Hyemi felt the strike to the face momentarily blind her with a flash of light. She swallowed back her own cry as she fell backwards onto the ropes binding her wrists. Her eyes watered slightly as she swallowed back her cry and she defiantly titled her chin upwards to stare at the man who unwittingly brought chills to her core. His eyes were void of anything human, it frightened her more than she would ever let on.

“What the hell is up with the people around Jongin being so damn chatty?” He hissed, approaching Hyemi once again.

She refused to shrink back, it wouldn’t have made a difference either way. He lifted her from the ground by the shoulders and threw her up against the wall. She tried to kick out at him, knowing it wouldn’t set her free, but wanting to land a hit nonetheless. He was too fast, stopping her before she could make any contact.

“Listen here, I’m trying very hard to keep my hostage alive, but if you keep testing me…” He warned.

She felt the taste of something not unlike panic mix in the back of as she realized there was no way out. Suddenly Chanyeol came to mind, the broken bones, the torture, the blood. She realized it wouldn’t be long until she ended up like that. What this bastard asked for was too much from Jongin. There was no back up waiting for her, Myungsoo was also out of the question. She was screwed.

“He won’t come” She repeated, this time far more quietly.

Especially not after the fight they had. There was no way he would risk his business, for her. His eyes grew colder, as if that was possible and he opened his mouth to say something when a phone rang. He grinned triumphantly as he released the hold he had on her and let her fall to the ground. She bit her lip to keep herself quiet as he answered his phone.

“I’lll send you the address, come alone” The man spoke into the phone. Hyemi would hear her pulse pounding in her head, her fingers nervously dancing along the rope tying her wrists, desperately searching for a little give, a chance to loosen them.

“Was that him?” She asked.

“You almost had me going for a second” He said with that same empty grin, pulling out a second gun and reloading it, “I almost thought I hadn’t grabbed someone important enough”

“He won’t come alone” She blurted out, “That would be stupid, he’s not stupid”

He wouldn’t risk his life for mine.

“I warned him. He’ll come alone” He said confidently before turning back to her, “This whole ‘he won’t come for me’ deal, just what the hell are you two to each other? You seemed so sure” He asked.

Hyemi stared up at him bewildered at the sudden question only to be met with genuine curiosity from the man who had just threatened to kill her.

“It’s nothing” She said reluctantly.

“It’s something for Jongin to bother calling” He confirmed before shrugging and returning to his small weapons stash.

Hyemi tried to pay attention to what was happening despite the fact that his question uselessly floated in her mind. What was she to him? Would he really come? Would he come alone and risk his life or come with backup and risk hers? The anticipation plagued her. It was harmless curiosity, whatever happened to him didn’t matter as long as she got out alive she told herself.

He won’t come alone. I’m not her, he wouldn’t risk it. She told herself once again.

“Then again I can probably guess. You have an eerie resemblance to that girl” Seungsoo said more to himself as he loaded another weapon calmly.

She felt time come to a stand still for a moment as she slowly raised her head and watched him.

“What girl?” She whispered.

“The one he was with before. The little that just wouldn’t stop screaming” He said casually, as if he was talking about the weather.

“You… was it you?” Hyemi breathed.

He went still, gun in hand and turned to her with a malevolent look of pride on his face.

“Did you not realize how serious this was? This is not my first time playing with Jongin’s girlfriends” He said with a smile on his face.

His steps approaching hers made her muscles clench in fear. He reached her and crouched so that he nearly knelt besides her. He pulled out a long blade from a sheath at his waist. The knife glinted in the dim light as he turned it from one side to another. In a flash, he held the knife at her neck. She refused to flinch despite the blood she had drawn from her palm from digging her nails in. He grinned.

“You’re braver than she was” He whispered, watching her like a specimen under a microscope, “She screamed the whole time. The last thing she said was his name, you know. To the end, she thought he would come” He said, laughing softly as if recalling a fond memory.

“It was a warning, but you know how it goes. Sometimes a lesson needs to be taught twice to really sink in” He said.

Hyemi found that she couldn’t speak, suddenly recalling the injuries on Ara’s body. The stabs, the sheer brutality of it. It wouldn’t be long. Soon she would be the girl lying in the morgue.

“I’m going to kill you first” He promised, “Only because I can’t wait to see the look in Jongin’s eyes when he loses another one” He said.

The knock on the metal door interrupted them and her heart stopped as her head snapped up. She wanted to scream, to ask whoever was at the door to leave, but the warning couldn’t come out. The man gave her a smile, one that would’ve passed off as genuine if it hadn’t been all wrong. It was a smile, but shallow, forced, fake. She stared intently at the door as he took his time, preparing his gun at his side as he went to check the monitor first. She nearly held her breath as he took his sweet time getting to the door. It had to be Jongin, and she prayed he wasn’t alone. Seungsoo glanced at the other man in the room and Hyemi wondered why it was only just the two men. She thought about Seungsoo’s ability to fight and realized with a strike of fear that he probably didn’t need more.

Without a seeming care in the world he walked over to her and yanked her up by one arm. She closed her eyes briefly as he placed the cold tip of a barrel of a gun to her head.

The door swung open to reveal Jongin, she counted for a few seconds as the other man searched him for weapons before allowing him to step in. The door shut behind him and she had her answer, he was alone. Her eyes focused solely on him, he said something to the man holding her and he replied, but she didn’t listen. Her attention was instead focused on the way he held her gaze and did a quick assessment of the damage. His eyes hardened at the bruises that must’ve been taking color on her skin.

“The money can be passed with a simple wire transfer, but I don’t know how you expect my clientele base to blindly go to you just because I turn over names. Besides what’s my guarantee that she makes it out alive” Jongin said calmly, brushing a piece of lint off the sleeve of his coat, a false show of relaxation.

“I could give you my word”

Jongin sneered, “That means nothing”

“It’s all you’ve got”

“Untie her” Jongin ordered.

Seungsoo slid his eyes to her, “Not that I don’t think we couldn’t but we both know she’s not exactly harmless. Show me the list”

She could see the gears turning in Jongin’s head and she tried to remain as still as she could despite the fact that she could feel the trickle of blood sliding from her broken fingernails. The rope had begun to allow some give and she pulled at the strands that she had torn into. It was uncomfortable, to twist her wrists at such a painful angle, but ending up dead was worse. She watched as Jongin held up a black book and cautiously approached them. He placed the book on the besides them and opened it as Seungsoo put his attention on the writing in it. His backup watched them carefully and Hyemi fought to keep her face straight when the last bit of the rope gave in.

She barely caught it, preventing it from falling to the ground. She desperately tried to catch Jongin’s gaze. He was reading through names and what she guessed must be accounts, pointing out the highlights when he glanced at her. She stared at the other man who seemed to be focused on Jongin and ever so quietly moved her arm. He seemed to understand what she was trying to tell him and she hoped he did.

“There are three main suppliers we buy from” Jongin said more clearly, she saw the change in his body as his back straightened out and his arms flexed, “From them, we usually distribute to two different sites”

Hyemi readied herself.

“What’s your distribution network”

“One” Jongin said gravely.

There was barely a fraction of a second for Seungsoo to register confusion when Jongin lunged for the man watching him and Hyemi elbowed the man besides her, striking the gun from his hands and sending her fist straight to his face. Blood sprayed from what she imagined was a broken nose and it gave her more satisfaction than she wanted to admit. From the corner of her eye she saw the body of the other man crumple to the ground with a thud just in time to feel the grip Seungsoo grabbed on her hair and having her vision fade as he slammed her head into the table. She heard a grunt as the grip on her was loosened and her vision slowly returned.

“Hyemi run!” Jongin snapped as the bigger man tackled him to the ground. He punched Jongin, catching him even as Jongin twisted away from him and sent him flying back with a kick to the face.

There was a moment of hesitation in which her head tried to fight for control over her heart.

“RUN!” Jongin screamed, this time getting the upper hand on Seungsoo.

Her head won.

She turned for the door and flung it open. She took off to the left, she needed to call for help.

Kyungsoo would help, he would bring everyone here. The room she had been kept in was hidden in an abandoned building. She took the staircases by twos and she ran upstairs. She had to go or she would die, she kept reminding herself. She was useless in this fight, she couldn't kill the bastard, she would just get them both killed instead. But even as she ran she thought of him and she stopped short of the exit. Her head was right, don’t go back.

She spun on her heel and ran back, even if she was useless she couldn’t leave him, not when he had come for her despite the danger to him. Even as her mind screamed to her that this was a bad idea she ran back. As she neared the room she slowed, it was quiet. The sounds of a struggle had faded away and all that remained was a bad feeling as she quietly stepped back into the room.

Seungsoo breathed heavily, still crouched on the ground, catching his breath. Jongin laid on the ground, his eyes were closed and he was deathly still. Blood pooled underneath him and Hyemi felt her entire body go cold. She quietly approached them both, stopping to pick up the gun that had been held to her moments before.

“What did you do to him?” She whispered, swallowing back her fear as she aimed the gun at the man who thought he had won and who was about to be so very wrong about that.

He didn’t answer, noting she had the upper hand and that based on the blade that was sticking out from Jongin’s body the answer was clear.

“You’re lucky” She whispered despite the feeling of complete despair that was beginning to spread in her, “I have to leave you to the police to deal with”

Because she couldn’t do anything she told herself. It was dangerous to her mission. She shouldn’t no matter how much she hated the man before him.  This would no longer be self defense, he was unarmed and she was free to leave. This would be murder, this would cast every piece of information she had gathered into question. She spotted some of the rope that had been used to tie her up and keeping her eyes on her captive reached for it.

“The police won’t do anything” Seungsoo said calmly, “You’re naive if you think they’re the good guys. One of them is the one that let me out early anyways”

Hyemi stopped, “What?”

“I’m not the only one that hates Jongin, he’s made powerful enemies”

“I wish you hadn’t told me that” Hyemi whispered, making a mental note to hunt down who had authorized this bastard’s release to begin with.

“You’re not about to go down for murder now are you?” He said confidently.

She was glad to prove him wrong as she refused to glance at Jongin, fearful that she wouldn’t see his chest move with breaths now that she was much closer. The shot echoed around them loudly, the sound of the body falling to the side with a thud closely following behind. He was dead, the round to his head left no doubt about that and yet his eyes hadn’t changed. They looked as dead as they had when he was alive.

It was with a strike of fear that Hyemi realized she was the only one left standing in the room.