"Has anyone seen Jungkook?" Namjoon carefully put down the stack of books to the dining table as he stepped closer. His eyes landed on Jin first who shrugged in response, Taehyung and Jimin later who were standing there eating kimchi fried rice out of the bawl eyed Namjoon silently.

Hoseok and Yoongi too had entered just then. Hoseok's curls bouncing up and down when he frolicked towards them, Yoongi following with a ghastly ashen face and clattering teeth, probably for the freezing temperature outside. Namjoon yanked off his baseball cap and exhaled with exasperation.

"I was out to get some books from the library then the landlord called me." The brunet eyed
everyone in the room before speaking out the rest, "He said Jungkook's rent has been due this month and asked about his whereabouts, cause he can't reach Jungkook's number."

"I can't reach his number either," Taehyung said, is lips forming an upside down frown. "I was getting a bit worried not seeing him at the dorm."

"What do you mean? He hadn't come back to the dorm?" Jin enquired with a slight amount of alarm in his tone which made even the sunny disposition of Hoseok grow sombre.

"What's actually happening here?" Hoseok whispered. Though he had heard everything from the top, Namjoon's first question too, he wasn't sure where this conversation was leading up to. He suddenly had his guts wrenching for no reason at all, the quizzical expression on everyone else's faces said they were feeling the same way.

"I don't know?" Taehyung looked visibly uncomfortable with all the eyes on him. "I just haven't seen him around. Maybe he's come and gone-"

"He hasn't," Yoongi replied solemnly. "I hardly sleep at night, I haven't seen him. Not at the campus too."

"Are you sure about this?" Hoseok barely voiced out, his tone laced with concern.

"I don't feel good about this," Jimin piped to himself, the kimchi fried rice laid unattended on the table along with Namjoon's books, lying on neglect as everyone was doubting themselves and the air was quickly getting heavier.

"Ah, come on!" Jin waved a hand in the air as if he was brushing it off. "He's probably staying at somewhere else. His friend's or relative's, and he must've gotten here when we were outside. No way he'd keep his door unlocked for two weeks."

No one looked convinced by his analogy, not even Jin himself could keep the sagacity on his face anymore.

"Has it been two weeks?" Taehyung gulped loudly, or perhaps it rather wasn't so loud but sounded so in the swallowen atmosphere of the dorm.

"I have a very bad feeling about this..." Jimin looked like he was about to cry. No one stepped up to assure nothing was wrong anymore.

Because something definitely was wrong. And it wasn't the weather getting colder, freezing out the water pipes, and the icy wind wallowing around the closed doors, but someone was missing

The thought was starting to become prominent.

That someone's absence was getting prominent. It was definitely like the cold of the winter, when everyone thought the weather was warming up to them an avalanche had fallen directly to their head.

Jungkook was always the oddball, but then, all of the boys were eccentric and idiosyncratic on their own ways.

Jungkook was charming, but often had an invisibility to him as if he was wearing a cloak. His presence was massive when together yet sometimes he was hardly there. Just like how no one could tell if he was residing in his room or not. What actually went on inside his mind, despite that boyish frivolity what was it that made him so enigmatic.

"Tell me one thing," Namjoon was the first one to break the silence. He rubbed his leaden eyelids and sighed to himself. "When was the last time any of you have seen Jungkook?"

No one had an answer to that, of course no one did. The air inside the room was so stiff, thick and mortifying that it felt suffocating.

"Has anyone seen him in the course of these two weeks?" Namjoon asked again.

Everyone silent, then Yoongi spoke. "No. Last time we had dumplings, he wasn't here. Haven't seen him since."

"I remember that his package arrived, a gaming set," Jin muttered to himself, loud enough for everyone else to hear. "And it's still lying there by the kitchen counter!" A sudden realization hit him.

"Oh god," Jimin spoke out of breath, "it's really been two weeks."

Taehyung beside him looked too stunned to say something. Hoseok curled his fists into balls, uncurled and repeated the process. A storm raged inside his brain, looking for the last moments he had seen Jungkook but his brain failed him.

"Maybe we are looking too into this. Maybe he's fine, but just to be careful, do any of you know his classmates? So we could ask them if he had joined the classes. Or any relative?"

Again every attention was on Taehyung because he was the only one of them who actually brought out the cordial sides of Jungkook often. "I don't know. He never talked about his family, relatives, friends, or anyone...," Taehyung trailed off.

"Then what did you guys talk about?" Jin asked with a puzzled look.

The blue haired boy shrugged with his shoulders. "I don't know..., Games, music, movies. Lately he'd seemed busy so we hadn't been interacting."

"Busy with what exactly?" Jin again questioned. Hoseok's eyes turned towards the slightly ajar door of Jungkook's room, the darkness inside seeping out and a trail of the living room's light marking along the tiles of the space.

Soon all eyes were staring at the door, as if it was speaking to them, whispering out an invitation. Even the door looked hollowed, screaming that no one had stepped inside there for days and every one of them felt it mortifying inside of them that they were only noticing it now.

Only noticing now that Jungkook had possibly disappeared two weeks ago. On a cold stormy night, and now he was out of reach.

"S-should we go in there?" Jimin's meek voice was barely audible.

"I can't believe you're the one suggesting this," Taehyung responded in a lower tone.

"When necessity calls arrangements should be made," Jin commented, knowing why Taehyung was hesitant on making a move.

"God, here we go," Hoseok stepped rashly, taking it upon himself but he stopped right when his hand made contact with the doorknob, as if the cold metal had frozen him to his bones too.

The boys hesitantly, and with clear discomfort followed behind. It was simply a wooden door, but it felt so unnerving and spiked a random thought that an unspeakable horror lied behind that frame.

It took almost all his bloody courage, paired with a comforting hand on his shoulder from Namjoon, for Hoseok to finally push that door aside.

The darkness ran along like insects making their home in an forgotten building as soon as light rushed in.

Nothing out of the normal was there, to the boys' comfort. Jin exhaled the longest sigh of relief while Namjoon went inside and clicked on a light switch.

A typical young boy's room, a full time university student which meant there was bit of a mess involved, but nothing too out of place. Jin didn't scrunch his nose in disgust either. Just the bed that was unkempt, a laptop laid on it with its screen blackened, the battery had probably died long ago. A fancy looking cam sat atop it, a ring lamp on the bedside table as well.

"What was he, a youtuber of some sorts?" Hoseok picked up the lamp and as he turned on a button the bright rays almost blinded his vision. He had to quickly turn it off.

"I do not think YouTubers would use webcams, at least, not that only," Yoongi replied looking around the small room.

"Yeah, he probably has to have other equipments, cameras, tripods, others...," Namjoon added.

"I feel like I'm invading his privacy." Jimin only stood in a corner and didn't move from there.

"That's because you are; we are," Jin told him before turning towards the mess again. A few of the clothes laid on the cold bed and Taehyung was poking around them. The room's temperature felt like it was below than rest of the dorm.

It was evident that no-one had been here in days. Jungkook really was missing, from the dorm at least.

"I hope he's okay," Jimin said as if he could read everyone's mind but he himself visibly looked concerned.

"All his stuff are expensive and overpriced," Taehyung remarked as he pulled out an underwear from the blanket using only the tips of his thumb and index finger. "That's a balanciaga, normal broke college students like us can't afford these for outfits let alone underwear."

"I don't think he used to wear such clothes when he first came to the dorm," Jin said with his brows knitted in the middle.

"I remember that he used to steal everyone's clothes for fun," Hoseok added to the discussion. But it wasn't going anywhere, until Taehyung's phone rang so loudly that it made everyone startle and cause the blue haired too to flinch so hard that his phone almost fell from his fingers after he hastily pulled it out of his trousers pocket.

"I certainly hope he's alright but I'm having this horrible feeling," Namjoon said in a hushed tone while Taehyung tried to speak over the call that just came in, seemingly the network was bad because the latter kept asking who it was.

"Same here." Jimin's lips quivered, his blemished face spoke out his fright.

"G-guys! It's Jungkook!" Taehyung screamed suddenly, his hands trembling nonstop and his eyes were wide, pupils dilated. "I can't understand what he's saying but I think it's him!"

"Give me the phone," Namjoon spoke and the device was immediately handed over to him. The rest of the boys stood closer, panicked breathes filling in the air.

When Namjoon put the phone against his skin a static noise followed, a bunch of incoherent words thrown in here and there, nothing could be made out of it and he wasn't sure if it was Jungkook too.

"I think it's because of the blizzard outside that the network is bad," Hoseok whispered in the lowest voice he could measure.

"Could you please talk slowly, and move about somewhere in your area so we could listen clearly," Namjoon enunciated each word with an impactful pause in between.

Still the white noise. Then a trembling voice followed amongst the cacophony.

"S-save me."

The air had turned grave inside, the maddening wind outside rapping at the walls of the old and poorly constructed building could be heard only.

"Someone's holding me captive. Please-" Another agonising second of the audio distorting. "Me...!"

"Jin, please call 119 immediately," Namjoon directly looked up at Jin and Jin immediately understood, rushing to his phone's dialpad the next.

"Jungkook, I am listening. I want you to calm down and slowly pronounce me the address where you're at." Namjoon held the phone closer to his ear and stated.

The following seconds were so gravely silent that it felt like everything had paused, the moments were like decades traversing on.

"It's in Gangnam. Apartment 35-C in Dogok dong building complex, the seventh floor. Tell them our friend has been held there without his will. I have the phone call recorded in case they'd need it," Namjoon said after the short phone call got abruptly cut off. The English major looked quite calm, but the tremble in his voice gave away his true feelings.

Jin nodded and left the room to talk to the emergency center, from the kitchen his voice could be heard. Rest stayed frozen in the spot as if they did not know what to do, all of their faces pallid and expressions mortified.

"What do we do now?" Taehyung's voice reverberated around the confined space.

Silence.

And then Hoseok straightened his backbone and he looked at each of their faces. "The police will arrive I know but I can't sit here after what just happened. I'm going there."

"Me too." Namjoon immediately got ready to leave.

"We should hurry then," Yoongi muttered. The next minute, the three of them hurried to their respective rooms to grab something warmer to go outside.

Jin entered with his phone on his hand. "They're sending a patrol car." His eyes found the two boys, Taehyung and Jimin only. "Where are the rest?"

"We are going there to find Jungkook," They replied, almost in unison.

---
A/n: this is the most intense chapter I've written in a while.

I haven't slept all night it's 11:11 am here so I'm making a wish. And that wish is for you to stay happy.

P.s: yes Jungkook's arc is next I've been researching on it. It might be very triggering to the audience, reader discretion advised. Take care of yourself.