I woke up in the middle of the night and stretched my limbs until they cracked. Walking over to the kitchen, I grabbed a cup from the cupboard and filled it with water.

After taking a huge gulp, I filled up the cup again and brought it back over to the couch I was sleeping on.  I was just about to sit down again, when I felt that something was missing.

Looking around, I suddenly stood up.

My cat was gone.

Well this was great. I lived in a “no pets” apartment and the pet that I had secretly smuggled in magically disappeared.

Hoping that Bacon had maybe just went to sleep in some other room, I set out on my search.

First I poured out some cat food hoping that maybe the smell might attract him first, before I went to my bedroom.

My bed sheets were still made with no sight of wrinkles, so Bacon didn’t jump onto the bed. I looked under it, in my closet, under my dresser, behind my full-length mirror, all to no avail.

“Bacon? Where are you? Come on out kitty cat!”

I was legitimately starting to get worried. What if he was stuck somewhere?

My pace quickened as I frantically ran from room to room, calling out his name and looking in the tight spaces in hopes that he wouldn’t be stuck there.

“Where could he have gone?”

I combed my fingers through my bed hair as I sighed in a mixture of frustration and worry. I decided to make some posters and grabbed some paper and pens until I realized I had never taken a picture of him.

“Kaili, how much more stupid can you get?” I berated myself as I set down the supplies and put my head in my hands.

I re-analyzed the entire situation. All of my windows were closed, there’s no cat exit on my door, and the cat is nowhere to be found in the apartment. The only reasonable explanation would be if Bacon were able to unlock the door and turn the knob and go outside that way.

But that’s not reasonable.

Bacon is a cat.

But I stood up and went to check on the door anyway. After closer inspection, I noticed that the big lock was undone.

That’s strange. I definitely remember locking it last night. Or maybe that was my imagination. Either way, I opened the door just to see if maybe Bacon was sitting right outside.

He wasn’t.

Stressed out, I sat myself on the couch again. I checked the clock and it was three in the morning. Where could a cat possibly disappear off to at three in the morning? Did someone come in when I was sleeping and take Bacon? Was there a thief?

More awake, I re-searched the house again to see if any valuables were taken.

Everything was still there. What kind of thief would just take a cat and not take any valuables? Or maybe the thief was the cat’s owner and somehow managed to track him into my apartment? But that didn’t seem plausible either. The owner should have enough common sense to knock first.

Racking my brain for possible ideas was hurting my head so I decided to look outside and maybe he’d be hiding in a bush like the first time I saw him.

I quickly changed into sweatpants and a hoodie as I grabbed my keys and phone and headed out.

The night air was chilly but fresh, and I just stood there for a second absorbing the feeling. I’d only gone out this early once or twice for a morning run, but not that often.

As I walked along, taking great care to look at every bush and tree, I happened upon a trail that led to a nearby park. I figured a cat might take this trail so I started in that direction.

As I walked, I had the distinct feeling that someone was following me. Every so often, I would glance back as though I were glancing at trees or something, and every so often I would see a flicker of movement.

Slowly, I started to increase my pace, the cat long forgotten and safety the first thing on my mind.

When I broke out into a run, my pursuer broke out into a run too. Scared for my life, I just kept on running until made the mistake of not looking where I was going. The cement had risen just a little bit and I tripped over the bloated area.

“OUCH! AHHHHHHHHHH”

I started screaming to scare him off and to attract the attention of anyone that might’ve been nearby.

“Calm down! It’s just me!”

I looked up into the curious eyes of No Minwoo.

“YAH. YOU SCARED ME. WHY WERE YOU FOLLOWING ME AND HIDING BEHIND TREES?”

Minwoo rubbed the back of his neck and nervously chuckled.

“Well, you’re up and about at three in the morning so I was wondering what you were up to. And I wanted to surprise you, but then you started running!”

I glared at him as I dusted my pants off and tried to stand up. He offered his hand and I took it.

I looked around to where I had run to, and it was a huge park situated in the middle of Seoul. It reminded me a lot of Central Park in New York.

As I stood marveling the beautiful mix of nature and city life, the huge screen on a building suddenly lit up.

“This is Kim Kibum with some breaking news. SM Entertainment’s boy band EXO had a missing member for two days. As of a few hours ago, SM Entertainment notified the police that the idol member had been found.”