Three.  Four.  Five.  Six.  After the seventh ring, the phone call went to voicemail.  Leeteuk closed his eyes and tuned it out, not wanting to hear the answering machine message again, feeling like it was mocking him.  The high pitched beep finally grabbed his attention and he left his third and final message: 

                “Pick up the phone, Heechul,” he nearly yelled before ending the call, barely stopping himself from throwing the phone across the room.  Taking a steadying breath, he tried to swallow the wave of panic rising in his chest.  He slumped down in the uncomfortable chair in the deserted hospital corridor and tried to think positively. 

                It didn’t make sense that anything would have happened to Heechul.  There was no reason for him to think that way, but Heechul wasn’t answering his cell phone and he wasn’t answering the house phone and he should have been home.  It was his day off.

It’s not like he expected to find out something had happened, but then again, he had never expected to find Yesung like he had.  He leaned forward and dropped his head into his hands, propping his elbows up on his knees.  He had no clue what he was going to do.  No one was answering him.  Kangin never picked up at work.  Even worse, he had no clue what was going on.  The last time he’d seen or heard word about Yesung was when the ambulance had arrived at the hospital.  He’d been sitting here alone ever since just waiting and listening to the sound of answering machines.

                The crackling of the hospital intercom drew his attention and he looked up at the sound only to come face to face with the clock.  His heart leapt.  He had to be at the school to pick up Donghae in less than 15 minutes.  He had completely forgotten.  There was no way he’d be able to make it in time and leaving Yesung was completely out of the question.  He struggled to figure out what the right thing to do was.  He couldn’t just forget about Donghae but there was no one to call.  He really only knew two people in world, and Heechul was missing.

                Picking up his phone again, he bet on hope, pressed his first speed dial and waited, holding his breath and tapping his foot against the tiled floor.  There wouldn’t be an answer if he was still busy.

                The phone picked up after the second ring. 

                Nerves getting the best of him, he blurted out, “Kangin!”

                “Yes?” came the confused response.

                Breathing out in relief and falling back against his seat, Leeteuk asked, “Are you still at work?”

                “I’m just getting out now,” he answered with confused reluctance.

                “Thank God, can you pick Donghae up from school?”

                There was a long pause and finally Kangin asked, “What’s wrong?”

                “Just, can you bring Donghae home?  And do you know where Heechul is?”

                “He’s home, remember?  No work today.”

                “He won’t pick up,” Leeteuk explained worriedly.

                Another pause.  Leeteuk could almost hear the gears turning in Kangin’s head.  “Why aren’t you home,” he eventually asked.

                “I’m at the hospital,” Leeteuk finally began to admit when Kangin interrupted,

                “What?!”

                “I’m fine,” Leeteuk said, feeling his voice growing pinched as he thought of why he was there, feeling suddenly overwhelmed.  “I found Yesung unconscious outside our apartment and he was really hurt.  I called an ambulance and I’m waiting now to hear from someone but no one’s telling me anything.”

                “What?” Kangin’s voice was genuinely shocked and concerned.  “Is he alright?  And wait… are you thinking something happened to Heechul too?”

                “I don’t know what to think,” Leeteuk said, rubbing a hand over his face.  “I don’t know how bad Yesung is, really, but he was bleeding a lot…I just… I can’t get ahold of Hee…” he trailed off as his phone flashed.  Heart rate increasing he looked down and saw he had a call waiting.  Gasping, he fumbled as he tried to put the phone back to his ear.

                “Kangin that’s him,” he said a little too loudly.  “I’ve got to go.  Get Donghae for me, okay?”

                “I will, call me back.  I’ll meet you there after I get him.”

                “Thank you,” Leeteuk said vehemently and then without another word he switched lines. 

                “Heechul?” he wondered, holding his breath as he waited for a response.

                “Yeah, what’s wrong?”  For once there was no joking tone in his voice. 

                Relief at hearing his friend’s voice turned quickly to anger at the thought that he hadn’t answered his calls.

                “Where are you?” Leeteuk demanded.

                “I was covering for a friend at work.” 

                Exhaling in exasperation, he tried to stop his hands from shaking as he said, “I thought…” he trailed off and tried to remind himself that Heechul wasn’t really at fault for anything.  He’d let his own imagination get the better of him.

                “Hyung, you’re really scaring me right now.  What’s wrong?”

                “I’m at the hospital with Yesung,” the blonde explained in a tightly controlled voice. 

                “.” Heechul didn’t sound as surprised as Leeteuk would have expected or liked.  Hoping to garner the appropriate reaction, Leeteuk pressed on,

                “I found him bleeding on the ground outside our apartment.  He’d been stabbed.”

                There was a long silence on the other end of the line, and then Heechul’s voice came back low as if he was talking to himself, “He said he was scared.  I should have trusted he knew what he was talking about…”

                “Do you know what happened?”  Leeteuk pressed, “Do you know who did this?”

                “Of course not,” he sighed, “Is he okay?”

                “I don’t know, the doctors are still with him right now.”

Silence.  Then, “I’ll try to get over there as fast as I can.”

                 “No,” Leeteuk answered reflexively, then quickly tried to justify his decision.  “Not now.  There’s nothing to do here but wait.  I’ll call you as soon as I know anything okay?”  It sounded so tempting to Leeteuk to have someone there with him, but he didn’t want anyone else to be put through the relative torture of just sitting around and waiting. 

                “He’s my friend,” Heechul retorted, slightly stressing “my” for emphasis.  He sounded uncharacteristically mature as he continued, “And you’re not going to play the Lone Ranger hero card anymore.  I’m going to be over as soon as I can catch a bus, okay?” 

                Unable to ignore Heechul’s persuasive tone, Leeteuk conceded, “Alright.”

                “Good,” Heechul sounded satisfied. “If they tell you anything about Yesung call me, okay?”

                “I promise.”

                A long pause followed and then Heechul said as an afterthought, “He’s a good kid, you know?”

                “I know,” Leeteuk said, “I’ll keep a good eye on him, okay?”  In the silence that followed, he absentmindedly picked up his head and looked around the corridor, stopping when he saw someone approaching.  His heart rate increased slightly as he realized it was a police officer coming down the hallway toward him.  He swallowed past his worry so he could finish, “Alright, Chullie, I’ll see you soon.”  He hung up without waiting for a response, keeping his eyes fixed on the uniformed officer coming toward him. 

                A hundred different things occurred to him at once.  His mind immediately flashed to Donghae then to the last time he’d spoken to police after the incident with his brother.  That thought led to his stomach dropping as he wondered if the reason a police officer was there now was because Yesung…

                Before he even realized what he was doing, he stood as the policeman came to a stop in front of him. 

                “Are you Kim Jungsu?” 

                “Uh, it’s Leeteuk,” he corrected with a nervous smile, “no one’s called me Jungsu since before I can remember.”

                “That’s special,” the officer said.  He kept a serious face for a moment and then broke into a smile, breathing a laugh.

                Leeteuk obligingly laughed in return, hating how nervous he sounded. 

                The officer probably wasn’t much older than him and it was almost ridiculous how much he looked like what an officer was supposed to look like:  everything from his short black hair to his posture screamed police.  Leeteuk wondered if he’d been recruited for his skill or his looks.  Currently, however, Leeteuk’s primary concern was how the officer’s dark eyes seemed to be studying him.

                “Anyway,” the officer interrupted his thought, “I’m Officer Choi Siwon.  They sent me to come and check out the case with your friend there.  It’s required that we check up on anything resembling violent crime.”

                “He’s not my friend,” blurted out of Leeteuk’s mouth.

                Officer Siwon raised an eyebrow in half-amused interest.  “No need to sound so nervous,” he said poignantly, “Although, I have to wonder what you’re still doing here if he’s not your friend.”  The question was casual enough, but Leeteuk could just see the calculations going on inside the officer’s head and he didn’t like it.  His fingers twitched against his leg and he flicked his bangs out of his eyes before feeling confident enough to respond,

                “Well, you know, I didn’t know how old he was and he seemed like he was alone and it didn’t seem right to just leave him.”

                “Aren’t you an angel?”  Officer Siwon sounded like he genuinely meant it, but at this point, Leeteuk had no clue what to think.

                A short silence followed and feeling pressured and curious, Leeteuk finally felt bold enough to ask, “Do you know if he’s okay?  Yesung I mean?”

                “Oh, you mean the kid?” Siwon said.  Leeteuk immediately realized he should have pretended not to know Yesung’s name.  He didn’t know how he knew, but he knew he should be distancing himself as much as possible from the forger.  “I actually just spoke to the doctors.  They’re stitching him up now.  There was no major damage done.  They’re saying he’ll be okay.”

                Leeteuk hoped Siwon couldn’t see the relief that washed over him.  “That’s good,” he said, controlling his tone as much as he could. 

                “He was lucky you showed up when you did.  They said he might not have made it if you hadn’t.”

                “I was just walking by,” Leeteuk said a little too quickly

“Yeah,” Siwon mused, “real funny business, though.  I haven’t had a chance to talk to him yet since he’s still out, but maybe he mentioned something to you about what happened?”

                Shaking his head vehemently, Leeteuk said, “Nope, nothing at all.”

                Siwon eyed him suspiciously, but finally seemed satisfied as he continued, “Did you know, by the way, that he’s a forger?” Siwon acted like this would be news to Leeteuk, but the blonde couldn’t help but wonder if he was just playing more mind games.  “Turns out he’s been brought up on suspicion before but they never convicted him.” 

                Leeteuk swallowed hard, stuffing his hands in his pockets to stop them from shaking.  There was no way this Siwon character could know about what he’d done or that he knew Yesung.  It didn’t make any sense.  But he’d known his real name.  He tried to remember if he’d given his name to the paramedics, but he couldn’t remember.

“Yeah,” Siwon continued on, “he apparently came out of foster care.  A lot of kids will end up dropping off the grid after that.  They turn to crime, you know?  You can get into a lot of trouble for engaging in forgery and stuff but, hey, if you can’t prove it…”

Leeteuk’s brain swum with visions of police storming his house, snatching Donghae away and…he blinked and the images vanished.  He was being silly.  Donghae was far away from this mess. 

                “Leeteuk!”

                His heart leapt into his throat as he spun around, eyes wide with horror as he saw Donghae running down the hallway toward him.  The boy came to a stop in front of him and then did a little jump forcing Leeteuk to break into action and catch him.  He stood, holding up Donghae as he did.  His eyes were still wide as he saw Kangin following after, moving like he didn’t realize how very not good this was. 

                “Who’s this?” 

                Feeling his heart pounding against his chest, Leeteuk turned around slowly and Donghae readjusted in his hold so that he could look over at who had spoken. 

                Leeteuk fought to find his voice to respond but nothing came out.  Finally, Donghae introduced himself, “I’m Park Donghae, it’s nice to meet you.” 

                “Park Donghae,” Siwon repeated, smiling, but his eyes were scanning over them.  “So you two are related?”

                “Brothers,” Leeteuk said.

                Siwon raised his eyebrow again in that manner that felt so accusing. Leeteuk suddenly became very conscious of the fact, as the officer looked them both over, that he and Donghae didn’t look enough alike to fool anyone.  Their skin tone, their mouth shape, even the texture of their hair didn’t match.  

“You two don’t look alike,” Siwon pointed out casually.

                “He’s adopted,” Leeteuk quickly said as he felt Kangin’s presence over his shoulder as he finally caught up to them. 

                A light bulb looked like it went off in Siwon’s eyes.  Leeteuk felt his blood run cold.  He knew. 

                “Well it’s nice to meet you, Donghae,” Siwon said, reaching out to shake the boy’s hand.  Donghae, having sensed by now that something wasn’t right about the atmosphere, shyly responded to the hand shake.  “I’m Officer Choi Siwon,” he greeted, and then extended the introduction to Kangin, who simply nodded in response.

                “Anyway,” Siwon said, dropping his hand after Kangin’s non reaction, “I guess that’s it for now.”

                “Wait,” Leeteuk interrupted.  He wanted him to leave.  He wanted him as far away from his family as possible, but how could he just be leaving?  “What about Yesung?  Aren’t you going to investigate?”

                “There’s nothing I can do right now,” Siwon explained, “The police will gladly investigate if it turns out there’s a need, but since this didn’t end up being a murder,”—Leeteuk shuddered involuntarily and tightened his grip on Donghae—“Then we just have to wait until a report is made.  Probably won’t be one though,” he strangely continued, “he’ll probably want to stay out of police matters.”  Finally, with a polite nod, Siwon said his farewell and started to head off down the hallway.  He got halfway there and stopped, just as Leeteuk was setting Donghae back on to the ground. 

                “Oh, and I forgot to mention that the doctors think they’ll probably be releasing the kid tomorrow.  Not that that really matters to you.  It’s a real shame he has no family, but, what can you do.” He shrugged and then continued on his way, disappearing around the corner. 

                Releasing the breath he hadn’t realize he was holding, Leeteuk spun on Kangin.  “How could you have brought him here?” he demanded, pointing to Donghae without really thinking about the fact that the boy could hear him.

                Looking like he really didn’t understand, Kangin said, “You said to come here after I got him from school.” 

                “I meant after you dropped him off at home!”

                “How was I supposed to know that?  And did you seriously want him staying there alone?  I had no clue what went down.  I didn’t know if home was safe!” 

                “Guys, don’t fight,” Donghae broke in, stepping forward.  “It’s okay, right?” 

                Leeteuk spun around, crouched down, and pulled Donghae into a hug.  “Of course,” he said, seeking to reassure himself as well.  How could he have been the only one to notice the way Siwon had been looking at them?  It was so obvious that he suspected Donghae wasn’t really rightfully there’s.  It was in his eyes. He saw right through them.

                “Is Yesung alright?” Donghae asked. 

                Standing back up, Leeteuk said, “Yeah, he’s going to be alright.”  He fished around in his pocket and pulled out some money, handing it to Donghae.  “Why don’t you go get something from the vending machine down the hall okay?”

                “That’s alright, I’m not that hungry.”

                Leeteuk was staring directly at Kangin as he insisted, “Then go get me something.”

                Picking up on the fact that Leeteuk wanted him to disappear for a minute, Donghae concluded, “I’ll just take my time then…” and went on his way.

                “What happened?” Kangin asked, the moment Donghae disappeared. 

                “Yesung was stabbed,” Leeteuk said, “I don’t know why, don’t bother asking.”

                “You sound mad.”

                “I’m not mad I’m terrified,” Leeteuk exclaimed, “Did you see how Siwon was looking at Donghae—was looking at us?  He knows.  There’s no way he doesn’t know.  He kept making references to Yesung’s forgery and he used my real name and…”

                “Well, he’s a police officer, he’s supposed to know that kind of stuff that doesn’t mean he knows.  How could he possibly know that?”

                Leeteuk sighed, trying to latch on to Kangin’s confident assurance.  “I hope you’re right.” 

                “How are you feeling?”

                “Fine,” Leeteuk sighed.  He wished he could be mad still.  Being mad felt strong.

                “Do you want me to take Donghae home?”

                “Yes…I don’t want him anywhere near this whole business.  Whatever happened to Yesung…it probably involved some rather unsavory people.”

                “You’ll be alright on your own?”

                “Heechul said he’s coming.”

                Kangin scrunched his nose.  “Of course he is.”

                “Don’t be jealous.”

                Ignoring this latter comment, Kangin said, “Call me.  Don’t forget this time.  The second you know anything get in touch with me.”

                Realizing that Kangin was sounding like he actually cared about Yesung’s condition, he decided to goad, “You really do care, don’t you?”

                “Shall I set up the guest bedroom?”

                “Wait…”

                Rolling his eyes, Kangin said, “Well obviously you’re not going to let him stay anywhere else.  And a warehouse is no place to recover, especially if someone was trying to kill you and knows where you live.” 

                “I appreciate you, Kangin, you know that right?”

                “You’re killing me, Leeteuk.”    

A/N  Alright, a few quick things.  1.  Sorry this took so long to get to you!  I'm pretty swamped right now. I have finals coming up really soon and I'm so busy it's ridiculous. :p    SO, that means the next update will probably be in like... a week and a half because that's when finals are over.  But then it's SUMMER :D  So I will have tons more time and this will be updating like the good old days again. XD  I apologize and ask for you patience <3  :)
2.  I haven't had a chance to responsd to your comments from last chapter  individually so I apolgoize and hope I will find time to do that but no promises there. XD Just know that I've read them and I appreciate them SO MUCH <3 
3.  What do you think of our new character?  Sidenote:  just to make this clear, he is one of two characters who will not end up at the apartment with the rest of them because it doesn't make logical sense to me HOWEVER...that is subject to change. XD  Also don't freak out...I promise he's not evil. XD  You'll see what happens with his character over the next few chapters...whenever you get those. XD <3

4.  I hope this chapter makes sense....I wrote it pretty late last night... XD  And sorry if it ends abruptly, it was suppossed to be a longer chapter but I just wanted you guys to have SOMETHING to read before I start hibernating for finals. XD