Smoke Break; TEN

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You rolled your neck out as you entered the prison, already itching for the day you would never have to come back. You met up in the main office with the warden of the maximum security prison, Chua.

"Are you ready?" She asked you, and you nodded silently. "Being in a place like this can change a person, you know?"

"I'll be alright." You smiled.

You were there for one purpose and one purpose only.

"Alright, I'll start the tour for you. You'll mainly be in charge of D-Block. This block is for the more aggressive criminals, and there are only fifteen of them in this block, so there aren't too terribly many inmates to watch over." Chua informed you. "You'll get breaks and switches with another guard. You'll also be in charge of taking the inmates to lunch and splitting up duty watch with other guards."

You nodded again. "Sounds easy enough."

You finally got to D-Block and inmates immediately started getting noisy. You kept your eyes ahead of you and walked confidently, letting the men that occupied the cells know that they didn't intimidate you. Nobody intimidated you. Chua continued walking you through D-Block, and when you looked to your right and made eye contact with Ten, it was like time slowed down.

It had been nearly two years since you saw Ten and the others.

You forced yourself to keep a straight face and continue on with Chua, who left D-Block in order to show you around the rest of the prison.

As you walked out, Ten smiled to himself in his cell and mumbled, "She really did it."

He made eye contact with Xiaojun, who was in the cell across from him, as he smiled the same way a proud brother would. He couldn't see the others, but he knew that they were feeling the same feeling.

Relief.

You were starting to get irritated as more inmates yelled at you and Chua throughout the last cell block. The tour of the prison was almost done, and then you had to go to D-Block to start your shift. You felt like a kid about to go to recess as you thought about seeing your family again, but of course, nobody else could see that. Your facial expressions and demeanor didn't change often in situations like this.

"Alright, that's all." Chua smiled at you. "Good luck in there."

You smiled back politely. "Thank you."

She gave you a quick nod and you turned on your heels to head for D-Block. When you walked through the doors, the first thing you took notice of was the big window near the ceiling that you hadn't seen previously, as your back was turned to it.

"So," an inmate to your right sounded. "You're the new guard, huh?"

You nodded curtly as you made quick eye contact with Xiaojun, who was laying on his bed with his arms behind his head. You could tell he was trying not to smile.

"Have you ever been a maximum prison security guard before?" Another inmate asked.

"Nope, but I've dealt with a few criminals." You replied vaguely, smirking slightly. "Not that that's your business."

The third inmate to speak up got up from his bed just to look at you. "You've had your fair share of criminals?"

You shrugged. "Like I said, that's my business."

The inmates immediately took interest in you. Normally, guards wouldn't even look at the inmates, much less speak to them. You knew that speaking to them would build a bond, oddly enough. You learned tactics like this, like reverse psychology, from Kun, who was giving you a sneaky grin. He had done it to you plenty of times, before you were too smart for it, of course.

It was odd, not being able to blatantly talk to your friends and boyfriend, but you knew that any kind of cue would give you away. You didn't work on an escape plan for over a year just to have it thrown out the window. You didn't need that tour, you already knew where everything was. You had blueprints of the prison hidden in your small studio apartment, the same apartment that didn't have any furniture in it, just some food and clothes to get you by until you were finished at the prison.

After several hours of dealing with the inmates and fighting the urge to forget the plan and unlock the guys' cells, you were back at your apartment, eating some cheap meal that you put in the microwave.

The year and so had been very difficult without the guys. When they told you to run, you hid and watched them get arrested through the smoke of the fire, and you kicked yourself everyday for not doing something about it. Yangyang was only eighteen then, and he looked absolutely broken when the police cuffed him.

It was your problem to handle in the first place. If anything, it definitely should've been you who got arrested. You were surprised that Minsu didn't tell the police who else set fire to his house, surely he knew you were part of it.

Either way, you were constantly watching your back, not because you were scared of Minsu, but because you knew he was just as manipulative as you. The only reason he didn't rat you out was because he had an ulterior motive, and you knew that very well. You were both out for the same thing and that was blood.

Suddenly, you were full. You cleaned up the small mess that you made and sat on the pathetic pallet you made on the floor. You lifted the loose floor board and pulled the blueprints out from their hiding spot.

You made a strategic plan for every block that your friends could have been in, but now you knew that the D-Block escape plan would be the one to go with. It wasn't a difficult one really. All you had to do was bug the control panel in the main office, so that the doors of every single cell block and room would lock. That way, every guard would be stuck for thirty minutes in their respective places, giving you and the guys the perfect opportunity to get out and make your get away.

Just a few more weeks to make your plan bullet proof, and you and the guys would be back on track.

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