Himchan felt like he was going to vomit when the black sack over his head was ripped off, forcing his dizziness to battle with the blinding lights that were making everything worse.

It was the second time he had ever been knocked unconscious, kidnapped and dragged to a remote area.

And that was too many times for him to be okay with.

There was a pounding that started from his temple that pulsed across his skull, making him groan in pain. He felt like he had been clubbed across the skull and everything around him was swimming and blurring.

His head rolled back in heaviness as sweat dripped off his face. He struggled to keep his eyes open, partly from the light and partly because he just felt dizzy. He had never felt this disorientated before in his life.

"What the hell?" Himchan garbled as he tried to gather his surroundings.

The walls were plastered with pictures, all similar to the ones that Sang Hee was mailed, of him back when he was still a part of BAP.

A lot of them were more incriminating and violent that the ones she was sent and some  of them had red X's over his face or holes from darts that were thrown at his picture.  

He flinched when a cold hand gripped his chin and tilted his head up, he tried to pull away but the hang dug into his skin, forcing him still.

Narrowing his eyes, Himchan squinted at the masked man that was staring silently at him. Feeling his instincts kick in, Himchan tried to fight him off, but his hands were bound behind his back and his legs were strapped to the legs of the chair we was seated on.

"What the hell?" He repeated, but his voice was angrier with a growl bumbling up his throat.

He hated this already.

The eyes hidden behind the mask curved up as if the person was smiling or smirking at him.

Himchan felt his heart race as he tried to figure out an escape plan, "Who are you? What do you want?"

"Retribution."

And then he took the mask off.

-----

Sang Hee was trying to hail a cab after she realized that whoever sent her here wasn't going to give her any more information. It was like they forgot about her or just didn't care enough to follow through with whatever plan they had for her.

It reminded her of something she read, in a book about magic tricks, when she was younger.

Misdirection.

It was a technique used by magicians where they'd trick the audience into averting their attention to something irrelevant to distract them from the real trick that was happening right in front of them.

That was the end result would be more mind-blowing to the audience.  

That's what she felt like she had just fallen for.

While she and everyone else at the precinct focused their attention of her escape, manipulated by whoever was behind this, the real trick was happening somewhere else.

Somewhere with Himchan.

And her fear was that letting him take her to his safe house was what triggered it all.

She couldn't be sure what they were setting her up for or what exactly she had waiting for her when she made it back into the city, but she knew that no one was going to be giving her any more instructions if she just waited there idiotically.

And she was never going to find her own answers by just sitting on her hands.

The roads were desolate, so she started walking towards a gas station that she had seen when she was coming to the location.

She shoved her hands into her pockets and hunched over, bracing the cold as her heart thumped loudly in her chest.

There was something wrong with this whole plan and her nerves were trembling as she thought about Himchan.

She knew that whatever she was being set up for right now was going to involve Himchan and it scared her that she wasn't sure what exactly that would entail.

This was her fear.

The whole plan involved her balancing on a thin thread that was being held up by someone else and if that person decided to let go of the thread, everything she was balancing for would could crashing down on top of her.

And this is what was happening now.

The game had changed and she was being left behind.

She could see the lights of the gas station in front of her and she picked up her pace just as she heard the strangest sound.

She stilled, her steps scraping to a halt when she felt something buzz on her back. She frowned and touched her pant pockets and felt the burner cell snugly tucked in where she left it.

So if it wasn't her burner cell that was ringing…then what was?

She swung her backpack around and set it on the ground before zipping it open. She stared at the contents before shuffling through them, looking for the source of the buzzing.

Then she pulled out the envelope of cash that Himchan had given her and felt her eyes widen when it the package buzzed in her hand.

She looked around before carefully opening it with her finger and peering inside just as the buzzing stopped.

Wedged between a thick stack of bill was a cell phone and when she pulled it out, she realized that it wasn't just any cell phone.

It was Himchan's cell phone.

He had snuck it into the cash.

It didn't take a genius to figure that he was probably tracking her with his phone.

"Caring jerk." She muttered but just as she turned the phone over to take out the SIM card, when it started buzzing again.

She looked at the screen and saw the name 'Minseok' flash on the screen. Panicking, she declined the call but then the phone was buzzing with a string of texts.

Pick up your phone.

9-1-1 Pick it up.

Answer.

This is important.

I'm serious, this is big.

Himchan's phone started ringing again with the same caller ID flashing. She contemplated declining the call again but considering the chances of something happening to him, she took the risk.

She answered the call but stayed silent until the voice on the other spoke up, "ing hell, I've been calling you nonstop, why didn't you answer? I know I said that I wouldn't help but I just found out tha--"

"Who is this?" She whispered while slinging the backpack over her shoulder.

Minseok fell silent as Sang Hee panted into the phone while she continued to walk to the gas station that was coming in sight.

His voice froze over and lowered an octave, "I should be asking you that. This is Himchan's phone, who are you and why are you answering it? Where is he?"

"I don't know." She gulped nervously, "He just gave me his phone."

Another silence fell on his end before he cleared his throat, "Are you…are you his girlfriend? The crazy runaway cop?"

"Yeah." She said, unamused, "That's me."

She heard him let out a sigh of relief, "Okay good, you should be enough."

"Listen, I can't be using this phone right now, so unless you have something important to say I really ne--"

"I found out who's been going after the two of you." He cut her off breathlessly.

She stopped in the parking lot of the gas station as she felt her heart stop, "Are you serious?"

"When Himchan told me about someone attacking him and stabbing you, I got some people to look into people from Himchan's past who might be holding a grudge against him and to be honest, there were a lot but I didn’t have proof that any of them tried to attack you and him." Minseok explained.

"Okay…" She said as the anticipation and fear built in her system.

"I pulled my men back because I didn't think there was anything I could do to help but then one of my men snuck into the prison today and hacked the security feed and saw two people visiting Ryu before you guys went. I just saw the stills of the feed and I recognized one of them." His voice picked up speed.

Loud breaths escaped her lips as she pulled her hood further over her head as if to hide her shaking body, "Minseok…who is it?"

-----

Sang Hee sped through the freeway in a motorcycle that she stole from the gas station parking lot because the keys were left in.

She had never driven a motorcycle before but that didn't stop her until she careening into the parking lot of Himchan's apartment complex.

Everything be damned, she had to do this.

Because it could change everything.

Keeping her head down, she moved through the apartment complex and took the emergency stairs until she reached their floor.

After making sure that no one was guarding their apartment, she moved quickly and slipped into the apartment.

Once she was inside, she only had one goal in mind. She ran straight to her bedroom, not the one that she shared with Himchan and looked around frantically.

Everything in the room was hers.

Her clothes, her makeup, her shoes, her books, everything was hers.

Except one thing.

She looked at her bed and raised her eyes a little higher where two large posters were hung up.

Posters that were there long before she moved in.

Posters that belonged to Minsoo.<