Joonmyeon can’t understand Lay through his hysteria and his Chinese accent, which only gets worse when Lay is worked up.

“Where are you right now? I’ll come straight there.”  Suho doesn’t know what Lay is saying, but he does know it’s about Kris. When he finds out that Lay is on the bridge, he rings Tao and tells him to meet there too. Within minutes the two are at the scene where Lay is sat on the pavement, his knees brought to his chest and a kind stranger helping Lay to deal with shock.

“What happened?” Tao and Joonmyeon asked, rushing over to Lay’s side.

Fresh tears poured down his face and he pointed to the water. The two looked out, not noticing anything until their gaze saw a black object stuck on a root at the water’s edge.

“Is that Kris’s backpack?” Tao asked, his face going pale.

“I-I think H-He jumped.” Lay said.

Although Joonmyeon felt panicky his professional side kicked in now. “And what makes you think that? Did you see him jump? Is that actually his backpack?”

Tao had already rung the police and he was going down to fetch the backpack from the water’s edge.

“He tried to jump over there.” Lay pointed to the other side of the river. “I stopped him and pulled him down. He said goodbye to me then ran across to other side of the road but there were cars in the way and I couldn’t cross. When I got over there his bag was just floating there and there was no other sign of him anywhere.” Lay began crying again.

There were soon police searching the area, a special force of police searched a large stretch of the river bed while officers on land searched the river banks for miles. The court case was put on hold for that day, allowing them some time.

“There’s nothing we can do now, Lay.” Joonmyeon said, putting his arm around the trembling man. “Let’s go home; you look like you need a hot drink.”

Every day Lay would wake to realise that the past few weeks hadn’t been a dream. Against Suho’s wishes he would scan the news for any sign that Kris had been found, alive and well. There never was any news.

In the meantime the court case had progressed dramatically, and as if nothing had changed. Tao was sitting on the edge of his seat, knowing that it was reaching its uttermost point. Soon the verdict would be given.  Lay sat amongst the other victims of Soo Man. Kai and Kyungsoo were holding hands to his left, Luhan said behind him, Sehun was on his right. Other members of the club were sat around him, twelve of them in all.

The judge entered and they all stood, sitting again when instructed. The judge spoke.

Soo Man was found guilty on all of the counts of which he was charged.  He was to face ten years imprisonment and a sum of 17.5 million won would be paid to each of the twelve victims.  Cheers of applause broke out around the court, people couldn’t contain their joy. Lay numbly watched as Soo Man was handcuffed and lead away.

Outside the court full celebrations were taking place. People were hugging, cheering, crying in some occasions. Lay just wandered past it all. Feeling lost amongst the joy that he wasn’t capable of feeling. Not anymore.

Luhan was happily discussing with others that this money would provide him with what he needed to start a new life. All of these hosts had come from nothing, forced to find work in the lowest of places. It was all over now.  Kai had grabbed Kyungsoo out of uncontained happiness and kissed the life out of his poor mouth, though I’m not sure Kyungsoo minded. There was already talk of throwing a celebratory party that night.  Lay just watched as an onlooker, he was barely present. Just a hollow shell now.

A hand fell upon his shoulder and they stood in silence. Both pleased at the outcome of the case, but also too aware of the consequences of what it had taken to get to this point.

“I guess I have to move out now then.” Lay said to Joonmyeon quietly.

Joonmyeon frowned, but Lay wasn’t looking in his direction so it went unnoticed.

“You don’t have to. You’re welcome for as long you wish to stay with me. I won’t force you out.” Joonmyeon wished he could just ask Lay to stay. The house would be too lonely without Lay. The more he thought about Lay the more he realised he would miss. Company while he cooked, someone to watch dramas with. The comfort of knowing that there was somebody else in the house if anything were to happen.

It was only when the money from the case was sent out to the victims that Joonmyeon remembered the promise he had made to Kris, and he wasn’t sure why, but he felt compelled to keep it, even if Kris wasn’t around anymore.

“Lay…” Joonmyeon carefully started, knowing that talking of Kris was a very dangerous area. “Did Kris ever tell you anything about his mother?”

Lay looked back into his mind and remembered something from a long time ago. “I have no idea where my mother is. I left her and when I realised what I’d done it was too late. I went back but she wasn’t there.”

Lay, Tao and Joonmyeon gathered around a table together. All of the files they could find about Kris were gathered around the table in front of them.  They had job applications, letters sent by companies and his old bills from before he had gone to SM. Using the little knowledge they knew they spent the next two months tracking down his mother.

“I think I’ve found her!” Tao said, walking into the room with his phone in hand, a note pad in the other.

“This is the address here, the woman had lived in Kris’s town until the same year that Kris went to Canada. Then she moved to this address here…” Tao said, holding up the note pad “She has had a son whose last name was Wu and he was also born the same year as Kris. It’s worth checking out.”

The next day the three of them were on a plane and heading to China. This was Lay’s first time returning to China since the argument with his family. For some reason it made him nervous.  At some point during the short flight his head lolled sideways onto Joonmyeon’s shoulder. He hadn’t been sleeping well at all since Kris had departed and was prone to short naps throughout the day. Joonmyeon let him rest and smiled sadly at the man.

It took them five hours from when they left Korea to get to Kris’s mothers house.

“Excuse me, we’re awfully sorry for disturbing you. Is this man your son?” Tao had asked, showing a picture of Kris to the woman. She looked surprisingly young, with a short slim figure and long black hair, but her face was aged prematurely through sadness which radiated from her eyes and mouth.

She looked at the picture and her eyes widened. fell open and she looked from the picture to the group of men and back.

“It is! Where is he? Is he okay? I haven’t heard from him since he went to his father’s in Canada. He never writes back to my letters and I don’t know his number. His father won’t talk to me at all.” She shook her head sadly then came back to the present. “Why are you asking? Is he okay?”

“Would it be okay if we came inside? I think this is going to be a long story.”

Tao was the one who spoke most to the woman, as he was the best at speaking professionally other than Suho, however his Chinese wasn’t quite up to scratch. He told her everything he knew, how Kris had gone to Canada for three or so years but came to Korea to pursue a life as an idol. Before that he had returned to China but was unable to find his mother. From there he spoke about the host club and the court case. But he delayed relaying the last piece of information.

“Hasn’t he read the letters though? I’ve been writing to him for years. I thought he was still at his father’s. They must not have reached him. Oh that poor boy. Where is he! Tell him I want to see him at once.”

All three of them stayed silent and Lay looked down at his lap, begging the pain in his chest to go away.

“Kris is… missing. After jumping from a bridge into the Han River his body has not been found. Dead or Alive.”

It took several minutes to get Mrs Wu to calm down. In that time Lay too had started to cry again. But finally there was peace and Kris’s mother looked for more answers.

“Actually, If Kris had been alive and present at the final day of the court case he would have received 17.5 million won compensation to restart his life. Since that money can’t go to him, we can give that money to you.” Tao pulled out a cheque for the money and handed it over to Mrs Wu.

“Did he really still insist on being called Kris? He didn’t once go back to the name his poor mother gave him?”

“His real name isn’t Kris?” Lay asked, shocked. That was the first time he had spoken since they had arrived at Mrs Wu’s house.

“Oh lord no! He gave himself that name just a year before going to meet his father. He thought it made him more western.” She chuckled sadly.

“So then, if that’s not his real name, what is it?”

“Yifan” She said tenderly “My Wu Yifan.”

Just thought I'd break it to you. I am currently writing the LAST CHAPTER. It's coming guys, are you ready? Also I'm not sure I've proof read this so please ignore small mistakes for now. 

-1990stalker-