Missing: Mis-ing

             Adjective

             absent from a place, especially their home, and of unknown whereabouts.

Missed: Mis-d

                Verb

                Notice the loss or absence of.

“Jiyong…”

The sound of Seunghyun’s voice brought Jiyong’s thoughts to a standstill.

“What is all this?” Jiyong chokes out.

“Yeah, a bunch of them just started disappearing.” The policeman just shrugged coming to stand next to him. “Probably just decided to leave this dead beat town.” He says with a laugh.

“Isn’t anyone looking for them?”
“Nope, What’s the point? This town is probably better without them.”

“How can you say that? Aren’t the police supposed to look into this? It’s not normal.” Jiyong shouts, horrified at the policeman’s indifference.

“You won’t understand; these families are better without those people.” Seunghyun says walking to his desk and takes out some papers and hands it to Jiyong and looks pointedly in his eyes, “Don’t get involved.”

Jiyong stumbled out of the police department, something about the look in Seunghyun’s eyes cast fear in Jiyong’s body. Something was going on and the police were definitely ignoring it, if not hiding it, but Jiyong could not let it go, not with the photos in his house pointed to countless more victims. Jiyong goes to the studio and pulls up the details of his clients. He pulls up the information on Mr. Kang, they didn’t leave much information, but they did leave their address and Jiyong was going to pay them a visit.

Jiyong walks down the paving, he rarely came to this part of town, the place where the high class stayed. He always avoided it because it reminded him of the life he could have had. He spots house and goes up the neat pavement and goes up the patio and then knocks the door. A few moments later a bright voice shouts, “Coming!”

The door opens to a smiling Mrs. Kang.

“Ah, Mr. Kwon, what can I do for you today?”

“Well… I know it may be rude of me to ask, but I would like to ask you some questions about Mr. Kang…”

At the mention of her husband, Mrs. Kang’s smile faltered, but she managed to remain composed. Jiyong was beginning to understand what Seunghyun was referring to…

A half an hour later, Jiyong thanks Mrs. Kang for her time before leaving. What he saw the house was not what he was expecting. A happy household, the children enjoying games and a happy Mrs. Kang. It was as if Mr. Kang’s disappearance did not even cast a shadow on the Kang household. But once Jiyong started talking to Mrs. Kang about Mr. Kang, she began candidly explaining how life was better now the Mr. Kang was no longer there. It became apparent that Mr. Kang was an abusive force, both verbally and physically. Later that night when Jiyong went back home he looked carefully at the photos that were taken. Upon closer inspection, it was clear that the coloring on Mrs. Kang’s arm was off, make up trying to cover the bruises that swirled underneath.

Mr. Kang was not only the one with such a history, in fact many of the other people have similar stories although not all of them had story of abuse, but one thing was apparent, their disappearance had all turned their families’ life for the better.

Although it became apparent that it would be better without the missing people. It still didn’t explain where all the people have gone. Was it possible that they all just woke up one day and decided to leave? Or were they forced to leave? Where did all these people go? Was it coincidence that all these people who were causing unrest in the house realize that they were the problem and leave?

All this did not make sense to Jiyong, and needless to say how the polaroid camera would be predicting something like this? Jiyong was not even looking where he was going when he bumped into someone. He says a quick apology when he realized that it was the junior officer, Seungri.

“Hey!” He says excited, “You still interviewing people?”

“Yeah…”

The officer starts laughing, “You’re just wasting your time, dude… But you know what? I suspect foul play you know… What are the chances? but Seunghyun keep telling me to mind my own business you know. Don’t tell him I told you this but… I’ve seen him around the doctor, Kang Daesung a lot recently. I smell something fishing going on.”

Jiyong wanted to ask more but then the officer was already talking about something else and Jiyong was unable to steer the conversation in that direction again. The two part ways shortly but Jiyong was already on his next goal. He needed to go talk to the Doctor, he must know something. He was the only doctor in their small town; he had to know something. Thinking about the doctor brought back memories of the past, Jiyong and Daesung used to be the best of friends when they were in middle school, but once they reached high school they went their own ways, but they would still meet up sometime. It was also during that time when Daesung caught the attention of the bullies. Jiyong never did any bullying and they eventually stopped talking when Daesung moved to another town. Jiyong was surprised when Daesung moved back to this dump as a doctor.

Jiyong knocked on the door of Dr. Kang’s medical practice. The Doctor smiles when he sees Jiyong. “Jiyong! Long time no see! What brings you here today?”

In that moment, Jiyong saw his old friend, possibly the best friend he ever had and he just started pouring out everything that has happened in his life and this mystery surrounding the photos.

Daesung listened carefully the whole time and when Jiyong runs out of steam, he pauses for a few second before speaking.

“This all makes sense now… Officer Seunghyun has been asking me so many questions that in retrospect seems like he was asking how to get rid of evidence of murder. Do you think he is responsible for all these missing people?” Daesung asked.

Jiyong’s thinks about Officer Seunghyun’s behavior, it was definitely suspicious. But other than speculation what proof is there?

Then it hit’s him, he just need to find the proof and he had just the camera to help him. He thanks Daesung and leaves the building as he was passing the alleyway. Jiyong is grabbed off the street and pulled behind the dumpster. Jiyong is disorientated so it takes him a few moments to realize that officer Seunghyun was holding him by his collar.

“I told you to not get involved!” He yelled into his face.

“I know what you are doing! I’m not going to let you get away with it.” Jiyong yells before spitting in the officer’s eyes, stunning the man and making his getaway.

Jiyong knew he had limited time, he wasn’t going to be able to get the evidence now that Seunghyun was after him, he needed to get all the evidence he had gathered so far to the only other person who knows the while story, his former best friend, Daesung. Jiyong ran back to his house and grabbed the camera and started stuffing the polaroid into a box. Jiyong tried to put as many as he could into the box before closing the box and balancing the camera on top of it. He spins around at the sound of footsteps, causing the camera to fall. He reached out his hand to catching it but only manage to knock it when there was a bright light of the flash. There was the familiar mechanical sound and Jiyong stops in his tracks as the photo develops. It was a photo of Jiyong, except Jiyong was not in the picture. Jiyong felt sick as he checked the background and angle definitely would have captured him but he was missing. Feeling a new sense of urgency, he grabs the box and camera and heads out slowly, there was no one to be seem and Jiyong quickly got into his car and drive to Daesung’s practice, he was Jiyong’s only hope seeing as Jiyong didn’t know how long he had left. He runs to knock on the door, and after banging for five minutes with no answer, Jiyong was starting to fear that Seunghyun had already gotten to Daesung. He yelled Daesung’s name one last time before there was a loud whack followed by pain at the base of Jiyong’s skull.

Darkness

Jiyong groaned in pain as he moved his head. He tried to move his head, but they were bound.

“Seunghyun!!!” Jiyong yelled loudly, “I know it’s you.”

Suddenly the darkness fell away as the blindfold fell onto his lap, “Sorry, but wrong person.”

Jiyong strains his neck trying to see the killer.

“Daesung…?”

“Correct!” His former friend came to view.

Jiyong was at a loss for words, “Why…” he manages to croak out.

“Why not?” Daesung asks. “Everyone is happier without those people. Those people cause suffering, just like you.”

“What do you mean? What did I do?”

‘It’s what you didn’t do. All the people that were important to you needed you, but you always chose to look away. Your father’s death could have been avoided, your mother’s insanity cured, but you always chose to ignore, only thinking about yourself.”

“What did I do to you?”

“like I said, it’s what you didn’t do… When those kids beat me up, all you did was look away.”

“What could I have done?”

“You abandoned me… I didn’t need you to stop them, I just needed a friend. But you know what? I don’t need a friend anymore.” Daesung says as he goes over to the table and picks up a syringe.

“it was nice knowing you…” is all he says as he plunges the syringe into Jiyong’s arm.

Jiyong doesn’t go immediately, his brain still thinking as a fire burns through his blood vessel, but eventually his consciousness starts fading.

“Was I really a burden?”

Epilogue

The town paid no attention to the ashes of evidence as the house at the edge of town crackled as flames. By the time the fire fighters got to the scene, the fire had burnt itself out. The older guy wipes sweat off his face as him and another younger man walked through the ruins.

“This was that photographer’s house right?”
“Yeah, I think went to school with him too, such a shame.”

“really Youngbae?”

“Yeah… You want to hear a strange story?” Youngbae said.

“Back in high school, I used to work at the hardware store. About a week before graduation, Mrs. Kwon came in and brought some heavy-duty rope, but the strange part was that I saw a bunch of pills in her bag. I swear it was the new street drug, I heard that it gives you a high like crazy, but if you take more than one, it could make a grown man hang himself.