cynical | l.dh

☾ chapter 28

Donghyuck's POV

I tried calling Jaerin but now her phone was switched off. I couldn't reach her for hours and starting worrying. I paced around the room before hearing a knock on the door. My mind drifted elsewhere for a while before running to open the door. My head was hung low as Renjun stood in front of me.

"Is Jaerin in there?" I realised that I had forgotten to tell everyone that Jaerin had been missing for a couple of hours now, bottling up all my emotions.

"Renjun..." I paused, "Jaerin disappeared..." the words flowed out of my mouth with no trouble but it pierced a deep scar in my heart. I didn't want a repeat of last times case. I still blame myself for the death of Elena.

"What do you mean she disappeared?!" his facial expression hinted worry and distress, anger had almost burst out of him and he quickly ran towards his control room and I followed behind him.

"When was the last time you saw her?" He questioned, "I have to ask all the basic questions so we can find her quickly. I've sent a message to Taeyong and let him know about the current situation."

"Is he angry?" I asked, my heart started beating as it anticipated for the answer.

"Well he's angry that you didn't tell us sooner and right now he's relaying the message to the rest of NCT. They'll probably be fuming," he replied. Well I wasn't sure what to expect knowing that it was all my fault that she disappeared.

"Okay so would you like to tell me the last time you saw her?" he started into my eyes, searching for an answer as soon as possible.

"Erm- the last time I saw her was...in the cafeteria when I was with Sooyoung..." my voice drifted away, I almost whispered the last bit due to the embarrassment and anger I felt towards myself.

"Oh my god! Haechan- this is all your fault! Why are you still lingering around Sooyoung if you don't even like her? Now that Jaerin is missing and you didn't even bother to tell anyone about it, do you even love her?"

"I do love her, Renjun. And I know that it's my fault so we have to find her because I don't want the same thing to happen to her like it did to Elena. That shit is still affecting me to this day because I feel guilty," tears streamed down my face as the gruesome memories that filled my mind took over my soul. I felt worthless and immature because of how things happened to have worked out the exact same way as last time.

"Well then you should've fucking prevented it from happening twice instead of flirting with other girls when you clearly like her! Not even like- love her!" he yelled at the top of his lungs, the resonance of his voice bouncing on the walls.

In the midst of our argument, we heard a knock on the door of the control room so we turned our heads to see who the knocking belonged to. Taeyong stood in front of the door as Haechan tried to hack into the surveillance cameras of the school.

Taeyong had his hands on his waist as he looked at me with an angered look as he shook his head. The silence was loud. I could feel an uncomfortable aura lingering in the air.

"Have you hacked into the cameras yet?" Taeyong questioned Renjun after giving me a death stare for a long few seconds.

Renjun didn't reply for a good few minutes as he continued to click a few keys and press a number of buttons, unlocking different websites and typing a variety of pin codes. "I've found it!" he breathed out in relief.

Me and Taeyong's eyes lit up and rushed over to the computer where a recording started to play. The video had Jaerin sitting on the staircase for a couple of seconds before Seonghwa decided to accompany her.