Light 26

The last thing she remembered feeling was a cool sensation clamping around her nostrils and mouth. Total black out would have been an apt way to describe her memory of what happened after that.

“She has come to. Remove her blindfold and gag but keep her hands and feet tied up.”

Light and the freedom to speak were returned to her.

“Open your eyes.”

She supposed that the orders were meant for her, since she was probably the only person who had her eyes closed—wherever she was. The only problem was that the blindfold had been pressing against her eyes for the longest time and her eyelids were rather stiff.

A slap to her face solved that problem for her as her eyes flew open upon the pain that came from impact.

“Oww!” she groaned. The slap hurt. Badly. Oh gosh. She could taste blood.

“Open your eyes when I tell you to. Follow my orders. Look at me.”

She looked in the direction that the voice was coming from and saw a man who couldn’t have been older than thirty staring straight at her with steely eyes. Those eyes were just as steely as Boa’s and Taeyeon felt thankful that she had a chance to get more accustomed to such eyes. She didn’t want to appear too afraid.

“I see that you have the guts to look me in the eyes. That is something even my men do not dare to do. You have my respect, little girl, but I have no mercy and no conscience. Your father has betrayed us. He has run away after shooting an agent. That useless man called us for help after shooting that agent. What good will he be to us now? We need a Prime Minister, not a fugitive.”

“Why are you telling me all these things? I am of no use to you now that my father is a fugitive.”

“Oh, really?”

Taeyeon clenched her jaw and steeled herself against his steely eyes. She would not back down. She would not show fear. No. She was a tough cookie too.

“You have something that we want.”

“What could I possibly have? I’m just the daughter of a fugitive. A normal student. A person living a pathetic life.”

“You have many personal problems I see. But I’m not interested in your problems. My men tell me that there is evidence of a transfer of files to an external storage space from our fugitive’s computer. Are you in possession of this external storage?”

All the years of being the daughter of a Prime Minister had finally been put to use in this instant. And it was the first time she was thankful that she had had enough practice maintaining a calm and stoic expression no matter how spot on or shockingly accurate the question was. She had used that against reporters and now she was using against this man.

Yes. The external storage. Her thumb drive. She couldn’t believe that they could trace such things. Gosh. She had a lot to learn, didn’t she.

Her calm and stoic expression had angered the man, evidently, for he slapped her again. This time, on the other side.

“Uh!” she grunted from the force of his hand meeting her cheek and as hard as she tried not to, she winced from the pain.

“You have it. You have the data. Hand it over.”

“Just kill me.”

The man was stunned. She could tell from his eyes. Those steely eyes lost a little of their steel in that moment and widened slightly. He too, practiced the art of maintaining a poker face so her response must have been incredibly shocking to evoke that slight reaction.

“You don’t fear death.”

“No.”

“Then you will fear pain.”

“Do what you want to me.”

He narrowed his eyes and regarded her carefully.

“You…” he paused and walked around her once before stopping in front of her and lifting her chin up to his face, “are different.”

She blinked, not daring to breathe until he released her chin and stepped back from her.

“You remind me of someone I used to know.”

Who is it? Who are you?

“You want to know who it is. You want to know who I am. And now you’re wondering how I know what you’re thinking.”

The man laughed.

“I can read the smallest nuance visible. The pupils of your eyes, the tension of your jaw, the tension of your body, every little bit tells me things about you. I am also aware that you are an attractive girl but you have yet to try to charm your way out. Impressive. You truly do not fear death. In fact, you welcome it. Why?”

“I have no illusions about life and reality.”

The man guffawed.

“I like you. Should I just enjoy the sweet scent that you can offer me? Perhaps the data that you have will be willingly handed over to me after that.”

She tried to stop her muscles from tensing up but it was impossible to control every muscle.

“Ah, the girl fears this. Perhaps we shall bargain with this then. Your innocence for the data.”

“You have no conscience.”

The man threw his head back and guffawed.

“You got that right. I have no conscience. I threw it to the dogs long ago.”

“Do whatever you want.”

The man cocked a brow.

“That was a seductive line. You are interesting.”

He ran his finger down her jaw and she had to bite her tongue to stop herself from flinching. His finger continued down her neck to her collarbone and then to the collar of her hospital blouse.

She could barely breathe as she tried to will his finger away from her. Futile. Hopeless. His finger continued to the first button and undid it. She bit even harder on her tongue and the rancid iron taste in distracted her for a bit. But the feeling of his finger inching down the valley of her chest was too much for her to take and she quivered.

“Oh, a shiver. Are you perhaps, enjoying this? I am after all, a good looking young man.”

He ed his shirt and took it off.

“Look at my body. It is the body that many men dream of and would die to have.”

Taeyeon looked.

No doubt he was very fit and his muscles very well defined.

“I think you and I would make a fine couple when we e.”

He grinned darkly and undid another button and another and another. Her hospital blouse was now hanging open, baring her s to him.

“Very nice. The good thing about hospital outfits is that patients don’t normally wear undergarments. It saves a lot of time, don’t you agree?”

As much as Taeyeon wanted to stay resolute and brave, being exposed to him wasn’t something she could handle very well and her eyes squeezed shut as she tried to hold herself together.

Just then, multiple gun shots and loud shouts were heard from the outside of the room.

He stood up and walked to the door briskly. The door burst open and he sidestepped just as two agents entered the room. He shot one of them dead instantly and Taeyeon screamed. It was too much to bear.

The other agent turned around but he too, was shot dead before he could do anything to the man with the smoking gun.

Taeyeon shook and shivered in fear. First it was Sunny, and now, these agents. How many more people was she going to witness being shot?

“FREEZE.”

An ice cold, steely voice of a woman came from behind her. How? Where? What? When? Who?

Why did it sound like…Boa?

“It’s you.” The man spun round and froze for a moment. “Sneaking through vent shafts. Just like old times. But why do you seem to be on her side instead of mine?”

Taeyeon was surprised. Did the man know Boa?”

“Yunho. Don’t move.”

“Why, Boa? Why are you doing this?”

“I’ve had a change of heart.”

“No! You are supposed to be on my side. You are supposed to be mine!”

“I’m sorry. I’ve changed.”

“NO! YOU CAN’T HAVE CHANGED! I’VE ALWAYS BEEN WAITING FOR YOU!”

“I’m sorry. Just go. I won’t kill you.”

“No. I’d rather you killed me.”

“As you wish.”

A shot rang out and Taeyeon screamed again. What was going on? Why was Boa talking to this man…this man called Yunho…? And why did Yunho wish to be killed?

“You…You’re really going to kill me.” His voice shook with emotion. Boa’s bullet had missed him by a fraction of an inch. Deliberately, no doubt.

“Go, Yunho. Leave now. Kangta is never going to be released. He’s going to die. He’s been sentenced to death.”

“No, no, no.”

“Yunho, please. Don’t sell your soul to BLACK. They won’t protect you. Kangta is gone. BLACK has no leader. BLACK has been exterminated.”

“No…”

“We have found the data that she transferred from her father’s computer. Another agent told us where to find it. All the BLACK members are being hunted down as we speak.”

“Boa…”

“I love you, Yunho. So go. Before you break my heart.”

Yunho gazed deep into Boa’s eyes and teared. Taeyeon was shell-shocked to witness this turn of events. Yunho and Boa were in love?

“I’ll always love you, Boa. I’ll find a way back to you one day.”

“And I’ll be waiting.”

Then he was gone. Gone like the wind.

Boa squatted in front of Taeyeon and buttoned up her blouse quickly. Then she untied her hands and feet.

“Can you walk?”

Taeyeon nodded numbly.

“Let’s go. Our agents have this building surrounded. And I’ll tell you everything on the way back.”

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