"Say The Name"

Part 4 "Cover Up"

~Carat~
10:17pm USA EST

"Hello? Are you still there?" Carat asked, thinking that the screen might have froze. None of them were moving, police included.
"So you're really in America?" Hansol (Vernon) breathed as he walked closer to the camera.
"I told you I was," she answered into the bright screen. The wind started to make her eyes water, so she ducked back into her room. "Do you need any more proof?" She asked, drying her eyes.
One of the officers said something to her in Korean. Joshua cleared his throat. "He wants to know how you got there?"
"I have no idea," she answered, sitting at her study desk. "Everything is normal until I get dizzy and enter a place that feels like I'm out of my body, before finally, I wake up somewhere else."
Carat waited watching the screen as Joshua supposedly repeated her words in Korean.
   "Did you fake fainting in front of me before you disappeared?" Vernon asked her.
   "I disappeared?" Carat frowned at the prospect. I had to have left somehow.
   "Did you pretend to black out last night?" Vernon repeated, returning Carat's focus.
   "Pretend? No, I was dizzy, you tried to help me, then my vision went out. After that I woke up in my bathroom. Did I really disappear?"
   "네 (ne/ yes), we saw you this time. It was sudden. Last night you fainted first. You weren't breathing and didn't have a heartbeat." Carat's mind shortly stopped. How did he chec– "I went to get help but by the time I got back, you were gone," he answered until one of the officers said something harsh to him in Korean, making him shy from speaking again.
   "They want to see a gps of your location," Joshua spoke up having finished a side discussion with the officers and members. "If you prove that there is no foul play, the officers said that this report will disappear."
   Carat felt her mouth gape. "Disappear? Can they do that?"
   Vernon gave her an unsure look. "They're pretty confident."
   "What is whispered in the dark will be shouted from the rooftops," she quoted. "Covering it seems worse than calling the police and the suspect disappearing. Even if it is the second time."
   "Please," Joshua asked with all seriousness. "We have to trust them this much." 
   That first word struck. Joshua Hong just asked her, Carat, to do something for SEVENTEEN.
   "If you're decided–" she hesitated, "my father has gps in his truck."
   "Yes, thank you," Joshua sighed relievedly while Vernon was translating to the others.
   Offer accepted, she got up and brought the phone with her into the hallway outside her room. 
As she made her way down the center of her home, she heard her parents laugh from the living room while watching reruns of their favorite sitcom.
I'll have to sneak past, she determined.
   Creeping past the living room entrance, Carat avoided all the known creaky spots and tried to keep the phone in low profile at her side. It wasn't her's after all.
When Carat reached the safety of the kitchen, a breath released that she hadn't noticed was held. Almost there and no one's here to question me. Then EXO L walked in from the garage door.
   Carat felt her heart clench as her sister met her eyes. Taking control, Carat looked away and turned to the fridge, discretely tucking WonWoo's phone into her back pocket and arranging her shirt to cover it.
   "Where have you been?" EXO L demanded.
   "What are you talking about?" Carat nonchalantly asked, grabbing a juice from the fridge. "Want one?"
"No," she relaxed a bit. "Where were you, though? I just came back from Army and Blink's house and went to tell you what's new, but I couldn't find you. Did you go somewhere?"
"Maybe I just don't like gossip," Carat muttered into her first drink. Seeing that her sister was in a persistent mood, Carat stopped and  gave her 언니 (eon-ni/ older sister) a derisive look. "Where would I go?"
"I looked where you would go, you weren't there."
Carat sighed. If this problem disappears, then it might be best to not tell her for the time being. She's too cynical to believe me anyway. "Just wait for me in our room. I'll be in there soon."
Before EXO L could further question anything, Carat made confidently for the garage door. On the way, she did some random arm dance moves to keep possible attention from the phone in her back pocket. Better to look a fool than be caught.
   "Carat," EXO L called while Carat held the door half open. Please don't see the phone. Please don't see the phone. PLEASE DON'T SEE THE PHONE, she chanted in her mind.
   "뭐? (mwo/ What?)" Carat asked, playfully twirling around to point the phone away from her sister.
   "Don't dance in public. I know you thi–" EXO L stopped when a loud noise came from Carat's back pocket. The members were yelling her name. "-What is that?"
   Carat backed into the garage as the noise continued. "Just SEVENTEEN," she smiled innocently. "I gotta check on something in the truck. Be out in a minute." Carat clarified before closing the door in front of her.
After waiting to make sure she wasn't followed, Carat silently put a heavy bucket in front of the door for insurance. Then she put the phone back to her face. "Do you want everyone to know about this!"
   Joshua stepped around MinGyu and an officer to address her. "I'm sorry. They don't know what else to do to prove this is all real. It only seems to be affecting our side."
   Carat wanted to lash out, she had words ready to say, but without knowing when she'll end up back there, said nothing. Instead she waited as the group seemed to have a long discussion with the officers.
   Eventually, Vernon addressed her. "We are sorry, Carat. Some of the members made a decision and jumped the gun, but how you handle your side of this is up to you. We are worried about if you'll disappear again and your family will see it or call the police, but it's up to you."
   Now feeling bad for getting so worked up, Carat stepped up into her father's truck and turned on the mounted gps. "You are at home." A feminine robot's voice announced.
   "I know that," Carat muttered, putting the screen to show where she was on the gps map. "How's that? Can you see?"
   "Yeah, zoom in then out and go to over to South Korea, please." Joshua said, as she started to do so, she couldn't hear anything and wondered if the screen had frozen.
   "Are you still watching?" She asked.
   "Yes, we are," Vernon spoke up.
   After she zoomed into Seoul, Korea, Joshua said that she could stop.
   "Will you guys be okay now?" Carat asked, feeling that her hope was frail. As Carat put the screen back to her face, the officers had separated to talk in between a couple of the corner beds. "What are they saying? Are you guys good now?"
   "I don't know," Vernon answered, uncertainly looking back at the officers.