Sunday, 6:00PM

"Your call has been forward to an automated voicemail system. Please leave a message after the-"

"Dammit, Yuna!" 

"Everything okay, Ji-na?" 

The older woman asked, pushing the double doors open and stepping into the balcony of the fifteen story office building. 

The sun was setting, slowly disappearing behind the city ahead, washing it over with the summer's typical orange hue.

"You've seemed distressed since yesterday."

"It's nothing Sajang-nim, I... I can't contact my daughter and I'm getting a tad worried." She sighed, slipping her mobile phone into her pocket and chugging down the rest of the coffee in the cup she had bought moments earlier.

"With 'a tad' you must mean extremely, judging by the look on your face." 

She nodded, unable to hide her worry.

"I've tried calling her about a million times since this morning and her phone is simply off. It isn't like her at all. There's also this... This feeling that I can't seem to brush off my shoulder... It's like... I don't even know."

"I can dismiss you earlier from the training program if you'd wish."

"Sajang-nim! That is not necessary! This is the yearly program, all employees are to attend, no exceptions and-"

"Ji-na." She said, raising her hand. "Firstly, I am a mother too and that's already saying it all. Plus, you have more than once proven yourself to be an exemplary and hard-working member of our company. Granted you already nailed the whole program, which I'm not even doubting for a second, I am hereby dismissing you with no consequences whatsoever attached."

"Sajang-nim..."

"Go home to your daughter. And let me know if you need anything. But hopefully you will find everything in place."

Bowing slightly and before the other one could say anything else, the older woman turned around and went back inside to tend to her own affairs.

After looking over the city one last time, the younger woman proceeded to head back to her room to start packing.

The uneasy feeling in her gut intensified each second.

Yu-na... Please be safe.

🕒 

Sunday, 7:48PM

I sat on the sidewalk in front of Octagon.

Having been here the whole day waiting for it to be time to open, it gave me way too much time to torture myself thinking.

Thinking about Hoseok and Suga, at the hands of the cartel. Had Hoseok been beaten up too? Was Suga still bleeding? I also thought of what must Mr. Jung be doing. Would he find them? Thinking about my mother - a whole day had passed and I didn't pick up the phone. My insides churned and turned as my mind went on to imagine what she must be feeling, thinking...

The only hope I had was that the cartel's leader would stick to his word and keep them alive until I gave him what he wanted. Deep inside, that hope was nule. It was a leap in the dark.

But it was all I had. 

That, and no choice.

I had to keep going. For Hoseok. For myself.

For Suga.

I had tried to come up with a plan but to no avail. What was I supposed to do? Walk up to the dealer and ask him to take me to his headquarters for scientific purposes?

Mental. Absolutely deranged.

Alas, I had to do something. 

The city was busy as ever. The sun had set a while ago and the street lamp posts had flickered awake one after the other. People rushed in every direction, probably on their way to have fun and meet up with their friends.

And then there was me. Sitting on the sidewalk, with the whole world's weight on my shoulders.

And a stink that challenged the one of a barn of pigs.

I scrunched up my nose, as a gentle gush of breeze brought me a sniff of myself.

In all the spur, I was surprised how much I cared enough to crave a shower and a change of clothes. But since I wasn't going to be blessed with such luxury, I let myself stay there, like a complete bum, being eyed weirdly by the citizens passing by.

The whole day I had spent there, I hadn't been able to come up with a plan. 

Hell, it was hard to even breathe.

Still, I needed a damned plan.

Which plan, you might ask?

Clearly, the how-the-flip-am-I-getting-into-the-most-famous-night-club-in-the-whole-city-without-an-ID-and-looking-like-misery plan.

All I did aside from downing my brain in horrible images of what they'd be doing to Hoseok and Suga, was bite my nails to the root, stand up and pace just to stretch my legs, and go every so often to the little caffee nearby for water and snacks.

It was ridiculous.

I am ridiculous.

Life hates me.

As my mind ran over to the two boys for the millionth time, my eyes caught sight of a small white van reversing to the alleyway behind the building in which the night club was located.

I watched intently as a pimply young man threw the driver's door open and lazily dragged himself to open the sliding side of the vehicle. He pulled a wheeled hanger rack out of it, that had what hanging on it?

Clothes.

Heavens. Be. Blessed.

They were clearly meant for the staff, as they were all the same, just in different sizes. Dark grey, fit joggers and white t-shirts that read STAFF in bold on the back. 

Uni, plain-as-plain-can-get clothes, but clothes nonetheless.

Clean. Fudging. Clothes.