#144
“What have you been doing all this time!”
As Shin Haejun shouted thunderously, the VIP center director’s face turned even more ashen.
“W-Well… We searched not just the VIP center, but the entire medical center!”
“From the moment you noticed he was missing an hour and a half ago, didn’t it occur to you to inform me or Center Director Hyun Dowoon?”
“That… We thought you might react like this…”
Shin Haejun, drained by such an absurd answer, rubbed his temple. He was going crazy at the thought that Jaeha might have been kidnapped by someone again. He never even dreamed that Jaeha might have escaped on his own, and was mentally tearing apart a non-existent kidnapper.
‘I shouldn’t have blocked my senses. I should have kept them open at least when I was with Jaeha.’
S-class espers usually don’t expand their senses during daily life. It’s easy to go mad if you hear all the living noises and voices of hundreds of people. That’s why they tend to control it by blocking and expanding their senses as needed, but he was deeply regretting not keeping them open.
Even if it was difficult, he should have listened for Jaeha’s voice. Surely he would have called for help. Shin Haejun’s mind was filled with regret.
“Where was he last seen? Where was it?”
“He said he was going to the bathroom and then disappeared. Hey, bring that phone over here.”
The center director called nervously to a nearby security guard. He was the last witness to see Jaeha before he disappeared. He quickly disappeared somewhere and then hurriedly reappeared.
“We… found this in the bathroom. The water was running, making continuous noise. Some clothes were also discarded, so it seems he changed into different clothes. The running water was probably to prevent any small sounds of resistance from being heard outside.”
The security guard held out a small phone. It was Jaeha’s phone. Shin Haejun, recognizing it immediately, snatched it and examined it. This was the phone Jaeha treasured like a sacred object. The fact that the phone he never let out of his sight was in the bathroom meant…
“Show me exactly how you found this phone.”
Shin Haejun ordered the security guard. Entering the bathroom in question together, the guard pointed to the shelf in the stall where it was found.
“It was placed neatly here.”
It was in a position as if accidentally left behind. Shin Haejun glared at the shelf with a strange feeling, then whirled around.
“What about the CCTV near the bathroom?”
The center director, who had followed Shin Haejun and the guard, shook his head.
“If we publicly announced that we were looking for a VIP, especially Guide Lee Jaeha, it would cause too much confusion…”
In conclusion, they hadn’t even looked at it yet. Shin Haejun, realizing they were more concerned about saving face than the confusion, glared at the center director as if he could kill him.
In the end, time was of the essence in a kidnapping. Having wasted an hour and a half due to this fool’s thinking, Shin Haejun couldn’t help but feel his insides burning.
“Tell them to connect to the security room immediately to check the CCTV from an hour and a half ago. I’ll follow shortly when it’s ready. And you, we’ll deal with later.”
Shin Haejun naturally ordered the security guard what to do next, then barked at the center director and gestured for him to leave. Left alone, he stared intently at the phone. It suddenly occurred to him that Nine would have checked the situation.
“Come out. You saw what happened, didn’t you?”
Kidnapped! Kidnapped! This can’t be!
“You idiot, what exactly did you do! What happened to Jaeha hyung?”
When Shin Haejun shouted, Nine spun its emoticon face frantically as if excited.
Yeonsoo-nim left me behind. There was definitely no one there then. So he must have left me by mistake. I thought he would come back to get me if I waited, but then some man took me to a room! And after waiting for a long time, you suddenly appeared talking about kidnapping!
Nine, saying that Jaeha must have left it by mistake, looked quite anxious. It seemed either worried that Jaeha might have been kidnapped, or unwilling to think that he had left it behind on purpose.
“You know something, don’t you.”
Shin Haejun pressed Nine, seeing its strangely anxious attitude. Normally, it would have focused on the ‘kidnapping’ and gotten angry, but its focus seemed off, which bothered him.
As Shin Haejun shook the phone demanding an immediate answer, Nine spun around and then replied with a dejected face.
Maybe… Yeonsoo-nim really left me behind and left!
“He left on his own?”
At the suggestion that he might have left of his own accord, Shin Haejun momentarily looked at his own fingers. Seeing the ring shining on his finger, the thought that it couldn’t be possible surged.
But soon, that thought cooled off.
The other day, Yeonsoo-nim tried to delete me! The game was almost deleted! Was he dissatisfied with me? Or maybe he noticed our plan!
Shin Haejun knew how obsessed Jaeha was with his phone, or more precisely, with Nine. He didn’t like to sleep without his phone nearby, and even took it into the bathroom when showering.
But hearing that he had attempted to delete the game himself, he felt that the current situation was even more serious than he had thought.
With a stiff face, he took the phone and went outside. Anyway, Nine wouldn’t have seen the situation outside since it was inside the bathroom stall. Nine wasn’t omniscient except for matters related to the principles of the world or writing. After all, it was bound to the phone.
So he needed to check the CCTV. If some madman had kidnapped him, he would just kill them. And if he had left on his own…
‘I’ll have to bring him back.’
Not knowing how difficult that might be, Shin Haejun called Hyun Dowoon. Although he didn’t particularly want to, he thought that searching together would be faster than going alone in this situation, to find Jaeha as quickly as possible.
With just a brief explanation of the situation, Hyun Dowoon appeared instantly beside Shin Haejun. With grim faces, the two went down to the underground security room.
The security room was in full emergency mode when the Awakened Center Director appeared. They had expected only Shin Haejun to come, but with Hyun Dowoon as well, the air was tense with tension.
Moreover, given the nature of the situation, all the security room staff were on high alert. Whether it was kidnapping or leaving on his own, they had no excuse for not noticing earlier.
Hyun Dowoon, with a completely expressionless face, made a slight chin gesture. Although his attitude was clearly different from usual, no one dared to say anything. They deserved to be reprimanded since Jaeha had disappeared.
The CCTV footage, paused at the point where Jaeha entered the bathroom, began to play. After a few minutes, instead of Jaeha coming out, a different person was seen exiting.
“Who’s that? Did someone like this enter before?”
Someone muttered. The person wearing sweatpants came out and disappeared towards the emergency stairs. After that, Jaeha didn’t appear for a long time.
Shin Haejun and Hyun Dowoon’s gazes met. Their miserable looks confirmed each other’s thoughts.
Although it was a small figure moving in the CCTV, despite the different clothes, it was unmistakable.
That person was Jaeha. He had thoroughly prepared, even changing clothes, and disappeared on his own.
“First floor. Quickly, the connected emergency stairs!”
Shin Haejun ordered in an anxious voice. The staff operating the system hurriedly played the relevant footage. Watching the screen rewinding to the matching time, Shin Haejun closed his eyes tightly and then opened them.
They paused the CCTV at a similar time, but the same person didn’t appear on screen. However, Hyun Dowoon pointed at the screen with a confident face. It was a side profile of a person wearing a cap and mask.
“Wow, he really thoroughly…”
Someone started to mutter quietly but stopped with a gasp. Shin Haejun bit the inside of his cheek with a bitter expression. He had hoped there would be a villain. Although it would be distressing if he was captured and suffering at the hands of a bad person, he didn’t want to believe that Jaeha had left on his own. Rescuing and bringing him back was completely different from forcibly bringing him back against his will.
They could see his movements after exiting the back door on the external CCTV. Jaeha disappeared beyond the screen after visiting an ATM booth.
‘Why?’
A fire rose in Shin Haejun’s heart.
Even up to when he gave him the ring, Jaeha had seemed completely happy and comfortable. Yet he had a reason he had to leave.
He didn’t want to make the far-fetched assumption that Jaeha had deliberately sought out and given him the ring to reassure him before leaving. Thinking that way was too miserable… above all, he didn’t want to believe that the atmosphere of that day, those lovely moments when Jaeha opened himself up for the first time, were all lies.
“Check the surrounding CCTV immediately. Keep this matter confidential.”
Hyun Dowoon instructed in a low voice. Everyone realized his mood was more somber than ever and tensed up.
“I’ll also operate a separate security team.”
Judging it would be much more rational to search using an independent team rather than relying solely on the center, Shin Haejun called his secretary.
With everyone searching like this, they should be able to find him soon. Although the hour and a half of wasted time was frustrating, there was nothing they couldn’t find under Korean soil.
Shin Haejun pondered what words he would use to persuade Jaeha to come back when they met.
Not knowing that they would be wandering for a long time to come.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
