Chapter 2-3: Jiyoung where are you?

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by TemporizingWriter

by TemporizingWriter

Namjun gets a call during his dinner with his professor, "Reporter" flashes on his screen. Knowing it must be something about Jiyoung, he excuses himself from the table to answer. Reporter filled him in on what was happening.

"What?" It was not good news. "Really? ....Jiyoung's disappeared. Got it. I'll start looking for her right away. Jiyoung's not the type to ignore calls when she's playing. What's going on?"

After finishing the call, he regretfully returns back to the table where his professor was patiently waiting. He gave them a bow, "Excuse me, but I really have to go, an emergency just came up. Please know that I really enjoyed dinner with you, and I look forward to talking more in class."

With that, Namjun leaves dinner with his professor early and hurries back to the neighborhood.

*****

Namjun nervously fiddles with this phone the whole way home on the bus.

Y/N: [we'll look in the alleyways in the playground. Can you check the area towards the cafe?]

Namjun: [okay. I will]

He replies to the Reporter's text and scrolls up the cat caretakers chat history. There's a whole line of messages that Jiyoung still hasn't read.

"That was at 3 in the afternoon..." Namjun said quietly. It's 10:21 PM now. A child shouldn't be out at this hour.

Namjun looks up ahead, leg bouncing anxiously. "Speed up bus."

*****

Namjun makes way through the rain to the cafe.

"Have you seen a young girl tonight?" he asked a staff member. "The one who comes here with me sometimes?"

"Oh her? No, I've never seen her here alone," the clerk informs, unhelpfully.

"Thank you," Namjun says. "If you see her, please tell her I'm looking for her."

Namjun leaves the cafe with his contact information and quickly exits, anxious.

He stops by the corner store where Jiyoung buys cans of tuna.

"Yeah, no, I haven't seen her all day," the neighborhood woman told him. "She usually keeps that catwell fed."

No one has seen Jiyoung.

Namjun makes his way towards the playground where she likes to hang out. But as expected, no one's playing in a downpour in the middle tonight. Somehow Namjun missed both Reporter and Jiyoung's dad in their search of the neighborhood.

Namjun sighs. "This just won't do, I need to call and look for the Jiyoung together. Her father probably has information we don't anyway."

But all Namjun gets is ring after ring. Why isn't the reporter picking up?

Namjun breaks out into a cold sweat, swamped with a heavy feeling of unease. Then the phone suddenly rings. It's a number that he doesn't recognize.

Could it be Jiyoung?

With that in mind, he can't ignore the call. "Hello? Is that Jiyoung? Jiyoung, where are you?"

The voice that responded was not Jiyoung, but that of a middle aged man.

Namjun frowned at what the unknown man tells him. "What police station? What really?"