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It was very awkward when Chanyeol asked Jonghyun for Minhyuk’s address the next afternoon at the same café from the day before. The latter doubted that the drummer still lived in the apartment that he knew since there was no answer when he visited the place quite a few times last month. Moreover, he was worried of what Chanyeol’s going to do.

“I’m not lying, I don’t know if he still lives there,” he said as he, ironically, scribbled down the address on a piece of ripped out paper. “He’s probably moved out.”

“It’s okay,” Chanyeol replied as he took the paper Jonghyun gave him. “Thanks.” He left ahead of him and boarded the subway to get to the address.

Kang Minhyuk lived in an apartment complex at the edge of Seoul that was actually pretty far from the café. ‘He sure loved his drumming job,’ Chanyeol thought as he climbed up the stairs to the third floor. Just like Jonghyun, he didn’t get an answer when he knocked on the door.

A halmeoni from the unit next door came out from her house, so he asked her, “Do you know where the owner of this unit is?”

“The last time I saw him was two weeks ago, and he brought two big baggages with him,” she answered, “He probably moved out.”

“Do you know where to?” Chanyeol asked further.

“I don’t,” halmeoni answered. “But the convenience girl might know.”

“Convenience girl?” She told him that a part-timer girl from the convenience store nearby often visited his place so he should ask her while she’s still working there. “Thank you, halmeoni.” Chanyeol bowed before marching to the said store just outside the apartment.

He wasn’t sure if the girl behind the cashier was the girl halmeoni meant but he asked nonetheless. “Do you know Kang Minhyuk?” She was surprised by the question, not confused. ‘She does,’ Chanyeol concluded to himself.

“I do not,” she answered with a smile, “Is there anything else I could help you with?”

He sighed then went on to get a can of soda though he didn’t really want it. As she took the can and scanned the barcode, Chanyeol said, “You look young. How old are you?”

“Almost twenty,” she answered before saying aloud the price of the soda. A 5000 bill was taken out from his wallet and he handed it over to her as he read the name-tag on her vest. ‘Seolhyun’ it read. “Thank you. Please come again.”

“I was assuming that the halmeoni was talking about Minhyuk’s new lover but if you are, you would have moved out with him when he did, right?” Chanyeol was still adamant that she was indeed has some kind of connection to the person he’s looking for.

“I’m sorry, customer-nim, I don’t understand what you are talking about,” Seolhyun said through a nervous smile.

“Did he tell you not to speak to anyone about him? Not to tell his new whereabouts and so on?” Seolhyun was starting to get desperate, not knowing what else to use to hide who she really is. “Do you know he owes his old boss a great amount of money?”

“That’s not what oppa told me!” Seolhyun cried out. And then realized she just said the wrong thing. She took the bait.

“See? I know you do know him.” Since the neighborhood was quiet and there was barely any customer coming, he escorted her outside and they sat down on the yellow plastic chairs. “Where is he now?” he asked as soon as their butts were on the chair.

“I promised not to tell anyone,” she said. A little while later, she added, “For crying out loud . . . ! Why I should even be talking to you!? I don’t know who the hell you are.”

“Because of his moving, I got a job, so I wanted to thank him,” Chanyeol said.

Seolhyun looked away then told him that, “Yeah, I’ll tell him.”

“Who are you then? His sister?” he asked. “But the way you said oppa doesn’t sound like coming out from a sibling, so I assumed you’re not.”

“Are you a detective or what to know something like that?” Seolhyun snapped. “I’m just a cousin, I live nearby.”

“You live nearby, huh? What about Minhyuk? Where does he live?”

“He’s—” She cut herself off when she realized that she had almost bit the second bait he threw out. “That’s a good try,” she smirked, “But you’re not going to get the answer, customer.”

“He just disappeared without telling his bandmates, what’s all that about?” Chanyeol asked in a serious tone.

“You sound so curious for someone who only wants to express gratitude,” Seolhyun replied as she narrowed her eyes at him.

“His friends are worried about him,” he said, though, in fact, they were just as fine as they were without Minhyuk being present, “That’s why I’m trying to figure out where he is.”

“I don’t know precisely where he moved to,” Seolhyun said pretty slowly and in a low tone, as if she was about to let slip the secret of whom the serial killer in the drama is, “But it’s his friend’s place, in Incheon.”

“Incheon?”

Seolhyun sighed and she opened to disclose everything. “I’m sorry I’m gonna have to break my promise,” she muttered to herself. The story went:

“Minhyuk-oppa visited the store a month ago to see me while dragging along despair and hopelessness behind him. So I asked him what’s wrong, and he said everything is. He looked totally miserable, really. He told me that he was cheated on by his girlfriend, who isn’t actually his girlfriend—”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Chanyeol asked. ‘I thought he was the one who cheated on Eunji?’

“Oppa dated the singer in the café he worked at, but they broke up over something that, at first, he didn’t tell me about, and then he met this girl, she’s a Korean but from the States, and they flirt with each other for like a month. I’ve never seen her face or anything, but he told me she’s cute. And then she left him for this chaebol heir, and then he told me the truth.”

“Your cousin is very complicated,” he remarked. Seolhyun just shrugged. “And you actually listen when he tells you about his love life?”

“You see, I feel bad since he lives alone, he has no one with him,” she said, her expression sympathizing with the condition. “My family and I are the closest relatives he’s got here.”

“But you guys aren’t even the same age, how would you understand his problems?”

“I don’t know, I just do,” she shrugged again. “Maybe his way of explaining things in a teenager perspective helped me understand.”

“I see . . .”

Seolhyun continued on with the story per Chanyeol’s request and he listened well. It went: