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 shot upwards once a new presence entered the room.

“Minseok? What’s wrong?” Mihyun asked with furrowed eyebrows at the appearance of the male. She caught the bomb that the other tossed to her, and stared up in confusion as he shook his head.

“It won’t work. The pipes are too small, and they have a downward slope with a damp interior, so anything we put inside would just slide to the very bottom into the sewer system,” Minseok explained as he wiped his hands against his shirt. “We need to find somewhere else.”

Sighs of disappointment and frustration echoed across the room, and Mihyun nodded her head with a small frown on her face. “Thank you for trying, Minseok, you should get back to work before they notice you’re gone.”

Minseok nodded his head with a saddened expression, “I’m sorry I couldn’t do it.”

Baekhyun shook his head quickly and gave the other a warm smile, “It isn’t your fault, Minseok. Thank you for taking the risk to try.”

Minseok returned his smile with a shy one of his own before casting them all a small wave to return to his work station.

“We really do need a map, don’t we?” Jongin sighed as he ruffled the front of his hair with frustration. “The ones we made just don’t have enough detail. Who knows what other unknown factors would happen if we base this off this crap?”

“We have to make do with what we have, Jongin,” Baekhyun sighed as scratched the back of his head. “We can’t get our hands on a map, so we’ll just have to try to perfect this one as best as possible.”

“But that’s all we’ve been doing,” Jongin protested as he threw his hands up in the air. “For weeks that’s all we’ve been doing and it still isn’t good enough.” He his dry lips and darted his eyes around the room. “Maybe we should try to take it, you know, the real one?”

“Are you out of your ing mind?” Baekhyun hissed without skipping a beat. “Do you not remember what happened to… what happened?”

Jongin let out a bitter chuckle as a dark expression casted over his face, “You really think I’d forget?”

“Stop fighting, you guys,” Sehun sighed as he shot them each a sharp look. “We’re just going to have to try to do what we can with what we have. One failure doesn’t mean anything, we can always try again.”

“Looks like somebody is growing up, isn’t he?” Baekhyun teased as he patted the younger’s head.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Sehun scoffed as he swatted the offending male’s hand away. “I was always like this. It was just you and Chanyeol Hyung that acted like children.”

“Yah!” Baekhyun laughed as he pulled Sehun into a headlock.

“Are you guys going to continue wasting our time?” Jongin growled aloud as he shot the pair a sharp glare. “We don’t have time for you to fool around, if that wasn’t apparent enough. I’d appreciate it if you would stop acting like stupid children and focus on what’s in front of us.”

Sehun narrowed his eyes at his friend’s harsh remarks and let out a small growl, “You know Jongin, you’ve been acting like a—”

“No, you’re right, sorry,” Baekhyun quickly interrupted after slapping a hand over Sehun’s mouth. He pinched Sehun's side and smiled up at Jongin. “We’ll pay better attention.”

Jongin simply shot them another look, not giving them any further attention as he stared down at the bits and pieces of their hand drawn map that was scattered across the ground. He pointed at one area that lacked in details, and picked it up to slide into his pocket. “I’ll go check this area out and note down some more points.”

“Jongin?” Mihyun called out quietly after a short beat of silence.

Jongin glanced over his shoulder to look at her, his eyebrows already furrowed in with frustration. “What?”

The girl offered him no words, and simply granted him a small, warm smile.

Jongin lightened slightly at the sight, and he returned it with a quick twitch of the upper right corner of his own lips before turning sharply around to leave the cage.

“Why didn’t you let me finish?” Sehun muttered as he pulled Baekhyun’s hand away from his mouth. He rubbed the bit of skin that Baekhyun had pinched before continuing bitterly, “He should know he’s been acting like an .”

“You know what he’s going through, Sehun,” Baekhyun sighed sympathetically. “He’s still hurting, you know.”

“But that’s the thing, he needs to learn how to manage himself, because he’ll never stop hurting,” Sehun muttered in response. He lifted his pained gaze from the ground to meet eyes with the others in the room. “None of us will ever stop hurting.”

“I’ll send you a message once I’ve finished speaking to Daehyun, and inform you of the current status of the explosives, alright Agashi?” Jaesuk called out as Mihyun, Sehun, and Luhan stepped from the car.

Mihyun nodded her head, fumbling through the contents of her purse to check for the mentioned phone. A frown dawned her lips when she realized that it was no longer in there, and huffed a sigh of annoyance. “I think it fell out when somebody here carelessly tossed my things onto the table yesterday,” Mihyun responded, not failing to shoot Sehun a dirty look out of the corner of her eye. The boy in question innocently turned away, suddenly extremely interested with the smudge on Luhan's whiteboard.

“It’s fine, I’ll go back and get it,” Jaesuk nodded his head as he held up an O.K. sign with his fingers. “I’ll come drop it off in about half an hour.”

“You really are a saint, Jaesuk,” Mihyun smiled gratefully as she tightened the clasp of her bag. 

“Okay time to go in!” Sehun announced loudly as he wrapped his arm around Mihyun’s shoulders to forcefully spin her around. He tossed a careless wave over his shoulder as he marched Mihyun into the Noye house, calling out to Luhan to follow behind them.

Luhan and Jaesuk exchanged knowing looks and amused smiles.

“He really is such a child, isn’t he?” Jaesuk scoffed as he ran his hand coolly through his hair.

Luhan nodded in agreement without skipping a beat. He scribled across his whiteboard before holding it up to Jaesuk. He thinks you're going to steal her away from him.

Jaesuk chuckled good heartedly as he ran his fingers through his hair. "I don't blame him," he laughed as he sent Luhan a wink. "You better go catch up with them, Luhan."

Luhan nodded his head as he waved goodbye to Jaesuk, quickly tucking his whiteboard under his armpit to catch up with the pair ahead.

“You all are here again, then?” Sehun asked with a raised eyebrow at the sight of Yongguk and the rest of his group who were seated casually within the cage.

“We are a part of this whole… planning committee, aren’t we?” Himchan shrugged before continuing to talk to Jongup in hushed whispers.

“Hi Hyung!” Junhong quickly stumbled to his feet to greet the other. He dug into his pocket and pulled out a small loaf of bread that was already beginning to crumble in his hands. “Did you already eat? I saved you some bread from the morning meal.”

Mihyun and Luhan exchanged a small smile before settling themselves beside Chanyeol and Baekhyun who were quietly arguing between themselves.

“It’s alright Junhong,” Sehun chuckled as he patted the other’s head. “You should eat it.”

Junhong’s face fell at his words, and he stared down at the small piece of bread in hand. He mumbled quietly under his breath, “But I saved it for you, hyung.”

“And I’m really grateful for it, but are you telling me that you aren’t hungry at all, Junhong?” Sehun asked with a raised eyebrow.

Junhong eagerly nodded his head and he held the bread up higher to Sehun, “Not hungry at all!”

Sehun scoffed and rapped the back of Junhong’s head with his knuckle. “Who do you think you’re fooling? I was a Noye too, Junhong, and I was always hungry. Just eat the bread yourself, alright?”

Before Junhong could part his lips to protest, he was interrupted by Mihyun’s raised voice, “What do you mean you don’t know where Jongin is?”

“Why should I care about that ?” Chanyeol shrugged before folding his arms. “He could go die in a hole for all I care.”

“Park Chanyeol!” Mihyun scolded with a furious expression. “How could you say that about Jongin? He isn’t just some stranger.”

Chanyeol immediately felt guilty about his words, but he refused to take them back, “He deserves it! The bastard was yelling at everybody today before stalking off on his own, talking about how we were all useless to the rebellion and how Kyungsoo would be disappointed in us. Who the hell is who to say those kind of things to us?"

“And so you just let him go off on his own? Do you not remember the last problem he created when he left angrily, Park Chanyeol?” Mihyun glowered with crossed arms.

Chanyeol began feeling more and more guilty with each word that came from Mihyun’s lips, but still his pride got in his way. “He- He isn’t a child! It’s his own fault if he decides to go make trouble.”

“Do you even hear yourself?” Mihyun responded in a softer tone, disappointment etched into her face. “Do you hear what you’re saying?”

“I… I…” Chanyeol stammered, now completely ashamed for the way he had been acting. “I—”

He was suddenly interrupted by the cracking of the speaker overhead. “We are on lock down, I repeat, we are on lockdown. All Noyes report to your cages immediately or you will suffer a punishment. Report to your cages immediately.”

The words of the announcement slowly sunk into their minds, and similar horror struck expressions sprung to their faces. They all exchanged expressions of uttermost fear as similiar thoughts ran through each of their heads.

“You don’t think he…” Minseok trailed off, not daring to continue what he had been thinking.

“Come on, let’s get back,” Yongguk quickly stood up, tugging Himchan and Jongup up to their feet. He gathered all of them together before hustling them out of the cage to return to their own. He cast the rest of them a look and muttered, “I hope that idiot hasn’t gone to get himself in trouble.”

“You guys stay here, I’ll go out and look for him,” Mihyun stated as she quickly shot to her feet.

“There’s no way in hell you’re going alone,” Sehun responded immediately as he wrapped his fingers around her wrist to tug her back.

“What has he done? What did this idiot, oh my god,” Chanyeol mumbled to himself as he pulled at his hair. “Stupid! Stupid, stupid, stupid!”

“Do you think… do you think he went to go steal the map?” Baekhyun whispered as he his dry lips. His eyes widened in horrid realization. “Is that why he was going on and on about – oh my god he’s gone to get it. He’s gone to get it and now he’s caught and he’s going to get himself killed and Jongin’s going to die. Jongin’s going to die and—”

“Will you shut up? I’m not going to die.”

All six heads immediately shot up, surprise and relief quickly flooding through their systems.

“Kim Jongin!” Mihyun exclaimed as she clutched her chest in relief; her heart now beginning to resume its normal routine of beats.

“Where the hell have you been?!” Chanyeol demanded as he sprung to his feet. “You ing – I can’t – you’re so stupid!”

Jongin scoffed incredulously at the male’s crude words, “Don’t you even star – Chanyeol? Hyung are you okay?”

"I was so ing..." Chanyeol didn't even need to finish his words for Jongin to understand the concern the elder held for him. 

"I'm alright, Hyung," Jongin responded quietly, feeling slightly guilty at the worry Chanyeol must have endured. "I'm not -" He was interupted once again when Chanyeol suddenly jumped in place.

“You need to hide, Jongin!” Chanyeol exclaimed in realization. His head darted around the room to find a proper place to stash Jongin. He wrapped his hand around Jongin's wrist and nearly yanked him from his spot. “Hurry up before they come to look for you!”

“What the – hell are you – stop it!” Jongin exclaimed, stopping Chanyeol from shoving him forward any longer. “Why the hell do I need to hide?”

“Because you did something bad! And now they’re after you!” Chanyeol cried incredulously as he threw his hands into the air. “Now get your common sense together and hide yourself!”

"Hyung, I don't-"

The speaker overhead crackled to life once more, “You may now report back to work and continue as you were. The gas leak has been discovered and fixed. I repeat, you may now report back to work and continue as you were.”

A blanket of silence captured the room, and all eyes trained themselves onto Jongin who stood with crossed arms and raised eyebrows. 

“You mean… you mean that wasn’t for you?” Chanyeol asked slowly as he looked up at Jongin.

“No, Jesus,” Jongin muttered as he ran his fingers through his hair.

“So you didn’t do anything bad then?” Baekhyun sighed with relief. “Jesus Christ, Jongin, you took ten years from my life!”

There was a pause of silence before Jongin slowly mumbled, “I didn’t say that.”

Before anybody could continue to ask questions, Jongin slid an object out of his pocket. “I took this from your bag yesterday, Mihyun, sorry.”

Mihyun recognized the device Jongin was holding up as her cell phone, and she cocked her head curiously as to why he had taken it. She accepted it when Jongin carefully slid it over to her, and glanced down at the photo that lit up the screen. It took her a few seconds to process the content in hand, but she finally recognized the pathways, the pipes, the cages, and all of the other areas they all had spent months gathering information on- except now it was all in great, and accurate detail. The spots they had left blank were now filled in to the greatest extent – all that was missing was the small corner Kyungsoo had managed to tear off.

“Jongin…” Mihyun murmured speechlessly as she slowly tore her gaze off the picture to look up at Jongin. “How did you…”

The corner of Jongin’s lips turned upwards, forming his lips into a smile that wasn’t really a smile, but halfway to a smirk. “Now the rebellion has really begun."