"Shit…!" he cursed under his breath. "I missed them…"

Seeing Cassie leave with Freddie sent every warning bell in his head into a frenzy. After everything he knew about him, his imagination could only drift toward the worst possible outcomes.

"I should have warned her," he muttered to himself—though he knew it likely wouldn't have changed a thing.

Without real proof, she would have assumed he was just trying to sabotage her relationship. And maybe she wouldn't have been entirely wrong to think so.

But blood relation or not, Yohan still felt responsible for her. And he couldn't—wouldn't—let Freddie win.

'I need to do something…'

His only option now was Lisa. She might at least have some idea of where they were headed.

---

He sprinted toward the class Minji was currently teaching. From the doorway, his eyes swept frantically across the room—but Lisa wasn't there.

Minji paused mid-speech when she noticed him standing at the door. The panic on his face was impossible to miss.

"Yohan, is everything alright?" she asked.

"No—it's nothing," he said quickly, forcing a strained smile. "I was just looking for the class rep… Lisa."

His gaze continued to comb through the seated students.

"She left earlier," one of the students spoke up from the crowd, "She said she wasn't feeling too well."

'Damn it!' He gritted his teeth.

"Could you help me with her number—or her home address? It's really important," he said urgently.

The students' attention immediately shifted to Professor Kim, all of them waiting for her reaction to Yohan's sudden intrusion and bold request.

But to everyone's surprise, the strict, no-nonsense Professor Kim— who usually handed out harsh punishments for the slightest disruption— only fixed her gaze calmly on the girl, as if silently urging her to answer.

The contrast was unsettling.

"O-Okay…" the girl mumbled as she rose to her feet and stepped outside the classroom to help him.

The moment Yohan got the information he needed, he didn't waste another second. He turned and sprinted out of the building.

Inside the classroom, Chloe frowned, unable to stop herself from wondering what could possibly be so urgent that he had to track down the class rep like that.

She wasn't the only one.

Even Minji found herself wondering if there was something more going on between them.

"Let's continue…" She called out, drawing their attention and resuming the class.

'Even if there is, it's none of my concern…'

____

Yohan arrived at the hostel address he had been given— it was supposedly the same one Lisa was staying at.

He knocked on the door, and a voice called from inside.

"I'm coming…"

The door swung open to reveal her, a pink towel wrapped around her body, another wrapped around her head, droplets of water still clinging to her skin.

"Yohan… What are you doing here?" she asked, startled.

"I…" Yohan struggled for words, his mind racing for a plausible excuse. But honesty won out. "I need your help."

The worry etched into his face was impossible to ignore. Seeing it, Lisa stepped aside, letting him in.

Yohan was starting to consider maybe Lisa was different. Even if she was working with Freddie, it seemed she genuinely wanted to keep him safe. She might actually have a soft spot for him despite everything.

He fixed his gaze on her, unwavering.

"W-What?" she asked, tensing at the intensity of his stare.

"Freddie took my cousin Cassie," Yohan said, his voice tight. "I need to know where they could have gone. Are they heading to that bar?"

Lisa had her arms folded across her chest. "And why would I tell you anything?"

Yohan's expression darkened, the weight of the situation pressing down on him.

"Please…" The single word escaped his lips, a quiet plea that seemed to strike her conscience directly.

She sighed, her resolve wavering.

"You do have to worry about Cassie," she said slowly. "Freddie isn't going to hurt her. If he wanted to, he would have… taken advantage of her... I think he might actually like her."

She went to the counter and handed him a glass of water.

From where he sat, Yohan caught sight of her sleek thighs, rising higher until…. His face flushed crimson, and he quickly looked away.

"Freddie doesn't hurt the girls he's familiar with… only the ones I bring him," Lisa said casually, almost as if testing the waters, before realizing the weight of her words.

Yohan froze for a moment, piecing it together. "That means it's true… something is actually happening with the girls, and you're involved."

Lisa opened her mouth to deny it, but thought better of it. Maybe, at this point, honesty was the only way to make Yohan back off.

She let out a long sigh. "I'll tell you everything… but you have to promise me you'll finally let it go."

Yohan wasn't exactly planning to keep that promise, but he gave her a small, reassuring nod.

Lisa hesitated, weighing whether this was really the right choice, and finally decided to continue.

"You're right. Something happened to those girls yesterday… something terribly disgusting. And they… they just can't remember."

"Huh?" Yohan frowned, confused.

"Freddie and his friends work for a man—I don't know his name—but he's the chairman of an entertainment company. To Freddie, he's more like an uncle."

"Their business is simple, and horrifying. Freddie brings the girls to the bar, drugs them, and hands them over. After that, the chairman takes them to the executives. I can't say for certain what happens next, but… it's not hard to guess."

Yohan didn't need much explanation. His stomach twisted at the implication. They were taking advantage of the girls.

"When these girls come back, they have no memory of the day before. They just go on with their lives, as if nothing happened."

"What?" Yohan's voice rose, disbelief and confusion mixing. "How can they not remember?"

Lisa shook her head, her expression tight. "I don't know how. All I know is… they have zero recollection of what happened. It's like they were drugged, or hypnotized to forget."

Her words were hard to believe, yet a chilling clarity settled in. No wonder the girls had been so insistent that they'd attended classes yesterday.

"But… if they were really abused," Yohan asked, his voice low, almost trembling, "how… how can they not remember?"

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