“Why did you kidnap me?”

Sunny looked at the woman next to her suspiciously. The question had taken her aback. She was trying to pry information out of her.

“I can’t tell you that.”

“Why not?”

“It’s confidential.”

“Do you want money?”

“I’m not telling you anything.”

“You’re a tough nut to crack.”

“Can you please just shut up and let me heal this bruise for you?”

Sunyoung closed for a moment, letting the agent do her thing in peace, before she asked another of her endless questions.

“If you’re not going to tell why you kidnap me, then can you at least tell me why you want to rub this ointment on my cheek?”

Sunny let out a sigh at how frustrating this woman was but proceeded to answer her.

“This bruise on your face was bothering me,” Sunny unknowingly the anomaly on the woman’s face.

“…That’s your reason?” she looked at her quizzically.

“Yes, you got a problem about it?”

“N-no, just a little bit surprised.”

Sunny left it at that, not in the mood to continue the conversation. Once her victims start being friendly with her, it always lead to more trouble. The quicker she finishes this job, the better. Her boss will get the money, she would get half of it (but doesn’t have much use for it since she really can’t think of anything to spend it on), and then set off towards another mission. The cycle went on and on as long as she was still in this agency. How she wished that she could break away from the clutches of this, this…job. Curse her luck.

“Sorry.”

Her meandering thoughts were left unfinished when the brunette’s soft voice entered her ears again. She stopped what she was doing to look at Sunyoung, who was looking downwards at her lap instead of the kidnapper.

“What?”

“I’m sorry about your nose.”

The shorty went on to touch it but then winced at the slight pain. She had totally forgotten about the injury she had gotten from that dreadful head by this feisty female.

“Apologising isn’t going to make it feel any better,” Sunny dismissed. However, she felt the tube of ointment yanked out of her hand, “Hey, give that back! I’m not finished!”

The gorgeous captive ignored her command and proceeded to squeeze out some of the odd-smelling substance onto her pointer finger. Before she could even comprehend what in the world she was going to do with it, Sunny felt the stinging yet cooling sensation of the cream being rubbed gently on the tip of her injured nose. Her quick reflexes got to the better of her and she grabbed the brunette’s forearm, hindering it from continuing any further.

“What the heck are you doing?” Sunny questioned.

“I’m trying to heal your nose in return for what you did for me just now,” Sunyoung explained her actions but frowned disapprovingly at her kidnapper’s behaviour when she tried to reached for her nose again, “Why are you being so defensive? Come here.”

Sunny’s suspicions were increasing gradually as her captive’s actions became more and more questionable. Who in their right mind would want to help their own kidnapper? Unless this woman was experiencing some kind of Stockholm’s Syndrome right now.

Wait.

Stockholm’s Syndrome.

Oh no.

The agent did not want this to be any more complicated. Sunny backed away from her until she was at the very end of the small bed. Funny, now she’s the one doing the backing away as if they magically switched roles. Her captive wasn’t going to let this go either. She persisted and even crawled towards Sunny. Well, that was…sultry to look at.

“Alright, alright, just do whatever you need to do,” the usually cold agent finally succumbed to the woman’s insistence. Her rump was literally hovering over the edge of the bed and it was quite an uncomfortable place to sit on. Her slight misery came to an end though, when she was pulled back towards the tall brunette. Sunyoung wrapped one arm around Sunny’s neck and the other hand went over to her face. The same delicate fingers treaded along the outline of her nose in an attempt to heal the injury. Anything like this would have been a complete no-no under Sunny’s part as it was against everything that had been taught during her intense training.

Don’t ever let your victim be this close to you in such a vulnerable state.

It spelt trouble with a capital ‘T’.

This was one huge opportunity for the woman to incapacitate her and then make her great escape.

…But this Park Sunyoung didn’t do any of that.

She just sat there on the bed with Sunny, half-hugging and diligently rubbing her nose.

It had been a long time since she had any kind of human contact like this whatsoever.

Shaking away those thoughts, Sunny tried to find something else for her eyes to set on instead of the beautiful woman inches away from her. They eventually settled on the white blouse covered with droplets of blood that Sunyoung was wearing. That head incident from before spilled some of her blood onto it and on the sheets of the bed as she had noticed. Sunny furrowed her brows. Another thing that bothered her.

“It’s done.”

The lost of touch and Sunyoung’s accomplished voice broke Sunny from her reverie. She looked back up at her and uttered a word of thanks to the brunette, which resulted in a beaming Sunyoung.

‘It’s nice to see her smiling, actually.’

Hyomin didn’t think that her kidnapper would let her touch her, much less let her rub healing ointment on that poor little nose of hers. She’d lost track of how many times that they’ve been so close to each other in one day. She never would have thought being in this kind of predicament would lead to so much body contact with her kidnapper. For some reason, Hyomin didn’t mind being with this shorty, as long as there was no endangerment to her own life. But that would be impossible. This woman wants something. Most probably money, even though her kidnapper denied that at first. What could possibly lead this cutie to resort to criminal activities to get what she wants? Something in Hyomin’s guts told her that there was more to it than mere greed. If the woman really had wanted money, then Hyomin would have already been tied to a chair by now and being forced to call her parents up to get the ransom through a secured phone, like in those crime dramas she watched.

Another thing that was nudging through her mind was that this woman…just didn’t behave like what a typical kidnapper would be like.

She was just too…kind.

Yes, she admitted, there were some terrible things that the woman did to her. The hard slap she’d gotten, the knife that was so dangerously close to slice right through her sensitive neck, and the rough return back up to the bedroom were some of those things.

But then, there were things that her kidnapper did that made her have second thoughts about her.

Letting her have some food to eat so that she won’t starve, and this unexpected ‘healing-her-bruise’ time because it ‘bothered’ the woman topped it all off.

‘Maybe she isn’t so bad, after all. But then again, she is the one that put me here in the first place,’ Hyomin sadly thought.

However, she had a crazy idea.

That was when she decided to return the (kind?) gesture by doing the same thing with her capturer’s injured nose.

Her persistence eventually paid off when the shorty finally gave in.

One thing she learned about her was that she was quite stubborn. And was that a look of embarrassment when she tried to escape from her?

How adorable.

There weren’t any other words to describe that.

When she was done, Hyomin was pleasantly surprised to hear a ‘Thank you’ coming out from the shorty’s mouth. She couldn’t help but to smile when she heard that. It was short-lived though, because the petite woman immediately got off from the bed again and went towards the untouched wardrobe across the room. She observed her looking through it and then finally found something. The kidnapper turned around and threw the object at her.

“A T-shirt?” Hyomin said after she successfully caught the blue-coloured clothing in her hands and examined it.

“Put it on. I don’t want you to wear that dirty blouse.”

When she heard that, Hyomin checked her clothes and saw that it was, in fact, very unsatisfying to look at.

“But what about my pants and other stuff?”

“What other stuff?

“You know…my underwear.”

“…You can find all of those in this here wardrobe. They’ll fit you nonetheless.”

“Oh, okay.”

“Go get some sleep, alright? We need to leave first thing in the morning.”

That statement startled Hyomin.

“What? Why are we leaving!?”

Her kidnapper had her poker face on once again after witnessing that outburst. She must have known that this was coming.

“I’m afraid I can’t tell you that.”

Hyomin felt her vein was going to pop out from her forehead if this continued on.

“Don’t give me that bull!” she swore, stood up from the bed and stomped over to the woman, “I have the rights to know what it is that you’re planning to do with me and you aren’t walking away from here until I get the information I want. Now spill it!”

All she got was a piercing glare from the other party.

The student was one step away from grabbing the kidnapper’s collar and mercilessly strangling her if she didn’t get what she wanted.

“*sigh* If you really want to know, then can I tell it to you tomorrow?” the woman in black finally opened .

“No, I want it now.”

“No can do. It’s too complicated to explain and I’m dead tired right now,” she waved it off and made a step forward towards the door.

Hyomin clenched her fists so tight to the point where her bare knuckles turned white, but opted to let the woman go. She too was tired. Enough action was experienced in one day.

“Fine,” the brunette bitterly muttered out.

Hyomin didn’t bother to watch her kidnapper walk out of the room, and locked the door with an audible click.

Leaving her all alone in the dank, tiny room with her misery.

“What you doing out here at this time of night, sweetheart?”

Large, brown orbs pried away from the majestic beauty of the full moon shining downwards onto the city landscape, and settled on the tall figure approaching her. She smiled at him as he went over to stand next to her, leaning his body slightly against the metal railings which barred the edge of the building.

“Just wanted to see the moon from here and see what it’s like.”

“But it is way past your bedtime, dear. Your mother is going to have a fit if she hears about this.”

“You won’t ever tell her. I know you won’t.”

“My little girl is getting quite rebellious at such a young age,” the middle-aged man patted the crown of her head, “keep this up and you won’t be getting your allowance for this month.”

“Ah, c’mon dad…I just came up here to look at the view,” the young girl pouted. A gush of wind swept along the wide, open area of the rooftop, making her clutch tightly at the warm blanket wrapped around her tiny body.

“Go back inside, dear. It’s getting chilly out here and you have school in the morning.”

“Okay,” she said before standing on her tippy-toes to kiss her father’s cheek, “Night dad.”

“Goodnight.”

Her eyes fluttered open yet again after her internal alarm clock woke her up every day before the crack of dawn. Blinking multiple times to regain her vision, Sunny scanned her surroundings like she always did when she woke up. It became a habit of hers to do that. Blame the training.

And that dream again…

Screw it. That was not her main priority right now.

She was lying down on the red, leather couch placed in the middle of the cabin. Light hasn’t peeked in through the windows, engulfing the interior in a comforting darkness which Sunny preferred. She took a few seconds to recall about what she did the night before. Oh yes, kidnapping that woman and staying here in this cabin for the time being. A huff of aggravation was released as she remembered the mission that she had to complete. Quickly getting back on her foot, she noticed the silver briefcase and satchel bag that she had placed on the glass coffee table in front of her make-shift bed the night before. The petite agent looked at them, and then looked behind her at the door upstairs which kept her victim inside. Checking her watch, it was already a little before 5am.

It was enough time.

First, Sunny went into the kitchen first to search the pantry and the mini-fridge for some bottled water and anything that was ready-to-eat, instead of the instant noodles she had last night. Road trips were long and the client was several kilometres away at the outskirts of Seoul. Who knows what would happen along the way. It was better to stock up on supplies until they reached another one of the safe houses. Luckily, there were quite a number of energy bars and water bottles that she’d found. After checking the expiry dates and knowing that they were still safe to eat, Sunny stowed them into the bag she brought along.

Next, she climbed up the stairs towards the bedroom and placed one of her ears on the door.

Not even a squeak could be heard from the other side.

The chances of her captive escaping from here while she was sleeping were not impossible but highly unlikely. Sunny’s sharp hearing has never failed her. It was safe to say that the brunette was still in there, slumbering. She’ll deal with the hardest part later. For now, Sunny went into the bathroom and took the lone first aid kit just in case. She then took the satchel full of supplies and the kit outside, and into the back of the car.

And now, dealing with the difficult part.

‘Oh, this is gonna be hellish to do.’

Hyomin felt someone shaking her. She tried to ignore it and squished her face deeper into the softness of her pillow, but to no avail. It made the shakings even more vigorous.

“Get up.” When she heard the familiar voice, she jolted up and was greeted by the sight of her worst nightmare on Earth. “It’s time to go.”

“What if I don’t want to?” Hyomin asked unsurely, but it was more like she was wishing for her death sentence.

“Then I’ll just force you out of here. Simple as that.”

And before she knew it, something chillingly cold was up against her forehead. Hyomin froze and in a breath of air when she saw what it was.

“If you don’t want me to blow a hole into your head, then you might as well just do what I tell you to do,” the intimidating woman nonchalantly said.

Hyomin gulped. Her heart was pounding erratically as she stared into the barrel of the menacing pistol lodged between her brows, and then at the owner of the weapon standing in front of her.

“A-alright. I’ll go.” She found it hard to say those few words out. It was as if her whole throat was dry and didn’t have a single drop of water to drink.

“Good,” the shorty said and took something out from her pocket with her free hand, “tie this around your eyes.”

It was a black blindfold.

The brunette hesitated about taking it, but a nudge on her forehead with the gun made her do otherwise. She did as she was told. Hyomin felt a hand tugging on her arm to stand up. She was forced to turn around, and the familiar tightness and constriction of wires around her hands made her winced.

“What the hell does this girl want with me?”

The lone streetlight in the empty park lit up the bench where a young man in a dark brown trench coat was patiently waiting for someone in the wee hours of the night. He had been here several minutes after he picked up that call. Punctual as ever, he was always the first one to reach the meeting place.

A clacking of the heels of shoes tapping against the pebbled pathway caused the man to look up at the direction of where it was coming from. He bowed his head slightly when the other person came closer and sat next to him.

“Greetings, sir.”

“No time for that now. Something is up.”

“Is it because of Lee Soohyun?”

“I have a hunch that it’s him. Nobody would dare try a stunt like this on me unless it is him.”

“I hate to interrupt sir, but what is this ‘trouble’ that you were referring to a while ago?”

The middle-aged man adjusted the rims of his spectacles properly before saying, “My daughter is missing. She didn’t come home at her usual timing and my wife is getting worried.”

“And you are suspecting that your rival is involved in this.”

“Way to think out of the box there, kiddo.”