Only Strip For Me || JJK [BOOK I] ✔️

18: Anonymous

"Mari, I... like you."

I shined a smile, my heartbeat fastening by those words but sure he meant only as acquaintances. Just friends. "Hoseok, I like you too."

"Really? I didn't know..."

I swung our grasp in the air. "Of course, you're my friend. Of course, I like you."

His face turned red, rubbing the back of his neck. He seemed frustrated.

"No Mari, I sincerely li-"

The strident sound of a car's honk interrupted his speech, the headlights of the small vehicle concealed my vision. Holding a hand on the tips of my eyebrows did no coverage. The metal black Lamborghini had rolled past the curb blinking it's light our way to move. They had enough space to curve around the empty area near us, this person was completely rude.

Hoseok held my elbow and pulled me out of this hurried person's way, the car continued inching forward for us to exit their path. I wanted to get a quick view of the driver but I wasn't able due to their tinted windows.

"What's their problem?" I was bothered by the situation and wanted to follow the car but they had vanished elsewhere.

"A lot of rude people today I guess."

'Ring, Ring' My phone vibrated in my purse, I looked at the ID.

Eunwoo: You're in big trouble. Bring your slutty ass home or you're dead meat.

My eyes clamped closed in irritation, the grip of my phone in firmness.

"Hoseok, I have to go home. I'll see you later!" I walked in a rapid pace down the sidewalk.

"I can drop you off!" He yelled after me.

"It's fine! Thanks for the dinner!" I waved with both hands, my aunt's place was a couple blocks down.

The chilly wind suffused the atmosphere in a sudden motion, I wrapped my wool coat tightly around my frame. My eyes peeking through as I ducked into the collars of my outer wear. I noticed the tiny droplets of water splitter and splatter on the ground, the sky in utter silent. A silent cry only delivered from the clouds. The beads of rain dampening the tops of my hair, I quickened my steps in hopes to miss the heavy shower.

He's coming. I can hear his heavy steps pounding the asphalt. His groans of infuriation. He's right behind me. I feel his fingers snatching my long brown hair, tangling and tugging. My head bobs backwards. The scream squeaks through my scorched throat. Snatching at the air, I beg it to help me keep my balance. I see the stars watching from the heavens. His face looming over mine. My body numb. My vision focused on a black cloth inches away from my face, seconds later my vision had blacked out. Darkness and in nothingness.

***

A throbbing pain rising through the cracks of my skull, I groaned in pain. My eyes still adhered together, I opened them with the utmost energy. The scene before me blurry, the sound of fire sparkling next to me. A large man sitting on a chair composed on his mobile device. I moved my mouth to speak, no words making any form of noise.

"Y-o-u-r a-w-a-k-e?" The unknown man's voice echoed in my mind. I held my temple adjusting myself to focus on my surroundings. I breathed in and out calmly and as collectively as possible. I regained my vision and sense of hearing slowly.

"W-where am I?" I studied the man, I've seen him before. He was wearing a black suit with a white undershirt. The tattoos. A dragon tattoo spun around his neck, near the back of his ear lobe. My heart struck in beat, I inspected the area in rush. A warehouse type building, aluminum fire bins surrounding the square feet.

He waved the silver weapon along his fingers, humming a lullaby acting as if my presence was invisible.

"E-excuse me! Can you tell me what's going on??" I couldn't move from my current position, some type of rope constraining me from behind, I was sitting on the dirt filled ground.

"Mary had a little lamb, little lamb, little lamb, Mary had a-"

"Please!!" I pleaded, in secret attempts to loosen myself from the tie.

"Shhhhhh." He placed the knife near his mouth, delivering a hard glare.

I shut my mouth slightly afraid from his motives. These men finally caught me and they were possibly going to sell me on the black market. This was probably my last day of living, this was probably my last moment of breathing. It was better this way... I would be up with my parents, away from this harsh gruesome world.

I clenched my eyes closed, tears discharging from the cracks of my eyelids.

"You won't die yet."

I slowly tilted to look at the odd man, he was wiping the knife on his leg. I didn't have the strength to ask further, I didn't care at this point. Minutes maybe several minutes later, a few men in similar dress code and inked in similar disguise walked in my direction. Their boss that hadn't visited me since last year, trudged with his hands crossed behind him. His sparse beard and small devilish squint.

My body trembled in terror, leaning against the wall afraid to be injured as I had been before.

"Oh Miss Mari....I haven't seen you in ages." He squatted before me, a hand advancing my face. I shook my head the opposite way in avoidance, pressing my lips together firmly.

He started laughing eerily. "You remember me well don't you?"

My quiet cries drizzled to the ground.

"We need the will." He stated bluntly.

Will? ...Will? I wasn't sure what rubbish he was speaking of. The only debt I was in knowledge of was the nearly hundreds of million-dollar balance.

He twisted my chin to look at him, my dampened eyes planted on the ground in refusal.

"Where is the will? I'll only ask you kindly this last time." His grip hardening on my lower face.

"I-I don't know what you're talking about." The first words becoming stuck in my throat. What will? My parents left me nothing, absolutely nothing.

"You don't know what I'm talking about?" He let go of my face, the moment I thought he'd let me free, a hard smack fell onto my face. My cheek stung, my bottom lip already swollen from the slap. The waters in my pupils gathered, before I had the chance to turn my head, I was slapped once more. My entire body conducting heat in anger, in frighten. How worse this was going to be would be judged by the heavens.

"Listen. If you're acting like you don't know what I'm talking about, you'll be more than dead. Your parents will be known to be frauds and swindlers to entire world. Tell me where it is NOW." He spat on my face holding my collar.

"Where is he? Where is the boss that is hiring you all to do all of this? It's my father's coworker, isn't it? He must be so happy to be eating all that hard-earned cash! Bring him in front of me!" I collected the bits of confidence to scream the important questions.

His expression turned into a grand laugh, he shoved me hard against the wall. He nodded his head to one of the men standing behind him.

"Sweety, we only do what we're ordered of. I've never met him myself, but this will help you dream... Dream well."

A man held an injection between his fingers, I shifted myself back, away from the needle. Two other men holding me on each side to hold my movements.

A loud thud derived from the front of the warehouse. The gangsters quickly ushered out of the storage place. My vision blackened instantly, unknown of the situation.

The crack of my sight pealing ajar, clouds in disturbance of a clear view, my body was wrapped by a figure. This person carrying me, his face was difficult to distinguish. A blurry outlook of his fine complexion. My eyesight was failing me, my senses were striking me. The chill air vibrant around my frame and the smell of burnt coal only filled my perception. Was I dead? What was happening?

Who was he?