I am slamming my fist onto the door, shouting into the tiny crack of space.

“LET ME MEET MY SISTER!!!!!!!!” I yell as loud as I can.

I’m done being the nicely behaved girl. I’m being held up in this room against my will, restrained from meeting my sister and taken away from the only friends that I have. Isn’t that too much? I deserve to at least see my sister before I get shipped far, far away.

I kick the side table beside the bed, making as much chaos that I can to grab their attention.

I purposefully let a floor lamp crash onto the floor, breaking into a million shards.

Mr. Hyuk struts in. His jaw twitches slight at the sight of the commotion but does not let his facial expression betray him further.

“We’re keeping her away for her protection,” he states with an air of authority.

“Don’t give me that excuse!” I say, frustrated. I topple over another side table and it lands with a crash.

“Stop doing that or I’ll throw you into prison!” he threatens.

“Oh yeah?” I march up to him. As I’m shorter, I’m looking up to him when I am standing this close but I don’t waver. “Throw me in prison then. They’ll have to lock me up at the police station and I’ll be sure to shout the truth to everyone in there.”

He turns his gaze away to the window.

“You know how dangerous reporters are. How bad reputation can destroy a company in a second,” I mutter sternly before speaking gently. “Just let me see my sister…”

He stiffly turns his back on me.

“If you let me meet her…I’ll leave this place quietly. Just the way you asked me to.”

***

I can’t see a thing through this blindfold but there is not much to complain about. The choice was either to get blindfolded on my way to wherever they’ve hidden Hanna or never get to see her at all. I chose the former.

I am gently guided by a hand on my back but in one moment of carelessness, the person leads me into a glass wall.

“Ow!” I rub the sore spot on my forehead.

“Watch out,” he mutters blankly. Does he not see that he is the one who is supposed to be watching out for me? I don’t argue because I have wasted too much energy on destroying my hospital room.

He understands the irony of his comment though and now is leading me much more carefully.

“Here we are.” He closes the door behind me and I am left standing in the middle of darkness, not knowing exactly what I’m supposed to do.

“Hanna?” I call out doubtfully.

“Are you pretending to not see me or do you actually not see me?” she asks back.

“I – I really can’t see!” I exclaim, happy to hear her voice. “I’m blindfolded.”

“You can take it off now,” she mutters.

I pull it in one tug and see Hanna sitting cross-leggedly on the bed. Wounds are visible on her face and she’s connected to a drip.

“You look well,” she comments, filling the silence as I stare at her from afar.

“I’m sorry,” I apologize. My eyes fall from her stomach to the floor in regret. “I’m sorry about what happened. I shouldn’t have—”

“As long as we’re okay,” she cuts me off gently. “I heard about what happened from the police. What I don’t get why he wanted the book. Do you know why he was after the book though?”

Do I tell her?

Can I tell her?

“No clue,” I lie, crossing my fingers behind my back.

“What’s going to happen after this?”

“I’m probably going back to my hospital.”

“I don’t mean that.” She glances around carefully before continuing in a whisper. “I mean, after all of this, what’s going to happen to you?”

Concern is etched on her face.

“They’re sending me off to the countryside,” I tell her, biting my inner lip to try contain my disappointment. “They want me to live there till this dies down…or something. I don’t know. They’ve been caging me in the hospital and I’m not sure about what’s happening anymore.”

She hops off the bed and stands close to the window. “Is that what you want?”

“Am I even allowed to want anything else?” I wonder out loud. “I should be far away from you. I’m just…stirring up trouble.”

She slides open the window, breathing in the fresh air flowing in.

“You should leave…” she says quietly.

“What?”

“You should go out this window and leave YG’s grasp.”

I look at the back of her head that’s still looking out the window in shock.

“Are you serious?”

“I’m probably never going to debut soon but I’m in a contract with YG so I can’t leave even if I wanted to,” she points out sadly. “But you’re not and you don’t deserve to be tied down just because YG told you so.”

“But…” I remember how happy I was that YG brought me to their headquarters. The feeling of having a place to stay and a room to sleep in… “They’ve done so much for me.”

“Don’t be so emotionally attached, Youngmi,” Hanna warns. “That’s how you’ll get trapped.”

“But…”

“This is me not being selfish,” she says, tugging me forward. “Please.”

****

That was such a bad idea.

It was idealistic, thinking that jumping off a window on the second level would be easy, especially since I’m still recovering from a leg injury. Next time, I’m not listening to Hanna no matter how unselfish she acts. She is definitely not the best escape planner! Out the window? That’s the best she could offer for her sister who damaged her leg?

As I scramble up after falling from a roof on the first floor, I limp towards a taxi.

“You okay, dear?” the driver asks when I groan in pain as I take a seat.

“I have to be okay,” I reply, scrunching up my face.

 “Where are you heading?” he asks, looking at me from the mirror.

I’m blocked by a sudden wall now. Where exactly am I going? I belong nowhere now. 

Does anyone even care about me out there?

Then one clear name pops out in my mind...Jackson.

The door opens on my side and I shriek in surprise.

“Hi, just head here please,” this intruder hands over an address to the taxi driver.

“Yunhyeong?!” I say, surprised.

He smiles to me in response.