Soooo, sorry about the long wait, guys. I got massively sick over the weekend and felt too weak to steal my laptop in the middle of the night, so I gave myself a little break. I'm feeling a lot better now, so here I go!

Before we begin, if anyone really truly cares, I have a rant few things on my mind I must share with you all:

1) Block B's current crisis with Stardom. Holy , man, poor Block B never gets a break. And NOW Stardom is claiming it was just the authority people who were embezzling the money and I'm just like "Forget this , man". Just don't disband, I love Block B. I love being a BBC and giggling whenever I remember it's the acronym for British Broadcasting Corporation and imagining all the BBC fan meets where everyone wears suits, monocles, and top hats and drinks tea and speaks formally in British accents to each other.

2) So, apparently someone leaked what MAY be EXO's new song for something or the other, called Wolf. Anyone heard it? Everyone thinks it sounds godawful. Personally, it's the funniest I've ever listened to, and if you can get the illegal links on tumblr, I recommend you give it an ear. Hopefully that ear won't bleed when it's over. At least listening to the song on repeat and damaging my brain cells gave me inspiration for this chapter.

3) Every time I'm writing on this site I see these retarded ads for that dating site imvu, and I was okay with seeing 3D-animated s wrapping their legs around hunks with captions saying "Find your soulmate" or , and I was okay with them making ads showing them Avatar-styled and whatnot ... but today it's just ... seriously? They're showing me a pic of some chick with long grey hair and what looks like a body covered in fox fur with a giant- bushy tail. Is this supposed to be hot? Coz it's , I'm telling you. At least 52% .

I also don't own Scott Pilgrim Versus the World (although I wish I did, BEST comic book series ever), but I stole some of its lines. What can I say, it's a mine field of gold!

Mai was ordered to keep watch over Fukushima Tomoyo as the boat roared across the ocean. The others had all scattered doing something else, and she was forced to ignore the pain in her ankle and wait for some prissy, spoiled child to freaking stop stirring and actually wake up already.

Finally (FINALLY), the rich daughter of one of the most influential families in Asia began to mumble and moan her way back to consciousness, batting her (annoyingly superlong and thick) eyelashes. Mai was very displeased to see that she was, of course, gorgeous and perfect in every way. Even the way she woke up after being knocked out looked like a scene in a perfume advertisement.

When Mai woke up -- hell, if she so much as closed her eyes for too long -- she looked like total crap.

Not that she cared much about looks or anything (that was Lien's job), but life really wasn't fair.

The girl opened her eyes wide, looked at her surroundings, stared at Mai, and screamed. She then started babbling in Japanese, which Mai couldn't understand.

"Shut the hell up, money-bags, I can't understand you," she snapped in Korean. Strange, maybe it was because she's done nothing but speak Korean for days now. Hell, she even caught herself THINKING in Korean sometimes!

These stupid pirates were rubbing off on her.

Tomoyo switched to fluent Korean -- her accent was more perfect than Mai's. Now Mai really hated her. "Who are you and where am I?" She demanded, not sounding the least bit afraid.

"I am none of your concern and I think you understand this situation pretty well." Mai raised her voice. "OI! SHE'S AWAKE! CAN I LEAVE NOW?"

Kyung finally appeared, hair sticking up in all directions with that big goofy smile of his. "Oh, thanks, Mai! There's not many of us free right now, though. Taeil is steering the ship and Jaehyo is jamming any wireless signals and that means P.O is the only one left to treat Zico and B-Bomb's injuries while U-Kwon checks our ammo and weapons storage supplies in case there's a skirmish. So it's just me!"

Mai rolled her eyes. "Never mind. I'll watch over her myself. I don't trust you."

"WHAT?" Kyung looked horrified, and he made a big, loud, fake gasp and clutched his hand to his chest. "I'm offended, Mai!"

"Wounded, even?"

"Hurt, Mai!"

"Just shut up. You can help, okay? How about that?" Mai wondered since when did she become so damn lenient. Normally she was as stubborn as a mule, and things HAD to go her way. Kyung did that to her sometimes -- it was hard to stay mad at that idiot.

Tomoyo glared at the both of them, flipping her glossy long hair over her shoulder. "I hope you realize who you're messing with. My father is Fukushima Ayane, and he's --"

"Yeah, yeah, we know already," Mai interrupted, rolling her eyes. "Good for you, money-bags. You think we don't know who we kidnapped?"

Tomoyo sniffed disdainfully and crossed her arms. "Even if you can get a ransom, you do realize that he won't just let you go free. He'll search the world over to hunt you all down and crush you." She looked around at the dingy boat and sneered. "It shouldn't take long."

"Why you insolent little bi --" Mai was cut off by Kyung who hurriedly said, "Eheh, um, sorry to interrupt, but ... where are we going to keep Tomoyo-ssi?"

Mai blinked at him. "Excuse me?"

"Er, you know ... we can't exactly have her sitting on the deck all day long. We need to keep her somewhere below deck, maybe your --"

"SHE'S NOT STAYING IN MY ROOM."

"But where else can she --"

"She can't!" Mai spluttered, feeling extremely unjustified for some reason. They gave her that room only four days ago, and suddenly they're going to shove another girl in? Mai didn't know why she felt so annoyed. "That's MY room!"

"Actually, it was Zico's. Come on, Mai, share! Please?" He pouted and gave her huge puppy-dog eyes.

Mai was tempted to stab those eyes, but resisted. Kyung was friendly and kind of cute, and Mai was sure she would regret once her temper cooled off.

"Fine," Mai growled, limping below deck with as much dignity as she could muster. "But I still get the bed. She can sleep wherever the hell she wants." She turned to Tomoyo, who was still standing there in all her stupid-designer-halter-top-and-shorts glory, with those stupid Gucci sunglasses still on her stupid perfect head. "Well? You coming or what, money-bags?"

Tomoyo glared at her, but only hesitated for a few seconds before running after her.

"You know, for pirates who managed to successfully kidnap me aboard The Sakura, you guys sure have a cheap-looking boat," she said disdainfully, looking at the tiny hallways and stains on the wall (Mai really hoped it wasn't blood).

"They are idiots and either lose money or waste it," Mai snapped. "And I'm NOT with them. I am a hostage."

Tomoyo raised a perfectly-arched eyebrow. "Yeah, some hostage. I can see that."

"Shut up!"

"No, YOU shut up!"

"What did you say to me, rich ?"

"Exactly what I meant to, poor !"

"You --"

"Girls, girls! You're both pretty!" Jaehyo said loudly, waltzing into the hallway. "Even though I'm prettier."

Mai shot him a pissed glance. Although he probably was prettier than her.

"Anyway, Zico wants you guys both in the kitchen. No pun intended."

"Better not," Mai muttered. She was getting tired of the stupid woman jokes, even if they didn't mean it. "Why?"

"That's where P.O is trying to fix them up." Jaehyo snickered. "If you ask me, they'll probably be MORE injured when it's over. Mind taking over for him, Mai?"

"Whatever, I have nothing better to do," Mai grumbled.

"And hel-lo!" Jaehyo bowed low to Tomoyo and gave her an irresistably charming smile, doe eyes twinkling. "I do believe we've never met before, my lady."

Tomoyo blushed cherry red and began to look giggly. Mai rolled her eyes and left them to it. She found the kitchen easily.

"Ow -- , P.O! , that hurt!" Zico was nursing a wound on his hand as P.O stared at the bandages and gauze in confusion.

"This looked easy when Taeil hyung did it," he mumbled to himself. Mai couldn't help but grin.

"Here, move over, you big lug. I'll do it." Mai shoved him aside and grabbed the bandages. Zico winced and hissed under his breath as Mai rubbed alcohol on the wounds and wrapped the gauze gently around his bruised arm.

"Where's -- ahh, that burns -- that Fukushima girl?"

"Currently being romanced by Jaehyo. She irritates me. Can I throw her off the ship?" Whoops. Mai didn't mean for that last part to come out.

Zico, surprisingly, chuckled in a low voice. The sound made Mai's ears turn red. "Throw her off, huh? Is she bothering you that much?"

"N-no, well ... she's just so damn annoying!" Mai spluttered and attempted to find a good enough reason. "And she acts like she's the best! Just because she's rich!"

"What, you prejudiced against rich people or something?" Zico demanded.

"Yes!"

"Idiot, that's not something you should say so confidently!"

Mai snickered under her breath, but firmly said nothing more on the matter. Zico -- good for him -- knew better than to say anything else and just let her patch him up.

When she finished, she turned to B-Bomb, who was also sitting on the table, yet managing to look like a supercool war hero that just walked calmly away while a building behind him exploded into a humongous ball of flame in slow motion. He silently held out his arm, where there was an extremely nasty gash.

"Jesus, that's terrible!" Mai rubbed alcohol on as gently as she could. B-Bomb didn't even flinch. "How the hell did that happen?"

"Ran into sharp bit of metal in boiler room," he said simply. Fair enough.

Mai took extra care when bandaging up this wound. He may not have reacted much, but she could tell it would hurt. On a normal person, anyway.

She suddenly backed away and looked at him weirdly. "Are you ... are you human?"

B-Bomb stared at her stoically. Then, suddenly, one side of his mouth quirked up. "No."

Mai's eyes bugged out, and she made a tiny little "Meep" noise in the back of .

"He's kidding, woman," Zico said with a sigh. "Honestly, could you be more gullible?"

Then he turned to B-Bomb. "Dude, you can't joke around with such a straight face. Loosen up a little."

B-Bomb's face remained stoic and calm.

"I said to loosen up."

"I am loosened up."

"That's a ing lie."

Mai finally got over her initial shock and patched the rest of his wounds up. "There, all done. Now then --"

Suddenly, the door opened, and Tomoyo walked in, laughing at something Jaehyo was saying.

"Oh, good, they're all cleaned up," Jaehyo said. "What did you want to tell them, Zico?"

"Oh, yeah, right." Zico cleared his throat. "So, Fukushima Tomoyo, you're now officially our hostage and stuff. As long as you cooperate with us, no harm or discomfort shall befall you, blah blah blah. In two days' time, we will send a message back to your ship declaring our ransom amount and terms and , and if they agree with us and give us what we want, you'll be returned safe and sound. There."

Tomoyo seemed distracted with either the confident charisma Zico oozed out or the dazzling good looks of Jaehyo. Either way, Mai was less than pleased, and all her good humour was rapidly disapparating.

"So, all finished." Zico yawned and stretched as he hopped off the table, wincing when it bothered his wounds. ", this'll sting in the morning. I'm gonna have a nap. Woman, can you get me dinner when I wake up?"

"I'm not a maid!" Mai protested as he sauntered out of the room. B-Bomb followed behind silently, P.O close behind.

"Well, I need to check out the controls on the machines," Jaehyo said sauvely, winking at Tomoyo and making her cheeks flush pink. "Perhaps you care to join me in a while?"

"See you later," she breathed out dizzily.

"Oh, and I want something to eat later too, Mai!" Jaehyo called behind him.

"WHAT AM I, THEIR ING SERVANT?" Mai roared. For a second, she daydreamed of decking them all in the face. Or taking a fork and stabbing Tomoyo with it. 

Then she sighed and, ignoring the pain in her ankle, hobbled over to the counter and pulled out a pot.

"Wow, is this pirate ship full of hot guys or what?" Tomoyo declared, still looking a bit dizzy after being Jaehyozed. "I mean, father always made me hang out with all these stuffy, boring, posh guys. No wonder I wanted to go to parties. But they don't make boys like that in every club in Japan, you know."

"Good for you," Mai said stiffly. "Make yourself useful and get me something from the fridge, why don't you?"

"You're kidding," Tomoyo snapped. "You want ME to cook? I've never cooked a day in my life!"

"And I'm not asking you to, dip. Just get me the goddamn onions. And some cabbage."

Tomoyo opened the fridge and looked inside warily. "What do the onions and cabbages look like?"

"Or, for god's sakes!" Mai stomped (and hobbled) her way to the fridge and yanked out the onion. "You see this? It's an onion. Now, I want you to take a knife and start chopping it into small pieces. Can you at least do that?"

Tomoyo looked irritated. "Of course I can!"

Mai grabbed the cabbages and the rest of the ingredients and stumbled back to the stove. A few minutes later, she heard Tomoyo yelp out, "Ack! What's with this? It's making my eyes water!"

Her eyes were watering and she was blinking furiously to try and get rid of it. Mai snickered.

"Did you make me do this on purpose?" Tomoyo demanded.

"Yes. I wanted to see you cry."

Tomoyo glared at Mai furiously, but the watery eyes broke the tension.

The two girls started laughing.

For a moment, Mai saw Tomoyo as just another Lien or Yen Ly -- a pretty, confident friend of hers. Then that moment was over and the two abruptly stopped laughing.

"I still hate you."

"I hate you more."

Mai opened to say something else, possibly to tell her exactly HOW much she hated her, but U-Kwon chose that moment to fly into the room and attempt to hug/glomp/attack/maim/possibly molest her.

Looks like that would have to wait.