Hyo hadn’t slept all night.  After driving up to the scene and answering all of the police’s questions the investigation was moved to Seoul when a few cameras there spotted the license plate of Delphine’s car.  Delphine alternated between crying and throwing tantrums demanding that whenever they caught who it was that she was allowed to kill them.  Around nine they Ichiro confirmed what they already knew, Hwan was missing as well.  Without any second thoughts Hyo set Ichiro, Akio and Han out to their own teams to find his sister while he opted to call Kevin.  Kevin was a dear friend of Hyo and Sung-hee.  Hyo and Kevin were in the same class together for all of high school and ended up as dorm mates for their freshmen year of college.  Kevin was a private detective and was the only person Hyo would trust with a case like this.  Unfortunately he was delayed so Hyo was forced to deal with the police until the early hours of the morning. 

Thunder, of course, had been called and would be returning from Taiwan some time that day to assist the best he could.  Hyo had to admit that the boy had proven himself to really be part of the family weaseling his way out of his schedules despite the trouble he might get into and get back to help as soon as possible.  Now Hyo and Delphine were left on his couch both clutching mugs of tea for their nerves.  Mee-Yon wasn’t even comforting Hyo.  The couple had an argument when he refused to make the police leave on the grounds they were helping to find his sister.  He knew she would come around though, she always did. 

“You can go home if you want Delphine.”  He gently suggested as he took a seat next to her.  She sighed heavily and stared down at her mug biting her lip and blinking back tears. 

“If I go home I’m going to break down again Hyo-ssi but if I’m causing trouble I can leave.”  Her eyes flicked to the stairs and Hyo waved his hands in a no motion before gesturing to come to him for a hug.  Almost instantly she took the offer and clung to him for dear life.  “W-why would he do it H-Hyo-ssi?”

He rubbed her back carefully rocking a little, a technique that worked on Sung-hee time and again.  “He’ll do anything when he’s desperate.  They’ll find her soon.”  A part of him wished someone was around to comfort him like this.  He wanted to break down and cry but he had to be strong for Delphine and for Sung-hee and he mentally cursed Kevin for taking so long to get there.  Delphine and Hyo stayed like this for a while until someone banged on the door.  Hesitantly Hyo got up and looked through the peep hole first to find a frantic Thunder anxiously dancing side to side.  Opening the door instantly he greeted the younger boy with a small nod of his head. 

“Are there any leads?”  Thunder’s voice was tired and Hyo noted his eyes were just as puffy as his own.

“We know they’re in Seoul and my people are back tracing Hwan’s records to find out who it is exactly he owes the most money to.”  His father’s debts were extensive.  They had already traced small sums here and there to other people throughout South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore.  Some of the debts had been paid off already.  Hyo would sell his own car if it meant these debts would disappear.  “But other than that we don’t have anything.”

Thunder looked just as displeased as Hyo felt and headed for the kitchen table where a large map of Seoul was. A few places had been crossed out but there was still too much territory to cover.  Hyo checked on Delphine first before heading over to Thunder.  “The police want us to wait until demands are made but I’ve already sent some of mine to search around those are all places we’ve already looked.”  He pointed to the crossed out areas and sighed heavily, “Seoul is just too damn big.” 

“Yeah it is...hyung do you have any idea what they’ll do?” 

Looking up Hyo saw that Thunder was looking for some kind of consoling but as a man he didn’t want to outright ask for it.  Forcing down the desire to break down as well Hyo placed a hand on Thunder’s shoulder giving it a small squeeze.  “Knowing Hwan whatever he has planned will backfire and they won’t touch Sung-hee.  Happened the last time.”  Of course the first time she landed in the hospital for several weeks looking like a mummy but he wouldn’t tell Thunder that.

“How many times has this happened?”  Hyo felt Thunder tremble under his hand in rage veins popping up on his neck and his arms and Hyo instantly regretted dropping that bombshell.  Of course Sung-hee wouldn’t tell him how many times something like this happened she probably hated thinking about it.

“Sanghyun I-”

“Yah Park open the door you changed the locks on me you !”  A familiar voice and impatient banging brought a small smile to Hyo’s face. 

“I’ll talk to you about it later.”  He gave Thunder’s shoulder a reassuring squeeze before heading over to the door.  Upon opening it he found Kevin standing there with a bag slung over his shoulders with a plain t-shirt and jeans.  Hyo almost forgot that Kevin wouldn’t come around with a full uniform; his old friend could barely stand wearing a suit jacket for an extended period of time. 

The pair embraced briefly patting each other on the back.  “Sorry it took me so long to get here I was finishing up a case.”  He looked over Hyo quickly and frowned.  “Okay, show me the phone records you have with him.” 

Hyo looked confused for a moment but nonetheless motioned for Kevin to follow him up the stairs and towards his office.  Mee-Yon passed by and briefly greeted Kevin with a small bow and smile before shooting Hyo an apologetic look.  Hyo didn’t pay attention instead he headed right for his office much to Mee-Yon’s surprise.  She was about to stomp over to the office before Kevin gently placed a hand on her shoulder.  “I know he’s upsetting you right now Mee-Yon-ah but put yourself in his shoes.  This is the third time their father has attempted to use his little sister as bait.”  Leaving her to digest this Kevin quickly followed Hyo into the office.

“Here they are!”  A few folders were scattered about the room as Hyo looked through a file cabinet and pulled out a manila folder.  He turned to Kevin who was hovering by the desk and handed him the file which Kevin took offhandedly most of his attention being on Hyo.  “That has all the calls with him over the past few weeks.  There isn’t a lot but it might help.”  Just as he was about to leave Kevin grabbed his arm.  “What is it Kevin?”

“You know, it’s okay to cry right?”

“I need to get back to the kids they need to be supported.”

“So do you.”

“They’re more important.”  Hyo tried to argue but his resolve broke the second that Kevin held his arms out for his friend.  Moments later Hyo was in Kevin’s arms bawling like a baby, shaking and muttering apologies to Kevin, Mee-Yon and Sung-hee while Kevin patted his back silently.  Every time Hyo thought that he was alright another wave of tears would take over and they went right back to hugging.  Hyo was grateful for the chance to be able to let all the emotion out.  Sometimes being the strong one for so many people and all the time could get rather tiring.  After about ten minutes Hyo collected himself just in time for Thunder and Delphine to come upstairs curious as to what was taking so long.

“You guys can include us in planes you know.”

“It just took us some time to find the records that’s all.”  Kevin fibbed while Hyo rubbed his eyes behind him trying to be as discreet as possible. 

“I guess so but still-” The sniffling grabbed Delphine’s and Thunder’s attention instantly making them regret their actions.

An awkward silence filled the air until suddenly Hyo’s pocket started vibrating.  Eyes wide he pulled out the phone and nearly choked on air.  “It-it’s Sung-hee.”  He didn’t even wait for instructions before answering the phone. 

~~~~~~

An hour and a half before

Sung-hee hadn’t slept all night.  She was terrified of what those men would try to do while she was asleep and she couldn’t get the frightful images of the past out of her head.  Her father, the idiot that he was, passed out a few hours after they arrived leaving her to her destructive train of thought.  Many times she cried thinking about Thunder, Delphine, Hyo and the others even Mee-Yon brought tears to her eyes.  She hated all the trouble she was putting them through and somehow felt that it was her fault.  Her sole comfort was her necklace that was now firmly grasped between her hands and held close to her heart. 

As soon as the sun rose the same man that locked them in the cell appeared.  Jumping up Sung-hee nearly fell against the wall from moving too quickly.  The last time she had moved was when she convinced the guard to let her use the bathroom.   The man motioned for her to wake her father and she nodded solemnly before walking over and smacked the man’s face a couple of times.  Before Hwan could even think about lashing out at Sung-hee he saw the other man standing there rather amused.  “He’ll see you now.”

Bowing Hwan was the first to be let out of the cell and Sung-hee followed after quickly all too happy to be out of that cell.  They were led downstairs and down the same few corridors as before but this time they were ushered into one of the many rooms they passed before.  From the looks of it, it was a conference room.  There was a large table in the middle with a large chair at the head and smaller chairs at the end with pitchers of water placed strategically throughout the middle of the table.

“Tai will be with you soon.  Make yourselves comfortable.”  He snickered before leaving the two locked in the room. 

Hwan and Sung-hee stood there awkwardly before Hwan started walking about the edge of the room as if he was trying to find an exit.  Sung-hee continued to eye the water wondering if she would be able to get away with drinking it or not.  burned for some sort of relief but a part of her wondered if that was what Tai was after.  She knew that her paranoia was getting the best of her and that he would want to keep her alive until they got what they wanted but she would rather be safe than sorry.  Reaching forward she poured a glass and glanced over at her father.  I must be out of my mind like it would be much better if it was him.  Regardless she intercepted her father’s walking and held out the glass for him. 

“What’s this?”

“You can honestly tell me you’re not thirsty?”  She tried not to sound too annoyed but an edge was still in her tone.  Nonetheless he took the glass greedily gulping the water down as she watched mildly disgusted.  After he was finished he tried to hand the glass back and she smirked shaking her head.  “I’m only doing that favor once, get the rest for yourself.”  With a roll of her eyes she went back to the table and got a drink for herself.

Before she could even get halfway through her glass Tai came in with two other men.  Chocking on her water she roughly put the glass down and turned away from the three men to cough.  Turning back she saw Tai sitting and smirking at her but she couldn’t bring herself to be embarrassed as she straightened up and met Tai’s gaze vaguely recognizing him.  “So tell me what brings you here with this girl Hwan.” 

Hwan fiddled with is fingers hesitant to say what it was in front of Sung-hee though she already understood what was happening all too perfectly.  “Well I know that she looks similar to your ideal type.”  Sung-hee cringed at this and Tai’s lips turned up in a grin.  “So I was hoping that maybe if you got her in exchange you would give me a few more days to get the money.” 

Angrily Tai looked over to Hwan and motioned for his two men to stand by Hwan as he stood and walked over to where Sung-hee was.  Though she wanted to scream and pitch a fit she was rooted in the spot her entire body shaking as the male came closer.  All the Tae kwon Do she learned flew out the window for a moment and she just prayed that he wouldn’t touch her.  With a small ‘hmmm’ Tai circled around her slowly before stopping in front of her and leaned closer to her face.  “She is rather pretty but I’m not sure if she would know what she’s doing in bed.  And I don’t feel like having to teach another.”  Another?  That made Sung-hee’s skin crawl even more than the way he was looking at her.

“She has experience.  Come on Sung-hee tell the man how you have experience.”  He desperately looked to Sung-hee for her to confirm but she was speechless.  She wanted to lash out at him or to even give a simple head nod to avoid confrontation but it was like she was paralyzed she couldn’t even move her fingers.  Tai for some reason was even more terrifying to her than Lee. 

“Awww look at how she’s shaking now, now sweet heart there’s not need to be scared.” He grasped her chin and angled her face so more light was exposed to it as recognition suddenly sparked in his eyes.  Letting go of her chin he turned back to Hwan with a slightly raised brow.  “What did you say her name was?”      

“S-sung-hee Park.”

“Mmmm I thought so.”  He walked slowly over to Hwan until he was in front of him with only the table separating them.  Sitting on the table he cracked his knuckles drawing out the silence a bit.  “As in the sister of Hyo Park?”

It didn’t take Sung-hee long to put together what Tai was planning but before Sung-hee could put herself together enough to respond Hwan responded instead having no idea the implications of what he was about to say.  “Y-y-yes i-is that a problem?”

“No not at all.  In fact,” a wolfish grin rose on Tai’s face and Sung-hee shook her head violently trying to wish away the dreading feeling, “it’s perfect.”  With a snap of his fingers Hwan was knocked out and out of instinct Sung-hee almost reached forward to try and help him despite everything he had done.  “Take him to the red room we’ll deal with him later.”  He turned back to Sung-hee and motioned for her to follow him.

At first she stayed rooted in her spot but when he turned back and flashed the gun he had she caught up quickly.  They paused by a phone and Tai accessed the intercom system.  “Alright I want all the boys down in the cafeteria now I’ve got a little bit of fun planned out for us.”  Chuckling darkly he grabbed Sung-hee by her elbow and practically dragged her to the cafeteria.  Which, by the time they got there, already had around fifteen people and a few more were coming in. 

Sung-hee felt get dry all over again and she shuffled her feet the chain dragging on the ground making a screech in protest to the abuse.  Tai pushed her into a seat and glanced at the chains and, much to Sung-hee’s surprise, he dangled the key in front of her for a moment.  Just when she was certain that he was just teasing her he dropped the key into her hands resting in her lap.  Blinking in surprise she waited for him to take the key away even as she started to bring her feet up to take off the chains.  When he didn’t stop her and she managed to get the chains off she sighed in relief rubbed the ring on her legs that matched the ones on her wrist. 

“Now I did something for you you’re going to do something for me.  Well in a way since it is your phone.”  With that he pulled her phone out of her pocket and started to flip through the contacts.  “I was wondering who oppa was but now that I know.”  He grinned as Sung-hee stood up defensively and wagged a finger in front of her face.  “Remember I freed you but I can put you back in those chains and more in an instant.”  Shutting up she stepped back but still glared at the back of his head.

In a few minutes about twenty five people were in the room all of them equally vicious looking and giving Sung-hee the most disgusting looks.  She recognized two as her guards from the night before and wished that looks could kill then they would be nothing but ashes.  “Now that we’re all here I would like to introduce to you Sung-hee Park she’s going to help us get the rest of our money!”  An appreciative mumble rumbled through the small crowd.  “How you ask?  Well with just a little call we’ll have our money by the end of the night.”  Applause erupted through the crowd and he let them fool around for a minute or two before whistling for silence.  “Hello oppa?”  Sung-hee nearly threw up with how teasing his tone was.

“Who is this?”

Tai casually picked at his nails and shrugged, “Oh you know just the person your father owes money to.”

“Where are you?!  Why don’t you settle this like a man?”

Without a care Tai laughed boisterously earning a laugh from his gang members a sick feeling from Sung-hee and a dark growl from Hyo.  “Because I’m having too much fun but I’ll cut to the chase, you have until 9:30 PM tonight to get me 957,000 won your daddy owes me to the Gangseo-gu and Yang-cheong-gu district border by the river or your dear sister dies.” 

There was a long pause and just when Tai was about to speak again for extra motivation Hyo spoke.  “I want to speak to her.”

Knowing that he was on a time limit in case the call was being traced Tai rolled his eyes and turned to Sung-hee.  “Fine.  Oh Sung-hee dear.”  Stepping towards her he held the phone up to her ear. 

“Sung-hee?”

Relief washed over her hearing his voice and she smiled a little bit but realized that getting him to understand this deal wasn’t a good one to try and make.  Though a part of her figured that Hyo would have Kevin and the others there and they had already thought up a decent plan.  “Oppa don’t you dare do it he’ll just-”

Before she could even finish Tai took the phone back and growled out his words.  He hated it when what he wanted wasn’t presented to him in a certain amount of time.  “There you spoke to her what about the money?”

Another long pause and Sung-hee nearly winced at the vicious look in Tai’s eyes as he waited.  “I’ll get you your money.”

“Oh an agreeable one hm?” He almost sounded surprised as he spoke.  “Good.  The exact location will be given to you at 8:30 and should you bring the police into this trust me I will know.”  With that he hung up and pocketed the phone.  Sung-hee wanted to make a grab for it but the look in his eyes stopped her.  Instead she started to back up a little.  “Now are you boys ready for the fun part?”  The crowd clapped and heckled here and there causing for laughs.  “How about that game we always love to play boys?  Who wants to be it?”  Tai grabbed Sung-hee’s hand and pulled it up.  “Oh we have a volunteer how nice."  With a smirk he turned to Sung-hee, “Now this is just a simple game of hide and seek but with a few twists.  You see it’s going to be a long eleven hours so you’re going to be our entertainment should you get caught that is.”  The grin on his lips turned more devilish, “But don’t worry you’ll only have to hide from five of us at a time.” 

“No.”  It was the first word Sung-hee spoke in over thirty minutes and her voice sounded foreign to her.  She hadn’t been this scared in a long time. 

“Try and stay alive until we get our money okay baby doll?  I’d hate for the deal to get cut short due to unnecessary accidents.”

“Please.”

“Aw okay I’ll cut you a deal we’ll only play until six how does that sound hm?”  He waited half a second before speaking again making sure he didn’t give her room to argue.  “Okay boys close your eyes.”  Everyone did as they were told and when he instructed for them to put their hands over their eyes they did so.  Sung-hee hated the fact one of her favorite childhood games was used for her torment.  “You better start running babe.”  Sung-hee didn’t hesitate and started to run away from the crowd only half paying attention to the names he called out and she got to the stairs just as he started the countdown.