"スパイシーなラーメンでコンビニエンスストアに行く。キム・ソクジンに尋ねる。
ᵺeodore ℣. Ƙarn."
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jimin had arrived at tsuki's house in the late afternoon, early morning hours. it was pitch black outside, other than the street lights along the path. he made his way in with the key around his neck and walked straight down the corridor, into the room that connected the kitchen to the living room.

haneul was sound asleep on the big couch, tsuki curled up in a blanket at the end of the couch past where his feet stopped. there were blankets folded and a pillow left for jimin on the other couch. he smiled at the consideration, leaning his bag against the coffee table and getting ready to sleep.

in the middle of the night, the sliding glass door to tsuki's backyard could be heard, and just before it closed someone opened their eyes.

jimin, in his half asleep haze, lifted his head and looking at the figure escaping discreetly. a dark shadow man, trying to leave the house without being seen.

"taehyung?"

he didn't know wether to trust his eyes or not. what if he was just seeing things? but, when the figure began to dart off without looking back, jimin quickly made his way to the sliding glass door and yelled at the shadow.

"hey, come back here! who are you?"

but he was out of sight as jimin finished his sentence. he closed the glass door and locked it with a sigh, turning around to see haneul and tsuki staring straight at him.

"did you get a good look at him?" tsuki asked, rubbing her eyes.

"i could've sworn-" jimin stopped, looking back outside. "it couldn't have been."

"who, jimin?" haneul questioned, standing up from the couch and walking into the connected kitchen.

"it was taehyung. i swear it... the figure looked so much like him. i promise i'm not lying," jimin rambled, "but maybe my mind was just being too hopeful. ever since you mentioned knowing something about taehyung, that's all i ever think about. what if he's alive?"

"right, about that..." tsuki mumbled, continuing on "i think taehyung is sending me letters, and if not it's someone messing with me that somehow has a key to my house. the only people with keys are you, haneul, and tae. and that means that... if it's not him, he could be in trouble. i could be in trouble. i mean, taehyung wouldn't leave without a reason, right?"

"speaking of letters," haneul said as he lifted a paper in the air.

"what la-" jimin was cut off.

"it's japanese," she told him, walking into the kitchen as haneul translated the letter with his phone.

"it says something about a convenience store, spicy ramen, and... kim seokjin?" he told the two, jimin walking into the kitchen to take a look.

"who's theodore?"

"taehyung."

"wh-"

"stop asking questions, jimin. i'll explain in a second. haneul, did you say kim seokjin?" tsuki was in a mood of determination, no one was stopping her at finding taehyung.

"yeah, why?"

"jin's a friend of mine. let's go," she grabbed her purse and headed to the front door.

"what? where?" haneul asked, speculating her serious manner.

"we're doing to jin's house," she replied, looking back at him without any expression.

"tsuki, it's five am and i've only been asleep for three hours, can't we please wait until tomorrow morning? and wouldn't this guy not want us at his house this early?"

"no. three hours is a good amount of sleep. let's go."

"you shouldn't go out like this, tsuki..." haneul declared.

"like what? i am going to find taehyung with or without your help. don't you want to find him?"

and as she stared at the two in silence, they thought about how many opportunities they had until taehyung showed up dead. they had to take each one before it was too late.

all three of them got into tsuki's car and sat silently as she drove them to a partially unknown destination.

what were they getting themselves into?