rubbing the remains of his sleep from his eyes, yeosang sat up in his bed, eyes landing on his mother who was pulling open the curtains. sunlight poured into the room, the sudden brightness causing the boy to squint. memories from the previous evening washed over him, and he bit his lip anxiously before speaking, "m-mom?"

"good morning, sweetheart." the warm smile dancing on ms kang's lips caused yeosang to question yesterday's events. "come on, get up. school starts soon."

"i-i know, but... wooyoung. i-is wooyoung okay?" yeosang asked, just to make sure it was just a nightmare, or that the police had found the boy sleeping in a bus stop, or something else that just screamed wooyoung energy. either way, yeosang just hoped the answer was yes. that's all he could ever ask for.

so when his mother shook her head, expression falling as she did so, yeosang's heart dropped. "it takes a while for the police to deal with these kinda things, yeosangie. but they will find him, and he will be okay."

"oh. alright." yeosang pulled the duvet off of his figure and slid out of bed. "i'm getting ready now, so..." he murmured, gaze fixated on his bare feet until his mother left the room.

and as soon as she did leave, yeosang's fist harshly met the wall to his right.

it stung, and for a few moments he just stared at the four spots of blood trickling down his fingers from his knuckles. he then took a long breath, in aim of composing himself. calm down. you need to calm down. it seemed like his body had other plans, however, because a stream of hot tears rushed down his cheeks.

"what the fuck," yeosang muttered, reality finally dawning on him. his best friend was missing. maybe even kidnapped. there's a chance that he wasn't even with them anymore, for all he knew.

no, it's okay. mrs jung said they'll find him. mom said they'll find him. it has to be okay.

yeosang walked to his bathroom, immediately heading to the sink. he twisted the tap on, before moving his hand underneath the cold water, hissing at the pain that shot through his hand. you did this to yourself, he told himself, every time he wanted to cry out in agony. after, he splashed the water onto his face, brushed his teeth, used the toilet, and changed into his school uniform.

as selfish as it sounded, yeosang was dreading college without his best friend by his side. although wooyoung — being the social butterfly he was — had effortlessly befriended at least a quarter of the students, it was usually just the two of them. therefore, yeosang didn't know what he was going to do, but he sure hoped that he'll end up figuring it out sooner or later.

slipping his phone into his pocket, yeosang swept a hand through his strawberry-blond hair as he rushed down the stairs. shit, shit, shit, he mentally cursed at the time. he sprinted into the kitchen, finding a breakfast bar to eat on the way to school, but before he could reach the door, a shout for him stopped his tracks.

"yeosang, sweetheart, get in here!" the boy's mother ordered from the room to his left: the living room.

ignoring her, yeosang reached for the keys, close to inserting it into the keyhole. "sorry, mom, but i'm going to be late!"

"it's wooyoung, yeosang!"

the teen froze momentarily, before racing for the living room, so fast that he almost tripped over his own feet. "what is it? did they- did they find him?"

"come here, sweetheart," was all ms kang said, patting the space besides her on the couch. yeosang obeyed, taking the seat next to his mother, who had her eyes glued on the television. hopefulness lingered within them, as if she was expecting something.

he brought his own gaze to the large screen, curious, yet only the boring, old weather reports were being played. "mom, what—"

"it should be starting soon," ms kang informed vaguely. before yeosang could question what on earth she was talking about, though, the short opening theme of the news channel blared, bringing his attention back to the television.

yeosang's jaw dropped open at his childhood friend's face, the face he wanted to see more than any other, being shown on the screen. it was a selfie of the younger boy, one that yeosang had actually seen before, that was taken right after he'd spontaneously dyed his hair purple a few weeks ago.

a news reporter, standing besides the picture of wooyoung, cleared his throat before speaking into his microphone, "breaking news: a teenage boy, aged seventeen, has been reported missing at monday night in seoul, korea. jung wooyoung was last seen on the premises of seoul college, and the local police are currently investigating the building. if you recognise this boy, who was wearing his school uniform during the time of his disappearance, please contact the police immediately."

the slide then changed to an image of a flooded town. "several countries in europe have been affected by the severe weather..."

"so..." yeosang started, breaking the tense silence. "the cops are in school? like, right now?"

yeosang's mother nodded her head as an answer, prompting the boy to stand up and head to to the door, while fumbling with his keys. "where are you going, sweetheart?"

"to school, obviously. and since the cops are investigating... maybe i can find something out myself!"

ms kang scoffed. "this isn't a silly game, yeosang, what—"

"gotta go, mom! i'll see you later, love you!" yeosang rushed out, before swinging open the door and stepping out into the cold. he slammed the door shut behind him in an instant, stealing his mother's chance to protest from her.

beginning his walk to school, yeosang tried to push the thoughts of wooyoung to the very back of his mind. but it was difficult, especially when — on any normal day — his best friend would be accompanying him, like he'd been doing ever since the start of high school. yeosang never thought the day would come where he'd say this, but he missed jung wooyoung.

and his head was so clouded with the boy, that he accidentally just stepped into a mucky puddle, soaking a few inches of the hem of his trousers.

wooyoung would be throwing a toddler tantrum if this was him. yeosang chuckled aloud at the thought.

soon, he had made it to school, his pants drenched. the surroundings of the immense building, besides the entrance, was taped off by vibrant, yellow tape, rows of police cars messily parked outside of grand gates. yeosang wondered why school was even open in a situation like this; who said college students weren't capable of pulling of a kidnapping case?

chewing on his bottom lip, yeosang squeezed past the vehicles belonging to the police department, and entered the building. it was eerily quiet, causing his footsteps to echo around the corridors as he walked to his locker.

stop staring at me, yeosang so badly wanted to yell at the students. he didn't have the courage to, however, and instead avoided meeting their gazes, eyes fixated on his scruffy shoes. but that's when the whispering started, groups of teens turning and gossiping to each other. yeosang didn't understand it, really, how he suddenly became the centre of attention overnight. maybe he should've expected it now that his best friend was being talked about worldwide.

and if this was any other circumstance, yeosang knew that wooyoung would be over the moon about it. the younger had even created his own youtube channels in the past, one for gaming and one for dance, yet neither of them blew up, like he'd aimed for.

"attention, students!" the sudden, booming voice made yeosang flinch. he was ultimately fortunate for it, though, because from what he could tell, all the nosy eyes had torn away from him. "after being informed of some upsetting news, first period will be replaced with an assembly. due to the importance of this assembly, i hope for you all to be responsible enough to be there. thank you."

a few static sounds were then heard, before the speakers installed into the school were cut off. yeosang shoved a few textbooks he needed into his backpack, before shutting his locker and heading to the assembly hall. even though first period hadn't started yet, he figured that it'd be easier to get there early — getting stuck in a crowded stairway wasn't up to his taste.

yeosang dragged the door open, body halting at the two officers blocking his way. they were big, strong, and could probably knock him out unconscious with a mere punch.

simply mantaining eye contact with the men was too much for yeosang, who had never been as intimidated in his life, yet the fear bubbling up within him was for nothing. one of them offered him a curt nod, before stepping to the side, giving him enough space to pass through. "ah, th-thank you," he breathed out, and stepped inside.

minus the cops guarding the double doors, the room was empty, just as yeosang had expected. the presentation was already set up, projector beaming a picture of wooyoung onto the wall, the exact same one that the news channel used.

yeosang didn't think he could ever look at that picture of his best friend the same from now on.

the boy neared the very back of the assembly hall, taking the seat closest to the door. it seemed like a sensible idea, just in case he can't sit through the headmaster's spew of bullshit.

a few minutes passed, of complete, utter silence, before students started filing into the room. again, it was the kind of silence that didn't sit right with yeosang, and if this was a horror film, a sinister instrumental would surely be being played as background music.

causing the boy to sit upright in his seat, the headmaster strode up to the front of the hall. he sighed, apologetically, and yeosang fought back the urge to roll his eyes. we all know you don't actually care.

"it's truly disheartening that i have to share this news with you all," the headmaster started, adjusting his glasses. "you may have already heard since it's all over the news, but last night, our beloved student, jung wooyoung was reported missing by his mother. my support goes out to his family, to his friends, and to his loved ones. all we can do right now is put our trust into the police, and wait for them to solve situation."

a sob broke out into the room.

yeosang's head snapped towards where it came from, and it turned out that the student was only sitting a few seats away from him. the unfamiliar boy had his hood up, hiding majority of his face, yet yeosang still managed to make out the waterfall of tears painting their cheeks.

the headmaster forcefully cleared his throat. "now, we will cover ways to stay safe in the outside world, so this situation doesn't repeat itself..."

the man lost yeosang at that. he began playing with his fingers, ignoring the pool of water damping his eyes. why couldn't everything just go back to normal? why couldn't he just have his best friend back?

in yeosang's peripheral vision, a blur of a figure suddenly rushed past him, grabbing his attention. the hoodie precisely matched the one of the boy who was crying just moments ago; and as he pulled open the door, the hood fell off of his head, right before he disappeared down the corridor.

yeosang's breath hitched.

his mind trailed back to his conversation with wooyoung's friends yesterday — green but not neon so pear!

it was pear hair boy.

———

a/n: ateez artist of the year iktr ‼️‼️‼️