Sentience

45

The frown on Changmin's face was inevitable. Which seemed to be normal after his multiple calls and messages weren't responded to.

Why would Belle ignore him after all? Specifically, after yesterday when they talked to each other on the phone. They had agreed to hang out today together with Mother. Nothing went wrong from the simple conversation, they weren't argued either.

"Does she act up?" Changmin pondered on the phone. "For what reason?"

But, he immediately shrugged the thought off when a specific idea visited his head.

Sunwoo.

"Did he force her to go with him?" The frown on his face became tighter, but soon, all his facial muscles relaxed. "That boy doesn't look like a morning person either."

Ji Changmin then collected his stuff, glancing over his watch. 7.15 a.m. was still early. He might have told Belle that he would come after dawn, but, there was a possibility that the girl was still sleeping. Who knows if she ended up talking with her mother until late at night? Although Belle was someone who would wake up early no matter how late she went to sleep the night before, it wasn't impossible if she overslept.

So, Changmin left another message on her phone, telling her that he was about to leave his house.

"Need a lift?" His eldest sister questioned as soon as he stepped out of his room, running into her in the hallway.

The female looked tired, the bags under her eyes and a mug of instant coffee in her hand were the biggest proofs. She must have stayed up late, he thought.

"I'm fine," he shrugged, sliding his arms into the grey sweater he took from his wardrobe while watching his sister yawn like a hippopotamus. "You wanted to be a lawyer so bad so that you can stay wide awake all night?"

The female then popped her neck, "I have a big case."

"Yes... yes... go study about the case and make sure you win in the court," he shooed her but he was the one who walked away. "Tell Mom, I'm leaving."

It became more weirder the more Changmin travelled down his apartment. While in the elevator, his messages to Belle remained unread, which was something rare to happen. His heartbeats started to mess up with him, rushing the blood flowing through his veins at a faster pace.

His bus ride was also full of nervousness. Neither did he know why he needed to feel so, but he just knew that if he didn't hear from Belle for more than half an hour, he needed to prepare himself for any circumstance.

Please don't let anything bad happen to her, he diligently prayed inside his head.

As the bus pulled over at the curb after he pushed the button, Ji Changmin rushed down and jumped onto the gravel sidewalk. His sweater kept sliding down at the right shoulder which honestly was disturbing. But he didn't have the time to be so leisurely, so he harshly pulled it back up while trailing the path to the apartment.

It was when he arrived at the facade of the building that he noticed the chaos that happened so early in the morning. Paramedics and police were rushing inside the building and leaving the ambulance and patrol car flashing their red and blue lights.

It was only 7.30 in the morning. What could've happened? He thought.

Above all, Changmin thought that he could've just ignored it. Nothing about it related to him anyway because his focus right now was only to check on Belle.

However, he doubted his assumption when a screeching sound was heard coming from a car whose driver had hit the brake so abruptly, leaving skid marks on the tar. The black MPV was too familiar for him to ignore; Belle's father jumped out from the driver's side while her stepmother came out from the passenger's side.