All I did was take his hand and the next thing I know is I am falling into a dark pit of uncertainty and pain—literally.

* * * * *

I stepped out of the moving platform after making sure that Seohyun safely made it onto the stage. I smiled a little as I watch her run happily to join Tiffany, Sehun, Chanyeol, Kyungsoo, and Luhan, and jumped as I took the outstretched hand of the waiting staff. As soon as my boots touched the floor, I made the motion to run as well, when suddenly, the hand that was holding me pulled me back.

Confused, I looked back at the staff while tugging my hand gently and was startled to notice that I couldn't see his eyes at all because of the hoodie he was wearing. 

“What's wrong?” I asked, an uneasy feeling settling over me.

But before I could figure out what it was, he already tightened his hold on my hand and aggressively pulled, propelling me backward. The air was knocked off of my lungs as I collided hard onto his body. He wrapped his steel arm around my stomach and lifted me off my feet, single-handedly carrying me at his side like a sack of rice.

Shocked and angry, I looked up at him and shouted, “Hey! What—” The rest of my sentence was drowned by an earsplitting scream, which I found out was mine, as he jumped out of the stage. He jumped! I mean, there was a perfectly working stair beside us and he chose to jump!

I didn't have enough time to call him out on his stupidity because he was already running, like his life depended on it. And maybe it did. I also wanted to yell, “What the hell are you doing?” but his tight hold on my middle made it very hard to even whisper. And because I didn't think it was the right time to be asking stupid questions. Clearly, he was trying to kidnap me. 

I didn't know if anyone had already noticed that I was being dragged away to the exit. I imagined Tiffany, craning her neck towards the back, asking herself “What's taking her so long? Her part's coming up.” I hoped that they'd notice I was missing sooner than my next part, because, really, with the pace the staff—I should probably stop calling him staff because, obviously, he wasn't—was taking right now, I'd probably be in the parking lot by then.

Everything went dark, which I would later find out was because of the black cloth thrown over me. At that moment, I just assumed that lights going out was a normal phenomena. Like being kidnapped while you were performing. For the second time.

I felt my captor turn towards the crowd. The noise got louder and louder until I was pretty sure we are in the middle of a very hyped-up audience. If I wasn't his captive, I'd pat his back on the brilliant idea. Going into crowd with all the darkness (or so I thought) going on, who would have suspected that this man was carrying a girl against her will? And it didn't take a genius to figure out that something good for a captor meant something really bad for the captive—namely me.

And because we're in the middle of a crowd, our progress to the exit wasn't exactly smooth. I had bumped my head, arms and legs several times, I'd probably lose count if I was even trying. On top of that, I was seriously concerned about the pain in my middle where his vise-like grip was mercilessly digging with every step he took. At the scale of the pain right now, I wouldn't be surprised if a doctor diagnosed me with broken ribs.

That was if I would be able to see a doctor at all. My traitorous mind suddenly slipped the idea that this man could potentially be a serial killer. An idea that I was religiously denying since everything started.

I shuddered involuntarily. I didn't know what was happening around me. It was so loud, yet so quiet—if that even makes any sense. I tried to focus on the voices, but somehow, they all seemed gibberish. I moved, trying to loosen his hold, and gasped when sharp pain shot up from my middle.

“I'm sorry, Taeyeon-ssi.” A distressed voice said from above.

Gritting my teeth for the pain that I knew would come, I lashed out with my elbow. I didn't care where it would hit him (I was hoping for the groin) and was satisfied when it generated an agonized “Oomp” from him. His grip loosened a little, but it wasn't enough to make an escape. 

Without wasting any time, I moved my leg and connected it violently to the back of his knee. He stumbled forward and for a second, I had a horrifying thought of crashing my head into the concrete floor, before he was able to catch himself and stop from falling. 

Closing my eyes to block out the pain searing through my middle, I bent until my teeth found his arm and bit as hard as I could. He screamed, dropping me at the same time. I fell onto the floor hard, my knees and forearms taking most of the impact.

I couldn't move for several seconds. Honestly, I didn't want to move for the next few days. The cold floor never felt that good. But the thought of my captor getting ready to pick me back up bolted me into a sitting position. That was when I found out about the cloth, falling around me like a curtain unveiling a show. They were all staring at me like I was an alien, dumbfounded expressions pasted on their faces.

I heard the music. It was already my part. Cause baby tonight, the DJ got us falling in love again...

And then I saw him, several feet away from me. 

He was staring at me with tear-filled eyes.