CHAPTER FOUR:Searching

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Sure he had been repeating the same words for the past seven minutes and really, it was getting tiring. At least in SungGyu’s mind it really was. The point had been clear the first time the man said it. And yes, the old Japanese man was way too stubborn to believe it was happening. But hey, it had already been a week. Of course it was happening and of course it was real.

The boy was gone. 

Gone.

Oh, how the young man wanted to say that to his boss but he couldn’t. He knew how things got when he showed how smart and better he was than his stupid excuse for a father. God, why did his mother married an old, strong-headed Japanese man?

“This is not happening. It’s not!” His stepfather kept saying, throwing his sunglasses to his desk. He surely had a pissed expression written all over his hideous features and SungGyu was really trying to keep his eyes from meeting the sight.

The man in his late fifties was now walking around his big dark office like a dog that was about to sleep in an unknown place. The young man was trying his best – he really was – to keep his eyebrows from knitting together and expressing his feelings. God, it was hard for SungGyu to keep that poker face he held at work but this Japanese man did manage to push his buttons, starting with his low vocabulary, bad manners and his disgusting business SungGyu was now tied to.

Did he want to quit this job? Hell yes. Was he able to do that? No chance. SungGyu was eager to give up everything and leave but couldn’t, at least not yet. First he had things to fix.

“He can’t be that far, Kitagawa-san,” SungGyu said when he thought it was the best moment to cut the stupid repetitive conversation the man had with himself. By now the twenty-four year old man knew how to be subtle and get in the good side of his father.

“How the do you know, kid? Huh?!”

Yeah, those words could be seen as a not so nice answer but SungGyu was jumping inside with happiness. The answer could’ve been far worse. And it could’ve been because the Japanese old man was desperate to find this certain person, a person that SungGyu was desperate to find, too; though he didn’t show it.

“I have known him since he was a baby. I’ll be able to find him. Just give me some time.”

The young man, that held sharp features, tried to reason with his father, who was now trying his best to cover the whole office with the smoke from his cigar. SungGyu narrowed his eyes as the thick gray cloud of smoke was thrown up to his face.

“Time? That’s what we’re missing! You think I can give you more time?!” The Japanese man started in a sarcastic way but ended shouting. “! If you don’t find that damn brat this is all going to hell! You want to lose everything you got? —go move your ed up and find the brat!” He finally barked, scaring the hell out of his son who on the outside just bowed a bit before excusing himself from the polluted dark room.

Room he hated with all his heart.

Same room that in the future was going to be his.

For nine days now, the small eyed man had been in an arduous search all over Tokyo like a crazy man. He had asked customers, showed pictures, everything he could possibly do to find him. He had almost fallen in despair, for a moment he had thought about calling the police to get some help but he ended up not doing it. He couldn’t. The police wasn’t in good terms with his father’s business, and if he did something stupid, not only could he suffer the consequences but someone very dear to him. No, SungGyu couldn’t let that happen.

“Where are you, idiot…” SungGyu murmured to himself as worry started to fill his soul.

What if he had ended up meeting dead? If someone tortured him? Tokyo was a city where things just happened, and SungGyu surely didn’t want anything to happen to that person. God, he was just a boy. A child for god’s sake!

As his mind kept screaming to the god up there, his body stopped in shock noticing one of their regular customers was already inside.

“Akanishi-san,” SungGyu said as a social smile bloomed in his lips. He recognize those handsome features. “Is there anything I could help you with? We aren’t opening until seven.”

“I know, but I felt like I needed to get some information from Kitagawa.-san,” the handsome Japanese man said fixing his suit. He wanted to look presentable in front of the owner of the place he loved. “It’s about L-chan.”

The last part was whispered making the hair from SungGyu’s back rice as his eyes opened wide for a millisecond. His blood froze instantly, yet he could feel his heart beating fast. Maybe that god did listen to his harsh thoughts, but now wasn’t the time for SungGyu to kneel and pray, but to try and find the way to get the information without telling the older man the truth. No one but his father knew about the slightly difficult situation they got at work.

“You see? Kitagawa-san isn’t here right now,” SungGyu lied with a kind of disappointed look, knowing perfectly that that disgusting person he dared to call father was inside, dying to get some information about his little star. “But you can tell me. You know I’m the second in command.”

As always the young male kept his cool and peace. SungGyu knew how to make business. Unfortunately he learnt them from the master.

“Right,” Akanishi murmured as his eyes showed how he was trying to make sense in his next words. “Well, I haven’t seen L-chan around for a while and I was a bit worried, but two days ago I met him in the streets. The thing is, something is bothering me about that time. The sight was a bit disturbing and… I just wanted to ask.”

“Disturbing? In which sense?” SungGyu said with a tranquil voice that was quickly bought by the older man.

“I don’t know if it’s true or not… I saw him with someone. Older than him, surely he wasn’t a friend of his,” Akanishi kept talking as the younger man tried to keep the serene look he was holding, “I just don’t know if he’s not restricted to work in the daylight and streets… Is that okay for him? You know, he’s pretty young and things could get hard for him. You just don’t know what could happen in the streets. It can be dangerous working outside.”

Like it wasn’t inside too, that was the real thought that came to SungGyu’s mind but he decided to keep that to himself, and instead kept a serious look as his mind started to create gazillions of questions with unknown answer. Gosh, he just wanted to ask everything and get the brat back.

“The man next to him didn’t seem from here. They were speaking in Korean,” Akanishi furrowed his eyebrows. “Does he work outside too?”

“He’s been having some special work. Maybe you just saw him at it,” SungGyu lied in such a subtle way there was no reason to not believe his words. He was just too used to do it after all the time he had been forced to do so.

“I guess. I didn’t know you accepted outsiders,” Akanishi said giving more clues to the younger male.

“We do. They just have a restricted area. Where exactly did you saw him? I hope he keeps up with the rules. You know, L-chan can get his way easily.”

“Right, he does,” the Japanese man half smiled. “I saw them here, in Shibuya. But, isn’t you client a bit too young?”

“Our client?” SungGyu asked not really getting what he was saying. “Oh—well, it just depends. With his brown hair he looks younger.” 

Answers. He wanted answers.      

“Yes, but the hair wasn’t what made him look young, it was rather his height.” Akanishi said making a signal to show how tall the man was; motion that didn’t go unnoticed by SungGyu’s sharp eyes.

“He’s pretty tall,” he said in a calm tone. Glad to know another characteristic of the man. Bad thing was almost everyone in Japan had dark hair colour. The height not. “That height makes his features much more noticeable.” SungGyu spoke next waiting for more details.

“Sure it does,” bingo. “He got this pretty delicate features. He kind of looks like a Korean doll.”

“Korean doll? I would’ve never described him like that,” SungGyu gently laughed wanting the other to talk more.

“Yeah, with that Westmancott suit he did look like one.” Akanishi kept talking not knowing SungGyu knew nothing about this man they were both talking about.

“Westmancott,” SungGyu repeated. “You can’t easily see those suits in Japan, are you sure it was a Westmancott?”

“Believe me, I could recognize one from far.”

“I do,” SungGyu nodded, happy with his intelligence. “I would love to keep talking but I need to leave and close. We don’t want something to happen when no one’s here.”

“That would be a disaster.”

SungGyu couldn’t believe himself. “Hope you can visit us later, Akanishi-san.”

“I’m eager to,” Akanishi said with a disgusting grin that brought shivers to the younger man. Oh, how he hated those dirty old homouals. But now it wasn’t the time for him to think about that. Right now he had to find the man that had been seen with the young kid. He needed to find the Westmancott man quickly. If not, he was sure his mother in heaven was going to go down just to kick his in his sleep for not keeping an eye on his little brother.

I can’t get it. I can’t,” SungYeol murmured to himself as his eyes kept looking at some papers he was holding in front of his gaze.

“I can’t either. It’s pretty impossible to understand kanji if it’s upside down,” HoWon added noticing his friend was holding the papers the incorrect way.

“Wha—no, I’m not talking about this,” SungYeol threw the papers into his desk as a desperate sound came out from his mouth, making his shorter friend laugh at him. “It’s not funny, idiot!”

“Mind telling me what’s bothering you so bad?”

“No,” SungYeol pouted, not really wanting to accept something was, in fact, bothering him to no end.

“Then stop thinking out loud. It is bothering me, you know?” HoWon said taking the papers that were just scorn by the taller man.

“Fine. Okay, I get it!” SungYeol couldn’t stop himself for a bit longer getting a simple nod from his friend who was busy with the papers. “It’s about MyungSoo.”

“Oh, I never thought you were going to say that name again,” HoWon grinned leaving the papers and changing his working attitude to his friendly one. “So, tell me my dearest friend, what’s hassling you?”

The mocking tone was surely noticed by the younger man who just used a few seconds to glare before changing that expression into a hurt and worried one.

After the snort HoWon gave, SungYeol started to talk.

“I just can’t get it!” SungYeol whined as his friend rolled his eyes.

“You already said that.”

“I’m just finding a way to start my speech.”

“Oh, okay, you may continue.”

“Thanks,” SungYeol released a sigh. “You know I’m not the best person coming to problematic people. Really, I just can’t stand it. We don’t even know how I’m able to be your friend even with your overdramatic life.”

“Yeah, we don’t,” HoWon confirmed with a way too firm expression.

“This is serious, HoWon. Stop playing,” SungYeol glared at him once again.” And well, thanks to my problem with… problematic people, I just don’t have the best relationships, right?”

“Right.”

“And I tend to avoid every problematic thing that appears on my way.”

“When it got nothing to do with business.”

“Right!” SungYeol said excited. Oh, how much he loved his friend—he didn’t know, and wasn’t even going to figure it out. “But then… remember the thing I told you that happened?”

“The y voice that you heard that made you choke with you own saliva?”

“Yes, that one,” SungYeol said getting shivers as he remembered the voice.

“Yeah, I remember. You just told him that you weren’t going to forget and never let him explain. Getting you way by saying that’s none of my business,” the last line was said in a pitch voice.

“Mind stop bothering me?” SungYeol wondered believing he was never going to have a serious talk with his friend. Well, at least things seemed less stressing that way. “But yeah. I did say that… but now I can’t stop from wanting to know more about that!”

“You want to know what problematic thing’s going on?” HoWon asked way too quick, not really believing what his ears heard.

“I don’t know!” SungYeol cried letting his head hit the desk and staying in that position until he looked up again, letting the child inside of him appear in front of HoWon’s eyes. “But his eyes. They were begging me to listen. Like they were asking for help…”

“Dude, are you serious?”

“I am the serious one in all our conversations, HoWon-ah.”

“Then, there’s only one thing left to do.”

The older man said, this time resolving everything with a now, serious expression that gave hope to the younger man who was waiting for an answer.

“Just ask.”

As if that was going to be easy. The thing of asking sure was way too easy. Open your mouth and ask. God, SungYeol always asked if he had a question, ever since he was a kid he tended to ask everything, as in everything, just to satisfy his curious self. But, there was a tricky thing about the asking this time. If he asked, SungYeol was going to be supposed to listen to everything and help the boy that surely had a big messed up problem. Listen, well SungYeol could. But help? That was an entirely different thing he didn’t want to do. He was against getting involved in any problem that had nothing to do with him. It was just not him. But his little brother needed him!

Right, the boy was his little brother; at least that was what SungYeol convinced his mid to say. And, weren’t brothers made to kelp the other when in trouble?

“Damn,” SungYeol murmured as he opened the front door of his apartment. Fine. He was going to ask. He was…

No sound was heard and it quite bothered SungYeol. Now it was kind of a custom for MyungSoo to get to the front door and greet the businessman. This time the youngster wasn’t anywhere to be seen. A bit panicked – but trusting the boy wasn’t eager to leave his flat – SungYeol started to search around the enormous place for his flat partner who was quickly found in the living room.

“This kid’s gonna kill me,” SungYeol murmured as a rebellious smile slipped from his mouth at the sight.

The delicate boy was sleeping peacefully on the floor. Some loose pants were hanging from his hips and a small white shirt covered his small frame, apart from that no more clothes covered him. MyungSoo’s body was curled and the only soft thing that made his painful position comfortable was the small cushion he took from the sofa to use as a pillow. Next to it an old book.

“MyungSoo? Hey, kid, wake up. You’re gonna get sick if you keep sleeing here,” SungYeol whispered shaking the boy a bit so he would open his eyes.

“Suhgy…” An unknown word was released from the boy’s lips making the businessman snort.

“I don’t know what that means but no. get up sleepy head,” SungYeol said helping the boy sit on the floor. He didn’t let go of the thin arms, fearing the boy would fall to the floor with his sleepy being.

“…SungYeol?” MyungSoo said in a moan as he rubbed his eyes.

That voice again.

Ah, it always managed to make SungYeol’s body turn crazy.

“Y-yea, it’s me. I’m back,” SungYeol grinned as the boy opened his eyes to see his flat-partner.

“Welcome back.”