SIGNAL || TWICE

🕰Six🕰

Somi smiled as Vernon sat a glass of water down in front of her, and bent down to her height on the couch.

"Are you okay?" He asked, looking genuinely concerned.

Somi felt perfectly fine, with the exception of the dull throbbing in the back of her head. She nodded reaching out to grab the water.

"Really? How come you were up there like that? Had you fallen asleep?" Vernon quizzed.

Somi remembered the black door, and she definitely remembered the girls behind it. But, she felt as if she wasn't supposed to know about them. As if they were being kept a secret. That made absolutely no sense! It should be the orphanage's desire to have every child adopted. Why not the teenagers on the third floor?

"I guess I was never found," Somi decided to say, with a shrug. Even though she wanted to tell Vernon the real reason, she knew she had to do some research first. Plus, she had a feeling that he didn't know about the girls upstairs either.

"You're our true winner then," he said with a warm smile.

That smile will forever be imprinted in Somi's mind.

The rest of the time there, Somi took it easy, then left when volunteering was over. When her father asked how'd it go, she said she had fun. It wasn't a lie. Although confused and scared, it was kind of enjoyable to be in the little hidden room with the nine teenagers and to see their powers. But she wouldn't dare tell her dad that. He would laugh and assumed the kids were playing 'make believe' or some other fantasy game.

"Why are you typing so much? We don't have a paper due! It's summer!"

Upon arriving home, Somi had spotted one of her friends, Doyeon, walking towards her house. Not wanting to send her back home, since Doyeon didn't exactly live close, Somi invited her in so they could hang out.

"Oh, I'm just...researching."

Somi sat at her desktop while Doyeon watched YouTube videos on her laptop. Somi was going through Park's Home's website, looking through all the children available to adopt, more specifically, the teen section. The thing was, the oldest teenager on the website was fourteen, and Somi was sure the girls in the room were at least sixteen, the same age as her. Were they really being kept a secret?

"Researching how to get Vernon to fall in love with you?" Doyeon smirked, casting a glance at her younger friend.

The half-Korean's cheeks began turning red and she shook her head. "No."

"Well, you have to get rid of Yerin first, which is hard because they're assumed to be madly in love and all," Doyeon continued, despite Somi's answer.

Somi zoned out from what Doyeon was saying, and continued clicking on websites, only to find no information on them. She even typed in their names and found nothing regarding the orphanage. Who were those nine girls being kept hidden? And why were they hidden in an orphanage of all places?

"...Hey, have you heard of the disappearances?" Doyeon questioned.

"Disappearances?" Somi repeated.

"Yeah. Four adults have been missing since last Saturday. All of them parents, and their children are being sent to live with relatives."

"They probably went on vacation or something," Somi brushed it off, focusing back on her own computer screen.

"You think so?"

"Well, I'm sure parents get tired of their children sometimes. They probably went out together for drinks or whatever and forgot to tell their kids."