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What the fuck!
“Let me go! I want to go home! Please -”“Stay in your room.”“No, wait -”“Mr. Ray told us to make certain you don’t leave your room. Now stay inside.”“Hey! You can’t keep me here!”But the door closed behind the hooded figures as soon as they removed their vice-like grips from her arms, the heavy sound of the lock turning to cement the fact that she was trapped.What an idiot she had been.She was still shaking from the shock, adrenaline pumping through her veins, and the wood of the door was too solid, too hard against the sides of her fists. Pounding on it until her hands ached and became numb proved useless, her throat raw from unanswered shouts to anyone on the other side to let her out.An easy job, quick cash and something to look good on her résumé - she cursed the way she had ignored warning bells in her head as she kicked the door one last time. Too good to be true, it had been too good to be true and she should have known it.Turning in place, Chloe rested the heels of her palms against her temples and tried to take deep breaths, but she couldn’t. Thoughts raced across her mind faster than she could make sense of them, shock keeping her from coming up with a plan. Real. He had been standing there, really real and holding out his hand to her, desperation in his voice and panicked concern on his face. There was such an earnestness in his mint gaze, and she could still remember the shock of how warm his long fingers had been on her hand. It had been a jolt to her system, even more so than hearing his voice.V - Jihyun - real and trying to pull her away from Ray, and in her shock all she’d been able to think about was how stupid she must have sounded when they spoke on the phone all those times. The stupid flirtations she had made, thinking she was speaking with an AI and trying to win a game, but he had been real the whole time.
What an idiot I was.
She had to get out of here. In over her head and in more danger than she had realized, danger she had ignored when V called to check on her, thinking it was just programming, and no way out now that she knew it had been real all along. This was the only door, and there wasn’t any way she could open it. Besides, even if she could, there had to be more of those hooded people in the hallway to prevent her leaving. Ray had been screaming, almost demented, and she knew he wasn’t likely to let her leave so easily.One deep breath, and then another as she tried to think, tried to formulate any sort of plan. Nothing came to her, except the large windows lining one wall of the luxurious room that had also been eerily too good to be true.After one moment’s hesitation Chloe crossed to the window and undid the latch, swinging it wide. The cold night air blew wisps of red across her face, and she brushed the strands out of her eyes as she leaned out the window.“Oh,” she gasped, the sight of the ground so far below her making her dizzy. She hadn’t thought too much about being up on the third floor until now, except that her view had been marvelous. Now all she could think was that she wished a tree or something was closer to her window, or a drain pipe, a ledge, anything - but there was nothing.Just the hard ground waiting below.How many bones would break if she jumped? Would it be better to try to land so that she injured an arm or shoulder, and hope that she could still run? Was there even a way to try, really? Perhaps she still had enough adrenaline from what had happened, her heart was still racing and she was still shaking - couldn’t people run on injuries if they had enough motivation and adrenaline? She felt vaguely that she had learned that in school or read it somewhere, but now she doubted the truth of the words.As she tried to work up her nerve to pull herself up into the window frame, she momentarily considered that she didn’t care how injured she was or even if she could run after jumping. Just an end, a way out of this situation, anything.Anything had to be better than being a hostage here.Chloe looked out across the grounds, desperately seeking any other solution. But flinging herself from her window seemed the only plan she could come up with, and she pulled herself into the window frame. Bracing herself with her arms she perched carefully on the ledge, lightly kicking her legs as if she was sitting casually, not a care in the world as she looked out over the grounds once more.The moon was bright tonight, casting the trees with its light and creating elongated shadows across everything she could see.Yet that wasn’t all she could see.In the distance she saw a figure moving, running from one tree to another, but it slowed under the moonlight and turned back. Perhaps it was a trick of the silvery light, but the hair almost looked -She fumbled with her phone, keeping herself braced as she opened the messenger app and searched with a shaking thumb for V’s number. Each ring made her heart race faster, but when the second was interrupted with a click her breath caught in her throat. Chloe searched the grounds with her gaze again, noticing the figure was shifting how it stood, one arm bent, as if holding a phone to an ear.“Ch-Chloe? Are you okay?” V’s winded voice greeted her.“V? Are you? Was that - that was you, wasn’t it? That was really you, you were here -”“Yes, it was me,” he told her. He was still trying to catch his breath, and he let out an aggravated sigh. “If I had known you were held hostage...I would have come up with a better plan…”“It’s okay, V, I’m -”“I’m sorry I couldn’t rescue you right away. I lacked the strength and had to leave you there. I’m so sorry, Chloe,” he repeated, struggling to take a deep breath.“V, I think - can you see me? I was going to slip away, it’s only three stories,” she said, hating how her voice wavered with fear as she looked down once more.“What? I - I can't see very well, is that - that shape in the window, is that you? No, Chloe, I - no, no!” he said urgently. The figure she could see in the distance took several steps back toward the building, coming into the moonlight more fully until she could tell with certainty. It was him. “What are you doing there, Chloe?”“I can jump,” she told him, willing her voice to steady. “We can escape together. They’re guarding my door, they locked me in, but I could jump -”“No, Chloe! Please, please don’t jump,” he implored her, and she looked back up at his figure. His voice had broken on the words, making her pause just when she had gathered the courage at the sight of him waiting not that far off. “Please, Chloe. Don’t jump, I can’t - I can’t stand the thought of you getting more hurt.”“I’m scared,” she whispered, the confession slipping from her lips before she could stop it.“I know,” he murmured. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t know, I wish I had. But please don’t jump. I’ll come back for you, I promise. I will, I’ll get you out of there.”“I don’t want to stay here, I’d rather break my leg, break my neck - anything to get out of here -”“No!” he interrupted, desperation roughening the edges of his voice until her heart ached at the sound of it. “Please, wait for me. I’ll come back for you, I’ll save you. I will save you...until then be safe. Be careful of drinks, food, everything - please be careful.”“V, please don’t leave me here,” Chloe breathed, and immediately regretted the admission. “I can jump, you can take me with you -”“No, no, don’t,” he pleaded. “I’ll come back, just give me time. Promise me - promise me you won’t. I won’t forgive myself if you do. Promise me you’ll stay safe until I return. Promise.”Chloe clutched the window frame, fingernails digging into the wood and scratching along rough stone. The idea of staying here longer terrified her, but she remembered the look in his eyes when he had offered her his hand and told her to run.“I promise,” she told him. “I promise, I’ll - I’ll stay here. I’ll be careful.”A deep sigh of relief greeted the words, a moment of silence following until he said softly, “Thank you, Chloe. Thank you for promising me, I mean it. And...I’m sorry you got caught up in this. I’m sorry it’s my fault. But it’s a relief you’re not on their side, I - I was so glad to discover it. You’re an innocent victim, I - I’m so sorry.”They fell silent again except his breathing, still trying to gasp for air after running away. Even at this distance, she almost imagined she could see his eyes fixed on her, the look of concern when he had interrupted Ray burned into her memory. She could picture it under the moonlight as though he was before her once more.“Chloe, I need you to promise me something else,” he began again. “Please, keep what happened back there a secret between you and me. For your safety, and to keep the other members from becoming too agitated. Please.”She considered for only a breath of a moment and then softly assented, chewing her lip before she murmured, “Come back and help me, V.”“I promise you, just as you promised me,” he answered immediately. “I will, very soon. I need more time to prepare, I want to bring you to my side right now, but - I need a better plan. Until then, don’t do anything, please stay safe. Pretend to listen to them. And if - if you fall into danger…”“Yes?”“Use my name to threaten them, but use it as a last resort. If you’re in danger, use my name and it should - it should buy you time, it should protect you. I’ll protect you.” V took another deep breath, the sound of air shuddering into her ear until she could almost imagine he was beside her whispering. The shiver that passed through her then had little to do with the chill of the night air that still softly blew her hair across her face.“I will, V, and - good luck. Come back to me.”“I’ll come up with a better plan, I’ll get you out of there and get you to a safe place, Jumin will help you,” he assured her. “I - I must go. Please, Chloe - get out of that window and close it. Promise me. Stay there until I return for you.”Again the hint of desperation in his tone, and she braced herself and carefully swung her legs back into her room. She stood up and closed the window behind her, latching it before she rested a hand on the glass.“Thank you,” he breathed, and the solace that came into his voice tugged at something deep within her, bringing goosebumps to her skin despite the fact that she could no longer feel the breeze. “It’s late, you - you should rest if you can. I must go, I need to keep on the move. Please understand if I don’t pick up for a while, okay?”“Okay, V,” she agreed softly. “I’ll see you soon.”“Yes, you will. I promise.”A hesitation and an inhalation of breath, as if he was preparing to say something else, but then the line went dead. Chloe held her phone to her ear still, her other hand pressed to the glass as if in farewell, wishing he could have stayed longer, that she could still listen to his voice whispering promises that he’d return to her. Instead she watched as the slightest flash of mint hair disappeared beneath a hood, and a tall figure turned and melted into the shadows of the night.