Seulgi ran so fast to the hospital it didn’t feel like she was stepping the ground.

She didn’t know how she made it to the Emergency Room, her feet carrying her on pure reflex as her brain seemed to fail her all at once the second she received the news.

Standing beside her, Seungwan looked as equally breathless and bloodless, scanning the frantic white room with fear striking her face.

The life sustaining machines were roaring about angrily as they tried to bring back bodies to life, and doctors were shouting instructions at the nurses to get them yet another shot of adrenaline because clearly, their efforts were failing.

Seulgi’s knees buckled at the sound of asystole coming from nearby monitor, and when she turned to see a bloody, twisted body finally giving up on its struggle, she felt bile rise to .

She wanted to throw up.

“Patient Han Sunwoo, age 24, time of death 12.11 PM.”

Seulgi would have whipped around and ran to the nearby sink to vomit out her choking fear if it wasn’t for Joy rushing to her direction from one of the crowded bed and seizing her arms.

“Hey! You are here! I’ve been trying to call you since earlier!”

Seulgi gripped the taller intern’s white coat and pulled at her, hands and voice shaking uncontrollably. “Irene…where is she? Where is she? Is she alive?”

Joy’s face darkened visibly at her question, and Seulgi couldn’t help but cry and scream at her. “Where is she, Joy?! Where is she?!”

“Calm down!” The taller girl shouted back, trying to shake her off of her terror. “She isn’t dead! She is…we…we haven’t managed to find her yet.”

Seulgi’s heart lifted up for a fraction of second only for it to crash down again with more violent force. She staggered backwards.

“What?” She croaked, cold seeping into her every pore and chilling her blood. “What do you mean she isn’t found yet…? You said she was in the car –“

“Her side of the car is extremely damaged. The window is completely shattered and the door is caved in. It received direct collision with the concrete border which flipped the entire car over before sending it into the water. It was possible that she was not wearing her seatbelt and she was thrown by the --“

Seulgi couldn’t hear the next words, because her legs gave up on her completely and the next thing she knew, she was crashing against the trolley behind her.

Seungwan was quick to catch her but she looked equally appalled.

“The police and evacuation team…are they still searching for her?” Seungwan asked with fearful voice, and the tall intern nodded glumly.

“They are still at the coastal area. Luckily, the car hadn’t traveled too far into the bridge before submerging. We can only wish that she survives the blow…somehow, and manages to be found as soon as possible…”

Seungwan knew exactly what that dark tone implied, that the possibility of such fortune happening was close to zero. She felt sick.

“And K-krystal…?” She trembled from where she was, still clutching at the mute Seulgi in effort to not only steady the girl but also herself. “Is she alive…?”

“Barely.” Joy answered morosely, her voice uncharacteristically small. “They actually had to move her from ER to the surgery room because she needed an open brain surgery. She was held back by her seatbelt but her head seemed to have hit something real hard. She suffers massive hemorrhage on top of being asphyxiated for quite some time underwater.”

The jarring information was stopped when a commotion broke from the end of the room, where the doctor and nurses seemed to flock around one particular bed.

A bloody man, with thrashing limbs and incoherent shriek, appeared to have gained some of his consciousness in form of delirium.

He clobbered and struggled against the medics, yelling something over and over as they tried to stabilize him.

When Seulgi focused to what he was saying, her insides went so icy she thought she might pass out.

“That crazy ! That crazy was the one who did this! She tried to kill us all! ing psycho! Get her away from me! Get her away from me!”

When the families of the delirious man and the other deceased guy started crying louder, the nurses were forced to usher them out of the ER along with everybody else who had no direct involvement.

Seulgi was pushed outside along with the wailing crowd, and it wasn’t until Joy led her and Seungwan by hands to walk away from the mess that she could feel her tears.

The smell of blood and death terrorizing her mind.

--------------------------------------------------------

“I’m so sorry that this unfortunate incident happens. I will make sure to settle things down with the men’s families and offer them decent financial help to quieten down the situation.”

Mrs.Bae tapped on her heavy mahogany desk repeatedly, eyebrows drawn together in grave distress as she tried to think of something.

She let out a long breath, looking terribly frustrated.

“Be careful not to offend them. We don’t want this to get more media and police attention than it already does.”

Her old secretary nodded, and she sighed again as she leaned back on her chair with dark clouds shading her face.

“How about Dr.Jung?”

“She is alive. From what I heard, she is still in the surgery running on third hour now.”

Mrs.Bae gave a curt nod and motioned him to leave. “Go and deal with the families and the nagging press. Make sure to angle the light as far away as possible from us and focus it simply on the fact that this was an unfortunate accident caused by Joohyun’s mental instability. It should be easy to get the public to latch on to that.”

The man nodded again, but just before he turned to leave, Mrs.Bae called him again.

“Wait.” She cut, a thought occurring to her.

“Hire some men to find Wendy. I want her back in this house as soon as possible. Pay them whatever amount of money they ask for as long as they can bring her back before something else…happens. It’s not safe for her to be wandering out there while Joohyun is still…not found.”

Her lips thinned then, and her whole demeanor seemed to stiffen.

“I don’t trust that she is dead until they find her body. That girl…she is stronger than she looks. She is smarter than what most people think too. She is like a wild grass that can’t die no matter how many times you stomp on her.”

She swallowed thickly as worry shadowed her face. “Right now, Wendy is her easiest target if she wants to take revenge. Get her back in this house as soon as possible no matter how. Break into private data and go through all necessary methods if you have to. Do you understand?”

“Yes, mam.”

He walked outside the room then, leaving the old woman to fidget alone with her thoughts.

“Bae Joohyun…Bae Joohyun…are you coming back for me now?”

-----------------------------------------------------------------

“It’s getting late! We are going to continue the search in the morning!”

Seulgi looked appalled at the man’s announcement, rushing towards his direction before she could stop herself.

“Wait!” She shouted, catching his attention along with his other coworkers. “You can’t just quit the search and go home to sleep when the person isn’t found yet! What in the hell are you thinking??”

The man pulled off his helmet, staring down at her with a mix of fatigue and annoyance. “Miss, we understand that you are very worried about your friend and you want us to find her as soon as possible, but these men are human too and they get tired. We have been searching this area and the waters kilometers away for nearly 14 hours nonstop. I ask you to allow these men three hours break before returning here at dawn to continue the search. That way, they will perform better too.”

Seulgi opened to protest but Joy seized her arm quickly before she could start.

“Seulgi.” She said slowly, trying not to trigger the girl’s already bewildered state even further. “He is right. They all look so tired and drained already. We don’t want anyone to make a mistake and get into another accident, yes? It’s nearly 2 AM.”

Seulgi quietened then, but even though her face still flashed unwillingness to let go of the search for the night, she knew that she couldn’t force all these people to do what she wanted.

These people were not her, and they didn’t have the crippling fear chipping away at their sanity with each passing second that Irene wasn’t found yet like she did.

She looked away in frustration, tears stinging in her eyes as the leader guy shouted at his men to gather their belongings and head back to their houses.

Once the number of people had dwindled down, Joy ran a hand through her worn out face and expelled a sigh. Her eyes looked bleary and red.

“Joy, you can head back to your house now and get some rest.” Seungwan offered kindly, feeling bad for keeping the busy intern all day long. “We are sorry for keeping you for so long. You still have early shift tomorrow, right?”

Joy nodded and tried to shake the exhaustion off herself. “It’s okay. I can ask for a sick leave if I want to. I have never used mine.”

She stirred her gaze to Seulgi then, and the weariness morphed into worry. “Seulgi, on the other hand, doesn’t have any of it left, I’m afraid.”

Seulgi didn’t seem to hear her, as she wiped at her burning eyes and walked back to the darkened seashore, searching and searching for the only person that mattered.

“Seulgi.” Joy called, her own voice somber. “If you don’t come to the hospital tomorrow, I’m afraid the doctors will have enough of your absences and fail your entire rotation.”

Seulgi still refused to hear her, now grabbing at her futile flashlight and stepping into the water.

Seungwan rushed toward the ocean and caught her arm just before she could descend into insanity. “Seulgi, you can’t go into the water now. You can’t even see anything in the dark!”

Seulgi brushed her hand off almost without noticing, eyes still set on the water. “I’m fine. I’m not hungry, or tired. You guys can head back home and get some rest. And Joy, tell the doctors that they can fail me or do whatever they want. I’m not coming tomorrow. I’m staying right here until I find her.”

Joy opened to protest, but Seungwan held up a finger to quieten her. She gave her a silent nod to say that she would talk to Seulgi slowly.

Joy sighed but nodded, finally gathering her belongings and preparing to go.

“Fine. I’ll see you guys tomorrow. Call me if anything happens, okay?”

Seungwan nodded, and the tall intern finally walked away to her car.

The blonde looked back to Seulgi then, and spoke with gentler tone. “Seulgi.”

The taller girl remained fixated on the sea, until Seungwan grabbed her by arm and shook her strongly. “Seulgi! You know you can’t find her in this kind of darkness without any help or tools! You are just acting on impulse now and you know it’s crazy.”

Seulgi turned to stare at her then, her eyes wet and painful.

“You don’t worry about her as much as I do. You won’t understand how I’m feeling.”

The statement should have hurt Seungwan, but it didn’t because it wasn’t really true. She wanted to find Irene just as badly as Seulgi did.

“Trust me when I say that I want to find her alive as much as you do. I…I have things that I haven’t explained to you but trust me, Seulgi, I still have so many things I want to do for her. I want her to stay alive and I want to fix so many things that have been wrong.”

Seulgi stared at her helplessly, and Seungwan’s gaze softened.

“You know we can’t just swim into this expansive waters, in this kind of cold and darkness, and find her, do you? We will both just die.”

Seulgi’s eyes watered slightly then, and her gaze lowered to the sand.

“What if anything happens to her while we are taking a break, Seungwan? What if she is still out there, somewhere, dying in this cold and darkness?”

Her eyes stung then, and her voice cracked with thick cry. “What if we can’t find her alive after tonight? What should I do?”

She broke into wracking sobs then, crumbling into her best friend’s embrace as she clawed at the back of woolen sweater and cried on. Her face buried deep into Seungwan’s neck until the shorter girl’s skin was soaked wet with her tears.

“Ssh, it’s okay.” Seungwan whispered, her own voice quivering with worry. Seulgi needed someone to be strong right now and even though Seungwan wasn’t, she would be if it could help calm the taller girl down. “I know Joohyun unnie will find ways to stay safe. She is…she is stronger than she looks. She is very smart too…She won’t leave us just like that.”

She Seulgi’s hair then, coaxing her to stop crying.

“She loves you a lot, Seulgi. She will come back for you if not for anything else.”

---------------------------------------------------

Please Subscribe to read the full chapter