EP. 3 [YERIN]

Not a single text.

The moon has long taken the place of the sun, its glow softly emanating the side of Yerin's face closest to the window. Her hair, tawny and loose, sprawls behind her on the pillow.

She's already been to the kitchen, washed her dishes, and returned to her room to watch some K-drama on her laptop. Can't say for sure which show as Yerin kept glimpsing at her phone, hoping to catch a message from her brother.

That's usually how this happens. He doesn't meet up with her, has Dal call to explain, and then once the situation has been dealt with, he'll reach out to her with another apology. It's basically routine at this point.

But as she lays in bed, eyes trained on the ceiling, Yerin still hasn't gotten a text from Baekhyun.

Every part of her body, her gut instinct, is telling her something is wrong. Her anxiety is friends with the moon at this point as her fingers fumble with her clothing, which she has traded out for a loose pair of grey joggers and a baby blue tank top.

He should've apologized by now.

Is the technical issue a lot worse than she thought it was? Did someone actually hack his software and steal vital information about Night Core? Has he been worried all this time and trying to find a solution?

Baekhyun probably hasn't gotten any rest since last night, not nearly enough to deal with whatever is going on at his company. He's so sleep deprived, he's likely losing his mind over all of this. Whatever 'this' is exactly.

Maybe she should just call him. It wouldn't hurt, unless she'd only be taking precious time away that he needed to fix it all. That's even assuming that the problem was what Yerin thought it was. Because what else would need his undivided attention if not for some hacker desperate to get their hands on a game yet to be released but publicized to make millions in the first week of sales.

All of that was determined by a single teaser video at the celebration, but if someone superseded all the fire walls and got to the base structure of the whole game, then it would be for nothing.

She definitely shouldn't call.

Yerin's left hand has found its way to her mouth, where she begins to chew on her nails. It's a nervous habit she doesn't think she'll ever break. She's tried, but in it's place always comes something else.

All these thoughts of her brother and the company not doing well has her thinking the worst. When she told Baekhyun to enjoy his money while it lasts, she didn't mean for it to be so soon. She really wasn't tyring to manifest anything into the universe, but what if the universe didn't understand that it was a joke.

Was this all her fault?

No, stop, you're being ridiculous. You always do this.

Yerin is good at overanalyzing, but sometimes, especially now, she takes it a little too far. She has a knack for making a mountain out of a hill, making things bigger than what they are.

Maybe Baekhyun hasn't texted because once everything was solved, he went home and fell asleep, simply forgetting to text her. It's plausible with how exhausted he must be.

The thought calms her frenzied nerves just slightly.

Besides, even if he hasn't found a solution yet, he will. Baekhyun always figures something out.

Why should now be any different?

He's okay. Everything is going to be okay.

You're getting worked up over nothing.

She has since removed her fingers from her mouth back to lightly tugging at the hem of her tank.

Still, she continues to glance at her phone, even as she becomes drowsy and struggles to keep her eyes open. If there's one thing Yerin wishes she could change about herself, it's that she wouldn't be able to go to sleep with how nervous she is.

But after so many years of dealing with anxiety, her body has gotten used to it. That or it drains so much out of her, it knocks her out cold, as if in reality she's actually fainting instead of sleeping.

In either case, the second she becomes unconscious, it's hard to wake her up. No amount of shaking or yelling could stir her. The only things that work, because she's trained herself after so many years of attending school, is her alarm and when the lights are switched on.

Unusual as those methods may be, they work, but that doesn't change how badly she wants to stay awake. At least until she gets that text from her brother.

It never comes though. Not after she fights to sleep and not once when she drifts off.

•••

"Yerin, wake up!"

The lights in Yerin's room flicker. On and off, on and off.

She flinches at the sudden brightness, but slowly peels her eyes open to see her mother in the doorway, a hand on the light switch.

"Mom?" Yerin squints at the short woman. A robe covers her entire frame, so Yerin knows her mother has just woken up. Unfortunately, the rest of Sunhee is still a blur.

It takes a moment for Yerin's eyes to adjust, but when they do, she sees the panic written all over her mother's face. Her eyebrows are pinched, creasing her forehead. Her lips are pursed into a thin line. What's more off-putting is the deathly shadow under her lashes. Baekhyun must get his under-bags from their mother.

Do either one of them get enough sleep or is it all just genetics?

The thought has the drowsiness yanked right out of Yerin's body.

Her brother.

She frantically searches for her phone in the bunched up blanket on her bed. It takes a second, but she finds it near her pillow. Quickly turning it on, her heart sinks.

Still no text.

"Mom, have you heard from Baekhyun?"

Yerin doesn't realize that the question she asks and the reason her mother is in her room before dawn is for that sole reason.

Her mother just looks at her, teary-eyed.

When she doesn't get a response, Yerin puts two and two together.

She rushes out of bed and grips her mother's forearms tightly, casting a worried glance down at her.

"What's going on? Where's Baekhyun?"

Sunhee's bottom lip quivers. A tear escapes.

"The police just called."

Yerin's heart rises back up to her chest, where it pounds, thundering in her ears. Something's wrong. She doesn't know how much, but if the cops are involved, it's worse than she thought.

She takes a step back from her mother, releasing her hold, to run her fingers up her face and through her tussled bed-head.

"Yerin, they say he's missing."

The panic welcomes her coldly. Its nimble fingers pierce into her lungs as her breathing becomes heavy and shallow. She feels like she's not getting enough air. Her throat suddenly feels very scratchy and dry.

"They're coming here to... to investigate," her mother continues, but they're just words. They go in one ear and right out the other.

Her mother ambles toward her carefully. This time she grabs onto Yerin and rocks her ever so gently, just enough for her to hear what's said next.

"They have some questions they would like to ask you."

Yerin, unable to control her breathing, just shakes her head.

They can't ask her anything while she's like this. Her mother knows she can't, but unlike Baekhyun, she doesn't know how to calm her own daughter.

Yerin will get it all under control. Hopefully in time for when the police show up. She's done it before, but she can't help but think that if she had called last night, Baekhyun would be here instead.

She should've listened to her gut.