Kim Yongsun sat on her bed, staring at the wall and hoping that it will magically open and let her escape from this hell hole that she's in.

She's lost track of the hours that she spent thinking of how to escape, of how Hyejin is doing or if she's safe, of how her family is living back home in North Korea. For her, time is frozen. All she knows is the past that she can't go back to and the future that she's dreading. The present is a blur, it isn't real to her.

The room she's staying in resembles a prison. It's dark and cold and lonely. There are no windows to view the beautiful sky from, there are bars on the door so that the guards can see you at all times, it's locked outside to remind the prisoner that there is no escape.

Somehow, she still has enough positivity in her to laugh at the situation. And she does, she laughs like a crazy woman, laughing at the fact that she escaped from North Korea to have freedom, only for that freedom to be quickly snatched away. It's funny really, escaping one form of prison to land on a different prison.

Just her luck.

She sighs, lying down on her soft bed. As much as she was a prisoner, her captors take care of their needs well.

And she knows why. It's because she's merchandise. Merchandise waiting to be sold to the highest bidder. And so they need to take care of her.

From what she's heard, the buyers are all rich men and women who are looking for slaves and mistresses. They want to buy clean young women who aren't drug addicts, former es, or tattooed. They say it's for their fantasies.

She shudders with disgust at thinking about the people who find pleasure in keeping a caged woman for their ual needs.

But well, that's her future now.

The other day, they were inspected by the house mother. A heavyset woman who is about the same age as her own mom. She wore thick makeup and outlandish jewelry and she had the most atrocious taste in fashion.

They went through a thorough physical examination. Checking for any disease and listing who are still s or not. s get bought at an even higher price. They're rare so they will be exclusively offered to the very rich and the very powerful. People who can afford to buy a human life as if it was something you can get at a grocery store.

Out of the 25 women that will be sold in the next few weeks, only 5 were s, and she's one of them.

Should she be thankful? She doesn't know.

Reaching under her pillow, she takes out a small crumpled photo from underneath her pillow. It was a photo of her and Hyejin at that apartment they shared.

She misses her.

She's the first friend she made in South Korea. But she wasn't supposed to be her friend. She was a target. But she was too kind and Yong couldn't... didn't want her to get hurt.

Hyejin is a good person and she didn't deserve to be a victim or to be involved with these criminals. And she did her best not to involve her, but one thing led to another, and here she is now. Still, she thinks it's for the best, at least Hyejin didn't get hurt. She should be safe now. And soon, she'll forget about all of this.

She'll forget about Yong, and she should. Nothing about their time together is worth remembering anyway.

She's been in South Korea for a week now and the men who helped her escape from North Korea, a group of Chinese Triads, said that they'll come back for her parents and sister if she does something for them. She agrees as she wants to be with her family.