I know the updates for this fic are getting more and more sporadic. Sorry about that. Just me taking my time to write, or actually making time to write this. Also, I decided to write a one-shot Jaehee x Zen x Jumin smutfic just for the hell of it - check it out if you're interested. There's perhaps a bit of an odd identification with Jaehee throughout the story.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this and I'm looking forward to getting around to the next chapter, which hopefully will be less intense.

Ciphertext – Chapter 28: Turnaround

Tom crouched over him. "Saeyoung … you do have a plan, don't you?" he said, mimicking Eun-ji's worried, feminine tone.

"Shut up! You're really starting to piss me off!" barked Luciel.

"Hmm. Only now?" Tom briefly ran his hands through Luciel's hair again, as he seemed to enjoy doing. Though it could easily be misconstrued by others, Luciel could sense that Tom's touch wasn't meant to be sexual; it was more of an attempt to tame his inner rebel. "And here I was thinking that I'd been successfully pissing you off ever since I selected you to work for me. Save yourself the trouble and just give up. I'm so much stronger than you are." He let off a light snigger. "After all, you're relying entirely on me to live and right now …" he cast his eyes over the tight binary code boxer shorts Luciel was sporting, "… you're just a little too defenceless tied to this cage in your underwear."

Luciel dropped his head and stared at the dismal concrete ground. "Think about it. Even if I do have a plan, why the fuck would I tell you what it is?"

"I can already tell that you think you're doomed, looking down like that. I'm holding the leash here, and my men won't hesitate to take you down. They were flown in specially from the US at my request you know."

Damn. I need to buy myself some time here

"So, what you're saying is … either way I'm going to die?" Luciel asked, sighing as though he didn't really care what the answer would be.

Tom took a syringe from his jacket pocket and pushed a little of the blueish liquid contained inside it through the tiny needle on the end. "Not if you just co-operate and let me inject this serum into you. Then I'll make sure that you get all the company perks when we're … equal partners in my new business. Didn't I promise that we'd start our own company together? You should understand the power of promises better than anyone."

But I'm no good to you if I'm dead, am I?

Hearing this, Eun-ji wrestled against the ropes, trying to shake herself off the chair she was bound to. "No, you can't do that to him! Surely deep down you're a reasonable person!" she screamed. Although the seat itself was extremely weighty, Eun-ji managed to topple it over and it came crashing down hard onto the base of the cage. As she fell, although she grazed her left arm, she had at least been sure to lift up her neck to avoid concussion. She knew all too well that her verbal protest would get them nowhere, but she wanted to say something, anything, that might stall Tom, even just for a few seconds.

"Oh look, she reacted again. How cute, I think my heart just skipped a beat!" said Tom, cocking his head to one side as he motioned towards the American man standing nearest the cage. "I know you care about him but just stay quiet for now, okay … sweetie?"

The American nodded once at Tom silent command, pushed his Uzi out of the way and flicked a switch on the right-hand side of the cage. Then, he grabbed onto two of the bars and prised them apart in a display of brute force. He might as well have been superhuman. Then, he took a roll of black parcel tape from his utility belt and cut off a small strip using his teeth. He bent down to secure it firmly over Eun-ji's mouth, but said nothing.

Eun-ji grumbled something incomprehensible from under the tape. "Mmm-hmmm-hmmm!"

"I'm sorry …." Luciel furrowed his brows as he turned his head to see Eun-ji struggling. The way Tom had spoken to Eun-ji was so perverse. Had he not been so tightly secured to these bars, he would have no trouble taking things up with Tom directly, man-to-man. He wanted to fight those guys and get Eun-ji the hell out of there, but he knew that physical strength wasn't his strongest quality. His brain just needed space to think, to try and fit all the missing pieces together. So many years had passed since Luciel had last seen Tom that he didn't have the faintest idea what he could possibly dredge up from those days.

But then it hit him, clear as day. There was, at least, one person they both knew from Busan. Maybe he could mention their name to spark some nostalgia.

"Tom. When was the last time you saw V?"

Bringing the syringe closer to Luciel's neck, Tom rolled his eyes, fed up with the interrogation. "Honestly, you have more questions … at a time like this? Who cares about V anyway? You don't need to bring him up now."

Why is he so reluctant to talk about him?

Luciel moved his head in the opposite direction to avoid the needle, but Tom gripped him by the throat and rammed him against the bars again. Luciel spluttered as he tried to catch his breath.

"Fuck! Just stay still Saeyoung, you're making this take longer than it needs to!"

Trying to prise Tom's hand away from his throat, Luciel was only just audible as he spoke. "Nngghh … w-why …. won't you … t-t-talk … about V … ngghh … come on!"

The hold that Tom had over him was getting too intense to stomach and Luciel's survival instincts finally started to take over.

This isn't something my mind alone can solve. I guess I don't have much choice …

Luciel hurled his knees swiftly upwards. Despite his disadvantaged position, he managed to land a lethal kick straight to the man's groin, making him cry out in agony. The syringe fell to the ground and the needle landed at such an angle that it snapped off at the base, rendering the instrument useless. Tom fell forwards, grabbing his manhood, his jet black hair hanging loosely over his face. As he did, another syringe dropped from inside his sleeve and rolled over to Luciel's right foot. The cap also came loose so that the needle was exposed.

It's my lucky day!

Before Tom could even prepare to retaliate, Luciel's reflexes were quick to react. He grasped the thing expertly between his toes, flipped it into the air before catching it in his mouth and balancing it between his teeth. It was times like these that he loved how flexible his body could be. His eyes lit up as he noticed the perfect spot to insert the needle.

But without warning, the American who had taped Eun-ji's mouth clocked what Luciel was trying to do and hastily snatched the needle from his hands. He scowled down at Luciel as he gazed up at the muscular hulk of a man standing over him.

"What are you-?" Luciel began, feeling overwhelmed all of a sudden.

The man replied in English. "Listen kid, if you're gonna do this thing, you gotta do it properly!"

"Do it prop-er-ly?" echoed Luciel, trying to make sense of these foreign words. "Sorry … I don't speak English."

"God dammit, this is no time to fool around bro! I don't care if you speak English or not, I'm here to help you."

Help?

Now that was a word he did understand.

And with that, the American took the syringe and jabbed it harshly into the side of Tom's neck, eliciting a high-pitched scream from the man. The American smiled, satisfied with the reaction. "See? You gotta aim for the carotid artery right here." He pushed the fluid through the needle until every last drop had been drained out. He gave a throaty laugh. "Since I just used an entire dose, he won't be able to feel anything for a while and eventually his brain is gonna be like mush."

No way! He's helping me?

Luciel didn't understand the turn of events. If these American men were brought to South Korea to assist Tom with his mission, what made them act against him like this? He looked over at the other two burly men who were guarding the cage. They weren't trying to stop their comrade, so they must have been conspiring something together from the beginning. Tom's eyes seemed to roll back in his head and he started shaking uncontrollably as the drug took effect. Luciel felt terrible, but he knew that this was the best way to paralyse him.

At this point, Luciel was not confident enough in his English ability, but he really felt like trying in any case. "Why you're help us?" he said, but then he realised he was unlikely to understand the response.

"We're helping you because Mr. Park is a wanted man. He's been on the CIA's watch list for fuckin' months! Finally, we get this opportunity to work undercover and pose as hitmen. Had priority boarding on private planes to fly out here and catch him ourselves. Of course, we couldn't do it alone. Had some help from the South Korean government. They've been secretly keeping an eye on him." Then, realising that Luciel was staring up at him with a blank expression on his face, he proceeded in Korean. "Hey, you're not even sure what I just said are you?"

Luciel was a bit embarrassed. "No. But … you actually speak Korean?" he asked.

"Yeah, we all do," he said, smiling. "That's a requirement for this job."

Feeling relieved, Luciel smiled back at his ally. "Then, can you let Eun-ji and I go now?"

"Sure," he confirmed and pointed towards Eun-ji. "Obviously this one knows something about you that we don't." He eyed Luciel's boxer shorts. "That, or she's just got a kink for binary code." He laughed and bent down to look Eun-ji in the eyes and winked. "Whatever turns you on I guess."

Her face turned visibly redder as she heard his comment. It wasn't as though she had any discovered any specific kinks in the first place. Maybe Luciel just made all those things more intriguing, more unique, and she loved that about him.

Luciel looked over at her, feeling at ease for the first time in a while. She was so much calmer now. He turned back to the American. "I wear stupid boxer shorts, make cringe-worthy jokes and say things I don't mean. So for putting up with that, I think she deserves to be untied first." He paused. "And also because I-"

"Oh no, please! Save all the soppy stuff for later when you two are alone. I've seen my fair share of South Korean dramas. And can I just say, those boxer shorts are so cool – you're gonna have to get me a pair!" he laughed. "Come on, let's get you both out of here already."

Watching as the American carefully removed the parcel tape from Eun-ji's mouth, Luciel nodded in agreement. It was true that he had started to grow a bit emotionally soft recently, but he liked the way it had afforded him a totally different perspective and took him away from the mind-numbing routine he felt he'd been programmed to follow.

Eun-ji breathed a long sigh of relief and the ropes around her were loosened and she could move again. She rose to her feet, slightly shakily at first and gripped her throbbing, grazed arm. There was just enough room to squeeze between those two bars that had been forced apart, so she slipped out cautiously.

One of the other man released Luciel from the cuffs and helped him up. He walked over to Eun-ji and put both arms around her waist, squeezing her in towards him gently.

"Saeyoung. Are we safe now?" she asked, returning his touch but keeping her eyes fixed on Tom's pathetic, twitching body lying there on the ground. "I don't want anything like this to happen to us again. Promise me."

Can I really promise her anything? I don't want to. Promises are just made to be broken, aren't they?

"Listen, Eun-ji," he said, planting a quick kiss on her forehead. "I'm sorry things had to happen like this. No-one every really knows what's going to happen tomorrow, but if we can help each other, I know we can do great things. So no, I won't whisper any sweet promises into your ear. Just believe me when I say, from now on, there are no more secrets between us."

"S-Saeyoung. I want to tell you so many things, but up until now I've been too scared of your reaction." Eun-ji looked sheepish all of a sudden. It was clear that she couldn't take her gaze away from Tom. "Do we really have to stay here and watch this guy disintegrate? All I want to do right now is stay at your place so we can talk."

The third American tried to reassure her. "Don't worry, miss. Mr. Park's as good as dead now. Or at least he won't last much longer considering all the stuff we pumped into his veins."

She nodded. "Thank you. Now that I've seen first-hand what kind of boss Saeyoung was working for, I couldn't be happier that he's going to die soon." She looked tearful as she said this. "But really, how can I wish that another human being was dead? What's wrong with me?"

"It's okay Eun-ji. Don't let yourself feel guilty about it. We both have every reason to think that way. He was a nasty piece of work." Luciel swept Eun-ji's hair back behind her ears and kissed the length of her neck tenderly as he pulled her in even closer towards him. She could feel him getting a little turned on by the physical contact between them. "How about we go home and make up for the time we lost?"

Eun-ji smiled. "Well, it looks like you're hungry for something," she noted, running her fingers through his red hair playfully. "I wonder what it could be?"

"I think you already know." He teased the lower hem of Eun-ji's top and brushed his fingers slowly yet lightly across the smooth skin beneath. His hands were cold which made her flinch a little, but she couldn't deny that it felt nice all the same.

"Mmmm. I think you want something …. spicy." Eun-ji brought one leg up and casually brushed it past the front of Luciel's boxers. "You want something … satisfying," she leaned in for a kiss but stopped and tilted her head to one side, observing the subtle hints that were coming through in his expression. "You are craving something … saucy."

He licked her nose several times. It was supposed to be cute. "Oooh. You are so good at this game meow. Can you tell what it is yet meow?"

"Of course," confirmed Eun-ji, seeming very cunning all of a sudden.

"Ooh ooh ooh … You mean you really know?"

Eun-ji fist pumped the air. "LET'S. GET. PIZZA!"

Luciel giggled and jumped around excitably before embracing her tightly. "YES! This is exactly why we should be together! Guys, let me tell you something. This is true love right here! A girl who loves pizza is definitely something special."

The American men looked at one another and chuckled to themselves. The tallest one couldn't help but add a little comment.

"See, this is what I mean. South Korean romance is just like … what the fuck man?"