Looks like he gave up finally. Hyukjae has been knocking on my door since yesterday but of course to no avail. What a rude brat! First he eats my cupcake and when I ask him to apologise, he tells me to forget it. It´s true I was preserving it for him because last time it saved my skin but this doesn´t change anything on the fact he ate it without my permission.

But to be honest, it might have been my fault from the start. The communication between us just doesn´t work. We´re both stubborn as mules and none of us wants to step back. Well actually, that´s a lie too. Hyukjae steps down for me a lot, more like he´s able to swallow whenever I cross the line and say something out of place. But it looks like his patience isn´t bottomless either. Yesterday I once again couldn´t help myself and told him some pretty nasty things. Hyukjae didn´t argue with me but when I was basking in my superiority, he took his revenge silently. Smart but totally irritating.

Although I admit my own behaviour in a trial could be grounded for review of the judgement, I´m refusing to apologise. So missing the timing to come out of the room and pretend as if nothing, I ended up locked here until the next morning. Of course I secretly visited the kitchen and bathroom but I always made sure, Hyukjae was watching the TV or sleeping in his room. Now, though, the boy had given up because for the last hour nobody had knocked on my door.

This may be the right time to come out, I thought. Nodding for myself I unlocked the door and walked out. First I went to the bathroom to take a long warm shower. I had time, I told Jungsu that I still felt sick and he let me stay at home for another day. In normal circumstances he would force me to come to work but now I had Lee Hyukjae to take care of and for some reason the elder took a liking to the boy. I smirked for myself; you have no idea what a little fox that kid is, Jungsu.

After the shower I dressed myself and went to the kitchen to prepare something to eat. It was past twelve already and the blonde must have been hungry. I would heat up my mom´s food from the fridge and Hyukjae would come drooling. Naturally I would feed him the delicious food and without any apology the tense situation would disappear. That was the best idea my prideful self came up with. But I should have known that everything won´t go as planned. First thing that made me feel uncomfortable was the missing presence of the bright boy. The TV was on so the house wasn´t completely quiet but still something was missing. Having a bad feeling I went to check the living room, ten minutes later I was pocketing my keys with Jungsu on the phone.

“I lost him,” I said truthfully, there was no time for hesitation. The matter was serious after all.

“You what?!” Jungsu from the other line yelled.

“He managed to run away, it´s probably around two hours he´s on the run,” I spoke while walking towards the garage. “His stuff and some food from the fridge are  missing as well as his shoes and jacket.”

“How could have something like that happened when you were in the house with him?” Jungsu hit the bull´s eye just like always.

“We fought,” I admitted seating myself on the bike, “I´m going to finish, I have to check the bus station and some other places first, I´ll call you later but knowing the boy, you should wake up a few of the geeks in the office.”

“Okay, notify me in case you were successful but don´t think I will let this error go, Heechul,” Jungsu said in his coldest tone and I knew I was in a big trouble. I shouldn´t have let my guard down, especially not after fighting with Hyukjae.

I ended the call and started the ignition. The machine roared and in seconds I was already speeding in the residential area. When I arrived to the bus station, I jumped down from the bike and hurried to the information desk. It didn´t surprise me that the lady has indeed seen a blonde teenage buying a ticket. She was quite disappointed after hearing that the boy wasn´t travelling to his grandpa but simply running away from home. I wasn´t in much better mood after finding out that Hyukjae went to the railway station. It won´t be easy to find him there.

Informing Jungsu about the new findings, I rushed back to the motorcycle and started toward the city centre. this all! It´s nearing three o´clock so of course the rush hour is starting. Why now? Why couldn´t have I noticed Hyukjae went missing a little earlier? Now I´m stuck in the traffic jam. At first I just broke a few laws and used the fact I had only two wheels instead of four. But the more I was nearing the centre, the worse the traffic became. Eventually I had to step on the breaks too. I wonder how far Hyukjae managed to get in the meantime, pretty far taking his intelligence into an account.

I arrived to the train station only around four o´clock, five hours since the boy went missing. I skipped the line to the cash desk, waving around me with my police badge, a card actually. But the longer I was talking to the personnel of the station, the sicker I felt. There was a blonde boy around half past twelve who bought on his card five different tickets to all possible directions. Smartass.

“Heechul? How is it going?” Jungsu picked up the phone in the record speed.

“Not very well, Hyukjae is cheating,” I could almost see my friend rolling his eyes on my comment, “but he used his card. I´m sure you have the intel about him, try to locate his bank account and find where else he had withdrawn money.”

It was noisy on the other line for a moment as Jungsu was ordering his geeks around, when his attention was back to me, I had to tell him everything I had found out in the station. Especially about those five tickets. When waiting for Jungsu to call me back with whatever he had discovered, I went to the security office and made them show me the video records of those five trains. For another hour I kept rewinding the videos but I couldn´t spot Hyukjae anywhere. I didn´t know him enough to find him in the crowd if he made a little effort to cover himself. Or is it possible that he didn´t ride any of the trains? But then where would he go? He could have gone to the main bus station and ride a bus from there. If he didn´t pay by the card, it would take forever to find him and then it could be too late already. I was beginning to panic when my phone rang again.

“So,” Jungsu didn´t even bother to greet me, “we managed to track down his account but he was once again one step ahead of us. He had withdrawn all his money from the account still at the train station,” I face-palmed. “But there are still a few hints about the five locations, I want you to see them and use your intuition to find the right one. Then you will go there and I´ll send lower ranked agents to the other four. I´m sending you the info, read it through and send me back your choice,” this is my last chance. “I trust you, Heechul-ah, I know you didn´t want this to happen so calm down and solve this problem, okay?” Jungsu added in his usual tone.

“Yeah, thanks,” I said and ended the call to read through the e-mail.

There were five different locations, each having something to do with Hyukjae´s past. Once again I was in awe that he even thought of buying tickets to the meaningful places instead of buying them randomly. I could tell he gave it a good thought.

Ulsan was the first city on the list, Hyukjae´s relatives live there. But I doubt he would go to them because from what I´ve heard about Hyukjae´s family, the relationships weren´t that good. Then there was Jeju island, a place far away from here from where it wouldn´t be hard to get abroad or hide in one of the little islands. It would be a great hiding place but Hyukjae despises loneliness, especially now. Another place is Andong, the Lees had a summer house there. It would be a good idea but it´s not summer anymore and arriving there, what would he do? Sooner or later he would be found there, it´s an easy target. Mokpo sounds like a good place, it´s far and Hyukjae´s best friend from middle school moved there. I´m sure he would hide him in his house. And lastly Sokcho where he went on holiday with his parents for the last time only a few weeks before the accident. The best place to think and reminiscent, Hyukjae was pushing back the memories of his family but maybe he decided it was time for mourning.

So which one is it? If I were Hyukjae, what would I chose? If I were a smart, good and lonely kid, where would I go? I have no idea, I´ve never actually talked to Hyukjae so the only thing I was able to pick up was his presence. That strange bright aura. I have no choice but to go by my instinct.

I returned to my bike, the dinner is today at Andong.

Hello! So Heechul is on the chase already. Would they meet or not? Thank you for reading and commenting - PandaHero