Work Text:
The silence hung thick as he sat staring at the guy across from him. Si Eun was certain that this was only a temporary office. The whole basement smelled of damp and didn’t match the luxury watch the guy was wearing.
The guy folded one long leg over the other as he lit a cigarette. Si Eun was beginning to understand the effect his own dispassionate expression had on people now he faced someone who was pulling the same trick.
He glanced behind him at the locked door, then back to the guy. No one had told him anything on the way here. And he couldn’t even get water from the thugs who had ‘escorted’ him. Not that he’d be stupid enough to consume anything they gave him, had they offered.
‘Those fucking eyes,’ the guy in front of him finally said. He flicked the ash from his cigarette. ‘You look like you’re about to cry.’ He shook his head and took another puff. ‘Or do something you won’t live to regret.’
Si Eun kept his expression the same as it had been since he’d been confronted at the underpass.
The guy took another few minutes to savour his cigarette before he finally unfolded his long body from the chair. The piss-yellow light overhead gave the guy’s sharp features a haunting shadow. What was that guy from Baku’s mangas called? ‘Ryuk,’ Si Eun huffed under his breath.
The guy stepped towards Si Eun’s chair. ‘You know why you’re here.’ When Si Eun didn’t respond beyond his typical glaring, the guy repeated, ‘You do know why you’re here.’
Si Eun rolled his eyes and turned away. He caught sight of a small window high on the back wall. Maybe with enough momentum, he could reach it and squeeze through the tiny space? He tested his bonds. Not right now, at least. He turned his attention back to the guy in front of him. ‘You abducted me for ransom.’
The guy hummed, shaking his head once. It was obvious that he was not used to intimidating teenage boys. Either because he was so high up in the crime group that he no longer needed to get his hands dirty, or because that was all he did without the words. ‘It’s not a ransom if it’s my money to begin with.’
‘My dad owes you money.’ Si Eun didn’t bother to make it a question. He wasn’t in a position to refute the claim.
The guy crouched in front of him, squinting his intense, dark eyes as if inspecting him. ‘I thought we had the wrong kid when I first saw you. You don’t look anything like that bastard.’ He withdrew a phone from his jacket and opened up an image. There it was. A photograph of Si Eun and his dad, undeniable proof of their connection. Si Eun couldn’t even remember taking that photo.
‘How much does he owe?’
‘Too much for a kid like you to scrape up.’
‘I can pay the interest for my freedom if you leave me out of it next time.’
The guy leaned back on his heels to look at the boy properly. Si Eun could see the cogs turning behind his eyes. Maybe this guy wasn’t that good at hiding his thoughts, after all. ‘You’re too smart to be his son.’
‘Do we have a deal?’
‘Too cold, too.’ The guy straightened to his full height. ‘I’m not in the business of selling kids to host bars.’ The words were left hanging for a long moment between them. ‘I’ll give you a week. After that…’
One of the men who bought Si Eun there stepped up to loosen the bonds that kept him planted on the chair.
‘We’ll start small.’ The guy withdrew his cigarettes again. ‘One million won a week.’ It was no small amount for a high schooler, especially one who couldn’t rely on his dad for help with the expense.
Si Eun tilted his head as he stood. ‘Monthly.’
The guy smirked around his unlit cigarette. He hadn’t expected the kid to negotiate. ‘Two million a month.’
‘One million, five hundred.’
The guy hummed, nodding as he lit up. ‘Fine.’
Tightening his dry lips into a thin line, Si Eun stepped up to the guy. He craned his neck to glare up at him. ‘And you leave me and my friends alone.’
‘Not your dad?’
Si Eun hesitated for the first time since getting abducted. His father dug his own grave. Surely he deserved what came next? But he was still his father. ‘It is his debt.’ He said it as if trying to remind himself of that.
‘So you don’t mind if my men kill him?’
‘You won’t get the money back like that.’
‘Ah, but you’re his guarantor, remember?’
Si Eun glared up at him with his wet, judgemental eyes.
The guy laughed around his cigarette and clapped him on the shoulder. ‘Fine. Your dad is safe for as long as you keep paying his interest.’ The guy leaned in close, a conspiratorial look in his smirk as the thick smoke floated between them. ‘I will keep my hands to myself, even if I see him across the street.'
Si Eun shrugged the guy’s hand off. ‘Can I go now?’
The guy straightened up and nodded, instructing his men to take Si Eun back to the underpass where they found him.