*Chaeyoung’s POV*

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When I was left with no more tears to cry, I settled to sit on the cold, rough ground and wait until Jimin would wake up.

Which turned out to be an all-nighter. He was unconscious the entire night (I assumed it was night). Another thing I learned during that night, was that we were not alone in these cells. The entire night I could hear this quiet cry coming from the other side of the wall. It was a woman’s voice, a young girl if I had heard correctly. She was constantly crying and screaming and yelling people’s names, and after listening to it for a while, I couldn’t help but stuff my ears and close my eyes from it.

It was already overwhelming, even without the screams. And now that Jimin was unconscious, I felt even more scared than before. There was absolutely no hope for me to hang onto. My thoughts were trapped into this loop of hopelessness, which I couldn’t get out of. I had begun to prepare myself for the following scenarios.

The man had talked about sending us to Paju. I had never heard about it before, but I assumed it was some place. Hopefully in Korea. He had also talked about us ”pleasing” the customers. It didn’t require a wild imagination to pick up on that what was about to go down next. Jimin and I would be sent out as slaves. 

I heard a quiet rattle from the ground beside me. Jimin moved his arms and lifted them on top of his head. I immediately crouched down next to him.

”Does it hurt?” I croaked, surprised I could even let out a sound. My throat felt drier than a desert.

Jimin slowly propped himself up, flinching as he sat up. His whole being shivered aggressively. ”Yeah.”

”In the head?”

”Yeah”, he mumbled. Then he opened his eyes properly to look around. The woman in the cell next to us let out a bloodcurdling screech. Jimin jumped at the sound.

”Where are we?”

I backed down and leaned onto my palms. ”At the factory. At a preservation department.” My voice had no tone to it. It was just a monotonic babble. 

”Preservation department?” Jimin whined. All I could do was nod my head.

I was exhausted from staying up the entire night.

”What time i-”

”No idea”, I interrupted him. My eyes slowly fell shut. I had no strength to keep them open any longer. ”I’m glad you’re okay.”

”Me?” Jimin asked quietly. ”Have you slept at all?”

I figured that if I sighed deeply enough, he would get that as an answer.

We both sat there quietly, listening to the woman’s cries in the cell next to ours. Who knew how long she had been there.

Days?

Weeks?

Maybe months?

How long would we be here?

So long we would start screaming like her?

”What do you do?”

The question brought me back to my senses right before I was about to fall asleep. I cracked my eyes open, to see Jimin staring straight ahead, holding his hand on top his injured head. For some reason I could see immediately what he was thinking.

He was going through the same thought process I had gone through just earlier, but he was in denial about it. He wanted to shush his loud brain. I couldn’t blame him for it.

”I wanna be an actress.”

”Really?” He glanced toward me. ”Have you been in any movies? Or shows?”

”Not yet.” My first movie audition would have been in a few days. It was about the script I had practiced with Bobby. ”I’ve done a lot of stage acting.”

”That’s impressive”, Jimin muttered. His voice cracked a little at the end.

I bit my lip. ”What do you do?”

”I’m a dancer.”

That explains the easy leg raises then. ”So you perform as well?”

”I do.”

”Cool”, I whispered. The woman behind the wall finally quieted down.

Maybe she had passed out.

”Do you have someone… who would be worried about you right now?”, Jimin asked, more serious this time. His voice had lowered down a few octaves, but it was thin as a feather.

I sank into my thoughts again.

I did have people who cared about me and would be worried to bits because of this. Jennie was one of those people. My mom and dad were too. But for some reason one person popped into my head clearer than any other.

Bobby had to be worried.

He was the first person that had crossed my mind after Jimin’s question. Yeah, we hadn’t spent too much time together, but we had built a strong base that I trusted with all my heart. And I knew deep down that he cared about me too. He had to.

”Yes. I hope so”, I said.

”Who?”

I squeezed my lips together. I wanted to say Jennie. I wanted to say my parents. But his name was already on my lips. ”Bobby.”

Jimin nodded with his eyes closed. ”Your boyfriend?”

”No… we’re not - quite there yet.”

”I see… but it’s heading there?”

It might’ve. If I wasn’t locked up in a cell, about to be sent off to work as a slave. I shrugged. ”What about you?”

”Do I have someone?”

I nodded.

”I think I do. But he hasn’t real-”

”He? I meant like romantic… someone”, I tried to clarify.

”Yeah, he.”

I blinked at him. ”Oh.”

Jimin chuckled. ”Yeah.” He took a more comfortable position on the ground and smiled slightly. ”He dances too. But I’m better.”

I felt the hotness of my tears burn my eyes. I knew what Jimin was thinking about. And I joined his thoughts.

It was possible. That we might never see these people again. Jimin might never see his friend dance again. ”What’s his name?”

Jimin bit his lips to keep it from shaking. ”Jungkook.”

Suddenly I was wide awake. This couldn’t be it. I didn’t allow this to be it. We had to find another way to escape. There had to be another way. ”The bathroom.”

Jimin’s head bounced up like I had said something extremely rude. ”Huh?”

”I need to go to the bathroom. Are you down for a run?”

My words seemed to shock him on some level, but slowly his eyes calmed down and he nodded. ”Are we doing this again?”

”What?”

”I run, you distract? Remember what happened last time?”

Last time he had had to save me from the man chasing me. But I had been handcuffed then. Running with cuffed hands wasn’t exactly the easiest task in the world. ”Yeah but-”

”No, this time I distract them. It’s better that way”, he insisted.

”But you’re hurt!”

”So what? It doesn’t make me a worse distraction.”

”But I feel like I could maybe distract him better, you know, since I’m a woman and he’s a man”, I tried to persuade him.

”I do have some experience on that field though”, Jimin chuckled softly. His cheeks flamed up a little. I wanted to bang my head to the wall behind me.

I sighed. ”Fine. You ask for bathroom then. They can’t just keep us here if we need to use a loo.”

”Clever”, Jimin mumbled. ”But how about we act like I had some seizure? From the flashing lights and the screams?”

I got confused.

Jimin sat up properly. ”I can fake a seizure. How could he possibly know if I had, let’s say, epilepsy or not. You could tell him