RANSOM - 3RACHA

Five

74 days before Chan was taken:

Jisung coughed as the smoke from Chan's cigarette hit him in the face. "Sorry," Chan apologised and put out what remained of it, even though it pained him to do so. What a waste of a perfectly good cigarette.

"It's ok, I should be used to it by now. Binnie smokes too," Jisung explained, a small smile forming on his face as he looked out across the lit up city, "I don't understand why you'd intentionally kill yourself in such a way though."

Chan shrugged, "I have nothing to lose."

Jisung turned back to Chan with a frown, "don't say that. You do have things to lose."

"What I mean is...life is just too stressful without it," Chan sighed. He didn't feel like telling Jisung he thought there was nothing in the world left for him. It seemed everyone was already happy and had their lives sorted out; Chan had accepted the fact he wasn't and he probably never would be.

"Binnie says that," Jisung mumbled, "he spends too much money on cigarette's though. Doesn't he realise having no money causes more stress?"

Chan chuckled, "you're adorable."

A proud smile appeared on Jisung's face, "I know."

-

"Binnie, there's strange men outside the apartment," Jisung said as he walked into the living-room.

"Strange men?" Changbin frowned, "who? Did you open the door?"

"No, they looked intimidating," Jisung mumbled, eyes fixed on his hands that he was playing with, "I heard talking outside so I looked out of the peep hole and they're just standing there. I think... they have guns or something."

Changbin jumped up from the sofa and ran to the door. He looked out of the peep hole to see who Jisung was talking about. Three strong looking men stood in the hall way, talking amongst themselves. It wouldn't have been too suspicious if one of them wasn't loading a hand gun. "Jesus fucking Christ," Changbin grabbed Jisung's wrist and pulled him into the office, "they must have found out we live here."

"Yes, you told Mr Bang, remember?" Jisung answered casually, as if there wasn't a possibility he could be shot to death in a matter of seconds. A loud banging on the door made him jump in surprise and cling onto Changbin's arm though, "are we in danger?"

"Not if you do exactly as I say, ok?" Changbin said as he detached himself from Jisung and passed him a backpack filled with money. It was heavy but Jisung managed to keep hold of it with only some struggle. "Go out to the balcony and climb the stairs that lead to the roof. Hide and wait for me there. Don't come back down until I say so or you haven't heard anything for a while, ok?"

"But-"

"Jisung," Changbin said with desperation in his voice.

"Fine," Jisung nodded, swinging the backpack over his shoulder as another loud knock filled the room. He hesitated and stopped to give Changbin a hug before running off to where he had been told.

As soon as Changbin heard the balcony door open and shut again, he ran towards the vault and unlocked it. He grabbed the last two bags he needed to fill with money and started pilling the money into them but there wasn't enough time.

The front door to the apartment burst open and Changbin had no choice but to close the vaults door and lock himself inside. He waded though the cash until he reached the back of the vault and was covered by the money enough for the men not to see him if they happened to know the code. Luckily, he could hear their conversation once they entered the office.

"They were probably some stupid kids messing around. As if Chan would let two people like that live with him," the first man spoke.

"What were they like?" The second asked.

"Mr Bang said they were obviously fags. One was a goth and one looked like a fucking girl!"

Changbin clenched his fist. He didn't care what they said about him, but he cared what they said about Jisung and was glad he wasn't there to hear. Changbin wasn't impulsive like Jisung though and he wouldn't have done anything about what they said because even if he wanted to, he was locked in a vault.

The second man spoke again, "wait, you don't think Chan is...one of those do you?"

A silence fell between the two before the first man laughed. "Don't be stupid. Of course Chan isn't a fag."

A third man entered their conversation, "hey, do either of you know the code to that vault?"

Changbin tensed.

"No, it's not important is it?"

"No, I guess not. It's not like a couple of weird kids could get in there anyway."

Changbin grinned at how wrong they were. A couple of weird kids could get into the vault and they couldn't.

"Come on, this is a waste of time. Let's go and report back to Mr Bang."

Changbin sighed in relief when he heard the front door slam shut. Now his only problem was getting out of the vault. He pushed himself out of the cash stacks until he could breath without being suffocated by the scent of old money. Now he had to wait for Jisung to return which could have been anywhere between half an hour or a couple hours depending on how long he could last on the roof. Luckily, it was Jisung so he only stayed up there twenty minutes before getting bored and wandering into the office, calling, "Changbin?"

"Jisung... I'm stuck in the vault," Changbin admitted and as expected, the first thing Jisung did was laugh at him.

-

"Oh baby, don't cry," the woman that Chan had grown to hate smiled as he sat on the edge of his bed. Chan was in limbo between consciousness and unconsciousness but tears were still trickling down his cheeks. He hadn't gotten much sleep since he'd been taken a few days ago, only when he'd passed out had he gotten to rest.

The women brushed a hand across his cheek and wiped away the tears as Chan began mumbling, "want to see Jisung and Changbin."

The woman raised an eyebrow, "and who would they be?"

Chan broke down into uncontrollable sobs again at the question. "I love them," he blubbered in his vulnerable state.

The woman looked impressed, "now that is certainly interesting. Perhaps somebody will try to save you after all, but...even then, they would fail."