A week ago, if someone had told Bomi that she would soon be locked in a windowless room, getting tortured by the man she had vowed to kill, Bomi would have scoffed. But now that Bomi was tied to a metal chair, hurting in every way possible, she wondered how everything had gone so wrong.

She didn’t know how long she’d been tied up in this room. After the leader of the Shadow Clan had revealed himself as the One-Eyed Man, Bomi’s sense of reality had slipped away into oblivion. Every day after his revelation, he had consistently come to her room to beat her. After each beating, she would think that it couldn’t get any worse, but she would always be proven wrong the next day. Each day, the beating was different and more painful than the last. 

The One-Eyed Man certainly had a bottomless list of ways to torture someone, and it seemed that he was going to exhaust it all on Bomi. It wouldn’t surprise Bomi if he had spent the past two years brainstorming the many possible ways he could hurt her.

Bomi didn’t know when the torturing had started. Right now, all she knew was pain. Her eyes were swollen and her vision had been blurry for so long that she couldn’t remember the last time she could see clearly. Her entire body felt so weak and useless that if she was asked to stand, she was pretty sure that she wouldn’t even be able to do that. What made everything worse was the fact that after every beating, they would treat her wounds. They ignored the small ones and didn’t bother to wipe away her blood, but they tended to her bigger wounds, like gashes or fractures. They wanted to keep her alive so she could remain in pain, and to Bomi, that was the worse torture of them all. 

Well, that and the fact that the man she had vowed to kill was showing his face to her every day and she couldn’t do anything about it. Every day, he would come and hurt her, just like he had with her teammates. He punched her, kicked her, sliced her, spat at her…just like he had with them.

That was Bomi’s only form of consolation: that her teammates had gone through the same thing or possibly worse. If her teammates had experienced this kind of pain, then Bomi had no right to cry out or complain. Not when her teammates had died feeling this pain.

Still, despite all her pain, Bomi refused to lose hope. Chorong and the others would come for her. She didn’t know when, but she knew that they would. Chorong had said it herself: if Bomi didn’t come back to her, then Chorong would come for her.

God, she missed Chorong so much.

She didn’t know that she was capable of missing someone so much, but then again, she hadn’t known that she would be capable of loving someone again.

Even with all of the pain that Bomi had gone through two years ago and those stupid promises never to care about anyone again, Bomi had found it impossible not to care about her new team. Whenever she closed her eyes, not only did she see her deceased teammates, but she also saw the faces of Chorong, Eunji, Namjoo, Hayoung, and Naeun. 

Naeun, who had always watched after all of them from afar, making sure that they stuck together not just as a team, but also as a family.

Hayoung, who had proven that it was possible to be an adorable maknae while still being the tallest and most mature-looking one.

Namjoo, who had shown Bomi that it was possible to always look on the bright side of things.

Eunji, who had always stuck by her side through thick and thin as her best friend and had shown Bomi what it was like to always have someone watching her back.

And Chorong, who had shown Bomi that it was possible to love again, even when Bomi had been so broken and shielded from the possibility of ever caring for anyone ever again.

Bomi hoped that they were well and that she would see them soon. She hoped that she wouldn’t die before seeing all of them one last time.

Bomi heard the door creak open and the familiar footsteps that she had learned to dread approach her.

“Would you like to know what I plan to do with your precious princess after I’m done with you?” the One-Eyed Man asked cruelly.

Bomi lifted her head and tried to catch a good look at him, but her vision was too blurry to make out the details of his face. All she could tell was that he had styled his hair in the same slicked-back style and he was still wearing that hideous mask. Bomi waited for him to remove the mask, and sure enough, he reached behind his head and undid his mask shortly after the door shut behind him. He always removed his mask when he and Bomi were alone in the room, and Bomi had no doubt that he did it so she could be staring at the face of the man who had murdered her loved ones while he inflicted the same pain upon her.

“She’s a beauty, the princess. The best looking princess we’ve had in centuries.” He placed his mask neatly on the metal table. “I can’t let such a face leave the world looking that beautiful, so I’m going to have to make sure that it doesn’t. You can guess how I’m going to achieve that.”

Bomi bit down on her tongue. There was no way in hell that she, her team, or the entire nation would allow that to happen.

“You’re awfully quiet today,” he said and lifted her chin with his thumb.

“You’re going to rot in hell,” Bomi spat. That earned her the first punch across her face.

“I’ve already spent my time in hell,” he muttered. “It doesn’t get much better.”

“My team and I will make sure to prove you wrong.”

The leader cackled. “And how will they do that? If they were going to come save you, they would have done so already. Give it up, Yoon Bomi. They’re not coming for you.”

Bomi gritted her teeth and said nothing. He was lying; her team would never abandon her. 

“We intercepted a signal earlier,” he said. “It seemed to be someone from the outside trying to contact someone here.”

“And what does that have to do with me?”

“Because it turned out to be a signal your team was trying to get to you.”

Bomi felt her heart drop. “What?”

“Your team was trying to save you,” he continued. Even through her blurry vision, Bomi could see that he was smirking. “But we stopped them before they could. They seemed quite surprised when we ambushed them.”

“You’re lying,” Bomi forced out. Her breaths had become shallow. “They wouldn’t have known where to find me.”

“You’re underestimating your team quite a bit, aren’t you? They did indeed manage to find us, but it was useless. We stopped them before they could get to you.”

“You’re lying,” Bomi said again. He had to be. Her team wasn’t easy to ambush like that.

“I suppose I can’t prove it to you,” the One-Eyed Man said. “But I can describe how they fought back.”

“Don’t,” Bomi growled, but it was more like a plea.

“They all fought hard, but the fierce one with short hair and the other short one with light brown eyes were the hardest to take down. They kept fighting till the end, and they kept shouting for you. I must admit, the one with short hair wielded her two swords masterfully. It’s a shame that we had to kill her.”

“Shut up!” Bomi cried. He could have only been describing Eunji, and Bomi didn’t want to believe that Eunji was truly dead.

“After we killed that one, the other one began screaming like there was no tomorrow. She scrambled over to her fallen teammate and tried to shake her awake, but when she didn’t, she stood up and put up an even bigger fight. I believe she was the leader. She fought magnificently as well, and she killed about half of our men before we were finally able to kill her.”

Chorong. He was describing Chorong. Bomi shut her eyes and turned away, unable to hear anymore. This was the worst torture he had ever done to her.

“Of course, they were all difficult to put down. The tall one was difficult because she had two handguns and exceptional aim, and the skinny one with auburn hair was quick and precise. In the end, they couldn’t get past us, though. It’s a shame, really. The world has just lost some of its finest fighters.”

For the first time since her torture had started, Bomi felt hot tears sliding down her cheeks. It wasn’t true. It couldn’t be true. Her teammates weren’t dead; it was impossible.

“It must hurt, doesn’t it?” the leader asked. “To have to go through this not once, but twice.”

“You’re lying,” Bomi gasped through her wet tears. It was more of an attempt to convince herself that her team wasn’t really dead.

“My, you’re stubborn,” he hummed. “No worries. That just makes this all the more enjoyable.”

“You’re a monster.”

“You made this monster,” he replied. 

“I’m going to kill you,” Bomi glowered.

“I’d like to see you try. Let’s not forget which one of us is tied up in a chair right now.” The leader flipped out a long, jagged knife from behind his back and leaned over Bomi. “Now, shall we return to our regularly scheduled program?”

He’s a psychopath, Bomi thought to herself. Only a psychopath would be enjoying himself this much.

The One-Eyed Man stretched out Bomi’s worn-out shirt, sliced a neat line through it, and tore off the fabric from Bomi’s body. Bomi’s torso was now open to the cold air in the room, and she shivered from the sudden exposure.

Bomi had no idea what he was planning to do, but she couldn’t bring herself to think about all the horrible possibilities. She could only think about her teammates, who were all allegedly dead. Again. 

She wanted to throw up; she couldn’t stomach the thought of losing everyone that she loved for the second time. He had to be lying. There was no way in hell that her team would have been careless enough to get caught.

But if they had, then there would be no one coming from her.

The One-Eyed Man teased Bomi’s belly with the flat edge of his knife, sliding the cold metal across her skin. 

He was going to slice her open, and her team was dead.

The leader flipped his knife in his hand and positioned the sharp edge against Bomi’s skin.

Her team was dead, and there would be no one coming to save her.

He pressed the tip of her knife into her belly, and Bomi made no sound as the first drop of blood was drawn.

No one was coming to save her.

Suddenly, a loud, piercing alarm rang throughout the room. The One-Eyed Man whipped around, dropping his knife in surprise. Bomi raised her head slowly and saw the leader stand up quickly.

“What the hell is happening?” he cursed. He ran over to his mask and hastily fastened it to his face. “What the hell did you do?”

Bomi remained silent. She didn’t know what was going on either.

“We’ll continue this later,” the leader grunted, then swung open the door and sprinted out. In that brief moment, Bomi saw blaring lights outside, people running, and heard shouts from several different voices. There must have been a major breach.

Bomi glanced down at the small line of blood on her belly. Whatever was happening, it had saved her from another day of torture. Then her eyes fell to the knife on the floor, and she recognized her opportunity right away.

In an enormous strain of effort, Bomi hopped in her metal chair and tried to get her feet closer to the fallen knife. It took a couple of tries and a few pained gasps, but she was eventually able to secure the knife in between her two feet.

Bomi took a deep breath and summoned all of her energy to her feet. She didn’t know how long she had, so she had to work quickly and efficiently. She balanced the knife’s hilt between her two heels, and with a burst of energy, she kicked it back to her hands.

She’d done this multiple times before and had succeeded, and this was no exception. Her fingers just barely caught the knife by its hilt, and she immediately got to work. Her hands clumsily grappled to position the knife against the rope and began cutting away at them. She hadn’t used her hands in a long time, though, and they weren’t used to the coordination that this required. 

Bomi’s fingers fumbled around the knife, and it clattered to the floor. She cursed and twisted her neck to try to find the knife. Despair washed over her when she saw that the knife had slid deep into the corner of the room, where Bomi had no way of obtaining it again.

She groaned and leaned her head back, a feeling of hopelessness overtaking her. Her team was dead. The One-Eyed Man was going to kill her. And she had just ruined her one chance of escape.

Bomi wanted to scream and cry out of frustration, but she didn’t have the energy to do so. Instead, she just slumped into her chair and waited for the inevitable. Her team was dead, she was going to die, and there was no one coming to save her.

There was no hope for her.

Just as her last dwindle of hope was about to fade away, the door burst open, and light flooded the room. Bomi winced, blinded by the sudden explosion of light. She heard familiar footsteps approach her.

But they were familiar for a different reason.

Bomi blinked her eyes, and when her eyes had adjusted to the light, she stared at the person in front of her. Her vision was still blurry from her beatings, but she didn’t need clear vision to know exactly who was standing in front of her.

It was Chorong.

Chorong was standing in front of Bomi, alive and unharmed, the light illuminating her like an angel who had come to save her.