Chapter Text
It was after the AMAs it happened. No one had anticipated for the sudden turn of events. The boys were all happy and still high off on the wins they achieved that night. They never imagined they'll win awards at a global level like this. They also never imagined how one of their best nights will suddenly turn into their worst nightmare. Yet here they are.
Everyone was gathered in the same van after the award show to head back to their hotel. The other van with all their body guards and staff has already passed them, going ahead to prepare for the Vlive the boys were supposed to do that night. Many staff hadn't come due to the limited entry to the award show, just their manager, 2 makeup artists, their stylist and 4 bodyguards. No one else joined the van BTS was in due to the limited space. So it was just the boys and the driver.
The boys were still talking and laughing amongst themselves with inside jokes, completely in their own world. Jungkook and Teahyung has taken the back seat while jimin and hoseok sat in the middle seat infront of them. Jungkook was scrolling through Twitter and occasionally letting his hyungs know if the latest memes about them, making everyone laugh. Teahyung and jimin were busy playing a mobile game where jimin was often instructing teahyung to cover him or shoot the enemy. Hoseok was listening to music with only one earbud in place so he can still engage in conversation with the guys. In the seat infront of him was seokjin and yoongi, where seokjin was fast asleep, and yoongi was engaged in a slow conversation with namjoon who sat at the very front next to the driver. Admittedly the back of the van was noisier than the front.
Everyone was in their own worlds with little care about what was happening around them. If only they had realized the mysterious glint in the eyes of their driver, or when they took the wrong turn at the intersection, heading in the opposite direction of the hotel they were staying at. Still, even if they had noticed, nothing much would've changed, not for the better at least.
It was only after fifteen minutes of driving in the wrong direction that namjoon noticed they should’ve been back at the hotel by now, considering they found a place close by to the venue of the award ceremony. The maknaes have also gone to sleep at that point, hoseok resting his head on the window with his eyes closed, now listening to music with both of his headphone on.
Namjoon finally turned back around to face the road from where he was looking back to talk with yoongi. But instead of the bustling city in the middle of where their hotel was, he could only see the long road ahead, heading further away from the city to the point where even streetlights were far in between.
He finally looked to the driver, an American white guy who was tall, taller than him by a foot at least, and well built like he spent all of his free time at the gym.
“Sir, where are we? Shouldn’t we be back at the hotel by now?” he asked in english, in a soft voice to avoid getting the attention of the boys at the back.
He didn’t want to cause unnecessary worry, and he wanted to give the situation the benefit of the doubt. What if the streets were busy and the driver was simply taking them through a different route to avoid the traffic. He was trying not to think of the uneasy feeling in his stomach and the logical part of his brain telling him that it was the middle of the night and the streets cannot be that busy.
Even though namjoon’s voice was soft, yoongi who was sitting in the front seat right behind him, raised his head from the phone he fished out earlier after the conversation with namjoon ended. He looked towards the front where namjoon was still looking at the man waiting for a reply. His English wasn’t as good as namjoon’s, but he could very well understand the question namjoon asked.
“We’ll get there soon, we’re just taking a different route” the guy replied with a smile, briefly turning his attention away from the road to look at namjoon.
Yoongi, after hearing the driver's answer went back to his phone to read the book he had downloaded a couple days ago. He hated having to deal with ads popping up randomly while he was trying to read. It seemed namjoon had things under control. Yoongi, because he couldn’t see from where he was sitting, didn’t notice that the smile the man gave was off.
But namjoon did, and he again tried to ignore the feeling twisting in his stomach, telling him that something was wrong. After all, he got a normal enough answer for his question and he didn’t want to worry his brothers without proper cause. He stayed alert however, paying his full attention to the road now.
But after five more minutes driving in the same direction, where namjoon could see that they were now moving towards a secluded area where barely any vehicles were on the road, and the trees on either side of the road grew bigger and bigger. Namjoon finally fished out his phone from the pocket to call their manager and see what was up, because now he was getting worried.
But as he turned on the phone, he could only see the corner of the screen where it read ‘no signal’. Namjoon cursed in his mind before gathering enough courage and talking to the driver,
“Sir, please tell me where we are going. This is not the way back to the hotel”.
It was a statement, not a question anymore. His voice was louder now, grabbing the attention of both yoongi and hoseok. Yoongi put down his phone to look back at the van to see who else has heard. Only hoseok was looking back at him with a confused look on his face. Hoseok nodded his head slightly to ask what was going on, but yoongi could only shrug and look back towards the front of the van.
The guy sighed and pulled the van to a stop, before he opened the glove compartment in the driver’s side of the van looking for something. Namjoon finally looked back at yoongi and hoseok with a confused and worried look.
No one expected the next turn of events.
Before he could turn back however, he felt something pressing to the side of his head. He heard the sharp gasps of yoongi and hoseok. He could also see the panicked look on hoseok and worried face yoongi was making.
“You ask too many questions” the driver said.
Namjoon slowly turned his face toward the man again, only to come face to face with the gun the guy was holding to his head. He felt lightheaded. He took a big gulp of air because suddenly he felt like he couldn’t breathe. After what the man said, he didn’t dare to open his mouth.
“You will get your answers soon enough. So shut up and listen. I don’t want you or the two at the back to make things harder for me. Tell your friends to keep their mouths shut and not to wake up the rest. And give me your phones. And you and your friends better do what I say as I say. Get that inside your head. Or else a bullet will be inside your head instead. Tell that to your friends also” the guy continued while looking namjoon straight in the eye.
His glare itself enough to make namjoon nervous. Namjoon was silent, as were yoongi and hoseok, not wanting to make any sudden movements or sounds, also because they were simply shocked.
“Go on, tell them. I don’t have time for this” the guy said sounding frustrated. He pressed the gun to namjoon more roughly.
Namjoon finally got over his shock and translated what he said to yoongi and hoseok. Both of them also now over the initial shock. Hoseok looked scared as he handed yoongi his phone. Yoongi was fuming in rage, mad at the guy for threatening namjoon as he was, and mad at himself for not being able to do anything about the situation.
Yoongi silently passed his phone along with hoseok’s to namjoon, who handed all three phones to the guy, albeit reluctantly. The driver snatched the phones and put them into the same glove compartment from where he had fished out the gun, which was still pressed to namjoon’s head.
“Now don’t make a single sound, or else” the guy said pushing namjoon’s head slightly with the gun.
The boys understood the command without namjoon having to translate this time, putting together the few English words they knew and what namjoon translated for them earlier. And the implication of the words left unsaid was also understood by the man’s gestures. Namjoon looked terrified, yoongi could tell, his eyes were shut tightly, his brows furrowed together and sweat beads starting to form on his forehead. He once again wished he could do something to help his friends.
The man then turned to the front again, making namjoon turn with him before putting the gun to his head again, making sure not to let his control slip. He started the van again and started driving. The rest of the boys blissfully unaware of what was happening around them. No one woke up. It was only 3 or 4 minutes when the whole interaction happened, but to the rapline, it felt like an hour.
They were on the road for about another 10 minutes. Yoongi fighting himself to not wake the others and show them what was going on. Hoseok trying to keep himself from breaking down. The man pulled the van to a stop again, this time however there was a bunch of men standing next to a van similar to what they were in at the moment.
It seemed like they were in the middle of a forest somewhere, the headlights of the vans the only source of light in the dark night. One of the guys, a black man as hoseok saw, came around to the driver’s side where the driver had rolled down the window.
“You’re late mike, we thought we’d have to wait here the whole night man” the black guy said to the driver, who now hoseok knows as mike, as if they were having a casual conversation.
“I’m not that late steve, shut up. Just had to shut these three up before they caused trouble” mike replied just as casually, gesturing towards the inside of the van with his head.
Steve looked inside then, noticing the gun mike was still holding to namjoon’s head and the other two boys in the back looking like they were ready to bolt out of the place if given the chance and smirked.
“A’ight, a’ight, I’ll tell the boys to get the stuff ready. Get their phones before bringing them out.” Steve said and moved away from the window heading back to the guys near the other van, seeming to convey some message. Mike simply nodded and turned to namjoon.
“Alright pretty boy, time to wake your friends” Mike said with a sinister smile, eyeing namjoon up and down like a meal. Yoongi felt sick looking at the scene. Namjoon, for his betterment, didn’t seem to have noticed how the man was basically eye fucking him. It was for the better, yoongi thought.
“Come on RM, wake up the rest. Same drill, no sounds, hand over your phones. Though even if you do make a sound, no one will hear it now.” Mike said chuckling as if it were a funny joke.
“Tell your friends and get their help too, I don’t think you will be able to handle everyone on your own” he continued, turning namjoon to face yoongi and hoseok again.
Namjoon took a shaky inhale before translating what Mike had told him. Yoongi gritted his teeth while hoseok was glaring at Mike. Although reluctantly, the boys moved to do what was asked of them. It was chaos when Yoongi and Hoseok woke up the others. Everyone was confused before noticing the gun to Namjoon’s head and panicking. It got loud inside the van before Mike had enough and shouted.
“Shut up!” Everyone went silent at the sudden outburst.
He then looked towards Namjoon. Namjoon got the message and explained to everyone what was going on as best as he could.
“Guys, please listen. I wish I could explain to you better but even I don’t know what is going on right now. Please just don’t make too much noise and hand over your phones. Otherwise- otherwise he will use the gun” he said using the best leader voice he could muster, though his slight stuttering made it clear to the boys how nervous their leader actually was
Namjoon refused to acknowledge it, however. He had to stay strong for his team. Namjoon saw the hint of hesitancy in their eyes fade with the threat of the Mike using the gun. Everyone reluctantly handed their phones to Mike.
“See, now that wasn’t so hard was it?” Mike asked before signaling other guys outside.
Suddenly the doors of the van opened startling everyone.
“Okay, everyone get out! Don’t even think of running, or else this will be your last time seeing your beloved leader” Steve was telling the guys.
Namjoon now saw that there were seven other men standing behind Steve.
“Translate!” Mike said to Namjoon.
Namjoon did as he was asked. Then suddenly, he was being pulled out of the van by a man standing outside. Yoongi and Seokjin who was sitting at the front automatically moved to make sure Namjoon was okay.
Namjoon, sensing that the others might be worried, gave them a quick “I’m Okay” in Korean.
Everyone seemed to somewhat relax at the message. Reluctantly and slowly everyone piled out of the van.
Taehyung, the last to get out of the van could see his hyungs and Jungkook being manhandled by the men. It wasn’t long before someone was pulling his hands behind him as well.
A damp piece of cloth was being pressed to his face, covering his nose and mouth. He knew what the men were trying to do, he tried to hold his breath as much as he could. From the corner of his eyes he could see that everyone else was in a similar position. Jimin and Hoseok however seemed to already be out of it. No doubt after being forced to inhale whatever chemical the rag was drenched in. Yoongi seemed to be struggling against the man the most. However, Taehyung could see that the fight was slowly leaving him as well.
The second youngest has always been able to hold his breath for long. He liked to hold competitions with Jimin and Jungkook to see who could hold their breath the longest underwater, and he won every time. Maybe the only thing in which he could beat the maknae easily. Thinking about those times right now only made him want to cry.
By the time he finally could not hold it in and took a deep inhale of the chemical drenched rag, he had already witnessed Jungkook and all his hyungs falling unconscious in the hands these strange men. He hated how he knew he was going to face the same fate, yet there was nothing he could do about it, as he felt himself falling into unconsciousness.