The weekend arrived without any fanfare. After the party Monday, things had become rather quiet around her apartment and in her day to day. Seungmin and Nayeon were getting along horribly well and, try as she might, she couldn’t get Nayeon to stop flirting with him. Seungmin had backed off at her request however. Mijoo was also still trying to get used to calling Chan every day. She had only almost forgotten to call him twice and the calls hadn’t gotten any less awkward. 

Mijoo cringed as she recalled the conversation the night before. She had called him as she was getting ready for bed and when he answered instead of his usual annoyed hello, he had said, “Now isn’t a good time can I call you back.”

She had stumbled over her words and was going to tell him that was fine when she heard someone wolf whistle in the background.

“Is that Mijoo?” A voice asked. 

Chan had confirmed with great reluctance that it was in fact Mijoo and then the voice in the background was telling him to put it on speaker. Mijoo sat in her bed petting Brian as she listened to the sounds of arguing between Chan and whoever else was there with him about why he wasn’t going to put her on speaker. Eventually the others with him had won out and that was when she discovered the other men in the room were Woojin, Hongjoong, and someone named Mingi.

Hongjoong had asked her what she was doing and when she had replied that she was petting her kitty while in bed, the room had erupted in giggles from Hongjoong and Mingi, or at least she assumed Mingi. She couldn’t picture Woojin ever giggling. Except the problem was she had no idea what they were laughing at. That was until Hongjoong spoke up, “Is that a euphemism darling?” 

“What? A euphemism for what?” She had asked which received another round of giggles and a heavy sigh from Chan. It took her brain a second to catch up and then she felt her face flush red in embarrassment. “Oh no! I have a cat! And I was getting ready to go to bed and he was laying here with me and I just-”

“It’s okay, sweetheart, it’s just not often we run across someone so…. Innocent,” Hongjoong reassured. “And Chan, how on earth did an insomniac like you end up dating someone who’s going to bed at 10:30 on a Friday?” The call hadn’t lasted much longer after that but it had been enough for Mijoo to want to go hide in a hole for the rest of her life. She was not looking forward to calling him today.

Seungmin had texted her earlier that morning telling her that he was going to be unable to go running with her and that if she still decided to go to call Felix or Jisung. Mijoo had absolutely no interest in seeing Jisung again and didn’t want to bother Felix so she decided to skip. Upon opening her fridge, however, Mijoo discovered that she would need to go to the grocery store instead; she had nothing to eat. 

The grocery store on the corner wasn't far from Mijoo’s apartment, so she figured a quick trip by herself wouldn’t hurt anyone, especially if no one found out she had gone by herself. Since it was a Saturday plenty of people were milling about shopping, trying to decide the best deal on meat or choosing between two different brands of rice. It gave Mjoo a sense of protection knowing there were so many people around. Picking up a basket at the front of the store, she began to peruse the aisles wondering if she would be able to splurge on ice cream or if she should just stick to the necessities. Growing up her family had always been well off. Her parents were both professors, experts in their respective fields, and there was plenty of money to go around. 

Thinking of her parents she wondered how they were doing. They were overseas in China teaching at some important university and had been there for about two years now. Mijoo made a mental reminder to call them later to see how they were doing. She was so caught up in her thoughts that she reached the front of the store before she realized that she had forgotten to grab the items she came in for, that meant she had to turn around and go back through again.

She was deciding between two different types of ramen when she heard someone call out her name. She looked up surprised and quickly looked around to see who had called her. That's when she saw the bright face of Jaehyun approaching her. 

“Jaehyun what are you doing here?” She asked, giving him a smile. She ignored the tiny whisper in the back of her head telling her that she needed to distance herself from him. 

“I was making something and realized I was out of a super important ingredient so I thought I’d pop over to the store. I didn’t know you shopped here.”  He said shifting his basket from one arm to the other.

“Oh, I live close by so this is usually my go to place,” Mijoo replied. 

“Well then hopefully I’ll get to see more of you here then. You haven’t come by the library in a while so it’s been pretty boring without you,” Jaehyun shared. Mijoo wished she could enjoy the fact that Jaehyun had missed her, but that tiny whisper in the back of her head was persistent. 

“Oh yeah, it has been a while. Life’s gotten a little crazy for me recently so I haven’t had time to come by,” Mijoo said, a growing feeling of discomfort settling on her.

Jaehyun nodded as if he understood exactly what Mijoo was going through, “Yeah, unfortunately college never gives us a chance to breathe. Hopefully when things start to get more normal you’ll be able to come around again.” Mijoo wondered if that was ever going to be possible. “Well I won’t keep you. I may have left my oven on, so I should get going,” Jaehyun said, giving her a guilty smile, before waving and heading towards the cash register.

Mijoo watched him go, feeling a little sad, but went back to the ramen trying not to think too much about it.  After she finished getting her groceries she paid at the register and began walking back to her apartment. 

She was halfway there when she suddenly had the oddest feeling she was being watched. She carefully looked around but saw no one. She continued on back towards her apartment, and the closer she got the more she felt like she was being watched. Mijoo was suddenly regretting not calling someone to go with her. As she stepped through the front doors of her apartment building a strong, unfamiliar cologne hit her senses. With everything in her screaming not to, she stepped further into the building. A man she had never seen before stepped in front of her, blocking her path. 

She stopped feeling unsure what to do. “Ex-excuse me,” She said, making to go around him, except he stepped in front of her again. Alarm bells were going off in her head, so she turned to leave the building hoping to find safety out in the sun. Instead, she was faced with a man leaning leisurely against the doors, blocking her escape.  The two men stepped closer and she tried to turn and run towards the stairs but something hit the back of her head, hard, and everything went dark.

Pain. That was the first thought that registered in Mijoo's mind as she came to. Her wrists were painfully bound behind her back and her head ached. What? What happened? I was at the store and then when I got back there was...there was someone waiting for me. Oh god. Where am I? She was afraid to open her eyes. The chair under her squeaked as she shifted causing her to freeze. She slowly opened her eyes and took in her surroundings. She was in a warehouse

There was a lot of old equipment laying around, long forgotten and now unusable. From where she was tied to the chair, she could see a long flat table just a little ways off. The floor was dusty, but that did nothing to hide the dried blood and scratch marks in the concrete. She tried to keep her breathing steady as she began to realize the situation she was in. She looked around the room for an exit, but couldn't see one. 

Just when she was about to assume she was alone a man stepped out from the shadows. It was one of the men who had been at her apartment, the one who had blocked her path. Without saying anything he raised his hand towards her face; she flinched back, but all he did was push a piece of her hair back behind her ear. The man opened his mouth as if to speak, but then a door, which she assumed was behind her, was slammed open and she heard someone else enter the room. The man quickly closed his mouth and frowned before moving away. The person who had entered came into her field of sight as he went to whisper to the other man. She could see that he was taller than the first, but slimmer. He had dark black hair pushed under a hat and wore a black tank top. If she had seen him on the street she would've thought him attractive, but here in this building she only felt fear. The two men talked to each other for a moment before the second man stepped back with a scowl on his face and the first man stepped forward. 

"I’m so glad that you’ve finally woken up. We’ve been wanting to play with you for a while," the man finally said, his voice deep, a sickening smile spreading over his face. 

"Oh, let's just get on with it, we don’t get that much time anyway." The second man complained, crossing his arms. 

"Shut up Jaehyo, she was mine first. I'll deal with her how I want to." The first man barked back, making her blood run cold. His? That didn't sound like anything good. She suddenly had frightening images play through her head of what they might do to her, her imagination running wild. 

The second man, ‘Jaehyo’ as he had been called, rolled his eyes but didn't argue. 

The first man stepped forward and caressed the side of her face. She pulled away in disgust causing the man to frown. "We’re going to have so much fun together," he said to her, his voice sounded excited like he had been looking forward to this for a while. 

"Le-leave me alone." She spoke. It was her first time speaking since she had woken up and it came out raspy and shaking. 

"Oh, but we can’t do that. We have a limited amount of time together you see, and we want to enjoy this as much as possible," the man, Jaehyo, told her . 

"Ch-Chan wont let you get away with this." Mijoo tried to say boldly, but it came out much more fearful than she wanted. 

The first man sighed as if disappointed with her response. "Do what you want with her Jaehyo, I’ll just watch." 

"You sure Jihoon? I thought you wanted to..." 

"Not anymore," the man named Jihoon interrupted. "Have your fun before the boss calls." 

Fear gripped her heart as she watched Jihoon grab a chair she hadn’t seen previously and sat down with his hands in his pockets, watching her. 

Jaehyo smiled at her and it made her want to throw up. "I'm going to enjoy this." 

Jaehyo pulled Mijoo roughly from her chair and cut the rope tied around her hands, dragging her to the table. She struggled against him as he picked her up and laid her down on the cold steel table, but it was all in vain. He was much stronger than he looked. She started screaming as he tied her arms down until he roughly clamped a hand over and sneered down at her. 

"Shut up ! I was told I can’t do any permanent damage, but you better not tempt me to cut out that tongue of yours, cause I would absolutely love to do that to you." Jaehyo told her sharply. Mijoo whimpered against his hand but stopped screaming. She felt hot tears gather at the edge of her eyes and fall down her face and into her hairline. 

Jaehyo removed his hand and finished securing Mijoo to the table. He then left the room for several minutes while Mijoo laid there shivering from the cold of the table and fear of what was about to happen. 

Jaehyo returned pushing a cart. When Mijoo turned her head to look, she saw several different forms of knives, branding equipment, and a lot of medical tools. She felt sick to her stomach as she looked at it all, the tears kept coming. 

"Where shall we start? The legs?” He asked, roughly grabbing just above the knee, causing Mijoo to give an aborted squeal. Mijoo closed her eyes as she felt his hand trail up her thigh, not wanting to watch what was about to happen. “The jeans are in the way, but we can get rid of those no problem. Or...what about the arms?” He asked again, his fingers moving to delicately trace down the underside of her arm which was exposed.  “No… No, I think I'll start with the stomach, more room to work." Jaehyo decided, sounding like he was simply talking about which takeout to get. Mijoo felt him roll the bottom of her shirt up to expose her stomach and felt his hands trail over her unmarred stomach as if he was an artist looking at a blank canvas. She opened her eyes as she felt his hand leave her stomach and began to whimper as she saw Jaehyo walk over to the cart, pondering over his many tools. After a moment, he picked up a wicked looking knife and held it up so it glinted in the light. Both Jihoon and Jaehyo smiled at the sight. 

Turning back to Mijoo, Jaehyo spoke up, “Well… shall we have some fun, honey?” 

After that, all Mijoo could remember was the sound of her own screaming, fiery hot tears, and the never ending pain. 

I'm extremely happy with how this chapter turned out! Ah I'm also super excited for the next chapter. I hope you liked it!

Much Love,

Ashton