The moment his feet hit the pavement, he ran to the edge of the sidewalk, an arm outstretched to hail the first cab that would stop at his call.

“Pick up, pick up, pick up.” He muttered, his teeth clenched. The recurring dial tone did nothing to ease the nervous pounding in his chest.

When finally, the dial tone cut short, he didn’t wait for the greeting from the other side before he practically burst.

“Hyung? What the hell have you been up to? Why didn’t you show up to work this morning? And where the hell are you right now?” He spit the questions out like rapid-fire.

The voice that came over the line was not the voice he was expecting to hear, but it was not unfamiliar either.

 “.. Hyung.”

Eunhyuk’s eyes momentarily widened in shock. He pulled his phone away from his face to glance at the caller ID before quickly pressing the phone to his ear again.

“Sangyeob? What-” A taxi came to a stop in front of him and he yanked open the door. “Why do you have Dongha’s phone?”

“Kind of a long story… He left it on his desk at home… so…”

He asked the driver to head for the main headquarters of Kim Corporations and to go as fast as he could, then turned his attention back to his phone.

 “Not that long. You broke in. End of story.” Eunhyuk’s admonishing was only half the full bite, given that he wasn’t surprised all that much. “Look, this is urgent. I need you to confirm with his secretary what his plans are for this morning-”

“I already did. Minho says he took the morning off.”

“… .”

The driver was humming distractedly along to the pop song on the radio the whole way as drove along, and didn't seem interested in listening to what Eunhyuk had to say. Nevertheless, he lowered his voice. 

“Hyung, I think…” Jinwoo sounded gutted. “I think Dongha’s in Korea.” Before Eunhyuk could put in a word, he continued. “He got a text from their secretary - Yoon Bora - reminding him of a meeting this morning at 10 am. They'd agreed to trade insider information. But it looks like he didn’t show.”

“He didn’t show?” But Lee Donghae did.

He squeezed his eyes shut, tried to tune out the traffic noise and mentally run a list of places Sekyu could possibly have disappeared to.

“… But you knew that already, didn’t you? That’s why you’re heading for Kim Corp now?” Jinwoo sounded just as restless as he felt.

“. I got nothing.” Eunhyuk breathed out harshly. “Where are you headed now?”

“I… I don’t know.” Jinwoo sounded just as restless as he did. “Just back to the office, I guess. I don’t know. I feel like I should do something.”

“Okay,” Eunhyuk’s voice slipped into authority. “I’m going to send you a list of addresses, and I’m going to need you to check out these places for me.”

 “What places?”

“His… other places.” He said grudgingly. “Places he takes girls to for the night. He never takes them home.”

“… Oh.”

“Check them out, see if he’s been in there recently. It’s already halfway through the day but maybe a girl might still be there.” He looked out the window and spotted the high rise Kim Corporation glass building that seemed to stretch up into the clouds. “Check the security camera footage for the main house and around his private apartments, try and find out who he was with last night because maybe just maybe he might have mentioned something when he left them this morning, probably not, but just maybe he might have so track them down but-”

“Footage first, right.”

“Okay.”

He interrupted quickly when he realised Eunhyuk was going to end the call there. “Wait!”

“What is it?”

“This is all… weird. Why doesn’t he have his phone with him?”

Eunhyuk sighed in exasperation. “That’s why I’m telling you to check the footage, Yeobbie.”

Yeobbie. He never used that endearment unless they were absolutely alone spending brother time together. Or if he wanted to keep him calm, or persuade him of something.

. He cursed himself mentally.

“…Hyung?”

Eunhyuk swallowed. “Yes?”

“You think Sekyu’s in trouble.” It wasn’t really a question.

“… He might not be.”

“I trust you, and I really…” He hesitated and Eunhyuk held his breath. “…care about you, and Dongha-hyung too. You both know that.” His voice was shattered, absolutely betrayed, and Eunhyuk simply let his head fall back on the head rest. “But you have to tell me.”

“About what?” Eunhyuk’s tone was even, too measured. It was futile hiding anything at this point.

“I don’t know. Something. There’s something you two know about that I don’t.” He could sense the frustration building up from Jinwoo’s side, his tone became more cutting and ends punctuated. “Or something you know about Dongha-hyung and he thinks you know.” He was clearly upset now, indignant. “Whatever it is, you’re not telling me. Why not?”

Eunhyuk sighed. “Now isn’t really the time…”

“No. Now’s the perfect time. I’m already on my way to Dongha-hyung’s first house. I already know where those are. So don’t hang up. Talk to me.” There was a loud hum as Eunhyuk heard him foot the accelerator. “I’m sick of this, watching you guys talk to each other and side step this big issue because we’re one big happy family, aren’t we? And everyone’s a bloody angel.” The bitterness in Jinwoo’s voice made Eunhyuk’s chest cave in with shame. “You guys don’t think I don’t know something’s up? You told me you don’t trust him, now tell me why, Hyung.”

Eunhyuk took in a deep breath, then exhaled.

“Well… He’s working with the Kims. You’ve worked out that much?”

 “Yes, I have.” He could practically hear him rolling his eyes from across the ocean. “Keep going.”

“He’s had correspondence with them for the past few months and I don’t know why. He hasn’t mentioned it to anyone except his secretary, and I only found this out by chance.”

“So Minho’s been keeping you in the loop then.” Jinwoo filled in.

The words were coming easier to him now, the weight of a guilty burden slowly being lifted from his chest as he fed the information over the line. “Yes. He had contact with them just last week. I don’t know why. Minho doesn’t know the details either, only that he’s had him mail things over and he found out the address was for Kim Heechul’s personal home.” 

“Mailing?” Jinwoo sounded ambivalent.

“Just small envelopes. Whatever information he’s sending over, he doesn’t want anyone to know.” Eunhyuk scratched his chin with his thumb. “He’s not leaving any traces online.” 

“But you have an idea, don’t you?”  

“Yes. Yes, I do.”

Of course he did.

*

He couldn’t see a thing, not with the blindfold covering half his face. The ropes dug uncomfortably into his wrists, and he found that he couldn’t move his feet either. His face pressed against the cold floor. He shifted his weight to the other side to get more comfortable, to free his left shoulder of the strain.

“Hello, Lee Dongha-ssi.”

The deep voice reverberated in the room. It was a small room. It seemed to be just him and the guy alone. He wasn’t standing far away.

“So you know my name.” He was both disoriented and amused.

“Names are irrelevent, really." His captor sounded bored.

They sat in mutual silence for a few moments.

“So tell me." Sekyu tilted his face up towards the light through his blindfolds and put on a smirk. "To whom do I owe the pleasure for the experience of this first class cold captivity?”

There was no reply, but he could almost hear him shrug. 

“Ahh. You don't care." Sekyu spelled out for him. 

It didn't seem like the man was going to hurt him any time soon. If he wanted him dead, he would be right now. 

"So. You don't know why you're here... and you don't know why I'm here." Sekyu prompted lightly. 

The chuckle in reply had no soul in it. "I could take a guess."

"Humour me."

"Seemed like you were in a rush to get somewhere, so I'd say they wanted to buy some time." There was the unpleasant singing noise of metal scraping against metal, and he assumed the man was sharpening a blade. "But then again, you're some big hotshot, aren't you? I'd venture to guess they're sending someone a message."

Sekyu hummed and oriented himself towards the direction of his captor's voice. "To who?"

Another shing as the knife sang.

“Like I know who would care if you disappeared." 

The captor's voice was young. He presumed he was younger than himself. 

“I suppose my brothers should be looking for me about now.” Sekyu mused. "You have any brothers?"

“Two. Middle child." He heard him put the knives down and imagined his captor sitting up against a wall, watching his limp rope-bound body on the floor. Imagined he was simply waiting and watching. Bored.

"Ahh, the struggle of a middle child." Sekyu sounded anything but empathetic. "Not that I would know, but I'd say mommy and daddy never gave you the attention you deserved. Poor child." 

His captor scoffed, unimpressed. "Whatever sob story floats your boat." 

“Come on..." Sekyu sounded bored. "what are you supposed to do with me?”  

“I’m waiting on instructions.” The mysterious captor answered.

Sekyu sighed. "Fair. And the knives?”

“Just a hobby of mine.”

Sekyu had his doubts, but played along anyway. “You must have quite the collection.”

"I do. They're my treasures. I polish them everyday." There was unmistakable pride in the man's voice, and Sekyu pictured him smiling as he held the blade up towards the ceiling and twisted it in the light. 

"Ah, I know exactly how you feel." Sekyu said, grinning blindly. "But my personal collections happen to be a little more on the expensive side. And I don't do knives."

The man snickered. "Clearly."

"So what do you like to cut?"

"Mm. Rope. Fabric. Car tyres." His captor listed off nonchalantly. "Sometimes human flesh is fun." 

“So I’m a sitting duck then.” Sekyu deduced cooly. If he felt any fear or any anxiety, he certainly didn't show it.

“Like I said." The captor yawned. "Depends on my instructions.”

*

a/n*

(missxielan)

this chapter update was originally short but then mj almost cried so i had to change some things. make it longer. 

bc i love mj and because i couldnt bear to see her kiss her beloved sekyu goodbye (or "torment and kill him" in the coming chapters because she claimed the previous sekyu i wrote wasnt sekyu, which, trUE, i ruined him l m a o, im sorry reALLY)  i changed him up totally and yeah hope this new sekyu works better for you CHINGU <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 

i dont actually know okay like i like writing o/c i want to give this captor more showtime tbh but well hes just a one off paid captor so yeah no stardom for poor o/c captor but i kinda like o/c captor  just because hes O/C is this weird? 

also i refuse to write jinwoo like a puppy (yes hes a puppy) but i am giving this puppy bite 

also i decided i cant do witty or snarky or whatever it is i just ing cant im not savage enough

bYE