Tick tock, tick tock, tick tock

The sound of the clock on the wall was slowly grating on my nerves. I had been working all day at the convenience store as usual, with only the regular people coming in to buy something: businessmen and women grabbing a coffee and pastry of some kind in the morning before going to work, school kids coming in for their lunch break, and tired college kids buying a lot of ramen while blowing off their classes.

I glanced nervously at the annoying clock for the time: 7:56 PM. Only four minutes until I was finally finished! Maybe I could sneak out of here a couple minutes early? Although, what was the difference? I was still going to have to walk home by myself for 5 blocks in the pitch dark, with hardly anyone else around. This was perfect robbery/kidnapping/whatever else bad thing could happen to me time.

Soon, it was 8:00 and it was time to go home. I shut off all the lights and locked up the convenience store. I put my favorite song on my phone, but only put in one earbud so that I could still hear and be alert to my surroundings. If watching that one scene in Strong Girl Bong-soon where the girl wearing headphones gets stalked has taught me anything, it's to never wear both earbuds! 

I started walking down the street, looking at the company I was in. There was a group of teenage boys with hoodies in the right corner of the street, a young couple out for a night stroll, and a tired looking man walking his hyperactive dog. I felt a bit more at ease at seeing all the people that were out. But that all changed when I reached the next block. 

All of a sudden, there was nobody around. All the people I was with had either gone in the opposite direction as me, turned into another street, or stayed put. Now, I was by myself, only accompanied by the street lamps. My heart started thumping in my chest, so loud that you could probably hear it another block over. 

There's nothing to worry about, Ji-yu. Nobody's going to come after you, you just have to get home...

Even so, I picked up my pace and started speed walking down the block. Sure, I looked ridiculous, but when you're frightened, you'll do anything. I continued my speed walking until I saw a shadowy figure ahead of me. The figure was riding a motorcycle, and revving it loudly. I gulped nervously, feeling a bead of sweat develop on my forehead. 

Why does it look like he's looking at me...?

I tried to ignore the figure and started walking closer to the left side of the road to get out of their way. With every step I took closer towards them, my heartbeat quickened. I felt like I was going to pass out!

You're being ridiculous! This person isn't doing anything besides riding their motorbike. You're overthinking things as usual, Ji-yu. 

I took a couple deep breaths, still looking all around me to make sure I wasn't in any more danger than I suspected I was in. I turned down the music playing on my phone significantly, so as to be even more alert.

After a while of this, I stopped and realized that I had passed the mysterious biker. He was nowhere to be seen! I breathed a sigh of relief, my heartbeat slowing to a normal level. 

See? Nothing to worry about!

I started on my way back home, until I heard a familiar revving of an engine. Except this time, it was gradually getting louder and roaring towards me. I gasped and whipped around to see the mysterious biker coming full speed my way! 

As he came dangerously close to me, I yelped and dropped my phone on the ground, my earbud following it and falling out of my ear. The bike swerved and stopped sideways to me, the rider turning to look right at me. 

Without thinking, I screamed, shut my eyes tight, and held out my purse. "Please, take it, just don't hurt me!" It was a spur of the moment decision, since I couldn't tell what this stranger wanted from me. Losing a purse was a better choice than losing my life. 

 After a while of silence (besides the humming of the motor) I slowly opened my eyes again. The rider was doing nothing. He wasn't taking the purse, let alone even looking at it. I felt a bit silly now, seeing my petrified self in the reflection on his helmet. But still, this guy was giving off some weird vibes. What was going on? 

"W-What do you want?" I stupidly stuttered. My heart was going a million miles an hour! The rider took a few moments, and then took off his helmet. A handsome man with spiky brown hair, a red neck tattoo, and piercing brown eyes with heavy black eyeliner looked back at me. 

His lips curled into a smirk. "You. I want you, Ji-yun." 

My eyes widened. I had never even seen this man before in my life! How did he know my name? Most importantly, why did he want me!?

"What?! Hey, quit messing with me. Who are you?" I tried to sound tough, but my frightened, squeaking voice didn't do me any favors. 

The handsome stranger brought out a helmet and held it out to me. "No time for that now. I have somewhere to take you. Hop on." 

I scoffed. "You have got to be kidding. You really think I'm going to pick up and get on a motorcycle with a stranger that I don't even know, who somehow knows me?" I couldn't help but laugh. "I don't think so." I picked up my phone and earbuds from the ground and shoved them into my purse. "I have to go now. Goodnight." I hurriedly started walking down the street once again. 

I guess he wasn't going to take no for an answer, because as soon as I started to walk, he held out his arm to stop me from going any further. I looked back at him, confused. His expression had hardened, the eyeliner on his eyes making his firm face look even scarier. "You must have misunderstood me." His eyebrows furrowed and he slapped the helmet on my head. "Get. On." 

My hands started to shake involuntarily. I couldn't believe this! What do I do? It seemed like there was only two choices to make. I could 1) get on his bike with him and basically put my life in his dangerous, strange hands or 2) make a run for it and risk him coming after me on his bike and running me over. 

As I was still trying to decide, the stranger huffed. "I don't have all day!" He growled at me. In a haste, I buckled my helmet and started to climb on his bike. Wait, what was I doing?! Why was I voluntarily getting on this strange man's motorcycle? Well, not entirely voluntary, to be honest. But still!

My senses came back to me. "Wait, I can't-" As soon as I tried to step off the bike, he took off fast, roaring down the street. I screamed and scrambled to hold onto something. Unfortunately, the only thing I could hold onto was his waist. Trying to touch as little as possible, I wrapped my hands around his waist and tried to leave as much room between his back and my chest as possible. 

He looked back at me and, without warning, had the motorcycle screech to a halt. I screamed and slammed against his back, my grip on his waist tightening. Oh no. He smiled. "That's better." Then, he took off again. 

I'm sure he could feel my heartbeat through his back, since it was thumping so loud. Utterly terrified of the situation (not to mention his reckless driving) I tried to figure a way out of the situation. I could cause him to crash, but then I would be putting myself in danger too. I could jump off, but then again, I would probably break a couple bones in the process. Was it worth it to get away from this guy? 

"Don't worry, I'm not going to hurt you or anything. I would never. I'm not a bad guy, I just don't have a lot of time with you, okay? It'd take too long to explain." He shouted to me. There was a sincerity in his voice that made me want to believe him, but I couldn't be that stupid. 

I chose to remain silent, despite the tiny whimpers that would involuntarily come out of my mouth. I sealed my lips tight after a while, but I could tell that the man had heard me. Suddenly, we came to a slow and started to pull into a parking lot. 

I was expecting him to take me into an abandoned lot where everything was dark and there were no people, but he did the opposite. We were in the park and right now, there was an outdoor amusement park happening. There were hundreds of people and so many pretty, twinkly lights. Loud, cheery music blasted and contributed to a warm, fun atmosphere. 

What? 

The man got off of his motorcycle and helped me off as well. He took off both of our helmets and put them on the back of the motorcycle. He looked at me, then at the park, and back at me. "Shall we?" 

I couldn't take it anymore. Despite my fear, I decided to take a stand. "No! Look, I don't know who you are or what you want with me, or how you even know me! I'm scared out of my mind right now, and I absolutely don't feel like going to a carnival with you. Not until you tell me who you are and how you know me." My voice was shaky and I could feel my eyes welling up with tears, but I think I got my point across.  

I expected him to get angry, but instead, he looked sympathetic towards me. Maybe even remorseful? I couldn't read his face quite easily. 

"Ji-yu, I know you because I see you on my street all working at that convenience store all the time. You arrive early in the morning, and you work until the late night. You never take breaks, and I've never seen you eat or drink anything other than coffee. I see how the customers are so rude to you and how your boss is always so angry with you, and how your co-workers are always pawning off their work onto you. I see how you never get calls from your friends or family on your phone and how lonely you look." 

He looked at the ground, then looked back at me. "I only saw you once as I was riding past on my motorcycle, but then noticed I kept seeing you at any time of the day. One day, I decided to stick around for a while. I hated what I saw. After a while, I couldn't take seeing you like that anymore. You needed to be saved."  

I gasped, totally shocked by his words. Did my life really look that sad, even to a stranger? I couldn't believe he had paid that much attention to me, and furthermore felt the need to save me by bringing me somewhere fun. It was creepy and touching all at the same time, I didn't know what to think.

I finally found my voice and mustered up the courage to speak. "Oh...well, that still doesn't explain how you know my name!" 

He raised and eyebrow like I just said the dumbest thing in the world, then proceeded to point to my name tag. 

I blushed. "Oh." I sheepishly whimpered, fiddling with my name tag. I looked back at the man. "But, why would you want to do this for a complete stranger?" He stared at me, his face intense. "You remind me of someone I know," was all he said. I didn't know how to respond to that. It was almost like I had struck a nerve. Although, I did have a right to ask since he basically kidnapped me! Apparently, all for my own good. This was a confusing situation. 

"Well...who are you? What's your name?" I asked, not feeling as defensive as I once did. 

He smiled a charming yet sinister smile at me. "Me? I'm Shin Se-gi." Suddenly, I had a moment to really look at this man. 

He was wearing a bright red coat, black skinny jeans, a black V-neck t-shirt, and black sneakers. His brown hair was perfectly coiffed into a spiky, yet smooth-looking style. It was only now that I noticed two black earrings on him, in addition to his red tattoo on his neck. His eyeliner only served to make him look more intimidating. However, his face was very defined and handsome.

 Shin Se-gi extended his hand towards me, beckoning me to take it. "Shall we go?"

What should I do? Should I believe his story about how he only wants to help me and go along with him, or should I trust my better judgement and run for the hills now? 

Against all common sense, I took his hand. It was warm and he closed his hand around mine. 

"Let's go, Se-gi." 

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Hello everyone! Thank you for reading my story based on one of my all-time favorite K-Dramas, Kill Me, Heal Me! I love the character of Shin Se-gi and wanted to do a story all about him. I think I'll do another part of this because I loved writing it so much! Arriverderci!