RANSOM - 3RACHA

Seven

63 days before Chan was taken:

Jisung sneezed as he sat on the balcony at 4 am, Chan one side of him and Changbin the other. Chan couldn't sleep after his dad called him from work and yelled at him for making a mistake, adding to the list of stresses that already consumed Chan's mind. Jisung and Changbin stayed up with him so he wasn't alone.

"Are you getting sick?" Chan asked as he watched Jisung bury himself under a pink blanket and cough into his hands.

"I'm fine," he smiled. Changbin and Chan shared an uncertain look and without exchanging a single word, they had the same idea.

"Are you sure? You seem a bit sick, sweetheart," Chan said, snaking his arms around Jisung's waist and pulling him into his lap.

"Yeah, you can go to sleep if you want, baby. You don't have to stay up with us," Changbin added, brushing the hair that had fallen into Jisung's eyes away.

Jisung whined, "why are you babying me!?"

"Because you're adorable," Chan laughed, resting his head on top of Jisung's, who was now sulking.

"Yes, and sick," Changbin added, "so you need to sleep."

Jisung sighed and slumped against Chan's chest, "fine, I'll sleep but only if you carry me."

"Of course." Chan turned Jisung around in his arms so they were face to face. Jisung's arms wrapped around his neck and his legs around his waist before being lifted off the ground and he giggled.

"I'm flying, Jack!"

"Which one of us is Jack?" Changbin asked, still situated on the floor.

Jisung thought before coming to the conclusion that, "both of you are my Jack."

"Brilliant, we're both going to die!"

-

Jisung slept for under half an hour until he started tossing and turning. His dream, or more like nightmare, had been filled with images of Chan being alone in a dark room, blood covering his beaten body as he whimpered. The last thing he saw was the door to the cell opening before he woke up. He didn't realise he was crying at first but once he had, he couldn't stop.

Jisung didn't know how he ended up in Changbin's arms, one moment he was crying in a hotel bed and the next he was sobbing against a chest he'd cried against after so many past nightmares. Changbin shushed him and ran a hand through his light brown hair, "was it a nightmare, baby?"

Jisung nodded and Changbin held him closer. "It was Chan...he was hurt."

"It's ok, sweetheart," he kissed the top of Jisung's head, "it's not real, remember? They're just dreams."

"It's felt so real," Jisung sniffled, "what if the people hurt him?"

"Then we'll hurt them back."

Jisung scoffed, looking up at Changbin with a look of disbelief, "you're like 5ft2 and I'm the weakest person alive."

"Listen here, punk. I am 5ft6 thank you very much, and you once punched a homeless guy in the face and knocked him out when he tried to steal your sleeping bag so that is not true!"

Jisung chuckled softly, "I guess so."

"If anyone lays a hand on Chan then we're gonna fuck them up, aren't we, honey?"

"Yes," Jisung smiled, "yes we are."

---

"What are we actually going to do when we get there?" Jisung asked as he and Changbin sat in the back of a taxi. It was taking them to the address where they were going to drop off the ransom money in exchange for Chan. Jisung's hand was gripping onto Changbin's as both of the boys nerves were through the roof, Changbin was better at hiding it though.

"Fight some motherfuckers for taking our best friend?"

Jisung didn't laugh at the joke; he was too nervous. "Seriously. What if they shoot us or something?"

"Nonsense," Changbin shook his head. "They're just some boring business men who need money. They won't lay a hand on us and they haven't lay a hand on Chan," Changbin said, knowing Jisung hadn't stopped thinking about his nightmare all morning.

"You don't know that. Don't you remember when I had a dream that your dad died and then you told me the next day that he had."

"It was a coincidence," Changbin said, "stop scaring yourself."

Jisung huffed and slumped back in his seat, "this is bullshit. Why did they have to take Chan and not someone with a dad who actually cares about them? Then they would have been saved straight away!"

The car pulled to a stop outside of an abandoned looking warehouse and the driver turned to Changbin and Jisung, "are you sure this is the right address?"

Looking at the rusty walls and the broken glass all over the floor, Jisung wished the answer was no, but if Chan was in there he would do anything to get him back. "We like exploring abandoned buildings," he lied and Changbin payed the driver before they jumped out of the car with their bags full of money.

The driver sped off, leaving Jisung and Changbin alone in seemingly the middle of nowhere. There was nothing around them except masses of uncared for fields that the old warehouse stood in the centre of. "Do you think-" Jisung began before chatter from inside the warehouse interrupted him.

"Get behind the rock," Changbin instructed, nodding towards a large rock that was a few steps away. They got there just in time to see two men and one woman emerge from the building. Changbin strained his ears to hear what they were saying.

"Is anyone going to come?" A man with large muscles asked the woman who walked in between him and the other man. She was significantly smaller than them but remarkably more attractive with long blonde hair, black glasses and red lipstick staining her lips.

She laughed, "does it matter? Either way he is going to die."

Jisung gasped and Changbin shushed him, not wanting to get caught by the people who were possibly responsible for Chan's kidnapping. "The money could be useful," the shorter man said.

"Yes, but we're doing this for payback, remember? My father suffered so his could get ahead. All I want is for his dad to feel the same pain I did, but... worse."

"Of course, miss," he apologised, looking pathetic for a man of his size, "I just thought-"

"I don't care what you think. All I care about is making his father watch while he is beaten and killed, whether that is in person or through video, I don't care. Just make it happen. We'll give them until the end of the night but they don't seem to care," she said she stormed off in the direction of a car, parked a few meters away.

The taller man laughed, "you pissed her off."

"Shut the fuck up."

"Hey, don't get angry at me. Go and take it out on the human punching bag inside."

A sick grin appeared on the shorter man's face, "good idea."

-

Chan tensed the moment he saw the two men entering the room he had been locked in for an eternity. The bright light from outside stung his eyes and he had to squeeze them shut as his hands were tied behind his back, making it impossible to shield them. "Please," he began to beg, "not again, please." He could still feel the blood trickling down his face from the last time they hurt him.

"Aww but it's so fun," the taller man, who Chan had learned was called Jason, smiled.

"No, you heard him, Jason. He said please! We could never hurt him now," the other man, Nate, teased.

"Please," Chan continued to beg, unable to protect himself in any way except backing against the wall.

"I don't think so," one of them said, followed by a punch that was so powerful it sent Chan to the floor. His head hit against it with a thump. No matter how much he pleaded, the men continued to use him as a way of releasing their anger. The only thing keeping him going was the hope of seeing Changbin and Jisung again.