After a full day of wandering around town, searching for any clues on your location, Micky and Max had gone home after finding absolutely nothing.
The next day they had eaten breakfast very early.
Neither of them had been able to sleep.
Both were worried sick about you, but they also wondered why Hero, U-know and Xiah weren’t back yet.

‘My heart is hollow, like this house.’ Micky said, pushing his food around on his plate.
He didn’t feel like eating, he missed you terribly.
‘This is still nothing compared to the hollowness of my aunt and uncle’s house…’ Max commented, feeling weirdly annoyed with Micky’s feelings.
Micky was missing you and feeling miserable for a reason he could and did announce, but Max felt just as bad for the same reason, but it didn’t seem fair or possible to express it to Micky.
‘What kind of hellish place was your aunt and uncle’s home then?’ Micky wanted to know, in an attempt to distract himself from the ever-present aching.
‘Their place was like a museum! I couldn’t touch anything and I was taught to live with minimal exposure to dust and other filth.’ Max stated.
‘Sounds like the perfect place for you, actually…’ Micky commented, not understanding Max’ strong dislike of his uncle and aunt’s house.
‘Well, as you might not have guessed, I wasn’t such a neat freak when I was little, I learned to be one, when I was living in that place.’ Max explained.
‘Wait, you lived in your aunt and uncle’s home?’ Micky asked, surprised to hear Max didn’t grow up with his parents.
‘Yea, umma and appa were never around, they’re professional travelers, appa’s a pilot and umma’s a purser… Ironic, isn’t it?’ Max laughed, but the smile didn’t reach his eyes.
‘And their son is a secret agent…’ Micky added.
‘I don’t see myself in that way.’ Max replied, taking another bite of his breakfast.
‘Me neither…’ Micky agreed.
A silence in which both guys thought about the image they had about themselves followed.

‘So you blame your aunt and uncle for making you scared of filth?’ Micky asked, not understanding why Max would be angry at their clean way of living.
‘No, I don’t blame them, maybe a little… I blame the kids.’ Max replied, a disgusted look on his face as he pushed his plate of breakfast away from him.
Clearly the thought about these “kids” had deprived him of his appetite.
‘What kids? Your cousins? What did they do for you to blame them?’
Max shook his head.
‘I don’t have cousins. It were the neighborhood kids. They’d force me to eat dirt, make me pick up worms, push me so I’d step into the dog’s droppings, put frogs into my pencil case, splash ditch water over my shoes and all these little things.’ Max said sighing, his hands were tightly balled into fists.
These things were haunting him till this day.
‘That’s really mean! Why would they do that to you?’ Micky asked, who now began to understand Max’ struggles, he even felt sorry for all the times he had playfully tested Max on his nosophobia.
‘Simple, I was the nephew of the head of the school… My aunt, she was the person everyone disliked. Everyone also knew she had a for cleaning and being clean. Of course no-one could publicly hate on her, so they took it out on me, her crisp and clean nephew… So, you can imagine how glad I was when I could let it all behind me and join the four of you!’ Max explained.
‘Ah, that’s right, you joined after Xiah, before Flower joined!’ Micky let out as if he’d just remembered, but actually he just wanted to mention you, since you were on his mind all the time and you were his new favorite subject to talk about.
‘Yeah, Flower joined after me… Do you remember her story?’ Max asked.
‘She cried a lot. I really felt sorry for her to lose her parents like that. She seemed to have had a strong bond with them.’ Micky sighed, missing you even more now that he couldn’t comfort you, even though you didn’t need comfort for missing your parents anymore.

Having no past experiences with sleeping outside, Xiah didn’t close an eye.
With every sound, and there were many in the forest, Xiah’s eyes shot open again and he tried to locate the source of the sound with his eyes and ears, meanwhile trying to figure out what it was.
Xiah was shivering, he was still cold and scared as well, since his hyungs seemed to have fallen asleep and thus they weren’t able to protect their dongsaeng from any potential danger.
The thoughts of creatures watching them sleep in the woods made Xiah nervous.
And then nature was calling, he had to pee…
Slowly he got up, feeling a little dizzy and wobbling slightly.
He didn’t want Hero or U-know to be able to see him, but he also didn’t want to walk too far away from them.
Desperately Xiah tried to find a place.
Behind the tree? What if something or someone approached him from the back?
Then with his back against the tree? But what if something or someone attacked him from out of the tree?
After some turning around and searching some more, Xiah was extremely surprised to find a cottage hidden in the trees.
When he walked around it, he saw it was closed up with wooden boards, but the traces of powdery Breakstone confirmed to Xiah he had found the cottage they were looking for!
Quickly he relieved himself and then made his way back to Hero and U-know.
While running on a slow pace, since Xiah was feeling very weak and tired, he suddenly thought he was being followed.
He immediately began panicking, trying to fight of the feeling, since somewhere in the back of his mind he realized his fears in combination with his high temperature made him imagine things.
Running on in full fear and lacking in strength Xiah eventually lost his conscience and fell down on the mossy ground.

________~END OF CHAPTER 45~________

Sorry, another cliff hanger~! ^^

Waah~ this is the longest story I've ever written (so far! xD) and it's also one of my better stories! =)
I hope my readers still enjoy it too! ^^ And if you have suggestions, have questions or just want to comment, please don't shy away from doing so! ;]