stairs | jaeyong

# nine !¡

8:21 AM | Seoul, South Korea

Sicheng's eyes flutter open as he breathes heavily. He slowly sits up and groans a little because of the pain caused to his arms and limbs by sleeping in a very uncomfortable position.

So he holds his left arm as he tries to stand up in a complete dark room. His brows were furrowed in utter confusion. He removes his hand away from his arms and then waves them in the air in an attempt of finding a wall or anything to lean on.

Not even a second a later, his hands comes in contact of a cold wall just beside him. He leans against it and then slides down, sitting on the dusty floor again.

He clutches his head from both his hands as he sighs loudly. Where was he? How did he end up here? How does he get out from this unknown, creepy, dark room?

He pushes himself up the floor and touched the wall here and there, trying to find the light switch. He moved a little right and finally found the switch.

Then he sighed in relief and flipped the switch on, a yellow light now replacing the darkness. He blinks a few times to adjust his eyes to the light.

He turned around to glance at the room and what he saw at one specific corner sent shivers down his spine and he froze right there in the spot.

-

Yuta slowly opens his heavy eyelids as he yawns out loud. He stretches his arm and sits up on the bed to have a good look around. He narrowed his eyes as he couldn't find where his roommate was.

So he stood up, walking towards to where the bathroom was and knocked on it. "Sicheng are you inside?" But no response came. He twisted the knob and pushed it slightly, making the door give out a creaky noise.

He peeked his head inside and found no one. Sighing, he closed it back and went outside the room. One thing was strange, Sicheng doesn't wake up early on weekends or at least, before Yuta.

Yuta walked down the stairs to the living room. There he found Taeil and Doyoung watching TV peacefully. He greeted them a good morning as he made his way to the kitchen.

He there found Jungwoo washing dishes and Taeyong cooking. Yuta went and opened the refrigerator to get some cool air. "Good morning!"

A happy Johnny trailed his way in the kitchen and patted Yuta's head, making the Japanese roll his eyes. He closed the refrigerator and stood straight, arms crossed.

"Where's Sicheng?" Johnny's eyes got knitted on the question asked. He shrugged, signalling he doesn't know. The shorter sighed for the nth time as he goes near Taeyong and taps his shoulder.

The Korean looks back and then nods his head, asking him what happened. "Where is Sicheng?" Yuta asked the same question again.

"I haven't seen him from morning, though. Maybe he went out with Jaehyun, Mark and Donghyuck for shopping?"

Yuta hums in response as he walks back to his room. Upon reaching, he takes his phone from the bedside table, but noticed something weird.

The Chinese's phone was kept there. Maybe he forgot it. He thought as he unlocked his phone and dialed Jaehyun's number. After some seconds, Jaehyun picks up the call.

"Hello Yuta?"

"Is Sicheng with you guys?"

"No."

"What?" Yuta asked as all the worst possible scenarios that could happen started playing in his mind.

"Hey, is everything ok?" Jaehyun asked on the other line, worried.

"I don't know... Sicheng's phone is here in the room, he is nowhere to be found in the dorm, and neither did anyone saw him." Yuta panicked.

"Bro, calm down. We're going to find him. Just inform the rest, we're coming back to dorm in few minutes."

Yuta hangs on the call with a small ok and runs down to the stairs in the living room.

"Guys, Sicheng is missing!" Yuta yells and everyone yelled their own questions like 'When!?', 'How!?', 'Tell me you're kidding!' back.

Just when this chaos wasn't enough, the main door barged open, showing Jaehyun, Mark and Donghyuck with some shopping bags and panting heavily.

"All of you better sit down your asses!" Taeyong yelled, making all the rest 8 men shut their mouth and take their seats on the couch.

"Where's Sicheng's phone?" Taeyong asked Yuta, once everyone has calmed down. "It's in the room." Taeyong hums in response.

"Have we checked every room yet?"

"After Yuta asked me where Sicheng was, I checked all the rooms and no he isn't anywhere." Johnny replied while raising his left arm, earning a nod from Taeyong.

"Jaehyun unlocked the main door's main lock when going for shopping, and that time me and Taeil were watching TV. No one went outside after that. And if Sicheng had gone outside, then the lock should've been opened already."

Doyoung said, as he remembered the scene where Jaehyun opened the main lock of the door.

In case you're confused, then I want to clear it out. The door has two locks, one normal and the other, a main one. The normal lock is what used on the daily basis and the main one is used at nights for more security.

Whoever goes out of the dorm first in the morning is the one who opens the main lock. Taeyong could only nod as worries started eating them up.

His phone is here, but not him, and neither did he go outside. Then where the heck is he?

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