ATEEZ | Empire Ep. 1 : Desire

Chapter 2: Aye Aye, Captain

"we're still hungry, because we're young." - bouncy

5 Years Later

"San, you're late."

San fanned his face, still lightly out of breath. "I'm sorry, Captain Hongjoong, I had to get this suit on, and-"

"You were sleeping, stop lying to me." Captain Hongjoong said, impatiently tapping the gun strapped to his side. He wouldn't use it, but it had become a habit.

"Ok, fine. I was drinking with Wooyoung yesterday - I assure you, I'm completely sober now - but I passed out at some point, and I had a bit of... trouble getting up-"

"Wooyoung got up just fine." The captain interrupted San once again. San eyed the black haired man standing next to Hongjoong. He was playing with a coin. He seemed to be purposely avoiding San's eyes.

Hongjoong cleared his throat, garnering San's attention. "I have something for you to do, after you've collected the payment from that one house that hasn't payed."

San groaned. "I hate dealing with those ones! Can't I do the mission first?" He asked, slightly pouting.

"No, the mission is a bit longer. Payment first."

San sighed, nodding. "What's the mission?"

. . .

San kicked a stone across the street. Why did he always have to collect money? It's not like he even benefited from it, the money went straight to the captain. His captain who always wore that eyepatch, and said they were pirates.

"Think of it as if you're looting someone of treasure." Hongjoong had said. "Looting is a part of being a pirate."

"Looting is a part of being a pirate, and we're pirates, aren't we?" San said, mocking his captain.

San sighed. He had arrived in front of the house. He fixed his tie, dusted off his briefcase, smiled lightly, and rang the doorbell. The person who opened the door was a middle aged woman.

"Hello, ma'am. I'm Choi San and I work for the city. We received a call saying this residential area was having issues with the electricity. We are mandated to check every house here. Would you mind if I came in?" San asked. The plan was simple: he would cut the electrical cables, then say she would need to pay in advance to get it fixed. Piece of cake.

He walked in after the woman slowly nodded. He took off his shoes at the door. "Where are your cables?" San asked.

"In the basement..." The woman said, leading him to a door. She opened the door, revealing stairs. He followed her down the stairs, going over to the different-colored cables aligned vertically along the wall.

He could tell she was wary of him, and he could feel her eyes on him. He took off his suit jacket and pulled up his sleeves, revealing the muscles in his arms.

"Well, I'm going to let you check the electricity, I don't know anything about that stuff anyways." She said hurriedly. He chuckled at how effective that was.

He opened his briefcase, pulling out a black pair of rubber gloves and garden scissors. He quickly put on the gloves and bent down, cutting each cable. He wrapped the scissors in his jacket and closed his briefcase. He exhaled, getting ready to act. "Oh, gosh..." He said, sighing. He walked back upstairs, where the woman was sitting on the couch. "Ma'am, I believe I've figured out what the problem is. Can you follow me?" He asked, walking back to the basement. After she had joined him, he pointed at the place where he had cut the cables. "You see that? It looks like someone cut your cables. Is there someone in your neighborhood who doesn't like you, and has something similar happened recently?"

"No, we don't really talk to the neighbors. And this has never happened before..." She replied.

"Well, I'm sorry to say this, but getting these replaced is going to be pretty costly." San said. "Can we do this upstairs?" He walked upstairs and waited for the woman to come up too. Once she was at the table, he opened his briefcase again, pulling out a few papers for the woman to sign. He put the small stack of papers in front of her.

. . .

San walked away from the house, humming a happy tune to himself. He had gotten her bank account number, making things a lot easier. It was time to do his mission, but for that, he would need to stop by his house to change.

He stopped as he saw a man hurriedly walk out a house in front of him. A man with his hair dyed white emerged from the same house, wearing a blue apron and blue rubber gloves to match. "Out!" He yelled. "You don't just go poking around other's houses! Do I look like a criminal to you?!" He was holding a black slipper, and seemingly using it to shoo the man away.

The man quickly walked away. San chuckled to himself. The man in the blue apron turned around, noticing San standing there. The guy's ears turned pink out of embarrassment. He quickly turned around and went inside the house.

San laughed, walking past the house. He turned around, feeling someone's presence behind him. The person behind him was wearing a mask. San's mouth and nose were covered by a cloth. He felt himself grow drowsy, as much as he tried to fight it. He collapsed, losing consciousness.

. . .

San was no stranger to drugging others, he had done it plenty of times for Hongjoong's missions. Though he had never been in the situation himself, he had observed and learned what didn't work. Once he came to, he kept his eyes closed, feeling the ropes around his wrists with his thumbs. They were cold as ice and hard. Whoever had abducted him sure was smart, but it was nothing a little body heat and patience couldn't fix. San carefully slid his hands underneath his bottom.

"We know you're awake." A male voice said. "I can see your arms moving."

San opened his eyes to see he was in a room that was empty, except for three men standing in front of him. One of the men approached him. His face seemed familiar, and he had white hair.

"You're the man with the slipper!" San exclaimed, laughing. The white-haired man kept a straight face as he pulled on black latex gloves.

"Yeah, so?" He said, grabbing a small box out of another man's hands. "He was poking around where I keep my weapons, I had a right to react that way."

"Seonghwa, focus." One of the men said. He was holding a gun.

San laughed. "Sorry, Seonghwa, I can't take you seriously, I just keep getting that image in my head-" San laughed more, knowing he was provoking Seonghwa.

"Yeah, ok. Mingi, go on." Seonghwa said.

"I can shoot him?" Mingi asked hopefully.

"No! Go do what I told you to do earlier."

The man named Mingi walked up to San and stood behind him. He positioned the gun to San's neck. "You better not move."

Seonghwa took a scalpel out of the box, kneeling down next to San's right arm. "The gun is just there because Mingi wanted to be cool, it isn't there to keep you from moving. It's just that if you move, this will hurt a whole lot more."

San bit his tongue as Seonghwa made a cut in his arm. Seonghwa paused to wipe off something with a disinfectant wipe. He stuck it into San's open wound, causing San to squirm a little, trying to get away from the stinging pain.

"Like I said, if you move, it will hurt even more. And unless you want crooked stitches, I suggest you listen to my advice." Seonghwa said, preparing a needle.

"What did you just put in my arm?" San asked.

"Now you're done laughing, huh? It's a tracker. And before you think about telling anyone, there's a bomb in it that Mingi can blow up at any time. You might want to think carefully before you open your mouth." Seonghwa said calmly as he started stitching up San's cut.

After a while of silence, Seonghwa cut the thread and put the needle away. San's eyes were covered by a blindfold, and his legs were untied. "Up." Mingi ordered, pressing the gun into San's neck.

"Yeah, ok, chill." San said, getting up. Someone roughly guided him somewhere, which turned out to be outside, right where San had been abducted. The blindfold and ropes were removed. "Now go." Seonghwa said. "Remember what I said, don't tell anyone."