[11:27 AM KST]

Her fingers grip the steering wheel tightly as she tries her best to keep her eyes off the box in the passenger's seat holding her funeral clothes. She doesn't want to think about that right now. She can't. She sighs as the sound of her phone ringing over the bluetooth echoes throughout her mother's car. 

Baekhyun, it says. 

She knows she can't ignore it. She knows that Baekhyun's probably stopped by her mother's place, he's probably seen the mess that her mother currently is, she's probably told him where she's going. 

Yeji sighs, loudly, before she takes the call.

"What?" She mumbles. She immediately winces at her tone. She's doesn't want to speak like that with Baekhyun, with her best friend, but she can't help it. She can't do emotions. 

"Where are you?" Baekhyun's voice echoes over the receiver.

She turns on her signal, changing lanes on the highway, before she responds, "Heading down to set up the funeral."

Baekhyun starts to say something, but Sehun quickly cuts him off, his voice loud, annoyed, and Yeji is momentarily startled by the fact that she's on speaker with both Baekhyun and Sehun. Her stomach churns and she feels that familiar trickle of discomfort clawing at her insides. "Why the hell are you going alone, Ji?"

"Mom refused to go. What else was I supposed to do?" She snaps out and her tone is sharp. 

Sehun responds, tone just as sharp, "You could have called us." 

Yeji's heart swells and her eyes sting and she feels a deep, overwhelming sense of fondness well up in her chest. She forces it away because she hates showing emotion, even to her best friends. She grimaces, instead, even as Baekhyun adds, "We'd have gone down there with you, Yeji. You know that, right?"

Yeji doesn't say thank you, but it lingers there. They know her well enough to hear it, even in the silence. Still, she replies, tone dismissive, "You guys are busy. It's not that big of a deal."

A pause. 

"Yeji, it is." Sehun's voice is soft, even as it echoes in her mother's car. 

Yeji's fingers tighten around the steering wheel and her eyes and nose stings, "No, it's not. It's fine. I'm fine. I don't even--I haven't seen my dad in two years. I'm over it."

"Yej--"

Baekhyun cuts off Sehun's response, abruptly, his tone soft, tired, a little annoyed, "Sehun, leave it alone."

"Baekhyun! We can't just--"

"It's fine, Sehun." Yeji interrupts Sehun. "Seriously."

There's another long pause. Sehun says something she can't hear and Baekhyun responds, his words just as indecipherable. Sehun huffs in a way that makes her imagine him stomping his foot like a little kid and it's a funny thing to imagine because Sehun's one hundred eighty something centimeters and most definitely not a kid, yet he can act like an eight year old. She feels bad, almost, for making him worry, for being so bad at making them think she's fine. She almost hates herself for it. She hates the fact that these are her best friends. They know her too damn well. They know she's lying.

Still, Baekhyun just sighs, his voice low and soft when he says, "Fine. Just...don't forget to eat, okay?" Sehun mutters something indecipherable again and then Baekhyun speaks, irritation coloring his soft tone just a bit, clearly exasperated with her, "Take care of yourself, idiot."

Yeji smiles, she can't help it. "I will." She says.

Sorry, she thinks. She doesn't say it and they don't expect her to. They hang up after saying bye, Sehun grumbling the whole time. 

She finds herself smiling like an idiot, even as she takes the exit towards her father's hometown--her birth place, though she barely even remembers the place. The GPS tells her there's a mile left and heavy traffic ahead. She frowns, slightly, because why would there be heavy traffic in front of a gated community with barely any people living in it? She swerves past a stalled news vehicle on the side of the road and the traffic seems to thin out a bit. The closer she gets, the tighter her grip on the steering wheel is and the heavier the presence of that clothing box with her funeral clothes in it is. Suddenly, she wishes she wasn't alone. 

~.~.~.~.~

[Tweet image: Korea Times @KTBreakingNews: "BREAKING NEWS: Authorities are currently investigating the disappearance of gated community, SM Town, located outside of Pyeongtaek, roughly 40 miles from Seoul. ARTICLE LINK.]

[11:47 AM KST, January 10, 2018]

~.~.~.~.~

[Tweet image: Korea Times @KTBreaking News: "112 residents of SM Town are missing, according to authorities. 'We will do our best to find these people. People cannot just disappear into thin air." ARTICLE LINK]

[8:20 PM KST, January 10, 2018]

a/n: As yall can tell this fic is gonna be short chapters, updated in real time (sort of, I'm trying to match KST when it comes to posting lol) thank you all soooo much for the support, and next chapter they'll discuss any comments you guys leave for them. Plus, the chapters gonna be a bit longer. Thank you! I love you guys!!!