jk

DAY 2

DECEMBER 30.
12:01 AM

Multiple gasps echoed throughout the room. They couldn't believe what they just heard. No one dared to respond afterwards, processing the information Caleb stated out.

"CALEB, ARE YOU MAD!?" Charli screeches, her voice becomes shaky, as if she was uneasy.

"How could you say something like that!?" Ruby, still teary eyed,  follows after charli, easily taking her side. 

"Guys, have you seen my phone? I swear, I left it on the bed." Jae tries to distract the others, with a less eventful news. "I need to call her. I need to—" In the end, Jae starts panicking as well.

"Someone might've taken your phone." Chereen says, shakily. Caleb's words was starting to make sense right there and then. 

"Then what Caleb is saying," Fallon speaks up, unfazed. She was stressed out of her mind. "it's true?"

"Just think about it," Caleb spoke yet again. "If there was an actual intruder, they would take our money first and foremost. None of our cash are stolen, am I right?" Caleb bravely took a step forward. "The intruders would find it impossible to take Naomi. We live in a well-secured mansion; We have fingerprints for locks! And knowing Naomi, she'd immediately fight back."

"So, what you're saying is that," Vivi raises an eyebrow. "One of us did it? The phone going missing, Naomi's disappearance, are caused by someone here?"

"Who else could lure someone like Naomi if not us?" Even though the words were hurtful to hear, it made sense. And they hated that it did.

"Maybe Caleb's right.."

"No! Maja, please don't say that!" Jae grabs Maja close, hiding the fact that a few tear drops had fled her eyes. "Please, don't think like that." Maja quickly snaps out of her thoughts and looks down at the heartbroken person that she was holding. 

Hearing this, Caleb has had enough. "You guys don't get it, you never do!" Caleb lets out a loud sigh and storms off, to god-knows-where.

"Gēge!" Jae tried to chase after him, but Maja envelops her into a hug, not letting the girl leave from her embrace.

"Caleb needs some space right now, let him be." Mia massaged the bridge of her nose, visibly stressed. Muffled crying was heard from Jae, and it pierced through the gloomy atmosphere. Nothing seemed to be going well for them. 

.🥬.

"They never try to understand what I say. What if it was one of us?" Caleb mutters to himself, walking to his room. He eyes the living room from the indoor balcony. Nothing seemed to be out of place. Who could be behind all this? And what was their plan?

If only there was something. Something to let him know what was going on. Yet again, will C.E ever do something as horrid as this? He would be lying if he said he wasn't worried for Naomi. Where the hell could she be? He looked behind him, and to the windows that lead outside. Would Naomi be outside? Alone?

"Focus, Caleb. Focus." He mutters to himself, again. He shakes his head and forced himself to turn away from the windows. 

Caleb opens the door to his room, turning the lights on. But before he could close the doors behind him, a pair of hands has been waiting for him, silencing him whole. The pair of hands restrained Caleb's mouth from making any noise. His eyes opened wide at the sight in front of him, but he couldn't make a single sound. 

There was someone in his room, and they only whispered a few words.

"Hush, and listen."

.🥬.

"Naomi still didn't check her phone." Gwen holds her phone tightly, eyes shaking. 

"What Caleb said," Jinhan looks at the ground below them, "could it possibly be true?"

Dawn sighs, before saying, "I'm going to talk to Caleb. I can't deal with us being suspicious of each other any longer." She leaves the room. Not going to lie, she was disappointed at them, but at herself the most. If she was awake at that certain time, Naomi's fate might have been changed. 

But fate is cruel, and C.E will need to realize that sooner or later.

Dawm made her way right in front of Caleb's door. She hesitates to knock. "Is he mad at us?" The words replay in her head over and over again, before she snaps out of it. She took up the courage and knocks. No answer. She knocks again.

"Caleb??" 

No answer.

"Caleb, I'm going in!" She forcefully opens the door with ease, to see a clean bedroom with no Caleb. She takes a closer look. Definitely no Caleb. "Caleb??" Still, nothing answered her. "N-no, oh no." She realizes the situation and runs back to the group.

"GUYS!" She slammed the door open.

All eyes were on Dawn.

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.

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"Caleb's gone."