Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

You trudged towards the small coffee shop you worked at, the morning sun just barely peeking above the horizon. Don’t get me wrong, you loved your job, it was well paying and a calm place to work, getting few customers throughout the day. The shop only really picking up during the usual busy hours for any other coffee shops. You pushed the glass door open, causing the little bell hanging from the handle to tinkle, echoing through the quiet shop.

“Good morning!” you said to your manager after you had dropped your bag and coat off in the back room.

“Good morning (y/n).” She replied, passing you your brown apron. You thanked her and took it, making your way to the front and took your spot behind the counter as you tied the apron around your waist. You messed around with a few things behind the counter, preparing for the long day.

You glanced at the clock, noting that the shop had just officially opened. You sat around the shop for about two hours, serving a few customers here and there eager to get their caffeine to get them through the long day, but nothing to tedious. As usual, around ten thirty, a tall man who was always dressed in a suit would walk in and order the same drink. He was always extremely friendly and had a bright smile that complemented the wrinkles that appeared at the corners of his eyes when he did smile. He always came at the same time, ordered the same thing, sat at the same seat, and always had that bright smile.

You stood behind the counter and smiled at him, waiting for him to take a few steps closer before you started to speak.

“The usual, sir?” You asked when he finally got closer, already grabbing the coffee mug.

“Of course.” He said with a chuckle. You smiled, and while you made his drink the two of you talked for a bit. You didn’t know much about this man, even though he had been coming to your shop for almost a year now, you had no clue what his name was, or even where he worked, as you usually found out with your other regulars. Due to the streaks of grey that were taking over his dark hair, he had to be in his late forties or fifties, and obviously held some kind of formal job seeing as how he was always dressed so nicely, but beyond that you knew nothing about him.

He happily accepted the warm drink and paid in exact change, making your life as a cashier ten times easier. The man went towards his usual table in the back corner of the shop, pulling out his laptop to do something, you had yet to learn what he was always doing. Honestly, you didn’t want to know, his whole demeanor changed when he opened his laptop. A scowl would come across his face and his eyes turned cold.

You went back to your usual business, cleaning a few dishes and wiping down the counter. The ringing of the bell caused you to look up, finding a tall, handsome guy stroll in. He glanced around the room, his eyes landing on the older man, but quickly turning to look up at the menu board above you.

“Hello…” His strong voice rang out, followed by a beautiful smile. You were almost left breathless from his appearance alone, but his voice as almost to perfect to be real. His hair was styled up in a messy yet perfect way, and his eyes sparkled. When he smiled, it revealed his cute little canines that seemed a bit sharper than most people’s.

“Hello! Can I help you?” you questioned, leaning on hand against the counter and smiling.

“Well…what would you recommend?” He asked, still looking up at the menu board that hung on the wall behind you. You turned to look at the menu yourself, thinking about the various drinks you’ve tried and liked. Eventually you rattled off a few drinks you liked, and he ordered one of them. Like with most customers you had expected him to go sit down at a table and wait for you to bring the drink out to him, but he stayed right by the counter. In fact, he went as far as to lean against the counter and watch you as you made his drink.

You tried to ignore him, but you could feel his deep brown eyes following your every movement. Your movements become clumsy from the sudden attention, and you rushed to finish making the drink and hand it over to the tall boy. You practically shoved the warm drink into his hands, praying he would hurry up and go over to one of the tables so you could finally relax.

Thankfully he accepted the drink with a simple thank you and made his way over to one of the tables in the front of the shop. Little did you know this guy, who you eventually learned was named Mingyu, would be visiting like this every day for the next few weeks. You soon got use to his strong gaze and the hours he would spend at the shop long after he had finished his drink. You often found yourself wondering why he stayed so long. He wasn’t doing any sort of work, or reading a book, he was barely on his phone. He just sat there, staring around the shop, watching the various customers that came in, and watching you.

When the shop wasn’t busy, you often found yourself talking with Mingyu. His bright smile and puppy like appearance and personality sent butterflies through your stomach. He was friendly. A lot more friendly than most customers. You liked it, it was a breath of fresh air.

The bell tinkled for the second time that day. You looked up to see Mingyu walk in. You started to prepare his drink before he even made it to the counter.

“Good morning (y/n).” Mingyu sang as he walked up to the counter.

“Good morning Mingyu…Don’t you ever get tired of coming here?” you questioned, almost finished with his drink.

“Nope! Not when you are here!” he chucked. You almost spilled the hot coffee onto your hand.

“Mingyu are you flirting with me?” you asked, a small chuckle of disbelief following it. Mingyu shrugged, flashing that bright smile of his as he handed some money over the counter. You took it and quickly dealt back the change as he sipped on his drink.

“Do you ever have a day off? You are always working when I’m here. And i’m always here.” Mingyu pointed out. You thought for a moment. Well, there were a lot of thoughts going on at this moment. Did Mingyu really just admit to flirting with you? Why is he asking about your days off? Is he going to try and ask you out? There is no way he would. Should you lie and say you don’t ever get days off, or just say you don’t know? You finally just answered him.

“I think I have off in two days, what day is that, Thursday?” Mingyu nodded, then slowly made his way over to his usual table. Well that wasn’t the reaction you were expecting. But it’s not like you were looking for something in particular. Alright, no that’s a lie, to be honest after all the flirting he had done, you really thought he was going to ask you out. Whether the fact he didn’t was a good thing or not, you didn’t know. But life goes on, and you must keep working.

As you continued to work, serving the few customers that came in, Mingyu did his own thing, and the friendly middle-aged man did his. You had grown use to both their company. Mr. Well-dressed, as you had taken to calling the middle-aged man, never said much other than the normal, friendly conversation the two of you held while making his drink, but he was friendly enough in those short encounters for you to grow to like him. He had been frequenting the shop since you first started working there a year ago. You had never known an early morning without him sitting in the back corner of the shop.

Mr. Well-dressed left at his usual time, and Mingyu left not long after, leaving you and your coworker to wait the last couple hours before closing. The usual procedures occurred before closing. Your coworker finished before you, so you let her know you would finish and lock everything up and she could head home if she wanted to. So within a few minutes you were left alone in the dimly lit shop, putting away the last few things and grabbing your stuff before turning out the lights and locking up the shop.

The next few days flew by. You looked forward to your rare day off, and it kept you going the next two days. The usual customers came in and ordered their normals, and nothing to extreme happened. You didn’t have to deal with any rude customers, demanding stupid requests and being difficult. You smiled and laughed with your coworkers behind the counter when no one was waiting to be served. Everything was calm and peaceful, almost too peaceful. It made you uncomfortable. It felt like the calm before the storm. And you were right, but you hadn’t expected it to be this big of a storm.

Chapter Text

It was finally your day off. You got to sleep in and wake up after the sun had risen. Waking up on your own time and without an alarm clock was the best feeling. You rolled out of bed and checked your phone and noticed your manager had texted you. You groaned a bit, but after opening the text you felt a little better. She simply needed you to pick up something at the shop real quick. You figured you would go and get your favorite drink as well, being there for a few minutes today wouldn’t be so bad. Besides, you wouldn’t work there if you hated it so much.

You quickly got dressed, happy that it wasn’t into your work clothes and grabbed your bag as you headed out the door. The weather was great, the perfect temperature; not too hot, not too cold. You smiled to yourself, a certain bounce in your step that isn’t usually there when you walk this path to work.

The small bell on the door tinkled when you pushed it open, and you waved at your friend working behind the counter. As expected, no customers were in the shop, like every other day, except Mr. well-dressed was in his usual seat. You looked for Mingyu but he was nowhere to be seen. You shrugged your shoulders and didn’t think much of it. He had probably just gotten caught up in something, he didn’t usually come at a consistent time.

You slipped into the back room and picked up the thing your manager had asked you to get, realizing that it was a small bonus from the few times you had worked extra. You smiled and slipped the check into your bag before returning to the front to order your drink. You had only taken a few step out of the back room when you were immediately overwhelmed. People were rushing in, dressed in all black and brandishing weapons. Your coworkers screamed as they were held at gunpoint. Behind you, you heard a chair scrape against the grown before clattering to the floor. Two dressed in black rushed towards you, while a few more rushed past you and towards Mr. Well-dressed. You tried to crane your neck to get a better look as to what they wanted from him so badly. There weren’t here to rob the store, or they would have already gone for the cash in the register. Before you knew it, the blinds were pulled and the doors locked. You, your coworkers and the few poor customers that had wandered in while you were in the back where dragged into the backroom. Your phones were taken and hands bound with zip ties. Two stayed behind with you and the rest, making sure you didn’t go anywhere let alone move from where you sat, while the rest disappeared down the hall. Mr.Well-dressed was nowhere to be seen. Where they here for him? Did the police know? Or had these people planned something so well that they managed to hid this from the outside world? You didn’t know, but you were surprisingly calm for such a terrifying experience. It was almost as if the fact you were being held at gunpoint hadn’t quite set in yet. To your left, a young woman stifled her sobs, and to your right, your friend and coworker sat pressed up against you, shaking slightly, but otherwise in tack.

One of the people dressed in black shifted their weight from foot to foot.

“Hey…weren’t we supposed to blindfold them too? Just in case?” a strong, deep voice questioned quietly. The shorter of the two let out a small gasp and nodded, quickly digging into his pocket and pulling out a few strips of cloth. You watched as the walked towards you and the others. You couldn’t move. You couldn’t escape. You were already as pressed up against the wall as possible, and your hands were tied behind your back. You could try to fight against them once they got close enough, but was it worth the risk of getting killed? You decided it was best to just sit still, maybe they would leave and you could figure out how to escape then… after all, zipties aren’t that hard to break free of. They were already dumb enough to forget to blindfold you and the rest of the hostages. It was possible.

You vision was gone know, you had to rely solely on sound now. You could sort of see out of the blindfold, but only down to the ground, so if someone stood right in front of you, you might be able to tell, but outside of that, you couldn’t see anything.

Suddenly shouting filled the halls. Had the police shown up? Everything had gotten significantly darker, you could tell, even though your eyes were covered. You heard the two “guards” say something to each other, then footsteps racing out of the room, the door slamming behind them. There was a moment of silence in the room, only faint shouts through the door could be heard.

“Are they gone?” You asked, barely whispering.

“Yah…they did a real shit job tying on these blindfolds.” your manager stated. You wiggled yourself around, pulling yourself off the wall and somehow contorting your body to curl up in a small enough ball you could pull your arms over your legs, bringing your hands in front of you. Good thing you had always worried about someone kidnapping you after work, otherwise you wouldn’t have bothered to learn such helpful knowledge for circumstances like these. You pulled your blindfold down from your eyes, letting it hang limply around your neck, then examined the zip tie binding your hands. This was the easiest escape trick you had learned, as escaping goes. You braced yourself for the small moment of pain, puffed out your stomach, then quickly pulled your arms against it, popping the zip tie off with a small snap.

“Whats going on?” the lady to your left questioned.

“I’ll be right back, I’m going to try and find a phone or something so i can call the police.” you spoke quietly as you pulled down everyone’s blindfolds.

“I can’t get off the zip ties yet, but i’ll come back as quickly as possible okay. Just stay quiet.”

You rushed over to the door as quietly and quickly as possible and opened it just a crack, looking around for other people. Everything was dark, the power went out. The usually lit, back hallway was now dark and eerie, filled with a dark, blue light. Shouting voices could be heard throughout the shop, some stifled behind walls, other loud and echoing through the hallway. You inched the door open more and slipped out, closing it behind you so that attention wasn’t drawn to the other hostages.

Slowly, you moved your way down the dark hallways, making your way towards the front of the shop, heading for the emergency button behind the counter. You heard voices coming towards you and panicked, quickly throwing yourself into the nearest door, which led to a small mop closet. You watched through the crack in the door as three, black clothed people fast walked down the hall and into the side room at the end, no doubt where they had taken Mr. Well-dressed. You waited for a minute before climbing out of the closet and making your way down the dark hallway, a little quicker than last time. All you had to do was round the corner and you would be in the front, only a few feet away from the panic button. You were almost there.

You finally made it to the corner and turned, not bothering to check and see if anyone was around the other side. As you took a step, a loud noise echoed through the small shop, making your ears ring. A gun had been fired. At who? By who? You had jumped at the loud noise, jumped right into the arms of one of the blacked clothed person who had caused all of this. Fear flooded your body as the person’s strong grip held your arm and didn’t let go as your thrashed around to try and break free. You paused for a second to look up into the person face, only to see there was no mask this time. In fact, you knew this face.

“Mingyu?” You asked in disbelief. His hand shoot up to his face.

“Shit, I forgot my mask.” he mumbled to himself.

“What? I…Mingyu what are you doing here?” you questioned in a whisper. Mingyu glanced around the empty hall, still holding on tightly to your wrist.

“If you go back to the room and stay there and act as if you’ve never saw me you’ll be safe.” he stated, pulling you along behind him.

“What the heck Mingyu?!” you called as he dragged you along, not bothering to whisper anymore.

“Mingyu! Where the heck are you?” A frustrated voice called down the hall. Mingyu froze for a second, then yanked you towards the direction of the room you had previously been held in.

“Go back to the room or you’ll be in some serious trouble.” Mingyu growled, much different from the usual kind and gentle Mingyu you knew from the shop. He rushed off down the hall where the voice had called for him, not looking back to check if you had headed back to the room. Now you may be stubborn, or just down right dumb, but you had no intentions of going back. You fought your curiosity to trail after Mingyu and see what was happening and instead set off to find a phone, or at least one of the panic buttons so you could inform the police. You were still shocked by how calmly you were handling the whole situation. For all you know, after that gun shot that had sounded, someone could be dead, but here you are still lurking around in the open trying to find a way to escape (or at least insure the safety of your fellow captives).

The shop really wasn’t that big, so it wasn’t hard to quickly make it back to the front of the store. If you could just make it to the panic button next to the register that would be enough. You peeked your head around the corner, and your breath caught in your throat. At least three hooded figure stood around the open tables that filled the front of the shop. Tables lay on their sides and chairs were scattered all over the place. The blinds being pulled over the large shop windows only made everything more eerie. The panic and terror that originally should have filled you was now flooding into your body, making your heartbeat to increase and sweat to form all over your body. It was quiet, only the murmur of voices from wherever Mingyu was and the footsteps caused by the hooded men in front of you as the mindlessly guarded the store. You asked yourself whether they were guarding to make sure no one came in, or not one left, but this thought soon vanished as there were more important things to happen. You could have sworn everyone in the room could hear your heart, pounding in your ears and making everything all that much more stressful.

All you had to do was cross the small stretch that was out in the open before you could hid behind the counter and crawl over to the panic button. One of the three guards was usually facing the counter, meaning they would totally see you, but they often switched, leaving a few seconds that you could use to your advantage. You could really feel the panic bubble up in you now, but you didn’t have time for that. Not only were you in danger, but your coworkers and customers, this was no time to get scared. You checked behind your shoulder to make sure Mingyu, or anyone for that fact, hadn’t started towards you. You turned your attention back to the three hooded figures and see if they had any sort of pattern. It didn’t take long to understand there was absolutely no pattern to the weird aimless wandering the three people did, and you were just going to have to hope for the best. You tried your best to keep your heart beat from making you deaf and made a mad, quiet, dash towards the counter.

Everything turned to slow motion. Just as you took your first two steps, you saw one of the hooded people turn around and look directly at you. You didn’t stop. You couldn’t stop. It was too late, you had to go for it. You ignored the person when everything finally clicked and they realized you shouldn’t be there in the dark. You wish the slow motion feeling would shake off but it didn’t. Each step felt as if time was slipping through your fingers. Three figures came pounding towards you as you reached out your hand to smash the small red button under the counter next to the register. Just as you managed to press the button in, a hand grabbed the back of your shirt and ripped you back. You were sent sprawling backwards and the breath was knocked out of you. You knew here was your death, a gun already being pointed at you, but it didn’t matter, because you hit the button, the police know now. The others will be safe.

“Those kids were supposed to be watching them!” the one pointing the gun at you growled to the other two.

“Did she just..?” the skinny boy on your right asked, looking over at the register.

“How did you escape?” the guy to the left demanded.

“I just left, and Mingyu didn’t stop me in the halls really so…” you stuttered, not sure what to do with yourself, or why you even answered in the first place.

“Jun, she knows Mingyu!” the skinny boy exclaimed.

“Don’t say my name idiot!” the guy, basically holding your life in his hands, spat. The two guards winced at Jun’s harsh tone and looked down at you. Your breath was finally coming back to you, but you didn’t feel any better than before.

“She knows who we are man, she’s seen Mingyu…” the guy on the left breathed.

“Are you going to do it?” he finally asked after a moment of silence.

“Boss said we can’t kill anyone.” said the guy on the right.

“Yah, but thanks to you Minghao she knows not only Mingyu but my name. Its our only choice.” Jun said.

You watched as the three of them bickered about your life and whether they should take it or not. The panic you had been working so hard to suppress was finally coming to you, and it was so intense you felt as if you were going to vomit at any moment. The three of them continued to bicker with each other, and you wondered if it was a good idea to try and escape. You mulled the idea over and over again in your head but the thought was giving you more anxiety then you already had and therefore making your brain turn to mush. Just when you thought you should try to inch away from the three guys, Jun turned his attention back to you. You froze, unsure of what to do under his strong, harsh gaze.

“We’ll just have to shot you, there is no other option. Boss will understand, I suppose.” Jun said, a bit of a sneer showing through his eyes, as his face was still covered by a mask.

“Please…please don’t!” you begged as he took a step closer to you. Minghao and the other guy behind Jun didn’t show any signs of stopping him. This was the end for you. At least you were able to hit panic alarm, so it wasn’t a complete waste risking your life. With each step Jun took towards you, you slowly inched back, although you knew it would be of no help. Jun’s fingers slowly moved over the gun, barely visible to you in the dark blue light that surrounded you, but you could still see it. You can still see your death coming towards you.

“Jun! What are you doing?” A voice practically yelled from across the room. Jun and the other two boys slowly turned around to see who was speaking. You didn’t dare move, you didn’t think you could move for that fact. Your legs had gone completely numb, along with your brain and basically the rest of your senses. It was as if your body has undergone so much stress it had simply shut down.

With just a few long strides the person who had called out to Jun crossed the room, and as he got closer, through the dim light you could make out the unmasked face to be no other the Mingyu. You didn’t know whether to be relieved or even more upset.

“Jun, the boss said not to kill anyone.” Mingyu said, walking between you and Jun, blocking you from the cruel gaze that never seemed to leave Jun’s eyes.

“Well, Mingyu if she hadn’t figured out who you were i wouldn’t have too!” Jun spat.

“If we kill her the police will get even more involved. We don’t need to deaths for them to find once we’re done here.”

“T-two?” you breathed, stress level going up even more, if that was even possible at this point.

“He has a point…” Minghao added. Jun let the gun fall to his side, pulling his gaze from Mingyu and resting it somewhere off to the side.

“What are we going to do with the girl then?” the only nameless person in the room questioned. There was a moment of silence. You prayed to every god you could think of and wished every wish possibly that by some miracle they would just let you go. It couldn’t be that easy though.

“I’ll take care of her.” Mingyu declared.

“You just said we can’t kill her.” Minghao said.

“Not like that, I’m going to take her home with us. We just can’t have her talking about us right? So I’ll just take her back with us.” Mingyu stated matter-of-factly.

“So you’re basically just going to kidnap her aren’t you?” Jun questioned. You had reached your peak of stress. Everything was too much. Before you knew what was happening the corner of your eyes started to fill with blackness before dizziness engulfed you and with a thump, you had passed out cold on the floor, oblivious to the mess that ragged on around you.

Chapter Text

When you came back to your senses, you had no desire to open your eyes. Your hand were bound behind your back again, only this time much tighter and stronger than last time. You doubted you could break out of this one. You didn’t want to open your eyes, but when you finally did, you found you had yet again been blindfolded. How you hadn’t felt the blindfold in the first place made you feel really stupid, but you had other things to worry about. You felt the floor rock back and forth underneath you, and you realized you were wedged between some seats on the floor of the car. Your thoughts turned to the coffee shop. Had the police shown up? Was everyone okay? You hoped they were. Partly because you simply wanted them to be safe, but also because your coworkers would be the only ones who knew about you. You had dropped contact with your family a long time ago, and had been living on your own in a small apartment. You doubted people would make a great effort to find you if you were hidden away enough.

As you bumped around blindly in the car, the occasional knee brushing against your shoulder from whoever sat in the seat closest to you, you began to weigh the amount of trouble you had landed yourself in. Rather than being kidnapped, maybe you should have just let Jun shoot you, or maybe you should have listened to Mingyu’s warning and gone back to the room. The car made a sharp turn, throwing you into the seat next to you. A hand reached out and steadied you, but you jerked away from the touch. The car drove on for a few more minutes, then slowed to a stop. You heard the door open and a few people get out before someone reached in and grabbed you. You stumbled to your feet, barreling making the landing as you climbed out the car. Your legs were still a bit numb and without your arms, your balance was off. The person kept a good grip on your arm, not too tight, but not soft enough to let you know trying to break free would be pointless. Barely anyone spoke. The few that did were only in small murmurs.

You were led up a few stairs, only tripping on one of them before stumbling into the building. Whoever was leading you was doing a real crap job of it, but it’s not like you expected them to treat you well, they had kidnapped you after all. You were guiding through the house before finally coming to a stop in what you assumed to be a separate room judging by the fact you couldn’t hear the footsteps and quiet murmuring of the other people. You felt a hand start to untie your blindfold and when your eyes adjusted to the light you saw Mingyu standing in front of you.

“You should have stayed away on your day off (y/n)…” he said, almost harshly, a bit of a glare in his eyes. Why the heck was he mad? It’s not like he was the one who had been freakin kidnapped. All the terror that had once filled you was quickly replaced with anger. A fiery rage unlike any other before filled your body. You were mad, and Mingyu could tell. He was far from the cheeky guy you served every day at the shop. No, he was much different. If your hands hadn’t been so tightly bound behind your back, you would have punched him as hard as you could. So instead, you kicked him as hard as possible in the shin. He shouted in pain and immediately grabbed his throbbing leg and took a few steps back. You glared down at him as crouched and rubbed his leg. He opened his mouth to say something but closed it again. Good, whatever he was going to say would only earn another hard kick from you. You regretted ever thinking about Mingyu in a positive light. Mingyu stood back up, but rather than a piercing glare like you thought he would have, his eyes were actually quite soft, almost as if they were full of sorrow. This however only made you more angry. If he was going to feel sorry for you he might as well just let you go. Mingyu looked at you for a bit, and you glared back. Neither one of you moved, neither of you blinked, you barely dared to breath. Finally Mingyu let out a long sigh then moved towards the door. He made no effort to unbound your hands or even say anything. He simply walked out the door and locked it behind him.

As you heard the lock click you let out a breath of air. Finally taking the time to look around, you found that only a bed and a nightstand stood in the room. There were no windows and no other doors; the room was unbelievably plain, all whites and greys. The room looked as if it had gone untouched for years. It smelled dusty and as if no fresh air had entered the room in about a year. The bedding look outdated, and honestly you were surprised they had even gone as far as to put bedding on in a room that was never touched by the looks of it. You walked around the room a few times, your arms still tightly bound behind your back. If they hadn’t been you would no doubt be looking through the drawers of the nightstand and looking under the bed for something, anything that might help you escape.

However, as time passed on and nothing happened, the small bit of hope that maybe, just maybe, they would let you go began to fade and you really started to struggle against the multiple zip ties that bound your hands together. The more you struggled against them, the more they hurt as it rubbed along your now raw skin. You somehow managed to open the drawers to the nightstand after giving up on breaking your hands free and found nothing but dust. Under the bed was no different. You checked every inch of the room. You didn’t even know what you were looking for, just anything. Anything that could help even in the slightest. As expected, you found nothing.

Eventually you gave up on looking for stuff and went back to trying to break free from the zip ties. If only you were stronger. Breaking one zip tie wasn’t easy but it was still possible, but the three or four they had put on you? Now that was impossible for you. And they were pretty tight, practically cutting of the circulation. You tried everything to break free: pulling, twisting, rubbing it up against things, you even tried wedging one of the bedposts between your hands and yanking against it, but not only did you practically crush your arm but ended up dragging the bed across the room. Your wrists hurt, the ties were digging into your skin and you could tell that it was causing you to bleed. Next you moved to the locked door. You pushed, pulled, yanked, kicked, anything, but it didn’t budge in the slightest.

You paced around the room, reality finally starting to set in. You would most likely never be free. You were never going to work at the shop again, or see the few close friends you had, or even see your family again, because you got kidnapped by a bunch of really dumb guys who cant do their job right, as awful as their job may be. You were full of mixed emotions. Scared for your future, angry you had been kidnapped by Mingyu of all people, and upset that you would never most likely never even see the people and do the things you loved the most in life. Hours passed by, you didn’t need a clock to know, you could just tell. Your feet hurt from standing for so long, so you finally allowed yourself to sit down in one of the corners of the room. Why a corner you had no idea, it just felt safer, and there is no way you were going to sit on that bed. You weren’t about to get yourself comfortable in the room you were being held captive.

No one had come to the room since Mingyu had dropped you off. You had no idea what time of day it was, or what day it was for that matter. You had no idea how long you had been passed out or how long you had driven away from the shop. For all you could know it could be one in the morning and you had no way of telling. What you did know was that you were tired and hungry. You were going to pick up some breakfast after you had stopped by work but that didn’t happen, so you had eaten anything all day long, and it was finally catching up to you. You sat there for what felt like hours, but it was probably more like 30 minutes when there was a knock on the door.

Why the heck bother to knock? I can’t even open the door… You thought to yourself. You stayed right where you sat and didn’t utter a single word. The lock clicked and the door was pushed open. In stepped a person you had never seen before, but that didn’t shock you as you had only truly met two of them. He wasn’t dressed in black like you had seen all the others, but rather a soft looking pastel sweater and jeans. His light brown hair hung down in his face, coming to a stop right before covering his soft eyes. He don’t look anything like what you would expect to see from a group of people who just killed someone and kidnapped another person. He looked at you softly, a mix of care and pity filling his eyes. A gentle, almost sad, smile appeared on his face that you couldn’t help but notice looked like a cat. He walked towards the bed and set down a small tray of food before looking back at you.

“I’m really sorry we did this to you.” He said, looking off to the side in a guilty fashion, “this was honestly the only thing we could do, to keep both you and the rest of us safe.” You just looked at him. There a lot of things you could say, and that you wanted to say but for some reason you kept them to yourself. He looked at you for a bit longer, as if expecting an answer from you, but eventually left the room leaving you to look at the food sitting on the bed.

“This group,” you sighed, “is so dumb.” how the heck did they expect you to eat a meal when your hands were still tied behind your back. You sat there and looked at the food a bit longer, wondering if it was worth it to just try and eat it without your hands, but decided you’d rather starve (dramatic, i know). Instead you pushed yourself closer to the wall and somehow ended up falling asleep. How you were comfortable enough, mentally and physically to fall asleep, no one will ever know, you must have just been exhausted.

A while after you had woken up the same soft person came into the room after knocking. He stared down at the full plate of now cold food and looked at you a little puzzled. You glared back at him.

“How come you didn’t eat anything?” he questioned. You just looked at him for a second.

“My hands are still all tied up. How was i supposed to eat?” you replied in a harsh tone. He groaned and ran his fingers through his hair.

“Mingyu I swear…” he mumbled. He seemed to think for a second. “Here, just come with me.” he said, gesturing to the door. You got up and followed him into the hallway. The hallway was dimly lit and the walls were full of doors. It reminded you of a hotel. You followed the nameless guy down the hall and down a flight of stairs into a much better lit kitchen. As you walked you caught a glimpse of a window and saw only the midnight blue sky. So it was night after all. The real question was does that make it the same day you were kidnaped or the day after?

The guy came to a stop by a drawer and opened it, pulling out a pair of scissors. You stepped back when he started to walk towards you. You weren’t going to lie, the thought of someone going behind you with a pair of scissors wasn’t the best thought to you, especially because he was part of the same group where several other members almost killed you. He stopped and held up both hands.

“I promise im not going to hurt you, nobody here will, we would have already done that if we wanted too. You’ll go untouched,” he said, “or at least until boss gets back…” he mumbled. As if you weren’t already worried enough, then now you really were. The guy quickly noted you were thinking that.

“If anything though, Mingyu will be the one who has to deal with everything, not you.” He added, obviously trying to calm you down. He looked at you for a few seconds before walking around you to cut the zip ties like he originally planned.

“Oh geez…” he gasped. Yup, you had totally cut up your wrists like you had thought, maybe even worse. It was hurting like hell but you just figured that was because they were tied to freaking tight.

“We were going to take them off eventually, you didn’t have to hurt yourself like this trying to get out.” he stated as he gently started to cut of the ties.

“Wouldn’t you have done the same thing if you were in my position?” you questioned coldly.

“I have been in your position…” he said softly, causing you to loosen up a bit. Had he also been kidnapped before? By the same people that got you or someone else?

“I’m Joshua by the way.” he declared as he cut the last tie, as if he hadn’t even said anything about being kidnapped before. You glanced at him before slowly pulling your hands in front of you to inspect the damage you had managed to inflict on yourself. Yah, it was pretty bad. Joshua put the scissors back then told you to follow him once more. You ended up following him back upstairs, but rather into the room you had been kept, into a different one. Inside had two beds, pushed up against opposite walls. The room was full of stuff, from clothes to books and even a few stuffed animals. This must be his room that he shares with someone else. You watched as he looked around on his shelf, eventually pulling out a box. He set it down on his bed and opened it to reveal a bunch of bandages. Without saying a word he set to work bandaging up your cut up wrists.

After he had finished doctoring up one wrist you finally spoke up.

“So, how many are there of you guys?” you questioned.

“Thirteen.” joshua answered without looking up, “there are a lot of other groups out there, we are one of the bigger ones though.” you nodded. You had entered a whole other world, a world no one ever wants to enter.

“And where are the other twelve?” you asked as he started to wrap your wrist.

“They’re…out.” he said with a pause.

“Out where?” you questioned.

“Just handling some business.” Joshua answered vaguely, coming to a finish and taking one last look over his handy work.

“Does that business have to do with why you guys stormed into my coffee shop and shot someone?” you asked, running you hand over the new bandages.

“It’s best not to ask questions.” Joshua declared as he put the first aid kit back on his shelf.

“If I’m going to be stuck here forever I might as well know.” you stated. Joshua let out a deep sigh then looked at you.

“Yes, it does. And let’s hope everything goes well for the boss, otherwise it won’t be good for either you are Mingyu.”

Chapter Text

Joshua may have been much nicer to you to then you had expected, but that still didn't change the fact you were their prisoner. After Joshua had finished putting everything away, he took you back to the oh so plain room and locked you in once more. You weren’t as bitter and angry when you first were locked away, but that didn’t mean you were happy. You were far from happy, just a little more comfortable. You walked back to the corner of the room and settled yourself against the two walls, and just as you were drifting off to sleep, you hear quite a racket off people, which you could only assume were the others getting back from whatever “business” they had been attending too.

You woke up to a knock on the door, and not long after Joshua walked through with another tray of food. You stood up and met him halfway.

“Good morning.” Joshua said, placing the tray of food on the edge of the bed again.

“Well, I wouldn’t say ‘good,’ but anyways… Morning.” You said bitterly as you looked down at the food, just like last time, the food looked pretty appetizing. Minus the fact you were locked in a room, you didn’t feel too much like a prisoner. Joshua chuckled a little and there was a moment of silence.

“Did everyone come back last night?” You questioned.

“Everyone except Hansol and Seungcheol.” Joshua answered. Of course, you had no idea who those names belonged too, so you just nodded slightly, a slightly confused expression on your face.

“Ah, Hansol is our guy that stays up to date with everything, and Seungcheol is the boss.” Joshua explained, noticing your confused look.

“So, does Seungcheol know I’m here yet?”

“Unless Hansol’s told him, I don’t think he does know.” Joshua said, fiddling with the edge of the tray a little. You nodded once more, watching Joshua.

“Mingyu said that he’d come up and see you soon.” Joshua said after a moment of silence.

“Tell him not too. I don’t want to talk to him.” You stated bluntly. Joshua nodded, an understanding expression on his face.

“I have a feeling no matter what I tell Mingyu, it’s not going to stop him, but I’ll let him know.” Joshua said, turning towards the door, “make sure you actually eat something this time.” and with that, the door was closed. You weren’t sure if you heard the door lock this time, but honestly you didn’t have a desire to go out of the room now. It was quiet and no one was there to bother you. You picked at the food for a bit, eating a tiny bit but not much of it. You didn’t have an appetite anymore. The thought of having to face Mingyu was enough to rid you of your appetite.

You stared at the food for a while, then got up and walked around the room aimlessly. To say the least you were bored, and really just wanted to take a shower and freshen up. You were tired of being locked up in the room, if they planned on keeping you there forever they might as well let you out. It felt like years before the door opened again. You quickly stood up from where you sat on the foot of the bed as the doorknob turned and the door was pushed open. You had expected to see Joshua again, but this time it was Mingyu. He poked his head through the small opening he had made opening the door and looked at you. You had never felt so many different emotions flood your body at one time. Your first reaction upon seeing his face was to quickly walk towards the door. He looked taken aback when you rushed towards him, but that only made it easier for you to push him out of the room and slam the door shut, planting yourself firmly in front of it to keep him from opening the door again. He pushed at the door a few times but you were holding it in place as if your life depended on it.

“Oh, come on (y/n)!” You heard Mingyu whine from the other side of the door.

“Leave me alone!” You shouted back. There was a moment of silence and then footsteps sounded getting softer with each step. You hadn’t expected him to leave so easily… You stayed blocking the door just in case he came back, but after a few minutes and no sign of anyone in the halls, let alone trying to get to your room you finally let the door be. You walked back to the bed and stared at it for a while. Why did I just trap myself in this room? You thought to yourself. I should have tried to get out… You shrugged your shoulders, it was too late anyways, no use beating yourself up over it.

When the door opened for the third time that day, you were on high alert. Pleasantly (or as pleasant as it can get being held hostage), this time it was Joshua again.

“Mingyu came down in such a bad mood, what did you do to him?” Joshua questioned as he walked into the room. You shrugged your shoulders. Joshua ran his fingers through his hair and let out a sigh.

“Is there anything you need?” Joshua asked after a moment of silence.

“To get out of this room.” you said after thinking for a while.

“You might see Mingyu. And I can’t guarantee the other members will be nice to you. Most of them don’t want you here.” Joshua stated.

“Yah, a few of them did try to kill me, I think I know I’m not to welcome.” You said, rolling your eyes slightly.

“Alright… Don’t try to leave the house if I let you out, you’ll be killed for sure.” Joshua said, his voice much more stern than you’d ever heard it. You nodded and followed him out of the room. You were honestly so happy to be out of that room and be able to look out a window and see sunlight that you didn’t care you’d see Mingyu, or the guys who almost killed you a few days ago. You followed Joshua down the hall and towards the stairs. As you passed the many doors, you could hear music softly playing behind one of the walls, but you passed too quickly to figure out exactly which room it was coming from. You followed closely behind Joshua as you walked down the stairs and towards the kitchen like the night before. The sunlight filled the house beautifully. Honestly, how such awful people could have such a nice house like this made you puzzled… maybe they weren’t as bad as you thought. You shook your head slightly. Don’t think like that (y/n), they kidnapped you!

The two of you walked through the kitchen and into another connecting room that you hadn’t noticed the night before. The room, which you would call the living room (but it's debatable), had a few couches, and a TV mounted on the wall. In one corner of the room stood a wrack with clothes hanging from it, and beside that was a table piled with various things, from more clothes to an umbrella and even some pots and pans. There were even rolls of papers that at first glance looked like maps too you and knowing these people, it was probably blueprints to some poor person’s store.

There were several people in the room, some on the couch, some laying on the floor or leaning against the wall, doing their own things. Some on their phones, one person reading, another person writing something down, but as soon as you and Joshua walked into the room their heads turned and soon all eyes were on you.

“Josh, why’d you let them out?” someone you had never seen before questioned, standing up to reveal just how short he was compared to the others in the group.

“Don’t worry Jihoon, (y/n) not going to go anywhere. Do you think she could really leave this house?” Joshua asked, waving his hands a little to gesture to the house. Jihoon gave Joshua a look that could kill.

“I won’t take my eyes off them.” Joshua assured.

“Mingyu should be the one watching over them, not you…” Minghao, looking over from where he sat on the couch.

“I’d rather die than have to spend time with Mingyu.” You blurted out.

“We can arrange that.” Jun said, glaring at you. You glared back at him. If the tension in the room wasn’t already high, it was now. Everyone was silent, and no one moved. You didn’t dare move, let alone breath. You felt as if you made one wrong move you’d die right there on the spot. Was this how everyone normally acted, or is everyone stressed for some reason? You didn’t know, but you could hope this wasn’t their normal way of acting.

“Why is everyone so quiet?” A voice called from in the kitchen. You turned around to see Mingyu walking towards the living room, which also meant towards you. For some reason, your first instinct was to move behind Joshua, out of Mingyu’s reach. This action not only earned you a glare from Mingyu, but Joshua also got a good bit of Mingyu’s attitude. He brushed passed the two of you and threw himself down on the couch next to Minghao and Jun.

“Why aren’t you watching over (y/n)? You said you would…” Minghao said once again.

“(Y/n) won’t let me get near them.” Mingyu stated.

“Well that’s your issue.” a guy with longish hair spoke up for the first time since you entered the room. “You said you’d take care of them, don’t push your job off on Joshua. He’s got his own things I need him to do.”

“Hey, I only asked him to watch over them last night while we were gone. And Josh’s not some person you can boss around anymore, Jeonghan.”

“I shouldn’t have left my room…” Your whispered, barely audibly to your own ears, let alone anyone else.

“Look Mingyu, I don’t have a problem watching over (y/n), but when the boss comes home it’s all on you. Don’t push this onto me.” Joshua finally spoke up.

“Sounds good, plus if anyone would know how to take care of (y/n) it’s you.” Mingyu said with a shrug of his shoulders. Before you could even blink there was a pillow being smacked in Mingyu’s face and a loud grunt from Jeonghan. Joshua shifted from foot to foot awkwardly while the others expressions changed from frustration to a look you couldn’t quite pinpoint. Joshua cleared his throat.

“Well, once the boss gets back I have to go out for a few days with Jeonghan so you better learn Mingyu.” Joshua said before turning to leave the room, you close behind him.

When the two of you had made it far enough away to go unheard, Joshua laughed a bit.

“That was dramatic.” You nodded. You had expected to be under fire, but not quite like that. You followed Joshua around the for a bit as he showed around the house. At first glance, you didn’t think it would be that big, but it was actually really big. Then again, they are part of the mafia, so it’s not like they wouldn’t have money. They had a huge exercise room, the boss's room (which no one but the boss was allowed in unless summoned), all the rooms upstairs, the kitchen and living room which you’d already seen, a dance room for some reason and then a few rooms Joshua said he couldn’t show you. You guessed they had something to do with their line of work, so you didn’t ask, partly for your own safety, and partly because you didn’t want to know what type of terrible things they are doing.

After Joshua had shown you every part of the house he could, he turned to you.

“Anything else you want to know?” He questioned.

“Yah,” you started, “When can I take a shower?”

Chapter Text

A shower had never felt so good before. You didn’t care that they had someone standing outside the bathroom door in case you tried to make a run for it. You didn’t care that you had to borrow some of Joshua’s clothes and that it was a bit big on you. And you sure as hell didn’t care that it took you so long to shower. If they were going to post someone outside the door, they were just gonna have to stand there and wait for you to finish up. You weren’t going to rush through the one thing that brought you joy just because someone was waiting on you. 

You washed your hair twice, using some shampoo that was already in there, thankfully there was a shampoo that didn’t smell to terribly masculine. After you had completely washed up, you just stood there letting the warm water run over you. Definitely one of the calmest moments you’d had since you’d arrived at this dumb house. As most long showers lead too deep thoughts, this was no different. You went through all emotions during that shower.  But by the end you had made up your mind. Rather than sulking around and constantly fighting against everyone, you were going to try and make the best of the situation. Who knows, maybe they’ll grow to trust you and eventually let you go. It couldn’t hurt to try, besides worse comes to worse, you just end up getting sucked into this whole mafia thing, and live out the rest of your life like this. But hey, at least you don’t get killed, right? 

You threw on the clothes Joshua had given you and located someone’s brush and quickly brushed your hair. When you pulled open the door, you found someone else standing there. He was very cute looking to say the least, with light brown hair and a round face. He jumped a bit when the bathroom door opened. The two of you stared at each other for a good minute, neither one of you saying anything before the guy finally stepped out of your way so you could get out of the bathroom. 

“I’m Seungkwan, I don’t think we’ve officially met.” the boy said. 

“Officially, no we haven’t met.” you replied, tying up your wet hair as you spoke. “What were you up to during the raid?”

“Oh…” Seungkwan awkwardly laughed, rubbing the back of his neck, “I was one of the guards.” 

“Nice job.” You snorted. Being kidnapped really brought out your sassy side. Watch me get killed because I sass the wrong person. You thought to yourself as you and Seungkwan walked back downstairs. 

“Where’s Josh?” you asked. 

“He’s doing something for Jeonghan, he should be back in a few minutes or so.” Seungkwan answered. 

“So, what’s up with him? How come everyone around he treats him a little differently?” you questioned. 

“I’m sure he’ll tell you the reason eventually. Want some lunch? I’m starving.” Seungkwan asked as he headed towards the kitchen. You followed him in, having nowhere else to go. You soon found yourself leaning in one of the corners of the kitchen, watching and Seungkwan rushed about the kitchen, cooking a monstrous meal. 

“Do you always cook for everyone?” you asked, folding your arms in front of your chest. 

“Not always, everyone here rotates cooking, so some days we get terrible meals and other days we get really good meals.” Seungkwan answered.

“Are your meals the good ones?” your question made Seungkwan chuckle.

  
“I’d say they’re about middle ground. Mingyu makes the best meals around here.” just hearing Mingyu’s name made your mood turn sour. You let out a huff and moved to sit at the table. Seungkwan glanced over at you. 

“Look, I’m not trying to make anything worse by saying this,” he started, walking over to you as he wiped his hand on a dish towel, “but Mingyu’s really not a bad guy. He told me that he purposely waited for one of your days off to do the raid. He about lost it when he saw you there. He tried really hard to keep it hidden but one of members, Wonwoo, saw him and called him out and that’s how i figured it out. You ran into him in the hallway that day, right? Mingyu was supposed to be heading to the most important part of the whole mission, but when he finally showed up his face was so pale. He looked so worried, and then when he heard some shouting from the front of the store he just turned around a bolted. Later I found out it was because of you. I’ve known Mingyu for around six years now and I’ve never seen him more panicked about anything else before. By trying to save you from getting killed, not only did he put himself in a huge amount of danger, but he’s got the whole rest of the group in danger now. If you get out, or get in contact with anyone else we are all dead. Had any other member been in his possession they probably would have just shot you there.” 

What Seungkwan was telling you was putting a whole new spin on things. You felt guilty now. Guilty over a person who had kidnapped you. What was this cruel world. No, it wasn’t a cruel world, it was just proof that you were still a decent human being with emotions and sympathy for others. 

“When the boss gets back, both you and Mingyu are going to be in some serious trouble. Technically you haven’t done anything wrong but that’s just how it works. Although, knowing Mingyu he’s going to somehow find a way to get it all brought out on him so you don’t have to deal with it. I just hope he doesn’t get killed because of that.” Seungkwan said, running his hand threw his hair. The atmosphere was too heavy, and you had too many thoughts and emotions spinning around your head. There was a loud hiss and both of you looked over to see a pot on the stove boiling over. Seungkwan quickly stood up and addressed it, leaving you to sit at the table with your thoughts. 

He didn’t speak the rest of the time, and there was no sound other than the food cooking. Finally, everything was finished and laid out on a long table in the other room. The only time you’d ever seen a table this long was in the famous painting The Last Supper. Not even that. The table was longer and bigger and sat around fourteen people. There were twelve chairs along the long sides of the table, and a chair at both ends of the table. You assumed no one but the boss sat at the head, leaving the other end chair to always be empty. Why bother even having a chair at that end if no one ever sat in it? 

You had just finished setting down the last plate of food when Seungkwan called to the others announcing that lunch was ready. There was a stampede of footsteps, and you realized this would be the first time you’d see everyone together, minus the two that were still out. You moved to a corner of the room and waited for everyone to filter in. Some looked at you, but most ignored you standing there. It was clear that none of them were happy you were there. When Mingyu walked in and saw you, he hesitated for a moment, but soon looked away and sat down at the table. Joshua offered you a small smile, and that was about the only friendly gesture you got. 

From the looks of it everyone sat in a specific order. The head of the table sat empty, where you assumed the boss, Seungcheol, usually sat. Then it was Jeonghan and Joshua across from each other, and next to them sat Junhui and someone you hadn’t seen before. You were honestly surprised by how many people you actually knew, it didn’t feel like you had met many people. You could easily pick out Junhui, who wouldn’t be aware of the guy that tried to kill you. And then there was Jihoon, Minghao and Jeonghan, whom you hadn’t officially met but knew of all the same.  And of course, Joshua, Seungkwan and Mingyu. Boss Seungcheol and Hansol were out at the moment, but you wouldn’t be able to connect names to faces. This only left four people you didn’t know. You knew that no one was going to bother to introduce themselves, so you didn’t bother to introduce yourself either. 

There was a scraping of chairs against the wood floor and soon everyone was sitting in their seats. The two chairs on each end of the table were left empty and the spot next to Seungkwan was empty as well. Seungcheol held the head spot for sure, and you assumed Hansol belonged in the spot next to Seungkwan. There wasn’t an ounce in your body that felt comfortable sitting at the other end of the table, so you just stayed standing in the corner of the room as everyone settled down. 

“Why don’t you sit down?” Jeonghan questioned, gesturing towards the chair at the end of the table.” Everyone froze. The tension in the hair was heavy, everyone was thinking the same thing. Of all people to sit at the other end of the table, it shouldn’t be you. 

“Um, I’m good.” you answered, sensing the tension building with each second. Junhui let out a grunt of satisfaction and Joshua a long sigh. You glanced over at Mingyu to see his lips pressed tightly together in a line. You rolled your eyes slightly and left the room, moving back into the kitchen to see what else you could find to eat. You ended up finding a pretty decent amount of food left behind and fixed yourself a small plate and sat down at the table to eat it. 

This was probably the most relaxed you’d been since you’d arrived at the svt house. You were able to sit in an open room with sunlight streaming through the large windows, and you could simply sit comfortably. You didn’t feel as on edge as always, and actually felt comfortable enough to lean back in your chair. How long was this mood going to last?

Chapter Text

The rest of the afternoon was filled with boring nothingness. Despite being allowed outside of your room, you still spent most of your time there, just lying on the bed staring at the ceiling, drifting in and out of a restless sleep. When you weren’t in your room, you were next to Joshua. He spent most of his time reading various books on the couch, while you sprawled out on the floor in front of him. Various people came in and out of the living room, sometimes stopping to talk to josh in hushed tones about things you didn’t quite understand, probably related to whatever went down at the cafe. Other times someone would come in and see you staring at a wall doing nothing but twiddling your thumbs together and would take time to talk with you a bit.

Because of this you were able to meet some of the members you hadn’t really talked with yet. Soonyoung had stopped in for a small bit to talk with Josh about some event that was happening later on in the month. Before Soonyoung left he paused, staring down at where you sat, you back leaning against the couch just a bit to the side of where josh sat on the couch, your legs stretched out in front of you.

“Aren’t you bored?” He asked, causing josh to look up from his book once again.

“Yah…” you stated, looking up at him. Soonyoung nodded, standing there for a few seconds before walking away. You looked after him with a confused and slightly annoyed look on your face and turned your attention back to staring at the cluttered bookshelf across from you. You heard Joshua shift in his spot after Soonyoung had walked away and there was not another sound beside the turning of pages from Joshua’s book.

Eventually Seokmin and Chan wandered their way into the room and invited you to play a round of cards. Your first instinct was to say no because why on earth would you play a card game with your kidnappers, but you were just so utterly bored you couldn’t help but say yes. You ended up playing more than one round, and also ended up learning quite a bit of things about both Seokmin and Chan. Seokmin apparently was one of the mood setters in the house, and was in charge of making sure everyone stays hidden and safe at their “base” as they called the house. Chan was the youngest at the base, and you were honestly very shocked to hear just how young.

“Where the heck are your parents Chan?” You questioned, flipping over one of the cards as the three of you had decided to play a round of a card matching game for some reason.

“Oh, you know, out and about. Dad’s probably out doing stupid things. I’m safer here with everyone than I would be with my dad.” Chan said, watching Seokmin flip over two more cards.

“Most of us are in that same situation.” Seokmin declared, “all are parents are either low rate criminals or in prison, although, there are a few who have parents in high up places. You’d be shocked to find out who.” he chuckled, successfully putting together a match.

“Seokmin…” Chan mumbled, giving him a look as if to say shut it.

“Chan who am I going to tell even if I found out. I can’t even leave the house.” you declared, leaning back on one hand as everyone looked at you. Seokmin and Chan looked down at the table and said nothing. The sound of a page turning was the only noise that filled the room for quite some time.

You finished your game with only a few words exchanged and soon the two left go finish some work they needed to do. You watched as they walked away and returned to your spot against the couch, shuffling the cards over and over again to kill time. Soon the cards were left abandoned on the table and you were drifting to sleep. You could feel your head dropping every now and then, and eventually found yourself climbing onto the couch end opposite of Joshua. You curled yourself up and were soon fast asleep, getting the best sleep you’ve had your entire time since you’d arrived.

When you woke up again it was already dark outside. Rather than finding Joshua sitting next to you, there was someone new. You’d only ever seen him at the lunch and you’d never heard him say anything. To be honest he was the one that frightened you the most since you’d arrived, he had a stone-cold face and seemed ticked off. You sat up and looked around, hoping Joshua was in the other room, but by doing this you gained the attention of the guy sitting next to you.

“Oh, Joshua had to go work on something this a few of the others. He said he’d be back soon.” the guy said. You nodded and settled back down onto the couch. You glanced over at the guy a few times, looking from the book in his hands then up to his face and back down to his book.

“Do you need something?” he asked, not taking his eyes off his book.

“Uh, no.” you answered, almost too quickly, turning your head away from him.

“I’m Wonwoo by the way, I don't think I’ve officially introduced myself to you.”

“I would introduce myself as well, but you already know who I am, I’m sure you guys know more about me then I think you do. I bet someone looked me up or something, right?” you asked, looking back at Wonwoo to find he had closed his book and had his full attention on you.

“Yah, Jihoon looked you up almost as soon as we got home, you don’t have much of a life so we aren’t too worried.”

“Well that’s rude.” you said, crossing your arms over your chest. Wonwoo chuckled to himself, shaking his head a bit.

“I can see why Mingyu really wanted to save you. At first, I was questioning him, but he doesn’t usually make such huge dumb choices like he did with you. He must really like you (y/n).” Wonwoo pointed out.

“Hearing nice things about my kidnapper isn’t exactly what I want to deal with.” you spat. Wonwoo only hummed in response, cracking his book open again.

“You may not think Mingyu is a good person right now,” Wonwoo said after a moment of silence, “but the side you saw at the cafe was his true self. He’s not the type to go easily falling for people. You can’t be that way when you are in this line of work. And besides, technically all of us kidnapped you, not just Mingyu. If anything, you should be gratefully Mingyu made sure you weren’t killed.”

You grunted in response, obviously not happy. You were having some serious mixed feelings now. There was no way you were going to fall for one of your kidnappers, I mean, sure, you sort of had feelings for him, but that was before you knew what he did for a living and before he kidnapped you, but shouldn’t being kidnapped be enough to get rid of such a crush. Apparently not. You huffed a few more times than stood up from the couch and walked into the kitchen. You were taken aback when you found Mingyu sitting at the kitchen table, his chin propped on his hand, looking straight at you.

“Make sure you stay in your room tonight.” Mingyu stated.

“Why?” you bit back.

“The boss gets back tonight.” he answered, straightening up in his chair. A shiver went up your spin. You didn’t need to meet him to know this boss held a lot of power. You had noticed he tension in the house had intensified since you woke up, but thought nothing of it until now.

“Will… will you be okay?” you asked, slowly forming your words, wondering if you would later regret them.

“Why, are you worried about me?” He questioned, a smug smile spreading across his face. Yup, you were already regretting it.

“As if buddy.” you scoffed, making your way out of the kitchen and away from Mingyu, heading straight for your room. You slammed the door shut, truthfully a little harder than you had meant. You plopped down on the bed, and soon enough Joshua showed up, poking his head into the room.

“Is everything okay?” he asked. You gave him a small smile and nodded your head. He smiled back at you but suddenly his face became stone hard. You could hear a door opening downstairs and a few murmurs drift up with it.

“The boss is back, just wait here and don’t make any noise okay? Hopefully everything will go smoothly.” Josh said, his words rushed a bit, as he glanced every now and then towards the stairs. “Don’t worry about it though, nothing will happen to you. You’ve already got it bad enough. I’ll be back so just don't go anywhere.” and with that the door had shut. They hadn’t locked your door for a while now, but you had expected to hear the little ‘click’ sound this time around, but there was nothing. You were left with your own thoughts and an ever-growing sense of dreed.

Chapter Text

You paced back and forth in your room. The door wasn’t locked, if you were that worried you could just walk right out of the room and go investigate. No one was stopping you, except the fact that you didn’t want to risk running into this boss guy. If all twelve of the boys were this worried it must be serious. You stopped pacing around and sat down on the bed. Why was this bothering you anyways? Why should you be worried about what happens to your kidnapper? It’s Mingyu’s own darn fault for taking you, and all the other guys fault for going along with it.

            You flung yourself back on the bed and stared up at the ceiling, letting the quiet stillness engulf you. It was quiet for a long time, so long that you were actually tittering on the edge of sleep, when suddenly there was a loud crash followed by the sound of shatter glass. You shot up from where you lay, looking at the door in terror. There were a few shouts and a couple more crashes, but most of it was muffled by the door and the fact that it was all coming from downstairs. You stood up from the bed but didn’t take any steps towards the door, to scared of what you might come face to face with. Soon you could hear a few pair of footsteps coming up to the top floor, you couldn’t tell how many but you knew that it was more than one. They grew louder and louder, coming closer and closer to your room. You thought for sure the footsteps were coming straight to your room, probably to kill you or something who knows what was running through the boss’s head. Instead of coming into your room, the footsteps only faded away.

            When the steps were at the loudest you could tell it was only two people. One with a solid, powerful stride and the other with shuffling inconsistent steps. It must have been the boss and Mingyu. Timidly you tiptoed towards the door, your heart beating so hard you could hear it in your ears. All you could think about was what’s going to happen to Mingyu. When you heard the first cry of pain after a sickening silence you lost it. Without even thinking you ripped open your door and shoved your way into the dark hall. As if they anticipated you busting out, someone was standing in the hallway. You’d never seen him before so you could only assume he was Hansol. That didn’t matter though, you had to get to Mingyu. Before Hansol even knew what was happening you had slammed him into the wall and rushed past him, heading straight towards the door at the end of the long hallway. You almost had your hand around the doorknob when Hansol finally caught up to you, grabbing the back of your shirt and ripping you away from the door. You stumbled back, but somehow managed to elbow Hansol in the stomach. Once again you lunged for the door, throwing your full weight against it, creating the loudest thud the whole house had ever heard.

            “SEUNGCHEOL YOU GET OFF OF HIM RIGHT NOW!” you screamed, pounding your fists against the door when you realized the door itself was locked. It didn’t take more than a few seconds before several others had shown up to help Hansol, and soon you were being dragged away, still thrashing around, yelling any insult you could think of. As quickly as you had come out of your room, you were thrown back in, this time the door was locked. You got off the floor from where they had thrown you and began pounding on it, trying in vain to break free and make Mingyu’s yelling stop. You tried every way possible to break free, just like you had the night you had been first put in this room. And just like last time, nothing worked.

            You couldn’t do anything to help, and you couldn’t block out the sound. It hurt you to your core. Even if he had kidnapped you, you still had a heart full of compassion, and even if he had kidnapped you, you really liked him. You couldn’t do anything else but pull the blanket off your bed and hid in the further most corner of the room, wrapping yourself in the large blanket, covering your head as if that was really going to help. You sat there, your hands covering your ears, trying to block out his painful cries for what felt like hours. You felt horrible. If you had just stayed put in that room, or listened to Mingyu when he told you to go back to the said room, none of this would have happened, and most importantly, Mingyu wouldn’t be hurt.

            You had worked so hard to block out all sound you didn’t notice when the door to your room opened, and you didn’t notice when Joshua walked towards you in your blanketed, curled up state. It wasn’t until he pulled back the part of the blanket that covered your face the you realized someone else was in the room. Joshua didn’t know what to say when he saw you, huddled up in a corner of the room, your hands clamped over your ears and your lips pressed in a tight line.  

            You slowly let your hands fall from your ears, finding that the house was now completely silent. Slowly you looked towards the open door then back to Joshua’s soft brown eyes. Joshua sadly smiled at you.

            “I’m going to need your help.” He said. You slowly stood up, shaking the blanket from your shoulders. First you followed him to his room and watched him retrieve the same first aid kit you had seen the first time you left your room. It became clear what Joshua needed your help with, and you could already feel the lump in your throat start to grow. Slowly, the two of you made your way down the long hallway, towards the door you had previously attacked. Slowly, Joshua pushed open the door, letting the dim light stream into the dark hallway. You felt sick just standing outside the door. You didn’t know what was going to meet your eyes when you walked in, and all you wanted to do was run away and forget everything that had happened. Above all else this was the strongest urge you’d had this whole time to run away and just forget everything.

            When Joshua turned around to see why you had yet to enter the room you finally stepped out of the hall and into the dusty room. Fresh air had obviously never been introduced into the room for a good few years, and you could see huge amounts of dust flying around in the golden light that poured in through the few cracks from the shut-up window. If you hadn’t known what terrible things had just occurred in the god forsaken room you would have just thought it was some old study that belonged to those stereotypical grumpy old men, with the desk in the middle and bookshelves filled to the point of collapsing. Nothing seemed out of place, accept, in the furthest, darkest corner, crumpled in a heap on the floor, was Mingyu. It felt like your heart was literally about to fall out of your chest.

            You slowly made your way over to him, dropping to your knees to get down to his level. He was a complete mess, covered in cuts, a few on his face, but most had seemed to land on his back. You looked up at Joshua to see he was looking down at Mingyu, with a face paler than snow. Just the sight of his friend had made all the blood from his face drain instantly.

            After taking in the horrid sight, you and Joshua set to work. It was long and tedious. The two of you worked as gently as possible, but it was clear that no matter how hard you were trying he was still in pain. Mingyu hadn’t said a word since the two of you had arrived, let alone batted an eyelash when you murmured a few words to him. About an hour had passed before you and Joshua finally moved him back to his own room. You stayed with Mingyu and finished up wrapping the last few cuts he had on his body while Joshua cleaned up everything.

            Once Mingyu had made it into bed and you’d helped him settle down, sleep took over him almost instantly, but he seemed to be fighting it. Every now and then his eyes would slowly flutter open and he’d watch you as you slowly wrapped the bandage around his arm.

            “Just sleep Mingyu.” You finally said, after catching him force his eyes open to stare at your for the third time. You tucked the end of the bandage in and gentle rested his arm back down on the bed. For a few seconds you hesitated, your hand hovering just next to his. You felt an overwhelming urge to hold his hand, after all, he had just been through all of that because of you, and for you. You pressed your lips tightly together and quickly moved your hand away. But not quick enough for Mingyu, because within seconds he had reached up and grabbed your hand. His grip was weak, but you made no attempt of getting away from him.

            “Thank you for helping.” he said weakly, his voice barely above a whisper. You stared at him, watching his eyes slowly shut and his breathing become slow and smooth.

            “I should be saying that stupid…” you whispered.

After you were positive Mingyu was fast asleep, you carefully slipped your hand out of his and quietly walked out of the room. You stood in the hallway debating what to do. Should you just head back to your room, or go downstairs and deal with the consequences of facing everyone. You had made up your mind to head back to your room, not really ready to face Seungcheol, but Seungkwan walked out of his room just as you were turning to head to your room.

“Oh hey,” he said, his voice a little more dull than usual, “come downstairs with everyone.”

“Ah, I don’t know Seungkwan.” you said, backing up slightly.

“Don’t worry about anything, you’ll be safe.” he stated, offering a smile. You stared at him skeptical and shifted from foot to foot.

“I won’t leave your side if it makes you feel better.” He said, gently stirring you towards the stairs. You glanced back down the hallway towards you room for a split second but soon found yourself following behind Seungkwan, no doubt about to face the other eleven boys that lived in the house, but most importantly the boss. You couldn’t help your hands from shaking ever so slightly as you walked down the stairs. You weren’t sure if they shook because of fear or out of sheer anger. Either way, either were good.

The tension downstairs was unlike anything else you had experienced in your life, and after the past few days, that was saying something. It was so tense it was almost hard to breath. You forced yourself to lift your eyes off the ground and look straight at everyone in the room. The gloom was unreal. No one spoke, and no one moved. A few pairs of eyes shifted in your direction when you and Seungkwan walked into the room but nothing more. It was as if all the life had been drained from everyone. Even Joshua sat near a corner of the room, his legs stretched out in front of him and his head thrown back, resting against the wall. He hadn’t even bother unroll his sleeves from when the two of you were helping Mingyu. You shoved your hands into your pants pockets and glared at everyone. If they were going to be so upset about this, they should have stopped it before it happened. It’s not like they didn’t have the power. All them against one -- it would have ended much differently if that had been the case. All the stupid rules this gang follows… you thought to yourself with a shake of your head.

“So, where’s this boss, Seungcheol?” You finally asked, breaking the crushing silence. No one answered at first, but when you pressed the question again, a little harder this time, Chan gestured to the kitchen. At once you headed towards it. You didn’t know what you were going to do or say. You didn’t have anything to say honestly. Every fiber in your body was just screaming at you to deck this guy in the face.

The sight of him caused you to falter in the doorway. He wasn’t anything like you had pictured him to be. He looked much skinnier and gentle than you had accepted. To be honest you had thought he would be some balding old, buff man that glared daggers and always had a cigarette hanging from his mouth, but Seungcheol looked nothing like that. He looked soft and delicate, but not as delicate as a few of the others in his gang. He reminded you of one of the guys you would see at a university, in the farthest corner of the library instantly studying for an upcoming final. And for a split second, you forgot who he truly was and what he had done. No wonder he was so perfectly fit to be a leader of so many people. All that aside, the way he was now, well, he looked totally defeated.

He was hunched over, his head resting in his hands, and it looked as though every now and then his back would shutter, as one does when they are upset. This didn’t stop you however; finding him to be so different than you had pictured gave you a burst of confidence. You walked right up to the table where he was hunched over and waited for him to look up at you. Slowly but surely, he dropped his hands and turned his head towards you. His face was stone cold, a perfect poker face, but his eyes said something different. Pain, all you could see in his gaze was pure and utter pain and sadness. You were about to rattle of who knows what when suddenly Seungcheol shot up from his chair, his eyes wide as he stared wildly at you, as if he was seeing a ghost. You took a few steps back out of pure shock from his reaction, but as quickly as it had occurred, it was gone. By the time you had stopped moving, he was back to his composed self, standing up straight and staring at you with a face of stone.

What the actual heck had just gone through his mind?  

Chapter Text

Seungcheol’s actions had you totally lost. After the two of you had spent a good thirty seconds staring at each other, he gave you one last look then walked out of the kitchen. You stared after him, wondering why he didn’t even say a word to the person who caused so much trouble for his entire gang. You shrugged your shoulders slightly, not really sure what to think. You yourself stepped out of the kitchen and back into the heavy atmosphere. It didn’t take long for you to make your way back up to Mingyu’s room, regardless of the fact that he was sleeping. You let yourself into the room and sat on the floor next to his bed, reading a book you had found resting on a nearby shelf. You figured if he woke up and needed anything you might as well be there waiting for him.

You must have sat there for hours; your book had long been cast aside. You had read about half of it when you started to feel sleepy, realizing that it was pretty late at night. Right when you began contemplating whether to stay here or head back to your own room for the night, the door was pushed further open, capturing your attention. You looked over to find Wonwoo walk through the doorway, towards you. He sat down on the bed opposite of Mingyu’s, leaned forward a bit and clasped his hands together. He quietly looked from you, to Mingyu who was still fast asleep.

“Oh, Wonwoo are you the one that rooms with him?” you asked, folding your legs under you as you talked. Wonwoo nodded and let out a small sigh.

“Have you spent the entire time here?” He finally spoke after a long time of silence. This time it was your turn to nod.

“How long are you planning on staying here?” he questioned. You were taken aback by his abruptness. The few times you had talked with him so far, he had always been pretty straight forward, but not harsh like this. You quickly stood up and brushed off your pants hurriedly.

“Uh, yah I was just going.” you answered, almost too fast. Wonwoo ran his fingers through his hair and let out another sigh.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean that to come out so harshly.” Wonwoo said, “It’s been a long day.”

“Yah… for all of us.” you replied. Again, there was a long silence. You cleared your throat and headed towards the door. “Well, good night Wonwoo.”

“Good night, and thank you for taking care of him.” Wonwoo said, gesturing towards Mingyu. You gave him a small smile before slipping out the door and shutting it lightly.

The next few days were painful and uptight. You were constantly in and out of Mingyu’s room, making sure that he was as comfortable as possible, along with all the other members. The first few days Mingyu mostly slept and barely moved around, but as the week progressed, so did Mingyu’s health. Eventually he was shuffling around his room, and even around the other rooms upstairs. When you weren’t with Mingyu, you were with the other boys. After what happened with Mingyu, your attitude changed. It was obvious that you weren’t going to be able to leave anytime soon, if not ever, so you might as well make the best of it. You slowly learned more about everyone, and realized that even though they were a gang, they acted far from the way movies and books had portrayed so called mafia gangs. They were well mannered and kind, and not to mention funny. Chan had the best laugh out of all of them, Joshua treated everyone the same way he treated you, Hansol always kept up with the latest jokes. Each person had their own special thing about them. The only person that you barely talked with was Seungcheol, and it wasn’t that shocking. Every time you walked into the room, Seungcheol was quick to find a reason to leave. Of course, you didn’t have an issue with that. Not gonna lie, you had a grudge against him, and had no intentions of letting it go anytime soon.

Having a better relationship with the guys in the house made every day a little more bearable. It gave you something to do, someone to talk with. You could often be found leaning over someone's shoulder, examining the work they were doing. Most of it was confidential, but you usually found yourself watching Seokmin as he checked up on stuff around the house, flipping from camera to camera and looking at a few other things on the computers they had set up. By doing this however, you were learning quite a few things about this gang, which you had come to learn was called Seventeen, or SVT for short. Each person had their own specialty within the group, from nursing the members back to health after a fight, to scouting out things for their next raid, and according to Chan, some of the members were the best assassins in the area (although he reassured you they didn’t go into action very often).

Of course, when you weren’t with the other guys, you were with Mingyu. Despite almost always being with him for the first half of the week, the two of you barely talked with each other. You’d push the door open and find him propped up in bed reading a book, or sometimes furiously scribbling down something in a notebook with a laptop next to him. Like clockwork, Mingyu would look up and offer you a small smile as you walked further into the room and took a seat on the chair placed next to his bed. Every time you would try to smile back at him, but for some reason you could never manage to make yourself smile. Every now and then Mingyu would ask how the other guys were doing, and if anyone had left to go do something and you’d answer him, but the conversation would drop there. Instead of trying to further push conversation you’d fold your legs up in the chair and pick up a book and read alongside him. The two of you would stay like that for hours until Joshua would come to check up on Mingyu’s wounds, or a meal was ready. This rhythm barely changed, and it probably would never have changed had it not been for Joshua going out.

Apparently, there was a meeting with a close gang of theirs, and all the members needed to go. Naturally Mingyu would not be going, so that left the two of you home alone for a good twenty-four hours. If Joshua hadn’t asked you to help, you probably would have just stuck to your normal routine, sitting with Mingyu in silence. But no, Joshua had pleaded with you to change all of Mingyu’s bandages while he was away. You were quick to shut him down, but he kept asking, so you finally gave in. When you burst through the door, your arms full of bandages and a few other things threating to fall at any second, Mingyu seemed to understand. At first you worked in silence, but as each minute passed on the silence became more and more unbearable.

“Mingyu?” you finally said, your voice coming out a lot shakier than you had thought it was going to be. Mingyu responded with a small hum, letting you know you had his attention even though he was staring down at his book. You adjusted your position as you knelt on the bed to begin the tedious task of addressing the many cuts on his back. You awkwardly pulled up the hem of his shirt so that you could actually get to his back, and almost jumped when he grabbed the bit of shirt from your hand and pulled it off entirely.

“Are you going to be okay?” You finally asked, carefully unwrapping his olds bandages. Mingyu let out a small chuckle.

“Only if you want me to be.” He said. You couldn’t help but chuckle as well. That was the Mingyu you knew from the coffee shop.

“How is the boss doing?” Mingyu questioned after a moment of silence. You let out a sigh.

“I don’t know, he doesn’t talk to me.” You answered.

“The other guys told me he acted weird when he first saw you?”

“Yah, he acted like he saw a ghost or something.” You explained. Mingyu nodded upon hearing your words then seemed to go deep in thought, but didn’t stay that way for very long. By the time you had finished changing all of his bandages you and Mingyu were chatting the way you did before everything else had happened. It felt like the two of you were back in the small little coffee shop. It was almost like you could hear the little tinkle form the bell each time the door opened, and could smell the freshly brewed coffee. Sitting beside Mingyu and talking to him like this gave you peace unlike anything else in this house.

The two of you ended up talking until dark, and then when both of you started feeling hungry you offered to go downstairs and make a quick meal for the two of you, but Mingyu insisted on following you downstairs. You were unsure at first, worried he might hurt himself even more, but when he whined for a solid two minutes about how bored he was and how long he’d spent in his room you couldn’t help but let him follow you downstairs. Surprisingly, he made it downstairs with ease, and that’s when a thought crossed your mind.

“Mingyu, have you been going downstairs at night?” you questioned. Mingyu chuckled a bit.

“I figured someone had found out, but I thought it would be Wonwoo before you…” he said, rubbing the back of his neck as he plopped down into a kitchen chair. You shook your head as you pulled out a pot to make some ramen.

“I kept hearing noises at night, but I’m not exactly in the position to investigate, and I figured it might be Seungcheol or something so I never tried to figure out what it was. Man, all this time I’ve been stressing out at night and it was just you going downstairs…” you sighed. Mingyu let out such a loud, pure laugh you couldn’t help but smile.

“Yah no, when Seventeen goes to sleep, we rarely move around. So, if you hear noises at night its either me or someone’s broken in.” he explained.

“Well, that’s just going to make me stress out even more when I hear noises outside my room.” You exclaimed.

While the ramen was boiling, Mingyu began to ask how the week or so here had been, since he hadn’t quite been around to see. You told him your thoughts on each member, and he usually ended up laughing, saying that your description of them was spot on. He told you a bit more things about a few members that you had been curious about, or he just felt the need to let you know. After there was a break in the conversation you finally brought up Joshua.

“What makes Joshua so different than the rest of you guys?” you asked. Mingyu thought for a moment, clasping his hands together.

“No one’s told you anything yet?” he questioned after a pause.

“Nope, but I know something is up, everyone keeps dropping little hints. Even you’ve done that.” You pointed out. Mingyu ran his fingers through his hair upon remembering.

“Ah, I did, didn’t I? Well, I’m not sure how much I should tell you. If Josh hasn’t told you himself, he must have a reason for it.” Mingyu began. “But, let’s just say, that Joshua has been in a situation like yours before.” Your mouth dropped slightly.

“So, Joshua was kidnapped too?” you questioned.

“Kind of? It was more like held captive.” He answered. You carefully pulled the ramen off the burner and thought for a bit.

“that’s terrible…” you finally said, not really sure how to respond to the new-found information. “I was kind of under the impression that it was something like that, but it sounds like he went through something even worse than me.” You said, bringing the pot over to the table, not even bothering to get bowls for the two of you.

“Yah, it was. I thought that he would bring it up with you so that you knew you could relate to someone here, but he may not want to relive the memory I suppose.” Mingyu pointed out, grabbing a pair of chopsticks you had brought along with you. “Joshua is the only one out of all of us who didn’t want to be a part of the group or get born into it.”

“That must be why he’s so nice and understanding.” You stated, earning a split-second glare from Mingyu.

“I supposed, but he’s still here so…”

“Yah well, it sounds like he didn’t have much of a choice.” You blurted out.

“Trust me, if Joshua wanted to get out now, he could. He has the resources too.” Mingyu remarked

“How long has he been here?”

“A good three years or so?” Mingyu said after thinking for a few seconds. You nodded, taking a bite of your ramen.

“So, do kidnappings happen often in this field?” you asked. Mingyu shook his head.

“Not really, more often it’ll be other gangs grabbing a member or someone close to a gang and they’re held hostage until someone comes to get them from that gang. Just gang wars you know. If we kidnapped people from the general public all the time then we’d always have the police looking for us.” Mingyu answered between mouthfuls of ramen.

“Would that have anything to do with this meeting everyone’s at?”

“You sure do have a lot of questions, don’t you?” Mingyu asked with a laugh. “But honestly, I’m not sure, no one has really kept me updated. I know which group they are going to meet with, but outside of that I’m not sure.”

“Huh, well, I guess we’ll find out when they come back then right? It has to be something pretty important if all the members had to go.”

“Yah,” Mingyu said, “it’s pretty weird all of them went…”

Chapter Text

Chapter Text

“No one else has told you yet?” Joshua asked, plucking a section from the clementine and popping it in his mouth.

“I’ve heard things here and there, but no one’s bothered to give me the full story. They all said that was something for you to tell me.” you explained. Joshua nodded.

“There’s no point in keeping it from you, besides we are kind of in the same boat if you haven’t figured out yet.” He said, leaning back in his chair. “Do you want the short version of the long version?”

“Whichever you think is best.”

“I’ll try to keep it on the shorter side then, but no promises.” Joshua said, adjusting his seat before going into the tale.

 “So, I lived a pretty well-off childhood. I spent most of it with my mom, because my dad was always in and out of the house on his so called ‘business trips.’ Only later did I find out that he was actually a part of a gang, and actually held a pretty high up position in that gang. He’d managed to keep it well hidden from me, so well hidden that even after they got me, I didn’t know what was going on. Apparently, my dad rubbed the wrong group the wrong way, and to retaliate they came after me.

“I was on my way to school one day when this group of people showed up and started chasing me. I didn’t even know what was going on but I just ran for my life. I was able to outrun them for a little, but well, as you can tell I didn’t get all the way fast enough. They ended up cornering me and then managed to knocking me unconscious, and before I knew it I was being held hostage at the base camp of one of the most infamous gangs to this day. At the time however they were still growing, but they were big enough to seriously give my dad some issues. Honestly, I’m not sure how hard my dad tried to get me back, I’ve not heard or seen him since that day they pulled me off the street.

 “My living conditions were almost a hundred times worse than yours. Rather than just letting me adjust in with their daily life like we have for you, they just threw me in one of the empty rooms and almost never let me out. And if they did let me out, it never ended up being a plus for me. I’d usually end up going back to that room in worse condition then when I left. I somehow managed to stay alive for maybe a year? Time was never a concept in that room for me. I didn’t even have a window, let alone a clock. When one of the gang members would get extremely bored they’d come and mess around with me, but after a while I finally just stopped responding to everything, partly from lack of energy, partly because I simply didn’t care anymore, they soon lost interest in that. Thankfully the oldest member of the gang was decent enough to make sure I would at least get one meal a day, but he never bothered to stop any of the other guys from beating me up just for their amusement. However, I think once they realized that my dad wasn’t going to risk his entire gang just for to get me back, they soon forgot about me, and the meals became less and less.

“On top of all this, I tried to escape a few times, which only pissed them off more. I’m surprised they didn’t just kill me off after the second time I tried to run off. I never did make it very far… The furthest was to the front lawn, but the base was located somewhere in the middle of the woods, so even if I did make it away from them, I wouldn’t have the strength to travel all the way through the woods and get help. No matter what I was going to do, I was going to end up dead. I had pretty much accepted my fate when Jeonghan suddenly showed up.

“Apparently one of the members from the gang that had captured me was feeling extra blind that day and thought Jeonghan was a member from one of their branch groups when he found Jeonghan snooping around their base. Thanks to that, Jeonghan was able to use it to his advantage and get further into their base. He never did tell me what he was doing at their base, but when he suddenly slipped into my dark room and realized I was there, barely holding on, his entire mission changed. Honestly, I barely even remember what happened that night. Jeonghan had to carry me out on his back, and I remember hearing gunshots, so we must have just barely escaped. Jeonghan brought me back here, and I basically went into captivity, part two, but this time around was much nicer. Naturally Seungcheol had the same reaction as when Mingyu brought you. The only difference was he thought that I wasn’t going to last very long given the state I arrived in, and let me stay. Ah, I had so many broken bones and was so malnourished it took me so long to get back up to normal health, even now I still have some health issues.

“Of course, similar to what you’re experiencing right now, adapting to this style of living took a while. I never wanted to become part of a gang. I just wanted to get back to my normal life and go to college and get a decent job. I guess it was just meant to be, seeing as how my dad was already in this line of work…There were a lot of trust issues between both me and Seventeen. For the longest time I only ever talked with Jeonghan, and very little at that. To me, it was going from one captor to another, but to Jeonghan, he had saved someone. Because we had such different views on the situation it caused a lot of issues between everyone. I guess that’s how you and Mingyu are right now… It took a good while for me to get to trust everyone, and there were some pretty intense after effects of living as a captive that for so long. Jeonghan would stay up with me all the nights I couldn’t sleep because of the nightmares, and eventually, very slowly, I’ve made it to where I am now.” Joshua said, his clementine long forgotten on the table in front of him. He suddenly laughed. “Honestly when I first saw Jeonghan standing over me that night, I thought he was an angel and I had finally died. In a way I guess he was a sort of angel...”

            You were at a complete loss for words. His story gave you a whole new perspective on life. He had been through hell and back and had never once complained about it to you. He barely even showed that he had once been held captive like that. He seemed to fit in so well you had never expected something like this. No wonder none of the other members wanted to talk about what had happened. You couldn’t imagine what they would have done when Jeonghan showed up with Joshua looking like that.

            “It’s not too bad though, at least I gained twelve good friends from the whole ordeal, and I can always be here for you when you need it. I know it’s not easy to go through something like this.” He said, gesturing vaguely to the entire house. You opened your mouth to respond but nothing came out. Finally, you were able to form some words.

            “Is that group that did that to you still out there?” you questioned. Joshua ran his fingers through his hair.

            “Yah, god, the first time I ran into them after that I thought the world was going to break open and swallow me. I felt so panicked and sick to my stomach I almost blacked out. Thank god I was with the other members then. It’s been a good few years since that all went down, and since then the two groups have been able to smooth things down enough that we can be civil in public together and not start any petty fights like we used too, but yeah, they’re still out there. And still one of the more powerful groups. I don’t think I could ever be alone with anyone from that group however, it would end badly.”

 You didn’t know what to say. The fact that the group that had abused and almost killed someone so nice and gentle as Joshua was still out there made your blood boil. Before you could think of something to say you noticed Joshua’s hands shaking ever so slightly as he reached for a piece of the clementine, and you couldn’t help but feel guilty. You’d made him relive one of the worst memories of his life. Without thinking you reached across the table and grabbed his hands in yours.

            “I’m glad I got to meet you Joshua, and I’m glad you’re doing better now. I’m sorry I made you relive all of that.” you said softly. Joshua smiled, his eyes twinkling brighter than the stars that filled the night sky outside.

            “How about we watch a movie to take our minds off everything? We might as well enjoy our time while out ‘captors’ aren’t awake.” he said with a wink, emphasizing captors. In the end, you realized the both of you were being held by seventeen against your will. Sure, they might be giving more freedom to Joshua then they were to you, but in the end,  you were both “prisoners” there. It crossed your mind for a moment to ask whether Joshua had ever tried to leave svt, but before you could give it anymore thought Joshua beckoned you towards the living room with the tv, heading straight for the drawer where they kept all the movies.

            The next morning you woke up to loud cooing from a few of the other members. When your eyes finally fluttered open and adjusted against the harsh light of the sun you realized that you were still sitting on the couch. Out of exhaustion, both physically and mentally for the two of you, you had both managed to fall asleep halfway through the movie. Somehow along the night, the tv was turned off and the two of you had obtained blankets, and settled down onto the couch, to tried to go back up to your own rooms. It only then occurred to you that you had full on snuggled up against Joshua, who still sat propped up against the back of the couch. He too was just coming back to his senses. You quickly launched yourself away from him, nearly falling off the couch in the process. Leaning against the door frame, staring daggers into both you and Joshua stood Mingyu, his face stone cold. Joshua quickly tried to explain, but Mingyu turned on his heels and walked away before Joshua could even get a full sentence out.  

            A wave of guilt washed over you the second his glance crossed yours as he turned to walk away. It’s not like you had done anything wrong though, did you really need to feel guilty and explain yourself to him? You didn’t belong to him so what did it matter what you did, all you did was fall asleep…

            Regardless of how you felt about the situation, the guilt was still very much present. Mingyu was in a sour mood the entire morning, and Joshua seemed to be feeling just as guilty as you. The awkward air that filled the room at breakfast was stifling. You sat in your seat that had been pulled up next to Hansol and across from Chan. There wasn’t much room there, but it was better than sitting at the other end of the table, staring straight down the table at Seungcheol. You barely had an appetite, but continued to eat anyways, not wanting to show that it had affected you in any way. The breakfast started off extremely quiet, but when Seokmin finally broke the tension everyone started up in the conversation, soon forgetting about the events from earlier that morning. That is all, except Mingyu.

            After breakfast, you helped Chan with all the dishes before heading upstairs to take a shower. Upon finding the shower already being used, you made your way to your room and threw yourself down on the bed. Only a few minutes later you heard your door open. You slowly lifted your head to see who it was, not really bothering to move much. That was, until you realized Mingyu had just walked into your room. You slowly sat up, folding your legs in front of you as you watched him walk closer towards you.

            “So, do you still want to go to this ball? I doubt Joshua will be going…” Mingyu asked, his words laced with spite.

            “Why would Joshua not go?” you asked back, completely ignoring his harsh tone.

            “Exo’s going to be there.” He replied, and once he was you puzzled look he explained further. “The group that got him.” You nodded, now realizing that Josh had never even mentioned the name of the group.

            “I mean, whether Joshua goes or not doesn’t really bother me, I just really want to get out of this house even if it’s just for a few minutes.” You explained, shrugging your shoulders. There was a moment of silence before you finally spoke up again.

            “Anyways, Mingyu about this morning…” you started, only to be cut off by Mingyu himself.

            “Joshua already told me everything.” He said, a little less harsh than the past few times.

            “So, then you know nothing happened, would you stop being all harsh to me?” you asked, raising an eyebrow at him. Mingyu sighed and sat down next to you on the bed.

            “I’m sorry, it just bothers me that I didn’t know you couldn’t sleep well at night…” he finally sighed.

            “It’s fine. Honestly, I thought I would run into you more than anyone else, especially Joshua, but it does make sense. After all he’s been in the same place as me, a lot worse actually. He would know what to expect from me the most, probably even more than I do myself.” Mingyu nodded. “Don’t go bringing your frustration out on Joshua though, he didn’t do anything wrong. In the end, I’m the one that made him come downstairs, and I made him tell me about what happened back then. We both got so emotional last night that we wouldn’t have been able to sleep if we didn’t do something like watch a movie.” You pointed out. Mingyu nodded once more before standing up.

            “I really do want to go to this ball though, Mingyu. I want to meet these Monsta X people too since Seventeen is always spending so much time with them. They must be nice people too.” You said, following him out of your room.

            “We’ll just have to ask the boss than.” Mingyu said with a smile.

Chapter Text

“Absolutely not.”

“Oh, come on boss!” Mingyu whined, giving Seungcheol the biggest puppy eyes he could muster.

“It’s only going to cause more issues.” Seungcheol sighed, twisting a pen in his hand as he stared blankly at the papers that sat in front of him.

“What would be the issue? Everyone is like us, it’s not like we’d be with the general public…” Mingyu commented. Seungcheol gave him a look that would have caused any normal person to drop the subject.

“Oh, come on Cheol, what’s the worst that could happen?” Jeonghan added in. You’d never heard anyone call Seungcheol by his actual name, let alone a pet name like Jeonghan did. You guessed that was just a sign of how close they truly were. Seungcheol muttered something under his breath and shot a glare in Jeonghan’s direction.

“There may be issues with the other gangs though.” Seungcheol pointed out.

“Yah, but Joshua’s been to these balls before, and Exo is there. We’ve never had an issue…” Jeonghan said back, “I bet he’d go this year too.”

You felt a sinking feeling in your stomach. If you being able to go outside would mean that Joshua would have to see the group that did all those terrible things to him, you didn’t want to have anything to do with it. Mingyu seemed to sense that feeling from you.

“Even if Josh doesn’t go this year, there’s not any predominate issues if (y/n) went outside. She can’t stay locked up in here forever you know.” Mingyu said.

“Unless there is an issue, and you aren’t telling us…” Jeonghan added, staring skeptically at Seungcheol.

“There aren’t any issues.” He snapped back, almost to aggressively.

“So, I don’t see why she can’t go.” Jeonghan stated, shrugging his shoulders.

“Fine, fine she can go, but if anything happens it’s on you two.” You couldn’t help but smile. You tried to force it down until you at least got away from Seungcheol but your excitement and joy was just too much to contain. You and Mingyu thanked him before walking out of the room, leaving Seungcheol and Jeonghan to themselves. As soon as you were out of ears range, Mingyu gave you the strongest high-five of your life. It left you hand stinging for at least an hour.

It was already a bit past breakfast, and most of the guys had headed off to their respective places in the house to do a bit of work. Jihoon took his place in the computer room, no doubt trying to hack into something or plan their next big mission along with Soonyoung. Seungcheol had stepped out with Jun and Minghao again, doing god knows what. Mingyu and Wonwoo had also stepped out for the day. When you asked Mingyu were he was going, he only offered you a small smile and said they needed to meet with someone Wonwoo knew, and left it at that. If he wasn’t going to give you any more information than that, you figured it was best not to pry.

You found yourself wandering over to where Seungkwan and Chan had planted themselves, staring down at a huge blueprint they had spread across the floor. While marking down little things here and there and examining the long twisting hallways you pestered them with question, bored out of your mind.

“You really need to find a hobby (y/n).” Chan sighed after you asked about the blueprints for the fifteenth time.

“It’s a bit hard since I’m trapped in here.” You replied, shrugging your shoulders, still waiting for an answer about the blueprints.

“If you really want to know, this is to the building of one of the members parents base. Except it’s a pretty well-known building in the city with extreme security.” Seungkwan answered, scribbling down another thing in his notebook.

“What are you guys trying to get?” you asked.

“That’s confidential.” Seungkwan stated.

“Well then, which member’s parents are they? Or is that confidential too?” you questioned, looking from Seungkwan to Chan as they exchanged glances with each other, having a silent conversation about whether they should say or not.

“Wonwoo’s parents.” Chan finally said.

“Ah, so that’s where Mingyu and Wonwoo went…” you mused. Chan glanced at Seungkwan, still wondering if he should have said that, but soon returned back to the blueprints in front of him.

“So, are Wonwoo’s parents super rich or something?” you asked after a few minutes of silence.

“Yah, they own one of the biggest cellphone companies in Korea. Bet you didn’t know they’re apart of the mafia, did you?” Seungkwan chuckled.

“Wow that’s crazy. Are there a lot of people like that?” Chan thought for a minute.

“There’s more than you think for sure. But most of our parents aren’t like the Jeons. Wonwoo’s not on very good terms with them anyways…”

“I feel like you shouldn’t be messing with such a big group then.” You said with a frown. Seungkwan laughed.

“Look at you! Trust me, we know what we are doing. Everything we do is a risk. That’s just being in the Mafia.” You rolled your eyes as Seungkwan continued to laugh, shaking his head.

“Whatever, I just don’t want you guys to all get hurt and I get left trapped in here or like, they come find this base and I get kidnapped again. I’m guessing not all groups are as nice as you.”

“You guessed right. The Pledis Mafia is probably one of the more ‘soft’ groups out of the majority of them. Sometimes even Monsta X’s main, Starship mafia can be a bit much at times.” Chan explained.

“Well, I guessed if I had to be kidnapped by anyone then I’d want it to be you guys then… I can’t believe I just said that.” You said, throwing your head back and laughing. Seungkwan and Chan chuckled a bit too, surprised you had become so much more chill about the whole situation.

“Being allowed to go to this ball sure has put you in a good mood hasn’t it?” Seungkwan asked.

“Yah! I’m just excited to get out of this house. It’s a nice house, but after what, a few months, I need to get out and see some different things. I’m going crazy stuck in here. Why don’t you guys at least have a backyard of something?”

“Have you looked out the window? We’re in the middle of the woods, everything around here could serve as a backyard.” Chan pointed out.

“Well, build a fence around it so Seungcheol doesn’t have a cow every time I try and go outside.” You whined. Chan rolled his eyes, and turned back to his blueprints for the nth time, getting nothing done at all.

“What are you going to wear to the ball?” Seungkwan suddenly questioned. You were about to answer, but soon caught yourself. It’s not like you had any of your clothes from home, all you had here were some of the clothes the Pristin members had brought for you, and then a few of Mingyu and Joshua’s pajamas. You didn’t feel the need to ever look nice since you were always stuck at the base, so you tended to just stay in their oversized shirts and sweatpants for the majority of the time. There was no chance of you having any sort of fancy piece of clothing at all. You jaw dropped as you realized you had nothing.

“Seungkwan, what am I going to do now? If I can’t go because I don’t have a stupid dress I’ll rip down those curtains and make myself something if I have too!” you exclaimed.

“Do you even know how?” Chan questioned.

“No! But I don’t do anything all day long, I’ll just sneak onto a computer and look up how to do it or something!” you exclaimed, getting heated.

“Yah, that’ll really fly with Jihoon. He’d probably break your fingers off if you so much as touched his computers. Trust me, I’ve tried.” Seungkwan sighed.

“Are you sure you don’t have anything at all? None of the members have hooked up with anyone and they left a dress behind or something? A few of you guys seem like players I wouldn’t be surprised…” you said, grasping at straws, hoping by some amazing luck the boys had a spear dress lying around.

“First of all,” Seungkwan began, looking a little offended, “sure, some of the members might come off as players, but they would never! And even if they did, they would NOT bring someone back here unless they wanted to both die.” Seungkwan said, glaring a bit at you. You put your hands up in surrender.

“Okay, okay, but really you guys don’t have any way to get a dress? Please think of something I can’t be stuck here and have to wait for another event to come up like this. I’ll seriously go insane.” Both Seungkwan and Chan sat and thought for a bit.

“We could probably just call Pristin and see if they have anything…” Chan said.

 “If not them I’m sure the After School gang would have something.” Seungkwan added. Almost instantly the large weight that had suddenly placed itself upon yours shoulders was lifted.

You had almost entirely forgotten about the fact that you had yet to obtain anything to wear to the ball until Nana showed up at the Seventeen house, a grin from ear to ear. Clutched in her arms was a big bag full of dresses. Trying on each different, flawless dress was one of the most fun things you had done in a long time. Nana was the sweetest person and always had amazing comments for you when you came out in a new dress. Eventually the two of you decided on a pretty black ball gown that was laced with a few sparkles here and there. It was elegant but nothing flashy, so you wouldn’t draw the attention of most people (which is how you preferred it). After the two of you had settled on a dress, Nana brought out a pretty pair of shoes and a few accessories, and even promised to come help you with your hair the day of the ball. The two of you talked about the ball for a long time. Nana took it upon herself to explain how these types of balls worked, and even mentioned some groups and certain people to make sure to steer clear of. Before you knew it, Nana had to head out, and your heart hurt to see her leave. It was nice having a girl in the house after constantly being surrounded by thirteen guys.

After Nana had left you excitedly showed Chan and Seungkwan the dress you had picked out, thanking them profusely for helping you out. Naturally Mingyu wanted to see the dress, but you told him that he would have to wait until the day of the ball because it would be no fun if no one was surprised, even if the dress was on the more plane end of ball gowns. You happily helped the others cook dinner that night, brimming with excitement for the upcoming ball. As you laid down in your bed the night before the ball, you couldn’t help but remind yourself that even though you were going to be able to go outside, not only were you still being held captive, but you were pretty much putting yourself, and the rest of seventeen for that matter, in a decent amount of danger. Even if Mingyu had assured you there would be no danger at all, you couldn’t help but think he was lying. After all, there had to be a reason Seungcheol was so opposed to you going to this ball.

As expected, after the gang had finished breakfast, Nana showed up at the door, smiling just has happily as before. As you raced to greet Nana at the front entrance, Mingyu couldn’t help but smile. It was nice to see you smiling and giggling, to see you talking with someone without having that sadness still lingering in your eyes. He didn’t know how or why talking with Nana took that away, but the more he thought about it the more he realized it was just Nana, but multiple other things all combined. This event really meant something to you, were as for the rest of Seventeen, this ball was just another part of the job, a place where they have to show up and look presentable and represent their head well. To the gang, it was just business, but to you it was an adventure waiting to happen.

Nana helped you with your hair, then departed, saying that she had to help her other members and do a few other important things before heading to the ball, so you say on the couch, full hair and make-up in your oversized sweatpants from Wonwoo and anime t-shirt from Joshua. You earned a few strange glances from the others. Jihoon even did a double take when he walked past you but most of everyone Seungcheol was acting the weirdest.

“Are you sure you should have your hair out of your face like that? Maybe you should wear it down in case someone recognizes you.” Seungcheol declared walking into the living room.

“No, Nana said this looks the best, besides what are the others gonna do, kidnap me from you original kidnappers?” you questioned, a bit of malice laced in your voice. Seungcheol bit his cheek and looked at you for a few seconds before turning on his heel and walked out of the room just as quickly as he had arrived. You looked over at Hansol who was sitting on the opposite end of the couch watching something on his iPad. He looked up almost at once, easily getting the feeling that someone his looking at him. You gave him a questioning look in regards to Seungcheol but he only shrugged his shoulders before returning to his screen. You huffed a bit, not satisfied with Hansol’s reaction but didn’t press anymore and headed upstairs to change into your outfit, seeing as how almost everyone else had changed or was changing. Hopefully the night wouldn’t be a disaster.

Chapter Text

When you walked downstairs, now fully dressed and ready for the ball, the entire group of thirteen guys fell dead silent. You instantly feel self-conscious as the thirteen pairs of eyes followed your every move.

            “Um…does it look weird?” you asked when you finally made it all the way down the stairs and to the others side.

            “Not at all.” Jeonghan answered, offering you a smile.

            “You look too good.” Seungcheol mumbled under his breath, not loud enough for anyone to hear, before heading out the door to start the cars. Joshua offered you a smile as he helped Minghao with his tie, while Mingyu couldn’t take his eyes off of you. You looked over at him, noting just how great Mingyu looked in a suit. Honestly you had trouble pulling your eyes away from Mingyu as well, but you did have a little more pride than Mingyu, seeing as how he had yet to look away from you since you entered the room.

            “What?” you questioned, resting a hand on your hip and giving him a look. Mingyu shrugged.

            “You just look really good. We only ever get to see you in baggy clothes, it’s weird to see you dressed so nicely.” He stated.

            “If you hadn’t trapped me here you could have seen me in some cuter clothes yah know.” You sang, teasingly punching his arm.

            “Well I mean it was either this or death, so I’d say I picked right.” Mingyu laughed, walking towards the door. You puffed out one of your cheeks and scowled, not at all amused by Mingyu’s comment, but reluctantly followed him out the door.

            Dang it was nice to walk in the grass. You never thought you’d miss it. Even the little walk between the house to the car in the grass was enough to make your heart beat faster. You were so tempted to just lay down in the grass right then and there. To slip off your heels and let your feet feel the grass like you’d do every now and then, but alas, that wouldn’t fly with Seungcheol. Between the time you had been taken and now, the pretty, healthy colors of summer had faded away, and even the crisp reds and oranges of autumn were starting to turn into the dull browns and disappear into the all to dead winter. The air was crisp and far less humid than how it had been the day you had walked to the small shop of yours. It made you sad that you had missed one of the most beautiful seasons, but as it was dusk already and the dark blue of the night was starting to swallow up what little color there was, it would have been pointless to try and stay.

            After all the guys had climbed into the two vans, you hiked up your big ball gown and clambered into the car, not caring at all about being graceful and lady like, like one should be in a fancy dress of the likes you were wearing. You rolled your eyes as you heard Junhui snicker at you from the back seat, obviously amused by your struggled. By the time you had made sure your dress wasn’t in the track of the door, and had actually closed the door, everyone was situated and ready to go. You buckled up as the car slowly rolled forward and down the bumpy path that lead into a thick wood.

            You took so many twist and turns that with that, along with the darkness, you had no idea how to get back to seventeen’s base. They sure had hidden their base well. They guys talked among themselves as Mingyu drove, following Seungcheol’s van in front of him. You had sat diagonal to the driver’s seat, and every now and then you would catch Mingyu’s eyes looking at you through the rear-view mirror, and then quickly dart away as his eyes crossed with yours. You smiled and shook your head after it happened a few times. He really was just one big puppy. Honestly you had to admit, all the feelings you had for Mingyu that you worked so hard to suppress had bubbled up again, and you had made no attempt to stop them. The more time you spent with Mingyu, the more you realized that the personality he had shown you at the little shop was his true personality, the person you had fallen so hard for. Along with this happy, extroverted personality however, came a lot more. But with each passing day you found yourself coming to love those parts of him too. As much as you hated to admit, Mingyu had your heart. But no one was going to hear those words come out of your mouth for a long, long time, or at all if you could help it.

            When Mingyu saw the soft smile spread across your face, the same soft smile that he had seen so often at the shop, his heart felt like it would explode. He knew that taking you out of the base would make you happy, but he didn’t think it would bring you this much genuine joy. Little did he know that some of his joy was simply because he was with you. (How cliché) you thought, (the captive falls in love with the kidnapper, what is this, some sappy drama?) but you couldn’t help but smile.

            The drive itself wasn’t long, but your excitement made it feel like ages. You loved being able to look out the car window again, even if it was tinted beyond anything normal. Seeing the sprawling country side and trees, and the occasional car filled you with the most simply of joys. The more you drove the closer to the city you got, and the brighter the lots got. By the time you arrived you could barely keep yourself together. You had waited so long for this moment, and now it was finally time.

            “So, the Monsta X gang is nice right? They’re not like the group that got josh right?” you whispered to Hansol as you stood next to him in the parking garage. Hansol nodded.

            “We wouldn’t have brought you along if they weren’t nice. I think you’ll like them, Seventeen and Monsta X are quite close after all.”

            “By the way, how many other gangs will be here?” you asked.

            “Hm,” Hansol thought, “A good amount, maybe around fifteen? Along with being a social event, a lot of business goes down here too, so it’s a pretty important event to get too.” You nodded as Hansol explained a little further into detail about the ball as more of the members climbed out of the car and fixed their suits. Jihoon looked down at his watch and grunted.

            “Right on time.” He declared, as he and Seungcheol lead the way towards the door. You fell in place beside Mingyu, happy that you could stand beside him.

            Even after everything everyone had told you, the shock you received after entering the building was unlike any other. Even from the outside of the building you could tell it was going to be breath taking inside. Upon walking into the main ball room, you were meet with tall ceilings with huge crystal chandlers hanging from them, casting a sparkly warm glow over the just as shinny floor. You weren’t even aware there were buildings like this in the area. Having such a fancy building like this seemed to be a thing of the past to you, but apparently it wasn’t.

            “Do all gangs have a place like this?” you whispered to Minghao as the two of you walked further into the busy room.

            “Not all of them are as fancy as this one, but we do all sort of have something like this. When we meet up with other gangs we can’t have them coming to our base after all. All gangs under Starship use this as their meeting place.” Minghao explained. You nodded, your mind wandering off for a few seconds, wondering if the Pledis groups had a building like this. As expected, the ball room was already full of people. You had expected it to be filled with sketchy looking buff dudes with a bunch of scares and tattoo’s like it was often depicted in books and movies. Even after meeting Seventeen and the other Pledis gangs, who all looked very sweet and kind, you still expected the others to look different. However, you were totally wrong. Everyone looked similar to the Pledis gangs.  

            You followed along with the rest of the gang, sneaking glances at the many other well-dressed people, still in total shock. Thank goodness Nana had helped you pick out the dress. You weren’t overdressed or underdressed. You blended in perfectly, and the dark color helped you mix in with everyone else even better.

            “We should go find Monsta X.” Mingyu said as he came to stand next to you. Seungcheol glanced back at the two of you and gave Mingyu a look that you couldn’t place. Mingyu scowled a bit.

            “What’s with the look boss? They are the ones hosting it after all, whether we wanted to or not we’d have to meet with the eventually.” Mingyu said, puffing out cheek. Seungcheol pressed his lips together in a tight line while the other members looked at him, waiting for a command. Seungcheol glanced over at you and quickly looked away, but not fast enough to avoid catching your attention, and Mingyu’s at that. You looked at Mingyu to see if he caught Seungcheol’s look as well, and found Mingyu was already searching for your eyes.

            “If we see them, then we can talk with them. As for right now let’s just go find our table, I’m sure they’re busy right now.” Seungcheol decided, already on the move.

            “I thought we had come here because boss wanted to talk something over with Monsta X…” you heard Seokmin whisper to Jihoon, who only gave him a shrug in response. You looked back and Mingyu, who looked just as confused as you were feeling. Why was Seungcheol so hesitant to introduce you to Monsta X. It’s not like they were some crazy group that killed people left and right. Everything you had heard about Monsta X made them sound exactly like Seventeen. Seventeen’s table (or rather two tables) sat right next to Pristin’s table, so you were happy to have friends nearby. As the night went on, you only had more fun. You weren’t sure if the night was actual as fun for everyone else, or if it was just because it was the first time you had been out of seventeens base since they had gotten you. During the dinner Junhui had pointed out EXO, sitting across the ballroom, totally unaware of Joshua and the rest of Seventeen. Thankfully Joshua had landed in the sit with his back towards them, and you and the other members had no intentions of telling him about them.

            After the dinner, the tables were cleared and the floor opened up for dancing. Soft music filled the grand hall, and most people took to the dance floor. On the outside it seemed like a simple party, but standing next to Junhui and Minghao made you realized it was much more than that. They’d point out a couple dancing together and it explain how each were heads of a group and most likely making some type of alliance or another. Everyone was here to make deals and alliances, no one was actually there for fun.

            “It’s all business here to be honest.” Junhui said with the shrug of his shoulder. “Boss came here to do business, but I don’t know why he hasn’t sought out Shownu yet…”

            “He seems nervous about something.” You mused, staring blankly out into the dance floor, watching all the girl’s long dresses swoosh around with each movement.

            “Oh hey!” Minghao explained, looking behind you, “they finally decided to show up.” He laughed. You turned around to see seven very attractive guys walking towards you, all sporting a suit flawlessly.

            “wow…” was all you could manage to say as you watched them exchange handshakes with the rest of seventeen. Minghao and Junhui left your side to greet them, leaving you to stand awkwardly on the outside of the circle of people. A guy with prettiest face you’d ever seen looked over Junhui’s shoulder and straight at you and raised one of his eyebrows.

            “Who’s this?” He questioned, gesturing towards you. Junhui stepped to the side and gestured for you to step forward. You slowly made your way further into the circle of people, nervous looking around at the seven new faces. Your eyes landed on someone with very bright red hair and you almost gasped out loud. It couldn’t be… was that Hoseok? The Hoseok that you had gone to school with all those years ago? The two of you locked eyes and he smiled. Yup, that was diffidently Hoseok, no one else would have such a beautiful smile like his.

            “Hey,” he said, walking towards you, totally unfazed, “It’s been a while hasn’t it?”

Chapter Text

“How’d you end up here?” you questioned, the rest of seventeen looking from you to Hoseok with confused expressions.

            “I should be asking you the same question really…” Hoseok replied.

            “(y/n), you know him?” Mingyu questioned, taking a step toward you. You looked over at Mingyu.

            “Yah, we went to school together. After we graduated I never heard from him again. I guess it’s because of this.” You explained, gesturing to the two gangs that surrounded the two of you. You looked back at Hoseok, totally speechless. What could you say? You had just found out one of your friends from high school was not only a part of the mafia, but friends with the group that had kidnapped you. Even through your shock, Seungcheol caught your eye. He had his lips pressed in a tight line, and seemed to be looking everywhere but at you and Hoseok.

            “You’ve been with Seventeen for a while, now haven’t you?” Hoseok asked, breaking the silence.

            “Yah, it’s been a pretty good chunk of time. How did you know?” you questioned. Hoseok only shrugged his shoulders and took a step closer to you, trying to get out of the middle of the circle and have a little more privacy while talking. Mingyu eyes him warily, but didn’t step in between the two of you. Hoseok ended up pulling you over towards one of the empty tables and sat you down, seemingly eager to catch up with you. You could feel the eyes of both Seventeen and Monsta X looking over in your direction, but Hoseok either didn’t notice, or didn’t care.

            “So…” you began, “were you always a part of the mafia or did something happen after high school?” you asked after taking your seat.

            “It was a family thing. I always knew that I was going to end up apart of one of starships gangs so I cut off contact with you after high school because I didn’t want to risk exposing you, although it looks like you ended up here anyways.” He chuckled.

            “Hey, I didn’t ask for this at all.” You declared, folding your arms over your chest.

            “I know.” He laughed.

            “So, did Seventeen talk about me or something? How do you know about my situation? It doesn’t seem like something a group would go around talking about.” You asked, simply curious. Hoseok hesitated, carefully crafting his answer.

            “I’ve got connection I guess you could say.” He answered. It didn’t seem like he was willing to say anymore on the topic, so you left it at that. The two of you talked for a few more minutes before someone interrupted you.

            “Wonho, we’ve got to get on with the meeting!” one of Hoseok’s gang members said, walking over towards the two of you.

            “Wonho?” you said, letting the new name roll off your tongue.

            “Hm, oh yah, Wonho is I guess what you could call my code name? most people don’t like to give out their real name in this line of work. The members of Seventeen have quite a few code names, I’m surprised they haven’t told you yet.” He explained. You gave him a look, but let him follow his other member to whatever meeting he had to go too, leaving you alone at the table. Eventually you set off to find someone from a Pledis group, suddenly finding the urge to be next to someone you knew. It was nice seeing Hoseok again, but you had just discovered a whole side of him that you never knew before. The sudden change almost made you just want to go home and call it a night. You wondered around the large ballroom, searching for a familiar face, slowly becoming panicked when you didn’t see anyone you knew.

            “Are you lost?” a voice asked, pulling your attention away from the crowd of people in the middle of the room. You turned to see a guy with curly black hair and almost squishable soft face staring straight at you.

            “Me?” you questioned, awkwardly pointing at yourself. The guy laughed.

            “Yes you, you look lost.” He pointed out. “you’ve been wondering around here for a while now.”

            “Oh yah, I’m just looking for someone…” you answered, your voice trailing off at the end as you continued to scan the room. Your gaze fell back on the black-haired guy standing in front of you. Something about him was familiar but you couldn’t quite place it.  

            “I can help you look for them if you’d like.” The guy offered. Shoot, this was exactly what you had hoped wouldn’t happen. In any normal place you still would have been on the look-out for sketchy people, and while this guy may be just being trying to be nice you couldn’t help but feel on edge. Especially because literally everyone here was a part of the mafia no one could be trusted. Who knows maybe you were about to be kidnapped for the second time. You just looked at him, unsure of what to do.

            “Uh, sure.” You heard yourself saying. As long as you didn’t get away from the mass of people there’s nothing this guy could do, right? After all he has such a soft face maybe he wasn’t that bad.

            “So, who are you looking for?” he asked. At that very moment you realized that you didn’t know any of seventeen’s code names. Calling them by their real name wouldn’t work because no one would know their actual names, right?

            “Just anyone in Seventeen, or from Pledis I guess.” You answered. The guy seemed to do a bit of a double take as you spoke, but if he did, he covered it well.

            “Okay, I could have sworn I saw them around earlier.” He said, scanning the crowd along with you. God, you needed to find someone you knew soon, you were feeling weird about this. After a while you started making your way along the edge of the room, not expecting the guy to follow you, but naturally he did. You awkwardly looked around, trying to ignore the fact that you could feel him glance over at you every now and then.

            Please, please, please anyone just show up… you thought, looking around for anyone. As if on cue a familiar face emerged from the crowd, heading straight for you. You quickened your steps to the point where you were almost running and didn’t stop until you came to a stop beside the brown-haired boy.

            “Joshua, where did everyone go?” you questioned, practically clinging to his arm.

            “Everyone was in a…meeting…” he began to explain until he saw the guy who had been walking behind you. You felt him tense up the second he saw the chubby cheeked, black-haired guy. you looked from Joshua to the other guy and realized just how stifling the atmosphere had become.

            “Joshua.” The guy said, bowing. Joshua bowed back.

            “Xuimin.” He said. Then it clicked. This was one of the members of exo, the group that had Joshua for a long period of time. You straightened up a bit, confidently standing beside Joshua, hoping that it would provide a bit of comfort in this terrible situation.

            “Thanks for the help then,” you said, stiffly bowing to Xuimin, “we should probably get going now.” You finished, link your arm in Joshua’s like you had seen all the fancy couples do at the ball, and with that, you pulled Joshua away, leaving Xuimin watching from behind.

            “I’m sorry.” You whispered after the two of you had disappeared into the crowd.

            “it’s fine,” Joshua said in a not-very-fine voice, “out of anyone to run into from that group, I’d rather it be him.” You didn’t say anything. There wasn’t anything worth saying, so instead you just wrapped your arm tighter around his and let him lead you to the rest of the gang.

            The two of you easily found the group, now out of the meeting they were having with Monsta x. neither of you mentioned the run in with Xuimin, but it wasn’t hard to tell that something was up. Jeonghan and Seungcheol quickly found themselves by Joshua’s side, and Mingyu fell into place beside you. After that the night wasn’t as exciting as it was before but also nothing else went wrong, so you were content with it in the end. Seventeen ended up staying longer than most other groups, busy talking with their good friends Monsta x, after all, they did have quite an interesting topic to discuss.

            “It kind of seems like boss knew that Wonho and (y/n) knew each other.” Seungkwan whispered to Hansol.

            “Yah, I was thinking the same thing. He didn’t seem to shocked when we all found out. Then again Wonho didn’t seemed to shocked to see her either, so maybe the two of them already knew?” Hansol answered, glancing over at Wonho who was busy talking with some of his other members. Hansol motioned for you to come over to the two of them, so you left your seat next to Mingyu and joined the two of them.

            “So, you and Wonho know each other from school, right?” Hansol questioned. You nodded, expecting to get a rapid fire of questions now that the ball was over.

            “Yah we went through most of middle and all high school together. Towards the last few years of high school we were actually pretty close with each other. After we graduated he just kinda dropped off the face of the earth. I hadn’t even imagined he ended up in a place like this.” You said. Hansol nodded.

            “He didn’t seem very surprised to see you with us, did he?” Hansol said, no doubt trying to spur on the conversation.

            “I though he already knew I was with you guys. You didn’t tell him?”  you questioned, getting even more confused than before. When you had asked Wonho about it before he had totally dodged the question, learning now that no one in seventeen had told him about you made you suspicions rise even more. “I asked how he knew earlier tonight and he dodged the question.” You explained to the two of them. Seungkwan let out a small “oh” and Hansol nodded once more.

            “That’s odd.” Hansol finally sighed, moving closer towards the rest of the group after noticing that Seungcheol was finally wrapping up with the boss of Monsta x, and it would soon be time to head home. You moved back towards Mingyu. You weren’t going to lie, you were slightly disappointed you hadn’t even had a chance to dance with Mingyu. Some of the other members had taken special time out of their busy day to teach you the waltz, and you never even had an opportunity to show your newly obtained skill.

            As the two groups finished up, you watched Mingyu. He really did pull of the suit well. Earlier that day he may have made a comment about how nice it was to see you in something other than baggie clothes, but honestly, he was the same way. You had seen him in something that actually looked well thought out maybe once, and that was back when you were still working at the café. Little did you know that while you were so intently staring at Mingyu, Wonho was staring at you.

            Finally, the fourteen of you had piled into the two cars and made your way back to the base. You hadn’t realized it had already hit midnight until you glanced at the clock upon getting into the car. No wonder you felt a bit sluggish. You ended up falling asleep on the long car ride back, and just as the car came to a stop outside of the large house you woke up. You clambered out of the car and hiked up your dress, throwing all the proper and posh things out the window now that the ball was over. As soon as you walked into the dark house, you made your way towards the kitchen and crashed at the table while the others went to wash up and change. You knew it would be a long time before a shower was open, and didn’t really have any desire to try and shower while all the boys were still waiting for a bathroom, so you decided to just wait. If the wait ended up being too long you would just go to bed and shower in the morning if you had too.

            You rested your chin on your hand and traced patterns along the dark wood table, wondering if you should just head to bed and shower later, but when Mingyu walked in the thought dropped from your head. He pulled out the chair by your side and sat down, mimicking your position.

            “Tonight was a bit of a mess, wasn’t it?” He spoke. You smiled and nodded.

            “Yah, just a bit. I’m still glad that I got to get out of this house though.” You declared. The two of you continued to talk about the night, laughing at a few of the dumb things some of the members had done, and talking about your run in with a member of exo. Mingyu even dared to touch on the topic of the whole Wonho thing, but that didn’t last long. You could tell he was just trying to have a nice conversation. You looked over at the clock and almost choked when you realized it was two in the morning.

            “Oh dang, it’s late.” You exclaimed. Mingyu chuckled.

            “I guess it is, but before we head to bed…” Mingyu said, standing up as he spoke, “I owe you a dance, don’t I?”

            It took a few seconds to register what he was saying. He stuck out his hand, and you hesitantly took it, shoving down the butterflies that filled your stomach as he placed one hand on your waist. You timidly rested a hand on his shoulder, not use to being this close to him. He couldn’t help but smile when he noticed your own timid little smile. And so, the two of you danced your way around the kitchen to a song Mingyu lightly hummed.

            You were either simply out of your mind with exhaustion, or the lack of sleep gave you a burst of confidence, but you found yourself resting your head on Mingyu’s shoulder as the two of you swayed your way around the dimly lit kitchen. Mingyu smiled to himself, happy to see you back to the way you were before the whole event that went down in the café.  

Chapter Text

You slept for as long as possible the next day. You and Mingyu ended up spending quite some time in the kitchen together, just talking about random little things, learning each other interests that you had yet to discover, despite living together for several months. Eventually the two of you decided it was time to finally get some sleep when you noticed the sky start to look lighter.

The gang went back to their normal lives, although, they did seem a little more focused than usual. You began to wonder if another mission was coming up. You slowly got back into the groove of things yourself. Things really did seem to be normal, until you discovered some new blueprints Seokmin had left while he went to the bathroom. You glanced down the large roll of paper and easily realized that rather than their usual style of building, this one was a boat. You didn’t know much about ships, but you knew this one was about the size of a cruise ship from the looks of it. Seokmin had highlighted two places on the ship, labeled ‘site A’ and ‘site B,’ but before you could get a better look you heard Seokmin coming closer, so you quickly darted to the other side of the room. The gang had clearly been trying hard to hide this next mission from you, so you figured you yourself should lie low.

“What’re you looking at?” you asked after Seokmin had settled back down on the couch, a pen spinning in his hand. You figured you might as well try asking again, just to confirm your suspicions.

“Just some work stuff...” He answered vaguely. You nodded and went back to the swiping you had taken up to keep yourself busy. Everyone was planning something for sure. Jihoon was always in his computer room monitoring the screens to the point where he was eating meals in the room. Minghao had begun to fidget with his electronics like he always did before some mission. Seungcheol was in and out of the building, and at one point he even came back with a motorcycle. It was kind of hard to miss, since suddenly a roaring engine had disturbed the peace that came with living in the middle of the forest. Everyone was busy with their own thing, and the house was full of whispers, yet they still treated you like nothing was going on.

You threw yourself down on the couch, deciding it was okay to be lazy on this particular cold, rainy day. It felt like the ball was only yesterday, and that you had spent all that quality time with Mingyu, but it had really been two weeks since then. You had expected Mingyu to maybe make a bit of an effort to treat you better, but not much changed. The day afterwards, you woke up to find he was completely unchanged, as if the events had never even happened. You consoled yourself by saying it was just because of the upcoming mission, but after the first week you had started to doubt yourself. You couldn’t say now, two weeks after that night, that you were feeling any better about it. As the D-Day approached (or rather you assumed approached), the members ignored you more and more, and hid their plans less and less. Soon a group of them were preparing outfits, putting together various outfits and disguise for each person. You watched as Minghao and Jihoon fitted Junhui with an earpiece and slapped a watch on his wrist before messing with a few things on their computer. The actual day must be soon if they were already getting ready at this level. Seungkwan plopped down next to you, barely even batting an eyelash in your direction. Within seconds the guy had fallen asleep, ignoring the comments from both you and the others, who still needed his help.  

There was a moment of silences as everyone looked at the sleeping Seungkwan, and you took the chance to speak.

“So, what is everyone getting ready for?” you asked. The others just stared at you, none of them making an effort to answer you. You stared at them for a few minutes and eventually muttered an ‘okay’ and walked off, only slightly ticked they were still keeping it from you at this point.

As you walked up towards your room, you ran into Mingyu, who was coming down the stairs. You awkwardly shifted to one side to make room for him to pass by, but he only stood and looked at you. You stared back, not saying anything.

“I should probably tell you what’s going on, yah?” he suddenly spoke. You were taken off guard, was he really going to fill you in? Mingyu turned and walked back upstairs, and you followed him. You silently followed him all the way into his shared room with Wonwoo and plopped down on the bed as he shut the door behind him.

“So, what’s been going on? I’m not dumb, it’s not that hard to tell when something’s up.” You stated, crossing your legs Indian style.

“Yah, I figured you knew something was up.” Mingyu said as he sat down on the bed next to you. You rolled your eyes and he smiled a little.

“The boss gave us our next mission, and it’s a pretty big one compared to things we’ve done in the past.” Mingyu began to explained. “I honestly can’t tell you much, because in the end it’s all confidential. I really shouldn’t be telling you anything, but who are you going to tell? We’re going to sneak onto a big ship and steal some information from them to put it simple.” You nodded, already having figured out most of that.

“When is this all going down?” you asked.

“Next week.” He answered.

“Is it dangerous?”

“Everything we do is always dangerous, (y/n).” he answered matter-of-factly. You nodded again, not sure what to say.

“Make sure you don’t get hurt, okay?” you finally said. Mingyu’s eyes widened with surprise, but soon softened his expressions and gave you a smile.

“I promise I won’t. I’ve got to come back and take care of you after all.” He said, winking at you. You slapped his arm, causing him to chuckle.

“What? I know you love me.” He sang, laughing at your flustered reaction.

“Well then,” you stuttered, “don’t mess up too bad on your mission, you’re really clumsy you know.” You finished and stood up, heading towards the door.

“What kind of response is that?” Mingyu questioned, standing up at well.

“What kind of response were you expecting, gyu?” you spoke as you opened the door. You heard Mingyu let out a strange sound and turned back to find his cheeks pink.

“What?” you asked, slightly concerned that he might be sick or something.

 “You called me ‘gyu!’” he exclaimed, causing you to smack your forehead with your hand, but once you left the room, you were just as flustered and blushing as Mingyu himself. You threw yourself down on your bed, ran your hand through your hair and let out a loud sigh. Mingyu was such a nice person, he really reminded you of a puppy, how could he possibly be a part of a mafia gang?

Dinner was much quieter than the normal dinners, but it’s not like you didn’t know the reason for this silence. Everyone was either deep in thought, or anxious about the next mission. You wanted to help somehow. So much had changed since the start of your time here, the people you once hated with a burning passion had become the people you called your family. Even if they were up to something you called no good, you wanted to find a way to help and make things easier for them.

You helped Chan with the dishes after dinner had finished, while the others took turns taking showers. Jihoon and Seungcheol disappeared into the dimly lit computer room and didn’t come back out until you had gotten yourself ready for bed. This must really be a big mission if everyone was working this hard.

You flipped the lights off and crawled into bed, but you couldn’t help your thoughts from bubbling up. What if left when they go do their mission? You thought to yourself. No one would be here to stop me. You thought it over and over again. It’s not that you didn’t like it in Seventeen’s base, but you had been brought here by force after all. You wanted to get back to your normal life, and not waste away in the building. The majority of them, if not all, would be gone, leaving you to yourself. However, if you did get caught trying to leave, the end would not be good for you in the slightest. You tossed and turned and finally fell asleep by some miracle of god. But that didn’t keep your dreams from mulling the thoughts over as well.

When you woke up, you weren’t rested at all. You could practically fell your eye bags forming. You just laid in bed, waiting to maybe fall asleep again and keep the day from starting. You were so torn between deciding to leave or not, you could barely even function. Maybe, just maybe, one day they would let you go, and you wouldn’t even have to worry about breaking free. The chances of that, however, are slim. What on earth were you going to do?

Chapter Text

            You tossed and turned in your bed. There was no way you’d be able to drift back off to sleep with these intense thought swirling around in your head. You’d never been so conflicted before. Part of you had no desire to leave. The svt gang had become your family, they had become special people to you. If you left, not only would you never be able to see them again, but you would also destroy the relationships you had with each person. On top of that, you’d most likely have to leave the country since they would most likely come after you, and if they did come after you, they would kill you for sure this time. To not leave though, when presented such a perfect opportunity, was almost stupid. While svt may had grown on you, you were still being held captive against your will. You missed your friends and family, living your normal daily life with no huge issues.  

            You sat up and ran your hand through your hair. Even if I did leave, I would never be able to live a normal life after this. You thought to yourself. You shook your head, trying to clear the looming thought away. You still had some time to think about the whole ‘great escape,’ you might as well go get breakfast first so you can think on a full stomach. You climbed out of bed and shuffled downstairs, the early morning light streaming through the small windows.

            “Oh (y/n), you’re up early.” Minghao said, looking up from his breakfast.

            “Yah, couldn’t sleep…” you mumbled, heading straight for the fridge. Minghao let out a small grunt, then turned his attention back to his food. You put your breakfast together in silence. Your relationship with Minghao had always been a little awkward, after all, he had been one of the few that had just wanted to kill you and move on. Knowing that he was so easily okay with your death always put you on edge. You slowly sat down across from him at the kitchen table, your plate of toast in hand. He glanced up at you as you scooted in your chair but quickly turned his attention back to the book he was reading. You were about half through your breakfast when Minghao quickly shut his book and looked straight at you. You stopped mid bite and stared back at him, slightly unnerved.

            “Did you ever think about trying to escape?” he suddenly questioned. You could barely swallow your food. What kind of question was that? There’s no way he could read your thoughts, right? He couldn’t possibly know what you were thinking about. You set down your piece of toast and wiped the crumbs off your fingers.

            “To be perfectly honest, what kidnapped person wouldn’t think about trying to run away every now and then?” you responded, not sure how he’d take it. Surprisingly, he only nodded and propped his chin on his hand.

            “You must miss your home.” He sighed.

            “Of course, I miss it more than anything else.” You said, sighing along with him. “Why?” Minghao only shrugged his shoulders, shifting his gaze off of you and towards the ceiling. He was thinking hard about something for sure. You could feel your palms start to become clammy. Hopefully he wasn’t thinking about you…

            “I just miss my own home every now and then…” he finally answered. His answer shocked you. From everything you’d seen of him, Minghao wasn’t the person who would go around talking about his raw emotions, especially with you of all people.

            “Yah, I guess you’re not from around here like most of the others. How exactly did you end up here?” you asked.

            “It’s a long story.” Minghao said, standing up. “I didn’t ask to be brought into all of this though. I was in the wrong place at the wrong time as a kid. One thing after another happened and somehow I landed myself here.” He explained as he set his dishes in the sink. “Although, to be fair, I didn’t have it as bad as some of the other guys.” You nodded, taking another bite of your toast. Minghao did a couple more things before announcing he was going to take a shower, leaving you alone with your thoughts. He must have had a dream about his past or something that would make him think about it. Minghao was one of the most stone-cold members out of all of them, but now you could see there was a lot of other stuff going on under all that. You let out another long sigh. it looks like everyone has their own set of issues. you thought, taking the last bite of your toast.

            “Why such a long sigh?” you heard someone question from behind you. You turned around to see a very disheveled Joshua with a mug in his hands, no doubt about to make himself a cup of coffee. It was hard not to laugh at his crazy bed head.

            “No reason.” You lied. Joshua nodded, already brewing some coffee.

            “Sleep well?” you questioned.

            “Sort of.” He answered, moving to sit down next to you as he waited for his coffee to finish. “you?”

            “Could have been better.”

            “Everyone seems to be having a rough time sleeping lately.” Joshua mused.

            “Everyone’s probably stressed because of the upcoming mission.” You pointed out.

            “Probably.” He agreed as he went to retrieve his now finished coffee. He left out a contented sigh as he sipped the hot liquid, landing back down next to you.

            “So, is everyone going to be out on this mission?” you questioned. Joshua glanced at you, but quickly looked back across the kitchen like he was before.

            “A few are staying behind, but the majority of us will be out. Like, Jihoon’s going to stay here because that’s where all the computers are. I think Seungkwan is staying too.” You nodded as he explained everything, slowly swirling the water in your cup around and around as he spoke.

            “Are you guys going to be gone a long time like you usually are? I’m not sure I can stay here with Jihoon like that, he scares me a little.” You chuckled, trying to hide the fact that you were actually just trying to see if even attempting to run away was possible.

            “No, I think it should be on the shorter side, assuming everything goes well. It’ll be an in and out thing.” He said, taking another sip of his coffee. Joshua looked back at you, as you continued to mess with your cup.   

            “Just be safe and don’t try anything.” He said quietly. You looked up at him, a knot quickly forming in your stomach. If anyone else had said something like that you probably would have felt like the world had swallowed you up, but with Joshua it only felt like a punch to the stomach. You nervously smiled.

            “W-what?” you chuckled awkwardly. Joshua gave you a look and you set your glass down.

            “Was it really that obvious?” you asked, wiping your sweaty hands on your pajama pants.

            “No,” he answered, “but I’ve been in your place remember, I know how you think.”

            “Right.” You said weakly.

            “I’m sure after a while you’ll get more freedom.” Joshua added, trying to lift the sour mood that had fallen on you.

            “Yah, well, I don’t really want to become part of the mafia. I just want to have a normal life Josh.” You said frustrated, laying your head on the table.

            “Yah, that’d be nice.” Joshua agreed, throwing his leg up on the chair next to him.

            “Why don’t the two of us just leave and move countries or something. If we went to some obscure country I’m sure they’d never find us.” You said, looking up at Joshua. The boy took a deep breath and ran his fingers through his hair.

            “Jihoon would have us tracked down within seconds. That guys a god when it comes to find people. Plus, svt is my family now. I can’t just leave them.” You laid your head face down on the table and let out a loud groan, completely defeated.

            “I’m really tired of living like this man.” You complained.

            “As much as it sucks, you’ll get used to it.” Joshua commented. Neither of you spoke until the others started filtering into the kitchen, slowly waking up as the morning continued. You stayed laying on the table for as long as possible, not even bothering to move until Seungcheol walked in.

            “Tomorrows the day.” He announced. You sat up and looked at him. To you this was new news, but to the others, this was stating the obvious. If you were going to try and make a run tomorrow, you were going to have to decide soon, so you’d have enough time to make plans.

Chapter Text

You found yourself pacing back and forth in your room after breakfast once again. All this stressing and you could just feel that something would happen that would keep you from going in the end. Chances of you finally leaving were so slim. Even if you did make it out of the house, you’d be lost in those woods forever, was it even worth it? You sat down on the edge of your bed and leaned back on one of your hands, letting out a long breath. Jihoon would have us tracked down in a matter of seconds, Joshua had said. Joshua knows more about the members skills than you did, by far. If Joshua said it would be impossible, then it really had to be impossible. The thought of leaving must have crossed his mind many, many, times. If he hadn’t left yet, then there must be a good reason.

            The constant flipping between trying to leave or just stay put was wearing you out more than you thought, because soon you were curled up on the edge of your bed, fast asleep. Mingyu knocked lightly on your door, but upon receiving no answer he slowly pushed the door open. He couldn’t help but smile when he found you curled up like that. He located a blanket and draped it over you, then sat down in one of the chairs in your room, pulled out a book and settled down for what he expected to be a good amount of time. Minghao had mentioned that you had been up much earlier than usual, so Mingyu wasn’t surprised to find you asleep.

            To be honest, Mingyu had been feeling weird about this next mission. Usually he’d ignore it and everything would turn out fine, but this feeling. This was something new. He glanced up from his book and looked at you, your slow breathing causing the blanket to rise and fall a little. He had fallen for you the moment he saw you behind the counter at that shop. He knew there was no way to avoid storming into that shop, it was the one upper hand they had on that guy, but he desperately didn’t want you to get involved. He kept making up excuse after excuse to postpone the raid until it was the day you were off. At the very least, he could keep you safe that way. However, when he found you there that day, his insides shattered faster than light. Everything he had gone through to keep you out of it, and there you were, standing in front of him in that dark hallway. He had so desperately hoped that you would go back to that room and trust him that everything would be okay, and he honestly thought you had. That is until he found you almost about to have a bullet put through your head.

            Since the moment he uttered the words, he felt sorry for you. He felt terrible he’d pulled you into something like this. He was mad at himself for falling so carelessly in love, but it couldn’t be helped. Man, was he in love with you. Stronger than anything else he had felt in his entire life. Of course, he understood when you pushed him away all those times, but it still hurt him. Watching you hang out with his friends, and finding you there offering a smile to him every morning, however little they may be, made his day.

Earlier during breakfast, Joshua had mumbled something to Mingyu, hiding the true meaning of his words just enough that only Mingyu would really understand, but it was enough. He had told Mingyu what had been running through your head. As Mingyu sat there, staring blankly at you, he couldn’t help but want to help you escape as well.  Maybe if he could help you escape, he wouldn’t feel as bad as he did then. Your happiness would be enough to make him happy, right? Mingyu kept thinking that, but in the end, he knew that being separated from you would hurt even more than what he was going through now. If he also put his focus in helping you escape, then the mission at hand would crumble, and his members would be put at risk. Mingyu was a very important piece to this plan. He wasn’t one of the best assassins in the group to just stand on the side lines. No, Mingyu was going to be right in the middle of the action.

Mingyu leaned back in the chair, making himself more comfortable on the hard wood, still staring over at you. He wasn’t sure how much time had passed when you started to stir. Mingyu had been drifting in and out of sleep in the chair, waiting for you to wake up. When you finally did wake up, you found Mingyu’s heading nodding, teetering right on the edge of sleep. You climbed out of the bed and walked over to him. Your footsteps were enough to pull him out of his sleep, and he looked up at you sleepily.

“What are you doing here?” you questioned.

“What, I can’t see the person I love every now and then?” Mingyu said groggily. You felt your face rush with heat. Mingyu smiled. “There’s no point in hiding it anymore. I think we are both well aware of the fact that I like you. You wouldn’t be alive if I didn’t like you, if we are being honest.”

“You know, confessing to someone is supposed to be a really nice moment, but saying that just made it not so nice…” you pointed out. Mingyu laughed and you scowled.

“What brought up the sudden confession?” you asked after a moment of silence. Mingyu looked at you, staring straight at you. There was a look in his eyes that you’d never seen before, something you didn’t know how to explain, some sort of sadness swimming around in his dark brown eyes.

“Do you feel the same about me?” he asked, dodging your question. You puffed out a cheek and moved back to sit on the edge of your bed.

“Why are you asking me such intense questioned right after I wake up Mingyu?” you sighed. To be honest you didn’t know how to answer the question. You had fallen for Mingyu back when the two of you barely even spoke in the café. With the sudden events that had thrown your life upside down, it felt wrong to say that you still had feelings for him, let alone admit it to him. But the feelings were still there for sure. The feelings were strong, too strong to keep pushed down for much longer. It would have been concerning to you if you had been treated terribly while staying with Seventeen and still had a thing for Mingyu, but you were treated just as well as the other members in the group. They had accepted you into their family, and treated you like one of their own. Far from what you had imagined your future to be when you were first kidnapped. You looked at Mingyu, who was staring back at you as you let your thoughts turn around in your head, watching you form an answer.

“I think,” you began, “I think so…” Mingyu gave you a puzzled look, how could you not know if you liked someone or not? “I know I liked you a lot back before all this happened.” You explained, gesturing to the room around you. “Back when it was simple and you were just a customer at the café. I found you really charming. Finding out you’re in the mafia was a…minor… set back. Now it just feels weird to say that I like you…” you finished, looking down at your hands. Mingyu smiled a big smile, his cute pointy canines showing through.

“That’s good enough for me.” He said standing up, moving over to were you sat on the bed. He plopped himself down beside you, so close that you could feel the mattress dip beside you, throwing you off balance and almost spilling you onto Mingyu himself.

“You dodged my question though.” You pointed out before he could say anything. “why are you acting like this all the sudden?”

“I could say the same to you. It’s not hard to tell when something big is on the mind of someone you like.” Mingyu said, looking at you seriously. Had you really been discovered for the second time? “I know what you’re thinking, and I get it. Part of me wants help you get out, but I know just as well as you that that will end terribly.” You bit your lip.

“I guess I’m really going to be stuck here forever then.” You mumbled.

“You might not. Who knows, maybe one day boss will let you go live on your own when he trusts you enough. Or maybe we could go off and live on our own together instead of here with the rest of the guys.” Mingyu said. You looked at him, your cheeks heating up a little at the thought of just you and Mingyu.

“You really think something like that would happen one day?” you questioned earnestly.

“I mean, I’ve seen plenty of people get married and move out into their own separate apartment from the rest of their group. They’re technically still part of the mafia and their group, but the rarely ever get called to join.” Mingyu explained. You nodded. So, the only way to make really make things any different is to get married? You glanced over at Mingyu. Honestly, that might not be too bad… you though to yourself. Then again, if you married, you’d really be trapped in the mafia. You let yourself fall back on the bed.

“Ugh, Gyu, why did my life have to become so complicated.” You groaned.

“Sorry…” he mumbled, looking down at his hands that sat clasped in his lap. You don’t really know what possessed you to do what you did next, but honestly, you didn’t mind. You sat up and wrapped your arms around him, burying your head into his back. You felt him tense up for a few seconds, but soon he went back to being relaxed. You snuggled into Mingyu’s soft sweater, breathing in the scent of cologne and fresh laundry. It was nice to have some sort of contact with another person after so long. Hugging Mingyu just felt perfect and blissful, like all the problems had vanished and everything in the world was right.

“Please don’t leave.” Mingyu whispered, grabbing onto one of your hands.

“I won’t.” you declared after a moment of silence. “I couldn’t if I wanted too anyways…I’m not going anywhere gyu.”

The two of you stayed that way for a long time, you weren’t even sure how long, you just knew it was for a long time. Eventually you let go, saying that the two of you should probably change out of your pajamas and get ready for the day, not that you would be doing much to begin with. Reluctantly, Mingyu headed off to get himself ready for the day, and you slipped into the shower.

When you finally got downstairs, everyone was already dressed and had collected at the table, no doubt talking over the plans for the mission. You let yourself come to rest in the living room, not wanting to disturb their meeting. They had made it pretty clear that you shouldn’t know most of the details, so you stayed off to the side. You picked up a random book on the table, probably left behind by Wonwoo, and began to read. The book wasn’t exactly the most interesting, but you had nothing else left to do. Your time here just made you feel like you were wasting away. Even though you had promised Mingyu you’d stay put, you could picture yourself trying to run away just because you were so freaking bored. When the meeting finally finished, a few of the boys made their way over to where you were in the living room. They all piled onto the couch, squishing you in the process.

“So, what are you going to do when everyone’s out of the house?” Jeonghan questioned.

“Probably sleep.” You laughed, shutting the book.

“You do that every day!” Chan pointed out.

“I don’t have much else to do.” You pointed out, earning a few nods from the other guys.

“Hey! I have any idea! Before it gets to cold outside, how about we go on a walk around the woods a little? It might be nice to take a little break before we go off and do this mission.” Jeonghan exclaimed.

“Everyone’s been so stressed that would actually be really nice.” Chan said in agreement.

“Would I even be allowed to go? I’ve been trapped in here for months.” You said.

“If boss let you go to the ball, I’m sure he wouldn’t mind if you went out of the house and just walked around with us. It’s not like you could out run us or anything.” Jun said laughing. Part of you wanted to slap Jun for saying that, but the other part of you wanted to go out and do something so much you just ignored his comment. Jun was always the one who was most skeptical about you, and you were always the wariest of him.

“Jeonghan you ask! He likes you the best out of everyone.” You say. Jeonghan gave you a puzzled look, but when the other guys in the room nodded in agreement he let out a small sigh, then set off to find the boss.

Jeonghan came back with a big smile on his face. You could already tell what the answer was by his big smile and the bounce in his step.

“So, who’s going to lend (y/n) a coat? It’s cold outside.” Jeonghan said once he entered the room.

“So, boss said yes?” Jun asked, slightly in amazed, but also slightly skeptical.

“Well of course. (y/n)’s practically one of us now after all.” Chan said, standing up from his spot on the couch. “(y/n), you can use one of Mingyu’s coats.” Chan said with a wink. What does that mean…you thought as you followed Chan to the small coat closet. Chan pulled out a long black parka from the closet and tossed it over to you. You smiled and slipped it on, taking in the familiar smell of Mingyu. Along with the coat, Chan found you a thicker pair of socks, since the shoes you had been wearing, although still a sneaker, were made to be a lot cooler than your average winter shoe. You had no other shoe to wear however, so you made it work. You’d be willing to do anything if it meant finally being about to go outside. Jeonghan, Chan and Jun also slipped on their coats, a few of the other guys joining in as well when they found out what everyone was doing.

You were standing off to the side, waiting for everyone to get ready when something warm and fluff was wrapped around you. You turned around to see Mingyu smiling at you, wrapping one of his scarfs around your neck.

“Stay warm while you’re out there okay? I’d come, but I’ve still got some work to do.” He explained as he tucked the end of the scarf down to keep it from falling. He grabbed your hand and slipped on a pair of his warm, wool gloves. They were a bit big for your smaller hands but warm all the same. You smiled into your warm scarf as he slid the other glove on your hand. He fiddled with your coat zipper, pulling it up a little higher to make sure none of the warmth would escape. Finally, he stepped back to admire his work, and giggled.

“What?” you questioned.

“You look super cute. Like a marshmallow.” He chuckled, taking a step forward and squishing your cheeks. Any other person and you would have swatted them away, but Mingyu was different. Instead you just stared up at him, only making him squeal more as he squished your soft cheeks. You heard a coo from behind you and turned around to see Minghao smiling at the two of you as he leaned against the wall.

“Well, aren’t you two cute together?” he sang, a little smirk tugging at his lips. Mingyu smiled behind you and draped his arms around your shoulders, pulling you into a loose back hug. If it hadn’t been for the big scarf, your heated cheeks would have caused even more teasing.

“We’ll of course we are.” Mingyu said, pulling you closer. You grinned a little at Mingyu’s response, but enough for Minghao to see your smile reflected in your eyes. He smiled and shrugged his shoulders.

“We’re heading out now.” He declared.

“Don’t let (y/n) get lost!” Mingyu called as Minghao walked off. Minghao gave him a thumbs up and nothing more, but when you turned to say good bye to Mingyu, he had a please smile on his face.

“Make sure you stick close to Minghao and don’t get lost. It’s really easy to get lost out there. Everything looks the same. Even I’ve gotten lost out there. And make sure to stay warm.” He instructed.

“Alright, mom.” You chuckled, then waved good bye. You could feel Mingyu looking out one of the small windows as you and the small group of others made your way towards the little path that lead deeper into the woods that surrounded the house. The trees stood tall in the crisp winter sky, making you feel as small as an ant and casting weird shadows over everything. You walked beside Minghao as Mingyu had told you. You felt a little awkward at first, but when Minghao made no attempted to get away from you, but rather made sure that you walked side by side, you felt much more comfortable. The two of you walked in silence as the rest chattered around you, pointing out little things here in there.

You however, were enjoying the silence. You took in a deep breath of the fresh, cold air, your nose filling with the smell of dirt and nature. Birds chipped around you, and every now and then you’d hear a squirrel scamper through the trees. Your feet crunched the freshly fallen leaves with each step you took, and a little stream nearby made the most pleasing sound. You just wanted to stand still and enjoy the simple peace that filled the forest. Everything seemed perfect, just as you had imagined it to be the many times you stared longingly out the window, watching the squirrels play in the branches. Being outside was so nice it felt like a dream.

The small group walked about for quite a long time, passing over small streams, walking across fallen logs, and just exploring. You felt like a kid again, wandering around, examining little things here and there. In the far-off distance you even got to see a few deer walking about, no doubt looking for food at that time of day. You and Minghao squatted down by a creek and watching the little minnows swimming happily around in the shallow water. God you had needed this in your life. Everything was almost too perfect. It didn’t seem right, it didn’t seem like it should be happening. But it was happening, so you decided to soak up every blissful moment of it.

You made it back to the house just before dark. Just like Mingyu had told you, if you hadn’t been with someone upon entering the woods, you would have gotten lost faster within a matter of second. It’s a good thing you had thrown out the idea of running away, because there was no way you would have made it away in time, let alone didn’t get lost in the thick woods.

You walked through the doors and peeled off your layers, then set off to find Mingyu. With the help of a few of the other members, you found him sitting on his bed in his room, staring intensely at his laptop. When you knocked on the door and poked your head through, his expression changed from cold to warm faster than light. He smiled his big, beautiful smile and shifted his laptop on his knee, motioning for you to come in.

“How was it?” He asked as you sat down on the end of his bed, folding your legs in front of you.

“It was perfect!” You exclaimed. “I really needed to go out and do something like that.”

“I’m glad!” Mingyu said with a smile. “I hope you’ll be a little more content now! I know being here sucks. And when everyone leaves for this mission you’ll be all alone, so it’s bound to be even more boring. Once this is over though, I’m going to try and find a way to make staying here not as boring for you!”

“As long as you guys go do your mission well and come back safe, I’ll be happy.”

“I’m pretty sure everything will go smoothly.” Mingyu said with a nod, turning his attention back to his laptop to check on something.

“Can I stay here a bit while you do your work?” You asked, already shifting to make yourself more comfortable against the wall his bed rested next too.

“Of course! You could borrow one of Wonwoo’s books to read if you’d like.”

And just like that, you spent the rest of your day in the company of Mingyu. The only sound that could be heard in the room was the typing of keys, and the sound of a page turning every so often. Sometimes you’d steal glances as Mingyu, and sometimes Mingyu would steal glances at you, but somehow neither of you never caught each other doing so. It was safe to say that you were hopelessly in love with Mingyu, and you had no intentions of holding these feelings back anymore.

Chapter Text

The day finally came for you to send everyone off on their mission, leaving you behind. Well, to be exact you, Jihoon and Seungkwan would be staying behind. Jihoon was staying behind to hand the electronic side of things from the base, and Seungkwan...honestly, you weren’t sure what he was staying behind for. Everyone had disappeared into the one room you weren’t allowed into, and when they came out it was like a different group of people had emerged. The thirteen boys you had run into when your cafe was being taken over were now standing in front of you again, preparing for yet another mission.

            “Alright,” Seungcheol began, “so, let’s go over the plan one more time.”

            You weren’t sure if Seungcheol didn’t know you were there, or just didn’t care at this point, but you were able to pick up quite a bit about the mission. The boys would be going onto a huge boat from what it sounded like. Wonwoo was supposed to do something with cameras and an elevator first from what you heard, then Junhui would be sneaking in, disguised as a delivery man. He was already in his black outfit and fiddling with his earpiece, set to make his “delivery” right away. Jihoon would be doing stuff on his end too and was supposed to alert Junhui through his watch. Damn, they planned this out well… you thought to yourself as you heard them go over more of the plan. No wonder they haven’t been caught yet… Hansol was supposed to sneak in with the staff and help Soonyoung and Minghao, who were then to get to a certain point without triggering anything and turn off the alarm. Simple enough. Whatever they were going after had to be pretty intense for all this planning. You heard the word “bombs” a few to many times to feel comfortable about it and tried to focus your mind on something else. The thought of everyone going off to do something dangerous made you feel uneasy. They were your family now after all.

            “We’re going to head out now.” Mingyu said, walking over to you. You stood up from your spot on the couch and looked at him. He had dyed his once dark hair to a bleach blonde, and even went as far as to cut it a lot shorter than you had been used to seeing. He wore a yellow and black turtleneck sweater and a long black coat over it. Not something you would expect to see him in while he’s trying to sneak onto a huge boat.

            “You’re wearing that?” you questioned.

            “What, does it look bad? I thought it would go well with my new hair…” Mingyu said, looking down at his sweater.

            “No, it looks fancy. And I like your new hair, it’s just not what I expected to see you in. you are like storming a boat right? Actually, everyone’s dressed really nice...”

            “(Y/n), we’re mafia members, not some lowlife thugs.” Mingyu said with a chuckle.

            “Right…” you rolled your eyes, “of course, how silly of me.” Mingyu gave you a look but said nothing. “Good luck with everything, even though I’m pretty sure this is all illegal. Just come back to me safe, okay?”

            “Well, know that you’ve told me that, I have no choice but to come back unharmed.” Mingyu said with a cheeky smile.

            You and Seungkwan watched as they drove down the long path, and eventually disappeared into the woods, while Jihoon headed straight for his “office” as he called it.

            “Seungkwan, what are you going to be doing here?” you questioned after silence had finally settled into the house.

            “That’s a secret.” He said with a smirk before disappearing into his room as well. Then, you were met with complete and utter silence. A quiet, still, empty silence you hadn’t heard in months. With thirteen boys in the house, there’s never silence, from snoring at night, to yelling during the day, and the constant background music playing, there is never silence. You hadn’t realized just how much you had missed it. The first thing you did? Sleep of course. Because why not. You woke up around lunch, bored out of your mind. At least when the guys were here you had someone to talk with. Sitting around the house like this was excruciating. The once blissful silence had become stifling.

You tried to listen through the walls to Jihoon’s office but heard only the clicking of keys. No sound came from Seungkwan’s room, leaving you alone for sure. You snuck into Mingyu and Wonwoo’s shared room and pulled a few books you had never read before and settled down on the couch to read. Jihoon only came out of the office once, he shuffled into the kitchen, grabbed a donut, and shuffled back to the office, not staying a single word. You heard a few crashes from his office not long after that but didn’t bother to go investigate. If something during the mission went wrong, you didn’t want to be anywhere near the short boy.

You fixed yourself a small, late lunch, then returned to your book. Nothing much seemed to be happening, that is, until late afternoon. All of the sudden, Seungkwan busts out of his room, dressed in a sweater and pulling on his long tan coat before flying out of the front door, hopped on a motorcycle and tore down the road. Curses erupted from Jihoon’s office, and you decided it would be best if you retreated into your room. Hopefully everyone was alright. The thought of Mingyu was constantly floating around in the back of your mind after that. The sun had finally set and the moon shone brightly outside. Your peered out of one of the front windows and saw a small light coming towards the house, which you assumed was Seungkwan coming back. You moved from the window and around the house, cleaning up little things here and there since you had nothing else to do. You threw yourself down on the couch, waiting for Seungkwan to come through the front door. You hoped that he would finally be free and the two of you could talk, you were even willing to cook up some sort of dinner for him if he wanted. He never came however. Instead you were met with creaks in the house

That was a lot more creaking then the house usually made on its own though. Maybe Jihoon had come out of his office for dinner? You stood up from the couch and slowly headed towards the door leading to the rest of the house. You peeked your head around the corner and saw no one. But what you did see made your heart jump into your throat. The front door was open. Wide open… any normal person would have stayed put. If the front door was open and you could hear someone moving around, not good to go blindly walking in. Then again, it’s not like you could call the police if anyone had broken into the house. You didn’t even know where the dang house was, let alone bring the police straight to a mafia base? Not smart.

You snuck further through the door a little further to see if you could catch a glimpse of whoever was in the house if anyone at all. Your heartbeat seemed to be right in your ears, and you felt as if your breathing was now the loudest thing on earth. You tiptoed around, hoping to at least get to the stairs and rush up to Jihoon’s office unnoticed and some backup. After all, someone breaking into a base of a mafia by themselves doesn’t really stand a chance at all. If there were others…now that’s a different story. You had almost made it to the base of the stairs when you heard someone whisper your name. you physically jumped upon hearing it and whipped around to see none other than Hoseok standing there. Your Hoseok…Monsta X’s Wonho, standing in Seventeens base home.

            “What are you doing here?” You whisper, not moving an inch from where you stood.

            “I came to get you.” Hoseok whispered, moving closer towards you.

            “Uhhhh… no thanks?” you whispered. “you need to go, Jihoon’s still here!”

            “I know, that’s why you have to come quick, he won’t notice for a while if we go now.” Hoseok whispered in a rush, already making a move towards the door.

            “Hoseok, I’m not going to leave.” You stated.

            “Why? They kidnapped you, I’ve been planning to come get you today ever since the ball.”

            “Because even if I do get out, I can’t just go back to my normal life. Not now, not ever. I’m stuck like this forever now, there’s no point in running away.”

            “But you could at least come with me and stay with someone you actually know. The other guys in my gang are super nice.” Hoseok explained.

            “But Seventeen is just as nice, I like it here with them. Plus, if you take me, that will just ruin the relationship between the two groups.” You whispered, still worried Jihoon would come down and find Hoseok in his house. “How did you even find me?”

            “I’ve been tracking you for years now. I knew the exact moment you got tangled up with seventeen. I knew when Mingyu kept coming to your café that something was up. I should have pulled you out before anything happened but I was too late. It was a bit harder to find you after seventeen had taken you to their base, but I found you eventually.” Hoseok explained, moving away from the door and closer to you once he realized you weren’t going to follow him.

            “Wow, that’s…that’s really creepy.” Was all you could say.

            “Look, I didn’t come all this way to leave without you, (y/n).” Hoseok said in almost a growl. Now you were starting to get a little freaked out. The Hoseok you knew in high school was so different from the Hoseok you were seeing now. It was starting to scare you. You were contemplating running up the stairs to get to Jihoon, but right as you were about to bolt up the stairs, Hoseok grabbed your arm, yanked you back and clamped his hand over your mouth. You tried to break free but he was to strong compared to you. There was no way you were going to be able to break free. You thrashed around, hoping that your thumbing against the floor would catch Jihoon’s attention, but you had the feeling he had his headphones on to fully focus on their mission. Amidst the horrible feeling of being betrayed by your once close friend and not being able to break free, you were being kidnapped again. You shouldn’t have even been kidnapped once, why did you have to say again. Before you could put up even more of a fight, a cloth was held against your face. You held your breath for as long as possible while you tried to pull your face away from his strong grip, but eventually you had no other choice but to breath into the cloth, leading you to black out not much longer.

            When you woke up you were met with a very familiar feeling. The familiar feeling of waking up sore, confused and very, very unhappy. You had been kidnapped yet again. However, this time you felt a little calmer than before. You didn’t wake up in a car this time around though. You woke up in a bed in a rather small room. You sat up and rubbed your temples, becoming painfully aware of the throbbing headache. You rolled out of the bed and headed towards the door and were surprised when you found the door to be unlocked. You slowly opened the door and poked your head out and glanced around. You could hear people talking downstairs, but other than that there was nothing else. The halls were empty save a few shut doors and big windows. You slowly crept over towards the stairs and peered over the railing, trying to get a better view on where you were. You couldn’t believe you had gotten kidnapped again. Right under Jihoon’s nose as well. Was Mingyu going to think you ran away? Both him and Joshua knew you had been thinking about it… were the going to come look for you? Would they even bother to look for you? It’s not like you were technically part of their gang, in all honesty, you were essentially dead weight to them. Maybe Seungcheol would be glad to finally have you off his hands.

            You stood at the top of the stairs, contemplating what you should do. Should you stay in your room and refuse to come out, try and make a break for a door or window and escape, or just walk down in and see all the members of Monsta X again. Eventually you decided to go downstairs and just see what happens. If you saw a place to get out, you’d go for it. Even if you had no idea where you were, getting out would be a good start. If you didn’t find a way out, maybe you would be able to get in contact with seventeen somehow through one of the members. If these two gangs really were as close as they’ve said before, there should be a way they contact each other. Maybe you would be able to get a message to them and let the seventeen members know who had you. Whether your idea was complete impossible and dumb, it was better than anything. Then again, you thought as you slowly crept down the stairs, if Hoseok could track me so long, seventeen should be able to find me, right? After all, if Jihoon really was as good as tracking and Joshua said he was, shouldn’t he be able to find you? So many thoughts were swirling through your head you hadn’t even realized you’d already made it to the room were all the voices had been coming from. You stood in the frame of the door as you stared at seven boys, who were looking back at you.

            “Oh, you’re up.” Hoseok declared.

            “Yah.”  You replied, all nervousness leaving you and becoming replaced with annoyance. “Take me back home please.”

            “Home?” Hoseok repeated. “How did that place become your home?”

            “Probably the same way this place became your home.” You said, frustrated.

            “Then you should easily be able to adjust to this place and make it your home. You’ll be happier here, honest.” Hoseok declared.

            “Yah right.” You said before turning and heading upstairs. However, something caused you to stop at the foot of the stairs and listen. A little bit after you had left the room you heard hushed voices talking.

            “Wonho, I still don’t think we should keep them here.” A voice said.

            “I know what they mean to you, but maybe you can just let them go back to their normal life? They don’t have to go back to seventeen…” you wanted to stay around and here the rest of their conversation, but upon hearing the scrap of chair legs and footsteps you quickly launched yourself upstairs so no one would find out you had been listening in on their conversation. You sat down on the edge of your bed and ran your fingers through your hair. It’s not like anything bad was happening to you, but god you wanted to leave. You wanted to go home. Not your original home, no, you wanted to go to your home were your family was. Where Seventeen was.

Chapter Text

You weren’t even this determined to escape when Seventeen had taken you. Maybe it was because this time around you actually felt like you had people that would look for you, you had someone you desperately wanted to get back too. Just thinking about Mingyu getting back from his mission only to find you gone, and him potentially thinking you left on purpose was enough to make your heart feel like it as going to shatter into a thousand pieces. Sure, you wanted freedom, but you wanted Mingyu more. If staying in that house for the rest of your life was the price you had to pay to be with Mingyu, you were ready to pay it. And thanks to Hoseok, you could confidently confirm you would rather have Mingyu over freedom. Silly how being kidnapped for a second time was what it took for you to finally make this decision. 

            It was now light outside, so you must have been out for the whole night. You peered out the window and were surprised to see a city around you. Monsta X had made their base in a city? Part of you wanted to know the reasoning as to why they made camp here, but your thoughts were overpowered by something more important. This means if you did escape from their house, you would be able to disappear a lot easier than if you were just in some open land. There were enough people and just city chaos in general that would make good cover if you were able to run away. No, scratch that, when you run away. You were going to get out of there, you were going to see Seventeen again. 

            There wasn’t much in the small room you had been placed in. Just a bed, a small nightstand and a wardrobe. Naturally you snooped through everything, trying to find anything that you could use to your advantage, but as you had suspected; nothing. It occurred to you while snooping through the draws, even if you were able to break out of this house, you wouldn’t know what to do from there. You don't have any sort of cell phone, you don’t know anyone's numbers and you have no clue where the base is actually located, so it's not even like you could just find you way back to seventeens base. Monsta X had to have some sort of way to get in contact with your boys. If they are actually as close as they had made it seem, they have to be in contact pretty often, right? Maybe your first step was to try and figure out how they got into contact with others. Seventeen all had cell phones, but you rarely saw them messaging anyone outside of their own group. Honestly, a majority of them just seemed to use their phones to play games. Then again, if Jihoon really was that good at tracking down people, maybe all you needed to do was get in the view of some sort of security camera and he would be able to find you. While that might make it look like you ran away, at least they would have a rough idea of where you were? Maybe Mingyu would come and find you? You decided this would be your first plan of action. 

            You stayed in the room for what seemed like an hour or two. If you wanted to make this plan believable, you couldn’t jump into action to fast. You heard a few of them in the hallway a couple times, but no one came to see you. Not even Hoseok. You finally decided it was a good time to get the ball rolling, so you ventured out of your room. You eventually found Hoseok in the kitchen, messing around with something in their fridge. The house itself wasn’t that big compared to seventeens. Afterall, Monsta X’s base was more or less a fancy apartment, but it was definitely on the small side. Hoseok stopped what he was doing when he saw you. 

“If I’m going to stay here than I expect to be treated like a normal person and not someone you kidnapped.” You declared, making Hoseok straight up and close the fridge. 

“Of course,” Hoseok said, “I never planned on treating you like anything other than a normal person.” 

“Good. Then if that’s the case I want to go shopping and get some stuff for that plain room. It’s too depressing.” You said. Hoseok thought for a moment, a tiny bit of skepticism dusted across his face. “Oh come on, even seventeen let me go outside every now and then. How else do you think I was able to go to the ball. On top of actually needing things I just want to soak up the city life. It’s been so long since I’ve been around other people. Plus, where am I going to go? You’ve been stalking me for years apparently, it's not like I’d be able to run away…” you mumbled. Hoseok seemed to be wavering a bit. Your plan was working. “Come on Hoseok! Let’s go out! I might not mind it here if we do fun stuff like this!” You say in a sing-songy voice. 

“Alright, alright fine. Let me go tell Shownu and then we can go.” Hoseok finally agreed. You jumped up and down and clapping your hands. 

“Yay! I’m excited! It’s been so long since I was in the city.” you say before he heads out of the room to find Shownu. Your heart was pounding in your chest. This was actually going as planned; you honestly couldn’t believe it was going this well. Something had to be wrong, there was no way it was going to work this well. Maybe it was going to go so well because Hoseok knew seventeen wouldn’t actually be able to find you. 

When he got back, he passed you a black baseball cap to stay “inconspicuous” but you seriously doubted that was going to stop Jihoon from noticing you. You headed towards the front door before you noticed a minor issue. 

“Uh, I don’t have any shoes…” you pointed out. 

“Ah right,” Hoseok sighs, “you can borrow an old pair of mine, they might not fit but it’s better than nothing. We’ll get you a new pair first thing when we go out.” He finally decides, already on the hunt for a pair. You nodded, and then suddenly felt like you had been struck by lightning. Of course! You only had one pair of shoes back at seventeen, you only ever needed one so there was no need to have more. They would see your shoes by the front door still and know you didn’t leave on purpose! They were going to be looking for you for sure! At least you knew Mingyu would at the very least. You felt like you could explode with joy upon realizing that there was a solid clue as to what had happened to you. Because of this you weren’t that bothered Hoseok's shoes didn’t fit you at all. All that mattered now was to find some surveillance cameras to stand in front of. 

Of course, as soon as the two of you headed outside, Hoseok began taking you through dark alley ways and sketchy back roads that wouldn’t have any sort of camera set up. It’s only natural that someone from the mafia would know how to avoid the cameras on the streets around their own house. You had sort of figured this would happen. However, there had to be at least one functional security system set up at the various stores you would be going too. One of them was bound to pick you up. Also, in order to get to these stores, you had to leave the back alleyways eventually. Sure enough, the two of you emerged from the dark streets and slowly started to enter a more populated area. You kept your eyes out for any sort of camera as well as possible without being too noticeable about it. You figured looking around at a new town was only natural, so you weren’t to lowkey about it in the end. 

“It’s a cute little city, isn’t it?” Hoseok said, clearly noticing you looking around. You only nodded, eyes flicking from him and then back to examine the area around you. 

“I think you’ll like it here. You always talked about how you wanted to live in the city back when we were in school together.” 

“You remember that?” You questioned. You don’t even remember much about what happened back in those days. After all you had been through it didn’t even feel like your past. You felt as if you had always been forced to live in someone else’s house. always trying to earn people’s trust to have a little bit of freedom. Always on the verge of being in a dangerous situation. 

“Of course, I remember, you were special to me even back then.” Hoseok exclaims. You gave him a weak smile back, trying not to show just how uncomfortable you were when you started to think about just how long he’s been stalking you. 

As promised, your first stop was to get new shoes. Thankfully, there were cameras installed in multiple places throughout the store, and you made sure to tilt your cap back just enough to reveal your face without catching Hoseok’s attention. You stared straight into each camera and prayed Jihoon would somehow see. After paying for the shoes, you were starting to think maybe looking into them wasn’t enough. You had seen in some tv show one time that someone had blinked sos to people until someone finally noticed. Thankfully, Morse code for sos was something you had picked up after watching so many true crime shows. You decided the next time you found a camera you’d try that. 

Throughout the entire shopping trip, you were able to find a good handful of cameras. Some were in stores, and some were outside along the roads. You weren’t sure if all of them were actually recording but it was worth trying anyways. Whenever Hoseok wasn’t looking you were blinking sos at them. There had been a terrifying moment when Hoseok had turned around to see you blinking up at the sky weirdly and asked you what you were doing. Thankfully your brain was feeling extra quick today, and you quickly lied that something had gotten in your eye and you were trying to get it out without rubbing it. You even went as far as to ask him if he could see anything just to be on the safe side. Had you not been secretly trying to get a message through to Seventeen, the outing would have been really nice. The city was pretty, and it felt so nice to be able to walk for a long time and get a constant change of scenery. You had really missed your freedom and being able to walk around like this. Your mind drifted to your coffee shop. How was everyone doing there? What would they say if you went back all of the sudden? You missed making all the different drinks and meeting new people every day. Deep down inside you knew there was no point in pining after it, because even if you could free yourself from both Monsta X and Seventeen, your life would never be the same. You weren’t even sure you would be safe if you left the country. Someone would find you eventually, so you were just going to have to make the best of it. And the best of it was with Seventeen.

Wonho paid for the last bit of shopping the two of you had done, and then you started the journey back to the apartment. Please, you thought to yourself, please god let one of those reach seventeen. Hoseok must have noticed your change in attitude as the two of you got closer and closer to the apartment.

“We can go outside a lot more often than when you were with Seventeen. We’re a lot closer to stuff than they are, so it isn’t as big of a journey.” Hoseok pointed out. You faked a very weak smile and nodded a little, your mind somewhere else entirely.

You spent the rest of your day milling about the house. None of the other members tried to talk to you, and you certainly didn’t go out of your way to talk with them. More often than not if they walked into a room that you were in, you would just end up leaving. You could tell they were all on edge because of you. Rightfully so too. You had practically become a member of Seventeen at this point, and they just kidnapped you. It wasn’t going to be received well. If they were all so on edge, why would their boss let you leave? He had to know that Jihoon was good at tracking people, right? Maybe he was purposely trying to have you found, or maybe he was just that confident no one would be able to pinpoint their base, let alone break in. You eventually found yourself in your room and ended up staying there for the rest of the night. You didn’t go down when Hoseok invited you for dinner, and you didn’t eat anything when he brought some food up for you. You had no reason to fake being overly complacent with them anymore. If your camera idea didn’t work, there was nothing else that would work. All that was left to do was to wait and see what came of your hard work. You were just going to have to survive a couple days with them, and then everything would go back to normal…hopefully.

When you woke up the next day, there was no reason for you to get out of bed, so you just laid there. You drifted back in and out of sleep, but the time you were awake was spent looking around the small room or listening to the movements around the house. After about an hour or two of lying there, you got hungry so decided to get up. Your entire journey to the kitchen you didn’t see any of the members, so you ended up helping yourself to a bit of food. You could have sworn you had heard the members walking around earlier this morning, but know the house was silent. You shrugged your shoulders and headed back to your room. You climbed back in bed and grabbed one of the books Hoseok had gotten for you and stayed that way for a long time.

This wasn’t like when you had first been taking by Seventeen. Then you were scared to do anything, scared to even move. You had felt betrayed and had no hope. But now, there was nothing but hope in you. You were positive Mingyu would come bursting through the doors at any minute and come rescue you. Having a reason to be hopeful in this situation really made everything different. You made it through the first time okay because everyone in seventeen was nice to you, or rather, almost everyone. Most importantly you had Joshua there to help. You had no idea how he made it through his kidnapping, without the comforting thought of being rescued or nice people.

Your second full day at Monsta X’s base had almost passed by. You still hadn’t heard anyone else in the house since early morning and were starting to wonder if you should go investigate. If no one was home, who was going to stop you from just walking out the front door? Eventually, you decided you should do just that. First, you checked all the other rooms upstairs. As expected, they were empty. Then you headed downstairs and started checking the other rooms. Absolutely no one was home, unless there was some secret room you didn’t know about. Hesitantly, you headed towards the front door. This was almost too easy, it had to be a trap. You slowly twisted the doorknob, as if at any second it was going to electrocute you. The doorknob twisted, but the door didn’t budge. You adjusted the various locks on the door, but even then, the door didn’t move. Of course, it wasn’t going to be that easy. It’s not like you could just slip out of a window either since you were so high up. You let out a loud grown and began pacing around the room. Within the next five minutes, noise began to come from the door. Someone was outside. All your senses went on red alert. You heart was in your ears and you felt like your breathing was the loudest thing on earth. If it had been one of the members, they would have just unlocked the door and walked in already. Was it someone else? Were you finally being rescued, or was it a third party all together? You didn’t know what to do, so you just stood there like an idiot.

There was more rattling at the door, as if someone was trying to pick the lock. You could make out some murmuring, so it had to be more than one person. The rattling felt like it was going on forever, and then the voices raised.

“Come on, we don’t have time for this! Here, move over.” The voice said. Your heart felt like it was going to explode. You knew that voice. Before you could do or say anything, there was a huge BOOM, and then the door creaked. One more strong BOOM and the door flung open, a part of the lock clattering to the floor. Along with the swinging door came none other than Mingyu. You instantly ran forward and tackled him with a hug, catching him off guard and making him stumbled back slightly. As soon as he realized it was you, if being tackled had bother him, it didn’t anymore. He wrapped around you and clung on as if you were going to disappear into smoke at any second. You were instantly surrounded by his warmth and comforting scent, and all your worries and stress melted away instantly.

 “(Y/n)! Are you okay? They didn’t hurt you, did they? I’m so sorry.” Mingyu gushed in a frenzy of words. You barely understood half of them he was speaking so fast.

“Mingyu, we need to go. Now.” Came Minghao’s voice. Mingyu didn’t wait for an answer from you. His brain was going a mile a minute. All he could think about now was getting you back to safety, he could talk with you after that. Before you knew it, you were behind pulled along at the speed of light by Mingyu, Minghao in front of the two of you, leading the way. The three of you were soon piled into a small car, and then Minghao floored it. Driving through a city can already be nerve wracking, but speeding through a city? Oh no, you were at peak anxiety. On top of that, you were still shell shocked they had found you. Even with all the hope that you had, there was still a part of you that had felt like no one would come to look for you, like the first time. Mingyu was talking in a stern voice with someone over the phone, relaying different bits of information to Minghao. You caught that they knew the current location of everyone in Monsta X and everything was going according to whatever plan they had come up with. All in all, you were safe now, you were going back home.

Mingyu didn’t end the phone call until you were well out of the city, concealed in trees that no doubt concealed the base as well. There was silence for the first time since they had come to get you. You could tell Mingyu had a lot on his mind and judging by the sympathetic looks Minghao was giving him, he could tell too. After what felt like years of driving through the bumpy forest road, you finally come up to the base and Minghao stopped the car. You had never been so happy to see a building before. You were finally starting to feel like everything was right in the world again. The three of you got out of the car, and Minghao headed inside. Mingyu lagged behind, and so did you. He turned to face you with a somber look on his face. Before he could actually say anything, your emotions finally caught up with you, and you lost all control. You burst into uncontrollable tears, in a state Mingyu had never seen you in before. He didn’t know what else to do other than to hug you close to him.

“You found me…” you finally manage to choke out, making Mingyu pull you closer. “I was so worried you would think I ran away and wouldn’t try to look for me.” You sobbed. Mingyu doesn’t say anything, but doesn’t stop hugging you, giving your back small pats until you calm down a little.

“How did you find me?” you ask, pulling away a little to look at his face in the dim light of nightfall.

“Well, first of all, who would run away without their shoes? And that would be thanks to your quick thinking and Jihoon’s skill.” Mingyu smiled as he wiped away a stray tear.

“My camera trick worked!” You smiled.

“We would have found you even without that, but we were able to find you a lot quicker thanks to that. Smart thinking!” Mingyu chuckled, pulling you in for another hug. “He shouldn’t have been able to get you in the first place though. You shouldn’t have had to gone through that.” He said, his voice suddenly becoming pained. He buried his face in the crook of your neck, and there was silence for a moment.

“It’s okay, because in the end you found me.” You said softly. The two of you stayed that way for a while before Mingyu finally straightened up.

“We should probably get inside; the others are all waiting to see you. They were all worried too.” He explained.

“Well, we can’t keep them waiting any longer now, can we?” you said, taking Mingyu’s hand in yours before the two of you headed for the front door.