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Jinie seemed to enjoy pulling disappearing acts on Nani, because she left Nani’s sight not even two minutes after reaching the hotel.  Nani assumed she’d run into Jimin soon, but her stress was through the roof.  Hadn’t Jinie promised not to leave her again?  She looked around the hotel.  She’d never seen this place before.  She wasn’t sure how.  She’d lived her for five years now.  It was sure huge, though.  It was the nicest hotel she’d ever been in; even nicer than the one in LA.

She wandered around the lobby for a few minutes before considering that she was still alone.  She pulled out her phone and texted Jinie.  Then she waited a few minutes before starting to worry.  No response.  She hadn’t even read it.  Nani nibbled on her bottom lip before texting Jimin next.  Thankfully, he responded.

“You guys are here?  How long have you been here for?”

“Fifteen minutes at least.”

“Really?  Tae never got a text from Jinie…”

Nani froze when she read that text.  Where was Jinie?

——————–

It had been half an hour now.  Tae and Jimin had told Nani to come up to their hotel room.  When she had arrived, Tae had been nervously pacing the room with his phone held up to his ear.

“How long ago did she disappear?” Tae asked.

“Not too long after we arrived…she just kinda…disappeared.  She’s pretty quiet when she walks, so I assumed she’d run to go to the bathroom or something.  But then…she was gone for another ten minutes.”

Tae bit his lip before hitting the “call” button on his phone again.  After a few painstakingly long seconds of dial tone, an automated voice informed him that his call had not been accepted.  He tossed his phone on the bed and continued pacing the room, this time chewing on his fingernails as he did so.

“What do we do?” Nani asked.  She was beyond freaked out now.  Jinie wasn’t the type to just disappear.

“I don’t think there’s anything we can do…I mean, she’s not responding, and there’s no way we can track her phone…” Jimin replied.

Nani glanced over at Tae.  He was still wordlessly pacing.  She could now see that his eyes had glossed over with tears.

“Tae, are you all right?”

He nodded before wandering over to the window.  Nani looked back up at Jimin.  He just stared back at her with an expression that told her he was as hopeless as she was.  There was no reasonable explanation that anyone could think of as to why Jinie had disappeared.  None that brought them peace, that was.

The room was silent for the next ten minutes.  If any of them cried, no one else noticed.  Even Jimin, who barely knew Jinie, was scared.  Just seeing Tae and Nani so destressed gave him anxiety.  He wanted to give them both a hug, but he wasn’t sure who he should hug first. 

Finally, the silence in the room was broken by a phone ringing.  Tae’s phone.  He spun back around the moment he heard it chime.  He rushed over to the bed and picked it up, only to be disappointed that the number on his phone was one that he didn’t recognize.