"Youngjae?" Daehyun called out, his low voice echoing slightly against the walls.
 
"Here," Youngjae replied, sticking a hand out to show Daehyun where he was.
 
The sound of footsteps came closer, and Youngjae waited with eyes closed. He felt light-headed.
 
"Holy ," Daehyun whispered. Youngjae peeked past the dumpster to see Daehyun staring at the corpse of the Auxiliary. Daehyun looked up, meeting eyes with Youngjae. "Let's go."
 
Youngjae began to stand up, but Daehyun rushed to stop him. Without another word, Daehyun picked Youngjae up, slowing down only when Youngjae hissed in pain. He gathered fistfuls of Daehyun's shirt, burying his face in the crook of Daehyun's shoulder to muffle the gasps that threatened to escape.
 
"What happened?" Daehyun asked as he began walking.
 
"An Auxiliary shot me," Youngjae replied. "That's it."
 
"We gotta get back to the van," Daehyun said. "If we go now, we'll be able to disinfect that before it gets too bad. Call Himchan."
 
Youngjae reached into his pocket, and dialed Himchan's number.
 
"This better be good," Himchan said. "I just found a hiding spot."
 
"Put it on speaker," Daehyun instructed, and Youngjae pressed the button. "Himchan, get to the van now. Youngjae got shot."
 
There was a pause on Himchan's end, and Youngjae feared the worst. "Alright."
 
//
 
They reached the van within fifteen minutes, and Zico's eyes widened as Daehyun told him to open the back doors. He didn't need to because Himchan was already in the back, supplies laid out before him.
 
"What happened?" Zico asked as Daehyun laid Youngjae on the floor on his stomach.
 
"He got shot," Daehyun replied. He turned to Youngjae. "Are you okay?"
 
Youngjae gave Daehyun a thumbs-up and a weak smile. He was partly surprised he hadn't fallen unconscious yet, but he also wished he had. The wound was getting more unbearable by the minute.
 
"Hmm, at least you had the right mind to stop the bleeding," Himchan said. He cut the sticky cloth, careful to avoid the wound, and peeled it off. He paused his movements, and eventually muttered quietly, "This looks bad."
 
"How bad?" Youngjae asked, craning his neck to look at Himchan. His stomach sank as he saw Himchan's increasingly concerned face.
 
Himchan looked at Youngjae, giving him a quick, reassuring smile before going back to examining the wound; Youngjae wasn't too convinced. "It's not that bad. Trust me. For comparison purposes, it's better than a bullet wound. Easier to handle, too."
 
Youngjae remembered Himchan mentioning something like that when Yongguk had gotten shot. If laser wounds were already this painful, Youngjae didn't want to know what being shot by an Old World gun was like.
 
Youngjae laid back down, closing his eyes, listening to Himchan work. He heard the rustling of cloth, the sloshing of liquid, Himchan's quiet "This might hurt", and then felt a sharp stinging in his leg.
 
Youngjae yelped, holding back the instinctive response to pull his leg away from Himchan, but a hand gripped his ankle to hold it in place. He pressed his forehead to the carpeted floor of the van, trying his best to distract himself from the pain. Tears sprung into the corners of his eyes, and he hurriedly wiped them away.
 
"Just relax," Daehyun whispered, Youngjae's arm. "It'll be okay, Youngjae, you'll be okay."
 
"Easy for you to say," Youngjae spat, his voice muffled slightly. His breath hitched, and his hand darted out to grip something, but ended up clawing at the floor.
 
"If you stopped squirming, this would be a lot easier," Himchan said behind Youngjae. He continued cleaning, occasionally brushing the exposed muscle.
 
A groan tore through the back of Youngjae's throat, and he balled his hands into fists. Burning pinpricks shot up his leg, and he really wished he would just pass out right then and there. He let out a string of quiet curses, trying to just...will the pain away. He knew it wasn't going to work, but he knew it was better than nothing.
 
"If I didn't know any better," Zico piped up from the front, and Youngjae could almost hear the amused smile in his voice, "I'd say you guys are having really weird ."
 
Youngjae groaned again, not in pain (partly from pain), but from embarrassment.
 
"Zico, please" Daehyun said, but his words held a tiny bit of laughter.
 
"Just trying to lighten the mood."
 
//
 
"You're doing well."
 
Youngjae looked up from the needle in his hands to the young man's face. His hands shook slightly, and he wasn't sure if he was stitching the right layer of skin consistently. He continued, and stopped only when the young man stopped speaking, glancing up at the young man in search of guidance or reassurance.
 
"Just keep doing that. You're fine," the young man said. He stayed completely still, and Youngjae wondered how he was able to do that; however, a few minutes later, Youngjae noticed how the young man repeatedly clenched and unclenched his jaw, how he gripped the edge of the chair with his free hand.
 
At least Youngjae knew he wasn't dealing with an android now.
 
"Who can you trust?"
 
Youngjae looked up once again, his hands coming to a stop. "What?"
 
"Choose," the young man said. He had a dark look in his eyes, and Youngjae stared back, feeling the pit of his stomach grow heavy with anxiety.
 
"Choose carefully."
 
Youngjae spun around. Madame Hyosung stood behind him, her hands folded neatly in front of her. She smiled, her teeth glinting in the light.
 
"Pick a side, Youngjae," Madame Hyosung instructed. She unfolded her hands, holding them out to him as if she were welcoming him.
 
"Why do you want to become a brainwashed machine just like the rest of them?!"
 
Youngjae blinked, turning around again and finding the young man––no, Daehyun––standing up and glowering down at Youngjae.
 
"We're not like caged birds! We'll fight if we have to!" Daehyun shouted, but he wasn't looking at Youngjae anymore; he was directing his anger at the Empress. He took a step forward, placing himself between her and Youngjae.
 
"Youngjae," Madame Hyosung said, "who will you choose?"
 
Daehyun turned around to face Youngjae, his anger turning into doubt. Madame Hyosung's complacency melted off her face, quickly replaced by a look of impatience and irritation and outrage.
 
Youngjae opened his mouth to speak. His choice was obvious.
 
Right?
 
//
 
Youngjae woke with a start. His eyes flew open. His breaths came out shallow. He uncurled his sweaty fingers from the bedsheets beneath him.
 
Bedsheets?
 
Youngjae turned his head on the pillow, trying to figure out his surroundings.
 
Was he back home? In New Seoul? What about Daehyun? And the others?
 
"You're awake?"
 
A wave of immense relief washed over Youngjae as he laid eyes on Daehyun. He held a bowl of food, and a bottle of water.
 
"You look...," Daehyun paused, his eyes searching Youngjae's, "horrified."
 
That was what Youngjae felt, but he didn't know why. He knew he had a dream, but he couldn't recall what it was exactly. Daehyun placed the water and bowl on the table beside Youngjae, and then sat on the bed.
 
"Are you okay?" Daehyun asked, turning to Youngjae.
 
"Yeah," Youngjae croaked. He cleared his throat, and nodded in affirmation. Before Daehyun could ask any other questions, Youngjae asked, "Where are we?"
 
"A love hotel," Daehyun replied.
 
Youngjae blinked, finally registering his surroundings. Dim lights, no windows, the smell of permeating from the walls themselves; he was grateful he couldn't hear anything else from the other rooms.
 
"Why?" Youngjae asked. "Where are the others?"
 
"You couldn't stay in the van with them. It's too cramped in there for you to properly heal your leg," Daehyun replied. "They're outside in the parking lot."
 
That's right, Youngjae thought. My leg.
 
Youngjae flexed his leg underneath the sheets just to test its current strength, and ended up hissing in pain as his leg protested the movement. Daehyun immediately relaxed Youngjae, placing a comforting hand on his thigh.
 
"You shouldn't move right now," Daehyun said.
 
"Okay, just...why a love hotel?" Youngjae settled back into the pillows. They were surprisingly softer than he'd imagined.
 
"We figured it's the last place the Legion would look for us," Daehyun explained. "We gotta get moving in the morning, though."
 
"What time is it?" Youngjae realized the room was a bit like the bunker—in the sense that it was difficult to tell time.
 
Daehyun pulled out his phone. "2:53. You've been out for most of the day, which, I guess, is to be expected. You passed out around the time Himchan began sewing your injury shut."
 
Youngjae nodded as he tried to recall the last moments before he passed out. He found he couldn't. Perhaps he was still weary with sleep.
 
"If you're hungry, there's food here," Daehyun said. "Or water if you're thirsty."
 
Youngjae heaved himself up into a sitting position, careful not to move his leg too much. "What kind of food?"
 
Daehyun hesitated before replying. "Instant ramyun."
 
Without any other chance to respond, laughter filled Youngjae's chest, bubbling up to the surface through his mouth. Soon, Daehyun was laughing too, and Youngjae felt somewhat relieved it was just him and Daehyun in this room.
 
"It was the only thing downstairs," Daehyun said, scratching the back of his head in apology. "Sorry."
 
"It's fine," Youngjae replied, reaching forward to brush Daehyun's hair, but ended up jabbing his fingertips into Daehyun's forehead. Holding back laughter, he said, "I can't see a damn thing in here."
 
Daehyun got up, a smile on his lips, and looked for the light switches as Youngjae twisted to pick up the bowl of ramyun. It'd been a while since he smelled the steaming noodles, the cheap spices, the rubbery meat.
 
"Nothing," Daehyun announced nearly a minute later. He came back, and sat down beside Youngjae.
 
Youngjae shrugged, beginning to eat the food. He was temporarily brought back to his first year of college, when he still had an air of high school naivety surrounding him.
 
Daehyun got up off the bed, walking off towards a television in the corner of the room. He opened the cabinet beneath it, and then he turned around to look at Youngjae with a smile. "Let's watch a movie."

"What do they have?" Youngjae asked, though he doubted the movies were anything appropriate.

Daehyun turned back to examine the contents within the cabinet. In a slightly disappointed voice, he said, "They're all ographic..."

Youngjae laughed. He'd never heard a man sound so apathetic about ography before. "Hand me the TV remote. Maybe we can watch something."

Closing the cabinet, Daehyun got up off his knees, and gave the small remote to Youngjae.

After thirty minutes of looking for something decent, they ended up watching a show about the Old World with an unrealistic romance and cheesy dialogue. Every couple minutes, Daehyun made a sharp remark about how bad the characters were acting, how the sets were so obviously fake, how the costumes were so outrageous even for Old World attire, and Youngjae had to hit his leg just to get him to stay quiet.

By the time sunrise rolled around, the early morning cartoons had begun to air, and Daehyun and Youngjae found out they enjoyed those far better.
 
//
 
Youngjae was grateful that no clerks were present when they left. He didn't feel like explaining why he was limping––let alone face the awkward situation they'd encounter when he'd explain that he wasn't limping because he and Daehyun were not having rigorous ual the entirety of the night.
 
"Do you need any help?" Daehyun asked, slowing his usual walking pace to at least half to match Youngjae's.
 
Youngjae shook his head, determined to walk on his own. He winced at every effort to just move his leg, and he hobbled after Daehyun, his hand occasionally darting out to hold onto Daehyun's arm.

It took fifteen minutes just to reach the van.

"Hey, old man," Junhong joked as Youngjae was lifted into the van.

Youngjae laughed once humorlessly as the others inside chuckled. He fell into a seat beside Junhong without much grace, as if he was only proving Junhong's point.

"How's your leg?" Himchan asked. He stared at Youngjae's leg, his eyebrows furrowed. "I might need to check on it later."

"Alright," Youngjae said.

Daehyun closed the doors behind him. Yongguk turned to look at them, his face serious.

"It's unfortunate that Youngjae's gotten injured, but we can work around this," Yongguk said. "We'll just wait a couple days for Youngjae to recover."

"A couple weeks, more like," Himchan said. Everybody's eyes landed on him, and he continued. "Didn't you guys see Youngjae? No offense to you, Youngjae, but your pain tolerance isn't all that high. It'll take at least a week for you to get used to that wound in your leg, and then another couple weeks for it to heal enough for you at least limp without having to stumble every few steps."

Youngjae blinked. Three weeks. That was nearly an entire month. Could they afford that much time?

"Where will we stay during that time?" Daehyun asked.

It occurred to Youngjae that maybe they could stay at Jieun's home, but...he couldn't risk her life like that. He also didn't have anybody else he could turn to. She was a kind woman, though. She wouldn't mind that, would she?

"Guys, um, I have an idea," Youngjae said.

//

Youngjae stood in front of Jieun's door, waiting for her to answer. He hoped she hadn't left for the cafe yet. It was still early, anyway.

Second later, the door flew open, revealing a partially dressed Jieun. She hurriedly buttoned up the rest of her shirt before speaking. "Youngjae?!"

Youngjae's hand flew up to shush Jieun. "Jieun, please, I have a really big favor to ask you. Just to clarify, you don't have to. You can just say no."

Jieun relaxed, staring at Youngjae. In a lower voice, she asked, "What's going on?"

Youngjae took a deep breath. He hated to take advantage of Jieun like this, but he had nobody else to turn to. He trusted nobody else quite like Jieun, either. "We kinda need a place to stay for the time being."

Jieun opened , closed it, then opened it again. "Who's 'we'?"

"The...guys you saw on the news," Youngjae replied, biting his bottom lip. He twisted around, nodding towards the van parked by the curb behind him. He was getting tired standing, and his leg was beginning to grow weak. "It's just going to be for a couple weeks, and we'll be gone."

"Five other guys, huh?" Jieun mused. "Look, I don't have a lot of room, but I'll see what I can do. Are they all in there?"

Youngjae nodded, turning to face the van again, and signaled it was okay to move. Quickly, everybody filed out, and walked up to Jieun's door. Jieun stared with wide eyes as they shifted uneasily on their feet. She moved out of the way, and let them all in. Daehyun somehow found his way to the front, an let Youngjae lean on him for support.

"Youngjae, what's wrong with your leg?" Jieun asked, her eyebrows pulling together with worry.

Youngjae shook his head. "It's nothing. Just a minor injury."

Once everybody had settled in and introductions had been exchanged, Jieun stood there, taking everything in.

"Okay... This will be interesting," Jieun said. "I have to open up the cafe soon, but I'm going to trust you guys. Youngjae, if I see one thing out of place, I'm chopping off your balls. You guys can use the kitchen, though. Actually, no, please don't use the kitchen. Just, um, when I come back from my shift, I'll sort everything out."

Youngjae gulped at the thought.

Jieun headed down one of the halls to finish getting ready. Somehow, Youngjae was glad he came to Jieun, but at the same time, he regretted it. She could be prosecuted, or even worse, executed, for simply talking to them. Who knew what kind of punishment she'd get for housing them? Was this really the best choice?

//

Himchan decided to begin inspecting Youngjae's leg the second Jieun walked out the door, and Yongguk called together another meeting.

"Three weeks is enough time, right?" Youngjae asked.

Himchan paused, and nodded. "It's approximate, but I'm being generous here."

"Three weeks is kind of a stretch, isn't it?" Youngjae continued. "What if the citizens lose interest?"

"They haven't," Jongup said, shaking his head.

Yongguk nodded, crossing his arms. "Jongup's right. People have been organizing their own separate uprisings, which is good because that gives us enough time to work out any other kinks in our plan."

Zico coughed, muttering a quiet, "Nerd."

Yongguk side-glanced Zico, but, other than that, ignored him.

Zico stood up, stretching his arms. "Well, I should gather my own group. We'll drop off some weapons later. Would you like express or standard mail delivery?"

"Surprise me," Yongguk replied. "Don't die, Zico."

"I'll do my best," Zico said, giving Yongguk a lazy Legion salute, and Yongguk returned the gesture. "See you s later."

A chorus of "Bye" echoed around the room as Zico exited the apartment.

"So," Daehyun started after a few silent moments, "Breakfast."

"Let's break into a bakery," Youngjae said, smiling when Daehyun laughed.

Yongguk shrugged. "Junhong and I can go get something. You up for that, Junhong?"

"Hell yeah," Junhong replied with an eager smile.

//

Jieun came back in the late afternoon, her arms full of groceries. Yongguk and Himchan immediately went to help her, and she smiled at them as they lifted the bags out of her hands.

"Wasn't there one more of you guys?" Jieun asked, glancing from face to face curiously.

"Zico left a couple hours ago," Yongguk replied. "Oh, we, uh, bought some food from a convenience store, and we used your microwave. Sorry about that."

Jieun waved a hand dismissively. "You guys didn't burn anything down, so you're alright. Some ground rules, though." Jieun walked out of the kitchen into the living room, her hands on her hips. "Just don't make it seem like you guys aren't going to be here for the next couple weeks. I don't know what you guys do, but you guys leave me alone, and I'll leave you guys alone. Are we clear?"

Everybody nodded.

Jieun nodded back, and headed back into the kitchen. "I'm going to make dinner. Who wants to help?"

Nearly everybody, save for Youngjae, stood up, and went into the kitchen.

"No! I don't need all of you! There's not enough room in here!" Jieun exclaimed, shoving everybody out.

Youngjae smiled, hoping their lives could just say like this, the scent of fresh bread wafting in from the kitchen, the clamoring of everybody in the kitchen, the sight of them trying to maneuver around each other in the cramped kitchen. The place was warm and welcoming.

Youngjae realized that his lives had intersected, and he also realized how happy he was, despite his situation.

 A/N: Bit of a longer chapter than usual because I should be studying (lol because what is logic). Hell yeah priorities. 

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