Beep. Beep. Beep.

The persistent sound of machinery filled the room. It was steady yet suspenseful. A soft humming from a certain someone, however, lightened the mood by a little.

Her eyes slowly opened and adjusted to the light. It blurred her vision and she had to blink several times before it finally came into focus. She lifted her hand up and saw wires and tubes attached to it. Turning her head to her left, where the humming came from, she saw it was Yoseob with his head rested on his arm on the ledge of the bed. He was staring into blank space, not noticing her now woken up state.

“Yoseob-ah,” she called.

Her voice had his head snapped to her direction as he looked at her expectantly.

“You’re awake,” he stated, making it sound more like a question.

“Yeah, I am,” Hyuna muttered.

“What happened? Why am I here?” she questioned.

“You fainted after the fight. We had to bring you to the hospital because you didn’t wake up for many hours,” Yoseob told her.

“No,” Hyuna shook her head, “What happened after… the match? Did I… win?”

Yoseob smiled widely, “You did. Congratulations.”

Hyuna let out a huge sigh of relief, her eyes shutting as a soft barely visible smile played at her lips.

“After you won… well, Black and Junhyung came up to give us the cash. Black did give me a warning glance but that… was pretty much all,” Yoseob smiled.

Hyuna nodded, telling him she understood and closed her eyes to rest.

She didn’t know how much time passed but when she woke up, Yoseob was gone.

She was alone.

A yellow sticky note was placed on the table next to her bed.

“Had to go tend to some things. Himchan will be here to pick you up! Your clothes are all packed and Ailee picked some clothes for you to change. It’s all in the cupboard, okay?   –YY”

Sick of her lying position, she pushed herself up, with much difficulty, flinching every time the bruises ached at every movement, and made her way to the window, dragging the stand with the water bag along with her.

She placed her hands on the window sill and looked out.

She was in the same room as she was just a few days ago. It was the room she woke up in a coma from after a long time… Her hair was in a disheveled state, having been in bed for the past few days with no one to pay attention to the wellbeing of her appearance. Her skin was at its palest and she could feel how dry her lips were from the lack of water intake. More importantly, her whole body was cold and she could feel it.

Her thoughts went back to during the fight. She’d saw Junhyung stare at her when she was on the floor. Her mask was down and yet, he seemed not to recognize her. How could he? She looked the same, she thought. The only difference was her hair and her clothes.

She thought how he stared at her mostly with satisfaction that his precious Nikki was winning the fight. Even if she knew he didn’t recognize her as Hyuna, she felt betrayed that he was merciless to how her state was. She could see it in his eyes. It was just about winning and being victorious. Nothing else.

She remembered the last few minutes before she out. He was staring right into her eyes, as if he knew something. But, towards the last seconds, he looked away, completely dismissing any thought that he had before. Just like that, he threw her away from his mind once again.

She didn’t know how much time passed, but Hyuna couldn’t take the silence and being alone anymore.

She walked to the cupboard and took out the clothes Ailee had packed for her. She found a pair of pink shorts with a loose green tank top that only managed to cover part of her stomach area and flared around the edges. There was a sleeveless denim cardigan packed along with green sneakers and yellow socks. Finally, she saw Ailee’s favourite touch to every outfit, a black twisted headband that looked very much handmade.

Hyuna was satisfied with the choice and quickly changed into it. She looked herself in the mirror and thought she looked amazing and absolutely unrecognizable from the Hyuna from years ago who favored only hoodies. She found some gloves from the match the day before in her bag and placed it on.

Once she was done applying some light make-up, consisting of some eyeliner, blush and lipstick, she made her way out of the room. Careful not to get noticed by the nurses passing, she tiptoed all the way to the exit and left. Luckily, it was around 11pm so there were barely any nurses walking around since the patients of the ward were all asleep.

Once she arrived out of the building, she quickly hailed a taxi and told him her destination: Mindstruck Club.

It didn’t take long before they arrived at that place that played a huge part in her life. She didn’t know what brought her there. It was just a decision she made at the spur of the moment. The place was always at the back of her head since she woke up and she’s wanted to visit, just to know what was up so far.

She joined the queue and took out her ID. She glanced at the bouncer and heaved a sigh of relief that she realized he wasn’t the old one who she used to be close to. She didn’t want to be recognized. She made a mental note to get a new ID since the current one had her old photo and it would be easy to identify her if anyone who knew her previously saw it.

When it was her turn to pass her ID, she did and he let her in. Taking a deep breath, she stepped into the club and loud music welcomed her. Some guys on their way out slapped her but she just ignored them, not wanting to cause a scene.

She saw the place had changed a lot. It looked more suitable for younger people than it used to and it was filled with more colored and vibrant lights. The space seemed to have been expanded and there were more people of a larger variety of ages in the place. She went to the bar and instantly gasped when she recognized the bartender. It was the same guy from years ago, Kang Nam.

She checked herself and was convinced he wouldn’t recognize her, or at least she hoped so. She was just going to deny it if he asked if he knew her.

She sat herself at the seat and stared quietly at the people dancing, faced away from the bartender.

She heard him ask, “What would you like to order?”

She mumbled a quick reply without looking at him. She couldn’t risk getting recognized. She started to question why she even thought of coming to place before. But, she didn’t really regret it. She wanted to try something different, try the extreme. The adrenaline from defying Yoseob and coming to such a place that played a huge role in her life before, where everyone knew her very well, felt so good for her. She was picturing the kind of things she would do to make this night memorable.

Her drink arrived and she grabbed the glass, draining the drink in one shot. Once she was done, she placed the glass away before entering the dance floor, joining all the dancers.

She just felt like going crazy, wanting to forget the eyes of Junhyung that had been playing on her mind for so long. The alcohol made this feeling even more overwhelming for her as she felt the thought of Junhyung slowly slip off her mind.

She felt hands on her waist and the hair on her back stand. Unknowingly, she stuck out her tongue to her lips almost ily. It was like her drink contained more than just alcohol, like drugs.

She was swallowed in the sea of people who grinded against each other and soon, her mind was empty and she felt like flying. She didn’t even realize when she was dragged out of the place to a secluded hallway. The place seemed oddly familiar but she couldn’t put a finger where.

Whoever she was with, he or she, most likely a he, had pinned her arms against the wall on both the sides of her head. He had buried his face in her neck and Hyuna found herself letting out sinful sounds at the feeling at her neck. She’d never felt it before and it felt so good yet disgusting.

He continued to savage on her skin and she continued to let out the moans. That is, until she realized what was happening. She gasped and quickly pushed the guy away. He launched himself at her to get more but she punched him as reflex, knocking him right out of his conscious mind.

Hyuna felt more sober now and was shocked at the situation she was in but looking around and ensuring there was no one, she quickly ran away from the scene, coming back into the noisy part of the club. She searched for the exit and approached it. She opened the door and heaved sigh of relief seeing peace and quiet once again. She was happy to be away from the noise. Suddenly, while it was fun earlier, she felt like she regretted ever coming to the place. She felt so dirty having had those lips of a stranger all over the areas no one else had touched, except for the one incident when she was forced into it.

She walked and stumbled down the road to find her way home in her not-so-awake situation. It was dangerous but she was sober enough to take care of herself.

She stopped when she saw a small fight going on a few metres away from her.

It was a gang against one guy, she could tell. She quickly hid behind the wall closest to her and peeked at the situation. She almost couldn’t hold back a loud gasp when she realized who the people were. The one guy was none other than Nam and the gang was Black’s.

They were pointing daggers at Nam who was pushed up against the wall. He looked pretty beaten up and didn’t do anything when Black slapped the dagger at his face.

“Would that teach you not to mess with the wrong people?” Black yelled and slapped him once more.

This time, though, it cut Nam right on his cheek, leaving a huge bleeding gash there. Black then took out his box of cigarettes and lightened it up. He smoked for a good minute before taking it out of his mouth. He took a look at the burnt bud and smirked. He lifted his arm and harshly pressed the burnt bud against Nam’s cheek, where the gash was, earning a loud scream from Nam who struggled against the iron grip on his arms.

Hyuna couldn’t stand staring at it anymore. Forcing some courage upon herself, she slipped her hand into her pocket where she had placed her mask in just in case. She placed it on and ran towards the place.

The moment Black was about to lay another finger on Nam, Hyuna ran as fast as she could and blocked his attack.

Black stepped back in surprise and glared at Hyuna.

“Well, well, well… If it isn’t Nana, that mothering who broke Nikki,” Black smirked and rolled his eyes away from her.

He turned back to her with a serious glare and said, “What the do you think you’re doing, messing into my business now?”

Hyuna couldn’t speak though. She could just glare at him with as much courage as she could summon.

Finally, she gulped and forced herself to say, “You ing leave Kang Nam alone. He’s involved so this business of yours is mine as well.”

“So you know this pathetic bartender?” Black taunted.

Hyuna just kept silent and darkened her glare.

“Do you really think you can defend him against us?” Black challenged.

“I don’t know about that, but I do know that Yong Junhyung wouldn’t like to know that you killed a person who works under Junpill,” Hyuna smirked.

Even if she hated Junhyung’s guts, she still remembered how serious he was about keeping low from the police and maintaining good relationships.

“,” Black muttered, loud enough to be heard by all the people around.

He knew he had no choice.

“Drop him,” Black ordered at his men who quickly did as told and gathered behind Black.

“I will remember this, you ing . And you too.”

That was all Black said before he and his gang left the scene.

Hyuna sighed a sigh of relief before turning to Nam who was on the floor, half-conscious.

He lifted his heavy eyelids to look at her.

“K-Kim H-Hyuna..?” he weakly called out her name, recognizing her.

Hyuna gasped. She turned away and quickly dug out a pack of tissues from her pocket before throwing it at him. She lifted her finger to her lips, telling him to keep quiet about this, and quickly ran off.