"what do you mean, where's yerim?" mark wonders, "she was right there."
"i know, but now she's not." jaebeom explains, holding his guitar and walking over towards wendy and seulgi. "did you two see anything? hear anything?"
"no! i swore she was right behind me." seulgi explains, wrapping her arms around jaebeom as he comes closer, "where could she be?"
"don't get frantic, we'll find her." jaebeom comforts her before turning to their friends, "yo.. what is going on around here?"
"someone seriously has it out for us." mark adds, wrapping his own arms around wendy. "are you okay?"
"i'm fine, just a little shaken up."
"so first chanyeol is missing and now yerim... who's next?" sooyoung questions.
"no one... we'll find them." brian announces, "but... we'll cover more ground if we split up."
"split up? why? so someone else can get kidnapped and then we don't find out until it's too late?"
"we all can handle ourselves." jaebeom defends, "plus brian is right. we'll split up into teams of three. sooyoung, you'll go with brian, mark with wendy, and then myself with seulgi."
"oh yeah... all the couples and then push the two singles together..." brian mumbles.
"we meet back at the inn in an hour. hopefully we have news by then." jaebeom adds, "let's go..."
they split up and all head in different directions. brian and sooyoung go back to investigate the inn, mark and wendy investigate the village store and cafeteria while jaebeom and seulgi explore the festival stage. jaebeom holds seulgi's hand as he leads the way. "this isn't exactly how i planned my saturday to go." seulgi admits.
"yeah... same here. i want to practice but finding yerim is more important."
"she usually doesn't just disappear, i know that's weird to say based off of all the times she's snuck away to watch your gigs."
"i understand what you mean though." jaebeom sighs, "look... here's a door to under the stage, let's investigate."
"under the stage? that's kind of scary."
"i'll protect you, baby." he teases, pressing a kiss against her forehead, "come on."
the door is heavy to pull open but jaebeom manages fine. he uses his phone as a flashlight and descends the stairs, helping seulgi down too. there's not much underneath besides stage support beams, and jaebeom is about to give up before something catches his eye. "look over there..." he points to the door, rushing over to investigate, "this must be where they store the costumes..." he mumbles opening the small storage area. inside, are three of the burning man mummy suits, but four hooks, meaning one is missing. "that explains someone terrorizing us in the suit, but why do they need so many?"
"could there be multiple burning men? or are the costumes damaged after setting on fire, so they need backups?"
"it could be either... " jaebeom agrees, "they're a pretty standard size too... so multiple people could use them... that doesn't really help us narrow it down much." he purses his lips, "i just don't understand... why us? why our group? why yerim?" he reaches out for seulgi. "is it all a part of the festival? is it about the treasure?"
"isn't this your first time ever attending? maybe this is the norm, but since we are all new, it just seems outrageous to us."
"there shouldn't be anything normal about kidnapping when the festival is about a man on fire." he sighs, "i feel like these suits are a clue... i just don't know what it means yet. let's get out of here."
jaebeom leads seulgi the same way that they came, but curses when he finds the door locked. "shit... we're locked in... that means someone else is either here... or on the stage." he pieces together and seulgi frowns.
"locked in?"
"i'll find a way out... maybe there's another exit." he intertwined his fingers with seulgi's, "ironic that we finally get alone time but we're investigating and looking for yerim."
"yeah..." she giggles, "you still owe me an actual date, mister. i can't be your girlfriend without going on a proper date."
"aww, being locked under a stage doesn't count?"
"not at all."
they head back to where they found the costumes, jaebeom believing that there should be an exit somewhere over there since whomever is the burning man has to get out after changing. "what's this?" seulgi points to a door, and jaebeom shrugs, walking over and opening it. he peeks inside.
"just a changing room... wait..." he feels around the wall for a light switch, turning on a lamp and gasping. "shit..."
the room is your standard dressing room, and the vanity has a bunch of photos pinned to the sides of the giant mirror. the photos are of the guys jaebeom remembers meeting: junho, taecyeon, junsu, and three others that he doesn't know. they were in a band, according to these photos at least. "maybe this has something to do with it?" he tells seulgi, "they're holding a trophy... maybe they won some competition or something."
"do you think that maybe man on fire was once a competition?"
"that could be it.... this trophy though... you would think it would be hanging up in the souvenir shop? or on display somewhere..." he comments, "whatever... let's find a way out of here... time is almost up."
there's an emergency exit in the dressing room, so they use that, surprised that an alarm didn't sound off. they meet up with everyone at the inn, regroup and share what they found.... which isn't much. "so not only did we not find yerim... or chanyeol, but we also still have no clue why this man on fire is trying to steer us away from the festival." jaebeom points out, "unless..."
"unless what?"
"we have to find junho or taecyeon... i have some questions." he announces, getting up and heading towards the welcome shop, figuring that will be their best bet.
it works in his favor, junho is there restocking some of the creepy dolls that yerim fell in love with upon arrival. "hey, junho? can i ask you something?" jaebeom starts as his friends pile in after him.
"what's up?"
"we were talking to... some of the other bands and they mentioned how man on fire used to be a competition? or...?"
