Second Chances!!

CHAPTER 7: A debacle

"I can check." Jenny replied wearily. "Let me go talk to my manager."

"Please." Min Ho begged before Kitty could silence him.

As Jenny wandered into the back Min Ho wandered the library in hopes of escaping his friends' questioning eyes at his franticness. What they didn't understand was his fear for Ara and maybe even of Ara.

Finally, ten minutes later, Jenny emerged to say, "Supposedly three months ago someone had requested to put an envelope inside a book and then put the book aside for them for a decent sum of money."

"I'll pay it!" Min Ho said hurriedly before she could finish her sentence.

"But." Jenny said, frowning at the interruption. "Someone had bought the book when my manager was out sick and the employee hadn't known to place it aside, so sorry."

Min Ho's stomach, which felt as though it was in his throat up till now, dropped into the pit of his body like a stone. This couldn't be happening.

Q placed a hand on his shoulder placatingly and asked Jenny if she knew who had bought it. She shook her face to get her wispy hair out of her face. "Erm, I'll go ask." Kitty noticed Almira's eyes trailing behind Jenny but before she could voice her question, Almira spoke up.

"She's lying."

"How do you know?" Q asked in tandem with Kitty's, "What do you mean?"

"She's all fidgety and her eyes keep darting."

"Social anxiety?"

"There's no manager, we can't hear them talking."

Almira was right, it was silent as soon as the five kids stopped talking. This was weird considering the bookshop's miniscule size, and how they were a foot away from the 'back.'

However, their silence also confirmed that Jenny could hear them and as soon as the silence had started, it ended, with a BANG. Min Ho later registered that the bang had been Jenny throwing open a back door and running away.

In a flash Marcel was out the front door chasing after her and after a shrug, Min Ho followed. Suavely, of course. Nothing like the bumbling run of Marcel. Obviously.

The five chased after wispy-haired Jenny until she could no longer run and she sank slowly against the door to a closed grocery. To avoid the stares from those around them, Min Ho quietly led Jenny to another, much (much) bigger bookstore. She was luckily compliant. In fact, she was so compliant that her story spilled out of her before they even had the thought to ask.

"I'm so sorry but she came into the store and was all ethereal and charming and of course I can put the book aside, why shouldn't I? But then a month later someone else walked in. Equally ethereal but horribly less charming. He was ever so intimidating with his dark clothes and ugh he had the most awful smile and I was positively terrified and he had jet black hair and told me to give him the book and tell no one. And then he took it and didn't even pay and then you came and I didn't know what to do." And then she was sobbing quietly and then she was hiccuping and then she was just silent. No one knew what to do with this information.

"But without the letter, I don't know where to go next." Min Ho cried dejectedly. He needed to know that Ara was safe.

"What was the book called, Jenny?" Marcel asked quietly.

"Hm?" She hiccuped into a handkerchief she had conjured out of nowhere.

"The book's name, Jenny." He said more insistently.

"Travels with a Tangerine: A Journey in the Footnotes of Ibn Battutah. A rather odd book really, it's not for everyone which is why I was confused when she asked for it. The author is quite self-indulgent throughout but is very keen on Battutah." As Jenny rambled, Min Ho looked confusedly at the rest of his friends. They were not just back at square one but they were back at square zero, there were no more squares. No more clues to follow.

"Do you have a name for the man who bought it?" Almira asked hopefully.

"No, I just told you. He didn't even pay, of course I don't have his name." She was being rather rude now.

Knowing they had nothing more to learn from her, the five teenagers left the bookstore downcast after buying Jenny a muffin from the bakery inside the bookstore. "She chose the most expensive item." Marcel noted thoughtfully.

"It's fine, lord knows we have money to spare." Min Ho said, kicking a rock. He knew he wasn't the best travel companion right now but his brain was scrambled in all sorts.

—

2018, 5 years prior

When Ara's phone started ringing she jumped half a foot in the air. She was quite unused to people calling her and especially after a month in a monastery, she was rather used to the quiet. "Hello?" Her voice seemed to echo in her mind as anxiety overtook her." Literally no one had her phone number.

"Ara Kim?" The voice asked or rather slithered. It was a smooth sort of voice rather melodic except for the rare scratchy undertones. He'd make a good rock singer, she thought before formulating a response on whether or not to be truthful. She decided on the latter.

"Who?"

"Do not be coy Ms. Kim. We know everything about you."

"Oh really?" She tried to keep her voice calm but she was internally panicking.

"Would you like evidence?"

"Please." See? She could make her voice smooth and unaffected too.

"We know that you're staying in Venice on Holiday after your movie in Paris."

"That is public information."

"Well then, we know that you are currently wearing pink duck earrings and a yellow skirt."

Her heart dropped and her throat dried up.

"We also know that you now look as though you've had an awful shock." The voice was now amused. It irked her.

"You keep saying we." She pointed out, her voice only shaking slightly.

"A good observation."

Silence.

"You must've called for a reason."

"Yes we did."

"And?" Ara prompted, her voice was now incredibly shaky.

"We'll get back to you."

"See that you do." Ara said in order to have the last word but the phone had hung up before she even started the sentence. Horror enveloped her as the feeling of being watched creeped into her mind. She felt invaded. She needed to leave - no, she needed to run.

A longer chapter only two hours later! 1675 words! We're finally getting somewhere. Any predictions? What do we think of Marcel? Hugs!

Kaav!