AN: Hi guys.. I am on a tired but fluffy mood today. I got my hands on an adorable book and yeah..xD But that won't change on the fact that this fanfiction will be.. dark.. Umm.. I am going to include Onew's past in the story once we got to that part, but I have to tell you that because of this, two (or three if we count Onew as well, and we should) new, important characters were added to the storyline. I know one of them, but the other is still a mistery, even to me xD (I mean I know their personality and stuff, but they don't have a name yet or anything like that xD)

After a long, sleepless night, I had to go to work again. The biggest problem with it was that I could barely sit up without screaming. My whole body hurt. And still, I had to get myself together and stumble to the bathroom. Luckily, most of the other Workers were asleep since when I looked on the dirty clock that hang on the wall of our room, I couldn't see the numbers and I thought that it was time to get ready. Of course, this meant that I could take a shower in peace. It was a rare, but 'nice' start of my morning, despite being in pain and everything. Sometimes even I had to look on the bright side of the things.

The cold water hit my bare skin and I shivered but at least it woke me up a bit more. Not that I needed to be more awake, but still. It was a nice feeling I guess. After I made sure that I was right and no one was in the same 'bathroom' as me yet (they were all probably asleep, which made me a bit less jumpy), I quickly got out of the shower and pulled on my work clothes. Yes, it hurt, yes, I just wanted to die, but I had to keep going on. For Taemin, for Onew, for that stupid Student, and for myself.

I sighed and walked back to our room. Taemin was still sleeping deeply, hugging his pillow to his chest tightly. He didn't really seem to have any worried as he just hugged his pillow tighter when I tried to wake him up.

I sighd, knowing that he wouldn't wake up yet. I sighed and climbed back onto my dirty bed, frowning when I lay onto something that seemed to move. It's not like I wasn't used to having things like that in my bed but I still hated it. I closed my eyes and let sleep consume me.

Only by what seemed like a few minutes, I was woken up by Taemin's sweet voice. 'Hyung~ Wake up~' he giggled. I opened my eyes slowly and glared at him playfully.

'I don't want to..' I mumbled, but sat up slowly. A new wave of pain washed through me and tears gathered in my eyes. It hurt too much to bear. I took a deep breath and forced myself to smile at Taemin who looked at me with worried eyes.

'Are you Ok?' he asked me softly as he helped me to stand up.

'Of course, I am strong.'I smiled at him. I think he was still obvious to why I had been in that state yesterday, and I wasn't going to tell him. If we ever got out of this place, at least he should be able to live a normal life.

I know that probably I shouldn't have even tried to move with my injuries but I knew the fact that I would have been killed if I didn't work. The only thing I could do was pray that I wouldn't be observed that day.

I didn't feel like eating the breakfast so I told Taemin that he should eat alone because I wasn't hungry (to tell the truth, I was but I couldn't even look at the thing that was given to us after I sadly smelled it, I swear that something was really wrong with it) and I decided to go back to the bathroom.

Since everyone was eating, I wasn't in danger of someone trying to.. harass me or anything. Or at least I hoped so. I closed the door behind me and stared into the partially broken mirror. Tired, dark brown eyes stared back at me. There were dark bags under them, but they still had a soft shine, I wondered why. My hair was just as short as everyone else's but at least it was clean. It was really disgusting when we weren't allowed to wash our hair. I really hated how greasy it got.

I sighed deeply. The broken looking figure in the mirror did so too and I couldn't help but crack a smile. No, he wasn't broken because I wasn't broken either. I wasn't going to give up yet.

After about five minutes I walked back to the dining room where everyone was getting ready for work. Taemin waved to me, and I walked to him, hugging him for a few moments. I wasn't feeling that much pain that time, maybe because I was good at ignoring it, maybe because I just simply paid attention to other things. I looked at the remains of Taemin's breakfast and gagged.  I wasn't sure what it was trying to be but I was sure that there was a lot of hair in it.

'Have you really eaten any from this thing?' I asked him. He grimaced and sighed.

'No, but Onew-hyung did..'he said. I looked at him, sighing.

'I really hope that he won't get sick.'I said. Taemin nodded and we smiled at each other softly.

Some time later. an Observer came to pick us up. I sighed, it was the woman from before and it was obvious that she detested me with all her might. She told us that we were going to be observed for three more weeks because something happened in one of the other Mines and some of us were going to be transferred there, also the Students had to make very detailed reports on us.

I sighed but I knew that even if I had to see that Student again, I would have to work as hard as I could. My injuries were hurting more and more but I walked to the Mine with my head held high.

But as we entered, I started to loose the strength in my legs. Taemin had to support me to my spot but luckily no one noticed it. Or at least I thought so. The Student from the day before was standing there, looking at me with worried eyes. I glared at him as I picked up my pickaxe. It was heavier than usual, but I had to work. I just had to.

I hit the stone as hard as I could and miraculously, it cracked at the first hit. I smiled to myself in triumph when suddenly someone touched my shoulder. I dropped the pickaxe on the stone as I jumped up a bit. My heartbeat picked up as I realized that it might have been the other Worker who tried to hurt me. But it wasn't him.

'God, I'm sorry. I just wanted to ask you if you were alright.'I heard a soft, soothing voice. I closed my eyes as I felt myself calm down. And then, I recognized the voice.