The sound of the alarm blaring dragged me out of bed at two am.

I groaned snuggling closer to Donghae, wishing that we didn’t have to be at the airport in half an hour, and that we didn’t have to say goodbye to our home. Donghae released me from his embrace, sitting on the edge of his bed and pulling on his underwear and a pair of jeans. I peered though my half-closed eyes as he stretched, his back muscles which flexed under his tanned skin. He ruffed his long messy hair, pulling it into a small ponytail and turning to me.

“C’mon Hyukkie.” He sighed. “We’ve gotta get up.”

Donghae and I showered and dressed in fairly plain clothes, giving us that extra edge when it came to being undetected. We had packed up all our other clothes into two suitcases, which we planned on leaving behind at the airport in Korea when we made our escape. After all, we’d look even more suspicious if we didn’t have any luggage.

Don’t focus on that Hyuk. I told myself, rolling out of bed. Just focus on being prepared.

I had barely gotten half an hour of sleep. Donghae and I had talked for hours, made love, and gone to sleep less than an hour ago. I really didn’t feel at all prepared for what lied in front of me.

I had spent all yesterday evening, clearing out the apartment ready to return to the building owner. It was still dark outside.

I took one last sweeping gaze of the apartment before feeling a hand placed on my shoulder.

“Ready?” Donghae asked. I nodded, even though I wasn’t.

Donghae and I loaded our stuff into the backseat of the car. He shut the door with a thud, and the two of us stood in the darkness of the parking lot.

“Before we go…” Donghae said, moving to the back of the car. I followed him around, curious as to what he was doing. Donghae lifted the trunk, revealing an empty space.

That is, until he ripped up the carpet which lined the bottom.

“Hae what are you-.” I froze, seeing the familiar black bag  sitting hauntingly in the bottom. My eyes widened.

I forgot all about that thing. It was the bag he’d asked me to grab that night back…

My mind was filled with curiosity at this point.

Donghae leaned in, withdrawing the bag and ping it at an extremely slow pace. He reached in, and I gasped as he pulled a hand gun from inside.

“Since we’re going to an airport, taking these would be suicide…” He said, unloading two more hand guns and three magazines of ammunition. I stared at him, horrified as he placed the weaponry on the edge of the car.

“Sorry.” He muttered at my reaction.

Donghae has been keeping firearms in the back of the car this entire time?!

I stared at the guns as though they were about to explode.

“Relax.” Donghae said. “It’s not like we needed them. It was just in case.”

Still…

Donghae laid the guns and ammunition out in the back of the car, as though he was putting them on display.

“So these, we leave.” Donghae said, reaching back into the bag. I flinched, wondering what death-inflicting-object he was going to reveal next. “But this…” Donghae said, taking out what looked like a plain black vest. “This, we take with us.”

I furrowed my eyebrows, still focusing on the weapons out the corner of my eye.

“What is-.”

Donghae undid the Velcro front, and pushed it against my chest.

“Put it on over your t-shirt and under your jumper.” He said, his eyes fixing on mine in hard glare. 

I felt my stomach drop. I looked down at the vest. I knew exactly what it is.

“No.” I said, passing the garment back. “No, I thought you said there wasn’t any risk.”
Donghae bit his lip, immediately telling me he wasn’t being one hundred percent honest. The guns in the back of the car strongly agreed.

The idea of someone shooting at us, suddenly erupted in my mind.

“W-wh-.” I stuttered wildly. “N-no but-.”

“Calm down baby.” Donghae said, grasping the sides of my shoulders to stop me shaking. “It’s just a precaution. You know, just in case. We don’t know what will happen, and I want to make sure you’re completely safe if-.”

“What about you!?” I exclaimed, shoving it back at him. “You need this more than me-.”

“Put it on.”

“No.”

“Hyuk.”

“No.”

“Please.” Donghae stopped, looking me in the eyes. “I’ll be fine. Please, just put it on so we can go.”
I knew there was no use arguing with him.

Relax Hyukjae, I told myself, pulling my jumper over my head. Nothing will go wrong. It’s just as Donghae said: A precaution.

I strapped the bullet-proof vest to my torso, covering it again with my jumper. It was slightly bulky, but not as bad as I would have thought.

Donghae peered into the bag, grabbing a small folded piece of paper, and shoving it into his back pocket. I was about to ask what it was, before Donghae threw the bag back into the car, slamming the back shut.

“Good.” Donghae smiled. “Now lets go. We have a plane to catch.”

Donghae got into the drivers side, handing me my plane ticket and passport as I sat opposite him. I felt the vest against my body, making my movements restricted.

I have a very bad feeling about this.

Once we arrived at the airport, talking to the receptionist at the counter with our cover story of being in Miami for a family reunion, we had safely managed to not draw attention to ourselves. I was extremely nervous handing my fake passport over, on the verge of having a mental break down over the fear of being caught out. To my relief, our alibis and fake ID’s all seemed to check out. Thanks to whoever Donghae had working to forge government documents.

And from there on, we were seated on the plane, absolutely no worries whatsoever.

The pilot’s voice came over the speaker, informing us of the whether conditions and that we will be arriving in Korea in just over ten hours.

I sighed, settling into my seat beside Donghae, who just sat there, looking calm as though we weren’t about to go back into a country crawling with people who are desperately searching for us. I fiddled nervously with the armrest, constantly looking around to check if our cover was blown.

“Hey,” Donghae said, catching my fidgeting and grabbing my hand. “Hyuk, relax, everything will be fine.”

I just turned to him, not meaning to sound angry, but ended up glaring at him heavily.

“Fine?” I croaked. “Fine? I’m wearing a ing bullet-proof vest! How the can that be fine Hae!”
I tried to calm my tempered breathing because the heartbreaking expression of guilt on Donghae’s face was enough to send me crashing down.

A stewardess caught onto my panic, asking if everything was okay, in which Donghae just explained I was a nervous flyer. After she had left I went right back into panic mode.

“Please Hyukkie.” Donghae swallowed, his eyes pleading. “Everything is going to be okay. We just get there, and get back. Nothing is going to go wrong.”

Oh yeah? Then why am I wearing body armour?

I knew Donghae wasn’t telling me the entire truth. I knew this whole thing was a lot more serious than he had told me. I guess he was trying to keep me calm. Ignorance is bliss after all.

I sighed, giving in an nodding and telling him that he was right.

Donghae fingers wrapped around mine, comforting me like he always did. I leaned my head on the glass of the window overlooking the darkness of the early morning outside. All that was visible were the small lights marking the runway.

This is it. In ten hours we’ll be back in Seoul.

The stewardess came around to our seat, offering us snacks or drinks once the plane was off the ground.

I ordered water, and Donghae ordered a glass of straight scotch. 

“Do you want to sleep?” Donghae asked, sipping his drink. I looked around, scanning our environment. Most of the other people on the flight were leant back in their chairs and had their eyes closed.

I was exhausted and possibly looked like a meth addict, so I nodded.

Donghae fluffed my hair lovingly, reaching into the overhead compartment and pulling out a pillow. He leant it against his shoulder, signalling me to sleep up against him. I was going to argue at how uncomfortable that would be for him, but I ended up half collapsing onto him, and immediately closing my eyes.

Donghae rested his cheek on the top of my head as I fell asleep with his hand on my knee.

I drifted in and out of sleep for the entire flight, waking up after hours and talking to Donghae, or sharing his iPod. Donghae kept telling me to go back to sleep, seeing as I really needed to be fully rested by the time we got to Korea. I asked him why he wasn’t going to sleep, and he simply told me he wasn’t tired, and that he wanted to watch over his baby.

Baby? Donghae you are too cheesy for your own good.

I was in the middle of a very strange dream involving millions of tiny bugs crawling over my skin, when Donghae’s gentle nudge with his elbow woke me up with a start.

“Get ready.” He whispered, his tone serious and alarming. “The plane lands in ten minutes.”

I knew what that meant. It meant that things were about to get tricky, starting from sneaking off the plane and avoiding customs at the other end.

Soon, we were told the plane had finally landed and come to a complete stop. Donghae unbuckled my seatbelt for me, as the stewardess directed us to the exit.

“It’s go time babe.” Donghae whispered, grabbing my hand and pulling me close to the back of his body.

“What’s the plan?” I whispered as we stood by our seats, watching people exit.

“We can’t get off yet. There’s too many security at the bottom.”

Donghae held onto my hand tightly, casually dragging me back through the isles. He waited until an air hostess was busy directing people to an exit, before ducking back into the rear of the plane, pressing my body up against the door to the toilet cubicle.

“Once the plane pulls away from the gate, the air marshal will come to check the plane, to make sure there aren’t any stowaways, and that’s when we move.” Donghae whispered, pulling me over to the other side, pushing me between a stack of boxes and a cupboard. He squished in beside me, and we flinched as another stewardess passed us with a stack of trays.

“Now,” He whispered, his body pressed awkwardly up against mine. “He will be armed, so just be careful-.”

I was about to gasp in panic, when Donghae’s palm slammed over my mouth and silenced me as another flight attendant passed.

We waited, for almost twenty minutes, before Donghae stuck his head out the side. He shot back, staring at me directly.

“Here he comes.” Donghae said, his tone slightly frightening, while I was one the verge of having a panic attack.

“We’re missing two at the other end.” A man said, though I didn’t dare look. “They could be in here somewhere. Stay alert.”

I could hear Donghae’s breath against my ear.

“One…” Donghae whispered, barely audible. I held back a scream seeing the young man with his hand on a gun located at his hip come into view. He wasn‘t extremely tough looking, but my attention lay solely at the weapon on his belt.“…Two…”

I bit my lip, as he slowly approached the section. My heart was pounding rapidly.

“Three.” Donghae said, sliding out from behind the rack. Donghae moved quickly, before he could even draw the gun from his belt. I watched through the gap in the shelf in sheer horror as Donghae grabbed his throat, kicking his legs out from underneath him and sending him to the floor.

“Donghae!” I couldn’t help but yell out as he sent a fist straight to the guards face, who yelled out for backup. Donghae barely had time to regain his footing before the other air marshal had his gun drawn, pointing directly at Donghae’s face.

Come one Donghae! Do something!

“Don’t move, Lee Dong