Hostage Handbook

Must Read

This is a sensitive piece of writing that contains strong themes of violence, sexual assault (rape, gang rape, drug rape), kidnapping, Stockholm Syndrome, mental health disorders and other delicate themes. If you are known to be affected by these themes or are below the age limit, please refrain from reading immediately. 

This story is a stand-alone novella of Empress Handbook. It serves as a branch-off alternative ending to the main book and intends to focus on Jungkook's character and his relationship with the OFC, Song Yeoreum, from Empress Handbook.

To fully understand the characters' emotions and motives, I recommend reading the first part of the main book (up to Chapter 25), but this story should still be relatively easy to follow even if you do not read the main book. But, I do not recommend reading this if you intend to finish Empress Handbook first.

As alluded by the age and rating warning I have set, this composition contains much darker themes than the main book, including violence, sexual assault (rape, gang rape, drug rape), kidnapping and Stockholm Syndrome.

I do not intend to romanticise any of the issues alluded to in the story. On the contrary, I aim to depict an abusive, toxic relationship as realistically as possible for precautionary purposes.

Unlike the main book's third-person omniscient point of view, this novella would be written in first-person, mostly from Yeoreum's perspective and a few from Jungkook's point of view for stylistic purposes.

Below is a synopsis of the main book in case you do not wish to read it but would still like to have a basic grasp of the context. However, again, I would not recommend reading the following synopsis if you intend to finish Empress Handbook, as it contains major spoilers of the plot.

In an alternate 21st century world where the Korean Imperial Family retains its monarchy and continues to exercise their royal prerogative in an apolitical fashion, a nationwide Selection is held to look for an Empress for the young Emperor, Kim Taehyung.

Seoul Medical School exemplar student Song Yeoreum dreams of becoming a good doctor after her father got lung cancer. Due to her academic performance, she receives an invitation to the Selection. Although Yeoreum is uninterested in the Imperial Family, she chooses to attend the event for the money prizes each round entails.

Yeoreum is successful because Taehyung is looking to manipulate her as a cipher in his power struggle with his mother, Empress Dowager Park Yunhee.

Emperor Dowager psychologically abuses her children with the ambition of attaining power over the country. To obliterate Jungkook, who threatened her plans with his intelligence, Empress Dowager had disowned him to her husband's childless homosexual brother, Prince Joonhyuk. In addition, she took the Imperial surname away from Jungkook to eradicate the threat he poses altogether.

On the other hand, Yeoreum becomes the Empress to give her family a better life and soon falls in love with Taehyung, who continues an affair with his childhood friend and secretary, Yoon Soojung. Yeoreum skilfully wrestles her way through the strict Imperial covenants with security guard Min Yoongi's care and support.

Eventually, Yeoreum discovers Taehyung's affair and forgives him in the face of her family's happiness. However, after the murder of a princess whom Yeoreum fondly looked after, Yeoreum's persistence in the investigation threatens Soojung, the murderer.

Soojung works with Empress Dowager to pressure Taehyung into obliterating Yeoreum. Begrudgingly, Taehyung obliges and watches Soojung drown Yeoreum, who has aquaphobia, in the ocean on their postponed honeymoon.

Yoongi rescues Yeoreum and recruits her for his anti-monarchy organisation known as The Organisation, which is sponsored by one of the country's wealthiest corporates, Irunaes Group, to take revenge on the Imperial House and Taehyung. During the training and therapy sessions, Yeoreum falls in love with Yoongi and a romantic relationship subsequently buds between the two.

Before Yeoreum returns to the palace, she offers to press pause on the relationship for the sake of her conscience. However, they are still deeply in love and continue to heal and protect each other platonically. After Yeoreum's return, Taehyung slowly begins to realise the feelings he tried to suppress for Yeoreum as they manoeuvre through obstacles together.

During the Japanese Imperial Couple's visit, they reveal that Prince Joonhyuk (Jungkook's foster father) is scheming a malicious boycott against Korea. To win Taehyung's trust, Yeoreum offers to go to England to penetrate the situation through Jungkook, who gives her important information on a Japanese politician who is in a relationship with Prince Joonhyuk.

Different to the main book, where Yeoreum completes the mission and returns to Taehyung, this novella begins at the point where Yeoreum bids Jungkook farewell. The novella opens in a setting where Jungkook's grand plan of reshuffling the country's upper circle and destructing the monarchy has already succeeded. Thus, instead of letting Yeoreum get off the car, he kidnaps her for leverage.

Due to the dark nature of this novella, I would like to remind all readers that this is a work of fiction, meaning that there is absolutely no relation to the actual Jeon Jungkook we know and love.

Happy reading.

Inspirations

3096 Days (German drama film), 3096 Days (autobiography by Natascha Kampusch), Stolen: A Letter To My Captor (novel by Lucy Christopher)and 365 Days (Polish erotica).

+This story is a work of fiction. None of the entailed people, locations, religions, organisations and events is made to correlate with the real world and is used fictitiously. Other elements are products of imagination; any resemblance to existing people, places and affairs is entirely coincidental and should not be considered factual. Plagiarism of any form is a crime, and action will be taken.