Early in the morning…

“Beep. Junsu yah! This is your Hyun joong hyung! Call me back when you receive this message!” “Beep.”

“Beep. Junsu yah! Please call me back! This is urgent! Your Hyungie is missing!” “Beep.”

A small body cuddled up in his soft cosy bed stirs as he tosses and turns around in search for the vibrating device near his pillow, doing blind sweeps amidst the grogginess. Pressing the unusually non compliant ‘virtual’ buttons to replay the voice messages, being dragged out of dreamland by the incessant vibration, the barely adult male immediately springs up from where he lay, stunned by what he heard.

“UMMA!!! UMMA!!!” The person quickly clambered out of his nest, falling off the king size furniture after tripping over his huge stuffed dolphin toy. Stabbing his finger on the phone furiously, the person tried to redial while he makes sense of the time and the way around his dark surroundings, sprinting across the long hallway.

“YEO-YEOBOSEYO!! HYUN JOONG HYUNG?!” The person half shrieked half squeaked just as a middle aged woman emerges from her own bedroom, cladded in high end silk material night gown. Usually neatly arranged hair now all over her face, she wasn’t anticipating bad news as she yawns lazily.

“Yeoboseyo? Hyung! I don’t… Can you repeat?” The person is breathless as he fumbles with the touch screen to activate the loud speaker function on the device. “U-Umma is here! Hyung can you tell her?” Stuttering into the receiver, the boy shoved the phone into the sleepy woman’s hands like the device is a piece of hot potato.

“Yeoboseyo! Can you hear me? Junsu yah! Your hyung hasn’t returned from his grocer trip since yesterday evening. I-I tried calling him but he didn’t pick up… and… and then I made a police report but they say they can’t do anything about it because there are no papers.” The man on the other end of the lines sounded panicky as he speaks barely coherently. The loud speaker not only amplified his voice, but his desperation and urgency as well. “He said he wanted to cook something… he wanted to…” The man started going around in circles.

“Hyung Joong ah? What do you mean he hasn’t returned?!” The woman immediately widens her previously half lidded eyes. “Papers?! What do you mean by no papers?!” The woman immediately presses the phone to her ears carelessly and screeches into the receiver, making the frantic man on the other end of the line even more flustered. “Can you speak up more clearly?!?”

“I-I can’t find him anywhere!!” “His. His official documents!! I-I can’t! T-They are all missing!!” The man seems to be pacing around on the other side of the world, jumpy and unable to speak or organise his thought processes. “Mrs Kim! I. I. Can you send me a copy so I can get the police to cooperate?”

“What do you mean by missing?!” “What do you mean by they wouldn’t cooperate?!” The woman screeched again as her youngest son cowers in a corner, abusing his lower lip as he watches his mother reach the verge of a nervous breakdown.

“Mrs Kim! Jae’s gone and and h-his papers… the identification documents he brought were taken by someone!! I don’t know who but they ransacked his room.  You have to help me!! His documents are not processed by the school yet… and the visa is gone!! The police say t-they cannot establish a missing person’s case if he doesn’t exist!!” The man finally gets across the main gist.

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN HE DOESN’T EXIST?! HE LEFT US THREE DAYS AGO AND LANDED TWO DAYS AGO!! THE IMMIGRATION WOULD HAVE RECORDS!! CALL THEM!!” The woman raised her voice as she darts back into her room, desperately trying to dial up her secretary with another phone, failing to maintain her composure. “HOW CAN THEY JUST PRETEND HE DOESN’T EXIST?!! GOD!!! HOW LONG HAS HE BEEN MISSING?!” “WHY ARE YOU ONLY CALLING ME NOW?!”

“T-twenty four hours. NO! Twenty six hours!! They will only list the case after twenty four hours…” “I couldn’t convince them!! Mrs Kim! They wouldn’t listen! They say he isn’t registered, so they can’t do much!! What do I do now?” The man’s voice is cracking as he tries to recall what he was told at the police station he went to earlier.

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Three days ago. At the airport in Korea.

“Hyungie! Three years is too long!! Don’t go!!” A puffy eyed, pouting Junsu held onto his brother’s hand as he whines. The Kim brothers are inseparable since they were kids, and now that the older one is leaving, the younger one is left in a teary mess for a good one week, wallowing pathetically like he is going to lose the man forever.

“Yah yah! Don’t behave like that. You are turning eighteen for god’s sake!” The beautiful man, sporting a head of silky ebony mid length tresses his brother’s naturally browner hair. “I am not dying so please don’t act like you are at my funeral.” The man whispered softly as he watches the childish one rub his pretty eyes for the umpteenth time.

“No! I don’t want you to go!” The boy started throwing a tantrum again and the older one signed. Looking at his incredibly adorable brother whine like a brat, the person have no idea how he should feel. The younger one’s comely face is all scrunched up again now, reddened as he ‘mourns’ dramatically. “You might get killed! They have guns!!”

“You watch too much TV, Junsu yah! Plus, your Hyungie knows how to defend himself.” “We got our black belt together, remember?” The older one smiled radiantly, showing the younger one a simple taekwondo stance.

“I have to go now.” “I will call you as soon as my plane touches down.” The lovely looking man, Jaejoong, reassured his brother with a pat on the head before heading off to the gates. The gates are closing soon, and he had spent too much time outside, trying to convince his brother that nothing will happen.

“What if the plane crashes?!” The boy started all over again, even though he had been reassured just the night before.

“You watch too much TV Junsu!” “I WILL BE FINE!” Jaejoong mouthed, walking backwards as he drags his heavy hand carry with one hand. Waving, the older man felt like crying as well, since that tiny creature for a brother simply wouldn’t stop following him, trying to bypass the guards just to catch up with him.

“Umma! Take care of our Suie!” The man’s parting words made the boy bawl as he stamps his feet stubbornly.

End of flashback

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POV from Junsu

I don’t believe this!! Did I really watch too much TV?! Does kidnapping only happen in the television shows?! Is hyungie really missing?! I think he really is!! Umma is crying and running all over the place… and Hyung Joong hyung sounded scared too!!

What do I do?! What if hyungie never comes back?

Calm down. Calm down. We all need to calm down. Maybe hyungie just fell asleep somewhere and forgot to go home? Maybe the… Maybe he forgot how to go back to the hostel!! Hyungie is really bad with directions!!

What about the documents? I was too busy feeling upset last week to find out what documents hyugie brought with him so I have no idea what papers umma is talking about. What does Hyun Joong hyung mean when he said they are destroyed? Who burnt them? Why will the person want to burn them?

There are too many questions but even Hyun Joong hyung can’t answer them when umma asked. I can only gather that hyungie was out shopping and then he hadn’t come back. I choose to have a little faith because hyungie can fight really well! He can be an instructor if he wanted to…

But… but I heard it is really dangerous over there… I have read news about how children will go missing so quickly… and and how many of those people who have gone missing are never found again. NO!! I can’t think so negatively!! Hyungie is super clever!! Super smart especially!! He can outsmart the bad guys anytime he wants!! He will be fine!

Hyungie is umma’s pride and joy. He is my role model and I look up to him the most!! He is good with his studies and managed to get into a renowned university there too… though I have always wondered why he can’t just settle for a university here. Umma and all the friends and relatives seem to think that his prospect will be better if he goes there. I should’ve tried even harder to persuade him to stay!

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28 hours ago… back in the states…

Opening his eyes, those two pretty raven black orbs, a still drowsy young man wondered about his whereabouts. Slowly registering the fact that he is in a moving vehicle, the latter looked around himself but could not see a thing. His surrounding is a nice pitch black and he is not even blindfolded.

Easing his long slender legs, which are already cramping due to the bad positions they in, the young man could not straighten it. The space is terribly limited and his toes are turning numb from the prolonged nerve compression. The pins and needles are so bad that he could not but grimace, shifting his bum as far up as he can so his peripheral veins can continue their blood flow smoothly.

To top it off, he found that his hands are of no use to him, tightly bounded behind his back. Wriggling his fingers and rotating at the wrist joint, the man can feel fear welling up within upon realising that there is no way he can escape his restraints.

As if finally alert and fully aware of the circumstances, the young man hurriedly tucks his knees below his belly and tries to twist his hands to the front. Nonetheless, due to the space constrain and constant bumps of the uneven roads, the latter can’t do anything else other than lie still and formulate a plan by which he can escape.

Calculating his odds of attacking the kidnappers with a head when they open up the booth later, the latter tried to picture how he can make it out of the booth with both hands and feet tightly bound together. The only thing good about the situation is that he is no longer out cold. However, that also means that he will be subjected to whatever while wide awake.

Hearing the car brake with a loud screech, the young man cursed under his breath and closes his eyes, pretending to be unconscious.

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 POV from Jaejoong

I don’t remember much since things were happening so fast earlier. I clearly recall going out to buy the grocers for dinner tonight… and I was busy carrying the first batch of bags into the kitchen when I walked right into this bunch of ruffians. They were so well hidden that I didn’t even sense anything amiss.

They had probably followed me in through the open door… and the next thing I know… I am fighting them to the death. Then this! In the booth of the car! Like a human grocer!! I think someone managed to catch me off guard…

My god… my Ben and Jerry’s is still in the booth!! Aigoo!! That’s not the point!! I am kidnapped!! I am not a kid, but I am kidnapped!! Holy I will be damned!!

Hell I thought there was security clearance at the entrance!! What the heck is happening?! Is this the way to welcome a foreigner?! What the hell is going on?! No one should be allowed to simply barge into other’s residence like that and drag them off isn’t it? Is this even legal!?

I digress again.

What did I do!? I didn’t even flaunt my wallet or anything and I am only into my second day here!! Do they even know me?! How the hell did they know me anyway?! Do they even want a ransom?! God do they even have umma’s contact number?! I have a feeling that they have other purposes for me!! One of those disgusting fellas was telling his partner to be careful not to disfigure me or something like that.

Do they want to sell my organs?! Are they from the black market?! No way they are trafficking humans right?!

I am not sure what they are up to but this is serious business!! There are a bunch of them too… so I can deduce that this isn’t some sicko serial killer to torture and kill me slowly... But is that even good news?! I really don’t think so. Either ways, my fate is more or less sealed the moment I lost to them. There were just too many of them…

To be honest, I don’t really dare to think about what they will do to me. I really can’t imagine myself dying… since I don’t want to! And even if I am doomed to die, I would definitely want a proper funeral with an open coffin... That will give umma and Suie some closure. Oh my god… what if they never find my body? I want to be laid to rest beside appa too!

Wait!! Why am I giving up so quickly!! I won’t allow them to do whatever they want to me!! They must either kill me or let me go!! They will have to choose!! I am not going down without a few more tries!! I must at least get a chunk of each of them before I go down!! Even if I am gone, I will follow them around and haunt them in their sleep!!

Yes!! More anger please!! I need more adrenaline!!

I miss home already! I have to go home!! As cargo or passenger! Either one is fine!! Preferably as passenger please… though being cargo might cost less travel fee.

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Throwing Jaejoong over a shoulder, one of the kidnappers ferried the light weight beauty from the booth into a big underground car park like facility. Being transported past the shady abandoned building interior, Jaejoong can see clearly, just what is going on in the surrounding.

There are groups of mostly females, huddled up in the different corners while a few brutish looking men guard them with weapons ranging from hatchets to rifles. Jaejoong can feel his blood run cold the moment he spots a man dragging two squealing girls out from the cage-like structures. Watching the entire saga through one slightly opened eye, Jaejoong saw a well-dressed man entering through another door leading to what seems to be a viewing facility behind a glass panel acting as barrier. It immediately dawns on the latter that his worse fears are realising themselves.

The ‘business man’ then nodded his head while the kidnappers parade the two girls in front of him. Then, turning to leave through another door, Jaejoong witnesses one of the girls being packed into a burlap sack and dragged out after the leaving client.