Ryu's POV:
I hurt when I woke up. I felt more pain then I had felt since I had woken up from the transplant. As I tried to move, I realized I couldn't, feeling the metal restraint on my left wrist. Finally, as my vision began to clear, I realized I had been changed into some sort of lingerie before I had been restraint to the bed.
I tried to keep myself calm as fear overran my mind. Nobody knew to look for me. Would Jisung worry enough to have someone check on me if I didn't answer his phone calls? I tried not to panic at my situation, but I was terrified, especially when I saw him.
"I wasn't sure you'd wake up, Ryu-ah," he said, getting uncomfortably close to me in the bed. "Sorry I was so rough with you, but I was angry you ran away last time."
"Woojin. Why are you doing this to me?" I asked, trying to hide my fear.
"You're mine, Ryu. I've told you that before," he said stroking my face. "Do you like what I changed you into? I've always wondered what it would be like to see you undressed or in sexy lingerie."
A chill ran up my spine and I felt nauseous at the idea of him touching my unconscious body.
"Woojin, please, stop this. You know what you're doing isn't just wrong, but you can kill me," I tried to reason with him.
"I'm not letting you go this time," he told me, and the cold look in his eyes told me he meant it. "So tell me, Ryu. Will I be your first?"
"No," I told him nervously, which made him seem both disappointed and angry.
"Well, I'm going to be your last," he said as he started to strip himself.
I wasn't even sure how long I had been unconscious before I realized the trouble I was in. As Woojin finally got what he had been after for years from me, a single tear fell from my eye as I refused to focus on him. Instead, I tried to force myself to focus on a life where I got away from him, a life when I was back in Jisung's arms, where I belonged.
Changbin's POV:
It had been weeks since Ryu-ah had disappeared. After it became known to others besides Jin and Jisung, everyone had started to look for her. The idols pled with our fandoms to help us find her, reminding them that she was very special to us and she had severe medical conditions that required careful monitoring. After the first week, our companies had pushed that we get back to work, stating that if we had wanted to continue to look for her, we could do it in our free time. None of the idols were happy, but we were doing everything we could.
The new year came and went and we still hadn't found her. We were starting to lose hope, given her medical conditions, but we were still trying not to think the worst. Jisung and Jin were besides themselves. Jin was spending more time at Jisung's place than at BTS' place as they continuously looked for Ryu.
It was at the beginning of the second week of January, right after a meeting with our manager's when Han, Chan, and I sat down for a talk that left all eight of us worried more for her.
"Has there been anything on Woojin's social media?" I asked Chan, since he was the only one of us who still checked our former member's accounts from time to time. "I mean, has he had any reaction to the fact that Ryu went missing when we were busy with the end of year show schedules?"
"No. Why?" he asked back.
"You don't think he's behind this, do you?" Han asked nervously.
"I think the fact that we found him alone in that room with her panicking, without her able to remember what happened says something was going on, whether Ryu would tell us or not," I admitted.
"I don't think she'd lie to us, Changbin," Han replied.
They didn't know about her teacher. I took a deep breath, hoping she would be found alive to be angry for what I was about to do. After I took a deep breath, I betrayed her trust.
"Ryu had a teacher not long after she got out the hospital when she became Jin's daughter. She never talked about him really, but after what happened with Woojin, the reason she asked us to keep what happened between us was because he had touched her inappropriately. Back at that point, she told me Jin was having issues and being hard on himself so she didn't want anymore stress on him, so I agreed after she promised she'd talk to someone if she needed to," I told them.
"Why didn't you tell us this sooner?" Chan asked, getting annoyed at me.
"She didn't want anyone to know," I replied. "She was ashamed because she hadn't stopped him and he still scared her. Ryu still has nightmares about the teacher."
"Are you sure it's just the teacher?" Han asked and I looked at him in shock.
Han was right. Ryu was hospitalized after all of that and then brushed it off as nightmares about her teacher. If she was hiding something that happened with Woojin, that was making her have even worse nightmares than when it was just the memories of the teacher, we'd missed signs she was in danger a lot longer than we realized and I had inadvertently helped hide them. I dropped my head in defeat, worried that if Woojin had kidnapped Ryu, I was inadvertently responsible for making it possible for him to do it. It didn't help that while we were still friends, she didn't confide in me 100% after we broke up because of the way I overreacted to how the police handled her first kidnapping. That was something that I quickly realized was the biggest mistake I had ever made in my life. I missed the way Ryu and I were before I had been so stupid.
"We need to go see Jin and Jisung to tell them this," Chan said. "And pray she's found alive."
"Chan's right," Han agreed. "They need to know the truth, even if they try to kill the three of us."
"The three of us?" I asked.
"You weren't the only one who didn't say anything to them after we found Woojin in that room with her, Changbin-hyung," Han started. "All three of us did. And when she was the hospital, all three of us went out of our way to keep him away from it. We all helped hide that he had become obsessed with her."
"We need to tell the others before we go," Chan decided.
We went and found the other five members of Stray Kids. Once Chan got them to at least sit down, he got their attention by telling them he needed to tell them something about Ryu. That shut them all right up. He explained what the three of us had discussed and that we were going to talk to Jisung and Jin. When he finished, Lee Know, Felix, and Hyunjin looked like they were going to attack us. I think the only reason they didn't was because Seungmin and I.N looked like they were going to cry at the idea that Woojin may have Ryu-ah. Before Lee Know, Felix, and Hyunjin changed their mind, the three of us left.
Arriving at the penthouse Jisung and Ryu-ah had rented from G-Dragon, knowing the future it was supposed to represent was in danger, possibly because of us, was a sobering occasion. When we walked into the penthouse, G-Dragon, TOP, Taeyong, Yuta, Johnny, Chanyeol, Sehun, Xiumin, Taemin, Key, and Jungkook were there with Jisung and Jin. I looked to Bang Chan and Han for reassurance we were still going to tell them with all these people in the penthouse. They nodded to me.
I took a deep breath and explained everything to them. Chan, Han, and I apologized repeatedly for keeping our promise to Ryu-ah when it could have put her in danger. Before anyone could stop them, Jisung, Taeyong, Johnny, and Yuta attacked Chan, Han, and me. It took a few minutes to pry them off of us.
"How could you take that risk on her life?!" Jisung, rightfully, demanded.
"Are you guys stupid? Because letting something like that go with a girl who has already lost her heart once is extraordinarily stupid," Johnny continued.
"I thought you loved her, Changbin?" Yuta started. "Because if you ever did, you wouldn't have done this. You would've taken better care of her.
"If we don't get her back, I will make sure you all wish you were dead," Taeyong said in a toneless voice, not getting angry like the others. He looked at us with a mix of hurt and hatred that startled me a bit. "Kim Ryung-gi became my little sister the day I met her. I have loved and taken care of that girl the best I can for all these years. If I lose her, I will hurt you three in ways you never knew you could hurt."
"I understand that you thought Ryu-ah had a good reason not to tell me what happened," Jin began, "but I am the adult, not Ryu. I am her guardian, her appa. You are all older than her. You all knew that sometimes she needed to be protected. I have been an adult since before I became her guardian. I would have found a way to deal with this like I have everything else. I've had BTS to help me. I trusted all of you. Especially you, Changbin. I trusted you with the most precious thing in my life, Ryu-ah. That girl has been the light in my life since the day she was born. I don't know that I can anymore. If we don't find my ddal, I know I won't."
"I think it's time for you guys to leave," Kookie told us. "You really fucked up and none of us want you here right now. If you stay, we all might attack you for this."
"But..." I started, but Han stopped me.
"Hyung, he's right. We messed up. These guys have all known Ryu a lot longer than we have. If they don't want us around here right now, we should respect that. If we don't, this is going to be so much worse," he said to me.
"Come on, Binnie," Chan said. "We did what we needed to do. Tell them the truth. It's all we can do here for now."
Han and Chan led me out of the apartment and back to the studio. I stayed there for the rest of the day.
Yoongi's POV:
I was still reeling over the fact that Ryu had been missing for so long. Especially since I was the reason she moved out and refused to come back when the death threats started. But she hadn't been speaking to me for a few weeks before she moved out and I hadn't been able to try to fix things with her. Now, every day I had to pray that wherever she was, she somehow found a way to survive another day so we had more time to find her. As long as there was a chance to find her and for her to survive, I'd accept it. A chance was better than just losing her.
Since it was my day off, I was home alone. Jisung didn't want me over at his penthouse since he knew I was the one who ran Ryu out of our place, so I stayed home, wondering if there was anything we all missed. When the doorbell rang, I wasn't in the mood to deal with anyone, but they weren't going away.
"What are you doing here?" I asked.
"We haven't met up in like two weeks. I missed you so I wanted to check on you," Namkyu replied.
"You shouldn't be here," I told her.
"Why? Are you worried Ryu will catch us? Because we're not even friends anymore," she stated.
My heart clenched when she mentioned Ryu's name. It was the fact that she had found out that I was spending time with Namkyu that pushed her over the edge, making her move out. It was what made her decide that she didn't want to have much to decide with Kookie either. It also made me miss my little savage more.
"Don't bring her up to me," I said to Namkyu.
"Why not?" she asked. "I don't care if she gets mad."
"She's more than mad about this, Namkyu," I started. "She hasn't spoken to me since the day she crashed at your place for the study session for your phsyics final last year. And when she found out about this, she moved out without telling us until after she'd done it. We've never fought like this before this."
"She's still young. She's probably just mad she doesn't have your full attention anymore."
"You don't get it! Ryu has night terrors and she has for years. She's always come to me and Kookie for comfort at night so she can sleep. Since the night she stopped talking to me, she also stopped coming to us to help her sleep. You know she has a heart condition and not sleeping isn't good for her health! Then, the death threats started. And when we were all traveling for the end of year shows, she was fucking kidnapped! Ryu has been missing for about six weeks!" I exclaimed, getting tired of her needy bullshit. "So, no, I haven't been up to seeing you because I've been focused on the fact that my yeodongsaeng with a heart condition has been missing, could be dead, I haven't spoken to her in more than six months, and she wouldn't even move back here temporarily because she was too angry that you and I were spending time together behind her back! Honestly, I'm done with you, Namkyu! You're too fucking clingy, and you just want to brush everything about Ryu off to her age. She may be young, but she's more fucking mature than you and I helped raise her to be a strong, savage woman as she grew up! I've been her big brother since the crash that made Jin her father. Kookie and I became the two closest to us, the ones she always confided in when she was nervous to talk to other people. And because of you, we lost that! And we may lose her! So, just get out and stop trying to act like you ever cared for her. Because if you did, you would have come over here to see how I was doing since she was missing."
"Yoongi-oppa... I'm sorry. I guess since she stopped talking to me..." she started.
"I don't want to hear any bullshit excuses, Namkyu. Just get out. I meant it when I said I'm done with you. It was a mistake for me to start hanging out with you. I should have realized how big a mistake it was when you said we should keep it from Ryu for her sake. You tore my family apart. Just go the fuck away."
She looked like she was about to go on a tirade, but Kookie came in the front door. His smile disappeared as soon as he saw Namkyu. He glared at the two of us.
"What is that doing in the house, Hyung?" he asked me.
"Excuse me, I am a person, not a thing," Namkyu told him indignantly.
"You are a home wrecker. You're not welcome here," Kookie told her, before looking to me. "Get her out before the others come home. You know they'll tear into both of you."
"Namkyu is leaving, Jungkook," I told him and he looked at me, confused. "I didn't invite her here, I don't want her here, and quite honestly, I told her I'm done with her. I don't want anything to do with her."
Kookie smiled at me for finally doing the right thing by Ryu and all of BTS. Then he turned to Namkyu.
"You heard Yoongi-hyung. Time for you to go, Namkyu. You have definitely overstayed your welcome in this house. I'll make sure security knows not to allow you to come back," he said to her.
"But I wasn't done talking to him," she tried to argue with him.
"That doesn't matter. He doesn't want you around, nobody else around here wants you to be here, so you're leaving. Don't make me pick you up and carry you to security. If I do, I'm pressing charges for trespassing."
She huffed at him and walked in front of him as he saw her out of the house. When he came back to me, he was getting off the phone with security.
"I want to make sure she really leaves and doesn't come back," he said to me smiling when I looked at him. "What took you so long, Hyung?"
"I don't know. Maybe the fact that she was easy to talk to?" I replied. "But it's the fact that it's hitting me harder every day Ryu is gone that it's been more than six months since she's spoken to me, come to me for help, she refused to come home when the death threats started, and now she's been missing so long, and all of it has some tie to Namkyu that finally made me realize she needed to go. I haven't talked to her in like two weeks. That's why she came over... to check how I was doing. Not even to find out if we had any word on Ryu. No, when I would bring up how our being friends broke my relationship with Ryu, she just kept making excuses."
"What a bitch," Kookie said, shocking me.
"It was her idea, you know," I told him.
"What was?"
"Not telling Ryu we were friends and started meeting up on our own from time to time," I replied. "She told me it was better for Ryu for her sake, basically because she was experiencing so many changes as it was we shouldn't stress her more with our friendship."
"You forgot what Bangtan stands for, Hyung," he told me.
I looked him in the eye knowingly.
"I know I did. I put something ahead of my family and it tore us apart. You'll never understand how sorry I am that I let her convince me to keep that secret from Ryu," I admitted. "What if I don't get the chance to apologize to Ryu, Kookie?"
"None of that! We will find her. Somehow," he said, unwilling to accept anything other than that.
He then told me what the Stray Kids told him. Part of me wanted to go kill them. But part of me knew I'd be being a hypocrite because me and Jungkook had been hiding how bad her nightmares had been for years. Instead, I hoped that I had a chance to fix thing with her, that she was strong enough to survive whatever she was going through.
Ryu's POV:
I could barely move. Between the sexual abuse, the beatings, the fact that I wasn't getting my medications regularly, or even being fed regularly, the only reason I could think of that I hadn't died was shear force of will. Woojin would blackmail me in order for me to get food, water, or even the medications he knew I needed to keep me alive in exchange for sexual acts. I hated the fact that I had no choice, if I wanted to try to survive, but to do what he wanted.
There was no way for me to keep track of how long I had been his prisoner where he was keeping me. There were no windows, so I never had an idea of it is was night or day. He never told me how long I had been unconscious once he used me until I couldn't stay conscious or until he decided I had earned the right to get a few hours of sleep, except the first time I woke up with him. I kept trying to think of ways to get away from him and that place, but the restraint wasn't rope this time. I couldn't take the risk of injury to cut the ropes and get away. On top of that, I had to seriously consider the fact that my body was a lot weaker than when he had kidnapped me the first time. Sometimes, it was hard not to fall into complete despair.
"Has my good girl finally woken up again?" I heard him from another part of the room and I had to keep myself from audibly groaning.
A minute later he was crawling into the bed, uncomfortably close.
"I need my medicine," I said to him. "My heart doesn't feel right."
"Really? What's wrong?" he asked, not even bothering to get up like he pretending he was going to give me my medication.
"It's not beating normally," I told him. "Please, Woojin, I can die if I don't get my medications."
"How badly do you want your medications, Ryu-ah?" he asked me suggestively, his hand grabbing mine, making me touch his crotch. "Because you know what you need to do if you want me to be in a good enough mood to give you those pills."
I shivered, hating the situation, hating myself, hating him for making me his toy. After taking a minute to calm myself down so he wouldn't sense any reaction from me, I let him lead me in his desire for that moment. By the time he was pleasured out, I not only felt like I was going to puke, or I wanted to take a bath in acid to remove any traces of him touching me, but I felt weaker. I was scared.
"Woojin... I need my medication. Please. I did what you wanted," I pled with him.
After a few minutes, he sighed and grabbed them from where he kept them hidden. Getting a glass of water with barely enough water for me to take my medications, he gave me the pills first, then the water to wash them down. Being so weak, as he was rambling about how victorious he felt for capturing me and making me give him what he'd wanted for so long, I gave into the blackness that had started creeping at the edge of my vision. It was the one good thing about me being so weak. I couldn't stop myself from losing consciousness. The one major downside to that was I never knew what he did to my unconscious body, my point being proven by the fact that I woke up in lingerie the first time I woke up to him.
Vernon's POV:
"Hoshi-hyung?" I asked, trying to get his attention.
He walked over to me.
"What's up?"
"I need you to help me convince the other guys we need to continue helping as much as we can to look for Ryu," I told him.
"Vernon... it's been almost seven weeks since she went missing. With her heart..." Hoshi started gently.
"It's very important to me. I have to do something for her," I argued.
"What do you mean?"
I explained what happened at the graduation party almost exactly a year ago. I admitted to Hoshi that some of our classmates had unknowingly risked killing her to ruffie her, and that I was the one she had wound up with. I explained to him that I had promised to guard the secrets of that night to protect her dignity and privacy, with only me, her, Wooseok, and Yuto knowing the whole story, with her telling Jisung and BTS a slightly altered version that wouldn't get me killed.
"Why did Wooseok and Yuto get to know this secret?" Hoshi asked.
"They were the ones who realized what our old classmates did. While Yuto beat a few of them for a few minutes, Wooseok came looking for Ryu. When Yuto got up to all of us, they explained what happened. That was when I apologized to her and made my promise before going to take my frustrations on those Wooseok and Yuto were sure had something to do with drugging her. Wooseok and Yuto stayed with her for the rest of the night, even keeping her between the two of them on the bed when we all decided to crash for the night, to make sure she was safe," I told him. "I really hated that I was essentially used to rape Ryu, Hyung. She told me she had been a virgin until then. That's not something you can just get back. Not only that, but because of the drugs in her system, she didn't even remember what happened between us, just that we'd slept together, and she admitted she'd never looked at me like that. I can't just let trying to find her become a semi-casual priority. Please, Hoshi. Help me. I can't do this alone and I can't pretend that everything is fine and just let it go either."
"I'm not promising you anything, Vernon," Hoshi started. "But I'll talk to S.Coups and Woozi later tonight. Just keep praying that she's survived this long."
I hugged him, grateful that he was willing to try to help. It was what I was hoping to hear from him.
Jongho's POV:
"We need to take at least one or two days off a week to look for Ryu in addition to looking for her in our down time," I argued with Hongjoong, who had just come from a meeting with the managers.
"Manager-nims want us to spend less time focused on Ryu and more time focused on our music and fans, Jongho," he replied to me.
"No! Ryu is too important!" I exclaimed. "When manager-nims wanted me to go back to school, she took me around the school for the day, but she made sure none of the students in the school realized that I was hanging around her. She knew they'd tear my life apart as soon as I started if they had. Ryu was careful, even having Beomgyu take me during lunch and distract them when we were all in her dance class. She stayed with me when I was waiting to be picked up because I asked, not because she wanted to. I didn't want to be in the office alone waiting to be picked up so I asked if she could stay, not even asking her. She's always been there for all of us, and now she needs all of us because, and I really hope she is, if she's still alive, her heart may not last too much longer. And if we do find her, she's going to need all of the people who have come to love her to give her emotional support to recover from whatever she's going through. That worries me, Hyung. I don't know if she knows how to recover. I don't know that she knows how to share her burdens with those who care about her so that she can stay healthy physically and emotionally. We can't spend less time looking for her. Ryu may not have much time left, Hyung."
"He's right, Joong," Seonghwa spoke up in my defense. "We've given 200% of our energy and our time to the company since we were trainees. We've always done everything they've asked us. This time, I think they need to be the ones to compromise. This is important to all of us. Think about how special she is. She even agreed to choreograph for us when none of us told her why we were bringing her here at the beginning of the school day. She wasn't happy at the ambush, but she still did it when you explained how much we wanted to work with her."
"I know that, Seonghwa," Hongjoong replied to him. "But manager-nims are not going to listen to me alone on this."
"Then we tell them all eight of us want to talk to them and we tell them together," Yeosang started. "We make it clear that this time, it's their turn to be flexible with the situation because of how important Kim Ryung-gi is to all eight of us."
"And if they don't listen?" Hongjoong asked.
"We unleash the maknae on them," Mingi said simply.
"He can show them what it feels like up close and personal when he gets a tight grip," San continued, laughing.
I smirked at them. For Ryu, I would do it. Hongjoong sighed.
"Fine," he started. "I'll set it up."
"You're doing the right thing, Hyung," Yunho told him.
"Yeah, a lot of idols are going nuts without her," Wooyoung agreed.
LuHan's POV:
Pick up your phone. I have something urgent to tell you.
I looked at my phone. The message was from Xiumin-hyung. Even though I basically didn't speak to any of the members of EXO but Lay anymore, the text worried me. I hit reply.
Fine. But you need to call me now. I have to be somewhere in 20 minutes.
Right after the message sent, my phone started to ring.
"What's going on, Hyung?" I asked him, picking up.
"I know you, Kris, and Tao left for good reason and work your hardest to stay out of what's going on in Seoul, but there's a situation here that I think all three of you need to know about," he replied.
"What situation in Seoul could possibly interest the three of us?" I asked him.
"Kim Ryung-gi, LuHan," he said, and he was right. I was very interested.
"What's going on?" I asked.
"She's missing. She has been for seven weeks now. Someone used her phone to send a text saying she was going to stay at a lake house she and Jisung from NCT Dream used to spend the night at frequently and she'd be in touch to Jisung. The following day, he put together that the text saying she was leaving for the lake house had come in at a time that by the time he saw it, she should have been there, but he was in the middle of practice and performed that night. So, he went to Jin. Neither of them had heard from her in at least two days. Jisung left NCT in December, during the end of year shows with Jin to return to Seoul to try to start looking for her. The rest of us didn't find out until the season ended, and we started looking for her, but it's been three additional weeks since they found out, making it seven weeks she's missing. There was another threat against her at the lake house she should've been at," he explained.
"What do you mean, 'another threat against her?'" I asked.
"She got a few death threats last year after she moved out of BTS' place. The first was when she was living with G-Dragon. The second was just before her birthday when she and Jisung had moved into the penthouse. Then there was the one at the lake house when she went missing."
"Why didn't any of you tell us about these threats when we were there?" I demanded.
"She and Jisung hadn't told anyone about the second threat. Most of us learned about the second threat after she went missing. They reported it to the police, but she didn't want anyone to really know because she didn't want to give whoever was sending them attention, apparently."
"Fine, but why did you wait seven weeks to tell me that she's missing?!"
"LuHan, most of us have known for three," Xiumin started. "We're spending almost every free minute we have looking for her, trying to keep hope that she's still alive. Bang Chan, Changbin, and Han went and told Jin and Jisung a week or so ago that they think there's a possibility Woojin might have something to do with it. Apparently, he'd been creepy with her before and she asked that they not tell anyone, especially Jin."
"Why is the maknae of maknaes from NCT being told everything?" I asked.
"Their engaged. Lee Soo Man told Jisung if he wanted to act like an adult and live with his girlfriend, he should be willing to at least get engaged. After the drama with the first death threat, when they were ready to move into the penthouse, he proposed and she accepted."
"That blew up in Lee Soo Man's face," I laughed a bit. "I approve."
"LuHan, I called because it finally occurred to me that you guys don't know and I wanted to give all of you the option to come to Seoul in order to either try to look for her or to be here if we find her, no matter what way this ends," he said, struggling towards the end. "I know how much she means to all three of you. I got to see it with my own eyes at her birthday party. You have a right to the option to be here."
"I'll text you. Let me go to get in touch with Kris so we can go see Tao and tell him together."
"Alright."
I ended the call with Xiumin and called Kris.
"What's up?"
"I have bad news and after I tell you, we need to go tell Tao, and then the two of you need to help get me on a plane to Seoul with you," I replied.
"What's wrong?"
I told Kris everything Xiumin told me. He cursed for a few minutes.
"Pick me up. I'll call Tao and find out where he is."
"Give me an hour. I'm going to pack first. We'll get tickets at Tao's so we book the same flights."
"Alright."
When we finally got to Tao and told him everything, he cried. We both knew he would. He still felt guilty for leaving Seoul the way he did, especially since he didn't have time to go see Ryu before he did. Everyone agreed to keep how badly she took him leaving from him, knowing it would only make him feel worse. He couldn't stop sobbing about how she should've been safe and we have to go save her.
"We're going to Seoul, Tao. Kris and I are already packed our bags. You go do the same. We're going to book flights for the three of us. Then we're going to the airport," I told him.
"Are you going to be able to get on the plane, Lu?" he asked me.
"With the two of you by my side? For Ryu? I'll get on the plane," I replied.
He looked at me with happiness and rushed off while I panicked and Kris booked the tickets.
Wooseok's POV:
We were at eight and a half weeks since Ryu's disappearance. Management at Cube kept bitching that Yuto and I were wasting our time looking for her. The last time they did, we each grabbed one of them by their collars and told them to watch what they said about Kim Ryung-gi to us because the girl was like our family. It didn't stop them from yelling at us, but it taught them not to get too close to us while they did.
Hui, the leader of the group, came over to us because we weren't really working on anything. We had been hanging out by the wall trying to think of anything that might help find Ryu.
"You guys still need to make your contributions to the group," he said to us.
"When you actually need us, you can count on us," Yuto told him.
"Until then, we're trying to think of new ways to help find Ryu," I said.
"You know, she's been gone just over two months now," Hui started. "If she hasn't been found, with her medical conditions..."
Yuto and I stood up. We both towered over Hui. Yuto was 14 cm taller than Hui and I was 17.5 cm than him. As we stood looking down at him, we were both getting pissed off. We were surprised when Shinwon, who was 13 cm taller than Hui, came over to back us up.
"Leave them alone, Hui," Shinwon started. "They're upset and they may not be working, but they're not bothering anyone either. They have every right to be upset and they're trying to do something constructive with their feelings."
"They need to put their focus back on the group," Hui argued.
"Do you know how many idols' had their lives shredded when Kim Ryung-gi was kidnapped, Hui? Do you know how many lives that girl has changed without realizing it? She always put other people ahead of herself, and when she cared, she cared deeply. Wooseok and Yuto are close to her. The fact that it's been so long that she's been gone and they can't do much can't be easy for them, so leave them to try to think of ideas to help."
"How do you know so much about Ryu, Shinwon?" Hui asked.
"I've been friends with Choi Yeonjun for a long time and he's just as broken as these two are. A lot of idols are right now. The difference between them and these two is that they or their group leaders are fighting for them to be able to have the time to try to find her. Nobody is willing to give up hope on her," Shinwon told him.
"She was the sole survivor of a plane crash when she was 10, Hui-hyung. It took months and her getting a new heart, but she survived falling out of the sky when her parents and oldest brother all died," I told her.
"She learned to cope with having a transplant heart, which means having control of your emotions before she hit puberty, Hyung. If she could do those things when she was so little, who is to say she won't survive this?" Yuto challenged him.
Hui looked at us and sighed in frustration.
"That girl has overcome every obstacle she's faced, even ones that could have killed her in this life already. She is too mature for her age, and has too much life left in her to just lay down and die, Hui. If anyone can come back from this, I believe it's Kim Ryung-gi," Shinwon told him.
"The odds say that she's already..." Hui started.
"Don't make us hurt you, Hui," I warned him.
"If you finish that sentence, Wooseok and I will definitely hurt you," Yuto said. "We will not accept that possibility unless it is in front of our eyes. So don't you dare make that implication in front of us again, Hyung."
Shinwon led him away from us.
"She needs to be found, Wooseok. Fast. We may not want to hear it. But we both know what he was going to say," Yuto said. "And we both know how easily things can turn with her health. She did not survive that crash, losing Jonghyun, Tao leaving, what happened at that graduation party, all the stress her father and BTS put her under, just to go down like this. Ryu deserves better."
"I know she does. We need to find her soon. I'm worried about her. I don't want to lose her, Yuto," I admitted.
"None of us do."
Ryu's POV:
I was having more trouble believing I could get away from Woojin as I was starting to feel like I had been trapped with him forever. One spark of hope for me was when I had regained consciousness and realized he wasn't there. I figured he was getting more supplies. While he was gone, I tried to figure out if there was any way to get freed from the bed. Even if I didn't get far, if I got away, someone might notice me. It was while I was trying to find a way to get free from the bed that I noticed something that would take some work, but could ultimately give me a chance at an escape.
The bar the restraint was attached to was slightly shaky. I guessed it was either from everything he did and all the ways he moved me around as he took what he wanted from me or from me struggling from my night terrors. Either way, the bar was a little loose. If I could slowly make it more unstable, I might be able to knock it off the bedframe completely. Even better, if I did, I could use it to impale Woojin on to give me a head start to escape.
"Baby, look what I got for you!" Woojin said a little while later when he came back.
I'd made some progress on the bar on the bedframe and before he could get within sight of me, I had already stopped. Thankfully, there was nothing for him to be suspicious of. But when he got into my line of sight I saw what he was holding up and I wanted to scream. He had more lingerie, which he had bought several times since he'd had me. Only this one was the most revealing yet. It was white and lacy and just the thought of him changing me, having another reason to put his hands all over me, made me want to scream and run. And this new lingerie brought with it another of my worst fears since I'd been his captive. Showering.
When I was allowed to shower, Woojin took the restraint off of my left wrist and brought me into the bathroom. He then stripped me himself and put me in the shower, stripping and getting in with me to help me 'clean myself,' which was another excuse for him to take whatever liberties he felt like with my body. The only time I was allowed in the bathroom alone was when I needed to use it.
As Woojin stripped me and his hands roamed, I kept trying to let my mind drift anywhere else. If I let myself focus on what he did to me for too long, I risked my heart acting up or trembling under his touch, both leading to bigger issues for me. He wound up washing me more than once in the shower because he kept getting carried away taking what he wanted from me. Then he made me wash him, which made me want to throw up. When he took me out of the shower, he carefully towel dried me and put the new lingerie in me.
The new lingerie was so revealing, I basically felt naked. I would have felt self-conscious if he hadn't taken whatever dignity I had left after I was drugged at the graduation party, leading to choices I wouldn't have made under normal circumstances. He didn't bother getting dressed again. This told me that when he put the restraint back on me, he wasn't done 'playing' with me.
Woojin took me roughly, being as hard and vicious as he wanted to as he did after the shower. A few times I had to bite my lip to keep from crying out in pain. If I had cried out in pain, he would've only found a way to be rougher with me. That night, it felt like every ounce of pain, frustration, anger, and want was channeled into the way he took me and it hurt so bad to have to endure it, pretending I liked what he was doing to me while trying not to cry or scream in pain.
The following day, when he woke up beside me, he just started again, not giving my body much time to recover from the savage assault he had inflicted on me the night before. I felt my body starting to get weaker. As I got weaker, he still had the same look of gratification and victory on his face that he'd worn on his face every time he forced himself on me, for doing what he'd wanted to for all that time. Still, gratification and victory or not, after a certain amount of him assaulting me again led to me blacking out.
When I woke again, I realized I was alone. I also realized it was time to throw caution to the wind to try to escape. Grabbing the bar, I pushed and pulled on it until it popped out of the bedframe. Sliding the restraint off the bar, I shakily got up and started looking for my meds, knowing I needed them. After I took them, I looked for something to wear. I didn't want to wear lingerie as I was trying to run for my life. Eventually, I found my sneakers, a pair of running pants of his, and one of his hoodies. I put them where I could find them. Then, just so he wouldn't suspect anything, I slid the restraint back on the bar and put the bar back on the bedframe, knowing it would be easy to pop it off again.
Sure enough, a little while later he returned, and this time I could tell there wouldn't be any games, he was just coming to take what he wanted. I took a deep breath, knowing the pain he would inflict on me while I let him get distracted before I started my plan. As he started roughly pounding me, biting my chest, digging his fingers into my waist, I bit my lip. When I knew he was so caught up in his desires, I slowly knocked the bar off the bedframe again, slipping the restraint off. Only, once I did, I grabbed the bar in both my hands and shoved it into Woojin's stomach.
Woojin screamed in pain at first and before he could grab me in rage and try to kill me, I got off the bed. When he tried to move, he started bleeding faster.
"Careful, or you can die," I warned him, turning and rushing to where I hid the clothes, quickly getting dressed and finding a way out.
Once I was out, I tried to stay in darkness, hoping Woojin wouldn't find me when he started moving again. I was sure I had hit at least one organ when I shoved the bar into him, but adrenaline does strange things to people. I tried to stay in darkness until I found a populated area with lights and cars on the streets, hoping someone would help me.
Hoshi's POV:
Wooseok, Yuto, and I were out with Vernon trying to find Ryu. It was the early morning hours of February 5th... Jisung's birthday. We were hoping his birthday would give us extra luck to find her with how strong their bond is. We had been driving around different areas, looking around, but in the three hours we'd been out, we hadn't had any luck. I could see how upset it was making Vernon, Wooseok, and Yuto.
"Don't worry about Ryu. I have a good feeling about it being Jisung's birthday," I told them. "I think today is the day we find her."
Kris, LuHan, and Tao were in a car behind us, trying to make sure if we missed something, they'd catch it. It was how most people were searching. Two cars with up to four people looking for Ryu. It also ensured if we found her and her kidnapper wasn't far behind we had the safety of numbers to keep ourselves and Ryu safe.
"We'll stay out another hour or two, but then we're going home. We all need to get some kind of sleep before going to work today. Kris, LuHan, and Tao can meet up with another group who are ready to search and keep going," I told them.
The three of them looked upset, but nodded at me.
It had been almost another hour of us driving. I was getting tired. So far, there had been nothing that could help us find Ryu.
"Hoshi! Hoshi! Hoshi! Stop!" Vernon suddenly cried out, making me pull over and stop.
"What is it?" I asked him as I noticed the second car pull over behind us.
"I just saw someone collapse. I feel like we should check," he said.
I was weary, but after being missing for nine weeks, it was very possible that if Ryu had found a way to escape, her body could start shutting down soon after.
"Take Wooseok and Yuto with you to check," I compromised. "I'll go let Kris, LuHan, and Tao know what's going on."
We went our own ways. I was telling the three what Vernon suggested when all of a sudden, I heard all three younger boys screaming for me. Kris LuHan, and Tao looked to each other than me, than started getting out of the car, chasing after me to get to the younger boys.
"What's is it?" I asked when I reached them.
Wooseok and Yuto moved to the side to show me Vernon holding the collapsed person. It took a minute to see past the cuts, bruises, severe malnutrition, and ashen skin tone. Vernon was holding Kim Ryung-gi in his arms.
"Is she...?" I let the question hang in the air.
"No, but her pulse is weak," Yuto said.
"Is that Ryu?" LuHan finally asked.
"Yes," Wooseok told him, as he lifted one of her wrists up. "Somehow, she found a way to escape."
"I'm calling Jin," Kris told us.
"I'm calling Jisung," Wooseok said.
"Is it really so important to call the kid right now?" Kris asked.
"They're engaged," Yuto told him, and Kris backed off.
The whole time the conversation was going on, Vernon was holding Ryu close to him. As Kris and Wooseok walked behind us to make their calls, and Vernon was out of view with Ryu in his arms, none of them were seen when the last person most of us ever wanted to see again appeared.
"What are you doing here, Kim Woojin?" Yuto asked him.
I noticed that his sweatshirt was soaking through with blood.
"Tell me you had nothing to do with this, Woojin," I said.
"Wait, you think Woojin, Mr. Teddy Bear, hurt Ryu?" asked Tao.
"The Stray Kids kicked him out of the group, Tao. After they did, allegations started popping up that he abused the other members in different ways, that he used his celebrity status to be inappropriate with females. And, three members of Stray Kids admitted they pulled him off of Ryu once and they had no idea what happened between them in the room they were in alone before they found them," I told him.
"Did you touch Kim Ryung-gi, Woojin?" Tao demanded.
"What if I did?" Woojin deflected the question.
By this point Kris and Wooseok were back. Having heard the previous exchange, both were pissed off. I tapped Vernon on the shoulder. He looked up at me.
"We need to get her to the hospital. Now. She's in bad shape," I told him. "Get her to my car."
He nodded and discreetly started moving away, trying not to call Woojin's attention to him. I tapped Kris on the shoulder before he started anything with Woojin.
"What?" he snapped at me.
"Will you three keep an eye on Wooseok and Yuto? I'll come back for them," I asked.
"Why are you leaving?
"Ryu is in bad shape. She can't wait for this to end to get to the hospital and those two are not going anywhere. They've threatened their managers and the leader of their group to be able to help Ryu. Vernon won't let her go right now. I'll take her to the hospital with him, he can stay there until Jisung and Jin get there and I'll come get them after I drop Vernon."
"Fine. Hurry. I'm not gonna try to stop them if they try to throttle him."
I nodded and left.
When I got into my car I looked up the best hospital for someone with Ryu's medical conditions and started driving as fast as I could to get there. I called Jin on Bluetooth.
"Yeoboseyo?" Jin answered the phone.
I told him where I was taking Ryu.
"Thank you, Hoshi," he said, sounding relieved.
"Jin, get there fast with Jisung. I'm not going to lie to you. Ryu is in bad shape. She's alive, but barely right now. Vernon is keeping her in his arms while I drive. He's the one who noticed her and hasn't let her go since he confirmed it was her. Get to the hospital and get her cardiologist there as fast as possible."
"I will."
Jin hung up.
Arriving at the hospital was insane. When we walked into the emergency room, the first thing people noticed was idols. It wasn't until Vernon yelled at them to back up and get a gurney for a severely beaten, heart patient friend, that they realized Ryu was with us. Then they started doing their jobs. I left Vernon with Ryu to go get Wooseok and Yuto.
Wooseok's POV:
"You're the one who sent those death threats. You kidnapped and held her for all this time. You kidnapped her the first time, too, didn't you?" I demanded.
I had Woojin by his hoodie while he was on the ground. There was no way for him to escape my grip. I shook him to make it clear to him I was serious about him answering my question.
"So what?" he asked me, and Yuto kicked him in the side of the head for his arrogance.
"What the fuck is wrong with you?" Tao demanded. "What gives you the right to just take a person away from the people who love her?"
"She was mine!" Woojin exclaimed. "She was bad the last time I took her, I didn't get to play with her. But this time, I've had her for nine weeks."
"What did you do to Ryu?" Kris demanded.
"The better question is what haven't I done to her?" Woojin replied and Kris ripped him from my hands as he and LuHan started beating him.
Jisung's POV:
When Jin and I arrived at the hospital, they immediately brought us to where Vernon was. He looked haunted, which made me scared. He had nerves like steel most of the time. Not long after we got there, Taeyong was brought in to us and came rushing to my side.
"How are you holding up? Have you gotten any news?" he asked.
"Not yet," Jin answered for me. "Vernon told us there haven't been any updates since they took her inside."
Time seemed to stretch for eternity as we waited for word on Ryu. Finally, a doctor I didn't know and Ryu's cardiologist came into the room to us.
"Doc. How is she?" Jin asked, nervously.
"The good news is that she's alive," the doctor we didn't know started with.
"Unfortunately, she needs a new heart," her cardiologist said, and my legs gave on me, Taeyong catching me before I hit the floor. "Between the starvation she was subjected to, beatings, the repeated sexual assaults, and the fact that it's clear she hasn't been on her medications the way she should in a while, the heart in her chest has slowly been falling apart. My guess is that whatever she did to escape was the last it could take."
"There's more," the other doctor said. "Ryung-gi is approximately five weeks pregnant. In order to save her life and get her on the transplant list for a new heart, we need to terminate the pregnancy in order to give her treatments that will give her the best chance of surviving long enough for us to get a new heart for her. One of you need to sign for that. Who has that authority?"
My heart was breaking, hearing everything Ryu went through.
"I am," I told them nervously. "I'm her fiancé and medical proxy since last August."
"Are you a legal adult?" the other doctor asked.
"Yeah, he is," Taeyong answered for me.
"Than it is your right to choose whether or not Ryung-gi's pregnancy will be terminated," the other doctor told me.
"How long will she be unconscious?" I asked.
"At this point, Jisung, we honestly don't know. We've given her pain medications to ease some of her pain, but we haven't even fully finished examining her. So far, we searched for the most fatal possibilities to handle that first. If she's severely hurt or traumatized, it could take months."
"Will she know I terminated the pregnancy?" I asked.
"If you don't tell her? No."
"Jin? What do you think?" I asked him.
"It's a hard situation and we're both in shock, Jisung," he told me.
"Jisung, you know that no matter what happens when you tell Ryu why you had to do this, this is what you need to do. You love her. You know she's not ready to die. Give her her best chance at surviving this," Taeyong gently told me.
I sighed, knowing he was right.
"Terminate the pregnancy," I said, hating have to make that choice for her, even if it was the right one.
They handed me some paperwork to sign since I was her proxy and then left. Not long after, the rest of BTS showed up. Taeyong explained everything to them.
"Are you okay, Jisung?" Kookie asked me, coming and sitting with me. "I know that couldn't have been an easy decision for you to make. Jin had trouble making choices for her when he first became her appa. Mostly, me and Yoongi shoved the ones he should sign at him and made him sign so he didn't waste time."
"I'm scared for her," I admitted.
"That's normal," he told me. "It's because you love her."
"Hyung, she was kidnapped and raped for over two months. I couldn't protect her."
"That isn't your fault. Ryu fault like hell to survive this long. And look when she came back to us, Jisung. On your birthday. That says something. She fought to come back to you. There was nothing you could do when you weren't here. And as soon as you found out something was wrong you came back to do whatever you could. That last nine weeks have been hell on you and Jin just as much as on Ryu, only in a less physical way and a more psychological way. When she's well enough to leave the hospital and go home with you, just remember the two of you will need each other to get through this. Neither of you can do this alone."
I nodded at him.
What seemed like days later, the doctor we didn't know came back to see me.
"The termination of the pregnancy went smoothly. Unfortunately, after the termination, we started to examine the severity of her other injuries. It seems she has had a few bones that were broken over the time of her traumatic ordeal that have started to heal the wrong way. We need to break them to set them the right way. In order to do this, she needs some surgery because some of the bones will require the use of pins, screws, or even rods. We need your authorization again."
I looked at Jin and Taeyong. Then Kookie took the authorization forms and gave them to me. I signed them and he gave them back to the doctor.
"Anything else?" Kookie asked the doctor.
"Not at the moment," he said, glaring at Kookie as he started to walk away.
As the doctor rushed out, SHINee came in.
"Is she okay?" Key wanted to know.
Kookie caught them up, which he did again when Got7 got to the hospital. All so I didn't have to talk to most people.
In the late afternoon, Ryu's cardiologist came into the room.
"Jisung, we need to talk," he said to me, waving for me to follow him. Kookie followed us. "You've been getting some of the updates of Ryu's condition throughout the day. Now I want to give you the overall picture."
I was scared so I nodded at him.
"Ryu's health is extraordinarily compromised, not just her heart. At this point she is considered anorexic. She's severely dehydrated and the physical and sexual abuse have her in worse shape that after the plane crash in some ways. At least that was a one time trauma. This was on-going for more than two months. However, Ryung-gi is nothing if not a fighter, so don't give up hope just yet. I just can't put her on the list for a heart yet. She needs to put on some weight and start to heal up," he said. "Also, there's one other issue we can't know the severity without her waking up, but she has had multiple head traumas. There was some swelling to her brain, which a procedure was done to alleviate it, but we can't tell if there is any lasting damage to her brain because of those traumas until she wakes up."
"What kind of damage are you talking about?" I asked.
"It could be anything from memory loss, damage to her motor functions, or damage to her cognitive abilities. These kinds of trauma can change her personality," he replied, which made Kookie come put his hand on my shoulder to comfort me.
"You mean their is a chance that Ryu could forget me or become someone else?" I asked.
"Either outcome wouldn't necessarily be permanent depending on the severity of the damage, but yes, it is possible," he replied.
"Can I see her? Please?" I asked, desperately to finally see her after all this time.
"I'm not sure..." he started.
"Doc, he's her fiancé and it's her birthday. She found a way to get away from that hell on his birthday. Let him see her. He's been in hell since she's been missing," Kookie stopped him to say.
"Okay," her cardiologist finally agreed.
"Good luck," Kookie said to me before heading back to the others.
The cardiologist finally took me to Ryu. She was so broken and bruised. She had wires coming out of her arms and hands. A few tears fell from my eyes as I took in how bad she looked, knowing internally she was just as bad. I sat down next to her and took her hand.
"I never gave up on you. I knew you come back to us. And I promise, no matter what it takes, I will be here for you every step of the way as you recover. Nothing that happened matters. I will always love you," I said to her as I prayed she'd continue to be as strong as she ever was.