Kai was not in good shape when he arrived at the library that day.

Sure he didn’t know where his brothers were. But that didn’t mean they were dead, they couldn’t be dead. His aunt only wanted him to give her the inheritance.

She was the closest relative he had, and she wasn’t even that close. Her husband had been Kai’s father’s cousin, and their relationship hadn’t been so good. Kai had no idea why this lady was trying to rekindle their ties and take the inheritance. You don’t just go to your 17-year-old nephew’s house and heartlessly tell him that his brothers are dead. A money loving, greedy witch was what she was.

“Kai!” Hana greeted him brightly. Kai looked away and walked to the cart full of books. He was not in the mood to even tolerate her pestering voice.

“It feels like forever since I saw you!” she exclaimed.

Kai ignored her and pushed the cart to the shelves of books.

“Should I help?”

“Your job is to manage the volunteers and the work, not try and get close to them,” Kai said hardly. “Keep your distance.”

Minhee then came running towards them. She bowed at Hana, “Sorry I’m late!”

“Its fine,” Hana waved it away. She looked at Kai, “If you need to talk, noona is here.” She said before leaving.

Minhee glanced between the two as Hana walked away, “You call her noona?”

“In her head,” Kai muttered and Minhee laughed as she began helping him.

“Did you hear about that motorcycle crash?” Minhee asked conversationally, not noticing his glum and irritable mood. “The one a couple of days ago?”

“No.”

“Oh. Well a boy died in it, he was hit by the motorcycle,” Minhee said sadly.

Kai froze, “What?”

“He was just walking across the street and the motorcycle was speeding. So sad,” Minhee shook her head. “He was our age too.”

Kai dropped the book he was holding, it landed on the cart.

Kai was shaking now, “What was his name?”

“He’s underage so the article didn’t mention his name,” she shrugged.

Kai’s head was spinning with thoughts.

Had his aunt been telling the truth? Were they both dead?

Even if he didn’t see them, he was always comforted with the fact that they were somewhere on this planet, alive. The fact that there was a chance he could meet them again.

But was that fact gone now?

◌◌◌◌◌

“Grandma, where are you going?” Ara asked, her grandmother was dressed in black and was heading out.

“A funeral,” she replied sadly. “The boy that died a couple of days ago in the motorcycle crash, Choi Junhong, was the grandson of someone I know.”

“Ah, okay,” Ara nodded.

“Want to come? He was your age.”

“I have to work,” Ara muttered.

“Okay, I’ll be back later,” her grandmother opened the door and left. Ara went to her room and changed into a white dress shirt that she tucked into a black skirt.

She put her coat on and went downstairs. Making sure her phone was in her pocket, she slipped her shoes on and locked the door before leaving the house.

Ara worked part time at a restaurant. It wasn’t the best job she could ask for, but it was all she had.

She took the bus to the restaurant and bowed at her fellow workers before going to the employer’s locker room. She grabbed her apron and tied it around her waist, then checked her pocket for her notebook and pen.

“Oh, you’re here?” Minseok, the manager, asked as she entered the kitchen. His face was a little chubby and he looked like a cute little bun sometimes, but he was a good manager.

It was the customers Ara had a problem with. Some were rude, some annoying, some rude and annoying.

“Oh someone just arrived,” Minseok said, looking through the window that showed what was going on in the restaurant.

Ara nodded and held her notepad and pen in her hands as she walked out of the kitchen.

She bowed at the table with two men sitting at it, “Hello. What would you like today?”

“There’s only one menu, how are we both supposed to order with one menu?” One of the men demanded. He was in his twenties and his arms were draped in tattoos. His friend looked had a Mohawk and piercings covered his ears, he too looked like he wanted trouble.

Ara turned around and went to the front counter to grab another menu. She gripped it tightly and walked back to their table.

“Here you go,” she handed it to the tattoo man.

They placed their order and Ara wrote it down. She ripped the paper out of her notepad and stuck it onto the order bar when she got to the kitchen. She filled a jug with water and then headed back to the table to place it on a coaster.

But Mr. Tattoo was moving his hands everywhere as he talked to his friend and spilled the water on the table.

“You idiot!” he spat. He brushed the water on his arms off and he and his friend glared at her. “Can’t you do anything right?!”

“Um, sir,” Ara gritted her teeth. “You are the one who knocked it down.”

“You placed it in the wrong place!”

“I put it on the coaster.”

“Whoah whoah,” Mr. Piercings looked at her. “Waitress, you aren’t supposed to talk back when you’ve done something wrong.”

“I didn’t-”

“Manager!” he yelled. Ara pressed her lips into a thin line and balled her hands into fists.

Minseok managed to calm them down and assigned another waiter to that table while Ara waited in the kitchen.

“I didn’t do anything!” she exclaimed as Minseok came back.

“I know,” he nodded. “They were being a bit ridiculous.”

“A bit?” Ara scoffed.

“Just go wait that grandmas at table 3,” he pushed her out of the kitchen.

This is why I hate people.

◌◌◌◌◌

The next day at school, Kai was sitting with his in his arms at his desk. He had tried very hard to find out more about the boy in the accident. But he had no luck.

Ara was sitting with a blank expression on her face as Minhee entered.

“Hi Kai, hi Ara,” she smiled.

Kai didn't acknowledge her greeting, being too occupied wiht the prospect of his brothers being dead. Ara, suprisingly, stiffly nodded.

“What did you do this weekend?” Minhee asked Ara as she sat down in her seat.

“Why do you care?”

“Just tell me!”

“Why?”

“Please?”

Ara sighed, “I worked while my grandmother went to a funeral.”

“A funeral? Who? Did someone in your family die?” Minhee gasped.

“No. It was the kid in that motorcycle accident, he was a friend of my grandma’s.”

Kai’s head shot up.

“You know him? Who was it?” he asked, his heart racing once more.

Ara looked at him surprised, Kai had probably spoke to her once in in the past four years, and that was to tell her that she was wanted in the main office.

“I don’t know.”

“You don’t know his name?” Kai asked desperately.

“Choi Junhong or something?” Ara scrunched up her face. “Why do you care?”

Kai let out a sigh of relief and finally stopped shaking. He felt a rush of gratitude and gratefulness towards Ara for not saying the name he had in mind.

Now Kai was determined once more (after the hundreds of failed attempts from before) to try and find his brother.

◌◌◌◌◌

After school, Kai rummaged through his closet for a piece of paper he had thrown in there three years ago. Since Woobin and ‘Those Men’ had refused to tell him what orphanage Sehun had been taken to, he had gone to every orphanage in the area to find him. And he did find the right one, only to find out that that one had been overcrowded and most kids had been transferred to a different one, including Sehun.

Unfortunately, the head of the orphanage had been a complete prick and refused to tell Kai where the other orphanage was. And it was one that was far from where he lived so he couldn’t just drop everything and search every orphanage in the country. The head had also warned him not to come back to look for someone or he would be reported for trespassing, Kai didn’t understand what wrong he was doing but didn’t come back.

At that point, Kai had completely given up. He didn’t understand why everyone seemed to be making every effort to keep Sehun away from his family, but he was tired of it.

Now he figured that the head might have forgotten him and would let slip where that orphanage was.

After half an hour of searching, Kai found the piece of paper in his ninth grade school bag at the bottom of his closet.

Oh yeah! He cheered in his mind. He stood up, dusted himself off and then grabbed a jacket. After searching the directions online on his phone, he found himself on the bus ten minutes later.

He managed to find the original orphanage and stood in front of the gates. Kids were happily playing outside and enjoying the snow that had poured the previous night. The gates were open so he went in and entered the building. It was quiet, all the kids seemed to be outside having fun. He walked down a quiet hallway and found the head’s office. He nervously knocked on the door.

“Come in,” an elderly voice said. Kai twisted the doorknob and entered the clean office. Behind the desk was an old lady who was fixing her glasses to get a better look at Kai.

“Yes? I haven’t been expecting anyone. You didn’t make an appointment,” she remarked. Kai immediately bowed, glancing at the name sign on her desk, “I’m sorry, Mrs. Choi.”

“Consider yourself lucky since I don’t have any other appointments,” she said, looking at him from over her spectacles. Kai bowed again.

“Um, are you the new head?” he asked nervously. “I was here a couple of years ago and the head at the time uh, said that he would be here for a long time.”

“Ah, Mr. Lee?” she asked. “He retired last year.”

“Oh,” Kai nodded, extremely happy that he had another chance. He straightened up and had a bit of a smile on his face.

“Was that all you needed to ask me?”

“Oh, no!” he shook his head. “Four years ago, some kids were moved from here to another orphanage. Do you, perhaps, know what orphanage that was?”

The woman took her glasses off and held them in her hands, “Why?”

“I’m looking for someone.”

“Well, um,-”

“Kim Jongin.”

“Well Jongin, that is not very recent and quite frankly not that important that its documents are still here,” she said. “Plus this didn’t happen when I was head.”

“Please,” Kai begged. “Can you try to find out?”

“Who exactly are you looking for?” she asked.

“My brother.”

“You do know that there are ways to find a person with the police and government?”

“I’ve tried but all they had was the address of our old house and this orphanage,” Kai muttered.

The woman looked at him, to see if he was sincere.

“Fine,” she agreed finally. “I will look into it.”

“Thank you,” Kai bowed multiple times, hope growing inside of him. “Thank you so much.”

They exchanged numbers and Kai left with a light heart, feeling more alive than he had in years.

◌◌◌◌◌

A week passed, it had now been three weeks since the suicide incident and he was about to do his third Sunday of volunteering.

On Saturday morning, he was woken up by the ringing of his phone.

“Hello?” he said groggily, picking the phone up.

“Jongin? It’s me, Mrs. Choi, I’ve found the orphanage.”

◌◌◌◌◌

Kai looked up at the new orphanage building he had been directed to. He was bubbling with excitement. After thanking Mrs. Choi profusely he had raced to the address she gave him. It had been almost a bit more than an hour’s journey of busses and subways, but he didn’t mind.

Kai entered the gates and headed towards the building. There were no kids playing outside, this orphanage seemed much more unpleasant. The wind was blowing unkindly and there were no toys or laughing children in the yard.

He entered the building and found the orphanage warden in the dining room after some searching and asking. She was watching the workers clean the tables and set up for lunch.

Kai approached her, she seemed like a stern lady. Not like Mrs. Choi who was kind and warm hearted.

“Excuse me? Ms. Jung?”

She turned to him and Kai bowed, “Hello.”

“What is it?” she barked. “You don’t have business here.”

“I was looking for someone,” he said tentatively

“You should consult the workers,” she began walking past him.

“No, please,” Kai caught up with her.

“Who are you looking for?” she asked, turning around.

“Oh Sehun,” Kai said slowly, searching for a hint of recognition on her face.

She smirked, “Oh Sehun?”

“Yes, do you know him?” he asked, hope rising in his heart once again.

“Of course,” she scoffed. “I don’t think anyone here will ever forget him.”

“So he’s here? Where is he?” Kai asked, excitement building up inside of him.

She scoffed again, “No. Kid didn’t last a year here.”

Kai’s face fell, “What?”

“He was a trouble maker. He hated it here and was one of the biggest problems I’ve ever had the misfortune to encounter. Him and that girl,” she made a face. “He left. He escaped somehow with that girl.”

“What?” Kai blinked, his insides seemed to be sinking with each of her words.

“You heard me,” she said. “He’s not here, no one here knows where he is.”

Kai’s face turned grim and it stayed like that for the rest of the day.

He had hit another dead end.

Heyaaa

I really don't know about this chapter.... :/

Okay, I know the whole Sehun being taken away and Kai not being able to find him thing doesn't make sense but that's how it's suposed to be. You'll know the real reason later so for now just pretend it makes sense ;)

Comment and tell me what ya think~!