Our Summer

Chapter 40

Soojin sits at the table, tension vibration through her veins and her blood boils till her skin burns, and the anger fuming within her chest makes her resent the person sitting across her, looking at her with desperate eyes. She refuses to look at his face, disregarding his presence entirely, and only turns to Jungkook seated on her left.

The three of them have been silent the entire time, the air so cold and tense.

Soojin is frustrated beyond words. She is angry and remorse, hateful of everyone who has allowed this careless incident to happen and led to Seori running away from everyone. Even from her. It is not helping that she had not gotten any rest yesterday, settling a case, and only got to know about what had happened when Seori sent her a text - the one and the last.

"Soojin", Taehyung sounds wrecked. "Please, tell me where is she"

She breathes in, shaking and clenching her jaw as she withholds her urge to break or slam her hands on anything just to show her anger. She glues her eyes on her folded sleeves, playing with the edges as she thinks. She removed her red blazer and she could not remember where she had put it.

"Soojin-"

"I refuse to engage in a conversation with you", she snaps harshly, still not looking at him.

Taehyung's heart squeezed painfully, and he sighs silently to himself. His body is rigid with tension, his skin pulls so tautly as the anxiety floods his insides but yet he feels empty. His body feels hollow, weak, and drained. He feels like a vessel moving about but has nowhere to go. Nothing makes sense to him at the moment.

"I need to find her", his voice croaks. Like he is in pain.

"I do not trust you at all"

"You do not need to trust me now. But please, let me find her. I need to see her"

Soojin hears the despair in his voice and somehow, it makes her turn to him, finally. Taehyung looks like a complete mess, his eyes are dark, his face ashen and the air around him so solemn. He looks like a broken man, lost of all hope. The way he looks at her seems to scream so much desperation.

Deep down, Soojin knows he genuinely cares for Seori. Although he had been careless, he did say he loves Seori. Soojin is torn between wanting to protect her friend from getting hurt again or seeing things from another perspective.

A small part of her knows Seori wants him to find her. Seori needs him.

She lets out a loud tired grunt, her shoulders slumping and just like that, her strong cold demeanor of hers slips away.

"I care about Seori way more than you can imagine", Soojin says. "I have a reason for doing so"

Both of the men watch as Soojin stares at the table, her eyes wavering as emotions takes over her face. It surprises them to see her this way - stripped of her composed mask and showing another side of her.

She looks broken too.

"I made a promise to look after her after Taeri's death. And this, whatever had happened, it means I failed both of them. I failed Taeri by not keeping my promise. I failed Seori by allowing her to get hurt while she is barely recovering from Taeri's death. I do not even blame Seori for running away. I know she is trying to cope with all the hurt and I am glad she ran away from this mess"

Soojin pauses, gently touching her neck as she breathes in deeply, her fingers trembling slightly as she fights the tears.

"Did Seori ever tell you what happened two years ago?"