Ch 9
A/N: Hello! I wanted to say thank you for all of your comments and follows and favs! You guys have inspired me so much and have made my day on multiple occasions. I get SO excited when I get a new review, I would've never been able to complete this fic without your encouragement. So thank you!
It's not quite complete yet though! There should be one more chapter after this. I made a few risky decisions in this chapter so I'd love to hear your feedback! Thank you guys! Hope you enjoy ~
He heard choked screams from a distance and it took him longer than he wanted to accept for him to figure out who they belonged to… MC. He used every ounce of strength left in him to drag himself towards the sound. He was in agonizing, burning pain. It felt like torture. Part of him wished he was already dead, but he had to save her, he had to.
He did his best to make his mangled and bloody body work. Not able to properly crawl because of his leg, he used his arms to drag his weight forward, trying to follow the sound of her broken screams. The sound got louder as he moved, and it made him more determined to get to her. He followed the screams until they were painfully loud, and then, suddenly, they stopped. Sheer panic rose in his chest as silence met his ears. He was too late, he was sure of it. But then, he heard her gentle voice breathe out his name.
"Zen…?" MC's whisper was barely audible, her voice ragged and strained. As Zen entered the room, Yoosung had removed his hand from her throat and stepped back, releasing her as he grinned sadistically, watching Zen's feeble attempts to pull himself towards her.
"Zen," MC cried out again, this time louder and it was followed by a horrified sob. She ran towards him and dropped to her knees. "Oh my god, Zen," she sobbed as she grabbed his torso to pull him onto her lap, ignoring the blood that covered her body when she did so. Zen opened his mouth to say her name, but a groan of pain came out instead. "What did he do to you?" she choked out, trying not to hurt him as she held him against her.
Her tears fell onto his face, washing away some of the blood in small streams. "Can you see me?" she whispered and Zen tried to shake his head response. MC began sobbing again as she rocked him back and forth in her arms. "I'm so sorry, Zen. This is all my fault. I'm sorry, please, I'm sorry," she repeated hysterically.
Zen lifted one of his arms, blindly searching for her face. She grabbed his hand and pressed it against her cheek. He could feel how wet her skin was with tears and tried to smile despite himself. "Don't…" he managed to whisper, his lips pulling up a bit at the edges.
Yoosung let out a low growl and stomped across the room. He grabbed Zen's arms and pulled his hand away from MC. He continued to drag him until he was a few feet away from her, ignoring her desperate pleas. He dropped to his knees and grabbed Zen's hair with one hand to forcefully pull him into sitting up, the other reaching behind him to grab the large knife he still carried.
"Say goodbye, MC!" Yoosung sang, though his voice was low and aggressive. He pressed the knife against Zen's throat, digging the blade into his skin till there was a steady stream of blood flowing down to his chest.
"Yoosung, don't!" MC tried to cry out, but it was too late. He dragged the knife across Zen's neck, pressing it into his flesh as he sliced at an agonizingly slow pace. Zen let out a strangled cry, choking on his own blood, and thrashed relentlessly in an attempt to get away from Yoosung. And then his body went still, lifelessly hitting the floor as Yoosung pulled the knife away and stood up.
MC fell forward as her tortured screams echoed through the room. Her forehead hit the floor and she wrapped her arms around herself as she gasped out desperate sobs, her entire body shaking. Yoosung walked towards her, smiling sweetly. "No!" she screamed, "Get away from me!" She tried to crawl away from him, not having the strength to get to her feet.
"Now now, MC," he said with a mocking frown, "Be a good girl."
"Get away from me!" she repeated through shaky gasps.
Yoosung kneeled down in front of her and grabbed her chin roughly. "We can be happy now. Don't make me hurt you like I hurt Zen, baby."
"Don't call me that!" she screamed and tried to shove him away.
He clicked his tongue and shook his head in disappointment. "Why couldn't you just love me, MC? Why'd you have to let him do this to us?" He brought the knife up and pressed it against her cheek, almost caressing it. The blade slid down the hallow of her cheek, leaving a fresh trail of blood in its path.
There was a sudden shift in his expression, his eyes brightened and he smiled, gazing at her lovingly. "You're so beautiful, Rika," he whispered, "So beautiful like this. You'll be mine forever. Just like this, and you'll never leave me again. Right?" he started laughing and brought the knife up, angling it over her chest. She closed her eyes and waited for the killing blow. "I love you, Rika. And now you'll love me. Forever."
Seven sat at his computer, mindlessly typing codes in as his mind wandered to MC. He couldn't help but worry about her a bit. He had called her earlier but her phone seemed to be off. One of his hands wandered to the almost empty can of Ph.D Pepper that sat next to his keyboard as the other continued typing. He let out a low growl of frustration as the word "ERROR" covered his computer screen and all the codes he'd been working on disappeared.
"Focus, Seven." He muttered to himself, quickly working to fix his mistakes before all his progress was lost. He finished one task and automatically moved to the next, though his hands hovered over the keyboard hesitantly before he began typing again. "I should check the RFA chatroom," he said out loud, using his laptop instead of his phone so the others wouldn't know. There had been no new chats since Zen and Yoosung's fight. "Weird," he frowned.
Seven tried to shift his attention back to work, but couldn't keep his focus. After a few minutes of needless mistakes and silent cursing, he gave up and decided to check the CCTV cameras that were still in Rika's apartment. "I mean, it couldn't hurt," he tried to reason with himself, feeling embarrassed that he was being so paranoid. "It also wouldn't hurt to stop talking to yourself," he continued, feeling annoyed with the anxiety that wouldn't seem to fade.
He pulled up a new screen that showed the different sections of the apartment, his eyes scanned over it quickly, looking for any disturbances. It only took a few seconds for him to shove himself away from the computer, almost knocking his chair back in the process. He stared at the screen in disgusted horror, trying to find a reason for what he saw. This had to be a mistake, maybe something went wrong with the system…
No. He knew what he was seeing was real, he knew what Yoosung was capable of, it was why he was checking everything so obsessively to begin with. He grabbed his phone, quickly dialing Jumin's number and trying to push back the urge to gag that hadn't left since he saw the screen. "Fuck," he hisses as Jumin's phone went to voicemail. He hung up and dialed Jaehee's number, silently praying that she'd answer.
"This is Jaehee Kang, Director Jumin Han's assistant, how may I help you?" her calm voice came through the phone and Seven let out a small sigh of relief.
"Jaehee! I need to talk to Jumin. Like, now."
"I'm sorry, Seven, but Mr. Han's in a meeting with-"
"I don't care," he cut her off, too frustrated to feel guilty, "Get him out of it. I don't care how you do it but I need to talk to him immediately."
Jaehee was quiet for a moment, caught off guard by Seven's aggressive tone. "I can't just pull him out of a meeting, this is my job, Seven, and I can't afford to-"
"Jaehee," Seven interrupted her again, "This is an emergency. It's about MC. Get him to call me now."
Jaehee let out an aggravated sigh. "Give me just a minute." she said before hanging up without another word.
Seven silently thanked her and grabbed his car keys before rushing out the door. He hesitated for just a moment before running back in to grab his gun and then hurried to his car. "Please, God, don't let me need this," he mumbled, shoving his gun and phone onto the seat next to him before taking off, driving to Rika's apartment at a speed he knew would have MC yelling at him in seconds.
Jaehee took a deep breathe as she stood in front of the office doors. She could hear the meeting being held inside. Mr. Han's voice was quiet, professional, but she could tell he cared about this business deal more than he was letting off. After a moment of hesitation, she knocked on the door and the voices stopped abruptly. She opened the door to see a room full of well dressed men staring at her, most of their expressions were unreadable, except for Mr. Han.
"Assistant Kang," he said quietly, but she could hear the irritation in his voice and her body filled with dread, "What's so important that you felt it was appropriate to interrupt us?"
"I'm sorry, Mr. Han" she replied, not making eye contact, "but you're needed for a separate affair. It's an emergency, sir."
He stared at her in disbelief for a moment and she almost instantly regretted listening to Seven. "And what is this emergency, Assistant Kang?" he spoke in a tense voice.
"It's about," Jaehee stopped for a moment, trying to think of something that would persuade him enough to not be angry with her, "Elizabeth the 3rd, sir."
Jumin stood up immediately. He made a quick apology to the men that sat around the table and then quickly walked out of the room, Jaehee following close behind. Once the door shut behind them he turned to her, his eyebrows furrowed with concern,
"What is it, Assistant Kang? Is she okay? What happened to my princess? Where is she?" he began questioning her frantically and Jaehee had to suppress the urge to roll her eyes.
"She's fine, Mr. Han. Seven just called me and insisted I pull you out of your meeting. He wants you to call him immediately," she explained. Jumin stared at her and she quickly continued before he decided to return to his meeting, or fire her, "He said it was an emergency, about MC."
He frowned for a moment before dialing Seven's number, he answered almost immediately. "What on Earth is so important that your forced my assistant to lie to me and pull me out of an incredibly important business deal that-"
"Woah, I didn't tell her to lie to you," Jaehee heard Seven's muffled voice cut him off from the other side of the phone, "Just get you out of your meeting. Yoosung kidnapped Zen and MC and they're at Rika's apartment. You know the address, right?"
"Yes, but just because they're at Rika's apartment doesn't mean he kidnapped them," Jumin tried to reason but Seven interrupted again. He seemed to have a habit of doing that today.
"Jumin, I'm not an idiot and I know you aren't either. I saw them on the CCTV camera, so cut the crap and meet me over there, now. He's going to hurt her if we don't hurry."
Jumin was quiet for a moment as he processed the words. "Is Zen okay?" Jaehee asked, not able to hold her tongue any longer. They waited in silence for a moment then Jumin began to repeat her question.
"I heard her," Seven interrupted. "Just… get over there, okay? I'm already on my way but you're closer to the apartment then I am and… I don't want to waste anymore time."
"Okay," Jumin said quietly, "Okay, I'll be there soon." He hung up the phone and looked at Jaehee, her eyes were slightly bright from the tears forming in them but other than that she looked calm. "I think you should stay here, Assistant Kang. A women shouldn't be involved in these manners."
"With all due respect, Mr. Han," Jaehee said slowly, "I think I would be much more effective in these types of situation than yourself. I don't wish to disrespect your authority, but you're not leaving me here."
Jumin sighed before grabbing her hand, a movement that would've made her flinch in any other situation, and pulling her down the hallway. He called for a driver as they rushed down stairs silently, neither of them wanting to admit the reality of the situation.
MC kept her eyes shut tight, awaiting the painful blow. She knew she should fight, try to get away, scream like Zen did. Like Zen did. But she couldn't, she couldn't bring herself to care whether she lived or died. At this point, she was ready to die, she just wanted this to be over.
"I love you, Rika. And now you'll love me. Forever."
His voice made her sick, and the irony of the situation was almost laughable. She still felt the tears pouring down her face, causing the fresh cut on her cheek to sting, but she wasn't scared. The seconds seemed to pass by too slowly, visions of Zen filled her mind, and she was desperate for this to end, she just wanted to forget, wanted all of this to be… gone.
A loud bang echoed through the room, sounding almost like a gun shot. She thought she heard a soft thud, followed by heavy footsteps. She didn't want to open her eyes, but she knew she had to eventually.
She opened them slowly, blinking away tears as her eyes focused on someone running towards her. "S-Seven?" she whispered.
"MC! Oh my god, are you okay?" he cried. He was missing his jacket and his glasses were crooked. His short red hair looked like a tangled mess and she swore she saw tears in his eyes. He grabbed her waist and pulled her onto her feet and she immediately fell against his chest. "MC, I'm so sorry. Are you hurt? God, there's so much blood. Can you talk? Please, MC, tell me you're okay." His voice sounded desperate and she whimpered in response.
"Seven…" she tried to speak, but she couldn't get the words out. She felt his arms around her and her feet weren't on the floor anymore. She heard his voice, apologizing, telling her she'd be okay, promising it was over. She hoped he was right, she hoped it was over. His voice started to fade out as her eyes closed and began to loose consciousness.