Poison || Hyunho

12 | Moneybags

Minho groaned in pain and squinted his eyes. His head was spinning and his vision was blurry, he could hardly make out if he was in a building or outside. All he could tell was that it was dark. He could slightly here mumbled voices in the background but he couldn't tell if it was a man or a woman or maybe both.

He felt drowsy. He knew he had to stay awake but his whole body just felt so heavy and limp. He lay back on the ground and his eyes began to shut as footsteps approached him.

"Hey, Lee Minho," a familiar voice spoke, "Open your eyes."

Minho struggled to open his eyes but could make out the familiar face in front of him, "Hyunjin..?"

"Wake up. You need to get up," the younger said, "This is no time to sleep. You need to get out of here. Quickly."

Minho watched Hyunjin stand up and turn around to leave and asked, "When did you wake up..?"

Hyunjin stopped and turned back around to face Minho, answering, "I didn't."

"What?"

"I'm not real, Minho," Hyunjin looked down at him with pity, "You haven't been eating or sleeping well. You need to take care of yourself. Stop being so busy taking care of others before you. Come on, let's go."

Minho squeezed his eyes shut and clenched his fists on the ground, forcing himself to get up on his feet. It took him a second to find his balance and try and orient himself.

"First let's find a way out," said Hyunjin from behind Minho, "Focus, Lee, what do you remember seeing when they brought you in?"

Minho looked around himself and figured he was in an abandoned car park. But who would take him there? And why?

"Those are answers we can find out later. We need to get out of here before they come back," said Hyunjin.

'They'? Who are 'they'? What do 'they' want?

"Ah, you're awake," a voice came from behind Minho, startling him. He spun on his heels to look at the average height, slim man with curly blonde hair walking up to him with a slightly taller brunette and a chubby bald guy behind him.

"Who are you and what do you want?" Minho spat with his brows furrowed and his fists in tight balls.

The blonde chuckled, "You're still this feisty after waking up from chloroform? Relax, moneybags, this doesn't need to be a fight. Just cooperate with us and no one gets hurt."

Minho looked confused and asked, "Money? Is that what you want? Just take me back and I can give you as much as you need. Just tell me how much."

The guy chuckled and said, "Money? Who said anything about money?"

Minho furrowed his eyebrows and asked, "So what do you want?"

"Your company,"

"What?" Minho looked at them like they were insane. There was no way they were actually asking him to handover his entire business to them. Right?

"Sign me as the new company director and you can walk away from here completely unharmed,"

"And if I don't?" Minho asked.

"Oh, I'm taking your company whether or not you comply. I'll just have to take it the hard way,"

"What are you going to do?" Hyunjin asked over Minho's shoulder as the older stood still in silence for a moment. He clenched his jaw and fists and his brows were furrowed.

He was still feeling drowsy, his head was aching so it was difficult for him to think. But a smile grew on his face when he glanced behind the men.

"You're not taking my company," he said with a smug grin.

"What?" The blonde man furrowed his eyebrows frustratedly.

"Well, I'm not the only owner of the company. I can't just sign my position away without my partner," Minho explained.

The man sighed and said, "Fine. Let's bring your partner here then. Where is he?"

"I'm right here," Chan yelled as he threw a punch at the blonde's face, "Cunt."

"Boss!" The other two rushed over to help the blonde up whilst Chan went to check on Minho.

"Oh my gosh, are you okay? Did they hurt you? I swear if they laid a finger on a strand of hair I-"

"Chan," Minho chuckled, moving Chan's hands off his face, "I'm fine. But we should probably go before that asshole wakes up."

Chan agreed and took Minho to his car so they could drive back to the police station and tell them what happened.

On their way, Minho asked how Chan had found him and how he even realised he was missing. Chan explained how he thought Hyerin was crying so he went to check on her and realised Minho was missing.

He followed Minho to the station and was going to offer him a ride when he noticed the men taking him into their car. He kept losing them on the highway which is why it took so long to find him, but he eventually found their van ditched on the side of the road and tracked them to the abandoned car park.

"Oh shit, the kid!" Minho jumped in his seat.

"Relax. She's fine. Han and Yang are with her," Chan explained, "I'm glad you're okay though. Do you know who those guys were?"

"No," Minho answered, still feeling uneasy knowing that he didn't know who they were, "But they were after the company."

"Really?" Chan asked in disbelief and chuckled, "They would've been in for a surprise when they found out that we're basically going bankrupt."

"We are?" Minho looked at Chan with wide eyes, confounded by how nonchalant the older was about them losing their company they worked so hard for. If the company was to go into liquidation, it wouldn't just ruin their lives but the hundreds of employees that would be made redundant.

"Nothing's for certain yet, but the Choi Group are in the process of dropping their support and with everything else going on, the profits are going to take a huge hit," Chan explained, squeezing his steering wheel tightly, "Even if we didn't go bankrupt and did our best to keep the company going, we wouldn't be able to afford to keep even forty percent of our employees. I can't just look at over half of our workers and tell them they can't keep their jobs because I couldn't do mine properly."

"Hey," Minho placed a hand on Chan's shoulder, "It's not over yet. We've still got a fighting chance. So let's save this company, that we started together, together."

Chan smiled at Minho and nodded, "Yeah. Together."