It was that time of the year where all stores in the mall put out the discount and sale signs to attract customers into buying whatever item they had to get rid of at the end of the year. Normally, I would not have fallen victim to such trickery. This year was no exception. I walked by every store like a professional unaffected buyer; only scanning the entire place in ten seconds to determine whether it was worth my visit or not.

 

Finally a store caught my attention: Bath & Body Works. Which was weird because even with the ongoing sale, the products were quite pricey, and I still had a whole stock of soap and lotion stored at home. But anyway, I walked inside and looked around.

 

Sometimes, my ten seconds scanning method proved to be wrong, and there was nothing to peak my interest after all. So I walked out again. And that was when things started getting weird.

 

The security alarm went off.

 

I was so shocked and froze midtrack. Considering I was the only one standing between the border of the store and the mall, they naturally assumed I had stolen something.

 

“Excuse me, may we check your bag please?” A female security officer suddenly appeared out of nowhere. There was a strange resemblance to officer Jenny from Pokemon.

 

“I didn’t do anything, maybe this thing is broken,” I said casually and pointed at the security alarms that went off. I opened my bag to the officer and suddenly she gasped.

 

“She took the hand sanitizer!” The officer fetched the item out like a magician making a bunny appear out of a hat.

 

“The hand sanitizer~” Other shoppers suddenly echoed like a full blown musical line.

 

I was too confused to be confused and could only blink the accusation away.

 

“I… I don’t know how that got there. I didn’t take it,” I spoke earnestly, like a thief would when it was caught. So I did not have any credibility to prove my innocence.

 

“You are under arrest.” The officer handcuffed me out of nowhere. “Your punishment is a death sentence.”

 

“What?!”

 

The fact a death sentence was given to someone caught stealing without any proper evidence to back it up was simply ridiculous. But what was way more ridiculous than that was being transported to some sort of a waiting room while in jail. It was outdoors and shaped like the typical kingdom seen during the Joseon period. A rocky sandy plain was covering my feet and I saw the brownish orange colored mountains in a close distance. It was as if I had travelled back in time.

 

“You have an option to join a group who will take care of you as a prisoner,” the officer suddenly appeared to me wearing a traditional hanbok. She fetched an iPad mini from behind and began typing, displaying history meeting the modern technology in one glance. “Please select one.”

 

I took a peek at the iPad screen and to my utter surprise, the two people representing the two groups were people I was more than familiar with. One showed the profile picture of Kim Sung Gyu, and the other one was Nam Woo Hyun.

 

“I choose him!” I pointed at Woo Hyun’s picture with slightly too much excitement and no split second of hesitation. My heart was drumming against my ears and I was no longer panicking about the accusation or anything else associated to the crime. I was thankful for it.

 

“Alright then. From now on, you shall be under the care of Nam Woo Hyun,” the officer spoke, and frowned strangely at my undeniably wide grin. She took her leave, and instead another person entered the outdoor sandy place of this Joseon like setting.

 

Despite being quite a fashion disaster at times, Nam Woo Hyun had that modelesque appearance to make nearly everything work. So when he walked out wearing a long pastel lilac colored hanbok for men that extended to his ankle with a soft navy blue vest over it, it looked exceptionally good on him.

 

I was staring in awe as he headed my way. Before we exchanged a proper greeting, he grabbed me by the wrist and led me to a nearby area in the wide open space where a random dining table was set. It was made by the finest wood from mother nature herself, somehow fitting the description of the olden style jail they were supposed to be in.

 

He seated me down and let go of my wrist, sadly. Then he sat opposite of me and gave me a stern look; gazing so deeply into my eyes I couldn’t help but smile bashfully again.

 

“What crime have you committed to get a death sentence?” He asked me, completely serious. He looked so handsome when he was being dead serious.

 

“Apparently I stole a hand sanitizer,” I managed to say, holding myself back from a cheesy line like ‘the crime of falling for you’ or ‘the crime of stealing your heart.’

 

He arched his eyebrow in confusion and softened his gaze. At once I could sense he thought I was harmless and didn’t belong here.

 

Before he said another word, a random maid appeared to lay down a tray filled with clay tea cups on the wooden table. He waited until she was out of sight before he leaned in, and motioned me to come closer.

 

“I’ll get you out of here eventually,” he whispered, and his breath tickled my ears.

 

“Why?” I asked a stupid question. Logically I should be desiring freedom and justice. But this was the only chance to be with Nam Woo Hyun. So this was pretty much a better option to me.

 

“Because the longer you stay here, the more people who are going to try and kill you. I can’t protect you forever,” he whispered rather sternly, and his voice was just so dreamy.

 

“You protect me?” I asked with interest, pulling away to meet his eyes. I couldn't control my face muscles from smiling, and it probably looked like a challenging smirk now. “What could possibly go wrong?”

 

Woo Hyun watched silently as I picked the tea cup up to take a sip. When it almost touched my lips, his hand moved swiftly to grab my wrist again. “It’s poisoned.”

 

I widened my eyes in shock, finally absorbing the reality I had gotten myself into. He removed the cup from my hand, and suddenly, an eerie noise caught our attention.

 

To our right, not so far away, a woman wearing a yellow hanbok was coughing terribly like she was choking on something. She was reaching to the two male guards walking beside her, but they ignored her desperate plea for help. Until she no longer had any air left to breathe and dramatically suffocated to death. The guards dragged her lifeless body sweeping away the sandy ground, leaving a linear trail behind.

 

“You see,” Woo Hyun had appeared beside me as he grabbed me by my arm to help me up. “That girl drank the poisoned tea. It’s dangerous here.”

 

“So what do I do now?” I asked him worriedly, obeying everything he was going to tell me to do.

 

“You escape.”

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Don't you guys think this has the potential to actually turn into a full length story? I think it's quite interesting actually~ :D