"Jesus Christ, that dude gave me the creeps," Kris murmured as one of the guards walked him back to the cell. Upon nearing the confinement space, he noted Sehun and Tao both anxiously waiting at the bars. They both kept quiet and didn't say a word to him until after the guard had left. What happened outside of the bars were to never be repeated in private.

"How was it?" Tao asked, seemingly interested in how the session went. Sehun had removed himself from Tao's side and was listening in on the conversation from the john.

"He was just as you said," Kris replied, smoothing down his hair. "He asked me pointless questions like, 'How do you feel about the words 'wake up'?"

"And what did you say?" Sehun inquired as he stood and flushed the toilet.

"I couldn't say anything," he said, "I was speechless mainly because I had heard those exact words more than once in my dream."

"He's probably referring to your being in here." Tao laughed, a certain tone of mysteriousness to his voice. "You're always going on about how you don't belong here so maybe he's just prompting you."

"Prompting me how?" Kris asked, following Tao to his side the cell.

Tao smirked, laying down on his bed. "Oh come on, Kris. I'm sure what he means by those words is that you need to wake the up and realize that you're in here until proven otherwise, got it?"

Kris made a face. "I thought you were my friend." Tao said nothing, that smirk still plastered on his face. Sehun was the one to speak and he started off the conversation with a laugh.

"Are you okay?"

"Stop it, Sehun. I don't need your bull right now." Kris let out an annoyed huff of breath and moved to his side of the cell.

"You're just mad because you know he's right. And the friend thing... he was my friend first so you can't have him." Sehun folded his arms across his chest and dramatically whipped his head opposite to Kris's direction. Tao, who was amusingly watching him, burst into grandiose laughter.

"The kid's a card," Tao said, wiping away tears. "You've got to admit that much."

"The kid can my ," Kris mocked, imitating the way Tao was wiping away tears with much exaggeration.

"Really?" Sehun asked, quite excited.

"That was a saying. Most definitely not an invitation." Sehun made a disappointing noise and took his place at the top of the bunk.

All three jailbirds woke with a start as the continuous yell of a siren blared over the intercom and red lights flashed on and off. Kris nearly had a heart attack and fell off his bed since he thought he was having one of his trippy dreams again. Sehun was on his feet immediately and he most likely wasn't fully awake since he stood dead center in the cell. Tao was the last one up; he lingered in his bed a few seconds longer before noticing the flashing red lights. The lights were still going but thankfully the siren was cut off. Instead, a loud voice gave an announcement.

"Good morning, boys!" the voice yelled. ing shoot me, Tao thought and rolled his eyes as he folded his arms across his chest. "Sleep well? It's time for breakfast. Today is a very good day so I specially asked the chefs to make you something delicious! Thanks are not needed but are most certainly welcome." After the end of who Kris thought to be the "director" of the jail's announcement, the lights were cut off and the trio were led downstairs to the middle of the prison.

"Someone's been killed," Sehun stated bluntly as he followed behind Kris. "Presents like this only come when he's executed someone." Kris felt his stomach drop.

"What?" he asked, not quite believing what he heard and of course Sehun liked to joke around. "Executing's been banned for centuries, especially executing prisoners."

"Executing might have been banned where you're from, Maple Syrup, but heads get chopped off here on the regular." Tao yawned and stretched and casually laughed at his little pet name for the killer.

"Maple Syrup. ing nice!" Sehun high-fived Tao and grabbed a tray. "Hey Syrup, come join us and the crew. It wouldn't hurt to hear their story, right?"

Kris shrugged and mentally took note to hit Sehun later. He moved subconsciously, his mind somewhere else. He had had one of those trippy dreams again except it wasn't on the same level as the one he had that had ended in him meeting with the infamous Kim Jongdae. In this one he was stuck in the same white, boxed room again but the colors changed frantically and monsters only a kid could dream up emerged from the walls. Kris suspected someone in the jailhouse was slipping him something.

He followed behind Tao, taking a seat beside him while Sehun sat on Kris's right side. Kris sat in awe as he watched the two almost literally inhale their food; it was like they hadn't eaten food in years. The guys he had seen during recreation time filled in the rest of the empty seats. Appearance wise, he wouldn't have suspected any of them to be criminals—especially Suho. The kid barely looked older than Sehun yet here he was, put in Arena 3.

Kris skillfully removed the first half of the yellow peel from his banana and took a bite. His mind reverted back to Tao's comment about the execution thing. Why did they still execute prisoners? Kris was sure that any type of execution was illegal since the late 1900s but then again, he was in the eastern part of the world where everything wasn't exactly run the same as in the west.

"Why are you even here, Suho?" Kris asked between chews of the banana. He lately realized he could have phrased the question in a nicer way but he merely shrugged it off.

Suho happily sighed and leaned back in his chair. "Mainly bank robberies that resulted in some people getting killed and um... maybe grand theft auto? I don't remember the details."

"Interesting." Kris nodded his head and took another bite. "Any particular thing that fueled you?"

Suho rubbed his chin. "I had people to take care of and with my dead-end job, the money I needed just wasn't coming in fast enough so I did what I had to do. I would definitely go back and do it again. Besides the extra cash, I loved the thrill of leading the coppers on a high speed chase after me. You should relate." Kris shrugged again.

"Kai?"

"Grand theft auto stuff and pickpocketing. I'm great with my hands. And I steal things pretty sneakily too." Kai raised his eyebrow at the part about his hands and Kris suddenly lost his appetite. Soon getting the work of things, the guy next to Kai went; Kris didn't remember seeing him outside.

"You're in here for all the wrong reasons, pretty boy," the kid said and Kris nearly lunged across the table for him. "Why go killing people when you can stay in bed all day smoking MJ? No harm done and you most definitely get the good kind of kick from it."

"That's Lay. He's in here because of me," Tao whispered to Kris. "I was his dealer." Makes sense now, he thought.

"Xiumin?" Sehun called as he finished off the last of his grilled cheese.

"I was a part of a gang. You figure out the rest," he spoke and examined his apple before taking a piece of it from the side.

"Xiumin doesn't like talking about his past especially since Luhan—"

"You shut it about him!" he yelled. "The did I tell you about talking about him?" Sehun laughed and narrowed his eyes, slowly rising from his seat.

"Why are you so protective about him, huh? You're here and he's there. You're the one that put yourself in this situation."

"The does that have to do with anything?" he shouted, the vein in his neck starting to show.

"It matters because you know you can't protect Luhan from within these bars! And that also means that whoever he's ing right now, you can't go and kill them on site." He said the last part with a smirk and before he knew it, Xiumin was on him, repeatedly punching him. Sehun fought back, landing a punch square on his jaw and rolling him over so that he was seated on his torso. After blocking a punch that could have knocked him out, Xiumin elbowed him in the eye and while Sehun was crouched over and holding his eye, he erpunched him dead in the chest. While trying to catch his breath and holding his eye, Kai immediately rushed over to him while Tao then took it on to himself to teach Xiumin some damn manners. Once he was on his feet, he was quickly back on the floor as quick as spun around and connected his leg with Xiumin's head.

"Tao, are you insane? What if the guy's dead?" Kris yelled as guards rushed to the scene, taking Xiumin and Tao away.

"I don't care," he replied back, "I'll be dead before anyone can lay a finger on Sehun and get away with it." With that, Tao was gone.

"You alright?" Kris asked as he checked Sehun over. He nodded while wiping at his bloodied nose and feeling around his eye for any swelling.

"That is not going to feel good in the morning," he joked but behind that joke was worry. He was worried about whether or not Tao would make it back to the cell later that evening especially since violence in the prison almost always ended in someone being executed.