A/N: I'm not content with this, but this is nanowrimo and a word count is a word count. Hope y'all stick with me either way!

“Chen, do you have any news?” Kris asked hastily into the phone, closing the door to his study behind him without so much as a glance back. “I’m doing great Kris, thanks so much for asking” came the sarcastic reply of his old friend and the man in charge of finding Amber’s whereabouts. “Besides Kris, you know I can’t give you any information over the phone.”

“When can we meet?” he replied instantly, eagerness dripping from his words as he paced around the room. A light chuckle drifted into his ears and Kris clenched the phone in his hands “Chen.”

“Relax Kris, I figured you’d want to know right away. I’m outside right now, if you’ll let me in I’ll let you know what I found.”

Kris’ grip on the phone didn’t let up, he could practically hear the blood pounding in his ears. Chen might not have known it, but knowing him he did, and it had been vague but he’d hinted that he’d found something, or maybe even found Amber. “Kris you there?” He blinked Chen’s voice bringing him back, “Yeah, yeah, just knock, you’ll be escorted to my study.”

With that he hung up leaving Chen to press his lips angrily at his phone, although Kris was his friend he absolutely hated it when people hung up on him. But he wouldn’t let it get to him, after years of searching for any trace of Amber, this was a victory for him too. He finally had something to report back to Kris.

Just as Kris had said he was escorted to his study, where he briefly caught glimpse of Kris’ wife who seemed to be sitting solemnly at the dining table. She definitely knew who he was, so she definitely knew he was there to deliver news about the one woman who could turn her life upside down.

He sort of felt bad for her, she had to spend her life married to man who didn’t love her. A man who would never love her because his heart already belonged to a missing girl. He couldn’t dwell on the thought though Kris had hired him personally. Not long after he had gotten his post as a missing person’s detective in the police force. Although nothing was ever openly said he knew that the main reason he had gotten his job was because Kris had used his connections and position as head of one of the country’s top companies to get him the spot. So he always felt like owed this to Kris, and now he was finally going to be able to pay him back.

“Thank you, Min. Please bring the detective some coffee please.” Were the first words out of Kris’ mouth as he stepped into his study. Kris might have been putting on a cool front but he knew that he was probably anxious to know what he had to share, just as he was itching to tell him. But they stayed calm and waited in silence until the maid had given Chen his coffee and walked out of the room. Once he was sure they were alone, Kris let out a heavy sigh, his body obviously tense from his anxiety “Di-“  he cleared his throat, as he settled into his seat “Did you find something?”

Stirring some creamer into his coffee Chen nodded seemingly more focused on his coffee than anything else. “First and foremost, she’s alive.”

At first Kris didn’t react he sat there staring at Chen almost as if daring him to tell him it was a lie. When the other didn’t retract his words it dawned on him Chen was telling the truth. He let a shaky breath out, his mind still processing that enormous piece of information. He had prayed so many times that she wouldn’t be dead and now that he knew that she was out there somewhere, there was still hope that he’d see her again. That he’d find her and apologize for whatever it was that made her run away. And he’d make never appreciating her until she was gone up to her, and he’d take her and her mom somewhere they could all be together, far away from the company, his mom, and from anyone or anything that would keep them apart.

Chen waited until he deemed that he had given Kris enough time to wrap his head around the fact before continuing, it wasn’t all just good news. “That being said, it’s been incredibly hard to trace her.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well at first I thought she was running from you, covering up her tracks so that no one could find her, and she was doing it so flawlessly that well I had to think she had to have been with someone else. Amber, no matter how smart she is, would not have known how to clear up everything but whoever she was with did. So I thought, maybe she was kidnapped? But that didn’t make sense at all because if she was kidnapped I think they would’ve asked you for her ransom years ago.”

“No one has asked me for money.” Kris replied his eyebrows furrowing in thought. Amber was just the daughter of his family maid, or at least that’s what the public was supposed to think. There would be no reason for anyone to kidnap her.

“I know, so that couldn’t have been it. Remember how I told you I had asked for access to the records of all important incidents on the day she disappeared?”

Kris nodded listening intently to every word that was coming from Chen’s mouth. “Well there were a few minor incidents I didn’t look into because I figured they wouldn’t be related. I was wrong. On the day Amber disappeared there was an accident on the road Amber would’ve taken to get to you. Well the car was burned to a crisp nothing was left behind, but a slight detail was over looked, there was no sign of the driver anywhere. No ashes in the car, no body anywhere near the place, no one taken to any of the hospitals around to be treated for burns. And the license plates of the car had been taken off the car so it wasn’t able to be traced to any owners. The police had chalked it up as vandalism or someone trying to use the insurance on the car but no one ever did report the missing car. Despite all of the burns there were a few things the police could tell me, the make, the year, and the original color.” He paused bringing the cup of coffee to his lips “It was a black, 2010 Kia Optima.”

“Amber’s” Kris replied interlacing his fingers in front of his mouth, elbows resting on the desk between them. “Exactly. So I broadened my search of the hospitals to injured women taken to the surrounding hospitals, I looked through each and every one and nothing. I was sure I had hit a stump when I noticed a small clinic located in what seemed to be in the middle of nowhere just a little ways off the surrounding area I had checked.” Chen finally moved the cup to his mouth taking a cautious sip so as to not burn himself before setting the cup back down and leaning back against his chair. “It was a small rural clinic with only three doctors on site. I asked to look through their records and there was a woman admitted to the clinic that night with severe head trauma. According to the nurses she had short dyed blonde hair, and was about 165 cm tall. Sound familiar?”

Kris shot up suddenly unable to keep seated, “It’s her. It has to be her. Tell me you found her.” Chen too stood up gesturing for Kris to calm down, “Let me tell you, but you have to stay calm Kris.” He knew it was asking a lot, Kris had been looking for this woman for almost three years now, and now he finally had some information that could possibly lead him to her. He took a few several deep breathes and regained his composure. “Sorry. Continue.”

Chen nodded giving Kris a light smile “The doctor that treated her was a man by the name Zhang Yixing, who at first would not give me any information on the case. He insisted it was patient doctor confidentiality, he would not speak to me until I had proof that I was in fact an actual detective working for the Korea, and that I had permission to be working in China. Not only that I had to prove that Amber was in fact a missing person. I was surprised he was asking for so much information but after he explained everything I knew why. The woman didn’t have any sort of identification on her, and she was brought in by a man who claimed to be her husband saying they had no health insurance and couldn’t afford to take her to any of the large hospitals. Doctor Yixing is known around the area for being inordinately kind so it didn’t surprise anyone when he accepted them into the clinic anyway.”