Author's POV:

Forgiveness. 

You were currently working on this. Taehyung, as he said, actually gave you a phone. Your phone. He returned it. Though it took him 5 days to do so and lots of stuff happened in between...

And one of them was Joel's escaping. Yeah, that evil dude... escaped. 

The words of Jo were still vivid in your mind as you remembered how panicked and tense the entire mansion was when he escaped. 

—Flashback

"I swear he was tied and there were 32 guards outside! I can't understand how he escaped! I'm sure he's related to some cult and knows how to do magic! He literally vanished in thin air!" 
"I'm sure someone deceived us. Someone from our men deceived us." 
"But sir, what if it's magic?!" Jo asked, panicking.

"Who fed you those weird lies?!"
"Miss Y/N said it was possibl-"
"I did not!" You immediately protested. Taehyung narrowed his eyes at you and then Jo.
"I only said that it was magic that he escaped. I said it out of surprise. I wasn't being literal?!" 

Taehyung sighed and shook his head as Jo said, "Why are you even here? This is a mafia talk!"
"You're screaming in the entire house... might even let the passers-by know," Taehyung spoke as you nodded. Jo sighed and massaged his forehead in frustration.
"We were supposed to kill him today. We have already got all the property back... but he escaped!"
"At least you all did something."

"Him escaping means... Miss Y/N's in danger too." Jo's statement made you stare at them a little shocked. Right, you were one of his targets. Ever since your first encounter, he always targetted you. 
You held your wrists lightly and looked down, feeling uncomfortable. 
"She's safe. I'm going to protect her." Taehyung said as you looked up at him. He sounded legit. But you still felt a little scared. The way he talked about you, threatened you and touched you the last time.

You remember showering so hard that your waists became almost red due to scrubbing so hard.

"You're safe," Taehyung spoke near your ear as you gulped, looking away. He sighed and said, "We have sent men to search for him. Any clue and we'll catch him."  

—End of Flashback 

Right now, you were using a meditating app which you recently installed on your phone. You weren't allowed to make calls, of course. He somehow made your contacts disappear. He basically stole your SIM card but anyway, you couldn't even say a thing.

At least you got your phone.

You couldn't even trust yourself these days. The stubborn you, the one who never agreed to adjust in any unfamiliar or unwanted situation and always rebelled were now trying to adjust. 21 days was enough to change habits, they said. And it had been 34 days that you were here. Maybe somehow, you learnt a new habit—adjusting. 

You looked down and sighed, trying to shrug off those thoughts. At least you could cherish your pictures with Tzuyu and other memories on your phone. At least he gave you the phone. It was a good thing he did. You were now feeling a little better in here. Not that worse than before. Every day, the feeling improved, it became better. Because he finally started being better, he wasn't all cold.

He was... but not as worse as before. 

It was as if he was waiting for you to accept them first. And after you accepted them, after you opened a piece of mind for the goodness which existed in them, you realized it was getting better. Not like you were actually going to be on good terms with your kidnapper. But wherever it was going—not your concern for now.

'People hurt each other. But the key to happiness is by forgiving the ones who've hurt us. That's the real key to being happy. Forgiving others does not make us a loser, it makes us a better version of ourselves. It makes us a great one. Every sincere apology deserves to be forgiven. The forgiver is not the loser, they are the winner of the game. They are the winner of their life who set their way of happiness.' 

You listened to the woman speak as you took deep breaths, intaking her words. Right, Forgiveness makes people better. 

"Forgiving people around us... do the people around me deserve to be forgiven? Their crime is not acceptable."

'There's good in bad and bad in good. If someone truly wishes to be better and apologizes sincerely, it should be our duty to give them a second chance. After all, humans are liable to errors and a second chance can truly change us and the world.' 

"Is this some church speech? What if the person is a snake? I gave a second chance to my 5th-grade bestie once and she just dumped my forgiveness on me. Gosh, I couldn't get over that shit until 9th grade." You scoffed and continued trying to meditate. 

"Must've been the wrong person, then." You heard a deep voice making you jolt up. You turned around to see Taehyung entering the room with a plant in his hand. He kept the plant near the window as you said, "What's wrong with you?!"
"You were speaking loudly, not my fault."
"Gosh."

You rolled your eyes and tried to focus on meditating. He looked at you and asked, "Are you meditating?"
"I think you have eyes and a brain to know that by yourself." He raised a brow, tilting his head at your reply. You didn't bother and tried to take deep breaths again but sighed, looking at him.
"Leave?"
"Come out for lunch quickly." He said and left as you rolled your eyes, trying to focus back.

Taehyung stood outside the room, staring at you inside the room.
"She says she's kidnapped. We say she's kidnapped. But it never seems like it." He whispered to himself but almost flinched hearing a voice coming from beside him. It was Jo saying, 

"You're right. It's like we all are enemies living in the same house. Kidnapper-kidnapped is just a title which probably doesn't even apply to this situation!"

He sighed and shook his head asking, "Any information about Joel?"
"I think he escaped somewhere out of our reach. He has his men gathering I believe... but we can't track them." 
"Search thoroughly. Use the best hackers in our team if necessary." 
"Yes, sir." 

Taehyung nodded and walked inside his office, sitting on his desk. Jo followed him, standing near him and spoke, "We tried to gain some information about Mr Choi... we couldn't really gather any information. It seems to be safer than we expected. We still do not have any idea who knows where the gold mine is."
"It's a literal mine yet it's so confidential. The papers hidden in the mine are really necessary for us. It has all the proof of the year when Mr Choi died, Mr Lee's corruption and... my father's evil deeds. To get justice, we need to find the mine."

"Just a thought but... what if Mr Choi knew?" Jo's question made Taehyung's head perk up as he raised a brow, staring at him. 
"Then it'll be highly complicated. Finding information, hidden by the dead." 
Jo sighed and sat down, looking at Taehyung writing the key points on a paper. 

Joel. Gold Mine. Mr Choi. Mr Lee. Mr Kim. Proof. Papers. Justice. 

It was a mystery. An unsolved mystery. The reason for your kidnapping. 

"Sir." Jo suddenly spoke as Taehyung looked at him, raising a brow. He opened his mouth, hesitating for a few moments until he spoke, "Just asking out of curiosity but... do you hate Miss Y/N? I've asked this before in New York but... you seem to be very lax on her. She causes trouble but you never really punish her in a bad way." 
"It's only because she's innocent. You were the one who kidnapped the wrong one."
"Do you know Miss Y/N from before...? You didn't seem to be very ignorant to her at first. You never paid much attention to other people who had been in the basements before. Though this matter is different... do you perhaps... you know, just- have a soft spot for women?" 

"What are you trying to imply?" Taehyung asked as Jo said, "No.. I mean... it just seems a little suspicious. Your gentle behaviour towards someone who's being that rebellious. Though she seems to have been improving. Do you trust her?"
"No. We can't trust someone who's dying to get us dead." 
"I'm not sure she does. She didn't run away that day." Jo said, wondering about that day in the amusement park. 

"Maybe because she knew that it was dangerous for her instead. Or maybe she tried but failed." 
"Right. No sane human would ever stay loyal to her own kidnapper. It would be straight-up foolishness."
"She's insane," Taehyung spoke, his voice sounding like he said something very obvious. Something he knew very well—and was highly confident about.

Jo smiled and nodded, getting up.
"Let's grab some lunch."
"We should." 

???'s POV: 

"Gosh, how many times do I have to repeat myself?!" The man with a few grey hair strands popping out from his raven hair spoke. Another man beside him, wearing a grey suit sighed and continued, "This plan is dangerous."
"But Lee. You know well that if we don't stop that motherf*cker, he'll destroy us." The man with his raven hair spoke. 
"Kim Taewoo. You have to understand that this is not the time to be swayed with anger. He is your son, Kim. You raised him into whatever he has become today—a disgrace to our entire industry. Being a mafia and standing up against corruption? This guy really lost some brain cells and you failed to give them to him." The man in the grey suit said. 
"As if you succeeded in protecting your daughter's very best friend. You protected your daughter but gave away another member of the family. In fact, someone who was even more useful than your daughter, Lee Taereung."

"Shut up. Y/N has no idea about the mines." Lee Taereung spoke as Kim scoffed. 
"She doesn't need to. What if she spills anything about her father's death? I know Taehyung very well. I raised him. He was quick-witted and understands the whole plot in just a few lines. If he gets the hint of Choi's involvement in this matter, it won't take a minute for him to extract everything out of that hostage he's taken in." 

"It's only Choi who knows where the mine is. We are still working on finding it. Choi is dead. Daniel is dead. He's never coming back and the information is never going to be leaked. We will find the mine before him and destroy all evidence working against us that Choi hid. And we'll win. That b*stard son of yours will die." Lee Taereung spoke, gripping tightly to the wine glass as Kim's jaws hardened. 
"I'll kill him with my own hands if he does anything against me."