The moment Minah stepped into her school gates, she was snatched away with a jacket covering her face. She was dragged along to an unknown location, but she could tell that she was at school when she heard the first bell ring. She tried to fight back, but she figured that a few boys her grabbing onto her. She couldn't compete against their strength—they were obviously much stronger than her.

The jacket fell down and Minah was finally able to see. Her eyes were wide as she noticed faces—familiar faces—give her a solemn look of disappointment or guilt. She dropped her jaws, trying to think of something to say. She looked in front of her and saw Chanyeol leaning against the janitorial cabinet. He was holding a ring of keys, circling it around his index finger.

He stopped twirling the keys and looked at her. His dark gaze only made Minah cringe. She knew that he was mad, but she wasn't sure exactly why. Chanyeol pulled out his phone with his other free hand.

"Oh, hey Minah," he greeted her. His deep voice sent chills down her spine.

"What's up?" she asked casually, trying to keep up her optimistic tone. "Oh, is this another task I have to do?"

"I wish it was, but recently, I've been having an itch that you've been betraying me," he said. He sighed and scratched his head. "Tell me, did you do anything on your birthday?"

Minah's eyes widened even more. "So you knew! You set up that beach day knowing that it was my birthday, and you invited my friends to that beach party without me!"

Chanyeol give her a curious look. He raised an eyebrow, examining her and watching her only grow more frustrated as time passed. Then, he looked down at his shoes and began to snicker at her. He stopped leaning against the cabinet and walked over towards her. He leaned forward, causing Minah to arch her back backwards.

"What friends?" he taunted. "You never had friends in her first place. I only let you borrow those girls. You know that."

Minah's cheeks began to color. "Y-You… What do you want?"

"Nothing. I want absolutely nothing from you now," he said. He tapped on his smart phone and showed Minah a collection of pictures from her birthday. She gasped and kept quiet, stunned at the fact that she was being spied. "Your so-called 'friends' sent me these. You were spending time with my girlfriend, who was hanging out with two guys I despise. Tell me, why?"

Should I tell him? Minah gulped. Do I tell him?

"Maybe if I lock you up in here it'll teach you a lesson," he muttered. He used the key to open the closet. He swung one side, where there was a mop leaning against the side. He took out the mop and gestured his companions to push Minah inside.

Minah scowled and tried to struggle out of the boys' grasp. "You're making a mistake, Chanyeol! What if the teacher finds me here? Don't think that I won't report you!"

Chanyeol smirked as he watched her being shoved into the narrow closet. She was about to claw on of the boy's arm until Chanyeol slammed the door close, hurting her wrist and causing her to retract. She could only see the small beam of light coming from the narrow strip between the two doors. With a small click, she began to user her hand to slam against the door.

"Park Chanyeol! Open this right now!" she screamed.

"Put her down in the basement. No one goes there anymore. Make sure it's cold down there, too." She heard Chanyeol give instructions to his friends. "Oh, and if this wasn't clear to you, Bang Minah, if you ever find a way out, you're not with the crew anymore. I'm kicking you out." His statement left Minah stunned, and he only let out a chuckle. "Well, you're probably not getting out of there. The only way to open this door is from the outside, anyway. Let's go."

She only let out a few more screams and pounded her fist against the wall, but once she heard another door shut from the outside, she knew that she was completely alone.

* * *

Jiyong snapped his eyes open. Panting, he sat straight up and wiped away his drool from his mouth. He looked around, only to discover that he was in the employee's room, snoring away on the sofa. The manager came inside, then frowned at Jiyong.

"You were sleeping," the manager told him. "Break time was over twenty minutes ago."

"S-Sorry," he stuttered. It was the first time in a while since he had stuttered. He got up and bowed apologetically to his boss. The manager studied him, then sighed as he pointed to the door.

"Well? You better go out there, boy. It's slow business, but that doesn't mean I should be doing everything on my own," the manager said.

"Yes, sir!" replied Jiyong. He slipped on his shoes and walked out of the employee's room. He sighed and wiped his forehead, realizing that the door was open to let the warm air lurk into the room. The brilliant sunlight beamed down throw the windows, generating more unwanted heat. 

Summer's coming real soon, he realized, sighing. He walked behind the counter and rested his chin on his forehead, thinking about what he had been dreaming when he was asleep.

The only thing he could recall was taking care of the lonely bird he had seen in his earlier dreams. This bird wasn't a chick, though. Rather, it was a beautiful gray-feathered parrot, surrounded by other tropical-colored parrots. However, the parrot had grown lonely once the other birds left. He tried to befriend the lonely parrot, but it would only start plucking its feathers. Soon, it began to grow hideous; it looked like a roughly bird with a beautiful parrot head attached to the bare body. It looked like it was in a hopeless situation. Jiyong was sure that the bird would grow ugly. He wouldn't even try to touch the bird—the flying creature only freaked him out.

But there was another bird—an unidentifiable bird—that flew in to help out the parrot when Jiyong wouldn't. It held a chick in its beak and gave the chick to the parrot, who had nothing else to do with it at first. A smile had grown on Jiyong's lips when he saw the parrot finally play with the chick and have its feathers grow back. It became the beautiful bird again, except it was more attractive and he was compelled to look at the parrot with undeniable awe.

He let out a sigh until a customer walked in. He straightened his back and greeted the customer, but only relaxed when he saw Jieun walk into the store. For a minute, he studied her movements, noticing that she was awkwardly moving one arm towards the objects on display. His eyes widened when he saw her turn and reveal another ugly mark on her face.

Except this time, Jieun wasn't able to cover it up. The deep purple-green mark covered almost over a quarter of her face. It surrounded her eye like a group of mean children circling around the victim—the victim whose eyes only showed deep fear and shared secret questions that no one could answer. On the other side her head was another bruise, except this time it was a lot closer to her ear. Chanyeol had clearly gone overboard this time. Jiyong could only image how Jieun had felt when her boyfriend boxed her ears to make it turn to such a worrisome shade.

"He knows," Jieun croaked out, looking away.

It took a minutes for Jiyong to figure out what she was saying. He held his breath and his lips, trying to think of something to say. He couldn't comfort her anymore—that would be stupid. 

"I…" Jiyong gulped. "I don't know what to say."

"You don't have to say anything," she said softly. She looked over to the counter. "Did Minah come?"

He shook his head. "No. As a matter of fact, she's late."

She let out a shaky sigh. "Chanyeol must've caught her, too."

"Caught her?"

"Some idiot sent him pictures of us celebrating Minah's birthday. Chanyeol got mad and…" She pointed to her face. "Well, this happened."

"You don't look surprised."

"Oh, I'm not!" She let out a sarcastic laugh, then withdrew her breath into a shaky sigh. "Then I was being dumb and I started to argue against him. Then I got this." She pointed to her ear. "After that, I told him that I would leave the house and just took off without grabbing my stuff."

Jiyong raised an eyebrow. "When did this all happen?"

"This morning. Chanyeol was out late partying at the beach." Jieun looked down at her scarred hands then sighed. "I was hoping I'd last more than this. I feel pathetic."

"Hey, don't be so hard on yourself. You did great. In fact, I didn't think you'd last that long. Then again, you were pretty stupid," he said, trying to smile. 

"Mhm. I wonder how stupid I was to stay in that place," she muttered softly. 

"So what are you going to do? Where are you going to sleep?" he asked her.

"Yeah, um, about that…" She gave him a sheepish look. "I was hoping I could stay at your place for a bit…?"

Jiyong widened his eyes. "What."

"I'm sorry, but I realized that I have nowhere else to go! It's either your place or the public restroom down the park, and who knows what kind of creepy stuff happens at night!"

"I can't bring you over! The landlord would kill me! I've signed up for a one-man contract, not two. If he finds out that I'm letting a girl stay a while, then I'll be kicked out. That place is the cheapest place for me to stay," he quickly explained. He ran his fingers through his hair. "I can't believe it. I can't believe you're telling me all this." He began to pale. "What if the landlord finds out and calls the police? Oh geez, I can probably get in jail for bringing a minor into my house without parental permission."

Jieun's shoulder sagged a bit. "So I'm just a minor, huh?"

"Can't you stay at a frie—" He stopped when he realized that Jieun's only friend was Jiho. Did Jiho have a sister or something? He couldn't quite remember, but I was thinking that it wasn't appropriate for her to stay at Jiho's house for a few days. It would bother his parents.

Damn it, why aren't you more social! he cursed, pressing his lips together. Seeing his disturbed expression, Jieun only took a deep breath and forced a smile. 

"You know what? It's fine. I'll be okay. I'll just apologize to Chanyeol and hope that I can make him happy again," she told him. Her fake smile softened into a genuine one. "After all, he did have a good side to him…"

Watching her reminisce the passed pained Jiyong. He wanted to help her—he really did—but he couldn't break the rules. In fact, he had never broken any rules except for one, and even today, he feels guilty about breaking that one rule. He wasn't as "chill" as Jiho, who broke the rules every freaking time he had the chance to. He was more obidient and new how the law worked around him. Law was one of the powerful forces he had to deal with, fair or not.

"Alright, here's the thing," Jiyoung started. "I'll let you stay at my house only for tonight. After that, you got to go and find some kind of shelter. This might be a sign, Jieun. It might be a sign for you to start and make some real friends."

Jieun let out a small chuckle. "Friends? How can I make friends when Chanyeol is the one ruling all of them? They're all his puppets—everyone knows that."

"Then maybe you got to find someone who's not a puppet," Jiyong told her. He looked around, then pulled out a cigarette for him to smoke indoors. "Maybe there's someone who's not in the palm of his hands."

"Do you believe in that?" she asked him curiously.

"Do you believe in a beautiful gray parrot?" he questioned her.

She raised an eyebrow. "Huh?"

"Nothing," he sputtered, shaking his head. He let out a puff of gray smoke, watching it float into the air and drag itself towards the opened door. "It's absolutely nothing…" He stopped for a minute, then reached into his pocket. "Oh yeah. Forgot this."

He handed her a small box, to which she cautiously took with two hands. She looked at him with a funny expression, causing him to stifle out a laugh. He smiled gently and gestured her to open it. She did as she was instructed, carefully opening the box. Her eyes widened when she saw a tiny Rubix Cube at the size of her pinky.

"What is this?" she finally asked him.

"Birthday present," he explained. "It's coming up, but I have a feeling that I won't be seeing you on your birthday. So, here it is."

"You think it's a good idea to give me a Rubix Cube?" she asked, judging him a bit. She stared at the cube a little longer. "It's all messed up, too."

"Solve it, then I'll grant you a wish," he declared. "Any wish."

Her facial expression brightened up. "Anything?"

"Anything," he confirmed, nodding his head. He watched her cheeks grow bright red. "What? Do you already have a wish in mind?"

She bit her bottom lip. "N-No!"

But it was clear to him that she did have something in mind, and something in his guts made him think he knew exactly what she was looking forward to once she solved the cube.

* * *

"Find him!"

Jiho dashed down the calls and jumped down the stairs, panting hard as he tried to run away from Chanyeol's pestering minions. He knew that Chanyeol was mad at him for hanging out with Jieun. He figured that Chanyeol discovered the celebration when he saw Jieun's terrible face in the morning.

Still, she's beautiful, he thought warmly, grinning. He stopped when he heard some more clanging noises. He further climbed down the stairs, tapping his toes against the marbled floor as quietly as he could. He stopped every time he heard foot steps stopping on the ground, and waited for it to fade away. When it was completely gone, he climbed even further down.

The basement was one of his safe zones. Nobody knew it, but he found out a way to get himself into the basement without the keys. The basement only locked from the outside, but you could open the door from the outside and the inside. As long as he knew the special tactic, he could get himself in and one of the basement with ease. The only trouble he would face would be when the enemies cornered him down the basement, but that never happened because no one liked climbing down the long rows of stairs.

Jiho reached into his pocket and took out a bobby pin. He fiddled with the key hold for a few minutes, then heard a small click! that told him the door was opened. He looked around, listening for any more foot steps or shouting. When he thought he was clear, he swung the door open and closed it behind him. He ran over to the janitorial closet, where he usually found a mop to act as a lock for the inside.

He stopped when he saw the mop sprawled on the floor. He scrunched his eyebrows, reaching down to pick it up. He walked over to the door, used the mop to jam the door knob, and stepped away for a bit. 

Do the janitors come down here anymore? he wondered. If he was correct, the janitors were using mops in the janitorial closet, which was a floor above where he was standing. It was strange to see the cleaning equipment all over the ground, too. From what he remembered, the school had pretty clean janitors.

Sniff…

Jiho scrambled against the wall and looked around him with wide eyes. He quickly reached for a broom and examined the area. He waited for another sound, but heard nothing else after the sniffle.

Can't be my imagination, he thought, narrowing his eyes. No one—absolutely no one—should be in the basement except for him. He looked around the small area, trying to figure out where he had heard the noise. If it was some kind of radio, he wanted to turn it off. The noise could attract Chanyeol's friend into coming here.

Zzzz…

Jiho jumped and pointed his broom at the janitorial cabinet. He narrowed his eyes, approaching the cabinet with a keen gaze. If the object was a cat or a mouse, he was prepared to toss it out the basement window. He tapped his finger against the cabinet, waiting for some kind of rattling response. Instead, he was returned with some sleepy moans. He tried to open the cabinet, but it was locked. With the bobby pin he was holding, he tried to pry open the door through the key hole.

Click!

Sucess! He cheered mentally and slowly opened the door, peeking in.

However, his boosted self-esteem quickly fell into horror when he saw Minah scrunched up in the closet, snoring away. Tears trickled down her eyes as her eyebag was swollen red. She was cold and deadly pale, as if she was locked up to starve in the freezing basement. He gently shook her shoulder, waiting for her to wake up. She refused to stir and only let out soft snores.

How…? Why…? Jiho stumbled over his thoughts as he watched his old friend sleep with tears. He squatted down to her level, watching her continue to snore away in silence. Slowly, he reached for her hand and felt her once smooth skin turn rough at his contact. Then, he extended his other hand towards her cheek, wiping away the tears that fell down from the corner of her eyes. His sudden warmth seemed to have woken her when she lifted her heavy eyelids and looked at him with dreamy detest. 

"They're all leaving me…" she mumbled sleepily. Jiho figured that she was still half-asleep. "…But…you left me first…"

She drifted off to sleep again, hugging her own body for warmth. Jiho only stared at her for a few minutes, then looked down at his feet with a small, sad look.

"But you wouldn't follow," he muttered back, "and we were only growing up."