"This is absolutely ridiculous," Jungkook muttered to himself as he wandered down the hall; his cell phone clutched in one hand.

Taehyung had been less than clear when he had called earlier, which didn't help the ongoing situation. Willa was back in their dorm room resting peacefully while he had to resort to staring at the ceiling contemplating the meaning of Taehyung's 'be ready' text message. The several hours that he had to wait in agony felt like forever before Taehyung finally had texted again for Jungkook to come to the window at the end of the hall.

'Whatever he has planned, I'm going to kill him,' thought Jungkook. Unless - of course - it was a plan to get him out of there. If that was the case, then he would allow Taehyung to live for a small span of time.

Reaching the window at the end of the hall where he had seen the missing girls sneak out on his first night, he opened it and looked down into the darkness below. He couldn't see anything out of the ordinary at the present moment; his gaze alternating between the skeletal trees to the shadow shrouded paths. It was then - as he was focusing on some underbrush nearby - that he saw a movement. Jungkook's eyes widened when he saw that it was none other than Taehyung emerge. Or at least he was fairly certain the masculine female below him was Taehyung, getting a text a few seconds later that confirmed it.

"WHAT THE H-"

"Shhhh!" said Taehyung, "Do you want to get caught?! Do you know how much security I had to sneak around just to get back here with this?"

Jungkook's eyes widened when he saw Taehyung move to tug a small ladder out from the underbrush he had been hiding in. He moved to position it against the wall.

"Now catch!"

Jungkook barely had time to react as Taehyung threw up one heel followed by another. One of the heels almost managed to skewer him in the eye.

"HEELS?!" hissed Jungkook. "What in the..."

"I see you still haven't learned to be quiet," hissed back Taehyung as he began to climb.

Jungkook looked past Taehyung and was able to see the beams of flashlights sweeping through the schoolyard. Leaning out the window, Jungkook gripped Taehyung by the forearms and tugged him inside. Jungkook panicked about the ladder still leaning up against the wall, leaning out of the window as far as he dared to, to make it fall sideways into the underbrush where it thankfully came to rest silently.

"You're insane..." whispered Jungkook as he quickly shut and relatched the window, turning to smack Taehyung upside the head.

"Hey! Don't hit me!" whispered Taehyung as Jungkook shoved the heels that had been thrown at him earlier at the center of Taehyung's chest.

"Just follow me before we get caught," said Jungkook as he tip-toed back down the hall to his dorm room. There were thousands of things he wanted to say to Taehyung, but he knew that now wasn't the time or place for it.

Quietly opening his dorm room, Jungkook was thankful that Willa was still sound asleep. She had fallen to sleep with her back to where his bed was; the unintelligible words of some song she was listening to pulsing through the earbuds still wedged in her ears. Jungkook grabbed Taehyung by the wrist, not so gently tugging him into the adjoining bathroom and shutting the door.

"What are you doing here?" whispered Jungkook. "You were supposed to get me out of here, not sneak in here yourself!"

"I was worried about you," whispered Taehyung. "The school is in a complete lockdown. No one in or out."

"And you don't think they are going to notice you?! A 'girl' who randomly appeared and doesn't show up on any rosters?!"

"Stop yelling!"

"I'm whispering!"

"You're not! It's loud!"

"It's aggressive whispering! Geezum!"

Jungkook paused, rubbing a hand across his forehead as he leaned up against the bathroom sink. Taehyung watched Jungkook from where he stood by the door, putting the heels down and crossing his arms across his chest.

"So, what's going on?"

"One of the girls that goes here was found murdered," he said. "Technically Willa and I found her."

"Willa?"

"My dorm mate," said Jungkook as he closed his eyes.

"Are you...are you okay?"

Jungkook nodded his head as he looked over at Taehyung, smirking as he looked at his full female getup in the pale light of the bathroom.

"You look ridiculous."

Taehyung smirked in return as he said, "I thought I looked cute, thank you very much."

Jungkook rolled his eyes before letting out a sigh, "Well...thanks for coming, though you're still an idiot."

"Takes one to know one," said Taehyung as they both shared a soft chuckle.

"Stay here for a second, Tae," said Jungkook as he moved around him to slip back out of the bathroom.

Walking over to his dorm bed, he grabbed a pillow and tugged one of the sheets free before re-entering the bathroom and shutting the door.

"You need to keep this door locked at all times," said Jungkook as he re-entered, shoving the pillow and sheet at Taehyung before moving to look under the sink for cleaner. "You'll have to stay in here and hope the bloodhound of a police detective the school hired doesn't find out you're here."

Jungkook moved to get onto his knees as he began to clean out the tub.

"I'll just tell Willa that the bathroom is out of order..." muttered Jungkook as he cleaned.

When he was done and had dried it out, Taehyung moved to put the pillow and sheet into the bathtub.

"Thank you for cleaning it Kook..."

"It's Aera for now remember," said Jungkook as he put the cleaning supplies back under the sink. "By the way, do you have a new name while you're here?"

"I decided on Bora."

"Bora?"

"Yep. Bora...HEY!"

The exclamation suddenly left Taehyung's mouth as Jungkook started to laugh uncontrollably by the sink, having to clap his hand over his mouth to keep from being too loud.

"Why are you laughing at my name?"

"Bora, Bora, Bora the Explorer!..." sang Jungkook softly as Taehyung tsked, bending down to grab the pillow from the tub to smack him on the arm with it.

Jungkook couldn't help but to feel as if a weight of some sort had been lifted off his chest. This was the most relaxed Jungkook had felt since the stupid dare had begun in this purgatory of a school. Even though the future was uncertain and they both ran the risk of being caught, Jungkook was glad that Taehyung was here. Maybe together they could find a way out of it all.