MAL set the phone away from her ear, staring at her friend Diego as they both sat on two opposite stools on her long kitchen island. Her head quickly hit the marble in frustration, her hands turning to fists of despair.

"Goddamit, where the hell is he?" Mal groaned while Diego stared at her desperate figure in worry, a hand of his running through his soft, neatly styled hair.

"Mal..." Diego began, his voice trembling. "Do you think something happened to him?"

The question caused Mal to look up from the marble island, slightly shocked at how melancholic it sounded.

"W-What?" She replied, attempting to gulp down her saliva. "What makes you say that?"

"Because I called the family's landline and his dad picked up. He said that he had been on multiple business trips throughout the week and his son wasn't there when he was home yesterday."

Mal thought for a brief moment, and deep down, from the bottom of her heart, she knew that she needed to avoid a conclusion where everyone thought something had happened to Griffin.

Because she couldn't imagine that both her best friends, Millie and Griffin were now missing. The idea itself was too terrifying.

Because where on earth could each of them be?

"I think..." Diego interrupted her train of painful thoughts. "I think we need to file a missing person's report."

Despite her knowing that Griffin wasn't the type to disappear without a trace like that, she knew he must've been somewhere. Maybe his phone died and he didn't have a charger?

Maybe something happened to his phone?

Maybe he was on one of the locations of his job and he was just too busy?

He had to be.

"Diego, this is our second missing person's report within the same week!" Mal retorted with a tone of desperation, shaking her head at her friend's words. "He can't be missing! He has to be somewhere, with his phone turned off maybe!"

"You know that doesn't make any sense." Diego reasoned, nervously fumbling with his fingers. "You know he would do anything to have his phone beside him at all times. Plus, it has been almost two days since Millie was reported missing, and we haven't heard from him ever since."

"People can be busy too, Diego—"

"I know they can, but the least thing they can do is assure their loved ones." Diego pointed out, his voice exasperated at the slowly rising conflict. "For example, what were you doing these past two days?"

"I was at multiple speech doctors' appointments with Felix." She replied, her forehead wrinkled with confusion at the question. "You know, he's been... Obsessed with being able to speak normally again. He doesn't want to use his phone anymore and he doesn't want anyone to make fun of him for having slurred, incomplete speech. The doctors said that his brain trauma might affect his speech for a while longer, but he's gradually getting better with their help."

"Oh." Diego simply added, regret and melancholy overwhelming his insides at the sound of both his friend and her lover suffering throughout the week because of the infamous incident, which Griffin had told him about once. "That... Maybe that doesn't prove my point. Because it's a very strong excuse, maybe."

"I know," Mal added with a tone of mutual melancholy, her mind quickly drifting off to the image of her lover, who had just happened to be sleeping upstairs. "And I hear what you're saying, but it's just... It's too much for only a few days, you know? I think it's safe to wait for a little while, maybe?"

Diego's fingers unconsciously rubbed his temple, attempting to ease some of his thought process, to the point where he wasn't sure it was helping.

"We wait until tomorrow. Okay? And if we hear nothing from him, you go and tell your cousin to file a missing person's report." He slowly spoke, his gaze fixated on Mal's reaction to see if she agreed with his point of view. "How does that sound—"

Ding.

Dong.

And before he could finish his sentence, the pair were interrupted by the sudden noise of the doorbell ringing. Mal turned her head towards the doorframe of the kitchen they were sitting in, thoughts running through her mind about who might be their guest.

"I'll get it!" The familiar voice of Seungmin yelled from the living room, causing Mal to sigh in relief and mutter words of gratitude that she didn't have to leave her seat.

As soon as Seungmin had his chance to open the door and peek outside to see who it was, both Mal and Diego's ears perked at the voice of an unfamiliar female figure standing outside the door.

"Hello!" The voice began, and Mal could tell that her mouth was formed into a smile. "Is this where Mal lives?"

"Who's asking?" Seungmin replied, his voice cold to not give away any unneeded information.

"My name is Emilia, and I'm Griffin's co-worker. I just wanted to ask her if she knew where Griffin was?"

"Emilia Jones!" Mal and Diego whispered to each other, an image of a young woman around their age popping into their minds. The pair were familiar with her after meeting her where Griffin worked once, and Mal remembered how she and Emilia got along pretty well after a small conversation at the location.

"What is she doing here?" Mal whispered over to Diego, her mouth slightly open in wonder. Diego simply shrugged, equally surprised at the situation.

"I don't know. Maybe she's here for Griffin?" He answered, his eyes wandering over to the kitchen's doorframe.

"And why is that?"

"Everyone around us believes that if Griffin is not in his house, or busy with shooting in some location, he would probably be around you and your friends or something."

Mal had another question on the tip of her tongue. All she needed to do was ask Diego why everyone thought that only for her to realize that he wasn't entirely wrong. Griffin used to spend a lot of his free time in her house, and if he wasn't talking with her, he was probably talking with her friend group, quickly adjusting to their existence and loving them as if they were his roommates.

Before she could reply to her friend, they were met by the sight of two figures stepping through the doorframe that led to the kitchen. The familiar sight of Seungmin, and the figure of a familiar brunette girl, who had a soft grin as she muttered a few words of greeting.

"Hey, Emilia." Mal stood up from her seat to engulf the girl in a friendly embrace, which the other didn't hesitate to return. "How are you?"

"Oh, I'm good. Thank you for asking." Emilia replied with a bright tone, which quickly changed to a darker, more overwhelming one as she continued. "Our jobs though... Not so much."

"Huh?" Both Mal and Diego replied, their eyes widening in shock. "What do you mean?"

"It's actually about Griffin." Emilia sent them a complimentary, disappointed smile. "Since Griffin hadn't shown up for three days straight, our director decided to cancel our shooting and threatened to cancel the show overall if we didn't cooperate and get him back to continue shooting his scenes."

"What?" Mal gasped out, a hand of hers contemplating to cover her mouth in shock, but stopping at the last minute. "B-But... But he was sick the last time I saw him! Didn't he tell your director that?"

Emilia shook her head in denial. "Unfortunately, he hasn't. I passed by his house on the way here, and his dad opened the door for me. He told me that he hasn't seen Griffin either."

Diego took a long glance at Emilia, his mouth gaping open in shock. His gaze then turned to Mal's direction. "Hold on, I don't understand how his dad isn't concerned about him! If we care about filing a missing person's report for Griffin's disappearance, his dad should at least be in the picture!"

Mal's arms wrapped each other around herself to mask her baffled expression, her gaze lowered to the floor in equal frustration.

"Hold on—missing person?" Emilia questioned, taken aback at the words. "I just thought..."

"Yeah, you thought that he was just... Um, resting somewhere. Like he always disappears for a few days and shows up all of a sudden." Emilia nodded at that, agreeing with Mal's thoughts. Mal shrugged, her breath hitched at her own words. "I can't believe I'm about to say this, but I'm genuinely worried about him now. I'll go call my cousin and tell him to file a missing person's report."

Before any of them could say anything further, she swiftly grabbed her phone, which laid still on the kitchen counter, and stepped away from the counter, all while not taking her eyes away from the screen. After scrolling through the device for a few seconds, she quickly set the phone close to her ear and waited with bated breath for an answer.

"Do you think they're going to find him if we file a report?" Emilia questioned, her gaze drifting to meet Diego's.

"I hope so," Diego replied in a melancholic tone, "but I know Mal's cousin is good with these cases. He's the chief of the police department, and a really important detective so he has a lot of connections and he can start the search right away."

Emilia took a glance around the room, searching for something interesting to look at while Mal finished her phone call. Her eye caught the sight of the handsome boy leaning his back against the doorframe, scrolling through his phone yet his ears perked at whatever words they said. Emilia supposed that he was equally curious about the situation, automatically assuming that he knew Griffin as well.

"Who's this handsome guy?"

Diego followed Emilia's gaze, just to see who she was referring to.

"Oh!" He lowered the volume of his voice. "That's Seungmin. He's one of Mal's friends who lives here."

"I just think he's cute, that's all. I know it's probably not the time to say that—"

"No, I do think so too," Diego whispered back, covering the side of his mouth to hide the movement of his tongue. "Woman, you have great taste."

"Are there any more cute people living here?" Emilia questioned with a curious tone. "It's so blissful here, and seems comfortable with them too."

"Oh, yeah, there's so many of them! I think Mal is hoarding all the good-looking men."

"Boy, me too—"

And at that very moment, Mal set her phone down on the kitchen island with a loud 'thud', causing the three figures in the room to look in her direction.

"Mal, are you okay?" Diego asked, stepping closer to his friend. "What's wrong?"

Mal swallowed her saliva and stared at her feet, the floor swaying beneath her body. Her head ached as her hand gripped the side of the stool she was sitting on until her knuckles turned white.

"I j-just... I don't—"

Her sentence was quickly interrupted by her figure hitting the floor with a loud bang. Seungmin's body flew in her direction almost immediately, crossing the kitchen within a flash to reach his friend's figure to catch her, all while calling their upstairs friends.

"Chan!"