Forget me not • Felix

Chapter 23

Jongho lead me back to the room. Hongjoong decided to hang back, probably to checking with Little Choi whether I had spilled anything to her.
I took this opportunity to whisper to Jongho.
"Has my brother ever done anything to you?"
He huffed a sarcastic sort of laugh. Apparently yes was the answer. I urged him to elaborate.
"Well apart from torture one of my best friends, get one of our strongest arrested and shoot me in the leg, he's not done anything to me personally."
So, Jongho was a victim of my brother's aim. It probably wasn't surprising either but still took me back a bit. All these new revelations about my brother had taken me back.

"I'm sorry about that."
He seemed surprised at my response. I didn't know if I meant it fully or not but either way a shot to the leg hurts and I felt sorry he had to experience that.
"Really?" He seemed genuine, "Though, I wouldn't apologise for him, Hongjoong was trying to blow his head off at the time."
The thought of Chan and Hongjoong being face to face in battle was something I couldn't imagine. Despite knowing both of the men, it still seemed far fetched.

Once I was back in the room, I was attached back to the chair. Jisung was rapidly scanning me up and down checking for any signs of damage. I was fine. Jongho said he'd be back with our food and walked off, leaving Jisung and I alone.
To reassure him, I explained that all I did was go to the toilet and back, that they weren't as bad as he assumed.
"Y/N, they aren't good people and you can't trust them ok?"
I shook my head, "they may not be on the right side of the law but they could have hurt me just now and didn't so I'll cut them some slack this time, alright?"

I'd heard of things like Stockholm Syndrome and despite having a slight bit of trust for Ateez, I knew I couldn't let it get the better of me. They were keeping us alive and healthy to be bait, there was no way they cared about us. That's if Chan even came for us. Thinking back, he didn't save us last time really, my lack of information annoyed them so they let us go. My brother did nothing. The list of things to talk to him about were getting longer.
Jongho was the one to return with some snacks for us and he waited while we ate. I was more enthusiastic about the food than Jisung was, and Jongho collected the rubbish once we were done. Leaving once more.

Despite his view on Ateez, Jisung still ate a couple of the snacks provided. Let's face it they were offering packaged food that wasn't likely to be tampered with and we were both hungry so... any food was good food.
However long later, Hongjoong entered the room with 'Choi' by his side.
"Your brother doesn't seem to be in a rush Y/N and that concerns me," he announced, "because while I know I can't keep you forever, I'm not giving you back as easy as last time."
He towered over me, his aura completely changing from the last time we had interacted.
"So you have two choices, I can let Peter over here go back to them but we will be changing location so he doesn't give anything away."
"Or?" I ushered.
"Or... you have one phone call."

My intuition said send Jisung home, the boy didn't deserve any more torture than he had already had. I was smart enough, I could try to outwit them and run away or leak information. Though, I would be alone. If I chose the phone call and I gave away information, that could be worse for the both of us. All of me was leaning towards setting Jisung free. I looked over at the boy beside me, sending him hints of my choice.
"I'm not leaving you," He declared.
Before I could even choose, Jisung answered for me, "she'll take the phone call."
Hongjoong nodded and looked at me directly, almost glaring into my soul.
"Is that your answer?"
I nodded.

Jisung whispered to me as Hongjoong ordered Choi to grab a phone.
"Keep it brief."
I'd seen in TV shows and films that it was only a short period of time in which people could track the position of the call, 30 seconds or something like that. So, this call had to be very brief.
Choi returned with a phone that I quickly recognised as mine, though, there was a block attached on the back. I assume it was some kind of connection device to their systems, allowing them to track down my brother. Well, here goes nothing. Choi held the phone close to me, placing it on speakerphone.

It rang for a bit until he picked up. The reception wasn't the best as it sounded a bit echoey but just hearing my brother's voice was refreshing.

"Y/N"
"Chan I-"
"Do you know where you are?"
"No Chan I-"
"Is there any hints to your location?"
"No I-"
"Have they hurt you?"
"Chan, listen to me! I'm fine ok I don't have long but I'm fine."
"Is Peter ok?"
Jisung sighed in relief, "I'm fine boss."
"Oh thank God, Yongbok and I-"
"Let me speak to her!"

A new voice joined and I had never been so happy to hear his voice. Felix. I'm assuming they call him by his other name as well to protect his identity. There was a muffled noise as the phone was passed over.

"Y/N I'm sorry, please tell me they haven't hurt you!?"
I didn't know how to answer Felix's statement. Tracing along my skin, was evidence that they had hurt me, hurt Jisung as well, but it could have been much worse.
"Not so much that I can't handle," I heard his breath hitch so I continued, "I'm fine ok, I don't have a lot of time on this call."
I knew my time was nearly up, that they would almost be able to track him.
"Yongbok, I-"
In that moment, I knew what I wanted to say. With all the glaring eyes of Jisung and a handful of Ateez, I couldn't say it. There was no space for weakness here, I couldn't expose something to them that would endanger all of us more. The words danced on my tongue... 'I love you' ...but never escaped.
"Please take care of my brother for me."
"Of course, I will."

A buzz went off in Choi's pocket and he picked up a small device, reading the message that had been relayed.
"We got 'em," he spoke out.
Damn it, we were too late. Choi was slowly moving the phone away from me and I called after Felix and Chan. It was taken off loud speaker so that Hongjoong could speak personally to them.
"Thank you for your co-operation," he stared at me directly, "you've been most useful."
With that, the call ended. Not even Jisung could calm me down; there was no way of telling what he meant by that.

That was until a projection came up of the police station, the one that Chan and Felix worked in. They must have called from there, after work called them in as normal. Judging by the clock on the bottom left hand corner, I was assuming this was a livestream.
Hongjoong smiled victoriously, like he had finally won a long haul game, "I'm sorry your goodbye was so short, Y/N, but I think your brother is a bit busy at the moment."
Just as he finished speaking, he raised a thumb up to Choi, who clicked a button on his device. The relay was going back. Within a second, a loud bang sounded. Smoke and bright light poured out of the building. Windows smashed, the roof caved in, people around stopped in shock, the police station had been demolished. My eyes begin to well up. Within that rubble, that bomb site, was the bodies of my brother and the one I loved.