The silent boy called B-Bomb returned with a plate of food -- slightly burnt toast and a bit-too-runny eggs. He handed it to Mai without a word.

"Um ... thanks." Mai mumbled.

"Sorry," he suddenly said, his voice flat but not quite unemotional -- more like his emotions were subdued. "Only Taeil knows how to cook, and he's busy dealing with our stupid leader."

"N-no, it's ... it's fine."

B-Bomb disappeared as quickly as he came, and Mai nibbled around the burnt part of the toast.

U-Kwon appeared. "MAIIII DARLING~~"

"Get away from me!"

P.O tapped her shoulder. "Wait ... how old are you?"

Mai blinked at him. "Er ... nineteen."

"What month?"

"May."

"Hah, I'm February. I'm older than you. YES!!!" He fist-pumped the air. "FINALLY, I'm not the maknae of Block B anymore! Now I can bully someone!!!"

Mai stared at him. "W-wait ... y-you're the m-maknae?"

"I get that a lot."

"And -- hold on! I'm not joining this Block B-whatever! I'm a hostage ... sort of."

P.O shrugged and stole a slice of toast. "That's a shame, it'll be fun to have you around. Oh, ew, this is gross. HYUUUNG, THIS IS GROSS!!!"

"Then don't eat it."

Mai turned to the nearest pirate -- the handsome one with the messy hair and big eyes -- called Jaehyo. "Are they ... always this ..."

"Annoying?"

"Yeah."

"You get used to it after a while."

Mai eyed him warily. "Do you?"

Jaehyo snorted. "Eh ... no. You know what? You're interesting. Most cute girls are so bland and boring."

Mai didn't really know what to say to that. "Um ... I guess ... thanks?" Then she realized he had just called her cute and her cheeks started to burn. She fought down her embarrassment.

"Yeah. You, you are a scammer, a thief, and you managed to piss off Zico. Well, granted, it's not hard to piss off Zico, but you pulled a fast one on him and that's pretty impressive." 

Mai couldn't help but raise an eyebrow. "I'd take it that you've never met a female thief."

"Nope," Jaehyo said with a charming grin. "They're pretty rare, aren't they?"

It was Mai's turn to smirk. "You'd be surprised. Everyone seems to suspect the man in the situation. Half the successful scammers I know are all women."

"Are you serious?" Jaehyo's eyes widened. 

"How have you survived as a pirate?"

A door suddenly slammed and angry voices echoed from down the hall. Then the kitchen door slammed open and Zico stormed in, closely followed by Kyung and Taeil.

"You, woman. You can stay." He snarled at Mai. Mai noticed his eyes had turned a normal dark colour, which meant he probably took out those creepy white contacts. He pulled at his dreadlocks, and they came away. They were extensions.

Ruffling his short blonde hair, he threw the extensions to the floor and glared at Mai some more. "But don't think you're staying here for free. Once you can walk, you're gonna spend every minute on my boat working for your stay here."

Mai felt her face flush again, this time from anger. "Are you saying you're keeping me here as a ... a MAID? A maid-of-all-work without payment?"

"You work for your bed or you can sleep with the fishes. Your choice, woman." Then he stomped out. Taeil sighed, shot Mai an apologetic look, grabbed the extensions, and ran after Zico.

"Sorry, Mai, he has a temper," Kyung said with another one of his carefree grins. "It took Taeil hyung and I a long time to convince him to let you stay."

"As what? A serving-woman?" Mai spluttered. She wished desperately that her ankle wasn't twisted so she could go over there and punch Zico right in the face.

"Ooh, that'll be nice! Do you know how to cook? Taeil's always too busy to cook, so we have to improvise sometimes."

Kyung had to duck as Mai threw the food plate at him.

"NO!!!"

"Zico, don't be difficult."

"I REFUSE!!!"

"Zico, c'mon --"

"Zico, hubby --"

"IF YOU THINK I'M GOING TO GIVE HER MY ROOM, YOU'VE GOT TO BE INSANE!!!"

"Oh, come on, Zico!" Taeil said exasperatingly. "For god's sakes, she's injured! Where else can she sleep? She can't stay on top of the kitchen table."

"I don't know! Outside, on the deck! In your room! Who cares?!"

"She can't sleep in OUR room!" P.O spoke up, sounding horrified. "There are BOYS there!"

"Men," B-Bomb corrected him, looking slightly insulted.

"I'm okay with her sleeping in our room," Jaehyo said, a smirk on his face.

"Oh! Oh! I agree!" Kyung raised his hand and jumped up and down.

U-Kwon flashed his LED-flashlight smile at Mai. "Mai Darling can sleep on my bed!"

"See?" Taeil said desperately, gesturing to the three pirates. "We can't let her sleep in a room with THEM! Come on, Zico, you basically camp out in our room anyway, just let her have her own room to herself!"

Zico seemed at a loss for words. "Hyung, are you taking HER side and not MINE?"

"I'm not taking sides, Zico," Taeil sighed. "Honestly, you're so childish sometimes."

"P.O? B-Bomb? Kyung?"

They all shook their heads.

"Che ... fine. Just fine! Let her take my room then! Oh, maybe she should take my position as leader, too? Would that help?" 

Mai watched as he stormed out again. "Well, isn't he lovely."

"He's much nicer when he doesn't hate you," Kyung assured her. 

"Alright, this might hurt," P.O said cheerfully, as he and Jaehyo both lifted her up.

"AaaaaaaooooOOOOWWW!!! ! Won't you guys be a bit more careful?" Mai gritted her teeth and hissed when they accidentally hit her ankle on the table corner.

"Whoops, sorry."

"Don't hurt Mai Darling!" U-Kwon gasped. "Let me carry you, Mai Darling, I'll be careful!"

"No way am I letting you touch me!" Mai growled at him.

"Will you guys be careful?" Taeil yelped as they accidentally smacked her foot on the wall. Mai's face turned pale with pain.

"It's P.O's fault!" Jaehyo protested. "Dammit, P.O, I told you to keep her steady!"

"Well, maybe I will, hyung, if YOU could lift her a bit higher!"

"Shut up," B-bomb advised. The two boys immediately stopped talking and stared at him. From what Mai could see, any time the silent weirdo opened his mouth, they took his words as importance.

With B-Bomb keeping them in check, P.O and Jaehyo managed to steer Mai into another room without causing her too much pain. Nevertheless, Mai prayed to whatever god that would listen to her that her ankle would heal soon, because she was NOT going to go through this again.

The room was rather small, holding only a mattress, a lamp, and a set of drawers with a mirror placed above. A large flag had been pinned to the wall, a flag with what looked like two swords crossed over the letter 'b', with an anchor at the top.

"That's our flag," P.O pointed it out cheerfully. "And this is Zico hyung's room. It's yours now, I guess."

"Stop making it sound like I'm joining the crew!" Mai snapped at him.

P.O just shrugged. "If you say so." He didn't sound convinced, and that pissed Mai off.

They set her down on the mattress. Mai was surprised to find it was quite comfortable, and judging from the sheets and pillowcase (which were all matching), it was quite expensive. And all featured a white-and-pink pattern of Hello Kitty.

"Zico nicked it when we were in Japan," U-Kwon explained, still grinning. Mai stared around the room in bewilderment. She couldn't believe she hadn't noticed it before, but almost EVERYTHING in the room was decorated with Hello Kitty. It was strangely cute ... and utterly disturbing once she realized the man who owned this room was at least twenty.

"I'm starting to question your leader's sanity ..." She muttered, not intending for them to hear her. Taeil heard her anyway.

"We all do. Every day. Sometimes we question our own sanity, wondering why we follow such a freak in the first place. Still, it's better than U-Kwon's obsession with One Piece and girls with short hair."

U-Kwon blushed and scowled, looking embarrassed. "It's better than being obsessed with candy! I hope you get cavities and all your teeth fall out!"

"Anyway, we better leave you to rest, that's the most we can do for now," Taeil said, popping a sugary hard candy into his mouth. "You want some candy before we go?"

Mai gave him a small smirk and pulled out the black wig she's been having a tight hold on the whole time. Several lollipops, chocolates, and colourful candies tumbled out. "No thanks, I'm set."

"Where did you get those?" Taeil's eyes widened and he frantically checked his pockets, which were empty all this time without him noticing.

"Sorry, I tend to pickpocket when I'm bored."

The corners of Taeil's mouth quirks up, and he looked almost impressed. "Well, you can keep those, then. You earned it."

The pirates one by one slowly trickled out of the room (Kyung had to drag U-Kwon out by the collar), and Mai was given blissful silence. Her head hurt. This was completely different from her life in Vietnam. There, she had power, control. She didn't lose her head or her temper for anything. She fought against Tuan several times and didn't die, for god's sakes!

Yet here she was, stuck with a twisted ankle with a Hello Kitty maniac who hated her guts; an annoying guy with a bright smile who apparently was attracted to her because of her short hair; a silent and robotic-like freak; some chicken-chasing weirdo; and many other freakish creeps that were slowly driving her crazy.

They didn't make SENSE. Their conversations and arguments were so ridiculous, fast-paced, and completely nonsensical and childish that Mai couldn't keep up. She just sat there staring at them in bewilderment, wondering if they were for real.

And apparently they were.

Mai had dozed off (okay, so the bed was really comfy, whether Hello Kitty plastered it or not) when she awoke to the boat shuddering violently and rocking side to side. Feeling a sudden burst of seasickness, Mai closed her eyes tightly and breathed deeply until the boat steadied and the feeling passed.

Suddenly, the door slammed open, and Zico burst in. Mai readied herself for another onslaught of his ing.

Instead, he said, "Get up, we gotta go. Come on, woman, don't keep me waiting."

"W-what?" Mai stammered, sitting up.

Zico rolled his eyes and grabbed her arm, hauling her up and yanking her to her feet. Mai wobbled dangerously on one foot. Zico rolled his eyes and swore under his breath. "Alright, get on my back."

"Are you kidding me?" Mai gave him a look.

"You can sit here and possibly die if you want."

Once again, Mai wanted to hit him violently.

"What's going on, Zico?" She demanded.

"We're under attack by some creeps. Look, I'm being nice here, woman. Either get on my back or I leave you here."

Mai gritted her teeth and hoisted herself up onto his back, making sure to pinch his shoulders and neck painfully when she got a firm holding.

"What sort of creeps?" She couldn't help but ask.

Zico decided to ignore her as he ran out of the room, seemingly not noticing Mai clinging to his back like a koala. She pinched the junction between his neck and shoulder.

"Ow! , woman!"

"Answer my question! What creeps?"

"I dunno, some Vietnamese guys we probably pissed off at one point!"

Zico burst out onto the deck, where the rest of the Block B crew were already waiting, looking less childish and carefree and more serious and tense. The boat lurched again, nearly toppling Mai off Zico's back.

"To the right, Zico!" Kyung shouted. "Some ship, they keep shooting at us!"

Zico promptly ignored Mai again, dumping her onto the deck and dashing to the right of the ship. Mai rubbed her ankle and scowled at his back.

"," she heard him swear. "Are those TORPEDOES on that boat? What the hell are they?"

"Right now, they've just been giving us a little greeting. Shotguns and rifles. They shot something else at us a while ago, something big, but it missed and we couldn't tell what it was." Kyung bit his lip, looking nervous.

"Let me see," Mai insisted. Jaehyo and B-Bomb helped her to her feet and she hobbled over to the railing. Her jaw dropped when she saw the logo emblazoned on the side of the boat.

"God dammit ... it's Tuan!"

"Who?" Jaehyo frowned in puzzlement.

"Tuan, you idiots! Tuan! The Vietnamese mafia leader Tuan! , he must've known we took the diamonds ... those were his loot!"

"Mafia? You kidding?" P.O groaned. "Hyungs, what are we gonna do? It's the mafia!"

"Calm down, ! We've dealt with worse, we can deal with some mafia losers!" Zico said, looking fierce. "Where the hell is U-Kwon? U-KWON, GET THOSE GUNS THE OLD GEEZER GAVE US! WE NEED 'EM!!!"

"What?"

"STOP STARING AT THAT WOMAN AND GET A MOVE ON!!!"

"Are we fighting?" Mai asked Taeil, who snickered. "When you mean 'we', you mean Zico, U-Kwon, B-Bomb, and P.O. The rest of us just get in the way and trip feet."

"Damn, if only my ankle wasn't screwed up ..." Mai swore. "I have a bone to pick with any goons working for Tuan."

"Well, if you're lucky, you might get a chance. Because if those guys shoot those torpedoes at us, we're going down."