foolhardy [fül-ˌhär-dē] adj. - recklessly doing things that are too dangerous or risky

“Are you nervous?”

“Not really,” Minseok shrugged as he the small bomb that was lying in his pocket. “Worst case scenario is that it doesn’t work.”

“Are you kidding me?!” Baekhyun exclaimed incredulously as he smacked Minseok on the back of his head. “Worse case scenario is that you get caught!”

Minseok remained silent for a few seconds before shrugging off his words, “That’s no big deal.”

“Yah, Kim Minseok!” Baekhyun cried as he placed his hands against his hips.

“You’re being too loud Baek,” Chanyeol chuckled as he nudged the other gently with his elbow. “Stop screaming at the guy, okay?” He turned to Minseok and held a thumb up. “Good luck, Hyung. I’ll keep an eye out for you from my work station.”

“What happens if he gets caught?” Jongup asked curiously as he picked at the dirt on his arm.

“Isn’t it obvious?” Youngjae scoffed as he slid his thumb across his throat. “You saw what they did to that other Noye. I don’t understand why we’re helping them.”

“If you don’t want to help get the hell out,” Jongin growled darkly. He raised his fist and took a threatening step forward, “Or should I help you?”

Mihyun called out his name as a warning, and Jongin let out a small growl but reluctantly stepped back.

“Don’t say that Youngjae Hyung, Minseok Hyung will be fine,” Junhong spoke up quietly as he scolded the other. He glanced at Mihyun out of the corner of his eye, and averted his gaze with a blush when she smiled gratefully at him.

“Well, it’s time to go to work Minseok,” Chanyeol cleared his throat as he clapped a hand on Minseok’s shoulder. He added under his breath, “Don’t listen to that , you’ll do just fine.”

“You can do it,” Himchan pitched in with a raised fist. “Fighting!”

“Good luck,” Yongguk nodded his head as Minseok passed.

Mihyun placed a gentle hand on his upper arm and stared straight into his eyes when he glanced over his shoulder to look at her, “Stay safe.”

The corner of Minseok’s lip twitched upwards at her words, and he nodded his head with gratitude in his eyes. “I will.”

“He probably won’t make it back alive,” Youngjae scoffed as soon as Minseok was out of earshot.

“Yah, don’t say that,” Himchan scolded the male with furrowed eyebrows. “You don’t know that.”

“Like hell I do,” Youngjae snorted as he waved Himchan off. “Authorities have a birds eye on us at all times.” His eyes wandered around the cage and he narrowed them at Mihyun. “I bet they’re watching us right now and know every little thing you guys are scheming. Hell, I wouldn’t be surprised if she was working in cahoots with them.”

“I’m starting to get real sick and tired of you,” Jongin growled as he stepped forward once again.

Youngjae climbed up to his feet and gave Jongin a nasty snarl, “The feeling is mutual, bastard.”

“What did you just call me?” Jongin barred his teeth as he shoved Youngjae backwards.

“Don’t touch him,” Yongguk shot up to stand in between Youngjae and Jongin. “He might have a dirty mouth, but he’s one of us. Fight with him and you’re fighting with the rest of us.”

“And you, you need to shut up if you don’t have anything useful to say,” Yongguk scolded Youngjae with narrowed eyes. “We all voted to decide whether or not we would help them, and you agreed to go with the decision.”

“That was before I knew how dangerous this was,” Youngjae cried in his defense.

“Because you’re not smart enough to assume that there would be danger in staging a Noye rebellion?” Sehun scoffed. “What the hell did you expect?”

“I’ll tell you what I didn’t expect!” Youngjae shouted as he stretched out a finger in Mihyun’s direction. “I didn’t expect our leader to be some prissy rich girl who probably never dirtied her even a finger her entire life!”

“Don’t you dare talk about Mihyun when you don’t know a single thing about her,” Baekhyun spoke up with narrowed eyes as he took a protective stance in front of the girl. “Mihyun’s a better person than all of us combined.”

“Because we’re all such good people,” Youngjae laughed bitterly.

“Didn’t I tell you to shut your mouth?” Yongguk growled as he shot Youngjae a threatening glare.

“I’m just saying what we’re all thinking, Hyung!” Youngjae defended as he crossed his arms. “How are we supposed to trust some rich girl who’s never had to suffer the same things we did? Are we supposed to believe that she’s going to risk her time, money, and life for something she doesn’t benefit from? Do you actually think—”

“Are you not going to shut up?” Mihyun spoke up finally. “Or should I just interrupt you now?”

All eyes turned to the girl with alarm, astonished that she had been the one to lose her cool before the others.

“If you want to leave then leave,” Mihyun continued with a hard look. “Nobody is stopping you. If you don’t believe in me, then I’m not going to try to persuade you to trust me; that’s not what I’m here to do. You’re just wasting time that nobody has by whining, so if you’re not going to do or say anything productive then get out.”

Sehun’s lips spread into a proud smile at Mihyun’s words, satisfied that the girl had finally stood up to the bad mouthing of others. He had to admit that he was initially surprised that the girl had spoken up in such a manner, but it just made him adore Mihyun all so much more.

“She’s right, Youngjae,” Yongguk sighed as he turned to his friend. “If you don’t want to be here then you can leave. We won’t force you to stay just because the rest of us are.”

There was a beat of silence before Youngjae let out a loud scoff, “I was just stating my opinion, no need to get all nasty.”

“I’ll show you nasty if you let out another word, you bastard,” Jongin growled under his breath. He grinned when Mihyun made no move to reprimand him, and made sure to clearly flick him off before turning to the other boys.

“Do any of you guys have to attend work today?” Mihyun asked as she sat down next to Luhan on Baekhyun’s blanket. The boy immediately leaned into the warmth, hooking his arm around Mihyun’s with a smile.

“Himchan, Youngjae, Jongup, and I have to leave now,” Yongguk nodded his head. “Junhong can stay here, if he wants to.” He turned to look at the male in question, “Do you want to stay here?”

Junhong remained silent for a few seconds, his eyes darting over to glance at Mihyun before he finally nodded his head. “Yeah, I want to help,” he added in a quiet breath.

Sehun shifted suspiciously at the boy’s behavior towards Mihyun, and inched closer to the girl just for good measure.

“We’ll be back around the same time as the other two. If we see anything happen we’ll come back and let you guys know,” Himchan nodded his head as he sent the rest of them a two salute. He shuffle Junhong’s hair before leaving, proud that the shy younger had decided to pitch in his two cents when he knew he must have been scared to death.

“What do you need us to do Mi-Mi… Mih…I-uh, yeah,” Junhong stammered nervously as he trained his eyes on the ground.

“You don’t need to be afraid of us, Junhong,” Mihyun smiled up at the boy. “We’re on the same team.”

“Yeah, because that’s what he is,” Jongin scoffed under his breath as he shot Junhong a knowing look. “Afraid.”

“You might as well drop the crush now, kid, we already have on puppy chasing her tail,” Baekhyun nodded as he jerked his thumb back at Sehun.

Sehun nodded his head with crossed arms, proud that his Hyungs had come to his defense.

Junhong’s cheeks flushed a bright red, and he quickly clamored to his feet in embarrassment, “I-uh… I didn’t mean to… I just… s-sor-sorry!” he exclaimed as he bowed 90 degrees.

“It’s alright kid,” Sehun nodded his head as he disheveled the younger’s hair. “I’m flattered that you chose to like her.” He wrapped his arm around his neck and pulled him back to a proper upright position.

“I’m sorry Hyung-nim,” Junhong bowed again, eager not to upset the elder. “I didn’t know she was yours.”

“It’s alright,” Sehun shrugged as he patted the other’s shoulder. “Now you know.”

“Idiots,” Mihyun sighed as she ran her fingers throw her hair. She clapped her hands loudly together to attract all of their attention, and pointed down at an area of their man made map. “Do any of you know the guard routine schedule?”

Junhong’s hand shot up in the air, and he glanced around the room sheepishly at the stares of surprise that he received. “I can find out, I have to work in the office sometimes,” he explained eagerly, hoping to make up for his earlier mistake.

“You’re pretty useful after all, aren’t you,” Sehun nodded his head approvingly as he patted the other’s shoulder. Junhong gleamed brightly at the praise, quickly forgetting the small affection he had developed for Mihyun prior.

“Looks like he’s Sehun’s fan now,” Baekhyun chuckled under his breath as he wrapped his arm around Mihyun’s shoulders. “You might want to watch out, Mihyun, it looks like you have competition.”

Mihyun smiled warmly at the exchange between Sehun and Junhong, happy that Sehun was willing to decent to somebody outside of their original group.

The quiet exchange within the cage was interrupted by sudden footsteps, and each of the heads sho