An enormous silver penthouse, lit from the inside by glowing lights, towers in front of me. Limousines and Aston Martins pull up to the front of the penthouse apartments and swanky women emerge, holding the hands of suave men. New York is a booming, vibrant city at night, full of busyness and life, but even people passing by on the street turn to gape at the glittering, designer-clad people entering the building.

4 Flames Headquarters, New York City.

I am standing in the shadows of a desolate newspaper stand. A long coat covers my dress. If I were to take my coat off here, it would draw too much attention. I am already drawing sideways glances from the newspaper salesman manning the stand.

But my outfit is important for other purposes. My dress is a sheer, low-cut black gown, so diaphanous that my entire body is practically visible through the dress. This dress is meant to catch eyes. This dress is meant to distract.

Coupled with my tall black Versace stilettoes and perfectly done hair and makeup, it creates the perfect outfit.

The perfect outfit for bait.

Which is exactly what I am.

My mind travels back to this morning.

We were all gathered around in the conference room; Lina, Preet, Annabelle, Mrs. Nguyen, Marge, Baekhyun, Fei, Kris (who I caught staring at Fei through half the meeting). My mother sat at the front of the room, leaning back in her chair like she didn’t have a care in the world.

“Let’s run through the plan again.” my mother stated. “First, Aemin will go to the Yohan party tonight and get caught. She will be captured at the 4 Flames’ headquarters for an indefinite period amount of time.”

    I could sense every set of eyes in the room turn to me. I ignored them and continued glaring at my mother.

    “At the same time, Baekhyun and Marge will be running a diversion attack on their databases,” my mother said. “They’ll think that Ami was used as a trap for Marge and Baekhyun’s attack, and divert their efforts there. In the meanwhile, Fei will be accessing the true information through Sentrix. Are we clear on everything?”

    “I hate this plan,” Preet boldly announced. My eyebrows shot up in surprise; someone who was willing to stand up to my mother was truly admirable. You go, Preet. “Indefinite period of time? Does that mean Ami could be in there for days- weeks?”

    “It depends on how efficiently Fei can work,” my mother responded coldly, cutting eyes at Fei. She reddens and nods vigorously.

    “What if it doesn’t work? And even if it does work, how will we get Ami out of there?”

    “When it works, I’ll send a retrieval squad to fetch Ami. And Mr. Chopra, we can play the game of what ifs all day long. Considering that my time is valuable, however, I’ll choose not to.”

    “Can we equip Ami with a mic or an earpiece?” Marge asked anxiously. “I don’t want to send her in there completely-,”

    “The 4 Flames will find them immediately.Those guards will be doing full sweeps at the door. There’s no point in giving her those.”

    “I don’t like this plan,” Baekhyun said uneasily.

    My mother narrowed her eyes. “Neither does Ami. But do you hear her complaining about it?”

    You need to live, Ami, I command myself. The bucket list. Think of the bucket list.

    With a deep breath, I stride out of the darkness and into the penthouse.

    My mother was right. After scanning my invitation (the barcode was made by Baekhyun to let me pass through any scanner I encountered. Seriously one of his most genius works ever) through a machine, I have to pass through metal detectors and verification checks. Security is here incredibly tight. However, the sophisticated, poised people around me seem to not care at all. I get the feeling that they would have gone through days of security to attend this party.

    And finally, after an attendant takes my coat, I am allowed into the main penthouse.

    The resplendent wealth and modern design and sheer enormity that this suite comprises of would usually awe me into stillness. However, my senses are so numb that I only give my surroundings an appreciative glance. I casually stroll around the room, navigating through clusters of chatting partygoers. I can feel people’s stares on me. Again, this outfit was specifically chosen to catch people’s attention. The more they look at me, the more they will realize who I am. And the faster we can start our takedown of the 4 Flames.

    A woman approaches me and we make light conversation about the magnificence of this place. She leaves to go get a drink and I turn to wave goodbye and that’s when I see him.

    My stomach plummets all the way down to the cement sidewalk, 38 stories beneath me.

    He is lounging on the sofa, a wine glass between his fingers. I can tell by the insouciant smirk on his face that the boisterous hubbub of the party has completely failed to interest him. Once in a while, distinguished men and their stunning wives stop by his seat, fervently greeting him and speaking animatedly to him. His expression does not change the entire time.

And my chest clenches even tighter when I see the rest of BTS sitting around him, too. Jimin is finishing a plate of foie gras. Namjoon- another pang of sadness hits my heart- is chuckling at something that Taehyung has said. Jin is exchanging flirtatious looks with some woman sitting across the room. Hoseok and Yoongi look like they are arguing about something regarding a couple standing across the room from them.

My body is frozen. I do not know what to do.

They are supposed to see me. They need to see me.

But I do not- cannot- will myself to approach them.

    I do not have to take any action, however, as Jungkook suddenly straightens as if he has sensed my gaze and turned around.

    We make eye contact across the room.

    Both of us are frozen for what feels like several centuries.

    I hear Namjoon say, “Jungkook, what’re you looking at?” He swivels around, too.

    His eyes widen to the size of quarters. A sharp intake of breath from his mouth causes the rest of BTS to turn and see me as well.

    I feel like my feet are stuck to the ground. A burning sensation of skittish fear runs through my entire body.

    Jungkook silently motions for Yoongi- who has risen furiously- to sit down. His eyes are glued to me, displaying a terrible mixture of hatred and malice and foreboding. Jungkook stands up and makes his way towards me.

    At that moment, I know that it has all begun.

    I brace myself.

    “Let’s go, Ami,” Jungkook says in a low voice, stepping behind me. He places a threatening hand on my arm.

I do not say a word; instead, I allow him to steer me through the hubbub of the party, past a door manned by large security guards, through the twisting hallways of the penthouse, into a windowless white room with nothing but a carpet floor. A feeling of dread is overtaking my senses, increasing with the number of steps I take.

    And then he shoves me up against a wall and points a knife at my neck.

    “Didn’t want to disturb the party, huh?” I give him a wry smile. “How classy of you to kill me in private.”

    “Oh, I’m not going to kill you just yet.” Jungkook’s lips curve up into a humorless smile. “We’ve decided to extract some information from you before we dispose of you.”

    “You can try. I’m not telling you anything.”

    “Really?” He inches the blade closer towards my skin, so that it is eventually resting on my neck. I do not flinch in the slightest.

    When he pushes it a little further, I merely close my eyes in acceptance.

    I wouldn’t care if he killed me-

You can’t die now, Ami, a voice reminds me. You haven’t been here long enough to act as a diversion.

The bucket list.

In a flash, I knock his hand away as hard as I can. His grip loosens on the knife and after kneeing him in the stomach, I grab the knife myself. In a matter of moments, we have switched positions: I now have him trapped against the wall with a knife to his throat.

However, Jungkook’s reaction is the exact opposite of what I would have expected. Instead of looking angry or surprised, there is a contemptful sneer forming on his face. He eyes me like a predator looks at his prey.

“Don’t move,” I command. “Or else.”

“Or else what, Ami?” he smirks. “You’re going to cut me? Go ahead. Do it.”

My eyes widen. Jungkook is staring at me, his eyebrows raised, a scornful smile on his lips.

    “There are two types of people,” he drawls. “People that have what it takes to kill someone, and people who don’t.”

    I blanch. He’s right. I would never be able to cut his throat. It dawns on me: no matter if I am armed with a machete or a gun, Jungkook will still have the advantage over me. He will always be more powerful than me.

    Because he is a killer.

    Appalled, I realize that my hand is shaking. Jungkook looks at me and lets out a biting laugh.

    “Shut your mouth,” I hiss, my voice quaking despite myself.

    “Kill me, Ami,” he says, stepping closer and closer to me, until our faces are only inches apart. I attempt to raise the knife to block him, but he merely pushes my hand down like a toy lever. My breath catches in my throat as he gives me a long, fiery look. His eyes, which I was so used to seeing emotions of happiness and affection in, are blazing with hostility. They flicker downwards, taking in my entire body in painstaking stares, and pausing at my lips. He is so close to me that I can feel him tense through the filmy material of my dress.

And for the billionth time, a conflicting pool of emotions well up in the pit of my stomach. I hate him so, so much.

    But he-

Jungkook’s fingers briskly slip through mine and yank the knife out. He casually turns it towards me once more.

 “This is going to be very long,” he sighs.

A/N: i hate school :) i need :) to go :) to college :) now :) 

BTW this whole party scene is based off a random scenario i wrote 6 months ago!! it was the first scene i'd ever written for this story and the scene that inspired me to write this story in the first place LOLOL. tbh i like the original better (because there was a LOT more and kissing lmfao and this one makes me sad). 

here is the dress i pictured ami wearing (in the middle- scandalous af, i know)