Five days.

Five days have passed since Jungkook disappeared, and no one has seen him. Five days of asking and five days of disappointments. Nobody knows him, not even his closest friends and local shop owners he talked to daily.

Five days of making no progress at all.

In fact, I was pretty sure I was moving backward in this twisted game. Jimin couldn't sleep well anymore because of his nightmares and the guilt that darkened his mood. Usually, during sleepless nights, he would call me and we would talk until he was tired enough to get some rest. Now, I barely heard from him unless I visited him at his apartment or saw him wandering aimlessly on the streets.

I didn't take care of myself anymore. Sometimes it was difficult to remember the last time I ate. Headaches and nightmares chased me around like angry bees, filling my mind and driving me insane. Sleep was a rare thing to come across and I kept drinking energy drinks to stay awake.

I stared at my gray ceiling, my body cradled in my bed. Slivers of sunlight pushed through the blinds over my window and scattered across the mattress like shards of glass. It was a nice, sunny day, but it was hard to experience something enjoyable with him lurking darkly in my thoughts. I left the feeble comfort of the bed and stretched with an exhausted yawn. Rubbing my tired eyes, I reached for the half-empty energy drink placed dangerously close to the edge of my bedside table. My phone, lost in the tangled sheets, began to ring softly in the muffling cloth.

My hand hesitated in front of the energy drink. I knew drinking these only made my health worse, but it was hard to stay away from them. My phone buzzed again, impatiently. I reached for the energy drink, but once my fingertips brushed the can it toppled over and off of the table, spilling its contents across the floor. I cursed loudly and searched for my phone through the mess of sheets.

"Hello?" I said, irritation tainting my voice.

"Oh...hi, Tae," Jimin answered quietly. "I didn't think you would pick up."

"Of course I would," I scoured my apartment, searching for paper towels. "Why wouldn't I?"

"You just seem...busy lately," he replied. "Busy and tired."

"You're the one to talk," I said bitterly as I tore a bunch of paper towels off the roll.

There was a moment of silence before he said something. "I'm sorry about that, Tae. It's just..." He paused. "It's just been hard, okay?"

"Dammit, Jimin," I felt my anger froth at the top. "Can't you see that we're all suffering?"

"But I--"

"Listen, okay?" I let out a frustrated huff. "I know you're not feeling well, none of us are. But that doesn't mean you can just hide in your apartment all day."

"Yeah..." he sighed. "Okay. You're right. I'm really sorry for what I did."

I leaned down and mopped up the sticky, reddish liquid coating the floor. "It's alright. I know you didn't mean it."

"Yeah, sorry. Can I make it up to you?"

The drink was completely soaked up, but the red stickiness on the floor remained. I poured water onto one of the paper towels, squeezing out the excess after, and scrubbed the floor forcefully. "How about going to Jungkook's apartment?"

"What? Why?"

"I don't know," I admitted. "Maybe we could find something there? I'm not really sure."

"Well...I mean...it's a good idea," he replied. "But how are we supposed to get in?"

"He had a hidden key outside," I said, drying the floor off. "If not, I could just pick the lock."

"Isn't it dangerous?" He asked nervously. "Someone could think we're breaking and entering. For all we know, we could actually be breaking and entering."

"I haven't heard a single noise from there," I assured him as I threw away the ruined paper towels. "The walls are pretty thin here."

"Yeah, I know," he said. "Okay. Fine. I'll do it. Where is his apartment, anyway?"

"It's really close to mine," I answered. "You'll see me standing outside. Get here safe, okay?"

"Okay."

He hung up quickly. With my clean hand, I set down my phone on the bed and washed my hands. The disturbingly red color turned the water pink as it fell from my moving hands. Thankfully, the stickiness came off easily. I dried my hands, threw on a simple black hoodie over my white shirt, and slid my phone into my pocket before I left.

When I opened the door, I had to shield my eyes from the sun beaming down upon me. My hand did little against the bright light while a breeze tousled my hair. It was definitely beautiful outside, but I couldn't help having an uneasy feeling in my stomach. Hoping that stretching my legs would help take my mind off of it, I walked slowly past the three apartments to my right and reached his door.

It looked the same as it always did. A worn, scratched door was more than familiar. An old doormat that had been there even before Jungkook moved in was still as dirty as ever. The dried up plant Jungkook had once taken care of months ago sat near the door, its thin stems brittle and its shriveled leaves waving loosely in the wind.

Everything looked normal, except everything was far from normal.

So many people were out here, strolling past me while being absorbed in their own conversations. As more and more of them passed by, I realized how pitifully lonely I had been. Yoongi, Jin, Namjoon...even Hoseok hadn't talked to me in awhile. They didn't even talk to each other as much as they usually did. Of course, Jimin was an exception, but we were only depending on each other to find someone I wasn't even sure still existed.

I pulled out my phone to find out what the others were doing. Our group chat was empty nowadays; Jin and Namjoon were caught up in their work and Jimin was clearly in no mood to chat. I scrolled past some of our old conversations and read the most recent one:

---------September 2nd, 2018: 7:15 a.m.---------

Jiminie: Hey, is anyone up yet?

Jiminie: Hellooooo

Jiminie: H

Jiminie: E

Jiminie: L

Jiminie: L

Jiminie: O

Jiminie: It's not that early guys come on

Min Yooooongi: Now I'm awake.

Jiminie: Oops sorry Yoongi

Min Yooooongi: *Yoongi hyung

Jiminie: Since when did you care about honorifics

Jiminie: You must be really annoyed

Min Yooooongi: Haha, very funny. I'm going back to bed.

Jiminie: Sweet dreams, HYUNG

Me: if we text more he might get angrier lmao

J3u891o0m: has23i6ef, a1wh83

I stared at my screen, blinking at the corrupted, strange message. Wasn't Jungkook's message there before? I scrolled down quickly and saw more corrupted messages flash on the screen before disappearing. Once I scrolled down to the end, the conversation had changed.

Min Yooooongi: *Yoongi hyung

Jiminie: sorry Yoongi HYUNG

Min Yooooongi: Just be quiet so I can go to sleep.

Jiminie: ok ok

Jiminie: sweet dreams HYUNG

The conversation ended abruptly. No other message existed after that one.

"What are you looking at?" I heard a voice say close to me. I jumped back in surprise.

He gave me a strange look. I stammered out a response: "I-I was just...nothing. It's not important."

"Um...okay then," he said awkwardly. "Are we going in?"

"Yeah, just let me see if the key is still there."

I bent down and carefully tilted back the shriveled plant but saw nothing under it. Everything about him is just...gone.

"It's not here," I stood up and faced him. "Do you have a paperclip?"

"Brought one just in case," he handed me a silver paperclip. I twisted it out and fitted into the lock, moving it around before hearing a soft click. Triumphantly, I opened the door for Jimin and pocketed the paperclip. I looked at him, expecting to see excitement or at least awe, but he wore a suspicious expression. "How do you know how to pick locks so well?"

"Jungkook and I did a lot of..." I paused, trying to think of the best way to say it. "...adventurous things."

With a shake of his head, he walked inside and I closed the door behind us. Immediately the room became dark, illuminated slightly by the sunlight coming from the small window to our right. I looked around and my heart sank. The layout of the apartment was the same, the rooms were separated by walls unlike mine and we were standing in the living room. Other than that, the walls were scarce and there was no furniture.

"It's...empty," Jimin said, moving towards the door on our left. He looked at my crestfallen expression and quickly added: "maybe the other rooms have something in them."

"Maybe."

I couldn't stop envisioning where things usually were. The old TV that he bargained for that sat on top of a table with a green couch in front of it was gone. The few polaroids of his family or us that were usually strung across the walls were nowhere to be seen. The pictures he had pinned up on a corkboard next to the window--the sunset, a rainy day, a group photo of all of us--nothing was there. Even the list of places he wanted to travel: Norway, Finland, U.S., Brazil, France, Japan...everything had vanished along with him.

There was no trace of him anywhere.

"There's nothing in this room," Jimin said suddenly, closing the door behind him from the room next to me. He opened the door to the room next to it, his eyes scouring the ceiling and walls. "Nothing in here, too."

"Jimin," I stared down at the dusty floor. "I don't think anything's here."

He looked at me again sadly and walked over to me. "We'll find something."

I didn't say anything to that. It was depressing to see the few possessions he had gone, just like him. It was a mental spiral that I was falling deeper into, gravity pushing with all of its might against my heart. Seeing this...it was like the first fissure in the weak hope I had. I was slowly getting more and more lost in my own thoughts, no matter how hard I tried finding my way out.

Then, out of nowhere, someone began to whistle softly.

"Wait, Jimin," I said, straining my ears to listen. "Do you hear that?"

"Hear what?"

"Someone's whistling," I walked up to the first door and pressed my ear against it. "It's coming from somewhere."

"In here?" I looked back at him and he seemed puzzled. "I...I don't hear anything."

The whistling continued, singing a melody that I somewhat recognized. It sounded like a different version of a familiar song. "Just listen, maybe you'll hear it."

I listened to each door and heard nothing until I reached the fourth door. The whistling was definitely coming from inside of there. "It's here," I said, hesitantly touching the door handle. "I'm going in. Wait until I get out, okay?"

"Um...okay." He sounded unsure of the situation, which was understandable. He probably thought I was crazy.

"Maybe I'm just hearing things and the room's empty," I said with a shrug. "I'll be back soon."

I opened the door quickly and closed it behind me. My eyes widened.

This room wasn't empty at all.

"Hello, Tae," Jungkook said with a smile. "Long time no see, huh?"

~~~~~
A/N:

Hello! Sorry for the cliffhanger.

...Not. April Fools!

❤️Josephine T.💚

Music: "Last of Me (Best of Me Sad Ver.)" piano cover by Smyang.