12 MIRRORS

I stand there, staring at myself through a mirror. Stray strands of my blond hair that escaped my braid rest on the sides of my face. My skin is paler than I thought, and in the fluorescent light, it's almost translucent. My lips are a coral tint, and my large eyes stare back at me curiously. I haven't seen myself in months.

There's not a lot of mirrors in the ship. There's a small one in the Safety and Defense room, but you only get to see through it when Vicky wants to show you what a poison and antidote does temporarily to your body. There's a lot of places you can see your reflection, like some shiny metal walls or glass windows and silverware. But it's distorted, and not as clear as a mirror. I glance at the boys for their reaction, and they're only looking at themselves for a few seconds before all looking at Jin.

Of course, he's fascinated with his reflection. He goes closer up to the mirror and starts tracing his reflection, his mouth parted in awe.

Namjoon sighs. "It can't be helped," he tells us. I snort when Jin kisses the mirror.

We tear down the rest of the sheets, move the boxes aside, and look around. One long wall is completely covered by one huge mirror. We all stare at the mirror with confusion. How come there's a huge mirror sitting up here, when mirrors in the rest of the ship are so rare?

"Should we meet up here...every midnight?" Taehyung asks uncertainly.

I fall onto the ground and lay on my back. "I mean," I reply with doubt, "Rudale could know when the lifts were being used, so it'd be risky to use the lift every midnight. He'd follow us or something."

"Wait." We all look at Namjoon. He scratches his chin and stares at the ground with furrowed brows in concentration. "Wait, remember when we were coming up here, in the dark tunnel-like space where the lift travels? There were tons of ropes and metal bars. I'm sure we can fix some of them so that it can pull us up and down without even touching the lift."

Kookie and I, the nerds, can't help but spring to our feet in excitement. "Oh my goodness," I gasp, "you're right! There were tons of spare ropes. We just need... a weight or something!"

"And I'm sure there's another way to get into the tunnel instead of through the lift," Kookie says quickly. "There were several weird indents in the walls that could be secret passages, we can even use the air vent if we need to."

"And if we can make the ropes pull us up and down as fast as a lift, it'll take us no more than ten minutes," I say with a big smile.

Yoongi coughs quietly. We turn to look at him. He blushes slightly. "Can we make this meet... uh, every other midnight?... Because I get really tired during the day, and I need the sleep..."

Jin laughs. "Of course. Yeah, we'd all like more sleep too, Yoongi."

Yoongi gives a sheepish gummy smile and rests his hands behind his neck shyly, his elbows tucked in. It melts my heart to see him smile like that.

How did I end up close friends with such beautiful popular boys? And how did I end up falling for such a complicated boy who was sweet and caring one moment, then rash and unexpected the next?

I turn to look at Jimin, who's laughing along with Jin and then crouching down sit next to Yoongi and pat him on the back affectionately.

...Because I have this strange instinct to trust him, and I do. And although he has some flaws and different sides to him, I love his every flaw and every side. And it's unimaginable to live without him.

Heated emotion rolls through me, and I blush and look away, embarrassed at my thoughts. 'No, it's too soon,' I tell myself. 'Don't be foolish.'

But when Jimin glances at me, just that simple act makes my heart jump. I can't help feeling so happy under his warm gaze.

~~~~

We're back in the tunnel, swinging around by ropes and looking for some secret passage. Namjoon, Kookie, and I examine the spare ropes hanging from the ceiling and try to plan out some sort of lift similar to the transport lift.

Finally, we decide on unhooking a set of ropes from the ceiling and repositioning it so it rests on the wide sturdy curve of the hook. Then we tie a simple knot on one rope, and I test it by holding on to the rope, my foot stepping on the knot, and I reach the bottom easily. To go back up, I keep on stepping on the small knot, and pull the other rope down so I go up. After a few hard tugs the rope brings me up effortlessly. When I near the top, I just slide past the knot and the knot stops the cycle, and I'm back at the top in a mere two minutes. I make a few more knots to make sure it's secure, and the rest of the boys try it out for themselves.

They couldn't find anything at the top of the tunnel, but at the bottom there are several mysterious empty indents. Jin leads the way, swinging past me and pushing off metal bars, his movements graceful and strong. We all end up walking through a smaller tunnel, and Jin and Namjoon have to duck their heads slightly to fit. I'm a little afraid, but mostly I'm curious about where this'll take us.

If I squint enough and my eyes adjust to the dark, I can see wires lining the walls. This must connect to the lift. There's an occasional huge generator box, which explains why this tunnel is big enough for a person to walk through. It's perfect, I realize, smiling. It's like we were meant to come here at night and explore the area.

We reach a smaller door, and it creaks from not being used for so long. We all duck through and find ourselves in familiar territory--the North Wing.

"Is this a dream?" Kookie breathes, reading my thoughts. It's just too good to be true!

"Well, we found our next meeting place," Yoongi says warmly. Everyone is smiling, exhausted but triumphant. "We'll meet at the top floor in two midnights. C'mon, let's get some sleep. I'm super tired."

Everyone nods in agreement, our eyes drooping and our adrenaline fading. We part ways and I head to the A-2 girls' dormitory, slipping inside and climbing up my bunk, and a wave of exhaustion crashes over me before my head hits the pillow, every inch of me aching for rest, and I fall into a dark, dreamless unconsciousness.