Chapter Six

“So this is a date then!”

Kris rolled his eyes, nursing a paper cut. “We’re putting up signs for a missing child, what about this constitutes a date in your convoluted mind?”

Chanyeol beamed. “Well we’re alone, aren’t we?”

Kris couldn’t stop a grin. Chanyeol was really cute, and if he ever had the time he’d love to date him, but right now he just didn’t have the time or emotional stability to be in a relationship.

“We’re alone, but I really don’t think this is a date,” Kris said patiently. “Chanyeol, you’re really sweet and I like you a lot, but—”

“I know,” Chanyeol sighed. “You don’t want to be in a relationship when you can’t be focused on your partner.” He gave Kris a serious look. “I’ve told you before, I’m not asking you to dote on me 24/7.”

“I know,” Kris said, echoing Chanyeol’s tone. “But you really—”

“Don’t you dare,” Chanyeol said sternly, “Tell me that I deserve someone better than you. There is no one better than you and there is no one else I want.”

Kris was well aware that there were having this conversation in the middle of the sidewalk, but not many people were paying attention to them. Even so, it was hardly the place for such a topic.

“You do deserve someone who will be more focused than I am,” Kris sighed under his breath. It didn’t matter how attractive he found Chanyeol—which he really did, even though Chanyeol was a weird looking guy—or how wonderful he was or that Kris was sure he’d be an amazing boyfriend. Even if Chanyeol was a great listener, confident in other people, always willing to help a friend, always there for Kris ever since he was a child, had been one of the few people to stay by Kris’ side all throughout his parents’ funeral. Even if Kris had no idea how he would have managed without Chanyeol, who had come by every day to make sure Kris and Sehun were eating, were getting up and going to school, were at least surviving…no, it couldn’t happen.

Kris really wanted to date Chanyeol, but not now. Not when he had a nine year old brother and an aging grandmother to care for, plus two jobs and a lawsuit to balance. Oh, and the grief that he was still struggling with.

“But anyway,” Chanyeol continued, breaking Kris’ train of thought, “Isn’t it too late to find Kai’s family? Your grandma is adopting him.”

Kris sighed, fiddling with the papers in his hands. He could only afford to print a few, so they were going around to various stores asking to put them behind counters or on doors. “If we don’t try to look for them, I’m afraid they’ll accuse us of kidnapping. Plus there’s something not right with that kid. I think he might have been brought over from abroad, for all we know he could have been kidnapped by child traffickers.”

Chanyeol gave him a disbelieving look. “That seems highly unlikely.”

“If it was Sehun, I’d want to find him. That’s all I keep thinking about.” Kris said firmly.

“How does Sehun feel about this?”

Kris flinched. “He doesn’t know.”

Chanyeol sighed. “He probably thinks you hate Kai.”

“I don’t hate him,” Kris protested, “I just…we can’t afford to adopt him.”

“Then why did the social worker give the go ahead?”

Kris stopped walking and looked at the ground. “Grandma’s using her savings to pay the fees.”

Chanyeol blinked at him. “Her savings for what?”

Kris looked up, trying to keep from crying. “The money she’d saved for her funeral. She said she really doesn’t need anything fancy…” He took a deep breath. “She told me to bury her in a pine box if I had to.” And then he started to cry.

Chanyeol grabbed his arm and steered him down a deserted street. He took the papers and shoved them in his bag, then laid his hands gently on Kris’ shoulders.

“Your grandma has a lot of life left in her,” Chanyeol assured. “She’ll never die, don’t you worry.”

Kris held a hand to his face, covering his eyes. “I know but…” He took a shaky breath, trying to calm himself. “God, she’s done so much for us, she deserves more than a goddamn pine box. I want her to be honored, I want her to have a wake and I want everyone on the island to be able to come and pay their respects because she deserves that much.”

“They’ll come anyway,” Chanyeol said quickly.

Kris laughed shortly. “Oh yeah, come and see the family who couldn’t even send her off properly. And I won’t accept charity,” He growled. “I’m not taking handouts, I just won’t.”

Chanyeol shook his head. “You shouldn’t have to be thinking about this…”

“It’s my job,” Kris shouted, looking up. “Don’t you get it? I’m the man in the family now, it’s my job to take care of her and Sehun, and now this other kid who has so many problems and I can’t…I don’t know what to do with him.”

He broke off breathing heavily, tears still slipping from his eyes. He brushed them away carelessly. “Aw hell, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that…”

Chanyeol grabbed him and hugged him tightly. “No, I’m your friend and I’m glad you told me. you shouldn’t have to do this by yourself, regardless of what you think. I’m here for you Kris, I promise.”

But when Kris got home later, he didn’t feel any more reassured than he had before. If anything he felt worse, because Chanyeol had proved yet again that he was a perfect human being and Kris would have been lucky to date him. Not for the first time, he wondered what his life would be like if his mom and dad were still alive, and it took almost an hour for him to stop crying.

Sehun ran right past Kai on his way to Kris’ room. Kris jumped when Sehun threw open the door and glared at him.

“Sehun what have I told you about knocking?” Kris admonished.

Sehun held up the piece of paper clutched in his hand. “How could you do this?” He demanded, his voice breaking at the end.

Kris looked uncomfortable. “Just come here and I’ll talk to you about it.”

Sehun threw the piece of paper at the floor. It had a picture of Kai and plea for anyone who knew anything about him to call the police or Social Services.

“Kai belongs with us now!” Sehun screamed at his brother. “He’s an orphan, grandma is adopting him!”

“We don’t know that!” Kris shouted back, standing up. “We don’t know anything about him!”

“I do!” Sehun cried. “I know he’s scared and lonely. If you’d seen him in the woods that day you would have known that he’s all alone!”

Kris walked over and knelt in front of Sehun, placing his hands on his shoulder. “Honey I’m sorry I didn’t talk to you about this, but it’s the right thing to do.”

“The right thing for who?!” Sehun shrieked. “You don’t know anything! You don’t care about how I feel, do you?”

Kris looked so hurt that Sehun wanted to take it back immediately. “Of course I care!” He cried.

Sehun started to cry. “Then don’t make Kai leave!” He was sobbing, and it was all he could do to keep talking. “Please Kris, don’t make him go…he’s my only friend…”

Sehun didn’t fight when Kris hugged him, or when Kris picked him up and brought him over to his bed. Sehun hid his face in Kris’ neck and cried until he had no tears left, and only then did Kris try to talk to him again.

“There are really awful people out there Sehun,” Kris explained. “It’s not something I want to talk to you about right now, but there are people who kidnap children from their homes and take them abroad, and there are families who never know what happened to their kids. It might have happened to Kai, and—”

Sehun cut Kris off. “His family doesn’t deserve to have him back!”

Kris looked totally shocked. “That is an awful thing to say.”

“It’s not!” Sehun yelled. “Kai’s family should have protected him, he spent years by himself, Kris! Whoever his family is they should have looked for him!”

“They might not have been able to,” Kris said. “If they live in China they can’t exactly search every continent for him!”

“What if it had been me?” Sehun cried. “If I had gone missing, you would have found me!”

Kris shut his eyes and sighed. “Don’t you get it? That’s why I’m doing this. If you were missing I would want whoever found you to try to get you back to me.”

“But I would tell them about you,” Sehun said exasperatedly. “Don’t you see? I know Kai doesn’t have a family because he doesn’t talk about them! He wakes up crying sometimes,” Sehun said quickly when he realized that Kris was about to interrupt him. “He has nightmares and it takes him hours to stop crying, and it’s just like how I was when mom and dad died. His family is gone Kris, I just know it! We have to keep him, he’s part of our ohana now!”

Kris sighed again and rubbed his forehead. “I know, I know…but Sehun, this is the right thing to do. If you’re right and Kai doesn’t have a family then you have nothing to worry about, he can stay. But if he does have a family and they missed him and he wants to go back to them, not they want him back but he wants to go back, then you have to let him go.”

“No,” Sehun said immediately. “I won’t.”

Kris pulled Sehun into his lap and made him look up. “Sehun, Kai isn’t a puppy. You can’t tell him what to do, and you can’t keep him locked up if he wants to leave. That’s part of ohana too, never forgetting but knowing when to say goodbye.”

Sehun started to cry again. “But goodbye is the same as leaving behind. Mom and dad said goodbye to us and now they left us behind.”

Kris looked like he wanted to cry too. “I know it feels that way, but they really didn’t. They’re still here, right? Remember what grandma said? The people who love us—”

“Never leave us,” Sehun finished.

“And mom and dad loved us,” Kris said. “So they can never really leave us.”

Sehun sniffles and leaned against Kris’ chest. “It still feels awful.”

Kris held him close and kissed his forehead. “I know, believe me I do.”

When Sehun finally left Kris’ room he found Kai hovering around the corner, wringing his hands and biting his lip. Sehun immediately rubbed his eyes and cleared his throat. “You could have come in,” he said with a smile. “We wouldn’t have minded.”

Kai kept swallowing, like he had something stuck in his throat.

“Are you thirsty?” Sehun asked. “Want some lemonade?”

Kai took a deep breath. “S-se…hun.”

Sehun gaped. “Wh-what?”

“Sehun,” Kai whispered. “Sehun.”

Sehun was absolutely stunned. “You…you said…YOU CAN TALK!” He shrieked in delight and threw his arms around Kai’s neck, nearly toppling him with the force of his hug. “I knew it, I just knew it! Grandma! Kris! He said my name! Kai said my name!”

But it quickly became clear that that was all Kai could say. Grandma said that she’d call the insurance company and see if they could get Kai enrolled in a speech therapy program, but Sehun was sure he could teach Kai to talk by himself. He’d spend the entire summer trying if he had to.

Remember when I said at the end of chapter 4 that the scene of Kris crying in the kitchen would be important? It was the night/day his grandma talked to him about her funeral.