“I’m going to buy a drink. Do you want anything?” Jinki asked.

“Um, no thank you.”

“Don’t worry, it’s on me.”

Minho sighed. “I’ll have whatever you’re having then.”

Jinki flashed a smile and walked away to the counter. Minho rubbed his face, thinking what on earth is he doing in a café with Taemin’s boyfriend. He’ll probably tell me to stay away from Taemin. That’s what they do in dramas. Minho considered. Then again Jinki-ssi seems to be a nice person…

“Before you jump into conclusions, I’m not Taemin’s boyfriend.” Jinki came back with two cups of hot vanilla latte, startling Minho. “And I’m not going to tell you to stay away from him.”

Minho blushed in embarrassment. Was he that obvious?

“Thank you for saving Taemin yesterday. It was rude of me to not greet you… I was really out of my cool yesterday. Sorry.” Jinki grinned. Minho waved it off casually in response.

“Anyway, the reason why I asked you to come with me is… Well, I want to talk to you about Taemin.” Jinki repeated as he sat down. “Do you happen to know Taemin before he transferred here?”

“Taemin has been my best friend since young.” Minho explained.

“I see.” Jinki nodded. “Do you know what happened to him, then?”

“No.” Minho frowned. “He disappeared just like that and I… I didn’t even get the chance to say goodbye or anything.”

“Okay.”

Jinki rummaged through his bag for a while, leaving Minho observing him all confused. What the heck was going on? A minute later Jinki placed a small recorder on the table and looked at Minho with a serious gaze.

“Two years ago, my parents passed away in an accident. I was supposed to come to Seoul to find my only relative alive – Taemin’s mother, who was my aunt. She was supposed to be my guardian until I’m at legal age to live alone.”

Minho stared at Jinki dumbly. “I thought this was about Taemin?”

“Yes, it’s about Taemin. And about me, because you’d have to know everything.” Jinki scratched his head. “Anyway, let me continue and don’t interrupt, okay.”

Minho nodded in silence and Jinki inhaled before he proceeded.

“I only met Taemin once before – when I was young and Taemin was still a toddler. I remembered his innocent, happy face whenever he received a lollipop from my parents or me. Anyway, I never really visited Taemin’s family because my parents and I lived at Busan, and it’s quite a distant away.”

“When my parents passed away, I was really depressed. They left me a large sum of money, of course, so I used a small amount of it to travel to Seoul. After searching, I found out the house that my aunt was living in with her family.”

Jinki paused to sip his coffee. “When I arrived there, the house was in a wreck. Everything was broken and messy, and I heard someone crying.”

Minho remembered the scene. When he arrived at Taemin’s house two years ago with no sign of living person around… He shuddered, not liking the fear and discomfort creeping into his heart.

“I barged into the house – it’s not that difficult, really, the door was already broken – and I found my aunt lying on the floor of the living room, dying. She was bleeding so much, I was freaking out – I ran to her and told her to hang in there while I attempted to call the ambulance. She did not seem to be very conscious, but she noticed me and pointed at one of the bedroom. I heard my uncle shouting something at someone and dropped the thought of calling ambulance. Instead, I quickly rushed over and opened the door.”

Minho’s heart was beating furiously. He did not even realize his was clenching his jeans rather tightly as Jinki’s expression became gloomier.

“… My uncle was beating Taemin up. I hadn’t seen Taemin for years but I can never forget how Taemin looks like – even though he’s all grown up. Taemin was at the corner of the room, bleeding from head to toe as well. He was crying frantically, telling his father to stop but uncle grabbed him and attempted to slash him using a knife. I had no idea what happened but I knew I had to stop him. So I took a chair and knocked my uncle off with it.”

Minho gritted his teeth. If he had been there – if he hadn’t avoided Taemin for a whole week at that time, Taemin might not be at home at that moment. He would be outside with Minho or something and this won’t happen.

“Do you want me to continue?”

Minho gasped as Jinki patted his head. “You’re crying.”

Minho looked down, embarrassed. What the hell, why was he crying? His heart throbbed painfully as his head imagined the sight of Taemin with blood all over, crying. Had the boy been calling out to Minho’s name, did he cry for his help?

“Please continue.” Minho cleared his throat. Jinki gave him a sad smile.

“My uncle was unconscious so I took Taemin out of the room. By that time, my aunt’s pulse was not beating anymore. I didn’t want to risk my uncle getting up so I carried Taemin out of the house, got on a cab and brought him to the nearest hospital. He fainted on the way there; he was bleeding so much I thought he would die from blood loss.”

“When he woke up, he was unstable.” Jinki grimaced, “he cried non-stop, and when he was tired from crying he’d fall asleep. Even in his sleep, he would scream and toss around from nightmares. The hospital had to keep giving him sedatives to calm him down. It was really painful and heartbreaking to watch…”

Jinki’s eyes started to tear as well; he had never liked to reminisce that past. He was scared like hell and had no one to depend but himself.

“I reported the incident to the police and coincidentally, they told me that someone else had made a report regarding the empty, wrecked house as well. The police managed to find my aunt’s dead body discarded three blocks away from their house. In any case, my uncle was caught and he’s in jail now.”

They both fell into silence. For a moment, Jinki and Minho tried to calm themselves down – both were crying silently. The other customers glanced at them worriedly but they didn’t make a move to ask or approach the two men.

“I used the remaining money my parents left me and all my savings to get out of Korea. I brought Taemin along with me and we migrated to the U.S. I had a pen pal there, so I got her to help me find accommodations and part time jobs. Thankfully I was fluent in English so it didn’t give me much problem. I brought Taemin to see a famous psychologist at New York and that’s where they treated him. I was lucky because their psychologist happened to be a Korean who goes by the name of Dr. Kim.”

“This,” Jinki touched the recorder he had placed on the table earlier on, “This is the recording of Taemin’s interview with the psychologist.”

Minho gaped at Jinki. The older boy took a deep breath before answering, “I insisted to come with them whenever Dr. Kim had to ask Taemin something, because I wanted to find out what happened. But Taemin threw tantrum all the time – he didn’t seem very keen about anyone knowing about it. So Dr. Kim made me leave the r