Page 42 of Fallen Starboy

The cold metal muzzle of the gun dug into the base of my scalp as he led me around the corner and shoved me into the stairwell.

I managed to keep myself from slamming into the wall, but his weight pressed me forward, pinning me against the concrete as I struggled to get free. “What do you want with me? Who even are you?”

The snarl that left his throat sent a chill down my spine. “You should have just gotten rid of the kid when we gave you a chance.”

The kid.

Yejin.

Oh my god, they meant Yejin. They knew about her.

How?

“That’s right. You’ve figured it out, haven’t you?” He pressed the gun further into my skull, his other hand digging into my bicep. “We want our star back, and we’re not picky about how we make it happen.”

They had to be from Jun’s old label. SeoulSOUL had threatened my life, and Yejin’s, on more than one occasion in the past, but that was all done and over with. They washed their hands of him; that was why he was with us now.

Why demand him back when they clearly wanted nothing to do with him?

“You dropped him,” I protested, hoping to buy myself some time. “Why try to steal him back?”

“His popularity was supposed to tank when people found out about that brat.” The grip on my arm tightened more, and I could feel his nails digging into my skin, breaking the surfacelayer. “Either you get him to ditch the kid and come back, or we’ll have to take care of things the hard way.”

A door in the stairwell opened up a few floors below us and I shouted for help, twisting away from the assaulter and injuring myself in the process.

“Up here, up here!”

The perp made a run for it, skipping out before the guard could catch up. But he landed one more parting shot before he disappeared into thin air.

“We’re watching you.”

My heart hammered in my chest as the security guard rounded the corner, his taser already drawn and ready. “He ran off that way—” I shouted, pointing in the direction the perp fled. Without hesitation, the guard called for backup and went in search of the armed asshole who ruined this whole fucking day.

I didn’t realize how much the whole thing affected me until my knees gave out and I sank to the floor, shaking uncontrollably as a flashback from seven years ago washed over me.

“You’re asking me to kill my child to keep your cash flow safe.”

“We’re not asking, Miss Simmons. Asking implies you’re being given an option.”

I paced the floor anxiously, trying to find a way out of this. “What did Jun have to say about all of this?”

“What he thinks isn’t important. He’ll fall in line eventually. They all do.”

The strange man stepped toward me, a menacing glint to his eyes that set me on edge. I found myself backing up until I hit the wall, my hands instinctively covering my stomach. “Don’t come any closer,” I warned him, though what I could possibly do to overpower him, I had no idea. I was a seventeen year old pregnant girl who barely weighed a hundred andtwenty pounds soaking wet. He was almost double my size, and clearly worked out.

Still, I couldn’t just roll over and give him what he wanted.

So I bolted.

I’d never run so hard in my life before, and to this day, I don’t know where the speed came from. I took off and just kept going, with no idea where I was headed or whether he followed.

And I didn’t stop running until I touched down in another country. Even then, looking over my shoulder became second nature. And it didn’t stop when I left Yejin with her father. In fact, it only got worse.

The number of close calls with cars I had after Yejin was safely with her father couldn’t just be bad luck.

“Miss? Miss Simmons, are you alright?”

The second guard was standing beside me, his hand out to help me off the ground. I took it gratefully, still shaken up and very much on edge. If not for his strong grip, I might’ve just slipped right back down to the floor in a puddle of anxiety.

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