20 You Have To Be Smart

"Shit, San!" Ali exclaimed, and slapped him lightly on the arm. "Next time make yourself known so you don't almost give me a heart attack. I thought you were a warden."

San chuckled and ruffled her hair. "Sorry. You do have to be careful you don't get caught, though. This place might be hidden, but one of them could come upon it on one of their patrols."

"Heh." Ali scratched her cheek and got to her feet. "What are you doing here, anyway? You can't be thinking of running away too. Do you remember happened the last time you got caught? It might be worse this time."

"Ah, I'm bored with nothing to do, so I thought I'd join you." He nonchalantly shrugged and then chuckled at her pouty expression. "Hey, remember what I told you. They can't do anything to me due to my father being who he is."

"That doesn't make it ok!" Ali couldn't help but to snap. "You shouldn't risk your safety for someone like me. I can do this alone."

San stilled for a moment, and Ali began to regret the words that had left her mouth. Then he came towards her, and flicked her forehead.

"Don't be so conceited, A." San smiled and looked away from her. "I'm doing this for myself. I want to get back to the outside world... it's been so long... so, don't feel bad about me coming along. I just don't want to rot away in here."

"Ok," Ali mumbled, rubbing her forehead where he had thwacked it.

"Do you have a plan?" San asked her and sighed once again when she shook her head. "How were you going to get out of here without a plan?"

"I don't know." She looked anywhere but at him. It was stupid of her to think she could've escaped from Mistlyn, anyway. "I was just going to wing it."

San facepalmed, and then berated the girl, "A, I thought you were smarter than this. How could you possibly escape from here without a plan? The wardens aren't stupid and you would've been caught before you even stepped foot outside."

"Sorry, I didn't think..."

"No, you didn't." San didn't know why he was getting angry, however, what he knew was that he didn't want to see the girl in front of him hurt. "You have to be smart about this, Ali. If you're not, you will only get yourself killed."

"After my last thwarted escape, I tried to come up with different ways to get out of here. Ones that won't make me get caught so easily," San informed her. "A few nights ago I discovered that there is a tunnel under the institution, one that leads outside. If we can make it there, and go through it with no one stopping us, we can leave this place."

"There's something like that under here?" Ali stared at him in wonder.

"Yep," he replied, and then made for the door. "Meet me back here tomorrow night, and I'll show it to you. Don't get caught before then, ok?"

"Right." Ali smiled his way, and then she followed him out into the dark hallway.