She dared not to move. She swallowed once and glanced down at the bleeding stranger. He was staring right back at her.

                From movies and dramas, she knew not to fight back in scenarios like this. She also knew not to scream as this would agitate both parties. She returned the strangers stare: “Help me”.

                Her capturer’s voice rumbled through his chest and onto her back as he spoke, “Your choice. I can kill this girl and have it pinned on you, or you can just tell me where you put the stash.”

                “Please,” the bloody man pleaded, “I’m just a carrier. I don’t know where any of merchandise is. I… I admit it, alright? I disobeyed the instructions this time. I didn’t leave it where they told me.”

                Daeun felt herself being dragged closer to the subway tracks. Maybe she should kick or flail around a little. She tried, but the man held her steady. The blade was dangerously close to cutting her skin.

                The bleeding man could only watch in horror as the other man stood precariously on the edge of the tracks. “I’m going to push her down,” he was warned. His mind was frantic. He had been told that his task was simple. He did not know that it would involve another human being to be hurt in the process. His mind flashed back to his little girl, probably still waiting for her father in their small flat.

                “I got another message right before I left,” he started saying, “Please don’t hurt the girl. Please don’t hurt me. I’ve got a family.”

                “Don’t we all,” the voice behind her drawled in sarcasm, “Give me another excuse of why I need to keep listening.”

                Daeun kicked her assaulter. He gripped her tighter. She looked back at the bleeding man on the ground. He was still staring at her with wide eyes.

                “The message told me that the location had changed. I wasn’t sure if I should trust it, but an hour before the pickup time, another note showed up on my doorstep and said that if I brought it to the second location, I’d get an extra $150, so I did it,” he continued.

                Daeun felt the tension in her neck slightly subside amongst the chaos. She kicked her assaulter again.

                “Exact location. Now,” the voice demanded.

                “Corner of 16^th and Main,” he stammered.

                Daeun kicked a little harder this time, trying to wiggle out of the tight grip. It was really starting to hurt her. She felt herself being pushed towards the bleeding man. Both herself and her assaulter got extremely close to the man lying on the ground.

                She sniffed once and instantly regretted it. Mixed with the blood, she could smell the acidity of urine. The man was crying now and she thought she could see the pool around him widen ever so slightly.

                “Please sir, I’ve told you everything that I know. I followed the instructions and left it there. I did not hide it. Somebody else must’ve used me to get it. I swear, Sir, I swear,” he held his hands out and rubbed them, a symbol of asking for mercy.

                The two of them stood up, or rather she was hauled up for the man. The knife nicked her neck and she swore under her breath. She could feel the two men stare at each other for a long time.

                “Scram,” the one behind her rasped. It took a while for the bleeding man to stand, but adrenaline does wonders when the body is in danger. He limped out and up the stairs before he could be told twice. There was a rumbling in the distance to indicate that the next subway was arriving.

                “There’s a train coming,” Daeun finally talked, “A train means there’s people.”

                Her assaulter still did not let go.

                “You’re hurting me,” she wiggled in his grasp. He loosened it and she finally got away. She turned and glared at the man who had been holding her through her bangs. She touched a finger to where the knife had nicked her then examined it: there was blood.

                The man standing had put his knife away. He was studying her with eyes as intense as hers while bringing the lighter to the cigarette in his mouth. He took a long drag and blew it in her direction.

Standing only a few inches taller than she did, he was of average height. He wore the clothes of the common gangsters that prowled the area. Even in the dim light of the subway station, she could make out the tattoo of a dragon spiraling up his arm. He did nothing to hide the fact that he was affiliated with the mafia.

                Daeun was not particularly intimidating herself. She stood at 164cm but wore a constant scowl. With her broken nose from a fall in her childhood, the feature made her whole facial symmetry shift ever slightly to the left, accentuating the scowl even more. In a black tshirt, black dress pants and black shoes, Chae Daeun waved her hand to rid herself of the smell of smoke.

                “So, was he lying?” the man finally spoke after a period of silence.

                “Oh, so you noticed that but not my kicking?” she took it from him without a thank you.

                “So that’s what you were doing,” he said, coming a little closer to her, “I thought you needed to go pee or something. You also make a really crappy damsel-in-distress.”

                The closer he came, the more she felt the return of her headache. It spread from the back of her neck to the top of her skull. In her mind, she counted down from five. When she hit one, the pain subsided and the usual buzzing she experienced around this man returned.

                “Wasn’t exactly prepared to play any damsel-in-distress role,” she retorted back, “He wasn’t lying by the way.”

                The two of them walked up the stairs and exited the subway station. They were greeted with the darkness settling in as the summer night arrived.

                “You know, you could have told me you were going to interrogate him right then and there. I was worried that I’d arrive at the wrong moment so I planned to arrive at our decided location in exactly an hour,” she threw the dirtied napkin into a trash can.

                He stopped walking and turned to her. “Aw, you were worried for me?” he swiped the tip of her nose, earning another scowl.

                She slapped his hand away. “Don’t touch me,” she said as usual, “I just didn’t want to mess it up for the rest of the guys. I’m sure they’re listening to this entire conversation as we speak.”

                “Hear that guys? She was worried for all of us,” he spoke into what appeared to be thin ear. In actuality, he had a listening device patched onto the inside of his shirt. “They say thank you,” he relays their message from inside his ear piece. He puts out his cigarette and fumbles in his shirt to take out the listening device. He crushes it between his fingers and throws that into the ashtray as well.

                “What was that for?” she asked.

                “Well, mission’s over so we don’t need that anymore. And besides,” he wrapped an arm around her shoulder, “I just want it to be me and you, sweetheart.”

                She shrugged him off and started walking down the road. He stayed behind, but only for a second, before bouncing up towards her.

                “Let me walk you to work, as a thank you for helping us again tonight.”

                “You’re right. Again. Stop calling me for stupid things like this. You could have figured out the location without me.”

                “But we all like you. So now that you’ve helped us, there’s an excuse for you to come and visit us to collect your payment.”

                “I’m not going to come visit you. Stick it under my door. You guys know where I live anyways.”

                He stopped her in her path and pouted. She wanted to smack his stupid face. She rolled her neck once before pushing him aside.

                “How could you just push the ultimate cute J-hope face away? No woman can resist it,” he says, continuing to walk beside her. They turn the corner and in the distance, she sees the bright light of the bar she worked flash on.

                “Wait I got it. Unless you’re not a girl. That would explain it all,” he said. He rummaged inside his pocket and drew out an empty cigarette box. “Damn. I’ve gotta get more again?”

                “Right because I’m just a man walking around with s and a ,” she replied, her voice dripping with sarcasm. From her own pocket, she produced a box of cigarettes and handed it to him.

                He took it and regarded her with curiousity. “I didn’t know you smoked.” He tapped one out and lit his nth cigarette of the night.

                She stopped a block away from her workplace and turned to him. “I don’t. This is Seohyun’s jacket.”

                Hoseok grinned and puffed out smoke into her face. He watched with a smile as she waved it lazily away, clearly annoyed but not wanting to show it. “Oh Seohyun. Now she’s a true woman,” he said with a far off look in his eyes.

                She hit him once to draw his attention back at her. “You’ve walked me to work, so you can go now,” she said.

                He looked up and took in where they were currently standing. “We’re a block away.”

                She did not reply. He shrugged and turned to the opposite direction. “You know, we’re going to meet again. I promise.”