*If you guys missed chapters 18 and 19, check them out before continuing to this one, especially 18 as it is the prelude to what's happening next. Here's more drama, enjoy!*
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Everything was completely dark, much too silent, more than a little suffocating. He didn't know where he was, he couldn't even determine if it was night or day. The bag over his head kept him disoriented and unsure of his situation. How had he ended up in this situation? One moment he was on stage, performing and dancing his heart out, his only concern for Jimin and making sure he was safe and the next moment he was being ambushed and thrown into a car. It happened so fast. His body shook in long, shuddering tremors. He could taste the fear at the back of his tongue as sweat poured off him in droves.

He shivered as a cool draft passed over his sweaty skin. The faint creaking of an open window interrupted the consistency of the rhythm his erratic breathing created in the silence.

"Dowajuseyo!" he screamed into the environment, the tenor of his voice causing a loud echo, making his ears sing in pain. He didn't care. He screamed again, and again...

And again.

He screamed until his voice gave out and his mouth was dry. After realizing that no one would come, he finally quieted down, his heart like a freight train in his rib cage. The beating of his heart was now the only audible sound in his ears.

Thud- thud. Thud-thud. Thud-thud. At the speed of lightning.

The rhythm was driving him insane. It was like the echo to his thoughts, what was going to happen to him (thud-thud)? He had no voice left to call for help, if anyone could even hear him. His pleas had gone unanswered and he felt incredibly alone.

He pulled futilely at the bonds that secured his wrists tightly behind his back. They felt wet and slick with something, perhaps blood. Despite his pulling, the bonds held fast.

A click of a lock reverberated through the room he was held in and V fell still immediately. His breath caught painfully in his chest and he was convinced he'd die right then and there from fear.

"Wow, you're breathing louder than a fat guy on a treadmill," a low, feminine voice remarked mockingly from somewhere in the room in his native Korean. His abductor was a girl? How or why would a girl abduct him? He couldn't think of a single reason. He was good to all of his fans, it didn't make sense.

"Pl-please miss. Let me go, I'll give you anything you want. Albums, merchandise, free concert tickets, you don't have to do this. I love all of my fans, I'd never make any of you upset on purpose," V gasped in a rapid torrent with his low voice. His throat constricted painfully as he formed the words and shoved them out past his fear in efforts to appease his captor.

"Uhm what? You think I'm some crazed fan?"

Taehyung was silent. The girl's sudden cackle shot through the room, turning his spine to ice.

"Oh my goodness that's rich! Nah sorry kid, your music sucks. EXO is a thousand times better than you so called 'Hip-Hop' artists," she remarked blithely with all the derision she felt. Her, a fan of bowel movement syndrome BTS? She'd heard it all now. That would never happen.

"Then why...."

"Just shut up already, your voice is annoying. I didn't kidnap you for you. You're bait. The real trap is for someone else."

Bait? Taehyung became impossibly more terrified as his mind ran through a hundred different interpretations of what the girl meant. He began to tremble anew.

Who was this crazy girl trying to trap? He suddenly was very afraid for not only himself, but for his friends too.

"First we just need to give a little incentive."

The bag was snatched from his head, revealing an illuminated and filthy room, his eyes beginning to water from the sudden glare assaulting his eyes. His eyes grew wide when he looked up to see a gun nozzle pointed directly to his face.

He squeezed his eyes shut as the girl pulled the trigger...

*           *            *

I picked up my recently neglected journal and put my pen to the paper. My journal was my favorite color, but the pen was just a normal black ball-tipped pen, with regular black ink. I really do like the color purple even though I don't own a lot of purple things. Ironic I know, but somehow everything I ended up owning was every other color except purple. But my favorite things were purple, like my journal, and my laptop, and the cover for my Infinix Hot Pro.

My hijab...

I laid my hijab across my bed as I wrote all the things I felt about what happened at the mall. In the end I had kept it as it really was dear to me, and I couldn't let something as silly as a hater make me give it up. I never looked at my hijab as something to separate me from others. I still felt human like everyone else, still felt like I was a part of society in it. More than that though, my hijab was part of my identity, like an extension of who I am the same way my phone was another extension of me too. For someone to attack my hijab was as if they were attacking me personally, and it made me feel unhappy.

I wrote my feelings into my journal, feeling bad for filling it up with negative thoughts, but I had to get them out, they couldn't be allowed to fester inside of me. I'm not able to bottle up my feelings like some, either I must write it, or let someone know how I feel. It was how I've been since I was a kid and so it's a very integral part of my personality. Bad or good, the feelings had to get out.

My phone blinked, breaking the flow of the words and I picked it up distractedly. I had a new message, but it wasn't from WhatsApp like I anticipated. It was a direct message to my actual number. Odd,I didn't usually get those.

Feeling curious, I opened the message from a number I didn't recognize and hesitated before clicking the attachment that was sent to me. It was a video. I didn't want to unwittingly download a virus to my phone, but I had a virus protection app so there was no real threat. Curiosity won over caution and so I clicked the attachment and waited for the video to download.

I watched the video that was sent to me in petrified shock. My breath caught in my throat, causing my heart to jolt painfully in my chest. I shook my head violently, in denial of what I was seeing.

When? How? How was this happening?!

The video started again of its own accord and I watched the replay helplessly.

V's face pops up on the screen, his eyes wide in terror as he stares down the barrel of a pistol. The person holding the gun squeezes the trigger, emitting a loud bang and a puff of white smoke. V screams, the most awful sound I've ever heard in my life. I can't....I can't describe the scream. I just know it brought me to my knees, my journal and pen forgotten, clutching at my throat in fear. His scream was a million times worse than the one he did at the mansion. V gasps and sobs before his eyes open, terror and confusion shining in them. Then, the angle changes and a familiar face comes into view. I remember that face. I could never forget it. The face of my first fight ever looked into the screen with ill concealed hatred.

"If you want to save him, come to Sajik-ra - 3 gil 23 in Jongno district. Come alone. If you alert anyone I'll kill him on the spot. You have twenty five minutes."

Five of the twenty five minutes had already gone by by the time the replay was over. I was beyond scared. There was no word for the level of anxiety and fear that I felt now. I sat there numbly, unable to process or to think of anything to do. I was frozen.

I didn't have time to be frozen. Tae's life was on the line. I needed to act now!

Shaking myself from the icy numbness, I jumped up from my bed and quickly garbed myself in my regular black abaya and my purple hijab, snatching it up from my bed swiftly. I secured it tightly on my head with a sense of pride. I loved my hijab. I was a Muslim girl, it was who I was and I was proud of that. I decided that I wasn't going to let anyone take that pride from me ever.

And no one was going to hurt V, not while I still had breath in my body.

I clutched my phone in my hand and listened to the address again, something tickling on the outskirts of a memory. The address sounded somehow familiar, but I couldn't be sure that I'd ever heard of it. I'd need to take a cab there. My already seized up stomach did a flip at the thought.

But you have to Amani, V is more important than your phobia.

My conscience was right, I had to shelve my fear. I was facing a problem however. How would I get out of the house unnoticed?

There was nothing for it but to take my chances and make a dash for it.

My mad dash brought me all the way to the door. I managed to get my shoes on my feet and the door halfway open when Maya caught me by surprise and called my name.

"Where are you going Amani?"

"Shhh!" I shushed her urgently. Oh why of all times did she have to catch me now?!

"Why? What are you doing?" she continued in a full voice.

"Maya please! Please whisper!" I begged her hoarsely. I could not afford to get caught. V couldn't afford it...

"What's going on?" she finally whispered. I sighed in relief that she was finally listening.

What to tell her? I couldn't tell her the truth, but I needed her to cover for me. I had to think of something fast.

"Suga wants me to meet up with him," I said unimaginatively. I winced at my choice of scenario. That was the best I could come up with really?

"Amani you can't! Don't you remember that we promised Ummie that we wouldn't do anything else to displease her?" I held back a sigh of irritation. I really didn't have time for this.

"I know, but they're going back on tour soon. This is the last time I'll ever see him. Please just cover for me Maya? Just this one time?"

I watched in anxious frustration as Maya struggled to come to a decision. Please Maya just do it! I thought urgently.

"Okay but hurry up, I can't cover for you for that long."

I hugged her tightly, the feeling that I may not ever hug her again briefly floating within me, then breezed out of the door, anxiety like a wild beast in my chest. I still had no plan, all I knew was that I had to get to Tae ASAP.

I hailed a cab about a block away from the house. It was late afternoon, the sun was hanging low in the sky and I knew I didn't have much time before I'd be caught outside at dusk. I hated being outside alone at dusk. I jumped in the back seat of the taxi and started in surprise that I recognized the driver in the front seat.

"Daesangeun meuosinga?" the familiar voice said.

"It's you!" I exclaimed. It was manipulative grandpa from the mall.

"Ah, you gur! I know you gur!", he responded, equally surprised to see me. It was just my luck that I ended up in his car. I wasn't entirely convinced it was a good thing though. It was too late to get into another cab however.

"You go where?"

I read back the address from the video, hoping that I was pronouncing it right.

"This same placeu I take you before," he said while pulling off.

That's where the address was! No wonder why it sounded so familiar. It was the street I had first encountered that girl on. Coincidence? I think not. And it turned out to be pretty lucky that I was in manipulative grandpa's car after all.

I sat in the back seat, desperately trying to think of a plan. I couldn't go in alone, even though she made it clear what would happen if I told anyone. I couldn't tell the police, but I had to tell somebody. I couldn't do this on my own.

Pulling out my Hot Pro, I sent a message to the one person I could think of.

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A/N: This upload was done from my phone so sorry if there's more mistakes than usual I'm trying to catch them all.  I promised a triple update but I think I'll just do two,  let me know which one you guys would prefer :)

And as we hit 2k and have gone even further I think this calls for a Q&A! Leave me your questions if you have any and I will answer them in style I hope :)

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Please leave a VOTE and leave me your opinions below, thank you for reading you guys are the best! ^_^