Ellie lied on her couch in the living room. She didn’t know why she was feeling the way that she was feeling. There was just something about what Chen said earlier that was circling in her mind. She didn’t know why she was making Chen such a big part of her life, but over time, he became a big part of her life. Somehow him saying that he and Jiyeon were dating bothered her. Ellie didn’t know whether she should think of it as the truth or a lie. Ellie assumed that she and Chen were close enough to tell each other secrets, but apparently things weren’t that way.

            “What are we thinking about in here?” Kris asked as he came into the living room and sat on a chair to the side of where Ellie was sprawled out on the couch.

            “Things,” Ellie said sighing.

            “Well it seems like they have to be something big considering how you’re acting,” Kris said as he leaned back in the chair and kept observing Ellie. “What’s on your mind? You know you can trust me with anything.”

            “I know,” Ellie mumbled as sat right side up and stared at Kris who was calmly looking back at her. She didn’t know how to tell him about Luhan declaring that he was her boyfriend. It was already confusing enough and Ellie was sure that Kris would want to kill Luhan like an overprotective brother. Honestly, Ellie wasn’t sure if it was the right thing to talk to him about. If she didn’t talk about it with him, she knew that she couldn’t talk about it with Jiyeon. Jiyeon would simply go on and on about how Chen publicly declared their relationship. Was it even true?

            “Are you and Jiyeon having friendship problems?” Kris asked attempting to take a shot in the dark, but Ellie simply shook her head. Kris wanted to ask about another problem, but he was slightly afraid about what her answer would be. Kris wanted to know if Ellie was having boy problems, he wanted to know if it was with Chen. He had kind of figured for a while that there might have been something going on between Chen and Ellie but he didn’t want to admit it. Admitting that Chen and Ellie had something going on between them meant that Kris had to come to the conclusion that Ellie would probably never like him more than a brother and it was hard to accept that.

            “Look,” Ellie said saying something before Kris had the courage to ask his next question. “What would you do if two people you never thought would date are dating?”

            “What do you mean?” Kris hesitantly asked. He hoped that it wouldn’t be about Ellie and he wouldn’t really care if she were talking about Jiyeon.

            “I mean…I don’t know,” Ellie said sighing. “I’m just going to go to bed.”

            “It’s still early,” Kris said looking at the clock that only read five o’clock. “You haven’t even had dinner yet.”

            “It’s alright, I’m not that hungry anyway,” she said shaking her head as she made her way up the stairs.

Chen was in a state of shock. He didn’t believe that he just let that man take his mother away like that. What was he thinking when that man asked him that question, when that man was able to point out everything that his mother normally did? It was like that man was a part of his family, but Chen knew otherwise. Chen knew that that man wasn’t related to him, he didn’t remember him. Normally when people were related to him, they would come around, but in the end they would always leave. Unless he was someone new, which Chen highly doubted, there was no way.

            Looking around his now even emptier house, Chen couldn’t help but feel a little regretful for sending his mother away with someone that he didn’t even know. Fiddling the slip of paper that held Lay’s number in his hands, Chen contemplated the idea about possibly contacting him just to find out more information about the guy.

            Somehow, Chen was worried about his mother. He wasn’t exactly sure why, even after all of the pain and torture that she made him endure. Somehow he was still concerned about her wellbeing, something that he also found strange. The past day had been a whirlwind of events that he didn’t understand. One minute he was saying that he and Jiyeon were dating and then another minute he was telling some strange man to take away his mother.

            Slowly bringing up the phone to his ear, Chen decided to give Lay a call. He figured that he couldn’t get himself into much and that getting information on the guy might not be such a bad thing. Right when he heard a voice on the other line, the doorbell to the house rang, causing Chen to immediately hang up before uttering a word.

            “Who could it be now?” Chen asked himself as he went over and opened the door to reveal an officer standing outside of it. Suddenly, all of the crimes that Chen had never committed came to his mind. He wondered what the officer would be doing at his house. Did they know about his mother? Did they know that he sent his mother away?

            “Are you Kim Jongdae?” the man asked.

            “I am,” Chen said nodding his head. “What is it that you’re here for?”

            “We found your name in a note,” the man said taking out a plastic bag that had a piece of paper that was sealed tightly in it. The man held the note up so that Chen was able to read it, but he couldn’t see very well. “The note says that you know this little boy.”

            “Little boy?” Chen asked staring at them. He didn’t see a little boy and he wasn’t entirely sure what little boy they would be talking about. Chen didn’t know any little boys…except for one.

            “His name is—”

            “Kim Minhyuk,” Chen said finishing the officer’s sentence.

            “So you know him,” the officer said.

            “He’s my nephew, but why would this be about him?”

            “We found him on the street near here with this note in his hands.”

            “Near here?” Chen asked. Everything was starting to become too confusing. He knew that Minhyuk and his mother didn’t live close by. Chen wondered why in the world Minhyuk would be close knowing how far it was from Chen’s house to Minhyuk’s. He wondered if Minhyuk’s mother was there with him and what exactly they were doing.

            “Yes, now, we need you to come with us to figure out some things.”

            “Figure out some things?”

            “Figure out some things about his mother,” the officer slowly began. “She’s nowhere in sight.”

            “Nowhere in sight,” Chen repeated. He couldn’t help it, it was all brand-new to him. All of the news that the officer was telling him, he never expected any of it. “Do you mean she’s kidnapped?”

            “We’re not entirely sure what we mean,” the officer said in the nicest way possible. He didn’t know how else to tell the teenaged Chen that they possibly think that Minhyuk’s mother had committed suicide. The officer figured that they would tell Chen that little piece of information later when they had enough proof to show that she in fact committed suicide instead of telling him something that they thought only to find it be false later.

            “Okay,” Chen said as he attempted to wrap his mind around it.

            “So, if you would just come with us to the station, then we can hopefully get everything cleared up.”

            “Of course, just let me grab my jacket,” Chen said as he disappeared for only a second grabbing his jacket before going face to face with the officer again. “If you’ll just let me ask, where is Minhyuk?”

            “He’s in there,” the officer said pointing to one of the police cars that showed a sleeping Minhyuk in the back seat. “Would you like to ride with him?”

            “Please,” Chen said. The officer nodded his head and Chen climbed into the back of the police car.

“Where’s Chen?” Jiyeon asked Ellie the next day at school.

            “Shouldn’t you know?” Ellie asked with a bit more attitude in her voice than she intended. There was just a lot on her mind and she wasn’t entirely sure about anything anymore. Did she have feelings for Chen? If not, then why was she feeling that way?

            “Well then,” Jiyeon said noticing the attitude change in Ellie.

            “Sorry,” Ellie said sighing. “I thought you would know since you guys are dating, aren’t you?”

            “Of course,” Jiyeon said immediately jumping onto the boat. It didn’t matter whether her and Chen were actually dating or not, but since Chen had said they were, Jiyeon was going to use it as an opportunity to be able to do whatever she wanted, including telling everyone that she was dating the mysterious Chen. “I just didn’t hear from him this morning.”

            “It’s still the morning,” Ellie said as they walked into class. “He could just be running late, you know?”

            “True,” Jiyeon said nodding her head. “I’ll see you for lunch then.”

            “Alright,” Ellie said with a smile as she attempted to force all of her emotions aside.

            However, throughout the whole morning, Chen didn’t come to school, he was absent once again. Jiyeon and Ellie were both worried about him. Sure he was sometimes sick, but in the school, no one would ever miss that many days of school. It was only ever a couple because they all knew how things would be when they would miss. If they were to miss one class, then that meant that they would miss probably a week’s worth of homework, something that no student wanted to experience, but with Chen, things were already different. He came in the middle of the school year and came when he was a senior; it was already different than the normal for the school.

            During the class they had right before lunch, the principal came into the classroom. Immediately all of the students sat up straight and pretended to be model students. It wasn’t that they necessarily weren’t good students, but when the principal came into the classroom, that meant that something bad or something very important was happening.

            “Students, good morning, it still is morning, correct?” he asked in an attempt to ease the tense atmosphere he felt.

            “Good morning,” the students chorused back.

            “Now, you’re probably wondering why I’m here, correct?” he asked looking at all of the eager faces in front of him. “It’s nothing necessarily bad, but it’s nothing necessarily good either. Many of you probably know him, the transfer student that came this year, I believe he goes by the name of Chen.”

            At the sudden mention of Chen, many students began looking around, with some even looking back at Ellie since they were seating partners. Everyone saw that he wasn’t in his seats. However, to Jiyeon and Ellie, hearing his name meant that something bad probably happened.

            “Is it something about him?” the president of the class asked the principal.

            “It is just to inform you guys that Chen will no longer be going to this school.”

            “What?” Ellie whispered to herself. She didn’t know what was going on and she definitely didn’t know why Chen wasn’t going to be at the school anymore. It didn’t seem probable. She just saw him yesterday and it seemed like everything was going well. It didn’t seem like Chen was having any sort of difficulty with anything. Then again, Ellie figured that she didn’t know much about his home life so there could’ve been things that he was keeping from them.

            Within the questions that everyone wanted to ask the principal, even though the students didn’t know Chen that well, they were still concerned because no one dropped out of the school, Ellie managed to look over at Jiyeon who looked shocked. Ellie could only imagine what was going through that heard of hers at the very moment that the principal said that Chen was no longer enrolled in the school.

            Jiyeon lifted her head and looked behind her to find Ellie staring at her. In one swift motion, without anyone seeing, Jiyeon sent Ellie a message that Ellie was able to take notice. Ellie could only nod her head in agreement and figure that they would have to talk to each other again during lunch to figure out what they were going to do, but Ellie knew a little bit of the plan. They were going to find out what happened to Chen together.

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What happened to Chen? Why did Chen have to go to the office? What happened to Minhyuk? What happened to Minhyuk's mother? Will Ellie and Jiyeon ever be able to find out what happened? Will Chen ever contact Lay?

Here is Chapter 19. Hope you enjoyed :D