Healing (KTH, featuring KNJ)

Chapter 58

Everything felt like pure bliss until the day Clara suddenly disappeared. The morning started like any other. Taehyung's alarm went off but he refused to leave the bed, too happy with his beautiful wife in his arms. She worked to wake him up by covering his face in quick pecks of kisses, which he responded to by letting his hands roam over her soft skin. Eventually she pulled away knowing she wanted Taehyung to have a good day, which was easier if he didn't get in trouble for arriving late. He followed her into the shower, leaning his head on her shoulder and pretending to fall back asleep. But after enough gentle rubs on his back, he finally was upright and ready to help them both wash and get ready for the day.

With a few last kisses, Taehyung finally released Clara to head to the company, reminding her how much he loved her and telling her to have a good day. From there Taehyung's day progressed as usual. Clara had been promptly responding to his quick texts in the morning but as the afternoon arrived she stopped. Taehyung wasn't so concerned, she did still take long naps some days and he had kept her up late the night before. But when it was late afternoon and she still hadn't responded, he became more concerned. He called a few times but the phone seemed to be going directly to voicemail. He knew most likely the battery had just died, but he couldn't help but worry.

While he was reluctant to involve his parents, they were in the same building and could quickly check to make sure Clara was ok. He was becoming anxious with visions of her slipping and hurting herself or suddenly overcome with morning sickness again. But when Taehyung's parents reported back that she wasn't at the apartment, Taehyung's anxiety spiked. He quickly started letting the guys know his concerns and then they grabbed a manager to help. Taehyung wasn't even sure where to start looking. Clara definitely hadn't said anything about going out today. And he'd already quickly confirmed with Namjoon's parents that they were not with her.

As Taehyung's anxiety grew, so did the anxiety of his band mates. The managers reached out to the police but they really couldn't do anything since she had only been missing for a short period of time. There was nothing at the apartment or otherwise indicating that she was abducted or injured, so the police told them that for now they'd simply have to wait. So the company began to do what they could, calling all of the local emergency rooms to see if it was possible she was there. But that was also a dead end with a series of 'no' responses.

She hadn't called the car service that day and the security at Taehyung's building hadn't seen anything unusual. Taehyung had already sent someone to check out the park she liked to walk in but nobody saw anything unusual there either.

It really seemed she had disappeared.

It was well into the early hours of the morning and they still had no idea where Clara was. The boys had stayed at the company with Taehyung, knowing the company had more resources to look for her. And it was clear Taehyung was in no condition to be left alone. He was wildly swinging between yelling, crying, utter calm, and deep despair. It wasn't just Clara, she was five months pregnant with their twins. She really needed to be found soon.

The first sign they had of her was about mid-morning the next day when her credit card reported a transaction at a corner store in a neighborhood that was so far south it could hardly be considered a suburb of Seoul. Security quickly went there to see if they could look at any cctv footage or find any other clues, but it ended up being useless. Their security camera was broken. They finally found and woke up the poor student who had been covering the night shift when the transaction was made but he just said he didn't remember. Clara's description didn't sound familiar, but he also said that he doesn't pay much attention to the customers so he may just have not noticed.

By now they were heading into the second evening, so the police were starting to get involved. They were going to start by check out any cctv footage from near the apartment and the park.

It felt like they finally got some good news from the police when they reached out to let them know they had seen Clara going into the park and an officer was seeing if he could find her on any other cameras. But after several hours they discovered it was another pregnant woman and not Clara at all.

Taehyung thought he was going to lose his sanity. He hadn't slept at all the previous night and all he could think at this point was that Clara was dead. Nothing else made any sense to him.

Namjoon was almost no help in calming Taehyung, equally horrified by what was happening. So it fell on the rest of the members to hide their own anxiety and to care for the two equally distraught members.

By the time the sun was rising the next morning there was still no sign of Clara. Taehyung was starting to lose hope. He was crying in the reception room trying to think about how he could possibly go on when Jin ran in with his phone in his hand.

Taehyung-ah, it's going to be ok, my dad is on the phone and he has Clara.

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Taehyung couldn't even get out a word, he just burst into more tears relieved to hear she was still alive. He had no idea Jin's parents were even looking for her. But at least she was safe and they knew where she was. All he knew for sure was that he needed to go to her right now.