Don't tell me bye bye (mystery/ thriller)

Chapter 18

Jin almost fell of his chair when he asked where I was going and I said I was going to church. If anyone had told me I would be making my second trip to church in less than a week, I would probably have done the same thing.

I walked into town but left way too early so decided that I deserved a stop off at Jimin's for a hot chocolate to calm my nerves before my meeting with the parish priest.

That's a sentence I never thought I'd say.

My favourite seat was waiting for me so I've unpacked my drawing stuff and taken a few sips of my liquid serotonin. Jimin's is quiet, just a few people working at laptops or reading books as they drink their coffee, tucked away from the cold day as it blows by outside.

"A very good afternoon to you, Y/n."

Jimin's voice materialises out of the hushed calm of his tea shop. I look up and put my arms over my sketchpad before he can see the picture of me and Rose that I've been working on.

"Hi, Jimin," I say. "Hi."
I really need to work on my conversation skills.

"And hi, Y/n, hi right back at you. How's your hot chocolate?" he asks, smiling so widely I can see a glint of silver in his back teeth.

"It's lovely, thanks."

Just to prove how sincere I am, I reach for my glass to take another slurp (which is probably at the perfect temperature now) but my hand stops in mid-air as I glance up at Jimin over my drink. His smile has frozen across his face, all trace of its warmth vanished from her eyes. He looks as though he's been turned into stone in some fairy tale, with only his eyes able to move as he looks up a the ceiling of his tea shop, looking for something.

Waiting for something. "Jimin, are you-"

He puts her index finger up to me, and I close my mouth, following his eyes as they scan the interior of the shop until I finally realise what's stopped him dead in his tracks.

There's a rumble, like the sound of a tumble dryer from deep inside a cellar. I frown at my delicious glass of hot chocolate as it's pulled across the table by an invisible piece of string, then I shriek as it topples over, its brown contents spilling across the table and trickling onto the wooden floor.

"Up! This way!" shouts Jimin. He pulls me up by my arm and I trip after him. he drags me past the other customers who are all on their feet, and we rush behind the counter.

Coffee pots and glasses dance around on the shelves then dive like lemmings, crashing to the ground. I try to avoid the cloudy puddles of liquid sloshing on the counter and the floor, as coffee and hot water leaks from smashed pots and jugs. I struggle to stay upright, the floor getting yanked away and then thrust back under my feet, tripping me over and crashing me into a dresser of cups and saucers.

Jimin pulls me to the doorway at the back of his shop, then grabs the tops of my arms and we stand facing each other, my hands gripping onto the doorframe behind me. I look around the tea shop as the walls shake like someone has grabbed the room by the shoulders and is trying to shake the truth out of it. Jimin's customers duck under tables and hunch in the doorway to the shop, some of them watching the lights swinging on the ceiling while others close their eyes, blocking out the turmoil crashing around them.

I yelp as a microwave plummets to the floor and cartwheels towards our legs, both of us managing to hop over it as it goes crashing into the fridge and boxes in the kitchen. A row of glasses topple to the ground like dominoes, then crackle and jingle as shards of glass dance around each other on the shaking floor.

Gradually, like someone is turning the dial on a slow motion effect, the chaos starts to wane and the rumbling creeps away into the distance. The crockery goes from crashing, to clinking, and then to stillness. The room feels as though it's getting its breath back, calming itself so it can stand up straight, until it finally finds its footing. I look at Jimin, waiting as his brown eyes sweep every corner of the room. Finally, he looks at me, nods her head and I can breathe again.