“Let me in! Let me see her!”

            I opened my eyes. My head hurt like a little , and I struggled to see straight as I tried to assess the situation in my head.

            “Taemin, shut the hell up. You know I can’t do that.”

            Taemin?

            “Tao, have you forgotten what I’ve done for you? Thanks to me, Exo is in the process of coming back from the dead. Who is responsible for your Audi sitting outside? Huh?”

            Tao sighed. “Fine,” he growled.

            The door opened, the light came bursting in. Standing on the top steps was Taemin.

            My eyes widened. For some reason, when I thought that I would see him again, I expected to see him starving, in rags, with dirt on his face or something.

            But Taemin looked fine. He was well-groomed, didn’t smell, and if anything he looked exactly the same as when he left but with longer hair.

            “Hyemi,” he said as he ran towards me. He took me in his arms, but I stayed stiff. Why was I so stiff? I haven’t seen him for months, I should’ve been crying hysterically and gripping onto his shirt and everything.

            But something told me that he wasn’t in as much despair as I thought he would be.         “What is going on?” I asked. “Where’s Jackson? Where’s…” Where’s Kai?

            “Don’t worry,” Taemin said, his hands on my cheeks. “I’ll get you and Jackson out of this.”

            Taemin took me out of the room. Based on the abundance of men in black that scoured the area, it didn’t take much for me to realize where I was being taken to. Or, I guess, who I was being taken to. I wondered what Taemin had up his sleeve, I wondered if I would even make out of this alive.

            But most importantly, I wondered if Kai was okay.

            We rounded a corner, then through a pair of steel doors. It led to a large, openly spaced room, where Kim Suho was standing. He looked rather short, but the pristine features on his face made it obvious that he had things done. There was a dangerous glare in his eyes and for a second, I doubted my chances of making out of this mess alive.

            Tao grabbed my arm and practically threw me in front of Suho, so hard that I fell on my knees. Taemin stood where he was.

            “HEY, YOU STAY AWAY FROM MY ROLEX.”

            I turned around and spotted some other men dragging Jackson in. He spotted me and shrieked, “What the hell is going on?! Wait, Taemin? What are you—“

            “SHUT UP,” one guy said as he threw Jackson onto the floor beside me.

            “Hmm,” Kim Suho said, a strand of blonde hair dangling in front of his eyes. “We’re missing one person.” He eyed me with an evil smirk.

            One more person was brought in. He looked sleepy, hungry, and his face had bruises all over it.

            “KAI!” I shouted.

            Kai didn’t even respond to me. He hardly even looked at me as Tao threw him over next to me and Jackson.

            “Ha, look at that,” Suho sneered. “He can’t even look at the one he’s betrayed.”

            “Don’t hurt her,” Kai growled. “Don’t even touch her.”

            “But doesn’t she have the right to know? How you’ve been using her this entire time for my own benefit?” Suho asked innocently.

            “What?” I asked.

            Suho must’ve known how confused I was, and he sure didn’t hesitate to give me an explanation. “Kim Minseok,” he started. “The last great president of Exo. I was, of course, his VP. I could’ve easily helped him save the company. But did he let me? No.”

            “You wouldn’t have done ,” Jackson growled.

            Suho sighed. “Instead, that idiot left all of the remaining shares to Lee Taemin, an eighteen-year-old who doesn’t know smack about the industry.”

“I was his mentee,” Taemin barked. “Of course he would leave it to me.”

“Hyemi,” Suho continued. “Do you know how it feels to have someone doubt you? To have your trusted president and supervisor hand over a whopping 5 million dollars to someone who doesn’t even know how to use it?”

            “Knowing you,” I said. “You would’ve only taken it for yourself.”

            “On the contrary,” Suho said. “Now in actuality, that little boyfriend of yours was being smart. He wanted to salvage Exo and merge it with Shinee, but how would that make us look? We’d look like the pitiful ones, the one who needed help. Now, I have an ego to protect and so does the entire company. Taemin seemed to know this also, so that’s why he left in secret. He went missing because he saw an economic opportunity. How does that make you feel, Hyemi?”

            I looked behind me over at Taemin, who was staring at me with pleading eyes. This entire charade had been for capitalistic means. He’d broken my heart and made me suffer for his own financial gains. I didn’t know what to think.

            “But anyways, that was Taemin’s story,” Suho said, waving it off with a hand. “I’m sure you’re much more interested in…Kai.”

            Kai didn’t say anything.

            “I got lucky, actually,” Suho went on. “I was with some of my henchmen downtown when I walk by a ramen restaurant and who do I see? A boy who looks so much like the infamous Lee Taemin. And also, a boy who was in need of money. Big money. So I took him in. I gave him a mission: to find out where that little boyfriend of yours hid my 5 million.”

            “For the umpteenth time it is not yours,” Taemin muttered in the back.

            “Unfortunately, the boy seemed to be getting too emotionally attached to his mission. And since he disobeyed my orders, I now have no choice.” Suho got up and brought himself down so that he and I were face to face. “Tell me where the money is,” he growled.

            “I-I don’t know,” I replied.

            “YES YOU DO,” Suho cried, losing his patience. Then he raised a hand and slapped me across the face.

            “HYEMI!” Taemin said as he ran over to my side. He glared at Suho. “You said you wouldn’t hurt her.”

            Suho shrugged. “She wouldn’t tell me where the money is. Which reminds me, why are you so free to move wherever you like?”

            “Because I’ve been helping you rebuild your company,” Taemin replied. “We had a deal.”

            “No,” Suho said, shaking his head. “You thought we had a deal. But we really don’t. You are still under my command.”

            “What?”

            “Grab him,” Suho commanded.

            “After all I did for you,” Taemin growled. “DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH I’VE HELPED YOU?!?!”

            “And so you have,” Suho replied calmly. “Not like I ever asked for it but hey, you offered.”

            “Idiot,” I heard Jackson mumble. “Do you really think helping Suho would help you get yourself out of here?”

            “It was worth a try.”

            “Yeah, and stupid one at that,” Jackson barked. “Do you know how much time Hyemi wasted worrying about you? Instead of trying to land a future business deal that even a snail knows would never work, you should’ve been focusing on getting OUT. Now look what you’ve gotten us into. You couldn’t have just given him his money?! Don’t you know kidnapping 101?! 5 million is nothing to people like us.”

            “The money wasn’t his to take!” Taemin argued. “Minseok trusted me with every last bit he had. How could I have let his company go down into ruins?”

            Jackson glared at him. “Some things are better left dead. I don’t think you know how much emotional pain you have caused everyone.”

            Suddenly, there was a loud bang outside. Suho cautiously raised a brow.

            “Tao,” he hollered. “Go see what that is.”

            “Yes, boss.” Then Tao left.

            But Suho already seemed to know what was going on. “Hmm. Looks like we have some unwanted visitors. Throw them all into the room at the very top. We’re all going to be in for quite a show.”

            The rest of Suho’s henchmen grabbed the four of us and dragged us up a flight of stairs, then threw us into a barren room with empty boxes and plastic. I recognized one of the guys to be the “doctor” from the hospital.

            “Why are you putting us here?” I asked the henchmen. “What’s going on?”

            The imposter doctor smirked evilly. “Some idiot called the police.”

            Then they left, locking the steel door behind them.

            Taemin was already in action. “Hyemi,” he said. “I’ll explain everything to you.”

“What is there to explain?” I asked. “You left me. You left everyone and didn’t tell anyone where you were going.”

“If Suho knew that I was still keeping in contact with people, he wouldn’t have trusted me,” Taemin said. “Please Hyemi. Please understand. I never meant to hurt you. And I sent you those texts, remember? I wanted to tell you what was going on and I tried to the best of my ability.”

“That wasn’t enough. I was dying without you.”

Taemin ran his fingers through his hair. “Let’s talk about it later. I’ll find a way out of here,” he said as he got up on his feet and searched around the room.

            So while Taemin started working an escape plan, I took the chance to go over to Kai.

            “Hey,” I said.

            He finally looked at me. Then his eyes went over to my burning red cheek. “I couldn’t protect you,” he said.

            “It’s okay. It doesn’t even hurt. I’m stronger than you think I am,” I said.

            “Why aren’t you mad at me?” Kai asked with a pathetic scoff. “Suho told you everything. I’ve been using you, keeping you away from Taemin.”

            “I know. I knew even before he dragged us here.”

            “Then why are you still talking to me? Leave me here. Go.”

            “I can’t,” I said. “You know I can’t. And don’t you remember? I said I would never leave you.”

            “Hyemi.”

            “You’re someone who only comes once in a lifetime,” I said, gazing deep into his chocolate brown eyes. “And I’m glad you came to me. Alright?”

            Kai’s lips broke out into a smile, which made me smile. This was hardly the time to smile about anything, but I realized that I really did trust him, same as I had during our motorcycle ride. I trusted the memories that we had together, everything that we’ve done. Suho may have spilt everything to make me mad, but I wasn’t going to be so stupid. I knew the circumstances. Kai had done everything to support his mother’s medical bills, to support him and her as a whole. What Taemin did was much worse.

            “I was struggling financially,” Kai began to explain to me. “And he came to me with large sums of money, telling me that all I needed to do was follow you around and get close to you so I could figure out where the shares were.

            “But then I got too attached. He knew that I was, and he knew that my loyalty to you was too dangerous for him. He convinced me that things could get out of hand if I did not regain my loyalty to him, so I broke things off with you and that was why I left. But I couldn’t stay away from you, Hyemi. Things got too serious, and he was getting impatient. He had this hunch that Taemin hid the money in a sacred place. Then he thought back to you and he wanted me to find out where you two had your first time, because that’s where he believes the money is. But I couldn’t reopen your wounds like that, not after how hard you tried to put Taemin behind you. Suho gave me an ultimatum. I chose you.”

            I thought back to all of the times where he just disappeared, to the night in the rain where he told me that I couldn’t love him because of who he was. I gazed at him now, and traced my fingers along the bruises on his face, on the scars that I wished I could heal.

            “We’ll find a way to pay him back for this,” I said. “I know we will.”

            “Hyemi,” Taemin suddenly barked. “Come here.”

            Kai, Jackson, and I went over to where Taemin was standing. “We can go through the vents, which will lead to the roof, where a pack of parachutes is hidden. We’ll float down to the bottom, then escape.”

            “And you’re sure Suho doesn’t know about this?” I asked warily.

            “Hyemi,” Taemin said reassuringly. “The guy may be a psycho but he’s not that smart. By the way, who called the cops?”

            “My roommate,” Kai said. “Kyungsoo. He felt like something was going to happen when I told him that I wouldn’t…”

            “Wouldn’t what?”

            Kai looked over at me. “When I wouldn’t use Hyemi to find out where you two had your first time. I couldn’t risk hurting her like that.”

            Taemin practically groaned from across the room. He went over to me and grabbed my hand while Jackson was still peering around the place in goosebumps. “C’mon. Let’s get out of here.”

            Tick. Tick. Tick.

            We all heard it.

            And the scary part was, we had no idea where it was, or how long before it would go off.

            Suho hadn’t just cooped us up in here just so he could deal with the police, no. If anything, perhaps he’d even told them off, that nothing was wrong, “Officers, nothing to see here”, and with his connections to the elite I wouldn’t even be surprised.

            No, he’d cooped us up in here to annihilate us all. The place was rigged with bombs, and we wouldn’t know when they would strike.