Currently, John found himself trapped inside a locker. He could not move even if he wanted to, thanks to the ropes constricting him.

He could not even use his gagged mouth to speak.

He already tried moving around and shook as much as he could in hopes that the locker would somehow open up. Unfortunately for him, it wont.

Thinking back, if he just controlled his emotions earlier, he would not be inside this tight locker in the first place.

A few minutes earlier...

Despite the man's huge muscular look, John could not catch up to the his surprising speed.

Before he knew it, John already found himself tied up on the floor, complete with a gag in the mouth and just one step away from being thrown into the locker.

When John heard the voices of the girls earlier, he tried asking for help by shaking the locker.

Sadly, he would not be in here right now if his attempt worked.

And now, even though the girls were long gone, the man still refused let John go.

I must have offended him too much... I didn't mean to say such a thing... I was just...

Inside the locker, John lamented the fact that he made a huge mistake.

All of a sudden, someone opened up the locker.

John saw the same man that threw him into the locker earlier.

The man removed the gag from John's mouth.

"Sorry... I didn't mean what I said earlier."

While looking down in fear, John quickly apologized to the man.

Wait, that shouldn't be the first thing I'm supposed to say in this situation!

John remembered how unusual this situation is. Normally, no one would tie someone else up just for saying some offensive words.

"Umm... That's too bad. I thought you really meant it," replied in a soft voice by another man, right behind the man who opened the locker.

Wha-!? There's someone else here!? Again? And those words were really disturbing!

John felt shocked. He thought that the room only contained him and the man in white pants.

When he tried to look further behind the man in front of him, he saw four other muscular men, all wearing only pants and ski-masks.

John, perhaps due to the sudden shock, became unable to move for a while.

"Umm... Ivan, we're done preparing here so you should get your things ready now," said one of the masked men while looking at John who still can't get himself out of the locker, then he continued with, "But we better leave the boy here. It's too risky to free him now."

Based on the voice, it sounded like he's the same man who replied to John earlier. Meanwhile, the three other masked men just silently observed the situation.

Ivan, the man who threw John into the locker earlier, sat on the bench and stared on the ground while pondering about something.

"...No. There's a big chance that we might forget about him later. I have a better idea," said Ivan as he gazed at John.

"All right. Let's hear your idea, but only after you get dressed up," replied the masked man as he nodded to Ivan.

Ivan finally stood up and began taking things out from another locker just beside the one containing John.

The things he took out included: A set of clothes similar to the other men, a suitcase, some dangerous looking things, and some other unrecognizable objects.

Meanwhile, John only observed them without moving an inch.

The four masked men assisted Ivan with his task of taking out things from the locker.

One masked man carried the suit case that Ivan took out and then placed it on the bench. The others did something similar.

Every once in a while, one of them would pause to take a glance at John, who still did not move inside the locker, and then continue to help Ivan.

After assisting Ivan, the four masked men sat on the bench. Upon closer inspection, their outfit looked similar to a military uniform of some kind.

Ivan, now donning a ski-mask, looked indistinguishable from the four other men.

As Ivan stood in front of the four other men and started talking about his plans, someone interrupted.

"Wait! What are you guys talking about!?" John, finally snapping out of his shock, asked the men nervously.

Ivan halted his current task and looked at John.

John could not afford to let the situation go according to the men's favor. Not that he could do anything about it anyway.

"You've got no choice, boy. You just have bad luck today," replied Ivan.

But John did not understand what he meant.

"Then If it's about what I said earlier, once again I'm sorry!" John quickly apologized again.

"I'm not talking about that, boy. You walked into this room without permission," said Ivan as he pointed at the entrance door, all while implying that John has no other choice but to obey them.

If I really can't get out of here right now, I have to at least know what will happen to me.

John worriedly observed everyone in the room.

"T-then, what are you guys gonna do to me?" nervously asked John, hoping that they would not do anything weird to him.

"...."

None of the men replied immediately. This made John even more nervous.

"D-don't tell me..."

"Don't worry, we won't hurt you. You just have to come with us. No questions asked," Ivan quickly reassured him, since he thought that John already started to form strange ideas in his head.

After hearing Ivan, John sighed in relief while still inside the locker.

"By the way, what's your name, boy?" asked Ivan.

The four other men currently sitting on the wide bench also turned their gazes to John, waiting for his answer.

"I... My name is John," answered John reluctantly.

One of the four men stood up, took something from the suit case Ivan took out earlier, and then approached John.

"Hmm... John, huh? That's a nice name. Here, take this mask and wear it, John," said the masked man while handing John a ski-mask.

<><><><><><><><>

The men untied John's bindings.

After that, following the plan of taking John along with them, John and the five men headed for the dojo's exit, or to be exact, the same door John used to enter the place.

All of them wore ski-masks.

All of them wore the same clothes, except for John.

All of them were very muscular, except for John.

All of them have fearless expressions under their masks, except for John.

All of them were prepared for what they were about to do, except for John.

If someone would take a look at the group, John would obviously look the most out of place among them.

John also noticed that the muscular men carried one suitcase each.

During their preparations earlier, they took it out from wherever they hid it, after Ivan ordered them to.

After they went through the exit, they walked directly towards the only other door just a few meters away in front of them.

John did not know anything about what they will do next. Since they told him not to ask questions, he held himself back from asking despite his curiosity.

Just before they opened the other door, they stopped right next to it.

What are we going to do next? I'm curious and I wanna know since they've decided to take me along. Not that I can ask nor defy them anyway. Who know's what they'll do to me?

John thought that as he observed and waited for the other people to do something.

One of the buff masked men, Ivan, faced the others and spoke,

"This door is still locked, huh? ...Okay, this is it. We only got one chance at this operation."

W-wait, what? Operation? No one mentioned anything about this earlier!

John started to silently panic.

The four masked men nodded in response to Ivan.

"Take out your guns," calmly ordered Ivan.

G-guns!? These guys have guns!?

John panicked even more.

Following Ivan's order, the four other men took out high-caliber guns from their suit cases.

"Muhammad, take out the bomb and place it here," said the masked Ivan to another masked man, Muhammad, as he pointed towards a spot on the door in front of them.

What the-? A bomb!? Are you guys actually terrorists!? Shit! What have I gotten myself into?

John's face turned pale without being able to say a word as he observed everything happen right in front of him.

He slightly backed away from the door.

The man named Muhammad took out something with a rectangular shape from his suitcase and then he slowly approached the door while carefully handling the object in his hand.

Seeing this, John started sweating so hard that he looked like he just took a shower.