Minho’s head was pressed against the window of the van he was in, staring blankly out the window. He’d made half-hearted attempts at conversation with the others in the van on the way home, but his head was somewhere else, and it wasn’t long before an uneasy silence fell. It wasn’t long before they pulled into his neighborhood, but suddenly the van pulled off to the side of the road, yielding to two police cruisers that were flying through with their lights flashing. Minho looked up, his chest constricting.

No, there was no way they were headed to his house...right? He sat a little straighter, and it didn’t escape the other kids notice how tense he was all of a sudden. It was less than five minutes later that they to Minho’s street, and he saw the flashing lights again. The driver realized they were pulling up to the house with all the cruisers, and pulled off to the side of the road, turning to tell Minho not to get out, but the second the vehicle was stopped he was off like a bullet.

The driver cursed, pulling up to the house behind the boy. He would want his things, at least, and that was all the justification needed to pull into the driveway. Everyone in the vehicle watched as Minho came to a dead stop, seeing Jinki standing outside in the flashing lights and talking to one of the officers. His eyes roamed over the entire scene, but he couldn’t figure out what was going on. Nothing looked wrong, no fires, nothing was broken...and he knew the neighbors wouldn’t complain about the small amount of noise they occasionally made...so what was going on?

His eyes stopped on steps coming from the front door, and he saw a woman he didn’t recognize with her arms wrapped tightly around the maknae, Key standing close by with an expression Minho hadn’t seen before on his face. He looked upset beyond words - worse than he had looked when his parents died. What was going on? Key caught sight of him, and suddenly tears began pouring down the diva’s face, and Minho knew. Something had happened to Jonghyun...who was conspicuously absent.

“Appa!” Minho shouted out, and Jinki’s head jerked up automatically. When his eyes landed on Minho his expression instantly changed, and he looked like he might cry. Minho was tense as Jinki made his way over to him, then wrapped his arms around him. “A-appa? What’s going on? Where’s Jonghyun?”

“I...” Jinki swallowed hard, and Minho looked at him with a seriously worried expression. “I don’t know.”

“What do you mean? He’s...he’s just in the house, right?” Minho asked. Jinki slowly shook his head. “Where is he?!”

“I don’t know, Minho.” Jinki said. “I’m trying to find him.”

“What do you mean you’re trying?! Where did he go?!” Minho didn’t even realize he was screaming at this point, but even if he had, he wouldn’t have cared.

“I don’t know.” Jinki said, looking extremely guilty. “I went to pick him up from school and he-”

“School?” Minho choked out. “B-but...Wednesday was his last day...”

“I know.” Jinki whispered, and as the reality of the situation sank in for Minho he began to feel more and more desperate. It was a joke, right? A prank? It wasn’t funny. It wasn’t ing funny!!

“Where is he?!” Minho shouted again, and Jinki tried to keep his hold on the tall boy. Minho was a lot stronger, though, and he shoved the appa off of him. “Where the is he?!”

“We’re going to find him, Minho!” Jinki yelled back. “You can’t be acting like this!”

“How am I supposed to act?! He’s been gone for two. Days. And none of you thought to tell me?!” Minho demanded, tears running down his cheeks now. “How could you do this?! How could you let this happen?!”

Jinki didn’t answer this time. What could he even say? Minho was right, anyway. Jinki shouldn’t have let Jonghyun go back to school on Monday. He shouldn’t have let Jonghyun go on Wednesday. He should have been there to pick him up when he said he would, instead of babbling away on the phone to his girlfriend. But he also knew, more than anything, that it wasn’t his fault someone had decided to take his kid from him. That wasn’t supposed to happen. Minho was just looking for someone to blame, and he knew they were all doing the same thing. But Minho didn’t know the full story, and that made it so much harder.

The driver of the van for the camp Minho was at slowly stepped out of the vehicle, then went to the back to get Minho’s bags. She set them on the ground near Minho before getting in the van and leaving, and he looked at them like they fell from the sky. He was absolutely distraught, and the last thing in the world he cared about was his bags. He looked back at the appa, his face a confusing swirl of conflicting emotions. The anger, the desperation, the absolute sadness. Jinki wasn’t sure which would be the worst to win out, but he had to wait and see what would happen.

“M-mian...appa...” Minho suddenly said.

He didn’t mean to yell so much, but he was so angry. Why hadn’t they told him? Why hadn’t they even thought to tell him? He wanted to just scream. No. He didn’t want to scream. He wanted to go and look for his ing boyfriend. Jinki watched as he worked himself up again, and then deflated, then starting winding himself back up. Jinki slowly approached him again, gently pushing him toward the door. Minho jerked away from him, his anger flaring. He wanted Jonghyun, not Jinki. Where was he? Why would he run away? He wouldn’t. So who had taken him?

“Excuse me?” One of the officers said, and Jinki looked over at him. “We just came by to tell you that after we ran his picture through the news, we got a call from a girl at the school.”

“Wh-what?” Jinki asked, his eyes wide, and Minho stayed where he was, listening intently.

“She said she saw a tall man with dark hair and eyes, dressed in a suit yelling at Jonghyun on Monday. Did you know anything about that?” The cop asked. Jinki shook his head.

“A-ani. He didn’t mention it. He wouldn’t even talk to us on Monday. We thought he was being picked on.” Jinki said.

“Well, the description she gave matches the description you gave of Sangho, and we’ve put in a request to contact Bong-Cha.” The officer said. “We should be able to call her by Monday and get at least a last name for this guy.”

“Monday?!” Jinki exploded, and Minho’s eyes widened. “Monday is too far! Tomorrow is too far!”

“I understand, sir, but there are certain legal processes tha-” He tried to explain, but Jinki cut him off again.

“No, you don’t ing understand. You don’t have any kids.” Jinki snapped. He knew this man wasn’t a father from the last few days they had spent working together. “I want my son home, now. If I have to ing call that jail myself, I will. You guys have been doing nothing even remotely useful. What’s the point of police if they’re not willing to do their ing job? I told you about this guy on Wednesday, and you’re only just starting to look for his information?”

Before the cop even had a chance to respond Jinki had moved. It was so sudden it startled everyone - including Minho, who had been unconsciously tightening his fist. Jinki knew it was only a matter of time before those fists of his started making contact with peoples faces, and so he ushered his son back toward the house quietly. He turned back to the cop, a deadly gleam in his eye.

“If you get in touch with her before I do, then let me know. Otherwise, I’ll be calling you while I’m on my way to pick up my son.” He said firmly, continuing to push Minho into the house. Key darted out, collecting Minho’s bags without a word, then heading back inside.

When he stepped back inside, the emergency vehicles that had been clouding up the driveway began pulling out. Minho was sitting on the couch, looking very much like he wanted to hurt someone. Minho was by far the nicest person Key had ever met, always trying his hardest to keep everyone around him happy. He wanted to be someone deserving of love, and he had always believed the way to do that was to be calm, to be kind, and to never swear.

He had gone the complete opposite direction upon finding out the one he loved was gone, and Key couldn’t help but see the irony in that. Currently Minho was sitting on the couch, looking completely lost, and very much like he didn’t want to believe it was real, but Key didn’t want to get within that long arm span. He knew there was a chance that Minho would snap again, and again, until he was broken into a million little pieces, and he didn’t want to be a victim to what that might mean. He was surprised nothing was broken...yet.

“Minho hyung...this is Luna.” Taemin said softly, and Minho didn’t even lift his head to look at her.

“I...I’m sorry...but I just don’t care right now, ‘Minnie.” Minho said, getting up roughly and heading for the stairs.

He wanted to be completely destructive for the first time in his life, but he had already disrespected his appa enough. He all but slammed his door shut before collapsing onto his bed, noticing Jonghyun’s scent on it right away. He pressed his face into the pillow and let a sob tear out of his throat. He wasn’t sure how long he stayed like that, but eventually he felt a hand rubbing against his back.

He peaked one swollen and red eye out from under the blanket of misery that covered him just long enough to take in Key’s face. He knew the self-proclaimed umma wasn’t doing much better than he himself was. He rolled onto his side, leaving enough room for Key to lay down beside him. Minho was never one for skinship with anyone but Jonghyun, but he needed the comfort. He’d never felt so completely lost, and he knew Key was going through the same thing. Neither boy was surprised when Taemin squirmed his way into the mix, gladly accepting his warmth.

Meanwhile, at the other end of the house Jinki was speaking in low, persuasive tones on his phone. He explained his situation, then explained Jonghyun’s mental state, and why it really was an emergency situation. He needed to talk to this woman, Lee Bong-Cha, Jonghyun’s mother. He needed to get Sangho’s last name, his address, something. His son had been gone for two days. Two minutes was too long. Who knew what kind of damage was being done to his fragile psyche?

After a long, long time, he was told to call back the following morning, and they would see what information they could get for him. Jinki thanked them, though he really wanted to scream. He knew they were trying, and that was more than anyone else seemed to be doing.