They arrived at the church at 6 o’clock in the morning with clothes so watery that Minki was sure they had gained several kilos. As soon as they had made sure they were alone, they started to search the stacks of hymnals lying next to the stairs of the pulpit.

Minhyun went quickly through them while Minki stood watch to make sure no one came and asked them what they were doing. After ten minutes they finally found the one with the discoloured front page.

“It’s this one, I’m sure of it. What was the first number on the card?”

“356”.

He turned to page 356. In the corner was a small 02 written with blue ink.

“I think we found something, look.” He showed Minki the page. “If those are the first digits, it means it’s a Seoul number. Try the next one”.

“Page 9”.

“3. And the next page?”
“99”.

Shortly after they had connected all the digits, resulting in a seemingly valid phone number.

“If he’s still in Seoul it’s going to be much easier. Who should call him?”
“You. He has already met you, that’s probably the best”.

“Sure”.

Almost running they left the church and found a small alley where they could be alone. Minhyun took out his phone and dialled the number. No one answered. Ignoring the slight panic in his head he tried the call again. It was about to go on voicemail again when it was finally picked up.

“Uhm, hello? Who is this?”

“Hi, eh… My name is Hwang Minhyun. I need to speak with someone who calls himself Fisher?”

The person on the line turned silent for so long Minhyun thought it had been disconnected.

“Hello? Are you there?”
“Y-Yes… I’m still here. Fisher is not here though. He left this phone with me because he knew you would call”.

“He knew I would call?... How?”
“I don’t know, he just said you would. He also said that when you did I should give you a message”.

“Really? What is it?”
“You’ll have to come and pick it up yourself. He wrote it down and sealed the envelope. I have it right here”.

“And where is that?”

“The Gangnam Severance Hospital*. Room 276 on the second floor”.

The line was disconnected.

“Okay… Uhm, I guess we have to go back to the hospital”.

“Did he say that?”
“It wasn’t Fisher, but someone who said he knew him. He said… that Fisher knew I would call sooner or later, and that he had left a message for me at that hospital. Damn, what a waste of time! It’s two bloody doors away from Jonghyun’s room!”
“Then what are we waiting for, let’s get back there right now! It has already been twelve hours and we only have two weeks to work with here!”

Minki grabbed Minhyun’s wrist and dragged him back to the bus terminal. He had a ghastly headache, which was only growing worse as they ran to catch the bus and he wanted this done as fast as possible. If he had to go through the pain of seeing Aron again it should be to save Jonghyun. That, and maybe to hold his arms while Minhyun punched him in the face. The brunette had been devastated when he had told them that their friend was gone and it was obvious that he had been crying his eyes out all night the day before. That heart-broken expression on his handsome, neglected face, would have caused anyone to hate the person responsible for the destruction of such beauty.

No, he told himself. He would not forgive Aron for what he had done to Minhyun by leaving. And besides, he felt hurt himself by suddenly losing one of the only persons whom he thought had really cared for him. Apparently Aron hadn’t cared at all…

Both of them stopped at the doorstep, looking at the boy in the bed of room 276 as if petrified. None of them knew what to say as they kept staring shocked at the familiar face in front of them.

The unhealthily skinny Dongho shrugged and tried to avoid their looks, his cheeks turning red.

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you I was here… I guess it’s a little strange, right?” He curled his lips, just as they were used to seeing him do, yet it wasn’t quite the same.

It felt as if they were looking at Dongho’s brother: most of the features were the same, even the way he moved resembled that of the Kang Dongho they knew, yet it was clear that this was another person.

“Excuse me, but… who exactly… are you?”

“You look like…”
“Dongho”. The boy nodded with a bleak little smile. “You never really knew me, but I was supposed to be in your class”.

“But you were… At least… Someone was… Okay, forget it. I don’t know what I’m saying anymore”. Minhyun took a deep breath. “There was someone in our class who looked like you, almost as if he was you”.

“Oh, but he was. For those six months Kang Dongho was in your class he was me. I only knew you for a day, barely”.

“Uhm… Okay… Then, do you mind telling us why someone was posing as you for six months?”

They were totally puzzled as Dongho slowly nodded.

“I was being held hostage by someone who needed to have a spy close to Aron. I wasn’t told why though. They just took my life because they needed it at the time”.

“A spy close to Aron… Why? It sounds crazy”.

“I don’t know the exact details. I only heard them speak of him and about something they called Helix-blood. It seemed so important to them… Well, it must have been since they locked me away for six months. It was Aron and Fisher who saved me. Fisher brought me here and left the phone and the message for you. Since then I haven’t seen any of them”.

“It’s about Helix-blood then…” Minki and Minhyun quickly exchanged concerned looks before turning towards Dongho again.

“Where is that message?”

“Here”. Dongho took out an envelope from under his pillow. Compared to the white paper his skin looked grey-ish. “He said that it would be too risky for him if he stayed here. Whatever that means”.

Paranoid about paper cuts, Minki let Minhyun open the envelope. It contained a small note with two phone numbers on it and the message: call the first number, wait six minutes, then call the second.

It was signed with Jesus Christ, God’s Son, Saviour.

“He’s really fond of himself, isn’t he?” Minhyun turned his eyes up before he took out his phone and dialled the first of the two numbers. It was picked up, then disconnected right away. “Okay, so… I guess we’ll wait six minutes then?”

The awkward silence was stuck in the room as the time went by, so slowly that Minki started to think that someone had stopped the clock on the wall.

“Can I just go get some water?” he muttered, trying to ignore the headache. “I promise I’ll be back in less than five minutes”.

“Sure”.

“Thanks”. He left the room and hurried to the cafeteria to buy a bottle of water. Luckily there was no one there, so he didn’t have to wait in front of the vending machine. The bottled water was cool and with a small moan of delight he started to drink. Heavenly. He always forgot that he couldn’t stay up all night without consequences; there was the headache, and right now also the urge to faint on the spot in order to catch up on the lost sleep.

He forced himself to stay awake and kept ignoring the headache as much as possible as he rushed back to Dongho’s room.

“It’s six minutes now. I guess we should call”.

Minhyun nodded and dialled the second number. It was picked up immediately and the voice of a young man answered; he sounded as if he was out of breath, yet it was clear that he was smiling.

“So… I guess I’m speaking to either Choi Minki or Hwang Minhyun, right? Which one is it?”
“M-Minhyun…”

“I see. I’ve been awaiting your call for some time now. You can call me Fisher.”

“I know, Aron mentioned you”.

“Did he now?” It sounded as if Fisher was smirking through his heavy breath. “To be honest I figured you’d crack that business card right away… What took you so long?”

“You dropped it on purpose?!”

“Hey, did you really think I would be so stupid as to leave a clue like that behind by accident? I’ve got the police hot on my heels here, it would have been way too careless. I’m already taking a great risk by letting you call me here”.

“Here?” Minhyun tilted his head a bit even though Fisher couldn’t see it.

“I’m in a phone box nearby. The first number was for a room in one of my friend’s flat. From there it takes six minutes to run to this box. This way no one will be able to trace the call, and I haven’t told Dongho where I am either, so the message was safe with him”.

“If it’s that dangerous to you, then why are you doing this?”
“Because Aron needs you guys, he just haven’t realised it yet. You need to clear things up. Hold on…” There was a bit of rattling in the background. “There, just had to put in another coin. Anyway. I guess you’re calling because you need Aron’s help, am I right?”
“Yes, it’s about the Helix-blood, we…”
“Sorry, but I don’t have the time to explain all of that. Now, if you want to find Aron, you’ll have to follow him to The States. He left last Saturday, as you know, and right now he’s in Yuma. Go to the address I’m about to give you and tell the old lady there that her grandson have sent you to collect his copy of Dracula. She’ll hand it to you without asking questions.”

He was speaking faster now, as if he was frantically waiting for someone to find him.
“Dracula?”
“Yes. It’ll hold all the answers you need. When you have the book, go to Seoul Central Station. You’ll know what to do”.

“You sure like books…”

“They are often the easiest way to hide things”.

“Okay, but I don’t understand… Before you give me the address, please tell me why the police are hunting you?”
“Because they think I kidnapped Dongho. Now, write the address down but be sure to burn the paper when you’re done”.

________________________________________________________________________________________________

*Okay, so this is really stupid, but I realised that the church and the hospital are only about 300 metres from each other, hence the bus is totally unnecessary. If you knew about this, please try to ignore it. I've never been to Seoul myself, so I had no idea. So sorry about it D: