The door to JYJ’s rented apartment had burst open to allow three weary men through. Everyone was sat down discussing the way forward; how they were going to set out to save the twin brothers.

“Junho really wasn’t there at the scene?” Changmin asked.

Yunho shook his head. He was now comfortably perched on the arm of the sofa.

Jaejoong elaborated on the details while Woo Jin sat stirring the coffee that Yoochun had made for him absent-mindedly. 

Then Woo Jin suddenly stopped stirring a little too suddenly which caused the coffee to spill over onto Changmin. 

Changmin gave Woo Jin an ice cold stare which, surprisingly, seemed to bring warmth and spirit back into Woo Jin’s morale as he casually apologised, unable to contain a laugh which followed.

The room eventually settled back into quietness and it was then that Woo Jin decided to bring to light what was preying on his mind.

“There was a note…” was all he said, eyebrows furrowed, chin resting on his hand in troubled thought.

Jaejoong’s eyes lowered. 

He slowly reached into his pocket to withdraw the note that the gang’s boss had flicked at him.

The note was laid out on the coffee table for everyone to read. The words, although blunt in context, struck them all with a sharp pang of anxiety.

“How long do we have left?” Changmin questioned.

“44 hours,” Woojin muttered as he checked the time on his silver watch, wishing that there was more of it.

There was a flicker of annoyance in the eyes of the others - why hadn’t Jaejoong said anything about the note earlier?

“Jongkook’s not answering his phone; it’s switched off,” Yoochun added with a hint of anger in his tone, placing the phone beside him.

“What?” Changmin suddenly erupted, rising from his seat abruptly with anger and hurt clearly reflected in his eyes. “How could he just leave without any thought for Junsu’s brother?”

“I know what this is…” Jaejoong seethed. “Jongkook isn’t our friend. Don’t you see? He never was.”

He seemed surprisingly calm about the situation other than the hatred in his voice and his habit of biting his thumb while his mind raced over thoughts of betrayal and illusion.

As the others considered Jaejoong’s explanation, the sharp and cold reality of it made sense. It all made sense.

“He’s taken us for fools!” Yunho finally burst out as he thumped the sofa with his fist and then brought it between his teeth; calming himself before all control was lost. “We need to think about this. We need to come up with a plan,” Yunho reasoned with everyone.

Everyone nodded eagerly.

“But why Junsu and Junho?” Yoochun asked more-so to himself while deep in thought rather than to the rest of the team, yet it was a worrying question that had been bugging them all. “If the only reason was ransom money, then why didn’t they kidnap us all?” He continued, now directing his questions openly to the team.

Only unsure silence and lowered heads occupied the room.

Everybody was racking their own brain for a reason; some logical reason as to why the Kim brothers Junsu and Junho had been taken. The silence grew as dark thoughts began to surface, thoughts which had not slipped their minds but would not dare to be shared, for although their minds considered it, every fibre in each of them wanted to believe that either Junsu or Junho had not done something which warranted or reasoned the situation that they were now in.

The phone that lay beside Yoochun suddenly vibrated. They all peered over at the little device, Yoochun wasn’t slow to pick it up to see what the message read.

“Bad boy…” he read the words of the text message aloud, taken aback. What on Earth? He thought.

He raised an eyebrow inquisitively. Then another vibration sounded. 

This time there was no text, only a picture.

“What kind of…” Yoochun mumbled, shifting in his seat uncomfortably as he tried to gain an understanding from the picture which showed a round, purple tablet with a smiley face etched into it.

 Another picture was sent; this time far less pleasant with what it revealed. It was shortly followed by one last text message.

Yoochun blinked furiously as he tried to comprehend what was in front of him.

You have 43 hours. Hurry, hurry! The text read.

He scrolled back up to take in the second picture.

The surroundings were dark with little light pouring through a small window in the top right of the picture, and large metal pipes ran the ceiling along the top. Hanging from the pipes at either side by thick and cleverly knotted rope were two slumped men. Were they dead? Yoochun clutched his chest, feeling his heart beat so fast that he worried it might explode from his chest. Through blurry vision and shortness of breath, and with a firm supportive grip from Changmin who had rushed to his side, he tried again to focus on the picture.

Hanging loosely around Junho’s neck was a small wooden board with ₩2,000,000,000 scribbled across it in black ink. Junsu and Junho’s faces couldn’t be clearly seen for their heads were slumped forward as if they were unconscious, or…

Before Yoochun could let the horrible thought dwell on him, he began to cough and wheeze and Jaejoong shoved a blue inhaler into his hand forcefully, bringing it to his mouth. 

“Thanks,” Yoochun huffed to Jaejoong after he had finally caught his breath. Changmin was soothing his back. He felt embarrassed but thankful. 

“Who sent it?” Yunho asked frantically, aware of precious time quickly passing.

“Jongkook,” Yoochun scowled.

-----

30/08/15

Author Note: 

Hello everyone! It's been a long time, right? Can you believe that it's nearly autumn already?

I hope you've all had enjoyable summers!

I wanted to express my sincerest apologies for the long wait and I hope that this chapter helps to make more sense of the scary situation at hand. 

With certain members having already started their mandatory military service in South Korea, I hope that this story will encourage us to continue to support them and await their return.

As always, thank you for your kind patience and enthusiasm for the story. I hope you enjoy!