"I told you to go easy on him." 

Hoya rolls his eyes as he puts his arms together and folds them on his chest. "I did. If you didn't tell me to, I would've already broken his bones." 

Sunggyu releases an annoyed sigh. He looks at Hoya in the eye and says, "Fine. I got to go." He pushes himself off the tree he was leaning on and was about to head back to the dorms to call it a night when he hears Hoya call for his name. 

"Sunggyu—" Hoya catches up with the senior immediately. He puts a hand on Sunggyu's shoulder, and with a mischievous smile he whispers, "Don't forget our little deal. I get to join the Elude now, right?" 

Sunggyu harshly shakes Hoya off him. "I'll think about it." 

+

The next day was a rest day, thankfully. Woohyun was sleeping peacefully on the flat rock he calls his bed with his own arms wrapped around him. It was pouring rain, and he was shivering. 

The cold wakes him up. With a small grunt and closed eyelids, his hand roams around his bed as he tries to look for his blanket. Failing to do so, he is forced to open his eyes and look for it with the help of his vision this time. 

But the first thing he sees wasn't what he expected at all. Woohyun gets a small shock when he sees Sunggyu right in front of him, the blanket neatly folding in his hands. 

Sunggyu, on the other hand, didn't look as surprised and remained to put off a poker face. "Here." He says before throwing the blanket on Woohyun's body. 

It takes Woohyun a few seconds to actually speak. "T-Thanks…" Then he buries himself underneath the fabric, attempting to get another round of sleep. However, he realizes he was still pretty cold. The blanket didn't really reach the ends of his feet, so he curls into a ball to stay warm. 

After a while, he feels a soft force suddenly thrown on top of his body. Woohyun lifts his head out of the blanket and sees another neatly folded blanket on his body. His eyes instantly go over to the next bed where Sunggyu was facing against him, in lack of a blanket. But before Woohyun could get to speak, Sunggyu beats him to it. 

"Keep it." Sunggyu says as he puts an arm over his head. "I don't need it."

"But—" 

"Don't talk. I hate it when people disturb my sleep." 

Woohyun opens his mouth to say something, but he closes it with a small smile. He unfolds the second blanket and wraps it around his body too. 

Sunggyu has gotten really nice lately, and Woohyun is starting to like it. 

+

Noon sets in and Sunggyu has decided to finally stand up. Meanwhile, he looks over to his left and sees that Woohyun was still asleep. The senior leaves the room quietly after taking a quick shower and a change of clothes. 

Myungsoo was in the other room, doing some push ups while Sungyeol was on his back. It was an odd sight, but Sunggyu was used to it. 

"Oh, hyung!" Sungyeol gets off from Myungsoo's back and gestures for the elder to step inside. 

Myungsoo stands up as well without any difficulty and rubs his palms together. "So you're finally awake. What are you doing in here?" 

"Actually…" Sunggyu looks down on his feet and puts an hand on the back of his neck. "I need to talk to you, Myung." 

"Only him?" Sungyeol asks as he displays his obvious disapproval. "What about me?" 

"Next time, I promise." Sunggyu smiles at his younger friend who he treated as his brother as well. "Come on, Myungsoo." 

"Ok, ok." Myungsoo nods at Sungyeol before he walks out of the room with his brother. "Where are we going?" 

Sunggyu doesn't answer at first as he leads the way out of the dorms with Myungsoo following from behind like a little puppy. When Sunggyu turns right to a familiar gravel path, Myungsoo realizes they were going to their secret hideout. 

"Aren't we going to call everybody else?" Myungsoo pries confusingly, but then again, Sunggyu remained quiet. 

It wasn't until they've reached the deepest part of the forest, where only Sunggyu and a few other trusted friends knew the coordinates to. Everybody else who'd try to enter the forest would get lost because of how vast it is, but amazingly, Sunggyu had memorized every single inch of the forest like it was the back of his palm. Having grown up inside the compound, the great forest was practically his playground.  

And now that Sunggyu has led Myungsoo to the very heart of Sunggyu's playground, his little brother is perplexed. 

"Hyung, answer me, will you?" Myungsoo was getting impatient. "Can you tell me what the hell we're doing here—?" 

"Hoya's joining the Elude." 

"…What? No way!" 

"Yes—"

"No!" 

"I made a deal, Myungsoo." Sunggyu sighs and sits himself down on a wet tree stump. He forgot that it had rained, and now his boots were all muddy. "When did you ever go against my decisions?" 

"I know, hyung, you're the leader. You're amazing, really. But think about it! Hoya—We hardly know this guy! For all we know, he might tell on us or ditch us when we plan to leave again. Just like…Like what happened before…" 

Myungsoo pauses as his words seemed to be stuck in his throat. His face morphs into sadness, and Sunggyu's heart aches at the sight of his brother like this. 

"I don't want it to happen again." 

His older brother pulls him in for a tight hug. "I don't want it to happen too. And don't worry, I won't make the same mistake again. I promise, ok, I'm getting us out of here." 

Myungsoo pulls back from Sunggyu's embrace and looks at his brother in the eye. After a while, he says, "Ok. Let him join. Besides, we could use more hands." 

Sunggyu smiles. "Thank you. I needed your approval first before I tell the rest." 

"So, when are we going to tell them?"  

+

"What?!" 

Dongwoo screams. 

They were now all inside Sungyeol and Myungsoo's room. Hoya was there too. And lastly, Dongwoo as well. 

Together, the Elude currently consisted of 5 people. They used to be a lot, like really, a lot. But after their experience from last time, Sunggyu had learned that a smaller group had better chances of escape. 

"No, no wait—" Sungyeol looked awfully happy after the announcement. "I like this guy. He beat Woohyun up, I say we let him in." 

Hoya chuckles and so does Sungyeol, but the two brothers weren't pleased. And then Dongwoo, well, he was still freaking out. 

"Sunggyu, I'm not letting some bozo in our group just like that. You know better than this!" 

"Bozo?" Hoya wonders. 

Sungyeol puts an arm around Hoya, a smile on his face despite Dongwoo's obvious dislike. 

Myungsoo shakes his head and tells everybody to shut up. He forces Dongwoo to sit down and removes Sungyeol's arm from Hoya's shoulder. 

"Alright. Sunggyu hyung isn't going to speak unless all of you keep quiet." 

And just like that, the room was dead silent. 

"Ok you ing losers, may I remind all of you that we're not in our usual meeting place? This is a poorly made room, anybody could hear us if you don't keep your mouths shut!" 

Sungyeol looks down on the floor. Hoya remained emotionless as he stared at their Leader with