Even before she opened the bottle, I could clearly sense that things were not going to be good for me. I had that sense of foreboding, a sea of nervousness washed over me.

Time seemed to stop as she slowly twisted the cap on the carton open. The smell of petrol hit my nose hard, with a seemingly ardent intention to make me lose my sense of smell.

My heart began beating fast, she walked a perfect circle around me and began to let the thick liquid drip in a ring, enclosing me. She bet down and swiftly lit a lighter. Casting me one final, cursory glance, she let the ring of petrol catch fire, I was powerless.

I sat in my wooden chair as the flames encircled me, the smoke blurred my vision. I wasn't going to die, I couldn't give up without a fight.

Chaeyoung was deranged. All for Yoongi, she could kill? Why? She never even loved him to begin with.

"If I keep quiet about it, will you set her free?" Yoongi's voice echoed through the room.

Keep quiet about what?

Why was she doing this? She never loved me anyway.

Then it hit me.

Chaeyoung wanted me, she wanted me to love her so that I would never expose her for the dark deeds of her past.

She wanted me to love her so that I wouldn't have the heart to expose her for her past crimes that she had never gotten caught for.

All the memories came back, everything washed over me in the one second that I watched Hye Rin helpless in the inferno.

Because that was how Chaeyoung always wanted to end things, or people.

She always wanted them to go up in flames.

Chaeyoung had been an extremely successful arsonist a long time ago. Only I had known about it in the past. And that was when I still loved her, so I regretfully never told anyone about it.

I remembered vividly the first time she had told me about her being an arsonist. It had been so nonchalant, as if she had done nothing wrong. She had twiddled with her hair and gazed at the ceiling with a rather strange, faraway expression on her face.

But as the feelings for Chaeyoung had faded, so did the memories. I completely forgot about her being a criminal and just carried on with my own life.

This was probably the only reason why she was doing all of this.

"If I keep quiet about it, will you set her free?" I yelled out, willing to bargain with Chaeyoung for Hye Rin's life.

I placed strong emphasis on the word "it". Because I knew she would know what I meant.

"So you finally caught on! When you broke up with me, I got scared. So I warned you. Tried to get back with you. Because if I were an important person in your life, you would not betray me. Being cut off from you put my crimes at risk of being betrayed. Even if you don't tell anyone about what I did, I don't think I can trust you because we would still be unimportant to each other, a moment's carelessness would send me to jail for crimes that I did not commit for your sake." She pointed an accusing finger at me.

"Then let's say you put out the flames. I'll get back together with you if you put out the flames." I bartered.

"Why would you, after all this?" She gestured around the room.

I couldn't buy time.

"Because I still love you! Somewhere deep inside. Hye Rin was just a fling. You know my pride, you know I wouldn't want to ask for you to be mine again after i proudly broke up with you!"

But I could act.

I watched as she regarded me. I opened my eyes as big as I could, letting the smoke enter them. I began to tear up, congratulating myself for my own phony acting skills. For a moment I almost felt as fake as Chaeyoung herself.

"I think there's an extinguisher somewhere upstairs. I'll have to find it, I can't promise to be fast enough to save her." She ran off to a staircase in a dark corner of the room.

As soon as she was out of sight, I scraped my ropes a few more times and with a final, frantic twist I broke free. Chaeyoung's desperation was ridiculous.

I looked at the flames that surrounded Hye Rin's chair, then I looked at her. Her eyes were wide with fear but they also screamed contempt for the madwoman that was responsible for her current state.

"I didn't mean what I said to her. I just needed to get her out of the way." I mumbled.

Quick to recall that wood made fire burn bigger, I tossed the chair that I had just broken away from into the side of the ring furthest from Hye Rin. The chair erupted in flames and the fire scurried to lick up its latest victim, thinning the dancing orange shapes that were nearest to Hye Rin.

I moved quickly. Hoisting Hye Rin and her chair out of the ring, I untied her as fast as my fingers would allow. Hearing the footsteps from upstairs still clattering around trying to find an extinguisher, I knew I would not have much time. At last, with a great force, I flung Hye Rin's wooden chair to the gas stove and ran out of the building with her, just in time to see the uncovered jug of oil on the gas stove tilt over and spill into the fire. The ratty curtains caught the flames, even bigger than ever now. In a few short minutes the entire house was flaming like Hell itself.

I looked at the house, it was burning up.

Bultaoreune.