Hyunseong and Jeongmin were in their classroom, all alone in the early morning. Hyunseong didn’t get much sleep. He remembered last night. Minwoo calling him in the dead of the night. Even though Hyunseong said it was okay, Minwoo kept apologizing. He couldn’t blame the kid. He was after all still in shock after knowing only yesterday that his bestfriend has a twin.

“Why don’t you tell him in the morning?” He had said, trying to help Minwoo. “If you’re really friends, then you should talk it out.”

Although he did not know if he was any help at all. He could hear anxiety and uncertainty in Minwoos’ voice.

“Eyy, hyung?” said Jeongmin, interrupting Hyunseongs’ thoughts. “What’s up? You’ve been quiet the whole walk to school.”

Kwangmin and Youngmin arrived at their room. Everyone had the same reaction as Minwoo, Jeongmin and Hyunseong last night. Almost everyone wanted to know the story. But Kwangmin just said: “Both of us don’t know that much.”

After pointing Youngmin to his seat, he noticed that Minwoo was still not there. “That’s weird.” Thought Kwangmin. “His mom said that he went ahead of us already.” But he shrugged, “He might have made a wrong turn on the way here.”

But as time passed, and the bell finally rang, signaling for the start of school, Minwoo still did not arrive.

“Maybe he went back home.” Thought Kwangmin, but this only made him uneasy. He knew Minwoo easily got lost. So all through out the morning he was worrying for Minwoo. He didn’t even notice that Miss Sooyoung was introducing Youngmin to the class.

Youngmin kept glancing at Kwangmin. He could see that something was worrying his brother. Was it Minwoo perhaps? Earlier today, when they went to Minwoos’ place, Mrs. No told them that Minwoo already left, much to the surprise of Kwangmin. So they walked here hurriedly. “No doubt, Kwangmin wanted to catch up to Minwoo.” Youngmin thought. “Even though I only met them yesterday, I feel that I should also be worried. They were all so good to me.”

Kwangmin was surprised when he saw a paper ball landing on top of his table. He looked at Youngmin, who was looking at him, mouthing out to him to read the note. He opened the paper ball. Inside was a note: “Minwoo might just be at home. Let’s try calling his house when break comes.” Kwangmin smiled. Even though they only met yesterday, his twin brother was growing on him. He looked up and gave Youngmin a thumbs-up and a smile.

Time passed by slowly, and when it was finally time for break, both Kwangmin and Youngmin rushed out the door to the school phones. There, they only got an answering machine. So they tried calling Minwoo’s phone. But it was turned off. So they went to the cafeteria. When they entered, they saw Hyunseong waving at them. They made their way over to Hyunseong and Jeongmin. When they sat down on the table, Youngmin noticed that a lot of people seated near their table had eyes on them.

“Guys, have you heard from Minwoo lately?” asked Kwangmin.

“Nope, not after last night.” Answered Hyunseong, who looked puzzled. “Why? Didn’t he come to school today?”

“That’s just it.” Youngmin said. “We tried calling his home and his own cellphone. But no such luck.”

“I’m really worried guys.” Kwangmin said. “Minwoo’s not the kind of person who would skip school and not tell me.”

“Why don’t we go look for him?” asked Hyunseong.

Everyone looked at him.

“What? Skip class and go look for Minwoo?” asked a surprised Youngmin quite a little loudly that a girl passing them by turned her head in their direction.

“Shush!” exclaimed Hyunseong. “Kind of like that.”

“The front gates are locked.” Kwangmin said. “ They open only when dismissal comes. How are we going to get out?”

“Leave that to us.” Jeongmin said slyly. “Hyunseong and I know a few passages out of here.” He winked.

So Jeongmin and Hyunseong signaled the other two to follow them. Instead of going out of the cafeteria, they headed towards the main kitchen. Youngmin then noticed that now, no one was paying attention to them except the girl that passed them by earlier. Youngmin gave the girl a smile and went after the other three. No one was in the kitchen. So they went out the backdoor.

“But this only leads to the back garden.” Kwangmin said, puzzled.

“You’ll see.” Hyunseong answered.

In the back garden, there were no people, seeing as everyone was still eating in the cafeteria. Jeongmin headed to the very large thorn bushes that crawled all the way up to the wall. Kwangmin thought that they were going to climb up there. But Jeongmin looked back at them, smiled and went in the bushes.

“Whoah! Won’t we get scratched?” asked Youngmin nervously.

“Nope, there’s a small path here that only the kitchen staff and a few faculty members know about.” Said Hyunseong, pointing on the spot where Jeongmin disappeared.

Sure enough, there was a small path there big enough for a person to pass through unscathed. It was only visible if you were in front of the bushes. So they all followed Jeongmin. When they got through the bushes, they saw a wooden door leading out. They opened it and saw Jeongmin with another person. It was Ms. Sooyoung!

“So what have we here, a few class cutters.” Said Ms. Sooyoung.

“No you see…” Started Kwangmin, but Ms. Sooyoung raised her hand.

“I know all about your planned adventure. And you might want to try looking in Hyungdong. I believe that is the easiest place to get lost, with all the twist and turns.” Said Ms. Sooyoung with a smile. “But next time, you can ask my permission and go through the front gates.”

All four were amazed. And they all looked stunned.

“Well, goodluck in searching for Minwoo, I do hope he’s okay.” Said Ms. Sooyoung, who opened the backdoor, which was also painted like the wall, and was easily mistaken as part of it. “See you all tomorrow.” With that, she went in and closed the door.

“Wow. She is one cool teacher.” Jeongmin said. “When we were in year II, we had Ms. Tiffany. And boy was she ever strict.”

“Yeah. Come on!” said Hyunseong. “Ms. Sooyoung said to look first in Hyungdong. Let’s go.”

So the four went on their search for Minwoo. All the while, Kwangmin was getting more and more worried. Where was Minwoo? What had happened to him?