✧ Day 11 - 08:46 AM ✧

To say that Zai had an exhausting night would have been an understatement. Although she'd been rather well prepared for the break-in at Rika's apartment, everything that came afterward has rushed to the Nth degree.

First, she'd underestimated just how much work she had done that day, which resulted in her nearly passing out from hunger while driving. Then she'd decided to make an unplanned stop to get rid of her old phone by throwing it into a lake. In a moment of weakness, she'd saved both Zen and Jaehee's numbers into her new phone and watched as her old one shorted out before sinking out of sight.

After she arrived back at her aunt's former home, it was past midnight. Although it was so late, she was nearly tackled by an excitable Jamming, who Zai was extremely glad to see. While refilling his food and water dispensers, she tried not to think about the aftermath of her actions, but unfortunately, the result of her efforts was still passed out in the backseat of her car.

"What am I gonna do with you..." Zai let her fingers skim against a baby soft cheek as she considered her options. She had no idea how long ago it had been since he'd last drank water or eaten, and after he woke up he was going to have a killer headache. Plus, he couldn't stay in her car forever, but leaving him unsupervised and unsecured in the house wasn't something she wanted to do. Even if she'd taken all his weapons and electronics, she didn't want to risk the chance that he may run back to Mint Eye or whatever creepy organization he'd been working for.

Now she was finally returning after an extremely late (or was it extremely early?) grocery run to a convenience store that was at least an hour away by car. Zai wanted nothing more than to sleep for the rest of the day, but she had to put the food away first.

She was in the middle of organizing the vegetables in the fridge when Jamming came running into the room, barking incessantly.

"Hey...Hey!" Whistling sharply at him, Zai managed to stop him from carrying on with the loud noises, yet he simply traded in his 'shouts' for whimpers.

"C'mere, what's going on?" Kneeling on the hardwood floor, Zai felt teeth tugging gently at her sleeve as her dog pulled her in the direction of the living room.

"Oh, is our guest awake? Is that it?" Zai stood and brushed off her pants. She closed the fridge door and tossed the remaining produce onto the counter to use for the day before following Jamming into the house's large living space.

As expected, Unknown was currently stirring, letting out little groans of discomfort as he pulled against the restraints that Zai had hastily set up before leaving the house. Both his wrists and ankles had been tied to the couch in order to prevent him from sitting up. This arrangement was supposed to be temporary until Zai could think of something better, but it looked like she wasn't going to get the chance.

Rushing back to the kitchen, she grabbed a glass of water plus two pain-killers and set them down on the little end table next to the sofa. Jamming had sensed the tension in the air and had fled the house entirely in favor of running around outside, for which Zai was thankful for. The last thing she needed was for Unknown to possibly have an intense phobia of dogs or to be as allergic to them as Zen was to cats.

Zai froze as she watched the pale haired man on her sofa jerk erratically for a few moments before his eyes snapped open and immediately unfocused as his disoriented brain tried to align itself with his surroundings. As soon as he was coherent enough to realize that his hands and legs were tied down, he pulled on the rope hard enough for the piece of furniture to slide abruptly even though there were two people sitting on top of it.

"W-whoa! Calm down!" All but jumping off the cushions, Zai spun around to grasp the sides of his face so that he could lock his gaze with hers.

"Y-you!" His snarl was vicious but she refused to falter.

"Yeah, me. Stop thrashing around for a second," She grabbed the glass of water off the table and held it up to his lips. "Drink. You sound awful." He glared at her but submitted to downing at least half of the liquid in the cup or risk having it spill all over himself.

"There, now isn't that better?"

"What have you done with me!? Where is my Savior!?" He looked on the verge of hysterics and somewhere in the back of Zai's mind, a little voice was questioning whether or not this plan was really thought out.

"I have no idea who your savior is, but I can promise you that they're not here."

He seized at her words and immediately started shaking. Looking down at the trembling boy on her sofa, Zai wondered if such a person could really be the same individual who had tried to kidnap her on multiple occasions.

"W-why? Why!? You've ruined everything! Nothing will ever be the same again and it's all your fault!" He was only a little ways off from screaming and Zai knew that he really shouldn't be riling himself up so much when he'd only just woken up from a blunt-force-trauma related mini-coma. Sighing, she placed the back of her hand against his forehead, causing him to freeze out of surprise.

"Are you feeling okay? Any pain? Dizziness? Hungry? Thirsty?" Zai rattled off a list of things she thought would be important to ask after sustaining some sort of injury. She didn't know if he had super healing capabilities like Zen, but it was better safe than sorry.

"What are you talking about? You're probably just trying to lower my guard down so I'll trust you!"

"If you haven't noticed, I don't really need you to trust me right now. You're kind of stuck to my couch, and believe it or not, I'd actually like to sit on it sometime without worrying about if you'll try to attack me when I do." It had been a while since she'd been able to really show this side of her. Inviting party guests required a delicate hand, but it was nice to be able to snark without being openly reprimanded for it.

"I don't understand...why did you bring me here? If you're planning on torturing me so I'll give up Mint Eye's secrets it won't wo-" Zai cut off his rant when she shoved the pills into his mouth and held his nose. He gagged for a moment but swallowed on reflex.

"What did you just give me!?" Stepping back so he couldn't bite her or anything, she settled her best neutral look at him.

"Pain medication. I can see you wincing every time you move, stop trying to be a tough guy. I'm not untying you until you prove that I can leave you alone and not be in danger of getting stabbed or something." She only got a tired glare in response.

"Anyways, you didn't answer my question. Are you hungry? Do you need more water? Work with me here." It seemed that his expression was stuck on the 'disbelief' setting. "Come on, don't tell me I have to feed you. There are other things I'd rather be doing with my time." His face turned an impressive shade of red as soon as she suggested feeding him, but he quickly shook his head in disagreement.

"How do you know I won't just run away if you let me go?"

"Considering that my house is literally in the middle of nowhere, and I've already hidden all the electronics in the house, I'm not too worried about it," She gave him a slow smirk. "We're three hours from any sort of civilization by car, and that's with GPS since there are no roads out here. But by all means, please, start walking if you think that you can reach Mint Eye, or even a telephone, without starving or getting so dehydrated that you can't keep going."

Zai watched his face as he ran through all the possibilities in his mind. As it went on, she could see the lingering hope of escape slowly start to dwindle from his eyes. She would have stayed to continue watching him try to come up with ways to get out of the situation he was currently trapped in, but she wasn't lying when she said that she had better things to do.

"Well then, I'm starving and exhausted. So I'm gonna go make myself dinner-breakfast and crash. Just shout if you need anything, I'll hear you...probably." Straightening up, she turned around to the kitchen so she could finally cook herself something to eat.

If Zai had looked back at that moment, she would've seen Unknown with the most terrified expression ever made on his face.

Some time later, a full, but even more tired, Zai made her way back to Unknown's side with a plate of fried rice and mixed vegetables. The situation would have been fine if it wasn't for the fact that Zai was more than halfway to unconsciousness, and her 'houseguest' couldn't feed himself.

The entire ordeal was awkward. Zai would try to get the food past his lips but would end up accidentally stabbing him in the cheek or someplace else, plus whatever he didn't catch in his mouth fell onto his clothes instead. Unfortunately, Zai was too far gone to care. After some time, she stopped completely, but only because her exhaustion had worn her out to the point of unconsciousness. She'd gone nearly a whole twenty-four hours without sleep and had used up her last dredges of energy.

Unknown watched as the plate fell from her hands to the floor, and tried not to squirm as she settled in against the arm of the sofa, her legs splayed out in his lap, one of them hanging off his knees.

Dear Savior please save me from this.