Hostage Handbook

Chapter One | Inferno

YEOREUM

Song Yeoreum.

A male voice travels through my ears, gnawing at every syllable of my name. For a fleeting moment, it feels like he is reading the most heart-wrenching poem about glistening moons and stars, but the next second, it feels like he is placing an inescapable curse on it.

Song Yeoreum, the voice begins again. This time, his voice is laced with iciness. Perhaps his voice was cold this entire time, and my drowsiness simply overlooked it. I don't know. My brain feels loose, like it is swimming fluidly in my skull, completely directionless.

A low groan slips from my shut lips as a splash of ice water suddenly beats down my numb face. I choke. My throat emits the most revolting sounds of agony as I struggle to spit out the water that spilled into my nostrils. Subconsciously, I wrestle my hands over my mouth to cover the spit and tears leaking from my face, but no matter how hard I try, they remain to be cuffed behind me.

I blink my eyes open, and the chillingly familiar profile hardens my spine with fright.

"Jungkook?" I say, emitting a dry gasp.

I force my brain to think over what has happened. The core of my head throbs and pounds as I recall the last things I experienced.

Jungkook hugged me in that car. He was driving me to Taehyung's mission. After meeting his college friends and Yuikawa Haruichi, I told him to keep his cat. A needle stabbed me.

Jungkook kidnapped me.

My survival instinct flicks into action, thrusting me towards the conclusion I want to throw up on now. No. That can't be. There's no way this is the case. No fucking way.

"Yes, it's me, Yeoreumie. Nice job trying to seduce me back there," Jungkook says. He glides his fingers across my forehead, tracing my features like he is drawing another me over my flesh. "God, you are so dehydrated from the drug."

I drop my head to survey my surroundings and pull away from Jungkook's touch. I am staring at the ceiling from a mattress like a dead fish with my hands and legs bonded in braided ropes. Jungkook is seated next to me, teasingly studying my face. Judging from the bare concrete environment, I am in a basement.

I look to the metal door that seems to be the only exit of this room and notice two tall men guarding it. It's going to be difficult to escape this place.

Still, I don't allow my thickening fear to cloud my mind. I steel myself and glance at the twisted smugness in Jungkook's eyes.

"I am the Empress Consort of the Empire of Korea. Do you think you can get away from this?" I utter as firmly as I can. My eyes are scorching from my choking episode, but I still manage to showcase some level of tranquillity.

"How impressive, you can still speak clearly after a week-long of drugs," Jungkook says, heaving a sarcastic sigh. "But, I'm sorry. Your husband is no longer the Emperor. Thus, you are no longer the Empress."

The pent-up breath in my throat grows ice-cold. My eyes flutter as shock rattles every single inch of my brain like a hammer.

Jungkook instantly notices my change. He grabs a newspaper on the table behind him and throws it on the ground for me to read it.

Emperor Taehyung abdicates as an explosive Imperial Family scandal destructs the Korean Monarch.

My mind bursts into a million questions, but the logical part of it forcefully suppresses the wild urge to voice them. Jungkook is in charge, and I am held captive. I need to win time for a chance to survive. I have Yoongi to go to and a family to look after—I can't die.