The Fault Is Yours

How are we sure it's Justin's? The cap had a name tag. "This is all my doing." I had commented as I held on with the cap closer to me, "If I haven't accepted these items, we wouldn't be in this situation." I slightly gritted my teeth, "Now, Justin's missing and it's because of me.".

"Come on now Jeanne." Vince once again said to me, "As I said earlier, this is no one's fault. anyway, let's just split up and look around for him, okay…?" He then patted my head to comfort me, "Don't worry, Justin might be young but he'll be fine.".

"I know… I'm just really worried, we aren't exactly back home, you know."

"We have to stay positive… He might just be hiding somewhere, come on let's go."

We then split up in looking for Justin but this time we did it in groups. The first group includes Vince, Ebony, and Elise while me and Louie as the second group. Elise wanted to go with me but I'm afraid that I'll lose her too so I convinced her to go with the couple. I'm honestly more relieved if she's with the two of them and not with me.

We then asked locals and other tourists around if they'd seen a very tall young man with dirty blonde hair and quite a lean build. Though we've been asking a lot of people, Justin seemed to be a ghost! No one had seen the kid around.

"Oh my god, I can't believe this…" I'm slowly losing my shit, "Where the hell did you go? That stupid kid!" I was holding back my tears as I don't want to break down, one missing person is enough of a problem, and adding another one will be disastrous. Just where is he…?

"Jeanne! Jeanne!" I heard Louie as he yelled for me. I looked and saw him with a young fellow female tourist and her group was standing near them., I jogged to them as he continued, "She said she saw Justin being grabbed right here.".

"HE WHAT!?" Again…? What's with all this people-grabbing scheme? "He was grabbed!? By who!?".

"I really don't know." She answered with a nervous tone, "I, um, recognized him as one of Out4Blood friends so I kind of, you know… Followed him…" Oh, great another fan. "I just, I just wanted to say hello to him but he's kind of in a hurry after he looked at his phone so I abandoned the thought…" Justin must've seen the message, he did know where to go. "But then out of nowhere, there was this group of people, two girls and two boys, kind of confronted him. He tried to get away but the men caught him and they took him somewhere." Poor Justin, it wasn't even a fair fight. "I hesitated on following them but then I saw you two looking around, I figured you're looking for your friend so… So, here I am.".

"Um, did you happen to see where did they took him…?"

"Oh, um, into the woods…? Near the grand shrine gate thing…? Men, Meiji… Jing, Jin –"

"Meiji Jingu…? THAT shrine gate…?" I then pointed at the huge brownish-red shrine gate that was actually not that far from where we were standing.

She briefly looked, "Yeah, that's it… maybe west of it…?" Louie and I looked at each other and then rushed in that direction. The young woman had yelled, "The name's Yolie!".

I briefly looked and yelled back at her, "Thank you, Yolie!" I had then seen her bright smile and waved us goodbye.

We reached the west side of the nearby woods but still no Justin in sight. As we walk, I held on to the slightest idea of finding my junior. Then suddenly Louie stopped me then gestured for me to be quiet. I then began to hear noises; I couldn't make them out yet but it sounds human. The two of us then quietly went closer to these voices as we also grab lean branches that could pass as a weapon. The nearer we got, the clearer the voices were and to my surprise, it was either Japanese or English… It was Korean.

"[Where are they!?]" I could hear a man yelling, "[Tell us now and we'll let you go.]" Let go…? Is it Justin…? I then translated it for Louie. When we got close enough, we could see one man keeping a lookout in the opposite direction while the other man just then threw a punch at someone.

"Argh!". Wait, that voice…

Just then we realized that it was Justin that had been punched and was now on the ground in clear pain. Tears had gathered on the corners of my eyes as I noticed that Justin had been punched a few times before, his face was bruised and blood had flowed down his nose. Though he was still conscious, it was clear to me that he was beaten.

"[YAH! JUST TELL US!]" The man threw a punch at Justin once more and this time he couldn't get up. He was gasping for air on the ground. No, no, NO! I couldn't take it, I then rushed towards Justin's aggressor and hit him with my thin branch.

"Jeanne, wait!" Louie had then followed me and hit the other guy. When the men were pushed to the ground, I quickly went to my junior and check on him.

"JUSTIN! Hey, Justin…" I sobbingly touched his beaten face, my hands were trembling, oh god, why does this need to happen?

"Urgh…" I then heard Louie grunting, as it turned out, he too was overpowered by the two men. One had hit him in his gut which caused him to curl on the ground in pain.

The men then eyed me, I glared at them as when their accomplices returned, "[What the fuck happened here?]" One girl then asked.

"[His friends found us.]" One of the men replied as they all then looked at me. I didn't know what came to me in thinking they would just let us go.

The girls brought their arms over their chests as one of them stated, "[Well, the more the merrier then…]" Damn, I think these people are Sasaengs or those fans that go way beyond the usual and are so obsessive with their idols that they'll do anything, I mean ANYTHING, just to get and be with their idols.

"NO! STOP! LET GO OF ME!" One of the men tried to restrain me but of course, I struggled, "[LET GO –]" I tried to speak in Korean but he then slapped me. Ouch! The hit was quite strong that it almost took the living daylights out of me.

"[Shut up!]" He yelled right at my face, "[You're going to tell us –]" What the…? What happened…? I just then found myself sitting on the ground as I saw the man fly across a tree. The girls squealed in fear as the man spouted blood from his mouth. He might've hit the tree hard. But who…?

Looking in front of me revealed the person that I least expected to meet again; Choi Kangwoo. We stared into each other's eyes and I think he noticed the blood dripping from my mouth, well, the guy did slap me hard. His anger was reflected in his eyes as he dealt with the other guy as he tried to attack Kangwoo and he too, flew across to another tree.

"[Idiot! Why did you attack Choi Kangwoo!?]" One of the girls shouted as he glared at them. The girls at first liked the attention but as Kangwoo gives them the hate glare, they grew intimidated and tried to run but the other members of the idol group stopped them. Then within seconds, each member lounged at a person, sinking their teeth on their necks.

Though my main concern was my junior. I had to crawl back to him, "Justin… Justin, are you alright…?" But he didn't respond to me, looks like he was already unconscious. My tears had then flowed down my face, oh, my poor junior…

I then noticed Kangwoo trying to carry him, "NO! No, stay away from him!" I grew angry, he had the audacity to touch him. He has no right, I stood up and prevented him from touching Justin. Then as hard as I could, I pushed him away; away from my beloved junior. "This is all your fault! You and your damn group!" I shouted at him sobbingly, "If you hadn't come here and ruined our vacation plans, Justin wouldn't be hurt!" I cried then and there, "IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT!".

I cried hard and when I felt like being hugged, I tried to push him away. I just knew it was Kangwoo so I tried but being the creature that I know he is, he eventually locked me in his arms. The only thing I could do is cry. Why is he even doing this to me?