"You know Sanghee, I just have no idea what's better. Why don't you decide?" Byunghun laughed in a shrill manner. "You can come to my humble abode and watch your best friend die right in front of your eyes. Or, if you want, I can just kill her right now and come for you later. So. What shall it be?"

Sanghee grew silent, stilled as to what was happening at the moment. Her best friend was just taken captive by some psychotic freak, and he wants her to come there and watch her loved one die? She hung up the phone, deciding not to give him a clear answer, though she did already have a plan in mind.

"Ms. Kim, can we possibly end today's session here? There's somewhere I nee-"

"Bull. That is just complete bull Sanghee. Your performance is in two days, and you haven't even improved a bit! Your dancing is sloppy, off-key, horrendous. You can't leave; I'm not letting you."

"I-I'm sorry M-Ms. K-Kim! I'm sorry, but I have to go." She dropped down to the floor, her knees slammed onto the ground. She bowed down with her head hung low. "Please."

But instead of permission to leave, she received a painful blow to her cheek. Sanghee held her abused skin tightly, tears welling up the corner of her eyes. "Don't you have any respect for yourself? Stand up! Leaving right now means giving up Broadway. Don't you understand that? I've been training you, Sanghee. Training you for this moment. Training you to wi-"

"You never trained me! You are just so so cruel. You're inconsiderate. inhumane! All you've ever done was just mock. Mock everything about me. You call that training?" She exhaled, mustering up the courage hidden inside of her. "I call that a ! You're a ! That's what you are! I hate everything about you. Hate it! I should've listened to Kyung Ae. I should've thanked her, but now I can't because she might die, and it'll all be your fault. You'll be the reason she died. You'll be the cause of her death! You killed he-"

Ms. Kim harshly pulled onto her shirt. She whispered with much menace and hatred within her, "Leave. And never come back."

-------------------------------
 

"I'll be back in a few. Sanghee will probably be here soon. I'll be quick about it." He leaned in, softly pecking her nose. "Don't miss me too much, kay?" 

"Don't you dare touch me you bastard. Don't." Kyung Ae scoffed, scrunching her nose and looking away to the other direction. "Why don't you just kill me now? Go ahead and let me die. I'd rather be dead than suffer in this hell hole of yours."

He just winked, not bothering to give a reply. Then left.

She exhaled as if she's been holding her breath in from the moment he drugged her. She was suffocating, just being a radius within his presence. She turned her head and eyed the tightly made knot that easily clasped her hands together. She started to struggle, moving her body in different directions, and just urging to break free. But she couldn't. She was powerless, just like she was around L. Joe.

She then made a slight jump, hearing the sound of broken glass. Her eyes bulged out, witnessing Sanghee climb in through the window a foot away from the main door. She started to shake her head horizontally, just wanting to scream out in anger.

"You idiot! Why did you come here? Leave!"

"Y-You're the only thing I have left Kyung Ae. I-I quit dancing. I quit."

Kyung Ae tried her best not to perk up with a smile, knowing very well that it still wasn't a good enough excuse to do something that was just... uncalled for. She shook her head no, countless times.

"I don't care if I die Sanghee. I really don't, so just leave already. I was dead the moment I met him."

But she didn't listen. Sanghee kneeled down on one knee, wanting to loosen the knot. She quit after a few minutes and hastily made her way to the other side of the kitchen. She knew she was on the clock, and that Byunghun would come in through the front door any minute now. And so she started to rush. Sanghee opened every single drawer and door she could find, trying to see if there was anything useable to break the knot free. No dice.

". There's not a single knife in sight. There's not even any forks! There's nothing!" A bead of sweat dropped down from the side of her face as she, again, attempted at the knot with her bare hands. She could feel the pressure weighing down on her at the moment.

"Sanghee. Hide in the storage closet. He's coming." Kyung Ae urged, hearing the faint sound of a door beginning to click. As instructed, Sanghee ran to the closet, taking low and soft breaths every now and then just to keep her sanity.

"I wasn't expecting you to come back so soon." Kyung Ae sat up and eyed the prescription clutched onto Byunghun's hands. "Does that bag say Zyprexa? I didn't know you started taking medication. It's not like it would help though. You're just too ed up a person to fix."

"Quiet. It's either taking these pills or killing you, and I'd rather wait for Sanghee to come before doing so. I wonder what's taking her so long anyway. Don't want her to miss our little party, now would we?" He smirked, causing the girl to shudder in disgust.

Sanghee continued to keep quiet and kept her eyes wide open, trying to adjust to the lack of light. Just darkness. She peered around the small, cramped storage. Her eyes  shifted around the place, then locking onto a set of tools lying in the wooden basket to her left. She stared at it for a few minutes before deciding to gently lift it up.

She knew it was a bad idea would definitely make things worse, but her temptation got the best of her. She put her hands on the golden door knob, slowly twisting it open. She made a slight gasp after hearing the door creak, her heart thumping back and forth, faster by the second. She made a huge mistake. One that would cost the both of them their lives.

"What the hell was that?" 

"What do you mean?" Kyung Ae asked, acting confused, even though she definitely knew what he was talking about.

"I heard noise. Like a door creaking." L. Joe motioned over to where he thought the original sound came from: the storage room. "I think it came from here."

"R-Really? I-I didn't hear anything though."

He turned his back from the door and faced Kyung Ae, giving her a look. He noticed her stutter. "You're hiding something from me."

Kyung Ae was about to speak, but stopped in her tracks, seeing Sanghee open the door even further. She held in her breath, seeing her friend hold up a screw driver in her hands that were aimed at the man's shoulder. Sanghee plunged the tool into his back, causing him to let out a pain filled howl. It wasn't enough to kill him though.

It was never enough.

"You !" L. Joe shouted. He grabbed onto her, forcefully slamming her back against the wall. It was her turn to let out a cry of pain, feeling the harsh impact. He forced the screw driver out from the tightly fixed bone of his skin. He let out a sigh of relief and grazed the tool against the nape of her neck. She started to tremble.

"Did you really think you could kill me? Hurt me just enough to escape? No one escapes from me. You should've known that by now." he jeered, just barely brushing and twirling the tool over her body. He bent down to pick up the white pharmacy bag he dropped earlier after experiencing the painful jab at his skin. He started to open the it, shuffling his hand around as if in search for something.

"W-What are you doing?"

"Well, first, I'm going to kill you." Byunghun his lips playfully as he whipped out the hand gun hidden inside the bag. Sanghee made a loud gasp in fear. There was never any medicine in there to begin with. "I have my connections. And apparently, you don't need to have a license to own a gun."

"Please." she whispered, continuously shaking in fear.

But he didn't listen.

He never listens.

Her body crashed into the wall with a loud thump, a pile of blood slowly starting to form around her. He walked over to the coffee table in the living room and grabbed the Nikon camera as well as the lens sitting on its side. He readied the flash as well as its central focus, zooming in on Sanghee's face.

"You know what's even better than a face of fear?" He smiled in triumph. "A face of silence."

He gently placed his lips onto Kyung Ae's, but stumbled backwards as she spat into his mouth. Though he always expected those type of actions from her. His original target.

"You should've known by now Kyung Ae. Why would I ever kill you? That friend of yours was just a toy, just someone to play around with. It wasn't my fault she just happened to be too boring for my liking." He lightly the frame of her face, and smiled."But you Kyung Ae. You were always my favorite. You were always the girl who could never escape from me, no matter how hard you tried. I always liked that about you."

A blank, emotionless expression swept over her face as realization struck onto her. The fear seemed to rise behind her eyes, and as a caged animal, she just sat there. Motionless. Paralyzed by the tragic feeling of isolation, she shut her eyes tightly and gazed into the fields of nothingness. Her eyes started to bleed with pain as tears began to shed continuously.

She gently whispered, "What do you want from me?"

He smirked and held up his camera, seeing as though she finally gave in. Seeing as though her expression finally told the tale of true fear. And soon, to ultimately be silence. Absolute silence from within.

"Just smile."