After what seemed like hours, Soohoon sighed in relief as soon as he entered his apartment and leaned his back on the door. It had been a while since he felt this tired as if the rain drained out his strength. And to think he'd been standing there in the shed for about an hour while waiting for the bus.
He soon found out from Seoha that there was trouble on the main road and the cars had to take detours. Two electric poles fell, blocking the road, and the resulting investigation caused delays in traffic before the authorities were able to figure out a way.
But if one would ask him, that incident seemed to be deliberately done for a reason. There had not been any similar incident like that in town for a long time now. Besides, the two poles mentioned were recently replaced.
So what in the world happened for that to occur?
"I'm probably overthinking this..." he murmured before proceeding to his bedroom.
A leather-bound book fell as soon as Soohoon placed his coat on the rack to let it dry first before putting it in the laundry. When he crouched down to retrieve it, it was when he recalled that Yoon Sari dropped the item when she was about to rush to her apartment. But he only realized that when Seoha's car moved again away from the place and he looked down when his foot touched it.
"She could be in a panic right now if she found out she lost this."
But for some reason, imagining Sari in her panicked expression made his heart flutter, forming a smile on his face. And if he was going to be honest, this had never happened before.
Even when she was stabbed that day instead of him, his heart skipped a beat upon seeing her look at him. It was as if... he had waited for this.
Waited to see her again after a long, long time...
But that wasn't possible, right? Why would he feel that way towards Sari? Maybe he didn't know why yet but he wanted to get to know her better.
Soohoon looked at the item once again and even ran his thumb on the leather cover. And as he sat in front of his table looking at the notebook, he began to think through what he had to do the next time they met again. He didn't dare open it as he knew very well it would invade Sari's privacy, no matter how tempting it sounded.
And that night, when he laid down in bed and closed his eyes, Soohoon couldn't help himself but think about her again. And with every thought about her, he drifted off to sleep, with the leather notebook placed beside his pillow.
xxxxxx
Sari doesn't like waking up with a headache so early in the morning. Then again, she couldn't help it if she'd been worried all this time since learning that her father's leather journal went missing. She tried to rake her mind to recall any specific activity she did yesterday for it to disappear, but none came.
So where was it, then?
To be honest, she wanted to cry for her carelessness. But she knew it won't do her any good. Not while she was like this.
Her feet moved slowly across the floor as she tried to get ready for the day, with the goal of trying to recall where she could've lost that journal. With each step, more questions were added to the pile in her head. Did someone steal the journal? Or maybe it just fell on its own. That could happen, yes.
"It can't have fallen anywhere else, can it?" She whispered to herself and shook her head. No. It definitely couldn't. The book was perfectly safe inside its case and she checked it twice when she brought the journal to school yesterday.
So where did it fall?
That was when it hit her. It must have fallen sometime during the ride that Seoha gave and when she left the car last night!
If it had fallen onto the ground or even out of her handbag or something then it wouldn't be too far-fetched to think it could've fallen somewhere else in the car. Right?
The sound of her phone ringing interrupted her thoughts as Sari was still thinking about the lost journal, having forgotten to bring her phone with her. She soon reached her room and took her phone before it stopped ringing.
"Hello?" she answered, sounding sleepy because of the lack of rest.
"Good morning, Sari!" greeted Seoha. "Did you just wake up?"
"No... actually I just woke up a few minutes ago... What's wrong? It's rare for you to call me early."
Seoha chuckled softly. "Nothing's wrong, don't worry. I just wanted to check up on you since you sounded a bit tired in the morning. And to think it's your day-off today, as well."
"Oh... I guess that's true." A frown appeared on Sari's face. "Still, you didn't need to check up on me."
"Well of course, I wanted to make sure everything is alright."
"Yes, you're right," she agreed and smiled lightly. "It's nice that you always worry about me, though. Thank you for that, Seoha."
"You're welcome. How are you feeling today? I don't like the sound of your voice."
"A little tired."
"Did you even get enough sleep last night?"
Sari wasn't planning on lying. Not to her friend. "No. There's something that bothered me the whole time I was awake. Didn't even realize what time I slept, to be honest."
"I bet it was bad. You shouldn't keep things troubling you. You're still recovering."
"I know... But I really am okay, Seoha. Don't worry about me anymore."
"Okay." He paused before continuing. "I hope you got enough rest."
"Thanks, but really... I appreciate the concern, Seoha."
"Anytime, Sari."
The call ended but Sari kept looking at the phone in her hand, for some reason. There was this prickly sensation in her chest as she recalled the conversation. She did feel bad not mentioning the real reason for her inability to sleep last night. But she didn't feel ready to even mention things to her friends about information that she had related to her father and his disappearance five years ago.
And she didn't want to lie to them either, even though she was sure that Seoha, Sejin and Riyoung wouldn't be the type who would judge her.
With those thoughts, she quickly changed into her clothes, feeling slightly guilty about making Seoha worry about her. As much as she appreciated it though, she wasn't used to it.
And yet, her heart ached every single time she saw her friends.
xxxxxx
At first, Sari didn't understand why she was feeling such odd emotions. She tried telling herself that she should focus more on retracing her steps so she could figure out what happened to her father's journal, but she failed to do so.
And with each second passing, more worries filled her mind. What if the journal was stolen from someone or destroyed? What if it got damaged and couldn't be repaired? Would someone sell it? She hoped not.
She just had to find it. It could be the only clue she had in locating her father. Even if she'd tried to do so for the past five years, a part of her heart still hadn't given up hope that she would learn more about him and his fate all this time.
She glanced at the clock that hung above the stove which read 8:44 AM.
When that thought crossed her mind, Sari's mind was suddenly transported back to the evening when she'd discovered her father had vanished.
"Why did you disappear like that, Dad?" That soft whisper of anxiousness and despair escaped her lips as she looked outside the window.
As memories of that night surged in her mind, several tears fell from her eyes. She wiped them away quickly before turning around to grab the broom, beginning to sweep the kitchen floor.
In her memory, her father stood still for a moment before giving her a faint smile, as if asking her if she was happy now.
'What's there to smile about?' she wanted to say, but instead she replied, "Yeah, you've finally come home."
He walked to her and put his arms around her waist as he kissed her forehead lightly. "My beautiful daughter, don't worry about anything and remember that I'll always come back home whenever I go away, okay?" he said to her in a loving tone of voice.
Sarina nodded.
But he never did. For the past five years.
She tried searching everywhere for him, from his old office to the library to every place she thought he might've gone to. But nothing worked. No luck. Nothing. He simply was never seen again.
Then one day she received the news that her father's business partner had been killed in an accident two months after. And that person had left something for Yoon Sari. Not an inheritance, as most of that business partner's family was wary of. But a simple yet seemingly urgent message from her missing father.
'Go back to Huijin. Find the answer there.'
Honestly, she didn't understand it at first. Until that business partner's lawyer gave her her father's leather journal. The clues to what she needed to discover in Huijin were there.
And so it was imperative that she must find that journal before somebody used the information inside for something else.
Sari's mind remained thinking about the past for a while before the ringing of the doorbell snapped her out of her reverie. She frowned at that, however, as she could not recall ever expecting a visitor that day.
After placing the broom aside on the wooden floor, Sari went to open the front door and was surprised to see Professor Kang Soohoon smiling reservedly at her from the other side.
"I hope you don't mind if I drop by."
"P-Professor?!" Sari exclaimed. What was he doing here?
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