,,So you're telling me he didn't touch you in any way, that he didn't hurt you, right? You have to tell me the truth, Millie." Nari was trying to find any signs on me that I was lying to her.
,,Yeah, he was just trying to get more information from me about things I know nothing about." I told my made-up story without blinking an eye.
We were both still lying on the floor with the others while the police were out there doing nothing.
,,Did he believe you?" Her brow furrowed in a doubtful gesture.
,,Shh." I slightly pointed in the direction from which one of them was approaching us with an unreadable look settled on his face.
This made the brunette next to me fall silent and look down at the ground.
My attention was caught by a woman whom Su-Jin led to the same door as me earlier. This time, however, he chose a doctor who was the main primary care physician.
When my stomach clenched with an unfamiliar feeling, I knew I had to occupy myself with something completely different.
I forced my gaze away from them, and so the shards from the table reappeared in my field of vision.
My words that I gave to either Nari or Su-Jin replayed in my head.
Somewhere here, there must be a way out of all this, I just have to figure out where exactly.
The longer my gaze remained fixed on the same point, the more possibilities I was able to construct. Most of them were ill-conceived, impractical or very risky.
,,Any idea?" I was pulled out of my thoughts by Nari's whisper, and I slowly turned to face her.
,,Actually, there would be something." I admitted.
,,What is it?" Curiosity sparkled in her eyes as she leaned closer to me. She was really, really excited.
,,I need you to get him close to us." I gestured to the guy Nari recognized with my head.
,,Very soon." I added because several long moments had passed since the phone call between Su-Jin and the police, and with each passing minute it was more likely that they would get what they demanded and get out of here.
However, a heavy, feminine scream cut through the room, immediately paralyzing us in our planning.
My eyes hurriedly found the woman who was still sitting leaning on Mun-Hee. But she had to hold the brunette in that position by force, cause even through the incredible pain she must have been experiencing, she was tossing from side to side trying to get out of the grip, in which she was.
All of sudden I began to hear the whispers and faint sobs of a few more people, while the door slammed open, and Su-Jin stepped out, immediately looking for the source of the commotion.
And when I followed the direction of his gaze to the man in the medical gown, still lying limp with a blood-soaked bandage around his neck, I knew we both understood.
A woman with a bandaged chest tried literally in every way to reach the man, who, however, no longer showed any signs of life.
I felt wetness on my cheek so I reached out with my fingers to wipe away the tear that was slowly rolling down my face. But another one followed after that one.
Another man, the very one who was taking care of the gash, sat beside and stared blankly at both of his hands, which were covered in layers of blood. He couldn't help him. And just a few minutes ago he thought he did help him.
Another thing that earned gasps from most was when Su-Jin, but to them he was still 'one of the burglars', grabbed his accomplice by the neck and slammed him hard against the wall. I have only seen him this furious once in my life.
His shoulders were heaving at a rapid pace and his hands were shaking in anger.
In the next second my hair was roughly grabbed again and I was pulled to a kneeling position while a foreign body was pressed against my back and I felt the edge of a knife on my throat. Just as it was attached to the skin of the man... who was now-
,,Drop him!" A threatening command came from behind me, causing Su-Jin to stop whatever he was about to do and turn his face to the side to get a direct view of us.
When his eyes locked into mine, I couldn't read anything from them. The only thing my senses could perceive was the weapon pressed against my neck.
I caught movement beside me as Nari tried valiantly to pick herself up off the floor, only to be thwarted by the leg of the guy behind me, which stamped painfully between her shoulder blades, causing her to fall back.
,,You move one more time and my hand on her neck will do the same, understand?!" He barked at her to which she just nodded and this time she didn't try anything similar.
He then turned his attention back to the two men by the wall.
,,I won't repeat myself! Let him go or the last thing you want will happen!" He shouted again, emphasizing one particular part of the sentence as if it meant something more.
Maybe it was the buzzing in my ears, but it looked like no one even dared to breathe loudly in this situation. Compared to before, the silence was even more oppressive. I didn't even hear the dark-haired doctor's sobs anymore, and that wasn't good at all.
My eyelids were tightly closed as the pressure on my skin and the stares of everyone in the room made it impossible for me to think clearly. I tried to force my brain to start working again, but it felt like it was overloaded.
..Drop. Him. Down." He growled next to my ear and I opened my eyes again to see Su-Jin, his jaw clenching and unclenching as his gaze darted from the knife to the man holding it.
Seeing his grip loosening, Su-Jin began to let go and the colour started to return to the face of the one he no longer held against the wall.
However, the guy wasted no time and instantly threw a punch at Su-Jin's face who wasn't expecting it at all.
Well, despite my gasp at the sight of him arching at the waist from the pressure his cheekbone was being subjected to, I used that very moment for my own action.
I hoped that the sudden deed that took place a few feet away from us startled even the one who still held me in his grip at least as much as it did me. The moment of my finding out that hope turned out to be fulfilled happened when my elbow hit his stomach then I turned as swiftly as I could and in his weak moment managed to knock the weapon out of his hand.
It landed far enough away from him for me to dare to turn my back on him and run towards my predetermined destination.
,,Watch out!" A warning cry was heard that I knew belonged to Nari.
Frightened, I turned around just in time to react to the knife aimed at me and dodge it in time, which caused me to lose my balance and find myself on the floor again, after which a multiple stabbing sensation went through my body. I fell straight into the sharp glass particles that cut into my skin in several places.
Looking up, my eyes widened as I saw the very dark-haired girl who was rapidly closing the distance between her and the man in front of me.
I panicked and my hand then reflexively grabbed one of the shards, and before I could think about it any more, I swung it at him.
There was an unexpected shout of swear word from him as the glass cut through the fabric to his skin right above his knee while his attention was focused on Nari for a fraction of a moment.
My efforts to rapidly pick myself up didn't work, so new scratches had the chance to appear on previously untouched places on my skin.
But then the situation that took control in a short moment could only be called pure chaos. Armed men in police gear burst in with a great deal of shouting which caused the people inside to cry in relief as they rose from the floor and run erratically towards the exit from this piece of darkness.
I, however, noticed that everything had slowed down and gotten quieter.
With heavy eyes, I was watching as the man, still holding the knife in his hand, rushed after me out of pure desperation with a clear intention.
I saw several pairs of hands reaching out for him, but I couldn't tell if the touch on me was from him alone or from one of those hands. My vision was obscured by blurred spots that multiplied as the seconds passed.
As my head slowly began to descend, it tilted slightly, but enough for me to see my surroundings and just before my eyes closed completely, I saw nothing. Nothing but a room where my life could have ended.
I let myself slump with the whole surface of my body on the glass particles, which I slowly stopped perceiving, then I forced my breath to normalize so much that it finally obeyed me.
,,Millie, hey."
I jerked my eyelids open again only to see a dark-haired girl kneeling next to me.
,,We must go. Ambulances are waiting outside, they will take care of us all." She spoke again when she was sure she had my attention.
,,Not all of us." It almost took me a moment to recognize the voice I was speaking.
It was certain that the image of a man lying in a pool of blood after such a brutal injury would never be erased from my mind. Just like the screams of the woman who loved him.
There was a short pause, which was ended by Nari's words.
,,Come on, let's go."
I slowly sat up and then carefully stood up. We both walked out of the building, accompanied by one of the policemen, in front of which there was much more than just chaos.
The late night, or perhaps early morning, was illuminated by police beacons along with those on ambulances, while the hum of human chatter, shouts and camera clicks broke the silence that could not find its place in this situation.
Rescue workers collided with people who tried to avoid the police and the police tried to keep the crowd of journalists at a necessary distance.
There were many women and men who were consumed by sheer curiosity and then it was the family members of the ones who had only recently been held hostage in the forfeiture.
All this crowd engulfed us the moment we found ourselves close enough to it that I no longer had Nari by my side.
However, I stopped thinking about it the moment I felt a familiar scent and small arms wrapped around my shoulders.
This alone was enough to make tear after tear run down my face until I became a hysterical ball of sobs, barely able to breathe through the crying.
In a few moments, I found myself sitting on the dirty ground in Aurora's arms, with Sang-Hoon's warm hand resting soothingly on my shoulder.
Spontaneously, I stopped perceiving the surrounding sounds again, as if it started to be my protective mechanism, which my body had created in the last few hours.
Neither of them said anything. Despite the fact that words have always been all I ever needed to calm or cheer up, today Aurora understood that something had changed that even I hadn't figured out yet.
As the noise slowly began to return to my ears, so did my panic. I didn't want to go back there.
At length, when I raised my head, it was just in time to see the last of the three perpetrators being forcibly pushed into a police car.
And when my gaze rested on the face regularly alighted by camera flashes, it was no longer Su-Jin's face for me.
It belonged to a man for whom one human life was extinguished.