The day had arrived, the day they had been waiting for, the day they had been dreading, the day that would change their lives. If Zico and his crew could pull this off, then they would be saved from the monstrous debt they were in. If things went really well then they would have extra money to get away from here indefinitely. That would be a plus.

Zico walked into the main room of the warehouse he and his crew were currently occupying. They were all there; Taeil, the oldest, the explosives expert; Jaehyo, the pretty boy, the negotiator, Minhyuk, affectionately called B-Bomb, the level headed one; Kyung, the crazy one, the weapons master; U-Kwon, the romantic, the eyes-on-everything; and finally P.O, the maknae, the muscles. Then there was him, Zico, the leader. They were all best friends and they would kill for each other.

“How’s it coming?” Zico asked and all six heads looked up at him.

Taeil gave him the ok sign with his fingers. “Very good,” he said.

“I think we’ll be ready in ten,” Kyung confirmed, looking down the barrel of his unloaded gun.

Zico nodded. “Then let’s pack up,” he instructed. Then he turned and walked out of the room as the rest of the boys got ready to head out.

“Zico,” U-Kwon called and caught up to the younger boy, “there’s something I’m concerned about.”

Zico sighed, exasperated, “U-Kwon, we talked about this.”

“I know, I know, but I’m worried!” U-Kwon exclaimed. “If things go badly something could happen to-”

“U-Kwon,” Zico cut him off and placed his hand on the older boy’s shoulder, “It’s going to go fine. Everyone’s going to be fine. All of us.” Then he walked away.

U-Kwon took a deep breath. “You better be right,” he muttered before walking back into the main room to pack his gear.

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B-Bomb behind the wheel, U-Kwon in the passenger seat, the rest in the back. Last minute checks of the gear. Going over the plan one more time. They all knew the gravity of the situation; things could go terribly wrong and people could get hurt.

“Two minutes!” B-Bomb called from the driver’s seat.

At that declaration, U-Kwon grabbed the bag at his feet and dumped it out into his lap. Clown masks. The creepy, distorted masks made for a nightmare-worthy disguise along with the suits each of the crew wore. They needed to be. The crew needed everyone to think they were dangerous.

U-Kwon passed the masks out to everyone else, laying one in B-Bomb’s lap too, and then slipped his own over his head.

“This is it,” B-Bomb stated and stopped the van. As soon as the wheels stopped moving, Taeil was up and out the back door. U-Kwon watched as the short hyung made his way to the wall and squatted down in front of it. He pulled something box-like out of his suit jacket pocket and stuck it to the wall before standing back up and walking back to the van. Once he was seated and the back doors were shut again B-Bomb threw the van into reverse and backed up towards the wall, still leaving a fair distance between them.

Taeil looked around at all the masked faces in front of him. “Everybody ready?” he asked.

No one protested so Zico spoke up for all of them. “Let’s do this,” he said. Taeil nodded and pressed the big red button on the device he was holding. Mere seconds later an explosion tore through the air, the wall Taeil had been tampering with, and shook the ground with the force of it. As soon as it was clear, B-Bomb drove the van backwards into the hole Taeil had just created and parked with the back end inside the building; a bank.

“Ok guys, let’s go, let’s go, let’s go!” Zico yelled and at once all seven of them jumped out of the van into the main lobby of the bank. The screaming was deafening.

“P.O, get the door!” Zico ordered and the maknae broke off from the group and ran to the front doors, locking them and barring them with a random person’s umbrella.

U-Kwon pulled his gun out, pointing it at the civilians gathered there. “Everybody down!” he ordered, gesturing to the ground. They dropped onto all fours, trying to keep out of the gun’s range.

The rest of the crew followed U-Kwon’s example and, within moments, everyone in the bank, except them, was on the ground.

Suddenly a gunshot rang through the air. The crew turned towards B-Bomb, who was pointing his gun at a now shattered window. He had seen someone slinking off towards a back exit and he shot the window right above where they were crawling. Each of the guns were loaded with only one real bullet. The boys had no intention of killing, or hurting, anyone but they needed to make everyone believe that they were dangerous. “I said,” B-Bomb reloaded his gun to a bank cartridge and pointed it at the person, a man, who was trying to escape, “on the ground.” The man immediately crouched down and didn’t move. U-Kwon could tell that B-Bomb was smirking behind his mask. “Better,” he said. Then he turned his head to Zico and nodded.

Zico nodded back. “Taeil, Kyung, with me,” he ordered and then turned to the other four boys, “you guys hold the fort.”

U-Kwon nodded to the leader and turned to the rest. “Alright, perimeter,” he said, taking over the leader role. The others immediately spread out, keeping the people away from the walls and windows, and held their guns ready.

Zico meanwhile lead Taeil and Kyung through the bank and towards the vault.

“How much are we gonna take?” Kyung asked, absentmindedly loading and unloading his gun.

Zico shrugged, not looking away from the approaching vault. “As much as we need,” he said.

The trio stopped in front of the vault and Zico turned to the short hyung. “Taeil, do your thing,” he said. Taeil nodded and slipped off his mask to see better.

He pulled a lollipop out of his pocket and slipped it into his mouth before getting to work on yet another explosive device. After a few minutes of tinkering around, Taeil placed the device in front of the vault and he, and the other two, walked to a safe distance.

Zico looked at the other two. “Alright, let’s get rich,” he said and Taeil pressed another big red button.

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You flipped your long, black hair out of your collar as you skimmed over some boring magazine in the lobby of the bank. All you needed was to deposit your latest work check but the place was crowded, making you have to wait much longer than expected. You had already been waiting for five minutes.

“Number 36, we’re ready for you at desk 4,” the teller called. You looked up when they said your number. No, you weren’t ready yet. You needed a little bit more time. There wasn’t much you could do, however, so you stood up slowly and took your time walking to the desk.

“Hello,” you said, bowing to the teller.

You had barely straightened back up when, suddenly, an explosion rocked the air and the empty wall right next to you shattered, sending debris flying everywhere. The force of the blast sent you falling to the ground and you tried to cover your head and any other exposed skin from the bombardment of stone and metal. You winced as something cut your forearm and blood started to drip down your arm. Time was no longer an issue.

After the explosion a black van drove backwards through the hole until the entire back end was inside the bank. Seven men, each wearing a nice suit with bowties and terrifying clown masks jumped out of the back. Your jaw dropped. Was this the Dark Knight, happening in real life?

Then it was chaos. People started screaming and running around. You just sat their cowering by the teller’s desk, shaking.

“P.O, get the door!” one of the masked robbers ordered in a deep voice and another one nodded, broke off from the group and ran to the front doors, locking them and barring them with a random person’s umbrella.

One of the other robbers whose clown mask had curly red hair pulled his gun out, pointing it at everybody who was running around. “Everybody down!” he ordered, gesturing to the ground. Since you were already on the ground, you just covered your head.

The rest of the robbers followed the other’s example and, within moments, everyone in the bank, except them, was on the ground.

Suddenly a gunshot rang through the air and you covered your ears against the sound. You had never heard a gunshot that close before.

“I said, on the ground,” another robber, the shooter, said in a dark voice. Whoever had been irritating him must have stopped moving because the robber continued. “Better,” he said. You didn’t lift your head.

“Taeil, Kyung, with me,” another robber, the one who seemed to be in charge, ordered. “You guys hold the fort.” Then you heard him walk out of the room with two other sets of footfalls echoing behind him. You spared a glance up and looked at the remaining four robbers. The terrifying masks had an eerie effect that only intensified the situation. Any other time, you might have smiled at such a strange sight but you were in the middle of a hostage situation so smiling didn’t seem like the most appropriate thing to do right now.  

As soon as the leader and the other two robbers were gone, the one with the curly clown hair took charge. “Alright, perimeter,” he said and the others spread out, staying between the hostages and the walls.

The moments after were the most agonizingly tedious that you ever remembered. No one said a word, or moved for that matter. Everyone was scared to even breathe. You took the time to look at your surroundings, the huddled hostages, the gun bearing, clown mask wearing robbers. It all seemed like something out of a movie. You took a closer look at the nearest robber. He was tall, though he was shorter then the rest of the robbers in the room, he was fit, his muscular arms filling out the suit sleeves, and you noticed a little bit of unnaturally blonde hair peeking out underneath his mask. You also noticed that he was looking right at you. As soon as you made eye contact you dropped your gaze. You could tell, however, that he was still looking at you, gaging your movements, studying your physique. It made you blush, feeling his intense gaze on you, so you sat there, playing with your fingers, with an adorable pink flush to your cheeks.

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She was cute, the girl sitting on the ground next to the teller’s desk. U-Kwon admired her glossy, black hair, her nicely curved body, and her shining eyes. She was looking at him too, sizing him up, taking time to appreciate his toned arms. U-Kwon smirked beneath his mask. Then she met his eyes, her own eyes widening in surprise, and then looked back to the ground.

Suddenly another explosion, a smaller, more distant one, made the ground shake a bit. Taeil must have gotten into the vault. They would be heading back the the lobby in the next few minutes after filling their bags with as much cash as they could hold. Everything was going as planned.

Then the sound of sirens started up in the distance. Crap. The hostages started to move around, hope filling them at that sound.

“Everyone stop moving!” B-Bomb yelled, taking a menacing step towards the huddled group. When they didn’t stop U-Kwon decided to use his one real shot and shattered another window, halting all movement again. He spared a glance at the girl again. She hadn’t moved but was watching him again.

“Alright crew, let’s pack it up!” Zico ordered as he, Taeil, and Kyung ran into the lobby baring nearly bursting bags of cash.

“Zico, the cops are on their way,” Jaehyo informed him, gesturing towards the window with his gun.

Zico stopped in his tracks. That was a problem. Taking a quick look around the room, Zico spotted the girl U-Kwon had been watching. She was sitting by herself, away from the group, and close to the van. Zico turned to U-Kwon. “Plan B,” he stated, jerking his chin at the girl.

U-Kwon nodded and walked to the girl. He grabbed her forearm and pulled her roughly to her feet. “Now you get to see me up close,” he said in a low, cocky voice. He started to pull her towards the van.

“What are you doing?!” she exclaimed, trying to pull her arm free with no avail, her voice slightly shaking.

The robber pulled her closer so she bumped into his chest and she was able to see his eyes. “You’re coming with us, babe,” he stated before pulling her towards the van again. Kyung got to the van first, threw his bag inside, picked up a few things and walked back to U-Kwon and the girl. He took a black bag and covered her head with it, basically blinding her, and then fastened a pair of handcuffs on her wrists.

“Let’s go,” he said and hopped back into the van. U-Kwon scooped the girl up bridal style, earning a cute little shriek of surprise from her, and lifted her into the van and into Kyung’s waiting arms.  

Meanwhile the rest of the guys made their way to the van, picking up their gear and then loading the van until Zico was the only one still standing in the lobby. He turned to the group of hostages and opened his arms as if he were making a speech. “Thank you all so much for being such excellent hostages, you’ve all been wonderful. Please feel free to take the rest of the day off.” With that he jumped into van, shut the doors, and the van was gone as quickly as it had come.

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You were in the van, seated between two of the robbers. Your breath bounced off the bag covering your head and hit you back in hot bursts.

“Well that could’ve gone worse,” one of them said. He had a surprisingly deep voice.

“I agree,” the one you identified as the leader said, “good job, crew.”

“So, why’d we take her?” another one, the soft voice that had warned the leader of the cops, asked.

“Because now we have leverage against the cops, and all of those people back at the bank know we have her so they’ll be sure to tell the police,” the leader explained. “They won’t be coming after us right away. By the time they do, we’ll be long gone.”

Finally, you had enough. “Excuse me,” you spoke up in a confident voice, though is was muffled a bit, “I don’t mean to be an ungrateful hostage or anything, but can you please remove the bag over my head and the handcuffs?”

There was the sound of shuffling next to you and then the scratchy bag was lifted away and you could see the grungy interior of the van you were thrown roughly into. Three of the bank robbers sat unmasked in front of you, while two were sitting on either side of you and the final two were sitting in the driver and passenger seats up front. The person who had removed the bag, an attractive blonde with three piercings in each ear, reached back towards you and helped to remove the hand cuffs, his hands lingering on yours for much longer than necessary. Then he smiled at you, a gorgeous smile that you had grown to love over the past few years.

“How’d I do, Kwonnie?” you asked your boyfriend of three years playfully.

U-Kwon slipped his arm around your shoulders and pulled you closer. “You did great, baby,” he said, nuzzling you neck and placed a kiss on it.

“If I didn’t know you any better,” P.O, the red-haired maknae spoke up from your other side, “I’d say that you actually thought we were taking you hostage.”

You gave him a wink. “Acting is one of my many talents, kiddo,” you told him.

Across the isle, Taeil started chuckling. “If only those people in the bank could see you now,” he mused. “You’d have one heck of a time explaining yourself.”

You just shrugged and wrapped your arms around U-Kwon’s waist. “I’d just say…” you thought for a minute before coming up with the perfect description. Smiling devilishly, you finished your sentence with two simple words, “Stockholm Syndrome.”