Once again, Namjoon had returned home as Hong Jung Yee was leaving. As the taxi turned the corner towards his home, he saw two men enter a black car in the drive way. He was still too far to see their facial features but there was something about the way the man in the blue suit carried himself that seemed familiar. It bothered him even as he paid the taxi driver.

          The whole night, he could not focus on anything. It had gotten so bad that the manager personally came to request if he could retire early for the night. He knew that if he were to return home, he would only end up pacing. He saw how all the members were doing all they could to find Daeun. He felt obliged to do something as well so he returned to the one place he never thought he would step foot into again: his mother’s house.

          It was not that he returned to see her for comfort. He had not received anything like that in years and he felt no need for it either. He only returned to see the man that his mother had been remarried to. His stepfather had definitely been shocked when he opened the door after Namjoon had knocked. The man had nearly not recognized him if not for the fact that Namjoon had said his name first.

          After inviting him in, his stepfather had courteously asked what he could do for Namjoon. That was their relationship after all. They met only as obligation for the fact that they both loved the same woman. The fact that Namjoon had showed up without his mother’s request meant only that there was something he wanted.

          John was police just like Namjoon’s biological father. Namjoon wanted to see if perhaps the police station could do something that could locate a missing person. After vaguely explaining the situation he was in, Namjoon requested if his stepfather could do anything. His stepfather had scratched his head and had told him that as it was not even twenty-four hours since they had last seen Daeun, this could not be treated as a missing person’s case. In addition, Daeun was not an American citizen and they could not do anything. He had said he would keep his eyes out for any information about piers and a girl.

          Upon leaving, his stepfather had said one thing: “Your mother misses you. If you’re available, come for dinner. It’d be a lovely surprise for her.”

          Namjoon had only nodded. Truthfully, he was still unsure if he could forgive her.

          The members were still seated around the table when he walked through the door.

          “Who was that?” he asked when they looked up to meet him.

          “The man whom Daeun works for. He gave us some information,” Seokjin said, “I heard you met with someone today who you think could help us find Daeun.”

          “I did, but he couldn’t do much. What about Daeun’s boss? What did he tell you?” Namjoon took a seat with them. At the mention of Daeun’s boss, Namjoon remembered why he thought the man had seemed familiar. He must have bumped into him the times he waited outside her workplace.

          “He also didn’t give us much. He had a theory that Robert Viktor was behind this,” Seokjin explained the previous situation to him.

          After hearing it all, Namjoon sighed. “So there isn’t much to work with at the end then. We haven’t moved forward at all. We still have no idea where Daeun could be.”

          “Well, there’s this area that we could look into. It’s a big area, but with the six of us I think we can cover it in no time,” Seokjin told him. He rubbed his eyes and sighed as well. He knew that they were all tired and worried but as the leader, he had to provide the strength that they didn’t have.

          “Seven,” Namjoon said, “I can help. I’m not able to concentrate at work anyways.”

          Seokjin gave him a reassuring smile. He had forgotten that over time, Namjoon had become their seventh member. “Alright, but before we do anything else, I’m ordering each one of you to at least rest in your room if not take a nap. We aren’t able to do anything if our bodies can barely function.”

          It was like his words were a spell; they could all feel the fatigue they had been pushing away hit them like a tsunami. Slowly, one by one, they left the table wordlessly. As the last one to go, Seokjin put a hand on Namjoon’s shoulder as they parted ways.

          Her neck ached as it had been arched back for so long. As the night passed by, or what she assumed as night because there was no way for her to tell the time, she had nearly fallen asleep three times. However, the device strapped around her neck had woken her each moment. The last time her eyes had closed, the fork had dug deep into her skin and she had felt the warmth of blood flowing down her neck. It wasn’t the fatigue that had driven her insane. It was the fact that she suddenly felt invincible. She believed that there was nobody in the world who had been kidnapped and tortured as many times as she had been in the last year. It would get her into the Guinness Book of World Records for sure.

          Beside her, Jay was peeling an orange. Robert had been coming in and leaving throughout so she could never anticipate when she would see him again. She knew that there were two other men that were stationed as guards to keep watch for the doorway while Jay was there guarding her. He threw the peel in the bag by his foot and stuffed a slice into his mouth. With nobody else to talk to, he had started talking to her. And he was an extremely talkative man.

          “My girl asked me the other day what I’d think if we had a baby…” Jay rambled on in his topic from before. Daeun’s eyes were starting to close again and her body urged her to fall into slumber. She couldn’t lean back as the previous burns were too painful but she couldn’t lean forward in fear that she’d get a hole through her chest. Even the simple act of swallowing was too much for her.

          “…so I told her, ‘That’s too much work.’ You know what happened? She went all bat- crazy! Started screaming about how I didn’t love her and that I take work over her all the time. She accused me of loving somebody else and it was insane. Let me tell you, I may be an at times but I only love her. She captivated my heart the first time I saw her and my life’s been changed. I don’t even know what I did wrong,” he said.

          The oranges left its sticky juice between his fingers. He contemplated on it but his hands have been in many places since he was tasked to watch over this girl. Reminded that she was still there, he turned and regarded her. Through his time with her, he had come up with all possibilities about who she was and what her importance was to the man who hired him. In a way, he even started to feel a small ounce of respect for her. If he was in her spot, he would have given whatever information that was demanded. There was no need to endure through the torture.

           had been so dry that there was no saliva left for her to swallow. She shifted slightly in her seat as the small of her back screamed for sitting in an uncomfortable spot for a long time. It was a desperate internal battle to keep the vision of a warm house, the smiles of the people she saw as family and his face in her mind. Despite it all, she could feel the darkness around these images pressing in.

          Cold liquid jolted her awake. It was the sweetest thing she had tasted in her life.

          Jay carefully took a look behind him before pouring another thin stream of water into . “I don’t think I’m supposed to do this, but you haven’t drunk anything in forever. I mean… I don’t think he wants you dead,” he continued speaking while she swallowed, “I know you can’t exactly swallow so just… I don’t know… blink when you’re ready for some more water.”

          Daeun blinked as hard as she could to urge him for more.

          “I really don’t know why you won’t say anything. If you gave him what he wanted, then none of us would have to be here. That came out wrong. I meant to say, you could be unhurt at home and I could be finding Marie. After our argument, the one I was telling you about, I left our house and it’s been a while since I saw her.”

          She coughed and he took it as a cue that she was hydrated. He shuffled back to his seat when he heard the door to the room being opened.

          Robert Viktor walked through the door with an annoyed expression. His father had been lecturing him all morning on his ride here about how fruitless this mission was. It enraged him that he had to be reminded that everything he had been doing was a failure.

          “Morning, Boss,” Jay snapped to attention when Robert walked by.

          Robert gagged when he breezed past the boy he had hired. He could smell the stench off him and the scent mixed with the pungency of orange peels was not at all pleasant.

          “Did she say anything?” he asked. Scanning Daeun once through, he saw that she was pretty much the same as he had left her the night before. Well, with an added haggardness and a deep puncture from the fork.

          Jay scratched his head. “Pretty much the same as yesterday,” he commented.

          Spinning with a snarl, Robert spat, “I didn’t ask how she was. I asked if she said anything.”

          The other man swallowed. “Nothing, sir, nothing at all.”

          The lack of response from her made his blood boil and he stomped out of the room. He needed to find a way to make her talk soon.

          Hoseok gritted his teeth and spun on his heel. The whole morning had passed and nobody had discovered any new information on where Daeun might be. Seokjin had split the area Hong Jung Yee had provided for them into six equal areas for each member. While Seokjin acted as headquarters, each member was to thoroughly scan the given area for all information. His efforts had been to no avail. Not a single person recognized her photo in this area.

          The late afternoon sun beat down on his back as he walked under the shade of a tree. There was an empty bench underneath it and so he took a seat while reaching for the bottle of water he kept by his side. Taking a swing, his fingers pulled up the video he had input onto his phone before coming out. The action was so practiced he virtually did it unconsciously.

          Watching the video did not reveal anything they hadn’t already discussed. Yoongi had messaged everyone when his program finished scanning the video to tell them that the only thing it had discovered was that the video was taken late evening, which meant Daeun sent it right after she recorded it. But that wasn’t helpful. So even though she had given them an SOS message, nobody could decipher what it meant.

          His eyes idly watched the video replay. He was tired but there was nothing that could stop him until he saw her safe. The blood curdling scream could faintly be heard through his phone as the video ended and froze again on the frame that said “present”.

          The unsettling feeling he had finally bubbled over and he snarled at his phone, “Present what, Chae Daeun? What are you trying to present to us? If you’re trying to tell us that it’s that snake who took you then – ”

          He froze. Snake. He looked up from his phone and found a young businessman who was sitting at a bench across the walkway, completing a crossword on his lunch break. Immediately, he ran towards him.

          “Pen? Pen?” Hoseok asked the gentleman. He cursed himself for his lack of studies in English.

          The man handed Hoseok the pen with a little suspicion as it was strange to see somebody dressed in all black with a hood pulled over his head and bloodshot eyes.

          “Thanks,” Hoseok slightly bowed.

          Hoseok stood off to the side and wrote on his hand. It felt like ages ago, but he remembered when Daeun had once started lecturing him about how he kept referring to Robert Viktor as a snake. It only started as a joke, but after doing a little digging on the Viktor family, Hoseok had discovered that Robert’s father was a big movie buff. That led to him purchasing a small movie company that produced small indie films. The company had renamed itself under the request of its new owners and changed to “Genesis”. It wasn’t the name in itself that caused Hoseok to keep his nickname for Robert, but the fact that its logo was a serpent coiled around an apple. It was then Hoseok deemed “snake” the equivalent to Robert Viktor.

          Serpent – or another word for snake. He looked down at the word he had written on his palm and back to the word on the video. He wasn’t hallucinating. Present was an anagram for serpent. He quickly returned the pen to the businessman who had already packed up his lunch, ready to leave after witnessing Hoseok’s strange behaviour.

          He then called Seokjin. Seokjin picked up after the second ring.

          “Hyung, search up buildings in the area under Genesis.”

          “Genesis?” Seokjin repeated the foreign name.

          “It’s – it’s a movie production company, bought by the Viktor family in 1998. It could be bought or rented.” Hoseok rapidly started running to the east, where he thought he may have seen an old pier that was being built to resemble a movie set.

          “There’s an old warehouse that is being rented by that company. It’s not in your area though. It’s on the edge of Jungkook’s area. I’ll send the address to your phone. But what is this place?”

          “I think it’s where Daeun’s being held. Actually, wait. I know that’s where she’s being held.” His legs were fully sprinting in the direction. His memory had served him correct.

          Through his ear piece, he could hear Seokjin getting up from his seat. He didn’t need to ask as he already knew what Seokjin was going to say.

          “I’m going to send backup. Be careful when you get there, Hoseok,” Seokjin called through his ear piece.

          “I will,” Hoseok said. He hung up then looked at the address Seokjin had sent him.

          “Hello,” Namjoon’s voice was hoarse.

          “Hi, Namjoon,” his stepfather greeted him, “You don’t sound so good.”

          “Don’t concern yourself over me,” Namjoon returned, “Is Mom alright?”

          “She’s fine. I didn’t call you because of her.”

          “Oh?”

          "The last time you came to visit, you told me to keep my eyes out for any strange occurrences – particularly ones involving a girl? Well, I might have something for you.”

          Namjoon stopped walking. He swallowed before saying, “What do you have?”

          There was a shuffling of papers followed by his stepfather taking a sip from his drink. “It came in just a while ago. A staff member made a report about hearing female screams come from a building his company recently bought for a movie set. He also mentioned that he had seen a group of men frequently walk through the property. I was planning to send a couple of my boys to check the place out but I wanted to see if you wanted a look for yourself first.”

          Namjoon sighed. So at the end, it was a baseless report that he was receiving. Feeling dejected, but wanting to talk to somebody, he casually asked the question, “Who owns the building? Maybe it was some new staff taking a look through the area.”

          More shuffling of papers. “Uh… an indie production company named “Adams”. Or rather, they’re now called Genesis because they were bought by a Mr. Viktor in 1998.”

          The information caused Namjoon to freeze. “Viktor? As in Robert Viktor?” the question came as a whisper.

          “Actually, yes. How did you know?”

          “It’s a name I’ve been hearing a lot about recently. What’s the address?”

          “4591 Adelaide Court. It’s close to Old Port.”

          “Thanks. Also, hold off sending your men there for now.”

          “What? Why? If it’s some type of hostage situation – ”

          “I’m going to check it out now. I’ll, uh, give you a call once it’s clear,” Namjoon dashed off to the direction. Old Port was only a couple of blocks away.

          “Namjoon, you’re not getting into anything dangerous, are you? Because if you are, as your father I’m going to have to tell you to stop.”

          “You’re not my father,” Namjoon shot back. He regretted the words as soon as he said it. John had been nothing but helpful after Namjoon’s strange request yet he was being a petty child that still held grudges after all this time. He didn’t want to hear John’s response so he ended the call.

          He shook his mind mentally. He finally knew where Daeun was and saving her should be the only thing on his mind.

This is a short chapter, I apologize (at least compared to my other chapters). I feel like I know who the majority of you are voting for to save Daeun (ahemHoseokahem) but at this point... Who do you think she wants to save her? 

I have some exciting news! I actually just finished writing out the entirety of this story haha. I've been reading through it and editing the harsher bits, but you can definitely anticipate some more frequent updates (permitted that school doesn't decide to destroy me)! :) With that being said, there are still one or two more large events that I have planned out so don't worry, you'll be stuck with me a little longer. 

Following up on the last chapter's post, I actually decided to upload my ceo!jimin fic on tumblr (I'm a little lazy to come up with a poster, foreward, description etc). If you guys are interested, comment down below and I'll provide you with a link! 

Anways, thank you all once again for your lovely comments, subscriptions and/or upvotes! And if you're a silent reader, I still appreciate you supporting me with views. Hugs and kisses for you all! Mwah~~