no, jiminie, you have to stay in there.

remember, this is a game?

just a few more minutes, jiminie.

what did i say about being quiet, jiminie?

you're not being a good boy, jimin.

be quiet.

it's almost over.

***

"Listen up, everyone. There's been a little bit of trouble finding Jimin, so I'm going to ask you all some questions, all right? You can just call me Miss Lisa, okay?"

The class nodded, and Lisa started going about her rounds.

After talking to all of the girls, she'd learned absolutely nothing. Next, she moved on to the boys.

"Jongup and Hyukk, right?"

They nodded, seemingly pleased with themselves.

"Are you going to ask up questions?" Jongup asked, grinning.

Lisa nodded. "What can you tell me about Jimin?"

"He was such a crybaby!" Hyukk said, laughing, and Jongup joined him, giving him a high five. "Like, every single day. It makes sense why Jungkook won't play with him. If he was my brother, I wouldn't play with him either."

Lisa's smile tightened. They're only 4 years old. Relax, Lisa. Don't smack them. "When did you guys last see Jimin?"

They shrugged, looking at each other.

"We only bother him when he's playing with blocks," Jongup said.

"And when was he playing with blocks?"

"Around snack time?"

"Before or after?"

"I don't know," Jongup said, huffing slightly. "You're asking too many questions."

"Did Jimin leave the room at any time?"

"What do we care?" Hyukk asked, frowning. "The blocks are all ours now."

"You care because Jimin is missing and it's my job to find him," Lisa said seriously. "And you two may have been the last people to see him." Alive, Lisa almost added, but she didn't. She couldn't.

She still had time.

But the two boys just shrugged. "I can't remember, and neither can Hyukk. I don't want to answer questions anymore. It's not fun."

Lisa exhaled deeply, pinching the bridge of her nose before she went to ask a few other boys questions, but none of them knew anything.

Jimin was a good kid, a quiet kid.

It was like he was invisible.

Except to Jongup and Hyukk, for better or worse.

Time to talk to the teacher.

***

"Do we really have to do this in class?" the teacher, Song Eungi, asked, looking over at the kids.

Lisa nodded. "Sorry, ma'am, but this is extremely important." The clock is ticking. Don't waste my time.

Eungi sighed before nodding. "I'm sorry, I wasn't being very considerate. Of course I'm worried about Jimin. How can I help?"

Lisa smiled. "Just by answering some questions. Was there anything unusual about class yesterday?"

Eungi thought hard before shaking her head. "I don't think so. Other than the fact that Tae wasn't in class. Usually, all of the triplets are here."

"Did anyone know that Tae wasn't going to be here?" Lisa pressed.

Did anyone know that Tae wasn't going to be here to protect Jimin?

Once again, Eungi considered her question. "Well, it's school policy that the parent has to call it in, so I knew, but I can't think of anyone else..."

"Did you tell anyone?"

Eungi tilted her head slightly. "I don't believe- oh wait, yes, yes I did. Just Yoo Hyehyeon." After seeing Lisa's confused look, Eungi explained, "She's sort of like my assistant. She used to be on the school board, but her child was killed in a horrible car accident earlier this year or last, I can't remember. Sorry about that. But she's in charge of bringing in snack. I sent her a message saying that Tae wouldn't be here and that she could make one less serving." Eungi paused. "Would it help you to see the message?"

Lisa nodded, smiling. "That would be a great help, Miss Song."

Eungi smiled and nodded. "No problem, let me just grab my purse from the coatroom," she said, getting up from her chair and going into the closet and grabbing her purse from inside her rolling cart that was full of coloring sheets and other miscellaneous preschool activities. Then she brought her purse back to her desk and rummaged around for a few seconds before pulling out her phone. She unlocked it and handed it to Lisa. "It should be in my text messages."

Lisa nodded and quickly found the texts, screen-shotting them and sending them to herself. "Thank you, Miss Song. Will Miss Yoo be coming in today as well?" she asked as she handed the phone back.

Eungi slipped it into her purse. "Today is Thursday, right?"

Lisa nodded.

"Then I'm afraid not, Thursday is her day off."

Lisa's lips tightened, but she forced herself to nod. "Thank you very much, Miss Song. You've been very helpful."

Eungi hesitated. "Is she a suspect?"

Lisa's jaw tightened. "I'm afraid I'm not at liberty to divulge case information."

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, it's just...I know that what I told you might sound bad, but I can't imagine Hyehyeon doing something like this...it's just, she's a close friend of mine, especially since her son's death, and...I don't want anything that I said to somehow mislead you. Hyehyeon is a wonderful person, all the children love her-"

"And that may be why she was able to convince one of them to go home with her," Lisa finished in a cold tone.

Eungi paled, swallowing. "You think she took Jimin?" Eungi looked down before she sat back down in her chair. "Hyehyeon?"

"I don't know. But I'm tracking down every lead and going from there."

Eungi nodded, shaken. "I'm sorry I couldn't be of more help."

"You've done just fine, Miss Song. One last question, when was the last time you saw Jimin? Did you seem him leave with anyone?"

Eungi thought back, rewinding her memory. "Jimin...I remember that he was playing with Jongup and Hyukk..."

"Did you know that he was crying because of them?"

Eungi frowned. "I didn't but I suppose it's possible. I'm sorry, Officer, I know it looks easy to supervise twenty or thirty children but my attention is always split in 20 or 30 different directions. I'm afraid my memory isn't of much use. I can't remember seeing Jimin leave either. Or, I guess it's more accurate to say that I didn't see him leaving with anyone, because I stand by the door and check all of the students out personally."

"Is it possible that someone could have slipped Jimin under their coat or hidden him somehow?"

Eungi blinked. "Hidden him?"

"We think...it's part of our working theory that someone may have put Jimin inside of a backpack and carried him out that way."

Eungi's eyes widened. "Inside a backpack?" She looked down, horrified. "No, I don't...but...Jimin was a small boy...he was a little taller than his siblings, but on average, still small..." She put a hand to her mouth, and Lisa noticed that her hand was shaking and her eyes were wet. "You think they did that to Jimin? What if he couldn't breathe?"

"Please calm down, Miss Song. Take a deep breath. I'm sorry to have to share those details."

Eungi bit her lip before swallowing and sniffing lightly to clear her sniffles. "I'm sorry, I'm just...I care about every one of these children, even Jongup and Hyukk - I know that they can be a little mean to some of the students. But I love all of them. I know that Namjoon must be suffering so much right now, but it feels like someone's taken my child as well..."

Lisa nodded and apologized for the disturbance before leaving Eungi and was about to write down what she'd learned when she felt a tug on her shirt.

"Before," Hyukk said.

"Excuse me?"

"I just remembered, it was before snack." Then he ran off.

Snack time was the last time anyone saw Jimin, Lisa wrote down, followed by more notes.

Yoo Hyehyeon delivers snack. Thursday is her day off so she's conveniently not here to be questioned.

Nobody saw Jimin leave. He must have been sealed inside some kind of container, a backpack or-

Lisa left a blank line and made a note to come back to it.

Kids knew that he played alone or with Tae.

Namjoon called Song Eungi about Tae's absence.

Song Eungi told Yoo Hyehyeon.

Yoo Hyheon's child died within the past two years.

Lisa paused to take out her cell phone and call a contact at the station. "Lisa here. I need a favor. Get me whatever you can on-" She looked down at the pad. "-Yoo Hyehyeon. Female. Works at the preschool as some kind of aide. Text me results ASAP. This is top priority, got it?"

She hung up and hurried back over to Eungi.

"Did you think of another question?" Eungi asked, still looking shaken from earlier, and as Lisa tried imaging a little boy's body crammed inside a backpack, she felt sick as well.

"Yeah, sorry. Yoo Hyehyeon - does she have any sort of box or bag or container that she could have put Jimin in?"

Eungi thought for a moment, wincing as she also was forced to imagine Jimin's body inside some sort of closed space. "Well, she has her snack cart."

"Snack cart?"

"It's her fancy name for it. It's really just a table on wheels. It makes it easier to transport the food. I think it's one of those ones that condense."

"And she could have hidden Jimin in it?"

Eungi nodded reluctantly. "There's usually a tablecloth on the top. Jimin could have been in the bottom section, I suppose."

Lisa went back to the blank line in her notepad.

backpack or a snack cart, she wrote and circled the last two words.

"Thank you, Miss Song. I've gotta run," Lisa said, dashing back out to her car and redialing the police contact. "Another favor. Check the preschool parking lot footage for a woman with some kind of snack cart on wheels. Yes, the woman is Yoo Hyehyeon. Let me know what you find." Lisa hung up and checked the clock.

8:57 am.

Snack time is 10:00 am.

I still have time.

24 hours haven't passed yet.

Lisa sent up a quick prayer and as if in response, her phone dinged with a new message.

This past Saturday, a drunk driving accident led to the death of 4-year-old Yoo Youngjae, only son of Yoo Hyehyeon. The driver was dead on arrival, and only the mother escaped with her life, although she was hospitalized for a period of several weeks during with Youngjae was touch and go before he finally passed after his heart stopped beating.

Lisa gasped.

No wonder this boy looks so familiar.

At least in this photo, he's almost identical to Jimin.

Lisa opened her notepad back up.

Yoo Hyehyeon, she wrote.

Motive.

Then Lisa grabbed her phone again.

And then, almost instantly...

Lisa typed as fast as she possibly could.

Lisa's eyes flicked to the clock. 8:59 am. Just over an hour before the 24 hour point.

Lisa groaned in frustration.

"Stupid Jinyoung and stupid-"

She cut off as her phone buzzed.

Lisa was fed up with Jinyoung and his 80-year-old texting. She called him.

"This is Park Jiny-"

"Obviously it's you. Listen, the cart matters because she used it to smuggle a 4-year-old boy out of a classroom of kids. She abducted him, Jinyoung."

The other end was silent for a moment as Jinyoung processed. "What can I do?" he asked, dead serious. Then, "When was this?" She heard a high pitched sound as he reviewed the video on his computer. "Around 10:00 AM yesterday?" He swore. "It's already been 23 hours-"

"Yes, Jinyoung, I'm aware of the clock," Lisa snapped. "I need Yoo Hyehyeon's address. And backup."

"Who do you want?" Jinyoung asked, and Lisa could heard the keyboard clicking away under Jinyoung's fingertips as he balanced the phone between his left shoulder and ear.

"Im Jaebum. And get a non-cop to go with him, someone who won't scare the poor kid once we pick him up. I don't care who."

"Noted. But Lisa, what if he's not-"

"He's there, Jinyoung. I know it. Now shut up and do what I told you, I'll apologize later but there's a kid out there that I need to get. Send Im to the address after you send the address to me."

Lisa hung up, breathing heavily, and waited for the next message that would give her direction.

Jimin, wait for me, sweetie. I'm almost there.

Lisa took a deep breath and opened the message.

***

Lisa threw the gear into drive and screeched out of the parking lot. Then she picked up her phone and dialed a different number.

"Hello?" answered a quiet voice. A scared voice.

"Namjoon, it's Lisa."

"Any news?" he immediately asked, and Lisa could see him in her mind, cradling the phone against his ear, trying to keep his volume down so as not to excite the kids with false hope.

"I know where Jimin is," Lisa said as she hit the highway and stepped down on the gas.

There was a long moment of silence followed by a drawn-out exhale. "Thank God. Where? When?"

"I'm en route," Lisa said, feeling warmth spread throughout her bones as she felt Namjoon's tension slowly easing. "I'll have Jimin back within two hours, I'd say. The house is half an hour away so I'll call you when I have news."

"Thank you, Lisa. Thank you...so much...Jimin...he means the world to me. Every one of my kids does. Thank you."

Lisa nodded, smiling. "Just doing my job, Namjoon." She hung up and focused on driving. She had a kid to rescue.

***

"Lisa-"

"Don't Lisa me!"

"Lisa, just listen to me-"

Lisa slapped Jaebum's hand away. "Don't try to get me to calm down!" She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "I screwed up. I know."

"Lisa, no one's blaming you. No harm, no foul, right?"

"But there is harm, Jaebum! Look at what time it is!"

Jaebum hesitated before checking his watch.

10:07 am.

Jinyoung had already briefed him on the details of the case, and his frown tightened when he saw the time.

"I'm sorry, Lisa, but that's just a general rule. It doesn't mean Jimin isn't still out there, waiting for you to find him and take him home to his family, right?" Jaebum hesitated but went on gently. "Look, as long as we haven't found a body, we have to assume there's hope, right?"

Lisa took deep breaths as Jaebum rubbed her back between her shoulder blades, trying to release some of her tension, but she was rigid with fear and failure.

She'd screwed up.

They'd showed up at Yoo Hyehyeon's house and kicked in the door when she hadn't answered. They'd started searching the house, and when the woman in question showed up to confront them about intruding, Jaebum had cuffed her and put her under arrest.

They'd done it all without a warrant, and it had been Lisa on point acting as lead.

There would be some sort of litigation against the police for violating the fifth amendment and arresting a suspect without a warrant or proof of probable cause.

All they'd been running on were Lisa's deductions, her faulty hunches.

Jimin wasn't in the house.

Lisa knew almost as soon as she stepped in, but her anxiety had forced her forward.

The clock had forced her move.

But Jimin wasn't there. He wasn't in the house.

Which meant that, 24 hours after he'd been abducted, Jimin was anywhere.

Which was another way of saying Jimin was nowhere.

Lisa sat on the hood of her squad car wondering where she'd went wrong .

She had the motive, the means...

But she didn't do it.

She didn't have Jimin.

And now 24 hours have passed and I'm back to square one and my chances of getting Jimin back safely have just decreased tenfold.

And now I have to call Namjoon.

Lisa hesitated before picking up her cell phone, her hand shaking. I was stupid. I was desperate. I was eager to hurry things up for a guy I know. But I screwed up. I screwed up, and there's a kid out there somehow paying the price with every second.

"Hello?"

"It's Lisa."

A warm sigh and laughter from the other end of the phone. "So you have him now? Is he all right? When will he be home?"

"Namjoon, I-"

"Tell him we have all his favorite stuffed animals waiting for him on the couch. We're going to have a movie night and all snuggle together. It's something he likes to do. Tell him that I-"

"Namjoon, he's not here."

Silence. "What? Lisa, you said-"

"I know what I said. I screwed up." Lisa held in her breath. "I'm sorry, Namjoon. It was a false lead."

Silence.

"I'm sorry. I have another lead that I'm going to check out. I'm sorry." Lisa swallowed. "I'm so sorry." She hung up.