Why was the world spinning?

The environment around him started to blur together as he slowly stepped back, accidentally too steeply. He would have fallen back had there not been a wall right behind him.

Mi-Cha instantly seemed worried, quickly taking a hold of his shoulders to prevent him from collapsing due to dizziness and a sudden, painful headache that threatened to end them both. "Are you okay, Mr. Han?!" she exclaimed, mostly confused about his sudden condition.

"Jae... Jaehee. Where is she?" he managed to get out with a hoarse  voice. "Ugh, my head," he groaned, massaging one of his temples in an attempt to relieve his migraine.

Mi-Cha only stared at him in nervous silence, letting go of his shoulders; Jumin had a murderous look in his eyes.

If his intuition was right (and, God, he hoped not), he would unleash hell on whoever decided to mess with him this way.

If Jaehee was harmed — whoever decided to harm her would live a very short life, that he would make sure of.

"Let's check the security cameras," he said, his voice now crisp and authoritative. He turned around without another word, and Mi-Cha fumbled with her clipboard before quickly following after him as a bundle of nerves.

---------

The security guard in charge of checking the cameras had been asleep — Jumin was sure of it — but he only shoved him aside in a hurry, immediately getting to the point.

The security guard, trembling in fear, quickly explained how "he had been taken a very, very short break" at the time of whatever incident caused Jaehee to disappear, praying and basically begging Mr. Han not to fire him as the executive director coolly dismissed him and checked the camera recording himself.

Jumin's cold grey eyes were narrow as he saw the scene occur in front of him: it was quick, which made it even more disturbing. Jaehee unawarely opened the door of the back exit, oblivious to the tall man standing behind the door. He rapidly grabbed both her arms, twisting them behind her back as Jaehee flailed in the air, trying to kick him.

It was a failed attempt. Then man dressed in dark clothing expertly put a white bandana, which was probably drugged, over her mouth and she quickly feel unconscious.

Then she was quickly thrown inside the black car awaiting them both, the man in black got in the passenger's seat and the vehicle's tires screeched before it disappeared from the parking lot.

Mi-Cha immediately gasped, eyes wild as she discovered what Jumin had already been suspecting and dreading. "Jaehee— No—! They took her... Mr. Han, what are we gonna do?!"

"What else? Of course we'll organize a search party and find her. Go make the arrangements right now, Ms. Park." he said more coldy that he had meant to sound, but at the moment being kind to his employees wasn't exactly the first concern in his mind, as unpleasant of a boss that may make him.

He got up causing the chair he'd been sitting on to spin as he quickly abandoned the room.

///

[Jumin Han has entered the chatroom]

Jumin: Luciel.

Jumin: Answer my call.

707: Uh-huh, why should I

707: U finally gonna give me an invitation to go visit Elly???

Jumin: No time for fooling around. Answer your phone.

707: Always so dry... ;;

707: Fine, fine, but if it's not about Elly, I'll hang up ^3^

[707 has left the chatroom]

[Jumin Han has left the chatroom]

[Yoosung★ has entered the chatroom]

Yoosung: Hiya!

Yoosung: Huh?? What's with you guys? What's going on, Jumin? Lol

[Jumin Han has entered the chatroom]

Jumin: Assistant Kang has been abducted.

Yoosung: What lol Ur joking, right?

Jumin: ...

Yoosung: You're joking?? Right???

[707 has entered the chatroom]

707: Nope. Jaehee was kidnapped for real.

Yoosung: WHAT?!!!

Yoosung: what xhksndkj

Jumin: Stop keyboard smashing.

Yoosung: Is she ok?? I mean... She probably isn't, but what are we gonna do?

Jumin: We'll obviously search for her. I'm organizing the search party right now. I'm only putting my best workers in this operation, we'll call it the C&R Intel Unit. Luciel is marking down Jaehee's location at the moment.

Yoosung:...I mean, we could always call the police?

Jumin: Inefficient. But Mi-Cha is also contacting them as of now.

Yoosung: Is there anything I can do to help??

Jumin: I'm trying to contact V right now, which I suppose isn't something you would wish to help with. But you could alert Zen so you both keep an eye out for any suspicious activity or any clue to her location you may find.

Yoosung: Okay, I'll—

Jumin: I have to go. Excuse me.

[Jumin Han has left the chatroom]

Yoosung: I'll alert Zen ;; I hope Jaehee is okay and that Jumin will be able to find her...

///

"Any new information?" Jumin inquired to Luciel through the phone, while on the other side of the line, the red-headed hacker was busy working on his various computers.

"Negative," he said quickly, "It's strange. It should be easy to find her location just by localizing her phone, which she should have with her... Unless..."

"Unless they broke it or threw it away," Jumin finished his sentence, glaring at nothing as he unconsciously gritted his teeth.

"Yeah. In that case it will be more difficult to pinpoint it."

Jumin grunted, frustrated as he stared at a navy blue map in front of him which an Intel employee was also examining.

The earset and microphone he wore allowed him to quickly give orders to the many hackers working to find Jaehee and receive immediate, new information without having to be in many different places at once. If Jaehee had been here, he likely would have named her the head of the unit.

She would have been perfect at the job; which was probably ironic.

A sudden idea came to him, accompanied by a less than pleasant memory.

When he had been kidnapped, he immediately memorized the street and the avenue where he was taken, and latter kept tied up. That house, deep in that dark basement for days.

He couldn't forget it. What if... Just what if...

"What if she's there?"

He could almost picture Seven frowning in confusion.

"What? Where?"

"In that house. I'll send you the address... Just check it."

"All right."

The line went quiet for a minute that Jumin spent anxiously waiting.

"She is. Oh my God. She is!" Luciel exclaimed in what began as a disbelieving murmur and then erupted into a joyous holler. "Yoo-hoo! We found her, we found—"

"Focus, Luciel." Jumin couldn't contain his smile even as he reproached him. "Jaehee," his thoughts ran rampant.

"I'm checking the security cameras in that street and I'm sure," Seven continued, sounding slightly more professional (as professional as 707 could be at least). "There's the same black car with the same license plate. It's parked just in front of the house."

Jumin sighed in relief as his shoulders slumped, having been so stiff before.

"...But wait, Jumin..."

The raven-haired man noticed the hesitancy in his voice.

"How did you know about this house?"

Jumin was startled. The memory of the house haunted him, and it presented itself in the back of his mind without welcome.

He saw a flash of her. That little girl he had been trapped with. It unsettled him.

Forgetting something as important as her name or her face would seem impossible for someone as diligent as Jumin.

But he did forget. No matter how hard he tried to remember her name... He could only make out the sweetness of her voice and that soft, kind smile.

Long, dark brown pigtails bouncing around as she let out those rare, glowing bouts of quiet laughter to cheer him up when he was at his lowest, but also shooting him surprisingly serious looks when he questioned if they were beyond saving.

That girl... For some reason, he had always thought Assistant Kang was a lot like her.

"...No reason," he finally settled in hurriedly saying.

"Huh, yeah," Seven rolled his eyes in irritation. As if he would expect him to believe that. "Anyway, we should probably get there as soon as possible. Is your search party ready?"

"They are. And so is my helicopter."

"Oh, oka— Wait, helicopter?!" the hacker shouted out, incredulous.

"Yes. I'll hang up now."

"Wait, Ju—!"

He ignored the last part Seven had squeaked out. He knew what he would say: was he crazy? Arriving to a small neighborhood in an helicopter? Did he know the immense amount of attention he would attract?

Jumin exhaled deeply, running his hand through his dark hair.

He wanted to draw attention. That way they would know just at the exact moment that they were cornered.

That Jaehee would know that he hadn't abandoned her.

--------

Meanwhile, Jaehee was still under her captors' surveillance. Her eyes looked downwards as stray brown strands of hair that had fallen out of her (usually tidy) ponytail covered half her face.

They continued discussing about things she didn't fully understand, though now not even bothering to cover their voices — she didn't know if it scared her.

She tugged slightly at her hands, which were still tightly tied behind her; it would leave marks. At first she had been hyperventilating, terrified out of her mind and unable to think clearly, seeing herself in this kind of situation all over again, and now truly alone, completely horrified her.

But now many hours had passed, and she just felt like an empty shell. Dejected, she could only think of him.

Was Jumin looking for her right now?

Maybe he didn't wasn't... Maybe he didn't know.

Maybe he couldn't have bothered to care, the more insecure side of her suggested, but she immediately pushed the uneasy thought away. Jumin wouldn't do that.

Jumin cared about her... Right? He liked her... Right?

She sighed. Just liking someone wasn't enough to risk your life trying to find them if they vanished out of nowhere, leaving no trace behind.

She kept chastising and beating herself up over walking out of that door, and without telling anyone.

"Yeah, she's behaving," one of the men in front of her uttered, biting at a cigarette as he spoke to someone on the phone. "Hasn't tried anything just yet." He spat out the cigarette, and it hit Jaehee on the head before landing on the ground.

The cracked screen of her phone glared at her from the other side of the room, having been immediately broken (almost in half) and tossed aside by one of the kidnappers.

If only she could call for help. But it was impossible...

The next thing the man on the phone said made her blood go cold.

"Do we kill her?"

She immediately flinched, raising her head to see the amused look on the masked man's eyes. He seemed to enjoy scaring her.

But she didn't think for a second his question wasn't serious.

The man now stayed silent for a short while, listening to what whoever on the other line was saying. Jaehee anxiously awaited his reaction, only that way would she know whether her life was safe or if it was long over.

Her heart sank when the man smirked, looking at her in a chillingly cold glance. "Good."

She briefly wondered what the other person had said: if they had given him permission to end her life or not.

But she already knew the answer.

----

Echo Girl had been manicuring her nails, a masseur tending to and massaging her feet, when the hitman called her.

She smiled contently as she wedged her phone between her arm and her ear, raising her pastel blue fingernails to examine them more closely. "Talk. How is it going with her?" she questioned briskly.

"All according to plan," he replied, not bothering to say any kind of greeting. "She's here now. I tied up her hands and ankles. Thought about gagging her but she doesn't make any noise," he cackled, as if this was all some kind of joke.

It wasn't a joke to her, it was revenge. Cold, sweet revenge. However, she couldn't help her small giggle. "Is she behaving?"

"Yeah, she's behaving. Hasn't tried anything just yet."

"Amazing, she's more pathetic than I thought." Kyungju laid her chin on her hand, grinning widely. "Or maybe she just knows she isn't going to get away from this. With you in charge and me pulling the strings, there's no chance anything will go wrong."

She heard the man hum in agreement.

"I can't wait to see Juminny's face after this—" She barely contained a laugh. "That annoying bastard."

It was after she said that that the hitman asked her a question that took her by surprise (despite the fact that the person asking it was, behold, a hitman).

"Do we kill her?"

Echo Girl's blue eyes widened ever so slightly. She had done, well, "naughty" things before (a tiny bit of fraud and embezzlement and a little bribery over there), but she had to admit, she had never directly caused the death of someone.

Killing the assistant...

That pesky, irritating b—

She realized she was glaring daggers at her masseur, who nervously let go of her feet. She relaxed her face: glaring caused wrinkles. She was too pretty for those.

Honestly, she wouldn't mind if she died. She knew someone who would, though...

She smirked. This revenge was just getting better and better.

"If it comes down to it, do it." She shrugged, feigning calmness. "But let's have a little fun with her first. Would be too bad if she's gone too soon..."

"Good," was all the man ominously replied before hanging up.

--------

Now the three captors were looking at Jaehee with twisted, amused looks that sickened her. One of them stepped to the front (the one who had been talking on the phone and seemingly, the leader).

"Someone isn't going to have a lot of fun," he laughed.

Jaehee struggled with the rope that was tying her hands, uneasily squirming under their dangerous gaze. They cast as a shadow over as they got closer and Jaehee's eyes widened in terror as the leader pulled out a sharp knife from his back pocket.

He slid one of his fingers over the edge as he smiled, leering at her.

Jaehee feared the worst when the sudden, loud sound of police sirens interrupted the man. Everyone turned to the window of the semi-basement, where the noise was coming from.

One of the hitmen swore under his breath as the other stepped back in shock, accidentally bumping into the leader and causing him to drop his knife, which fell close enough that Jaehee was able to turn around  and eventually grab it.

The men were too distracted by the hoard of police cars situated right outside the house to notice. Two hurried out the door, still cursing, as Jaehee quietly, but as quickly as she could, sawed away the ropes on her wrists with the knife.

It was difficult, but not impossible. She still couldn't help the content sound she made when her hands were finally free. Thankfully, the hitman still in the room hadn't heard — though he was starting to notice something was off.

Jaehee hurried in cutting off the ropes over her ankles and hyperventilating again (if they caught her, she would be dead before she knew it) she saw the many weapons laying around in the corner of the room, between them an old, discarded baseball bat.

That would be enough for her.

She silently got on her feet, but stayed low, so the man wouldn't see her as easily. She rushed towards the bat, out of breath (due to fear and panic rather physical exertion), and just as she took a hold of the handle, the hitman saw her.

Her breath hitched before rushing out of her mouth too quickly again as she ran towards him.

He pulled out his gun. "Hey—"

But Jaehee swung the bat at his face so hard it would put a professional baseball player to shame. She saw a broken, bloody nose as the man staggered back, falling to the ground alongside his weapon with a thud.

Jaehee was ninety-nine percent sure she had successfully given him a concussion.

Before she could even take a breath, she heard quick footsteps rushing downstairs.

She heard the sound of... an helicopter? That couldn't be right. She narrowed her eyes in disbelief just as the door burst open and one of the hitmen ran towards her. Before she ran from him, she saw someone was following the man closely.

They firmly stood in the entrance of the door, blocking it. Jaehee momentarily looked up, still running from the hitman who was still chasing her.

She gasped and stumbled, astonished.

She saw Jumin, glaring at the man with a look about as murderous as the gun he was pointing at him.

"...J-Jumin," she barely got out, voice croaky. "Jumin...! I—"

Before she could say another word, and before Jumin could shoot him, the man — the leader from before — had taken a hold of her throat, suffocating her.

As if asphyxiating her weren't enough, he shoved his own gun to the side of her head. "If you move, I'll shoot her," he stated threateningly, fully intending to do so.

She saw Jumin's scowl run deeper, after his steely eyes grew wide for a second. She could tell he was gritting his teeth; he looked anxious — if not more than her, and she was the one being suffocated — and his eyes darted wildly as if searching for anything he could utilize against him.

He found nothing. He saw how Jaehee was starting to turn blue, losing more oxygen, and he didn't need more incentives to give up and throw the gun to the ground, tossing it away with his foot for good measure. "Let go of her," he commanded, voice icy, and glare even more so.

Jaehee inhaled air deeply as the man loosened his hold on her ever so slightly, seemingly confident Jumin wouldn't be able to do anything to harm him anymore.

Little did he know that Jaehee could still do it. He let her loose enough that she was able to elbow him hard in the gut; knocking the air out of him.

The man gasped, falling back whilst hunched over, arms wrapped around his pained stomach.

Jaehee took the opportunity to grab his gun, which had dropped the ground as he was still groaning in pain, backed into a corner.

She pointed it directly at him without hesitation, though she seemed less firm and assured in her stance than Jumin had — likely because she never thought she'd go from being the one with a gun pointed to her head to being the one pointing it at her captor so quickly.

The man looked up at her from the ground, a malicious smirk growing on his face. "Ha, I know you won't shoot," he told her tauntingly, chuckling.

As if she wouldn't.

Despite her shakiness, Jaehee pulled the trigger and shot right next to his head to make a point — leaving a hole in the wall and, pleasingly, scaring the man half to death.

Nor Jaehee or Jumin moved as the police arrived, at least a dozen officers running down the stairs and easily outnumbering the sole captor still in the premises who wasn't unconscious.

They quickly passed by both Jumin and Jaehee, who were still too deep in shock to react, trembling ever so slightly. They rapidly handcuffed the man sitting on the floor as well as the other, unconscious one.

It was a few moments later, where she finally realized her heart was beating — and so fast. She was still alive. She turned around towards Jumin, letting go of the gun in her hand, which dropped to the ground with a thud.

She was breathing rapidly with an increasingly fast heartbeat — and she had a feeling he was in the same condition — but the moment she saw him she finally broke down in tears, sobbing quietly.

She ran towards him as he did the same, and the two met halfway as they enveloped each other in a tight, desperate embrace. He cradled her head, caressing her loose, tangled hair, and held her back as she snug down under his chin and wrapped her arms around his waist tightly. They kept fumbling in their hold in what seemed like clumsy, fleeting touches.

The two's legs gave away as they slowly fell on the ground, on their knees, still hugging.

Jumin kept running his hands through her long brown hair, trying to reassure himself that she was safe now and she would be as long as he could protect her — now he would, more than anything. He would personally make sure something like this never occured to her again; no danger or harm would reach her.

"She... She's here. She's alive. God... She's safe." He realized there were small tears running down his cheeks. He was crying? It was extremely rare, but he thought he could excuse himself this time.

He had just reunited with her and she was alive and he just realized that he—

"I love you," he said, not having been more sure of anything in his life.

Jaehee pulled away from him, momentarily gaping a bit in surprise, but then she laughed softly — that sweet laugh that reminded him of her — wait, that little girl it was—

Long brown hair that fell in slight waves, warm golden brown eyes and the way she gazed at him. That girl...!

"It's you."

Jaehee's eyes widened and, seeing him in front of her now — that silky raven hair and those steely, but warm grey eyes, the serious voice —she wondered how could she have been so blind.

"It is you...! Oppa!" She immediately covered her mouth in shock and she flushed.

He blushed, too. "...I like it when you call me that... Even then."

The two stared at each other for what could have been a century. Intense silence.

Then, the two broke into ecstatic smiles, laughter bubbling up inside their throats.

They continued laughing for a while, at the whole irony of it all, as Jaehee hunched over while holding her stomach just like the hitman had done — only this time it hurt because laughter instead of a blow in the gut.

As the laughter died down, Jumin embraced her again, kissing the top of her head and letting his chin rest there.

They didn't say anything for a while again, before Jaehee said, as if talking about the weather, "I love you, too, you know? I always have."

---
Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed the chapter! Next chapter is the last. :)