MISSING, jongsang

04 ; the crash

jongho stepped out of the room, which was no longer accompanied with the neon yellow tape continuously reading caution!, and met yeosang's troubled gaze. he neared the older, a comforting grin grazing his lips as he patted his shoulder. "you'll be fine, sang. i believe that you have nothing to do with wooyoung's disappearance, so i'm sure they will, too."

besides from his best friend, no one had ever given yeosang a nickname before, and his heart skipped a beat or two at the thought. "yeah, hopefully. thank you, jongho, for the, er... advice and all that. uh, it definitely helped, so..." yeosang trailed off, scratching the back of his neck sheepishly.

"ah, it's no problem! i'll see you around, yeah?"

"yeah, sure." yeosang managed to smile a little, averting his gaze from jongho when his thumb rubbed against his shoulder right before he walked away.

then yeosang, purposely taking his time, neared the entrance of the room that the brunette had just exited. simply the thought of being fucking interrogated for kidnapping his best friend sent his heart racing, despite it being the most absurd allegation he'd ever heard, and he had no clue why.

hand clutching the door knob, yeosang exhaled a shaky breath, before pushing it open. he gulped at the amount of eyes on him, all staring into his soul, even looking him up and down as he shut the door behind him.

"kang yeosang. correct?" a police officer inquired, and all the teen could muster was a nod of his head. "take the seat besides you, then, please."

lip caught in between his teeth, yeosang silently obeyed, legs shaky as he stepped to the side and sat down. he attempted to disguise his discomfort at how stiff the chair was; he might as well had just sat on a boulder. that, on top of the pressure of his every move being observed by six pairs of eyes, caused an urge to dig himself a hole to build up inside him.

"so, yeosang..." a different officer spoke up this time, a clipboard propped up on his knees and a pen gripped in between his fingers. "i'm going to ask you a few questions, and i need you to answer them truthfully for this to go efficiently. do you understand?"

"yes. yes, i understand," yeosang replied. he sent the man opposite him a small smile — in hopes that being polite would mean that they'd go easy on him — yet he was offered nothing but a straight face in return. the tips of yeosang's ears reddened in embarrassment.

"thank you for complying," the cop said, before moving on, "do you have any sort of relationship with wooyoung, and if so, could you describe it to us?"

yeosang sat upright in his seat, hands intertwined in his lap. "oh, um, wooyoung's my best friend, actually."

writing something down onto his clipboard, the officer muttered something inaudible to his colleague by his side. he then turned back to yeosang. "okay. now, how long have you and wooyoung known each other?"

"uh... eleven years?" yeosang counted on his fingers, before nodding his head in confirmation. "yeah, it's been eleven."

"interesting. how did you two meet, then?" the officer asked.

"we met a while ago- well, clearly. it was summer break, and someone had just moved in a few houses away. my mom baked treats for them — it's kind of her thing for whenever we get new neighbours — and when she visited them for the first time to say hi, she made me tag along. that's where i met wooyoung and we became really close. he moved a few years ago but we stayed best friends, even if we don't see each other as much," yeosang explained, bittersweet smile baring his lips as he did so.

it was always nice: recollecting old memories. and being in a situation like this really made yeosang realise how much of life he took for granted.