Tale of Our Love // Pucca (EXTENDED)

Chapter 14

Naturally, the disappearances of Abyo and Ring-Ring created commotion in the whole village. As Sooga was a small town, everyone in the village knew everyone. In this village, the citizens all protected one another as much as they possibly could, leaving no room for pain and suffering. Abyo described them all as hypocrites once. He claimed that while they swore protection to each and every citizen in the village, they didn't bother to try and rescue Ring-Ring from her abusive father. Regardless, he never said these thoughts out loud, and so the villagers never changed their opinion of him at all.

Keeping their promises to protect their own, however, the villagers all began to search for where Abyo and Ring-Ring were. In fear of having them disappear as well, children were advised to stay inside with at least one adult while the rest of the villagers searched for the two missing kids. However, being Abyo and Ring-Ring's friends, Pucca and the others participated in the search for them. They searched all over the village through day and night, but they couldn't find a single sign. Even as the moon lit the night sky, not even a shadow of a sign was found.

"There's... really no sign..." Pucca could only stare at the empty alleyway that was covered with dirt and garbage. There was no sign of the people she wanted to see.

"Then... are you saying that they're gone for good? Is that it?" Ching looked like she was about to have a panic attack and faint on the spot. Even though Abyo constantly teased her about her being the only girl in the group, he was always a good friend of hers. The mere thought of him disappearing into the dark was one that she wasn't able to handle.

"Unfortunately, this is the most we could do," Tobe rested his back on the wall of the alleyway, crossing his arms as his eyes stared at the filthy ground. "We've searched the whole village, and found not even a sign of them. This mostly means that they've gone somewhere else."

"But why would they leave without telling us?!" Garu was looking at everybody else, standing at one spot and panicking about his friends' whereabouts. With the incident that almost occurred last night, it was only natural he would freak out.

"That's exactly what we're trying to solve here," Tobe added. "Strangely, at the same time, Dong King had also disappeared."

Both Pucca and Garu looked at each other with the same worried expressions on their faces. The both of them along with Abyo were the three who took Dong King's life on that very day after all. If they were suspected of his murder and caught, then it was game over. Tobe was a rather intelligent boy, so for someone like him, finding out the culprit of a murder wasn't that difficult, especially because the one who was murdered was the father of one of their close friends. With how cold Abyo had been recently, it was only fair for Tobe to assume that he was the culprit, or at the very least, one of them.

"Wait..." Ching looked at Tobe with an expression full of dread. Deep inside her, she understood what he meant, but her mind was denying what her heart was trying to say. "What are you implying, Tobe?"

"It's entirely possible that Abyo is behind Dong King's disappearance." Tobe responded with confidence. He said that it was merely a possibility, but the way he said it made it sound like he was certain of it. He knew for sure that Abyo had something to do with Dong King's disappearance.

Pucca and Garu both wounded up holding each other's hands by instinct. Tobe had found out, or maybe he knew that Abyo was one of the culprits from the very start. And yet, he couldn't say anything because he knew that his friends would deny his statement. It's only natural. They were just kids, and reality was being too harsh on them already. He simply didn't want to make things worse. However, that statement alone brought chills to everyone's spine. Abyo, a young child, was behind a powerful man's disappearance?