She opened one eye, closed it, and then opened both wide in shock as she noticed how bright it was. She muttered a curse and jumped out of bed toward her brother’s room.

She threw open the door to find nobody in there except for the mess her brother had left behind. She rushed to the kitchen and dining room area to find no one in there as well. Not a soul was there and the ambiance grew eerily quiet. She shook any of those thoughts out of her head and sat down with a groan.

She rubbed her eyes and sighed as the warm sunlight that fell through the glass doors hit her softly. She gently laid her head down on the table and stared mindlessly at nothing, letting herself think over what she knew. And what she was going to do.

She wanted to confront her brother in the morning about what happened last night. She wanted a straight answer come out of his mouth of what really happened.

But apparently her brother knew her too well and left school earlier than normal. Her brother would not bother to head to school until the last minute, so usually Soojin would usually catch her brother still lounging around when she woke up. And she would always give him with a glare and a little scolding to explain to him the consequences of being late. And he would always give her a small shrug and a smirk and not even bother giving her a second glance.

The fact that he actually dragged himself out of bed and left school before she could see him made her even more suspicious of his actions.

But then again, she had always thought it was suspicious from the beginning.

So now what?

She knew she couldn’t recklessly confront her brother; who knows what that would lead to. She couldn’t exactly tell her mother about it; she already had too much on her plate. And she couldn’t really go to authorities either; she was sure it would be hard to confirm anything that happened.

She lightly bonked her forehead against the table while muttering, “Think. Think.” She stopped and with her forehead still against the table, she stared at her feet out over the edge of the table where it neatly ended right above her eyes.

She lifted her head and propped it on the palm of her hand with her elbow resting on the table. In the end, she could only think of one thing. Go to the source itself.

And that meant N. N and K. The duo that even though she heard so much about, truly did not know a thing about. Plus, she had no idea where to find them. She only happened upon them both times by chance.

So that left L. Myungsoo.

She was pretty sure that he would have a good idea where they were, but she also knew that there would be a high probably that he would never tell her.

She dropped her head back on the table in sheer hopelessness. But even if she did find N and K, even if she did confront them, did she honestly believe that they, he, would listen to her? He would probably laugh in her face or even worse, tell her in a nicely malicious way why she was a hopeless and ignorant.

She couldn’t think of any more options. She was stuck at a dead end.

However, she lifted her head up, closed her eyes, and gritted her teeth in determination.

But if there was thing she was sure of, it was that she was going to do something about it. She wasn’t going to let nature take its own course. Because there was one thing that she knew.

You simply don’t mess with family.

She wasn’t planning on telling him. Honestly.

In fact, she was trying to avoid any conversation that may lead to this one. But if she thought back on it, she was the one who started that path toward the one she tried to steer clear of.

Because of one question. One question she thought was a harmless one. One that she never thought would lead to this.

It was like any other day. She would be studying. He would come and bother her for a short while, and then he would stop and work as well. Then he would about something once in a while, and she would retort back.

It had become such a routine that Soojin didn’t think second thoughts about it. She had actually begun to think this whole “soulmate” situation as a joke. A harmless joke. Even all that happened between him and her. It was nothing but a joke.

But as he set down his phone on the table after texting someone, Soojin happened to glance at the lit up screen before it went dark again. And in those seconds before it disappeared, she saw a rather younger looking Myungsoo who had a large grin on his face and whose arm was over the shoulder of another younger boy who had a scowl on his face while looking away.

“Who’s that?” she asked.

Myungsoo looked up from her right and glanced around. “Who are you talking about?”

She pointed at his phone. “That boy who was with you.”

He blinked at her before lighting up his phone screen once more and the picture of him and the other boy showed.

He gave a slight smile and said, “That’s my younger brother.”

She looked at him in surprise. “You have a brother?”

“Yeah,” he chuckled. “He wasn’t very happy taking a picture with me.”

“It looks like a rather old picture. You look much younger,” Soojin murmured.

Myungsoo smirked, “I was a handsome devil back then, wasn’t I? But I’m still handsome now.”

“You still are a devil as well,” Soojin muttered as she rolled her eyes.

He laughed at her comment. “But you’re right, this is an old picture. A couple years ago, I think? Probably two, three years ago?” he mused.

“Why so long ago? You don’t have a recent picture with him?” she asked curiously.

He shrugged. “Well, I can’t,” he said simply. “I hardly see him because, well, he lives with my parents still, and yeah,” he mumbled as he trailed off.

Soojin gave him a confused look, but decided not to say anything. Every time he talked, Soojin felt that he turned more and more into an enigma that she just couldn’t solve even if she solved one part. It was getting more and more complex every time she understood one layer, but Soojin actually didn’t mind. She liked puzzles.

“Do you have any siblings?” he asked suddenly after a moment of silence.

She looked up. “Me?” she asked, pointing to herself.

“No, I’m talking to my invisible friend sitting next to me. Have you met him yet?” he said sarcastically.

She scoffed, “I always knew you were crazy. But yes, I do have a sibling. I have a younger brother who’s two years younger than me.”

Myungsoo brightened up. “Do you have a picture?” he asked cheerfully.

“Erm, yeah.” She pulled her phone out of her pocket and began to scroll through her pictures to find one of her brother.

“Here,” she said as he handed her phone over the boy next to her. She picked a picture where her brother was concentrating on playing a video game and had his face scrunched up in concentration and his tongue sticking out. Her brother hated it and told her more than once to delete it. But she thought it was a hilarious photo of him and treasured it.

He stared at the photo for a while and a small grin appeared on his face. “He looks like you,” he announced.

She grabbed the phone from her hands to look at it more closely. “In what way?” she muttered accusingly. “There is no way. At least maybe in other pictures, but this picture you can’t even distinguish his face. Your opinion does not have sufficient evidence.”

He laughed and leaned back and examined her face. “Well, I wouldn’t exactly say that there aren’t any similarities. If you look close enough, I’m pretty sure you have a feature in common.”

She raised an eyebrow. “And what exactly would that be?”

“Not being so pretty– ow!” he yelped when he was hit square in the face by a crumpled paper ball.

Soojin gave him look that read she thought this was absurd. “You were saying?” she growled bitterly, another crumpled paper ball in her hand aimed at him.

He put up a hand for protection and called out, “Why don’t listen before making judgments and attacking innocent defenseless me?”

She slowly lowered her hand.

Myungsoo coughed lightly and brushed off invisible dust of his shirt. “Well now. As I was saying, not being pretty is a common attribute when you scrunch up your face like that.”

She sighed, “Of course you say something like that in a roundabout way.”

He grinned, “I know. That’s the point.”

She scoffed, “You’re ridiculous, you know that?”

He gestured to himself and looked at her as innocently as he could and cried, “Me? What ever do you mean?”

She laid her head down facing away from Myungsoo on the cool table and sighed, “Why do I even bother?”

He took Soojin’s phone which she discarded so thoughtlessly and looked at it thoughtfully. He began to flip to her other photos while Soojin was preoccupied sulking. “But I have to admit, even without making funny faces, you two do look alike. Especially when you are next to him. He seems like a nice person. Perhaps better than you? He definitely looks the part.”

She flipped her head agaisnt the table so that she was facing him while her head was still on the table and grumbled, “Hey! What do you mean by that? And don’t look through my phone.” She sat up and snatched her phone back with Myungsoo still in the position of holding your phone.

“And my brother’s probably no better than me,” she objected.

He turned to her and dropped his arms into a position where he was leaning on his right fist that was propped on the table. “Oh? Do tell.”

“Well,” Soojin started, not really paying attention to her surroundings and faced the floor to the left and was focused on her mumbled thoughts, “he’s being secretive. Even though I have a feeling I know what’s going on.”

“And that would be?” he prompted.

“That he got involved with something bad. Really bad. I don’t know what specifically. But I was a gut feeling it’s those two.”

“Really…” Myungsoo said quietly, nodding his head in understanding.

She sighed, “Yeah. I have no proof though. So I’m stuck here for a while until I think of a solution. There’s no way this can come out smoothly. You just can’t settle something as complex as this with a simple solution. I mean, they seem so much wrapped up in black history that it seems impossible to know what they would do.”

She nodded in conviction. “So that’s why I’m planning on confronting them bec–” She slapped shut when she realized that she had said everything she was thinking out loud. And Myungsoo was sitting right next to her.

She whipped toward and exclaimed, “It’s not what you think! I was merely thinking aloud.” But she trailed off when she realized that there was no one sitting next to her.

Myungsoo had disappeared.

She panicked. Because as much as she didn’t know him, she knew him enough. She knew that he was smart enough to pick on her words. Words she really didn’t mean to let him hear.

And she knew that he would confront them instead.

She glanced out the window, back at her lap, and then back out the window. She quickly switched her view toward the bus driver and grumbled. She didn’t care if the people around her thought she was crazy; she just wanted the bus to go faster.

But then she stopped when a thought hit her. She groaned at her stupidity. She had no idea where to start.

Myungsoo wouldn’t answer his phone. In fact, he turned it off when the first call went through.

And she had no idea where N and K were. They seemed like wandering nomads who would be in places you least expect them to be.

She needed something, someone, anything, which had a connection with this duo. So she could stop that boy, her “soulmate”, from doing anything rash. Something that he wouldn’t regret.

And then she groaned once more at her stupidity.

Because there was something. Someone.

Looks like she was going home late today.

She pulled out her phone and looked her contacts before stopping at one. She pushed the green call button before putting it to her ear.

She waited a few seconds as the phone rang a couple time and a noticeable click confirmed that the other person picked up.

“Hello?” the voice answered groggily as if the person had just woke up.

“Hoya, I need your help.”

A/N: Hi.

Sorry this is a bit later than usual. I swear I wanted to finish this update at least three days ago. I was busy (I said that last time, didn’t I?), but it’s true. Family came over, and I couldn’t just say, “Oh, hey there. I got a story to write. You won't be seeing me for a couple of hours.” Haha, but I thank you guys heartily for waiting patiently.

I’m trying to pick up the story now, and hopefully it comes out well.

Thanks for reading and as always, see you again.