Kwangmin’s POV

I suddenly freeze as the figure begins to walk closer to us. I start to panic in my mind. Is this who I think it is? I wonder if Jeongmin is suspecting the same thing? I take a quick glance at Jeongmin and see that he’s looking at me also. We both turn our attention back to the man in front of us. We didn’t say anything at all, we didn’t know what to say. The man looks at us skeptically, as if we were hiding something.

            “Are you just going to stare at me, or are you going to answer my question?” the man asks as the silence seemed to get to him. Minwoo pushed himself in front of Jeongmin and I and crossed his arms across his chest.

            “Who says we have to answer your question?” Minwoo wittily responds. The man simply laughs to himself and steps out to where we were standing.  I let out a breath of relief and I could tell Jeongmin was also relieved. He wasn’t who I thought he was. That’s a good thing. In fact, this man isn’t scary at all. He’s rather handsome.

            “Well, sorry, I was just asking. You guys look like you saw a ghost or something, are you alright?” the man asks us as he just stares at us. We all nervously laugh and nod our heads.

            “You just scared us a little. We thought you were someone else. ” I respond to the question. The man nods and looks worried.

            “So, who did you think I was that would make you scared like that?” The man gives us a quizzical and worried look.

I look over at Jeongmin and Minwoo who seemed worried at the question like I was.

            “Oh, It’s no one, just some thugs we ran into earlier. ” I lie and look down at my feet feeling bad for having to lie to the man who actually seemed concerned for us.

The man seems to believe me and looks around like he’s looking for signs of the thugs we were talking about.

            “Yeah, you need to be careful around this part of town. There’s always someone stealing something, or hurting someone. Oh, and I even heard a rumor that they sell people somewhere around here, you know, like harlots or something. You know what I mean?” the man asks as he whispers the last sentence to us. I was shocked and I looked over to see the Minwoo was red in the face. He looked really angry like he wanted to punch the man in the face.

            “What do you mean by harlot?! Don’t you think that those ‘harlots’ need someone to help them? Why doesn’t someone do something about it if everyone is aware of it?!” Minwoo suddenly shouts at the man. The man looks startled by the sudden outburst and stumbles back a little.

            “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean the term ‘harlot’. I don’t know what else to call them. No one tries to help the, um, kidnapped citizens because the guy that sells them is really powerful. If anyone tries to interfere he has assailants to carry out his dirty work. “The man says and looks apologetically at Minwoo. Minwoo glares at the man but says nothing more.

            “So , have you heard if any of the ‘kidnapped people’ have ever escaped?” Jeongmin asks after being silent for a while. The man scratches the back of his head and looks thoughtful for a moment before answering.

            “I don’t think I’ve heard anything about that. If something like that had happened everyone would’ve heard about it. If someone had escaped I’m sure their master would have got to them before the poor person could even ask for help. ”

Jeongmin nods and frowns slightly at the man’s words. So no one has ever escaped? I wonder if anyone has ever tried. It was pretty easy for us to get away, or maybe it was just the right timing that granted us success.

            “So what’s your name?” I ask the man, wondering if we could trust him. I hope we can make a friend in this outside world. It would help if someone could show us around and tell us how things worked. The man grins and it seems like his eyes got brighter as we got off of the subject of the ‘kidnapped people’.

            “My name is Donghyun. I’m not usually from this area. I’m just visiting here for business. Do you mind if I ask your names?” the man, who we now know as Donghyun, asks us, looking excited. So he’s not from here? Then the information about our master must be known all around.

            “Yes I mind! I’m not telling you my name. ” Minwoo spat at Donghyun who pouts in response. Jeongmin and I laugh and I pat Minwoo’s shoulder.

            “Sorry about Minwoo, he’s a little untrusting towards some people. My name’s Jeongmin and he’s Kwangmin.” Jeongmin says as he gestures towards me with his hand. We all bow to one another in greeting, except for Minwoo who stays as he is with his arms crossed.

            “It’s nice to have met you all,” Donghyun says gladly, “But I must be going. I have to meet a man to discuss certain business matters. Donghyun slightly bows once more and shuffles past us.

            “Hey wait!” I call out to Donghyun to stop him. Donghyun turns around and raises an eyebrow, somewhat curious of why we called him back. He runs back over to us asks what we needed.

            “Do you know of any place we can stay? We don’t want to stay anywhere in town, you know, because of the thugs. We’re kind of scared to stay around here, so do you know of a safe place we could sleep for the night?” I ask Donghyun, hoping he’ll have an answer. Donghyun smiles and nods.

            “Sure. You guys could stay at my place. Like I said, I live out of town, so it would be really safe.” Donghyun says as he turns back around to leave. “Just meet me here in an hour and I’ll take you back to my house!” he calls as he runs off again. Minwoo sighs in relief as he sees Donghyun round the corner and disappear. Jeongmin and I turn to stare at Minwoo.

            “Why do you hate him so much?” Jeongmin asks the younger boy who stares back at us.

            “I don’t know, I just don’t like him is all. Is there a problem with not liking someone just because I want to?” Minwoo asks us, tilting his head with a mean expression.

            “Well it’s not right to hate someone just because you want to. I don’t think that’s fair on the other person’s part. Donghyun didn’t do anything to hurt you. If anything, you should be thankful to Donghyun for letting us stay at his house instead of on the street where master and his men could find us.” I say to Minwoo who just avoids my gaze as he looks at the ground near his feet.

            “I never said I hated him. I only said I didn’t like him. ” Minwoo responds back almost in a whisper. I sigh, a bit annoyed, as I turn away from Minwoo.

            “It’s almost the same thing. Just forget it. ” I say as I start walking down the street. “How about we go check out the town?”

            “Sure!” Jeongmin says excitedly as he runs over to my side and walks along with me. Minwoo nods and slowly follows behind.

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A/N: Okay, again sorry for the late update. I had this chapter completed and saved in my computer but I never had the time to post it due to certain things (ahem, Driver's Ed). I'll try to update more often from now on.

And for those reading or interested in my other story I'll Be Back I'm thinking about deleting the last two chapters I made for that. The plot was getting too slow and boring. So I'll be rewriting that soon, along with the update with this story. Just have to get past  upcoming tests and assignments due soon. Hope you enjoyed the update and I hope you'll await the next chapter.

 P.S.- If there is any mistakes or anything you don't understand, don't hesitate to ask.

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