Lost and Found (Jirose)

Lost and Found

She had been walking Toben as she always did, as she had always done ever since he was a puppy. The sandy beach was bare, quiet and somehow magical, like most places are in those few moments when grey light touches the velvety night sky and a new day begins.

And then Toben froze, ears erect, hackles raised.

She followed his gaze, her eyes resting on a dark shape washed up on the shore. It looked awfully like a human.

Next second, she broke into a run, the dog barking at her heels.

It was a man, clothes sopping wet, face down in the sand. She landed beside him on her knees and flipped him over, frantically searching for a pulse.

The sight of his face momentarily took her breath away but then her training kicked in. She checked his breathing and tilted his head up to hear better.

He wasn't breathing, but his pulse was there. Thready and feeble, but still there.

"Don't you dare die on me," she gritted, pumping his chest.

One death had been enough and she was still trying to pick up the pieces after Jungkook—

His mouth lolled open invitingly but she ducked her head—she had no idea who this guy was and she hated the idea of locking lips with a stranger, no matter the emergency or how handsome he looked. 

He might be infected with HIV for all she knew. 

She was getting tired and the chest presses weren't working. She rolled him on his side, shrugging off her jacket to cover him and reaching for her phone at the same time.

"Hang on, just hang on," she whispered when the ambulance finally arrived and paramedics ran towards them on the sand.

As the ambulance sped away, she finally noticed the sun peeking cautiously over the horizon, her nails torn to shreds and goosebumps on her bare shoulders...

The police contacted her soon after to ask about the incident and return her jacket.

"How...how is he?" she asked curiously.

"Alive," she was told and then dismissed unceremoniously.

She later learned from the TV that he was unconscious but still fighting.

"Was he handsome?" Lisa asked again and again.Lisa never tired of asking.

Again and again, she told the truth: Yes, very. Because she was that kind of person who couldn't lie to save her life.

Out of pure curiosity, she decided to pop in for a visit one day, a week later during her break. She learned that he had no name and only a mysterious empty locket was found in his pocket.

Lisa had informed her that the police apparently issued a call for any relatives to claim him but so far nobody had stepped forward. 

"You're always lost in your world," her friend said exasperatedly when Chaeyoung simply stared —she hadn't heard the news.

She sat by his prostrate form and allowed her eyes to roam over his body. He had blond hair, with a two block undercut just like her supervisor Yoongi, and chubby cheeks complementing a sharp jawline.

The doctors had discerned purple bruise marks around his neck. They said it was either somebody had tried to strangle him, or he had attempted suicide.

She wondered about the truth, and the way fate played out that led her to save him.

Maybe he hadn't wanted to be saved.