hours later, the men were still devising a plan. well, mark was. jaebeom just sat at the head of the table ignoring his underlings suggestions. off at the side, jacob was occupied with two of jaebeom's hitmen, zuho and hwiyoung.
"hey kid, aren't you tired?" zuho asked, he was stood up, leaning against the wall, whilst hwiyoung was sat down to play with the toddler. jacob looked up at the scary man before shaking his head.
"are you?" jacob asked curiously. he didn't like where he was. it was dark and smelt odd to him. the unfamiliar surroundings made him feel unsafe. the lack of attention he was getting from jaebeom made it worse. whenever jake felt unsafe, he'd quickly be by his mum's side but he wasn't allowed to be anywhere near jaebeom.
zuho simply nodded his head. "one day this is gonna be you."
"yah!" hwiyoung was quick to interject his partner, "don't say that," he covered jacob's ears with his hands gently, "he's four!"
"he's also lim jaebeom's illegitimate son."
at zuho's words, hwiyoung rose to his feet at lighting speed, "do you wanna get killed?" he asked with a threatening voice, his eyes darted over to his boss, who thankfully hadn't heard them due to the distance between them. zuho pushed the younger man off of him whilst rolling his eyes in annoyance.
when zuho had sat down, jake went over to sit next to him, feeling neglected. "are you friends with my mum?" zuho gave him no response and looked dead on in front of him.
"can you call her? i miss her," the toddler's pout caught the chilling hitman off guard. jacob looked like he was going to cry and zuho didn't know what to do. "please," jake quickly added, remembering his manners.
zuho got up again with his lips pressed tightly together and made his way to his boss. nobody would dare interrupt a meeting but because it was about jake, zuho thought it was justified.
"sir, jacob says he misses y/n," zuho said quietly but everyone at the table stopped talking. jaebeom looked over at the small boy, who waved at him with his sweet smile. the feeling of guilt increased with the size of jacob's smile.
jaebeom gave the kind boy one last look, engraving his innocence into his mind, before turning away and focusing his attention on something else, something less important. his actions shocked majority of his men. most of them were fond of jake and to see the man, who was supposedly his guardian, not do anything was heartbreaking.
"another video was sent!" one voice called out, catching everyone's attention.
the video was displayed on the large screen. the scarce lighting made it harder to see but once y/n's cries for help were heard, it left little to the imagination. once she was seen, rope tied around her limbs forcing her into a wooden chair, the atmosphere in the room dropped. no one dared to even breathe.
"do you know why you're here?" a voice snarled as they grabbed her hair with a vice grip causing whimpers to fall from y/n's lips. from the video, the man was hanbin, the leader of the gang. after receiving nothing but cries from y/n, as tears flooded her cheeks, he spoke again. "because you're boyfriend needs to learn a lesson."
"i-i know no-nothing," her nervous stutter caused the man to laugh at her, "jaebeom.. t-tells me n-nothing."
"i wonder who i should hurt more, you or him?" hanbin drew a pocket knife out to trace the sharp end over the top of y/n's bare thighs. "if i scar you, you'll never be able to forgive him," hanbin crouched down so that he was levelled with y/n, blocking the view of what his weapon was doing. "...would you? what's better, ruining lim jaebeom's life for, probably, a few weeks, or turning his girlfriend against him?"
a few moments of silence passed, giving everyone who was watching the video a sense of relief, she had only been interrogated. however, it was the calm before the storm. y/n's shrilling screams of pain were heard. loud and clear.
once hanbin has risen to his feet, they could see that the previous knife he held in his hand, had been plunged into the flesh of y/n's thigh.
the video ended with someone dragging the knife along her thigh and another gagging her mouth to silence her screams.
"is that..." the small feeble voice was heard though the pin-drop silent room, "my mum?" every single head in the room snapped their gazes to jacob, they had all forgotten his existence and their actions scared him entirely. "tell me! i want my mum! where is she?" as the child began to cry, mark was the first to act, he scooped jacob into his arms and took him outside away from a place no child should have been in, in the first place.
