I looked into the mirror and a face stared back at me. I raised my right hand to touch the mirror and the reflection did the same. It really was me. I had almond shaped eyes, the outer ends slightly tilted up, dark brown in colour. My nose was small and petite but it suited my face. My lips were full and pinkish. My face itself was roundish but my jaw was well defined from the side. My hair was just a little shorter than Taekwoon’s and it lay messily all over my head, sticking up in places. I tried without much success to tame it into something less… wild. With a sigh I turned to get my towel and was startled by the figure of Taekwoon. I hadn’t realised he hadn’t left. I felt heat rising to my skin and I looked down. Always with the looking down! Seriously N! Get a hold of yourself! Aish! Well… that’s what I told myself, actually doing it was a different matter altogether. Taekwoon handed me my towel and his heel. As he spun I looked up and I swear I could see the faintest bit of red on his ear. Shaking the annoying thoughts out of my head I undressed for the shower and jumped in. The water was rather cold but I didn’t mind; outside it was rather hot. I let myself relax as the dirt and sweat melted off my skin. There was some scratchy soap sitting on a rusted hangar but it was all there was. Not that I’m complaining. After I’d washed myself twice for good measure I turned off the water and set about drying and dressing.

As soon as I had my pants on Hongbin burst into the bathroom and sprinted for the toilet. In a semi-panic I picked up the remainder of my clothing which I had deposited neatly in a pile and made for the door. I made a beeline for my room and dumped my stuff on the bed. In my hurry however I’d managed to somehow lose my clean shirt in the bathroom. I didn’t want to put on the dirty shirt again because I felt CLEAN so with a shrug I left the room with my towel slung around my neck and sat down at the table. Wonsik raised an eyebrow at my attire and when he came over I told him about Hongbin and my shirt. He had a good laugh at my explanation and I joined him, our laughs echoing through the dorm. He looked genuinely surprised at my laugh and I just smirked at him. Taekwoon materialised out of thin air and somehow ended up right behind me. When I got up to get a drink I almost ran into him. Again. He stepped back a little and raised both his eyebrows after looking me up and down. Wonsik told him the story because all of a sudden I was tongue-tied. I made my escape with a half-hearted mumble that was barely intelligible. With my cup of water in hand I sat down again with Wonsik.

I liked Wonsik. He was easy to talk to and we got along well. He was friendly and not afraid to laugh at himself (or other people for that matter). Hongbin made me wary because I couldn’t judge his character easily… he always had a mask on his face, but Wonsik liked and trusted him so I reserved judgement for later. Sanghyuk was an adorable klutz when he wasn’t on a job. He tripped over himself more times than I could count and I hadn’t even known him for more than a few days. Jaewhan was like a reflection of myself… a noisier, strange-looking, old lady version of a reflection of me. He made the strangest animal noises I had ever heard… how did he even know what half of those animals sounded like? Taekwoon I was confused about. He was really cool and seemed to genuinely care for everyone on his team, hell he even seemed to care for me… even though I wasn’t on his team. But. Some of his facial expressions were absolutely petrifying... if looks could kill… But. My brain did this dumb thing where whenever he was around it wanted to say a million things but it wouldn’t connect to my mouth, leaving me effectively tongue-tied. It was so frustrating. I wanted to hit myself in the face whenever it happened. SIGH.

The rest of the day passed without incident. Hongbin vacated the bathroom and I was able to rescue my shirt, no sooner than I had it in my hands I put it on. It had been mildly stressful enduring the stares of the others who had all managed to find their way inside at one point or another in the EVENING. HONGBIN WAS IN THE BATHROOM FOR ALMOST 4 HOURS. OMG. TALK ABOUT ANNOYING. The others weren’t even surprised though. I immediately felt sorry for them all. Taekwoon made dinner all by himself and seeing as I didn’t have anything else to do I offered to help him. Since the others had deserted him he accepted my offer, instructing me to wash rice. When I asked him how to do it he gave me a quick demonstration. After that I was fine. I washed the rice and even helped with the seasoning of the meat and the sauce. Taekwoon seemed surprised at my cooking ability but didn’t comment on it. Hell, even I was surprised. We chatted while we cooked. Well, I spoke softly and Taekwoon grunted here and there and sometimes offered short comments. Suddenly, while we were waiting for the meat to cook I had an idea. I turned around to Taekwoon and explained it to him. He seemed a little bit reluctant at first but he went along with it anyway.

“So here goes, first random question; Taekwoon, what’s your favourite colour?”

I wasn’t entirely expecting him to answer so when he raised his soft voice it took me a minute to process what he’d said.

“It’s pink…”

“Oh! That’s cool Taekwoon~ mine’s green…” I pulled a sheepish face as I told him… unsure if he even wanted to know. He gave no indication either way but nodded his head with a neutral expression. I turned back to my rice in order to check how it was cooking and almost didn’t hear Taekwoon’s question.

“What do you like doing?”

I was a little confused once I had decoded what Taekwoon had asked me so he clarified that he meant in a ‘hobbies’ kind of way. I told him I liked running and puzzles, I didn’t know if I especially liked doing anything else yet because I couldn’t remember anything before the day I found them. Taekwoon didn’t offer his hobbies but I decided not to press him on it. That day seemed like years ago when in reality it had been like 50 hours. Reality check. I had known these people for like 2 days. That thought brought a somber tone to the inside of my head and my next question was slow in coming.

“How long have you known everyone?” I assumed he’d understand that I was talking about the guys.

“Just over 3 years, though Hongbin and I had teamed up for almost 10 months when we found the others…”

It was the most Taekwoon had said to me in the 2 days we’d known each other.

“Oh…” was all I could manage to get past my tongue-tied-ness. It sounded lame even to my own ears.

I absent-mindedly stirred the rice in the pot. It was cooked and now I had to make sure it didn’t stick to the bottom and burn while the pot cooled. Taekwoon confiscated my task and put the rice into 6 bowls, there was a little more in one which I assumed was for him. Taekwoon put the pot and spatula down in the bucket of water that was used for cleaning the dishes. He turned to me and something in his eyes screamed vulnerability.

“N… can we be friends?”