U-Kwon appeared, carrying a large, bulky, and obviously heavy box with ease. "I got them, leadah!"

"What are you waiting for? We're not going to just let them blow up our house!" Zico snapped. 

The men on deck appeared to be shouting something. Mai looked closer and her eyes suddenly widened. "GET DOWN!!!"

"Wha --?" 

Mai used her shaky balance as an advantage, letting herself fall backwards and drop hard to the ground. She grabbed the nearest person's arm and shovedt hem down as well.

Everyone followed suit and ducked, just as an explosion of gunfire ripped through the air above their heads. 

"Get off of me, woman!" Mai realized it was Zico she had basically saved and immediately shoved his arm away, disgusted.

"s!" U-Kwon swore, the smile dropping off his face and, for a split second before turning away, Mai saw he had turned serious. And he looked pretty damn cool, too ...

"HOW DARE YOU SHOOT AT MAI DARLING??!!!"

Mai slapped a hand over her face as she heard Jaehyo and P.O snort with laughter somewhere. 

U-Kwon took aim at the boat and fired. It missed Tuan's goons, but Mai knew it was only from distance and the speed of the wind, not from inexperience. She could tell, just by the way U-Kwon held himself and the gun, and also by the very obvious dent right in the middle of Tuan's logo on the side of the boat, that he was an excellent shooter.

"Dammit all! U-Kwon, gimme one of those!" Zico swore, catching the gun U-Kwon tossed to him with one hand. "Let's send 'em to hell!"

"Let me help, Zico! Let me help1" Kyung bounced up and down excitedly, and Zico gazed at him warily.

"Er ... I'd rather you didn't. Taeil, send this idiot back down and make sure he stays there. And go to the control room -- we need to get closer to the ship for our shots to make it!"

"Got it," Taeil said firmly, looking extremely relieved to be leaving the open. He grabbed a protesting Kyung by the collar and dragged him away.

Mai swore and ducked under the railing. If only she wasn't injured, then Block B would see she wasn't just some pathetic damsel in distress who just HAPPENED to steal their money and diamonds ...

Wait! Why did she care? No, she was going to beat the crap out of Tuan's men because they worked for TUAN, that's it.

B-Bomb suddenly appeared next to Mai, effectively giving her a heart attack. "W-where the hell did you come from?" Mai demanded, taking deep breaths to calm her suddenly-frantic pulse.

"I walked," he said simply, holding something out. Mai realized it was a simple kitchen knife. It wasn't even a steak knife either. It was a normal knife. "You're kidding, you won't harm a thing with that ..."

B-Bomb ignored her and crawled towards Zico, who was busy shooting and ducking for cover alternately. "Zico, we need to closer."

"I know, dammit!" Zico swore again, looking frustrated. "But every time we try to move in, they back off! They're freaking playing catch-me-if-you-can!"

Mai scowled. "Don't you guys have any, I don't know, big guns? Instead of pistols?"

"We're broke," P.O explained.

"Shut up, maknae!" Zico barked, gritting his teeth. Suddenly, a wicked little smile appeared on his face, and Mai could see a mischevious gleam in his eyes that she's never seen before. "Of course, what was I thinking? We have the world's best hacker on our ship!"

"Aww, you're flattering me, hyung," P.O said, pretending to be embarrassed.

"Shut up, I wasn't talking to you! Jaehyo, do your thing."

"On it," Jaehyo sighed leisurely, standing up and stretching before lazily strolling away, dodging bullets.

"Wait, what?" Mai scrambled to catch up. She attempted to get on her feet, but a bullet flew close to her cheek and she dropped down again. P.O crawled over to sit next to her.

"Remember we told you? Pika-hyung is a hacker, one that can even fool Zico if he wants to. Hacking into the enemy ship's control system is a piece of cake, especially if the boat is so close to us."

"Wow ..." Mai didn't even know that handsome guy was so incredible ... in all honesty, besides his dashing looks, she thought he was a bit of a doofus. All the other members seemed to pick on him as much as they picked on P.O. "... Wait, what did you just call him?"

"Pika-hyung?"

"Yeah."

"You haven't seen his Pikachu pyjamas yet, haven't you?"

"You're kidding," Mai said in disbelief. "What is he, five?"

"Better than underwear, which is what he wears if it's not the Pikachu pyjamas."

Mai remembered her new room completely furnished with Hello Kitty and sighed. Sometimes it seemed like she had just boarded on a ship run by screaming kindergarteners.

Suddenly, Tuan's ship stopped moving, the engine spluttering and dying out. The men's frantic shouts was picked up by Mai's sharp ears.

"Cái quái gì đã xảy ra?" They were shouting. "What the hell happened?"

"Tất cả mọi thứ dừng làm việc!" "Everything stopped working!" 

"Did he just ...?" Mai started to say. P.O nodded, looking pleased. 

How ... how is that possible? He actually hacked into the ship's controls and fried the system!

Now that Tuan's ship stopped working, Taeil was slowly bringing Block B's ship closer. The men on board yelled frantically and shot more bullets at them.

"Heh, losers," Zico snorted. "Now! Let's do things our way!" He and U-Kwon both straightened up and took aim at once. And this time, their bullets hit the target. Two of the men on deck fell.

"Bring us closer, hyung!" P.O yelled, loud enough that Taeil could hear from the cockpit. With almost expert precision, Block B's boat glided smoothly until they were practically right beside the mafia boat. 

"Stay down, alright, Mai?" P.O said cheerfully, before putting on the eyepatch again. Then he stood up and ran out, jumping off the railing and landing onto the enemy's deck and starting a fistfight.

It had become a free-for-all.

B-Bomb was there too, and when one of the men attempted to shoot a gun at P.O when his back was turned, B-Bomb threw the knife point-blank at his face. Mai couldn't help but wince when she realized that if U-Kwon was good at guns, B-Bomb was a master at knives.

Zico looked like he was getting bored of standing there shooting. After gazing longingly at the fierce battle on the other ship, he stood up and threw the gun at Mai. "Here, woman, make yourself useful. I'm off."

"Wait a second!" U-Kwon started to complain, but Zico had already jumped to the other deck and kicked one of the men square in the back, sending him sprawling.

"Well, guess it's just you and me, Mai Darling!" U-Kwon said with a bright grin.

"Che, keep your eyes on the enemy and your hands to yourself, alright?" Mai grumbled, wondering why she had to be stuck alone with that idiot. She took aim and, although clumsy, managed to graze one of the goons enough for P.O to knock him down for good.

"You're pretty good with the gun, Mai Darling."

"Shut up, Smiley-Face. I hate guns. They're loud and useless and get you caught easily." Mai scowled and tried to steady the slight shaking of her hands. "Thieves have no use for weapons that make loud noises. Might as well just scream yourself and let the police catch you."

"That's true, I guess, Mai Darling," U-Kwon said brightly, and Mai wondered if he really was listening to anything she was saying. Unlike Mai, who could miss and graze at best (and luckily managed to not hit anybody from HER side), U-Kwon was barely paying attention as he brought down Tuan's thugs.

"U-Kwon, you idiot!" Zico shouted. "You almost hit ME!!!"

"Sorry," U-Kwon called back, not sounding the least big apologetic. 

Finally, it seemed like the fighting on the ship had ceased. The rest of the men that weren't wounded (or dead, but Mai didn't want to think about that) surrendered, and after a quick session of threats they revealed it was indeed Tuan who sent them to recover the stolen diamonds.

Afterwards, the Block B crew pillaged whatever they could find of worth on the ship and returned. Taeil steered the boat away, leaving behind Tuan's ship and surviving crewmen stranded on the water.

Mai finally realized exactly what pirates truly were. Sure, they joked and fought like children and behaved even more like whiny, hyperactive brats, but Mai saw a totally different side of them. A side where they were okay with killing people.

Mai wasn't sure why it horrified her so much -- death wasn't that big of a deal where she came from, after all -- until she realized they were all her age; nineteen to about twenty-two. And they were killing people as if it was no big deal, as if it was all one big adventure, as if it was FUN.

"Well, that was a good workout!" P.O said cheerfully, pulling off the eyepatch and stuffing it into his pocket again. 

"I hope we can pawn these off at the next stop," Zico said, greedily looking at the heavy gold chain he had ripped off of a man's neck.

"Are you alright?" Mai heard a voice, although it seemed to echo and come from far away. It was just B-Bomb, standing there unnoticed by her as usual. "You look pale."

"F-fine," Mai stammered, not working properly. "I'm ... I'm fine ..."

Then she saw the bloodied knife B-Bomb was holding in his hands. A simple, plain old kitchen knife.

And she staggered over to the side of the ship and threw up.

"She's weak. And pathetic. She can't even shoot straight."

"Zico, just shut up."

"Hey, I think she's waking up now. Mai? Mai, are you alright? P.O, back up, give her some room. U-Kwon, you too. Go down there. ALL the way down there. Your back against the wall. Good, stay there. I don't want her to start screaming the second she sees you."

"Stop bossing us around, Taeil! I'm first mate after Zico!"

"Kyung ... have some candy."

Mai slowly opened her eyes. She felt like her brain was being pierced by thousands of needles, and her ankle hurt worse than ever. She groaned and tried to sit up. She was back in the bright, annoyingly cheerful Hello Kitty room.

"What happened?" She tried to say, although it sounded more like "Wha' 'pend?"

"You hurled over the side of the boat and then passed out," P.O said matter-of-factly. "B-Bomb had to pull you back, you almost fell overboard."

"O-oh ..." Mai turned to the silent boy and mumbled, "Thanks." B-Bomb nodded but didn't say anything else.

"What's wrong with you, anyway?" Zico snorted, arms crossed and standing at the very edge of the door frame, as if he didn't want to be in the same room as her. "Never saw a bit of blood before?"

Mai glared daggers at him. "You are such an arrogant, hateful little prick!"

"WHAT did you just call me, you ?" Zico started to storm over, but Kyung quickly pulled him back. "Zico ..."

Zico glared back at her. Mai was ready to glare right back -- maybe flip him the bird to piss him off even more -- but she was still pale and clammy and she knew her hands were still shaking, so she looked away.

Zico stared at her for a moment longer, before saying, "Alright, everybody out."

"What?" They instantly began complaining. "Why?"

"I wanna have a talk with this woman. Alone."

"Hyung, you're going to be mean to her!" P.O complained.

"Zico, you're a meanie pie!" Kyung protested.

Jaehyo smirked. "Don't do anything I would do alone with a girl."

"Zico, is it really necessary?" Taeil sighed.

"You're gonna yell at my sweetheart?" U-Kwon wailed.

Even B-Bomb said, "Are you trying to bully her again?"

"ALL OF YOU, SHUT UP AND GET LOST!!!" Zico bellowed. "CAPTAIN'S ORDERS!!!"

Grumbling, the pirates slowly left the room. Taeil was the last one to leave. He shot a warning look at Zico before closing the door behind him.

There was a long, awkward silence as Zico leant against the wall and Mai stared at the Hello Kitty-patterned sheets, feeling awkward and slightly nervous. She didn't understand why Zico suddenly wanted to talk to her alone. If he wanted to bully/threaten her into leaving, he would have done so already.

"Alright, what's wrong?"

"H-huh?" Her head shot up. Was he really saying what she thought he was saying?

"You heard me, woman." Zico's voice was gruff with embarrassment, and he wouldn't glance her way as he spoke. "I've seen that look before, okay? What was it that freaked you out?"

Mai bit her lip. Should she tell him? Why should she? He's been nothing but an to her the whole time. Well, granted, she did steal his fortune, but it could have been worse ... and it's not like she was their friend or anything ...

Taking a deep breath and fiddling with the sheets, she said, "It ... it was ... the killing. The killing that got to me."

When Zico didn't say anything, Mai took a few gulping breaths and slowly continued. "I, I mean ... I've seen things others grow up ignorant to, but never ... I've never seen anyone get KILLED before. I've fought a few times, sure, but only for survival and to get out of tight spots ... I've never held a knife or a gun in my hands, ever ... a-and ..." She gulped. "Seeing such young people, killing like it's f-FUN ..."

"Okay, I get it, shut up," Zico said. Mai finally found the courage to look up at him. "Listen, we aren't angels, alright? We're freaks. Why else would we be living on a boat stealing for a living?"

Mai couldn't help but smile a little bit when he put it that way.

"Look, I don't know why I'm telling you this, but ... when I was eleven, I knew this kid. He was nice. We'd play basketball sometimes. Well, we'd try, but we only had one hoop to shoot from and it kept breaking, and sometimes gangs would come around and kick us off ... yeah, so I didn't live in the best neighbourhood. But that kid was decent.

"But then there was a knife fight between two gangs. We were there, playing basketball like always, and it suddenly just started happening. His brother was in one of those gangs, selling drugs for a living, I guess. And, no Sherlock, his brother got stabbed. Right in front of him. He held him until he died."

Mai didn't know what to say. "I'm sorry" was pointless, because even she knew that those kinds of words were empty and shallow and solved nothing. "That's horrible" was even more pointless, and someone like Zico certainly wouldn't understand the concept of sympathy. So she said nothing.

"He had the same look on his face like you did. He never saw someone die like that before. Anyway, why the hell am I telling you this?"

"I don't know, you ask me," Mai retorted. "."

"," Zico turned to glare at her again. Even without the weird dreadlock hair extensions and bright white eye contacts, he still looked pretty menacing.

Mai didn't back down this time. Without shaking even once, she glared at him right in the eye. "!"

After a few more seconds of glaring, Zico suddenly broke off into laughter. Mai leaned back, startled.

"Looks like you've gotten over it, haven't you, woman?" He said, still chuckling. "You're back to normal. Took you long enough, too."

Mai felt her cheeks go a bit warm. "Oh, shut up! But, um, hey ... thanks, I guess."

Zico fell silent, as though thinking it over. Then he looked at Mai and smiled. "Yeah. You're welcome."

And it wasn't a cocky smile, or an arrogant smirk, or a wild, excited, evil grin. It was a warm, cute smile, that made his sharp eyes melt and his face look less hard, and suddenly he looked like a schoolboy, a young and excited boy of twenty.

"You know what, woman? Now that I realize you aren't really full of , you're not so bad. I'll let you keep this room for now, then. But don't think I won't kick your out of here once that stupid ankle heals!"

"Like I'd want to stay here any longer than that!" Mai retorted back, starting to smile a little bit too. He wasn't being arrogant, or annoying, or rude, so now he was actually fun to talk to. "But, hey, listen. I'll save the money I got from those diamonds. Next time you guys sail to Vietnam, come find me. I promise I'll give you a third of it."

Zico thought it over. "A half."

"No way, man. If you didn't screw us all over and steal it like a , we wouldn't have been in that situation with Tuan's goons. I'm smart enough to keep myself hidden."

"Alright, fine. A third. You better keep that promise, woman!"

And then he was gone, leaving Mai to deal with her headache and her ankle. She sighed and fell backwards until her head hit the soft pillow.

Maybe, just maybe ... she might enjoy her stay here.