𝐧𝐲𝐜𝐭𝐨𝐩𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐚 ✓ | ˢᵉᵘˡʳᵉⁿᵉ

32

(Last night)

"Oi Choi Yewon! How's our plan tonight?"

Yerim who was sitting comfortably in front of the monitor, running through the list of numbers, exclaimed through the phone. A friend of hers wanted to meet up tonight but as the rules stated, no drinking at work. She couldn't waste herself in the middle of all this or Joohyun would surely roast her to death.

"All my pals call me Arin now, but that's fine. I'm out of the bar, just finished another stalking job."

"Can't believe no one has ever beaten you up yet."

Yewon, or Arin as she wished to be called, was a photographer who specialized in gathering proofs by following her targets. Things such as idols dating, dark businesses, and much more were practically her everyday life. "So, our usual pizza place?" The latter suggested.

"Alright then, I'm craving their special pepperoni. But we ain't passing midnight, okay?"

"I'm not sure, aren't we going to the karaoke after that? Lol kidding. I'll get back home first to change."

Their chatting continued for a few minutes as Yerim prepared to leave her desk. Again, Chan was alone in the room finishing their assigned work, he was only doing this for the free pizza Yerim offered beforehand. His chair was indeed his second home.

Yerim decided in taking a ten minutes walk to save her pocket from drying out too soon. On her way, she would occasionally check for any notifications popping in her phone yet there was none. Arin would always text about her whereabouts, things like 'I'll be there in five minutes' or 'chilling in the taxi now.'

Arriving at the restaurant and still no news, Yerim had this jittery feeling that she couldn't really shake off since all of her phone calls weren't answered.

Tired of being outside, she entered and sat alone waiting for the other. A cup of warm milk was all she ordered to comfort her freezing body and loosened her stress. Inside her adult body was a little Yerim longing for her usual habit of drinking milk whenever she came home from school. She was sick of coffee already. This night, her beverage somehow felt so right yet so wrong at the same time.

Yerim fell asleep.

Arin will wake me up.

All night till dawn, the 24/7 pizza place was always busy, either it was only a couple ordering take outs or a group of marketing team celebrating a signed contract. The owner spotted her regular customer passed out on the corner and just let her be, she knew the young hacker was probably drained.

Yerim finally looked up, half awake when the clock strikes 8 am. The first thing that crossed her mind was the image of Joohyun pissed off because she was late. Abruptly standing up, she searched her phone inside her pocket. A message came in. Stupid, you were supposed to wait for Arin.

Yewonie

|Yerim-ah, sorry to miss our hangout, my mom called me she's sick.

She tilted her head while running a hand through her hair. The text, this wasn't Arin for sure. There was no usual 'Sayonara bitch' in the end of her text. One second, two seconds, three seconds of silence, then it hit her. Shit, Arin's mom is dead.

She chatted Chan to fill her in again, also apologizing for the forgotten pizza. Yerim speed walked outside, heading to Arin's apartment to make sure nothing bad was happening. After a few blocks, she caught something familiar in her vision, right on the corner of the sidewalk. A camera lied there, when she stepped closer, a familiar purple tag was sticked on the side. It was Arin's.

Yerim, panicking, kept craning her head to every directions. Finding nothing, she fished out her phone and dialed a number.

"Hey Yerim, what's up?"

"You can punish me for being late but not now please. My friend went missing all of a sudden, remember Yewon? Please help me find her. I'm literally freaking out right now."