It was just the beginning of their current school year when Joohyun announced that she wanted to become an actress. She started taking school somewhat seriously and did her fair share of research regarding what talent companies look for in potential stars. Jieun was still undecided what she would pursue as a career, but admired her best friend’s drive and did anything it took to support her.

•            •            •

    Jieun broke down into tears as what she saw on screen registered. Yoongi rested a hand on her back as he looked at his aunt who seemed perfectly fine. He simply stared at her, awaiting a response that never came. Instead, the woman stood up and collected all three of the bowls before walking towards the kitchen to clean the dishes. The boy sat with the girl and held back his own tears when a vibration hit his leg, causing him to dig in his pocket and pull out Joohyun’s phone. Yoongi lifted his hand from Jieun’s shoulders and rubbed his eyes, reading the message from the unknown number. He looked at the girl who was still sobbing and thought of how to calm her down. After a few minutes of her crying drowning out the sound of running water from the other room, the air grew silent.

    “Hey, look,” Yoongi said, handing the phone to Jieun. The girl was still red faced and snot nosed as she looked at the display and read the message.

    “Call me,” was all it said, the area code from out of town. It didn’t match the driver’s number from earlier so she had no idea who it could be.

    “Try,” the boy said, knowing Jieun’s voice would be hoarse, but the person was probably trying to reach her. The girl looked at him and closed her eyes, pausing to take in a deep breath  that tasted of salt and moisture. She let it out and tapped on the number, then hit the call button from the options displayed. Scared and unsure of what would happen, she hit speakerphone and the ringing sounded throughout the room.

    “Hello,” a familiar female voice said.

    “Hello?” Jieun managed to ask, sniffling back lingering emotions.

    “Jieun! You found it. Ahhh you are smart, so I knew you would,” the voice said and the girl started to feel overwhelmed as she recognized who it was.

    “Joohyun?” and Yoongi’s eyes went wide.

    “Yeah,” she said with a bit of a laugh. “Why am I on speaker?” she asked and Jieun felt a rage fill her entire being.

    “Because I’m with your mother and cousin and we just watched you ing die, then a random number comes on your phone wanting a call. Where the hell are you, you ing idiot?” Jieun spilled out, not knowing what was going on but sure Joohyun would tell her everything.

    “I’m at the airport. Almost. I’m in a car,” Joohyun said and the other girl felt like grabbing her through the phone and shaking the out of her.

    “Why,” Jieun said, feeling like crying from anger.

    “Because I can’t stay in Korea anymore. Everyone thinks I’m dead,” Joohyun said as if it were common knowledge.

    “Bae Joohyun, I swear if you don’t explain every single thing to me right now, I’m going to post every blackmail selfie I’ve ever taken of you onto your Instagram,” Jieun threatened, but then wondered if it would hold any weight. Would Joohyun delete her account and start refresh now that she was “dead”? Would she be under witness protection program? What the hell was going on? A sigh sounded from the speaker and Jieun rolled her eyes.

    “Okay. Soooooo, basically,” Joohyun stalled and Jieun was glad she wasn’t in the same room otherwise punches would be thrown. “Well, you know how I want to be an actress?” she said.

    “Duh.”

    “That’s what happened. It was a fake hostage situation. I shouldn’t be saying this over the ph