You guys are all mine, mine, mine, mine, mine
"May I know," Jeongyeon demanded, turning her head to look behind herself, "why I'm being tied up?"
Her front was pressed against the door of the driver's seat of a car whose model I had no idea about.
The blond man who'd suggested that they fuck us before killing us- who had just begun tying up her wrists behind her- gave her a sour look. "Shut your trap, bitch."
She just raised her brows in amusement.
I knew she was scared, but now that we really were doomed, it was better not to let it show.
I tried to do the same.
"Don't worry, babe, he's just pissed off because he didn't get to fuck you," a girl said lazily. She had Jeongyeon's shoe in her hand, sole facing up, and was shaking it, probably trying to find some hidden weapon or something. The chestnut-haired girl had ordered a few of them to 'disarm' us, and I was going through the same process. "Or check you for weapons at that. Trust me, the advantage he would've-"
"Don't you talk too much, Jeon?" the blond man snapped.
The petite girl looked up at him with narrowed eyes. "I've got a shoe in my hand."
"Please don't ruin my shoe to beat him up," Jeongyeon chimed in.
My breath got caught in my throat when the blond man raised his fist at her. She flinched, and for some reason I did too, but thankfully, he stopped himself right on time.
"I told you to shut. Your. Trap," he growled through gritted teeth.
"Aw, poor ol' Yuta-Boo got all worked up!" teased the girl who had Jeongyeon's shoe in her hand.
"Hey!" I felt my jacket being yanked off me.
"Where'd you bring this from?" the purple-haired boy scoffed. "Trashcan?"
A button-up shirt was now the only thing covering my torso, and it was cold. Very.
"Give it back," I said, trying my best to keep my voice steady.
"Uh huh," the guy murmured, searching it inside out as he strolled away. "After I'm done with it."
Before I could protest, the pretty girl- the one who'd stood next to this very purple-haired boy when they were contemplating what to do with us- was back with my shoes and socks, standing right in front of me, her stance somewhat demeaning.
I couldn't help but remember all the bullies I'd ever had.
"Put them on," she said curtly, dropping them at my feet. The look she gave me pinned me to the spot, my back pressing against the car behind me and Jeongyeon.
I almost gulped.
Mommy Jeongyeon she's bullying me.
I wanted to look at her, and her to look back at me reassuringly. But I didn't dare to. I just crouched down and quickly started shoving my foot into my sock.
We were out of the alleys now, but I hadn't been able to figure out which part of the street it was. What was going on around us looked like a wind-up - people collecting weapons, or getting in their cars or on their motorcycles and departing, or helping the injured, or other stuff. I'd even seen a couple of bodies being loaded into big cars, but it was hard to tell whether they were dead or just unconscious, what with the dark of the night and the gaps between the street lights that were large enough for it to be gloomy. All I knew was that I'd felt like gagging.
Having put on my well worn footwear, I stood up only to be turned about forcefully and slammed into the door of the car, and the next thing I knew was that I was being tied up, too.
I gritted my teeth. The confinement wasn't doing me any good. The rope dug into my wrists irritatingly, and it felt like my arms would get jammed in that awkward position forever if I didn't get untied within a minute. Whatever little control I had was now gone. I couldn't raise my arms to protect myself if needed. I couldn't even clasp my hands together in front of myself to beg for mercy when it came to that.
My eyes wandered to my right and fell on Jeongyeon.
"You okay?" she mouthed, concern evident in her eyes.
I just nodded in response.
"There you go, rug rat!" the blond man chirped, having finished binding her wrists. "All set. Want me to tie a nice fancy bow or something?"
Just then, the petite Jeon girl plonked Jeongyeon's shoe on the ground, and looked up at her. "Put these on- oh, you're tied up. Yuta, do it for her."
The offended expression that unfolded on blondie's face was just so comical, I felt the unexpected urge to smile, and had to bite the inside of my lower lip to keep it in as I averted my gaze. Somehow, it landed on the chestnut-haired girl, who was talking to someone on the phone. I couldn't hear her because she was a good distance away from us, but her face was stiff and stony, so I reckoned that the conversation was pretty tense. The light from the lamppost below which she stood was reflecting off her sharp features- cat eyes, well-defined jawline, angular nose, rosey lips- and I had to say that her beauty matched her profession well enough. She looked innocent in no way.
All of a sudden, her eyes met mine.
I was taken by surprise, abruptly aware of the hollow beating inside my chest. There was something about the look she gave me that sent a chill down my spine. I vaguely noticed her lips moving as she spoke a few words to the person on the other side of the phone, her dark brown eyes still trained on mine.
And then she was walking right toward me.
The beating in my chest was no longer hollow. My heart now seemed to be hammering against the inside of my ribs, sending turmoil through all the blood vessels in my body. For some reason, I got the wild gut feeling that she was coming over to kill me. Maybe it was her gait - she walked like a panther, graceful yet sinister. Her eyes never left my face, which just made me feel more and more like a prey.
Maybe I was.
"Yo, Kim." Jeongyeon's voice snapped me out of a trance I didn't even know I was in. "She's out of your league, don't daydream."
I turned to glare at her. "You couldn't even see my face, how'd you know-"
She snorted. "I know you well enough, Kim Taehyung. I've known you for almost like, three years. You sure enough can't even last that long in a marriage."
I rolled my eyes. "How can you be like this even in this situation?"
"Pretend, Taehyung, pretend." I knew if her wrists weren't tied up, she would've reached up and patted the top of my head. "For a person who brags about being good at acting, you seem to be pretty bad at it."
I opened my mouth to counter, but she spoke before I did.
"By the way, why are you standing with your front against the car?"
I looked behind myself at the guy who was tying me up. "Because I- oh."
There was no guy.
"Yes?" Jeongyeon was trying to arch a brow.
Annoyed, I turned about so that my back was against the car. "Happy?"
"How would that make me happy?" she muttered.
"What do you want me to do then?" I huffed.
"Hmm . . . I dunno. How about turning out to be the Hulk in disguise and turning green right now and saving us from here?"
"I wish," I muttered. I was certain that I wasn't a big green muscular scientist, so I felt stupid as I tried to pull my wrists apart.
No harm in trying, my subconscious said. But the rope only dug further into my skin, causing it to sting nastily.
By now, the chestnut-haired girl had reached us, her expression grim like it had been every time I'd looked at her so far. She ran her eyes up and down Jeongyeon's form, then mine, hovering at my face for a second longer.
My skin crawled.
"Turn about," she said shortly, coldly.
Huh?
Her gaze strayed off my face, settling on my friend's instead. "Both of you. Turn about."
I looked at Jeongyeon. She caught my eye immediately, sensing my uncertainty.
Should we? I didn't even mouth those words but she gave me a minute nod, as if she knew what was going on in my mind.
Exhaling a silent breath through my mouth, I glanced at the stony-faced chestnut-haired girl before turning about to face the car. As I watched Jeongyeon in my peripheral vision doing the same, I realised my lips were quivering.
So this is it? This is how we die? And we don't even get to see it?
Somewhere in my mind, I knew my thoughts didn't make sense - she'd said that we'll be taken to someone, not killed. Still, I couldn't help the feeling that she was going to harm me in some way.
The moment her fingers came in contact with the back of my neck, my entire body tensed. Her warm finger pads brushed my cold skin, leaving behind a chilly trail as they pushed up my slightly outgrown hair. It felt like the upward movement of her fingers against my nape was sucking the air out of my lungs, making my eyes close themselves on their own accord. Just when my chest started to feel devoid of any oxygen, her touch left.
I released a breath I didn't realise I was holding. My eyelids lifted slowly as the muscles in my body loosened. For a moment, I just breathed and tried to comprehend what just happened, but to no avail. My eyes drifted to the right, and I noticed Jeongyeon staring at me with an expression I couldn't figure out as the chestnut-haired girl moved her loose hair away from her neck so as to take a look at her nape, like she'd done with me.
Before I could ponder over why she was doing it, the girl just turned away and left, pressing her phone, which was still in her hand, to her ear.
"No," I heard her speak into the device.
I would've tried to hear further, but I couldn't do it with the look Jeongyeon had been giving me.
"What?" I asked, somewhat defensively.
She stared at me for a second longer before answering. "If you and her ever do make it as a couple," she said, her voice sort of monotonous and solemn, "you'll definitely be the sub."
"You-" I wanted to raise my hand, but my wrists were bound together. "You're an asshat."
"And you're lovestruck," she told me.
"I'm not lovestruck," I fumed. "I don't even remember her name."
"Ooh, you're so lovestruck," she said, amazed, her eyebrows lifting. "Look at that red face of yours."
I wanted to protest, but a loud call interrupted me.
"Hurry up, you all!" It was the chestnut-haired girl, addressing her comrades. "It's still too early. Not even past midnight."
"And she's the incharge," Jeongyeon said, the hint of a chuckle in her tone. "You've got a crush on the incharge."
"I do not-"
Wind had blown past, and the word not came out as a shaky utterance as I shivered. The boy who'd taken my jacket was nowhere to be seen.
"You cold?" Jeongyeon asked sympathetically, all the josh forgotten.
"Yeah," I replied, stifling the shudders. "Some guy stole my jacket."
She looked around. "Which guy?"
I sighed. "I won't tell you," I said. "Because then you'll go, 'Yo, guy, return my friend's jacket,' and you'll glare at him like you glare at the ones at school but it won't work on him and then we'll get beaten up."
"Damn right, you will."
I froze.
Jeongyeon's eyes flitted to the source of that voice, who was, of course, standing right behind me. And though I couldn't see him, I could vaguely smell the sweat and blood on him - that's how every one of them smelled like, it seemed.
"Yeah, c'mon, turn around." His tone was almost uncaring. "Face your problem."
I locked gazes with Jeongyeon. She pointed at him with her eyes, concern disguised as firmness in them, and I swallowed when I realised what she meant.
Cold breath escaped my mouth. I licked my lips as I turned about, coming face-to-face with a boy who looked around our age.
He smirked.
I knew that kind of smile. I'd seen it too many times.
The redhead held up my jacket, a small portion of its hood pinched between his thumb and forefinger as he dangled it in front of my face.
"You want this?" he asked, his tone laced with fake politeness.
My jaw tightened.
"Take it."
But what could I even do?
"Go ahead, I'm not stopping you," he said in a honey-like voice. "Take your jacket, it's yours."
"You're despicable, you know that, right?" I heard Jeongyeon.
"Oh, hon," he murmured, directing his eyes at her, his smile becoming toxic. "That's an understatement."
"Stop goofing around," a voice came from behind him, "and get in." Just then, the car made sound and its lights flashed simultaneously, indicating that it had been unlocked. "You heard Jennie, now cut along."
The boy scowled. "I was just having some fun," he grumbled, dragging his feet around the car and toward the shotgun seat, taking my jacket along with him.
I swear I'll die of cold.
The man who was the owner of that voice was now scrutinizing me and Jeongyeon, his arms folded across his chest.
"Move," he told me, apathetic, and reached for the door handle of the backseat. I stepped aside immediately, giving him space to open the door, and, well, keeping my distance. He nodded at the inside of the car. "Get in."
"Wait."
I turned to see the chestnut-haired girl- Jennie- looking up from her phone with that seemingly everlasting hard expression still on her face. Her eyes landed directly at me, boring into mine with an uncanny vehemence.
My lips parted.
She took a short glance at Jeongyeon before her gaze slipped back to my eyes.
"Blindfold them."
—
"May I know," I quoted Jeongyeon, uncertainly, as if testing the water with my toe before getting in, "why we've been blindfolded?"
"No, you may not," the voice came from the driver's seat. It was the man who'd told us to get into the car - Myungjun, I'd heard him being called.
We were in the claustrophobic rear seat, confined to it with seatbelts, our arms trapped awkwardly between our backs and the backrest.
"Don't pretend you don't know," the redhead said from the shotgun seat.
"We don't know," Jeongyeon stated. "And our brains are too tiny to guess."
"Then it's your brains' fault," the young boy rebuffed.
"Tell us why," Jeongyeon didn't drop the matter. "They're our eyes. We have the right to know."
"Shut up and don't bug us," the redhead snapped. "Or we can accidentally point our guns at those tiny brains of yours and accidentally pull the trigger."
I gulped, even though I knew they couldn't do that. Jennie had said they were to take us to someone. They wouldn't kill us.
"And don't think we won't," the boy said, as if he could read my thoughts. "You're not that important. If we kill you, all we get is a teeny-weeny pay cut."
"No, we can get a month's burial duty," Myungjun said, his tone dreadful. "I don't want burial duty."
I wondered what this burial duty was.
"We can gag 'em and lock 'em in the trunk," he suggested.
No, no, no. . . .
"Good idea," the redhead perked up. "C'mon, stop the car."
No, don't stop the car. . . .
"Nah, let's give them another chance," Myungjun drawled. "My muscles are sore."
I sighed in relief, as quietly as I could.
The younger one huffed. "Why did you utter such a first-class plan if you didn't want to implement it."
Myungjun just grunted in response, and the boy heaved a breath a moment later. "But you're kinda right, mine are sore too," he groaned. "And all this dirt, ugh. The second I reach home, I'mma take the nicest hot shower ever."
The man released something between a scoff and a snicker. "Nicest hot shower. Taeyong is about to run out of water again, you always shower as if you're washing all of Korea."
The side of his face was met with my crumpled up jacket, hurled with probably all the force the redhead could muster. Myungjun laughed gleefully as he took hold of it and dropped it back into the boy's lap, keeping one hand at the steering wheel all the while.
My shoulders, which had risen slightly in the hopes that the older guy would give it back to me, slumped again in despondency.
"You had to have that drink," I mumbled to Jeongyeon, defeated.
She huffed. "You're blaming me for this?"
We'd made an unspoken agreement to talk in whispers, even though the two in the front could probably still hear us.
"Well, who was the one who suggested to go out for a drink?" I said under my breath.
"Well, who was the one who got a nice job?" Jeongyeon countered, completely illogical.
I gave a silent snort. "That's my fault? That I got a nice job?"
"No, your fault is that the job you found earlier was a shitty one."
"I-wha-well," I stuttered. "You wouldn't have died if you hadn't had that drink tonight!"
"Well," she replied slowly. "Maybe I would've, who knows?"
"I can't believe I have an alcoholic as my best friend," I muttered, even though I knew she'd only drunk twice before, including tonight.
"Be thankful I'm not a drug addict," she grumbled.
"Well, do you- oh my, CLOSE THE WINDOW!"
Ice-cold wind was rushing in from the left, biting away at my bones, which were not shielded by any warm clothing.
"Heh? Come again?" I knew Myungjun was doing it deliberately.
"CLOSE THE FUCKING WINDOW!" I shouted above the blow, shuddering.
"Open all fucking windows? Here you go, buddy."
Sharp, numbing, frigid wind surged in from all directions excluding the back, and for a moment I thought I was embedded in a big block of ice.
"Y-Y-YOU'RE ALL D-DILLHOLES!" I bawled, referring to everyone including Jeongyeon, because I could swear I heard a snigger slip out from her mouth.
"Taehyung. Promise me." She was speaking in that same solemn voice she would use while teasing me. "Promise me you'll bear it," she said, rubbing salt in the wound. "Promise me you'll control your bladder."
—
"May I know," Jeongyeon repeated the three words, "why we've even been brought here?"
The place smelled weird, like a combination of smoke and sweat - definitely not a residence. A hand was gripping my upper arm roughly, pulling me along toward wherever it was they were taking us. I couldn't see anything (we were still blindfolded), but I could sense the presence of a number of people.
I felt scared.
"Who knows why," Myungjun said. I think he was the one escorting Jeongyeon.
"Jennie does," the person who was towing me- the purple-haired boy, I believed- voiced. "Ask her."
"Taehyungie's got the fattest crush on your incharge," Jeongyeon piped up.
"I don't-"
"Spare him, I'm telling you, it'll definitely turn into something," she continued.
My mouth was still open, but I couldn't speak further. Even in this situation, even with her façade of fearlessness up, even when we were most probably about to die, she was making subtle but definite efforts to save me.
I closed my mouth and swallowed.
"Aren't you guys- nevermind, let it go." I could hear the slight frown in Myungjun's voice. "We're here."
The hand around my arm jerked me toward the left, and then stopped pulling a few steps later before turning my body a little to the right.
For a fraction of a moment, there was nothing but silence if you excluded the faint sounds of people breathing. Not a tense silence, but a thick and heavy one all the same, etched with anticipation. Then a small thud- the sound of a book or something dropping to a surface, a table, maybe- came from what was my front.
A second passed, then two, then three. I could feel the new pair of eyes staring at me and Jeongyeon from the direction we were facing. The voice that came from there after a few more seconds was deep and masculine, but somewhat lazy.
"We're gonna keep this short," it said. "You lie, you die."
"Wait, does that mean there's still a chance of us getting out of here alive?" Jeongyeon asked suddenly.
The voice, when it spoke next, was light, but at the same time heavy with absolute amusement. "Who said anything about you getting out of here at all?"
My jaw and my heart sank at once.
We're not getting out of here?
"Now question one," the voice continued before I could even brood properly. "Who do you work for?"
"Will you at least remove the blindfolds?" Jeongyeon ventured. "Why are they on, anyway?"
She'll definitely be the first one to die.
I hated the thought. I didn't want to live with the knowledge that she's dead, even for a moment. If both of us were going to die, I'd rather be the first one to go.
"Why should I remove your blindfolds?" the voice said.
"Well, we have a right to see the world one last time before we die," Jeongyeon affirmed.
I wasn't expecting it, but a pause later, the cloth blocking my vision was no longer there. I practically shivered as I wondered if it implied that we were going to die.
It didn't take long for my eyes to adjust. The room was dimly lit and messy and looked like an office, but had a shady vibe - though that was not because of the place itself, but because of the people in it. The young man sitting at the desk in front of us was just . . . perfect. He had the perfect face which was marginally tipped to the side with its perfectly chiselled features and the perfectly sharp jawline and a perfectly shaped pair of eyebrows above the perfectly large and deep set eyes. His burgundy hair was pushed back, a lone wisp of it reaching down to caress his right brow, which was arched slightly in what seemed to be- and was, most probably- indifference. He was leaning back in his chair, his posture relaxed, right ankle perched on his left thigh, hands resting on his abdomen with the fingers laced together.
"Now talk." It was Jennie who'd spoken. She was standing next to the table, her arms crossed. "Who are you working under?"
"Listen, I swear we don't work with or for anyone, this is all a complete misunderstanding and we're totally innocent," Jeongyeon blurted.
"If you're innocent, what were you doing at a shady bar sipping on soju and beer at this hour despite being underage in the first place?" the burgundy-haired man said, unblinking, his speech as smooth as butter all throughout.
"Well . . ." Jeongyeon began. I turned, looking at her for the first time after being unblindfolded. She was looking at nothing in particular, her mouth open as she contemplated what to say.
"We're not the only underage drinkers in the world," I spoke up, instantly hating the aftermath. All eyes in the room were now on me.
"Yeah, we were just being a bit rebellious," Jeongyeon supported, immediately taking the attention off me. "That's . . . that's what youth is about."
"Oh," the man said, his tone dripping with scepticism. "Well then, I suppose you can- without any difficulties or hesitance- explain how those lashes ended up where they are, Ms. Yoo."
I didn't even need to look at her to know her reaction - I could feel the sudden anxiety that emanated from where she stood, hear it in the silence she'd fallen into all at once.
The burgundy-haired man blinked at her slowly and deliberately, urging her to speak.
I looked at her, at the pained expression she was fighting to hide, at the way her face went pale and her eyes portrayed the fact that she was caught off guard, the way her lips were parted as she struggled to form words.
It wasn't as if I'd never seen her without her guard up. I had. Once.
And it was infinitely worse back then.
Seeing her like a deer caught in headlights made me feel exposed and vulnerable, as if I was in a raging battlefield without an armour and my only shield was snatched away from me.
Jeongyeon was my shield, and her being speechless had rendered me defenseless.
Just then, a small, distant voice inside me nagged:
It's her, always her. She is always the shield.
Now that she's vulnerable in your presence, what are you going to do?