Nobody really knew a way out. They could only hope for the best. The only thing they could hope for was for someone to find them. Nobody said it out loud, but they were contented that, until now, all of them are alive. They hope it would stay this way. It was only a wishful thinking.

“Kim Jongin, also better known as Kai, is now reportedly missing after his alleged involvement in an unsolved mystery of Jessica Jung's disappearance. The pressure on the prosecution team intensifies as no prime suspects has been officially identified…”

Soojung feels sick as she watches the news and the lurking eyes watching her every move make her want to run away. She does not know what they are doing or what their motives of keeping her inside are but everything, everything is sickening. She runs until she finds a bench half-hidden by a large potted fern where she curls up under it to watch the moonlight form strange, unfamiliar patterns on the floor. There are a few shouts from the hallway but it does not matter because she is now in the back seat of their family car; her father is at the wheel and her mother is talking about bringing her to her favourite Italian restaurant. She loves the sound of their laughter but what is most perplexing is the muffled cries of her sister, looking lugubrious and disoriented outside the car. Her crying becomes louder, louder and louder and louder, almost piercing through her mind. It doesn't make sense. This doesn't make sense. All she ever wishes for is a happy ending.

But the thing is that she has always known how this story would end before it even started.

There is a soft splattering sound, it is only then she realises she is awake, feeling breathless with cold sweat breaking on her skin. She blinks, suddenly feeling the hot tears running down her cheeks. At this point, the single drop from the sky doesn't register in her mind as rain; it joins the liquid tracks against her face, falling down her cheeks.  

She chuckles sadly, a sad sound that causes the dull pain again. It’s quiet if you don’t count Soojung’s too loud breathing and too soft crying. Sometimes her loneliness feels like it is tangible, as if there are loose limbed shadows looming over her — cold, heavy, and suffocating.   

On this rainy day, Soojung runs home. 

Sehun’s sitting in his spotless office, drinking dull-tasting still water as the morning news on his television continues in the background. His face is expressionless after he closes his file and watches Kyungsoo whose wide eyes have taken up almost half of his somber face. 

“There’s no way that Kai would run away like this,” Kyungsoo said with such certainty. “I'm telling you. Something bad must have happened to him.”

Sehun raises his brow. “And what makes you so sure? He’s under such intense pressure and subjected to all that scrutiny from the public. It’s not impossible that he wants to be away from the spotlight for a while."  

“I’m his manager for so many years. He’d have informed me if he wanted to leave. It could be one of those extreme supporters of Jessica that did it. They have been blaming him for her disappearance since the first day.” 

“Listen, we do not have evidence that suggests he has been kidnapped,” Sehun continues mechanically and there’s a little crease between his brows. “There’s no note, no signs of break-in too.”

“He wouldn’t leave us like this. He wouldn’t. He wouldn’t leave without saying anything,” Kyungsoo says so quietly that he almost misses it. “He promises.”

Sehun notices how his eyes shine with mostness and he’s clenching his jaw between sentences, and he can’t decipher what he is thinking. He doesn’t look intimidated nor does he look to be in fear at all but there’s a look of comprehension but also contempt there hiding behind his bitterness of the truth.

All he knows is that Kyungsoo is willing to go through hell to find Jongin.

He is right, and that is the worst part.

Joohyun breathes steadily in and out, but she struggles to stay calm in the abandoned mansion. Something in the back of her mind is telling her that she’s in danger and she needs to leave this place immediately. But she's way too close to the truth now to only give up now.