Everything was pitch-black. I couldn’t tell up from down, nor could I tell if I was standing or not. Big warm hands pushed my wildly curly locks away from my face and trailed down to cup my face. I turned my head to lean more into the touch. There was a slight chuckle and somebody cleared their throat. I scrunched my face up at the sudden loud noise and there was another soft chuckle.

                “Kyeopta, but no matter how cute you are, we need you to wake up honey.” The voice was smooth and soothing. My eyes fluttered open, but I shut them again due to the bright light that was determined to melt my eyes. I tried opening my eyes again, slowly this time to avoid disagreeing with the light.

                “Bae-Eomma? Wh-what’s going on?” I croaked out. The room erupted in laughter and Youngbae lightly pinched my cheek.

                “Yah! I’m not the Eomma, she is!” he said and pointed to Ji Yeon Eomma. I laughed lightly and smirked at him.

                “But you’re my personal Eomma. You scold me when I curse and you always tell me what to do. You aren’t the best Eomma in the world, but you’re my Eomma!!” I said cheekily and stuck out my tongue at him. He pinched my cheek again and I reached up to hug onto his arm. That is, before I felt a shooting pain race up left arm. I winced as tears formed in the corners of my eyes. Youngbae wiped the tears from my cheeks and placed a small kiss on my forehead.

                “Don’t try to move that arm for a while; you got burned pretty badly.” He moved out of the way and Appa walked to me.

                “I was hoping to have our next meeting over food and a few jokes, not in the infirmary where one of you is still unconscious.” He ran a hand through his hair and sighed.

                “Either way, we have important things to discuss like getting you guys out of here. We know that Daesung can create illusions, but they’re nowhere near strong enough to convince this entire facility that you guys never existed. ________, you produce illusions, don’t you?” I nodded my head.

                “About how strong would you say they are?” I had to think about it for a second, how strong were they? I undoubtedly couldn’t pull off an illusion big enough to shroud the minds of the entire staff and test subject population

                “If I combine my illusions with Daesung’s, I’m certain we could pull it off. He and I just have to think the same thing and concentrate hard.”

                “Then the two of you will have to train your minds to think in sync. Seungri, I trust you have familiarized yourself with our rendezvous point on the third floor where you will impersonate me?” Seungri simply nodded and looked over into the bed next to mine.

                “Good. Min Ji, do you think you can transport everybody minus me and Seungri in enough time not to raise any confusion.” Min Ji smiled, nodded, and said something in the affirmative.

“Well, that’s enough planning; at least until Daesung wakes up. On a more trivial note, we are going to finally close this language barrier. Chae Rin, how are Min Ji’s and Seunghyun’s English coming along?”

“It’s coming along quite well. They’ve started to piece together simple sentences.”

“Bom, how is Seungri’s English?”

“He’s determined to learn as many words as he possibly can before trying to make sentences.”

“Aish, this boy. Now, who is going to teach _______ Korean?” Dara, Jiyong, and Chae Rin all raised their hands to volunteer. A slight, husky voice came from nowhere; yet, I would know it anywhere: Daesung.

                “I’ll teach her.”Seungri, Ji Yeon, Min Ji and Seunghyun moved out of the way so I could properly see his face. He was pale and his lips were severely chapped, but that didn’t stop him from giving me the biggest smile he possibly could.

                “Oppa, you’re awake.” I said, smiling back at him.

                “Yeah, and I wanna teach you Korean. It’s the least I can do. I mean, I did that to you.” He rasped, gesturing to my injured arm.

                “It’s okay, you don’t have to do that, really you don’t.”
                “I know. I want to do it. Please, let me help you. Besides, we’re going to be spending most of our free time together anyway, so I might as well kill two birds with one stone. So, what do you say? Let me teach you, please?”

                “O-o-okay. When can we start?” I asked, stunned by his eagerness.

                “As soon as the two of you get released from here, you can start.” Hyun Suk Appa said.

                A loud ruckus could be heard from outside of the door. Everybody was on high alert as multiple heavy footsteps could be heard rapidly approaching them. Everyone except Hyun Suk, Daesung and I quickly left the room through a back entrance. They weren’t a second too late as the main doors burst open revealing several burly men who obviously had nothing ever go right in their lives. They were big, hairy, and mean. Hyun Suk put on an air of authority and cleared his throat dramatically. The men stopped looking as deadly as soon as they caught sight of him. I had to stifle my laughter.

“Uh, the boss said to um check on the girl and if she was up, to uh, take her back to her cell.” The one on the far left stammered out while not meeting eyes with Hyun Suk. Either these guys were missing a few brain cells, or they were really afraid of Appa. Hyun Suk sized them up and clicked his tongue. He gently helped me up by my good arm and continued to lead me out the door.

“I’ll take her, so there’s no need to worry.” He told them. As soon as we were out the door, there was a loud thud and a few sickening cracks and crunches. I felt a sharp pang in my chest. It was as if my heart had been ripped out of my chest, ripped into shreds, and tossed like confetti back into its hole. I knew I liked him, but for me to react this way because he was in danger, I couldn’t could I?

But I was, and there was no denying it: I was in love with him.

I love him………..