CHAPTER 3 (PT 1) - Kiddie slides

Xuejunnie hyung is missing.

My fingers freeze and in the shock, I drop my phone to the ground. Ryuu, who is sleeping at the bottom bunk, doesn't stir but right now, I am too worked up to care. Missing? What does he mean? 

Without wasting more time on texting, I directly end up calling Dae Jung. He picks at the first ring. 

"Dae Jung—" I start but a loud sob interrupts me and I go speechless. 

Dae Jung's rough sobs shake my ear and though I like to pride myself as someone level-headed, I'm at a loss for words as I listen to his raw cries. Was this the kid who introduced himself as the leader of an award-winning band just a few days back? 

A second later, I hear a shuffle and someone else coughs into the phone. 

"Winter." 

Chin Hae.

"Chin Hae, what is Dae Jung blabbering about?" I cut straight to the chase. Chin Hae sighs softly and unveils a stressed groan. 

"You heard right. Xuejun is missing. He said he was going out today morning and that's it, he isn't back."

"Phoned him?"

"Of course we did. He didn't pick. You are the last resort."

Chin Hae stops, and so do I, mouth going bitter. Last resort? Well sorry to break it to you but Liu Xuejun and I aren't as close as we used to be. 

Either Chin Hae senses the unspoken words in my silence or he is simply tired but he let's out another drained sigh. "Winter, I don't know what happened between you and Xuejun but trusting that you're the closest to that meathead, I'm calling you. We've a schedule tomorrow evening and we need to be at the make-up artist's by afternoon." His voice breaks by the end and I can't help but wince. 

My mind is a muddled mush and the familiarly strange eyes from the busking crowd flashes into my mind. It can't be that coincidental, can it? 

"Winter..?"

"Yeah, I'm here," I hurriedly reply. The unasked questions in me stir, raising like an unstoppable tornado and the words are out before I can stop myself. "Just . . . why would that idiot even run away?"

Chin Hae goes silent too and a moment later, he clicks his tongue. "I don't know. Maybe not everyone is as happy as you assume they are." 

The jab is obvious and I glare at the wall in front of me, wanting to punch holes into Chin Hae's thick head. But the present Xuejun isn't the Xuejun I knew. He isn't the boy who drank four cups of coffee with a poisonous six shots everyday to get through practice. Nor was he the boy who cooked me instant ramen in the middle of night just because I wouldn't sleep. He is Jun from the popular band Purple Skyes. He didn't have the luxury to run away. And the boy I knew wasn't that irresponsible.

"I'll— I'll see what I can do."

The other side goes silent before Chin Hae murmurs almost inaudibly. "How is teacher Park?" 

"Good," I say, but since the atmosphere feels too serious and suffocating, I add in a half joking manner. "Still a glorious living statue." 

It kinda works and Chin Hae barks out an abrupt laugh. "Say Winter, once this is sorted out— promotions, Xuejun . . . everything, how about we meet up?"

I can almost see Chin Hae on the other side, tired eyes shut closely, while a hand kneaded the space between his eyebrows. He was always too responsible for his own good. Sorta like Ha Joon hyung but more impulsive and a bit thick headed. But knowing someone in the past was one thing. Like Liu Xuejun, he didn't have the old luxuries of trainee Chin Hae either. It's almost bittersweet and I nod lightly. 

"Okay," I say softly. "And about Xuejun, I think I know where to find the brat." 

•••

Though it's summer, the night mercilessly bites me and the sweatshirt I had grabbed in a hurry barely makes any difference. 

Before deciding to go search for Xuejun in the middle of the night, I had tip-toed in the dark to the room Ha Joon hyung shared with Do Hyun, painstakingly making sure I woke up no one except Ha Joon hyung. I had quickly made up an excuse of meeting with an old friend from PBS but before Ha Joon hyung could get his dazed brain to clear up and question me, I had ran out of the room after throwing out a 'don't be worried, I'll be back tomorrow."

Ryuu and Do Hyun were nice kids but they weren't exactly the tactful kind. One word out that Purple Skyes' member Jun was missing, forget their extreme fans, Do Hyun would lose his mind in shock while Ryuu might unknowingly let the word loose about this to his online gaming friend while farming. He tells them everything. And I mean, everything. 

I run my hands together trying to warm them but the adrenaline pumping within my veins makes it hard to feel. The roads feel too familiar at night, when there's barely any traffic and even though I don't want to, a familiar memory flits. 

•••

Training was brutal today and every inch of my body ached. Xuejun was lying beside me, panting heavily. A hand covered his eyes, hiding his flushed face. I chuckled and kicked his thighs. 

"Winter~" he whined, sounding like an annoying drunkard. "Need coffee. ASAP." 

Who even speaks in abbreviations? 

"Tch, stop being a baby." Cue more kicking. By the end of it, somehow he was standing and that's good enough.

We were finally done for the day and I wanted nothing more than to go back to our dorm and drop on my bed. My school had a history test tomorrow and I did not want to flunk it, so waking up early was the only choice. But seems like the midget had a thought of his own because half way down the way, he gripped my hands, pulling me in a different direction. 

"What?" I muttered. I was too tired for his crap. But nothing deterred Xuejun and he pulled with even more fervor. 

"Just shut up and follow." His voice was soft and awkward, and somewhere in between the hoarseness and childishness, there's the natural grace Xuejun was born with. Even puberty couldn't reprieve him of that. I let him pull me, an involuntary amused smile lifting the corners of my lips.

He took me through a few alleyways, turning here and there. Familiar buildings faded away and I couldn't recognise the neighbourhood in the dark, each step looking more alien than the one before. 

"Say," I started, pressing our interlocked hands. Xuejun's fingers were warm under mine and with the freezing night breeze, it felt cosy. "You aren't deliberately taking me somewhere to kill me off, right? It wasn't me who spilt your poison coffee. It was Chin Hae." 

Xuejun shot an unimpressed look. "Even if I was a psychopath, I still have standards. You don't make the cut." 

We wove through the roads and Xuejun's tired eyes slowly morphed into warm hot chocolate, the more we got near his destination. Ten minutes later, Xuejun stopped us in front of a very unimpressive and a very run-down park, and spread his hands wide. 

"Ta-da!" 

The light in his eyes grew a millionfold and I winced. Was he expecting me to clap my hands? Should I?

Xuejun took in my confused face and a laugh bubbled from the depths of his stomach. "Look at your face," he laughed, poking at my cheek, effectively sinking into the dimple. "Learn to let loose, Winter-ah." 

I let out a dry chuckle. "Let loose in the kiddie slides?" I muttered sarcastically but the idiot nodded. Actually nodded. The audacity.

"Precisely." 

And just like that, in the dead middle of the night, I was forced to play in the kiddie slides with freezing hands and butt.

Was fourteen too young to kill someone and go to jail?