LUNCHBOX FRIENDS | changlix

.04

"you have to understand, felix," she was saying, searching incessantly through a heavy binder, flipping through files. "i didn't want to do this."

felix hadn't been allowed a single moment of mental clarity before he'd been pushed inside the room by a thin hand.

it triggered a violent flashback that transported him all the way back to that early freezing morning in first grade: there was just a couple of kids in the classroom, no teachers, because the storm had been so furious it turned the town into a public pool, so they all dared each other to summon the bloody mary. felix had gone first, and the thrill of repeating that urban legend lady's name three times had been such a bone-chilling event (or had it been the storm freezing him from inside out?) that he could've almost sworn she had been standing right in front of him before he'd opened his eyes.

and that was what jeongin's mom felt like, dragging him inside her room to conspire against some poor man. what was she, really? an fbi agent? or from any other secret organization? oh, no, felix should've believed those youtube videos talking about conspiracy theories. maybe they could teach him one thing or another about this.

"there's something..." miss yang paused her aggressive page-flipping to fish for a word, "questionable. happening in your school."

"like what?" felix was actualy too afraid to know.

she didn't reply. all she did was keep searching through the documents. file after file after file, that looked exactly identical to one another. until she stopped a red nail on one page, let out a short snort, like a ha! and tore the paper out to hand it to felix.

felix took it like a doomed man walking to the electric chair.

before he could order his eyes to read the words, however, jeongin's mom spelled it out for him:

"money laundering," she proclaimed theatrically, "do you know what that means, felix?"

felix imagined a washing machine with a bunch of dollar bills turning inside.

"um..."

"it's a crime!" she cut in, hands on her hips and a sharp lifted brow. "making money from... illegal sources, to put it simply."

she pointed to the picture again and spoke as if she was talking to the boy in the photo, rather than to felix himself: "i have been told there has been a large sum of money being deviated from the school's faculty. i don't know how he's doing it yet, and that's where you come in, felix."

at that, she turned abruptly towards him. felix felt like a deer caught in headlights.

"you did as i told you, right?"

felix was roadkill now.

he gulped, "i did. i'm in biology class."

"not seen him yet, i suppose?"

"no, first class is tomorrow."

"good," miss yang said, turning back to the picture. she raised a hand, as though to flicker the boy's forehead, but she just rested her hand near it. "it's important to not be influenced by first impressions."

felix all but muttered a sound of agreement. god, how he wished it to be over already.

"it's also important to read through all that it's said there," she stated.

felix uttered a confused noise that sounded more like, "where?"

jeongin's mom turned to him and stared like she was watching a circus of monkeys perform a terrible trick.

"his file, felix."

he looked down at the paper he held in hand, "oh."

there, it read just atrocious things like, "kth #00009: a sneaky little piece of rat shit, will talk about you on your back if you let him know any personal information. beware."

felix could be bought with the "first impressions" stuff, but... wasn't that just biased opinion? miss yang's biased opinion.

"i'm just worried, felix," she said. felix turned back to look at her, and found a face he'd never seen in any adult: despair. it didn't match with the miss yang he had in mind at all! "you see, my kid studies there. jeongin goes there, felix. it studies where a criminal walks loose! you have to help this case!"

felix sighed audibly. that was... definitely emotional manipulation. but a reasonable reaction to the situation they were in. felix himself had no children yet, but, if he did have any, he'd also recruit a teen to help solve a crime with him... if it came to that, of course.

he was about to read more from the file, but as soon as his eyes ran quickly over the sentence "kth #00056: should rot in hell", felix decided he'd have time to read it another time. somewhere else. away from there.

with his other hand, he offered it to a handshake, which miss yang took without missing a beat. but, once felix looked at where they joined hands and wondered why he couldn't feel the whole span of hers, he realized the pink copy of her janet wilson phone was nestle between their hands.

felix cleared his throat and announced: "miss yang, you can count me in."