One Shot To My Heart

Chapter Five

Chapter Five

Daehyun, Youngjae, and Himchan shared confused looks as they too noticed that Jongup was missing. "He was just here..." Himchan said. "He must be somewhere close."

 "I'll go and look for him." I offered. It made sense for me to go, I knew the store the best out of everyone. "I'll be right back." I nodded at everyone and started walking down the rows of aisles. 

I looked down every aisle and couldn't find him so I went up to the front end where the registers were and found Jorge at the courtesy desk. He graduated a few years before me and while I worked here he was my best friend. I used to be really shy and he helped me to break out of my shell and become my own person.

"Jorge! I have a question." I was still checking all around as I approached the courtesy desk, looking for any sign of Jongup. There was no sign of the pink haired boy any where.

"Gwen! What's up?" He surreptitiously slid an application across the counter to me. I pushed the application back and watched as his face fell.

"Sorry Jorge, that's not why I'm here." He gave me a questioning look and I proceeded. "I lost someone in the store..." I admitted sheepishly.

"What does she look like? Is it Cinna again?" Jorge knew me very well, I tended to lose Cinna a lot as well as some of my cousins when they accompanied me to the store. It was hardly ever my fault though, they walked away from me.

"Uhm, half an inch shorter than me, pink hair, Korean, really muscular. He was wearing an army green-" Jorge cut me off with a frantic wave of his arms.

"Did you say he? Gwendolyn Anna Carrick! What have you been hiding from me?" Jorge's eyes were the size of dinner plates and he was still staring at me like I held some big secret.

"Jorge, I'd love to stay and chat but I have to find him! I'll call you later!" I was really beginning to panic now as I ran through all the aisles again. Cinna and the boys hadn't moved far from the dairy section. I ran past them with barely a glance and pushed open the doors to the back room.

Technically, since I no longer worked here, I wasn't allowed in the back room anymore. But, I was never exactly a stickler for the rules... I peeked into the coolers and saw that it was Jongup-free. I checked in the break room next and, again, came up empty.

I delved further into the back room, where all the extra merchandise was stored. It was the stuff that still needed to be stocked on the shelves. A few of the guys back here I knew and some of the others were new. I found one of the boys from my graduating class and ran up to him. "Have you seen a Korean man with pink hair come through here? He's a bit shorter than me, muscular, quiet..."

"Gwen you're not supposed to be back here anymore..." The look on his face told me that he would be in serious trouble if I didn't leave. It was too bad for him that I was beyond caring.

"I know that, just answer the question! Did you see him?" I'm certain I must have looked crazy, I felt crazy. I was beginning to feel sick with worry for Jongup. What if he fell into the baler and got crushed? He could have fallen down the trash shoot. Or into the incinerator. Or worse, what if he found the boys I used to work with! They'd tear him apart...

"Well, an Asian guy walked through here a few minutes ago. He had pink hair..." He was scratching the back of his neck sheepishly and kept looking over his shoulder like the manager was going to appear and yell at him any minute.

"Where did he go?" I was shifting my weight from foot to foot anxiously. Every second I spent here talking I was that much further from Jongup.

"He headed towards the loading bay looking really confused. I just thought he was a new vendor so I didn't stop him." The last part was shouted at my back because after he said loading bay I took off like a bullet from a gun.