Fuu stood up and bowed politely at her seniors who exited the conference room before her. She waited until all the heads of the departments were out of the door before searching for the object of her interest at the moment. Nichkhun stood up from his chair talking to Wooyoung, and the two of them started towards the door. Gathering her confidence, Fuu walked up to the Thai and bowed slightly before speaking.

“Nichkhun-ssi, I was wondering if we could talk for a moment,” Fuu asked in English.

Fuu smiled inwardly to herself when Nichkhun simply nodded at her, raising his brows and smiling in return. “What about?” he asked.

Fuu could see Wooyoung look at her uncomfortably; she would have asked in Korean, but she wasn’t very confident with the language just yet. “It’s about Renn-ssi. I’ve heard that you were close friends with Ian-ssi who is close friends with Renn-ssi, and I was hoping you could help me. Renn-ssi hasn’t been coming home lately, and I’m worried about her.”

Nichkhun gave her a soft smile, “Ian is out of the country right now, but I’ll give him a call. Renn...Renn likes to disappear for days at a time, it’s nothing you should worry about. I can give her a call right now if you want to. Have you tried calling her?”

Fuu dropped her gaze to the floor, “I have been, but her phone is either switched off or we get redirected to voicemail at once.”

“Hmm...”

Fuu looked back up as Nichkhun asked a question directed towards Wooyoung in Korean, she didn’t understand everything, but she was pretty sure she got the gist of it. Nichkhun was asking Wooyoung if he wanted to make a field trip to Renn’s office.

“We have some time, let’s go to her office and see if she’ll let us in.”

Fuu followed Nichkhun and Wooyoung as the two led the way out. The older man opened the door and gestured for the two others to go on ahead before him. As soon as Fuu was outside, a loud Kass had attached herself to her arm.

“Unnie, Taec-oppa says he’ll help you with your Korean!” Taecyeon stood behind her awkwardly, a polite smile pressed on his face. Fuu had seen the older boy leave the room earlier while she had been waiting  for Nichkhun.

“Kass-ssi, you just tend to pop out of nowhere,” Wooyoung commented.

“Oh Khun-oppa, Wooyoung-oppa, I didn’t see you there,” Kass bowed, briefly detaching herself from Fuu.

Both boys did a faint head nod and smiled at the younger girl, but Fuu could tell that their smiles were forced, just like everyone else’s. When Kass looked up from her bow, her eyes met Fuu’s and Fuu could tell that the younger girl was thinking the same thing.

“Oh. Unnie, are you guys going somewhere?” Kass asked as she took a step back to look at the three people in front of her.

Fuu nodded. “We were going to try and find Renn-ssi. I’m really worried about her, I haven’t heard from her in weeks.”

“Renn does that,” Taecyeon added. “At least when Jay was here he managed to get her out of her studio and me, Khun, and him would go around looking for stuff to do. I kinda miss her too. Haven’t talked to her in ages.”

“Taecyeon-ssi is close with Renn-ssi too?” Fuu asked, surprised at this discovery.

“Me, Taec, and Jay, yeah. When Renn was new, she and Ian would hang around the practice rooms a lot, and since my Korean wasn’t that good she’d help me,” Nichkhun answered. “I worry about her too, we really should go find her.”

“We’ll come too,” Kass added as she reattached herself to Fuu’s arm. “I’m worried about Renn-unnie, I hope she’s okay.”

Fuu nodded as Nichkhun replied, “Let’s go.” The group headed towards the elevator in silence

Fuu noticed Kass look around as they walked. Nichkhun was leading the way, followed closely by Taecyeon and the girls while Wooyoung had somehow ended up at the back of the group.

“Unnie,” Kass whispered, nudging her and nodding towards Taecyeon’s back. She was carrying that mischievous smile once again, and Fuu looked at the younger girl with a surprised look. Kass widened her eyes as she started gesturing towards the boy in front of them, without making it obvious to the one behind them. When all Fuu could do was give the younger girl a shy look, Kass’ eyes darted to Taecyeon, and she took a bigger step forward, stepping on the back of his heel before leaving her side and placing herself next to Wooyoung.

“Wooyoung-oppa, I heard from Taec-oppa that you were working with Mai-umma on the ending. How’d that go?”

Fuu had no time to complain to the younger girl for leaving her side as Taecyeon had turned around and lightly stomped to put his shoe back on.

“Um... Taecyeon-ssi, sorry about that,” she stammered as she smiled awkwardly at the older boy.

Taecyeon smiled back, slowing down so that she could catch up to him. “Taec is fine. Or oppa, if you want to practice your Korean.”

Fuu nodded, eyes dropping to the floor. She was about to respond when a gentle hand grabbed her arm, stopping her in her tracks. Fuu looked up startled, to see that she would have walked into Nichkhun if she had kept on going. The older boy had abruptly stopped as they had reached their destination, leaning forward and pushing the elevator button. Fuu turned to see Taecyeon let go of her arm, a tiny grin on his face.

“Fuu, you should look up when you’re walking. You almost walked right into Khun,” he told her.  

“Oh, I’m sorry. Um... Thanks.” She smiled at him, truly grateful that he had stopped her before she had embarrassed herself.

They filed into the elevator as Nichkhun once again hit the floor corresponding to Renn’s studio. Fuu could almost imagined elevator music that she had seen many times in movies to replace the awkward silence that soon filled the elevator.

“What happens if Renn-noona’s not in her office?” Wooyoung asked quietly. Everyone looked at each other, not knowing how to reply.

“I guess we’ll think of something when we come to it,” Kass finally said. Her answer was followed by another eerie silence.

The elevator came to a halt and Fuu was thankful the ride was finally over. It had felt longer than usual even with the added guests. The gang trailed behind Nichkhun as he led the way to Renn’s office. Kass had left Fuu’s side again leaving her walking beside Taecyeon.

“T-Taec, you were close to Jaebeom-ssi right?” Fuu hesitated but that question had been bugging her ever since she found out.

“Umm...yeah. We were,” Taecyeon replied with a forced smile. She could feel the air between all five of them suddenly go cold. Even Kass had stopped conversing with Wooyoung.  

The group came to a temporary stop as they reached Renn’s office. Nichkhun knocked lightly on Renn’s door calling her name at the same time. No answer. He pushed the door open as it had been left unlocked and peered inside the room.

“Is she there?” Fuu asked as she tried to look over Nichkhun’s shoulder into the room. Nichkhun shook his head before closing the door.

“No, but it’s a little strange, the door is unlocked. She should be in the building at least,” Nichkhun answered.

“Maybe she went to get lunch?” Kass spoke up.

“Maybe we should split up to look for her, we’re all free this afternoon anyway,” Nichkhun suggested.

Fuu found herself nodding at his suggestion. She was free this afternoon too, and she really wanted to make sure Renn was alright.

“Okay, so Kass and Fuu, then the three of us?” Taecyeon said, pointing at himself then Wooyoung and Nichkhun.

“No,” Kass interrupted, “I think it’s better if we went with one of you who’s closer with Renn-unnie. Taec-oppa can go with Fuu-unnie, and me and Wooyoung can go with Khun-oppa, that way if one of us can’t talk to her, one of you two can.”

Taecyeon and Nichkhun considered this for a moment before finally agreeing. They split up into two groups; Taecyeon and Fuu would take the studios, while Nichkhun, Wooyoung, and Kass would look for Renn in the other auxiliary rooms.

Fuu, once again, found herself in a very awkward situation as she walked with Taecyeon around the building. She wasn’t exactly shy per se, it was more of the fact it was the Ok Taecyeon that was the one walking next to her. She kept her head low, but her eyes would every so often sneak up to take furtive glances at him. He looked precisely as he did on photos and on TV, maybe so much better than that, and Fuu knew if she wasn’t careful, she would be staring at him all afternoon long.

They spent the first few minutes in silence, going over rooms, peering into the studio windows, even asking a few other staff members if they have seen the elusive Renn. It was almost as if she had the ability to vanish and reappear at will.

“Doesn’t she come home? You guys are her dorm-mates, right?” Taecyeon asked, finally breaking the silence.

Fuu nodded. “If she does come home, it’s probably during weird hours when we’re not at home or really late at night or early morning. Kass would often tell us that she would wake up in the morning to see some form of evidence of Renn-unnie being in the room. Like some of her books on the table would be on the floor, or some of her things would suddenly not be there anymore. I know she has always been a little...” Fuu struggled to find the word to describe her unnie.

“Weird?” Taecyeon supplied, arching a brow.

“...eccentric.”

“She is.”

Fuu found herself was laughing along with Taecyeon. She felt bad somewhat to be laughing at her unnie’s expense, but it was true, Renn was quite the character.

“Is she really like this?” Fuu asked as they rounded another corner.

“Hmm? Like what?” he asked, looking through the window of the first room they encountered.

“Does she really disappear for weeks at a time?”

“No. It’s usually only for a few days when she’s busy with university and work. She’s the type to pop up randomly wherever we were. She’s actually a lot of fun to be around. I miss her.”

Fuu didn’t miss the sad tone in Taecyeon’s voice. She did not expect this at all from 2PM’s most beastly member. She had always thought he would be the bad boy in person, after all one cannot always assume a person acts the same on broadcast programs. It seemed she was very much mistaken, and a small smile splayed on her face as they continued walking down the corridor.

“Oh, Taec-yeon...” Fuu, slightly stumbling over the lack of an honorific, suddenly remembered something. “You and Renn-ssi are close friends, right?”

“Yes, I thought we already established that?” Taecyeon chuckled lightly.

“Then you must know what her full name is.”

Taecyeon stopped dead in his tracks. “Isn’t it Renn....something?”

Fuu stared incredulously at him, did Taecyeon not know either? Though the thought did not occur to her until Kass had asked them some time ago. Was Renn really this much of a mystery?

“Jay would know.”

The smile on Fuu’s face faded immediately as soon as Taecyeon spoke again; his voice was quiet. She laid a hand on his arm and looked up at him when she sensed him face her. “Everything will fall into place,” she said softly. “I may not have been here for long, but I’m sure that everything will be okay.”

He smiled at her and Fuu could tell her words had gotten through him, and for that she breathed a sigh of relief. The two of them now continued on their search more comfortable around each other.