This is your last chance to turn back if you haven't done Saeran's route!

"It's already been one year since the disappearance of Saeyoung Choi, and still, there are no reports on his whereabouts. The twenty-two-year-old from XX City was kidnapped by his father, Saejoon Choi, the former Prime Minister, in order to cover up his blackened past. This is just in time for the presidential elections, coming up this year-"

"You know, watching the news everyday won't bring him back."

MC bit her lip, tearing her gaze away from the tv in front of her, and sighed as she looked up at the man who'd just spoken. He'd been her rock for the past year, the sole reason she was still sane. They had been through thick and thin together, and she was so thankful to have him, but lately she began to think that even he had given up on finding Saeyoung alive. "I know, but every day that I watch it and don't see his face on the screen, is another day that I know there's still hope he's out there."

Saeran Choi, the twin brother of the missing man, sighed, plopping down on the couch next to her. He was silent for a moment, swirling the ice cream in the bowl that he'd just gotten, around, before saying, "MC…I-"

"Don't say it." She looked away from him, back at the news, which had moved on to a new segment, "Not you. You can't say it."

"I didn't say anything…"

"But I know what you wanted to say. You really gave up, then?" She asked, turning the channel to the guide, "You don't think he's coming back either?"

"No one has given up yet-"

"Don't think I don't know." She turned herself so that she was fully facing him, "Everyone says they think he's still out there, but I know they don't. They've all lost the determination in their words, now they just say them to make me feel better."

Saeran's gaze was mixed with emotions she couldn't place, "Can you blame them for trying to move on? It's been a year, and there's literally no trace of him. We don't even have a place to begin with now that our house burned down."

"Exactly! It's only been a year! That's still within the realm of possibility!" She could feel herself getting worked up again, and took a deep breath to try and calm the rush of emotions pouring over her, "The moment we give up on him is the moment he dies, Saeran."

"Which is why we're not going to." He changed positions so that he was facing her as she was him, "Even if everyone else does, you and I won't, okay?"

MC nodded, "Promise?"

"Promise."

She didn't know when it had happened, really, that she fell in love with Saeyoung Choi. For all intents and purposes, she should have fallen in love with his brother. She'd seen Saeran every day, helped him come to terms with his past and himself, and escaped certain misery with him. However, it had been the witty, hard-working, and cheerful hacker that had won over her heart. She'd done everything she could to escape the Mint Eye to be with him, but when she'd finally done it, he'd been taken away from her. Vanished, without a trace. Saejoon, as a last bit of spite, refused to give any clues to his son's whereabouts. He claimed he didn't know where his men had taken him, but even the government knew that was a lie. The former Prime Minister had been sentenced to life in prison for his crimes, with a smile on his face as he was.

"I don't care what you do to me, as long as I know that at least one of those little rats is gone."

That sentence alone had made half the nation believe Saeyoung was dead, but MC refused to believe it until she actually saw his body. A person couldn't be dead without proof, right? And so far, there was nothing. No shred of evidence leading to Saeyoung at all.

Jumin had suggested that perhaps Saeyoung had escaped and went under the radar. He worked for a high-intelligence agency, and had stated before that it would be no problem for him to disappear. As far as Jumin was concerned, that's what had happened.

But MC still couldn't believe that. She couldn't believe that Saeyoung would just leave without a single word to them. She knew he was capable, but…did he really not care at all for the RFA, or MC? If he cared as much as he'd said, he would have left something behind to say goodbye.

So if he didn't take a new name and location, that only raised one question: where was he?

"MC?"

She snapped out of her thoughts to lift her gaze to Saeran, who had finished his ice cream, "Sorry, what?"

"It's late, you should get some sleep."

"Speak for yourself." She said, resting against the back of the couch, "You haven't been sleeping much, have you?"

He shook his head, mint eyes watching the tv without seeing it, "I've been feeling sentimental since the one-year anniversary of Saeyoung's disappearance is in a couple days."

"I know what you mean." MC said, resting her head on his shoulder, "It's hard to stay in this house with all of his traces here. Knowing this is where he used to live is…"

"I know." Saeran responded after her words trailed off, "I know."

They sat together for another hour, watching a baking show on tv. It was their favorite past time as best friends, watching the baking competitions, ghost hunting, or game shows. They were things that could get their minds off of the realization that Saeyoung would more than likely never come home.

After the current episode ended, MC yawned and stretched, saying, "I think I'm going to bed, Saeran."

"Okay, I'm going to stay up for a bit." He said, pulling the blanket they had been sharing further around himself, "Good night, MC."

She sighed, mussing his hair, "Try to get some sleep, okay?"

"Sure."

With that, she retired to the room she had been staying in. Not long after coming back with the RFA, Jumin had suggested that Saeran and MC live in Saeyoung's house, as that is what he thought Saeyoung would have wanted. When the police were finished with their investigation of the property, Saeran and MC moved in. He'd taken the room he knew had been the spare one, leaving Saeyoung's bedroom for MC.

The first night she'd slept there had been terrible, and if she was being truthfully honest, it still was. The thought that this was the bed he'd slept in, the room he'd tried to relax in, gave her comfort, but also sorrow. The blankets had been pulled back and ruffled the first time she'd ever walked in the room, leaving her to believe it had been from the last time he was in bed. Everything about them smelled like how she imaged he smelled. That one scent that was unique to each individual.

Now, as she lay on the side opposite from the one she suspected he slept on, she tried to imagine that he was lying next to her. With her eyes closed, breathing in the smell of him on his blankets, she could almost believe it.

Almost.

In the morning, she reached over to the other side of the bed as she usually did, hoping for the three hundred and sixtieth time that he would be there, and for the three hundred and sixtieth time, he wasn't.

Saeran was already in the kitchen, pouring himself some cereal. MC squinted at him as her eyes adjusted to the light, "Did you sleep at all?"

"A little." He mumbled.

The dark circles under his eyes begged to differ, but she only said, "Good."

"How about you?"

Her eyes flicked up to his and she said, "A little." He handed her a bowl of cereal, and she noticed a draw string bag propped up against a cabinet, "Are you going somewhere?"

"Yoosung doesn't have classes today," He said between mouthfuls, "so he asked me to come play LOLOL with him."

"That'll be fun." She said with a smile, resting her chin in her hand, "I'm glad you two have gotten close."

"He's a good friend." Saeran said quietly, "What will you do?"

"Hmm." She thought about it, "Maybe I'll go on the computer for a little bit, maybe do some Netflix binging, I don't know yet."

"Do you want me to stay here?" He asked, "I don't want you to be lonely."

"Oh please," She waved her hand in dismissal, "I think I can handle being alone for a day. Go do something for yourself for a change. You don't need to worry about me."

"Doesn't mean that I don't." He finished his cereal, putting the bowl in the sink, "I might be friends with the rest of the RFA now, but you're different. Every day I see you worrying about my brother, and it makes me worried about you, too. If anything ever happened to you…"

"Nothing's going to happen to me." She said softly, knowing he was still afraid that someday she would leave him, "I promised you I wouldn't leave you, and I won't break that promise. You mean a lot to me, Saeran. You're my best friend."

This earned a small smile from him, "It's good hearing you say that."

"I know sometimes I forget that you went through so much. I'm sorry, I'll try to remember to ensure you more from now on." She smiled, "I want you to be able to feel happiness."

"I do whenever you're here, MC." He said, "I couldn't ask for a better sister."

Not long after they had released the evidence on the Prime Minister, Saeran and MC confronted each other on the feelings they felt the other harbored. After both rambling for a few minutes, they realized that there was nothing to worry about. Both of them thought of the other as a best friend and sibling, rather than romantically. It was refreshing for them to know that there wouldn't be any awkwardness between them.

MC waved as Saeran left to head to Yoosung's, wondering what on earth she was going to do that day. She hated being alone, but of course she couldn't tell that to Saeran. He worried too much as it was, and spent most of his time cooped up with her. She wanted him to get out more and spend time with other friends. She was happy Yoosung had invited him to play games. Sometimes she wished one of the RFA members would invite her to do something, too.

But she knew Jumin was always busy with his business, and Jaehee was just as busy with the same thing. Yoosung always played games, which luckily Saeran had gotten into. And Zen was either at rehearsal, or studying his lines for rehearsal. Sometimes she felt like she was an odd egg, like she didn't have a place with the RFA.

Before, during times like this spent at Mint Eye, she could always rely on Saeyoung to cheer her up. Looking back now, she could kick herself knowing that that whole time he was joking around and making her feel better, he was really hurting. He busied himself with lifting others up, to distract himself from the darkness he was sinking into.

Like she'd done so many times before, she opened the door to his computer room, the place where she knew he spent most of his time. It was dark now, but she knew it was probably bathed in the light of computer screens at one time. Dust had collected on the desk, along with the monitors and other things cluttered on top of it. She pulled the computer chair out from the desk and sat down, observing the computer screens just as Saeyoung must have done. The keys on the keyboard in front of her were worn from years of his rapid-fire typing, the mouse shiny in the spots his hand gripped.

Tears burned at the back of her throat, and she stood up to leave.

The house was too silent to her, so she padded across the kitchen, to the living room, turning the tv on to form some sort of noise. The food channel was still on from last night, so she left it and opened her laptop to check her Fakebook.

The first thing she saw, was a selfie of a bright and cheerful Yoosung pressing his face against a stoic Saeran. Any normal person might think he was bored, but MC knew that he struggled with expressing his emotions. She knew deep down, that Saeran was happy to be there.

After sifting through a barrage of Zen's selfies, she found a picture of Jaehee's lunch. It didn't look half bad today, so she liked the photo. Surprisingly, she didn't see a photo update of Elizabeth the 3rd from Jumin.

After checking Fakebook, she closed the laptop and placed it on the coffee table. She drifted to sleep after trying to watch more of the baking competition, and jolted awake when she heard the door open. Sitting up, she saw Saeran hanging up his jacket in the hallway, and said, "Hey Saeran, back so soon?"

"Yeah, Yoosung's mom called and said she's coming over tomorrow. So he's currently cleaning up his place." He swept into his room, and then back out into the living room.

"Did you have fun gaming?" She folded her legs so he could sit down next to her, "Any good raids?"

"We did get some pretty cool armor, but the day didn't result in much else than that." He groaned as he sat down, "My eyes are tired from looking at the computer screen all day. Sometimes I wonder how I did it before."

"Maybe because you were drugged." MC suggested.

"You're probably right." He grimaced, pointing at the episode on tv, "I've seen this one already."

MC turned it to the guide, "Did you eat already?"

"Yoosung and I ordered out. Did you?"

"I had leftovers." She lied. These days she didn't have much of an appetite.

MC saw the news channel pop up, and the nightly news was playing. She instinctively reached to turn it on, but remembered what Saeran had said the night before. "You know watching the news every day won't bring him back." Biting the inside of her cheek, she watched it scroll past.

Suddenly her phone started vibrating, and ringing a tune made out of cat meows that she'd set for Jumin. MC glanced at the time, it was six o'clock. Maybe Jumin wanted to invite them for dinner like he did every now and then.

She hit the green answer button, "Hey Jumin!"

"MC, have you seen the news?" He asked in a rush, his voice way more excited than it normally was.

She glanced at Saeran, who was looking at her curiously, "No, why?"

"Where are you right now?"

"At home with Saeran," She answered, sitting up, "Why? What's wrong?"

"Driver Kim and I are on our way to get you." He said, "Be ready when we arrive."

"Jumin, what's going on?" She demanded, her hand fumbling for the remote. She punched in the numbers of the news channel, which she had memorized long ago, "Where are we going?"

"MC," He said, and at the same time the news channel popped up, 'Breaking News' scrolling across the top, "they found him."

Saeran leapt to his feet the moment he saw what was on the television. MC nearly dropped the phone as her stomach lurched and tears sprang to her eyes. It was the broadcast she had been hoping for, for the past year. The Breaking News, the excited news anchors, and the image of a man with vermillion hair.

"They found Saeyoung, alive."

A/N: Woohoo, I'm 707 trash and can't handle the fact that the After Story isn't available yet! The first time I played Ray's Route, I got a normal ending, so here I was thinking all would be resolved with the Good End, BUT IT WASN'T HAHAHA. Thanks Cheritz…thanks.

So in the meantime, because I cannot deal with the fact that my precious boy is STILL MISSING, I decided to make my own happiness. Hopefully, maybe, it might be a little for you too!

I know, I know, this route and ending are for Saeran, but since I have another Saeran story already up, I'm romancing my main man again. No shame, no regrets. It might be the "main stream" thing to do, but I will always love 707 more than anyone else, even Zen, who was my first MM love. I just can't help myself.

Also, I'm pretty sure they said that the Prime Minister's name was Saejoon, but I can't remember for the life of me. I'm sticking to it.

As I know this is kind of a boring chapter, I hope you stick around, because it will get better! At least I hope!

As I do with my other stories, here's my chapter playlist, or the songs I listened to to write this chapter:

Doomed- Bring Me the Horizon

Dark On Me- Starset

Night Riders- JIA LIH

Wake Up- Eden

Crave- Tove Lo

And when I got tired of listening to these on repeat, I was watching Ghost Adventures,

because I'm a GA junkie. It's a problem.

Thank you to everyone who has read, reviewed, favorited, and followed this story so far, you guys rock!

Until next time!