When We're Together [양정완]

44.

Yang Jungwon suddenly stopped in place, causing the female who had been pulling him behind her to nearly trip backwards. He swiveled her around to face him, and she somehow became trapped between the male's arm over her and the wall with her nose only inches from his.

"Don't tell me... are you upset because of the comments?"

Seeing the female's pouty face the male could tell he had guessed correctly. A chuckle escaped his lips and he released the girl's arm, moving his hand to rustle her hair. "You're cute when you're pouty."

"Tsk! As if- why would I be pouting?"

The male raised en eyebrow with a look that conveyed a "you know what I'm talking about," and bent down a bit to match the girl's eye level. "Don't worry. They don't have a chance anyways."

"What do you mean?" Aera felt her cheeks flushing red from the male's sudden boldness.

"Because I already like somebody." The playful male looked into the eyes of the female with a small, yet still dimpled smile.

They stared into each other's eyes for a moment in a breathless, wordless silence until, the female suddenly reached up and poked the boy's dimple with her right pointer finger. The male instinctively held his cheek and looked at her, confused. Now it was his turn to be flustered.

"I've always wanted to do that." Aera smiled widely as if she hadn't just been the one with red cheeks, and turned to walk back towards her classroom.

For a moment, Jungwon stood with his hand on his cheek, which was now probably a bright red, and his eyes wide. Then he suddenly spun around to catch the female's wrist before she ran off.

He gulped before finally speaking. "Aera."

The female remained faced the other direction, trying to hide her burning red face from the male. "What now?"

"I want to ask you something." Yang Jungwon's heart was racing so quickly he thought it might run away. "Do you want to-"

"CHAE AERA!" Yoona suddenly slid into the girl's view with a wide eyed expression.

The girl who had been called turned to her friend confusedly. Yoona had Aera's cellphone in her hand and was waving it frantically above her head.

"What is it? What's wrong?" Aera worriedly question as she freed herself from the male who had been holding her wrist to run towards Yoona.

In an out of breath huff, the latter reponded. "You have a ton of missed calls from your parents."

"My parents?" Aera grabbed her phone from her friend's hand and scrolled to see her notification. There were nearly 20 missed calls from them.

She quickly dialed her mother's phone number.

Ring...

Ring...

Ring...

"Aera?" Her mother replied in a frantic, out of breath whisper.

"Mom? What happened? Is everything okay?"

"Do you know where Yeseo is?"

"Yeseo? Why-?"

"She's missing."

The female's eyes widened. This had to be a joke or some sick prank, right?

"Missing?"

The muffled sniffles and panicked mumbles she received told her it wasn't a joke. Her cousin was nowhere to be found.

"She wasn't in her room this morning and we can't find her."

"Aera what-" Yoona started, but she was cut off by the female's sudden speed as she dashed down the hall. She ran as fast as she could into her homeroom, quickly grabbing her things and ignoring the still ongoing livestream.

In a flash, she was running down the sidewalk to her apartment. Her home, which usually was only a 10 minute walk from school, felt like it was a continent away.

When she finally arrived in her family's penthouse apartment, she found her mother calling somebody on the couch and her father pacing around the floor. Upon seeing their daughter, the two both looked shocked.

"Aera? What happened to your classes? Why are you-"

"Mom, are you serious? It's not like I could have focused in class knowing that we can't find Yeseo anyways." The female was so out of breath from running that her mother saw it pointless to argue.

As her parents tried everything they could think of to locate the boy, Aera suddenly had an idea. There was only one other place Lee Yeseo would willingly visit on her own.

Her old neighborhood.

Before leaving on their most recent extended business trip, Mr. and Mrs. Lee had moved to a neighborhood closer to their daughter's school, although it seemed Aera remembered how upsetting it had been for Yeseo who knew nothing but her old home. And to make matters worse, the now 7 y/o hadn't even been able to properly move into the new house since she was staying with Aera and her family currently.

Without taking time to bother changing, Chae Aera pocketed her phone in her white, puffer pocket and ran to the door, vaguely explaining her idea to her parents before leaving. She knew it was probably a stretch to be able to find him based off of what little information she had, especially considering her lack of a vehicle, but everything happened too fast for her to truly think about what she was getting herself into.

Soon enough, hours had passed and the sun, because of the short winter days, was already close to setting. She searched the entire area in and around the neighborhood, but she found no Yeseo.

Snow began to fall from the darkening sky, but instead of admiring it, Aera suddenly found herself sitting on the white, snow-carpeted sidewalk with tears blurring her vision. Had she been wrong? Had she come all this way on foot, just to realize as the sun set that Yeseo wasn't there?

Even worse, what if somebody had taken her? The female shook her head free of the idea. She crossed her arms and buried her face in her lightly-snowed-on puffer jacket sleeves.

Suddenly, a loud buzzing noise interrupted her panicked thoughts. An incoming call from Jungwon.