I pushed Jeno off of me.
"Haha Donghyuck, where are you hiding? I'm not falling for another one of your pranks." I waved my hands above my head. "Jokes over come on out."
"Minji." Mark stepped over to me. "He's not here."
"Stop screwing with me, Donghyuck has you all in on some kind of prank." I told him, giggling at all of them. "How gullible do you guys think I am?"
Yukhei opened his mouth. "Minji, have you checked your phone in the past hour?"
I shook my head. "Why?"
"She didn't get the text." Hyerin said softly resting her head on Mark's shoulder.
I furrowed my eyebrows. "What text?"
All of them held up their phones.
I reached into my- Donghyuck's sweatshirt pocket and pulled out my phone.
Donghyuck:
Don't bother looking for me. There's only ever before and after, and I'm beyond both.
I shook my head.
"What the fuck does that mean?" I shook my head even more as I spoke. Jeno embraced me once again and I let him. I didn't stop him, nor the tears that started streaming down my cheeks. He started to pet my hair.
My mom came in and started to ask questions.
"I'm monstersting Mom." I said. Not even joking could lift my spirits. Donghyuck would've found that funny.
She rubbed my arms from behind and kissed my cheek. "Wanna stay in tonight. I can bake you guys oatmeal cookies."
Normally, that would make me smile. But I couldn't smile. Not right now.
"No mom. We actually have to get going." I turned and smiled at her. I knew she wasn't buying it with my glassy eyes, but I promised her I'd be home in a few to rest.
I lied.
The 4 of them took Yukhei's car here. It was enough to fit 7.
The 5 of us sat in the car.
"Minji. Are you okay?" Mark asked.
I took the back row. He and Hyerin occupied the middle row. And Yukhei and Jeno took the two seats in the front.
"No. But what choice do I have for now?" I replied.
The four of them started explaining themselves. They said they checked the school and his house. His parents had no idea he even left so they were no help.
I zipped up the sweatshirt and hugged it close. It smelled like Donghyuck's cologne.
"Well what do we do?" Yukhei asked.
"Well we look for him." Mark said back.
"We don't even know where he went. How are we gonna find him?" Hyerin mumbled.
"GPS?" Jeno suggested.
All of us started tracking for Donghyuck's phone
"It's off. It won't send any kind of signal." Mark said, tossing his phone on the floor of the car. "We're never gonna find him like this."
"Hey, don't catch that attitude. If Donghyuck were here right now, he'd tell you to one, 'shut the fuck up' and two, 'stop doubting yourself.' So get it together, Mark." Jeno stressed.
"Well is Donghyuck here right now?"
"Maybe he would be if we weren't so blind. He obviously left for a reason."
"So are you saying this is our fault?"
The two of them started going back and forth and I wasn't having it.
"Guys shut up! You think arguing is going to get Donghyuck back? Look, I don't know why he left either, but sitting here arguing about it isn't gonna fix anything. I say we drive to his house. See if he left anything behind."
They stood quiet.
"Guys. You all lost a friend, but me, I lost my boyfriend. Someone I really..." I started to trail off. "Someone I really love." I said in almost a whisper.
"Let's take a drive to his house. It's not like it could hurt." Yukhei said, nodding his head.
The rest of them agreed and not long after, we were on our way to Donghyuck's house.
❦
"I'll go." I volunteered, raising my hand. "I'll search his room."
"Use the back door. It's always left open." Mark told me, pointing to it.
I nodded. There were no cars in the driveway. I had time to check the room.
"Wait for me. Text me if anything happens."
All of them nodded and I made my way to the back door, stepping into the house.
I walked up to Donghyuck's room.
It was the same. But it was colder.
I started to rummage through some of his things but nothing important came up. Just clothes, other small things like socks and earrings. I started to look at his desk. All it had was a bunch of papers with half done homework on them.
I started looking on his bed for anything, but nothing turned up.
It was quiet. Almost too quiet. I looked around for it but nothing. Goob's cage was gone. And so was Goob.
"What the fuck. I can't think properly, it's too cold in here. Who leaves the window wide open on a chilly day?" I walked over to the window.
"Oh."
I noticed something on the floor. A book. I picked it up and started flicking through the pages.
It wasn't just any book though.
It was a journal.
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hii lol. im super tired but heres this chapter lol.
-mina