“Morning.”

Hoseok was in the kitchen, grabbing a bottle of beer from the fridge. He was clad in only his briefs, displaying all his marks he received from his previous adventures with the mobs. I groggily nodded a ‘good morning to you too’ in Hoseok’s general direction. He looked pretty well rested, bed hair and all.

I walked over to the kitchen counter and saw a stack of pancakes dribbled in syrup served on a huge plate and my stomach couldn’t help but respond.

“It’s yours. Eat it before it gets cold.” He stood on the other side of the kitchen counter as he downed the ice cold beer.

“You made this?”

“Yeah.”

I studied the pancakes for a long time before meeting his eyes. “Did you really?”

“Do I not look like someone who can cook a decent breakfast?”

Both of us just looked at each other before he rolled his eyes and said, “Fair enough.”

                                                                                                ***

I decided to watch some TV in the living room because according to Hoseok “Namjoon still hasn’t left his room” and “Suga had gone out for a meeting with one of the goons from another gang”. He himself had left an hour ago; didn’t really tell me why. But his pancakes were amazing and would keep me full til the late evening, so I gave him the benefit of the doubt.

After the unwarranted attack from Suga this morning, he gave me the luxury of actually letting me sleep since he had gotten all the information that he needed from me.

The surprisingly entertaining cartoon I was watching had ended, so I grabbed the remote and changed the channel to the news.

“PRINCE KIDNAPPED!” was the line that kept flashing on the screen. It took me some time to work my brain and process what was going on til a picture of me invaded the wide screen of the TV, staring down at me with that forced lopsided smile of mine and oh. Oh. So they’re talking about that prince.

I shifted uncomfortably on the couch and straightened my back, suddenly feeling more alert. I silently watched as the channel cuts to some live footage and it was of the town’s breakdown over the news. It wasn’t a small town, but I haven’t left it since I was born, so the faces that appeared on the screen were all familiar to me.

“Who would do such a thing?” said the owner of the pet store, through her tears.

“The perpetrators won’t be forgiven!” declared the man who lived in the same neighborhood as me.

The camera shifted to the ground and I could hear the cameraman trying to catch his breath, implying he was likely following a certain person— or at least trying to—to get their say on the whole issue. The camera finally jerked back to the normal angle, revealing a person who I am all too familiar with.

My father looked straight into the camera, and right at me.

“No comment.” His suit and cold stare gave off the impression that he was more of a lawyer to the family than an actual family member. The frown on his face had always been a common sight for me, but he never let it show to the public. So to appear as though he was one of those caring fathers who were just devastated over their son’s disappearance, that frown had finally seen the light of day.

He pushed away from the crowd that had surrounded him and entered his car and drove away. I switched off the TV.

I was dragging my feet making my way to my room when I bumped into Namjoon on the stairs of the second floor.

“Oh, morning!” he greeted me with such enthusiasm. Or maybe it was just a normal greeting and I was just not in the mood.

“It’s noon.” I pointed out bitterly.

Namjoon was in his suit that he wore when he came over for dinner. He looked just as dashing as he did the first time.  A sense of nostalgia started fleeting inside me but I quickly shook the memory away.

He cocked his head to the side, giving me a small smile. “I take it you saw the news?”

“Yeah.” I wasn’t even going to question how he knew that.

“Right. I actually wanted to talk to you about that.” He reached in his pocket and took out my phone and handed it to me. “It’s fully charged.”

I forced a smile. “Thanks.” I shoved it in the back pocket of the shorts.

“Your dad called.”

This got my attention. “Did he now?” my tone was condescending. “When did he call?” I could just check myself, but after seeing him on the news I wasn’t really keen about it.

“Like, 1am? He probably was worried you weren’t back yet,” he tried to explain. I nodded like I believed that possibility, but both of us knew otherwise. He didn’t even bother calling a second time.

Namjoon cleared his throat and said, “I called him back.”

I widened my eyes in shock. “You called him back?!”

He motioned for me to get a grip before continuing. “I called him this morning. Told him about your situation and that you were with us. So he calmed down a bit.”

“So, in the news just now, he…he already knew?” I was racking my brain trying to understand why he wouldn’t tell the public that he knew where I was. That I was safe.

“Well, yeah, he did. I don’t know why he acted like that, to be honest. Try giving him a call.”

I rolled my eyes at him, making him laugh. Of course I wasn’t going to do that.

“Also,” he added, “I apologize but we can’t go out today. Something’s come up.”

“Oh never mind. You’re busy, I g