PARIS

During the weekdays, Yeojin toured her younger cousin around Paris. They visited various landmarks and tourist spots such as the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, Palais de Challiot, and the evening sight the Champs-Elysees and the La Defense. When they had visited those, they moved to the museums and café houses into which Paris is known to. During the night, Yeojin would take her to some high class clubs where they only serve VIP people which leaves Sooyoung as to how her cousin gets access.

“Unnie, why are we not going anywhere today?” Sooyoung mused over breakfast by Friday that week.

“You will have your photo shoot tomorrow and I don’t want you looking haggard or else Jean will strangle me to death. I know him well enough to say that he will never talk to me once I bring you there tired and haggard,” Yeojin shook her head.

“But Unnie, it’s so boring in here. I am tired of watching TV. I don’t even understand the local language in here,” Sooyoung whined.

“I know. But I promised Jean so no more buts. Besides, you can sleep all day if you want to regain the same glow you had before. And quit that habit of munching anything offered to you. Can’t you stop that bottomless stomach of yours for a while?” Yeojin raised a brow.

“Unnie, no matter how weird my metabolism is, no matter how heavy or unhealthy in some sense my diet is, I never gain weight. That’s my asset,” Sooyoung winked.

“Whatever. Just find more believable explanation because your cheeks are already bloated. You look like you gained weight in here,” Yeojin noted.

Sooyoung blinked and starts to feel her arms and legs, even her cheeks, “Jinja? Then the life in here must be my type,” she giggled and resumed on her food.

“I just hope the gown fits you tomorrow,” Yeojin sighed and did the same.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*

KOREA

The boys are gathered at the living room just as what Kris instructed, with the exception of the two maknaes who insisted on joining the group.

“Everyone’s probably aware of what had happened in the company again right?” he started as everyone gave a nod.

“For this, I am asking for your cooperation to help me catch the culprit, whoever he is,” he said again.

“You don’t have to ask. We all know that you, Xiumin and Lay only do the work whenever the company faces some serious problems and we leave it to that; but I know this is one serious threat so you can count us in,” Suho patted his shoulder.

“Hyung, we are one family and a family helps each other in times of needs. Besides, we haven’t been into much work so it will be nice to have something to work on. After all, what are brothers are for, right?” Chanyeol grinned.

It somehow made him smile, seeing all of them eager to help him out. He divided the boys into two. Xiumin, Lay, Baekhyun, Chen and Kai is on his side to work on the culprit of the company while the remaining six were on finding Sooyoung.

When everyone’s already been given their specific tasks, Kris moved upstairs into his room. He didn’t change into his pajamas nor did he remove his watch. He just stood by the side table, looking down at the lone frame of a 4 grid picture of him and her during their anniversary celebration, particularly on the bus on their way to Namsan Tower. The ring he gave her which she left was hung on the upper right corner of the frame, looking like an accessory.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*

PARIS

Cold beads of sweat rolled down her forehead as her whole body gets covered with sweat and fear after she pulled herself up from a nightmare. It was scary, so scary that it chills her to the bones. She felt the hair on her arms stand as she recalls the memory of the dream.

Kris stood in front of her, all smiles like they are the only people lighted in that very dark room. Tears welled down her eyes as he moves forward to reach for her hand but the place suddenly gets illuminated, blinding her for a while. When her eyes adjusted, she saw him, a meter away, wounded, and bleeding with a gun pointed at the back of his head. Blood is seeping from his lips as he tries to take a step forward. The loud bang of the gun made her freeze as she watch him fall on his knees before lying helplessly on the ground; a pool of blood starts to build behind his head. His eyes are closed as she lifts her head to look at the culprit but she can’t see the face of the man in black.

“You killed him Sooyoung, you killed him,” the man said as it lowers his gun.

Her body trembles in fear from the voice accusing her. When she lifted her hand, both were stained by blood, even her white gown.

The same voice starts to say the same words as it starts to grow louder and louder making her cover her ears to fend off the booming voice repeating those words. A hand on her shoulder made her look up only to be shocked again.

There stood Kris, all smiles as if nothing happened. When she turned her head, there goes the dead Kris. There are two Kris in front of her; one lies dead on a pool of blood the other all smiles like nothing happened. She backed down, shaking her head till she screamed.

That was what made her pull herself up from her bed. He hands trembled as she reaches for her phone, mindlessly dialing Kris’ number again. It started to ring, four up to the moment it was lead to a voice inbox. Instead of leaving a message, she stared at her phone, lost, with tears rolling down her face. Sooner, the voice message reached it limits, ending the call.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*

KOREA

Kris woke up from the strain crawling up his arms. He checked the clock on the side table, 4:16 am. He had been asleep for more than two hours or probably three hours already since he doesn’t know when he went to her room, sat beside her bed and hugged his knees before sobbing.

He is not that cold; he just exudes that certain aura which made him look like he is really a cold guy. He wiped off the tears satins on his face and reached for his phone only to be surprised to see a single missed call from her. He immediately checked out his voice inbox but the recorded sound was like a blank tape. No sounds came out. He waited for her to speak but what he just heard is the faint sniff which made him conclude that she is probably crying. He tried to locate again her GPS but then he can’t find it. Maybe he can use Xiumin’s ‘Mirrors’ tomorrow to locate her whereabouts.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*

PARIS

Sooyoung finally gave a bow as they closes the photo session. She had been dragged here and there and had changed to almost twenty gowns, courtesy to Jean. Her hair had suffered too from too much styling. As she was heading to Yeojin, Jean was quick to come first and envelope her in a hug.

“Oh my Baby Beauty, my lovely baby. You really made your Mommy proud,” then parted to grin at the smiling Sooyoung.

“It was fun, except for the changing and the hair pulling for various hairstyles. I don’t want to end up bald after this,” Sooyoung pouted.

“Definitely not, not you,” Jean wagged a finger as he escorts her to Yeojin who gave her a hug too.

“You look so glamorous and beautiful in those gowns. Maybe next week, you will the talk of the town,” she parted, squishing Sooyoung’s cheeks.

“Oh, yes. She will really be the talk of the town, especially because I took her as my model. Such a perfect Oriental girl for my gowns. I am sure that once the photos were out on the magazine, other more names will come and knock on my door to ask for you, but of course I will only choose those that will not harm my Baby Beauty,” Jean smiled and squished Sooyoung’s cheeks as well.

“Andrei called me last night. He said he wants to meet her,” Yeojin informed Jean as Sooyoung moves to change on her van.

“Andrei? That arrogant guy? How dare he call you first without calling me first?” Jean exclaimed placing his hands on his waist.

Yeojin laughed, “I have this feeling that he might want to take her for another endorsement. So what can you say?” she looked at Jean.

“Let’s meet him tomorrow once my Baby Beauty finally gets some rest,” Jean replied as the two of them watch Sooyoung get out from the van wearing casual black skinny jeans with a black trench coat, a sleek large black belt stretched on her waist with matching black winter boots.

“He will definitely hire her once he sees this,” Jean took a shot of Sooyoung as she walks to get near them, her hair which was down, lightly blown by the wind as she moves forward.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*

KOREA

Xiumin is fully aware that Kris had not left the house after assigning those tasks to them. He would only go out during meal time or whenever they would meet at the living every end of the day to relay what they had gathered for the day.

“So what have you got?” Kris immediately asked after everyone settled down.

“About Noona, I asked Jinri if she knows where Noona would like to stay when she feels the need to runaway. She said she would go straight to her grandparents,” Sehun started.

“A friend of hers, apart from the eight ladies, said that Sooyoung once said something about going to Japan.” – Kyungsoo

“Doctor Ha Ni had said about her wish regarding traveling to Europe, but she left no specific destination.” – Chanyeol

“Regarding the trace of her inside the local area, I had gone through most on the map but still negative.” – Suho

“I am still waiting for some information from the company where I work on in China if they have come about her.” – Tao

“This is something out of the league. I will be leaving tomorrow for my twin. They are in London right now. They will be having a recital so you know how much they want me to witness them perform. But I will ask Drew to help me locate her in there. He knows connection and has a wide range of people who can help him. The power of being a Mafia lord,” Luhan ended the relay of information regarding Sooyoung.

“About the company, I have tracked the list of all the employees and together with Baekhyun hyung; we are working on going over their profiles and possible links that may help in narrowing the list of suspects.” Kai gave Baekhyun a nod.

“Lay asked me to help him track down the previous deal you have just closed for some case of some sort of infiltration or robbery and the likes. We had gone one third of them and still negative.” Chen sighed.

“So sum all of it, I am still running over the video feeds of the CCTV cameras which you gave me. So far, it’s still negative,” Xiumin tapped Kris shoulder.

The Chinese blonde gave a smile, “Thank you guys. It’s still a big help despite the negative feedbacks. So I guess this is it, let’s end it here, it’s already late.” he dismissed all of them until only Xiumin stayed.

“You kept something?” Kris looked at him. Xiumin took a seat on the opposite chair.

“Nope, I just want to tell you something.”

“Like?” Kris leaned on the chair, feeling so tired.

“You look so tired. You should take a break. You might not be around when Sooyoung comes back,” Xiumin gave a sad smile.

“I can still manage no need to remind me. I have been to this state before so I will survive this,” Kris closed his eyes for a while.

“Yeah, you may manage but what you are doing is not good. You have lost weight and you have been locking yourself inside your room all day,” Xiumin reprimanded.

“I am working on the 4-year plan. I have to finish that before the end of the month. I don’t want my Mom’s hard work go on the drain,” Kris replied, still closing his eyes.

“I know but we had two more weeks to work on it, you don’t have to work like it’s the end of your life,” Xiumin replied, worried look plastered on his face.

“Thanks for the concern. If you don’t have anything more to say then I would probably go back to my room,” Kris pulled himself up.

“Wait,” Xiumin suddenly stopped him. Kris turned around, looking so sleepy.

“Piece of advice; not until we have found the culprit don’t trust anyone, even if you have to do that to us. We are not sure if the thief is an outsider or an insider. This is not to create a gap or something, just a precautionary measure so that the search will be quicker. If you had finished the plan then keep it in your safe box inside your room for the mean time,” Xiumin gave him a stern look.

Kris looked back at him, “Thank you.” Then turned around only to stop again but he did not turn his head this time.

“One thing more,” Xiumin sighed, “Please don’t go over her room and cry in there every night. It’s not annoying or something, but it would only make you weaker. It’s not bad to cry but doing it in her room makes you look so vulnerable. Sad to say, those tears would not bring her back quickly,” he added.

Kris gave him a side glance then left without saying any word.