Ruaan stepped out of the registration office and immediately pressed his back against the wall.

He covered his face with both palms.

His cheeks were burning. He could feel it. Twenty-six years old, standing in a prison corridor, face red like a teenager.

Yesterday he had spent midnight in a bathroom watching Seo do unspeakable things with a LEGO box full of horrors. Today he had gotten properly, thoroughly, completely fucked in a storeroom by Harolin Crowe.

He had believed his entire life that sex was just pain dressed up as pleasure.

He did not believe that anymore.

The pain had come. And then it had gone. And what was left was something he didn’t have a clean word for yet, something warm and heavy that was still sitting in his chest even now while he stood in a corridor trying to make his face behave.

He shifted his weight.

His body immediately reminded him of the last hour with a very specific kind of soreness that went from his lower back downward and he pressed his lips together and stared at the ceiling.

Harolin had told him to report to the electrical skill room in ten minutes.

He looked at the corridor.

He went to his cell instead.

.

.

The walk back was quiet.

Everyone was already at their skill day assignments — the corridors emptier than usual, voices coming from behind closed doors, the facility running on its Monday routine.

He reached cell 109 and heard something.

He stopped outside the door to listen.

A low sound was coming from inside.

He tilted his head.

’Someone’s in there,’ he thought. ’What are they doing? Maybe they’re missing their partner or something. Maybe it’s just—’

He stepped forward and looked through the gap.

He stepped back immediately.

He pressed himself flat against the wall outside the door and stared at the ceiling with an expression that had stopped having a name.

Yoon was standing in the middle of the cell.

With Ruaan’s spare uniform shirt pressed to his face.

Sniffing it.

And doing something else entirely with his free hand that Ruaan had no interest in witnessing further.

"Oh fuck," Yoon breathed inside the cell. "’Ruaan! I’m cuming! Fuck!"

Ruaan walked away quickly.

He walked away and kept walking and decided that he had not seen anything and that conversation was never going to happen and Yoon was going to live the rest of his time in Blackmere not knowing that Ruaan knew.

His body was screaming at him to find a bed and lie down.

But he walked to electrical department anyway.

.

.

The electrical skill room was busy.

Genuinely busy — not the performed busyness of people trying to look occupied, but actual activity. Wiring being stripped, circuits being tested, people arguing in low voices about something technical in the corner. Nobody looked up when he walked in.

"’RUAAN!’"

Every head in the room turned.

Seo was waving from a table near the back with the enthusiasm of someone who had not just spent the previous night doing what he had spent the previous night doing. His glasses were slightly crooked. The LEGO box was sitting open on the table beside him.

Ruaan walked over.

The murmuring started before he reached the table.

"Isn’t that the one Cullen’s been after?"

"Finn was cute but this one is different. Look at that face."

"I heard Cullen hasn’t touched him yet because of the stomach thing—"

Laughter spread through the room at that last part. Ruaan heard it and felt something settle in his chest. He sat down next to Seo and said nothing.

He looked at the LEGO box.

Several items inside were plugged into a small power bank via cables, lined up in a neat charging row, which was perhaps the most organised thing he had ever seen Seo do.

"Aren’t you learning anything?" Ruaan asked.

Seo pointed across the room.

A man in regular clothing was sitting at the head table with his feet up, head back, snoring peacefully into his handkerchief. The master craftsman. Despite being completely unconscious, nobody in the room was being rowdy. Nobody raised their voice. The respect existed independently of whether he was awake to receive it.

"He teaches when we’re ready," Seo said. "And we’re ready when we’ve practised what he taught last time." He paused. "I haven’t practised what he taught last time."

Ruaan looked at the charging box.

"I can see that."

Seo turned to him with the expression of someone changing the subject. "Why are you late anyway? Were you sitting somewhere thinking about my hot body after last night?"

Ruaan looked at him flatly. "How do you feel saying that out loud? Does it not embarrass you even slightly?"

"I’m just worried about you."

"You’re not worried about me."

"Fine." Seo pushed his glasses up. "Did you hear about Finn?"

"What about him?"

"He’s been trying to get Cullen to take him back. Going to his cell, waiting outside, the whole situation." He leaned forward slightly. "And there’s a rumour going around that Cullen might actually like you. People are expecting something to happen between you two at the next game."

Ruaan turned to look at him. "’What?’"

"People are talking—"

"Why would anyone think that? What kind of blasphemy is being spread around this facility—"

"Do you like Cullen Ray?" Seo asked simply.

"’Fuck no!’" It came out louder than intended. A few heads turned. He lowered his voice. "Absolutely not. Not even slightly. Not in any universe."

Seo shrugged like he’d expected that answer and wasn’t particularly bothered either way.

The bell rang.

The room shifted immediately... people wrapping up, packing things away, the end of skill day settling over the space like a wave. Everyone moved toward the door in groups, conversations trailing out into the corridor.

Seo didn’t move.

Ruaan looked at him.

The master craftsman stirred, blinked, and looked around the emptying room with the calm of a man waking up in his favourite place.

"Seo!" He pointed. "Diligent as always. Lock up when you’re done and leave the key at the front."

"Yes sir," Seo said warmly.

The man nodded, satisfied, and shuffled out.

Ruaan waited until the door closed.

He looked at the LEGO box and looked at Seo.

"Your toys aren’t done charging," he said.

"They need a full charge." Seo didn’t even look guilty. "I have until next week before I get this room again." He peered into the box with genuine concern. "Thirty per cent on the purple one. That’s not enough."

Ruaan looked at the ceiling.

"I can’t believe you, Seo."

"You say that but you’re still sitting here."

Ruaan was still sitting there.

’Yeah, I wonder why.’