An old library. Bookcases stacked in every direction, some tipped over and colpsed. As for the books themselves, they were on the verge of crumbling, dusty and decayed.

  That was the room that Gray had pulled the silver-haired woman into while he tried to hide from those two men.

  There was a single table nearby with some of those pstic and metal school chairs.

  Gray sighed and let go of the woman before stumbling over to the table and taking a seat.

  The taste of copper in his mouth. A heart that felt like it was going to explode...

  'Dammit. I knew I should have worked out more.'

  A guy who spent over eight hours a day hunched behind a computer was NOT cut out to be running through the basement of some crazy decrepit building.

  Hell, Gray was lucky that he still remembered to hold onto his backpack too. If he lost his ptop after all this crazy, he might actually kill someone.

  *screech*

  Gray looked up and saw the silver-haired woman pulled the other chair to sit across from him.

  Like always, the silver-haired woman's ruby eyes were staring, searching. But her expression was as unreadable as ever.

  Gray sighed and ran his hand through his hair. "What is it? Could you stop staring at me? Is there something on my face, or what?"

  The woman didn't answer. Like before, she just kept staring.

  Gray decided to ignore her then and covered his face with his right hand, trying to calm down.

  This was about the worst freaking day ever... other than that time that Eliza- that 'she' disappeared.

  But Gray could handle it. He was alive. And while he sure as hell felt like he was dying because of how his heart was pounding and the copper he was tasting in his mouth, he was fine. Probably.

  "...Aren't you scared?" A soft and delicate whisper.

  Gray blinked and lowered his hand.

  The silver-haired woman was staring, as if waiting for an answer.

  Gray snorted. "Scared? Of course I'm scared!" He waved with his right hand and then said, "Suddenly getting lost on the path I usually take every morning, looking for help in this sketchy building only to fall through the floor, then finding you, a way-too-beautiful woman bound, gagged, and blindfolded... and now two dangerous men hunting us like rats. Why the hell wouldn't I be scared?"

  If a person wasn't terrified in this situation...

  Well, Gray was sure they were either insane or suicidal. And he sure as hell was neither.

  The silver-haired woman continued her quiet stare and then said, "If you're so scared, why are you helping me?"

  "Why did I-?" Gray looked at her with his wide blue eyes and said, "Do you really have to ask me that? What guy in their right mind would leave a girl tied up like that? I've seen enough por- bad situations to know how that's going to end up."

  The silver-haired woman kept staring, her brows furrowed and lips pursed.

  Gray clicked his tongue. "What? Is it that unbelievable?"

  After a few moments, the silver-haired woman said, "...That is why you untied me? Simply because you wouldn't allow it?"

  "Of course!" Gray huffed. "Honestly, I should have just left you alone... but I couldn't live with myself if I did."

  Not to mention that she... Not to mention 'that person' would never forgive him when they met on the other side again.

  Gray shook his head. "Anyway-"

  "You do this, even though you ck the strength to even protect yourself?"

  Gray's words died in his throat. Then he let out a rueful smile. 'She just had to point it out, didn't she?'

  She was right.

  Gray could barely protect himself, let alone her. Although he freed her and said he would get her out of here... the odds definitely weren't on their side. It'd be a longshot for him to get out alive, let alone unharmed. And for him to get her out too...

  But even so, Gray brushed it off and ughed. "What? Don't tell me you wanted to be kept tied up?"

  The silver-haired woman shook her head. "No. But even considering who I am... what I am... You would still help me?"

  Gray blinked. The way she phrased that... 'Is she some rich politician's daughter or something? It'd expin her looks... but crap. Isn't this really bad then?'

  Forget a trafficking incident, this was kidnapping and bckmail then.

  Gray hadn't even considered that possibility. And if so... 'There is no freaking way I'm getting out of this alive, is there?'

  If this woman was a VVIP-type individual. And if she had been kidnapped even with that status...

  Won't those guys just kill Gray in cold blood to keep his mouth shut? And if he did manage to escape... they'd just keep hounding him down once they saw his face, right?

  Amidst Gray's turmoil, a bell-like ugh echoed, calm and soothing.

  Gray looked up to see the silver-haired woman cover her mouth, a bright smile on her face. It stunned him for a moment, and then he recovered and then quickly covered her mouth. "H-Hey! Shush! If you're that loud-"

  "Over there!" A gruff male voice called out. Shortly after, a pair of footsteps echoed from outside, swiftly approaching.

  Gray bit back a curse and jumped out of his seat. He swapped the rusty pipe to his right hand and set his ptop bag down.

  The rusted pipe felt awkward to hold.

  Gray had picked it up on instinct, but now having to actually use it to defend himself- No, potentially to kill if he wanted to get out of this alive... 'Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck. What the HELL have you gotten yourself into, Gray?!'

  A loud explosion echoed as the wall suddenly colpsed. "Found you!" That same gruff male voice from before called out, and then a man stepped through the rubble. Scraggly bck hair that looked like a lion's mane and fierce gray eyes... paired with a scarred muscle-bound body covered in pte mail, he looked like an unstoppable juggernaut.

  Gray tensed and instinctively moved in front of the silver-haired woman, pushing her back. "Stay behind me," he whispered.

  Footsteps approached, and then another man stepped into the room. "Found them, Ross?" It was the cold and suave male voice. And the owner of that voice was a man who matched the image. Salt-and-pepper hair neatly kept in a side-part. A tailored suit and pants. And his right hand, tucked inside his shirt and holding something... likely a gun.

  Gray swallowed, holding up his rusted pipe.

  The muscle-bound man, Ross, chuckled as he looked at Gray and the silver-haired woman. "Yeah, Jerome. Looks like we've got ourselves a little rat."

  Jerome walked up beside Ross and looked at Gray, humming.

  Gray felt a shiver run down his spine.

  That man... Jerome. His expression wasn't like a man looking at a person. Instead... it was like a man staring at an ant.

  Gray swallowed, his hands shaking a bit. 'I really screwed up this time.'

  These were professionals. No doubt about it. Men who dealt and handled lives like cash.

  And Gray had just stolen their merchandise.

  Jerome's gaze only lingered on Gray for a moment. After that, he shifted his gaze to the silver-haired woman behind Gray and said, "I don't know how you broke those bonds. But it seems as if you have no intention of obediently going back to being a toy, do you?"

  'A toy? Bonds?' Gray was confused. But before he could react, the silver-haired woman took a step closer to Gray.

  Her intentions were clear.

  And, in any other situation, having a woman as beautiful as her choose him would make Gray ecstatic. Right now though... 'Dammit! Read the mood!'

  Jerome was CLEARLY holding either a gun or a knife in his shirt, and that Ross guy looked like he could snap a guy in two! Not only that, but it looked like they were the cssic brains and brawn duo!

  Gray was just a scrawny programmer with a rusted pipe, and that silver-haired woman looked just as weak as he was! Granted, she had great cardio, but what was that going to help when that Ross guy BROKE DOWN THE WALL?!

  Jerome sighed and ran his left hand through his hair. "Damned sver, selling me a defective product. This woman's clearly not broken yet. It seems we'll have to... *talk* with him ter, Ross."

  Ross cracked his knuckles and nodded. "Got it, Jerome."

  Gray's stomach dropped. 'Oh yeah. These guys... they're FOR REAL for real.'

  Sver. Broken. Toy. Defective product...

  All those words were more than enough to paint the picture of their intentions with this woman. And the only reason that hadn't happened yet was because Gray had stumbled upon her and set her free first.

  'Damned hero complex...!'

  Was it the dream this morning? Gray would never have acted like this usually. His life was the most important. Throwing it away for someone, even a stranger...

  'Argh, fuck it.'

  It was too te now, so he just had to make sure he got out of this mess somehow, some way.

  Jerome shrugged and kept staring at the silver-haired woman. "Well, even if you managed to get your mind back, what good is it going to do you?"

  Gray had been staring at Jerome's right hand, so he caught it.

  A flicker of motion. Jerome's right hand, shing out with a white blur. And then his cold voice echoed. "*Pain.*"

  A word that seemed like a command. A white fsh that lit up the dark hall. And then...