I follow Hoseok as he speed walks down the street. He had gone into full panic mode after getting off the phone, pulling me out of the house before I even got the chance to get my shoes all the way on. Now he’s walking way ahead of me, he’s barely visible in the pitch black.

“Wait up!” I yell, running to catch up with him.

I finally catch up with him, now walking beside him. Headlights suddenly light up the dark street as a car pulls up beside us. I jump, standing behind Hoseok. The car’s windows roll down to reveal a worried Jimin.

“Need a ride?” He asks.

We both nod and get in the back seat of his car.

“He’s been gone since we left earlier.” Namjoon, who’s driving the car, explains.

“That’s not a long time.” I say.

“And he hasn’t been answering any of our calls. It’s very unusual for him to go out drinking during the day.” Jimin adds.

“Do you guys have any idea where he could be?” I ask, leaning back and staring out the window.

“We have a place in mind. In fact, we’re heading there now.” Namjoon says, hitting the gas.

_____________________

The entire ride is silent until we pull into an abandoned parking lot twenty minutes outside of town.

“Where are we?” I ask, looking outside suspiciously.

“The town's unofficial red light district.” Hoseok answers.

My eyes widen slightly. The red light district is where all the drug dealers and es are. This place is bad news and everyone in town knew it.

“Can I stay in the car?” I ask nervously.

“You’d be safer with us. Jimin knows his way around this area pretty well so you’ll be fine.” Namjoon answers sternly.

I sigh, the nervous feeling knotting tighter in my stomach. Jimin gets out of the car and opens the door for me. I hesitate until Jimin puts his hand out for me. I let him pull me out of the car. He puts his arm around my shoulder and squeezes comfortingly.

“Okay, you two hit this side of town,” Namjoon says pointing to the other side of the street, “And we’ll check out this side. Meet me back here in an hour.”

We both nod. He takes his arm from around my shoulder and holds my hand instead. He starts to pull me across the street. We walk in the dark until we reach a place glowing in red. Bars and every other building on the block have glowing red signs out in front of them. The bright colours start to hurt my eyes almost instantly. I hear Jimin sigh from beside me.

“I don’t even know where to start. Just stay behind me at all times.” Jimin says, walking ahead of me.

We decide to start at the beginning of the street. To my surprise they don’t card Jimin or I, we just walk right in. The inside of every place looks about the same, half woman everywhere and gross men being entertained in booths. Loud music is playing and they all smell like sweat and . I breath in the cool air outside greedily after we leave the second to last place.

“Don’t worry this is the last place, then I’ll take you back to the car.” Jimin says, rubbing my back. We walk to the last place, at the very end of the street. This place seems slightly smaller than the others but just as busy, if not more. We walk inside and start to scope the place out just as we had done with all the other places. The men in this place look at me like a piece of meat and it makes me hold Jimin’s hand tighter, not wanting to be caught in here without him. Suddenly Jimin stops in front of me, making me knock into his backside.

“Jin?” I hear him say.

I peek around him to see Jin sitting in one of the booths with a woman straddling him. He looks up to make eye contact with me before pushing the woman off of him. The woman lets out a yelp that sounds way too familiar.. The woman turns to look at us and I gasp at the sight of my mother in nothing but lacy underwear. I can see the look of surprise on her face too.

“Mom?” I say as I stumble away from Jimin in shock.

I did not just see my mother straddling Jin. This cannot be happening right now.

I turn on my heels and start pushing past people, needing to get out of here immediately. A man grabs my wrist harshly, making me struggle to free myself from his grip. I scream out in shock, heart beating in my chest. Jimin comes and pulls him off of me but I don't stay to see what Jimin does next. I push the door open and instantly fall to the ground, sitting on the curb. I put my head in my hands and breathe deeply for a few moments. Tears start to form in my eyes as I replay the look on her face. This can’t be happening right now. This can’t be real. I hear the door open and look to the side, expecting to see my mother, but it's Jimin. He comes out dragging an intoxicated Jin out of the door behind him.

“We need to go now.” He says, his voice slightly raspy.

I hear yelling and crashing from inside the building as I begin to stand. Jimin grabs my hand and starts running. Jin barely keeps up behind us, stumbling several times. Somehow we make it to the car without getting lost. We all scramble inside, having to shove Jin in the car. We lock all the doors and take a moment to catch our breath. Jimin pulls out his phone and dials what I’m guessing is Namjoon’s number.

“We found him.” Is the first thing he says. He pauses for a few moments. “We’re back at the car. You should tell the others.” He pauses again, listening to Namjoon talk. “Okay, bye.”  

___________________________________________

Namjoon and Hoseok make it back to the car 30 minutes later. I don’t fail to notice how messily they’re dressed now, or the lipstick stain on the collar of Namjoon’s white button up . I begin to suspect that they did more than just look for Jin, although I don’t say anything. We drive home in silence until finally Namjoon speaks.

“Next time you wanna disappear, make sure you at least tell one of us first.” He says calmly.

“I’m a grown man, I don’t need your permission to go out and have a little fun.” He slurs angrily back from beside me.

Namjoon slams on the breaks, making all of us fly forward.

“Dammit Jin! We’re your friends and we’ve been worrying about you all day!” Namjoon is practically yelling now.

“Well, that’s a first.” Jin mumbles under his breath.

“You know what, you.” Namjoon says, pressing the gas again and speeding down the highway.

Everything goes silent again after that.

______________________________________________________

We drop Jin off at his apartment. None of them even bother to make sure he makes it upstairs alright and I can’t help but feel bad for him. After that we drive off to Hoseok’s apartment. Jimin insists on walking up with us and requests to talk to me in the hallway. Hoseok goes ahead into the apartment, leaving me alone with Jimin I lean against the wall, finally feeling tired after tonight's adventure

“So, are you alright? Tonight has been kind-of weird.” He says, rubbing the back of his neck nervously.

“I mean I guess. I don’t really know what to think about it.” I tell him honestly, staring down at the ground. “My emotions are all jumbled together now.”

I feel Jimin’s fingers under my chin as he slightly tilts my head up, leaning closer to me until our faces are merely centimeters apart.

“I really wish you would stop looking at the floor so I could see your pretty face more.” Is all he says before he closes the gap.

He kisses me lightly, nervously, but pulls away before I even get the chance to respond. I can’t help the look of shock that makes it way to my face. Jimin must take this as a bad sign as he start backtracking almost instantly.

“I’m so sorry. This was too soon, I don’t know what I was thinking.” He says, “I’m gonna go now.”

He turns on his heels, bounding down the hall and down the stairs before I get the chance to stop him. I can still feel the ghost of his lips on mine as I look at the space where he’d just been. The feeling of regret hits me, making me wish I’d made him stay. I sigh, closing my eyes and leaning my head against the wall, feeling more confused than ever. There are too many thoughts floating around my mind that I can’t even begin to focus on one of them. Tonight has been too long, way too long, I need to sleep.