Sandeul sprints out of the compound onto the road to where the breach on the backyard fence is connected. He runs a little more like a criminal captor but is simplified into chasing a kid. He continues running down the slope of the quiet neighborhood and HyunWoo is still out of sight. He starts to wonder where the police officers are, aren’t they supposedly patrolling around?

             He decides to brush away his frustrations and simply continue looking for the kid; he shouldn’t have gotten too far. The inclined roads of the vicinity makes it hard for him to run down, too much speed can put him out of balance. He half-walk and half-run as he feels beads of sweat run down from his temple to his neck and then to his chest which incessantly raises and drops from panting.

             The afternoon sun casts asymmetrical shadows on the empty road. Sandeul’s head hastily turns left to right but even the backstreets are empty. Maybe he can call Baro for help but as far as he can remember, it was him who gave Baro his number so basically he doesn’t know Baro’s. He rolls his eyes in helplessness and continues his unwanted afternoon jogging.

             “HyunWoo!” he yells but only the echoes respond back.

             He occasionally stops to check hidden corners but still finds no one “HyunWoo!” he calls once again.

             He feels his jacket sticking to his sweaty skin and it irritates him. This urges him to the thick garment and he swiftly pulls it off his torso leaving him with only a sky blue shirt on. The fresher feeling relieves all the raging sweat glands of his skin.

             After passing through several streets, he reaches the main road where a lone vending machine stands. The imprisoned beverages plead for his attention and so he halts his search operation for a minute and drops a coin into the machine. His eyes roam the area around him while waiting for his drink. Just as he hears a clank resembling of a can’s, he spots a kid at the far end of the road. He narrows his eyes as try to recognize the person further and just when he’s a hundred percent sure that that kid is HyunWoo a bus passes by and it eventually gives him a bad omen.

             He immediately starts running again leaving his drink behind.

             “HyunWoo!” he shouts but to no avail.

             His instinct is right; there is a bad sign incorporated with the bus. He’s about to lose his mind when HyunWoo along with the other passengers waiting, hops in the passenger bus. Sandeul’s steps grows wider and faster as he tries to catch the bus. The similarity of the scene to a drama’s ending is undeniable.

             The bus starts to move and Sandeul’s steps slows down not until the vehicle flashes red backlights signaling a stop. Sandeul runs again and the front door open and comes out is a man along with HyunWoo.

             “Are you this kid’s guardian?” the man asks.

             “Yes” Sandeul quickly replies and the man lets HyunWoo walk over to him.

             “This is a close call, if we didn’t notice, this kid could probably get lost” the man warns and Sandeul offers a bow of apology.

             “I’m sorry and thank you” Sandeul says before the doors close back again and the bus goes away.

             Sandeul looks down on the kid beside him.

             “Where do you think are you going?” Sandeul asks partly worried and partly aggravated from the chase.

             HyunWoo shows no sign of guilt “To my mom” he replies firmly.

             “Do you know where your mom is?”

             HyunWoo shakes his head “That’s why I’m gonna ride a bus. Mom said buses take you everywhere”

             Sandeul knows that everything’s a misunderstanding inside the kid’s head “Buses don’t take you everywhere, you must know where you want to go and look for the right bus”

             “Mom once read to me about a bus that takes you everywhere you want. Is that bus the wrong bus?”HyunWoo asks innocently.

             Sandeul shrugs “We wouldn’t know unless you know where you’re going, should we go back now?”

             “Go back where?”

             Sandeul pauses before replying “To the orphanage” he says in a low but convincing voice. He knows how big of a deal an orphanage is, it’s not a bad place to begin with but not entirely a good place either. It’s just that the longing of these kids can never be replaced by hours of playtime or a hundred volumes of bedtime fairytales.

             They stop by the vending machine before walking back to the orphanage and grab drinks for both of them. Sandeul silently thanks the god of coins for leavings some in his pocket for he left his wallet at Baro’s car. HyunWoo gets a grape juice and cola for Sandeul.

             HyunWoo’s steps are way too small and slow compared to Sandeul’s and so Sandeul lifts him up and carries him.

             “Appa” HyunWoo calls.

             “Appa?” Sandeul questions as he turns his head from left to right looking for someone who may be HyunWoo’s father but not a presence is there.

             HyunWoo shakes his head playfully and points to Sandeul “Appa” he says once again.

             Sandeul points to himself “Me? Appa?”

             HyunWoo nods as he drinks his grape juice from a white straw.

             “Why me?” Sandeul asks.

             “I want you to be my appa, I don’t have an appa” says HyunWoo.

             Sandeul doesn’t negate any longer and simply agrees to it, this kid can have history that Sandeul doesn’t want to uncover. “Fine, I’ll be your appa” Sandeul assures.

             As they walk, HyunWoo rests his cheek on Sandeul’s shoulder and when HyunWoo’s breathing stables, Sandeul knows that he’s asleep.

             There is still a small number of police outside the gate when Sandeul arrives. At the same time, a police car appears and comes out is Corporal Gwon. The very first person the old man notices is Sandeul.

             “Don’t tell me that your stalking lead you to this place, I told you the case is-”

             “Corporal, you misunderstood, he came here with SunWoo” Chansik who comes out of nowhere defends as he stands beside Sandeul and in front of Corporal.

             “SunWoo, the detective? Oh I see, I see” the Corporal laughs “I give you my blessing, I should have known” he makes his way out with an old man’s chuckle. Chansik and Sandeul clearly hear his murmur about “cute couple and a sneaky detective” which neither of them understands.

             “Oh. I got him back” Sandeul says pertaining to the sleeping kid on his shoulder.

             “Where did you find him? And is he okay?” Chansik asks relieved and worried.

             “He’s fine, probably tired. But he’s just sleeping” Sandeul guarantees.

             With that, Chansik grabs his black box phone announcing that they found the boy.

             “It’s a shame that the police weren’t able to find him. Thank you anyway”

             “Don’t mention it” Sandeul says.

             A lady comes running out of the gate, her eyes searching and upon finding HyunWoo, runs towards the little boy.

             “Oh dear HyunWoo” she sighs “Thank you for finding him, he’s been missing overnight, I was so worried”

             “Seems like he misses his mom” Sandeul reasons “He’s looking for her”

             The lady refuses to say anything back but the sad look on her face is indisputable.

             Sandeul lifts HyunWoo so that he can pass him to the lady but HyunWoo wakes up in the process and immediately snakes his arms around Sandeul’s neck surprising everyone.

             “HyunWoo?” Sandeul questions patting the little boy’s back “Noona is picking you up”

             “I don’t want. I don’t want!” HyunWoo negates as his arms tighten around Sandeul’s neck close enough to strangle him “I want to be with appa!” the kid shouts earning surprised looks from everyone except from the lady.

             “He calls every guy he’s fond of appa, he probably likes you”

             “I don’t mind taking care of him for a night” Sandeul proposes.

             The lady sighs “We can’t help it I guess. Come inside first, we need legal measures for you to be able to take the kid with you for a night”

             “Oh. Sure” Sandeul says following the steps of the lady.

             “Hyung”

             Sandeul turns to see Chansik behind him “Thanks for today and tell Baro-hyung that I’m going ahead” he bows before walking towards one of the police cars.

             “Appa, pass me that” says HyunWoo as he points to the red lego block beside Sandeul.

             They are currently sitting on the play mat located at the floor corner of the living room. The interior is just as colorful as the exterior paints. The edges of furniture instead of angular are elliptical probably to prevent injuries of the energetic kids. HyunWoo is busy attaching blocks from one to another and Sandeul does the same, clearly entertained by the numerous toys too.

             “HyunWoo” he calls.

             HyunWoo who is busy building a car, if he’s not mistaken, looks up to him.

             “You can only stay at Appa’s house for one night, okay? After that you have to go back here”

             HyunWoo lets the toy stay on his hands as he continue looking up at Sandeul “Why just one night?”

             Sandeul ruffles HyunWoo’s hair and flashes a smile hoping he won’t sadden the kid “Because appa has to go to the university and can’t take care of you”

             “Then will you pick me up again?” the kid asks but it turns out as an indirect plead.

             Sandeul lifts HyunWoo and places the kid on his lap cuddling him “When appa doesn’t have class, appa will”

             “Ohh~ who’s the mother?”

             Sandeul turns to where the deep voice comes from and there is Baro from the door walking towards them. He sits beside Sandeul and HyunWoo simply watches his actions.

             Now that they are of close proximity, Sandeul notices a red slash of wound “What happened to your face?” he asks pertaining to the cut on Baro’s temple and a bruise on his right cheek.

             Baro crouches down to meet HyunWoo’s face “Yah, next time, tell your girlfriend to stop hitting people just because they intimidated her, okay?”
             “Girlfriend?” Sandeul asks also crouching to look at HyunWoo. Right now, kid probably feels intimidated to have two grown up males staring down at him.

             “Your girlfriend’s name is EunSol, right?”

             “She’s not my girlfriend” defends HyunWoo who appears to already have an insight on what a girlfriend is.

             “That’s right. HyunWoo is too young to have a girlfriend” Sandeul agrees and Baro sits straight up again now shifting his sight to Sandeul.

             “And you think you’re not too young to have a kid at sixteen” Baro retorts at Sandeul.

             “As if I did” Sandeul says sarcastically.

             “Of course you didn’t.  Even if you show me a legit birth certificate, it wouldn’t convince me that you already have a son”

             Sandeul shows an offended face “And why is that?”

             “Just because” Baro shrugs.

             “Just because what?” Sandeul asks impatiently.

             “There’s a kid, I can’t say it” Baro snaps as his hands point to HyunWoo who crawls off Sandeul’s lap and returns to play with his legos. He must have sensed that a fight is about to arise.

             Sandeul glares at Baro “Yah, what are you thinking about?”

             “Exactly what you think I’m thinking, I’m guessing you haven’t”

             “Haven’t what?” Sandeul bickers.

             “You know what