Sunrise [Yungi FF]

24. From Dawn to First Light

Jongho woke up to the whistling wind outside. He groped in the dark until he found his phone on the bedside table and switched it on, squinting at the blinding light of his screen as he checked the time. 7:16 am.

A chill ran up his spine. He wrapped his arms around himself instinctively, wanting to curl back under his sheets. The only reason he didn't was the fact that Yunho was next door, probably waiting for someone to wake him up.

Blinking to fight off the weariness, Jongho slid off his bed, put on the cardigan that was draped on the back of his desk chair, and went out into the freezing hallway.

He tried knocking lightly first, and when he heard no response on the other side, beat the wood with a bit more force. The noise sounded loud and intrusive in the quiet apartment, but there was still no sound from inside.

"Yunho?" He said, trying the doorknob now. He felt the slightest trace of warmth on the metal surface when he twisted it. That didn't really register as something important until he opened the door and saw the empty, unmade bed.

With a surge of urgency, Jongho pushed the door open the rest of the way, making it clang against the stopper on the floor. His eyes darted around in his sockets as he scanned his surroundings but the room was small and it didn't take long for him to realize that Yunho wasn't inside.

He searched the rest of the house hastily, knowing from the dread bubbling in his stomach that it was futile - there was no glow of lights, rushing of tap water, nor the sizzling of breakfast being made.

Returning to his room, he dialed Yunho's number with one hand and grabbed the winter coat from his closet with another, hurrying to the door while muttering a plea for the call to go through. He kept trying as he stuffed his feet into boots and exited his apartment, listening to the long electronic bleats until his ears had had enough and zoned it out as background noise.

Once the elevator stopped, he dashed out the doors and towards the security guard sitting behind a counter next to the mailboxes. The middle-aged man, still half-awake, jumped in his seat when Jongho slammed his hands on the counter surface and leaned in. "Have you seen a really tall man leave the building earlier this morning? He has black hair."

"Well, um..." The guard cleared his throat, clearly flustered. Then a spark of recognition crossed his tired face. "Yes, I did see someone like that around ten minutes ago. He's the only one who left. Everyone is sleeping in since it's Chris-"

"Thank you," Jongho blurted, already turning to glass doors that led outside.

A gust of icy wind and snow hit him as soon as he stepped out, but he ignored the cold seeping into his body and concentrated on his phone instead, trying to call Yunho again. The bleats stopped and it cut to voicemail. Jongho's heart sank.

Clumsily, he moved his already frozen body and lumbered through the inch-thick snow as fast as he could. There was only one place Yunho would go, and if the security guard was right, he couldn't have gone far. Jongho didn't know where Mingi lived, but he would figure that out later. First, he had to get out of his apartment complex-

A faint noise in the distance seized him. He stopped walking and twisted his body, trying to locate the source. It sounded like a shout, though it was muffled by the raging wind in his ears.

Then it came again, this time a bit louder. "...to me!"

The wind carried Jongho's hesitation away and brought unnerving trepidation in its place. He started trudging in the opposite direction he was going.

Above his head, the darkness of the night was retreating from the sky in preparation for the sun to rise. Twilight spilled out from the horizon, saturating the world. With a bit more color, Jongho started to see things stand out among the big blanket of white and grey snow.