“Junhong?” Slowly the teen started shaking his head, pushing himself further into the corner he spoke, voice barely above a whisper.

“My name’s Zelo. Who are you?” Yongguk heard Daehyun’s footsteps and held out his hand to signal him so stop, the other man waited in the hallway as Yongguk tried to encourage ‘Zelo’ to trust him. Lowering himself to his knees Yongguk spoke as softly as possible, sure this was the right boy.

“Zelo, my name is Bang Yongguk, I’m a police officer and I need to ask you some questions. Is that ok?” The teen seemed to relax a little, apparently realising he wasn’t in danger and gave a small nod.

“Do you live here Zelo? Where are your parents?” Swallowing and looking around the room rather than at Yongguk the teen spoke again, a little more confidently now.

“I live here with my Uncle. Does he know you’re here?” Ignoring the boy’s question Yongguk moved forwards a little and studied his face as he spoke, the facial features looked the same.

“Zelo, I’m sorry to ask this, but I need you to come with me.”

“Outside?” Still avoiding looking at Yongguk the boy bit his lips after asking, scared of the answer.

“Yes, I need to take you to have some DNA tests done. I’ll explain more on the way.” To Yongguk’s surprise Zelo nodded and slowly got to his feet. The older man was surprised at how tall the teen was but didn’t let it show as he started walking to the door, happy that the boy followed him.

Before he left Yongguk instructed Daehyun call back up and stay until the man that owned the house came back, telling Daehyun to bring him to the station straight away. Once he was at the front door Yongguk paused at looked at Zelo for a moment and waited, “I’ll wait while you put your shoes on.” Pouting a little Zelo looked at his bare feet and back to Yongguk.

“I don’t have any.” Frowning at the boy Yongguk decided it would be ok to let him walk the short distance from the house to the car with no shoes and he’d buy some while the teen was having his tests done. They didn’t speak in the car, Yongguk didn’t know what to say and Zelo was too immersed in looking around the car and out the window to pay attention to him if he did.

-5 days later-

The entire time Zelo was in their custody the teen did nothing but ask where his Uncle was and when he could go home, apparently not used to being away for so long. He didn’t leave the hotel room they’d booked for him except to go to the police station and ask question after question.

Yongguk sat in his office waiting impatiently, knocking lightly on the door before entering Daehyun walking in and sat opposite Yongguk, pushing an unopened envelope on his desk.

“Is this-”

“It’s the results. Everyone’s waiting for the verdict still, this is it.” Picking up the envelope Yongguk quickly opened it and pulled out the papers inside. Scanning all the medical jargon he found what he was looking for and almost laughed at what he read. Watching him intensely Daehyun waited, his breath stuck in his throat. Yongguk’s voice was faint as if he himself didn’t believe what he was saying despite looking at the results as he spoke, “it’s him. Daehyun it’s him.” Like every ounce of stress he’d ever felt suddenly disappeared Yongguk stood up and held the paper out for Daehyun to take. His voice was strong again as he repeated himself, more excited now, “Daehyun it’s him!” The younger boy grinned happily and taking the results he and Yongguk made their way to their senior to deliver the news and get the man that had taken Junhong put away for good.

*

Zelo stared blankly at the papers in front of him, not sure what any of it meant and looked up at the three men in front of him. He knew Yongguk and Daehyun, they had taken him away from his home. The third, he was told, was a counsellor. From the movies he’d seen Zelo decided he didn’t look like a counsellor. He looked like a villain. Dark slanted eyes and a cold expression with black styled hair. This guy, Himchan, wasn’t someone he trusted. Looking at the papers in front of him again Zelo read the newspaper headlines about a missing baby, looked at police sketches of his Uncle, scanned over articles about this ‘Choi’ family then looked at the DNA test. Match. He didn’t know why any of it should matter to him and he didn’t know why he couldn’t go home or see his Uncle. Blinking up at Yongguk the teen fidgeted in his seat and pushed the papers away from him a little. “I don’t understand.” Stepping forwards a little Yongguk looked at Zelo sympathetically and tried to explain again.

“The man you live with is not your Uncle. He took you when you were a baby and has been hiding you ever since.” Picking up pictures of the teen’s parents Yongguk placed them on the table facing Zelo, “these are your birth parents, I’m sorry to be the one to tell you but they’re both dead. You’re birth name is Choi Junhong and we’ve been looking for you for sixteen years.” Starting to understand Zelo’s eyes widened as Yongguk continued, “Himchan is going to help you through this. If you need to talk, talk to him. There are recordings of everything that happened if you want to see them, but I warn you, it will be hard to understand at first.” Swallowing the lump that had formed in his throat Zelo nodded slowly.

“I want to see.”