With U // YunGi

Next Steps

The afternoon of the next day, San was practicing his newest choreography at his studio. The music was on maximum volume, but when he felt a consistent buzzing at his wristwatch, he stopped and paused the music.

San didn't pay attention to the unfamiliar phone number that was calling him and picked up instantly. Not a lot of people had his personal number, but most of his new dancing students contacted him this way.

"Hello, this is San from—"

"San, this is Dr. Song. Mingi's uncle."

"Oh!" San couldn't hide his surprise. Being Mingi's best friend, he had seen most of his family members at least once, but he didn't expect any of them to contact him out of the blue.

"Sorry to bother you. My hyung gave me your number before he left on a business trip just in case. It's not really a big deal, but Mingi didn't come to work today and I can't contact him at all. Perhaps you might be able to...?"

San wiped the sweat from his eyebrows, checked the clock. His last lesson for the day was in ten minutes.

"I understand if you have to work. I'm just hoping if you could check on him, see if he's okay."

"Of course, of course! I still have to work for two more hours, that's all. I will go to his home myself, so don't worry." San didn't say that this was a perfect opportunity for him to interrogate his friend about what happened yesterday. "I hope the hospital is doing fine without him."

"Thank you, San. You can call me back on this number. And luckily, Mingi didn't have a lot of patients today, so his absence wasn't too problematic. I've bothered you long enough. Have a good day."

"You, too," San replied, then hung up just as his first student came through the door.

Two hours flew past, and San was packing his things while his students trickled out the door. He called out for the last student, a younger female in her early-twenties, to turn off the lights, but she lingered and refused to leave.

"I'm sorry, Yoohyun, I can't do one-on-one practice today. I have..."

"That's not what I'm staying for," Yoohyun corrected him, a determined glint in her eyes and a charming smile on her face. "San-oppa, shall we eat dinner together?"

San smiled as he said, "Yoohyun, I told you not to call me that. I'm your teacher. Call me seonsaengnim. Also, I already have a boyfriend, and Wooyoungie gets jealous easily, I'm sorry."

San patted his student on the head lightly and left, his mind already focused on Mingi.

First, he tried calling his best friend, but it went straight to voice mail.

"Aish, what's with him this time?" San mumbled to himself as he climbed into his red Audi.

Knowing the address and route like the back of his hand, San got to Mingi's apartment in less than twenty minutes.

He rang the bell once, twice. When he heard no footsteps or response, he knocked hard on the door and pressed his ear against it.

Silence.

He pressed the doorbell three more times. "Yah, Mingi, open up!"

San was wondering if Mingi was even home at all when the door adjacent to Mingi's opened. His neighbor came out.

"Are you looking for Dr. Song?"

"Oh, yes, do you know if he left...?" San bowed politely, feeling sorry for shouting so loudly earlier.

"You see, his electronic lock makes a really loud noise whenever the door opens or closes, so I will definitely know if he left. This morning, I didn't hear anything even though I knew he usually goes to work at half-past-eight, so I'm sure he's still inside." The middle-aged man coughed and walked pass San to bring his trash out.