31; Conclusion pt. II

There was only one memorable instance where Moon Jihye recalled she thought she was on the brink of death.

She was seven years old, at the water park with the Kim family on a weekend, and so intent on coaxing a cautious Taehyung into joining her on one of the more daring activities in the shallow pool gym, that she hadn't paid the slippery surface beneath her much mind. She had clambered down the slick white slope in search of the younger boy with extended arms and a dazzling white grin when her small feet gave way beneath her.

What happened next was far too startling to register at the time. Jihye slipped. Her body arched back in the form of a stiff crescent; the planes of her shoulder blades colliding with the hard floor, forcefully out the air in her lungs. The reaction was immediate. Alarm bells rang in her mind; shrivelled pockets in her chest refusing to expand to accommodate fresh air, and unforgettably, a paralysing fear at the prospect of being face to face with the unknown without warning whatsoever.

The memory was befitting of the teenager's current state. However, this time, there was no frantic Kim family rushing to her side to inspect and remedy her pain and fear. Instead, there was the dreadful pounding of her heart and quaking of her limbs she couldn't will herself to stop no matter how hard she tried. She felt a fear so intense, it seemingly replaced the resin in her bones with tremors that spread from her core out in frighteningly powerful waves that had her lose her footing more often than not.

If it weren't for the hands clutching her forearms at either side, she was certain she wouldn't have been standing at this point. And yet if it weren't for those very hands, Jihye wouldn't even be in such a sorry state of affair to begin with.

'Have you ever been in a helicopter before?'

The question summoned for the girl's attention, however Jihye was far from interested in his words. Kim Junmyeon turned, eyeing the girl's horribly dishevelled appearance with one sweep of the eyes, and listened carefully for the approaching buzz of the chopper with an amused smirk.

'Ah, my bad. You probably own a dozen,' he quipped, turning gracefully with a billowing arc of his coat. 'But that probably won't be the case when we're done with you. We'll give papa and mama Moon about a year to hand over every last penny in exchange for their beloved daughter. Sounds just dandy, doesn't it?'

Jihye's taut throat now accompanied a pained burning. She had cried so much within the past hour that she wasn't sure how her body was capable of producing any more tears for the occasion. She was exhausted. Spent. But most distinct of all, terrified.

'L...,' Jihye's windpipe threatened to constrict entirely; her voice low and dangerously hoarse, consumed by the sound of impending thunder in the form of powerful rotors slicing through the air overhead.

'Let me go.'

'Oh, I'm afraid it's too late for that now, dear.'

'Please. Please, I'm begging—’

The helicopter lowered itself after a moment of hovering idly over the warehouse; its entirety fitting snugly between the looming beams and other metal contraptions a necessary ingredient to the construction. The combination of her dry eyes and the great stirring of air the propellers gave rise to beneath them elicited a wince from Jihye, who shrunk as much as she could away from the commotion. Yet the only thing that greeted her instinctive withdrawal was the digging of nails into her arms.

The principal was unfazed; his eyes trained on the chopper that firmly planted itself meters away from them in the spacious hangar with unmasked intent. The rotor blades hissed with each cleave it dealt to the air upon slowing down, and noting a stillness gradually settle over the room again, Jihye cracked open her eyes.

However, she instantly regretted doing so.

'Ah, so noisy!'

Jihye's eyes widened at the sound of the familiar voice. Accompanying it was the sight of bronze hair snipped to perfection; every layer flicking up in the stray drafts that blew his way. The boy was clad in relatively ordinary clothing, but Jihye knew better than to assume they were priced as such.

As if feeling the concern, fright, and great confusion from her eyes in the form of desperately clawing hands for anything familiar to grab hold of, Byun Baekhyun’s head snapped in her direction.

‘Baek…’

The name escaped her, only to be met by a ground-shaking fear at the suit-clad form beside him: his father. There were little to no recollections of interacting with the older man whatsoever. The time she spent dating Baekhyun was time she could only now affirm amounted to a dream-like existence. He was a novelty in the school; an unattainable and yet sought-out figure she was once awfully proud of claiming was her companion.

And yet now as she watched both he and his father cross the threshold; their strides long and confident, save for some measure of irritation curling off the latter in minimal waves; and the more she attempted sifting through their time together, the more she found nothing existed in the first place. She could not recognize the faces she had at one point found familiar. And such bleak thoughts only uncovered a different level of panic that rose within her.

Wait, Baekhyun? What’s with this—why is he here? Why is his dad here too? What are they going to do with a helicopter? Do they know the Principal Kim’s behind this? I don't understand.

And yet the only thing holding her tongue was fear. Paralysing fear. She so desperately wanted to voice them, wanted to make head or tail of the events thus far, to plead frantically for her release once more given the chance, and yet the terror in her belly at the sight of how calm and collected they all seemed stirred like wet concrete.

‘Oh, you made it!’ the headmaster cried, beckoning them closer as the rotors of the helicopter reached a steady silence.

‘Well, chop chop. It’s about time we get moving before we garner some unwanted attention standing around this long.’

‘I doubt it, Junmyeon,’ the head of the Byun family commented; the smooth planes of his suit a fitting comparison to his velvety, however aged voice.

‘You’ve taken care of the vermin, I assume?’

‘Oh, you mean those cops and the skinny kid?’ the principal crooned, moving his head in one smooth rotation to glance at the men behind him on either side of their captive.

‘By the time they get out, the trail’s bound to be colder than that big blue ocean we’re headed to.’

The headmaster nodded in the direction of his henchmen, who at the sign of the vague action, shoved the girl forward without warning. Jihye stumbled forth on legs so stiff, she was surprised they didn’t snap like flimsy sheets of glass. Perhaps this would have been the perfect moment for her to attempt a getaway, but the thought quickly slipped through her fingers like sand. Alongside the terror that anchored her to the ground, Junmyeon's hand reached for her instead, yanking her small frame against his side before she had the time to respond; a wince barely making its way up her swelling throat.

'You two stand watch,' he barked after her, thereafter pulling the hostage in tow towards the stagnant chopper ahead.

‘It’s time we wrap this up, Miss Moon.’

Baekhyun watched the spectacle with little to no care for it. Of course, the first thing that struck him upon being dragged out of