Two

Screams rang through the air as everyone started to move all at once, ducking for cover or running for their cars. The players all started towards the sidelines, pushing and yelling.

I felt myself getting knocked from side to side as players ran past me, trying to get off the field. I followed the wave, weaving through the frantic crowd trying to leave the field. My mom had to be in the stands somewhere, since Minseok had been a no show. Someone had to be able to get me home.

I was frantically searching for my mom in the crowd when it happened. A hand latched onto my arm and pulled, making me lose my balance. An arm wrapped itself around my shoulders and started pulling me toward a sleek black sedan. Just as I was tossed inside, I saw Chanyeol’s terrified face as he rushed towards his own car.

“Hyojung?” he called, horrified, just as the door to the car slammed shut. His expression then changed as if he'd seen something else, face relaxing a bit and hopped along into his own car.

“Go,” my abductor called to the driver as he climbed into the passenger seat, and before I could sit up, I was thrown backwards again by the car’s sudden acceleration.

When I finally managed to climb up, I launched myself at the guy in the passenger seat, wrapping my right arm around his neck in a chokehold. I recognized him as the guy on the phone at the game by his hoodie, the one who had given me such ominous feelings.

“What the-” he managed to choke out, before I tightened my hold.

“What the hell is this?” I asked. “Who are you, and where are you taking me?”

I felt a tap on my left arm and looked over to find my brother in the driver’s seat. Eyes widening, I realized that this must've been why Chanyeol thought I was okay; he had seen Minseok in the driver’s seat. “Wait - Minseok, you know this guy?”

My brother threw me a wry smile, never taking his eyes off the road as he swerved through traffic, driving like a mad man.

“Yeah, so you might want to stop strangling him. His face might turn purple soon. Oh and also, he’s armed.”

I very begrudgingly let go of the guy’s neck, and from the corner of my eye I saw him massaging his throat with a sour expression.

Minseok haphazardly pulled the car into the garage and waited for the garage door to drop back down before unlocking the car doors. My abductor threw himself out of the car without a single word and hurried into the house, as if he owned the place or something.

“What’s going on?” I asked, stopping Minseok as he started up the stairs into the house.

Minseok just shook his head and pulled me after him into the house.  

The moment I stepped into my living room, I saw that it was full of people, people that I didn’t know. They were dressed like the strange men at the game, in crisp suits with dark shades, even indoors.

“Mom?” Minseok called, pushing me into a seat on the couch. “We got Hyojung!”

My mom, normally one of the calmest people I know, barreled into the room like a hurricane. Strands of hair were falling out of her normally stringently neat bun and her eyes flashed as she glanced around the room.

“Minseok-ah, go help pack upstairs,” she said tersely, waving my brother away. Then she sat down next to me and took my hands in hers.

That feeling of dread was suddenly back, full blast.

“Mom, what’s happening?” I asked, nervously. “What happened at the game? What’s happening here? Who are all these people?”  

She sighed, and suddenly looked as if she was about to cry. “Jung-ah, you’re going to have to go away for a little while,” she said, sounding a bit choked. “You’re not safe here anymore.”

“Not safe?” I repeated, confused.

Mom nodded, standing up as another group of people came down the staircase with two suitcases in tow. “Let me introduce you to something, honey. This here...this is your real father, Park Junki.”

What?

I was adopted by Minseok’s mother when I was around three or four years old. His father had passed away from an illness a few years earlier, leaving her lonely. I had been told that my parents had passed away in a car accident, and that I didn’t have any other living blood relatives. Being told that I had a father, alive, well, and in right front of me, was rather shocking.