Kris always had this weird fear of doctors. He never knew why and his parents could never pinpoint where it stemmed from but it was always there. It could have been from that one time his female doctor got him hard during a physical but that happens to everyone, right? Kris sure did hope so on the ride back home. He couldn't stop thinking about and that was easily the one moment where he truly did wish he was gay. But there was something about doctors that didn't quite ease the tension in his stomach. The way they wore all white and spoke so formally put him on edge and made him think about things that he didn't really want to think about. His mother always used to threaten him with going to see the "big man in white" if  he didn't behave.

If he truly sought out their similarities, Mr. Jongdae was exactly that of a doctor. He had his own little office, that annoying of cardboard called a clipboard, that sophisticated way of speech, the questions he asked; Kris felt goosebumps work their way up his arms. He was currently laying in his bed, hands behind his head, still thinking about the plan him and the boys created last week. The idea was finalized: they were escaping the prison. Kai was in charge of breaking things and breaking in to things, Lay was in charge of drawing him a map of the whole area, Xiumin was in charge of taking out any guards on duty, Suho was in charge of being the "test," and Kris was the ring leader of the whole thing. Tao and Sehun were welcome to join their escape party but they hadn't give him a straight answer yet.

It was probably the end of November now, Kris hadn't been keeping up with the dates. Occasionally he would make note of Mr. Jongdae's calendar but that was it. He mainly went off of how cold it was when they let the inmates out for recreational time. They had agreed to put the plan into action during winter since that's when they begin to slack off and they typically don't give a about the inmates (they're hoping they'll freeze their asses off and die).

Tao and Sehun were being extremely quiet lately and although Kris valued his peace and quiet, silence was not something he really wanted from the two. Then again, Sehun has to take extra good care of Tao during winter since all the drugs he used to do ed his immune system up. Kris wouldn't be surprised if he ended up dying; he had to immediately shake the thought from his mind 'cause having to deal with an anxious Sehun was a not where he wanted to be headed.

It was particularly cold that morning when they called the inmates down for breakfast, almost everyone was shivering and rubbing their arms. Do they have heat in this place? Kris mentally questioned as he stood in line. He was thankful they decided to serve them soup that morning, it wasn't all that warm by the time he got his serving but he took what he got. The guys didn't say much except for the usual 'good morning' and 'how'd you sleep?' question.

"Did they give any word on Xiumin?" Kris asked; Lay laughed at how his breath showed (it was that cold in the place).

Tao swirled his spoon around in his spoon as he answered, "Yeah, he should be coming back today." While Tao wasn't all that happy about it, Kris was pretty much in the clouds since Xiumin's help would be crucial in making sure no guards are alerted. Plus Xiumin would be able to go back to his gang and brag about how he escaped out of prison and killed guards with his bare hands, pretty good deal if you asked him.

"Hey," Sehun whispered, "can we talk to you later? About the thing?"

"Yeah, sure."

"Kris." He heard one of the guards call him. There was Mr. Jongdae standing in between two armed guards at the entrance. Speak of the ing devil.

"I may have to do a raincheck on that conversation, Sehun." Kris finished what was left of his soup and followed Mr. Jongdae back to his office.

"Sorry to barge in on you like that. Actually... I'm not sorry. How'd you sleep?"

"Fine," he grumbled. "Why couldn't you wait until another one of my dreams forced me back here?"

"I wanted to see you," Mr. Jongdae answered as he unlocked the office door. "I thought I was getting the impression that you liked me, in a completely platonic way, of course." Kris struggled to hold back laughs.

"Liking you is probably the last thing I would have thought, personally." Mr. Jongdae gestured to the couch while he went back and dug around in his filing cabinet for something; he returned with a salmonella folder. Mr. Jongdae was quite a small man with the type of power he had. There in Qincheng, he had almost the same amount of power the director did. Kris just thought it was odd how they would give such a friendly looking (keyword) guy a position such as a "psychology specialist."

"What are you thinking about?" Mr. Jongdae asked, Kris hadn't realized he had already taken his seat in the couch across from him.

"Nothing." Mr. Jongdae stared at him then after a while, continued with the session. "Obsession and addiction go hand in hand, don't you think so?"

Kris shrugged and leaned back against his seat. "They're two separate things." Mr. Jongdae scoffed.

"Yes, I know that but they work together. If you're obsessed with something, you're most likely addicted to it."

"Not exactly. Obsession is worse."

"Who'd you live with at home?"

Finally, some normal questions. "My mom but me and my girlfriend were thinking about moving to a new place together."

"Has your mom met Jessica?"

"Yeah."

"Does she like her?"

"Yeah." He scribbled something down on his notepad.

"I'll give you a scenario: say I was dating you. With all the information you currently know about me, how would your friends and family react to me?"

Kris groaned but decided to answer. Why did it have to be him that he was pretend dating? "They wouldn't really like you and they'd probably want me to stop dating you."

"Would you listen to them? Would you stop seeing me?"

"I mean, yeah. They're my family and they come first."

"But we're in love." Kris hadn't even realized how involved he was getting into the scenario and Mr. Jongdae silently laughed at his incompentence.

"Then maybe we'd see each other secretly even though when my family finds out they'll probably be hurt and mad." Mr. Jongdae grinned.

He tapped his pencil on his chin before asking, "Can you relate this to anything that happened before you were sent here?"

"If I could remember then yeah, probably." That sour vinegar scent hit him again and the lights started to flicker; Mr. Jongdae seemed unphased and quite calm in comparison to Kris who was starting to panic.

"Looks like we're done here," Mr. Jongdae concluded and he receeded back to his desk as everything went pitch black.

A/N: Symbolism, symbolism, symbolism.