"Joon?" the four guys react as one, their expressions of shock and disbelief mirroring one another's. From her corner, a shadowed figure watches on in amusement. 

The prisoner in the middle of the room leaps to his feet, his eyes wide as well. Her eyes catch his every move, as his feet bound off the floor in his eagerness to meet his friends. It looks like she's done the right thing - hopefully he'll be happier now, happy enough to actually respond to her. A small smile traces her lips, teasing the edges upwards as her skin stretches slightly to accomodate it. With it, she looks almost serene, calm, and kind. It's a simple yet effective mask for the knot of cunning and ruthlessness that hides beneath.

Isabella's eyes roam over the tangle of guys in the center of the room. Hana and Jin Mie have let them go, in order to let them have their reunion. She makes a mental note to thank the three of them, but later. After all, she couldn't have achieved this small success without them. Her painted-scarlet nails shine in the sole ray of light that's cast in her direction, and the light is reflected into her eyes for a brief instant. Impatient, she flicks her fingers, and the three girls unexpectedly exit the room. Brows furrowing, she wonders briefly why they did so, before she remembers that she had unwittingly signalled them to leave. No matter, she should take charge of the situation and establish the ground rules before the guys get too comfortable.

They five of them have clustered around the table, having dragged chairs from the opposite corner of the room. They take turns to relate the tale of their kidnapping, each with their own unique animated expressions. Her eyes never leave Joon's face, however. There's something about him that sets him apart from the rest.

"Is it comfortable in here?" she raises her voice, just a little, just enough that it carries to them. They turn to her with raised eyebrows and widened eyes. Joon's expression darkens slightly, but she tells herself it means nothing. He is not afraid of her, definitely not. He can't be.

The boy on the other side of the table, opposite to Joon, looks at her with a different expression - calculating eyes, a suspicious gaze, a wary look. She ignores him as well. There's nothing he can do while in here.

She smiles at them. "I hope it's comfortable in here. Because, you might just be staying a while," she adds sheepishly. 

"Why'd you do it?" the guy she recognises as G.O asks out of the blue, and she feels a flash of anger before she qualms her feelings and answers civilly, her expression never changing.

"Kidnap you?" she pauses as he nods. "Well, Joonie looked like he needed some company."

A look of terror descends in said person's eyes, and he sets his mouth in a grim line. He sends an apologetic look at his bandmates. He's about to say something, but she moves to stand directly behind him, placing her hands on his shoulders. As he tenses, she tells herself it's just because he was shocked at the sudden contact. 

"I thought he'd be happier to have his groupmates with him."

The fair one casts his eyes down from next to G.O - she can never put names to the faces of the other three, for some reason. She just knows them as "the other three". 

"We'll find a way out of here," he says, fire in his eyes, and she vaguely remembers this as the guy who tried to attack Hana. She was more than a match for him, though. As a punishment, he's the only one with handcuffs, and Isabella sees his white knuckles tighten as he glares indignantly at them. 

Her responding chuckle is low but light, and seems to linger in the air long after she has stopped laughing. "You'll be hard-pressed to find a way out, trust me," she informs them. "The basement of this mansion is an intricate maze. You see, the previous owner of this house was insane. She had a lover, though. He cheated on her," she remarks, without a trace of feeling in her soft voice. "It was the last straw for her. She designed the maze and hired someone to bring the design to life, and she created this maze. Only she, and anyone who had the blueprints of the maze, could find their way out. To punish her ex-lover, she stuck him in the middle of the maze and left him to find his way out."

As she falls silent, the complete lack of noise in that small room grows more pronounced. All five guys in the room are eyeing the serene, thoughtful figure of the woman in front of them. Isabella, conscious of the attention, prolongs the suspense by slowly twirling a strand of hair around her pinky, pretending to be engrossed in her task. The others are too hesitant to break the silence.

Finally, she deems it prudent to speak up: "He died trying to find his way out, anyway. She had his body removed after."

The boys stifle gasps, but she hears them anyway, and is amused once again. It's just a story - albeit true, it belongs to the past. Why dwell over these things in the present? Well, at least they serve well as threats and warnings.

"The point is," her voice drops, and she can see that they're hanging on her every word, "Try to find your way out, and you'll likely die of starvation or thirst, just like that man did, so many years ago." 

The one with baggy eyes visibly gulps, and she tries to make her laughter less obvious, biting her lips in order to do so. "So," she continues, more to distract herself from her laughter than anything else, "I'm leaving you with no handcuffs because I am confident that you will stay here, or risk getting lost and losing your life along with your sense of direction."

With that cleared, she lets the silence unfold until it is almost uncomfortably palpable, before continuing once again. "You don't need to worry," she assures them, seeing looks of panic written all over their faces. "You're not going to get hurt."

The fair one looks up again, his eyes boring into her. "Can you promise us that?" he fingers his wrist, where the handcuffs are. Obviously, the imprint of Hana's effective fighting techniques has lingered on him.

"Yes, I can promise that you won't be hurt, as long as you do nothing that is against the rules. One step out of line, and we will take action," she answers coolly, with a small smile that sets him shuddering. "So, just don't do anything to anger us, is all."



A soft, mellifluous voice floats along the draft, travelling down an insane maze of corridors, growing softer the further it gets from its source. The younger girl freezes next to her friend in the pitch-darkness, and the only sound other than the disembodied voice that they hear is the sound of their own ragged breathing - uneven because they are afraid. 

"Miyu," Jin says, urgency in his voice. He feels her jump half a mile in the air as his cold hands suddenly land on her shoulders. Darkness clings to them both like a second skin, and he can't see her face, but he knows she's there. "What's going on?"

She takes a deep, shaky breath. "That, out there, in that labyrinth, is my cousin Isabella."

"So this isn't the only maze in here?"

Miyu shakes her head, then realises that he can't see her. "No, the whole place is a maze, but she doesn't know about these passageways," she tells him, her voice soft. He takes a while to ponder what she said, before she surprises him by saying more: "We used to consider it a game, to wander around in here."

A gentle draft flutters through the passageway they're in, causing both to shiver violently. "Maybe we should find a way out into the light."

"I'm not sure," comes her voice through the darkness, slightly hesitant. "I don't like the darkness much, but we can't let her know that I'm here. She'll seal off our one way to rescue these guys."

Jin raises an eyebrow to himself. "So you're sure that the band is here?"

"Where else could they be? And she must be talking to someone."

"She could be talking to a pet dog, for all we know."

"Then we're just going to have to find out. But I still don't think she's a pet kind of person," Miyu tells him, and she reaches her hand up to take Jin's so that she can lead him onwards. "I just hope we don't walk into a spider's web..."

Jin grimaces. "You did a great job of easing my panic."

"Why, thank you."

Now there's the Miyu he knows. Clasping her hand tightly, he sticks his other hand warily out in front of him - if he's walking into a spider's web, he'd much rather touch it with his hands first than have it make contact with his face. Shuddering, he hopes he doesn't have to face either situation. The darkness seems to grow thicker - or maybe it's just him? - and he stumbles slightly on the uneven ground as the pair make their way down the tunnel. 

He doesn't notice any difference until he realises that he can see his hand in front of him now. A faint light has trickled into the passageway from a distant and unknown source, and he tugs Miyu's hand. When she looks around at him, he points upwards, and her eyes widen as she understands. A finger flies to her lips, and he nods at her to acknowledge the gesture. If there's light nearby, it must mean that they are close to where Isabella is. They'll have to be quiet in order not to attract her attention. As Miyu pointed out before, this tunnel is possibly the only way for them to get in and attempt a rescue. 

Suddenly, a surprisingly loud voice sounds from right next to them, and both Jin and Miyu jump violently, grabbing each other out of shock. They exchange looks of bewilderment and panic, before they both realise, at the same time, that the stranger is speaking from the other side of the wall.

"What are you guys doing here? You're supposed to be... elsewhere!" the same voice continues.

Another voice speaks up. "We didn't choose to be here!"

"Yeah, we were kidnapped by those girls! Where are we, anyway?"

Miyu's hands tighten around Jin's as she realises whom is speaking. All at once, all the voices fit together in her head, and she can place faces to the disembodied voices. She turns and whispers to Jin as the voices continue their conversation, "That's MBLAQ."

"You're kidding," he shoots back, disbelief written all over his face.

"Do you think there's a way we can escape?" Seungho asks as Miyu shakes her head dismally.

Jin stares at her serious face for a while before looking up towards the ceiling, where a narrow slit of light is all they can see of the room beyond the wall. It's more than a little ironic that she shook her head just as he was asking that question. Foreboding, even - as if fate was sending them a message. 

"I don't think there's any way out of this labyrinth. After that story, I don't even think I want to try," G.O answers, frustration evident in his voice.

"We can't just sit here and let them have their way, though," Cheondoong points out.

"It's me she wants," Joon says, a dark edge to his voice. "You guys can attempt an escape - as long as I'm here, she won't bother too much."

Three voices sound in unison, in violent response to that statement:

"You think we'll just leave you here?"

"No."

"Are you crazy?"

Jin and Miyu, shrouded by darkness, are shocked once more, as loud pounding sounds on the wall directly in front of them. Dust falls from the rafters in the ceiling of the small tunnel due to the vicious pounding, and both unconsciously shrink towards the opposite wall. Miyu gulps.

"Cheolyong-ah, what are you doing?" G.O's concerned voice rings out.

"What does it look like I'm doing?" Mir replies, his tight, and dangerously close. "We need to get out of here."

"Cheondoong!" Seungho yells, but it's punctuated by more pounding. 

"I'm going to help Mir find us a way out of this cave," Cheondoong announces, his voice also too near for comfort all of a sudden.

As the wall vibrates once more with the force of the pounding, Jin and Miyu edge away from the tunnel and head down into the darkness again, moving forward once more. If the two impatient guys succeed in knocking down the wall, they do not want to be trapped in that niche. They'll get squashed to bits like ants. 

Miyu stops Jin, her hand on his shoulder. "How are we going to get out of here?" she asks, panic lacing her voice and making it crack slightly.

He just stares, dumbfounded, back at her. "Don't you know the way?"

She nods, and starts pacing, her hands at the hem of her shirt, crumpling it to relieve her nervous energy. "I do, but I need light to see by in order to make sure we don't get lost."

"Can't we just go straight ahead?" he asks, brainstorming. Their whole conversation is held in whispers.

"No, I don't know the way that well from here. Actually, I think we got lost the moment the light went out."

"That's just great."

She sighs. "I know, right? But if we head straight back, I'm pretty sure we can get to the main passage, and I should know the way from there."

"Are you sure?"

"No."



Song Minhei quickens her pace as the first drops of rain start to fall. Autumn, the season that's neither here nor there, the season in-between hot and cold. It rains a lot in October, and although the rain is pleasant, it adds a dreary feel to the day and adds to the cold. The leaves are just starting to turn red in preparation for the fall, and some early ones are already scattered loosely on the pavement. There's nothing that particularly irks her about the weather, but she'd rather be inside than caught in a torrent of rain without an umbrella. 

Her long hair swishes behind her as her hips sway with her gait. Almond-shaped eyes dart left and right as she looks for familiar landmarks - she's not confident that she remembers the exact address. The street lamps flicker on, casting shadows on the ground. About time, since it was already getting dark. But the sudden increase in light serves as a warning to her - it's dangerous for young girls to be out, alone, in the streets after nightfall. And technically, this is after dark. 

Biting her plump, pink lips, she shoves her hands deep in her pockets and keeps her head down. One foot in front of the other, her feet take her down the block and across the street at a comfortable but brisk pace. Her breath comes in puffs of smoke that dissipates into the surrounding air. Amused, she blows softly out and watches as a stream of vapour comes out of and is whipped around in the small breeze that has picked up since the drizzle started. Her hat is a little damp by now, but it doesn't bother her much.

She suddenly hears footsteps behind her. But she can't tell if they're a figment of her imagination or if they're real. Feeling beads of cold perspiration prick her forehead, she tucks her elbows into her body, like her friend taught her. With them tucked firmly close to her body, it's a simple matter to attack if any unwanted person comes too close for comfort. Your elbow is the strongest joint of your body, so why not use it? A jab by an elbow, dealt the right way, does a lot of damage. 

Rounding another corner, she glances up and catches sight of her destination. Minhei lets out a breath that she never knew she was holding, but grows more aware of the footsteps behind her quickening. She keeps her pace constant, however. It won't do to speed up and alert her pursuer that she knows he's there - he'll just start running and likely corner her or catch up to her. Rather, she'll let him think her ignorant of his presence, since she'll probably reach the dojang soon.

Keep calm, she keeps telling herself, over and over, till it becomes like a war chant in her head. She takes deep breaths to steady her breathing as the footsteps grow closer. Finally, she reaches the entrance to the dojang and turns abruptly in, looking out of the corner of her eyes as she does so. A dodgy figure with a hat drawn low over his eyes has been following her all this while, and she feels relieved that she is at the dojang. Quickly, she opens the door and slips in, shutting it firmly behind her.

"Minhei?" an excited voice assails her, and she turns to find a boyish-looking girl smiling weakly at her.

"Ran!" Minhei exclaims, breaking into a smile. A trickle of cold water runs down her forehead from her hair, and she belatedly realises that she's wet. "Sorry about this," she says to the other girl, motioning at her half-soaked clothes.

"It's okay," Ran replies, her lips tweaking back into her small smile, revealing the slight dimple at the right side of her face. "Are you back to train?"

Minhei shakes her head at her friend, whom she got to know while taking lessons in taekwondo from Ran's father, who's an expert in the martial art and has been teaching it for a very long time. Ran takes after him, with her angular nose and deep brown - almost black - eyes. Although she has her mother's figure. She may be petite, but Ran is a foreboding opponent. Size is not a matter to her - she makes use of her size to move so fast you almost can't see her, and she uses her opponent's size against them. Minhei has learnt a lot from her small friend, being small, herself.

"No," Minhei answers, shaking her head seriously. "I'm here to ask for help."

Ran eyes her with confusion. "Help?"

Minhei nods. "My friend, her brother is missing. We think he's been kidnapped."

"And how can I help with that?" 

"Don't you know Sofia?"

A crease appears between Ran's eyebrows. "Weren't we in the same class? Although she was more advanced since she was a natural..."

Minhei nods. "Do you still have contact with her?"

She shakes her head, and Minhei's heart plummets. "If it's really that important, I can ask my father, but I doubt he'll reveal any of her personal information."

"We have to try. She may be the missing link."

Ran nods firmly. "Then let's go try and talk to my dad. I can't make any promises, though."



Hooded eyes survey the room from a dark corner. It's crowded and noisy, but that calms him in a way. It gives him space to think. He hasn't seen her in years. What reason does she have to suddenly show up? And why over there?

He had felt the sudden urge to take a walk past that street, just for old times' sake - or so he thought. Never once had he expected to nearly run into her on the way. Seeing her awoke forgotten feelings in him. All of a sudden, he felt himself weakening, returning to the friendly guy he used to be with her around. After she left, he had learnt an important lesson - never trust people not to break your heart. No matter how close they are to you - in fact, the closer, the easier it is, to break your heart. To churn your feelings. To shatter your existence. There's no point in trusting anyone enough to let them into your heart. You'll just end up getting hurt.

But seeing her, after so long... it just awoke feelings in him that he swore to put behind. She brought out the innocent child in him, the one bursting to be set free of the cagey, secretive and edgy person he'd grown into. Growling low in his throat, he takes a sip of his drink and enjoys the feeling it gives him as it sears his throat on the way down. Beer is the only alcohol he takes , since he doesn't have much of a taste for it.

His mind, however, isn't distracted. Thoughts of her keep running through his head - how she was different from any other person he'd ever met - even his family. How she gave him the confidence to just be himself. He used to take care of her as he would a little sister, although she's almost the same age as him. She always used to live in her own world, exploring as she saw fit and getting into all sorts of trouble. Once, she climbed a tree and got stuck up there, much as a cat would. She was in the process of letting herself drop six feet before he caught sight of her and gently got her down from her position. He was seven at the time.

Groaning, he places his palms, cooled from the cold beer mug, on his forehead and tries to force the memories away. Thinking of her will do him no good. No good at all. Gritting his teeth, he gulps down the last of the beer and lopes out of the small shop, having already paid for his drink earlier. That girl is no good. 

But so help him, he is going to find her and give her a piece of his mind for leaving him.







A/n: New Characters - 
written_in_the_stars - Shimizu Ran

OMG. It has been too long, right? Okay hi again guys! *gets stoned* Okay I'm sorry, I'm sorry for not updating for so darn long! T^T It's unforgiveable, I know! And it's only 3700 words. ._. DON'T KILL ME! *gets chased around* And I'm really sorry for making my character so prominent. Or characterS, since Isabella... well but that's different since she's technically the bad guy (or girl, in this case). Ah I am sorry people~ *feels like a bad author* *hangs head* And who's the mysterious guy, huh? Hehehehehehehe anyway, comment replies now. I honestly love you guys. Do you know I'm on 49 subbers? When I get 50 I'll do a victory dance (not videoing it, mind you). But I will :D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D