Chapter 12

"Who?"

"Scoups hyung"

Mingyu's eyes widened. He looked at Scoups. Surprisingly (or not so surprisingly), he was calmly smiling in Jeno's direction. Scoups would have been angry at Jeno, if he had chosen the others. Even though he knew he would have to go through torture, he felt happy on the inside, since the others were not going to go through this.

Jungkook looked at Mingyu. He has always heard praises from his friends (DK, Mingyu, The8) about Scoups. He felt bad seeing Mingyu looking at the verge of a panic attack. He was like the "Happy go lucky" one in their friends group.

Dongwook was delighted with the choice.

"No!!" the strong rejection came from Dino while Mingyu started to put an arm on Scoups as if to protect him.

"Alright then, how about you, fiercy boy? Let's start from you" said the man pointing towards Dino.

"No!" this one came from Scoups.

If Dino's tone was full of fear and shock, Scoups' was way more composed than that. Well at least he tried to make it sound that way.

"I'll do it" said Scoups.

"What?! No! Hyung" protested Dino

"Chan-ah, better me than any of you" said Scoups.

"No.." said Hyuka, tears were running down his face.

"It's okay, I will be fine" said Scoups, "They won't kill me" 

"Seungcheol.." said Taehyung but he didn't know what to say. "No, please.." said Dino, his voice was shaking.

But they all were too scared.

"I'll do it" said Seungcheol, standing up.

Dino tried to stop him but Mingyu held him.

"They will hurt you too Chan-ah, I'm sorry" said Mingyu, keeping his arms tight around the boy.

Dino and Mingyu were holding each other, they didn't know what would happen to their hyung but 'the show' that man wanted to make couldn't possibly be good.

Everyone wanted to stop the men from hurting Seungcheol but guns were pointed at them. If they made a wrong move, they were afraid that they would really use it.

Jeno was crying in the corner in guilt. Seungcheol passed him a small smile so as to reassure him that he made a good choice.

Nathan made Seungcheol walk to the center of the room then forced him to kneel down. 

"The camera is on, boss"

"Good" said Nathan.

Another man walked up to Nathan and handed him something.

"It..It's a...whip.." muttered Dino out of shock and disbelief, he knew what would happen next and it scared him to death, it scared all of them to death.

Nathan was holding a long whip on his right hand as he stood close to Seungcheol.

Seungcheol desperately wanted to cry too but he had to be strong for them, he had to.

The man swung the whip hard and it hit the floor, making a really loud sound, sending shivers down their spines. Seungcheol's heart started beating faster.

"Please no.." begged Dino, sobbing hard. He was about to witness his hyung being lashed right before his eyes.

Seungcheol looked at Dino and Mingyu and smiled, "It's okay", he mouthed. He closed his eyes and gritted his teeth, he was determined not to make a sound.

Then the first lash came, it hit his back hard and sent him falling down forward. For a second, Scoups saw stars swimming around in his vision. 

Screams of shock from the others filled the room while laughters came from the kidnappers.

At least he succeeded in making no sound, something he could be proud of.

Seungcheol got back up again, he could definitely take more as long as the bastard didn't do it to the others.

When the second lash came, it was stronger than before and yet, he was still able to seal his mouth shut despite the burning sensation on his back.

His could taste blood from his own lips as he bit them real hard, his back felt sore but he tried to ignore the pain there.

However, it was the tenth lash when Seungcheol couldn't hold his scream back any longer, his lips were bleeding since he bit it so hard in order to swallow his screams and the whip even ripped his shirt a little.

"AKKKHHH!!" screamed Seungcheol as the leather strap tore his smooth skin.

His back was covered in long red marks everywhere, some were bleeding, some were just really red.

Seungcheol still got back up again. He was barely aware of his surroundings anymore.

All he could think was pain.

He was feeling dizzy from all the pain, breathing was something that became a hard thing to do.

"Please, that's enough!!" screamed Jungkook but why would the psycho listen to him?

"You son of a bitch! Stop!!" yelled Mingyu.

Even though Seungcheol was a mess, they didn't stop hitting him.

The last whip sent him falling down but this time he couldn't get up anymore. 

His eyes were barely open, face was wet with tears and blood smeared his clothes a bit.

And just like that he left Seungcheol there, tossing the whip aside and walked to the rest.

Dongwook came forward. He signalled his men. Seungcheol was forced to lie down on his stomach. 3-4 men pinning him down. Well the show was not finished, it seemed.

Dongwook pulled Seungcheol's shirt up. He stared at his back. His pale skin was marred with various bruises from the whip.

Then he got to work.

A few drops of unknown liquid came in contact with his open wounds on his back that sent Scoups screaming hysterically in an instant.

"It's a mix of salt, lemon, and water, do you like it?" asked Dongwook as he poured more on Seungcheol's back.

Seungcheol was writhing around really hard, trying to stop the pain but he couldn't.

He never experienced this kind of pain before and he would definitely choose death over this.

The others started yelling at them to stop. But they were ignored, no matter how loud they screamed.

Meanwhile Seungcheol's vision was mostly blurred by his own tears, his breathing was ragged, and he felt more weak than ever.

"Please...stopppp.." cried Seungcheol, he felt drained out.

"But we just began" said Dongwook as he without pity poured a large amount of the liquid on his back, sending Seuncheol screaming at the top of his lungs.

"Do you want more?", asked Dongwook.

"I think he does", said Nathan instead of Seungcheol.

"No..no..no more" slurred Seungcheol.

"Don't cry, I will only use alcohol now", mocked Dongwook.

Seungcheol didn't even have the chance to say another word when Dongwook poured the whole bottle on his back. 

His whole back was burning and he lost his strength to the pain and screaming.

This continued on for a while. At Most 3-4 bottles of alcohol were used. Seungcheol had fallen unconscious during the process. The men let go of him after that.

Mingyu and Dino were a crying mess. The screams of their hyung haunted their minds.

Nathan suddenly pulled Hyuka by force.

"Let him go!!" yelled Taehyung but that fell on deaf ears.

Nathan threw the boy at the center. Dongwook, who till that time was admiring Seungcheol, came out of his trance and handed Hyuka a paper.

"Read exactly the words mentioned. If you add or remove even a single word, I'll whip him more, understood?" said Dongwook.

"Y-yes.." said Hyuka

"Now read it while looking at the camera" said Dongwook, "Remember, don't try anything funny", he warned.

Hyuka took a really deep breath, then he started reading.

"Taehyung and Jungkook of BTS, Scoups, Mingyu and Dino of Seventeen, Kai and Chanyeol of Exo, Hyunjin and Felix of Stray Kids, Jeno and Jisung of NCT and Huening Kai of TXT are now my hostages. If you ever want to see them alive again, the companies must pay a total amount of 10 billion won."

Tears escaped Hyuka's eyes, that was a really large amount of money.

"You need to send the money in the address provided by us. You have a week's time. If you don't fulfill the demand, you can say goodbye to your idols."

The man ended the recording and took the camera outside.

After that they just left them there.