chapter thirty; secrets

    Jaehyun spun on his heels as his arm extended and his phone catapulted onto his bed, hitting the back wall with a thud. He let out an angry groan as his hands roughly tugged at his bright blue hair.

“Where the hell is she?” He asked the empty room, staring at his silent phone with a pleading look. He really wished now that he had put a tracker on his twin sister’s phone so that he could locate exactly where she had vanished off to.

He was supposed to meet her outside the cafe after classes finished, like he did everyday. But she never showed up. Nor had she sent him a call or message to let him know where she was or how long she was going to be out.

Jaehyun knew he got paranoid at times. After all, he wasn’t Jae Ah’s dad or anything but he ended up acting like it when he used to forbid her from going out sometimes. But it was only because their real dad had left them. And since that moment, Jaehyun knew he had to grow up to protect not only his sisters, but also his mother.

He had seen sides of his mom that Jae Ah never had. He’d seen her crying, broken, and lost. And although Jae Ah had always had something against their mother, partly because it seemed Jae Ah blamed their mom for the reason their dad left, Jaehyun had always been on his mom’s side.

And when they’d both come for college together in another town, Jaehyun had promised his mom he would never let anything happen to Jae Ah. But he couldn’t keep that promise if he didn’t know where his sister had gone off to. Especially not now that he knew there were at least 2 guys very interested in her.

His eyes flung to his phone again and he let out a loud groan. He quickly shuffled over to the device and tapped away on it before bringing it up to his ear. It began ringing but the sound seemed to go on forever. Finally, Jaehyun let out an irritated sigh before pulling it away from his ear, ready to press the ‘end’ button.

But just as his thumb lifted to press against the screen, a surprised voice said, “Hello?”

Jaehyun quickly brought his phone back to his ear, clearing his throat, “Uh… hi.”

“Jaehyun?” The voice asked. “Why are you calling me?”

“Um, yeah, Jinwoo hyung,” Jaehyun muttered, “Um, I just…” he shut his eyes, taking in a deep breath before spitting out, “Do you know where Jae Ah is?”

It was a massive hit to Jaehyun’s ego to call the one person that he hated most. But he had no choice if he wanted to find Jae Ah. It was most likely she was with him and if so, he needed to know. Even if that meant having to call Jinwoo and ask himself.

“Jae Ah?” Jinwoo sounded surprised again. “Why… would I know where she is?” His voice took on an icy tone that left Jaehyun taking a glance at his screen to make sure he had called the right person.

“What do you mean?” Jaehyun asked back. “She’s your girlfriend. Why would it be surprising for you to know where she is?” His voice twisted with slight anger. His distaste for Jinwoo was only growing through his conversation. How dare he act as if he didn’t have a responsibility towards Jae Ah.

“Girlfriend…” Jinwoo laughed with a bitter tone as realization flooded his tone. “She didn’t tell you, did she?”

Jaehyun blinked, taken aback, “Tell me what?”

Jinwoo let out a small, humorless laugh, “She broke up with me, Jaehyun. I’m not dating Jae Ah anymore.”