It was quiet going through the rest of the Attayear.  As she ducked out of the main deck, which Kyuhyun was manning with a very confused look at the computers, Jinsu reckoned it was probably the equivalent of eleven in the evening and a lot of people might well just have gone to bed.  She hadn’t encountered anybody other than Minhwan (Kyuhyun didn’t count because he hadn’t actually looked up and seen her) and her head was beginning to get clearer and clearer.

An hour and a half later, she still hadn’t found Baekhyun, and she was beginning to worry.  He hadn’t slipped back into his room and conked out (Kyungsoo was sleeping like a baby), and he hadn’t been to Jinsu’s room because the dirty plates were still there (which she needed to do something about before they started to annoy her).  He wasn’t in the kitchen either, and nor had he returned to the engine rooms.  He wasn’t even lurking in Minseok’s room or just out of sight of the main deck’s entrance, waiting for an opportunity to steal the computer from Kyuhyun.  It was like he didn’t exist.

By the time a yawning Kyuhyun switched computer shifts with an even more yawning Junmyeon, Jinsu was alarmed.  For Baekhyun to be missing like this, he had to be either ill or unconscious, or he wasn’t on the machine anymore.  And if he wasn’t on the machine anymore, they were done for, though why he wouldn’t be on the machine was something Jinsu both didn’t want to think about and didn’t understand.

Eventually, she approached Junmyeon about it, startling him awake.  He sat up, rubbing his face vigorously, and blinked sleep out of his eyes.

“Last I knew, he was down in the engine rooms, but that was hours ago,” he told her.  “Youngdo found him down there and an almighty row broke out—”

Jinsu nearly threw up with anxiety and bolted before Junmyeon could finish speaking.  She hadn’t seen Youngdo around, come to think of it, but given the guy had nearly killed her, she didn’t want to think about what he might have done to Baekhyun.

Baekhyun can land a solid kick, though, she tried to calm herself, but she was pretty certain that if Baekhyun had been the winner of that argument, he wouldn’t have made himself scarce.

She didn’t know how she was hoping to find Baekhyun down in the engine rooms when he hadn’t been there before, but Jinsu still found herself clattering down the ladders into the sweltering heat to see if she could find any clues.  Nothing had changed since she’d last been there, though, with the possible exception of it now being even hotter and louder.

Just as she was turning to leave, movement from the corner of the room caught her eye and she whirled back around to see Youngdo emerging from a small door that was almost hidden from sight.

“Come for a gander?” he called across to her.  “Out of control machines are scary, aren’t they?”

Hatred she hadn’t known she was capable of billowed in Jinsu’s chest.  “What have you done to Baekhyun?” she yelled back.

He came closer.  At first, Jinsu thought it was because he hadn’t been able to hear her question, but when he was about an arm’s length away from her, he stopped and sized her up with a critical eye.

“The little sh*t went and started up the machine before it was ready and now it’s completely out of control and he refused to give us the access codes to override things on the computers that need overriding.”

“What did you do to Baekhyun?” Jinsu demanded angrily.

There was a momentary pause and then he smirked.  “He ed us over twice by going off to find you and starting up the Attayear, and since he’s refusing to cooperate, I repaid him in kind.”

Jinsu nearly gaped at him in enraged fury.  “Excuse you.  Your ingenious master plan nearly killed me and Baekhyun saving my life is ‘ing you over’?”

“Too bad it didn’t.”

Jinsu was so astonished she almost didn’t have a comeback.  “You are so utterly hateful it’s an insult to call you human.”

It must have got to Youngdo, because his expression became even more bitter.  “I don’t have the time to pick a fight.  We need to get this machine back under control as soon as possible, stop, start it going again properly being able to use the computers, and get home, and if you and Baekhyun are going to be little d*cks and get in our way by holding vital information, then screw you.”

“We know how to get home, so how about you go time-out in your room and leave it to us?” Jinsu snapped back.

“How about you make yourself useful and give us the access codes?”

“Can’t.  I don’t have them.”

“ing useless, aren’t you?”

“And you’re such a b*stard I wouldn’t give them to you if I did have them.”

It seemed to be the final straw.  Next thing she knew, she was on the floor and her head was ringing with pain.  She wasn’t even sure where Youngdo had hit her, but it really, really hurt.  Whimpering, she curled up into a ball as she saw him raise his leg to kick, but they were mercifully interrupted.

“Youngdo!  Youngdo!  We don’t have time for this and you’ve damaged her enough already!  Stop!”

Thankfully, Youngdo didn’t go any further, but Jinsu wasn’t sure if she was more shocked by that or by the interrupter being Minhwan.  It was the last thing she’d expected him to do.

“If she’s going to be a nuisance or useless, just chuck her in with Baekhyun so neither of them will cause problems.  We really don’t have time to waste, man.”

Before Jinsu could uncurl and sit up, Youngdo grabbed her under the armpits and hauled her over to the door he’d first come out of.  There was a little passage on the other side of it, along with a couple of doors to storage rooms.  He unlocked the first one he came to and shoved her inside.  Jinsu went sprawling onto several boxes of lumps of metal.  It hurt.

The hum of the engine abruptly quietened as the door slammed behind her and the lock turned.  Closing her eyes against the splitting headache that was beginning to renew itself, Jinsu slowly sat up and prodded gingerly at her scalp.  The bandage Baekhyun had put on it was still there and she couldn’t feel any extra bumps or broken skin.

A soft groan nearby had her eyes snapping open again, and she saw that she had company.  Sitting up, she looked around.

Baekhyun was half slumped against more crushed boxes, and he looked an absolute wreck.  He had a nasty black eye and several other parts of his face were swelling up, not to mention that his clothes had been ripped all over.  He also, Jinsu realised with disgust and horror, had been tied to a shelf post by one wrist so tightly that it was obvious he’d lost circulation in that hand, and the rope was so coarse that the skin on his wrist looked inflamed and possibly broken.  It looked like he couldn’t be more than semi-conscious, too.

Something twitched under Jinsu’s knees and she abruptly realised that she was sitting on one of his legs.

“Sorry, sorry!”  She shifted quickly off him, trying not to stare at the sweat beading his face.  His unbruised eye cracked open at the sound of her voice and he managed to smile at her.  It only drew Jinsu’s attention to his split and still bleeding lip.

“Hi,” he croaked.

Jinsu stared.  “What happened to you?”

“Youngdo. . .” Baekhyun let out a wheezing cough, wracking his entire body.  “Thinks I have. . . access codes.  But I don’t.”

“Why didn’t you just agree to give your fingerprint authorisation to whatever he wanted?” Jinsu demanded.  “Look at what he did—”

Baekhyun wheezed out another cough.  “Because he’s a kn*b and he nearly killed you.”

“But Baekhyun—”

He smiled at her, and despite how it contorted his face, it was still one of the most beautiful things Jinsu had ever seen.  She gulped.

“How’s your head?” he got out.

“Can you stop thinking about me and pay just a little attention to yourself?” she asked, flustered.

Baekhyun look completely confused at the change of subject, and then abruptly averted his gaze.  “Your head’s okay, I guess,” he mumbled.  As if in agreement, his stomach growled at him.  Jinsu instantly wished she’d brought food with her.  He reached out for her with his free hand.  Jinsu looked at it for a good long moment and then placed her right hand carefully in his.  He must still have been aware of her broken fingers, because he didn’t even squeeze her hand, just let hers rest there, and then heaved a