"Singapore? Singapore? Are you kidding me." Jimin hissed in the car.
"Please don't tell me you believe him." Jeongguk muttered, moving his drained face from the steering wheel.
Jeongguk hoped he would say no, but he didn't get one from neither of them..
...
"Taehyung told me his father is mentally ill. You guys are deluded if you think that Jeongguk is in an international school in fucking Singapore right now. His dad completely bullshitted us all and we fell for it." Jeongguk said, sniffling his wet nose. Yoongi and Jimin just stared at the older.
"So, why would his father lie to us Jeongguk? Where else could he be—"
"I don't know, but I do know that his dad is lying and right now, he could possibly be hurt... o-or in danger and I know he needs us to help him find him." Jeongguk said to them.
"But, why would he want to put his son in danger?" Yoongi asked him..
"'Cause he's sick in the head Yoongi, he's a very sick man and when people are sick in the head they do sick things..." he clarified to the boy.
Jimin and Yoongi looked at each other, still feeling somewhat unconvinced at what the older was saying right now.
"Please guys, just—"
Jeongguk shifted his body towards them as they both sat closely together in the back seat of the car.
"Tell me you'll help me find him, because I know I can't do this all alone." he pleaded to them.
"I-I don't know Jeongguk, I mean what you're saying right now seems insane." Jimin admitted, his eyes widening at the boy.
"And him randomly flying off to Singapore isn't?" Jeongguk wondered narrowing his eyes at Jimin.
...
"Just have a little bit of faith in me... and together, if we do work together, I know we can find him." Jeongguk said his eyes fixated at the boy's.
<3
The next day, at lunchtime, the group plonked themselves on their usual bench. "You good Jeongguk? You look kinda... different today..." Jimin said, observing the boy's face and clothes.
He did. His hair was much messier and he wasn't wearing his usual casual clothes. Just grey sweatpants and a grey hoodie to match it. It honestly looked like he just got out of bed and literally went to school.
"Yeah, I wasn't really in the mood to look good today." Jeongguk shrugged.
Jeongguk started to write down a list of people they could contact, that may have an insight on where Taehyung could be. Usually, Jimin and Yoongi, would be at the ping pong table, but they agreed that finding their Taehyung was more important than that right now.
"Okay, but what if..." Yoongi said biting his lip as Jeongguk stopped writing and stared at him.
"Hear me out, What if his dad actually did drive him to the airport Jeongguk? I mean Lia said it herself she saw Taehyung going into his dads car." Yoongi's voice trailed quietly, in fear of Jeongguk having some type of hostile response to him, like he did with Taehyung's father.
Jeongguk placed his pen down annoyedly as he tilted his head up to the clouds and back at Yoongi.
"For the love of God, Yoongi, he's not in Singapore." Jeongguk tried to keep his composure, he just didn't understand why Taehyung's own friends of years would be so deep in denial.
"So, where else could he be? Why would his dad drive him home on a random day, when Jeongguk is more than capable of getting home himself? Wouldn't taking him to the airport just make more sense?" Jimin then wondered.
Jeongguk shook his head, puzzled that even Jimin was siding with Yoongi, he couldn't believe this. "What happened to having faith in me?" Jeongguk asked them both.
"Look, what we're saying is, what if he really did go to this international school Jeongguk? There's nothing we can really do if it actually happened." Yoongi shrugged.
"But it didn't..." Jeongguk monotone voice had a hint of hurt in it, the others just stared at him. Jeongguk then scoffed, he stared at the gravelled ground at his feet, putting his hands in his grey pockets.
"So, that's that? You guys are gonna carry on living your life? You do know that you're accepting the fact that you'll never ever possibly see your best friend again, right? His father is a psy-cho... fuck summer breaks, you'll never see that boy again. His dad probably crumpled the phone number you gave him and threw it in the trash." Jeongguk stated, staring at the floor.
Yoongi and Jimin glanced at each other in a way that they'd come to the conclusion, that what Jeongguk was saying, was reasonable.
...
"Listen I know this is crazy 'cause I haven't had the best relationship with Taehyung at all. But, we've gotten really close these couple of days since the study farm and I like him, I really do... and I'm getting all these feelings for him that kinda won't go away." Jeongguk admitted to them, the others widened their eyes at him. "Wait, Seriously?" Yoongi wondered, a gummy grin appearing on his face.
"I fucking knew it, I knew they had something going on" Jimin bounced his eyebrows proudly. Jeongguk snorted, his cheeks flushing as he looked at them. "What about Hoseok?" Yoongi whispered.
"Well we had an argument, me and Taehyung. He told me he was gonna see Hoseok 'cause he was sick, and I got annoyed at him 'cause I thought he liked me the way I liked him. When I was crying to him, confessing how I like him and don't like how he's seeing Hoseok, he then admitted to me he would break things off with him. But it pissed me off because he knew I liked him more than a friend, and yet he waited for me to get upset before he told me he would break things off with Hoseok. And so I got mad, I walked away, and Namjoon just started shouting at him, I tried to get him to stop but he wouldn't, he just kept saying stupid nasty stuff to hurt his feelings." Jeongguk said with a brittle voice.
"Jeongguk, we know Taehyung likes you so damn much, way more than Hoseok. I promise you." Yoongi said as he sat beside Jeongguk on the bench. "Exactly! Trust me we know him, he liked Hoseok solely based on infatuation. With you it's different, he formed deep feelings for you. He cares about you so much, he really does." Jimin assured him, Jeongguk nodded as his eyes teared up.
"I don't want to lose him o-or, give up on him because his dad is a liar. I don't think you guys should give up either." The younger gulped, as he wiped away his eyes with the back of his hand.
He continued to quietly write on the sheet of paper, but it wasn't long until the two noticed.
"Hey, please don't get upset, you won't lose him okay? Because we believe you, and we will help you. won't we Yoongs?" Jimin wondered, eyeballing the boy to agree with him.
Yoongi nodded his head instantly. "Yeah, yeah of course."
"Speaking of the devil." Yoongi muttered as he noticed Hoseok walking up to them on the bench. "Hey guys." Hoseok said.
They all looked at each other before glancing at Hoseok. "Hey." They said in low, miserable tones. "Is it true Taehyung's missing?" Hoseok wondered him. "We're looking for him." Jeongguk said quietly as he wrote another name.
"Why don't you call the police—?"
"We're not getting them involved, it will endanger him, we'll find him ourselves." Jeongguk assured him.
"But—"
"Hoseok if you like him, just sit down on the bench and help us. Please." Jeongguk said firmly. Hoseok gulped, he quietly made his way on the bench as he watched Jeongguk write so more names.
"Now let's be rationale, Besides his father, Taehyung had other family right?" Jeongguk asked Yoongi and Jimin. "He's close with Hwasa, that's his cousin, they always talk together." Jimin shrugged. "Hwasa? As in the nineteenth year old? Like five foot one?" Jeongguk asked eyes widened. "Yeah why?"
"Namjoon's girlfriend Rose, she's best friends with her. I've seen her a few times in person. We need to find Namjoon and figure out if Rose can get us through Hwasa." Jeongguk said getting up from the bench. He started walking away. "Hurry up!" He shouted to the others behind him, they quickly charged up to him as they all rushed along the hallway looking for Namjoon.
"Namjoon!" He shouted, noticing him
leaning beside the bathroom door. "Wheres Rose, I need to talk to her?" Jeongguk said desperately. "In the bathroom, why?"
Jeongguk went in the girls bathroom. "Jeongguk are you fucking crazy? Are you tryna' get suspended?!" Jimin hissed as they watched him go inside, their eyes scanning around them to make sure no teachers saw that.
"Rose, Rose are you in there I need you desperately." Jeongguk said shouting in the bathroom. "What the fuck? Gguk, is that you?" Rose asked as she flushed the toilet.
"Sorry for disturbing you but Rose, you have Hwasa's phone number... she's a friend of yours right!" Jeongguk asked as the peach haired girl made he way out of the cubicle and washed her hands.
"Yeah, she's my friend." She nodded before getting some napkins to carefully dry her hands, he then flicked her perfect orange toned locks off her shoulder.
"Could you let us call her? We need to speak to her urgently." Jimin insisted as he now went into the bathroom and saw them both. "Alright I will, I will, but let's get out of the bathroom, there's CCTV in here and I don't need you both getting suspended." Rose demanded , pulling out her phone from her black leather purse with a confused expression on her face. They followed her out of the bathroom as she noticed the others also crowding them.
Rose tapped away on her phone before placing it carefully near her small ear.
"...Hwasa? Yes, I'm doing fine beautiful. Mhm, listen sweetie, these boys would like to talk to you... I'm not too sure, they said it's urgent okay?" Rose asked nodding her head, she smiled passing the phone to Jeongguk as he placed it to his ear.
"Hello, Hwasa?" He wondered.
"Hi, who is this?" she called out.
"My name is Jeon Jeongguk... I'm a friend of Taehyung."
"So, you're the famous Jeongguk the boy won't shut up about. Also, I've been calling him non-stop to pick up, is he in school? Can I talk to h—"
As touched as Jeongguk was, that the older was apparently chattering about him to his cousin, other things were far too important right now.
"The thing is, he's not in school. We asked his dad where he was, and he said he went to an international school in Singapore."
Everyone's focus was now on Jeongguk on the phone.
"What? Why would his dad say that?... that's definitely not true, Taehyung would've told me
For sure."
"Exactly! So, we think his father is lying to us and we need your help to find out where he really is."
"Hmm, what if his dad locked him in the house? He's capable of doing stuff like that... Taehyung told me so many stories about how harsh he treats him."
"Mhm, he has told me similar things too... but he's smart. I genuinely don't think he's in that house... wherever his dad took him, it has to be far. Hwasa please could you help us? You're the closest relative we know he has."
"Of course I will, meet at my house straight after school. I'll send Rose my address to give you."
"Thanks Hwasa." The younger said before she hung up the line.
Jeongguk then looked back at the attentive eyes that peered at him, he gave Rose her phone back.
"We have something to do after school." Jeongguk then explained to them all.
[next chapter: 1069 words]