warm like a gun | ot23 nct; ot5 red velvet

Chapter 20

*******HEY! TW FOR SUICIDE IN THIS CHAPTER!!!********

Ten's nailbeds are bleeding.

That's how he knows it's bad. He isn't a nail-biter—that's Taeyong. He picked up the habit from Taeyong, sure, but he only does it when he's incredibly anxious or upset.

Like right now. Now, at his mother's kitchen table, hands twisting into knots as his mother paces back and forth across the small space between the counter and the table, waiting for her phone to ring.

Ten's mind bounces between the possibilities. On the one hand, if Tern has been taken and thrown in the same place as Jaehyun, at least she'll have Jaehyun. But in order for that to be true, she would need to be considered dangerous. Ten couldn't imagine that she could've gotten into anything the way he and his friends have, so he has to assume that it's because of him. And that makes him feel sick. The other option is almost unthinkable—his mind flashes to the sex droid trading hub that Yuta had mentioned when they were planning their foray into the night market. That makes him feel sick, too.

Regardless, what he does know is Tern is missing, his mother reported it, and the police haven't called with new information.

"I should have reached out to Jaehyun's father," his mother murmurs, and Ten pops his head up.

"What?"

"This feeling—how did he bear it? How does he bear it?" she whispers.

"He has his wife," Ten points out. He stretches out a hand. "And you have me. Come sit down. They'll call whether you wear tracks into the floor or not."

"Do you have any idea where she might've gone?" his mother asks again as she takes a seat across from him.

"No," Ten answers again. "I only know as much as you do."

Tern hadn't come home from work the night before. It wasn't all too uncommon for her to spend the night at a coworker's house, but she usually planned ahead. Their mother, not wanting to worry Ten and trying not to overreact, simply went to bed uneasy, assuming that Tern would be home in the morning. It's now evening, and none of Tern's friends or coworkers have seen her. Ten's mother went to the police on her lunch break, and they told her they'd do some investigating and call back. She'd called Ten once she got off work, and Ten had come straight over to her trailer.

The police were at the trailer when Ten arrived. They'd more or less ransacked Tern's entire bedroom trying to find a clue as to where she might've gone, but came out empty-handed. One of the officers had gotten a call back to the station for some new lead, and they'd left Ten and his mother to wait.

Ten can't help but think that it has something to do with the police station infiltration that some of his friends just barely pulled off the week before. They've all been lying low since; Jungwoo's been working nonstop on a communications channel, and everyone who can help has been helping him. They haven't heard anything about the droid that Renjun stabbed, so they're assuming they're safe for the moment. Ten guesses he's supposed to feel soothed by this, that it's supposed to give him hope. Instead, it only fills him with dread.

The city is still in turmoil, and for a moment, Ten tried hoping that change, good change, was finally upon them. Taeyong was, in part, to blame for Ten's optimism, but the gleam of hope in his eyes was infectious. Shufang and Johnny, too, were bright-faced and trembling with their faith that things could turn out for the better. But then Ten's baby sister went missing, and now nothing matters again.

His mother's phone rings, shocking them both. She fumbles for the phone while Ten tries to slow his racing heart. "Hello?" There's a very ugly pause, and her entire body tenses. Ten searches her face, but all he can pick out is fear. "Alright. Thank you."