The Boy From The Bridge - Jakehoon

Chapter 125: Concerning Runways, a Runaway and Running Away 1/1

I've got to hand myself into the police and Jake has to catch his flight which is at..." Jungwon looked at him.

"9:48" Jake answered.  

18:35

Sunghoon didn't need to say anything, his presence drew the attention of two pairs of eyes without him so much as breathing. Perhaps the stink of regret, or shame or of impotence so heavily reeked from the stairwell that they could smell him 

Stepping out into the hallway he stared both his father and Gi down. He wondered what he should say, what he could say. He held Artemis's lead with both hands. He had had to as she had pulled away from him with every opportunity she had seen. He wasn't good at walking a dog and his hands were marked and tired from the rope burn, so he could be forgiven for allowing the lead to hang limply now he was almost home. It was as much out of necessity for release as it was a demonstration to Gi and his father of his mood. 

He felt hopeless, he felt weak and he felt alone. 

This wasn't to say that he was alone, he had a dog to his right, and a parent and his former baby-sitter all within several metres of him. 

"Sunghoon?" Gi said, her voice was concerned, "Why have you got Jungkook's dog?"

Sunghoon rolled his eyes, 'of course the concern was over the dog rather than him - why would anyone care about him' he thought. "I'm going to look after her for a while"

"For a while?" His father asked. 

"Until Jungkook gets out of prison I..."

"PRISON?" Gi asked, a higher pitch in her voice but not a distinctive note of surprise 

"Does this have anything to do with this?" His father asked, gesturing at the police taped door to Jungkook's apartment. 

Sunghoon shrugged meekly. And looked at the door. He thought back on how to best explain the series of events that had culminated in that door wearing the ominous yellow and black tape. He opted to rub the back of his neck and take a few paces towards the door. 

"How much do you want to know?" He asked them. 

Gi and his father glanced at each other before his father asked, "Well, I guess as much as you know"

"Oh I know everything" He said coarsely, like it was a statement of defiance. 

"Well go on then?"

"You really want to know?"

"Yes" the adults said in unison, as if impatient. Sunghoon looked at them with tired eyes. He sighed and touched the frame of Jungkook's door. 

"Jungkook was a wanted man and he harboured both Jake and another boy from my school, Jungwon..."

"... I remember, the cute kid with the dimples right?" Gi interrupted. 

Sunghoon didn't flinch at the interjection and continued, "Jungwon was on the run from the police but, according to Jungkook, as soon as anyone or at least, anyone of any standing learned that he was caught up in a police investigation for a missing minor they'd try to come for him. The allegation would be that he had kidnapped Jungwon. Jungkook had feared, quite fairly I guess, that Jake's presence would further add weight to that claim." Sunghoon's voice became choked before his recollection of the afternoon's events. "And then... when they came back to Seoul, it was decided that Jungwon would go and hand himself into the police."