Soora's POV

“Let's start over then, okay?”, Yongguk suggested with his deep voice while I was scanning the, now visible, ground. Okay, that really made a difference, everything looked much brighter now. I nodded with a shy smile and a glance at Zelo, who was rearranging things in a cupboard in order to get his own stuff out of it, putting it into a green backpack. So he'd really come back with me? Yongguk smiled brightly, showing me his gums. “Alright, I'm Bang Yongguk”, he stated, winking at me and we shook hands.

“My name's Kim Soora. Sorry for my behavior earlier, it wasn't appropriate...”

“Well, sorry for the mess. I...euh...” He looked at Zelo who didn't see his gaze, obviously searching for a reason why the apartment was untidy. He didn't think I knew about the Untouchables, I figured. “I threw....a fit...But I don't have a problem with my aggressions! I mean-”

“She knows everything”, Zelo explained casually without raising his head and I chuckled at Yongguk's thunderstruck expression.

“Why am I even trying to hide it?”, Yongguk asked while covering his face with his hand, but he then frowned, looking at Zelo. “You know that it's not good to tell everyone about them, right?”

The stick-figure rolled with his eyes. “Sure, but she was the one who kept me from getting caught for the past two weeks, she's as curious as Yongnam, I say.” Yongguk's frown deepened, but he decided that it wasn't worth the discussion. Who is Yongnam? Nevermind...

“Just in case you're worried: I can keep secrets”, I stated, raising my hand as if I was at school and Yongguk grinned a little.

“I don't doubt that”, he said with a last unsure glance at the younger male before clapping his hands. “Are you hungry? I could make fried eggs?” Zelo's and my stomach started grumbling at the same time and he took it as a 'yes', walking up to the small kitchen with a smile. “Are you going to that school I met you at? The one for the rich kids?”, he asked while preparing the food and I sat down on the sofa. Those blankets were unbelievably soft and it was like sitting on clouds – one of them was a bit furry. Don't judge a book by its cover or an person by its appearance, I thought while running my hand through the short and soft fur, shrugging in reply to Yongguk's question. “I admit it's expensive, but that aside, it's not any different from any other school...I guess. So I heard you're an orphan too?”

Yongguk shrugged, just like me and grinned while shooting me a glance. “You don't choose your family background.”

I could only nod. “Word!”, I agreed and we chuckled together. I stood up again, looking at the small pictures that were hanging at the walls, when suddenly, I spotted something interesting. And by interesting, I mean funny. And by funny, I mean a picture of the stick-figure. “Ze~lo?”, I whistled and he turned around with a frown before seeing what I saw.

I'm sure he got paler. “Ah, that... It's just the light! They didn't actually have that color and-”

“Liar”, Yongguk stopped Zelo's explanation before flashing a smile again and looking at me. “He wanted his hair to be red, just like mine at that time, but he made a mistake and it turned out to be pink.”

I raised an eyebrow, smiling at Zelo – whose ears were reddening – smugly. He then darted forward, grabbing the picture of him with pink hair and putting it into the cupboard he had just roamed around in to hide it. “Let's not talk about this”, he hissed in embarrassment and I laughed out loud, because of his sudden mood swing. In Japan, Himchan had taught me, that was called a “tsundere”. Why didn't we have a word for that, it described the stick-figure perfectly! I agreed, secretly memorizing that I'd have to ask Yongguk for a picture of this later via SNS.

I stretched my back, yawning, because I had been awake since early in the morning, and sat down on the sofa again. “You can sleep if you're tired”, Yongguk stated casually, but Zelo seemed to be against it, walking up to his hyung.

“Yongguk-hyung, it's her fault if she didn't sleep enough”, he grumbled silently, leaning against Yongguk and...well, I'm sure this could be described as a backhug. I suppressed the urge to utter a silent “aww” and swallowed it down while watching the two guys. As Yongguk didn't do anything to stop Zelo, I figured that he did this more often. To underline my guess, the older one chuckled.

“Jealous?”, he asked teasingly, but Zelo shook his head, staring at the eggs that were frying in the pan.

“Just hungry”, he groaned, letting go of him and taking out some seemingly-old plates to put the food on it. That's when he met my gaze and I must have had some kind of grin on my face, because he glared at me while his ears ran red at the same time. “What?”, he snapped and another chuckle could be heard from Yongguk.

“Ah, nothing”, I mumbled casually, my grin becoming a bright smile as I leaned back on my seat until Yongguk served the food.

Zelo grumbled something like “the odds are stacked against me” as he sat down on the floor, which made me frown. “Don't you want to sit on the sofa?”, I asked, but the stick-figure shook his head.

“No, thanks. I usually eat like this when I don't have to watch my manners”, he stated with a straight face, but I could hear a tiny accusation in the way he said it, flinching a little, but Yongguk sat down beside me casually as if he didn't notice it.

“So, you were at the orphanage? How was it?”

We remained silent for a few seconds until I cleared my throat and Zelo answered: “It was okay, the kids were as loud as always. We ordered pizza, but I told you that already...You should come by more often, they miss you a lot, you know? How's work going?”

I glanced at Yongguk, noticing that I didn't know what kind of job he had and he shrugged. “Everything's fine. Much to do for someone who's running from an underground organization, but it's okay as long as you're fine.” He gazed at me with a smirk as I put a spoonful of egg in my mouth. “And it seems like you are.” Zelo choked on his food, catching for breath, but I didn't even look at him.

“What are you working as, Yongguk-sshi?”, I asked as polite as I could, but he glared at me and I corrected myself right away. “I mean...Yongguk.”

“Well, I...” He scratched the back of his head, smirking in embarrassment. “I deliver food from several shops, depending on the daytime. I'm currently having...four different jobs...but it's not like I have to steal to make a living, I just-”

“It's okay to have more than one job, where's the problem?”, I interrupted him as it seemed like he was trying not to make a false impression, because he didn't anyway. “Jongup works part-time at a restaurant, but he's actually a dance teacher, there's no problem with that. In fact, it's the other way round: you must know every corner of this city, huh? Amazing!”

Yongguk looked surprised at my blunt reply, just to show me a bright gummy smile a moment later, obviously relieved. “Not the whole city, but I'd say I know quite a lot of places. And how long will you be going to school?”

I swallowed my food, feeling stupid in front of the two guys all of a sudden. Zelo was only a few months older and yet he had dropped out of school in order to start working and...what did he do when he didn't go to school by the way? Ask him later, I told myself, making it another point on my To-Do-List. “I'm going to be done next year”, I explained.

Zelo finished his serving, letting the plate chink loudly. “I'm done with packing. We can go back to your house now”, he stated coldly and stood up, grabbing the backpack with his laptop, a book and a few clothes and put on his shoes.

“We have to go already?”, I whined, not knowing whether to look at Yongguk or him, but the latter's cold eyes didn't allow any backtalk and I bowed my head as I stood up too. “Fine, I'm coming.”

On the other hand, Yongguk's eyes were as warm as a summer's day. “Come back whenever you want to, I'll be here”, he said with a wink and I smiled at him. I understood what Zelo liked about him, he was the definition of what is good.

“Come on, let's go or we'll miss the bus”, Zelo muttered impatiently as he hugged Yongguk one last time before opening the door. They could be some gay couple if you saw them like that, but I knew that Zelo was behaving like that, because he had no one else to confide in, which didn't make the whole thing look less cute, though not so gay.

Yongguk and I shook hands and exchanged another glance before Zelo dragged me down the staircase, definitely not liking that Yongguk and I got on well. “Bye, Yongguk!”, I shouted up the stairs and I could hear his deep voice as he chuckled a silent “bye, Soora” until we stepped out of the house. “Why are you that impatient?”, I started nagging, but Zelo just let go of me, trudging towards the bus stop silently. My phone rang and I looked at the new message.

“Who is it? Rainbow-hair or grape-head?”, he hissed as I tried to keep up with him.

From: Yongguk

“Totally jealous, here have some pink hair.”

I suppressed my laughter when I saw a picture of the failed red hair, lightly punching Zelo's arm. Yongguk totally knew what I was thinking. “Just Daehyun, asking me what I'm doing.”

“He's such a stalker”, the stick-figure replied, not hiding his child-like anger and I chuckled with a silent hum as if to agree.

“You bet he is.”

Our bus ride was quite uneventful, since Zelo didn't accept my earbuds anymore and I shurgged it off just like that. Then, when I wanted to get off at our station, Zelo grabbed my shoulder, pulling me back and we drove past my street without stopping. “Hey, we missed-”

His gaze made me shut up and frown instead of complaining and we got off two stops later, at the main shopping street, where many people were walking past by now – it was about twelve o'clock. I hated crowds, but I didn't dare to ask until Zelo had dragged me through several stores and a restaurant's emergency exit, slowing down. I caught for breath, my hands resting on my knees and I glared at him. “You should tell me that you want to go shopping the next time, instead of just dragging me along.”

Zelo rolled with his eyes, glancing around a corner before flinching. “They were on the bus. They know I was at home. I thought we'd be able to lose them in the crowd”, he whispered urgently and my frown transformed into a wide eyed expression.

“The Untouch-”

“Shh.” I bit my lower lip in order to stop talking and he waved me closer, signalizing me to peek around the corner. “You see the man with the short hair? Looking like some kind of monk of maybe thirty years?”, he whispered right at my ear and I nodded. “He is called 'Sleepy' and he is one of the two founders of the organization. He may be called sleepy, but he's as cunning as a cobra. You should run as soon as you see him.”

I nodded again, my brain memorizing every single detail of the man's face. “Anyone else I need to be aware of?”

“To his left, there are two other guys of the organization. I don't know their names though, just don't get too close to them.”

The tension in his voice made me glance at him and I saw his concentrated, calculating eyes. “Don't get involved?”, I suggested and Zelo lowered his gaze with a nod.

“Don't get involved”, he agreed before turning around and walking away, back to the bus. “If we can get on the next bus without them, they won't know where we're going, so hurry up a little.” I followed silently, knowing that there was nothing I could help him with since this was his specialty and not mine. My body was tensed up and my breath heavy until we got to the bus stop, but everything worked as he wanted it to work and I sighed in relief when the doors of the bus closed and we drove back home.

“And you experience this every day?”

Zelo shrugged. “At least I'm in peak form because of them”, he replied, showing me a sad and half-hearted smirk as we got off the vehicle at my street, walking up the short path to my house.

Sleepy, I thought over and over again to memorize his strange nickname. There was an idea forming in my head, but it would take some time to make a good plan out of it. Still, it would help Zelo and maybe solve his problems. Well, at least one of them, but that was worth a little bit of thinking.

“I'm going to sleep some more”, Zelo stated, bolting into his room and leaving me in the corridor.

“Who is the one who should be called 'sleepy' huh? Telling me not to nag, because I stood up too early, but being tired himself. That guy...”, I grumbled while walking up the stairs into my room.

“Soora, is that you?”, I heard Hye-sun's voice shout from the kitchen.

“Yes, I'm home!”, I shouted back before moving on to my desk and my computer.

I opened my mailbox, scanning the titles for something important until I saw something and my face brightened up right away. Grandma had replied!

“Dear Soora,

Of course you can come! Bring as many friends as you like, we need all the help we can get. Your grandpa is tuckered out too fast to do it by himself kekeke

See you next week-end then? I'm looking forward to it!

Granny”

I smiled brightly as I wrote a short reply before going downstairs to help Hye-sun. This will be fun. This will be veeery fun, I thought as I helped preparing lunch with our maid.

What is Soora up to? And what will happen with Sleepy? Questions everywhere (/o.o)/

Well, we're soon going to be at my main point, I'm expecting you all to stay with me!

Kirin~