I hope they’ll be ok. I think as Youngjae and Jongup are forced out of the room. Wait…what?  _____, get a hold of yourself!  Even if they were nice to you, they are still the one’s holding you hostage! Get a grip gir- A pair of hands suddenly yanking my arms around to my back interrupt my thoughts.  I look behind me to find out who it was that so roughly restrained me only to discover Daehyun.

     “You know this is not necessary” I sneer with the fake confidence I have perfected after years with the Roses.  I am trying to pull my arms free; Daehyun has a firm grip though. “It’s not like I am going anywhere.  I am in the heart of Bunny territory.  I wouldn’t make it very far if I ran.” I put in one last effort to free my arms with all my strength. Not to mention, I couldn’t beat any of you physically even if I wanted to. I mentally add as I realize that Daehyun isn’t even trying that hard to restrain me.  I manage to get one arm free before Zelo comes up and takes hold of it.

     Zelo’s grip, in comparison to Daehyun’s, is much more forceful and tight.  If he holds my arms that way for too long it will bruise for sure.  Daehyun is gentle but firm.  Daehyun is going light on me because I am girl.  Zelo is clearly not underestimating me just because of my gender.  It looks like I won’t be getting much information out of Zelo.

     “We follow orders” Zelo relays to me. “That includes your restraint while walking the complex.”  He turns away from me “Let’s go get the Rose some food.” Zelo calls me ‘the Rose’ with complete distaste in his tone.

     Zelo pulls me from Daehyun and gruffly guides me out of the room.  Zelo is being overly forceful with me.  My temper is slowly rising as Zelo intentionally shoves me around as we move up the stairs and back towards Yongguk’s room.

     “Oh, really now!”  I finally snap, “What is this?  I already told you I’m not going anywhere.  You could be more gentle atleast!”

     “Shush, I told you.  I follow orders.”  Is his none emotional response
    

     “What? Did Yongguk tell you to leave bruises on my arms and to handle me roughly?” I release my pent up anger and calm down a bit but still add: “Seriously, you’re response is so automated.  What are you? A robot?”  This comment gets to him as his sole response is to squeeze a little tighter.

     Soon we come to a door just past Yongguk’s room that I had not noticed the night before.  Daehyun opens the door and Zelo s me in to the room.  Zelo then turns to Daehyun saying: “Don’t let her out of your sight, and lock the door when I leave.  I’ll be back with food soon.”  And with that Zelo leaves.

     Daehyun strides in to the room and swiftly locks the door behind him; he remains at the door in silence.  Instead of trying to make conversation I look around the room.  It is a fairly empty room with the usual closet, bed, and nightstand.  The one thing out of the ordinary is a book shelf completely overflowing with books.  I find myself reading all the titles. Whose are these?  Are they that skilled in English? I wonder as I look at the numerous titles in English.  Though I am not skilled in English I can read the titles and realize I too have read most of the books on the shelf.  Suddenly a thought occurs to me.

     “Is this your room Daehyun?” I am curious to find out who the avid reader is.

     “No” Daehyun answers.

     “Oh~kay, so whose room is it? “  I pry for more information. “Does it belong to one of the B.A.P?”

     The only answer I receive is an amused stare from Daehyun. Geez, tough crowd, I think, but at least this treatment is better than Zelo earlier.

     “So do you think you could tell me whose room this is?”  I sarcastically ask a blue masked rabbit figurine which is sitting on the nightstand.  It’s one more oddity to the room which makes me curious about the owner. “What do you mean you don’t know?  You live here too, yet you can’t tell me?”

     “What are you doing?” I hear from behind me, slight amusement in the voice.  I turn to face Daehyun before answering.

     “Well, since talking to you is like talking to a wall I figured this figurine would have more answers. Surprisingly, he has less to offer than your ‘no’” I explain, over exaggerating my words.  This cause Daehyun to laugh; he understood I was joking with him. Ah, he sounds so gentle when he laughs.  No! ______, you can’t think that way.  You’re already too close to Youngjae and Jongup.  Don’t let yourself become closer with anyone else.

    “Sorry, you just make me nervous” He surprises me with his honesty.  In most hostage situations like this a comment like that could get you killed. You never reveal your weaknesses to the ‘ransom’ as Yongguk called me.

     “Why? Does it have to do with Yongguk’s cryptic ‘she’s not just any Rose’ comment?”  I question, hesitating if I should be this direct in asking.

     “No, it’s because you’re a girl.”

     “What?  Is it because you’re nervous to have to fight a girl if it comes down to that?” This is something I have heard commonly from other gangs –no one likes that the Roses have girls; we’re too fragile to be part of the fight.  Guys don’t like having to fight us.

     “No, it’s simply because you’re a girl.  I am nervous around girls.  We don’t have many girls around.” Such an innocent confession has me holding back slight chuckles.

     “I’m glad that at least somewhere I can be considered a girl.  I am not thought of as one among the Roses.”  I haven’t been thought of as a female among the Roses for at least a year now. Not since Wonbin… It’s amusing to me that this man in front of me can think of me that way.  This has Daehyun laughing too.

     A knock at the door quickly ends our laughter. I have to be more careful.  Why do I keep letting my guard down around these guys?

     “It’s Zelo.” Is announced from the other side of the door and Daehyun unlocks the door. “Well aren’t you two getting cozy.”  Zelo muses.  He clearly heard our laughter before he knocked.  He sends Daehyun a warning glance. “I brought food.”  He announces.

     I get up ready to get some lunch, when I get distracted by a book title.  Peter Pan.

     “Oh, Peter Pan!” I pull the book off the shelf, “My favorite!”

     “Hey, that’s mine!”  Zelo exclaims. “Put it back. I didn’t say you could touch it.”

     “So this is your room?”  I muse while looking over the book titles once again, surprised it belongs to this young but tough man. “So, you’ve read all these books?  Even the one’s in English?”  I have yet to put Peter Pan back on the shelf.  

     “It’s my book. Of course it’s my room.”  He proudly states.  “And those are mine, so of course I’ve read them. Now put it back.” He indicated towards the books, his last sentence is in English.  He has an amused smile on his face.

     He seems so sweet when he smiles.  How did he end up in a gang? I admire his charms momentarily.  I then place the book I was clutching back on the shelf.  I am a bit sad to part with it; it was an odd comfort to hold.  I take the plate Zelo has in his hands.

     “It’s mine” I tease as I take the plate he was clearly going to eat off of.  “Seriously, do you only have three responses programmed into you?”  I continue to tease, “‘I follow orders’ –‘put it back’ –‘It’s mine’“ I stick my tongue out.

     “No.” he defiantly states before adding: “But that plate really is mine.  It has the most cherry tomatoes.” He whines. “It’s mine.”  This time he adds as a joke.

     “Nope.” I say before popping a tomato into my mouth. “It’s mine.”

     “Brat.” Zelo glares at me jokingly before picking up the other plate which was intended for me. Now all three of us are laughing together.  It seems like it will be a good lunch together.  All of a sudden the door flies open.  All three of us jump to our feet, our reflexes sharpened from our time being in gangs.

     I don’t have time to process whom the person is that just came through the door before I am grabbed by the collar of my shirt and slammed into the opposite wall.  I wince, my back is still sore from being to the wall yesterday by Yongguk.

     “How dare you act so friendly.  How dare you show your face here.  It was you wasn’t it?”  The wild eyes peer down into my very being searching for answers.