“Where are you?!” she screamed, her legs refusing to stop.

“Find steady light!” his voice echoed through the entire hall. For some reason, she felt a breath behind her neck but dared not glance back. Her legs ignored her tired state and increased their speed. Before she could scream, she felt someone grab her from the side into bright light and unconsciously started struggling, screaming at the top of her lungs.

“It’s me. It’s me,” She recognized the soft voice of the person clasping a hand over her mouth to muffle her screams and her struggling seized.

“Look!” he whispered, his right arm still grabbing her in place. Beyond the light, large red eyes could be seen on a figure shaded by the darkness.

“It runs if pursued, and pursues if you run. It can’t step into the light for some reason,” he released her trembling body and she struggled to stand straight. He stepped back while she remained in place, her eyes trained on the unmoved figure ahead.

He looked back at her frozen figure as he looked around. It was quite an elongated room, lit by rows of bulbs above; empty and nothing in sight to the white wall at the end of the hall.

“Keep your eyes on it,” He said and made for the wall.

“Where are you going?” she asked in a panic.

“I am going to check what could be on the other side of that wall. Calm down. Tell me if it moves,”

“Alone?” she asked.

“Someone has to. Stay calm,” he said and only walked over to the wall behind them when he saw her nod in response. She looked frozen her white shirt and hair soaked with sweat and clinging to her skin.

“What is your name?” He asked, trying to distract her.

“What?” she asked in slight confusion.

“I’m Kang Seo Joon, what about you?” he asked.

“Kim Hana,” she answered.

“What are you doing grocery shopping at night, Kim Hana-ssi?” he asked.

“People do this all the time,” She answered curtly.

“True. Doesn’t make for good conversation, does it?” he felt his way around the wall, sometimes knocking and listening. She seemed to realise he was trying to distract her and apologised.

“Sorry, I’m just… My neighbour was stalking me so, I pretended to be busy and ran away to a park to hide all day. By the time I came back it was dark,” she answered.

“Did you tell anyone?” he asked and she paused.

“Why?” she asked.

“I have found an exit,” he said and she glanced back at his figure by the wall for a moment.

“Really?” she asked excitedly. But when her eyes focused on the figure in the dark, she felt he had inched closer.

“The wall is boarded with wood. I’ll try and break it,” he said and started pounding wildly at the wall.

“So? Did you tell anyone?” he asked.

“Tell them what?” she asked.

“That you are being stalked by him?” he asked.

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“What is the use? He is well-loved by others. They wouldn’t believe me,” she said.

“They don’t need to. What if you need to report it one day and there is no one that can claim you have said something?” he asked.

“It’s more complicated than you think. Compared to me, they would take his side. They just ignore me running from him every day,” she said.

“Isn’t that worse? It means they might think you know him. I don’t understand women, really,” he said and her anger grew.

“What do you know?!” she scolded.

“I have seen a woman make a man a villain under the eyes of several people. Even those who had seen what happened, doubted themselves till they were utterly convinced. Why is it that you women will not use this skill when you actually need it? Can’t you make him seem completely crazy?” he said.

“Have you been watching too much drama? How can you just…” she started to say and almost jumped in fear.

“Kang Seo Joon-ssi, it moved closer,” A small voice crawled out of her throat as she stared at the dark figure now about six feet in front of her.

“What?” He glanced back at her only for his eyes to round out in panic.

“Step back. It’s the light; it’s going off. Hurry,” he said and she hurriedly turned around and ran towards him. At this point, he was panic-breaking the wall to get out faster. The wood tore through his skin with as much care as he had for the pain that followed, his actions not stopping for a second.

“A row light went off again! Hurry!” she called to him slamming at the wall behind her.

“There is so much a hand can do! If only we knew to get hammers from a shelf back then,” he answered in irritation. At his words, she paused just as she was about to join him. A slight mad thought seeped into her mind.

“You said, it runs if pursued, right?” she asked, her heart rate hiking to her rising fear.

“Why?”

“There may be hammers on the shelves back there,” She looked behind the shadow into the darkness. Her limbs trembling, she went into position. One look and he could tell she was ready to sprint away.

“No!” he said and made to grab her.

“I can run,” she muttered more to convince herself than him as she dashed away. Her vision blurred slightly as she dashed right past the figure into the darkness taking care to make a circle around as she ran, hoping to return to the room of light at the end of the circle. Cold air slammed into her lungs and her hot breath tore through her throat into the air in response. Soon, a well-paced rhythm was formed as her eyes dashed around the shelves in front as she ran. She was hoping for anything strong and heavy. No matter how much she ran, the flickering lights only revealed snacks and hygiene aisles without end. Ahead she spotted a sports equipment shelf away from the path she had set to follow so she didn’t get lost and weighed her options only a second before dashing in that direction. She could at this point feel a hot breath on her neck and she only ran faster. She tried grabbing some hockey sticks but missed them, causing her to swear in panic. Just when she wondered what else she could grab, her eyes zoned in on a baseball bat ahead and she grabbed for it with all her might.

“Yes!” she shouted the moment she successfully grabbed the bat and turned a corner; the slippery supermarket tile, protesting her sharp turn.

“Kang Seo Joon-ssi! Kang Seo Joon-ssi!” Ignoring the throbbing on her hand that had probably slammed into something in her attempt to grab the bat, she started to call for Kang Seo Joon at the top of her lungs.

“Here!” Kang Seo Joon called back the moment he heard her voice echo towards him.

“Where?” her voice returned.

“Here!”

“Where!” she kept calling and he continued to answer. Noting that the shadow was nowhere in sight, she walked into the darker side of the room a bit as he called to her. Soon he could hear her call out close by. He looked straight ahead to find her dashing towards him the shadow only a step behind. This caused him to frown, as it was so close, it could touch her if it wished. He stepped back into the light and watched her dash into the light. The shadow stopped by the light, separated from her as she dashed in, slamming into the nearly destroyed wall. He did not wait for her to catch her breath as he immediately took the baseball bat from her and slammed through the wall. The bat was more effective than his fist; the hole in the wall got bigger.

“Hurry! The lights!” he heard her scream between breaths and needed no telling that the light was going off. He slammed even faster and a large hole large enough for a person to pass through was soon visible.

“Let’s go,” He said to her sprawling form on the floor and started crawling through the crack to the other side. He stepped out on the other side and turned back to grab her through in one swift motion, just in time for the entire room to go dark.

Now safe on the other side, they could register the pain in their heads as their eardrums seemed to swell, threatening to explode. Barely taking full breaths, Kim Hana clutched her abdomen as her ears joined her muscles in pain. Soon, they registered the screaming as they slammed into things whilst being thrown all over the place. It did not take long for them to register that they were on a plane.