That voice. Again.

"That's it...keep it up..."

I was fully awake. Silence filled the air in my room. Darkness too. Maple branches scraped my window slowly. I threw my blanket onto the floor and walked myself to bathroom. I made it to the sink and watched my own reflection on the mirror for a while.

Dark circles around my eyes. Great. All those sleepless night had come to an effect, right?

I the faucet and washed my face. 

What's with that voice...where did it come from...

 

"Park Chorong!"

I turned my head, looking for the one who called me. Yoon Bomi was running towards me, waving her hands. She was holding a book.

"You are going be bored to death without this thing," she handed it over to me. A novel.  God bless.

"Oh, gosh. Thank you so much, Bomi," I tried to smile to her. I wanted to tell her something too, but i decided to leave it for later. "See you later at dorm!"

She smiled back and rushed into her car.

I forgot to tell you. I was on my way to a set of commercial filming. Bomi was having another schedule today, so we weren't going together. Nowadays we had a lot of individual activities besides our performance schedules too, I could say that we were really, really busy.

I glanced at the book she gave me. The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas. Classic.

I smiled. Bomi could be a nice girl sometimes. Even though she looked like a carefree person on the outside, actually she was a very thoughtful one, especially when it comes to her siblings. Especially me.

My dongsaeng (lit. younger siblings) were already waiting inside the van, ready to take us to the filming site. I got inside too, closed the door, and the car started to move.

"What's that unnie?" Eunji asked me, pointing at the book Bomi gave me (lit. unnie is an older sister). She was sitting right next to me, sandwiched between me and Naeun.

"A novel I would like to read later," I replied her. I opened my bag and tried to put it inside, but Eunji grabbed it first.

"Hmm familiar. I think I've seen this book before. Isn't this one of yours, Naeun?" she showed it to Naeun. Naeun shook her head.

"No. It is Bbom's. And give it back to Chorong unnie, I'm sure you don't want yesterday incident to occur once more," Naeun warned Eunji.

Eunji took a gulp down her chin and gave the book back to me. 

 

It was 07.00 pm in the evening. The filming was already over and we were starting to get ready for home. I already packed my stuffs back inside my bag, and I was waiting for the others to finish up. I sat on a chair and decided to take a look at the novel.

Chapter 1. The Three Presents of M. D'Artagnan The Elder.

'On the first Monday of the month of April, 1625, the bourg of Meung, in which the author...'

"Unnie," Namjoo put her hand on my shoulders from behind. "Let's go. We are all set."

"Is it? Okay then," I stood up and grabbed my bag.

 

The trip way back took an eternity. It was raining hard outside and the traffic was jammed too. Our car was stucked and could only move when the traffic is reduced. Naeun and Eunji had already fallen asleep, whereas our maknaes (lit. the youngest) Namjoo and Hayoung were playing something at the back seat. It was too dark for me to continue reading.

I wonder if Bomi has arrived at our dorm, warming herself and sipping hot chocolate. How comfy. I envied her through my own imagination and continued to watch the rain through the car window, fascinated by water droplets that rolled down the filmed glass.

The traffic was slowly beginning to move. We turned left at the next intersection. Our van dashed through the downpour once more. 

DUAKKK

We hit something! It felt like...someone...but I swore there was nobody on the road except us. Somehow we just hit something out of the blue.

Our van stopped. Eunji and Naeun woke up, startled by the impact. Hayoung looked through the windshield, her face was filled with terror. Namjoo stayed quiet. 

Our driver got out of our van quickly to check what actually we were hitting. He scratched his head when he found nothing on the road, only a big dent on the left side of the van bumper.

DUAKK

Somebody appeared out of nowhere behind our driver and hit him right on his nape. He lost consciousness and fell down the road. I watched the scene in terror, my dongsaeng were frozen too. 

The attacker was wearing black clothes that covered all of his body. He also wore a clown mask, just like what thugs wear in a bank heist. Okay, I watched too much action movies.

The worst part was, as i had expected, he's not alone. Lots of his companions came out from dark alleys around this area, some of them armed with guns and baseball bat.

Namjoo screamed. Eunji, in reflex, locked up all our doors. We all held our breath.

The first thug who appeared walked to the our car's door, the one that was on Naeun's side, and tried to open it. Realizing that it was already locked, he smashed the window with his elbow. The shattering glasses made us, this time all of us, scream from the top of our lungs. Naeun protected her face from the shards, some of them pierced her arm's skin.

He managed to open up the lock and somehow nonchalantly opened the door. He grabbed Naeun's arm and pulled her out harshly. Eunji tried to grab Naeun's shoulder but failed. Naeun screamed once more, but her kidnapper brought out a chloroformed handkerchief and put it on . She struggled for a while, but then ceased to move after losing her consciousness. He dragged her back to one of the dark alley under the heavy rain.

I gaped in total horror. And I didn't really notice what's outside my own window, until I glanced over a shadow beside me.

PRAAANGG

My window was smashed too. I jumped to Eunji, hugging her and fell on top of her, just in time. The shattering glasses were pouring over me, but I was safe.

Not really.

The kidnapper opened my door and pulled my leg. I was dragged out roughly, but Eunji quickly grabbed my arms.

"Chorong unnie!!! Not her, you bastard!!!"

Hayoung helped her, she also grabbed my hands. Being pulled by both sides, it felt like they were playing tug of war of some sort, with my body replacing the rope.

DUAKK

A sound of hard impact was heard. Eunji stared at me in a great shock, and then fell backward, unconscious. She was hit! Another thug with a baseball bat was already on the side of our van without us knowing, and he's responsible for that blow. He leisurely slipped his hands under Eunji's arms and yanked her out.

Eunji let go of my arms instantly, and by the force of the strong thug who held my feet, Hayoung was pulled to the middle seat. She rolled on our seat and unwantedly let go of my arms too.

I was dragged so hard that I fell on the road. I sticked out my hands downward, my palms absorbed the impact. Don't you dare ask, it hurts. As that thug dragged me on the heavily drenched road, I could see Hayoung was already chloroformed too. Namjoo didn't do much help, she was hitting Hayoung's kidnapper, but it didn't affect him as he ignored her and lifted Hayoung on his shoulder.

The rain helped me to cool down my head. Cold raindrops relaxed my head, and the panic ceased. Somehow my mind was clear enough for me to think. To remember.

I remembered that I mastered Hapkido.

Why am I so late?

I focused myself, and pulled my legs as hard as I could. My kidnapper didn't expect that as he was dragged to the front. But that's enough for me.

DUESSHH

I kicked my legs swiftly, and my shoes landed right on his jaw. It's not really a hapkido technique, but actually it's some sort of the-emergency-form of inside front kick. We called it An Da Ri Cha Neok Gi.

But this wasn't the time to talk about that.

He fell. Well, jaw is vital you know . Now that I was free, I needed to get my dongsaeng back. I got up and put on my fighting stance.

Just then I realized that my enemies were dozens of full grown man. Only if Bomi was here. Her Taekwondo would be really helpful.

They encircled me. I knew some of them held guns, but no one shot me.

So they aren't intending to kill, are they?

One of them came forward and swung his batter towards me. I used Ki Bon Dwi Dol A Chaki, or back spin kick. It made his batter flew towards one of his subordinates and directly hit his masked forehead, knocked him down. I did some follow up attacks on that guy who challenged me by kicking him right on his chest twice.

My techniques weren't getting rusty at all.

DUAKK

Sharp pain, right behind my head. Gosh, my vision was blurred. The world was spinning. I almost fell on my knees when a kick landed on my stomach, really hard that I lost my breath. The impact sent me flying a few meters before I landed on wet hard asphalt. 

All I could see was dark sky. I felt heavy raindrops on my cheeks. One of the thug approached me and squatted beside me.

I turned my head to him. He did say something.

"Night."

The next punch knocked me so hard that everything went black.