Daehyun looked up from the CCTV footage on the monitor upon hearing the knock on the security room door.  Tilting his head to the side, Daehyun found Himchan peeping his head into the room with concern flitting within his dark eyes.  Daehyun pushed away from the desk to face his hyung.  Himchan’s eyes glanced at the footage running on the monitors before moving back to Daehyun worry lining his eyes.

“Have you found anything?” Stepping into the room, the older male appeared out of balance.  Or perhaps it was nervousness at not knowing what to do in this situation.  They had to face the first fact: Youngjae was presumably missing without so much as telling any of them whom he was with.  The matter of the female was second issue facing the group.  This type of scandal could easily push them out of favor with their fans but most of all put stress on their trust with each other.  There was no need for Youngjae to sneak behind their backs about a girl, especially when Daehyun and Youngjae were very good friends.

“So far there’s nothing.  The storeowner mentioned him coming in thirty minutes after Youngjae and I had dinner.  So I’m checking the footage an hour or two just in case the woman he mentioned might have showed up before to wait for Youngjae,” Daehyun responded.

“Do you think we’ll find something?” Himchan seated himself in the extra chair by the monitor crossing his arms.

“We better hope we find something or he picks up his damn phone soon and gives us a call.”  Frowning Daehyun turned his eyes back to the monitor scanning through the footage before fast forwarding through the hour of slow footage.

“Do you really think he’s off with some woman?”

“I don’t know what to think right now other than worry about that idiot.  If he wanted to date, he should have brought it to our attention so we can consider things without this happening,” Daehyun said.

~~~

Youngjae’s head lobbed to the side surfacing from the blackness of unconsciousness.  A quiet moan escaped his lips as his eyes fluttered open.  Squinting at the bright light directly in his face, the young man slowly gathered his senses to figure out his surroundings.  The smell of water lingered in his nose. 

“Jagi, are you awake?” Soonim stooped in front of Youngjae, wiping his forehead with a wet clothe.  Sighing in relief at the cool object pressed to his sweaty forehead, Youngjae allowed himself this tiny bit of comfort with the insane woman.  He had to formulate a plan that would allow him to escape her.  His body eventually would not sustain any more damage in the condition it was currently in.  “You were out longer than I expected.”

“How long have I been out?” Allowing his eyes to adjust to the light, Youngjae discovered he was no longer in the confines of her apartment.  Panic rushed through him shifting his eyes back to the woman dabbing his neck with the damp clothe.  “Where are we?”

“We’re at the lake house, remember you said you wanted to spend our anniversary here,” Soonim smiled, smoothing his matted hair from his face.  “I suppose in the misunderstanding of things it slipped your mind.  You slept like a baby the entire trip up here.  You’re working entirely too hard.”

“You drugged me,” Youngjae argued.  “None of this was voluntary.”

“It was necessary to drug you.”  Her voice slipped back into the quiet serious note signaling she was lapsing once more into lunacy.  Dropping the clothe into the bowl seated at the foot of the chair she strapped Youngjae too, Soonim stood up to tower over him, the light in her eyes morphing with disgust.  “We need to have a serious talk if we’re going to get married jagi.”

“Untie me noona, I will listen to whatever you have to say, I promise,” Youngjae replied.  “It’s all just a misunderstanding.”

“It is, isn’t it?” Soonim murmured in agreement.  “To think that some could warp your mind so much that you don’t believe we are in a relationship.  Who is she?  I want an name this instance.”

“There’s no one, I swear to you,” Youngjae begged.  “I have no idea what you mean by any of this, we have only met once noona at the fansigning.”

“There you go again,” Soonim screeched slapping him soundly across the face.  Youngjae yelped, the blow jarring the fog of pain just out of reach.  Pressing into the chair to escape her hands Youngjae gazed up at the woman in terror.  He didn’t know what to tell her that would appease her other than giving her the name of some random girl to chase after.  Only he didn’t want anyone else to suffer due to the break from reality Soonim was suffering from.

“Soonim-noona please stop, I swear to you there is no other woman,” Youngjae pleaded.  “Please come back to reality.”

“I am in reality.”  Backhanding him again, Soonim shoved him over allowing her heel to come down into his ribs.  Screaming out in pain, Youngjae tried rocking to the side to protect his body from her assault however being fastened down to the chair prohibited his movement.  “Things have been going so well between us now you say these horrible things to me.  Who is she Youngjae?  I swear I will not rest until she knows that you are mine.”

“Noona please stop,” Youngjae begged.  “I”ll tell you just stop.”

“Tell me now,” Soonim barked.

“It was at another fanmeet,” Youngjae babbled.  “She gave me a teddy bear with a note attached to it asking to go out for coffee if I accepted.  I wasn’t going to accept but then I just changed my mind and went.  We had a lot in common.  I’m sorry noona, I won’t do it again.”

“What’s her name?” Soonim yanked him right-side up glaring into his eyes with fury.  “Tell me her name now.  I won’t have her thinking she can have you.”

“It’s Soo Rae,” Youngjae blurted out thinking about a girl he knew in elementary school that lived three houses down from him.  “Nam Soo Rae.”

“Nam Soo Rae?  The little girl who lived on the same street as you?” Soonim questioned.  Ice water seemed to rush through Youngjae’s veins gazing up at the woman studying his face.  How could she know who Soo Rae was?  Exactly how far had she went to get to know him?  This was no longer the question of this woman being any type of fan of his – not that being kidnapped and tortured had put it in his mind that she was a fan, but things were deteriorating on a much quicker scale than he anticipated.  If she went this far for his approval what would stop her from taking even more drastic steps for the sake of love for him?

“It’s a different one,” Youngjae shook his head.

“I think it’s the same woman,” Soonim announced.  “She must have seen you on TV and thought she could have a famous boyfriend if she got me out the way.”

“That’s not it at all,” Youngjae disagreed.  “I’m not in touch with that Soo Rae.”

“Then prove it to me.”  Lifting her chin to glare at him with contempt, Soonim crossed her arms over her chest.

“What do you want me to do?” Youngjae inquired frantically.

“Tell me you love me.  Tell me that no woman shall ever come between us again.  If you can prove to me that you love only me, I will forgive you,” Soonim replied quietly.  “Tell me that I am the only one that means the world to you.”

“You are noona,” Youngjae nodded.  “I would never dream about leaving you.  I’m sorry for early.  I was just confused and shocked.  I know better now.  So please release me from this chair.  I want to make everything right with you.”

“How can I trust you when you said so many horrible things earlier?” Soonim shook her head, turning on heel to leave the room.

“Noona, where are you going?  Come back, I’m sorry,” Youngjae shoutd.  “I didn’t mean any of it.  I was confused.  She lied and said you didn’t love me.  That only she loved me.  I should have believed in our love.  I want to make it up to you for our anniversary.  So let me go noona.”

The faint sound of something heavy dragging across the floor caught his attention.  Craning his head to the side, Youngjae strained to see what the woman was doing.  Apprehension bubbled in his stomach only turning to horror finding Soonim dragging a large construction hammer into the room.

“Soonim-noona what are you doing with that?” Youngjae demanded, his voice lilting with anxiety.

“This is the only way you won’t lie to me.”

“Noona don’t do anything rash,” Youngjae said.  “Don’t you believe me?  You can trust me.  I won’t lie to you.”

“You said that before, yet you tried to run back to her at the apartment.  I don’t know if I can trust you anymore jagi.  You have to prove that you love me.  This is the only way I know for sure you won’t lie to me,” Soonim replied steadying to raise the hammer.

“Noona put down the hammer,” Youngjae exclaimed.  “I love you, I will tell you as many times as you want me to.  No one will ever come between us.  Just talk this out with me.  I know I was an back at the apartment, but I came to my senses.”

“Now you’ve come to your senses,” Soonim giggled.  “Is it because of this hammer jagi?  If I never brought this out would you have changed your tone?  Am I a crazy now?  Am I Youngjae?”

“I never meant it at the apartment.  I was just confused and scared,” Youngjae stated.  “You took me by surprise when I first woke up, so I wanted to pay you back with teasing you.  I took it too far.  You know I always do.  Please noona, look at me and tell me you can’t see how sorry I am for all this.”

“I don’t believe a word you’re saying,” Soonim replied lifting her hammer just a little higher above her head.  “Maybe after this I will get the truth out of you.”

“Soonim, what’s going on over here?  Halmoni sent me to see if you were-“ A young woman wandered into the room pausing once she saw the scene.  Her eyes widened seeing the young man tied to the chair with Soonim poised over him with the hammer.  “Soonim what-“

The crazed woman screeched, turning her attention to swing the hammer into the young woman’s shoulder.  Flying back with a decisive thwart of steel connecting with bone, a sharp shriek of agony left the downed woman who rolled around on the floor sobbing.  Toppling over from the momentum of the hammer swing, Soonim released the hammer that went clattering off to the side.  Pushing herself up on her hands and knees, Soonim scrambled over to the woman clasping her hands over .

“Your family wasn’t supposed to be here this weekend Mi-Yun,” Soonim hissed.  “Who else is here?”

“Help,” Youngjae screamed, hoping more people would come to stop this madness from happening.  “Help, I’m being held captive.”

“Shut up,” Soonim screamed.  “I will kill her in front of you if you keep that up.”

Halting in rousing more noise for fear the insane woman would execute her threat, Youngjae watched helplessly as Soonim hauled the pain riddled woman to her feet, shoving her towards a chair.

~~~

“Daehyun right there,” Himchan said pointing to a car parking just outside the electronic shop a moment after Youngjae walked into the store on the surveillance footage.  Both men glanced at each other wonder if this was the mysterious woman who was with Youngjae now.  Holding their breath as the footage continued rolling they found a young woman step out of the car with a small bag in hand.  The two men watched while she shifted through her bag for a couple of minutes then headed for the store.

“It doesn’t look like she was meeting up with him,” Daehyun shrugged.

“Look there as she goes into the store, she’s checking him out,” Himchan stated watching the woman glance continuously at Youngjae who talked to the shop owner over something.

“She’s heading out before him.”

“Exactly, I think she just went in to make sure he knew she was there, I think this is our woman,” Himchan responded.  Watching for another few minutes, Youngjae eventually exited the store to find the woman approach him.  Wishing the CCTV’s had audio, the two could only assume what it was the two were talking about for those few minutes that Youngjae agreed to as they walked towards her car.

“What’s that she’s pulling from her bag,” Daehyun squinted as the woman in the footage pulled out a cloth.  The two men gaped in shock finding the woman rush in to press the rag over Youngjae’s face.  Surprised by the assault he thrashed only slightly before submitting.  Slumping against the woman who held the cloth to his face a little longer to make sure he would not escape, she dragged his body to the passenger side of the car.  Maneuvering him into the seat she shut the door and climbed into the car driving away.

“The shop owner didn’t see this?” Himchan inquired.

“He said he assumed they knew each other because they left together,” Daehyun answered rewinding the footage to witness the kidnapping of his best friend by this mysterious woman.  Something in him nagged at the notion he had seen this woman before but he couldn’t put his finger on where.  “I think I’ve seen her before.”

“Where?” Himchan asked.

“I can’t place it but I’m sure I’ve seen her before,” Daehyun murmured.

“We need to go to the police on this,” Himchan shook his head, pulling out his phone to call Yongguk.  “Sorry for doubting you that something was wrong.”

“It’s okay, I just didn’t-“ Daehyun trailed off feeling guilty that he allowed his friend to go off by himself that night.  Perhaps he could have stopped this from happening if he went with Youngjae.  Catching the pause in Daehyun’s speech, Himchan placed a hand on the Busan male’s shoulder in comfort.

“You had no way of knowing this would happen,” Himchan shook his head.  “We can only hope that he’s all right at the moment.  He’s only been gone a few hours.  It’s too early to assume the worse.”

“It’s never too early to assume the worse,” Daehyun corrected Himchan, rewinding the footage again.  “Whoever this woman is doesn’t have good intentions in mind.”

“Sasaeng perhaps.”

“To this extent?”

“Let’s just hope she’s atleast that for now,” Himchan voiced placing the phone to his ear.  Yongguk picked up on the first ring, anticipating what his group mate had to say.  “I think we need everyone down here immediately.  We found something.  You’ll understand the seriousness of it when you get here.”

Daehyun watched the footage again, every fiber in his body burning that he knew whom this woman was, but it eluded his brain.  He just prayed that nothing had happened to his friend in the space of the few hours he was abducted.

A/N:  I know it took me forever to write this.  I had to put it on the backburner for completing school and graduation, then I cause a cold that prohibited me followed by the holidays.  But I'm back in full swing to finish this story now.  The next few chapters are going to be intense and I promise to have them up at a faster rate than in the past few months.  Thanks everyone for your support and sticking with me on this.  I won't disappoint you with what is to come.