sleepless cinderella ☆ ten | ✔

09

"Y/N. Y/L/N Y/N."

"Do you have to be so melodramatic?"

"Yes. Now, I say this with as much adoration as possible: could you shut up for a second?"

Silence.

"Y/L/N Y/N. Despite me being a little shit at first—which I cannot guarantee will stop—would you do me the honor of going on a real date with me?"

Pause. Rewind. Play.

"Y/L/N Y/N. Despite me being a little shit at first—which I cannot guarantee will stop—would you do me the honor of going on a real date with me?"

Pause. Rewind. Play.

"Y/L/N Y/N. Despite me being a little shit at first—which I cannot guarantee will stop—would you do me the honor of going on a real date with me?"

Pause. Rewind.

Before you could hit play again on the small device in your hand, there was a knock at your doorframe. Your current position of laying on your side on top of your covers in a pathetic near-fetal position made looking at whoever was at the entrance very easy.

It was Chengxiao, uniform from her work still on. She must have just gotten back from her shift.

Only a few days had passed since your fight with Ten, most of it spent with you digging through voice recordings to keep adding to your article. But when you'd made it to this specific snippet, you found yourself unable to continue on. It reminded you of a better time, when you had hope for your blossoming relationship, when you weren't weighed down by the knowledge that you had now: Ten didn't want you to actually know him. The real him.

Chengxiao sat down beside you, your mattress dipping from her added weight. She ran her fingers through your hair quietly. You weren't crying, you weren't even that sad. After all, how could you miss someone you never actually knew?

"Have you eaten dinner yet? Yi and I are going to order delivery right now," she offered.

Thankfully, she didn't comment when you pressed play on your recorder, Ten's voice filling the quiet between you two.

"Y/L/N Y/N. Despite me being a little shit at first—which I cannot guarantee will stop—would you do me the honor of going on a real date with me?"

You sighed. This was ridiculous.

Setting the voice recorder down on your nightstand, you pushed yourself up into a sitting position, Chengxiao moving to give you room to do so.

The sound of rain hitting your window was background music to you hugging your knees to your chest and resting your chin on them.

You thought for a moment before answering, "I'd love to have dinner with you two. Just my usual, not feeling too adventurous tonight."

Your friend grinned, ruffling up the hair she had just fixed as she stood back up, "Nice, I'll go tell Xuanyi. We're going to put on some bad rom-coms to watch with it. First one starts after we order the food, don't miss it."

"I'll be out," you promised. "Give me a minute."

After she left, you swung your legs over to dangle off your bed, toes just touching your floor. You stretched briefly, cracking your knuckles to start loosening up your body. Just as you had stood up and cracked your back too, you heard a ringing coming from under your mess of pillows. Digging around, you secured your phone, hoping that it wasn't Ten calling you. You weren't sure what you would do if it was.

But thankfully, you didn't have to figure that out anytime soon, as the caller ID was Kun.

You picked up, absentmindedly watching the rain outside pound against your bedroom window as you said, "Hey, Kun. How are you?"

Your pilot friend completely skipped over greetings, "Is Ten with you?"

"Uh no, I haven't seen him in a few days. Why?"

"We were supposed to get dinner tonight and he's well over an hour late. Usually he texts or calls if he needs to cancel or if he's going to be late."

"How dare he."

"Y/N," the seriousness with which he said your name stopped your banter in its tracks. Kun hadn't called to complain about his friend. This was something else.

You couldn't freak out quite yet, there were plenty of other reasonable and safe options as to where Ten could be, "Did you call the hospital? Maybe he got stuck in the OR and can't text you."

"I did, they said he wasn't scheduled for tonight or called in for any sort of emergency procedure."

"The other VIP members maybe?" You desperately tried to control your breathing and heartrate.

"Sicheng is at a red-carpet event, Dejun is at his brother's graduation, Yukhei is on some remote island, Yangyang is in Germany visiting his family, which only leaves you and Hendery. But you already said he's not with you, and Hendery cursed me out for interrupting his work, so it's safe to say Ten isn't with him either."

There was still another possibility, however far-fetched, "His parents?"

"Y/N, they're in another country."

"I know."

The worry that had previously been crawling through your veins now shot through your whole body completely unhindered. Ten is missing.

The rain that had previously been soothing to you seemed so much more menacing. Ten is missing.

Without another thought, you hung up on Kun. Ten is missing.

You clicked on Ten's contact, nearly breaking your phone screen with the force that you pushed the call button. Ten is missing.

It rang and rang and rang. Ten is missing.

When you got his voicemail, you called again. Ten is missing.

After the fifth unsuccessful call, you shoved boots onto your feet and burst out of your room. Ten is missing.

Chengxiao and Xuanyi stood to watch you with concern as you threw on a random raincoat hanging off a chair in your kitchen and secured an umbrella leaning by your front door. Ten is missing.

You gave them some kind of reason as to why you were about to go out in this storm before throwing open your front door. Ten is missing.

The umbrella didn't do much to shield you from the rain that was striking you sideways, but you barely registered the chilly wetness that permeated your skin. Ten is missing.

How long you had been desperately running around the city was lost to you, but you'd made it to his apartment. Ten is missing.

After letting yourself in with the spare key you knew he hid under his neighbor's doormat, any hopes you had left of him being okay, of sitting on his couch and revealing that this was all a big joke were crushed when the lights were off and it was void of any life. Ten is missing.

You were on the streets again, lightning illuminating the completely empty sidewalks you were on, nobody else wanted to be out in this weather. Ten is missing.

Your phone rang in your pocket, and you hugged the wall under an awning to bring it out. Ten is missing.

The caller ID was unknown, but you picked up nonetheless. Ten is missing.

"Y/N?" The voice was familiar to you, but you couldn't place it, not with the mess that your mind was in right then.

"Ten?" You asked weakly, clinging onto any shred of hope.

"No, this is Zhengting."

Your heart plummeted.

"But Dr. Li is okay, he's here in the ER, and you should really come."

You'd stopped listening as soon as he said where Ten was, breaking out into a run along the sidewalks again. Thankfully, Ten's apartment wasn't too far from the hospital. Not that it mattered to you, you probably would've ran a marathon to get to where he was.