"You," X started, giving a final turn to the helmet in her hands before looking up to meet U-Kwon's eyes. "Have to wear these when you go out?"

"Yeah," He said, widening his eyes briefly. "The atmosphere's , you know?"

She slowly nodded. "I know."

"Have you never been out, X?" P.O asked, fastening a halter loaded with large darts around his waist. They seemed to be the ammunition the strange tube on his back required to function. 

"I," X started, eyeing the sharp, glistening points of the ammo and wondering if all they really did was stun. She looked up and caught Zico staring at her from across the garage, his hand poised over his bike's controls. His gaze didn't waver, and she realized it was because he wanted her to know that he was listening, that she was being monitored. As if she didn't already, she thought, the usual spot on the nape of her neck starting to ache. "Haven't."

"You haven't been missing much," P.O shrugged. "Anything worth seeing was destroyed a while ago."

X raised her eyebrows. She didn't agree, but it wasn't really the time or place to voice her opinions; not with Jaehyo's glare burning the spot between her shoulder blades from less than a metre away.  

"Let's go." Zico voiced, tossing his helmet into the air and catching it when it hovered above his head, pulling it on in one movement. 

The rest of the members followed his lead much less flashily. 

"Do you even know how to drive?" Jaehyo growled, his voice guttural as he passed even closer behind X. 

The girl narrowed her eyes, putting on her helmet. It wasn't really possible for her to feel threatened when her aggressor was such a wimp. Despite any airs he might have put on recently, she'd seen enough to know he was nothing but a pushover. She pulled on her helmet, not even bothering to look at it, then mounted and started her bike. 

There was no way she'd be left behind.

-

It was hard to make his eyes focus in the dim light. 

"Get out." A voice said. It was a whisper. It should have been soft. It wasn't.

He managed to make out the figure of a girl, maybe 20 years old. She was sitting, her knees tucked under her, her arms cradling something. No. Someone. 

"X-x-xi-" He stuttered. His hands were wet and they hurt. He couldn't think straight.

He couldn't remember anything except he really, really didn't want to be hated. 

"Get out." The voice cut him off, this time the edge was impossible to ignore. It felt like a knife in the gut.

He didn't want to be anything but loved.

His breathing had started to become dangerously shallow when, suddenly, lights of a passing car flashed momentarily into their little world. 

Red. It was all red. His hands were covered in blood. 

Xiang's tear streaked face glared at him unblinkingly. Xiu lied, lifeless, on her lap. Red. Red. Red.

-

When Jiu woke up, his cold sweat had already soaked his clothes through and through. After realizing his tangled sheets were the cause of his feeling of suffocation and kicking them off, he sat up to grab his glasses. His hands were shaking so bad it took him almost three minutes to put them on. 

"Commander, sir," One of his assistant said tentatively through the intercom, "You have a meeting in an hour."

-

"Don't be afraid, it's only love. Don't be afraid, it's only love. Don't be afraid, it's only love. Don't be afraid, it's only love." The clear voice rang through the hallway, bleeding into the rest of the small building. "Love is simple." X turned a corner and kept walking. She kicked in on of the closed doors only to find another empty room. "Love is simple." She turned up the sheets and checked inside and behind all of the furniture. "Love is simple." She turned and went to do the same with the room across from that one. "Don't be afraid, you're already dead."

Jaehyo walked up the stairs and into the floor from the side opposite from which she had come, putting him only a few meters away from the room she had just entered. 

"Don't be afraid, you're already dead." He crossed the distance easily. "Don't be afraid, you're already dead." He grabbed her shoulder and spun her around roughly, adjusting his grip so his hand rested around , raising her up only slightly so she stood on her toes. "Don't be afraid, you're already dead."

"Love is simple." She just stared at him, singing slightly lower due to the newly added pressure disrupting her windpipe. He only glared.

Suddenly, a hand came down on his shoulder. He dropped his hand- the heels of her feet reuniting gladly with the floor-, the veins in his neck still bulging. "Love is simple." Zico turned his gaze to her. There was a question in his eyes, but he didn't ask it. Not a minute after, a couple more of the boys walked in, signaling that the inspection was over. "Love is simple."

The boys turned to follow without a glance back in her direction. "Love is simple." She sang again, finally starting after them. Two out of seven of the boys in the block had already tried to strangle her and all she could do was hope that that number wouldn't increase; not because it hurt her or anything, but it wasn't exactly a pleasant experience, either. "La la la la la la la la la." 

"La la la la la la la la la. La la la la la la la la."

"What are you even doing?" P.O asked.

X looked up at him, finally ending the song. "What do you mean what am I doing?" She stared at him for a moment to see if he was serious. "I'm singing." 

He frowned. "What?"

"Singing." She repeated. "A song." By this time, her eyebrows were drawn as close together as the boys had ever seen them and she was leaning forwards, towards him, as they walked. "Music? Haven't you ever heard music?"

"What's that?" Taeil asked.

She leaned back, literally taken aback, her breathing deepening. "It's-" She paused. "It's-" She took a few more breaths, seemingly troubled. "It's like, it's like-" Her hands flew up to her head, her eyes slamming shut, her lids smashing together. 

"X?" Taeil asked, concerned. 

"Never mind." She snapped. "Just forget it." She dropped her arms to her sides and opened her eyes, her disposition disturbingly changed.

Zico and Kyung stared at her, their thoughts startlingly different. Jaehyo just forged on ahead.

"Come on," P.O said, lightly touching the side of her arm with his fingertips and walking ahead.

She went along without hesitation this time, the light of her eye noticeably dulled.

-

"That was odd." Kyung noted.

"Yeah," B-Bomb agreed, flopping down until the couch back at their block. "They were, like, waiting for her."

"Did they ask you if we were heading back?" Taeil asked Zico, who was just sitting, rea