Reprisal [riˈprīzəl] n. - Retaliation for an injury with the intent of inflicting at least as much injury in return.

The first thing Mihyun noticed when she returned to the cage was the absence of Jongin. She and Sehun had been gone for a majority of the day, making sure that Kyungsoo’s body would receive the proper treatment it deserved, and that he would be placed in hands unwilling to give into Chando’s pressure.

Night had already fallen by the time they returned, and the cages were dimly lit by the cheap light bulbs that hung above. The pair had walked into a completely silent room; the only sound that filled the air was the soft singing of Baekhyun as he gently ran his fingers through a sleeping Luhan’s hair.

“You two are back,” Chanyeol acknowledged their presence with a nod, rubbing a hand soothingly against Baekhyun’s back who still possessed dried tear streaks across his face.

“Where’s Jongin?” Mihyun asked with furrowed eyebrows as she glanced around the room.

“He got angry and stormed off again,” Chanyeol responded bitterly as he clenched down on his jaw.

“And you didn’t go after him?” Mihyun stared blankly.

“No, he was being an to everybody,” Chanyeol growled under his breath, sneaking a peek at Baekhyun - who had been the target of much of Jongin’s harsh words - out of the corner of his eye.

Mihyun immediately opened to scold the taller, but reluctantly pressed her lips together. Scolding him wouldn’t solve anything, and it would only result in them all being even tenser than they already were.

“I’ll go out and look for him,” Mihyun sighed as she wrapped her scarf tighter around her neck before making her way back to the cage entrance.

“I’ll come with you,” Sehun immediately added as he quickly followed her.

“Stay here, Sehun,” Mihyun responded as she tossed a meaningful look to Luhan who was beginning to stir in his sleep. “I’ve been too greedy lately, and have been hogging you all to myself.”

Sehun opened his mouth to protest, but stopped when he felt a light tug on his shirt by a now half awake Luhan.

Mihyun gave Sehun a reassuring smile before she left the cages to seek out Jongin. She hoped the other wasn’t out looking for trouble, for she didn’t know what he was capable of in a state as delirious as he currently was.

She treaded the hallways quickly, opting to stay silent rather than call out Jongin’s name. She knew the other would much rather spend his time to mope alone, but she couldn’t take the risk that he was out causing mischief. She wouldn’t lose another one of them. She refused to.

After searching the hallways of the vast Noye house, she decided to try her luck searching for Jongin outside. The dim sky provided her with barely any light, so she made sure to be twice as cautious as she normally was. She folded her arms together to project warmth against the nipping cold, and continued her search for Jongin. There weren’t many Noyes outside, for almost all of them had retreated to shelter against the chilly night.

Her ears perked up at the sound of a running liquid as she neared the guard house, and she squinted into the dim light to see if she could make out any figures. Despite taking self defense classes as a child, she wasn’t prepared to journey into the dark corners by herself. Her eyes caught onto a familiar tuff of messy hair, and she let out a sigh of relief now that she had discovered Jongin’s whereabouts.

“Jongin, it’s cold out here, please come back insi – Kim Jongin what the hell do you think you’re doing?” Mihyun hissed in disbelief at the sight of the empty gasoline bottles that were littered around Jongin’s feet.

“I’m giving those bastards what they deserve,” Jongin growled under his breath as he continued to splatter gasoline all over the walls of the guard house.

“Jongin, stop this!” Mihyun cried in a silent voice, not wanting to alarm anybody of their presence.

“No!” Jongin’s eyes flashed dangerously as he turned to stare at her, and he threw the now empty can down at her feet. “They deserve this. They deserve more than this for what they did to Kyungsoo hyung!”

“Jongin, this isn’t right. Do you know how many lives you will steal if you do this?” Mihyun asked as she stood beside him.

“I don’t care, they all deserve what they have coming,” Jongin spat as he ripped off the cap of a new gasoline bottle.

“What if you get caught? They’ll kill you, Jongin,” Mihyun pleaded as she tugged on his shirt.

“Then let them kill me!” Jongin shouted angrily, tears beginning to sting his eyes as he stared at Mihyun.  He turned his back to the girl to prevent her from witnessing the sight, and stared hard at the gasoline splattered walls. “Let them kill me, let them. It’s the least I can do for Kyungsoo Hyung. If you’re not going to help than get the hell out of here.”

There was a long pause of silence, and Jongin almost thought that the girl had left him until he heard the quiet words of, “I understand.”

Mihyun’s small hands snatched the gasoline bottle from Jongin, and he narrowed his eyes in anger. He parted his lips to shout angrily at Mihyun, but his words got caught in his throat when Mihyun continued to splatter the gasoline against the walls.

“Y-Yah, what are you doing?” Jongin asked with furrowed eyebrows.

“I’m helping you,” Mihyun explained as she moved further down the house to cover areas Jongin had missed.

“Mihyun, stop it and go back,” Jongin growled as he wretched the bottle from her hands. “It’s okay if I get caught, but you can’t, Mihyun. Sehun would kill me.”

“He can’t kill you if we’re already dead, right?” Mihyun shrugged as she moved on to uncap yet another bottle of gasoline.

Jongin’s jaw dropped in disbelief, and he kicked over the can to send the gasoline spilling onto the ground before Mihyun could pick it up.

“What are you doing, Jongin? You’re wasting time,” Mihyun scolded as she quickly picked up the bottle to salvage what was left.

Jongin let out a small growl, and pulled the bottle away from the girl’s hands to continue splashing its contents onto the walls. “You’re right, we are wasting time.”

Mihyun mentally swore when she saw that her tactic wouldn’t work on Jongin, and decided to change gears. She clasped her hand around Jongin’s wrist and pulled him forward to face her.

“What are you doing?” Jongin’s eyes flashed dangerously as he glared at her fingers. “You better let go, Mihyun, I’m not in a good mood.”

“Is this what you think Kyungsoo wants you to do?” Mihyun stated firmly, no longer trying to salvage Jongin’s delicate feelings. “Do you think he’s proud of what you’re doing right now?”

Jongin scoffed loudly at her words, and he yanked his arm out of the girl’s grip, causing her to stumble forward to the ground. She let out a low hiss when the skin of her knee tore from rough contact with a rock, but she quickly stood up to face Jongin again. “Don’t do this, Jongin. Kyungsoo wouldn’t want this.”

“Yeah? And how the hell do you think you know what Kyungsoo would want?” Jongin hissed, ignoring the guilt that was creeping up from the sight of the girl’s fresh injury.

Mihyun paused in silence for a few seconds, before finally slipping her hand into the pocket of her dress. She pulled out a tiny piece of paper before slipping it into Jongin’s hand.

“What the hell is this?” Jongin scoffed as he threw the garbage down on the ground.

Mihyun stared down at the paper that was thrown away before lifting her gaze up to Jongin. “It’s a piece of the map. It’s small, useless, and it looks like trash, but that’s what Kyungsoo put his life into protecting. It’s that tiny piece of paper that let Kyungsoo leave the world with a smile on his face. It’s that piece of paper that shows that Kyungsoo was willing to discard his life in order to protect the dream that we all created together; the dream that you’re throwing away.”

“Kyung…?” Jongin spoke quietly, his tensed face immediately softened at her words. His eyes darted down to the paper that was about to catch the wind and fly away, and he quickly snatched the paper up in his hand. He pressed down on its wrinkles, and desperately tried to smooth it out as nicely as possible. “Sorry Hyung, I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” he murmured under his breath as he tried in vain to brush away the gasoline that had stained the parchment. “I’m sorry.”

A few minutes passed in silence, and after trying to clean the tiny piece of paper as well as he could, Jongin slowly lifted his head to gaze at Mihyun. “Let’s… let’s go back.”

“Promise me you won’t do anything like this again,” Mihyun responded as she stood rooted in her spot. She resisted Jongin’s tugs, and instead grabbed onto his wrist with her free hand. “Promise me you won’t put your life at risk like this again.”

Jongin opened his mouth to protest, but instead hung his head in shame. “I promise,” he mumbled under his breath as he peeked at her from beneath the fringe of his hair. “So let’s just go back, alright?”

The corners of Mihyun’s lips twitched into a small smile and she let go of the boy’s wrist, “I’m sure everybody is worried about you.”

“I doubt it,” Jongin muttered bitterly under his breath. “They’re probably happy that I’m gone.”

Mihyun’s eyes narrowed, and she rewrapped her fingers around the other’s arm to pull him back to her, “Why would you say that?”

Jongin casted his eyes to the ground and he awkwardly rubbed the side of his arm, “Because I’ve been a jerk to them. I’ve been biting off their heads ever since –” Jongin paused mid sentence, not being able to continue his words any longer.

“Put more faith into them, would you,” Mihyun sighed as she gave him a reassuring pat on the shoulder. “They love you more than that, you know that.”

“I’ve been a jerk to you too,” Jongin admitted quietly as he fiddled his thumbs behind his back. “I… I shouldn’t have said the things I did, Mihyun. I just—”

He stopped midway when Mihyun suddenly pressed a finger to his lips, her eyes narrowed as they darted from side to side. Her ears perked up at the sound of slowly crunchy leaves, signaling that somebody was approaching them, but obviously didn’t want to be noticed.

“Guards are here,” Mihyun whispered in the softest tone possible as she quickly took Jongin’s hands. She pulled up her dress and tried to clean the stench of gasoline off his skin as well as possible, before stepping away from him. She quietly picked up a stray bottle of gasoline, and poured the contents all over her dress, causing Jongin to drop his jaw in surprise and confusion. “Push me and run.”

“W-What?” Jongin stammered, completely befuddled as to what the girl was trying to pull off.

“Push me to the ground and run,” Mihyun hissed in a low voice, her eyes catching a movement in the shadows. “Run around the guard house and back to the cages. Quickly change your clothes and wash your skin as best as you can. On three, okay Jongin?”

“Mi-Mihyun I can’t—”

“One, two – make sure you push me hard – three.” Once Mihyun reached three, she let out a blood curling scream, sending Jongin a meaningful look to shove her to the ground and run. Jongin hesitated for a split second before deciding to obey her wishes, and shoved her to the ground with a little bit too much force before sprinting around the corner and out of sight.

Mihyun winced when the palms of her hands hit the hard ground to break her fall. The sacrifice was worth making, however, because no more than a few seconds after Jongin had disappeared did a small group of guards come running out of the bushes from their hiding spot.

“Agashi, what happened?! Where’d he go?!” one of the guards demanded as his head shot from side to side. “Did you see who it was?!”

Thank god they hadn’t gotten a glimpse of Jongin’s face. Mihyun swallowed down her pride in order to play the “weak little girl” card to throw off the guards. She bit down hard on her bottom lip to force tears to spring to her eyes before raising her head to look up at the guards.

“I-It wa-was too dark,” Mihyun sobbed as one of the guards helped her to her feet. She lifted up her gasoline drenched dress and whimpered pitifully. “I called out to him to ask what he was doing, and then he poured gasoline all over me and pulled out a match! H-He was ab-about to light it, but then y-you guys came out. He ran th-that way! Th-that w-way!” She stretched out a finger in the direction opposite of where Jongin had run.

Three of the five guards quickly darted to the direction Mihyun had pointed to, while the remaining two decided to stay and help. They immediately recognized the girl’s face, for she had been a rather popular figure among both the Noyes and the guards as of late.

“Agashi, are you okay? Are you injured?” one of the guards asked as he inspected her for any wounds.

“Just some scuffed palms,” Mihyun shook her head. She stared meaningfully in the direction she had made the guards run and let out a loud sigh. “Do you think they will catch him? I must make that man pay for what he did.”

The guard nodded his head enthusiastically, “We won’t lose him, Agashi! We’ll make sure of it!”

Mihyun’s ears perked up at the sudden call of her name, and she furrowed her eyebrows in frustration when she saw Jaemin making his way over to them.

“Mihyun, are you okay?” Jaemin asked with wide eyes as he inspected the frazzled state of the girl. He pulled out a handkerchief and attempted to clean the dirt off Mihyun’s dress, but she quickly pulled away from the helping hands.

“I’m fine,” Mihyun responded coldly, biting down on her tongue to prevent her from saying any more.

Jaemin’s heart dropped at the icy response, but he refused to let his disappointment show on his face. “We’ll catch the person who did this to you, okay?”

Before Mihyun could even respond, Jaemin turned to the remaining guards, “Tell all the Noyes to return to their cages immediately and have the guards blockade all the entrances. Get the attendance list, and we’ll go inspect all the Noyes to see if any of them are acting suspiciously.”

Mihyun’s eyes flashed with worry, and she quickly reached out to tug on Jaemin’s sleeve. “That won’t be necessary, it’s fine.”

“Don’t worry Mihyun,” Jaemin patted the girl’s shoulder. “You don’t have to feel guilty, this person tried damaging the building, so it’s not only for you.”

Mihyun mentally cursed at Jaemin when he quickly ran away to gather the guards. Her clenched fists shook at her sides as she tried to come up with some sort of solution for the problem. She quickly broke into a sprint, and tried to make her way over to the cages before Jaemin would put it on lock down.

“Is Jongin back?!” Mihyun exclaimed frantically as she skidded into the cages. The other Noyes stared at her with gaping expressions, surprised to see her in such a disheveled state.

“Yah, what happened to you?” Sehun demanded as he quickly pulled away from Luhan to go to her side.

“I’ll tell you later, where’s Jongin?!” Mihyun exclaimed as she scanned the room to look for the familiar face. She began to panic when her eyes weren’t met with the tanned face, and she spun quickly around to search for the other.

“I’m here, I’m here,” Jongin gasped as he leaned his hand against the cage bar to catch his breath. “What’s happening? Why are all these guards bordering the outside of the cages?”

“They’re trying to find a suspect, Jongin,” Mihyun answered as she frantically racked her brain to come up with some way to avert attention from Jongin.

Sehun quickly grasped the situation at hand, and he yanked a spare change of clothes from the corner of the room and threw them at Jongin. “Change quickly!”

Jongin caught the clothing and immediately tore his dirtied shirt over his head. Sehun didn’t fail to spin Mihyun around once Jongin’s bare skin was revealed, and the girl would have laughed at the other’s cuteness if the situation wasn’t as it was.

“Baekhyun, the first aid kit. Get the first aid kit!” Mihyun hissed quietly as she pointed to the box that was stashed under the table. Baekhyun was quick to obey her commands, and he handed the kit over to her in a flash. “Jongin, come here quickly.”

Jongin hopped over to her as he finished pulling his second leg into the respective hole of his pants.

“Sit in front of me and pretend you’re tending to my wounds,” Mihyun explained as she shoved the first aid kit into his hands. “If they suspect you of smelling like gasoline, simply answer that my stench rubbed off on you, you understand?”

Jongin remained silent for a few seconds as he stared at the girl in awe, but quickly snapped out of his trance when she hissed, “Do you understand?” Jongin slowly nodded his head, and he pulled over the girl’s hands to inspect her wounds; there wasn’t a point in pretending to fix her wounds if he really could do it. He stared down guiltily at the scuffed palms, and quietly pulled a small bottle of ointment from the kit.

“You really like getting us in trouble, don’t you Jongin,” Chanyeol snapped bitterly as he glared at the other. His gaze softened when he saw the sorrowful and guilty expression stretched across Jongin’s face, however, and he let out a small sigh. He reached forward and began picking out the leaves that he settled itself into Jongin’s hair. “You’re going to give yourself away,” he muttered under his breath.

“Thank you,” Jongin murmured quietly as he applied ointment to Mihyun’s wounds. “And I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be an idiot,” Baekhyun responded as he placed a warm hand on Jongin’s arm. “We all understand.”

Jongin lifted his head and parted his lips to express his gratitude, but was interrupted but the sudden presence at the cage entrance.

“You’re already here, Mihyun?” Jaemin asked with brief surprise as he stepped into the cage.

“As you can see,” Mihyun responded simply, not even sparing the man a second glance.

“I… yeah…” Jaemin murmured as he casted his eyes down to the ground. He cleared his throat once he remembered his purpose in coming, and he loudly announced, “Is Byun Baekhyun, Park Chanyeol, Kim Jongin, and Do Ky— Are the three of them here?”

All occupants of the cage flinched at the reminder of Kyungsoo’s absence, and Mihyun let out a small growl as she stared up at him. “You can obviously see that all three of them are present, so please move on. Kim Minseok of the cage next door is here as well, so don’t waste your time.”

Jaemin fell silent at the girl’s harsh words, and he opened his mouth to say something in return, but decided against it. Instead, he slightly bowed his head and spun around to retreat from the cage with the guards trailing closely behind him.

Mihyun waited until the group was a few cages down before letting out a breath of relief, “That was close.”

“What were they looking for?” Minseok asked curiously as he crouched down beside the pair.

“Me,” Jongin admitted timidly as he stared down at his feet. “I did something bad.”

Baekhyun rolled his eyes and smacked the boy lightly on the back of his head, “We inferred that much, idiot.”

Jongin glanced up at his hyung gratefully to see that the other was treating him as he normally did, and he felt tears well up in his eyes at how touched he was. “Hyung…”

“Yah, Kim Jongin don’t you dare cry or it’s going to make me start crying too,” Baekhyun warned despite the fact that his eyes were already beginning to gloss over.

“Are you okay?” Sehun asked quietly as he pulled Mihyun up to her feet. He frowned at the sight of her injured palms, and he let out a low growl as he turned to Jongin.

“Sehun,” Mihyun called out warningly to prevent Sehun from acting out.

An immediate pout formed on Sehun’s face from the unfair scolding, and Mihyun chuckled quietly at the sight. “I’m going to call Jaesuk to pick us up, okay?”

Sehun nodded his head in agreement, and pulled up Luhan who had been sleepily observing everything from his corner. He tried to clean Mihyun’s dress with his hands, but was swatted away by Mihyun’s.

“Don’t do that, Sehun, you’re going to get yourself dirty,” Mihyun frowned as she pulled her grime covered dress away from Sehun’s relatively clean hands and clothing.

“I don’t care,” Sehun shrugged as he stepped forward to help the girl once again.

Mihyun sighed and shook her head at Sehun’s dismissive behavior, and allowed the boy to do whatever he wanted. They would all need to get a proper cleaning once they returned home anyways. A chime from her phone informed her that Jaesuk had already arrived to pick them up a good ten minutes ago, and the group of three waved the other Noyes a goodbye before heading to the exit.

Mihyun stopped abruptly when a sudden hand wrapped around her wrist, and she turned back to stare at Jongin in confusion.

“I… I want to thank you. I wanted to thank you for saving me,” Jongin whispered in a soft voice as he stared at the girl with a gentle expression. He pulled Mihyun in for a tight hug, and his voice cracked as he continued on with a few more words, “… and I wanted to thank you for saving Kyungsoo.”