The Banana Milk
Chasing Rabbits
Myungsoo's Pov
So Dongwoo found out the location of a factory which is most likely where the pirates headquarters are at. Ellie and Nina helped us find more information on it on the internet but there was little about it. Apparently the factory was sold by the owners years ago and hasn't been producing much since then. However, the place did not look abandoned, in fact it was guarded 24 hours and cars drove in and out of the gates.
I decided to walk around the area and ask the local shops if they knew anything about it. I didn't want to take Ellie with me but she insisted. "I think we should ask there." She pointed at a small shop next to a gas station.
When we walked in, we pretended to be shoppers so Ellie grabbed a couple of snacks for us while I looked around. As soon as I turned my eyes away from Ellie, she had already a pile of junk food.
"All that?!" I exclaimed.
"Yup! Oh and these chips too." She smiled while I stared at her suspiciously.
…It feels like she's taking advantage of the situation…or she's hungry….
"Fine!" I took the pile and took it all to the counter while she jumped in excitement.
"You are a nice boyfriend." The lady at the cashier giggled and it made me awkward.
….I'm supposed to ask about the factory but I don't know how…I'm not good at making conversations out of nothing…
I laughed nervously while Ellie stared at the gum packages by the counter….she's totally distracted…aishh
"Don't I have the nicest boyfriend ever!" She said loudly as she added a pack of gum to our pile. She was acting because it was certainly not something she would say loudly like that. Though I got to admit, hearing her say the word "boyfriend" made me happy.
"Hahaha yes you do my dear." The lady laughed.
"He is taking me on an adventure today." Ellie held my arm and began conversing with the lady.
"Oh isn't that fun. Where are you guys going?" She asked.
"I don't know yet. I wanted to do something fun like exploring the town." Ellie continued.
….Shes acting so cheeky…..this is kind of funny….
"Well there aren't many fun places around this area, its pretty old as you can see." She said.
"Oh by the way, do you know what that old looking factory is?" Ellie asked and as soon as she finished her sentence, I felt a reaction from that lady. I saw nervousness and a hint of fear in her eyes.
"Oh…its just a factory, they produce car parts or something like that." She said.
"Hey, we should go there!" Ellie turned to look at me.
"No no you should not." The lady told us firmly.
"Why not?" I asked this time.
"It's just….a boring place haha…why would you wanna go there. Anyway, you should go here is your bag." She handed me the bag of snacks since I was done paying.
"Have a nice day." She said quickly like she wanted us to go, I also saw her looking around nervously so I grabbed Ellie's hand and got us out of there.
When we left the store we got back in the motorcycle we borrowed from Dongwoo and drove off slowly.
"Boyfriend huh?" I told Ellie who was behind me….."HUH?" She pretended like she couldn't hear.
"You said it!" I yelled.
"Said what?"
"Boyfriend!"
"WHAT? I CANT HEAR YOU MYUNGSOO, THE BIKE IS TOO LOUD." She yelled.
"Right…." I laughed to myself.
We stopped by a tiny park where we could still see the gas station from afar, to eat our snacks. Ellie said it would be a good idea to stay on watch and I agreed. There was something fishy about that lady's reaction when we mentioned the factory.
To be honest my mood had been down these days for obvious reasons, I was angry, worried, tired, and perhaps a bit sad. However, being around Ellie was always comforting, she always made me feel happy no matter what I was going through, even if it was only for a moment. I could tell she was making an effort to cheer me up too.
"Did you need to get these many snacks?" I .
"Absolutely." She said as she opened a back of chips and smiled to herself.
"You did good back then, by the way. Talking to the lady." I told her.
"Thanks. I figured you had no idea how to ask." She teased.
"I was about to actually." I argued in a playful manner.
"Right."
"Right."
"Here, Banana." She took it out of the bag and handed it to me.
"Wow. You got this too?!" I exclaimed as I took it off her hands.
"You just noticed it now? You even paid for it." She told me and then laughed.
I flicked her forehead and laughed with her too. "Ouuhhh" She complained.
A little while later we noticed something strange occur at the shop we were just at. A car pulled up in front and two men walked in. When they came out, they had bought nothing and one of them angrily kicked a trash can out of the way. It was obvious they went in there to cause trouble. When we saw that the lady was okay, they had just "talked" to her apparently. We left the place silently before anyone noticed us.
Woohyun's Pov
[Flashback] "Are you Batman's friends?" Sara, the girl at the convenience store asked. "You know Batman?" ... "Please, give this to him."
I was resting at Hoya's place, staring at the banana milk she gave me…..hmm…I wonder if she actually knows Batman….Sunggyu likes Banana milk….sighhh…I sulked because we still had no news of our friend.
"Thinking about that girl?" Hoya asked as soon as he came in the room with a bunch of papers. He sat at the couches where I was sitting and placed the papers on the center table.
"No. I'm thinking about Gyu." I told him….Although that girl was totally my type!... But Gyu….sigh too many things in my head right now.
"We all are." He sighed and then put on his reading glasses to look at the documents.
"What's all that?" I asked. "They're print outs Nina gave me. It's information about the pirates." He explained.
"Ohh that's good." I tried looking through them but reading wasn't really my thing. I found myself spacing out and finally leaning back on the couch. I still had the banana milk in my hand from the previous night. I placed it in the refrigerator to drink it later and then took it out again this morning but I wasn't able to drink it. I placed it on the table and left it alone.
"Aren't you gonna drink it?" Hoya asked me.
"No……This is Gyu's favorite." I told him and then thought out loud.
"But Hoya, I been thinking. Maybe this girl Sara really knows Batman. I mean how did she know Batman would like Banana milk?"
"She took a wild guess..? Many people like banana milk."
"Maybe we should go ask her." I suggested.
"I don't think it's anything, she probably thought we knew him because of our nicknames. And Batman is fairly known around here. Leave it alone Woohyun…you liked the girl didn't you?" He asked.
"I mean yeah! But that's not what this is about though." I pouted cause Hoya wasn't believing me.
"Help me read these come on." Hoya handed me some papers and I obeyed but later on I spaced out again.
……No no no no….out of all the products inside the convenience store, she went towards the refrigerators in the back, specifically to grab THIS brand of BANANA milk while she could of grabbed something else. She must KNOW Batman likes this product…maybe Batman shops there too? I tilted my head……wait a minute….
"According to this... Batman helped some people in fights against the pirates." Hoya told me.
"SEE!" I yelled.
"See what?" Hoya lowered his glasses and stared at me.
"…….Nothing." I leaned back on the couch again.
"Oh. Myungsoo and Ellie are here." Hoya said when we heard the doorbell.
They told us what they found out and then Ellie suggested a great idea. "Since Batman may be of help to us but he's equally difficult to find as Sunggyu. We will divide ourselves. Some of us will focus on finding Batman and the rest will continue to find information about these pirates."
"I wanna find Batman!" I volunteered right away and then stared intently at the banana milk which was still on the table.
"Aren't you gonna drink it?" Myungsoo asked me with intentions of drinking it himself.
"DON'T TOUCH IT!" I threatened him. "This is Sunggyu's!" I told them.
"Wasn't that for Batman?" Hoya laughed but I ignored him and went towards the fridge to store the bottle in a safer place.
"There there no one will drink you now." I talked to the bottle now inside the fridge as if it was holy.
"What is he saying?" I overheard Myungsoo asked Hoya. "Let him be." Hoya told him.
Meanwhile my head was still in the fridge, staring right into that banana milk bottle's eyes. "I feel like you've been trying to tell me something." I told the bottle. "Could it be what I think it is?"
"I think he lost his mind, Hoya." Myungsoo said about me.
"Stop it Myungsoo, leave Woohyun alone. There is nothing wrong with talking into the fridge. You talk to bushes and lamp posts." Ellie defended me.
"Hahahaha do you?!" Hoya was making fun of Myungsoo while half my body was still stuck inside the fridge.
"Gyu….." I felt like Gyu's soul was inside the bottle. "I know…I got it. ..Shhhh" I silenced the bottle and then shut the door closed.
"Everything okay Woohyun?" Ellie asked when I got back to the couch.
"Yup." I smiled.
Shortly, Nina arrived with a bunch of new information. She had been active recently doing a lot of research, I guess she came out of her guilty state. Although, I think she misses Sunggyu so much more than any of us but she won't ever admit it.
"Okay guys, so this gang the pirates. They ask people around town for these "protection fees" where they force businesses to pay them a sum of money for them to let them operate, if they chose not to pay then they are no longer protected so pirates go after them, destroying their business or kidnapping people. They took over some kind of car parts factory? I'm not sure what it is but they use the place to hide their illegal acts. Their boss is said to be very smart and knows how to handle the police and government inspections so they rarely get caught. As hard as it may seem to believe, the police had failed to prove most of their crimes and the name the "pirates" has been dismissed as a common threat by the authorities and only looked upon as popular myth."
"Wow Nina how did you find all this out?" Ellie asked her.
"Just some research." She told us.
"So we can't count on the police." Myungsoo commented.
"Even if we managed to get Gyu out of there. How are we going to prevent them from coming back to us?" Hoya made a horrible realization.
"That doesn't matter, we need to get him out of there for now." Myungsoo told Hoya.
We all sighed almost simultaneously and became quiet. Our worries had just multiplied.
Simon's Pov
Since Dino left since last night, I was left with all the work of making sure this kid wakes up safe. So Instead of having him tied to a chair, I laid him down on the floor, on top of a blanket that I prepared. His hands and feet were still tied just in case he woke up and tried to run away. Although it would be hard to do so at this place since there are pirates everywhere outside this room.
"Okay…Now Now." I talked to the unconscious Batman as I placed a rolled up jacket as his pillow. "This should be more comfortable for you….sigh…..You know, I know it's not your fault you can't wake up but boss is really going to kill me if you don't. I don't really care if you think I'm a hypocrite, I mean we pirates gave you a lot of trouble but who told you to intervene. See…if you hadn't done it, you wouldn't be like this now. It is a shame since you're so young and handsome…sigh….you could be my son." I kept talking to him as if he could even listen.
"What are you doing?" Giano suddenly entered the room.
"I'm trying another approach." I explained.
"You playing nurse now?" He said as I was wiping the blood off his face with a towel.
"Shut up Giano! At least I'm trying something here. You're so happy cause boss didn't assign this to you aren't you? Your skin is not in play here unlike Dino and I. Where is Dino anyways?" I asked.
"I don't know." Giano shrugged.
"Okay then, bug off now." I sent him away.
"Fine fine. I'll let you do your little act here. Don't get too friendly with him, Simon" Giano teased.
"Shut up!" I yelled before he left.
"Sorry about that kid. Giano can be obnoxious at times, or more like all the time. He always likes to think like he's smarter than us. But he isn't so smart, hah none us are if we're here. I'll tell you a secret, most pirates were stupidly lured into becoming part of this. And once you're in you see, you don't get out. Soon you will learn that, if what Giano said really is true that Boss wants to recruit you." I sat down on the floor next to him with a beer and began talking away.
"I wonder what your real name is kid?…..Batman…ha! That is funny, aren't you clever." I wasn't being sarcastic for once. "Sigh….My son really likes Batman, it's his favorite superhero. I wonder how tall he must be now. Haven't seen him in 3 years and 4 months…wait that's 5 months now. Time really flies. I always fear that he will think I don't love him or care about him, but what can I do if I can't see him now…besides I'm not an example father here I mean look at me ha! a pirate!" I was half drunk half crying.
"Anyway…" I wiped my tears and sweat with my arm. "I've heard you're a really good fighter. Who taught you go to fight so well? Was it your father? " I asked him questions as if he could answer. "Do you go to school? Good lord you look like you're still on school….what a young life thats about to go to waste…Maybe it's better if you don't wake up kid, in a few years you will find yourself in my spot, with no way out of here, feeling ashamed of your own existence."
"BATMAN….Batmaaaaan" Suddenly Dino came in the room, slamming the door harshly. He was drunk as hell. "I'm tired of dealing with you already I'm gonna beat the out of you until you open your pretty little eyes!"
"Don't Dino." I stood up to stop him but Dino pushed me away so I ran back and tried to hold him.
"What are you doing Simon? Screw off!"
"I told you not to hit him anymore!"
"Get out of my way!' He kicked me and then went to grab an empty wooden crate that he was about to throw at Batman.
"You're all drunk Dino. You really don't wanna do this right now."
"Why are you protecting him huh, are you on his side or something?" He argued.
"I'm not. I just don't wanna have boss kill us you know."
"We'll just tell him he died on his own."
"Stop it Dino! Don't you dare throw it!" I panicked cause Dino was about to make a big mistake.
"I don't care I will kill him!" He was about to throw it when Giano ran in and kicked Dino down.
"What the hell are you doing you idiot." Giano was annoyed.
"Why are you butting in Giano, this doesn't have anything to do with you." Dino yelled as he tried to stand up again to grab the crate. "Shut up and go sober up somewhere else." Giano picked him up and dragged him out of the room, shutting the door down.
"That was close Simon! Are you an idiot?! Were you about to let Dino kill him or what?!" Giano was strangely annoyed.
"I'm sorry OKAY I didn't expect him to react like that! Besides! Why are you getting so worked up about this, Giano. You would be happy if we messed up on this, since Dino and I would get punished by the boss." I yelled.
"You really are an idiot, Simon. This is why you're still here." Giano commented.
"What is your problem?"
"Listen you dumbag.." Giano pushed me against the wall and held my collar.
"This kid is powerful don't you see how much potential he has?"
"Yeah Yeah…and Boss wants him as a pirate and all....I KNOW THAT."
"NO SIMON! You are missing the point!" Giano lowered his voice into a whisper.
"Do you really wanna be stuck here the rest of your life? Letting boss do with us and order us as he wishes? I don't know about you but I'm tired of being ashamed of myself every day of my life. This boy that calls himself Batman has more guts and goodwill than any of us. He is our only hope."
"WHAT?!" I was surprised by Giano's thoughts.
"Have you lost your mind? Do you really think we can take down boss?" I was skeptical.
"Not us alone. We need him." He pointed towards the unconscious boy.
"But he is just a boy, Giano. Besides we shouldn't even be talking about this in the first place. Do you have any idea what the boss would do to us if he catches us talking about betraying him, he knows who our families are."
"Which is why you aren't speaking a word of this to anyone." Giano said before he let my collar go and left the room.
"Sigh…I'm sorry about all the noise kid." I went towards him and fixed his pillow. "Can Giano be right about this? Our only hope…ha! It's very hard to hope when you're trapped in this gang business."
Sunggyu's Pov
…………..Ah…. So this is how it is……..I was getting tired of pretending to be unconscious.
I wonder how many hours its been. I thought this was the best way to handle it since I'm too weak to probably even stand up right now. Man I got a beating. So in order to re-energize myself, I just slept here with the enemy. I opened my eyes from time to time when I knew nobody was looking…..It was a close one right now when that Dino almost throws something at me. Good thing Simon and Giano stopped him cause otherwise I was going to stand up and blow my cover.
I realized that the best way of getting out of this place alive was by using my brain, since my body was too weak to fight. I had plenty of time to think of a plan and it was soon about to take action.
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