|ten;worrying|

The man, who was also the devil in a human's disguise, laughed maliciously as he bent down and picked up the fallen pocket knife.

"You're a smart one," he said to you with an evil grin, "I didn't know you would be this fun."

He held the knife out in front of you, and you stared into his eyes boldly, without looking scared at all. However, deep inside, you were completely terrified and was about to pass out from all the fear and anxiety that was building up inside of you.

At least die in a cool way, you thought to yourself with a determined look on your face, clearing your mind of all the possible evil things that the man could do to you. If it happens, it happens. You would have to just deal with it because it was your choice to come here by yourself, with no backup like an idiot. It wasn't like a movie. You didn't have a hero, nor did you have a secret police force waiting behind the doors to bust in to save your .

The criminal walked over to Heejin, taking his sweet time as he kept smiling at the knife in his hand. Leisurely, he turned Heejin's chair around, and bent down to her eye-level before speaking.
 

"Watch as I de-face your little friend," he whispered with a laugh following right after his sentence. You felt shivers make their way down your spine, but you had prepared yourself for what was to come. Die coolly.

He turned your chair around as well and was now crouched in front of you, his fingers doing some tricks with the small, sharp metal to show off that he was having a lot of fun. You tried to talk through your duct tape, but completely failed because you ended up making some random mumbles that were meant to be words. The man, thinking that you wanted to beg for mercy, smiled as he ripped the piece of tape off of your mouth a little painfully.

"Just kill me already," you groaned while throwing your head back slightly. "I could be doing much better things in the afterworld right now."

Heejin was terrified at your little statement; she thought you were a maniac. If the two of you ever got out alive, the first thing Heejin would do would be to put you in a mental ward.

"A little impatient, huh?" he asked after getting over his shock at your words, since he had expected you to be begging for your life. The playfullness in his eyes was gone as he hovered over you and yanked your head back by your hair.

You stared into his eyes and you must have been getting too deep into this "cool and brave" character, because you spat directly into his face, causing him to shut his eyes.

"Try me," you said.

Heejin stared at you in confusion and wonder, with a bit of horror. There was no way you were doing this for fun. There had to be something you were trying to do, because she believed that you weren't this stupid to be doing these things for no reason at all.

And she finally understood everything when she saw your arms struggling to get out of the ropes, pulling away harshly at each other multiple times before it finally broke with a small snapping sound that wasn't too loud for the criminal to hear. She held back her smile. You were free, and you did it while keeping the man completely unaware and distracted.

Speaking of the man, he slowly wiped his eyes with his hands before laughing eerily. His laugh was cut short as he now glared at you in complete fury.

The only thing you could think of at that moment was that the tan complexion of his face really brought out the death in his eyes.

"You little --"

All too suddenly, someone jumped into your rescue, literally. As a result of the jump-kick, the criminal slid across the floor with a groan and hit the half-crumbled wall of the burned building, dropping the knife on the floor while doing so.

"Hongbin," you breathed out in relief upon seeing the teen with jet-black hair hanging from his chiseled face. Yes, you may have decided to die coolly, but that didn't mean you completely gave up on life either, which was why you struggled to set your arms free. Because if there was a chance to survive, you would gladly take it.

Without a word, he bent down to untie the ropes at your ankles and you felt a wave of relief when the blood finally rush down to your poor feet that were cut off from all circulation.

"Let's go," he simply said before pulling you up from the chair and dragging you away by your wrist.

"You!" the criminal yelled as he ran up to you and forcefully pulled Hongbin's arm away from yours. "I advise that you leave her here unless you want to be in danger in the future."

"What a threat, I'm actually pretty scared," Hongbin replied monotonously as he yanked his arm out of the man's dirty hands and grabbed your wrist once again. He didn't seem to care about the threat as he continued to drag you out safely from the building.