"So? Does she seem familiar?"

Silence filled the line when he picked up Daehyun's call on the first ring. He walked into Kris's office and scanned the man's desk before rustling through his drawers.  

"Luhan, how to do you have this picture?" Luhan raised his brow when Daehyun didn't use honorifics.

"She's…someone I know." He said ambiguously. He frowned when he found Kris's anti-depressants completely untouched with all the pills still intact.

"This girl, maybe with longer hair and less lipstick, looks exactly like the girl who lured me out of the restaurant 3 years ago and knocked me out before setting the restaurant Eun Ah works in, on fire."

Luhan's eyes widened as he dropped the pill bottle on Kris's table, "Wait, what are you saying?"

"This girl is one of the only allies Ryu's has left." 

Luhan froze, stunned until he was hit with a memory. A memory from back when he was dating Alice. It was blurry and a little faded but there was one tidbit of information that flashed brightly in his mind.

Suddenly it all made sense.

He knew why she treated him like a stranger, acting completely ignorant of their past together.

It wasn't an act.

She genuinely didn't know.

-----

"What do we do?" Minseok hissed as the numbers on Alice's chest counted down.

00:10:30:13

Yongguk scowled as he looked around the building in search of Ryu but he couldn't see anything out of place or that someone was watching them.

"There's no way to disarm it without whoever's watching us, seeing." He mumbled.

Eun Ah glanced at Kris who was staring at Alice with tears in his eyes and trembling hands. She touched his arm but just as her fingers made contact with his arm, he lashed his hand back nearly missing her face.

Yongguk yanked her back to his chest, his eyes boring holes through Kris who still had his eyes on Alice. "Watch what you're ing doing."

Kris ignored Yongguk and swayed unstably. "We need to do something. We need to stop it."

Alice watched them as her tears dried on her cheeks. Yongguk rubbed his forehead, completely at a loss.

"How? We don't have our weapons or a way to disarm the bomb. We're trapped like this. There's nothing we can do."

"Then figure something out." Kris barked.

Yongguk's eye twitched as he slowly turned his head to stare at Kris. Eun Ah placed her hand on Yongguk's arm and gave him a look.

"This isn't the time." She said softly.

Yongguk frowned before he looked at the other guys, it was clear that Kris was going to be useless but the others didn't have any idea what do either.

00:07:15:06

"Guys." Everyone turned to Soo Juk who was standing a few feet behind them. Yongguk didn't even notice him moving. He had an uneasy look on his face as he glanced at Kris.

"I've been moving backwards this whole  time and Ryu hasn't told me to stop."

Yongguk's eyes widened and glanced at Kris when he realized what his father was implying.

"So?" Tao asked in confusion.

"He's saying that we could leave if we want and Ryu would let us." Eun Ah whispered.

Yongguk looked over at her and felt his heart clench when he heard her voice. He reached for her hand and laced their fingers together.

He shouldn't have brought her here.

He should've fought her with every fibre of his body just to make sure she stayed safe. He wouldn't forgive himself if she got hurt. He could've stuck her with Yongmi or Himchan but he was stupid enough to bring her with him.

Yixing's eyes brightened. "That's good, right? Let's do it."

"No." Jongdae said, "We can leave but-"

"But we leave Alice." Kris said feebly, his knees weakening.

Tao shook his head, "We can't do that!"

"Yeah well it's not like we have that many choices. Either we try to save her and he detonates the bomb, killing all of us before we leave or we save ourselves and sh--"

Kris didn't hesitate to punch Yongguk across the face, making him stumble back in shock. The boys quickly jumped at Kris, holding him back as he breathed angrily while Eun Ah and Soo Juk reached for Yongguk.

"Oh my God." She whispered while touching his cheek. Yongguk flinched with a hiss and looked at Eun Ah whose eyes were filled with worry.

"You okay?" His father asked in concern.

Yongguk nodded at both of them and turned to Kris who was still being restrained by Tao and Minseok.

"You need to stop hitting everyone or no one is going to save anyone." Minseok hissed.

Yongguk walked up to Kris and stared him down, "I know it's a hard call, but you need to look at this realistically. Are you really going to let your whole team die for her? Be logical. It's the life of one over the lives of nine. Including your own."

"I'm not going to let her die." He snapped.

Yongguk laughed, "Yeah, and I'm not going to risk the lives of two of the most important people to me just for you. You don't want her to die? Then you stay here with her and let us leave but don't take us down with you."

Kris's eyes widened and his body slackened in 's hold. Eun Ah chewed on her lip when she saw the way his body started to shake.

It was like his body was shutting down.

"Yongguk, maybe you should back off a little."

Yongguk didn't look at her but shook his head nevertheless, "No. Kris, some  of us have things we have to live for and honestly, so do you. You can't throw your life away for…for her. She'll understand. I doubt she'd want you and the rest of EXO M to die for her. "

He said the last two words softer than the rest and softened when he saw the sad look in Kris's eyes. He was just a man who fell in love at all the wrong times.

Yongguk couldn't imagine being in his position.

"Five minutes." Tao called out shakingly.

00:05:03:12

"No one's going to blame you Kris. It's not going to be your fault. There's nothing you or any of us can do, no matter how much we want to. We know that you want to save her, so does she. But we're in a gridlock. There's nothing to do but leave or die." Yongguk said softly.

Yongguk gulped in guilt when he saw the defeated look on Kris's face. Kris was caving in.

He hated having to convince a man to leave the love of his life to die, but he knew that there was no option that would result in all of them and Alice coming out alive.

Kris glanced at Alice whose tears were running down her face as she shook her head. Her shoulders were shaking as she thrashed around in the chair, but it did nothing.

"Let me talk to her, please."

Yongguk glanced anxiously at the timer.

00:04:30:20

They were cutting it close.

"Hurry."

Kris stumbled towards her, but Jongdae held an arm out to make sure he didn't get too close.

He looked at her while she sobbed loudly, shaking her head, as if she knew her fate.

"Baby. I'm so sorry. I love you. I'll always love you. I'm sorry I can't save you. I'd do anything to save you, I would've taken your place in a second, but I can't. I can't without you getting hurt. I failed you. Again. I couldn't protect you. You are my whole world and my life will never be the same without you. There will never be anyone else that I'd love as much as you. I'm so sorry. Please forgive me. I don't want to do this. Just know that." He croaked, his head throbbing and his eyes bloodshot.

00:03:00:09

Yongguk yanked Kris away, speed walking backwards. "We need to go. We don't have that much time left."

"I'm sorry Alice, goodbye." He whimpered.

The other members held back their tears. They had just got her back and now she was going to be gone, right in front of their eyes with nothing they could do about it.

Just as Kris started to turn away, a loud beep caught their attention. Everyone turned and gasped as Alice looked down at her chest.

00:01:00:00

The timer was speeding up.

"W-What's--what's happening? Why is it speeding?" Eun Ah stuttered as the numbers started to run down.

Yongguk looked in the rafters but saw nothing. "! RUN!"

But they barely made it to the door when the timer went off.

00:00:00:00

-----

But nothing happened.

Everyone froze when they heard the long beep, indicating the timer hitting zero, but it wasn't until they heard the sound of a chair screeching against the floor did they turn around.

"A-Alice?" Kris whispered.

The girl cracked her neck as she loosened the ties around her wrists. She rubbed the red skin before untying the rest of the rope, freeing her from her chair.

She tossed the bomb to the side before stepping out of the ropes that pooled around her feet and standing up.

They were all stunned as the girl wiped the blood from her lip off with the back of her hand before fixing her shirt to cover her chest. She pulled out a piece of cloth from her pocket and wiped the dirt off her face.

She looked unfazed.

And almost a little amused.

"Incredible. You really are just as pathetic and cowardly as I thought, Yifan. I mean, I always knew it, but seeing it first hand is amazing."

Tao looked dazed, "What's happening?"

"H-How?" Yixing breathed out.

Alice shrugged, "I kidnapped myself which wasn't that hard when I just walked out of your house, cut myself up a little…to make it look believable. Then I got a burner cellphone, set the timer, took a picture of myself, sent it to you, strapped a fake bomb with a remote controlled timer and just waited."

Everyone was speechless, "W-Why? Would you do that?" Soo Juk asked.

"I had to get you all here somehow and I wanted to see if my Yifan would really give his life for me…guess not." She said sweetly.

"Where's Ryu?" Yongguk snapped, his eyes suspiciously flickering around the room.

Alice snorted, "Ryu? You think that old bastard has anything to do with this?"

Eun Ah frowned, "But the voice…"

Alice lifted her right hand and pulled out a small remote. She pressed a button and the same distorted voice came to life.

"Let's not run out the clock, shall we."

"A recording, my dear. Technology knows no bounds. I have to