Have I ever mentioned that Yongguk can be stubborn? Because he can be really ing stubborn. Though he had said he would move once the others came back for the night, it never happened. I was woken up rather rudely when Zelo laid down, grabbed me by the waist and then proceeded to roll over, pulling me out of Yongguk's arms. I hear him smack Zelo on the arm, but at this point I'm way too tired to give a rip and I just want to be warm again.

"Stop trying to start a fight," I snarl.

As I curl up with Zelo, I hear him yawn contentedly at me calling him Junhong as I feel my little brother drape himself over me; we are dog-piled by the rest of them, blankets coming with them, before I fall back asleep.

Come morning, Yongguk has somehow wormed his way into the pile with Jongup using him as a pillow. I wiggle out from under them and grab Zelo by his shoulder, trying to pull him out. It's no use though. For all the strength I possess, these boys may as well all be made of lead.

"Zelo," I whisper hoarsely and start shoving at his shoulder. "Zelo, wake up. Zelo!"

He twitches, twisting in his sleep, and then I realize that his breathing pattern has changed.

"You little ! I know you're awake, get up." He doesn't move and starts snoring softly. "Junhong!"

He opens his eyes slowly and yawns like he just woke up. "Wassup, Bree?"

"Don't you "wassup" me, you brat. Get up already. I have a chore for you today."

His nose wrinkles and he gives me a look; he knows exactly what I'm going to make him do and I know that he's going to try pawning it off on someone else.

"You have an extra set of overalls in our clothing crate, so I'm going to borrow them for the day," I tell him, stripping off my clothes from yesterday. He opens his mouth to protest but I shoot him a look before opening the crate and pulling out my last set of undergarments and his overalls. "You have small children you can bribe into helping you, Junhong – don't even try to tell me that it's too much. Do you want me to make you wear the pink gloves again, because I will."

"Critical system error. Pink glove directive not found. Shutting down," he groans before pretending to fall back asleep.

"Junhong!" I shout, forgetting the others were asleep. I hear several of them mumbling and a few of them shift, though no one says anything. "Junhong, Yongguk and Jongup saved your sorry from your chores last time. I'm not letting you get away with that again."

There is no more argument from him, but I hear him grumbling as I start to put my clothes on. I have my own things to worry about and the last thing I want on my mind is whether or not he has somehow ered someone into doing his chores again, least of all when I need Jongup and Youngjae to meet me in the Shelter. Like we had discussed, there is no way around the fact that we need to move everything to do with our little project out of the Shelter, but this leaves me wondering. There's so much there that needs to get transported and there's only one functional exo-suit, and even at then Youngjae still hasn't had the chance to fully implement augmentations for the pilot meaning it's possible to use them, but the amount of strength and effort it takes to make it move is enormous. The only person we have who I can even think of piloting it all the way to VIXX is Jongup. Then I'm struck by the biggest problem of all.

How the am I going to get the exo-suit out?

There are several rabbit holes being dug to VIXX, but not only are they all meant for people and the things they can carry and not for things that carry people, but they're also only halfway finished. It will take some time to get production back up to a level that will convince the government we no longer need to be monitored, meaning that more than likely we will have more Rats headed our way – and who's to say we will get so lucky again? They already noticed the differences in the stone, and not every Rat is bound to be a complete moron. Furthermore, I'm surprised that they haven't looked in my office yet and found the tunnel. We need an easy route out of Mato and we need it now. Wait. My office. It could work. Granted there's going to be collateral damage to the ladders in the central shaft… I need a second opinion on this potential plan.

I walk over to the pile of young men and kick Yongguk who wakes up immediately.

"I need your opinion," I tell him as I put on my pants.

"Put your shirt on," he grumps, rolling over onto his front.

"I'm working on it. Now shut up and listen: to get Youngjae's project out of here we need a wide tunnel and there's absolutely no way we'll be able to widen the rabbit holes enough while getting them through fast enough."

"What about the tunnel in here?"

I pause putting my shirt on. "That's what I was thinking. If that's how we're going to do it, we'll have to do it in the middle of the night and we're going to need a lot of backup for –"

"For removing the ladders to let Jongup through without doing too much damage."

"Oh… I was going to say to repair them after the damage is done, but that's a better idea."

"Oh my , Bree. Seriously?"

"What?"

"You need to stop taking things entirely head-on."

"Picky picky picky. If you get people together to take out the ladders for tonight, I'll head down to the Shelter. But now that we have the plan, cover your ears." I pull my shirt over my head and grab Zelo's overalls. "Everyone up! We've got a lot to do. Zelo! Get up now!"

I'm in no way someone who likes to get up early but meeting N has left me almost inspired to work hard, even if I will likely never be one of the people doing the fighting. As soon as they've got their clothes on I grab Youngjae and Jongup and immediately head towards the Shelter. We won't be the first person there. Like how we sleep in my office, there are some mechanics who choose to sleep in the Shelter. Either way, they better get up quick because it's going to be a long day.

*****

Jongup is sitting in the seat of the exo-suit, strapped in tight as the massive piece of machinery lumbers towards the exit of the shelter. It's late, almost midnight, and everyone who doesn't live in the mines is back in their assigned barracks. I can see that Yongguk and the people he volun-told have been hard at work because the ladders are missing, replaced with knotted rope hanging loose to help those of us on foot up to the steel. Jongup steps out onto the floor of the shaft.

"I've never done this before," he says, his voice tense. "Wall-jumps are one thing when you're wearing boots and can feel the stone and steel under your hands, but I'm wearing an extra tonne of armour."

"You'll be fine," I assure him, totally confident.

"But –"

"Shut up and jump. You keep second-guessing yourself like this and you'll look like an idiot once you get to the top."

With that I watch as Jongup nods and moves to crouch. I didn't want to say anything, but I'm honestly terrified. There are no augments in this suit. He has to strain even to move his arms and legs – how well will he be able to jump then? The worry is shattered when I watch him jump away and towards the wall directly above us. As the steel foot kicks out, stone crunches and falls away, crashing to the floor of the shaft, and I'm suddenly glad that I didn't decide to immediately start climbing up after him.

When the crashing of Jomgup's ascent has finally stopped, the rest of us start climbing and it feels like it takes us hours to reach the top. I'm overjoyed when we are finally on a flat surface to simply walk. I spent all day working in the Shelter, getting everything ready to go and I've exhausted myself again. Jongup notices and a metal hand wraps around my waist, the other scooping my feet off the ground.

"You're going to hurt yourself," he says simply. "Everyone knows you push yourself too hard sometimes."

The journey to the office is loud. These tunnels were never meant to bring machines through and even with the ears lying down, the exo-suit occasionally scrapes against the stone walls with a deafening screech or crash. Fortunately, as we approach the office, I can see that the others have had the foresight to remove the boards making the fourth wall and crates barring the tunnel.

Jongup places me carefully on the ground.

"Don't go leaving everyone behind and don't get into any trouble while you're in VIXX," I scold him, not wanting him to hear the worry in my voice. I know that he's going to stay with good people, and there's no question that he could hold his own if he really had to, but he really is a sweet young man. He would put himself in unnecessary danger if others were in trouble.

"I promise," he smiles. "Don't go doing anything stupid without Yongguk or Zelo with you. I want to see you in one piece when I get back."

We don't like long goodbyes; with a final salute, Jongup ducks into the tunnel and slowly disappears into the darkness.