"And, alas, that's how we got stuck in here." Jisung said dramatically, waving his hands around, narrowly missing his cell mate's face, Chenle, due to how cramped the cell was. Lucas stared at them blankly, before saying, "You're annoying."
He turned his back on the pair, Jisung gasping offendedly, causing Rina to let out a silent laugh as she watched the ongoings. "This is why you shouldn't be overdramatic about everything, Park Jisung." Chenle rolled his eyes, running his fingers through his mint green hair.
"You didn't even say anything about what y'all did to get in here." A gruff voice said, another prisoner from slightly further down called out.
"Okay, okay, shut up." Jisung said, the brown haired boy giving Rina an exasperated look, before speaking once again. "Why are you in with a cell with two men?"
Rina shrugged, turning to Mark. However, Lucas answered for her instead. "It's not really any of your business, last I checked." He snapped.
Jisung raised an eyebrow, letting out a low whistle. "Calm down, I'm just curious." Jisung said as he raised his hands placatingly. "It's not really a normal thing."
Lucas raised an eyebrow, rolling his eyes and looking away. "Wow." Jisung huffed. "You have issues."
"Issues your miniscule brain wouldn't really understand," Lucas replied, indifference clear in his voice.
Rina watched as Jisung stood up, a furious expression beginning to set itself upon his features. "You want to go?" He yelled, a few others yelling back at him to keep his voice down. "Like you could take me down." Lucas tilted his head cockily, looking Jisung up and down through the bars of his cell.
"Lucas." Mark said, his voice low and hard as he stood up, grabbing his friend's hand and pulling him behind him. "You're going to need to shut up."
Lucas scoffed, before shoving Mark off and turning his back on Jisung, who was standing with his mouth open, in shock and anger.
"I'm going to kill him!" He said loudly, clenching his fists angrily, before Chenle pulled him back down. "The insult wasn't even that good, its not worth it." The mint haired muttered, making the corners of Rina's lips quirk upward as she tried to hide her smile.
Mark rubbed his eyes in frustration, giving Rina a tired look. She reached out, gently patting his shoulder, nodding understandingly.
"Sorry about that." Mark called out to the occupants of the opposite cell. "Don't sweat it," Chenle waved, flashing them a cute smile.
Appearances were so deceiving, Rina concluded, as she stared at the two of them. Jisung and Chenle couldn't have been older than seventeen, both having young and innocent faces, yet here they were, stuck in the second level of the King's prison.
Then again, she thought as she glanced at Mark and Lucas, these two were pretty innocent looking too. Except for Lucas, who was currently glowering angrily at the stone wall, making her shake her head.
The taller had noticeably become more irritable, almost borderline desperate for a fight. Mark, too, had become increasingly agitated. He had been getting a lot less sleep recently, she could hear him twisting and turning in the bed below her. It didn't help that the second floor was filled with more people - after being used to seeing empty cells for so long, anything seemed crowded.
But the reason for their sudden changes in demeanour was what she couldn't figure out.
Time went by slowly, the seconds trickling away like sand held in a clenched fist.
It was much noisier than the third floor, her companion of silence often being chased away by words exchanged among friends or the shuffling of uncomfortable prisoners.
It was almost peaceful, in a sick way. Behind the bars, you were stuck with yourself and another wrecked soul, subjected to the mental agony of you being yourself, having to listen to your own thoughts and nothing else. Just reflecting, day after day.
As someone who had done so for eight years, Rina was sick of it. It had driven her to the edge of insanity, an edge she had been pulled back from by the pity of Jeno and Donghyuck, as they began to talk to her, treated her like a human being.
Physical contact had been something she'd hated before, when she was as free as the butterflies that sometimes landed on her outstretched finger tips, still having the freedom to fly away. She'd taken every hug, touch, and kiss from her brothers and family for granted.
Now she found herself craving it, a small urge in the back of her head to wrap her arms around the guards she'd grown to care for so immensely, because she never knew when she would lose them one day, but it also sickened her.
After all, there were others who tried tried to touch her, men and women who grasped her arms and forced themselves on her, resulting in her panic and them on the floor, unconcious. The other guards of the Palace were so, so cruel.
She was shaken from her thoughts when a man entered, the doors to the prison thrown open, swinging wildly from their hinges as he was followed by a smaller group of armor clad people.
"Zhong Chenle and Park Jisung," he said loudly, his voice dominating the entirety of the prison floor, "You are to be shifted to the Capital Prison as of this moment."
Rina's mouth fell open as she turned towards the boys occupying the cell across her, sympathy settling in her heart like a stone as she watched Jisung turn pale and Chenle freeze. "W-We never got our trial, though!" Jisung yelled in a panic as the guard pulled open the barred door.
"You don't need one." The guard said, his eyes glittering with malice as he grabbed the back of Jisung's uniform harshly, yanking the boy to his feet.
"We're innocent! We didn't do anything to be sent here!" Jisung said hysterically.
"That is what they all say." The guard rolled his eyes as he handed over Jisung to the other guards, shaking his blond hair out of his eyes as he smirked, watching Chenle getting out of the cell without a fight. "You've got the wrong people." He told the guard quietly.
"Out there, there's an actual killer on the loose, and he murdered my mother. Not me, and not Jisung." The guard rolled his eyes, shoving Chenle forward, making Rina clamp a hand over her mouth and Mark to yell.
"They're kids!" The brown haired boy beside her said loudly.
The man turned to him slowly, a bored expression on his chiselled features. He drew closer to their cell, his expression morphing into an amused one.
"What're you going to do about it?" He asked, eyes shifting to Rina before widening. "Look what we have here," he grinned. "A girl."
"Leave her alone." Lucas snapped, staring the soldier dead in the eye. The man scoffed. "I'm not interested in a little whore-" "Take that back." Mark snarled, grabbing the bars threatingly, making Rina flinch. She tugged at his uniform, shaking her head warningly. "See, she's is smart." The man laughed, shaking his head.
"I could have you deported to the Capital in an instant." He smiled. "In fact, you just might be next on my list."
Fear seized Rina's heart, the organ thumping wildly in her chest as she pulled Mark away from the bars, preventing him for lunging at the arrogant soldier.
"Don't mess with me, kid." The golden haired man said warningly. "Or you'll find your next home to be within the walls of that wretched prison."
"Good thing we won't let that happen."
A single dart pierced through the air, sinking into the back of the man's neck, making him flinch before his eyes rolled to the back of his head, collapsing to the hard ground.
Chenle and Jisung were shoved in the direction of Rina's cell, straight into the line of fire as the battalion of soldiers turning in unison towards the intruders. They loaded their guns in unison, Chenle yelping as they began to shoot.
However, their weapons weren't the only ones flying through the air. Darts went haywire, one narrowly missing Jisung, Chenle pulling the younger towards a corner in fright, another ricocheting off cell bars.
A gun shot rang through the air, making Rina's neck snap upwards, her sharp eyes catching the dark figure of the shooter stationed over the ledges.
She would've laughed had she not been so frightened, because to her the scene was comical: a battalion of trained soldiers getting taken down by two skilled shooters who managed who aim exactly for the chinks in their armor.
Soon enough, the gun shots faded away, the floor crowded with unconcious soldiers. The only sounds were Chenle's ragged breathing as Jisung attempted to calm him down, and the wild pounding of Rina's heart.
"Damn it." The shooter on the ground pulled off his mask, revealing a handsome face framed by locks of vibrant red hair. He sighed unhappily as he removed an empty dart from the neck of a soldier. "I told you not to use those tranquilizers up."
"I'm sure you can make more." The shooter in the ledge leaped down, landing with a thump against the stone floor. He pulled off his mask in a smooth fluid movement, turning in Rina's direction.
She was hit with a sense of nostalgia and familiarity, like she should know who he is. She cautiously retreated behind Lucas, the strangers outside the bars not noticing her yet.
"Ten?" Mark exclaimed,his face slack with shock.
"Hey, Mark." The man gave him a cheerful smile. It was one displaying no ill intention, but it certainly did not do anything to put Rina at ease, her suspicions of the two ony heightening further.
"Glad to know my presence is acknowledged." The man with the vibrant red hair rolled his eyes, snatching the gun out of Ten's hands.
"What are you both doing here?" Mark asked, eyes wide. "And how could you come without Sicheng?" He directed the question to the redhead, who sighed in response. "My Boss and I aren't attached at the hip, Mark Lee," He responded.
"But-" Mark was cut off by Lucas who stepped forward. "So why are you here?" He asked impatiently. "Someone's cranky without their pills." Ten said teasingly, making Rina blink. Pills? She wondered.
"Answer me." Lucas said, ignoring the earlier comment.
"What do you think?" Ten smirked. "We're here to break you out."