far from you | oneus

fifteen. 28-08-20

The bus to Cheongdam-dong is crowded at that time of the day where almost all students are busy on their way homes, and the five of them barely manage to stuff themselves onto the next available bus, yielding discomforted glances from the riders forced to compact to accommodate for them.

Unfortunately, the cacophony of noise in the bus made it a whole different level of impossible to discuss the entire situation with any sort of privacy, and they had to resort to typing in their chat group once more.

RAVN
the first thing we're doing
is finding that house

HWANWOONG
this area of town is huge

the seyeon person he
mentioned isn't reachable

her last social media update
said her phone was broken
and to contact her by kkt

we can't get her kakaotalk

now what

KEONHEE
i have something

📍ASTERIA CAFÉ

he posts this location tag
a lot

could it be a place near
his house he frequents?

LEEDO
wait.

GOOGLE SEARCH RESULT:
Asteria Café, Cheongdam-dong
1 minute(s) away

SEOHO
this is the right spot

should we get off at asteria
café and start looking from
there?

Frantic shoulder slapping from Hwanwoong alerted the rest of them, forcing them to look up. Just as they did, the facade of Asteria Cafe, redbrick and glass in the mid-evening lighting, brightened up as they passed it.

The five of them alighted at the next station, gathering at the crossroads in front of the café. Ravn did a cursory sweep of the place first; the cafe was about three quarters full, seats occupied by patrons with drinks and pastries in front of them, but no sign of the boy at the forefront of all their minds at the moment.

"He's not here."

"Let's start looking, then."

The crossroads split four ways.

"This road leads to an expressway," Ravn pointed down the road heading away from them, recalling the route he took to the inner city occasionally. "There are no residential areas going that way."

"And there weren't any on the way we came either," Leedo reasons. "Or we would have seen it on the bus. Which leaves us with two roads to try."

"Maybe we can split u-"

"We can't split up." Ravn's voice was quick, resolute. "Two people going alone, you don't know how dangerous that man could be. Do you think he'd want one of us getting hurt because of him?"

They fell silent for the next couple of seconds, racing to form a new plan.

"Hey..."

Leedo pointed down the street to their left to a small ice cream store with a colorful neon display of tall, swirly soft serve cones in purple and white.

"There's a picture of that ice cream, isn't there? He had it in purple."

"He must have bought it there, or it would have melted completely on his way home."

"Then, it's a long shot, but let's try this way."

They took off down the road to the left, scanning the pavement along the road as they went.