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Yoonchae isn’t sure how she managed to end up here. Walking aimlessly throughout the dark outskirts of LA.
See Yoonchae had gotten into a minor argument with Sophia about something that seems unimportant now. Sophia had stormed out without a clear headspace, and now Yoonchae is on search party duty, because apparently it’s her fault Sophia went missing.
Sophia isn’t one to argue with her members—At least not seriously—so it’s a little weird that she’s gone M.I.A after a pointless squabble.
The worst part? Sophia left her phone on her desk, so now nobody knows how to track her.
“Sophia?!” Yoonchae calls out for what seems like the hundredth time, she’s starting to think maybe she should just leave. But the girls would definitely kill her for that, and she can’t just ditch her leader when it could be dangerous out here.
Yoonchae had already visited everywhere Sophia usually frequents, to no avail. Now she's walking around with a bag of cheetos she got from a 7/11, munching on them in between calls for Sophia.
She takes another cheeto out of the bag with a sigh, but her hand stops mid-air, as a low growl pierces through the silence of the night. Yoonchae’s head snaps towards the noise, spotting a large dog with glowing yellow eyes, its fur was clean and a silky shade of black.
Yoonchae instinctively takes a step back before realising the dog isn’t growling at her. She looks to her right, and instantly reels back, stumbling onto her ass as she sees a tall, burly man standing there.
“Oh… sorry little girl,” The man grins, showing off his yellow stained teeth that might as well fit a shark, “Didn’t mean to startle ya’.” The dog growls again—Now that Yoonchae is taking a closer look it seems to be a wolf. The wolf takes a step in front of Yoonchae, blocking her from the man, “Hey, stupid mutt, can you move? I’m trying to have a civil conversation here.” The wolf snarls dangerously—Its clearly not here to play around.
The man scoffs, turning his attention back towards Yoonchae, who is still on the ground, “This thing yours?”
“U-uhm… Yes?” The man seems skeptical, raising an eyebrow, “You sure ‘bout that darlin’?” Yoonchae slightly winces at the pet name.
While the man is distracted by Yoonchae, the wolf leaps onto him, clamping down sharp rows of teeth on the man’s arm, blood spraying out and coating the wolf.
“Oh my god!” Yoonchae crawls backwards, away from the two with horrified eyes.
The man screams loudly and shoves the wolf off of him, pulling a switchblade out of his pocket, stalking towards the animal. “You little bitch.” He spits out, lunging at the dog.
The wolf is quicker, scurrying to safety, right before jumping right back onto the man. This time the wolf bites right down on the back of the man’s head.
Part of the blood splatters onto Yoonchae’s face, but she’s too scared to scream or run away, she’s just shaking there like an idiot.
She doesn’t see what happens next, maybe because she fell backwards and her vision went dark.
Yoonchae blinks her eyes open, immediately sitting up—despite the groan that escapes her—and scanning her surroundings. She seems to be in a backyard of sorts, because there’s a lot of grass, and a fence wrapping around it all.
She tries to stand up, only for a furry paw to push her back into a lying position. She looks up with a small squeak, finding the wolf from earlier staring at her with what seems to be a stern expression? She didn’t even know animals could make a face like that.
“Who are you?”
Wow, that was a stupid question.
Yoonchae internally face-palms at the question. That is a dog, not a person. The wolf just tilts its head—not in a way that indicates the wolf doesn’t understand, but more amusement.
Yoonchae decides to shut her mouth, not wanting to embarrass herself further and make the situation more awkward. She sits up again—despite the wolf’s protests—and she feels around for a collar.
She finds one, it’s a pastel purple, however it doesn’t have any tag, or indication where this thing came from. Yoonchae sighs and lays back down, feeling the weight of the wolf curling up to her.
“My cheetos!” The korean abruptly sits up, jostling the wolf and making it jump up in alert, “Where did my cheetos go?” She frantically asks the dog, holding onto its face.
The wolf shakes its head solemnly, and Yoonchae immediately wails, “My cheetos are gone!” The wolf runs over to part of the yard and starts to dig. Not in the way where dogs are trying to find something though.
Yoonchae looks on, puzzled, before the dog fetches a few sticks and gestures for the korean to come over with its head. Yoonchae walks over and sees what the dog wanted.
Two sticks placed in a cross above the hole. Yoonchae picks them up and plants them into the ground, officially marking the area as a grave.
The wolf scurry’s off before coming back with a singular cheeto, unscathed from the fight between the dog and the man—except for a small fleck of blood but unimportant.
The wolf drops the cheeto into the hole, and fills the hole back in, now with Yoonchae’s help.
“We gather here today, to mourn the loss of my cheetos. A singular cheeto lays to rest here, finding eternal peace in death.” Yoonchae recites a speech she heard in one of Dani’s shows, carefully sounding out every word. The wolf sits next to her gloomily, as if actually mourning the poor cheeto—which is now buried underground.
Yoonchae wakes up to someone shaking her. She blinks her eyes open groggily to find Megan kneeling down next to her with a worried expression.
“Yoonchip, why are you sleeping in the yard? And why is there a grave that just says cheeto over there?” Yoonchae giggles at the memory of having a funeral for the cheeto, with the dog sounding out small whines occasionally.
“Are you okay? You don’t have a fever do you?” Lara materialises next to Megan, holding a hand to Yoonchae’s forehead. The Korean continues to giggle.
Lara and Megan carry Yoonchae into the living room, where the rest of the girls wait.
“Damn, is she okay?” Manon asks, looking at the slightly delirious state of the Maknae.
“I think she has a fever, must’ve gotten it looking for Sophia last night.” The mentioned Filipina shakes her head, guilt washing over her features.
“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have ran out like that last night. If I knew it was going to make Yoonchip sick..” She trails off as Daniela puts a reassuring hand on her shoulder,
“It’s okay, you didn’t know that, and you both came back, so it’s all okay.” Sophia smiles at Daniela thankfully, the two slipping into their own world as Manon grabs a thermometer.
“Jesus!” Manon exclaims, staring at the reading, wide-eyed.
“What? What is it?” Lara looks over her shoulder and her jaw drops, “102.1!?” Megan scurries over at those words to see the reading for herself. “Woah…”
They’ve situated Yoonchae to sit on the couch, a cold cloth pressing into the back of her neck, and they’ve taken off the girl's sweater, leaving her in a tank top and shorts, they only freaked out a little bit at the sight of blood on the shirt Yoonchae was wearing the night prior.
“The dog.”
“What? Yoonchae what dog?” Megan immediately questions.
“The dog… Sophia…” Yoonchae reaches out towards Sophia, holding her hand gently, “It looked like you…” The older girl flushes red at the comment before quickly composing herself.
“What dog Yoonchip?”
Yoonchae doesn’t answer, in fact she doesn’t answer any more questions, letting her eyes flutter shut with a knowing smile on her face.