“The hell…” the driver muttered before shifting gear and started in reverse.

Losing balance, Suho’s knee knocked into the window and hit the windshield with his forehead. A split second later the tires churned against the concrete, a scream of the wheels splintering into the air as a gun shot went off. Alarm split in Suho’s head and losing focus rolled off the hood of the car.

The car skidded to a quick stop as Suho rolled across the street and just when he lifted his upper body up, a car from down the road headed toward him. A large probability that he wouldn’t be able to get up in time shook his bones and his eyes slightly widened in fear.

From the corner of his eye Chorong turned away from the Toyota averting her aim to the new car intending to blow up one of the wheels to save him. Before Chorong pulled the trigger Lay dashed out into the road with his arms extended out. Suho’s heartbeat raced wildly at all that was going on.

A sense of relief panted through him once the car screeched to a halt and the driver threw his head out of the window to scold Lay. Taking his chance, Suho rose to his feet just as the driver of the Toyota stepped out. The other man stepped out with the girl in his hold, a gun in his hand.

“Uh-uh,” he shook his head Suho’s direction.

Coming to a quick halt Suho lightly turned his hands into fists by his side. A cry shuddered out of the young girl and Chorong reaffirmed her grip on her gun. Suho wondered why he hadn’t brought one with him.

He turned in a semi-circle when the two men moved to his left. Suho was adamant on keeping them in his view. He couldn’t lose sight of them at this point, not after having defied orders. What would the meaning of all this be then?

Tension stilled the air as they eyed each other anxiously waiting for either side to first pull a move. Suho carefully glanced out the corner of his eye to observe his surroundings measuring the amount of space he might need if he were to make a jump attack and if they were to get into a ramble. As he observed, he realized Lay was nowhere to be seen.

Where was Lay?

Suho turned away from the empty road with a tiny frown before Lay abruptly jumped onto the hood of the car and lunged at the man holding the young girl captive. Wrapping his arms around the man he clung on tightly even when the man tried to shake him off. Suho watched Lay grasp the gun, but the man refused to let go making the head of the gun turn every which way dangerously.

Suho’s eyes concentrated on the gun, cautious to move out of the way if the gun went off. The other man tried going over to his aid, but Chorong pointed her aim on him; her eyes clogged with threat to shoot.

Gulping, Suho remained in a standstill; the only one left with options to choose from. His eyes once again landed on the gun and naturally looked up to glance at Lay. This time, he caught Lay’s eyes gesturing toward the ground and Suho caught on after another second.

Taking a step back cautiously, Suho waited. Lay’s fingers fought forward and he leaned into the man even more, his face straining with struggle. The lines from his frown creased his face with effort and he ended up biting his lip to hang in there. Finally clamping his hand over the trigger he fought to aim the gun at the ground, but the man struggled to twist the gun into Lay’s face.

Nervously watching on, no one moved.

Sweat seemed to trickle down Suho’s face. Time slowed down and what took a minute felt like an ensuing hour. At last the gun went off; the bullet flying into the concrete at Suho’s feet and he lunged forward. Grabbing the lower body of the gun he twisted it toward the air and listened to the deafening shots of the gun before managing to wriggle it out of the man’s hold.

As soon as the gun clattered to the ground Lay took the man into a choke hold allowing Suho to pull the young girl away. Twisting the man around, Lay skillfully forced him over, his hands sliding from the man’s neck to locking his arms to his back.

Slamming his face into the hood of the car Lay called, “Suho.”

Pushing the girl behind him, Suho grabbed the gun on the ground to take charge. He eyed Chorong to make sure she had the other man in control and watched her nod at him.

Readjusting his hand around the gun he turned back to Lay and the man he had prisoner, “Here’s the deal, I have a few questions and you’re going to answer them. If you want to lie, you better think again, because I’m not letting you go until I get what I want to hear. You get me?”

~_____~

Namjoo stopped in front of the hospital and tilted her head back to peer at the sparkling glass windows. A reflection of the sun bounced back blindingly and she turned to look at the front doors as it gasped open.

Eunhyuk was a certified nursing assistant here before he disappeared. She’d need to figure out what type of person he was before making her stop to his apartment, that was if it still stood in his name. Then after this, she’d stop to see Donghae…wherever he was.

After stopping by the front desk she was headed toward the Pediatric Unit where Eunhyuk worked with younger children instead of the elderly. The floor was a light pink pattered with various colored footprints. The lights in the ceiling were a blinding daylight kind of tone, which Namjoo found annoying.

There were children walking around; some in hospital outfits, others coming in for checkups, and other children preparing to exit their long stay. A little play area with children sized chairs and tables had been set up in a corner of the lobby. Namjoo spotted coloring books and children’s books sprawled around messily.

Uninterested she walked right over to the front desk. The smell of children and the uniqueness of the hospital wavered up her nostrils as she waited for attention from the nurses. Behind the desk were manila folders neatly stacked, binders sitting beside each other, a cabinet filled things she couldn’t name, a printer, a fax machine, and a computer running low on speed.

“Yes, how may I help you?” the middle aged nurse finally turned around from the counter at the back asked after walking toward the desk.

“Eunhyuk…used to work here?” Namjoo asked.

“Ah…yes, but he’s not here anymore,” the nurse replied with confusion etched across her face, “and you are…”

Reaching for her I.D. she held it up, “I have a few questions to ask.”

“He was lively, very friendly, the kids liked him and his stories,” was what Namjoo got repeatedly from Eunhyuk’s co-workers.

“Did he ever seem suspicious? Act like he was hiding anything?” Namjoo pressed on.

“No,” one of the nurses in the play room shook her head. “He was a very normal guy. Are you going to bring him back? Just…I mean, some of the kids still remember him.”

Namjoo pressed her lips together. She didn’t come to share compassion or sympathy. Dodging the question she asked, “Did Eunhyuk talk about his friends?”

“Well,” the nurse droned on leaving Namjoo impatient, “when he often left work early, he’d be all excited about going to see his friend who he said works for the government. That was pretty much all I heard from him.”

Namjoo slightly jumped in spot when one of the children tossed a toy and burst out into a loud cry. The nurse turned toward her really quickly and bowed marking her leave before hurrying to tend to the child. She watched the nurse pick the boy up to coax him before turning to leave.

She couldn’t stand kids and their tantrums, they were too noisy for her and she was always overwhelmed by this awkwardness when with them. She didn’t think kids liked her either and thank god, she was rarely around one. Never could she see herself pampering a child nonetheless raising one. The thought made her shiver. 

Anyhow, the hospital was a dead end. Talking with the people he once worked with wouldn’t help. No one knew about Eunhyuk’s personal life enough to give her the details she was seeking. Eunhyuk was going to be a difficult one, but she couldn’t stop here. Kris and Victoria were out there digging as well. She needed to land on at least something before they did or else matters would just become worse for Donghae.

After obtaining his address she was off. Opposite to her thinking, Eunhyuk’s apartment was in a rundown yellow building surrounded with crawling vines and weeds sprouting in various cracked spaces. In all other words, it was a building wearing down with age.

The Willow tree at the corner of the yard was droopy and gloomy. A child could easily hide behind the leaves and not be seen. It was a good place to be attacked during the night time. As Namjoo searched around she realized the building seemed quite lonely. No flowers to make the place seem welcoming had been planted nearby and the old doors remained closed. There wasn’t a lot of life offered to it and she couldn’t spot one person playing outdoors.

Toward the side of the building she saw a pile of old toys piled together; a variety of dolls, firetrucks, models of soldiers, dirty stuffed animals, cars, and a broken train set. The large green dumpster behind it remained overfilled with garbage to be taken out later in the week.

From where she stood even the windows looked scrubby, scarred with scratch marks, and dirty with fingerprints and smudges. Namjoo entered the building and started down the plain hallway. The lights overhead had less of a bright feeling as the hospital with a dying yellow glow that made the white walls a fading yellow.  

Little prison windows were present in the front doors of each apartment and majority of the small rectangular side windows were covered with a dainty curtain. How had Eunhyuk lived here? With the average salary of a nurse, shouldn’t he have been able to afford a better place? Why did he choose to live like this? To be conservative?

No, someone like Eunhyuk should have lived in at least a middle class apartment with clean white walls, bright lights, with kind neighbors who also busied their days with chats and work. Something about this was unsettling to her.

Pulling the piece of paper out of her pocket to assured herself she was in front of the right apartment. The sight of the silver outside door was unlikely, but pulling it open Namjoo tried the doorknob of the apartment. It was locked.

Still unsure whether the apartment had been leased to anyone else, she knocked and waited. No one came to the door, so Namjoo deemed it safe to make her next move. Cautiously turning around to make sure that no one was watching she grabbed a pin out of her pocket and worked to straighten it out.

It was to her luck that the doorknob was old fashioned and not one that required her to break the code. She didn’t know how to hack the new locks, but she’d learned how to break in this way.

Working the pin into the keyhole she listened closely for any sound before the door finally clicked open. Without hesitation, she entered.

The smell of secondhand furniture, new magazines, and old books wafted up to her nose as she walked forward. A striped couch sat against the immediate wall on her right with a little TV, the kitchen on her left, and two doors behind it. It was a very tiny place and very empty as well.

Namjoo walked toward the circular table between the small TV and the couch. The magazine sitting on the table was a 40^th edition of men’s fashion and the short bookshelf extending from the remaining wall to the one adjacent to it had been filled with books of different genres. Eunhyuk was a reader, a consistent one too.

There was nothing to see, so she started toward the two doors. The first one she opened was the bathroom. After peering around from his toothbrush to the brand of his shaving cream she deemed everything useless. Moving onto the next room she walked into his bedroom leaving the door a crack open behind her.

Eunhyuk’s room was as tidy as his other rooms. The king sized bed had been made, but long left empty and cold. The only thing that sat on the small table beside his bed was a lamp. Nothing of use seemed to be around and Namjoo could only hope against that.

There was a closet at the foot of the bed where his shirts had been assorted according to color and even his pants and jeans had been folded neatly into their cubicles. His socks  and ties were well folded and organized by type. How much time did he use up organizing and cleaning up after himself? He was a really tidy person and Namjoo thought he would have been useful to have as a call-in maid.

Running her eyes down the cubicles where he stored his pants and jeans, she tilted her head upon catching what looked like a teeny tiny bump under three of his stacked pants. Pulling the pants up one by one she lowered herself onto one knee and stared at the bottom of what looked like a wooden photo frame.

A picture hidden under his pants? Why?

Quickly lugging it out she felt her jaw drop when she saw two Eunhyuks standing side by side wearing the same identical smile. She was unable to grasp the situation when the front door opened and her breath stopped mid-air. There were voices, male voices, and she couldn’t tell how many of them were there.

Quietly closing the closet she crept on all fours behind the bed, her eyes searching for a window in panic, but Eunhyuk’s room didn’t have one. Biting her lower lip she literally leaned her entire whole against the ground and held her breath for the sake of not being discovered.

Who had come in? If not Eunhyuk, who were they?

“He said it was here somewhere,” one of the men said. “Go look over there.”

“Why don’t you go look over there?” the other snarled in complaint at having been ordered.

“Don’t you start with me,” the other warned.

Two, there were two of them.

Her eyes dashed around the room while listening to the two converse about where to search for whatever it was they were after. When the door to the bedroom flung open her heart hummed in her ear tauntingly. Very slowly she reached her hand under the bed and squirmed into hiding as quietly as possible.

Now crushed underneath the bed she watched the man’s feet travel around the room as if to . Then loudly opening the closet he began tossing whatever he could get his hands on. She watched Eunhyuk’s clothes land on the ground and listened to him grumble before starting toward the door.

“There’s nothing. Are you sure you heard him right?”

Why wasn’t he walking out yet? Why!? And Namjoo’s heart slid out of her chest when her phone went off. The ongoing silence broke into shards before her as she fumbled for her phone. The man immediately swerved around to look around the room confused about where exactly the noise was coming from. Namjoo nervously glanced out the corner of the bed to see the man nearing and turned off her phone just when the front door opened again.

“What’s taking so long!?” another one of them shouted.

“We were…”

“Come on, lets go! If you can’t find it, forget it!”

“But I heard something…”

“I said forget it! Did you not hear me? Lets go.”

The man standing in Eunhyuk’s bedroom turned to look around suspiciously before heaving a grunt and walked out. Namjoo waited for almost 10 minutes just to make sure they wouldn’t come back before crawling out. Still appalled, she stared toward the door before her eyes lingered over the picture in her hand.

She would have never imagined…two Eunhyuks…

~_____~

As the police car disappeared into the distance Chorong turned to take a glimpse of Suho before her eyes darted toward a movement on the second floor of the brothel.

An hour later she and and Lay watched Suho withdraw money from the ATM before walking toward the young girl they’d saved. What he was up to, she couldn’t tell. Suho hadn’t exactly spoken any of his thoughts to either her or Lay. They’d just followed Suho blindly upon his movements.

After shipping the two men off Suho just departed toward the ATM near the underground train. Chorong watched from a yard away as Suho gently grasped the young girl’s hand and placed the money in her hand.

Why was Suho being so nice? And to someone he barely knew…

“Take it,” Suho urged softly, “leave Yeongwol and don’t come back, you understand?”

“It’s so much money…” the girl looked at the pile of bills in her hand, “I can’t take it…”

Folding her fingers over it Suho pressed on gently, “It’ll be enough for you to settle down, pay rent, and a month’s worth of food. Find a job, a real one; don’t continue living like this.”

The girl looked up into his eyes; a brow of apololgy and gratefulness on her face.

“For the person who saved you, so don’t make me regret this. And when you can, go back to dance school. When you become someone great, look for me then. I know you can do it, I believe in you.”

Tears brewed up in the pretty girl’s face before she tip toed up to wram her arms securely around Suho’s neck. Chorong pressed her lips together at the sight feeling jealous, yet relieved. The hug lasted quite a minute before she let go of Suho and wiped a tear off her face.

“Thank you, I owe you my life,” she thanked and leaned up to give Suho a peck on his cheek before running down the stairs toward the subway.

Chorong felt lightning strike her heart as she watched the girl disappear down the stairs into the crowd and pressed her teeth together.

~_____~

Still lost, Donghae had found his way back to the rooftop of his apartment building. After outlining everything, he wanted to confront Eunhyuk alone. No one should be present when he did so. That was why he needed to track him down as soon as possible. After the talk then…then he’d decide whether to let Eunhyuk walk free or stop him. And if it came down to the decision that he should stop Eunhyuk, he wanted to do it with his own hands without the aid of his crew.

That…was what Donghae wanted.

The wind struck him before the rooftop door flung open and he turned to see Namjoo stomp toward him with something in her hand. She breathed quite heavily as she stared down at him. As the wind made its round back, her hair flew into her face.

“Did you…know?”

Donghae stared up at her quietly uncertain about what was going on.

“I asked if you knew,” Namjoo repeated herself again quite stiffly, as if too struck by shock.

He still didn’t know how to answer to her question. What did he know? What was she going on about? What was it that was in her hand?

Namjoo pressed her lips together, the shape of her jaw becoming sharper the more she stared down at him as if calling him to a challenge. The wind disappeared and her hair stopped flapping against her face before she held out the photograph to him. 

***So what will be Donghae's answer? 

***Anyway school starts on Sept 4, so I'll be writing what I can before it starts ;A;