Time for a reality check Sehunnie!!!

After the meal Sehun took Kai into the living room and they watched TV. Or he watched TV, Kai curled into the smallest ball he could manage and kept looking around the room. Finally Sehun turned off the TV and gave Kai a tour of the house, showing him every part of the living room, kitchen, down stairs bath room and the bed rooms upstairs.

“You’ll sleep in my room,” Sehun explained. “I can take the floor, or we can share the bed. Don’t go in my brother’s room when he’s not home, he can tell if you mess things up. We live with our grandma now, but Kris is the one who’s in charge of me. Most of the time, anyway.”

Kai gave him a puzzled look.

“Grandma can’t do a lot. She got hurt in World War Two during the bombing on the harbor. She ran to the base to look for her brother and got hit with something. Anyway, she can’t move very fast because of it and she sleeps a lot, so Kris makes most of the rules for me.”

Then he showed Kai his rock collection, which Kai spent an hour looking at. He pulled all the rocks out of the box and started putting them back in neat rows, big rocks on one side and little ones on the other. Sehun watched in amazement.

“You’re really organized,” He remarked. “My brother will like you.”

Speaking of, it was almost time for Kris to come home. Sehun took Kai back downstairs and put him on the sofa, deciding to feed him a little more before Kris came back. This time he just made plain rice, but Kai didn’t seem to mind. Kris came home just as Sehun was feeding Kai the last bit. As soon as the door opened, Kai gasped and threw himself on the end of the couch, curling up and covering his head.

“What’s your deal?” Sehun grunted, trying to pull Kai’s arms off his head.

He heard Kris clear his throat from the doorway. “Sehun, who is this?”

Sehun turned around and grinned at Kris. “This is my new friend, Kai!”

“Uh huh,” Kris said slowly, looking Kai over. “Is he wearing your clothes?”

“Yeah,” Sehun said. “His were dirty and they smelled bad.”

“Dirty and…Sehun, where did you meet him?” Kris asked, sounding alarmed.

“In the woods,” Sehun said as he finally got Kai to uncurl. He kept his head down, looking up at Kris through his bangs. “He was starving, so I gave him my sandwich and took him back here.”

“Whoa, whoa, slow down,” Kris cried. “You found him in the woods?!”

Sehun looked over at his brother. “Yes, behind our house. Why do always have to sound so mad, Kris?”

Kris looked like he was torn between wanting to scream and faint. “What’s his name again?”

“Kai,” Sehun said firmly. “I picked it. It’s a good name.”

“You picked it?”

“Why are you copying me?” Sehun demanded. “Yes I picked it, he can’t talk.”

Kris put one hand on the wall and the other to his head. “Let me get this straight. You found a boy in the woods, dirty and hungry, who couldn’t talk, and you took him into our house?”

“And gave him a bath,” Sehun said proudly. “It wasn’t easy either, but I’m taking really good care of him so you don’t have to worry…why do you look so angry?”

“Sehun! You don’t know who he is, do you?!”

“No, what does it matter?”

Kris marched into the living room and knelt in front of Kai, who shied away. “This isn’t a joke, kid,” He said firmly. “What is your name?”

Kai shrank back even further, keeping his eyes down. Sehun pushed at Kris’ shoulder.

“Back off, you’re scaring him!” He scolded. He wrapped his arm around Kai. “It’s okay, he’s mean to everyone, it’s not just you.”

Kris got up, turned and walked to the back of the house. “Grandma! I need help!”

Sehun made a face at his brother’s back and turned to Kai. “Don’t worry, my grandma will help us.”

But when grandma came in, she took one look at Kai and gasped in shock. “Auwe, what happened to this child?”

Sehun was confused. “What do you mean, grandma?”

“He’s wild,” She said in awe. Kris covered his mouth and closed his eyes. Grandma shook her head. “I don’t believe it…I’ve only seen this once before…oh my…”

“I’m calling the police,” Kris muttered, but grandma grabbed his arm.

“They won’t believe you,” she said firmly. “We need to go to the hospital first.”

“Why?!” Sehun yelped, tightening his grip on Kai. “There’s nothing wrong with him!”

Grandma shook her head and limped over to the sofa. Kai shrank back and hid under Sehun’s arm. Grandma glanced at Kai and shook her head once more. “Honey, this child has been alone for a very long time. It’s not normal, he needs to be looked at.”

“He’s fine!” Sehun insisted tearfully. “He just has a runny nose, that’s the worst thing he’s got. I’m taking care of him!”

“This isn’t up for discussion,” Kris said. “You can come with us if you want, but we’re going one way or another.”

That was how Sehun wound up in the back of Kris’ old car, hugging Kai close and promising that they wouldn’t be out for long and when they got back they could have ice cream and watch a movie. Kris lead the way into the hospital, walking right up to the nurses desk and asking for Doctor Manuwai. Grandma brought Sehun and Kai over to the seated waiting area, and Sehun strained his ears to hear what Kris was saying.

“I don’t know who he is, my brother found him…I’m not lying, this kid is…No, he’s not under my insurance…I just said I don’t know who he is! Oh my god, will you please just call the doctor?”

After almost twenty minutes of this, grandma sighed and heaved herself to her feet. She walked right up to the nurses’ station and slammed her bright pink cane down on the table. “Now you pay attention,” She thundered, making everyone jump—Kai cowered under Sehun’s arm. “Doctor Manuwai is a personal friend of mine and he owes me big time. This is a sticky situation and if you want to save yourselves a big headache you’ll do an old crippled woman a favor and call him. Or I can tell the good doctor that you’ve kept me waiting and we can see how he likes it.”

Grandma was a very respected woman on the island, many of the natives knew her because her father had worked for the last queen. Grandma herself had a reputation because she helped those wounded in the bombing on the harbor, looked after orphans and widows in the aftermath and petitioned for rights for the natives even after her injury. Several nurses recognized her and immediately agreed to call the doctor right away, one even offered her a cup of tea, which she politely declined. Now that she’d gotten what she wanted, grandma was all smiles as she made her way back to her seat, Kris following her looking exhausted.

When grandma sat down she immediately turned her attention to Kai. “There, there sugar. No need to be afraid of an old woman.” She dug into her purse and pulled out a package of hard candies. “Here, you want a sweet?”

Kai looked up as soon as he heard the crinkling bag, and when grandma held out the candy he snatched it, uncurling from Sehun’s side as he popped it in his mouth.

“There we go,” grandma said happily. “No harm done.” Then she gave a candy to Sehun and took one for herself. Kris said he didn’t want his.

“I’ll take his,” Sehun mumbled, but then a nurse came over and said that their room was ready. Kai clung to Sehun as they walked, eyes darting all over the hallway and hiding every time someone looked at him.

“Why’d you bring him here?” Sehun demanded of his brother when the nurse left them in their room. “He’s scared, he wants to go home!”

“As soon as we make sure he’s healthy, we can leave,” Grandma said. “This is the responsible thing to do, Peppermint.”

Sehun huffed in annoyance but said no more, choosing instead to get Kai up on the bed. Kris tried to help, but Sehun waved him off, saying that he was too scary to be of any help. Once Kai was up on the bed, Sehun hopped up too and sat next to him, thinking that he might be able to calm Kai down when the examination started.

Doctor Manuwai came in after a few minutes and greeted grandma warmly. He and his twin brother had been under her care after the bombing that left them orphans. His brother now worked in the police department and sometimes came by the house to make sure grandma was alright, and the doctor often treated grandma, Kris and Sehun for free.

When he caught sight of the doctor Kai curled up on the bed tried to hide behind the pillow, and when Doctor Manuwai tried to touch him, Kai smacked his hand and growled at him.

Sehun immediately swatted Kai on the arm. Not very hard, just enough to get his attention. “Stop that!” He scolded. “The better you behave the sooner we can leave!”

Kai immediately dropped the pillow and sat still, but he still looked afraid so Sehun held his hand.

“He doesn’t mean it,” Sehun explained to the doctor. “He’s just scared.”

Doctor Manuwai clucked his tongue in the way that adults did when they were being serious. “Well this shouldn’t take too long.”

He listened to Kai’s heartbeat and breathing, took his pulse and looked into his eyes—or tried to, but Kai squinted and shied away from the light and not even Sehun could make him hold still, and did a few more tests that Sehun was familiar with from his own visits. Then the doctor had to draw blood, and Sehun was afraid that Kai would throw a fit, but he sat quietly and didn’t move at all. He did grip Sehun’s hand very tightly, and towards the end he started to cry a little, so Sehun hugged him and whispered that it would be over soon and he was very brave. He didn’t know if it helped, but it was what his mother had done for him.

Finally doctor Manuwai stood up. “Where did you find him?” He asked grandma.

“I found him,” Sehun said. “He was in the woods behind our house. I fed him and made him take a bath.”

“So you don’t know his real name?” The doctor asked.

“Kai is a good enough name,” Sehun said loftily.

Doctor Manuwai knelt to Kai’s eye level. “Can you talk? Can you at least nod if you understand me?”

Kai said nothing.

“Is he deaf maybe?” Kris wondered.

“No,” The doctor said decisively. “He can hear us, he might be mute from shock or just mute from birth. He must have been out there for a very long time, he’s dehydrated and malnourished, but even so I must say he’s remarkably well fed.”

“How is that possible?” Kris asked.

“He’s been eating, just nothing nutritious,” Doctor Manuwai explained. “You know, I remember my brother telling me that tourists would report missing coolers sometimes. They’d always have their stuff over by the very edge of the beach near the woods, so he thought it might have been an animal looking for food, but now I’m thinking that it might have been this little guy…”

They were all quiet as they stared at Kai for a minute. Then the doctor cleared his throat and continued.

“The cold is also very minor. I’ll know more from the blood work but he seems to be in good health.”

“Can you find his family?” Grandma asked the doctor.

“No,” Sehun said, and everyone turned to look at him. Sehun looked over at Kai. “He doesn’t have a family. He can’t, he was so hungry and dirty and not used to people…if he had a family he wouldn’t be like this.”

“He’s probably right,” Doctor Manuwai said. “I mean, I can call the police department and ask my brother to run his picture, but I don’t remember any reports of missing children matching his description. Chances are you won’t find anything.”

“So what are you saying, he just magically got here?” Kris asked. “He must have a family somewhere! What are we supposed to do with him in the meantime?”

“I remember something like this from when I was a young girl,” Grandma said suddenly. “A little girl wandered into our village one day, filthy and starving. I could count all her ribs, her hair was matted and she had an infected wound on her arm…my mother took her in and cleaned her up, fed her, brushed her hair. She stayed with us for a week. Never said a word, never looked at us…sat in a corner by herself. Then one morning we woke up and she was gone.”

“Did you ever see her again?” Sehun asked.

Grandma didn’t answer, and somehow her silence said everything. Sehun shivered and held Kai closer.

“I don’t want this boy to end up like her,” Grandma said quietly. Then louder she announced, “Kenan my boy, call your brother in here and tell him to bring some adoption papers. I’ll fill them out and mail them off myself.”

Sehun gasped in glee and Kris looked absolutely dumbfounded. “Grandma, you can’t be serious!”

“Auwe, I am,” she said.

“Really now, think about this!” Kris insisted. “We can barely afford—” He cut himself off with a glance in Sehun’s direction. “We should discuss this at home.”

“We should,” Grandma agreed. “But I am not changing my mind.”

Sehun was beyond ecstatic. He turned to Kai and hugged him so tightly that Kai yelped. “Did you hear that? You get to live with us now!!”

Note: Despite being an American citizen my knowledge of the finer points on Pearl Harbor and Hawaiian culture in general is sadly limited. I don't know if the last queen of Hawaii would have had helpers or anything, but I assume she would have. Also I assume that a lot of people who went down to Pearl Harbor would have been hurt by flying objects.

If anyone knows more than me and knows I made a mistake then please correct me!