In the morning, Hansol climbs quietly down from the top bunk and leaves the room before Gohn, in the bunk below, is awake.  He feels weird sitting around just waiting when the older is asleep. He hadn’t slept much the night before but he isn’t tired.  There’s a nervous excitement that sits in the air and pricks at his skin. 

The moment he exits into the hallway he feels like an intruder.  He doesn’t know what time it is but it must be early.  The building is bathed in silence and a soft light.  He creeps along quietly, wondering where the light is coming from.  There aren’t any windows in the hallway.  He looks up and realizes that skylights zig-zag across the side of the curved ceiling. 

He brushes his hands through his disheveled hair as he comes back toward the living room, wondering what he’s going to do if he gets there and someone else is awake.  He’s been given so many different impressions about his place here.  P Goon had told him to be gone by morning.  Hojoon had told him not to worry about it.  Sangdo had asked him to stay the night, Xero for forever.  Gohn had told him that they would go searching this morning.  Hansol isn’t quite sure who he is supposed to listen to.  For an organization they don't seem very organized.

Before he can get to the entrance of the living room, visible to his right, he sees that there is another room straight ahead.  Mapping out the building in his head, Hansol figures that it must be next to the kitchen.  There’s an island with tall stools, an old, ratty couch, a small desk covered in papers—the hodge-podge room looks like it might be somewhere he can stay until someone makes a final decision on what to do with him.  He just has to get past the living room first and hope no one is awake.  He presses himself against the wall and slides over to the opening into the living room.  He peers around the corner of the door frame and opens up his senses a crack. 

From where he’s standing, he can see into the kitchen.  Sound drifts toward him and he sees Xero standing there munching on a piece of toast.  Seogoong steps into view sipping from a coffee mug.  Hansol can barely catch indecipherable chatter.  Seogoong’s body language says he is listening to someone out of sight.  As he does so he holds out his right arm to Xero mid-sip and Xero, the toast dangling from his mouth, automatically reaches out and touches wrists with him, adding a twist for good measure.  Not missing a beat, Seogoong surreptitiously pulls the toast from Xero’s teeth and steals a bite.  Xero’s mouth opens in protest and Seogoong shoves the toast back between his teeth, grinning wickedly.

Seogoong ducks and a grape rolls out of the kitchen, across the living room, and past Hansol’s feet. 

Hansol looks up and sees Hojoon pass into view.  “It literally takes two minutes to make your own toast.”

“It takes no minutes to just steal Xero’s.” Seogoong’s voice is faint as his back is turned.

 Xero is only half visible now but his voice is clear:  “I bet I could toast something if I tried.”

“Xero you’re not electrocuting anymore food.  Remember the popcorn incident?”

“Oh yeah.”

Hansol catches a faint buzzing of emotional static from the simultaneous reminiscing in the other room.  It makes him smile.  Warmth spreads to his fingertips where they press against the door frame.

“Plus, toasters don’t apply electricity to your food they heat up coils.  Sangdo might be able to make some half decent toast but not you.”

A collective sound of consideration moves through the small group at Hojoon’s words.

“On that note,” Seogoong remarks as he slips out of the kitchen, taking his mug with him, “I’ve got to go finish getting ready.”  He is currently wearing pajama pants and a t-shirt.  The sound of his slippers is a swoosh on the living room carpet. “I’ll be back in 10.” 

Hansol shrinks back against the wall as the older comes in his direction. He hopes that if he flattens himself into the wallpaper enough he won’t be noticed.

“Morning,” Seogoong greets him lightly, casually pushing the side of his head with one of his fingers as he walks by. 

Stunned, Hansol watches him go.  Maybe he was being a little dramatic about things.  Maybe Seogoong knew he was there the entire time. 

Hansol peeks back around the corner and sees Xero again.  He’s talking to Hojoon but now that the commotion has died down he can’t decipher their words.  He gets lost in the fact that Xero is taller than Hojoon.  At the same time, he thinks about how Xero’s hair is different in the daylight.  It doesn’t have the same glow.  Hojoon’s hair has done the opposite.  It seems to have more color now.  Hansol stops, looking at the two closely.  An idea pops into his mind.  He starts to step forward and stops, realizing he hasn’t yet checked the living room.  He wonders if the faintly burnt smell he’s detecting is toast. When he looks up again Xero is gone. 

He furrows his brow in confusion only to see the other appear in the side room which adjoins the kitchen.  He apparently missed a lot the night before.  The whole day is foggy and bitter in his mind. 

Deciding to take a chance, he darts past the living room up to where the other boy is coming out of the kitchen into the side room.

“Hey!”

“Hi!” Xero sidesteps a small table to greet him.  “I was wondering where you went!  I almost put the whole house into lockdown when I woke up and you were gone.  I thought you might have left without saying anything.  Hojoon said you were still here but—”

“I thought of something,” Hansol interrupts, too eager about his realization to think of anything else.

“Okay shoot.”

“You said you didn’t know your age but you still have white hair, right?  That means you can’t be very old at all.”

His revelation is not as well-received as he thought it might be.  He thinks he can just sense Xero’s cheerfulness flicker.

“Actually,” he tilts his head down and pulls around the part in his hair to show his roots better, “I dye it.”  

Deflating, Hansol can only utter, “Oh.”           

“It’s okay,” Xero grins in that certain way he has of being bright without gushing out feeling.  “It doesn’t really bother me not knowing.”

Hansol nods, even though he’s not sure he agrees.

Xero starts off again, drawing him toward the living room.  “Where did you end up last night?”

“The top bunk in Gohn’s room.”

“How did you end up there? Did I offend you?  Are you telling me I smell?  If he bribed you with cool stuff I have cool stuff too.  I can explode things, you know.”  

The jokes doesn’t stop Hansol from feeling silly. “I have a thing for drawing in energy is all.  Not always on purpose and, well, you have a lot of energy.”

Xero’s eyes widen and then he nods seriously, “Gotcha.  Best not to risk an overload, right?”

Surprised by Xero’s understanding, Hansol nods.   

“Sometimes when there are storms out I get extra sparky and have to be careful.  Seogoong had to go up and put a second lightning rod on the roof just because of me.  Wait,” he sidesteps back from Hansol, “Is this okay?  Am I too close?”

“Huh?”  It takes a second for Hansol to understand, “Oh!  No, it was only a problem because—well sometimes my power likes to work when I’m not paying attention.  It’s a sleep thing.  I just couldn’t sleep.”

“Well that’s good.” Xero moves closer again, “But how did you end up in Gohn’s room?”

Hansol hesitates to answer as they enter the living room, “It’s kind of a long story—”

Before Hansol can say another word, Xero is bounding away.

P Goon is bent over a newspaper laid out on the coffee table and doesn’t notice the younger skip toward him until he launches himself over the back of the couch and wraps his arms around his shoulders.

Hansol holds his breath as P Goon, who let out a small ‘oof’ when Xero hit him, turns his head.

“Morning.”

“P Goonie,” Xero sings, rocking the older from side to side.

Hansol feels his own face turning red in embarrassment. 

The leader scoffs, “Don’t you have better things to do than bother an old man?” 

Hansol hadn’t been able to imagine what humor would sound like from the older before now.

“Not until Seogoong finishes getting ready,” Xero chirps back.

In the next moment P Goon reaches an arm around behind him and pulls Xero the rest of the way over the couch. 

Hansol tenses until he hears a whine of complaint.

With Xero trapped under one arm, P Goon returns to his newspaper.  He responds airily to the protesting, “Is there something I can do for you?”

“Hansol, a little help!”

He wishes Xero hadn’t drawn attention to him.  P Goon turns around and sees him standing there.  The moment lasts ages, only interrupted by Xero’s feet kicking at the air.  At last P Goon says, “Don’t mind what I said yesterday.”

Hansol is saved from responding when a now familiar voice announces behind him, “There you are.  You ready to go?”

He turns and looks up at Gohn.  The older drops a large hand on his shoulder as he calls across the room to P Goon, “Hey, I’m taking Hansol out on my rounds today.  Showing him what we do here.”

In lieu of a proper reply P Goon raises an eyebrow then returns to his newspaper.  Xero has given up his bid for freedom and lies against the leader’s side, reading the comics on the lower right of the page.

Gohn winks at Hansol over the success of the scheme and gives him an encouraging nudge toward the door that sends him stumbling.  Hansol means to send him a glare when he regains his footing but Gohn doesn’t notice.  Hansol doubts he realizes that not everyone is built as solidly as he is. 

“I’ll be right back,” Gohn says as he disappears, leaving Hansol to find his shoes in the pile by the door that seems to have multiplied exponentially overnight.

When he finally extracts his shoes, he hears the muffled sound of music.

Headphones over his ears, Jenissi appears, mouthing the words to the song.  Any and all signs of the episode that had plagued him the night before are gone.

Hansol thinks it’s a good thing that everyone is more agreeable this morning.  They all seem younger too.  He knows age isn’t really a thing with them, but they look closer to his age in the light. At the same time, if Jenissi is feeling better, Hansol’s plans to go out searching the city with Gohn that morning are definitely cancelled. 

Jenissi seems annoyed by the mess of shoes and pushes them around with his feet until he finds his own pair, ignoring Hansol in the process. 

“Good morning, I see,” Gohn states as he comes back around the corner.

Jenissi is still mouthing lyrics to whatever song is playing over his ear phones but he turns and nods deeply at Gohn.  With a hint of playfulness, Gohn hits the headphones back off of Jenissi’s head so they fall around his neck, knocking the older off balance in the process.

Unperturbed, Jenissi breathes over the guitar solo now issuing from around his neck, “You are a professional .”  He ends this declaration by imitating the following drum breakdown in midair.

Gohn’s eyes disappear completely into crescents as he laughs.

Hansol starts to feel a little silly standing there.  He makes as to scoot away as Jenissi finishes putting on his shoes. 

“Hey,” the older stops him.  “Are you coming or not?”

Pointing at himself, mouth hanging open dumbly, Hansol can only blink.

 “We can wait if you want to try finding the bathroom again.”

The inside joke shared by Gohn’s mischievous eyes has Hansol smiling uncertainly.  Across the room he can hear Xero giggling and an unfamiliar sound that might just be P Goon laughing.  He must have fallen into some kind of alternate universe overnight.  Then again, there really was no such thing as normal for him anyway.  Hansol hesitantly starts to put on his shoes. 

“Good,” Jenissi says shortly, “Meet you outside.”

Hansol looks up at Gohn for some kind of help, not really understanding what’s going on.  All he gets by way of response from Gohn is, “You heard the small man.  Let’s go.”

Having really no clue what else to do, Hansol finishes pulling on his shoes and heads out the door.

A/N  *The year is 2018, I post chapter 11 apologizing for the delay.*
Sorry that I'm always taking so long with posting!!  The potential good news is that I haven't visualized the details of the next few chapters which actually makes it EASIER for me to write.  (Cause I can just put down whatever I'm thinking and not search for the EXACT words to describe what I'm imagining.) 

Questions, comments, and concerns are welcome!  Thank you very much for reading!--coraroc.