Minah opened her eyes and lifted her head from the shoulder she was leaning on. The sun was shining brightly as she heard the commotion of people and cars around her. Taehyung turned to her and smiled.

“Did you have a nice nap?” he asked, smile still on his lips, before turning his attention back to the book he had been reading.

Had the kidnapping all been a dream? They were sitting on a park bench in the city. When had they come out here? Why weren’t they in the woods?

“Taehyung, why are we here in public like this?” Minah began to panic as she looked around at the people walking by. No one was paying any attention to them. What was going on?

“What are you talking about? We always spend time here,” Taehyung’s eyebrows furrowed. She stood up, turning towards him but keeping her eyes on everything else but him, trying to understand what was happening and where they were.

“No, we don’t. We’re not supposed to be seen together. We’re not…”

Her eyes landed on the five men dressed in black approaching behind him. Without another thought, she pulled Taehyung to his feet and began to run.

Suddenly, it was dark around her. She looked back, seeing nothing. Where did Taehyung go?

What was going on?

It was cold.

So cold.

Minah’s eyes shot open and she sat up quickly, immediately regretting her decision when a headache began to pound at her temples. She groaned in pain as she lifted her hands to her now aching head, hoping that massaging it might help soothe the pain. Had they used some sort of propofol to knock her out?

Opening her eyes and sighing, she realized she was in, what looked like, a cell. However, looking around her, she seemed to be the only one. Aside from her breathing and movement, there were no other sounds. Was she really in jail? It looked more like a dungeon than anything else.

“Did you have a nice nap?” her eyes quickly searched for the voice, as her mind wandered back to Taehyung asking her the same question in her dream. Her eyes slowly became adjusted to light around the room and when she found the person the voice belonged to, her eyes widened. Taehyung was right after all, she thought as Kim Yongchul stood before her, arms crossed over his chest.

“What do you want with me?” she tried to keep her voice leveled from the anger and fear she felt.

“You know, if you had just followed my men quietly, you wouldn’t have that headache,” he ignored her question and pulled a chair towards the metal bars that kept her inside the cell.

“I’m not one to give up very easily,” Minah scoffed. As scared as she was, her anger was always stronger and her first instinct was always to fight back.

“Hm, so it seems,” Yongchul placed a hand on his chin. He seemed to be studying her.

“What do you want with me?” Minah repeated her initial question. hoping to get an answer this time around.

“Just a chat,” he seemed to contemplate the sentence himself as he continued to observe her.

“A chat,” Minah repeated, raising an eyebrow at him, “and you normally lock up all of those your wish to have ‘chats’ with?” she sat up straighter on the hard bed beneath her.

“When they’re criminals, yes,” he responded with amusement in his voice, this time studying her face to see her reaction.

“The only crime I’ve committed is standing up against people like you for the rights of humanity,” she rolled her eyes, crossing her arms across her chest.

“Is that what you’re told you’re doing? Your father seems to have brainwashed you well,” Yongchul chuckled.

“You’d know all about brainwashing, wouldn’t you?” Minah leered, not afraid of speaking her mind to him now, “It probably kills you that your son doesn’t think of us the way you do, doesn’t it?”

The mention of Taehyung sparked a certain anger in Yongchul as Minah saw his face harden. She didn’t know if it was because she mentioned him, in a way, confirming their relationship or if he agreed with her statement: that his son not having the same mentality as him bothered him. She felt her heart race, waiting to see what he would do or say in response. She saw him smirk and it was definitely not the response she was expecting.

“He’ll see it my way soon enough,” he sneered, “And you’re going to help him.”

“Excuse me?” she was baffled. There was no way she would ever agree to making Taehyung hate her the way his father did, “You’re insane if you think I’ll help you achieve that. Ever,” she spoke through gritted teeth.

“You might change your mind. Take a look,” he stood triumphantly and picked up, what looked like, a remote control from the stand near her cell.

He clicked on the television that was mounted on the wall. A security camera. Confusion filled Minah as she wondered why he was showing her the contents of his security camera.

“Mom, did Minah leave already?”

She heard her brother’s voice ring through the television speakers. That’s when she finally saw and recognized what was being recorded: her home. She saw Jungkook open the front door, backpack slung over his shoulder as he left for school. She quickly stood, walking towards the television, only stopping because of the thick rods keeping her in the cell. Her eyes began to sting and she quickly blinked back the tears that were threatening to fall.

“How dare you?” she whispered angrily, her eyes now full of hate as she peeled them away from the television screen and glared at Yongchul.

“Don’t be too afraid now. I won’t hurt them yet. I just need you to do a few simple tasks and then you’ll get to go back to them, not a hair touched on any one of your heads,” Yongchul’s smirk widened as he saw the defeated look in Minah’s eyes.

“Right, so you’ll send me home and then attack us, right?” Minah’s laugh was full of spite, holding on to the bars in front of her.

“Depends how well you do what I ask,” Yongchul shrugged.

“And what exactly am I supposed to do?” she didn’t want to hear the answer. She knew it fell along the lines of hurting of Taehyung in some way.

“I’m sure you have a gist of what I’d like you to do. But to be more specific, betray Taehyung. I don’t want you to just hurt him and give him a little heartbreak. If you want to keep your family safe, make him despise you. If you want to ever see your parents and little brother again, make him seethe with anger whenever he thinks of you. That’s how much I want you to make him hate you,”

“You’re disgusting,” Minah spat, her grip tightening on the bars.

She wasn’t angry anymore; she was furious. She assumed that this was the kind of feeling that he wanted Taehyung to feel towards her. The only problem with his plan was that Taehyung wouldn't react the way his father expected. She knew Taehyung well enough to know that he wouldn’t even hate her that much. He was too kind-hearted, too loving, too understanding to be able to hate someone as much as his father wanted.

“Do you even know your son at all?” she narrowed her eyes at Yongchul. He seemed taken aback at her statement. He had clearly expected more cries of hate and anger.

“That’s not the question at hand --”

“But it is,” Minah cut him off before he could add anything else, “he is nothing like you. You’re so full of anger and hate and he is just the complete opposite. You want me to break up with him. You want me to try and break him so bad that he turns into you? I don’t even know if that’s remotely possible and you clearly don’t know him well enough if you think I can do that.”

Yongchul seemed to be thinking about Minah’s words as he looked at her, narrowing his eyes. If he was feeling at all insulted by them, then she had done what she meant to do. Getting that kind of reaction out of Taehyung was close to impossible. It would be easier for them to make her feel that way. And maybe that’s why, she thought, they fit so well together. They balanced each other out.

“Then you leave me no choice,” Yongchul changed the channel on the TV to a news station and placed the remote back down, moving the chair back to it’s place as well.

“What are you talking about?” her eyebrows furrowed as he began to walk away.

“You’ll understand soon enough,” he turned and gave her a smirk before disappearing through the doors.

Minah was confused but her mind began to race to all the possibilities that he could do. What she didn’t understand, however, was why the television was still on. Was he giving her something to do while she was locked up?

Sighing, she returned to the bed and sat down, holding her head in her hands. How was she going to get out of this mess? Her family was going to be so worried. They would probably have a search team out soon looking for her.

“We just received some startling breaking news! It seems the government has finally moved a step forward in catching the Rebels and prosecuting them! Jeon Minah, daughter of a Rebel leader, has been caught and incarcerated for being found out of Rebel territory and searching for intel on government information.”

“Oh no,” Minah whispered as she stared at the TV in horror. It now made sense why he changed it to that channel. He wanted her to see the lies he could create and spread to the world. She saw a photo pop up from the night before with Taehyung, taken at an angle where only her face was shown.

“Here we see her communicating with a Privileged. We have not found clues on who the boy is, however we are certain information was being transferred between them and then on to the Rebel leaders. The impending war seems to be much closer than we all imagined.”

With that, the news moved on to other headlines as Minah sat in shock. Taehyung’s fear of being made out to be a traitor was now to her, except that she’s always been a Rebel and they’ve made her out to be an information seeker. She hoped that her family wasn’t watching the news. She hoped that no one saw the news, but that wasn’t realistic. Someone was bound to see it and pass the information on to her father. And she was certain he would take the bait.

She let out a shaky breath as she finally felt the tears she had been fighting run down her cheeks. None of this was ever supposed to happen. She pulled her knees to her chest and buried her face in her arms and knees. How could everything turn for the worst in a matter of days?

---

“What’s up, Jimin?” Taehyung spoke into his phone as he made his way to the living room and sat on one of the couches.

“Turn on the news right now,” Jimin’s voice was urgent and so Taehyung quickly reached for the control, turning the channel to the only news station available.

His mouth fell open in shock when he saw Minah’s face on the screen.

“Wha…” he breathed out as he listened to them speak her name and accuse her of lies.

“That’s exactly what I said. My parents are saying this is some way to incite the Rebels to start the war? Where is she?” Jimin whispered the question.

“I don’t know, but I’m going to find out,” Taehyung spoke low but angrily.

“Wait for me, I’ll help you find her,” Jimin sounded as though he was walking quickly and Taehyung heard his parents talking and laughing in the background.

“You don’t have to; I know who took her,” he felt his anger boiling as he thought of his father. He couldn’t help his mind racing to all the ways he could have taken her. To all the things that could have been done to her.

“You do?? Really??”

“Yeah, my father,” Taehyung said as he heard his father walk through the front door, “I’ll talk to you later.”

He heard Jimin begin a sentence but he hung up and took a deep breath, trying to calm himself before approaching his father. He saw Yongchul place his briefcase down and his mother, Mikyung, went to greet him at the door. He didn’t care anymore that more people shouldn’t know about him and Minah being together. Everything was spiraling downwards anyway.

“Where is she?” he spoke through gritted teeth as he approached his parents, glaring daggers at his father as his mother’s face filled with worry and confusion.

“Taehyung, we will talk about this later,” Yongchul smiled at his wife, who took a step back, looking from her son to her husband.

“Talk about what? Who, sweetie?” she turned her attention to Taehyung, placing a comforting hand on his shoulder.

“Minah, where the hell is she? I know you’re the one who took her and spread those lies about her,” he kept his eyes on his father.

“Minah? The Rebel girl from the news?”

“Taehyung,” his father warned.

“What? You don’t want to look too much like a cold-hearted in front of Mom? Don’t want her to know that when you found out that Minah and I are together, you threatened her and then kidnapped her?”

He felt a sharp pain on his cheek and heard his mother gasp, her hand quickly covering the stinging. Taehyung laughed lightly as he placed his own hand on his mother’s, removing it from his face, his eyes still full of fire when he looked at his father.

“Yongchul, what is wrong with you?!” Mikyung hissed, pulling Taehyung away from Yongchul and keeping a protective arm in front of him.

“Don’t get involved in this, Mikyung, please --”

“It’s too late for that now. Taehyung, you and this Rebel girl are involved somehow?” Mikyung turned her attention her son.

“Yeah, we are. And now he’s holding her hostage somewhere because he wants to get rid of Rebels and doesn’t care who gets hurt or not. Clearly it’s the government before anyone’s lives, I guess,” Taehyung spat.

“How about we go sit in the living room and talk this through?” Mikyung suggested, looking to both men in front of her with pleading eyes.

“I just want to know one thing,” Taehyung began and looked to his father, “Did you hurt her?”

Yongchul looked at him as if he were at a loss for words. Of course, the answer to that question was that he didn’t hurt her, physically anyway, but Yongchul couldn’t understand how Taehyung didn’t know the answer.

“I tried so hard to convince her that you weren’t the kind of person that she thought you were. Maybe I was wrong this whole time…” Taehyung said quietly.

“Son…” Yongchul began but Taehyung shook his head, not wanting to listen to any more of his father’s lies.

“Where is she?”

“Taehyung, you don’t understand--”

The doorbell rang behind his father and his mother almost sighed in relief. She quickly reached for the door and opened it, revealing a smiling Jimin.

“Hi!” he said happily and peered inside, seeing the serious expressions of Taehyung and his father.

“Jimin, come in, dear,” Mikyung said.

“Oh, no, Taehyung and I were gonna go hang out, weren’t we, TaeTae?” Jimin said, quickly giving Taehyung a ‘you-better-get-out-here-now’ look.

Taehyung rolled his eyes and grabbed his jacket from the coat rack, walking past Jimin but pulling him along by his arm as well in the process.

“Bye!” Jimin waved to Taehyung’s parents and quickly turned to face forward, pulling himself out of Taehyung’s grasp.

“Please tell me you didn’t do anything stupid,” Jimin asked.

“I confronted my dad and now my mom knows too,” Taehyung responded, the anger could still be heard in his voice.

“What happened next?” Jimin inquired.

“You came,” Taehyung looked to Jimin, half annoyed but half thankful because he had no idea what he would have done or said.

“So what’s this?” Jimin poked Taehyung’s reddened cheek, who winced from the slight sting.

“The result of confronting my dad, I guess. Jimin, why are you here? I told you you didn’t have to come,” Taehyung stopped walking once they were far away enough, facing Jimin.

“I did a little digging and I think I know where she might be. I know a guy who knows a guy who works for your dad…”

“You realize how shady that sounds, right?” Taehyung raised a brow, crossing his arms across his chest.

“I know, I know. But I-I can’t be more specific than that…” Jimin stammered, looking down at his hands.

“Park Jimin, you’re my best friend, I trust you,” Taehyung chuckled and pushed him lightly on the shoulder, receiving a sigh of relief from Jimin.

“Okay, then we have to move quick. Let’s go save your girl,” Jimin smiled and began leading the way.

“If she hasn’t somehow saved herself first,” Taehyung laughed, quickly following behind.

---

“Damnit,” Minah muttered as she failed once again trying to unlock the gate that would free her.

She sighed with annoyance and sat on the floor, staring at the lock and then to the bobby pin in her hand. She had done this countless times before and succeeded. Why was this lock so different?

“Okay, Minah, let’s do this,” she whispered to herself, pulling herself back up and getting to work on the lock.

The TV continued to show news stories after the news of her sudden fugitive status. She learned to block it out as she had sat on the bed, thinking of what her father might do. It was then that she realized that she had to find a way out before anything else happened.

The bobby pin in her hair was the only thing she could use to try and free herself. There was no point in moping around. She had to do something.

After trying to unlock it for 10 minutes and not getting anywhere close, Minah let out a frustrated groan and kicked the gate.

“Are you sure this is the right place?”

“I’m positive.”

Minah heard voices and one that specifically sounded awfully like Taehyung. But one thing she knew was to not trust herself in times of desperation. She quickly placed the bobby pin back in her hair and moved to hide in one of the corners of the cell. She didn’t know who they were, but if they weren’t sure they were in the right place, she didn’t want to be seen.

“Minah? Are you here?”

Now she was sure, it had to be Taehyung.

She slowly peeked out of the side of the cell and there stood a perplexed Taehyung looking around the room with Jimin next to him.

“Tae,” she sighed in relief, walking out completely.

“Minah!” Taehyung ran to the bars with fear and relief in his eyes.

“Please tell me you have a key or something to get me out of here,” Minah held his hands through the bars.

“No keys, but I did borrow this from my dad,” Jimin spoke up and they both turned their attention to him. He had, what looked like, a large gun in his hands.

“Jimin, how did you even find that?! That’s top secret weaponry!” Taehyung was shocked.

“What is it?” Minah was sure it wasn’t a regular gun now judging by Taehyung’s reaction.

“A freeze gun!” Jimin said excitedly, “I’ve never used it before, but I’ve read about it and it can’t be that difficult.”

“How will a freeze gun get me out of here?” Minah crossed her arms across her chest and furrowed her eyebrows.

“Well...it’ll turn lock into ice and with some force, we’ll break it and bam, you’ll be out!” Jimin still had a smile on his face.

“Stand far away,” Taehyung warned Minah nervously as Jimin went towards the lock.

Jimin clicked a few buttons on the gun and pointed it towards the lock and with a pull of the trigger, white dust shot out and clung onto the lock. He stopped and pulled back once the lock was completely covered in it and within a few seconds, the lock had, just as they said, turned into ice.

Taehyung grabbed a stool that was in the room and walked towards the lock.

“This better work or else we’re screwed,” he muttered before slamming the leg down on the lock.

The lock shattered and fell to the ground. The three of them stood there, shocked that it actually worked the way that had hoped.

“Wow,” Jimin whispered and looked at the gun in his hands.

Minah pushed the gate open and walked out as Taehyung pulled her into a tight hug.

“I was so scared something bad had happened to you,” he whispered into her ear before placing a kiss on the side of her head.

“Your dad’s an but he didn’t hurt me,” she reassured him, pulling back to give him a smile.

“I --”

Taehyung was cut off by the television blaring a siren. They all looked up to it with confusion and shock.

“Isn’t this the?” Jimin began, walking to stand next to Taehyung and Minah, eyes glued to the TV.

“Emergency siren?” Taehyung finished and they all looked to each and back to the television.

“With great regret, I must report that we are under attack.”

The news anchor’s voice shook with fear and the three of them gasped.

“Please find your way to the nearest shelter as quickly as possible. Our sources tell us that anger was sparked in the Rebels at news of their leader’s daughter being incarcerated for her actions.”

Minah took in a shaky breath thinking of her father leading the Rebels into the city.

“I repeat, we are under attack. Find your way to the nearest shelter.”

The TV went static and silence fell among the three.

The war they had all heard was near but never thought would happen any time soon.

The war that terrified everyone who thought about it.

It had begun.