Empty Coffins

Joonmyeon stared at his account number.

For some reason, the ten billion won had already been wired into his account, and it’d only been a day. He immediately called Jaejoong, ecstatic that there was enough money to keep Woohyun alive for at least a year.

But Jaejoong was skeptical.

“Where, exactly, did you get ten billion won in just a few days?” he asked.

Joonmyeon frowned, almost feeling insulted by the doctor’s skepticism. “My brother… Junsu…”

He could practically hear Jaejoong stiffen on the other side of the line. “You… can’t be serious,” Jaejoong choked out, sounding completely drained of emotion. “Kim Junsu… is your brother?”

“Yeah…”

“Get Hyesung and get her the hell out of Hongdae.”

To say that Jaejoong’s sudden serious demeanor confused Joonmyeon an unexplainable amount was an understatement. “I don’t understand.” He sounded so confused, not understanding why Jaejoong was saying what he was saying. “Why do we have to leave?” he demanded.

“Junsu isn’t the noble older brother you think he is. Go ask Changmin and Yunho… they’ll tell you the exact same thing.”

That was Jaejoong’s only reply before the line went dead.

Hearing the seriousness in Jaejoong’s voice, Joonmyeon realized that it wasn’t a joke. It wasn’t some elaborate prank created by Junsu to make fun of Joonmyeon. Jaejoong was dead serious.

He shot up from his place at his desk, rushing down the hall. He ran past a confused Yixing, who called, “Joonmyeon, where are you going?” without giving him a single look or word of explanation.

He’d barely managed to catch the bus to Hongdae, tapping his foot impatiently as the bus sped off.

“Hey, this is Hyesung! I can’t take your call right now, so please leave me a message!”

Joonmyeon let out a loud curse, disturbing many people on the bus. He grasped his phone so tight that he thought he was going to break it. Hyesung always answered her phone, or at least sent him a text to tell him that she couldn’t answer his call.

The bus ride was a long, painful hour. Once it stopped, Joonmyeon was the first to dash off the bus, running straight to the Blue Moon Bar.

Yunho hadn’t seen Hyesung all day. But once Joonmyeon mentioned the name “Kim Junsu,” he went absolutely ballistic.

“What do you mean you accepted money from your brother?! Do you even know what Junsu does?!” he demanded, glaring at Joonmyeon. The younger went silent. Yunho stared at Joonmyeon. “You… have no idea what he’s capable of, do you?”

Joonmyeon could only stare. “What… what are you talking about?” he managed to sputter out.

Yunho heaves a great sigh. “Let’s go see if she’s with Changmin… but if she’s not, then prepare to get your handed to you by the almighty Changmin.”

Being the one with a car, Yunho drove to the former Red Midnight. They talked with Changmin, and damn, was Yunho right.

“You ing idiot!” Changmin roared, pinning Joonmyeon to the wall by his collar. The younger was too shocked to do anything. “You handed her over to Junsu?!”

As shocked as he was, Joonmyeon yelled back, “I don’t even know what I did wrong!”

Yunho placed a hand on Changmin’s shoulder. “We should explain before you decide to toss him into the Han River,” he said quietly. Changmin slowly stopped shaking in anger, dropping Joonmyeon to the floor. “There… now maybe you should explain first. I only know half the story.”

There was a whole other side to the Kim family that their youngest son didn’t even know about.

The FINE Co. was run under a man named Song. No one knew anything else about him. Mr. Kim, Joonmyeon and Junsu’s father, was just the CEO, not the Chairman. Even though it seemed like a fashion company, most of the money that kept it standing came not from the revenue of the clothing or the magazine… but from people.

As soon as Junsu had turned eighteen, he’d been let in on the secret that the company held, one that was kept from Joonmyeon, the family’s disappointment.

The FINE Co. was the number one name in Human Trafficking from South Korea.

They took everyone – men, women, children – and used them for everything – from ography to slavery – to sell them for hundreds of thousands of won per person.

Junsu had been given a small branch of the company, to work with a man named Song Woosung, son of the man who’d taken Hyesung years earlier. He’d asked his four best friends from high school to work with him, but they’d all declined.

Changmin knew as soon as Junsu said something. He knew that he was part of the group that had nearly sold Hyesung away. He told Jaejoong, Yunho, and Yoochun what he knew. Disgusted by their friend’s greedy nature, all of them declined. Junsu was furious, vowing to ruin their lives if they didn’t work with him.

They responded by daring him to even try.

But it was when Yoochun was in trouble that Junsu got his revenge on one of them. Yoochun needed money to pay for his mother’s medical bills. He begged Junsu, who, to Yoochun’