‘I’m hungry..’ Xiah sighed.
‘I haven’t eaten after we left the dorm at twilight yesterday. What time is it now? It feels like noon.. Hyung, aren’t you hungry? What food do you want most? I think I can eat anything now, even dog! I never..’
While Xiah continued his monologue, U-know closed his eyes and rested his head against the wall behind him.
‘..so I’ll never go hungry again. Don’t you think so, hyung? U-know hyung?’ Xiah asked and waited for U-know to react.
U-know opened his eyes and turned to Xiah.
‘Sorry, what is it you were talking about? I wasn’t really listening before..’
‘It’s okay hyung.. I was only talking about being hungry.’ Xiah sighed, it was clear as ice he had something else he wanted to say, but he was thinking of a way to say it.
‘Can I trust you with something?’ Xiah asked, looking at U-know with a questioning expression.
‘More than food, I’m worrying about Flower.. Will she be okay? What is she doing? Won’t she do stupid things that hurt her? Hyung, I ask myself those questions all the time.. I think she means more to me than anything has ever meant to me.’ Xiah ended with a sigh that was full of emotion.
Those words from Xiah had taken U-know by surprise.
He had never noticed Xiah had feelings for you, when it came to deep feelings like love and hate, Xiah wasn’t the type to show it either.
Sure, Xiah shares his feelings a lot, but he’ll keep those that are really important to him to himself.
U-know shifted his position on the floor.
‘So, you love Flower?’ He asked, a little more blunt than he had meant.
Another sigh of Xiah, not the happy-that-I’m-thinking-of-you kind of sigh, but the burdened one that only people in mental pain can let out.
U-know didn’t need to ask any further, he knew he could take that as a “yes”.
For the next 15 minutes neither of them spoke a word.
Both were deeply in thought.
The only thing that could be heard were droplets of water falling onto the bare concrete which was the floor of the place that Xiah and U-know were in.
A few hours ago, they both were thrown into a dim cell.
It had no windows, except for a small hole with grilles.
Most of the light came through that tiny hole.
Another source of light was the space underneath the heavily locked door.
Beside the glow of light from those, there was no light.
The cell was pretty spacious though and both of them were unchained, but they didn’t feel like moving around a lot.
U-know could tell this was no regular prisoner’s place, this one was more secluded and definitely smaller and less friendly.
They had to get out of here soon or they would never see full daylight again..

Hero turned around again.
He couldn’t sleep last night from worrying about U-know and Xiah..
He was wasted, broken and completely exhausted.
The only thing he wanted now was to sleep and then wake up to find out it had all been a bad dream.
..but he was certain it wasn’t a dream, U-know and Xiah were caught and kept somewhere..

Beside U-know and Xiah missing, you had a different thing which caused you to toss and turn in your bed.
Why did Micky call you when he wasn’t dressed yet?
His explanation didn’t make much sense either, come to think of it..
And why, oh why, did he say he didn’t mind you seeing him ?
Had he had so many girls that he didn’t even feel the slightest twinge of embarrassment in front of girls anymore?
That couldn’t be right!
Wasn’t the word “embarrassment” made out of the words “bare” and “”?
You believed nobody could feel comfortable standing bare assed in front of someone fully clothed, and not at all when that fully clothed person was from the opposite ..
‘Aish! Got to erase that image from my mind!’ You softly spoke to yourself while you covered your head with the blanket.
Two minutes later you threw it off you again.. Too stuffy and warm!
Then the cold hit you and you again crawled deeply under your blanket..

Micky slept like nothing was different.
He dreamed of you, and that was reason enough to fall asleep and sleep the complete night through.
He did miss U-know and Xiah and he was also worried about them, but there was nothing he could do for them right now.
So he tried the best he could and depended on the thought that they might be smart and strong enough to find their own way out.

Max had just recovered from the paint attack, it had been a blow to his comfort status.
He probably wouldn’t open a suitcase for the next ten years.
The clothes were thrown into the bin right after he’d freed himself from them.
Too bad they were pretty new and also expensive..
At least he got rid of the mess!
Max pushed the ‘on’ button on the electric fan.
A nice breeze went through his room, blowing the cool morning air into his face.
He would get up early today.
Maybe he could talk to you.. get a little closer perhaps..

You opened up the windows in your room.
The sun had already risen and the first rays of sunlight started to fall on the floor of your room.
It was still cold outside for the time of year, but you needed some fresh air.
After you dressed quickly, you went downstairs to see if anyone had made breakfast yet.
Hero was still upstairs, sleeping..
It wasn’t common for Hero to sleep until late in the morning, but you could imagine him being sleepless during the night.
You heard someone taking a shower and knew it must be Max, since you heard splashes of water hit the shower’s ceiling.
You could swear you also heard him scrubbing the ceiling now..
The paint explosion must have worsened his nosophobia.
You started to prepare breakfast.
Until someone’s presence startled you.
Micky went to stand next to you and started helping you prepare breakfast.
He said no word and made no move towards you, but you noticed you were extremely jumpy.

________~END OF CHAPTER 19~________ 

Another admirer~