“Are you ok?” I could hear Taehyung’s voice clearly, but my attention was focused more on the fact that the room was filled entirely by darkness.

My voice felt restricted in my throat, but I repeatedly tried opening my mouth hoping that at some point words would flow out.

There weren’t many things I feared. Bugs weren’t a big issue for me, neither were ghosts, or anything else like that. The one thing that scared me the most though was the dark. I suppose it was a fear I never quite grew out of.

“Lee Rian are you ok?” Taehyung’s voice came again, but this time it was closer to me. I could hear shifting around me so I found it safe to assume he was searching for me.

The last thing I remember was him tackling me out of the way before a part of the ceiling fell through, but I wasn’t sure how we had gotten separated.

I managed to get a strangled sound out of me. “Rian is that you? Are you hurt anywhere?” He was somewhere in front of me I could tell. Without thinking twice I jumped forward on my hands and knees reaching out to an abyss of darkness.

My fingers came in contact with something firm. A pair of arms quickly wrapped around me before I could lose balance. “Rian!” Taehyung’s voice was right in my ear, but it felt as though my heart was on the verge of exploding.

“Is something wrong?” My body was frozen in his arms, and it took nearly all my energy to shake my head. It felt as though I were moving through tar. It was then I realized though that he probably couldn’t even see me.

I let out a haggard breath before letting my forehead fall against his chest. He was most likely kneeling in front of me. Once again I shook my head, but against his chest in hopes that he would be able to tell what I was doing.

Luckily he grasped onto what I was trying to say. “You don’t seem ok are you hurt somewhere? Why can’t you talk?” All I could do was shake my head again. I hated to admit it, but I was deathly afraid of the dark.

A gruff sigh made his chest raise and fall. “Never mind then. Don’t worry I’ll get us out of here just stay close to me ok?”

He suddenly stood up leaving me. Almost instantly I rose and grabbed onto him, not wanting to lose him in the darkness again. My fingers wrapped around his uniform blazer.

Despite his comforting words my heart was still hammering against my chest. The darkness made me squint my eyes as they tried to adjust to the dark. I wasn’t sure how Taehyung was planning on navigating us out of there.

Before he actually started walking though his hand circled around his waist. “I told you to stay close not hold onto my jacket.” His hand encircled around mine.

Finding a sense of comfort in his hand wrapped around mine I managed to crack out a sentence. “Maybe you should have been more specific than.”

A light chuckle filled the dark room. “That’s more like the Lee Rian I know.” My grip on his hand unconsciously tightened. “Shut up.”

With a firm grip on my hand he began to slowly make his way out of the karaoke room. I was practically attached to his back. Every few moments he would halt causing me to bump into his back.

“Be careful here. I think this is what fell from the ceiling.” He pulled me close as we walked around whatever fell from the ceiling. He didn’t allow me to get near it just in case. My foot though ever so slightly kicked the hard surface of something.

The sudden cold object made me wince. Taehyung’s back stiffened against my palm. “Are you ok?” I squeaked out a yes.

He took a deep breath and I could feel his hand wrap further around mine as if he needed reassurance that I was still there. “I don’t fully understand what’s going on with you-”

“The dark.” My voice came out restricted by my throat muscles. The only thing urging me to push out my words was his hand tightly holding onto mine.

We continued navigating through the room, but it took longer because of how cautious we had to be. “You’re scared of the dark. I see now.”

He paused again making me walk into his back. His hand whipped around to wrap around my waist, balancing me out. “Sorry.”

I could tell he was unsure how to handle the situation. It was similar to being with a crying person you weren’t sure whether you would be able to help them or make them cry even more.

“I’m just going to talk to you then.” He cleared his throat and mumbled to himself. “Ah, what should I talk about?”

His awkwardness managed to pull a laugh out of me. “Usually I’m the one trying to find something to talk about.”

He didn’t laugh, but I could imagine him smiling as he spoke. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. You always have something to say.”

I punched him. “You make that sound like a bad thing.” He snorted chuckling a little. “Hey, don’t hit the guide.”

“The guide should talk about something else then.” His laugh died out with a long sigh. “Hmm, then I’ll tell you something I’m afraid of.”

My ears perked up at the thought of finding out a weakness of Kim Taehyung’s. He continued after a moment of silence. “Over time I’ve developed the ability to keep people away from me.”

I wanted to and tell him that part of himself was pretty obvious, but the seriousness in his tone stopped me from doing so. “Despite that though I’m afraid of being alone.”

Following behind him became much easier as I grew more aware of his movements. “It’s not really that I need to be with someone constantly, but the feeling of not a single person being by my side or even seeing me. That’s what I’m afraid of.”

Memories of that first week he showed up at school flashed through my mind. All the times he pretended that none of our classmates’ antics bothered him. I figured that it pissed him off when I saw how his hands would ball up into fists, but this whole time it wasn’t anger it was fear.

He continued talking, his voice perfectly molding with the darkness. His voice was so befitting of the dark its deep baritone tone made me almost forget that we were in the dark. “That’s why I was happy when you stood up for me that day in the cafeteria. You made me feel like I wasn’t alone. Like someone was finally on my side.”

I wasn’t even sure if we had made it out of the karaoke room by this point. He could have been leading me off the edge of a cliff and I wouldn’t have noticed. I was lost in his words, and found myself diving deeper.

“I never really thanked you for that. So thank you.” He sheepishly cleared his throat. I didn’t have to see his face to know that he probably thought he had said too much.

So many things were running through my mind at that moment. Kim Taehyung just thanked me. We were holding hands as he led us through the darkness. At any moment we could walk in the wrong direction and get majorly hurt, but all I knew was that I wanted to tell him I felt the same way.

I was happy that I had stood up for him that day in the cafeteria too.

“Is anyone in there?!” A loud voice rang out in front of us, and then not even a second later, before either of us could reply, a ray of light cast in our direction.

Apparently we were in the hallway and a young firefighter stood at the beginning of the hall. He saw us his eyes squinting. “Are you two ok?!”

Taehyung motioned in my direction. “She might have been injured so she needs to be looked at!” The firefighter nodded instantly taking action.

In front of us there were small rubble, but more noticeably planks of wood that must have fell from the ceiling. We were ushered out of the building because of any possible aftershocks or if the building were to fall through any more.

From what we were told the building was older so it had been made with wood, and the wood was termite infested. So when the earth quake happened even though it wasn’t a large one this building was the only one affected because the wood already weakened by the termites could not stand the impact.

“Are there any other customers that were found?” We followed the firefighter as he led us out. “There was a group that had made it out before you guys. Are they your friends?”

I nodded my head. “Yeah, there’s four boys and one girl.” The fire fighter paused in front of us. “We didn’t find a girl.”

My heart dropped. “What do you mean? There was a girl too!” He turned around putting his hand on my arm. “Mrs. I understand that you are worried about your friend, but panicking isn’t going to help the situation. Do you remember where you saw her last?”

I shook my head trying to maintain my breathing. “She should have been with the guys. They all were in one of the karaoke rooms.”

The firefighter grimaced. “We only found boys in the room, but they were all passed out. Most likely they experienced too much stimulus from the earth quake and knocked out. So maybe the girl woke up first or didn’t even pass out. She might have thought your friends were already gone from the room when no one responded to her calls and went out by herself.”

His words didn’t reassure me at all. “What do we do then? We can’t just leave her.” He turned back to the front. “My first priority for now is to get you two out of here. Once I get you out me and some other fire men can come back in and search for her.”

“There’s no telling what could happen by then.” The fire fighter groaned to himself. “I’m sorry, but that is the best we can do for now. My first priority is to first save the people right in front of me so please don’t argue with me.”

I let out a gruff breath. I knew he was right, and that he was only doing his job, but all I could see was the last expression Min had. That hurt expression was not the last thing I would want to see of my friend’s face.

“I’ll meet you guys outside.” Taehyung suddenly let go of my hand then ran back vanishing from the light’s path. “Kim Taehyung come back here!” The firefighter yelled out to him as well, but there was no response.

He let out an aggravated groan. “I’m going to lose my mind.” He then looked to me with stern eyes. “Don’t even think of following after him.”

Without giving me a chance to respond the frustrated firefighter tugged me the rest of the way out of the building, but I limply followed him my mind replaying Taehyung’s running figure.

What was he thinking?!

We made it out of the building and all I saw was flashing lights. Bodies were surrounding caution tape lined around the building and the street in front of the building. The fire truck and an ambulance were on standby. It was then I saw the guys on gurneys their eyes closed, clearly out cold.

My eyes cast around taking everything in. It was then I saw Taehyung’s brothers. Worry clear in their eyes. I started toward them, but a hand grabbed onto my wrist.

I looked back to see the firefighter. “You need to get checked out by the ambulance. Your friend said you might be injured.”

Rage was burning inside of me, mixed with my anxiety. “No what needs to happen is that you and your co-workers need to go back in there and find my friends. That is what you need to prioritize right now.”

My sharp words obviously took him by surprise, but he didn’t have any response. Instead he his heel back to the other fire men. “We still got people inside!”

My attention continued to go back and forth between the bodies charging inside the building and Taehyung’s brothers. Even though I was headed towards the brothers I wanted to make sure with my own eyes that the firefighters were going back in.

As I got closer to the brothers I expected they would notice my presence, but they were too caught up in their discussion.

Jin spoke in a hushed voice to Namjoon. I could just barely hear what he said. “I didn’t see this coming, did you?” Namjoon shook his head with a grave expression. “This has never happened before.”

“What has never happened before?” I finally caught their attention. The both of them jumped at my sudden appearance, but that shock soon turned into relief.

Jin took me into his arms. “Oh thank god