Woohyun didn’t waste any time once he returned to the hotel. Thanking Youngjae again, he asked him to book the next flight to Paris for him. The concierge looked a little flustered and asked if anything was wrong.

“Everything is wrong, Youngjae,” he muttered before going up to his room, where he showered again and dressed rapidly. He packed his bags, which didn’t take long since he hadn’t unpacked much. He had to get out of this hotel, where thoughts of Sungjong and his dark predicament were pushing at his mind, trying to paint the distance between him and Sunggyu in charcoal black.

Sungjong was wrong, I will find Sunggyu.

If he kept on repeating it to himself, he found that he could keep the monsters at bay. So he did just that as he went down to the lobby for checking out.

“Sign here, Sir,” Youngaje pushed a bill towards him. “Your flight leaves in ten hours.”

“Ten?” Woohyun huffed. “Wasn’t there an earlier flight?”

“I’m so sorry Sir, but no. This is the latest flight and you got lucky because a family just cancelled or else you would have to wait for day after tomorrow.”

Woohyun nodded as he signed more papers the concierge shoved at him. It was lucky indeed to find a flight at such a short notice.

“So did Sungjong help?”

Woohyun hadn’t gotten time to explain what had happened at Sungjong’s because he was in a state of nervous excitement. He didn’t want to give Youngjae the details either. He neither had the time nor the mentality to explain the whole situation to strangers.

“Yeah, he did,” he said absent-mindedly.

His thoughts were on the flight. He would have to book the nearest hotel to the airport. He wondered if Sunggyu would book his trademark hotel again.

He doesn’t know I’ll be following him there, so why not?

Then again, that was too vague information to go by. If he told someone that he was trying to find Sunggyu like that, they would definitely think he was crazy. But he was lucky once – he got to know that Sunggyu had fled to Shanghai. And by a sudden turn of events, he had even got to know where he was going to. To cap it all, he had found place in the earliest flight that would take him to Sunggyu.

I can be lucky again.

“Sungjong is a nice kid,” Youngaje said suddenly, putting a sudden brake on his thoughts.

Woohyun looked up at him, wondering if he knew anything about what his friend was going through.

“He’s very sad.”

Youngjae nodded, entering some information in his computer.

“He’s been living like that ever since he arrived. He never told me what happened to him, but I guess it’s related to love. Maybe he had an affair.”

For some reason, Woohyun’s heart shook. Perhaps it was partly because the gossipy tone Youngjae used to talk about his own friend, as if nothing would give him more pleasure than to extract the juicy details of the scandalous affair.

But the word affair also injected an idea into his mind, a dreadful but plausible explanation.

Is Sunggyu having an affair? Is that why he left?

He didn’t want to ask but he couldn’t leave without knowing either.

“Youngjae,” he said urgently. “Can you check if there was someone else with Sunggyu? In his room?”

Even if he was surprised, he didn’t show it.

“One moment please.”

Youngaje typed in something in his computer while Woohyun chewed on his bottom lip nervously, hoping the answer was negative.

“No,” he replied. “He was all alone.”

“Okay.”

Woohyun felt slightly relieved. But the nagging thought gnawed at the end of his mind. He tried to shake it off as he stepped outside the hotel, while his luggage was being stashed into the boot of a taxi.

He would go straight to the airport and book the hotel online. He also remembered he had to call Kibum.

That’s weird, I thought he’d call by now.

For some reason Kibum had not checked up on him and he found it strange since his best friend almost babied him. Sometimes it could get annoying but it was also relieving in a way.

Is he mad at me?

He racked his brain – the last conversation they had, had ended civilly. In fact, the last thing Kibum had said was, “Be careful.”

Maybe he’s busy…

As he strode towards the taxi, he collided with someone. He apologized and looked up, finding himself face to face with Sungjong, who looked even more disheveled than he had last seen him.

“I shouldn’t have said that to you,” Sungjong started, not giving him the chance to speak. “I – I’m sorry.”

Woohyun watched astonished as the younger his heel and marched away. He couldn’t think why he would come running to the hotel to apologise. It didn’t make sense to him but then again, Sungjong seemed very disturbed. The way his eyes had flitted towards the inside of the lobby once worried Woohyun. And in the lighting of the portico, he had gotten a better, even though a short, look at the younger. He now knew what he had mistaken for bruises.

But there wasn’t time to ponder about this. He turned towards the lobby, biting his lips, hesitating about what he should do. If he now went in and confronted Youngjae, would it do Sungjong any good? He had seen the look in the younger’s eyes, and he was now almost sure about what he had seen.

Shaking his head, he got into the back of the taxi. For more reasons than one, he felt apologetic towards the younger.

I wish I could help you Sungjong, I really do. But there’s something else I have to do first.