The Gangleader's Sister

Chapter 21

My eyes went wide and I stopped breathing. I could feel my throat closing up as the fear of what happened to Nuri started to creep into my mind. She wouldn't just disappear. Something had to happen. I immediately thought of the text I had received and I could feel my world crumbling. They have her. They got her. Nuri is in trouble and it's because of me.

I could see everyone in the room but I couldn't hear anything. I felt something wet hitting my hands and looked down only to realize I was crying. I was jolted back to reality as I felt someone shake me.

"Princess! Hey, look at me!" He was trying to be gentle and calm, but I could tell he was worried too.

"They have her, the text. They warned me, we should've been more careful."  I put my face in my hands and cried as I felt Hyunjin's arms wrap around me.

"What do you mean she's gone?" Mina was on the verge of tears as she cornered Jaemin. "You are her boyfriend now. You were supposed to be looking after her!" If Jisung hadn't pulled Mina away, she so would have hit Jaemin.

"I was! She went to the bathroom and didn't come back, so I asked a lady to go and look for her but she said the bathroom was empty! I panicked and looked for her for 40 minutes before I saw the time and thought maybe she came back. I-" Jaemin took a shaky breath. "I know this is bad. I will do anything to find her."

"We won't find her." I had calmed down, but my voice was barely audible. I looked up at Hyunjin as I spoke next. "We have to tell them."

"Tell us what Bang Mirae?!" Mina was pissed, she never calls me by my full name. She turned from Jaemin and started walking towards me. "What do you know about this that makes you think that?! Do you know who has her?"

She was right in front of me and I couldn't look her in the eyes. "Mina. You have to listen to me. And please don't be angry. Let me explain fully." I grabbed her hand as she nodded, and I led her over to one of the beds as I started explaining about Chan's gang. I let Jisung and Hyunjin tell Jaemin.

"So before I tell any of this to you, please don't be mad at me. Or Jisung." She looked at me confused when I mentioned him but let me continue. "I only found out all of this a few days ago, so I'm still dealing with it myself." Inhaling and exhaling deeply, I continued. "Okay, so long story short, Chan, Hyunjin, Jisung, and a their other friends are in a gang, but it's not a bad gang. They do good things and help people, they protect them from the bad gangs. I guess they've been so good at it that they've managed to piss off some really bad gangs. And they started threatening me." I heard her gasp when I mentioned that. "Chan told me not to tell you or Mina because he didn't want you guys getting involved. That's why he sent us to Jeju, so they'd have time to track the people threatening me. He even sent extra people to watch over us, but I don't think they knew about Jaemin and Nuri's walk. But those people, the bad ones, they followed me here. Earlier tonight, they sent me a text threatening not only me, but you and Nuri too. I took it to Hyunjin and we went to the extra people my brother sent to see if they could track the number. We even called Chan." I looked down as I remembered the argument we got into.

"Is that why you guys fought? Because he didn't think it was safe here?" Mina had calmed down and what I was telling her didn't seem to make her angry.

I only nodded my head as I continued to speak. "He thought that since they sent me a text, they were getting closer to getting me. But I guess they were after you or Nuri instead. We have to call him here to help us get Nuri back." I looked up at my friend with tear filled eyes. "This is all my fault! I should've listened to Chan and then Nuri would be here with us!"

She pulled me into a hug as we all heard my phone ding with a new message.

I hesitantly picked it up as they all waited to hear what it said. As I opened the message, I screamed and threw my phone. Jaemin picked it up and gasped as he showed the others.

It was a picture of Nuri, she was beaten and tied up on a chair. She had blood on her body and I could already see bruises starting to form. Beneath the picture was a message:

"Hope you can find her before it's too late. We'll even give you a clue.
     -NCT "

"We have to call Chan!" I was struggling to breath as Mina and I held onto each other.

Hyunjin looked over at me with sad eyes as he dialed my brother on the phone and told him what was happening. I was so shaken up by the text that I didn't notice when Woojin and Minho came into the room.

"Rae?" I heard Woojin's worried voice and I ran into his arms. He rubbed my back as I cried.

Eventually, I pulled away from him and wiped my eyes. "They have her. We have to find her before something else happens." I stared into Woojin's eyes pleading for him to do something.

"Chan is on his way here with the other boys. There's not much that we can do tonight except continue trying to track that number or her phone. But from what you guys told me, it's been turned off." Hyunjin came to stand next to Woojin and I as he spoke. "I know it'll be hard, but we all need to get some rest so we can start looking for her tomorrow and be the most alert."

I gave a dry laugh. "There is no way that I'll be able to sleep knowing that my best friend is out there being tortured because of me. I don't care what you guys do, but I am going to find Nuri." I left the room before anyone could come after me. I didn't even grab my phone or the hotel key.

"Rae, wait!" I heard Mina run after me, but I didn't stop. Her hand grabbed my arm and she spun me around to face her, with all of the boys behind her. "You are not going out there alone. Especially not when the same people who are doing that to Nuri are after you."

"What are you saying?" I felt like they would try to stop me so I started backing up only to bump into something, well, someone. I turned around and faced him.

"Let's go find Nuri, princess." He took my hand in his as he led us all to the elevator. "Together."

We're going to get Nuri back!