𝙳𝙴𝙲𝙴𝙸𝚅𝙴𝙳 |ᶰʲᵐ

Chapter 1

Back in the dorms, the youngest member was woken up from his sleep as he made contact onto the cold hard floor. This wasn't the first time this happened, this happens all the time actually
.

He grunts as he slowly got up and scratched his head as he looked around. It was still night time and the others were still asleep. He decided to go back to bed, he felt a gap beside him. Strange, he turned around and noticed that jaemin wasn't there.

"he must've went out to get some water," the little boy thought to himself as he flutters his eyes close, trying to sleep. As seconds soon turned to minutes, jisung started to get worried. Jaemin still hasn't come back.

He sat up from bed and when out of the room, checking if he's just watching tv and dozed off there. But he was no where to be found.

He went down the hall into his hyung's dorms, giving them a knock. It took quite sometime for the door to open, i mean its 2am in the morning anyway. The door opened, revealing a drowsy looking Taeyong who was now rubbing his eyes just to clear his sight vision.

"jisung? What are doing here? Why are you up this late?" taeyong started.

"sorry hyung, im looking for jaemin, he isn't in the dorms so I thought he could've gone here," he answered.

Taeyong's eyes widen and he starts to get worried. He saw him a few hours ago claiming that he was just going to get some air. He knew something was odd by his words. Even worse, he was the last person to see him.

"h-he isn't here," he stutters making jisung confused, gaping his mouth open at him.

"bu-" jisung was cut off by taeyong who grabbed his wrist and let him back into the dreamies dorm.

He entered the room along with Jisung, waking the others. Taeyong was pretty annoyed on how ignorant the others were about jaemin's whereabouts but at the same time he felt a bit sympathetic towards them. He knew that the others were all tired after the repetitive amount of practices they've done for the past month and they must be tired.

Jeno sat up from his shared bed and stretched his arms as he yawned. He fluttered his eyes open to see Taeyong and Jisung who were right now sitting on Jaemin's bed. He made a face, also wondering where jaemin was.

"what's going on?" jeno mumbles softly, still trying to remain his consciousness.

"jaemin is missing," jisung simply states while going through their closet checking if whether his clothes were still there.

"he ran off, his stuff is all gone," jisung said.

-

Jaemin took a stroll down the Han river, admiring the view. He stood against the railing and closed his eyes, letting the cold breeze to just hit his face. He smiled, he felt at eased and he was happy. He wanted to take a picture of the view but sadly he left his phone back in the dorms. He knew that bringing a his personal electronic device with him is a bad idea as the company can easily track him down.

Suddenly, his stomach made a few grumbling sounds, he was hungry. He went off the railing, walking away and headed down to the nearest 7/11 store. It wasn't that far from the dorms nor the park itself, it was in between and he had a few doubts at first. He shook that thought away proceeded his foot journey towards the store.

As he entered, he instantly went up towards the ramen's section and bought a cup for himself, along with a water bottle. He paid the lady up at the cashier counter and walked his way towards a vacant table. He took his time enjoying his food, he feels

free.

"excuse me ma'am, have you seen this man by any chance?" a male voice was heard from a far that caught Jaemin's attention. He turned his head to take a peek at the counter. He started to panic as he encountered two familiar faces at out front. It looks to be two of the camera crew back at the company. One of them took out his phone and the other scanned the security camera that were displayed by the cashier's desk.

Jaemin hid his face in his hoodie and silently tapped his feet on the floor. His mind was blank and he had no clue what he should do. He had only been free for a couple of hours and he wanted more. He wasn't ready to go back yet.

"who's that?"

Jaemin's breath hitched and his heart started to race. As a few footsteps was heard and got close, he had no choice but to flee and ran out of there. Jaemin kept his head low as he stormed off into the restroom, locking the door behind him. He stood behind the door to catch his breath, looking around to find a way out.

Muffled voices was heard from afar, slowly approaching the restroom itself. The closer they get, the more panic he gets. Jaemin looked around the room and spotted a window that led up to the back. Immediately running into the stall, he climb on top of the toilet seat and reached up trying to open the window.

"jaemin! we know its you!"

"stop this childish behavior and come home, the others are worried," Listening to them made him scoff. He has never seen the dorms as his home, it is more like a prison to him. With no time of waste, he finally climbed over that small window, but big enough for him to fit through.

Jaemin managed to make it outside, winced in pain but managed to regain his balance and limped his way out of there. He fasten his pase, trying to make sure the others don't see him. Looking around the area, he spotted a gas station across the street.

"jaemin!" He heard one of them shouted out his name.

He immediately walked further towards the busy street without looking around . The sound of cars honking infront of him made him winced as the sudden bright light made contact towards his eyes. He made his way further and managed to finally crossed the street, tripped a bit but didn't fell. He looked around the area to find a place to hide, he thought of something but that thought got interrupted as he heard the voices of the same men who was looking for him shouted out his name again.

He hid behind the gas pump and right next to him was a white camry, a late 30s man got out of his vehicle to fill up. He saw me, giving me a surprised look. All i did was to give him a nervous looking smile. The man raised an eyebrow as he looked around, he shook his head afterwards and run off somewhere.

Footsteps were heard from a distance and jaemin started to panic. The man earlier went inside the mini shop and left his car, still filling up some gas. Jaemin slowly leaned back and moved towards the right, now facing the white camry.

"check inside, I'll stay outside if he tries to escape through the restroom again,"

Jaemin turned around to check and his eyes immediately widened. One of the staff was right behind him, right on the other side of the gas pump. Jaemin looked around, he needed to retreat. He spotted something weird about the car infront of him, the door in the backseat wasn't fully shut.

Immediately, he crouched down and slowly entered the car. He knew that his doings was wrong but he had no choice, atleast he had a place to hide for the short while. He hid right behind the driver's seat and closed the door, leaving a loud thud to be heard.

"shit!" he hissed.

The staff member who was right infront of the car turned around. He didn't see anyone, but he knew he heard the loud thud earlier. He walked forward, approaching the car. Jaemin could here his footsteps just outside and covered his mouth.

"he's not inside man, he's gone," he stopped and turned around as he saw his partner running towards him. The two males showed tired and frustrated expressions.

One of them ruffled his hair and sighed "what are we gonna tell the boss? We lost him? We're screwed man,"

"then don't tell him that, just say that he was nowhere to be found or something," The other suggests.

"lets call it a night, its four in the morning,"

Jaemin sighed in relief, he was safe. He stayed there for a few more minutes until the coast was clear but not long after, the owner of the car entered the vehicle. Jaemin went from calm to panic all over again, he attempted to speak but the man started to drive away.

"this is just great," jaemin murmured to himself.

"now im screwed,"