“Oh my god.” Jonghyun breathed, staring at the photographs Taemin held out. 

Both were well worn, yellowing on the edges and had obviously been handled a great deal. Taemin’s photo was labelled with fading black ink in English lettering Taylor Kim, age 2. The other had no label. 

“This picture has been passed along with me my entire life.” Taemin said softly, fingers twitching around the brittle edges. “Its the only photograph that I have of me. No one bothered to take my picture except for my doctors and case workers. I never had a chance to look at those ones.” 

He paused, thinking through the million thoughts racing through his head. “I was told that it was the only picture of me that existed, that after my parents died something happened to their possessions and I got nothing.” 

He bit his lip, drawing blood with the fierceness of his gnawing. His hands shook so bad that the photographs had to be taken by Minho in order for anyone to look at them. 

No one spoke for a moment as they all stared at the photos. 

In Taemin’s photo, there was the image of a young boy maybe 2 years of age. He sat on a large and squishy looking black couch in a room with rose pink walls. The bottom of a large photograph could be seen in the background where it hung the wall, but its subjects faces were out of frame.

The chubby cheeks and small smiley eyes showed a happy and healthy toddler. His tiny red and white stripped romper was pristine and his tiny feet were bare. 

In Jinki’s photo, there was an older boy, dressed in white pants and a red button-down shirt, his own eyes nearly closed with the force of his own large smile. He sat on the same couch in the same pink walled room.

Sitting in his lap, looking quite content and happy, was the same boy from Taemin’s photo. He wore the same red and white stripped romper and it was clear to the group that the photos had been taken on the same day. 

“Holy crap.” Jonghyun muttered, “Holy crap.” 

Minho cleared his throat, his eyes widened almost comically large as he looked from the pictures to Taemin and back again. “You?”

Taemin nodded. “I can only assume so. I was told that that was the only photo that existed. It came with me when I went to America and I never really knew why. But if it isn’t me in the photo, why would my case worker be so adamant that I not lose it?” The question was posed more to himself than the others in the room. 

It never really made sense how much emphasis his case worker had put on him not losing that picture. Aside from it being the only baby photo of him, why would it be so important that he not lose it? His foster families didn’t care about it and considering there weren’t any photos of him outside official government documentation, it didn’t really seem all that important. 

But maybe it was a connection to something bigger? The only proof that he was someone else. 

“Did you not have school pictures?” Key asked, his voice cracking as he stared, wide eyed at the baby Taemin. 

“No. I always had appointments with my case worker on photo day.” He paused. “That’s weird though isn’t it?”

“Every year?” Key questioned, looking up Taemin, who nodded. “Yeah that’s weird.”

“Tell us again how you got in here?” Jonghyun said suddenly. 

Taemin jolted, blinking, not expecting that question. “What?”

“How did you get in here? To this school?” Jonghyun said, standing up and starting to pace as he spoke. “You show up after Christmas without any warning, you’ve got no money, no family and you’re not some super genius here on a scholarship. It doesn’t make sense. Why would the government put you up here?” 

“He’s right.” Minho added, setting the photos down on the desk. “Why would the government send you to American to be put in their foster care system only to bring you back here to Korea now? It makes no sense.”

“I don’t know. I was always told my parents died and I was sent to American to hopefully be adopted by an American family, but it never happened. I don’t even remember ever hearing about that before I was being told I was being sent back. I bounced between foster homes and then suddenly the government decided it was cheaper to put me up here. I don’t know why or how or anything.”

“So our government was paying for you to be in America? That doesn’t make any sense.” Jonghyun said. “And this is a $100 000 a year school, how is that cheaper?” 

Taemin choked. “$100 000? A year?” 

“Rich kid school.” Key said with a small smile. “That’s why we have such small classes, not many families can afford to send their children here. It’s stupid prestigious.”

“I… I… I… yeah that’s a bit more suspicious than I thought.” Taemin’s face lost even more colour. “I can’t be worth that much.”

“You’re worth more than that.” Minho muttered, moving over to his friend and placing an arm around his shoulders. Taemin stiffened briefly but settled against Minho’s body, feeling comfort in the weight of his friend’s arm on him. 

“Cheese.” Jonghyun teased, lightening the mood just slightly. He winced when Key smacked him upside the head. “Oww.” He whined, rubbing the sore spot. 

“Minho is right though and not just in the sentimental friendship worth way.” Key said, opening up Minho’s laptop and typing something in. He wanted to change the subject knowing that it would upset Taemin if he thought Jonghyun had figured out his secret. He waited for the webpage to load and then turned it to show Taemin.

“Jinki’s family is in politics, they’ve been helping run the government for hundreds of years back to the dynasty periods. This is Jinki’s own personal financial account, not including his trust fund or weekly spending allowance from his parents.” 

“How did you ….” Jonghyun trailed off as they stared at the seven figure number. “Holy crap.” 

“This was the money Jinki’s grandfather left him.” Minho said, staring at the screen for a minute before grabbing at Jinki’s hand written notes. Flipping rapidly through the loose pages, not caring that some fluttered to the floor, he let out a small grunt when he found the page he was looking for. 

“I think that Jinki’s uncle was angry that Jinki was left the money instead of him and in an attempt to get back at Jinki’s father he orchestrated the kidnapping and then… I don’t know…” Minho skimmed the page. “Jinki writes that he thinks he uncle is angry because of the money, he inherited it when his grandfather passed about 6 months before his brother’s disappearance.” 

“It makes sense in a way.” Key said, picking up some pages of his own. “If he wanted the money, he would claim that he was being targeted and that the baby was taken as leverage since Jinki’s uncle didn’t have a family of his own. So he tells Jinki’s father who offers to pay the ransom but that’s not what he really wants so he uses his contacts in the government to get the baby sent to America where they figure he’ll never be found.” 

“That actually makes sense in a bad action movie kind of way.” Jonghyun says. “But why bring Taemin back now, if he really is Jinki’s brother?” 

“Because the uncle stopped bribing whoever he had bribed to send me away.” Taemin said softly, the thought that he may have found his family shook him to the core. “If the payment stopped, why bother keeping up the ruse?”

“But this school?” Jonghyun said once again. 

“What if it really is cheaper to pay $100 000 for the year then whatever the bribe was? And if Jinki is gone, there is no one to connect Taemin to the family. Then Jinki’s uncle could keep track of Taemin and ultimately threaten him if one of us decided to continue with Jinki’s mission.” Key filled in, watching as Minho moved to grab a pad of blank paper and a pen. The taller boy began making notes on what they were saying. 

“So Jinki must have started to figure this out and his uncle had him attacked.” Jonghyun said, shaking his head. “Then Taemin arrives and ends up getting Jinki’s old room and starts become friends with his old friends…” 

“Which is fine because we didn’t know anything because they wouldn’t have known about Jinki’s binder or figured that we would look in it even if they knew and so Taemin wasn’t going to learn anything either…” Minho continued. 

“Until we took Taemin to see Jinki.” Key finished. “If we hadn’t taken him to Jinki…”

“It would all have come out sometime.” Jonghyun said, trying to comfort Key. 

“What if they’d pulled the plug on Jinki first though?” Minho asked. “There would be no reason to threaten Taemin if Jinki was dead and that looks like its going to happen.”

“Why now?” Taemin suddenly questioned. 

“What?” 

“Why decide now to take him off life support? If the doctors have said he’s brain dead since he was attacked, why decide now?” 

“Because you’re back.” Minho guessed. It made sense in a twisted sort of way. “If you’re back and you’re meeting Jinki, its only a matter of time before your parents recognize you.”

Taemin felt a heavy weight in his stomach at the words ‘your parents.’ His stomach dropped and he felt flushed. “My parents.” He took a deep breath. “I might have parents. I might have a family.” He wouldn’t feel that it was really true without more proof but it was a start. 

“It makes sense. It all makes sense.” Minho started to laugh. It had a note of hysteria in it. “We’ve figured out what Jinki’s been trying to solve for years.”

“But not soon enough.” Taemin said softly, guessing what Minho was thinking. “Its too late to save Jinki.”

The room got silent, a sad silence. 

Until Jonghyun gasped. “Haven’t there been cases where someone who was declared brain dead actually woke up?”

“Thats a coma, not brain dead.” Key softly said, placing a hand on Jonghyun’s shoulder. 

“But what if Jinki isn’t really brain dead!” Jonghyun continued, his voice rising in excitement. “Its too coincidental that they’re going to remove the life support, Taemin is right. What it he’s not brain dead but for some reason the doctors are acting as if he is.”

“More bribery?” Minho asked. “That seems far fetched.”

“More far fetched than Jinki’s kidnapped baby brother reappearing in Korea after being sent to America only end up in Jinki’s former dorm room with his best friend?” Key questioned. 

“Right.” Jonghyun nodded, “But what do we do now?”

“We’re going to have to go see Jinki.” 

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Another week, another update! I'm super bad at end notes I feel so I'll make it short and to the point. 

Thank you everyone for pushing me to continue this story and for reading and commenting every week! 

As always, please let me know your comments, thoughts and feelings! I want to hear what you have to say and what you all think. 

All my love

Kat