A small yawn.  A slight stretch of her arms. And with that, Sooyoung was ready to go. “Good mor—“ she cut herself off when she saw that her roommate’s bed was still empty and like the previous night, she was alone in the hotel room, the stale silence only broken by the occasional horn of the car below.

“Is she still mad at me?” Sooyoung thought to herself as she dropped back onto her pillow and stared at the ceiling.

Minutes ticked by silently as she stared at a spot on the wall. No thoughts ran through her mind at all, she was neither thinking nor daydreaming about anything ; just simply staring blankly. Sooyoung let out a sigh before she made her way to the bathroom to wash up.

“What’re you worrying about, Choi Sooyoung?” she chuckled to herself as she put her clothes on,” She’s probably just downstairs having breakfast with the others because you woke up late.”

Seeing that it was still about an hour before their actual meeting time down at a function room that Leeteuk had booked, Sooyoung decided to take her time and wash up, choosing the most comfortable clothes before she finally stepped out of the house, not forgetting to grab her gun and tag before left.

“Almost forgot the key.” She giggled at her own forgetfulness, grabbing her hotel keys before she locked the door behind her.

As soon as she went down, she saw that no one was down at the breakfast buffet. Her suspicion started to kick in. “Tiffany wouldn’t miss potato soup for anything in the world… This is odd.”she thought as she served herself a bowl of soup for a starter.

Completely clueless as to what the team was doing, Sooyoung decided to ignore this and carried on a hearty breakfast of chicken in an white creamy sauce, macaroni, and not forgetting a cup of vanilla ice cream with some nuts before she leisurely made her way up to the function room on the 3^rd floor.

Time seemed to come to a halt as soon as Sooyoung stepped in ; the rest of the team who were scampering about the room and showing each other their accumulated data now stared incredulously at her, Onew included.

“Choi Sooyoung! What’re you standing there for?! Get to work!” Leeteuk barked harshly, sending Sooyoung into a jittery frenzy as she quickly cowered behind Taeyeon and Tiffany.

Tiffany raised her eyebrow at Sooyoung before she passed her a stack of files. Sooyoung tilted her head to the side and stared back at Tiffany. “What?” She asked.

Tiffany shook her head solemnly, mumbling something about being clueless before she walked over to Leeteuk with her laptop.

“Taeyeon, what’s wrong with Tiffany, have you been feeding her some weird medicine lately?” Sooyoung questioned.

Taeyeon gave Sooyoung a long, questionable look before sighing and picking up a few photographs before she took her first step to show Leeteuk the photos.

“Sunny’s been kidnapped.”

A/N : Lemme experiment writing in POV for a bit.

What?

..

Did I hear her wrongly?

Yes.

Then again, no. Her follow up actions were too real to be a joke. Taeyeon gave me a last look, her back half turned, before she shook her head and walked to Leeteuk. I guess Leeteuk more or less sensed my distress, my cluelessness as to what Taeyeon had just said to me.

My brain was jammed, unwilling to process the thought, but it was the fact, a fact I couldn’t change.

Sunny was missing.

This couldn’t be happening… No… Why? Why her?

Why wasn’t it me?

God, is this your way of testing me?

Why?...

Who?

Juda!

Immediately, I spun around and headed for the door, my legs started to feel light and within a second or two, I saw myself sprinting towards the door at full speed, leaving the files that I had dropped out of shock lying on the floor without bothering to pick them up.

“This is not happening.”

That was what I repeatedly told myself. If I had a dollar for every time I had said that to myself over the past 3 minutes, I probably would’ve earned enough to rival my year-end bonus by now. The door’s silver handle is right in front of me now.

But before I can touch the silver metal, someone pushed me aside and I literally felt myself fly, sliding on the smooth marble floor for a good three metres or so before I came to a halt.

“What the ?”

That’s my first thought as soon as I recover from my state of shock. Then, I recognized the person standing in front of me.

Immediately, I saw red and I growled menacingly at the familiar person who was standing arrogantly in front of me, his arms crossed and his face…

Is that regret I see, marked in his eyes?

“And where are you going to find her?”

He was right. I had no idea where Sunny was. But neither did he, otherwise, he wouldn’t be here.

“You don’t know either.”

I hissed as I got to my feet and straightened my T shirt. And glared at Onew. His eyes widened and he gave me the look that he always gave me when he was about to send a punch flying at me.

Surprisingly he didn’t. Instead he simply bowed and apologized properly.

“I’m sorry.”

I studied his expression thoroughly, not missing a single micro expression that he could have shown.

“You’re sincere. For once.”

That probably hurt, but he deserves it anyway. Now, we’re even. With one thing off both our minds, we could now focus on the problem at hand ; Sunny.

That girl… If I extracted my memory thoroughly, I could still find a short memory of when she had just entered the police force. I had entered the force about a year and a half before her and by far I was more experienced than she was. She was a new recruit back then, one of the lucky few to get deployed into the main headquarters. Funny thing was that when she stepped in, she was still in her trainee uniform.

“I-I-I’m Sunny.” She stammered as she bowed her head down low, her long brown hair tied up into a high ponytail as she peered at me.

“Is that the way you should be looking at your senior?” I , my lips curling into a small smile as I mocked her.

“Woah Sooyoung’s smiling!” Johnny yelled. Ah Johnny, he was a good friend, really nice and easy-going and we were talking about going for a steamboat that weekend before he was murdered; killed when the triad members planted a bomb in his car. There weren’t even bones left to burry when we arrived.

I ignored Johnny and turned back to Sunny, who was still bowing. “You can stop bowing now y’know?” I chuckled, putting a stack of files on top of Sunny’s head before I returned to my seat.

“The boss wants those records sorted out by 5.” I said bluntly as I crashed back into my chair and plugged my earphones in again, waiting for the girl to finish picking the files that had fallen onto the floor before I glanced again at her back.

Then there was this period of time when I laughed at her blonde short hair so badly, I remember I even fell off the chair the first day when she reported for work in that hairstyle.

“Stop laughing!” she demanded as she rained blows on my shoulder, occasionally giving me a pinch or two before she stormed back to her seat and sat cross-armed against her chair, looking angrily out the window.

“Sunny ah.” I cooed, but she simply turned away from me.

“Sunny ah, don’t be mad, I’m sorry.” I said, hoping to sound as sincere as I probably could, but she gave me a stuck out tongue as a reply and she went back to her programming program.

“C’mon~” I mused, chuckling when I saw her shudder a little.

That’s where the memory ends. I don’t remember whether she forgave me or she simply just forgot about it… Now I’ll never know.

..

No.

Choi Sooyoung.

Stand up.

Rise up.

She needs you. She needs you… even if it’s as a friend, she needs you.

I cannot give up. I promised her that even if the whole world gave up on her, I wouldn’t.

I promised her that even if the whole universe was against her, I’d stand by her side.

I promised.

Without another word, Sooyoung immediately springs into action, her 6^th sense going into overdrive as she became deadly serious about every question she asked the team members. “Who was the last to reach back to their hotel rooms?” She asked.

Two hands immediately shot up ; Tiffany and Taeyeon. “Didn’t you two go home right after you were dismissed?” Leeteuk questioned, raising an eyebrow at the two of them.

Tiffany shook her head. “We went for supper at a ice cream parlour before we went back. Yuri and Jessica followed us but Jessica fell asleep so Yuri carried her back immediately.”

Sooyoung nodded.

“Yuri, Jessica, any findings?” she asked.

“According to shop camera we found around the vicinity, the camera found Sunny drenched and snooping the alley at around 1 a.m.” Yuri said, spinning her laptop around and showing the team her blur but distinct video of Sunny’s figure sneaking past the shop window, but she wasn’t alone ; someone else was tailing her.

“The catcher gets caught.” Jessica stated bluntly as she furiously jabbed at her keyboard before she spun it around.

“Suspect one.” She smiled.

Sooyoung nodded grimly as Leeteuk gave her a nod, acknowledging her as the leader for this mission. “Ten minutes prep, after that we’re moving out.” Sooyoung said calmly as she walked out of the room and back to her hotel room.

The iron casing around her heart melted away almost immediately when she saw Sunny’s luggage, still on the floor beside her bed. Her heart became heavy, her knees grew weak, and in a matter of seconds, she sank to her knees in front of her missing partner’s bed and broke down.

“I want to see my lawyer.”

“Go ahead.” Taeyeon smiled, sliding her phone over to him as she drummed her fingers lightly on the desk

Juda grew deadly silent as he sat back and leaned against the chair rest, glaring murderously at Taeyeon. Taeyeon simply ignored his stare and continued her questioning with a smile plastered on her face at the end of every question, her smile tainted with sarcasm that almost felt like mockery.

“I repeat ; Where were you last night at between 12: 30 a.m to 3 a.m.” Taeyeon repeated, her posture now almost mimicking Juda as she leaned back against her chair and crossed her legs.

Juda leant forward.

“Home.” His answer remained the same, “I was sleeping.”

“Could you please repeat what you did at home? From the moment you stepped into the apartment.” Taeyeon requested, hoping to find something that was different from his previous statement to use as a lead.

“I told you. I went home and immediately sat on the couch. I watched TV for a minute or two before I went to take a shower then I went to sleep immediately after having supper.”

Bingo.

“You didn’t mention anything about supper before. So you went out for supper, I assume?” Taeyeon said, leaning forward and looking at Juda eye to eye.

Juda leaned even closer and growled at her.

“Now I’m telling you I went for supper.” He said in between his clenched teeth.

“Supper huh? Does that include human blood for dessert?” Taeyeon asked sarcastically.

“I can sue you for slander.”

“I can turn it around and charge you for murder.”

“Try it.”

“In the process of doing so.”

At that moment, just when the two were about to go at each other, the door burst open and Tiffany walked in. “Juda was asleep, and there’s camera evidence that he has actually been to a roadside stall for his supper. And wherever he went, he was nowhere near where Sunny was found snooping around ; she couldn’t have went to the other side of town within half an hour on foot. Mr Juda, you’re allowed to leave.” Tiffany stated.

Juda gave a last menacing look at Taeyeon before he exited the room without a word.

“Sooyoung, where’re you going?” Jessica asked.

Sooyoung didn’t reply ; she simply closed the door behind her as she walked out of the surveillance room.

“Where are you?” I ask myself repeatedly as I comb through the area where the CCTV camera had last captured her.

“How would you react if one day, you found out I was gone forever?”

I always hated answering that question of yours. Usually my reply would be a simple “I’d cry” or “I’d miss you a hell lot” or at other  times, I’d simply ignore you.

Now I guess I know the answer.

How would I react if one day, I found out you were gone forever?

I wouldn’t cry, I’m not crying now, am I?

I wouldn’t die, but I wouldn’t feel like continuing with my life either.

I would feel…

Restless.

Indignant.

My other half has been forcefully torn away from me, how could I not feel indignant? How could I not want you back?

You were always stuck in your own world of programming and usually, I couldn’t get you to come back to Earth until it was lunchtime. During the period of time when we had to do overtime frequently, half the time, you’d be half asleep while typing with one hand, either that or you would be totally asleep and your word document would be filled with an immeasurable amount of random letters that typed themselves out when you had rested your head on the keyboard.

You never looked at me the way you looked at Onew. In your eyes, all I could see was just a good friend, that’s all that you ever saw me as… I hope I was wrong. I wish I was wrong.

Remember the time when I carried you through the rain after Onew had rejected you once and you were crying on the streets? Well, I guess I must really love you to carry you through the rain twice.

Somehow, between us there were always obstructions… Always barriers that separated us the moment I wanted to let you know how important you were to me. And after those barriers were broken down, I forgot my initial agenda, and this cycle would just repeat, until now, it’s still the same, it’s just that this time, I don’t think I’ll forget my initial agenda anymore. Not anymore.

But I wonder,

Did you ever feel the same way as I did? Even if it was for a fraction of a second, did you? I’ve seen so many criminals, so many lies, seen through so many poker faces, yet out of all the faces I’ve seen, yours is the hardest for me to see through. No matter how much experience I gained, I could never see through that smile that was forever plastered on your face. Once in a while when Onew rejected you, I would see the hurt in your smile, but only for the briefest of moments before you hid that wound in your heart beneath the radiance of your grin.

I wish you’d let me understand you... let me know you better… let me find the real you inside this world with so many lies they could drown me.

…

My legs froze as soon as I heard I faint tap behind me. Something like when a metal hits a tile on the floor, soft enough to almost be covered by thhe sounds of passing cars in the distance, yet distinct enough to be picked out clearly from the hoard of noises that surrounded these alleys with unceasing echoes.

I turned around.

No one was there. Strange, I could’ve sworn that I heard something.

Again, another tap, once again in the same direction that I was facing. Nothing else was before me except for a large, green rectangular trashcan that stood about a 10 metre distance from me.

“Who’s there?”

No response, just the same tap of metal.

I took out my gun, prepared to shoot at the next thing that moved in the vicinity as I slowly walked closer to the garbage can.

My heart pounded as I thought I was getting closer to solving the mystery behind Sunny’s disappearance, if I was lucky, maybe she was just there behind the garbage can, injured and waiting for me to save her.

But I wasn’t going to take my chances, if Sunny had any chance of being saved, I had to make sure I wasn’t caught off guard and taken hostage with her too.

Slowly, but steadily, I found myself just a few feet away from the large green garbage can with my heart in my mouth as I moved against the opposite wall, putting as much distance between myself and the garbage bin just in case someone had intended to pounce on me when I got too close. My eyes peered over the corner of the reeking metal container and I saw nothing.

I lowered my gun.

“Mew.”

Immediately, my gun was up again, pointing in the same direction, just at a lower altitude and I lowered my weapon when I found myself pointing at a harmless black cat.

It’s slit like eyes stared into mine, creepy, but nonetheless harmless as it walked over to me, apparently unfazed by my earlier hostility when I had pointed my gun towards it.

I noticed that there was something on it’s neck. It was a little dirty with scraps of food here and there but it was a police tag.

Sunny’s police tag.

I the cat gently to ease it as I took the tag out looked carefully at it.

“Lee Sunny.”

I stood up immediately and was about to phone the others but then the cat shifted itself away from me. It looked back at me for a minute or so before it strolled across the alley.

“Sooyoung?” Yuri called out through the phone.

At that moment I realised I had left her hanging when I stared at the cat.

“Yuri, call me in half an hour and I’ll tell you where I am then. We might have a lead.”

I said before I ended the call and followed the feline.

Annyong!~ hey guys I’ve got something to tell you.

First things first sorry I haven’t updated for almost a week. Was about to update yesterday but yeah it was midnight and I was tired so I pushed it till the next morning.

Anyways, my school term is starting in a week and I have to warn you guys. I might not update as much during school days :\ Definitely, I’ll try to set aside time to update but I can honestly tell you guys updates aren’t going to be as often. It’s a new school and a new environment so I’m gonna have to work hard to adapt to it.

But during my own self study, my study method allows me 15 minutes of update time for every 45 minutes I study ^^ So you better I hope I get more free periods to do self-study otherwise your updates will be slow >:D

Kkayzxc. Oh by the way.  I’ll update you guys on my update schedule soon but my priority fics now are this fic and my other fic, The Girl Who Watched Time. Honestly Love That Transcends Time and Abyssal Cry are actually the last on my list so yeah >_>

Random fact #2 :

I can sleep up to 12 hours a day, if I actually wanted to. But I force myself awake half the time because I don’t like to waste time.

Anyways, hope you enjoyed the update ^^

Stay tuned!~

Time out!~