chapter.24  »  knowing less.

If saying I didn't sleep when I had hours to spare to rest my body was an exaggeration, then I did exaggerate, because the next morning I felt like not even the hardest kick from the best Taekwondo master could keep me up.  Like a hunchback, I dragged myself out of my room, my body aching everywhere, and forced myself to eat breakfast.  I took a glance at the clock on the wall: it was 08:35 in the morning, and it just seemed so long.

Right after the weirdly dressed guy and his mother left, there was no sign of Prince anywhere.  I had a hunch that he might have taken Prince, but if he did... what for?  And there weren't any sounds of a dog crying coming from him, so I just looked around the house for Prince once I had closed and locked the door.

But I was unfortunate.

My eyes traveled to the half-opened door to my room and caught sight of a couple pieces of paper on my desk.  I choked on my water and wiped the droplets off my chin quickly.  Why didn't I think of that earlier?!

The door slammed against the wall as I pushed it open, running into my room and tripping over a towel on the floor.  Placing the glass of water on the desk somewhere far from the papers, I began making ‘Missing’ posters from scratch, extracting as much information about Prince as I could.  The visual wasn't very pretty, but I figured that the description ‘white, Pomeranian puppy with brown eyes and a nose that's not placed in the middle’ should help.

After I had finished one poster, I looked back at all the other pieces of paper on the desk.  Should I make more or not?  Of course not, so I dressed myself up quickly and hurried out of the house with my backpack filled up with tape, glue, wallet with money, and my phone.  I had taken some photos of Prince, and showing them to people should help as I ask them if they had seen “this dog” anywhere.

The nearest photocopying center was five blocks away, and I could do with a bit of exercise anyway.  I ran all the way over to the center, the poster flapping in the wind grasped by my hand.  When I had stopped in front of it, my head was throbbing and I could hear my heart beat in my ears.  My legs were also wobbling as I trailed my way up the steps of the center and pushed the door open.

Inside were no less than five people, including the worker standing behind the long glass counter with a beaming expression on his face as if this was the plentiest amount of people he had ever seen in the center.  The cash register was sitting on the counter in front of him, the counter itself containing different piles of things inside.  I caught my breath and walked up.

“Sir, I need to photocopy this poster—”

“Oh, no problem, dear!  That photocopy machine over there”—he pointed to a machine near the door—“is available; help yourself!”

I smiled awkwardly and thanked him under my breath, making my way to the machine.  I lifted the cover and placed the poster face-down on the glass plate.  Pressing the buttons on the side of the machine, I estimated the amount of posters I would need.  Typing in a random ‘50’, I pressed the START button and waited.

Humming under my breath, I looked around the center to find the price per copy and print.  On a poster across the room there were the prices printed for standard-sized paper, legal-sized, and others.  Each print on a standard-sized paper was ￦100, so I went through my backpack for my wallet and pulled out a ￦5,000 bill.

A few minutes later the printing was finished and I carefully lifted the cover and seized the original poster from the plate.  Then I proceeded to get the fifty copies from the tray, placing the original on top of the pile.

“How many copies?”  Said the man behind the glass counter, still beaming once I had reached him.

“Fifty, sir.”

He typed a couple of things into the register and it made a ‘ding!’ sound, the tray springing open forward.  “That'll be ￦5,000.”

I handed him the bill and he placed it in the tray, shoving it back in the register.  He slid the glass counter door open and pulled out a black, plastic snap portfolio envelope from its pile.  The envelope was only slightly larger and thicker than the papers but the copies looked like they would fit inside perfectly with some room remaining.

The man was about to place the copies inside when he got a good look at it.  “‘Missing dog’, hmm... Mind if I take one?”

“Oh, no, of course not.  Go ahead.”  I grinned nervously as he took a copy and placed the rest in the portfolio, placing the receipt on top of it.

Taking the portfolio and the receipt, I headed for the door when he called me again.  “Good luck with your pet, Miss Go.”

“Thank you,” I smiled and headed out on to the sidewalk.

The time was 08:53 A.M., and right when the clock ticked for the next second I went around the neighborhood plastering posters on lampposts and poles and walls and buildings and asked people if they had seen Prince.  I also handed to them some of the posters.  Some tossed them into trash bins while some folded them and stuck it in their pockets.

I went as far into the city, although it was unlikely that Prince would have ran all the way into the heart of the area.  Still I glued posters on establishments and poles, then handed out posters to passers.  They seemed to care more than the people from the neighborhood.

I had ten posters left when my eyes caught a glance of a small café in the corner and felt something invisible slap me hard across the face.  Hesitantly I checked the time: 10:05 A.M.

“Jonghyun.”  I muttered, my eyes big.  I turned around and ran as fast as I could, everything around me falling into a haze.

Cars and taxis beeped and people screamed in surprise as I ran my way past them, calling out from the top of my lungs, “Excuse me!” and “Sorry!” as I bumped into a man pushing a hand track piled up with huge brown boxes.  The boxes were scattered and the man was screaming at me (“Curse you!  Curse teenagers!”) and I turned my head to wave sorry at him, but another car braked hardly in front of me, and the driver began screaming the same words.  I was twenty years old, I was not a teenager!

Finally, after what seemed like a lifetime of running past cars and humans, I was standing in front of a shop on the other side of the road across the side where Sweet Swirls stood closed.  A guy dressed up in all black stood in front, looking around.

Once the cars coming from either side stopped and a man walking and timer flashed on the other traffic light ahead, I power-walked the rest of the way and ran to Jonghyun, who jumped at the sudden sight of me.

“W- Where have you been?”  He asked, almost fearful of me.

“I'm sorry... if I kept you... waiting...” I huffed at each pause, mentally hitting myself for not bringing water with me.  “I was... just...”

I held up the black portfolio and he took it from my hand, looking worriedly at me as I huffed, my hands on my knees.  He pulled out a poster from the envelope and his eyes dilated, the worry in his eyes doubling, panic showing from every angle of him.

“Since when?!”  He asked, helping me straighten up.

“Just yesterday,” I said.  My head felt like it was about to crack open from all that intense running.

“Well, let's go put up some more!  No time to waste, let's go!”  He carefully hauled me up and we walked off to the other stores in the compound that were open.

The rest of the day was composed of posting and handing out the posters, re-printing more copies, and repeating the cycle all over again.  Time escaped my and Jonghyun's mind as the sky glinted golden orange, dabbed with greyish violet clouds.

Jonghyun checked his watch.  “It's almost five, we should get going.”

“W- Wait.”  I stopped him from walking further.  “‘Get going’?  But it's too late, isn't it?”

He smiled.  “That's exactly why.  It's too late, so I'm bringing you home.”

Blood rushed up to my cheeks and I felt them getting warm.  I stayed put in my spot, and Jonghyun chuckled, grabbing my hand and leading me to the end of the sidewalk.  He asked me the directions to my house and I told him reluctantly.  I had taken up the entire day that was supposed to be spent by, well, the both of us, on other things and not putting up ‘Missing Dog’ posters.

The sun was about to set, its brightness set to its brightest in the late afternoon.  We stopped in front of the gates, and I couldn't meet Jonghyun's eyes, my own casted downward.

He lifted my face up, his hand under my chin.  “Don't look so sad now, you'll find your pet soon.  Trust me.”

“Oh, I know,” I groaned, pushing his hand away.  “It's just that... This day was supposed to be... something else, you know.  That was the original plan.”

“Yes, but things change, see.  And that's okay.”  He smiled warmly, and I felt a tingle in my stomach.

I kept my mouth shut, though.

He sighed, the smile wiped off from his face.  He looked serious this time.  “Don't worry about it, this day didn't go to waste.  Plus there are more days left, so no need to mope, okay?”

I looked up into his eyes that were reflecting the sun about to set.  They twinkled, and I nodded.  “Okay.”

Jonghyun smiled once more and pulled me into a comfy but protective hug.  I snuggled my face into his chest, my arms wrapped around him.  He pulled away, looking down at me and tucking a bit of my hair behind my ear.  He closed his eyes, and placed the softest kiss I had ever felt on my forehead.

“There's nothing to worry about,” his breath was warm, caressing my face unknowingly, “as long as I'm here.”

I nodded slowly and he embraced me again, then ever-so-slowly let go, waving a small goodbye and turned around to walk the other way.  The day didn't go to waste, indeed.

AUTHOR'S NOTE.

was the wait worth it?  i mean, i didn't write the entire weekend (except for bits) so... was the chapter an okay payment?  can i redeem myself now?  ;;  i'm sorry guys, i procrastinated.  but here we go!  Happy Memorial Day, everyone!  there's no school today, so i thought i could just publish the chapter today, and i did, yup.  thank you guys for reading!  and commenting!  and welcome, new subbies!  i'm so happy guys, i'm gonna cry, i love you all ;_;

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