*Jennie’s POV*

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I peered at the clock on the far wall while biting my thumbnail, leaning back to my chair as the two men examined my journal in front of me.

Lately, I had began to expect for the worst, since things hadn’t really gone as wanted. So now, as the producers, publishers, whatever they were, were going through my ideas and writings, I couldn’t help but feel anxious. Or helpless.

I was afraid they would bash my baby.

Which was the book - Ryan.

All that time I had wasted on trying to come up with a story - it had been in me the entire time. I had been living that story. Story that would not only sell on the market, but would sell itself to people’s hearts. Or that’s what I thoughts. At least Chaeyoung had told me so.

The men were busy discussing the writing, so I had a pause to go get myself a cup of coffee. I excused myself from the table and waddled to the desk, asking for a small americano.

Meanwhile my body was present in this moment, my head was way up in the clouds. I still couldn’t believe the things that had happened in the span of a few months. I couldn’t believe it. I mean, how could a person even fall in love in that amount of time? For me it seemed absurd.

Even though I was good at writing about it, I had never really bought the whole ”love at first sight” thing. It had been a hoax for me. Now it was like seeing real magic for the first time and being forced to believe it.

I was head over heels in love.

You could probably see it in the way I leaned against the counter while waiting for my coffee. You could see it in the way I rested my eyes only to see him through my memories. It was intense. I was crazy in love.

”Here’s your americano.”

I opened my eyes and smiled to the barista. The memories from Sanggang-ri rushed to me, from hearing that drink’s name. I remembered how he had jumped up from his chair after seeing me in the cafe. How he had walked over to me and held me, the way you held people you thought you’d never see again.

Walking back to the table, I noticed the men eyeing my bag.

”Your phone’s been going off nonstop”, the older man, mr. Jung said. He and the other looked somewhat annoyed by this - incident. 

I put my drink on the table and squatted down to go through my bag.

This time I didn’t have to worry about my tight sheath dress rising up. I had completely abandoned the whole aesthetic. I was more of a jeans and a white blouse girl nowadays.

”I’m sorry, would it be okay if I took this quickly?” I asked, grabbing my phone from the front pocket of the bag. The men exchanged a look and nodded. I hurried to the hallway.

It didn’t take long until he picked up. Two tunes to be exact. I could feel the wide grin appearing on my face. ”Hey-”

”Jennie, we’re at the police station, I-I tried calling you but, but you didn’t pick up so-”

”What?” My grin slowly faded as all the different horror scenarios flowed into my brain. ”Are you okay?”

”I’m fine”, Hanbin said. His voice sounded a little off. Okay, way off. ”And Bobby’s alright, but…”

”Is Chaeyoung there with you? What happened?”

”Sh-she’s, I don’t know where she is… you should really come over right now, it’s serious”, Hanbin said, his voice shaking. ”There was nothing we could do - it, it happened so fast and we weren’t right next to her-”

”Where is she?” I began to panic. ”What happened?” I walked over to my table, leaving my americano and the two busy men behind. I threw on my coat and rushed out of the cafeteria. When I got outside, I immediately caught myself a taxi.

”Tell me, Hanbin…”

I could hear him breathing on the phone. He sounded like he was listening to someone. ”Bobby’s talking to the search team.”

Search team? Someone was missing?

”Where to, miss?” The driver asked me, peeking at me through the rearview mirror.

”Police station”, I managed to breathe out. Then I talked to the phone. ”Where’s Chae? Is she okay?”

”I don’t know.”

”How can’t you know? You were with her!”

”Someone took her.”

I gasped, earning a worrisome look from the driver. ”What do you mean took her?”

”Someone grabbed her into a car, that’s all we know, Jennie, I’m so sor-”

”But you were with her!” I yelled, noticing the tears welling up into my eyes. I quickly wiped them off. ”How’s that possible?”

The line became silent. I couldn’t hear him even breathing anymore. He must’ve lowered the phone or something. I checked the screen, he hadn’t hung up.

Gritting my teeth, I pressed the red icon and slowly slid the phone into my pocket.

I couldn’t even think about the worst case scenario.

What if I never saw her again?

Why did all this happen to me? What had I possibly done to deserve this? What had Chaeyoung done?

She hadn’t even lived yet.

The car stopped in front of the big station and I hopped out after throwing the driver some extra. My heart sunk only at the sight of the big building. I did not want to enter those doors.

After my incident back in Sanggang-ri, I did have to come fill some forms here about the case, so the whole place carried this dark aura around it, which I didn’t want to face again. And now that it wasn’t me who was in trouble, but someone I loved, it felt even worse.

I cared for her safety more than I cared for my own.

I walked inside the building, searching for a familiar pair of eyes from the crowd. But the masses of people just kept growing in my eyes, pressing me against the walls and suffocating me. I raised my palms to my eyes.

The noise was steady, strikingly steady. For some reason the man from my nightmares slowly crept into my thoughts. All the daydreams had quickly faded after the phone call. Back was the nightmare.

”There.”

I could recognize the sound. Bobby. I opened my eyes and saw him nudging his way toward me. Behind him I saw Hanbin, eyes glistening of worry. Bobby seemed deadly serious, almost mad. When they got to me, I pushed myself off of the wall and pushed Bobby’s chest. ”Explain!”

He stumbled a few steps back but easily kept his balance. ”We’re gonna find her-”

I could feel my pupils dilate. I was worried. And angry. And terrified. ”Is that a promise?”

”Yes”, Bobby said, no doubt in his voice. ”I promise. I got their plate number and the model of the car. I bet they’ll find her in hours.”

Hours? A lot could go down in hours. What if they hurt her? Or made her do something? Or what if she wasn’t even in the country anymore?

Bobby seemed so certain. He was radiating confidence. ”Jennie, I promise.”

I glanced at Hanbin behind him. He was stretching his neck, clearly upset. ”Where did it happen? Where are the officers?”

”By the bridge near the river”, Bobby explained. ”She was showing us around and…” his voice slowly faded to nothing.

I raised my brows. ”And?” I didn’t have time to be polite. I needed to know where she was.

”And someone kidnapped her”, Bobby said. I could see how he tried to keep it together, but the terror was slowly lurking up to him too. I could see it in his eyes. It was way more visible in Hanbin though. He hadn’t said a word, or even looked up to me.

”But how?” I needed to know every little detail. ”If she was showing you around, how did you not see it coming? Weren’t you with her the entire time?”

”No”, Bobby quietly said. ”We went to see the docks and she didn’t want to come-”

”So you ditched her?” My voice was barely audibly at this point. I couldn’t believe it.

”It’s not exactly the most dangerous environment”, Bobby talked back. ”How were we supposed to know?”

”How would you know that it’s not? You’ve been here for a day!” I spat the words to his face. ”For one ing day and she’s been kidnapped?!”

”Hey…” Hanbin spoke up and pushed himself past Bobby. ”This isn’t helping.”

”Neither are you”, I hissed. ”I wanna talk to the officers.”

I could see the hurt in his eyes, bu