Chapter Text
‘I just don’t know Jeongyeon. It just feels off now.’
‘What exactly are you talking about, I can hear you’re distressed but you’re not really being specific. Help me help you.’
Staying up late at night talking to one of her closest friends, Sana just feels tired of the whole situation. She sighs out trembling at the realisation that she might be being played with.
‘The girl I met all those years ago… I don’t know if she’s really who she says she is.’
Sana can hear rustling through the line. Can imagine the look of surprise on Jeongyeons face. She frowns at that, wants to cry but holds it in.
‘Wait really? Want me to get the others to help investigate? You know we’re basically detectives.’ Jeongyeon tries to lighten the mood.
Sana dismissively shakes her head, then answers with a no.
She puts her phone on speaker and moves across the room.
‘I want to know if she really had feelings for me but I’m scared. We haven’t talked in quite a bit, she was mad at me.’
‘What happened though, what did she say you did?’
‘That’s the problem. She didn’t say anything. Just went silent after she ‘needed some space to think’ it just doesn’t make sense.’
Jeongyeon can only sigh, not being able to physically be there is annoying for both of them. Sure she is only minutes away but it's 2am and so unsafe.
Both can only wait for the morning to come.
-----
‘We’ve got to find her. For Sana.’ Jeongyeon voices out to her girlfriend Nayeon. ‘I promised her.’ She’s almost shedding tears. Pulled into Nayeon's arms, they sink in their bed.
‘Don’t blame yourself. Sana’s a big girl. She knew what she was doing.’ Nayeon says, trying to resolve her crying. Jeongyeon hyperventilating at 4am won’t do any good for anyone. It’s really not her fault, it’s not like she found the girl for her. Or texted her in her place.
But she understands. Sana’s been through so much shit. Trusting someone takes a long time for her, and so for this so-called Dahyun to just up and leave really left a dire dent in her already fragmented heart.
‘We’ll find her.’
—---
Jeongyeon finds Sana quietly crying in her room, she all but runs up to her to comfort.
‘I just don’t know what I did wrong.’ Sana whimpers out hanging onto Jeongyeon by her shoulders.
With her body quivering, Jeongyeon could only sigh.
After a long time of aiding Sana's needs and making sure she had eaten and is resting, she slips out of the apartment after leaving a note: ‘Be back soon, there’s left over food in the fridge. Call me if you need anything.’
As soon as she reaches home, she calls Nayeon to help do some investigating. Having known about Sana’s online girlfriend since they started talking, Jeongyeon promises to find her one way or another.
——--
Sana seeks comfort in one of her long time friends Jihyo. She knows she can count on her. They’ve been together through thick and thin and right now she needs her to be grounded.
See Sana is a delicate woman, an only child and so she finds solace from her friends. Over time their friendship bubble grew bigger. The more people, the less secrets.
She really wishes she had kept her online dating a secret.
Now she’s pouring her entire heart out to Jihyo, both having collapsed to the floor. It’s like the pain tolerance she has acquired over the years finally escapes her. Eyes bloodshot, mouth extremely dry and ears ringing loudly she looks pitiful in front of Jihyo.
But to Jihyo all she sees is someone that cares for others even if they are miles away. Someone who listens without ever having something to say. Someone to rely on even if she is going through her own hardships. However, the Sana who built herself up diligently on her own through the years, has come crashing down exponentially and there is only so much Jihyo can do.
——-
Jeongyeon and Nayeon began searching through the internet to find out who this Dahyun is. Really is .
All they know is her first name. This allowed the mystery to keep running deep. But Sana had mentioned her surname was a generic once. She was around 23 and apparently resided in Busan. Ways away from Seoul, how convenient.
The two self made investigators have watched enough tv shows to know what the hell needs to be done. Not wasting a moment, they get to work.
With Nayeon checking her phone number, emails and texts, Jeongyeon goes through her social media. Safe to say Sana had reliable friends.
2 weeks turn into 2 months and Sana slowly peels her shell off her porcelain skin. Some still remain, memories of the dreadfully heavy pain she has experienced but has come to terms with, with the help of Jihyo and her girlfriend Mina. They assure she's not at fault, and that her ‘girlfriend’ is the person who sucks at communicating. It's true. The bubbly woman they’ve grown to loves top quality is communication. She sorts shit out straight away and never holds onto anything.
But when they found out she had been blocked soon after the whole debacle, it's as though a stint had been dislodged in artery around Sana's feeble heart. Meant to fix an awry situation but becomes the main cause. So those dried up shell particles quickly lubricate and grasp onto her heart. Even though Sana still has some fight in her, all the efforts Jihyo and Mina made become futile.
Detective work is not how it’s perceived on tv shows. Normally, they would have found some sort of clues at least a 1 week into searching but 3 months in and it seems like this Dahyun girl really has disappeared. This makes Jeongyeon more determined, so after her shift at Walmart she plops herself down on her couch, cracks her fingers, stretches her neck and gets to work.
Just before reaching the 3 month mark of Dahyun being offline, whilst on Facebook, Jeongyeon see’s an account online. She goes through Nayeons notes and sees it’s an account linked to that of the ghost woman. Thank Nayeon for her thorough work. She sets to work and comes up with various ways of approaching this situation. Amongst the two girlfriends Nayeon was the more hot headed one so asking for her opinion was off the table. She’s on her own.
Coming up with a: ‘hi, I think I know you from somewhere,’ seemed somewhat satisfactory and so hitting send she waits in anticipation. She hears a ding 3 minutes too long and scrabbles to reopen the text box. She’s astonished she even gets a response, if Nayeon was here she’d be cheering for her. How she misses her busy girlfriend.
Chaeyoung Son:
‘Are you sure? I don’t remember you from anywhere.’
Yoo Jeongyeon:
‘I’ve been to Busan a few times and I believe we’ve seen each other. Might not be too close, clearly but I remember a face whenever.’
Chaeyoung Son:
‘I must've made a good impression then.’ Jeongyon cringes. What a flirt.
She relays that she knows a woman called Dahyun and that she really needs to get in touch with her. That she has important information for her.
That’s where things turn exponentially bad. Like rotten.
The girl starts using all these questionable symbols to quite frankly tell her to fuck off.
She’d be offended if she wasn't the least impressed. She will definitely be using this lingo on Nayeon soon.
Whilst she learns something new today, it’s ultimately a dead end.
—---
Jihyo knows of Nayeon’s and Jeongyeon’s meddling and she's honestly glad someone is doing something. The blocking situation was over and done with. Sana too blocked Dahyun back- petty but satisfactory.
Sana is once again glowing, joking more albeit limited she is slowly coming back. Being her handsy loud self. She kind of has Momo to thank. When she had heard Sana was at her lowest she made sure to Skype her every so often to keep her under the wraps. She then took a break from her job soon after and came to her best friend's aid. The day's drive was worth it as soon after she saw her best friend's face she truly noticed how bad the situation was. But their SaMo. And so with that, Sana’s mind was slowly drifting away from the woman who had caused her heart break.
Reaching the 5 month mark, Sana finds the will to go back to normalcy. Her mantra: 'I didn't die before and won’t die now,’ keeps her together. She’s grateful for her friends mending her up as diligently as they can and promises not to fall into a heavy stump again.
----
On one of their walks to the grocery store, joking as always Sana notices someone walk into the same shop they are heading to. She just knows she’s seen them somewhere. Or at least she hopes she has. She pulls Momo inside and keeps her eyes trailed to the suspecting woman in front of her.
The similarities are just too uncanny. It makes her wonder if she’s seeing right. However, she loses sight of them. Letting go of Momo who she tells to ‘continue shopping’, Sana branches off into the depths of the store hoping to see the stranger again.
‘Don’t buy too much of one thing please Momo.’ Sana shouts tilting her head towards her food hungry friend. The latter’s tendency of over stocking on food is a crazy habit especially when it’s on one thing in particular. Sana will be sure to check their basket before check out.
A grey jacket is all she has to go by. It's covered in stickers of all kinds and hides the stranger's frame. Almost looking swallowed whole but still cute, small and cuddly. She smiles.
Sana passes the second aisle and is about to turn back, cautious of her best friend's creativity to hide certain food stuff away, until she sees the jacket again. The person wearing it has their back turned and is busy checking out sodas.
‘Hi.’ Sana springs into action, she can’t let this opportunity go.
‘Hey.’ Their voice is heavenly. Sweet almost. Their small frame makes Sana grin in delight. She waits for the stranger to turn around but before they can...
Momo comes into the same aisle and before Sana can say anything else, like a lucid dream, the strange yet familiar person disappears into a group of teenagers.