Myungsoo’s POV

After Woohyun called Hoya, he quickly came over after hearing about the situation. “So glad you could make it,” I hear Woohyun say as he opens the door. I don’t feel like answering it. I have to stare at pictures; I have to figure out why Sunggyu hates me so much. Why? Hopefully Hoya has some answers that he would be willing to share. Maybe he knows something that I don’t know; maybe he knows something that I’ve been oblivious to.

“Hoya-hyung, it’s been a while,” I say getting up from where I was for quick second to greet my old friend.

“I can’t believe your number is still the same,” Woohyun remarks.

“Well, I never felt the need to change it,” Hoya says. “I’m actually surprised by myself that I knew where you still lived.”

“Yeah, quite a surprise,” I mumble as I put more pictures around me and projects that I did in elementary school. There has to be something that would make me remember. Why don’t I remember?

“So, why did you call me over here?”

“It’s like I told you on the phone,” Woohyun begins, “do you know anything about Sunggyu or Sungjong or even Dongwoo? Have you kept in contact with any of them since Infinite stopped being Infinite?"

“A little,” Hoya says thinking. “Not very often since we graduated and all have our separate lives. Why?”

“We’re trying to figure out why he’s targeting me,” I say placing all of the pictures onto the table and looking at Hoya. “He’s targeting me and I don’t know why. We were wondering if you would have answers.”

“Well, to be perfectly honest, those three seemed like they changed after we stopped being Infinite,” Hoya says scratching the back of his neck.

“What do you mean?” I ask suddenly intrigued.

“Well, those three started hanging out more. I know that you guys ignored each other before our graduation and even afterwards, but I kind of looked over both of the sides. I liked our group and I didn’t want us to break up, so I wanted to be friends with both sides, but soon enough, those three turned weird,” Hoya confesses thinking back to our high school days.

“They started hanging out more,” I repeat as I look at Woohyun. “Those three have to be behind it. There’s no reason now.”

“Behind what?” Hoya asks.

“They kidnapped someone. No, not someone,” I say correcting myself, “they kidnapped three people and it’s the three people that I happen to find most important in this world.”

“They kidnapped someone? But why would they want to…” Hoya begins.

“Shocking, I know,” I say looking at him. “I’m trying to find them. Do you know of anywhere that they went to hang out or anything that they used to do? Maybe anything that would make Sunggyu the angriest person at me?”

“Shouldn’t you be angry at him?” Hoya asks confused. “He was the one that stole Uee away from you, anyway.”

Woohyun gives him a glare, but I just ignore it. “No, it’s alright to talk about it. I’ve moved on.” Woohyun and Hoya just stare at me. “Really,” I say putting my hands up, “I’ve really moved on. Uee’s no longer in my thoughts. If Sunggyu wants her, he can have her. I found my first love, that’s good enough for me.”

“Your first love?” Hoya asks. “Who’s that?”

“One of the people that he kidnapped,” I whisper. “Do you see why this is important now? We have to rescue them; he can’t get away with this.”

“But you don’t even know that he’s a part of it,” Woohyun says.

“Yes I do,” I say. “If Hoya-hyung says that those three became close after Infinite broke up and then I know that Sungjong is the one that took Allie, then we know that they’re behind it, but why? Where are they keeping them? We have to save them. We absolutely have to save them.”

“We are going to save them,” Woohyun says. “We definitely are.”

“Then we have to start looking. We have to visit every place that we visited when we were Infinite. We have to go everywhere that we liked to go. Maybe that’s how they started, by doing things that we used to do as a group because I know that I didn’t touch any of those places again,” I say.

“Would it be that easy?” Hoya asks.

“It’s at least a place to start,” Woohyun says. “Let me call the restaurant first to get a couple of days off. My parents won’t be happy about that, but if I explain to them the urgency, I’m pretty sure they’ll get the message.”

“Okay,” I say. “We should find out where the three live first, right?”

Allie’s POV

I slowly open my eyes to the blank room again. It takes me a moment before I remember where I am. When did I fall asleep? For how long have I fallen asleep? I’m not even sure.

I don’t even move my position from where I was sleeping. I simply stay there and stare at the ceiling some more thinking back to my childhood, thinking back to how Myungsoo and I were during childhood. We could live without a care in the world. I was an only child back then and so was he, so we bonded over a lot of things. We saw each other as the sibling that the other one wished we could have.

I faintly remember the day that Myungsoo left. I remember that he told me he was leaving and I was angry at him. I remember him telling me to wait for him, but I never did. I moved on, or at least attempted to move on. There would be instances where I swore I saw him on the street, but I would simply dismiss that thought and continue on with my life. I never thought that I would see him again, let alone live with him. Who knew?

Who knew that the guy that was my best friend and first love would end up meeting me again and offering me a place to live? Who knew that my first love would be the last person alive, besides the paramedics and doctors, to see my father alive? Fate has a strange way of working itself. Maybe my father told him those words because he recognized him. Could my father recognize him? Myungsoo had frizzy hair back then and how it’s straight, he was a goofball and now he’s a spoiled brat. He took a complete turn.

But he says he’s changing. Myungsoo says that he’s going to change back into the Myungsoo that I’m used to, the one before Uee. I can’t believe that she did that stuff to him before. She said that she loved him when she felt no feelings towards him. Why did she even do it in the first place? What was the point? Was it just because their parents forced them into an arranged marriage?

What is Myungsoo feeling right now? Is he trying to search frantically for Sungyeol, Cecelia, and me? Is he attempting to do everything in his power to save us three from whoever has captured us? He’s looking for us, he has to be. We finally found the person who was our best friend of the purest type of best friend. We can’t lose each other again, we absolutely can’t.

“Why do you look so down?” I hear a voice in the doorway say. I immediately look over and see the guy from earlier standing there. It’s not Sungjong, it’s the other guy. The guy that looks like he’s a dinosaur, he has a really big mouth. “I brought some food, it’s lunch.”

“Why are you feeding me?” I ask lying back down on the bed to stare at the ceiling. I’m not paying him any attention anymore. He’s my captor, I’m his victim. Why is he being nice all of a sudden? Then again, I don’t even really know if he is a bad person, but he kidnapped me and he probably kidnapped Sungyeol and Cecelia, so he’s a bad person.

“Because we at least want you to live, it’s what he wants,” the guy replies as he puts down the tray. “You should at least eat a little, even if you don’t want to.”

“Who’s this he that wants me to live?” I ask.

“You already know,” he simply says.

“Let me guess, Kim Sunggyu?” I ask pretending to be surprised. “What a joke.”

“A joke?” he asks. “Why is it a joke?”

“Because I’m not going to be stuck in here for the rest of my life. I’m not going to do what you’re telling me to do. There’s absolutely no way that any of it is going to happen. I hope you understand that.”

“We figured you would be like this,” he says. “But we’ll take care of you, slowly. I hope your husband is having a nice time.”

“Of course, isn’t he always?” I ask.

“Do you have a comeback for everything?”

“If you manage to find something good enough for me to say something back to,” I reply coolly.

“I can see why he likes you,” I hear the guy comment to himself before closing the door.

I continue what I was doing, staring at the ceiling feeling absolutely bored. Why am I here in the first place? What does Sunggyu want to do with me? What even is this? This makes no sense. What is this world that I’ve stepped into?

Myungsoo’s POV

“Are you even sure this is where he lives?” Woohyun asks looking out the window.

“I’m positive,” I say pulling down my sunglasses a little so I’m able to see the house. It looks like a normal house, nothing too fancy. He probably lives here with Uee.

“How are you so sure?” Woohyun asks.

“I called the college and asked for his information,” I say.

“And they just gave it to you?” Hoya asks.

“Have the both of you forgotten that my father is the dean of that college? I could simply say that my father wanted me to go do an errand but forgot to give me the address. Or, if I didn’t have an excuse for wanting the information, I could just say that I can get them fired within the next second and they willingly hand it over. It’s a pretty simple process,” I say with a smile. People are afraid of my power and people want my power. It could be a curse and a blessing in disguise. Sometimes it’s nice to be able to control things, but other times, like when my father controls me, it’s not so nice.

This is the address that the school gave me for Kim Sunggyu. This is the address that they said is listed under is file. Now it’s just a matter of whether or not he actually lives here in this normal looking house. I’d never imagine him living in this type of place. I imagine him living in somewhere completely fancy that he would never be able to manage. Maybe he actually does have a normal-life lifestyle, besides kidnapping people for no good reasons.

“Hoya, go in,” I command.

“Why me?” he asks.

“Because if it’s me he’ll know that I’m up to something,” I say.

“That is if he lives there,” Woohyun says.

“Then why don’t you go in?” I ask. “We don’t have much time, who knows what they’re doing to Allie, Sungyeol, and Cecelia right now.”

“Fine, fine, I’ll go,” Hoya says unbuckling his seatbelt and getting out of the car. “What do I say, though?”

“Just say that you’re stopping by and that you saw him outside of the house one day and thought you’d say hello. That’s if he lives there. If he doesn’t, just say that you have the wrong house, simple,” I say.

Woohyun and I hold our breaths while we watch Hoya walk across the street to get to the house. We can both tell that he’s totally nervous.

“Can we trust him?” Woohyun asks. “You trusted Sungjong and look at where that got you.”

“He doesn’t seem like he would touch a fly,” I say. “But I am wary of people now. You better watch your back to.” I’m halfway joking and halfway serious when I say that sentence.

I poke Woohyun and then point at the door as it opens just as Hoya goes to knock on it. Can I say coincidence or what? Can I say that it’s even better that Sunggyu is coming out of the house?

He’s wearing regular clothes; he doesn’t look like he’s going to university. Why isn’t he there already? Is he going to the place that he’s captured the three of them?

Hoya talks with Sunggyu for a little while and it looks like they’re having a merry time. They talk for a little while until they both bow and depart. Sunggyu quickly goes into his car and drives off. It seems like he’s late for something. Is he late for having to deal with his captors?

“What did you guys talk about?” I immediately ask as he comes in.

“I just did as you said, tell him I was walking through the neighborhood one day and saw him. He said bought it, I guess,” he says shrugging his shoulders.

“Did he say where he was going?”

“Nope,” Hoya says shaking his head. “He just said that he has some urgent business to get to.”

“Urgent business,” I mutter to myself.

Suddenly, I get a flashback from high school. It was one of the moments where Sunggyu and I were alone on the roof. “I think I know where they are,” I say as I quickly start the car.

“What are you talking about?” Woohyun asks. Hoya looks as equally confused.

“Just…let me drive,” I mutter. I’m already at my point, actually, I’m above the point that I can handle, but I’m trying to keep everything under control. If I freak out now, there’s no use. Sunggyu will just use them to get to me, he’s going to use them to get whatever revenge he wants on me, but he’s not going to get it without a fight. I can’t show weakness, I can’t show that I’m angry with him at all, it only fuels his fire. I can’t be like that out in public, I have to be composed, I have to look like I have everything under control, even if I want to scream for the whole world to hear. I have to keep composed. I’m Kim Myungsoo, when have I ever not been composed in the last year?

“What brings you up here?” I hear Sunggyu asks he comes over to the ledge.

“I don’t know,” I say closing my eyes. “I just feel relaxed up here, you know? I ask him. I often lay on the ledge on the roof just to relax. Some say that it’s dangerous for me to be up there, but I could really care less. After everything that I’ve gone through with my life, I don’t think anything could be dangerous. I’m not afraid of anything anymore. Of course I care about my life, it’s just that…nothing really concerns me. I just wish to be a good son for my parents, a good person. I just hope to be a good person and follow direction when needed and not get into any unnecessary trouble. Is that too much to hope for?

“Do you want to go somewhere with me?” Sunggyu randomly asks.

“What are you talking about?” I ask peeking open one of my eyes. “Go where? Wouldn’t we have to skip school?”

“Would it bother you to live just once?” Sunggyu asks. “I have some urgent business to take care of.”

“Urgent business?” I ask.

“Yes, it’s urgent business. Now would you like to come or not?”

“I guess. You’ve sparked my curiosity,” I confess as I get up off of the ledge and hop over the gate that protects teenagers from jumping off the roof. I follow Sunggyu out into his car as he drives to who knows where to complete this urgent business of his.

Allie’s POV

I look outside at the evening sun. Nighttime, at least close to nighttime. That means that once tomorrow hits, once the sun rises, I’ve spent one day here. I’ve spent one full day here without anything happening to me. How am I sure about what’s going to happen to me tomorrow? I haven’t heard any information about Cecelia or Sungyeol and I’m wondering if they’re here. I’m wondering if they’re still safe.

I hear the door open and I don’t even turn since I know it’s that annoying guy again. “Noona, you should eat,” the voice says. I immediately turn and see Sungjong standing there. The Sungjong that Myungsoo trusted so much is the one that captured me.

“Noona?” I ask looking at him. “Whoever said that you could call me noona?”

“Well, you are my noona, aren’t you?”

“And I thought you were smart, aren’t you?” I ask him.

“I am, but that doesn’t really have to do with anything here, does it?” Sungjong asks.

“What if it does?” I ask. “Why are you calling me noona?”

“Because you are my noona,” Sungjong says. This guy has to have multiple personalities. At one moment he’s nice, the next he’s capturing people, and now he’s acting as though we’ve been lifelong friends.

“Well, we’re not close enough for you to call me that,” I say turning my back and looking back out the window.

“But we could be,” he says in a voice that sends shivers up my spine.

“What are you talking about?” I ask attempting to keep my cool.

“Oh, nothing noona,” he says in his best attempt at a sweet voice, one that I don’t buy at all. “Don’t you want to know about hyung and his best friend and that little girl?” My ears perk up at that. “I knew you’d want to. Well, they’re in the basement, just so you know.”

“Why are you telling me?” I ask. “Do you want me to just run out of here and go to the basement where you probably have a trap? Well here’s something for you, I’m not going to fall for it.”

“Whatever you say, noona. I was just trying to tell you that they’re safe, but apparently you don’t want to listen to me.”

I listen as he leaves and closes the door. I wait until I can no longer hear his footsteps before going over to the bed and just collapsing on it. How much longer do I have to endure this? I can’t trust Sungjong, so how do I know that he’s not lying about the Cecelia and Sungyeol’s condition? It hasn’t even been one full day and I’ve been experiencing the worst day of my life.

No, I’ve experienced worse than this. I’ve lived through both of my parents dying. I’ve lived through having to give up my college life for the benefit of my younger sister. I’ve lived through having to live at the small apartment and doing various part time jobs just to uphold a good lifestyle. I’ve lived through my house burning down and having to deal with a spoiled brat. I’ve lived through and dealt with so much more than this that this is just something simple. Being kidnapped, I can handle it, right?

Slowly, tears fall from my eyes, but I shove my face into the pillow and into the sheets so they won’t hear me, even if one were to hear me, I’m not even sure. I don’t know where they stay in this place; I don’t know where I am. I don’t know if there are rooms that border mine. I don’t know anything, I don’t have control. I’m just part of this game that Sunggyu is playing that makes no sense to me. Why must he kidnap me? Why must he kidnap my little sister? Why must he kidnap Myungsoo’s friend? Why?

Why must everything happen to me?

Myungsoo’s POV

I drive to a cottage that reminds me of the one that I drove to only once before in the past. “Where is this place?” Woohyun asks as we walk up to it. I’ve parked a little while away down the road in hopes of not being suspected just in case Sunggyu does come to this place, if he still does that is.

“It’s a cottage, isn’t it?” I ask looking at it. “I just hope it’s the right one.”

“The right one?” Hoya asks.

“When we were in high school, Sunggyu brought me here once, but only once. He said that he had some urgent business to take care of, but I’ve never once walked inside. I’ve only seen the outside.”

“Then how can you still remember the directions if he’s only brought you here once?” Woohyun asks.

“I’ve followed him here in high school before and sometimes, I would come myself. I always wanted to know what was beyond that door,” I say pointing at the front door. “It seems like it would be a different world.”

“How are you even sure that this is where he has them?” Hoya asks looking from Woohyun to me and back to Woohyun again.

“I’m not sure,” I tell him. “I just have a feeling that if he said he has urgent business that this is the place that he’s going to go to.”

Just then, I hear a car come and signal for us to hide behind some of the bushes in the forest and other things that would shield us. The three of us are quiet as we see Sunggyu’s car pull up to the place. He gets out on the driver’s seat and goes over to the passenger’s seat where I see Uee get out. I tense up a bit at seeing her, but immediately let it go. I can’t be angry here, I have to wait, I have to wait until I get home.

Sunggyu and Uee walk hand in hand inside of the cottage. It looks just like an ordinary cottage. I move a little, but still behind the protection of things, to take a better look at the house and to see if they might be in there. I look at the windows to see if I can see someone, just anyone before I see a movement in a window to my left.

I immediately look at the window only to see the curtain moving, but I swear that I saw what seemed to be the silhouette of a girl. Who could be in the house?

“I think I saw her,” I whisper to the guys.

“Saw who?” they ask.

“I think I saw Allie. I think they’re in this house,” I state.

“But you aren’t even sure.”

“It’s worth a try,” I say. “We have to try anything. We have to rescue them. We don’t know how much time we have left.”

“That may be the case, Myungsoo, but we can’t rush into this,” Woohyun says trying to put reason and trying to talk me out of storming into that house right now.

“Why not?” I ask. The rage is boiling again.

“You might get hurt. He’s after you, you know.”

“Then I’ll give him me as long as he lets the rest of them go, I’ll give him me. He can have enough of me all he wants,” I say. “I just want them to be safe, I have to protect them.”

“What if he kills you?” Woohyun sternly asks. “You know what Sunggyu is now capable of. Are you prepared for this?”

“I can fight,” I simply say.

“What if he has a gun?”

“Then let him kill me,” I say looking right into Woohyun’s eyes. “Let him kill me as long as I can save them. I’ll do whatever it takes.”

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How is Myungsoo planning on rescuing them? What is the cottage used for? What are Sunggyu and Uee doing at the cottage? What is Sunggyu planning on doing with the kidnapped?

Chapter 18 is up. Hope you enjoyed :D

For some reason, I thought this chapter was a bit boring than the rest. Sorry about that. I'm not very informed on the whole how someone really kidnaps someone and what they do with them, so sorry if it seems lame. It's my first attempt at doing something like that. But I still hope you enjoyed the chapter :) Don't worry, things will be getting better, there'll be some good moments in the future.