I walk around in black backstage, with my headset on as I speak with Amber and Jin.

"All the power switches or on for lights... And music should be up and running." I stop my fiddling with the breakers.

"Perfect. Can you run to the change rooms and see how everyone is doing?" He asks me. "Amber, please put some music on as people begin to come in."

"On it." We say and both head to work.

As I open the door to the female change room, I'm met by chaos.

Yeri, who was the understudy for the lead is crying and several girls are crowded around her.

"What are you doing? We go on in twenty! You need to get dressed, all of you!" I call.

"I think I broke something!" She cries.

"The costume rack collapsed and landed on her." She explains.

"All of you, get dressed." I sigh. "Irene, you're not on until scene three. Take her to the office and see if they can take her to the hospital." I then raise my hand to my headset and hold the mic button. "Mr. Kim, we have a massive, massive issue."

"That's really not what I want to hear right now."

"Whatever bad news you're thinking of, it's way worse than that. Yeri is injured and can't go on. Irene is taking her to the office now."

"." Jin hissed.

"Mr. Kim, you're such a hypocrite." Amber comments. "What do we do?"

"Amber, can you do lights and sound by yourself?"

"Oh, no no no no no." I say. "I am not playing the lead."

"Y/N, why not? You're the only one who can! And I know you know the lines, I saw you mouthing them." She suggests.

"Get changed, Y/N. You're on in fifteen."

"Kim Seokjin, where the hell are you? I'm going to kick your after this damn performance."

"Break a leg~!"

~~~~~~~~~~~

"I heard about Yeri." Jungkook comes over to me, which is weird since we're still not really talking. "You and I will be acting together for a large part of the play."

"Well, please steal the show." I say. "I'm only doing this because there's literally no excuse I can use to get myself out of this. Mr. Kim knows all of my standerd excuses already."

"Maybe if you weren't late all the time you wouldn't be out of excuses."

"I'll keep that in mind." I huff with a smile.

"I... I don't know why you were avoiding me, but can we just agree to be at least civil?" He asked

"I'm okay with that."

"Thank you. It's just, well, I spend too much time at your house for us to not at least help each other out every once in a while."

"Did you ever find the bistro?"

"No I didn't, ."

I laugh softly. "I'll treat you to lunch to apologize. I promise."

The starting music begins, as several background characters step out to begin their acting.

"Mmm, this will be weird though." He sighed. "I didn't think I'd have to kiss my friend's sister."

"Haha, what?" I grab his shoulder. "I thought you kiss Sana, not Yeri!"

"No, it's Yeri." He says. "Well, at least you know ahead of time, right?"

"Oh, this is going to be the most painful hour of my life." I groan. "And I've had stitches without anesthetic."

"Why?"

"Long story." I sigh. "Here's my cue." I step out.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

The play goes swimmingly, except for the fact that I'm unable to be a normal actor. Because somehow, I'm either good or bad, and not in the middle.

I like the middle, though.

The play progresses, and we end at my fateful kiss scene.

'Jin, if you're somehow hearing this, I just wanted to say you.'

"I can't imagine if I were to return and you weren't here."

"Do I look like I'm going anywhere? I'll wait. I promise."

"Look... I..." He takes a dramatic glance at the audience. "I don't want to forget how it felt to hold you in my arms, as the night grew longer and more prominent. I don't want to forget the way your lips touched mine, and how your words reached my ears so sweetly." He brings a thumb across my lip, sending my heart into overdrive.

"Then don't." I say gently. It's not the line, and I can see the split second of confusion on Jungkook's face before he composes himself.

"But while I am gone for so long, how shall I remind myself of you?"

Okay, I guess we're just getting rid of the script at this point. Sorry Jin.

"Repeat the words of mine you have found uttered so sweet. Do not allow another woman touch your lips the way I have, and spend the night- our final night- with me." I say.

"What will your father say?"

"Whatever he wishes."

He chuckles out of disbelief. We're supposed to kiss around here, but we're procrastinating.

"And how shall I thank you for this final night?"

"The way you know I love." I say.

'Let's get this bull over with.'

He puts an arm around my waist, pulling me close. "If this is what my lady wishes."

Our faces grow close, and our lips nearly touch when there is a huge blackout.

All power in the room is cut, from sound to lights. Looking up, I can't see any light from Amber's booth.

And I'm just a sitting duck on stage with Jungkook.

I grab his hand and pull him off stage quickly.

As we dissapear, I see lights beginning to turn on in the audience as people use their phones for light.

Backstage, Jungkook and I are thrown into hordes of our classmates. We're all bumping into each other, trying to get to some sort of source of light. Flashlights, our phones, anything would be good.

I use what I know about the back stage area to find my way to the change room where my headset is waiting.

Thank god they operate like walkietalkies.

"Y/N, what's going on?"

"I need you to trust me. I am not going to be responsible for your harm today."

I pull open the door to the room, and pull him in with me. I take my phone out of my purse, and after ensuring we're alone I lock the door.

"It's just a poweroutage-"

"I'm not taking any risks." I say, finding my headset with my phone.

"Jin, Amber, what's going on?"

"Y/N, you're okay? Thank god." Jin sighs. "Where are you?"

"Jungkook and I are holed up in one of the dressing rooms. Amber, what are your details up top?"

"I've lost all control of lights and sound." Amber says. "There's absolutely no power to anything in the room. Y/N, I need you to check the breakers again. Can you do that?"

"I'm on it." I say.

"Careful." Jin warned. "If it's something temporary, we'll continue the show, but I don't want to cancel it... Ah, I don't want to have to only mark the first half.."

I roll my eyes, standing.

"Stay here. I'm going to check the power. Lock the door as I leave and come back only when I kick the door. If I knock, don't answer."

"Don't you think you're being overdramatic?"

"No." I slip out if the room, using my phone as a guide to get to the stage with the cords.

"How's it look, Y/N?" Jin asks.

"Cancel the show. There's no way for us to continue." I sigh.

"What? Why? What's wrong?"

"The cords have been slashed."

Jin swears softly over the headset. "Okay. Y/N, get back to the change room, I'll announce to the audience the show is cancelled. You should call Yoongi too. He'll be mad at you if he hears it from me."

"He'll be mad at you if he hears it from me."

"He'll be mad at me either way. Better me than you."

~~~~~~~~~~

"I didn't realize you were so close with Mr. Kim." He says as he let's me back into the change room.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you called him by his first name."

Oh . It must've slipped out in the chaos.

"He's a family friend."

"Jimin calls him Mr. Kim."

"It's because Mr. Kim and I spend more time together."

"Do you go out with him alone?"

"No, no, no, we just... You know, when he comes over for dinner, I sit with him in the living room and we socialize while Jimin and Mark try to cook."

"And what is your mom doing?"

"She works until late. So we have dinner ready for when she gets home."

What an elaborate lie to explain to my family.

"Anyways, Mr. Kim has cancelled the show. Someone slashed the wires. We should go."

"Okay... I really don't want to stick around while they interrogate us all to figure out who did it. I mean, you and I are clearly innocent. We should just get the hell out before we're stuck here."

"Let's grab Jimin." I say.

~~~~~~~~~~

As Mark drives us home (we all decided to skip the rest of the day's classes) I call Yoongi.

"Shouldn't you be in physics?" I'm met with pure salt as he picks up the phone.

"I'm actually in the middle of driving home. There was some vandalism and stuff going around the school. Jin wanted me to report it to you so you wouldn't be mad."

"At least he's considerate. I'll send some of our guys in disguise to investigate with the police, see what they can dig up. And speaking of dig up, we got those files on Kim Taehyung you wanted."

"Perfect. What do they say?"

"He's had a pretty average run of things when it comes to grades and class attendance since he moved to Korea. The only thing I would suggest you're careful of is his physique. His measurements from the fall examination are no joke. One more thing, we don't have any records of him from before his move to Korea, but that could simply be a network error. I've asked the international branch to perform a full scale search, but who knows how long the results could take. It's pretty safe to say he's probably safe since he came her before you did, however."

"Thanks Yoongi. I appreciate it."

"Mind you, just because he's not part of the A.S.C. doesn't mean he isn't a creep in general. Be careful, okay?"

"I got it. Whatever." I rolled my eyes as we arrive at my house. "Thanks for the deets. I gotta go."

"Everything okay?"

"Yeah. I just asked Yoongi to do me a favour, and he just got back to me with his information."

"Good news?"

"Good news." I nod.

"Glad to hear. Hey, Jiminie, call Tae and tell him to skip Biology and get his over here. We should all go do something."

"On it!"

"I'm actually going to bail. After the play today, I want a night in."

"Understandable." Mark shrugs. "In that case, Tae can't say no. If he does, we'll abduct him."

"Have fun boys." I smile and roll my eyes before heading inside to go to my room.

~~~~~~~

"Y/N! We're gonna meet Tae at Kookie's house if you need us, okay?" Jimin knocks on my door. "We don't know how late we'll be gone. We might even sleep over, and remember mom has her extra night shift. Can you live through the night? We're only five minutes away if you need us."

"I'll be fine." I open the door. "I'll probably head out and grab some ramen or something and then set the house alarm the moment I get back."

"Good. Be safe, I love you. If there's anything weird, call us- or better yet, call Yoongi or Hobi."

"Yes, Mom. I know what to do in the case of a strange man in the house." I smile and roll my eyes.

"Just making sure." He said. "Bye."

"Later." They leave, and I decide to see if we have anything at home.

Nope. This kitchen is as empty as Yoongi's contact list.

With a sigh, I grab my purse and head out, locking the door behind me.

I'm walking to the convience store, not really thinking about much. My life recently has been so crazy, which isn't necessarily out of the normal but it feels different. Something about this town feels different. Familiar.

As I walk, I begin feeling painfully aware of how deserted the streets are. This is both good, and very bad. I turn onto a side road, and it's not until I'm around halfway down the block that the lights start flickering. As they eventually die, shivers run down my spine. This is a coincidence.

A ed up coincidence.

I start to speed walk, honing in on my listening skills and sensing danger.

In most cases, turning off the lights would be a smart decision as it would reduce witnesses. But all it did was make me aware of how I'm in danger.

And that's why, when I feel the air shift and the knife swing at my back, I know exactly how to react.