Seohyun’s POV

The next day, they let me out of hospital. They wrapped my entire torso in bandages so now I feel like a mummy as I leave the building. I take the limousine to my house and the paparazzi are still there but a little less than yesterday. I enter my house and go to my room. N isn’t there, strange, maybe he’s getting food.

Wait, his cot is gone. A knock on my door and then my father comes in.

“Seohyun, it’s so nice your back.” He smiles and hugs me.

“Where’s N?” I ask. His smile falters.

“He resigned yesterday.” He says. My heart drops, resigned?

“Why?” I whisper.

“He said it was for his condition.” He replies.

“Do you know where he went?” I ask.

“No.” He sadly shakes his head. Then he leaves the room giving me time for myself.

I collapse on my bed and then my eyes fill with tears, I didn’t even get to say goodbye. The door opens and the guard comes in with a tray of food, he sets it on my table.

“Do you know where N went?” I ask him.

“No but he may have gone somewhere like a restaurant because he was a very good cook.” He says.

“Thank you.” I smile once he’s gone, I eat the food and then make myself ready for the city. I leave my house and as I’m walking to the limousine, the paparazzi madly take pictures and yell questions but I ignore them. I call Yoona and I tell her where we’ll meet and then I hang up. It gives me time to think; did N not care enough to say goodbye? Was he scared away by me kissing him? Does he not feel the same way for me? Lots of questions cross my mind but there aren’t any answers.

I get out of the limo and go into the café where I’ll meet Yoona. She’s already there and has two coffee mugs in front of her, she stands up and greets me with a hug.

“I heard about yesterday, you were admitted to hospital?” She asks wide-eyed. I nod.

“I was shot in the side.” I say.

“How?!” She says alarmed and I explain to her the situation. “He resigned? I can understand that but just disappearing like that?” She says in disbelief.

“I know but I need your help in finding him, I just want to say goodbye.” I plead.

“I’ll help, don’t worry.” She reassures me, “Do you know why he got like this?” She asks.

“I think it has to do with how Seo-Jun treated him. N told me that one day, he just snapped and tried to kill Seo-Jun. Then he was transferred to me and to stop himself from doing anything, he asked to be chained up in the evenings.” I say.

“I know you wouldn’t be like this about any other nice slave, what is going through your head here?” She asks.

“I like him, yesterday I kissed him and now I’m wondering whether he was scared away by that, or if he didn’t care to even write a goodbye note.” I say.

“I’m sure that’s not the reason, maybe he’s trying to get his mind off what happened in your house for a bit. He might have been in a fragile condition at the time and just wasn’t up to saying his goodbyes, he just had to get away.” She says, “We’ll find him and then you can clear things up with him.” She finishes.

“Where do you suggest we start?” I ask.

“Get an a list of the restaurants here.” She says.

“That’ll be easy! We’ve only got about sixty of them.” I say sarcastically. She rolls her eyes at me.

“We only have to ask around for a guy called N.” She replies.

And that’s what we do for the next few days, only we have no luck. Here’s an example:

Me: Hello sir, have you seen a guy going by the name of N applying for a job here?

Waiter: No Ma’am I haven’t but the restaurant next to us has had many applicants this week.

Yoona: Thank you very much.

But when we went to the restaurant next-door, N hadn’t been seen there. I begin to doubt N being in the city at all but Yoona still tries to reassure me that he is here, I’m lucky to have a friend like her. On the fourth morning she stops me from walking into the next restaurant.

“I think we’ve been missing something over the past few days, N is only his nickname, did he ever tell you his nickname?” She asks me. I rack my head trying to remember if he ever told me his name. It was a bit more than a week ago wasn’t it?

“I-it was…Hakyeon!” I snap my fingers and then I facepalm myself. “Shoot, we’ve been doing this wrong this whole time!”

“Well now we know what to do so we ask around at that one restaurant with the applicants but now lets look at the restaurants here.” She says. We walk into the restaurant.

“Hello sir, have you had someone called Cha Hakyeon apply for a job here?” Yoona asks.

“No I haven’t sorry.” He shakes his head. We walk around asking around again but still no luck! We walk into the last one for today.

“Excuse me, have you heard of someone called Cha Hakyeon apply for a job here?” I ask the man at the front desk.

“Yes actually, he applied here first but we had no room but we sent him to that street over there and there are still places in need of waiters.” He says.

“Thank you so much.” I smile at him.

“But Seohyun, we have to take a break now.” Yoona tells me.

“But I want to look there, we actually have a lead now.” I protest.

“You have big bags under your eyes, you are tired and need rest. We can eat over in one of the places there and then you can look around in the restaurant for him but now we are going to eat.” She grabs my arm and steers me to a place that is quite fancy, it also smells of good food making my stomach growl. She sits me down and I take a look around the restaurant, I don’t see anyone with brown hair like N did but there is one waiter who has his hair styled like N did but he has black hair. “Find anything?” She asks me while looking at the menu.

“Sadly no, but we still have a few restaurants we can look in.” I say and Yoona raises her eyebrows at me, “When we continue looking tomorrow.” I add and she nods.

“That’s better.” She goes back to looking at the menu, “They have a good selection of food here don’t they?” She asks.

“They do.” I reply.