‘FLOWER~!’ five voices yelled, searching through the dorm.
It was clear, you weren’t in the dorm and nobody had seen you leave, but the wide-open window in your room told them enough to know you didn’t leave out of free will.
‘Where could she possibly be taken to?’ Micky said near pure desperation.
‘Who do you think took her?’ Xiah asked.
Micky tried hard not to act annoyed and to roll his eyes, of course he knew it were the same three guys taking her.
Max had suspected it too, before it happened he had been afraid these boys would return and now it had happened.
They had taken you and they used Chloroform to drug you so it was a quick abduction.
‘How much we care about Flower, we have to get the president and his family out of the Bandas’ hands as well!’ U-know reminded his companions.

Ten minutes later it was decided, U-know, Xiah and Hero were going to get the presidential family out of their prison and Micky and Max were going to find you.
Even though Xiah had rather looked for you, he was needed to help U-know remember the place they had been kept prison, for there the presidential family would be kept.

‘I can’t remember a thing!’ Xiah whined, walking behind U-know.
‘Stop whining so much, better use that energy to find the place!’ Hero commented.
‘I have to agree, the surroundings have changed, or so it seems…’ U-know replied.
Instead of giving up, they walked on, trying to remember more or looking for a cottage.

After passing tree after tree in silence, Xiah couldn’t take it anymore.
‘We’ll never find it!’ He let out frustrated. ‘…and my feet have started to ache!’
‘We’ll find it, but we could do with a break first…’ Hero agreed.
As said, they took a break when they reached an open space in the woods.
Sitting down on two fallen trees, Xiah started shivering.
‘Hyungs? Are y-you as c-cold as I am?’ He choked out.
The guys looked at Xiah, he was just wearing a t-shirt and a cotton pair of pants, while they were wearing sweaters under their jackets.
‘I’m only a little cold…’ Hero commented.
‘I’m not at all… Here, I’ll give you my sweater.’ U-know said, taking off both his sweater and jacket, handing the sweater to Xiah and putting the jacket back on.

Since it was an open space, U-know reasoned it couldn’t hurt building a camp fire.
It was late afternoon and it would be turning dark in just a few hours.
Xiah was now better dressed, but the boy had started heating up at the skin.
Giving themselves an alibi to build the fire, ignorant of the fact that this was supposed to be just a break.
Nobody really wanted to face the obvious fact, they were lost…
It had not really registered in their brains, but unconsciously they had started preparing themselves to spend the night in the woods.

‘I never went camping before.’ Xiah said as he looked into the fire, sitting against a log.
‘Me neither, I wasn’t allowed by my foster parents.’ Hero replied, sitting down next to Xiah.
When U-know was satisfied with the fire, he went to sit at Xiah’s other side.
‘I have camped, but I was so young I don’t remember much about it.’ U-know commented. ‘We used to camp every year, since that was the only type of vacation my parents could afford. I know I really looked forward to those trips.’
U-know sighed, poking the fire with a stick.
‘So why did you stop camping?’ Xiah asked.
‘I missed the boat…’ U-know answered closing his eyes for a brief moment.
Hero and Xiah exchanged looks, how was that an explanation?
‘When I could finally experience some real traveling, I stood on shore, seeing my parents leave for Japan… and they never returned. I was too late with boarding because I was distracted by…’
‘A girl?!’ Xiah interrupted with anticipation.
‘…a market stall that sold something like Pokémon items, only those didn’t exist yet.’ U-know answered.
‘That’s tragic…’ Hero let out staring at the fire, thinking of his own unfortunate life.
‘What happened next?’ Xiah wanted to know. ‘How did you end up here?’
‘I searched for my parents… but since I was only about 6 years old, I never found them. Then I tried to find my house, but new inhabitants lived there and they weren’t nice. At that time I thought it was nice they gave me a piece of bread, but they also sent me away, which isn’t something a nice person would’ve done.’
‘That’s mean.’ Xiah commented.
‘In the years after, I went from foster home to foster home, but I couldn’t really find my place. I was turning more difficult to handle every time and eventually they just put me back on the streets. That’s when I met you and Micky.’ U-know said and looked at Hero.
‘Oh, I remember, we just got back from the supermarket when we noticed you eyeing us. I was afraid you’d rob us…’ Hero answered.
‘Rob you? Oh, no, I was just envious. At that time I was envious of everyone, especially of those of my age.’ U-know explained.
‘Then how did you become friends?’ Xiah asked.
‘Micky said I should offer him a place in PCF. At that time Micky still called me sunbae, but he was remarkably skillful himself. He saw potential in U-know.’ Hero told Xiah.
‘Micky called you sunbae?!’ Xiah laughed, not believing the Micky nowadays had once called his hyung sunbae.
‘Yeah…’ Hero said, looking at Xiah with a glance that told him “watch-your-mouth-I-warn-you”.
‘So how did you become Micky’s sunbae?’ Xiah asked, curious as always.
‘Well, actually he became my hoobae, I was the first of us to join PCF.’ Hero explained.
‘Then how did that go? Tell me your story, hyung.’ Xiah asked, his eyes large with interest.
‘I’ll tell you some other time. Aren’t you tired?’ Hero asked, to which Xiah shook his head, but yawned right after.
‘Well, I am.’ Hero stated.
‘Me too, let’s talk tomorrow.’ U-know said and all three wished each other good night.

It took Xiah a long time to fall asleep.
He kept on hearing weird noises and somewhere, in the back of his mind he knew something bad was going to happen…

________~END OF CHAPTER 43~________

^^ Now you know how U-know got in PCF! =)

Not much you/Micky/Max in it, but keep an eye on this story for more! ^-^