Can I help you?

Chapter 19

"So she is in Gwangju? What is she doing there?" Jin asks. Emma is half in tears and Mary is holding her. Doenja is a bit unnerved. "For her job. We can't say." Jimin rolls his eyes. "It's obvious why." He looks at Jhope. "Guess they listened to us about wanting to tour each others hometowns. Why else would anyone go to Gwangju. No offence Hobi." "Non taken. So we don't even know if she arrived there? She could be anywhere." "No, Sarah definitely wouldn't be the type to get off the train at another station than the one she needs to be at. No, she will be there." Doenja confidently says. "Let's just wait a bit longer. She might contact us soon." Doenja tries to put everyone at ease.

The next day they still haven't heard anything and Jhope is on the phone. Chances are slim that they have seen her, but I can call around to some family and friends. I mean, a foreigner in Gwangju isn't a daily thing. Especially someone like her, with her looks. He is calling around. Nobody has seen anyone looking like her. He sighs. His mom suddenly calls. "Hey son!" "Mom! How are you doing? Are you healthy?" "Yes, yes, my filial son. Have you been eating well?" "Yes mom." "Son, what I called you about. I think a friend of yours is missing." "How did you know?" "Well, in her bag there is a lot of BTS stuff and she has a badge from your company." "Her bag? How did you get her bag?" "She left it here. I let her stay at our place, since it is such a polite and nice girl. She was foreign too." Jhope doesn't doubt it's Sarah anymore. "What happened?" "She was going to Jisang-dong for some light hiking. She left yesterday morning, but didn't come back last night." Jhope's eyes grow wide. "Did you alert the local police?" "I did but it's not official since it's not 24 hours. They won't do anything yet." After a few more minutes, Jhope hangs up the phone. "I am going to Gwangju." "Why? what's wrong?" Jhope doesn't want to make everyone worried and just says it's a family matter. He quickly grabs some stuff and is on his way.

Sarah notices that it is getting slightly more chilly. She looks on her smartphone and sees it is nearing the evening. "Oh, time to head back." She has strayed from the path and is slowly moving back to the path. A rock she has put her foot on, slips away and she slides down the hill, only to get stopped by a tree that was there. She hits her back and neck and there is a flash of white immediately followed by dark. Sarah falls unconscious on the soft moss of the forest floor. It is already deep in the night when she wakes up with a shiver. "It's so cold...." She slowly lifts herself with her arms and looks around her. "Where am I? What happened?" She uses the flashlight on her phone. "I am still in the forest... What time is it?" She looks at the time and sees it is passed 2am. "It is a bad idea to move around in the dark and I should probably call someone." She calls but there is no connection. She looks surprised at her phone and sees she has no reception. "For heaven's sake..." She is still on the slope and decides to at least find some levelled ground. She starts to crawl a bit up, but is in pain on her shoulders and back. "Oof! This feels like it should be bruised well." She bites through the pain and it gradually gets better as she keeps moving the muscles. When she finds some levelled ground she lays down on it. "No, I shouldn't lay down like this." She gathers a bunch of dead leaves and makes it into a bed. "Never lay directly on the humid forest ground. Too cold." She grabs her coat and uses it as a cover and her backpack as a headrest. Her neck and head hurts. "I might have a concussion. I should sleep and lay still a bit." She tries to sleep for a while.

Morning comes and Sarah is awoken at an ungodly hours by the birds and sun. She moans. All her muscles are tensed up again. She takes a bite from the packed lunch and decides to rest a bit longer. She lays back down and tries to sleep some more. "Rest, rest rest is the best. Especially in case of concussion. I have food and water. If I sleep a lot, I don't use too much energy." Smirking at her own brilliance she looks up while trying to let her neck rest as much as possible. "This isn't that bad. I'll let nature handle this." She closes her eyes in the half shade that the trees are giving her. Around noon she wakes up again. Again the stiff muscles and neck. She eats and drinks a bit and lays back down. The evening falls. She is awake again and it isn't that bad anymore. "It's been 24 hours now... I think I am starting to heal." She sits up again and the muscles in her back seems to hurt less. Her head and neck are still not that fine tho. She eats the last of her packed lunch and drinks the last bit. She crawls carefully to the river and fills her bottle. "I drank water from the springs in Korea before. It is purified by the mountains. It is perfectly safe." She crawls back to her temporary camp and lays down. "Thank god I can't see stars. Having coverage of clouds or trees helps to not get too cold at night." The leaves knisper underneath her. She lays on her back back and looks up into the dark.

Jhope is at his mothers place in the late afternoon. After doing the greetings, he walks to his room to see Sarah's beautiful dresses. "It is my friend indeed. Tell me exactly where she went." The mom told him everything Sarah told her. Jhope raides the fridge, grabs the first aid kit and puts it all in a backpack. "Mom, I'll go and find her." "Son, it's almost nightfall. It's too dark to do anything. Knowing his mother is right, he listens obediently as the good son he is. He goes to sleep early to leave early.

Jhope waves at his mom before also leaving towards Jisan-dong. He starts to hike. "I can't trail her anymore, since it's been 2 days. The wind must have removed all proof of her." He walks on the path. 'She has a tendency to wander.' Emma's voice plays in his head. If I want to find her, I must think like her. He sees some beautiful flowers and hears a river nearby. He decides to get off in front of the bridge and follow the river upstream. There must be a waterfall upstream or something beautiful. Sarah must love beautiful things. He steps firmly on. He sees some dirt that has been slided and some marks of someone that has been to the river side. "SARAH!" He shouts and looks around him. She might be around here somewhere. He starts to feverishly look for her. He misses her smile, her smell, her cheerful look in those cute and sexy dresses. Suddenly he sees a jacket. He runs toward it and finds Sarah, peacefully sleeping on a natural bed of leaves. She is on her back, and has her pale skin. She looks like a corpse. Jhope falls on his knees and it all looks like a snow white scene. He is half crying and lifts her up at her shoulders. He holds her in his arms like that. Sarah moans and opens her eyes. "D-don't touch my shoulders." He looks down at her and sees she is awake. "Sarah!" He says in a relieved voice. "That's me, yeah." She sits up on her own strength and rubs her eyes. Sitting like that, in her dress, with the background of the forest and the river softly streaming in the back, Jhope feels a feeling in his stomach and it finds it way up to his head. He cups Sarah's face with both hands and kisses her deeply while crying.

Sarah feels his wet tears on her cheeks and his kiss that is deeply and intense. She raises her hand to hold his elbow. Sitting like that, Sarah sideways and Jhope on his knees, they are kissing in that beautiful setting. After a few minutes, Jhope stops and gasps for air. Sarah pants too. "W-what was that about?" Jhope realises and lets her head go. "I... I was just so happy that you are alive. What happened to you? We were all worried sick!" "I have gotten a whiplash or concussion. But I was better already. I just have a lot of bruises on my back now. I was planning on hiking back tomorrow." "Sarah. Sarah." He keeps repeating her name, with a relieve and despair in his voice.

"What are you doing here?" Sarah asks. "How did you find me?" "The lady you stayed with. She called me." "Ahjumma? Really? How did she get your number?" "That ahjumma is my mom." Sarah looks surprised. "That pretty lady? She is so sweet and kind. I should have known. You look a lot like your parents." Sarah blushes. Jhope opens his bag and takes out the first aid kit. "I know it might be late, but how about some second aid?" He jokes and Sarah laughs out loud. He has some bruising cream in there and some meds. "Where does it hurt?" "Mainly my back. The painkiller will help my headache." Sarah strips down, only wearing her bra. Jhope swallows but moves to her back. He remembers the first time... He sees many black and blue bruises on her back. "Excuse me." He opens her bra. Just like that night. His long fingers stroke softly over her skin as he applies the cream. He is using the flashlight because night is falling already. Sarah is holding her hair over her shoulder. She can feel both his hands slide over her back. Gently, softly. She gets a shiver at the memory of his hands being like that, that one night. It has all been rubbed in and she suddenly feels something similar again. He is softly placing kisses on her back. She is holding her clothes in front of her, to cover herself and with the other hand holding her hair. "Hoseok?" "Mmmhm?" "What are you doing?" Jhope softly slides with one finger a strap from her bra over her shoulder and then the other one. He is still behind her. He kisses the top of her shoulder and then softly goes to her neck. "Hoseok...No..." But she doesn't sound convinced. "I am kissing away the pain." He kisses in her hair, on the back of her head. He then strips his shirt and pulls her on his lap, she can feel his warmth on her back. "It is also getting dark, and colder. I should keep you warm." He whispers from behind her, in her ear.

-there is some light smut in the next chapter. As usual you can skip to chapter 21 if you want.-