The afternoon sun was setting, staining the whitewashed walls crimson. Henry was still playing his violin, filling the house with sweet lullabies. The volume was soft, so that the notes drifted through the house almost reluctantly. Even Heechul did not have the heart to snap at the maknae to stop playing; or maybe it was because he had a lot to think of on his plate.

Sungmin brought Ryeowook out to the grocery store, both riding on bicycles. The exercise would clear Ryeowook’s mind, and grocery shopping would give him something to focus on. Nobody liked it when the eternal maknae was continuously close to tears. To protect him from touchy members in the house, Sungmin glared at anyone who got in the way and ushered Ryeowook out quickly.

Eunhyuk, Donghae and Kibum filled the room the youngest four shared. The minute Kyuhyun and Zhou Mi came into the house, Eunhae pounced on the maknae. Kyuhyun looked contemplatively at the laptop set up in front of him. While the other two parties were gone, the three of them had kept themselves busy. Kibum had already broken through the school’s firewall, with some data manipulation and whispered secret passwords from the resident reluctant school councillor, Eunhyuk. Only Kyuhyun, however, had the experience of hacking through the orphanage’s data files.

“Can you do it?” Donghae asked, completely at loss at the technology in front of him.

That made up Kyuhyun’s mind. He shook his head to forget the words ‘BRAT, giving me trouble with your hacking’ and his fingers flew across the keyboard.

“Of course I can,” Kyuhyun brushed off. He sat up straight and his concentration did not waver from the computer screen. After a while, he spoke up hesitantly, “Eunhyuk-hyung?”

Eunhyuk threw the wad-up ball of clothes to Donghae. “Yeah?”

“When you were gone, I thought the call made was just a prank call.” Donghae lied down flat on Ryeowook’s bed, catching the balled-up shirt easily. He murmured a soft, “Ah”. So that was what he was worried about.

“I heard about that.”

“Sorry.” Inside, Kyuhyun sighed. That was the second time he apologised in three days. Still, the guilt had been eating him up the whole of the night so that he could hardly sleep.

“It’s okay.”

Kibum sat on the rotating chair at the side of the study table and turned around. “Did you get it?” he cut across.

Name; Choi Siwon, currently aged 16

Admitted; aged 12

Disabilities; none

Reason for admission;

court-ordered by Family Court

history of child abuse (violence) see photos

Next of kin; mother (deceased), father Mr. Choi Soon Yul (aged 49), no siblings

Comments: next of kin not allowed visiting privilege by court order

Note by court order, Choi Soon Yul is no longer orphanage patron more details.

Kyuhyun paused, to allow the rest to read the background summary.  Then, out of impulse, he clicked ‘see photos’.

The rapid movement behind him was almost frightening. Donghae cried out and instantly lunged forwards to slam the laptop shut. His fast reflexes meant that the others only caught a glimpse of the first image, but it was enough. Siwon’s childish face was battered in the mugshot. His right cheekbone was coloured blue-black with a reddish tinge, and he had a black left eye. His lower lip had a cut he was chewing on.

Donghae and Kyuhyun had both seen Siwon enter the orphanage, but Eunhyuk came along a few months later and Kibum had only been in for the last year. “Hyung!” Eunhyuk exclaimed, reaching out to touch the screen. Kibum went stock-still.

“Kyuhyun, why did you show them that photo?” cried Donghae, almost near tears himself as he looked at Eunhyuk and Kibum in panic.

“Siwon-hyung got his injuries from his father?” Kibum asked, his breath hitching. “That man is with him now?”

Eunhyuk looked down at his arms and legs, and his own bruises seemed insignificant now. The mugshot looked closer to how Kyuhyun had been in the hospital; but he had been spruced up nicely by the doctors before Leeteuk allowed any of them to see him.

Kyuhyun ignored them all and reopened the laptop. He went to ‘more details’ instead. He never had opened that file; not interested in anything about the orphanage staff during his stay.

Choi Soon Yul was the biggest donator to the orphanage fund since its conception fifteen years ago. Following his arrest, the orphanage fund has been suspended by the police claiming illicit money.

“So that’s why the orphanage closed down,” Kyuhyun said, realisation dawning onto his features. “Siwon’s dad stopped donating and we ran out of money.”

Nobody answered him, so he looked around. To his mild curiosity and annoyance, nobody was following his train of thought.

“I was twelve when I came in too,” Eunhyuk accused. He drew a line in the air, trying to imagine a timeline. “How come I never saw Siwon-hyung?”

“He came in after me,” Donghae explained kindly, “but he went to the hospital for a long time. When he came back, he got into a foster home for a while.”

“I thought normally after you hit adolescence, the chances of being adopted or in a foster home shortens dramatically,” intoned Kibum. The recital of data shook him out of his shock. He was thirteen when he entered the orphanage, and stayed there all the while except for a brief stint in an elderly couple’s home for a few months.

“You were lucky to even get a foster home actually,” Kyuhyun replied impatiently, ready to get back to the facts. “It’s because you and Siwonnie-hyung have ‘good looks’.” He said it in a haughty tone, and all of them recognised the imitation of the head staff at the orphanage.

Eunhyuk nodded slowly. “The orphanage ran out of money?”

“After four years?” Kibum said incredulously, glancing back at the screen. “Which privately-funded institution has that kind of money?”

“Can you stop using such big words?” Donghae whined to Kibum.

There was a shadow of a smirk on the latter’s face. “It’s more likely we ran into staffing problems… It was eventually down to two staff members to cater to nearly thirty of us…”

“And then Heechul-hyung drove out the staff he hated when he became of age,” Kyuhyun agreed, “down to one. It’s illegal to care for so many kids… there was no choice but to break everyone up.”

Donghae bit his lower lip as he glanced at Kyuhyun’s nonchalant face. Breaking up the orphanage was nothing; to him, kids came and went out of the building so often it was a normal occurrence. Nobody really stuck by him long enough to convince him that a family was an unbreakable unit. In fact, he had been the most surprised when Leeteuk – who had just came of age after the orphanage broke apart – suggested hesitantly to adopt them as family.

Eunhyuk was quiet again. “Does this mean Choi had found his ‘son’?”

“Choi?” repeated two ignorant voices. Kyuhyun averted his gaze at the familiar name.

“The man who kidnapped me.”

“If he has…” Kibum said slowly, scrunching up his nose as he did when an idea displeased him, “then he has no more use for Yesung-hyung.”

He looked at them with a blank face as they all inferred what he meant. “He won’t kill him!” exclaimed Eunhyuk, horrified. His voice was raised to a yell.

“He has no more use for him,” Kibum continued mercilessly.

“He messaged Heechul-hyung, remember?”Kyuhyun said, wide-eyed at the turn in the conversation. Eunhyuk had relayed his conversation in the kitchen when Kyuhyun arrived.

“Delusional? To thank him?” The monotonous tone was maddening. Eunhyuk’s mouth was open, and he looked even more distressed than before.

Once more, Kyuhyun demonstrated why he was the smartest after Kibum in school. His memory served him well. “That’s what your father did after he stabbed your mother,” Kyuhyun said. The text message was sent to his mother’s brother, who alerted the police. Kibum’s father had no longer been in his right state of mind.

Kyuhyun recoiled a bit under the receiving end of Kibum’s glare. Without another word, Kibum got up from his seat and walked out of the bedroom. Eunhyuk stared after him. Donghae gave a cry of exasperation and followed behind.

The silence in the bedroom was deafening for a while. “That wasn’t a very nice memory to bring up,” Eunhyuk told Kyuhyun finally.

“It was in his report,” Kyuhyun commented, refusing to show the gnawing feeling in his stomach.

“Still.” Eunhyuk looked down at his shoes. “Kyuhyun? What’s in my report?”

“Shouldn’t you know?”

“Huh?”

“Everyone at the orphanage knows how they’re there,” the fourteen-year-old said. “It’s not really a question of ‘How’ anymore… it’s more of ‘Why’.”

Eunhyuk knew how he ended up there. He lived a happy, even if it was sparse, life with his parents and older sister. One day, his parents told him that they could not afford them anymore. There were tears and arguments after that, but there was little a fourteen and fifteen-year-old kid could do to contribute to a non-existent family income. His older sister was adopted, but occasionally he saw either of his parents visiting him for a year before they moved to a very rural part of Korea.

Kyuhyun knew the drawn look on Eunhyuk’s face. He gave him a moment, before saying gently, “Should we show this to Leeteuk-hyung?”

Shindong’s bedroom, shared by Leeteuk, Kangin and Yesung as well – though the latter two were usually at their universities – was usually out of bounds to the rest of the family. No law was implemented to bar anybody from entering any room, but they tended to stick to their own bedrooms. Leeteuk suspected it was due to the strict dormitory rule enforced in the orphanage. He liked to remind the younger ones to come to his room for help anytime though.

Henry stood outside the bedroom on the balls of his feet. He had put his violin away, too worried to think about the notes he was playing anymore. The first landing was now quiet; Shindong’s bedroom was next to the kitchen where Heechul was currently lording over. He stood up straighter to summon his willpower, and knocked on the door.

“Come in!” called Leeteuk. Henry went in. It was not the first time he ran into the room because of nightmares.

Shindong was on the telephone, telling his boss that he was not going to come in for work due to personal reasons. He was making faces at the telephone as the miniature yells could be heard even from where Henry was standing. Leeteuk was sitting on his bed, his right arm freshly bandaged. The sparkle in his eyes was back, at least for a while, as Shindong entertained the both of them.

“What’s wrong?” Leeteuk asked, patting the empty spot beside him invitingly.

Henry considered the question. His chief playmates; Ryeowook and Donghae were too busy to be around him. He was too scared to go to Heechul, and Zhou Mi was in the bathroom still.

“I just wanted to see you,” he shrugged finally.

Leeteuk gave his dimple-smile. “Aish, you’re so cute.”

“What’s going to happen now?” Henry wondered, twisting the edge of the blanket.

“Eunhyuk, Donghae and Kibum are looking up this man, I believe,” Leeteuk murmured. “I’m going to wait until they’ve got something, and when Kangin is ready, I’ll go to the police station with him.”

“Will they listen?”

“They’ve no choice. We’ve got witnesses, and I’m calling in my friend. He’s a senior police detective, U-know Yunho.” Leeteuk had done a lot of thinking on the car ride back home, guiltily leaving Zhou Mi to comfort Kyuhyun. He did a good job of it though. “If we get a name, and a face, it’ll be a lot more helpful. Besides, this is a small town.  If Eunhyuk can come back within a day, he’s not very far away.”

“It’s kind of scary,” Henry admitted.

Leeteuk gave Henry a sideways glance. He put his left arm over his shoulders and gave him a squeeze. “Nobody else is going anywhere.”

“We’re on a lockdown, people,” Leeteuk announced to the rest of the family. He noticed a lot of glances sliding towards his bandaged arm and added hastily, “It’s fine, just a scratch. And no, don’t insert a sarcastic remark there, Kyuhyun. It's really just a scratch.”

Kyuhyun slumped back to his seat.

“I’m going to the police station now with Kangin and Heechul,” he continued, “nobody is allowed to leave this house. If anybody as much as knocks on the door, run to the rooms. Got it?”

Nods went around the room. “Hangeng is in charge.”

The Chinese member was sitting on the floor, holding a towel to his wet hair. “You can help me make lunch.”

“Anybody else has anything to add?”

“I do,” Sungmin said carefully, raising his hand halfway. He exchanged glances with Eunhyuk. “Eunhyuk and I are supposed to go back to school this afternoon, to help with the school carnival. We told them we couldn’t make it this afternoon but we do need to go back to school eventually on Monday for the carnival… right?”

“I haven’t thought that far,” Leeteuk said sheepishly, “what do you think?”

“We can’t stay here forever,” Sungmin pointed out.

Leeteuk pursed his lips. “We’ll see.”

Shindong followed Hangeng into the kitchen. Zhou Mi stayed where he was, determined to catch up. “Choi Soon Yul – how do you write his name characters?” Zhou Mi asked. His bright red Ray Ban spectacles slid down his long nose as he passed Kyuhyun paper and pen. When the adults cleared the room, Kibum turned to Eunhyuk and offered a packet of strawberry milk.

“That’s your third packet,” Kyuhyun mentioned in passing, glancing up briefly as he carefully wrote down the hangul.

“Shut up, Kyuhyun,” Donghae, Eunhyuk and Kibum said. Kibum cleared his throat. “Sorry about earlier,” he said, looking around before finally meeting Eunhyuk’s gaze. The mugshot reminded him of himself… and he allowed himself to wallow back into the past.

“It’s okay,” Eunhyuk grinned, showing his gums. “I was shocked too.”

Donghae beamed. “I’m so proud of you two.”

“What happened?” Ryeowook asked, interested.

“Eunhyuk, come here, we need to plan the school carnival,” Sungmin sighed, gesturing towards the younger boy. “Are you feeling up to it? We haven’t brought you to a doctor yet. And where’s Henry?”

All of them looked up. “HENRY!” Ryeowook shouted instantly, his heart skipping a beat, just as Eunhyuk replied, “Aren’t doctors expensive though?”

There was scampering of feet.  Henry appeared at the door seconds later, wailing in English.

“Calm down! Where’s Si–” Sungmin cut himself off. Siwon was their chief bilingual translator.

Henry appeared confused for a second, and then switched languages. The frustrations of not mastering the main language were clear. Zhou Mi raised his eyebrows. “Where?” he replied, in Korean.

“What’s happening?” Donghae asked, agape.

“The lights been cut off,” Zhou Mi translated Henry’s halting Chinese, frowning. They looked at each other. Sungmin, the nearest to the switches, got up and tried them. In the afternoon, strong sunlight illuminated the house. They usually left the switches off to conserve electricity.

The lights remained switched off.

Hangeng wandered into the living room from the kitchen entrance. “I’ve noticed that too when I was bathing. You mean it’s just been cut off?”

“It was fine just yesterday,” Ryeowook replied uncertainly.

“It means the bills haven’t been paid for a while,” Hangeng said, frowning a little. “The electricity goes off first, then the water.” They bought their own gas for cooking.

All of them understood the implications. Suddenly, Heechul’s and Leeteuk’s late-night arguments were given new light. Kyuhyun squirmed uncomfortably, knowing how long (and thus expensive) his hospital stay was.

“Well, I’ll talk to Leeteuk-hyung later. Use the other toilet, Henry, it’s not as dark.”

“Wait, gege!” Zhou Mi stood up, and flashed the paper Kyuhyun wrote on. “Remember this name? We saw it in the back-dated newspapers at the airport right?”

Hangeng quirked a smile. “I don’t remember. I’m not as good in Korean language as you.”

Without a smile, Zhou Mi did not look comforted at all. He sat back down. “It was in the article in ‘home news’, about the man who was missing from the psychiatric ward in Daejeon.”

There was a stunned silence. Psychiatric ward?

“Great,” Eunhyuk muttered to himself, not knowing the rest of the family was listening, “He's certified insane and violent. More bad news." 

TBC

To clear confusion - yes, Siwon is the 'son' the kidnapper intended to get all this while. Being disillusioned, Kyuhyun and Eunhyuk were unintended targets who had the misfortune to be picked up. As orphanage patron, he would know of Kyuhyun's troublemaking youth... explaining the extensive injuries he would have incurred for making trouble for him. Eunhyuk's a 'nobody' to him, so there's no point in holding him captive.

ALSO, the kidnapper wants to get his revenge on the man who took his son away from him. Now, just follow me here. The man who took away his son, is in his eyes, the man his son is living with right and is his legal guardian now. It's a name Yesung will know - and to prevent more bloodshed - will tell him.