Authors's Note: Even though I struggled a bit with the first part of this chapter, I think everything turned out decent.... Shout out to rumi93 for being my beta, you're a great editor!

ALSO, congrats to the BTS boys for winning the Artist of the Year at MAMA yesterday! I was very happy for them! Their performances rocked as usual, but....Hello? Jin and V's little devil act? That was like my imaginations coming true!

Anyways, hope you guys enjoy! P.S. The devil is going to make an appearance soon, anyone excited?

Gone

Early morning, Jan 21^st

          Thump.

          Thump, thump.

          Thump.

          The sound of his heart dominated his senses when V slowly gained consciousness. His eyelids fluttered as he registered a dull pain from his head. For some reason that he couldn’t recall, the pain was masked by a fog of grogginess. Was it the lack of sleep? Did he practice until the early morning again, yesterday?

          He tried to wake himself up further by shifting his body, but immediately discovered that even the slightest movement of his head greatly amplified the dizziness. In fact, his eyelids felt weighed down when he tried to lift them. But with great effort, he eventually managed to crack his eyes open and inspect his surroundings.

          As a member of a popular K-pop boy band, V has long gotten used to the fact that, occasionally, he might wake up in an unfamiliar room. There were times when their schedules were so hectic that they slept in different hotels for a few consecutive days. He had already lost count of the number of hotel rooms that he had spent only one night in.

          Therefore, he was not very surprised to find himself lying on a soft white bed in a dimly lit room. Still, he felt slightly uneasy when he couldn’t recognize this room at all. His eyes took in the furniture of the room as he tried to remember what had led him to stay here the night before.

          He spotted a TV that sat by the far wall of the room, a dresser that stood along the wall to his right, and a heavy looking door to his left. There was also a small bedside table on the left-side of his bed, where he usually placed his phone—

          It suddenly hit him. He was in the practice room, Jimin wanted his help, he went but couldn’t find Jimin, he was coming back, he was in the alley, and then…

          Fear took residence in his heart as his entire body tensed up. The attacker! He could remember the attacker constraining him and stabbing him with something sharp. His hand flung to his neck but the action found him nothing but another bout of dizziness. He pulled in a sharp breath as he frantically searched the room for any signs of danger.

          Luckily, he seemed to be the only one in the room. He relaxed for a fleeting second before forcing himself to calm down. Where was he?

          Now that his memories have returned, he could tell that this was definitely not another hotel room. The room had wood planks instead of carpet for its floors and the lamp on the bedside table was the only source of light for the entire room. There were also no windows, he realized as his heart sank, was he in some sort of basement?

          His eyes relocated the door on his left. No, he was definitely not staying in this place any longer. He tried to prop himself up on his elbows but was instantly hit by a wave of nausea. It didn’t help that the pain in his head seemed to be getting more pronounced by the second. The dizziness was threatening to overtake him as it was becoming difficult to keep his eyes open.

          Knowing that this might be his only chance at escaping, he gritted his teeth together and struggled to keep his eyes from closing. The strain on his jaw intensified his headache, but he stubbornly pushed himself into a sitting position before flinging one leg off the bed.

          Immediately, he knew that his movement was too swift. Dizziness assaulted him and he felt the world spinning rapidly on its axis. Even though he was struck by a strong urge to throw up, he managed to swing down his other leg and lifted himself off of the mattress.

          He stumbled forward towards the ground as the quick change in position threw off his balance. Even though he tried with all his effort to straighten up his body, the powerful force of dizziness soon defeated him, causing him to trip over his own feet.

          No! He shouted desperately in his mind. I need to get out! He kept his eyes locked on the door as he once again collapsed helplessly on the floor. He fought to keep his vision intact, but the world of unconsciousness quickly dragged him back to darkness.

1:32 am, Jan 21^st

          The BTS members were gathered in the main office of the company, their practices long forgotten. It has been 2 hours since they noticed the absence of a certain member during their practice session. Some of the members were pacing around restlessly, while others were huddled together, trying to keep their minds from coming up with horrible scenarios.

          They all looked up as their manager hyung entered the office.

          “Did you find him? Where is he?” Rap Monster stopped his pacing and sprinted towards the door.

          “No. We checked all the nearby streets, parks, and stores. No one has seen him.” The manager delivered the bad news in a frustrated tone. There was also a hint of fear that underlined his sentence.

          Silence settled over the room as the members’ dread was increased to another level. Their wild imaginations about what might have happened to V were taking over their conscious thoughts.

          “Let’s try calling him again.” Jin suggested, breaking the silence.

          The manager absently nodded his head as he dialed the number for the umpteenth time in the last hour, desperately hoping that V could pick up.

          When the boys first noticed the unusual tardiness of the 95z boy, they had assumed that like Jimin, he was simply tied up in some small incident and would return in the next few minutes.

          The situation quickly turned worrying as V had failed to pick up any of their calls when they wanted to question his whereabouts. The boys quickly alerted their manager, who was greatly alarmed that no one knew where V was heading to when he stepped out.

          The security guard of the building has confirmed seeing V leave the building at around midnight, but could not provide any other information. Thus the managers went on a hunt around the neighborhood but could not find anything after scouring the streets for an hour.

          The manager threw down his phone and rubbed his hands across his weary face. Again, he was not able to reach V.

          “Maybe his phone ran out of battery. Or he just lost his phone, like I did.” Jimin quickly tried to reassure Jungkook, who was sitting beside him and looked close to tears.

          “But hyung, it’s so late now. And it’s so cold outside, where could he be?” Jungkook could not be consoled. He knew this was not just an impromptu outing planned by V.

          Jin came by and wrapped an arm around Jungkook’s shoulder, gently patting him in an attempt to comfort him.

          “Why didn’t I ask him where he was going? Why didn’t I go with him?” J-Hope was blaming himself for not making sure of V’s safety when he had the chance. “He told me he was heading out and I didn’t even look at him!”

          “Don’t think like that. None of us paid any attention, it’s not your fault. No one thought this would happen.” Suga finally spoke up after being mostly silent throughout this ordeal.

          “So what should we do now, hyung?” The leader who had resumed his pacing, paused and asked the manager.

          “I’ve called 112*.” The manager let out a huge sigh as he leaned back and slumped against his chair. “They will be here shortly, they should be able to find him.”

          The members looked at the manager and then at each other. Despite the statement, none of them felt too convinced, but they hoped for the best and waited.

*112: South Korea's number for the Police

3:14 am, Jan 21^st

          It has been about 22 hours since the BTS boys had last slept, but not one of them felt the slightest hint of tiredness. They could hardly stay in their seats when they waited impatiently for the officers to finish their initial investigation. However, the results were very disappointing and haunting.

          It has been found out that the current cashier at the nearby convenience store has just started his shift at midnight. When they contacted the cashier that worked the previous shift, the man admitted that he had seen a boy that fit the description of V entering the store. Though, he added that the boy seemed to be in a hurry and didn’t buy anything before leaving.

          The officers had asked for the footage of the surveillance camera of the convenience store, only to find that it has been broken since the day before and hadn’t been fixed yet. Further investigation showed that the cause was the cut wires located behind the camera.

          The timing and reason for the breakage of the camera screamed intentional, but none of the surrounding streets had any signs of struggle or traces of suspicious vehicles. Thus, no conclusion could be given based on this evidence, and the officers left with a promise to continue the investigation.

          To everyone else though, this situation could only have one obvious conclusion. The answer was like a bright neon sign that everyone tried to avoid looking at.

          V had been kidnapped.

          The members tried to keep their emotions in check as they digested the frightening news, but their imaginations were starting to run away from them, creating countless terrible events that V could be forced to endure. The despair was spreading in the room, clouding the minds of everyone present.

          “Who is this f**king bastard that dared to take V?” Suga couldn’t help himself from swearing as his temper exploded. “Who does this guy think he is? He must be just f**king obsessed with money to mess with us!”

          No one responded. There was honestly nothing that could be said to make this situation any better.

          “V hyung…” Jungkook whimpered and curled himself into a small ball on his chair. His tears had been falling nonstop ever since the officers left.

          His hyungs tried to console him the best they could, but other than providing silent support, they were at a lost for what else to do. Because truthfully, they were all terrified of what could happen, or what had already happened. So for a long time, they just silently sat together, with Jungkook’s occasional sniffles being the only sound in the room.

          Now that every schedule had been cancelled, the managers had half-heartedly told them to go back to their dorm and get some rest. The members had refused. They claimed that they weren’t tired, but they all knew that they were just grasping onto the sliver of hope buried deep in their hearts. Hoping that in just a while, V would rush into the office, apologizing for worrying everyone and subtly blaming them for not looking for him.

          The managers were also at a loss of what to do. They had dealt with the various schedules, apologizing and giving out vague explanations for cancelling them. This was their attempt at trying to keep the incident unexposed for as long as possible. They were afraid that the kidnapper would harm V in any way if the police’s interference was made public.

          But they all knew that this was a futile attempt. V’s panicking parents were going to head to Seoul on the earliest bus possible, and the fans would soon start asking questions. In no time, the paparazzi were going to latch onto this and every piece of information available to make their headlines. There was no way to prevent the endless speculations of the curious netizens unless they provided true information.

          The situation did not look like it was going to get any better.