The Tomb Of My Heart | SF9

十一

This whole situation seemed like one of those twisted fever dreams I'd get whenever I was really sick. Nothing made sense anymore. Where were the staff members? And where the hell was Jaeyoon?

"Mr. Jung, what are we going to do now?" Someone behind me asked.

"First of all, we'll try to find Jaeyoon. Although the staff has left somewhere, there are still some food supplies in the kitchen, so I think we'll be okay for a few more days. Then, we'll see. Maybe someone will appear. And if not, I'm afraid we'll have to take a walk to the nearest town."

"But how are we supposed to do that?" I asked. "That town is hours of walking away, which wouldn't even be that bad if we weren't in the middle of the forest with no signal or any kind of navigation."

"We'll just have to hope that everything goes back to normal as soon as possible, then."

All of a sudden, another person joined us. It was our guide, who was walking from the direction of his room.

"Good morning." He smiled, but the smile faded away as soon as he saw our worried faces. "Is everything alright?"

"Actually, Zhang Ming, it's not." Mrs. Kwon said and explained the whole situation to him. He was surprised to hear about everything that happened, and unfortunately, he didn't have any useful information about the staff's our Jaeyoon's whereabouts.

"I really don't know about the staff, it's strange to me as well. But when it comes to your student, I'm sure he's totally fine and will appear eventually." He said.

"How can you be so sure?" Youngbin asked, visibly upset about his friend's disappearance.

"Well, let's go look for him, then." Zhang Ming said, trying to convince him. "With so many people in this hall, I'm sure we can find him. And plus, he couldn't have gotten that far."

The eleven of us shared some confused looks, not really knowing if it was a good idea to follow Zhang Ming's plan. But truth to be told, that was the only thing we were able to do at that moment.

*

We searched the whole hotel again, but Jaeyoon was no where to be found. Same thing with the staff members. It literally seemed like the ground had opened and swallowed them all of a sudden.

We found an office that probably belonged to the hotel's manager and it had a computer in it. When we tried to turn it on, nothing happened. Sanghyuk tried to fix it, but he couldn't seem to find a problem.

"Maybe I can help with that." Seokwoo offered.

"I'm sorry, Seokwoo, but Jaeyoon is missing and we don't have the time for experimenting with technology–" Sanghyuk said, but got interrupted because the computer suddenly turned on. Everyone turned to look at Seokwoo, who was pointing at the computer's cable.

"It wasn't plugged in." Seokwoo deadpanned.

"Oh, I'm sorry for snapping at you." Sanghyuk said, regretting his earlier said words. "It's just, I'm really worried for Jaeyoon."

Seokwoo just nodded, accepting the apology, but I could see that he was a bit offended. Being so handsome, most people would automatically assume that a nice body and a pretty face were the only thing that he owned. But I could see his potential, the smart side that people were constantly failing to see.

Altough we managed to turn the computer on, another obstacle was stopping us from going any further.

"Oh, man, seriously? A password?" Youngkyun said.

"Look around. It may be written somewhere." Taeyang suggested, so we proceeded seaeching the room, but still didn't manage to find anything.

"Let's just move on." Inseong said. "It doesn't seem like it'll get any better from this. From what we know, Jaeyoon might be somewhere outside and we're here trying to hack a password we know nothing about."

"I agree with Inseong." Juho nodded.

"But we might be able to find the security camera footage." Youngbin said.

"Well, let's split up, then. It'll be easier that way." I suggested. "Who wants to stay here?"

"I'll stay." Sanghyuk said. "I'm good with computers."

"I'll stay as well." Taeyang said.

"Me too." Seokwoo added.

"Okay, I think that'll be enough for the hacking task. The rest of us will search the hotel grounds and the tomb." I said.

*

After we decided to split up, the majority of the group, including me, headed outside to proceed searching for Jaeyoon. It was already getting late, and he still hadn't shown up.

"I'm really starting to worry." Youngbin said, even more frustrated than earlier.

"Hey," I said, taking his hand to comfort him. "I understand your concerns. Jaeyoon is such a kind person, I can't imagine why anyone would ever want to hurt him. That's why I'm hoping that, wherever he is, he is there by his own will."

"Yeah." Youngbin sighed. "I hope so, too."

We kept searching the grounds for some time, and then moved onto the tomb.

"It's getting late, so we don't have much time left." Zhang Ming warned us. "Exploring the tombs at night isn't really recommended. More of us might get lost that way."

We took his advice seriously, and as soon as the sun started to set, we came back to the hotel. But what was waiting for us there was even more defeating.

"Seokwoo, what happened? Did you manage to break he password and get into the computer?" I asked, but was greeted by his frown as an answer.

"...No, we didn't." He said quietly.

I noticed that something was wrong as soon as I realised that only he and Taeyang were waiting for us at the hall, and both of their facial expressions proved my theory even more.

"Wait, where is Sanghyuk?" I asked, immediately feeling my heartbeat getting faster due to panic that suddenly overwhelmed me.

"We... kind of got into a fight again." Seokwoo said. "He left."

"What? Are you kidding me right now?" Youngbin yelled, pulling his hair with his hands because he was, just like all of us, under so much stress right now, and maybe even more.

"No, we're serious." Taeyang said with a sad tone in his voice. "We tried searching for him, but he's no where to be found."