“Minhyuk-ah, what happened to noona?” Chen asked as he the younger’s hair as he slept. Chen looked around the now messy house. He was only able to imagine what happened to Minhyuk’s mother. The police didn’t know anything and Chen surely didn’t know anything. The police thought it was suspected suicide, or so they told Chen, but they didn’t have any proof at the current moment to back it up, so the only thing they were able to do was investigate it further in hopes that they would be able to find something.

            For the time being, Chen was now in charge of watching over Minhyuk. After describing the family situation, while leaving out certain parts of the story, the police handed Minhyuk over to Chen with the promise that Chen would tell his mother about the current situation, something that he was unable to do. With a good mindset, Chen took all of the courage he was able to get and called the school informing them about his withdrawal. The school didn’t question anything, they already knew about Chen’s situation. That was how he got into the school in the first place, they took pity on the boy who had nothing and offered him a spot in the school. So when Chen told him that he wouldn’t be attending the school anymore, there were no questions asked.

            Sighing, Chen picked Minhyuk up and picked up the bag that he was able to quickly grab. The police determined that the house would be under investigation and that the two would have to go somewhere else. They would stay with an officer in a hotel for a day, or at least until they would be able to go back to Chen’s house. Chen pretended to call his mother and inform her about the sudden plans. The police bought his act.

            “If you need me,” the officer said once they had reached the hotel. “I’m right across the hall in that doorway.”

            “Of course,” Chen said nodding his head. He understood that the policeman was going to be by his room to protect him, Chen wasn’t stupid. It wasn’t like he was planning on running away in the middle of the night. If he were alone, he would have run away already, but since there was Minhyuk in the picture, Chen had to rethink his actions before he did them.

            “Now, I’ll be in there and I’ll let you get some sleep, alright?”

            “Alright, goodnight,” Chen said slightly bowing as the officer left to go into his room that was attached. Despite it being the morning, Chen was up all night talking with the police and figuring that Minhyuk was still sleeping, Chen thought it might be a good time to get some sleep.

            Looking around the room, Chen didn’t know what to do about his life. Minhyuk was now alone in the world, just like he was. Chen hoped that there would be at least something different with Minhyuk’s life than his. He didn’t want the little boy’s life to already be ruined at the age of three. Chen wanted other things for Minhyuk, he wanted Minhyuk to have a nice lifestyle and grow up to be a respectable person. He wasn’t thinking that it wouldn’t happen now that the events have unfolded how they had, but Chen thought it would be difficult.

            After changing into pajamas, Chen climbed into the bed next to the sleeping Minhyuk. He wasn’t entirely sure how he was going to be able to fall asleep knowing the situation that he was in and what might possibly come out of it. What would happen to him and Minhyuk? He dropped out of school, he now had no education and wasn’t sure how he would be able to get a job while Minhyuk was still young and had to attend school.

            One thing was clear, though, Chen wasn’t going to abandon Minhyuk. Even if he had to take care of Minhyuk and move around, he was going to do it. Chen was going to let Minhyuk have a good life, or at least strive to give him the best life that he could. Right when Chen was on the brink of falling asleep, his phone began ringing.

            “Hello?” he asked once he managed to find his phone without making too much sound. Thankfully, Minhyuk was still sleeping.

            “Chen, where are you?” an exasperated Ellie asked.

            “Nowhere,” Chen said sighing. He figured that they already figured out about him withdrawing from the school. As Chen was talking, Minhyuk began to waken.

            “What do you mean nowhere?” Ellie asked as she looked at Jiyeon. They attempted to figure out where he lived, but the search was fruitless. The school wouldn’t give them any information about Chen’s life stating that it was private information that they weren’t allowed to tell the students, which was understandable to the two. They were just trying out their options that were slowly diminishing one by one. The last thing they could do was call Chen himself and see what exactly happened, but to Ellie, it seemed like they weren’t getting anywhere.

            “I’m nowhere that you should be concerned about,” Chen said sighing as he looked at Minhyuk who was now sitting up and rubbing his eyes.

            “Well…” Ellie began, she didn’t know how to continue. There was nothing that she could say that would make Chen give up his location, she knew that. Ellie didn’t even know why she and Jiyeon were being worried about him when it was clearly obvious that he didn’t care that much. “Goodbye.”

            Chen was slightly taken aback by Ellie suddenly telling him goodbye. Normally she would press for much longer about his location and what he was doing, at least he figured. It wasn’t like he liked keeping things from her, but things just happened the way that they happened. He liked talking to Ellie, he just liked Ellie in general, but he was afraid. Chen was afraid that she wouldn’t want to talk to him after knowing everything, that things would be different in their friendship. All Chen wanted as to be treated like a normal kid.

            “Wait,” Chen said before Ellie could hang up.

            “Yes?” Ellie asked.

            “You’re with Jiyeon, aren’t you.”

            “Why?”

            “Just answer the question,” Chen said as he kept a close eye on Minhyuk who was staring intently back at him. Chen didn’t want Minhyuk to start making a sound, he didn’t want Ellie to know that he was with Minhyuk just yet.

            “Yes I am, but I don’t see how that—”

            “Come by yourself,” he said taking a deep breath and hoping that everything was going to go okay.

            “Come by myself?” Ellie asked. She wasn’t sure if that meant that Chen was going to tell her where he was.

            “Yes, come by yourself. I will tell you my location, but you have to act as though I’m rejecting you, alright?” he asked making sure that she understood the last part. “Jiyeon can’t come with you.”

            “But I don’t understand—”

            “Ellie,” Chen began, he was beginning to grow frustrated and he didn’t know why he was even going to tell Ellie where he was anyway. “Stop asking questions if you want to know where I am.”

            “Alright, I understand,” Ellie said. She realized that it was probably something rare, Chen actually giving away information about his life and realized that it probably meant he was close to being helpless. Chen was always secretive and she went into contacting him knowing that she and Jiyeon wouldn’t get any answers. Now with Chen possibly telling her his location, even if it meant deceiving her best friend, it was something that Ellie was going to do.

            After receiving confirmation from Ellie, Chen proceeded to tell her what hotel he was at. He didn’t know why he trusted her so much or why he was going to let her in on his life, but he was going to do it and nothing was going to stop him from doing it. “I’ll see you in a little?” Chen asked, it was more like a confirmation asking Ellie if she was definitely coming.

            “I understand,” Ellie said.  By this point, Chen realized that she was probably attempting to make it sound like he wasn’t giving any information since she sounded like she was disappointed. Chen made a mental note to applaud her on her acting skills later.

            With that, Chen hung up the phone and looked at Minhyuk who was intently looking back at him. “Good morning,” Chen said showing him a smile. “You’re up.”

            “Where are we?” Minhyuk asked looking around.

            “In a hotel,” Chen said pulling the younger boy to sit on his lap.

            “Why? Where’s eomma?”

            “Not here right now, you’re on a vacation with me. Am I not good enough?” Chen asked pouting for the little boy.

            “No, I love you,” Minhyuk said immediately wrapping his arms around Chen with a big smile. “I’m hungry.”

            “You’re hungry?” Chen asked getting up off of the bed and placing Minhyuk back down onto it. “Why don’t we order some room service? Breakfast it is.”

            Chen went over to the phone and placed the order for breakfast, always keeping his eyes on the younger boy the entire time. As soon as he hung up the phone, Chen went back over and sat down on the bed. “Minhyuk-ah, do you want to watch the television?”

            “Yea,” Minhyuk excitedly said.

            Chen found the remote for the television and began flipping through the channels in hope of finding something that he was sure that Minhyuk would probably enjoy watching. After he found a program, Minhyuk settled right in front of the television while Chen started going off into his own thoughts.

            He wasn’t entirely sure what came over him to have Ellie come to the hotel, or even meet him when Minhyuk was around. How would he explain Minhyuk’s presence? Chen figured that he could lie, but keeping up with all of the lies that he ever told her was starting to become complicated. However, telling the truth was something that was even more complicated in his mind. Telling the truth meant that he was going to reveal some of himself to Ellie. It wasn’t like he didn’t trust Ellie, he just didn’t know if he could deal with trusting other people.

            After an unknown amount of time had passed, there was a knocking on the hotel door. “Room service,” the voice said from the outside.

            “I’ll get that,” Chen said getting off of the bed and getting the food from the bell boy that was outside. “Thank you.”

            “No problem,” he said showing a light smile before he disappeared to continue his other duties.

            “Minhyuk-ah, let’s eat breakfast!” Chen said calling the boy away from the television.

            Obediently, Minhyuk went over and sat at the small table that was inside of the room while Chen took the plates off of the cart and began aligning them on the table. “Thank you for the food,” Minhyuk said looking at Chen before he ate.

            “No problem,” Chen said with a smile as he ruffled the younger’s hair.

            Halfway through the meal, there was another knocking at the door and Chen figured that that had to be Ellie, it wouldn’t be anyone else. Leaving Minhyuk at the table, Chen went to answer the front door.

            “Um…hey,” Ellie greeted awkwardly once he answered.

            “Hey,” Chen said.

            “So…um…what are you doing here?”

            “Things,” Chen said sighing. Somehow he was beginning to regret ever inviting Ellie to the hotel. “Ellie, would you like to come in?”

            “Sure,” she said giving a gentle smile before making her way into the hotel room.

            She thought that Chen was alone in the hotel room and she wondered why he would be in a hotel room rather than his own home. Ellie even wondered if Chen’s family owned the hotel and that was where he lived anyway. A thousand thoughts were running through her mind about Chen’s background and about why he withdrew from the school, but all of her thoughts were thrown off once she saw a little boy eating breakfast at the table.

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Will Chen tell Ellie the truth about Minhyuk? What happened to Minhyuk's mother? Will Chen tell the whole truth to Ellie? What will Chen do now?

Here's Chapter 20. Hope you enjoyed :D