despite the fact that she was facing the other way, she could feel the heat of their gazes on the small of her back. She bites her bottom lip for a second time before her conscience decided to play dead.

"What the hell was that?" Ten sniffled a laughter as he placed two fingers to mum his lips. He was standing the closest to the beddings and have more than an accessible view to the previous slip-up. A literal slip-up.

"Aw, is little miss awake?" Johnny cooed, one feet propelling his body forwards to meet and greet the scene more intimately. 

Jaehyun, 

on the other hand,

did nothing but stare.

"Hey, you," Ten called out, "get up. You're awake aren't you? You have a hella lot of explaining to do."

When Kiha's whole body tensed and stilled under the proposal of turning around and perhaps having to spill the entirety of her life story, her mind completely blanked.

It was a battle between nerves.

Quite literally on Kiha's side.

The three male could only took a few more seconds of silence before Ten dove to tear the blankets off the motionless lady and whisking her shoulders the other way, effectively coming eye to eye with her.

The first few moments left Kiha breathless.

She was once again attending a search party in the reflection of Ten's pupils, watching as her own eyes quivered under his gaze. 

Ten unconsciously the expanse of his lip as he washed her image down. Drinking it up like wine. 

"Are you two going to break the or?" Johnny supplied, giving a good slap in the face to the rather couple-like individuals. 

Ten then stood up from the bed, effectively pulling Kiha up by the arms. "Sit." 

Kiha had no choice but to comply as she glanced around the room in a speechless manner, her fingers fiddling over itself. 

"Name?" Ten took a seat on Jaehyun's sleek and smooth bedside table. 

"S-son Kiha," Kiha replied, though a little too inaudable for any of the three men's tastes.

"Name?" The male repeated. With much more force and volume this time around. 

"Son Kiha," the female rehearsed, with a voice that's borderline a squeak.

"Age?"

"Nineteen." 

She felt the stares. The eyes. The tension. 

With pressure building up on her narrow shoulders, she kept her gaze down and evaded any kind of intimate contact.

"Occupation?"

"Ste- student."

It felt as if they were raking against the gates of her privacy and stripping her down bare as a person. 

The questions were harmless on its own. 

But with the intensity of their gazes, along with the suffocating atmosphere, Kiha felt lost, powerless and mainly helpless in the midst of the current situation. She felt like a prisoner at best and a loser at most. 

"Where's Hosook?"

"I don't know," she answered truthfully.

But sometimes the truth could be too much of a handful to swallow.

Ten cackled with disbelief as he leaned back and observed her slouching posture. He knew what kind of fear such a young woman would go through in the disperse of power. He could see the way her fingertips struggle to keep still and the way her neck tensed with each breath. She was just barely keeping things together.

"Then how did she send you?"

Kiha had to stop and think this one through. Yes. How exactly did this Hosook person send her? 

The only way she got here was through Miok. 

But apparently, 

Miok was not Hosook.

"Hosook sent me." She persisted with her case, not knowing when or where to back down. 

She really did want to tell them the truth. But her compulsive disorder came out at the most anxious moments. Just unfortunately,

this moment classified under 'one of those moments'. 

"You're slightly getting on my nerves," Ten confessed, twisting his body in a full circle before he landed right beside the shivering girl, head poking into her personal space as he tucked an intimate strand of hair, watching as she jolted under the coldness of his touch. 

"But there are ways you can make up for not talking," he his lips.

This time,

deliberately.

Johnny pulled a sour face as he interrupted the mood, "oh come on! Stop it with your daddy talks. The best thing to do is to bring her to Taeyong. You know that. No foreign people in the hideout. Only in-"

"The fake house. I know." Ten groaned as he leaned back, to which Kiha released the breath that she has been hiding, before he turned in amusement at her. "Do I scare you that much?"

"Well you do look hella shady, smarty pants." Johnny snorted, raising a plain brow in the air.

"I look charming," Ten refuted, "at most."

Kiha, who had been mute for the most part, lifted her head high and opened her sealed lips.

"Who are you?"

Ten gave a Cheshire's grin as he stretched himself out to her, eyes sparkling with mischief. 

"Who do you think we are?"

---

In the end,

Kiha was confined to the room. 

She was back at it again with the owner of the chamber, watching as he drew various items from his bag and placed a few on top of his tabletop.

It was as if she never existed in the first place. 

She must have been spacing out for the longest time, in a sitting position, on top of the bed, because when she realised it, a rather baggy change of clothes were present beside her. On top of such luxuries, a towel and a few personal item such as a toothbrush was dispensed by her side. 

She glanced at the back of the busy man whom was responsible for the items beside her.

"I-is this for me?"

There was no reply.

The moment lasted longer than a decade as Kiha fell into a trough of discomfort, blankly staring at the broad of Jaehyun's back (though, at that time, she didn't know his name).

Stretching his body to its full height, Jaehyun gradually turned his head and eyed Kiha's position for a split second before tilting his head towards the only other door in the room. 

The bathroom.

Kiha scanned between to and from the motioned door, not quite getting his signal. 

To this,

the male let out an audible sigh.

"Shower." 

Kiha wasn't the one to rush into decisions or a scene too quickly, even with a rather ambiguous order. Maybe if the command was much more detailed and would prescribe her with a clearer course of action, she wouldn't be in such a dilemma. On one hand, she thought of making her way to the indicated space and doing exactly what he had asked of her to-- well, at least she thinks he is-- but on the other hand, why should she listen to him?

Jaehyun kept his head low, hiding his line of sight through the aid of his overgrown bangs, locks in a hint