Yan An opened his eyes little by little, which felt understandably heavy as he started to come to his senses. The darkness was all he could see and slowly, he started to feel the pain in his head. It thumped like crazy whenever he moved an inch, but that was not the biggest worry he had at the time.
He remembered everything and while it all came back to him, he realized how his hands and feet were tied behind him. He could feel the burning where the rope tightly held onto his skin and he could barely nudge them. He had no idea why something like this would occur and at that point, his mind was too fuzzy to work properly. His mouth was tied up as well with cloth but he had no intention of making a sound anyway. As he slowly started to come to, sounds started to catch his attention. Although he couldn’t make anything out of it, he could hear multiple people having a conversation… and he knew he was not getting out of there easily. As he started to look around at his surroundings, he saw the room had absolutely nothing in it, just grey damp walls and nothing else. It was an old building for sure but not technically run-down. Nothing in the room gave him a clue as to where he was, but the sound that filled it up seconds later did.
It was the sound of a ship's horn. It took him no time to understand the gravity of the situation. Terror was all that filled his mind, because he knew the fate he would have if the captors got what they wanted. One could argue that jumping to the conclusion of human trafficking might not be the first thing you would do, but he knew the stories all too well and he knew, this is how they all started. He couldn’t quite grasp as to why he would be here, what reason they might have to kidnap him in the first place but as he slowly went through scenarios that could’ve gotten him into this mess, only one thing came to his mind… and that was their step-mother. He never liked her but at his mind came to that conclusion, even he tried to shun it away thinking she was not capable of such a thing, but still his thoughts wouldn’t let him completely discard it. Before he could think any further, he heard voices as they reached closer to the room he was in.
He knew, the only advantage he had was the element of surprise. Yan An froze, closed his eyes as if he were still unconscious and lay there still as a corpse. His body desperately wanted to react to every sound he heard as the men opened the door to his room, but his heart was the only thing allowed to do so. As the men came in, Yan An could hear the footsteps becoming clearer and he could finally make out what they were saying. “The kid's still unconscious, how hard did they hit him in the head?” said one of them, his voice relaxed as if he were doing nothing out of the ordinary. The other man replied while laughing, “kids these days are wimps, but that makes our job easier so who are we to complaint”, both of their laughter filling up the room afterwards. Yan An felt like crying, as the situation he was in slowly started to take over his emotions, but tears would have been a problem. As the mem kept chatting in front of him, another man called out to them and his voice caught Yan An off-guard. “Ah boss is calling, shit” said one of the men, to which the other replied “We didn’t do anything wrong again right? He scares me, let’s hurry up”. As soon as they locked the door, Yan An finally opened his eyes and let our a heavy breath, as he felt suffocated keeping up such an act. But the voice, Yan An couldn’t forget the voice that called out to them… as he felt like he had heard it before. But in that moment, what Yan An had to think was to get out of this alive.
Meanwhile, Hongseok drove to the location Yan An's mother sent to him, which he reached relatively quickly. As he pulled into the side street, he could see a woman pacing in front of a shop, distraught and trembling. He hadn’t seen this woman in a long while but he recognized her instantly as he drove closer and closer. He parked the car on the side of the street and got off, when he found that the woman was already looking at him. Seeing the bags under her eyes, the tears and the frail state she was in, Hongseok felt nothing but sadness and helplessness. He walked at a fast and steady and the elder woman slowly trotted towards Hongseok’s direction as well, which ended in a tight embrace. The woman broke down as Hongseok held tightly onto her, her voice choking as she spoke “Hongseok-ah… Hongseok-ah my baby… they have my baby”. He could barely keep his tears to himself but he knew… he knew he could not falter now. All he could say was “I’m sorry” over and over again. The pain they both felt for not being able to protect Yan An was immeasurable and Changgu too, felt the same.
He was already restless, even though he knew it would take Hongseok a while to let him know of what was going on. Their colleagues asked where Hongseok was and all Changgu could do was lie to them about his health not being at it’s best and take care of the work instead. He has helped his older brother several times with office work as he enjoyed working together with him but also, because his mother wanted Changgu to know everything about the company in and out. He knew that his mother had ulterior motives to this endeavor but Changgu still enjoyed working at his father’s company and help out wherever he could. But now, a lot was at stake and all he could do now, was keep things going on as they should while Hongseok figured out what was going on. As his head was going through several things all at once, his father’s secretary, now Hongseok’s, knocked in the door asking for permission to enter. That snapped Changgu out of the mess his thoughts made as he replied “Please come in”. The young man entered the room to hand over some documents Hongseok needed to sign. “Thank you, I’ll get them signed for you at the earliest” Changgu replied with a slight smile, to which the man opposite to him replied with an okay and walked towards the door to take his leave. But Changgu stopped him before he could do so by saying “Wait… when did mother sign this? She hasn’t been to the office lately”. The secretary replied in kind saying “Her acquaintance had it picked up for her, we were informed to hand it over to him this time” and Changgu knew, something was wrong.
As he slowly started to understand, things were not as they seemed, each of them now had separate battles to fight but the one thing they all wanted, was to bring an end to this fast because otherwise, things would keep getting more and more out of hand.
YOU ARE READING
Feels Like Family
Mystery / Thriller"Doesn't matter how we met or why we're here, we're together and that's enough"
