I woke up to his cheek pressed against my forehead, his hot breath running evenly down my face. It was so warm, his strong arms wrapped tight around me, and in the moment I smiled into the crook of his neck, feeling at once truly, truly happy. The movement must have roused him, because he then shifted, turning his head to gently press his lips onto my forehead and softly nuzzle into my hair. I kept my grip on his shirt, feeling the muscles of his back as he moved and then lay still once more.

"Oppa," I whispered.

He didn't answer.

"Oppa," I tried again.

"Mm."

"Sunggyu-oppa. Come on."

He shifted, arms slithering tighter around me. "Ani. It's too early."

"We're going to be late."

Silence again.

"Oppa!"

"Aish. Arasso, arasso." Then, he kissed my forehead once more and finally released me. Free fom his grip, I left the bed, stretching as I stood, and turned around. He let his eyes fall shut again, and as he lay there, he looked so serene. For a moment, I let my gaze trace the contour of his nose, the fine line of his eye, and the cut of his jaw. Then, I bent down, kissed his cheek, and then left to get dressed.

***

The year is 2015 in Seoul, and I am about to be married.

I waited on the street corner while Sunggyu got us some coffee from the street vendor. The morning crowd bustled around me. It was a rainy day, and I stared down, admiring my bright galoshes for a moment before I looked up in time to see my fiance striding towards me, coffee at hand. I smiled brightly, and he returned it with a closed-lip grin and a slight rise of his eyebrows.

"Here," he said. We traded hands-- I took my coffee cup and handed him our umbrella, which he shook open and waited as I hooked my arm in his. Then, he peeked at me once more and smiled.

"Ready to go?"

I smiled back and nodded. Then, I stretched out my leg, ready to step across the street.

And then, suddenly, the world went black.

*******

Minji. You promised you wouldn't.

Where are you going?

Stay Minji. Chebal. Stay here.

With me.

*******

It was cold. So very cold. Cold enough that if I opened my eyes, I'm sure I could see the wisps of my breath. But opening my eyes seemed too difficult. So instead I lay there, shivering in the dark.

"...took a long time... good you found us..."

Voices wafted into my awareness, but I could hear only bits of what they were saying. I wondered why they were speaking so loud. Couldn't they see I was trying to sleep?

"...Syndicate doesn't know... thank God for her coma..."

I frowned slightly. What the heck were these people talking about? I wished they would just go away.

"...don't tell her... and her husband, too, dead..."

Suddenly, I snapped to attention. I yanked my eyes open, but I had no idea what I was staring at. It was just milky-white brightness. The people stopped talking, but my vision was so blurred that I couldn't see them. All I could do was blink my eyes rapidly in an attempt to clear them. When it didn't work, I wondered if my eyes were open at all.

Then, finally, my vision came clearer, and I stared straight into a young man's face. He was slightly tanned, with brown eyes and brown hair, and he leaned in close, staring right back at me, his brow the slightest bit crinkled in concern.

"Kwenchanayo?" He had a kind face and tired eyes. But in the moment, I couldn't care less.

I shot upward, and he backed up in surprise. I realized I was in some sort of hospital bed, in a stark white laboratory room, and he and several others were looking at me in alarm. Then, I realized that my wrists were strapped onto the bed. As were my ankles.

I choked and sputtered until I found my voice. "Where?!... Where am I?!"

The kind-faced man recovered first. "You're in a hospital. You've been in a coma for the past five days. You are lucky to be alive."

I eyed him manically. "W-what?! What happened??"

He and the others looked to each other for help. Immediately, I knew there was something they didn't want to say.

"Where's Sunggyu!!"

Suddenly, he frowned. "Who did you say?"

"Sunggyu! Kim Sunggyu! He was with me! He was just with me!"

He exchanged glances with the others, who shrugged and frowned. Then he turned back to me.

"Ma'am. At this point, it is best for you to rest. Why don't you lay back down--"

"NO! Not until I see that he's alright! WHERE IS HE?! WHERE IS KIM SUNGGYU?!" I began struggling against the restraints, pulling my arms and lifting my body until the whole bed shook and creaked with movement. The people took a tentative step towards me, stances wide, but there was no way in hell I was going down without a fight.

"WHERE IS HE?! TELL ME!! WHAT HAPPENED??"

"Prepare the sedative," one man said firmly to another. The kind-faced man stepped back, letting them work. He looked concerned.

"Doctor. It is ready."

"NO! GIVE ME ANSWERS! WHERE IS HE??"

The doctor approached, holding a big needle, and when he did, I spit in his face and squirmed away from him.

"Hold her down," he ordered.

"NO! KIM SUNGGYU! HELP ME! HELP ME! AAAHHHH!"

But it was no use. No matter how I struggled, their firm arms clamped down my shoulders. The man stuck the needle into me.

And in another moment, the world turned off, and I succumbed to a deep, deep sleep.

*******

I came to with a jolt. At once, I realized that I was lying on my stomach, on the floor of some sort of horse-drawn cart. My shoulders were painfully stiff, and as I tried to move them, I realized that my wrists were tied tightly behind my back. I groaned in pain.

"Oho! She's awake!"

I whipped my head around, in time to see a skinny man with fluffy hair kneel beside me. Reflexively, I recoiled away from him, but in my state, I couldn't go far. It made him chuckle deeply.

"Relax. I'm not the one trying to hurt you."

I sized him up as he casually peeled off a piece from his orange. His clothes and his skin were matted with dirt. I thought it was gross, until realized that I too felt as dirty as he looked. "You hungry?" he asked. Then, without waiting for an answer, he held the piece of orange to my lips. I looked up at him suspiciously.

He chuckled deeply again. "What. Afraid to trust strangers? Arasso. I promise, it's not poison. Look." He popped the piece in his mouth and chewed, smiling down at me. He had startlingly happy eyes. Then he peeled another piece and held it to my lips once more. I thought about it, and then held my mouth open.

As I chewed, I was immediately struck with how hungry I was. I lay my head down, savoring the juice of the orange, letting my eyes fall shut with satisfaction.

"Yahhh, this girl must not have eaten anything in a while. Ja. Have some more."

Quietly, we ate. The cart shook and jolted, obviously on some sort of unpaved dirt road. I vaguely thought to myself that I hadn't seen a horse-drawn cart anywhere near the city. I wondered where we could be, but I didn't think long, as I was excrutiatingly exhausted.

"Who... who are you?" I asked as he gave me the last of his orange. My voice croaked, as if it hadn't been used in a while.

He smiled, his eyes disappearing. Something about it put me at ease too. "They call me Namu. From Sengak. And I don't tell people my skill until they prove their honesty to me."

I frowned, processing. Namu? Like 'tree'? And where's Sengak? Is it still in Korea?

And what was that about skill?

I decided to save those questions for later. There were so many things still unanswered in my mind. "Where are we?"

"Somewhere near Cheongdam, no doubt."

Another place I'd never heard of before. "But what's going on?"

He chuckled. "They're trying to disorient us. Going around in circles. But we've been at it for a few hours now... Pretty soon, they'll probably stop and let us out of this God-forsaken cart."

"...And then?"

"Well, and then... we try to survive."

My eyes bugged out. Were we headed to some sort of execution?? And for what?! What did I do?! Where is Sunggyu?? Did I get kidnapped?? What is happening to me?!

"Woah, woah! Relax!"

I didn't realize, but I had started panicking, squirming around, trying to pull my arms free from the ties which cut into my raw wrists, and apparently, I started crying. The tears fell down my face as I tried to rein in my breath. The cart pitched, throwing me to my left, and I noticed bars on the one window, beyond which was a nighttime sky.

We were prisoners. For what, though, I had no idea.

"Calm down! Shh... There you go. Good. Just breathe. The worst thing you can do is panic."

"I'm... But...I didn't do... anything..." I said between sobs. "I just want to go home. I just want to be back with Sunggyu."

The man narrowed his eyes. "With who?"

"Kim Sunggyu," I said. "He was my fiance--"

"Shush! Don't you dare say that name out loud!"

I drew back, confused. "M-mwo?"

"Look, lady, I don't know who you are or what you did to land you here, but that name is good enough to get both of us killed!"

I blinked in surprise. What did he mean?

Suddenly, he looked about frantically, eyes wide and staring into the four walls of the cart. I didn't know what he was seeing or hearing, but suddenly he wielded his manic gaze onto me.

"You didn't... tell anyone that name... did you?"

"Huh? No, well, I--"

"Shh!" he said, suddenly clasping a hand on my lips. I struggled away from him, but he kept his grip firm. He looked widely about again, and then froze, ear cocked towards the open window. I held quiet too, but I couldn't hear anything.

Then, suddenly, the cart came to a halt. And the man looked at me, terrified, holding his hand to his lip in a signal to keep silent.

I heard an exchange of voices from outside. A whizz of something flying through the air, and then a gutteral groan. Then, the man grinned widely at me, eyes stretched open, almost jumping up and down from where he squat down beside me.

"Yes! Yes!! We're getting out of here.They're coming for you," he whispered excitedly.

I tried to say "Mwo?" but suddenly, the entire back wall of the cart was blown off its hinges with a large BANG! I jumped in alarm, and then stared past the fiery residue into the night. There was a field of tall grass, and a road stretching out the way we had come from. Otherwise, there was nothing. Nothing but quiet and eerie stillness.

The man jumped up in joy and then moved to the new opening of the cart. There, he froze for a moment, looking left and right as if he were crossing the street. Then, he looked back at me, a wide smile on his lips.

"Thank you for this. If you ever find me in the future, I owe you one. Good luck to you. And remember what I said."

Then, without another word, he jumped out of the cart and began sprinting away, into the field. And I was left alone, watching as he shrank in the distance, and then disappeared altogether.

Suddenly, I heard the soft thud of boots falling to earth, as if a rider disembarked from his horse, and I realized I wasn't alone. I listened to the ominous sound of those boots nearing, coming around to the open back of the cart, and it triggered a panic in me. I hurriedly tried to release my wrists, but the ties didn't budge. I had no choice but to lay there, completely vulnerable to whoever this stranger could be.

Then, a familiar face poked around the corner. It was that kind-faced man from the hospital room. On seeing me, he gave a crooked smile, which struck me as terrifyingly scary, because I had no idea what he was thinking. I panicked again, squirming away from him as he slowly raised his boot and mounted the cart.

"Don't! Don't come near me!!"

But he wasn't listening! He strode closer, wielding a small knife from his belt buckle. I thrashed harder against my restraints.

"Stop! Please! What have I ever done to you?? Please! Don't!"

And then, suddenly, he was right there, leaning in from above me, and I knew that this was the end. This was how I would die. I shut my eyes, waiting for the pain. Goodbye, cruel world. Goodbye, Sunggyu. Saranghe, I thought.

And then, suddenly, I felt a slight tug, and the tie fell from my wrist.

I opened my eyes and he knelt there, smiling crookedly at me. He tucked the knife back into his belt. "Come on. Let's go."

"But... what?... Who... who are you?"

He smiled. "For now, a friend. Come on. We don't have much time." Then, he reached down and gently took my arm, raising me up. He took my hand and pulled me out of the cart.

He had a black horse, and stood next to it with his hands ready, motioning that he would help boost me up. I looked around. A couple bodies lay still by the front of the cart, presumably the drivers. I shivered and looked wildly back at him, wondering if he was the responsible party.

In response, he shrugged. "Come on. I'll explain later. Let's get to a Safe Zone first."

I thought about making a break for it. But this guy had just murdered. Who knows what he would do to me! And besides that, if I'm even able to escape him, I had no idea where I was. Where would I go?

I don't know what overcame me, but I nodded and followed his direction. Once I was firmly on the horse, he swung himself aboard and grabbed the reins.

"Hold on," he ordered. I slid my hands around his waist.

Then, without another word, he ushered the horse forward, and we began racing down the road. The wind splashed against my face, sending a deep chill down my spine. I wrapped my arms around him tighter.

"Yah," he said after some time. "What is your name."

"M-Minji." I wondered if it was a mistake to say it.

"What's your skill?"

"Huh??"

He peeked back at me and chuckled. I had no idea why.

"Well, you can call me Hoya. Most everyone does."

"Hoya..." I repeated to myself.

"Nice to meet you," he said with a smirk.

I didn't reply. I didn't know yet if it really was nice to meet him too.

---

I told you! I wrote like a freaking machine today. Is the chapter too long? Well, thanks for giving it a read. If you liked it, stay tuned! We're only just getting warmed up :)