- Faster… Drive faster.
Even though Min Siwoon was already beyond the speed limit, he listened to and added more gas. How could he not, that even without other words or even without looking, he could feel, no, he could barely withstand the raging force that boiled beside him.
Joohoon didn't shout, nor moved, he didn't even breathe properly. He kept everything inside, as if accumulating every bit of strength for that one moment, like a ticking bomb set to explode at the needed time.
Both Min Siwoon and Han Siwon were fearing that their choice to rush over there, only them three, was reckless and straight ahead stupid. Even so, they couldn't not go.
The thorough search of the people that Joohoon ordered to look into the whole area where Jiwook was lastly spotted, had unsurprisingly brought great results. They found a car's black box that recorded how three build-up men knocked him down, kidnapped and took him in a black car. They gave it to the police right away, to find more clues, as well as showed the messages they found on Han Siwon's phone. Cause it was proved to be a kidnapping, the police took finally the case seriously and began an emergency search.
They followed the car on CCTV, but lost the track in the outskirts of the city, with more than ten possibilities of their route. The car's registration number was fake as well and they couldn't find its owner. The same with the unknown number, it seemed it was a virtual number covered by a non-Korean telephony platform, which they needed weeks to find out. They dispatched teams to search through the last known area of the car and try a few routes. They did what they could, but everything was pointless, it took far too much time.
And they needed to find him within the day. There were already over 24 hours since Jiwook's kidnapping and Joohoon could no longer keep his tension under control. The sense of urgency was killing him, literally, burning him from inside.
He was about to go search blindly there as well, but Min Siwoon stopped him, telling him they would receive a lead very soon. It seemed Siwoon was more than just anxious of that situation. He understood that if not for Jiwook that went instead of Han Siwon, he would be now in Joohoon's place. Even the thought threw him in cold chills and blind panic. During the time the other two were at the police, he pulled some strings (along with more than half of his emergency money) and found an underground hacker, a professional in that field.
It took roughly 2 hours to find the Vietnam platform and grasp the kidnapper's real number, who was more cautious and clever than they thought. They used a non-trackable old cellphone and were making calls seldom and to the same few numbers.
They needed to call, but the most important thing was for the kidnapper to certainly answer for the hacker to be able to localize him. So they couldn't risk to call him themselves. The hacker thought of a solution and got one of his helpers to speak Vietnamese, to fake a worker of a Vietnamese network company.
The kidnapper picked the call, though just for mere seconds, to find out who called him and after that to cut 'em off and hang up. The woman that talked was rather skilled with nice voice too, she successfully dragged the call a bit longer and that way, they gained their exact location. Thanks God.
It was 1 hour away from the city, half if they hit on gas like crazy. The destination was an old factory, which renovation was currently held down, the whole area wild and unsupervised. Even the police needed time till they'd reach that place.
- Let's tell the police to come.
Han Siwon was restless, so he had to ask that.
- We can't explain how we got the location, replied Min Siwoon right away.
That was the first condition the hacker put on them from the beginning. No police.
Han Siwon stayed stubborn.
- Then let's just say them we were wondering around and saw a suspicious deserted place. They should at least send a patrol or something.
Anything better than going there alone. Even for the reckless Han Siwon (Taemin), their plan, which actually was no plan to begin with, was pure madness.
- Tell them, and call an ambulance.
This time it was Joohoon that answered, his voice cold and dark.
Han Siwon hoped that nothing happened with Jiwook, though the chance were now very slim.
Why did they take him so far away and were keeping him for more than a day without asking for anything? At first, they thought the kidnappers would call Min Siwoon and ask for ransom, he even prepared cash money, if he'd have to meet them.
However no call, no contact whatsoever, and the lack of it was no good news at all. If they didn't want anything and just were threatening "Han Siwon", then they could do anything they wanted with him.
The police had a team searching half an hour away from that place, and Siwon was told they'll come to check the given location. Good. As for the ambulance, Siwon straight ahead lied that his brother fell, broke his leg perhaps, bleed, fell unconscious, trying to make out an realistic scenario for them to rush immediately over there. Of course they were risking to have problems cause of a lie like that, but in that situation better be prepared for anything.
After 10 more minutes they reached the place. No cars, no one outside, they could feel no presence from afar. They split in two: Joohoon alone and the other two together (Min Siwoon wouldn't let his lover alone) and started to search carefully the building, though Joohoon was anything but careful. He was running through all the rooms and halls on the west wing, searching for tracks of people there and finding nothing. His every sense was sharply keen and alarmed, muscles strained to the point it could snap, irrepressible tension in his every breath, every move and every second he was involuntarily counting, which was hitting with cataclysmic force.
"Jiwook hold on a little more. I'm right there.", said he in his mind as if sending the younger a telepathic thought.
!!!!!!!!!!
- AH- !
Han Siwon threw his both hands over his mouth, staggering back, he tripped over his foot and would surely fall, but Min Siwoon was at his back and caught on him.
Han Siwon was trembling, eyes round wide, face pale as if he saw the death itself. Maybe what he saw was even worse.
Min Siwoon turned his head, getting struck right away by the same devastating, horrifying sight, that even he needed a few seconds to move out from that paralyzing shock. Cause at that moment Jiwook looked exactly like his brother or should look like… in the state he was, it was hard to tell. Even his hair that was supposedly dyed back, was rather dark red from the dried and fresh blood, which smell finally noticed, invaded their nostrils like a toxic fog. His face was distorted with bruises and swellings, all dyed in red, that Jiwook couldn't be recognized. His body slump on the ground sinking in a pull of blood, his bare legs had just a spot or two where the skin could be seen and everything beside that was in red… scarlet red, dark red, purple red, blackish red, muddy red and then something ivory…
"Oh My God, is that his bone?!" thought Min Siwoon in horror and grabbed his lover by his hand tightly, as if to ensure himself that Taemin (Han Siwon) was still there beside him and not covered in blood in front of his eyes.
The tight squeeze left white prints on the other's hand, but it finally woke Taemin up and he ran to Jiwook still stumbling.
- JIWOOK! Jiwook! Do you hear me? JIWOOK?
He kneeled on his right side, trembling hands stopped in midair, lost for what to do, what could he help with… Blood, so much blood, too much blood. Where should he cover it, how should he stop it?
And Jiwook still didn't answer.
- Jiwook! Please wake up! Can you hear me? JIWOOK! Say something!
A small quivering.
Jiwook's eyes trembled slightly, his left eye slowly, very slowly, opened just halfway, something like a cut-through low, hissing sound quietly rang back.
It was Jiwook's breathing.
- Hy…y-un..g- ?
Jiwook sounded like broken glass, scratching, quivering, shattered, quieter than a whisper, yet as piercing in that dead silence.
- Jiwook hold on. The ambulance is on the way. Just a little…
Min Siwoon was already making a call asking them to rush, telling that Jiwook lost too much blood and he barely breathed, giving them details where exactly they were in the building and so on.
Jiwook moved his mouth as if he was trying to say something. Min Siwoon moved somewhat farther and spoke quieter at the phone.
Jiwook closed his eye for a moment, gathering his thoughts and strength, he looked right at the other, slowly moving his right hand, no, just barely lifting it, which was held in a fist the whole time.
- Tae…min…
!!
- Tae…min…
Han Siwon, no, Yoon Taemin was shocked to hear suddenly his name out of no where. He stayed frozen speechless, blinking rapidly.
- My..bro-ther…no, Si…won…is ..?
Taemin's expression darkened, his eyes told Jiwook everything. The younger tried to lift his trembling hand a second time. Taemin cupped his fist with his both own hands and Jiwook dropped something in the other's palms.
- B-be…ca-are…ful.
Taemin wanted to say something but no words came out.
- …t-thank..s.
Bewilderment covered Taemin's entire face and he still couldn't think of any words to say back. He looked in his palm and saw a silver cufflink. More questions rose on his face, but he left it all for another time. When he touched the other's hand earlier on, it was worryingly cold. Too cold.
- Jiwook!
That moment a loud bump was heard and it took everyone's attention, even Jiwook slowly moved his look towards it.
Joohoon.
He heard Han Siwon's shouts across the other side of the building and rushed to it. He took wrong turns once, twice, running blindly, falling down, bumping in walls and yet not slowing down.
He saw a room with the door open ahead of him and dashed towards it. There. Finally.
Jiwook should be-
Suddenly the earth slipped to the side, the gravitation and all its laws with it, nothing held Joohoon on the ground and then he fell. No, he slipped ..? Missed a step ..? He collapsed?… His legs lost all sense of balance, no, he lost the whole ground underneath him. Joohoon slid down too easily, like he had no weight, almost like the world overturned instead and he was expelled from its base laws. Thrown in nothingness.
Suddenly he couldn't hear his thoughts anymore. In a instant he was stripped of the ability to think, to understand, to control anything, not even his body. His mind blank and black at the same time, overflowed with a limitless void and at the same time, with an overloaded mass of thoughts, pictures and sounds, that it didn't even feel like it was his own'.
His body was losing all senses the human body was made to have, the way it should work and right then, everything was twisted. Joohoon's whole existence was denied by the world itself, by that one cruel impossibility, that shouldn't even hunt him in his nightmares - that became reality, as if to mock him, to destroy him, to punish him.
Just like a puppet that would move only then being pulled by strings, lifeless, lifted up and dropped down next – Joohoon stood up and fell and stood again and fell... He had roughly 5-6 yards ahead of him to finally reach Jiwook, to touch him and he was falling again and again, his legs unable to withstand even one step.
Somehow after moments that felt like centuries, he collapsed on his knees right at Jiwook's left side, with weight so great, like the whole sky collapsed along with him, and a cracking sound rang like his fall just cracked the entire ground.
Joohoon looked at Jiwook, his eyes thrown frantically at pieces of him, shaking, so much, it was hindering him to see clearly. Nor just his eyes, his entire body shook.
Jiwook's left hand started to move towards him, it trembled as if the movement was taking too much strength from him. The broken line of his lips, in part cause of swellings and bloody spots, was trying, fighting even, to stretch at least a little to something that should remind one of a smile. A trembling smile.
That smile carried death on his lips.
Joohoon took the hand and brought it to his cheek, to feel Jiwook's warmth, to touch him and reassure himself that it wasn't the end.
No. It must not be.
Jiwook watched him and suddenly his left eye shed tears. Red. Tears of blood slid down his bruised cheek. Sleeking. Like his cheek was polished with so many tears before then, that it made it sleeker than a glass.
- Yo-u…came.
Jiwook said… he tried. It was too faint to call it a whisper. It didn't sound alive.
Tears, no, blood dripped.
- Joo…hoon…
That name… the death was called with that name.
- Don…t …cry.
Was he crying? Joohoon couldn't tell. Couldn't feel. Could he even cry?
Joohoon felt dead then. Maybe even worse. He was dying, his whole existence, his whole world was dying. In a loop. Never-ending. Dying that same moment again and again. Continuously. Without reaching the end. His end.
Still, Jiwook was there… or he wasn't and just an afterimage played before his eyes.
He squeezed Jiwook's hand. Warmth fading.
Suddenly there was no air to breathe. It vanished in that void place and Joohoon couldn't breathe.
- No! Jiwook! JIWOOK! Look at me! Sorry! I'm so sorry! Please, ple…ase stay with me. Jiwook, please I beg you.
He held Jiwook's hand to his forehead with his both hands, praying. He cried, he shouted, he whispered, he trembled… and prayed.
Anything. He'll give anything. He'll do anything. He'll give his life instead. A hundred of times if he should, just
- … please stay with me…
Life was slipping away through his hands and Joohoon could painfully feel it and could do nothing.
Nothing but helplessly watch. Nothing but pray.
He was pulled to the side. He screamed.
...
- Get him out of here!
…
- Prepare the defibrillator! Adrenaline 10 micrograms!
- Defibrillate 300 J at one, two, three!
…
- One, two, three!
…
- Again! One, two…
…
…