I'm yours for life. [ PAUSED ]

Chapter 2: Red Lights

Saturday, 15/09/18, 10:15 pm. 30 minutes until disaster.

Finally, Felix thought as he was locking up the coffee shop. His week was complete, and he could finally enjoy one week off. This had been a good day. His colleague had surprised him with a birthday cake and some simple gifts, one of the gifts were a silver ring with what he assumed was Celtic symbols. He normally didn't like rings, but he really liked this one.

The blonde barista adjusted his shoulder bag after locking the backdoor to the coffee shop, let out a small sigh and started walking down the dimly lit alley. He hated walking in alleys after dark despite Seoul being a safe city to wander around in. You just never knew what could happen. He swallowed thickly as he continued walking, occasionally looking over his shoulder to see if anyone was following him. Stop being so paranoid, no one's following you. Felix turned his eyes forward and put in his earbuds, listening to Enya on low enough volume so he could still hear his surroundings. He took a right turn like he always did, getting closer and closer to the bus stop that would eventually take him home to his apartment. That's when he heard footsteps behind him.

The young man stopped walking and slowly looked back to see two black dressed men stand a few meters away from him. Oh god no, please not tonight. He swallowed thickly and started walking again, immediately hearing the footsteps behind him again. He picked up his pace, so did the footsteps. He picked up the pace even more, his heart pounding faster and small puffs of air left his mouth as he hurried towards the bus stop in front of him. But he wasn't fast enough.

Suddenly, he felt two hands on his shoulders, and he was spun around, flushed against the brick wall. "Please no," Felix mumbled shakily, anxiously gripping his shoulder bag in a futile attempt to protect it. "Didn't your mother teach you not to walk alone after dark, hm?" one of the men said in his ear. Felix squeezed his eyes shut, his entire body shivering at the disgustingly hot air against his skin. "Please, let me go," the barista pleaded and tried to remove himself from the situation, but he was pushed back against the wall again. "I don't have anything, let me go!" Felix said, a bit louder this time. Hoping that someone would hear him.

"We don't care about what you have in your bag, boy," the other man said, and Felix tensed up when he could feel a hand on the inside of his thigh. Was he actually going to be raped tonight? "Stop," Felix whispered, and the unknown man chuckled deeply. "You don't sound that convincing," the man stated and started moving his hand up along his thigh. He had to get out of there. Now. So, he did the only logical thing and bit the man's hand on his shoulder, pushed him away and started running.

He could hear the men behind him running after him. The sound got closer and closer until he was eventually knocked down on the cold ground, spun around to his back and desperately tried fighting back the man's attempt to undress him. He felt two hands wrapped around his neck, blocking off all the air to his lungs. Felix desperately clawed on the man's hands, trying to get them off him. But he could slowly feel himself losing consciousness. He would die tonight. On his 18th birthday. He was so sure of it.

"Hey!" he heard a third voice yell. Felix couldn't tell where it was coming from, he was too busy trying to fight the men off. Felix gasped for air when the grip on his neck was gone, coughing and immediately crawling away. He didn't know where he was going at this point, he just needed to get away. The blonde man cried out when someone grabbed his ankle and started pulling him. He was once again on his back, staring up at the unknown man and it felt like time just stopped.

A gun. There was a gun against his forehead. He couldn't move. His entire body was paralyzed. He snapped back to reality when the man was pulled away and he covered his ears when he heard a loud gunshot. Then a second gunshot. Felix stared at the two men laying on the ground a few meters in front of him. They were dead. He looked up and saw the mysterious red head from the coffee shop.

The tall man turned around slowly, putting his gun back into the holster strapped to his upper thigh. That definitely wasn't there before. Who the hell was this guy and why did he save him? As soon as the man started walking towards Felix, he immediately got up from the ground, leaning against a lamp-post, desperately trying to figure out what the hell just happened. Felix put out a hand in front of him. "Stop!" Felix yelled and swallowed the lump in his throat, still breathing way too fast and his heart pounding even faster. "Stop right there, don't come any closer!" he yelled again, surprised that the red-head actually listened to him. He didn't seem like the type who took orders from others. And then there was three. Two, equally muscled men positioned themselves on either side of the red-head with their arms behind their backs. "W-Who the hell are you?" Felix stuttered, once again tried to swallow the lump in his throat. "Who were they?!" he pointed at the two dead men on the ground.

"Felix," the red-head started but Felix cut him off immediately.

"How do you know my name?" Felix asked, his eyes moving from the red-head to the two other men behind him and then back to the red-head. No answer. "How do you know my name?! Who are you!" Felix screamed, now realizing that it was becoming increasingly difficult to breathe. His vision was getting blurry and the lump in his throat seemed to grow bigger each second that passed. "I can't−," he gasped and ran his fingers through his hair. He was having a panic attack. This was literally not a good timing for this.

The red-head looked back at the two men, probably telling them to stand back before he slowly started walking towards a very upset Felix. "Nono," the young man croaked, furiously shaking his head as the man kept getting closer to him. Felix eventually lost all muscle strength in his body and collapsed on the ground, the last thing he saw was the red-head and the two other men walking up to him. Then, everything went black.

And when I close my eyes, all I see is red lights.