DEMONS [CHANBAEK]

Chapter 7

It had been two days after Chanyeol had threatened...er...talked to Jimin's parents. He was in the data room of SM where all information was stored. SM was the leading organised crime conglomerate in South Korea. If anyone required information about any crime, the servers of SM were bound to have it.

The data room was the size of a 2BHK flat, divided into 2 sections. One section had an arsenal of computers and an equal number of people manning them at a given time. The second half of the room housed huge CPUs. The entire room was heavily air-conditioned to counteract the heat generated by so many working machines. Being a highly-placed employee, Chanyeol had the clearance to use the computers when and as he wished.

Sitting there for half-an-hour he tried to look for any information related to sex-traffic in, in his city but came up with unsatisfactory results.

"Aaaarrrggghhh!", Chanyeol slammed his hands down on the keyboard. His sudden outburst earned him a few stares. Entirely oblivious, the big man put his fingers through his hair and pulled at them while crouching down on the table.

"'Sup?", asked a soft voice. Chanyeol looked up and behind him to see two big eyes staring at the screen.

"Just trying to find some information Soo" he said. "I've been at it for 30 fucking minutes and I HAVE NOTHING!", he raged.

"Hmm. Might be because you're searching for it wrong. Any information uploaded in our servers is heavily encrypted. You would need to clear several stages of ID check and what not...", he trailed off.

Kyungsoo looked down to a pair of sparkly, puppy dog eyes looking at him. He straightened up.

"Kyungsoo-yah", gushed Chanyeol, "you're good with computers right?"

Kyungsoo looked at Chanyeol for 2 solid minutes, with a stoic face, weighing his options. He could help him out of the goodness of his heart, but the goodness of his heart came out only at certain instances. This was not one such instance.

"Nope." Kyungsoo said to a baby-faced Chanyeol and turned around instantly and tried to walk away. Chanyeol with his long legs caught up to him in no time. Kyungsoo had barely exited the room when the taller caught up with him in the corridor.

Wrapping his long arms tightly around Kyungsoo from the back, Chanyeol nuzzled his face into his neck saying, "Kyungsoo-yah please, please, help me out".

Kyungsoo struggled to get out of the iron grasp but in vain.

"Please, please Soo. I'll buy you lunch for a week...ok two weeks. Pretty-please?"

Hearing about food, Kyungsoo stopped struggling. How was he supposed to deny an offer like that? Still held tightly in Chanyeol's arms, the smaller stood quietly thinking. Would two weeks of lunch be enough? Maybe he should ask for a month's worth of...

"WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING HERE?!", both men, one standing still and the other one with his arms around the first, turned to look at a very angry and flustered Jongin. Both Chanyeol and Kyungsoo froze, looked down at his arms, looked up at Jongin and aggressively broke apart.

"I was just asking him to help me out with a case, a little", Chanyeol clumsily explained.

"Help with what?' Jongin asked, pulling his boyfriend towards him protectively, and slipping his arm around his waist.

"Just an assignment I have. I needed to get some information from our servers, and Soo is pretty tech-savvy. So I was asking him to help..."

Chanyeol left the end of his sentence like a question. He looked at the smaller man with big, doe eyes and Jongin turned to stare at him too. Caught in a fix, Kyungsoo looked from one man to another and sighed resignedly.

"Fine...", he said. "what do you need?"

It was two hours later, and Chanyeol, Kai and Kyungsoo were exhausted with their search for information on traffic in. They had poured over miles of data, but could not come up with anything satisfactory. A lot of data on this particular topic was available, however, in the more recent ones, there were gaps in the information. According to the data, there had been no activity near Chanyeol's house in the past 5 years.

"Well that was a bust", exclaimed Kai.

Chanyeol had to reluctantly agree that he was at the end of the tunnel.

"So, regardless of the result, I will be expecting my payment in full. You are to buy me lunch for the next two weeks", Kyungsoo said with a smug smile.

It was later in the day. The setting sun made the sky look like caramel syrup, its edges tinted with pink. White clouds like scattered cotton were thrown around. Chanyeol was in an impoverished part of town. The buildings were placed close together, and opposite to each other on a narrow, dingy street. In front of the old, broken buildings, sellers of different kinds of wares, had set up stalls to sell their trades. Chanyeol waited in a narrow alley, between two buildings, for the man to arrive.

The alley was dirty and stank of garbage and urine. A few dogs and cats sniffed around in the garbage to find something to fill their dry stomachs. The smell was making Chanyeol nauseous. He pulled up his turtleneck over his mouth and nose and waited, facing the outer street.

"Good to see you again, darling", said a voice near his shoulder.

Chanyeol turned to look into a pair of small eyes which looked dazed at first sight, but behind it the spark of curiosity and energy was evident to those who knew him.

"Took you long enough! I was about to faint in this miserable shit-hole."

"Language love, language. You're not the only appointment in my calendar", he said giving a cheeky wink.

"Fine, fine. Did you get what I asked ?", asked Chanyeol.

"Wow, not even foreplay. Very well then"

He dug his hand into the duffel bag slung across his shoulders and rummaged around for a few seconds. He had a slender face and his short brown hair fell across his forehead as he bent his head looking into the bag.

Five years ago Chanyeol had found Lay being beaten up by a group of very big, muscular men. The scrawny boy had a swollen eye and blood dribbling from his mouth onto his chin but was still mocking them. Chanyeol had made short work of the men and saved him. That's when he found out Lay worked in a gambling den as a bookie. Those men had lost a lot of money and had held him responsible. After Chanyeol had saved him, the skinny boy had sassed him to the ends of the Earth but they had an unspoken agreement between them. He knew he had earned his trust and loyalty. For five years, Lay had been Chanyeol's source of information on various things. He worked better than any search engine and had connections everywhere. It was said, for the right price he could get accurate information from Satan himself.

"Here it is", Lay took out a piece of paper and handed it to Chanyeol. It was an address. "There is a traffic-in ring at work, however, they keep themselves under radar, way under. They have been active for the last ten years and have very deep connections in very high places. Recently they had operated around the address you gave me. It is said they are only picking men this time. Beautiful men. They're being held at that address and will be shipped by end of this month."

Chanyeol frowned at the paper. The address was of a high school which had closed down many years ago due to low enrolment. It was outside the capital, probably a deserted area.

"Anything else?"

"Yes. Why did you ask me about these people? They're very hush-hush. The only people who know about them are them...and me obviously", he ended with a flair.

"Obviously", Chanyeol smiled

"I'm only saying this, not because your death would be a bit annoying to me, but this might just be a tad out of your reach, bro"

"Hmm, thanks for that vote of confidence. You're a true friend."

Lay put his hands up defensively, "Hey, I'm just saying. Anyway, if you do die in this 'assignment', leave me your house in the will. The one on Jeju island. I love beaches."

Chanyeol decided to ignore that comment and handed him the cash. Lay watched him walk away, coat blowing in the wind.