ANL - mark lee

5

"missing?"

"yeah, johnny was making final room checks and now he's gone and his window was open," taeyong explained.

"c'mon, time to go," jaehyun said, extending his hand out to the younger girl. She hesitated before quietly taking it, following them to the van, and sliding into the backseat.

aeri was so caught up in her own thoughts, she didn't even notice when jaehyun slid into the seat next to her. he quickly took notice of how she nervously twisted a small ring around her right ring finger. in an attempt to stop her fidgeting, he reached out and lightly grabbed her hand, causing her to look up at him. he tried his best to give a reassuring smile and the girl gave a small nod in reply.

as the car ride went on aeri's lack of sleep began to affect her and her head rested on jaehyuns shoulder as a light sleep overtook her. jaehyun looked up and made eye contact with taeyong, who was observing them from the rear view mirror. jaehyun smiled to himself, it was obvious taeyong was already attached to her.

once they arrived at the house taeyong parked the car and turned back to look at the pair in the backseat, "take her inside and let her rest. she should sleep after everything that she's gone through today,"

jaehyun only nodded in reply before lifting the girl up bridal style, being careful not to disturb her sleep. when they entered the house it was quiet, meaning everyone would hopefully be asleep. jaehyun quietly navigated through the hallways before finally making it to aeri's room. he swiftly switched on the light and carefully laid the sleeping girl onto her bed. he watched as she lightly stirred in her sleep before relaxing into the mattress below her.

after checking to make sure all was well in her room he made his way through the house to taeyongs office. without knocking he entered the room that was dimly lit by only a couple of lamps. the dark curtains were closed over the windows and in the corner of the room taeyong sat at the large wooden desk with his head down.

"are you okay?" jaehyun asked softly, sitting on the small couch that rested against the wall.

taeyong looked up with a tired expression and let out a sigh, "yeah, there's just a lot to figure out right now".

"any idea where jaemin is?" the younger asked.

"not a clue," taeyong replied running his fingers through his hair.

"I bet he's fine, he probably just needed to get out for a little bit, he was really stressed about aeri," jaehyun replied, not really knowing what to say to comfort him.

"yeah, I guess we will find out tomorrow morning depending on if he's home or not," taeyong shrugged, standing up from his chair, "i'm going to bed, too much has happened today." and with those words jaehyun was left alone in the dark office.

A/N: SUPER short chapter so apologies for that