Primary Song: Shinhwa- Sniper

Genre: Action, some romance

Characters: Ravi/ Female OC (Ahn Heeyeon)/ unnamed bad guy

A familiar set of heavy footsteps alerts me of his arrival, but I feign sleep and refuse to look up. I could almost imagine him stopping in front of my cell as he looked down on me in disdain. Then the clang of his foot hitting the cell doors startles me enough for me to stiffen in fear.

“Ahn Heeyeon,” the man- who I had nicknamed the Devil- drawls, “I know you’re not sleeping.”

My eyes flash open, angered by his attitude, and I look up to glare at him. I wish to retort, “Of course I’m not now. How could I when you woke me up?” but I swore to never waste a single word on him. So I stay silent, only glaring.

He tskes. “Still refusing to talk, Heeyeon? Surely you know that’s the only way you’ll get out.”

I still don’t respond. I can see him grow angry.

“Fine, don’t say anything. Rot in here for eternity for all I care,” he spits and spins on his heel to storm out, leaving me hungry and shivering in the darkness with only a mangy rat for company.

My captor’s visits are very irregular, which I hate because I never know when he’ll come. It really limits plans of escape. He may come a few hours after his first visit, or he may never come back until what feels like two weeks later. I’m not sure of the passage of time in this prison cell though. I’ve lost all sense of time since I was captured.

But one thing I am sure of is him being alone whenever he visits. So imagine my surprise when one day, another man pays me a visit as well.

“Hey, Heeyeon,” I hear my captor’s annoying voice say, “there’s someone who wants to meet you, though I can’t imagine why.”

After a particularly restless night of no sleep, I have no energy to turn around and face him, despite knowing the consequences that’d follow. A harsh clang of something- probably a fist- hitting the metal door followed by the door’s rattling doesn’t surprise me because I had expected that.

I hear whispering, though I can’t hear exactly what it’s about. Then,my captor lets out a gruff, “Fine. I doubt you’ll get a reaction from her though.”

The next thing I hear is an unfamiliar male softly greet, “Hey.”

I’m surprised because he sounds...friendly. Nice. Human. My eyes flash open before I can stop them. And it turns out to be a huge mistake.

“YOU! HOW DARE YOU-” the Devil roars, lunging at my cell. “YOU RESPOND TO HIM AND NOT ME?! ANSWER ME, YOU LITTLE-”

The new guy quickly moves to block the raging man and quietly says a few words to calm him down. And I’m trying to hold back the words, “I respond to him because he’s human, unlike you ” from escaping.

When the Devil finally seems to regain a little control over his temper, he takes deep breaths and glares at me. A chilling death glare. One that freezes me in my place.

“Fine,” he tells his friend. “I’ll leave.” He narrows his eyes. “But I’ll be back.”

With that threat lingering in the air, he leaves, as promised. And when he’s no longer in sight, I shiver. No matter how much I pretend I’m unaffected by him, deep inside, I’m terrified of him.

“I’m sorry about his behavior,” the newcomer interrupts me from my thoughts, and I turn to face him. He actually looks apologetic. “He’s not usually like that.”

“How do you know that?”

The man hesitates before admitting, “Because he’s my friend.”

“What? You? Him? Friends?” The words tumble out of my mouth before I can stop them. I quickly cover my mouth and bow my head in apology. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry. Please don’t tell him I said that-”

“Whoa, hey, it’s okay,” he says, alarmed. “I won’t tell him. Promise.”

My eyes widen at his promise. I begin to slowly lower my hands from my mouth, still staring at him as if he was an alien with his foreign act of kindness. Then, I immediately get suspicious of him. What if he was trying to “kill me with kindness” and I fell for it?

Noticing my suspicious look, he guesses, “You don’t trust me. I guess it’s understandable since you’ve been in his grasp for so long.”

I don’t say anything, still suspicious.

“Well, I’m Ravi,” he introduces himself. “And you must be Ahn Heeyeon, right?”

Alarm courses through me. How does he know my name? He catches the look of alarm on my face as well. “My friend told me,” he quickly explains.

Visibly relaxing, I give a small nod to show I understand. This Ravi guy seems to have nothing else to say. Instead, he looks at me with expectant eyes. What, is he expecting me to suddenly do cartwheels or something?

“How did you get caught by him?” he suddenly breaks the silence.

I ponder if I should tell him. After a long time thinking, I do something I haven’t done since I’ve been captured. “W-why,” my voice cracks, hoarse after not speaking for so long, “why do you want to know?”

Ravi looks thoughtful. “I’ve known my friend for a long time, and I’ve never known him to capture girls,” he finally says. “Well, not to be prisoners, anyways. Though I suppose in their own way, they are prisoners.”

Furrowing my eyebrows, I try to understand that last phrase. They weren’t prisoners but they were? Then what else would he capture girls fo-? Oh. OH. Ew. Gross. Okay. I shake my head in disgust. Ravi just watches me in interest and amusement.

“So, Heeyeon, care to explain?”

Again, my mind is in turmoil. To tell or not to tell. That is the question. I swallow a lump in my throat before speaking. “My father, he did something to your friend. I’m not sure what, but your friend sought revenge against my father. So he captured me. He keeps saying that I need to tell him the code or something, but I have no idea what he’s talking about,” I say helplessly. “So I’m stuck here forever because he’ll never let me go, even if I did tell him the code he wants, which I don’t have.”

Ravi nods slowly. “I see.”

He says nothing else, and the silence begins to gnaw at me. “Why did you want to see me?” I have to ask, having nothing else to say.

“He-” Ravi jerks his head in the direction my captor had left, “-had been insulting you because he was pissed about how you were useless, and I was curious what kind of girl would be brave enough to piss off my friend.”

“I- I wasn’t trying to be brave-” I begin to tell him, but he cuts me off.

“I know. I know that now, anyway.” He falls silent again, only intently looking at me. His staring begins to creep me out.

“Well, if you have nothing else to say, I’d appreciate you going away,” I say in the coldest voice I can muster, as proof of my desire to get rid of him.

Ravi only seems to be amused by my command. “You certainly are something, Ahn Heeyeon,” he muses quietly. I furrow my eyebrows, but before I can say anything, he stands up. “Well, I’m afraid I have to go now, but I’ll be back.”

I don’t call for him to come back. Why would I? After all, I had wanted to him to go away. But as I watch him walk away further and further from my dingy, cramped cell, I have an urge to shout his name, to have him turn around. Because I didn’t want the only person who treated me like an equal human to go away.

I’ll just have to trust his promise that he’ll be back.

Nighttime in Seoul meant the perfect time for terrible people to do terrible things.

One of the first things mothers teach their children is to never walk alone in the dark in the city of Seoul. They’d warn their children about the dangers that lurked around every alley corner.

My mother had warned me, of course. But I, being the proud, stupid person I am, discarded her advice as easily I’d discard an instruction manual. That led me to walk around the city at night after my job, only to be jumped on and captured by three thugs. Three big, buff guys versus a scrawny girl. How unfair is that?

But captor, did he care? No. He didn’t care that he was ripping me away from my life, my family, my friends, to become his prisoner for his sake. He didn’t care about my health that deteriorated with every moment I spent in one of his cells. He didn’t care at all.

The Devil's ugly face leered at me as he stalked closer, and closer, with a thick bat in his hand. My eyes widened as he swung the bat around-

“Heeyeon? Wake up,” a voice gently commanded me, and I jolted awake.

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