21 Days Until the Auction House

It was rare for Kyuhyun to do desk work. Usually, he kept himself painfully busy with assignments outside of the office. However, for some reason he couldn’t fathom, they told him that there were no missions available. Considering the breadth of SME’s connections and skills, there should never have been a shortage of field assignments—especially for someone of Kyuhyun’s rank.

Or well, he had thought so. Clearly this situation was proving him wrong.

He spun around in the chair, mind numbing with boredom. A pile of reports sat in the corner of his desk, but they had been sitting there for months. It was all useless in his opinion. Every agent was given a daily brief on world affairs, a weekly report on national affairs, and compiled monthly data sets for missing persons, criminal charges, and flagged police incidences. Overall, it was a pile of paper collecting dust because Kyuhyun never needed the information.

He was a field agent with a sharp mind and an ability to understand his mission parameters on the fly. Sitting around pouring over other people’s documents had always seemed pointless to him. He knew that other agents enjoyed keeping up with the news, but he preferred to read on a need-to-know basis.

The world could become a scary, unlovable place if you knew too much.

A brown paper bag was suddenly shoved in his face.

Lurching backwards, Kyuhyun eyed the bag warily before lifting his gaze to Eunhyuk. “What’s this?”

“I bought some snacks. I figured you’d be bored in the office,” Eunhyuk grinned, setting the slightly greasy paper bag on the other man’s desk. “It’s just a couple sweet buns from the local bakery.”

“Thanks,” Kyuhyun sighed, offering a tired by genuine smile. He knew eating just to have something to do wasn’t the best idea, but it beat spinning around in a chair for eight hours. Opening the bag, he took one out and split it open, seeing a custard filling. “Wow, you really went all out and bought the good ones.”

“Well I haven’t treated you in a while. I felt like being nice,” he chuckled, pulling a yellow folder out from under his arm. “By the way, here’s the new data sets for the month. If you’ve got nothing better to do, you might as well read some of those, too,” he nodded at the dreaded pile of papers on Kyuhyun’s desk.

“Is there ever anything worth reading though?” Kyuhyun cocked a brow, chewing on the bun.

Eunhyuk shrugged. “Possibly. Read the new one first and then see if it’s worth it.” He waved a hand, turning away. “I gotta go, but let’s get drinks tonight. Your treat.”

“Sure,” Kyuhyun snorted, waiting until Eunhyuk had left the office before reaching for the data report. It wouldn’t hurt to just browse through it.

He flipped open the report and the very first name had him screeching to a halt.

Monthly National Missing Persons’ Report

November

Name

Kim Ryeowook

Occupation

Music Composer

Date Reported

October 31

Comments

Last seen before 11pm on October 30th

Kyuhyun rifled through the remaining papers, looking for anything else.

Nothing.

He stood up, hands shaking harder than he ever imagined possible. What is this? It’s not real. Taking a seat again, Kyuhyun opened his laptop, trying to will away the burning adrenaline in his veins and the tremor in his fingertips. Logging into SME’s National Civilian Database, he quickly skimmed through the files, finding “Kim Ryeowook” after barely a second.

It had been purposeful--avoiding him, that is. Kyuhyun had no desire to keep tabs on Ryeowook, knowing that he would cave sooner or later and try to see him. It was wrong and a total breach of his mission protocol. When he cut ties, he meant to never meet Ryeowook again and watching him from afar would’ve been too brutal. However, if the result of letting him go off on his own was this, then why the did Kyuhyun waste all this time keeping a distance?

He scrolled slowly through Ryeowook’s file, taking in what little information it offered. The only thing of substance he found was a change of address. Half a year after Kyuhyun had left, Ryeowook moved out of their apartment. The new address indicated a smaller but relatively safe neighborhood just outside the city center.

So, what could’ve happened?

Was Ryeowook going out more nowadays? Was he dating someone? Did he get involved in something dangerous?

Kyuhyun flipped through the small gallery of photos attached to his file. It was mostly security camera footage and the occasional professional headshot stripped from his company’s website. Despite being lovely as ever, Kyuhyun could find nothing suspicious. Then again, maybe the database was cracked.

The appendices were all old mission reports. My old mission reports. There was no need to read them. The information would be outdated and unnecessarily nostalgic.

He his dry lips, panic rising once again as he reached the bottom of the profile and still hadn’t found anything. Not even the disappearance had been recorded into the data yet. But why would it be priority? There was less and less reason for SME to watch Ryeowook after the mission ended and the man didn’t pursue Kyuhyun further. Well, he guessed. He had no idea what the aftermath for SME or Ryeowook looked like, but he knew well enough that it was nothing out of the ordinary of Ryeowook’s file was this thin.

Normally, regular civilians who were unwittingly used as long-term covers had bulkier files simply because they asked dangerous questions or took it upon themselves to figure out what had happened to their partners. However, it seemed that Ryeowook had done no such things after Kyuhyun left.

Was it because he trusted him?

Or did he simply not care about Kyuhyun?

He groaned, stifling it by taking a vicious bite out of the sweet bun. This was another reason he never wanted to check up on Ryeowook. These insecurities…these urges and wishes and hopes were stifling. They made Kyuhyun feel like he was floating and the only anchor back to reality was Ryeowook telling him everything was okay. They were okay.

He swallowed hard around the morsel of food. I need to think rationally. Focus.

Shaking his head, Kyuhyun looked at the Missing Persons’ Report one more time, calculating how many days had passed since his disappearance. Approximately 11 days had gone by since the report.

However, his actual disappearance could’ve occurred much earlier.

Kyuhyun felt a whole new wave of anxiety. How could I leave him defenseless? He gritted his teeth, trying not to lose his mind so early on. It was just a lot to digest all at once. As he recalled, Ryeowook had no immediate family, meaning no one would be regularly checking in on him. His uncle lived in another city and would come to visit monthly. Did he often visit at the beginning or end of the month?

Grabbing his desk phone, he dialed the police station.

Without waiting for them to speak first, he asked, “Hello, I’m calling to provide information about Kim Ryeowook, a person who was reported missing on October 31.”

A pause. “Yes, sir. Give me a minute and then I’ll record your statement. What’s your name?”

“Guixian.”

“Alright, sir. Start anytime you’re ready.”

“I saw Kim Ryeowook on the evening of October 31, so I was wondering if I saw wrong or were his whereabouts known at that time?” Kyuhyun drummed his fingers lightly on the desk, letting none of his panicked energy leak into his voice.

“I think you’re probably mistaken, Guixian,” the operator responded, “The public report was published October 31, but it was stated that Kim Ryeowook hadn’t been seen for a few days leading up to that date. I think you were probably mistaken.”

Kyuhyun faked an embarrassed laugh. “Oh, I see. My mistake indeed. I just wanted to call in and make sure that I mentioned what I saw, though.”

“No problem, sir. Call again if you see anything else.”

He set the phone back into the holder, grimacing. At least that had given him a better timeline. So Ryeowook had been taken away a few days prior, just as he had suspected. It was unlikely that his uncle’s visit would coincide perfectly with the disappearance, but more than that, wasn’t it almost too convenient that the uncle was coming over in just a few days?

Did that mean they wanted someone to report Ryeowook’s disappearance? Why, though? Unless…this wasn’t just about Ryeowook.

Why garner more attention than necessary by doing something like waiting until the uncle “stumbled upon” his nephew’s abrupt vanishing act? They could’ve been tracking Ryeowook for long enough to know his uncle’s approximate visiting schedule. That would’ve been the smart thing to do. And then they could whisk Ryeowook away just after the visit ended and they would know there was a comfortable month of no one chasing them.

Although Kyuhyun didn’t want to believe it, the thought crossed his mind multiple times in the last few minutes.

Are they after him? Or are they after me?

He couldn’t rule out the possibility. Although not many people knew about their relationship, for the right price, the wrong people could figure it out.