Welcome to Your Last Race (Street Racers #3)

16. Wooshik

When I stir awake, Taehyung isn't in bed. He's not in the apartment. Neither are his shoes. I call, but wherever he is, he left his phone here. Wasn't it fucking yesterday I asked him not to act like that? Fuck. How the fuck am I supposed to find him now?

The car keys are here, too. He didn't even take the car. Fuck.

I make sure Boogie is asleep, put my shoes on and run out. He won't be with Jungkook and Yeeun. I still call. Yeeun is up, and she says she didn't see him.

"What do you mean he's gone?" she asks.

"He left and I don't know where he is," I say, frantically running around the neighborhood. "I was asleep when he left."

"Did he take his phone?"

"No. He didn't take the car, either. I'm looking for him." My hands are shaking. I'm becoming overly anxious. The unfamiliarity of the anxiety makes me freeze in the middle of the pavement. "I'm... fuck, Yeeun."

"He's going to be alright," she says. "He has to be."

"Call me if he comes around," I say, dragging my legs into the first open convenience store I see. I have no time to be worrying about my feelings now.

"Text me when you find him," she says. Neither of us hangs up. I don't know if I can be alone now. "I think I know what's up, Wooshik."

"What?" I ask, walking between the aisles.

"Earlier, with Jungkook... Taehyung told him he's had enough. Of being friends with Jungkook."

I stop in the middle of the store. "What?"

"Jungkook says he's trying to push everyone away. He didn't take it well, though. He's passed out now, but he cried quite a lot."

"I don't like the way he's distancing himself. It freaks me out, Yeeun," I say.

"I know... I know, Wooshik." She lets out a deep breath. "We'll keep an eye on him, yeah? We're here for him. Jungkook isn't mad, he's terrified, too."

He's nowhere around. I run back to our parking lot and jump into my car. I drive everywhere I can think of, starting from the garage. He's fucking nowhere to be found.

An hour later, when I park back in front of our place, I can hardly press the buttons on my phone, texting Yeeun I didn't find him.

I'm not thinking rationally. I'm thinking of the worst case scenarios. I'm thinking of the darkest fucking resolutions of this situation. Trying to calm down doesn't work. Chewing my lip, I go through my contacts. He may be in a specific place, but he may also be in some random spot, hiding away. Doing... I don't know what, God.

Too late goes through my head all over again. What if I'm too late? What if we find him too late?

What can he do considering he left in the middle of the night and didn't take his phone? Didn't want to be found?

I'm locking the car when I noticed Yoongi's number. Yoongi's going to freak out, but he might be the only person who's able to find him. I climb up the stairs and call. A few rings, and Yoongi picks up.

"Everyone alive?"

My stomach twists. He always says it when he picks up calls from any of us, but now... I hate how it sounds now.

"Yeah. I mean... I do have a slight problem."

"What problem?"

"Taehyung's... missing, I guess."

"What do you mean Taehyung's missing?"

"He's missing, Yoongi. He left our place when I was sleeping, didn't take his phone, nor the car keys, and he's God knows where. And no one has seen him. And I'm freaking out and I need fucking help."