t/w - suicide, blood, ual abuse (not explicitly described but more hinted at)

The closest thing to a doctor that we had was Chaeyeon who once did community service in her elementary school for her nurse. It wasn’t much but at least the girl knew the basics and that was all we needed for now.

“This might sting.” She said as she ripped open a small packet and pulled out a wet napkin. I looked away from my cut as Chaeyeon dabbed at it with the alcohol wipe, bouncing my leg up and down and gritting my teeth. “Sorry.” Chaeyeon spoke in a high pitched tone as she continued to dab at the cut.

I tried to focus on anything else besides the stinging pain but failed to do so as nothing was there to distract me. The girls all split up to gather supplies in the market, leaving just Chaeyeon and I in the back storage room - leaving nothing for me to focus my attention on.

“Okay.” Chaeyeon placed the bloody wipe to the side and blew on my cut to lessen the pain as her other hand went to get the bandages. She tightly wounded the off-white cloth around my lower arm. “Is this too tight?” She asked me. I shook my head, still looking away. She finished wrapping it before tying it.

“Done.” She announced, putting everything back into the first aid box. “We’ll change the wrap whenever we get to our next position.”

Only a few seconds later, Sejeong and the other girls ran back into the storage room.

Yoojung was in front of me, out of breath as she tried to speak. “We… The… Saw…” She panted. I stood and looked over them, all of them pale faced. My hands reached out to touch Yoojung’s shoulders.

“Calm down.” I said to her. “What did you see?” I questioned, feeling the girl’s body trembling under my fingers.

Yoojung took a deep breath. “The van. We saw the van that took Doyeon.”

My eyes widened. “Which way did they go?”

“They went down the street, towards the residential area.” Yoojung explained, looking at me with fear. “What do we do?”

“We…” I gulped and tried to think sensibly. We couldn’t just run in and get Doyeon back - it just wasn’t realistic. We didn’t have the weapons nor the physical capability to do such a thing. “We’ll follow the van from behind, staying behind the houses instead of walking on the street.” I said, looking for Sejeong to confirmation. Voted leader or not, I still trusted in Sejeong’s leadership skills more than my own and always looked to her for acceptance in my decisions. She just nodded, looking just as shaken up as the other girls.

“Okay. Get your things, then.” I spoke to the group as I picked up Doyeon’s bag and put it over both of my shoulders. “Vans are faster than us. Let’s hope they haven’t gone far.”

“N - Nayoung.” Sohye walked up to me timidly, pulling something from behind her back. We all gasped as the girl handed me a revolver. I looked at her, surprised. She felt shy from being in the spotlight, her cheeks turning red. “Someone… killed himself in the worker’s room. I found the gun.”

I took it from her, the object feeling heavy in my hand. I hardened my stare and nodded to the other girls who all took off to gather their things and anything else we needed. I rushed out the storage room and wandered the large shop for the worker’s room, eventually finding it in the far back corner of the store.

Opening the door, the stench was so futile I had to pinch my nose and breath through my mouth. I couldn’t believe Sohye went in here alone.

I really don’t give her enough credit.

I eyed the dead body in the chair, trying hard not to stare at the blood plastered on the wall behind where his head was levelled. My hands reached into his pockets to find anything else of use, hitting the jackpot as I felt cold silver against my fingertips. I pulled out a few bullets and stuffed them in my back pocket. I took another look around the small room and opened all the drawers, finding a couple of pens and a notepad. I took those and tossed them into my bag, leaving the majority of the things in there.

“Nayoung!” I heard someone whisper-yell. The voice sounded panicked which was why I ran out of the room.

Sejeong was down the aisle from me, suddenly crouching low. She pointed towards the front of the store and I kept silent, hearing unfamiliar voices. I got into a kneeling position and examined the gun in my hand, checking if it was full of bullets already.

I crouch-walked over to the end of the aisle, peeking my head out to check for the group. The girls seemed to have gotten the hint that there was an intruder in the market and they’ve all gone into hiding mode. Good.

“The girl’s feisty.” A guttural voice spoke up with a low chuckle to follow. “Won’t even let me touch her.”

My eyes widened when the voice seemed very close. I made a motion for Sejeong to back up and she nodded and stood, shuffling towards the storage room.

“Ugh, it smells over here. Probably a dead person. I’ll go see if they left anything.” The same voice said. I cursed inwardly. Just my luck.

As soon as I could see the man’s foot in front of me, I stood and placed the muzzle of the revolver at his temple, free arm rounding his neck and holding him tightly.

“Shhh.” I whispered, clicking the revolver. He wasn’t armed which surprised me. I walked him to the worker’s room and pushed him inside before closing the door behind me and aiming the gun at him. He walked backwards, his back hitting the bloody wall with his hands up.

“Woah there, cutie.”

“Don’t call me that.” I snapped.

“Look, we’re on the same team.” He said shakily before pointing to the dead guy on the chair. “We don’t need anymore dead alive people.”

I gripped the gun tighter. “Then why did you go ahead and capture one?”

“What?” The man stared at me in shock. “Capture… Capture one?”

“Don’t you have Doyeon?” My hostility faltered as I asked the question.

“Doyeon? Who is that? What are you talking about?” He asked me, completely confused. He could just be playing me but it didn’t seem like that. He seemed genuinely lost.

“You said she was feisty and that she wouldn’t let you touch her.” I repeated his words from earlier.

“Yeah, a stranded dog we found.” The man grew even more confused. “The dog won’t eat and won’t let me get near her.”

Aggravation built up in me. I didn’t know whether to believe him or not as I opened the door with my free hand, gesturing for him to get out. He folded his hands behind his head as he walked out.

“Daejung, I found some dog food!” The man’s buddy called out from the other side of the store. “Do you think it expires?”

I lowered my gun. “.”

The man quirked an eyebrow at me.

“Girls, it’s fine.” I yelled out and heard a yelp from the other man as my girls appeared from behind aisles and under counters. “They don’t have Doyeon.” I said. They walked towards my voice and soon all ten of us were gathered in front of the man called Daejung.

He looked at me skeptically. “Your friend got kidnapped?”

“Yes.” I said. “Are you girls ready to go?”

Before any of the girls could reply to me, Daejung spoke again. “Do you know by who?”

“They have a white van with some sort of black spray paint on the sides of it. But no, we don’t.”

“Oh, those ers.”

Yoojung jumped up. “You know them?”

“Of course.” Daejung replied as his friend joined him, a shotgun in his hands. It made me slightly uncomfortable that he was so close to us with such a weapon that could hurt multiple people in one shot. The man seemed to sense my uneasiness as he slung the shotgun over his shoulder with a friendly smile. It wasn’t often you met nice people in this world. I reciprocated the smile.

“We’ve lived in this area long before they came here and took all the supplies.” Daejung said. “We didn’t know that they kidnapped girls. That’s pretty sick.”

I gave him a glare. He widened his eyes and raised his hands in surrender once more.

“S - Sick as in disgusting! Not sick as in cool!” He clarified. Yoojung continued her interview with the man.

“Where do they live? Do you think we can sneak in and get Doyeon back?” She was basically trembling in excitement/fear/nervousness, bouncing on the balls of her feet.

“I’m afraid not, little one.” He mumbled, probably to think of the layout of their shelter. “It’s pretty well-guarded.”

“How about at night?”

“Shifts.” He replied.

Yoojung turned to me with a loss of hope in her eyes. It was Mission Impossible at this point.

“Sorry about your friend.” Daejung murmured. “We have to go now th - “

“ - What about from the inside?” I piped up, the more dangerous, more reckless part of my brain becoming active.

“Pardon?” He asked.

“How well-guarded is it from the inside?”

Sejeong gripped my arm. “Nayoung, no.” I softly brushed her off, waiting for Daejung’s answer anxiously. He eyed me.

“Not a lot, I presume - especially at night because they’ll probably all be sleeping.” He frowned. “But it’s still impossible you’d be able to escape. Those guys are hardcore.”

His friend spoke up. “They’re not that smart though. I’ve been to their hideout before and there’s just broken glass everywhere. They’re a mess.”

“You’ve been?” I asked in which he nodded. “How recently?”

“Just yesterday night. I needed to borrow some water for the dog.”

I kneeled down and zipped open my bag, pulling out my leather journal and a pen. I bit off the cap of the pen and opened to the next free page, holding the pen and journal towards the friend. I took the cap from my mouth with my hand and spoke. “Can you draw an overhead map of the house?”

“It’s two-stories.” He said.

“Use two pages.”

We waited as the man sat down and began to roughly sketch out the map. As he worked diligently, Jieqiong’s hand curled around my own. “You aren’t seriously thinking about this… are you?” She asked worriedly.

I turned my head to look at her. “What else are we supposed to do?” I whispered. Her pupils wavered before all of our attention turned to the man who held the journal back to me.

“That’s just from my memory. They didn’t let me go in one room so I’m not sure what to label it.”

“That’s probably where they’ve hidden Doyeon.” Somi spoke my thoughts. I nodded, eyes running over the layout repeatedly, trying to store it in my brain. I looked up at the two men.

“Bring me to them as a trade-off.” I said. The men raised their eyebrows at me. “As a thank-you for helping us, bring me to them and get something in return.”

Daejung opened his mouth to speak but I cut him off again. “This isn’t negotiable.”

“Uh, yes, it is!” Sejeong stepped in front of me, looking me dead in the eyes. “Are you out of your mind?” She asked me, forehead wrinkled as she stared at me. It was the first time she didn’t agree with a plan of mine.

“We have to.”

“But you’re not making this a ‘we’ thing, Nayoung.” Sejeong stressed. “We just got you back.”

“And you’ll get me back again.” I replied. “With Doyeon.” I emphasized.

“How do you plan to escape?” Sejeong asked with wide eyes, a look of angry worry in her eyes. “Huh?”

I walked off towards the worker’s room and searched the drawers once more, eventually finding what I was looking for - a small razor blade. I walked back out to the group and lowered my backpack, pulling out the notepad I had taken earlier. I wrapped the blade in a few sheets of paper before standing, showing it to the group, and plopping it into my mouth.

Daejung let out a surprised chuckle. His friend’s jaw slacked. “You’re one brave girl.”

“Marry me.” Daejung laughed. Jieqiong took a small step forward and crossed her arms, something that did not go unnoticed by me. Ignoring my churning stomach, I took the blade out of my mouth.

“Will you bring me or not?”

“Fine.” Daejung shrugged. “I’m going to feel awfully bad if something happens to you or your friend in there but you seem to be pretty set on this idea.”

“Good.” I stood in front of him. “Now punch me.”

“What?” He widened his eyes, shaking his head. “I refuse. I’m not going to punch you.”

“We have to make this look like you really captured me!” I groaned. “Just ing punch me!” I hissed. I closed my eyes as Daejung brought back his fist. There was no impact. I opened my eyes to see him just standing there. “I can’t punch a girl.” He grumbled, lowering his hand.

“Oh my God.” I heard a voice from behind me before I was turned around by the shoulder. Before I could even see who it was, my left cheekbone was completely crushed by hard knuckles. The impact made me stumble towards the floor, hand cupping my cheek. “Mina!”

Jieqiong was by my side within milliseconds of my fall, holding onto my non-injured arm. I looked up to the younger girl and raised my eyebrows in shock.

“Holy !” Somi exclaimed, jumping up excitedly. “Mina has a killer right hooker!”

I couldn’t help but let the chuckle of disbelief out even though my cheek hurt like hell.

“You’re bleeding.” Jieqiong stated, raising her hand to wipe it with her thumb. I caught her wrist.

“Don’t wipe it.” I told her. “We have to make it look real.” Jieqiong lowered her hand and nodded, helping me up. The men, who were taken aback by the action of the sweet-looking girl, snapped out of it once I was on my feet again.

“Uhhh.” Daejung blinked.

“Let’s go. We don’t have time.” I took off my bag and handed it to Yoojung. “We don’t know what they’re doing to Doyeon.”

Sejeong stepped in front of me, cupping my good cheek. “Be careful?”

“As always.” I gave her a small smile and glanced over to the rest of the group who gave small waves to me. I walked out the market with Daejung and his friend. Daejung let me walk free down the street before holding onto my wrist.

“Put the blade in your mouth now. We’re nearing the house.” He ordered. I hummed and plopped the blade under my tongue, closing my lips. “Sorry if I hurt you.” He whispered as we continued to walk. His friend turned towards one of the houses and went up to knock at the door. I could spot the white van parked recklessly in the front lawn.

The door opened, revealing a large man armed with a sleek black pistol. His friend spoke in a friendly manner towards the guy who seemed like he was about to chew the other man’s face off. The guy turned his attention to me before his eyes took on a different look than before.

“What do you want in return?” He grumbled.

“Can we take your gun?”

There was a moment of hesitation before the man handed his pistol over and Daejung shoved me forward after whispering a quiet ‘Good luck’. The man’s rough hands grabbed onto my waist and I instantly felt disgusted. He brought me into the house and my appearance caused an uproar.

My eyes gazed over the group of men, easily spotting Doyeon with the rest of them. She was sitting on one of their laps, hands tied behind her back and a surprised look on her face as she noticed me.

“Aren’t you a pretty girl?” One with a raspy voice said to me, standing and running a finger over my cheek, purposely touching the cut on the side of my lip. I focused on Doyeon for a second more before jumping at the man’s next action. He then leaned down and sniffed my neck. I shook in disgust as his gross lips placed a kiss there. I felt so violated.

He pulled away with a disgusting smirk at my face. “Bring her upstairs with the other one. We’ll do something with the two of them tonight.” He grinned as the man from the doorway began to tie my hands together with a rough rope.

We were practically thrown into the last room in the hallway upstairs, the room that Daejung’s friend said he’d never been to. It was completely empty. The door slammed shut and there was a click of the lock.

When the man’s footsteps were far enough, Doyeon spoke up, turning to me.

“Nayoung, why are you here? Did they go back to capture you? What happened?” She asked worriedly. I didn’t answer but instead spat out the hidden blade in my mouth. Doyeon stared at it wide-eyed and I kneeled and turned my back towards the blade to get my hands on it.

It was difficult working blindly but eventually I cut myself out of the ropes and rushed to cut Doyeon free as well.

“The window is too high for us to reach.” Doyeon whispered as she stared at the only source of light in this room, the window just beneath the ceiling. Everything was happening quickly and I couldn’t tell if it was good or bad.

“I’ll lift you.” I replied, focusing on getting the thick ropes off of Doyeon’s red wrists. When they became slack, Doyeon turned around and hugged me tightly. I simply kissed her cheek once before pushing her away - now was most definitely not the time to have a hugging session. We had a limited of time before someone might come up and check on us.

I crouched down beneath the window. “Stand on my back.”

She got onto my back with wobbly balance before reaching and slowly opening the window. I cringed at the squeaks it made but was glad that the men downstairs were so loud they probably wouldn’t hear. The weight on my back disappeared as Doyeon crawled out.

Once she was out, I got off of my knees. She turned around and gave me her hand, extending it. I gulped because I had to jump and if we failed the first time, we would definitely attract the men in the floor below. Doyeon noticed my worry and just nodded, assuring me that she had it.

I took a deep breath before jumping and grabbing onto Doyeon’s hand with one of mine whilst my other hand reached up to grip the edge of the window. With Doyeon’s help, I pulled myself up and out of the room and onto the roof of the backyard balcony. Doyeon and I took light steps to the edge of the roof before we jumped down.

I grabbed her hand and made a run for it. Doyeon kept faltering in her steps which I didn’t blame her for. We rushed down the street, past all the undead that would turn their heads to look at us. We kept going.

Eventually, we neared the market and my heart felt relieved. Doyeon’s fingers felt bony in between my own, her hand squeezing mine. I brought her to the back of the market and opened the storage room’s door. There was a gasp before I felt Doyeon’s hand go slack and felt a breeze go past me as she ran to the one person who had chased after the van that had taken her away two days ago.

We all stood back and watched Doyeon completely break down in Yoojung’s arms, arms wrapped tightly around Doyeon’s waist as the smaller girl spoke quietly into her ear so only she could hear her comforting words.

I stared at Doyeon’s figure, running my eyes up and down the length of her body to check for injuries now that we were out of harm’s way. Her legs were the most bruised, more so on her thighs. To be honest, there were bruises spotted on almost every part of her body.

I desperately wanted to go back and murder every single one of those bastards for hurting Doyeon. Although I didn’t know exactly what they had done to her, I could take a guess at how bad it must’ve been based on what had happened to me in just the first five minutes of me being there.

I felt someone take hold of my hand, my attention shifting to the owner of the hand. Sejeong stared at my face worriedly, slender hands cupping my cheeks as she her thumb and wiped off the dry blood on my lip. I just gave a small grin to her and closed my eyes as she pulled me in for a hug.

“You’re too brave, you know that?” Sejeong whispered. I hummed, trying to get rid of the feeling of disgust that my body was covered in, my neck still burning from where the man had kissed me. I didn’t spend a lot of time in there, probably at most twenty minutes, but I still felt gross. “What happened?” She asked me softly, hand running up and down my back in a comforting motion.

“I think we should be more worried about Doyeon.” I mumbled before exiting the hug. I looked at Sejeong in the eyes. “And it’s really not safe to be so close to them.”

Sejeong nodded in agreement, squeezing my waist. “We should move now then if that’s the case - so they won’t be on the streets looking for us when we decide to leave.”

We gave each other a look before going to gather the rest of the girls.

Jieqiong was sitting with Chaeyeon, their hands connected loosely through threaded fingers. I gave them a soft smile, trying hard not to look at their hands and to focus on their faces. “We have to leave soon.”

“We’re all set when you are.” Chaeyeon gave me a grin before reaching out with her free hand and grabbing onto my hand, squeezing it. I look at her with an eyebrow raised. She looked up at me with soft eyes. “You’re a good person, Nayoung.”

I pressed my lips together and nodded before turning and looking at Doyeon and Yoojung who were no longer hugging each other tightly but were having a quiet conversation. I walked closer and placed a hand on Yoojung’s shoulder. “We have to go before they realized we escaped.”

There was only a split second of silence before Doyeon lunged at me and hugged me around the waist. I stumbled back a few steps but caught myself, holding onto the girl who was crying again. My heart thumped as she cried in my arms.

“I’m sorry that they did that to you.” Doyeon said.

“Why are you sorry? You didn’t do it.” I replied shakily, arms around her shoulder.

“You wouldn’t have had to go through that if it weren’t for me.” Doyeon spoke brokenly. The girls were all listening into the conversation, trying to understand what we were talking about. I leaned back and moved Doyeon’s hair away from her face, wiping her tears.

“It was just a kiss, Doyeon.” I whispered. “You’ve gone through worse, haven’t you?” I said in an even softer voice so the other girls wouldn’t have to hear. Something broke inside of Doyeon and she whimpered and nodded. I frowned and kissed her forehead.

“It’s okay. You’re back with us now.” I said, moving back and staring into her eyes. “Are you well enough to travel?”

“Yes.” Doyeon sniffled. “I want to get as far away from them as I can.” I smiled softly and nodded, turning to the rest of the girls.

“Let’s go back into the forest we came from.” My voice switched from soft and gentle to steady and commanding. “We’ll go in the direction we were originally going to go in.” I announced. I watched as they gathered their things and waited by the door. I counted the heads and felt a small surge of happiness run through my blood as I counted ten. “We run until we get to the forest and then we start walking, got it?”

Ten heads nodded.

I smiled. “Stick close to the group.”

-

1 ┊ Nayoung’s teeth gritted against each other as she saw the scene in front of her. She had no right to be jealous, really. She and Jieqiong were never officially a couple but this - this scene was really not want Nayoung wanted to see after being home from university for two years. Jieqiong’s fingers were interlaced with another girl’s, Nayoung remembered her name being Siyeon. She was the newest addition to the dance club that Nayoung had left behind in Eunwoo’s care after she had to leave for university. She and Jieqiong seemed awfully close.

A hand nudged her side softly. Nayoung turned to see Kyungwon looking at her worriedly. Nayoung just shook her head as they kept walking down the street. The girls left one by one to their own houses until it was just Jieqiong and Nayoung left, which made sense considering they lived on the same street (something that Nayoung used to love but now despised for they were stuck in an awkward silence as they walked).

Jieqiong’s earlier energetic mood went away as soon as Siyeon had left. Even when Kyungwon and Eunwoo walked with them a little more and kept the conversation going, Jieqiong’s mood just wasn’t the same after Siyeon had left. It bothered Nayoung to no end.

“How’s university?” Jieqiong spoke up first which didn’t surprise Nayoung. She never liked silences.

“Good.” Nayoung replied, making it difficult for Jieqiong to keep the conversation going. Nayoung really wished that Jieqiong would at least try so she wouldn’t blurt out the one question running through her mind. It was silent for a few more seconds before the younger one spoke up again.

“She’s not my girlfriend.” Oddly, it made Nayoung’s heart feel lighter. “But even if she was,” Jieqiong continued, looking over to the older girl. Nayoung’s heart went back to feeling constricted. “Why would it matter?” The question made her steps falter and made her blink repeatedly to hold back her emotions.

Jieqiong hadn’t seen Nayoung that flustered in a long time. They stopped walking and just stood there, the tension building up between them. Jieqiong huffed and looked down the street, stuffing her hands into her pocket.

“You don’t text me anymore.”

“I’ve been busy.” Nayoung replied a second later. Jieqiong nodded weakly.

“But you can call the other girls?” She asked, turning her head to look Nayoung in the eyes. “You can’t even send me a quick text but you can call the other girls?” She repeated rather harshly.

Nayoung gulped down the lump in as her eyes flickered between the other girl’s. She could see the anger in them but could mostly see hurt.

“It was fun at first when we only played around but now I’m tired of this, Nayoung.” She said quietly. “I really like you but I don’t know if you feel the same.”

“Jieqiong, I still have a year left of university.” Nayoung said. “I can’t afford any distractions.”

The younger one scoffed and continued to walk.

“Then I’m glad to know where I stand.”