Hostage {ℍ𝕐𝕌ℕ𝕊𝕌ℕ𝔾} -- DISCONTINUED

Chapter Twenty

Hyunjin sat on his bed, staring down at his bandaged hands. Jisung's words echoed inside his mind like a never-ending mantra, and he ran a hand down his face, shoulders heaving. It was one thing to revert to the style in which his father had directed their gang, but it was quite another to do that with a rat thrown into the mix.

The truth was, he didn't have the faintest clue as to who it could have possibly been. He had to tread carefully – if he arose suspicion, the rat would flee with their tail tucked between their legs. However, that wasn't his only concern; after having withdrawn himself like this from the very first moment he'd become the leader of this gang, he had a feeling his members wouldn't take kindly to his newfound suspicions.

The Hwang family, slightly different than many other gang families in the city, didn't rule their territories with fear – or well, as much fear. The thing that kept his gang together was trust and loyalty; they'd never really had to deal with people wanting to leave the gang – they'd never had to kill any of them to protect family secrets.

This was an issue even his father might not have been able to approach quickly – and it needed to be approached quickly. "Dammit," he hissed, falling back against his mattress, closing his eyes as he exhaled heavily.

With possible enemies guarding his every corner, he'd never felt more alone. He'd never thought he'd need a friend, not after what had happened to his father, but more so now than ever with his mother gone, he wished he did.

At least he had someone he could count on in the midst of all of this, despite the fact that it wasn't ideal. Never would he have previously thought that he would form an alliance with the Hans, or such a close one.

Han Jisung, whether he wanted him to be or not, was part of his life now, deeply entrenched in his everyday doings and goings.

It was a much closer alliance than anyone wanted, really; it was difficult to control, and left him in a vulnerable state, though the same could also be said of Jisung. He chuckled as he opened his eyes again, staring at the ceiling.

If you could see me now, dad... I wonder what you'd say.

It was no secret that most of his members had opposed forming any sort of alliance with the Hans in the first place; they were definitely untrustworthy and secretive, a true band of snakes, through and through.

However... it was either he risk the snake or he face the lion.

He wanted to get out of this with the least amount of his men's blood on his hands as possible. If that meant making peace with a gang that had rivalled his own since its very conception, then so be it. His father may have approached this differently – his father might have done many things differently.

But Hyunjin was not his father – and his father's way of doing things had gotten him killed, leaving their family to run around like a gang of headless chickens, unsure of where they were going or what they were doing. If you cut off the head, the body would die.

That is, unless a new head grew to replace it.

~#~#~#~#~#~

Jisung groaned as he flopped onto his bed, staring up at the blank ceiling he'd grown so accustomed to over the last handful of weeks – or had it been months? Time both seemed to stop entirely and flow quicker than ever while he was here. He couldn't really tell how long it had even been.

His mind drifted towards Jeongin, his heart aching painfully. With each call to his father, the dread growing in the pit of his stomach only got worse. Suspicion coiled around his gut, but he quickly cast it aside; his father would never put Jeongin in a dangerous position while he was out on a mission.

He knew if Jisung ever caught wind of it he'd be out of here faster than anyone could blink, ruining their only alliance. He wouldn't... he wouldn't do anything to put that in jeopardy; without the Hwangs they weren't strong enough to take on the Bangs, at least not in full.

Although it reassured him, he still couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong.

He turned towards the window where the moon bathed the room in its soft glow, exhaling heavily as he continued to stare at the night as it developed. He knew he was too restless to even get the small amount of sleep he usually got – and, to be quite honest, he didn't want to deal with the nightmares at the moment.

His mind was already enough of a mess as it stood – he didn't need anything else adding onto the pile right now. He rubbed his temples before he finally made the decision to get up. If he was going to sit around, his worry for his brother's wellbeing keeping his mind up when he should have been trying to sleep, he could at least get some work done.

As it stood, they still had no idea who they were looking for – no leads, no ideas, not even a hint, and yet they knew that they were already onto them. The bodies must have been important somehow, though, or they wouldn't have rushed to move them, exposing the fact that there was a rat within the Hwang's ranks.

At least they had that going for them. Now the question was: what had they missed that was so important?

He jumped to his feet as he headed towards his bedroom door, taking a quick glance at the time. It wasn't that late – it was highly likely that Hyunjin was still awake. He raced towards his office, chewing on his bottom lip.

As usual, he didn't bother knocking, just bursting in like he owned the place. Hyunjin looked up from where he'd been hunched over a folder, eyes narrowed. When he noticed who it was that had entered, he rolled his eyes, shook his head, and went back to working on whatever it was that was on his desk.

"What, no greeting? I'm so very offended." The corners of Jisung's lips quirked up into a smirk as he closed the door behind him, approaching the large wooden desk perched in the center of the room.

His face grew serious as he perched himself beside Hyunjin, gazing down at the pictures of the bodies they had taken in a stroke of good thinking. "You noticed it too, huh?" Hyunjin looked up at him from the corner of his eye, face solemn as he nodded.

With a sigh, Jisung leaned against the desk, eyes narrowed in concentration as they swept over the pictures. Still, he couldn't find anything out of the ordinary, anything that warranted giving away their position.

He gnawed on his bottom lip as his eyebrows drew together. He closed his eyes with a sigh. "We're getting nowhere with this."

"The only clue we have is that they died thirty to forty years ago," Hyunjin said, lip pulled in a thin frown.

Jisung plopped down on the ground with a heavy sigh, eyes sliding out the window to the dark night sky. "I guess that's where we start – we don't have any other choice. Missing persons reports from... three decades ago."

This was going to be an absolute shit-show. 

A/N: School really sucks the fun out of reading I'm ngl u g h 

Q: What's a theory/conspiracy theory that freaks you out or fascinates you (or both)?

A: I actually found out today that there's a theory (I can't remember what it's called) that you're 6 relationships/connections away from any given person on the planet. Which is honestly so terrifying (because what the fuck) but also so cool because I'm a maximum of 6 connections away from all of you. Or maybe I'm closer than that; do our little Wattpad interactions count as a direct connection? I mean it probably does because like damn you've gotta know a lot of people for this to work. It's simply too much for my little brain to wrap around.

Lots of love,

~Emilie