~

죽어도 안 보내 널 품에 안을래

다시는 너를 놓치지 않아

떠나지마 난 어떻겠어

가지마 널 봍잡겠어

널 잃고 후회하는 바보가 되기는 싫어

기억해줘 니 곁을

내가 지키고 있을게

I won’t let you go, even if I die

I want to hold you in my arms

I won’t lose you again

Please don’t leave, what am I going to do without you

Don’t leave, I’ll hold onto you tightly,

I don’t want to forget you and regret it

Just remember that I will always be by your side

and protect you

~

“What are we supposed to do now?” Somi asked Woohyun. The two of them were sitting on the floor.

There was very little space for the seven people in the room. There was only one bed, which was queen-sized, and a small table with only two chairs.

Sungjong, Sungyeol, and Myungsoo were passed out on the bed. They fell asleep right away.

Jinhee was sitting on one of the remaining chairs. Somi didn’t know if she was awake or asleep, but her eyes were closed and she was breathing softly.

Dongwoo was sitting on the other chair as well. He was on his phone, which was almost dead, playing a game that didn’t require wifi. Of course, there was no signal in North Korea. He seemed too restless to sleep.

“I’m starving,” Woohyun whispered to Somi, not wanting to wake the others up. They needed their rest.

“Me too..” Somi said.

“I hope Howon is okay,” Woohyun sighed, and Somi nodded in agreement. She cared so much about Howon, and she didn’t want to imagine him getting hurt.

~~~

On another floor of the same building, Howon sat face to face with Sunggyu. They were in a cafe-like area, and Howon was sipping his vanilla latte while Sunggyu drank his black coffee.

“So,” Sunggyu said, looking straight into Howon’s eyes.

“Yes?” Howon stared back at Sunggyu, not intimidated at all.

“Tell me about yourself,” Sunggyu said, drumming his fingers on the table.

Howon knew that it wouldn’t be wise to try and punch Sunggyu, or even try to make any moves at the moment. He knew that he was in enemy territory, and he assumed that Sunggyu had his own defense. So he just sighed and didn’t say anything.

“Are you not going to speak?” Sunggyu asked. “I know you can talk.”

“My name is Lee Howon. I’m from Busan. I moved to Jeonju in high school. I’m born in the same year as Somi and Jinhee, and I’m Somi’s best friend,” Howon said stiffly.

“I see,” Sunggyu said. “Well, nice to meet you, Lee Howon. I’m Kim Sunggyu. I’m two years older than you, and you can call me hyung, if you’d like.”

Howon coldly looked at Sunggyu. “There is no way that I’m calling you ‘hyung,’ Kim Sunggyu-sshi.”

“Suit yourself,” Sunggyu said, taking another sip of his coffee.

“Who are you, anyways?” Howon asked, genuinely curious. “What are you doing here, and how did you get yourself involved with Somi?”

“That’s not what is of importance at the moment,” Sunggyu said. “The important thing right now is getting you guys out of here. Seriously, such nuisances. At first, I only had to save Somi, but now I have to save eight people? Nine, including myself?”

Howon sat, thinking.

“You’re going to save us?” Howon asked.

“Yes,” Sunggyu said. “And I have a plan. You’ll just need to trust me, it’s your only chance of survival.”

“I’m all ears,” Howon said, forced to blindly trust this stranger that sat before him.

“I have no choice,” Howon thought, as Sunggyu began to tell him his plan.

~~~

Somi heard a familiar sound. It was the same sound that she had heard not too long ago, the sound of the elevator moving up to her room.

The wall beside the entrance to her room slid open again, and out stepped Howon, who pulled a cart out behind him.

Somi couldn’t believe her eyes.

“Missed me, bestie?” Howon put on a cheeky smile and held open his arms for a hug.

Somi ran straight into his arms.

“Howonnie! I can’t believe you’re still alive! And you’re smiling as brightly as always!” Somi squealed, and Howon his arms tightly around her fragile figure.

“I won’t lose you again. I’m going to protect you.” Howon thought.

“Wow, when your own brother came, you didn’t even react like this,” Sungyeol rolled his eyes.

“HYUNG!” Sungjong yelled, running over to his older brother, tears threatening to spill from his eyes. He threw his arms around both Howon and Somi.

“I was so worried about you,” Dongwoo said, running over to Howon as well.

Pretty soon, everyone was in a huge group hug.

“What happened? How did you get here? Are you hurting anywhere?” Somi asked Howon.

“No.. I just woke up in a dark room, and I sat there by myself for what seemed like hours,” Howon lied. He didn’t tell the rest about how he talked with Sunggyu, or what Sunggyu’s plan for escape was.

“Then, all of a sudden these men escorted me to some sort of elevator. I stepped inside, and that cart was already in there,” Howon continued his lie and gestured to the cart that he wheeled out from the elevator.

“What’s in there?” Myungsoo asked, curious.

“Food!” Woohyun declared, after looking through the containers on the cart.

Myungsoo smiled for a second, but then his face turned dark.

“What if it’s poisonous?” Myungsoo narrowed his eyes, suspicious.

“Well, I’d rather have this than starve to death!” Somi ran over to the cart, starved.

There was two containers. One contained eight glasses of water, and the other container contained eight plates of ddukbokki. There was exactly enough for everyone.

“Ddukbokki!” Sungyeol exclaimed. Everyone was hungry, and they couldn’t wait to dig in.

“It doesn’t smell poisonous to me,” Dongwoo sniffed the rice cake, and bit into it, savoring the sweet and spicy taste.

Everyone ravenously gulped down their ddukbokki and drank all their water, but they were still hungry. The portion was just not enough to completely satisfy their hunger.

“I need to get my mind off of food or else I might just eat someone,” Woohyun joked, taking Dongwoo’s arm and pretending to bite it.

“Guys,” Jinhee suddenly spoke up. She had been quietly sitting for hours, not even speaking while she ate.

Everyone turned their attention to her at once.

“Do you want to know Sunggyu’s story?”

~~~

“Sunggyu and I were born into a high family. Our father was the attorney general of North Korea. Our mother was a noblewoman,” Jinhee began, and everyone listened intently.

“Sunggyu was trained since he was five years old in martial arts defense, war strategy, and weapon use. I was trained in coding, tracking, and martial arts as well,” Jinhee said.

“Our parents wanted the best for us, and they wanted us to become high up in the government as well.”

“Then, one day, it was revealed to our parents that they were being tracked down by special contract killers who worked for the South Korean government. Those contract killers were YOUR parents,” Jinhee gestured to Somi and Sungyeol, who looked at her with disbelief.

“Our parents?” Somi said, trying to remember the faces of her mother and father.

She hadn’t seen them since she was three years old.

“Umma and appa?” Sungyeol questioned. 

The images of his parents were more vivid in his mind than Somi’s, as he had been five years old when the two of them were abandoned.

“Yes,” said Jinhee. 

“Sunggyu was only about nine years old at the time. But he had been training for four years, and he had witnessed more gruesome deaths than a forty year old soldier might have seen.”

“And so, Sunggyu was given a mission to murder Lee Somi, the beloved daughter of the couple who was to kill our parents,” Jinhee said. 

“Killing Somi would cause Sungyeol to fight back, resulting in his death as well. Then, your parents, grieving over the loss of their only son and their only daughter, would walk right into our trap,” Jinhee explained.

“I don’t agree with my parents and the North Korean government at all,” Jinhee added. “They are sick, twisted, disgusting people who basically want to take over the world.”

Everyone was silent, and waited for Jinhee to speak again.

“Anyways, Sunggyu was never able to complete his mission. Something unexpected happened. He fell in love with the girl that he was supposed to kill,” Jinhee continued, and Somi began to tear up.

“So he was taken back to North Korea, and Lee Junho was sent in his place?” Myungsoo asked, and Jinhee gave him a thumbs up.

“Bingo,” she said. “And I cut off all connections with my home country after Sunggyu oppa got taken away. I didn’t want to be associated with them anymore.”

“I don’t know if either of our parents are still alive right now,” Jinhee quietly finished her story. “They are most likely dead. But then again, I thought Sunggyu oppa would be dead as well.”

“Do you think Sunggyu still cares about me?” Somi asked with a whisper.

Howon felt guilt. He wanted to tell Somi that Sunggyu said that he still cared about her, and that Sunggyu formulated a plan to help them escape. But he couldn’t.

He had made a promise to Sunggyu that he wouldn’t speak of the plan until given the signal.

“Sunggyu hyung, you better get us all out of here,” Howon thought. “I can’t be happy unless Somi is happy, and it seems like you’re the one who triggers her happiness. You’re the one that she loves, so please, don’t let Somi down. I’m trusting you to save her, and all of us as well..”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

*Author’s Note: HAPPY LABOR DAY TO THOSE WHO LIVE IN AMERICA! Three day weekend, woohoo! Because of the three day weekend, I was able to write a chapter and update this story. ^^