𝐂 𝐀 𝐌 𝐁 𝐈 𝐎 𝐍 | ᴀᴛᴇᴇᴢ [𝘴𝘦𝘲𝘶𝘦𝘭 𝘵𝘰 𝘐𝘯𝘤𝘶𝘣𝘶𝘴]

𝐕

"Where is Hee-Young?"

San asked with a small voice while marching around the living room and behind the sofa, hoping that his daughter had hidden behind it. She didn't, though. The man cursed under his breath as he quickly made his way to his wife in Hee-Young's bedroom. She was sobbing as her hands kept rummaging inside the girl's wardrobe, probably thinking that the babysitter had hidden her inside it from the thieves. But she wasn't in there either.

"San, did you find her?"

She asked with a voice filled with hurry and worry as the first tears started cutting her cheeks. Her hands ran through her hair, pulling the tip for the nervousness. Her throat began to clench, cutting the air that was flowing inside it to make her breathe. Her chest started to move up and down, shaken by a panic attack the woman was about to have.

San shook his head after panting for a couple of seconds. Suddenly, he could see Areum shattering into pieces right in front of him, when she let herself go into a desperate cry. The man caught her before she could fall on the floor by grabbing her shoulders and pulling her body into a tight hug. San was trying his best to act calm, hoping it would've helped her to feel better. He wanted to be her anchor. 

"Shh, alright, calm down. Have you tried calling the babysitter?"

The husband whispered on her head, a few strands of light hair flew thanks to his breath. Despite his intention to appear as strong as possible, Areum could feel his body shaking uncontrollably under her grip, his low voice cracked when he spoke. 

As if he just showed her the light for the first time, Areum stopped his sobs and realized that he was right, that maybe, the babysitter they had hired knew where Hee-Young was, since she was the only one with her until that moment. With absent gaze, the woman touched her pockets and pulled out her cellphone once she understood in which pocket it was. It was hard for her to not let it crash on the ground due to her unstable fingers and grip.

She quickly clicked on the latest call she had made and looked for the babysitter's name. Once she found it, her thumb almost pierced the screen when she started the call. On the other side of the line, the racking tuu-tuu filled her ears and the will to throw a punch to the wall kept rising as the girl didn't pick up her phone.

Areum was about to scream after the beep for the answering service reached her eardrums, but the sudden loss of San's grip around her shoulders bring her back to reality from the bubble of anger that was floating around her. Her husband had his eyebrows furrowed together whereas making his way outside Hee-Young's room with silent and hesitant steps. She followed him, her hand wrapped tightly around his elbow. Feeling him under her touch was enough, for Areum, to feel safe. 

A deafening sound coming from the kitchen caught their attention. Before proceeding, San checked the room, making sure that no one was inside, and then walked towards the isle of the kitchen, where they found the babysitter's cellphone ringing and with Areum's name on the screen. 

San grabbed the device and stared at the screen as his wife's name disappeared from the display, signaling that the call had ended. The man turned around to face Areum and with a low, almost non-existent voice, he talked.

"She left."

Areum started shaking her head like she had a convulsion and began pacing around the kitchen with her fingers in her hair for the second time, that afternoon. 

"She kidnapped her? Why? Why would she do that? She seemed so sweet and loving! I swear if I ever find that bi-"

"Mommy?"

The whole room froze, everything stopped. Areum's furious march came to its conclusion as soon as a high-pitched, adorable sound reached her ears. The couple turned around in synchro, eyes widened when they realized that they weren't the only ones inside the house. That could only belong to a horror movie: someone disappeared, in the best scenarios, and while friends desperately tried to look for that person, they involuntarily fell inside the kidnapper, serial killer, or supernatural entity and get killed, too.