It's You

Chapter 19

No, there must be a different explanation. Gaon was still in the mansion somewhere, it was the only explanation that made sense.

The kitchen was empty.

Yohan's nails cut into his palms, leaving red, crescent moons behind.

The living room was empty as well.

The hand holding his phone trembled.

As was the garden, the heavy rain making the usual warm and happy space dim and dark.

His throat hurt when he screamed through the storm.

"Yohan," Elijah shouted as he hastened towards Gaon's old room, throwing the door wide open.

Empty.

His chest ached sharply.

Turning on his heels he sped down the corridor throwing open doors that had been closed for years.

Empty. Empty. Empty.

The second floor.

Gaon...

The first floor.

No...

The cellar.

He couldn't have...

The garage.

Left.

Running through the rain, not even aware of the icy wetness biting into his skin, Yohan stumbled against the tall gate, eerily swinging back and forth in the storm. It had been closed the night before.

"Gaon!" he screamed and cursed for what felt like hours; always, always only ever for the younger and for the gods to give back what they had stolen from the devil.

That was how Lawyer Ko found him later, drenched to the bones and pleading for his sweet angel to be returned. Yohan didn't notice how the other man lead him back inside, giving him a change of clothes and pushing him firmly into a bathroom with orders to get ready.

It was the sigh in the mirror that snapped him out of the blinding panic. The bloodshot eyes, the sickly pale skin, the dark bruising marks along his neck.

Fifteen minutes later Yohan left the bathroom, showered and dressed in dark hoodie and dark trousers, combat boots on his feet and hair falling deeply into his face. Lawyer Ko was waiting in his office with Elijah displayed on one of the big screens. She'd been worried; that was unacceptable.

"Elijah," he murmured firmly, stepping behind his desk, unable to prevent the quick glance at the fragile house of cards he hadn't found the strength to tidy up since seeing it that first day. "Go through all the CCTV footages and find out how and when they took Gaon. Start after 9p.m. and all the way till you called me. They-"

"Nobody took him."

Yohan froze at Elijah's harsh interruption. She had to be wrong!

"There are no cameras in your room – and we will have a talk about why Gaon was sleeping in your bed – but the ones in the corridor and staircase show him leaving at 2.30a.m.," she added quickly, looking up from her screens hesitantly. "But Yohan."

And Yohan already prepared himself for the worst; Elijah was not one to hesitate or care for the others feeling, she was pragmatic and calm headed in most situations.

"He looked terrified and completely out of it. He left when the storm was strongest and from what I could make out he left in pyjamas and barefoot. He's not one to do something so idiotic! Did you-"

"Elijah," Yohan cut her off sharply, an image of Gaon in the middle of a panic attack leaving the only safe place in this county crossing his mind. "Go through his phone, he might have been threatened or blackmailed. Then check the CCTV along the streets, they must have caught him somewhere."