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I apologise for having taken so long to post a new chapter. Thank you for your patience.

Chapter 9

Minnie walked into the day room with a sad look on her face. This expression was ordinarily very uncommon for her, but had become usual ever since Mark and JinYoung had disappeared. Miss Jung brought some puppets over to her and asked if she'd like to play. Minnie's favourite indoor toys were puppets, model animals—especially the insects like the praying mantis—building blocks and trains. Whenever the weather outside was bad, she would play with these for hours, so Miss Jung thought this would be a good way to cheer her up since the sky was threatening rain.

"Would you like us to play a story?" Miss Jung asked. "I'm sure you can make up a good one."

Minnie just pouted. Then she asked the same question she'd asked for the past several days.

"When are Mark-Oppa and JinYoung-Oppa coming back?"

Miss Jung was filled with sympathy for her. Her little face looked so eager and yet so sad as though she already anticipated the answer that would be no different from the one she'd received every time she'd previously asked.

"I don't know, Minnie," Miss Jung answered kindly. "A lot of people are looking for them and hopefully they'll be back very soon."

Minnie's face fell.

"But Mark-Oppa will be very sad. He won't have anyone to play with," she complained. "JinYoung-Oppa is always reading books, so Mark-Oppa will be bored."

Miss Jung Minnie's hair in the hopes of comforting her.

"Would you like to play puppets with me . . . until Mark comes back, I mean," she offered.

"I guess . . . " Minnie answered reluctantly. "But Mark-Oppa plays so funny. He's so nice. It feels bad to play without him. He must be sad and . . . lonely," she said unhappily.

Miss Jung spent much of the late afternoon playing with Minnie and some of the other young children after they'd returned from kindergarten. Once they'd gone to wash up before their evening meal, Miss Jung went to Mrs. Shin's office.

"Have you heard anything about Mark or JinYoung yet?" she asked the director.

"Not a word. I thought the police would have been able to find them by now. But, I suppose this proves how clever JinYoung is." Since there had been no sign of foul play, Mrs Shin didn't believe they were taken against their will. What happened to them once they were out of the orphanage was unfortunately, hard to say, but she wanted to believe that wherever they were, they were safe and well and would either be found soon or come back of their own volition.

"Or how desperate they were," Miss Jung remarked. To that she received no response. Nevertheless, she continued. "I've just spent a lot of time with Minnie. She's very worried about them."

"We have to keep a close eye on her . . . on all the children . . ." Many of them had been upset since their 'older brothers' had gone missing. Restless nights and fraught mealtimes were becoming commonplace. "Is she eating well?" Mrs Shin asked.

"When someone sits with her and makes sure she eats . . . yes. But she's very unhappy. She misses Mark a lot. They all do, but she especially. They were very close." Miss Jung paused before going on, "Do you think it's absolutely necessary for Mark to go to that facility if we should find them? He's always been nice to Minnie and the other children. I really don't think that he could have had anything to do with that fire the officer mentioned. He just never impressed me as the type to hurt anyone intentionally."

"I admit that when the officer spoke to me about that initially, I was shocked and a little more than concerned, but in the days since then, I've received the reports from Child Crisis that were part of Mark's file. I must admit, the reports have given me cause for doubt." She thumbed through papers and referred to one in particular. "It says here that he was admitted for self-harm, but it also states that he maintained almost the entire time that his stepfather was the one who had hurt him. Then, suddenly he admitted that he'd hurt himself and after a couple of months, they returned him home. But, then," she said thumbing through the papers once more, "if you look at the police reports, his stepfather wasn't the only person to die in that fire. A woman, not Mark's mother, died in it too. Mark also apparently always maintained that she set the fire, not him. And even though there was some doubt in the mind of the officials, they didn't have enough evidence to prosecute him. It seems they thought, at the time, he might have had revenge for the death of this mother as a motive. But, looking at the timeline," she said flipping through the papers once again, "between the death of his mother and the appearance of the other woman, there seemed to be some overlap. That may show that this stepfather of his wasn't the caring, considerate man the Child Crisis staff seemed to think he was and lend some credence to Mark's statement. At least, it's making me wonder. That and his nightmares. Rather than the dreams of a perpetrator, they seemed more like the dreams of a victim, at least according to what I've heard," she finished.

Miss Jung was glad that the director was seriously considering that Mark may be indeed be a victim in all this. But she'd thought that before and still had decided that he had to go to Child Crisis, so had that much really changed? Miss Jung decided that she had to make her opinion known on the subject.

"In light of all this," she began, "once the boys have been returned to us, shouldn't we reconsider sending Mark away?" she tried.

"The decision to have him receive treatment at Child Crisis wasn't due to any guilt on his part: we received all this news after the fact. It was because of his nightmares. The purpose was to get him treatment so he could be well," Mrs Shin countered.

"I understand that. But if he was telling the truth before . . . that his stepfather had been the one hurting him, and they didn't believe him . . . "

" . . . returning him there might do more harm than good . . . I've thought of that, and it would explain why Mark was so horrified at the thought of being sent there, and why JinYoung would have taken such extreme measures to help him. But the fact still remains that we have other children here to consider. It isn't fair to have them shocked in their sleep when Mark has his nightmares. That's what brought us to this point in the first place, so I don't know that we have much choice in the matter," Mrs Shin stated.

Miss Jung said nothing more. Mrs Shin was right in one respect: they did have the other children to consider.

So with that, she thanked the director for her time, excused herself and left the office.

TaekMyun was feeling frustrated.

It had been days since he'd overheard the dinnerladies talking about missing food, but neither he nor any of his 'associates' had seen hide nor hair of Mark or JinYoung since then. They'd stayed way past the last study hour of the night in order to catch them, but the school was a still as a tomb. There were days when he even came to school as early as an hour before it opened, having given his parents some excuse for his unusually early departure time, but again, he could spy no sign of either boy.

He was beginning to think that maybe he'd got it all wrong.

"Maybe that lady did make a mistake," KyungChul suggested. "We haven't seen them anywhere . . . not even a trace."

TaekMyun didn't answer. He knew that KyungChul was right, but he couldn't shake the feeling that the boys were somewhere here at school. But he had to admit, even if it was only to himself, that a feeling wasn't enough. And while he was here having feelings, they had all stopped searching for the two elsewhere.

"Wherever they are, they can't stay hidden forever, so whenever they come back, we'll finish our business with them then." He then chuckled to himself before remarking, "every day that passes, the bill they owe me gets higher. I hope when I find them, they'll be able to pay it."

*                                *                                *                                *                                *

JinYoung had decided on a slight change of schedule.

For days, he and Mark hadn't ventured out once before midnight. Also, they made sure that 5am didn't catch them anywhere other than in their makeshift home. JinYoung wasn't taking any chances. All of their movements outside of the attic space were limited to the dead of night, which made sense and in a few days, had actually become comfortable for them as they'd become partially nocturnal. They did have to do all of their studying during the day due to the need for light, but that was usually for a maximum of 6 hours. JinYoung had decided that the lateness of the hour in which they moved, insured that they wouldn't be unpleasantly surprised by staff. Or anyone else.

*                                *                                *                                *                                *

Before sunrise one morning after Mark had confided his past to JinYoung, as he lay in JinYoung's arms, his thoughts were disturbed once again by the memory of his stepfather's words.

He knew that being embraced by JinYoung made him feel happy. He knew that when they kissed and held each other, he just wished that time would stop and that those moments would go on forever, but . . . those words . . .

Those words had been so powerful that he'd witnessed how his own mother's love for him had almost immediately evaporated. She had even told him those cruel words: that she was glad that his father wasn't alive to see what he was . . .

So, there was no doubt that what he was, was exceptionally, unforgivably bad.

But as he lay in JinYoung's arms, he didn't feel exceptionally, unforgivably bad. He felt the contrary. He felt good. He felt that he and JinYoung were good together. But he also knew that just because something felt good didn't automatically make it good. So was what he was doing with JinYoung wrong? Were his feelings wrong?

"A penny for your thoughts," JinYoung breathed into his hair as he stirred.

Mark wondered if he should just lie and conceal what he'd been thinking about. He didn't want to hurt JinYoung's feelings. Even worse, he didn't want JinYoung to think what they'd been doing was wrong, because then . . . they might have to stop.

But, he couldn't bring himself to lie to JinYoung. So he decided to open the subject honestly.

"Is what we're doing wrong?" he asked earnestly.

"What? Running away? Of course not. They didn't give us any choice," JinYoung answered.

Mark lifted his head and looked at the boy he loved.

"No, not that," he began timidly, "I mean . . . this. Us. Being . . . like this with each other. Everyone said it's wrong: my stepfather, my mother, even the people at Child Crisis said so." He looked down as he continued. "When he called me those names . . . when he said those things . . . I didn't want to be like that. I wished I wasn't like that, then everything would be okay. So, I stopped. I stopped liking him . . . that boy I'd liked . . . But now . . . with you . . . it's started all over again . . . And it's even worse this time, because . . . I love you," he said miserably.

JinYoung Mark's face tenderly and Mark closed his eyes, forgetting to fight against this 'wrongdoing', and instead, revelling in the feeling of gentle fingertips against his face.

"You love me and I love you just as much. There's nothing wrong with that," he said bending to kiss Mark's lips softly.

"But . . . "

"I won't lie to you, there are some people who think it's wrong, but it's not. But even if some people don't want me to love you, I'm not going to stop. Are you?"

Mark didn't answer. He wanted to believe that there was nothing wrong with their feelings, but it was hard to think that it wasn't wrong if so many people were against it.

"Mark . . . " JinYoung said, surprised at his silence.

"I don't want to stop," Mark said quietly. Then he raised his eyes to JinYoung's. "But it's hard. I can't forget what they said and how they looked at me. But I want to. Will you help me?"

"Of course," JinYoung assured him lovingly. "I'll just have to keep telling you every day and every night that we are right to love each other until you believe it," he said gently. Then he slid down until he and Mark were facing each other.

"I've never been so sure of anything in my life, as I am about this," he said softly. "I truly love you, Mark Tuan."

Mark's eyes searched JinYoung's. Then he moved in, closing the space between them until their lips touched. The kiss they shared was sweet.

Then he pulled back far enough to look into JinYoung's eyes properly.

"I love you, Pak JinYoung," he stated quietly but determinedly before leaning in to kiss him again.

Mark and JinYoung spent much of that night wrapped in each other's arms, kissing and exchanging words of love. And with each kiss and declaration, Mark slowly began to feel more and more convinced that instead of being something wrong, what they felt for each other was right.

As the final days of the week passed, Mark didn't experience one nightmare. He instead slept soundly and well in the arms of the one who loved him.

When the weekend came, the two started to experience feelings of ambivalence. They felt both a mixture of happiness and sadness, knowing that their time alone, in this space they had made their own, would soon be coming to an end.

"This is now the longest time that you've gone without having a nightmare," JinYoung said to Mark when they'd awakened from their rest on Sunday evening.

"Do you think that'll make a difference to Mrs Shin?" Mark asked.

"It will if she's fair," JinYoung responded. "She said that the reason you had to go to Child Crisis was because of the nightmares. So, if you're not having them anymore, you won't have to go."

Mark was less certain.

"What if she doesn't believe you? What if she wants to send me there regardless?" he asked.

JinYoung looked at Mark steadily.

"I won't let them separate us. I promised you, right?" he asked.

Mark nodded his head.

"I think she'll make the right decision not to send you to that place, but I'm not taking any chances," JinYoung declared. "I'll go see her alone."

"Alone?" Mark asked uneasily.

"Yes, that way she won't be able to force you to go anywhere. If she doesn't agree to let you stay, I won't tell her where you are."

"So, you'll be there and I'll be . . . "

"Don't worry, Mark," he said holding him close, "I'll come back to you. As soon as I finish talking to her, I'll come right back," JinYoung promised.

"But what if they don't let you come back? What if they force you to tell them where I am?"

"What do you think they're going to do? Use torture tactics? Don't worry, I will come back, once she assures me that you'll stay with us," JinYoung said in a sure voice.

But Mark had had a lot of dealings with adults that had taught him they couldn't be trusted. No matter what they said.

"Mark, you're going to have to trust me. And you're also going to have to promise me something," JinYoung said, his voice sounding very serious.

"What . . . " Mark asked apprehensively.

"You're going to have to promise me that, no matter what happens, you'll stay put. You have to promise me that you'll stay here and wait for me and that even if I'm late coming back, you'll only leave this attic if you have to and then only during the times we usually do. Promise me."

"I promise," Mark said genuinely.

"Good . . . " JinYoung smiled in response.

That night, after they completed all their night duties, they both tried to sleep.

But they found that they couldn't.

That morning was to be the first time they would be separated since they ran away and they were both feeling apprehensive.

No matter what JinYoung had said, he knew very well that the adults he'd be confronting indeed had the power to detain him and to insist that he tell them where Mark was. He also knew that if they did insist, he would be forced to disclose that information, because he knew that he couldn't leave Mark alone for too long. His mental state may have stabilized a little—the ending of the nightmares had been evidence of that—but if he didn't come back, Mark could relapse . . . or his condition could perhaps even worsen.

So, as the sun began to gradually lighten the sky, JinYoung knew that he had to succeed in his aim to convince Mrs Shin to let Mark stay. There was no other option for them both.

He also knew that there was no guarantee that she would listen. But he had to be strong and confident for Mark.

But unbeknownst to anyone, even to Mark, if all else failed, JinYoung had an ace up his sleeve.

And if they insisted on taking Mark away from him, he would be forced play it.

Early that morning, just before the school gates opened, JinYoung finished readying himself for his trip to the orphanage. Then just before he left, he stood before Mark. He took his love's face gently in his hands and held it lightly.  

"I'm going now, Mark. Don't worry, I'll be back soon."

Mark tried not to let his anxiety show. "I know you will," he said attempting to sound confident, when he felt anything but.

"Then," JinYoung said and kissed him briefly, "I'll be going now."

They kissed again, this time long and deep and then embraced each other tightly. They both knew that this could go terribly wrong, so the last kiss they shared felt desperate, as though they might never see each other again.

But as they kissed, they both willed it not be so.

Once they'd finally let go of one another, JinYoung strode away quickly without looking back. He climbed through the ceiling tile that had served them well, and swung down expertly into the backroom of the library. From there, he hurried through the building, across the courtyard and finally exited the school grounds.

But what he didn't know was that a pair of eyes had followed him from the time he'd appeared outside the building. And those eyes began to narrow as the lips below them turned up in glee.

TaekMyun had finally caught them.

And it was now time for him to make Pak JinYoung pay his bill.

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