I woke up on a hard concrete floor, completely unaware of where I was. My limbs hurt, probably sore, and I still felt dizzy. I was lost at first, having a tough time remembering what had happened for me to wake up in such an uncomfortable place. My brows furrowed and my mind tried its best to recall everything that had happened and that led to this.

“Now that I know so much about you and your ing existence, do you think they’d send me back to Korea? Of course not! They’ll get rid of me, that’s what they’ll do. They will kill me. Not you.”

My eyes opened wide when every event and word came back all at once. I sat up straight, my dizziness making my surroundings sway around. The floor was indeed cold concrete just like I guessed from the touch of it. Three of the walls were made of the same material and the fourth was thick metal bars separating me from what looked like a narrow corridor. In front of me, I could see the same kind of cell I was trapped in. It was empty.

I gulped, trying to calm my beating heart convincing me that it must have been some sort of misunderstanding. Baekhyun made it seem like we were far from the main city, so it couldn’t be here. The place looked very old-fashioned anyway, and I doubted the huge city would contain people in such places. It had to be something else.

Baekhyun never really mentioned anything nearby, though, and it made me even more confused. If I had to die this soon, I definitely didn’t want it to be this way.

I felt my eyes become teary at the thought and my hand went to the chain around my neck, the familiar pattern failing to make me relax. My fingers were shaking a bit when I reached under the collar of my shirt for the pendant, releasing it from its hiding place.

Could it be the pendant’s fault? If Baekhyun was right, and the people searching for me had come to the island, then maybe they had some sort of hidden place on the island and would have brought me there if they found me in the wood.

Every hypothesis I could find ended up with certain suffering and possible death.

I heard a door open and close, my body jerking up in panic. I wanted to hide, but I knew nothing would do the job. A man came in my range of view quicker than I expected and I barely had time to hide my necklace under my shirt. He probably saw it, though, because a glimpse of curiousness made his eyes sparkle and his lips curved upward.

He was about my height, seemingly greasy hair hiding under his security guard-like hat. His prominent stomach threatened to make the buttons of his shirt burst at any moment, but his bare arms showed he could put me down in less than a second.

“What is it that you’re hiding, young lady?” He spoke, approaching the bars and leaning on the wall next to them.

“N-Nothing!” I blurted out quickly, removing my hands from my shirt and grabbing on my pants instead. I noticed with the corner of my eyes that the guy had his hand on the set of keys attached to his belt.

“Come on, don’t be shy and come here.” His voice was lower this time. “I saw that gold thing, I don’t get fooled easily.”

I tried swallowing despite the thick lump in my throat, not able to move a limb. My lack of movements made him frown. I was frozen in place, not knowing what to do. I couldn’t bare losing something so precious so easily, but I also couldn’t really afford to die because of it either. Or could I?

“If you don’t come by yourself, I’ll have to come to you, little girl, and you certainly don’t want that to happen.” The man spoke again, detaching his set of keys from his belt. My mind was running and I eyed around the place, finding absolutely no ways of escaping or hiding.

Time was ticking and I saw with the corner of my eyes that the guy moved his head left and right before inserting the key in the cell’s lock. I heard the clicking sound of the door unlocking at the same time I felt a wet droplet running down the length of my cheek and I knew that either option would leave me hurt in the end.

I took a step forward before the man moved. When he heard it, he immediately looked up and halted his movements, his lips curving into a weird and ugly smirk. “See? It’s not hard to avoid worse consequences, isn’t it?”

His words made me hate the guy even more and my hands curled into fists. I took a second step, feeling my pendant heavy on my chest.

I barely had time to take a third step, the male’s arms reached from across the bars, grabbing onto my forearm and pulling hard. I let out my first scream, trying to hold onto his second arm that seemingly reached toward the hem of my shirt for the necklace. I could barely circle his wrist with my two hands. From this close, I noticed traces of his monobrow and how young he actually seemed when having a closer look.

I didn’t really expect to resist for long, but I found it too soon the moment he managed to grab onto the chain, pulling just enough so the golden pendant curved to form my name and the tiny ruby came to sight. I expected his eyes to widen at the sight, but I was left a bit confused when it was an expression of shock that he wore and not one you would wear when seeing gold.

“Well .” I heard him mutter under his breath and he immediately let go of me. I took a few steps behind out of reflexes and my back hit the wall, my hand immediately going to my pendant. I couldn’t even control the few tears of relief that ran down my cheeks and I quickly wiped them away with my other hand. I could feel my heart pounding so hard in my chest, I thought I was going to explode.

The guy had been silent the whole time I tried catching my breath and when I finally looked up, I noticed most colors took their leave from his face, leaving him almost as white as his shirt. What was it that just scared him to that point? My… pendant?

I heard a door open and close again, heels hitting the concrete floor. The security guard took a step behind and another man, this one much taller than the other, came to my view. He was wearing normal clothes –a black shirt and some jeans- and didn’t have any traces of hair on his head. His traits were a warning themselves not to cause trouble but his light blue eyes screamed nothing of that sort.

“What is it, Bob?” The tall man whispered to the other who simply raised a finger to point at me. When the newcomer looked my way, his eyes narrowed slightly, his eyes seemingly attracted by the golden pendant still hanging freely on my shirt.

“Can you come here for a sec?” The tall man asked and, as much as I was tempted to stay in my corner, something in the way he looked at me told me he meant no harm. I took a few steps in front of me, keeping my eyes on him and watching for any sharp movements. He didn’t move an inch, though, and I stopped when I was at an arm-reach of the bars.

“Kang Eunji…” The man’s eyes widened when he could have a better look at my name on the pendant. My family name wasn’t on the pendant, though, I knew that for sure, and the fact that he knew it made me all the more confused. I noticed his iris took a golden color for a few seconds and I knew it wasn’t because I had stared too long. Hadn’t Baekhyun said something about eyes changing colors when you feel intense emotions?

“We have to bring her to Jia, why the hell do you look like you just killed someone?” The tall man asked the other, who had diverted his glance down to his shoes. The first took the keys from the security guard’s pants and unlocked the cell. I unconsciously jumped and move back when he came in, looking up to notice he was stretching his arm to me. After everything that had been happening, seeing someone look at me with eyes that showed utter worry made me feel weird. I had no idea who this person was, yet, again, my senses kept trying to convince me