“Sooyoung is missing?”

“What? How did she go missing? She lived her whole life on this island. How did that happen?”

“I also don’t know.”

“Have you tried contacting her?”

“She didn’t answer. That’s unusual of her. She uses her phone every time.”

“Maybe she just ran out of batteries?”

“She’s online. And she’s not responding.”

“Maybe she’s busy.”

“The thing is, someone sent me a message. That they kept her as a hostage.”

“What?!”

“Yes, they did that.”

“Are you sure that it isn’t just a prank?”

“This was sent using an unfamiliar number. We tried calling it back, but it didn’t answer. We don’t have the means of tracing the number. We’ve sent it to Hoseok, but he hasn’t finished tracing it yet.”

She received a message from Joohyun. It contained a picture of Sooyoung tied up to a chair, blindfolded and with tape on the mouth.

“Where are you? I’ll go there.”

Joohyun sent her the location. Before leaving, she decided to ask Seonghwa one last thing.

“My friend was kidnapped. Are you involved with this?”

“I’m with you the whole time. We didn’t plan this to happen. My other members might be involved, but I’m sure it wasn’t planned well. It must have been an on the spot decision.”

On the spot decision? Did Sooyoung unnie find out something?

“Thanks.”

“Wait, you might need this.”

A gun?

“If you are really dealing with my team, then you’ll probably find this thing useful.”

“It’s heavy.”

“Please handle it with care. You can return it later if your friend is safe.”

“This is scary. Hopefully, I won’t need this. I’m not ready to use this one.”

“You might just be careful.”

“Thanks.”

A few minutes later, she arrived where the others were. All of them look worried.

“What do we do now?” Yeri asked.

“Where have you seen her last?” Seungwan asked.

“I think we split apart near the mall.”

“How did you two split up?”

“She said that her boyfriend is going to fetch her.”

“Should we contact him unnie?” Seungwan asked Joohyun.

“Try.”

Seungwan tried to ask him in a chat, but he isn’t online.

“I don’t have his number.”

“Wait, I’m going to contact my cousin, since they’re close.”

Yeri dialled Ilhoon’s number. He picked up a few rings later.

“Can I have Sungjae sunbaenim’s number?”

“Why? Do you like him or something?”

I wonder what goes on with his mind.

“A friend of mine is dating him. So could I please get his number?”

Ilhoon however, has something on his mind.

“I’m going to send it to you, but promise you’re going to help me with my request.”

“Let’s talk about your request later. Send me his number.”

“Okay.”

“Thanks.”

They proceeded to call Sungjae’s number. It didn’t answer. They tried it again, but still no answers. A few minutes later, they decided to give up on their search.

“Sungjae is clearly involved in this.”

“Or what if he is also kidnapped?” Seulgi suggested.

“If he was, a friend of his should also receive a message about it. Ilhoon hasn’t.”

“That’s an interesting conclusion you came up with.” Seungwan remarked.

Seungwan heard her phone ring. It was Hoseok.

“He found the location where the message was sent, let’s go there.”

They rode Seulgi’s and Joohyun’s car to reach there. While on the way, Joohyun asked Yeri about something.

“So Yeri, did you remember anyone near your area earlier?”

“Wait, some of Jaehyun’s club mates were there.”

“Try contacting them.”

She began dialling Aeri’s number. I hope she can provide us with something valuable.

Her actions were interrupted by another call to her phone.

“Unnie, Sooyoung unnie is calling.”

“What?”

She answered the call.

“Yeri?” It wasn’t Sooyoung’s voice. It was Aeri’s.

 “Aeri? What happened?”

“Sooyoung sunbaenim dropped her phone while talking to someone.”

“You saw her?”

“We saw her, a couple of minutes ago, she’s talking to someone.”

“I think the guy’s name is Sungjae. There’s also another person she’s talking to, but we didn’t see that person.”

“Where have you seen her?”

“In the mall.”

“Wait, in the mall?”

“Yes, why?”

“We’ll get there later.”

She dropped the call and asked Joohyun.

“Unnie, we’re going in a different direction. Aeri said she saw Sooyoung unnie at the mall?”

“What? The police said that the message was sent near the school.”

The school? Wait. They’re using the tunnel.

She called Aeri again.

“Aeri, could you go over here to our school? I’ll tell you the details later.”

“Okay.”

Their cars have reached their school.

“Yeri, what is this about?” Seungwan asked.

“Sooyoung unnie was talking to someone in the mall, and someone brought her here.”

“Should we check the cameras in the mall?”

“No need, I know where they were hiding. I just need to wait for backup to arrive.”

“Backup? Did you call the police?”

“No.”

“Wait, you were expecting something dangerous, yet you didn’t call the police?”

“The police are far more dangerous.”

I don’t trust them. Tons of their men are corrupted. Criminals can easily buy their way out. Criminals could easily cover up their crime. 

“They’re here.”

“You’ve sent a bunch of high school kids?” Joohyun was frustrated.

“Actually the two of us are the same grade as Yeri.” Jimin pointed out.

“So the rest are high school kids.”

“They’ll be in college next year.”

“God, what am I going to do with all of you?”

The younger girls started out introducing themselves first. Then the older ones.

“So the one who looks like Taeyeon sunbaenim is Minjeong. The tall one is Karina. The Chinese girl is Ningning and the half-Japanese one is Aeri. Am I correct?” Jooohyun asked.

 The younger girls nodded in unison.

“So what are we going to do next?” Seungwan asked.

Another message has been sent to Joohyu from the phone number earlier. This time it was a video.

“Oh my god.” Ningning reacted.

It shows Sooyoung still in the same position as she was in the picture earlier. Behind her was a phone where a show was playing. It is a good thing that there aren’t any wounds on her body.

“It was recently recorded. The show just went live a couple of minutes ago, and it was a new episode. They’re planning on keeping her alive.” Aeri pointed out.

“For how long?” Seulgi asked.

“Probably until we gave them what they wanted.”

“What do they want?” Minjeong innocently asked.

Actually, it’s just Joohyun unnie. It was indeed an “accidental kidnapping”, but it was used to lure Joohyun unnie. Unfortunately for us, we also happen to figure things out to help her. I wish I could’ve realized it sooner and prevented the younger girls from coming here. Well it’s too late.

Yeri knows where Sooyoung is being held captive, but she doesn’t know what kind of dangers they’re facing. 

Wait, something is wrong. Did they purposely reveal the location by sending us the picture? If what Seonghwa said is true, then most of them should probably know that I have knowledge of this area. This could easily be a trap to lure all of us here. What may have started out as an accidental operation was used to lure all of us here. 

What I’m now sure of is, they won’t kill Sooyoung because they needed her to bait us. Someone is also there protecting her. She currently doesn’t have any bruises, thankfully, possibly Sungjae sunbaenim. Or it is also possible that they chose not to hurt her for the future legal implications.

I guess there’s no other choice. I have to sacrifice someone.

While Sooyoung is getting kidnapped, Mark on the other hand was having fun, unaware of the happenings. He was touring the whole fair along with Koeun.

“You know, I haven’t eaten cotton candy in a long time. I can’t even remember when I tasted it last.” Koeun remarked.

“Me too. I was probably a preschooler during that time. My favourite flavour was the watermelon one”

“You remembered it?”

“I did?”

“Yeah, your memories might’ve started to come back. Tell me more about what happened with your watermelon cotton candy.”

“Let me try.”

Mark concentrated harder and harder.

“I can’t.”

“Too bad, but at least your memory might be coming back.”

“Well I guess that’s good news.”

“At least you smiled today.”

“What?”

“Never mind. Tell me whenever you remember something.”

“Will do.”

“Wait, I’ve read something about a memory gaining machine.”

“There is?”

“Yeah, I just can’t remember who invented it. Let me search it on the internet.”

Koeun took out her phone and searched it. It took her a while when she found it.

“I’ve found it. It turns out that the Parks have one.”

“Which Parks?”

“The one who owns a biotech company.”

“Wait, I’m going to ask my sister about it. She’s in contact with several of the family members.”

He dialled Hayi’s number.

“Hey.”

“Hey, why did you call?”

“You were in contact with the Parks right?”

“The owner of the lending family? No. The owner of the biotech company? Yes.”

“Great, I was asking about the one who owns the biotech company.”

“What about them?”

“Did you know that they have a device which allows you to regain memory?”

I’d just tell him I knew about it, because I’m close with Chanyeol. In that way, he wouldn’t know about Hyunggu. Where in the world did he even got this information?

“Yeah. Chanyeol told me about this.”

I’ll just tell him to cooperate with my lies.

“Great. Could I try it?”

Right. How could I forget that my own brother had lost his memory? And how the am I involved with a lot of persons who lost their memories? This life is like a drama or a novel. Too many unbelievable coincidences.

 “I’ll ask him later about this.”

“Thanks.”

So he really forgot what his life used to be. Too bad. Or did he? He might be using this to cover up the fact that he hasn’t forgotten his memories. There were a lot of instances where he accidentally spilled what his life was like. Should I let him try the machine or should I confront him directly.

It’s been a month since Jonghyun’s email to me stopped. It turns out it stopped because he was actually planning to make an appearance here. The problem is, he is now in a coma. Who knows what secrets he is going to spill if he wasn’t shot. Especially about Mark’s past.

“My sister approved.” Mark proudly said to Koeun.

“Great. Now we would know how you lost your memory and what your life was like. Wait, why do you look sad?”

“I do?”

“Yeah, what’s wrong?”

“It’s just that. I probably don’t know what happened with my life back then. It may be so bad that it is better if I hadn’t remembered about it.”

“Or it would be so good that your life would change positively.”

 “Do you think it would be better if you stay blind to the truth or is it better that I know it despite it will hurt me? Knowledge is a harmful thing.”

“Cheer up. Forget about it. Let’s just deal with it once you will be trying out the machine. We’ll cross the bridge when we get there.”

There were two shots. Jungkook was chilling inside their base when he heard it. Who set the fireworks early? them. I’ll set off bigger fireworks later when I finally capture Bae Joohyun. Wait, that wasn’t fireworks. Those were gunshots. As soon as he realized it, he received a message from Yeri. What the do you want? It was a video. From the thumbnail, he knew this would endanger the whole organization. 

It was Yeri pointing a gun in Minjeong’s head. What the are you doing?

Around thirty minutes before that happened, Yeri was having a problem on how to release her friend. It will soon get dark, and she is still unsure what to do. Time is running out for them and of course, Sooyoung. She knows the