When Sookyung awoke, the first thing she noticed was the strong smell of dust, her eyes welcomed with pitch black. She had absolutely no idea where she was, as her eyes were still trying to regain its consciousness from the grogginess and adjusting itself to the black of her confinement. She blinked several times before squinting really hard one last time, forcing her vision back. Once acquainted with the eerie darkness, her other senses began to awaken as well, taking in her current situation.  

She was sweating profusely and the strands of hair that were let loose from her ponytail stuck to her forehead. Her palms and chest were sweaty and she felt lightheaded all over. She felt a thick band of duct tape wrap itself from one side of her face to the other, her breathing muffled and quiet in the stillness of what seemed to be a basement floor. She looked down and saw that her hands and legs were tied in figure eights of thick rope--the ones she'd sneakily caught her father using on many of his hostages before--and right below it, her wrists were red and burnt from all the struggling she enforced on the way here. Her nurse outfit from last night were stained with the black of the concrete and ripped in several places. Her head was pounding heavily—she could almost hear the sound of something hitting the back of her skull repeatedly—and she groaned before shaking her head and tried to regain her senses.

And immediately, the events from before came flashing back to her right away.  

She remembered walking home in an eerie silence. She remembered the fight, the pillowcase, the struggle, and ultimately being thrown in the back trunk of a van of some sort.

 
Sookyung looked around, still trying to be fully acquainted to the darkness of the room. She tried to take in the interior of the room, hoping a little knowledge would help if she planned on getting out of there; if she planned on escaping. She was in what seemed to be a small room, engulfed by a layer of long, steel bars that were aligned and stuck in the ceiling and floor, and a plaster of an actual wall behind it as its base layer, seemingly for extra protection of the room. For what, Sookyung had no idea. There was a door also made of the same steel rods and another layer of plaster behind it, finished off with two locks near the top and middle of the door. Sookyung was lying awkwardly in the right corner of the room, and there was a small window letting in a tiny glimpse of dawn, so she guessed it was roughly 4 to 5 in the morning.  

The thought of being kidnapped was daunting to her, and of course, she’d panicked and her head had been to unspeakable places--maybe she was caught to be used for human trafficking, maybe this was a prank played on her by some stupid, greasy men that despise her dad—what else is new? Or maybe she was going to be used as a slave for some crazy murdering psychopath like in the movies. Whatever it was, Sookyung was scared and definitely didn't want to have her life ended like this, but she also knew that she was confident that she wasn't going to go down without a fight against whoever thought to capture her. Maybe at last, all those dreadful years of training to not only shoot and punch people, but pick locks, sneak out confined spaces, and overall being able to handle herself in dangerous situations, would come in handy.  

She knew that she had to get to work immediately, but her body felt utterly weak. There was pain everywhere and she could feel the bruises plastered in several places of her body from struggling and being tossed around by the momentum in the truck. She still felt lightheaded and sick to the pit of her stomach, but she knew sitting around and moping about her condition was not going to help bring her back to experience daylight again, so she slowly started off with trying to rip the piece of tape from her face. Her weak fingers stretched before reaching up and picked at the edge. She braced herself before tearing the tape quickly. It came off with a skin crawling tear, and Sookyung did her best to muffle her cry as it seemingly burned her skin off.  

She panted a couple of times, happy to breathe freely now before regaining her senses. Immediately, she began to untie the ropes on her wrists first with the little room her fingers had that could reach and pick. She squirmed and plucked and pulled and tore with her hands and teeth until both lips and fingers were red and bleeding from pain. She ignored it the best she could and continued to think of ways to escape from the room.  

As she brainstormed and tortured her hands and teeth with this ungodly kind of rope, she drifted off in the thoughts and images of Joonah and Kyungha and Minhyuk and everyone at the hospital. She thought of her friends that she'd made over the years that she's worked there. She thought of the patients she'd need to check up on again. She thought of the nurses she'd need to banter and joke around and laugh with again. Although she hated to admit it, she also thought of her father, and wanted to at least utter a grunt at him one last time. It was so unlike her, but she began to tear up and worry about the possibility of her not being able to escape.  

No, she told herself. Fourteen years of training isn't going to waste for nothing.  

And for once, she thanked her father.  

She used her shoulder to clear away the tears that were threatening to fall and blur her vision, and continued working at her rope. The cogs in her head began to churn again until all at once, she was blinded with a bright light and the sound of a door being vigorously pushed open, and Sookyung paralyzed in her spot as her breathing hitched. 
 

She was barely surprised when two men entered the room, forcefully closing the door behind them. The two men were of slightly short stature, and from what she could see, they seemed awfully young.

The one on the left, the shorter one, had dark brown hair, covering his forehead. His bone structure was crafted amazingly and his sharp eyes gazed deep into hers even if he was three metres away. His lips were curved up at the edges, giving off the impression that he was already smirking at her. The one on the right was a little taller and his features were softer. He had dark brown hair, and his stature gave off vibes of power and authority.

Sookyung suddenly gulped, remembering the fact that she ripped the tape over off a while ago, the remains to the left of her. In her mind, she silently prayed that the two men would overlook the tape and focus on her instead. But they were kidnappers. They rarely overlook anything. She did what she could, looking, almost glaring, at them, her eyelids droopily covering the top of her eyes. She didn’t want to provoke them to kill her on the spot, but she couldn’t just back down and beg them for freedom like a sick puppy.

Suddenly, the one on the left snickered, nudging his partner. “Look at her, she looks horrible.” Unable to hold herself back, Sookyung let out a dry laugh, unamused by the young man’s humor.  The two looked at her, perplexed that she had the guts to even let out a sound.

Sookyung didn’t know what she found funny. She sat there and started giggling like a woman gone mad. Her face scrunched as she continued to heave airy laughs and the bruises that cut on her face burned as she did, but she didn’t care. She laughed until she found herself gasping for more air than she already lacked.

She took her time breathing in and out, trying to catch her breath, completely ignoring the two perplexed men now crouching in front of her, jaws agape at the girl.

“I look horrible? Do I? Well, I ing wonder why, you jackasses,” she spat. “You think I’d just come here voluntarily and not dare give up a damn fight? You think that it’s fun being locked in a cold ing cell for several hours? You think it’s amusing that I have no clue why I’m even in this goddamn place?!”

She felt her blood boil underneath her, her veins pumping with adrenaline, desperately wishing she had some kind of mega-strength superpower to rip these ropes off her wrists and punch them