~_____~

When the woman in the flowery top twisted around, Chorong’s eyes grew big before she immediately hopped back up the stairs. She immediately crashed through the small crowd of men slowly making their way up with her heart in her ears.

“Hey! Watch it!”

Chorong dashed through the hallway her mind suddenly now a fuzz. She couldn’t remember which floor Namjoo had been assigned to and ended up running back and forth down the hallway. Anxiety had never hit her so bad before.

The men behind her turned to glance at her curiously, but they were the last things on her mind right now.

“Hey, are you alright?” one of them set a hand on her shoulder

Her body froze and she glanced at his greasy face full of hidden desires before walking away.

The man snorted behind her, “Look at her…”

That was when Chorong glanced out the window and spotted the nearly packed streets. It suddenly hit her then. That was right. Lay and Kris were out there waiting…Fumbling for her phone she quickly pulled it out.

~_____~

“Look at them,” Kris muttered underneath his breath.

Lay glanced at him quietly wondering why Kris seemed somewhat upset. Turning his phone he glanced at the time and reported, “It’s already 7.” And right after reporting that, his phone rang. Everything seemed to still inside the van before Lay announced, “It’s Chorong.”

“Answer,” Kris sounded anxious.

“Chorong,” Lay answered.

“I need you to notify the cops,” Chorong sounded almost out of breath.

“Are you ok?” Lay worried.

“I need to find Namjoo before we leave; you’re still out there, right?”

“We’re here,” Lay promised. “If you don’t come out in five minutes, I’ll come find you.”

When he hung up he turned to find Kris intensely staring at him, waiting, watching.

“Something happened,” Lay explained, “Chorong’s looking for Namjoo so they can leave.”

“Namjoo?” Kris half gasped. “Why? Did something happen?”

Lay eyed him, “Lets wait until then.”

~_____~

“Is it them?” Donghae turned when Suho hung his phone up.

Suho nodded, “Lay wants us there.”

Donghae stood up and turned back to see Tao opening his eyes. He glanced at the ground before turning back to Tao, “You stay here. I’ll call you up in a bit.”

“Whatever,” Tao closed his eyes again and readjusted his arms over his chest.

Donghae turned back to Suho to see that he was taking a glimpse of Tao. “Lets go.”

~_____~

Namjoo was swearing under her breath when the voices of men filtered the hallways. It wasn’t safe anywhere right now. Those little girls’ fates would really be doomed if she couldn’t find that note.

“Aish…” she groaned underneath her breath and ran into her room before slamming the door after her.

She swerved her eyes all over the little room, ran over to the desk, rummaged through the contents in the drawers, and found them empty. Turning around she ran her eyes over every inch of the walls and combed her hand through her hair. Namjoo was becoming uneasy. Once again she ran her eyes over the room before she completely calmed. This was it.

With a quick move of her feet she paused by the wall and touched the shabby poster that had been posted up. Namjoo ran her fingers over the side frame and pulled with all her strength. A crack nearly echoed in the room when part of the poster released itself from the wall. Tilting her head to the side she peered underneath it and saw the faded initials H.D.B. It was obvious to her that the women at the brothel had tried to wash it off, but had been unable to.

But that wasn’t the note…

Pressing the poster back against the wall Namjoo looked around. Her eyes first landed on the bed and she randomly picked up a pillow running her hands into the pillow case. The first one was empty. She half climbed onto the bed to reach for the other pillow and inserted her hand into the pillow case. Something rough caught her fingers and she immediately pulled it out, however; before she could look at it the door opened and closed. Namjoo’s head shot up to see a man stumble in with a bag slung over his shoulder. She quietly stared at him with her breath caught in . Her eyes watched him set the bag down onto the desk and he raised an eyebrow at her.

“Why, is this the new girl I’m getting for seventy bucks,” he murmured before pulling a bottle of liquor from his bag. “Was told I’m allowed to have as much fun as I want. Lets get this going, eh?”

He swirled the clear liquid in the bottle and took a long sip from it. The man dropped the mouth of the bottle from his lips and stared before he charged at her without warning. A shout of surprise escaped from her lips when her head flew back into the headboard and he sat on top of her. Her brain slurred its messages and nothing came out, but struggling shrieks and screams. At the back of her head she was clear with the fact that no one would come to her rescue.

This was a brothel.

She shot her arms out when he tried to hold her still and make her drink some of his liquor. Namjoo felt the bitter liquid land all over her dripping from her neck to her shirt before he eventually poured some of the content into . A loud cough formed from when too much went in before she could swallow and suddenly angry she grabbed his hand and forcefully shoved the bottle to the ground to hear it crash into pieces.

The room merely silenced and all she could hear was the oncoming anger from the brute before he grabbed a pillow and pressed it over her face. Namjoo’s muffled screams were reduced in volume as she tried to fight it off, but his weight on her was already slowly killing her. Her heart was racing and her blood was boiling, but she was in a helpless state. Without getting the pillow that was suffocating her off, she wouldn’t be able to defend herself. Deprived of air she felt her head spin. Everything slowly became black and blue when he finally tossed the pillow aside and panted angrily. Namjoo felt him grab her ankles and dragged her off the bed. Her head thumped against the ground and her fingers tightened around the note she’d found earlier. She couldn’t breathe and she was very light headed.

In another attempt to escape she slowly kicked her legs around and luckily gutted him in the stomach. A loud grunt was heard from him before pulled one of the drawers open and slammed her across the head with a paperweight.

“You whiny little ,” he cussed and slammed her across the head again.

Namjoo’s consciousness was spinning and she almost out. Her arms remained limp by her sides when he ed her pants and began to pull them. Heavy tears of doom began to drip down her face.

~_____~

Chorong was suddenly scared now. She couldn’t remember which room belonged to Namjoo. She couldn’t find her anywhere either. Chorong’s mind was too distracted that she hadn’t even thought of calling her. She raced down from the third floor and quickly searched the hallways before she eventually turned a corner and spotted a few girls staring at a closed door huddling against each other. They seemed to be gossiping about something before Chorong jogged over and turned to peer at the door.

“I wonder what she was screaming about,” one of them whispered. “I feel so bad for her…she’s a newbie too…”

Chorong shot them half a glare before she reached for the doorknob and discovered that it was locked.

“Who’s in there?” Chorong felt her heart race.

One of the girls darted her eyes toward the ground.

“I asked who’s in there!” she raised her voice unintentionally.

“It’s one of the new girls.” The other one quickly replied before whispering, “Lets go.”

Chorong watched them walk away almost angrily before she grabbed the doorknob and twisted it again and again. She pressed her ear against the door. “Namjoo! Are you in there?! Namjoo!”

She pressed her ear against the door again and couldn’t hear even a sound. Suddenly panicked she pulled out the gun she had with her. Whether it was really Namjoo in there or not, she had to at least give it a try. Steadying the gun within her grasp she aimed for the lock and shot at it once before trying for the knob. It still wasn’t opening, so she stepped back and shot it again. A loud click echo and Chorong could hear the others gossiping and screaming in fear. Yet it wasn’t time to pay them any attention.

Kicking the door open she stepped in and felt her blood rush to her brain in waves. Something that had never awoken inside Chorong before suddenly came to life. The ill will to destroy surged through her veins and she explicitly shot at the ground.

“Get off her!” Chorong screamed. “I’ll shoot you!”

She pulled the trigger again and watched the man quickly pull himself up before staggering out of the room. Panting angrily Chorong turned to make sure he was gone before dropping onto her knees and pulled Namjoo up.

“Oh my god, Namjoo, are you ok?” Chorong’s lips trembled from the thought of what had happened and what could have happened. She watched the tears streak down Namjoo’s now pale face before hugging her. “It’s ok. Come on, lets get up.”

With Namjoo’s arm slung around her shoulders and the gun in her tight grip she rushed for the stairs. All the women had gathered, some half clothed, some screaming, and the men who had frozen in place stared as they ran for the doors.

“Move it! Move it!” Chorong screamed at the top of her lungs.

“Wait! You can’t leave!” the manager in the flowery top ran toward her before she could make it to the doors. “You and your sisters have ruined my business! I’m going to call the cops on you! You wait right there!”

Chorong glared at the woman and took a step forward only to have her path blocked again.

“I will have you jailed for disrupting my business and the peace here!” the woman raised her voice. “You are not allowed to leave until we settle this matter.”

They glared at each other for a long moment before Chorong glanced at the teary faced Namjoo and recalled the earlier anger that had swarmed through her.

“Move it,” Chorong shoved her aside before leading Namjoo out.

~_____~

“Something’s wrong,” Lay heard Kris mumble, “they’re taking too long.”

Kris made a move for the door, but Lay grabbed his arm, “Give it a minute more.”

“It’s already been five minutes!” Kris raised his voice before pushing Lay away and pushed the door open.

Lay groaned and started after him, “Kris!”

He only paused in his steps right behind Kris when Chorong bolted out of the doors with a gun in hand and a weak looking Namjoo beside her. That expression on Chorong was one he’d never seen before. It wasn’t the same calm girl he’d worked with the past few days. Kris was right. Something was wrong.

~_____~

Those pursed lips of his dropped apart when his eyes landed on Namjoo who had never appeared so exhausted before. Kris almost took a step forward before a woman in a flowery top followed them out screaming from the top of her lungs for them to stop, but Chorong was rebelling. He had never seen Chorong looking so upset before. Her face was distorted with anger.

Other women quickly appeared from the brothel in their gowns before they started shrieking. Kris’ heart raced when a man suddenly ran out with a tiny knife in hand.

“Chorong!” he screamed.

Alarmed by the shrieks, Chorong stopped and immediately spun around to see the man charging toward her. For the first time, Kris witnessed Namjoo cower behind Chorong. And for the first time, he saw Namjoo trembling in fear. There was no need to ask what had gone wrong. The girls had snuck into a brothel after all. Only one reason would exist for Namjoo to become so frail. A flush of heated anger made his blood rush when Chorong stumbled back with a scream. That was enough to send Kris running forward.

Grabbing the hand with the knife, Kris worked to twist the man’s wrist and slammed him across the fist with an angry fist. The man stumbled back drunkenly before charging toward him again.

“Get out of my way, you!” the man scolded and swung the knife forward again.

Clumsily blocking it, Kris felt the blade slash across his hand before he heard Lay screaming out Namjoo’s name. Nudging the pain off, he punched the man again and again and again before they eventually made it to the ground.

~_____~

It was a mess. Such a big mess. Namjoo had suddenly dropped against Chorong before falling to the ground unconsciously. Namjoo had been lucky that Lay had made it in time before she crashed to the cement. Chorong had never experienced such troubling incidents before. Her heart suddenly lightened when the roar of police cars came streaming down the street and quickly turned to look for Kris who was mercilessly beating their attacker to a pulp.

“Kris, stop! Stop! You’re going to kill him!” Chorong screamed locking her arms around Kris’ arms and tried to drag him back. “Stop!”

~_____~

Tao looked up when the door opened and spotted Lay. The first thing that came to mind was why he was there instead of Donghae or Suho.

“We’re heading back,” Lay ordered.

Tao raised his eyebrows, “I thought Donghae said he had other plans for me?”

“Scratch that,” Lay told, “everyone’s getting transported back to Seoul.”

Tao got up and walked toward him. “Aish…why bring me out here when I could have stayed at headquarters. This is such a waste.”

“We’re not going to headquarters,” Lay explained down the empty hallway. “I’m going to drop you off at the hospital before I run over to headquarters.”

Tao paused. “Hospital?”

“Yea,” Lay replied turning his eyes to look at the ground, “there’s been a few incidents.”

~_____~

Donghae scavenged around the brothel, which had continued its course of business after two hours of investigation. Nothing had come out helpful. The only information Chorong had lent him was that Victoria had been last seen from the office of the first floor.

The sky was almost darkening by now. Donghae found himself staring into the window that gave him a full view of the detailed office glazed in white and estimated that Victoria would have crawled through the window. But why? Had she been chasing someone? Who?

Donghae stared down the empty street of businesses that had been closed down for the day. The block across from the brothel home was as good as empty of any soul. Whoever had seen Victoria had now gone home. Donghae glanced around him again and stepped forward.

Where would Victoria have run to? He narrowed his eyes and wondered why she was so greedy with information. Donghae turned around to look everywhere in the middle of the empty street and randomly circled the whole block once before deciding that it was useless.

“Aish…” he muttered running his hand through his hair. “Why are you adding more problems to the list!?”

~_____~

Hyukjae was sprinting halfway down the street when Victoria charged after him. He was quite fast and had quite the endurance for speed. Victoria pressed on and flung her arm out in a desperate attempt to catch him by his hoodie, but missed. She let out a grunt and ran a few more steps before trying again. This time she did catch him by the hood and they both went tumbling to the ground.

He fought to escape from her strong grasp, but Victoria refused to let go even if her life was hanging on the line. They wrestled for quite some time before Victoria finally flipped him over on the courtyard and sat on him.

“Hyuk…Hyukjae, right?” she panted.

The young face stared back up at her before he sat his head back down on the grass and closed his eyes to catch his breath.

“Who are you?” he asked.

“Do I even need to answer you?” Victoria questioned. “You’re coming with me.”

He immediately clasped his hand over hers when she tried to pull him up to stop her.

“I think you’ve caught the wrong person, Miss.”

She slightly frowned, “You’re coming with me anyway.”

“I’m telling you, you’re after the wrong guy,” Hyukjae lowered his tone in warning.

“You tell me first if you go by the name Eunhyuk or not,” Victoria bargained.

The man stared back at her before shoving her off. Victoria let herself fall off before climbing to her feet. “Who are you?”

He turned away from her and looked around, “You won’t be able to get out of Yeongwol tonight, so why don’t you be quiet and follow me first?” 

***More between EunToria and some TaoJoo, SuRong next chapter ^^ LayRong sure have some chemistry, don't you think? ^^ They work so well together hehe~ 

***A/N: Classes will be starting for me on Monday ;A; So I'll be slowing down with updates.