You sat in a wooden chair, blinking rapidly as the bag was taken off of your head. It was a classic torture/ kidnapping set up and it made you roll your eyes. Yongguk leaned on the table, arms folded, as he looked at you. Just before he was about to speak, you started first.

“I bet you think you’re real cool, huh?”

“Excuse me?” He blinked, caught off guard by your question.

“You’ve got your little secret base, your little gang… It must be nice to have such luxuries, I bet-”

“Okay, you can shut up now.” He said, holding up a hand and you had to stifle a laugh. “So obviously we can’t just let you go after you saw us in person. You might turn us in-”

“Why would I even bother?” You interrupted, exasperated at his apparent stupidity. “Do you know how dangerous that would be for me? It’s not even worth it, to be honest.”

He watched you for a moment before he glanced at a tall, blonde man and Jongup, who were watching and trying not to laugh. He raised an eyebrow at them and they immediately stopped laughing and made themselves busy. Yongguk turned his attention back to you and sighed. “Listen.”

“I’m listening.” You said, actually enjoying this little exchange. His calm, composed exterior was cracking just a little bit.

“Right now, you’re a threat to my group. I won’t allow threats to exist, if I can help it.”

“If you can help it.” You repeated with an overly-understanding, almost patronizing, nod.

He gave you a look before continuing. “I’m trying to make a deal here-”

“Oh, if that’s what we’re doing, why am I still tied up?” You quickly Slipped your hands out of the rope and brought them to the front of you, rubbing some feeling into your wrists. “Okay, that’s better. Now, what were you saying about a deal?”

Yongguk watched you, begrudgingly impressed with your quick escape. “The deal.. Is that I want you to join our group. You’ll get shelter and protection, safety, whatever you want to call it.”

“I don’t need protection, I’m doing just fine on my own.” You interrupted defensively.

He held up a hand in his own defense. “Right, right, of course. Living alone on the outskirts of the city, barely living on the food you can steal or make yourself. Sounds like a great life.” He had turned the conversation on you and you weren’t happy about it. “If you’re eating just a few things a day, how are you going to keep up your strength? What will you do when they eventually find you? You think your malnourished self will be able to put up a decent fight?”

You were silent. This was no longer funny. You could feel the stares of the other two boys, but you didn’t dare take your eyes off of the leader. He was bringing up too many accurate points for you to successfully argue against him.

He knew he had you once again, but he didn’t rub it in this time. He didn’t want to push you too far, especially since he didn’t know exactly what you were capable of. And he wasn’t trying to be mean to you, he genuinely wanted you to join the group on your own. “I’m being serious here, kid. You should join us. There’s safety in numbers and different people have different skills. What some lack, others will have in abundance. You don’t have to do everything by yourself.”

You pressed your lips together, trying to gather your thoughts. “What do you get out of it?” Your voice was quieter than you wanted it to be.

“I get the number one enemy of the state.” He said, suddenly smiling widely. “If my record puts me at number two, I can only imagine what the most wanted criminal can do. I want your skillset, whatever it is.” His eyes glimmered with excitement as he thought of all of the possibilities.

At this point, the other three members arrived. Two dark haired boys and another blonde walked in, talking amongst themselves. You glanced at them, but Yongguk didn’t take his eyes off of you. He was watching your every move. The boys made eye contact with you.

“Hi-” One of the dark haired men started talking immediately, only to be shut up by the other. The three of them walked away, further into the gang’s hideout and you returned your attention back to Yongguk.

You took a deep breath and your lips. “Can I have a few minutes to think about it?”

“Of course.” He pushed away from the table and made a motion for you to follow him. You didn’t feel like you had much of a choice, so you stood up and followed, making eye contact with Jongup along the way. That did little to reassure you, though. Yongguk showed you to a small bedroom at the end of a hallway. “You can be alone in here and one of us will come check on you in a little while.” You nodded and he shut the door, finally leaving you alone with your thoughts.

You looked around for something to aid your escape. The room was rather bare, though, with just a bed and some chairs. There were two windows, but they had bars across them. The bars on the windows were a little closer together than you would have liked, but it didn’t matter too much. You opened the window to access the bars and to see how far away the ground was. It wasn’t too far, you could probably make the jump. Starting with your left hand, you began to Slip between the bars. You made it to your shoulder before your arm was suddenly frozen in place.

You cursed out loud before looking over your other shoulder. A dark haired man with gray eyes stood at the door. He held out his fist, palm up. Even from here you could see his tattoo on his wrist clearly. Damn, why hadn’t it occurred to you that they could have Skills, too? “Hold, huh?” The man nodded. You took on a sarcastic tone. “That’s very impressive. Can I have my arm back now?”

The man looked at his friend, who shrugged, rather indifferent to the whole thing. The man sighed and relaxed his hand, making the Hold lift away. His eyes returned to a chocolate brown. You were free. You pulled your arm back through the bars.

“Were you thinking of escaping?” The dark haired man next to the first asked.

You took a deep breath and walked over to the bed, sitting on the edge. You decided to ignore his question, since the answer was rather obvious. Instead, you looked up at the two who were watching you. “Names?” You asked, not in the mood to be polite anymore.

“I’m Daehyun.” The one with the Hold power said simply.

“Youngjae.” The other announced. You nodded and looked away from them. The two exchanged a look and a nod before deciding to drop the bad cop act.

You should have thought ahead and planned for this. You never know what Skills a person may have and for you to just blindly forget that these men could also have Skills was a big mistake on your part. Truth, Trick, Hide, Seek, Hold, and Slip. There were different abilities that came with each Skill, such as being able to know when someone was lying, or be able to deceive them. Hiders could hide anywhere or anything, while Seekers could find anything or anyone. People that could Hold were able to freeze things in place, while those who could Slip were able to get out of any confinement.

You sighed and were about to tell them to go away when suddenly they sat down on either side of you.

“So you can Slip? How does that work?” Youngjae asked, his eyes bright. “I didn’t know that people that could Slip still exist! I thought they were all killed-”

“I bet that you could’ve gotten out of here already if you really wanted to, right?” Daehyun interjected, unable to stay quiet any longer.

You looked at them like a deer in headlights. “Umm… I don’t know how it works. I just kinda.. do it.”

“Get out of this!” Youngjae suddenly grabbed your wrist in a vice-like grip.

You looked at him and raised an eyebrow. Was he serious? “Fine.” You kept looking at his face as you easily Slipped your wrist free.

“Whoaaa” Both boys were easily impressed. “What if we locked you in a closet?” “Or tied you to a chair?” They bombarded you with questions so quickly, you could hardly answer them.

They were rowdy and confusing, but not in a bad way. “Stop, stop, give me time to answer.” You couldn’t help the small, shy smile that played on your lips. They looked at you with curious sparks in their eyes, ready to hear whatever you were going to say. “I really don’t know how it works. I can just sort of move my body to Slip through almost anything I want to. If the thought of "I want to get out” is there, I can Slip through, no problem. But besides that, it doesn’t make much sense to me still.“

"So that’s how you escaped from our ropes earlier?” You looked toward the doorway as two more visitors joined you. Jongup was standing there with the tall blonde guy from earlier. “I’m Junhong, by the way. But you can call me Zelo.” He extended his hand to you. Once again you hesitated before reaching out and shaking his hand.

You introduced yourself to all of them as Zelo and Jongup pulled up some chairs. Chatter and questions began to flow among the group. You made eye contact with Jongup several times, but your thoughts stayed alone in your head.

“So Daehyun has Hold. Do any of you have special tricks?” You asked, trying to get a feel for what you would be dealing with if you had to fight your way out.

“Zelo has Hide, I have Seek.” Youngjae explained, nodding to the blonde.

“Yongguk has Truth.” Jongup added. “Himchan and I don’t really have Skills, we’re just fast with weapons and fighting.”

“Yah! So you’re just going to give out all our secrets, huh?” The other blonde, who you guessed was Himchan, and Yongguk stood in the hall outside the room.

“Looks like a party.” Yongguk said, smiling a little. “You seem to get along with everyone. So, will you join us?”

You pressed your lips together and took a deep breath. “There would have to be some conditions.”

Himchan raised an eyebrow. “Such as?”

“I need to go back to my place and get some things. If a fight happens between me and one of your guys, you have to agree to let me leave if I want to. Lastly, you won’t own me, just so we’re clear. I have to be free.” You kept your gaze strong and steady with Yongguk’s the entire time. You wanted to make sure he understood how serious you were about these things.

All eyes turned to Yongguk, who folded his arms across his chest as he appraised you. “Freedom is something we fight for as well.” He paused, glancing at the others. “Unless anyone else objects, I don’t mind giving these concessions.”

There was a clamor of agreement, making your face heat up. You stood up and walked over to Yongguk. This time you held out your hand to shake his. “Alright, I guess I’ll join.”

★☆★☆★☆