Selfless

3

Ha Na was flipping the sign to close the noodle shop, glad to be done with a long, boring day, when the door was suddenly blown open, throwing her on the floor.

"Noona!" She looked up to see a girl and a boy, probably high schoolers, standing at the entrance to the shop, out of breath with panicky expressions.

"Yah! We're closed for the day! You can come back tomorrow." Ha Na grunted as she stood and went to push them out, only to be met with resistance as the two forced their way through anyway.

"Noona! Is So Mun here?!" The girl asked hurriedly, still out of breath.

Ha Na paused, finally realizing why these two seemed familiar. "You're Mun's friends." She sighed, closing the door. She might as well hear them out at least. "No he hasn't been here since yesterday morning, why?"

She watched, waiting for an answer as the two looked at each other, both close to tearing up now. A sense of foreboding came over her, something must have happened. "What happened?" She snapped out.

The boy turned to speak now, wringing his hands with nervous energy. "We haven't seen him since yesterday afternoon... We were hanging out, going to the gaming cafe...an old man was lost, Mun went with him to help find his home."

Ha Na resisted the urge to sigh, knowing that that was exactly what Mun would do, regardless of how suspicious it would seem.

The girl picked up the explanation, stuttering over her words in her rush to get them out.
"He s-said he would be back in a bit, he didn't show up again all day... We....we thought that he might have gone home when h-he didn't come back.. but he hasn't been seen today, we went to his house... Granny and..and Grandpa haven't seen him.. they thought that he was with us." She was crying now, clearly previous experiences with So Mun had scared the two into thinking he was dying somewhere every time they couldn't get a hold of him.

To be fair, they weren't that far off.

Ha Na sighed, " Did you go to the police?" As much as she was concerned, not all situations were to do with evil spirits, and it was good to have the right authorities involved sometimes.
She hadn't sighted any spirits recently, so she doubted it was anything that Mun couldn't handle. And if not, he had Wigen, so he could contact them.

The two looked at each other with blank expressions.

Ha Na groaned. "Go contact the police, tell them everything you know first. Why would you come here before the police?" She looked at them, disapproving, and confused.

The two shuffled their feet, looking sheepish. "We know, about you and Mun." H Na raised her brows, wondering what on earth they were sputtering about now. What has Mun told them? She blushes, remembering what he had told his grandparents about their relationship.

The girl had a startled look of realization cross her face and threw her hands out as if she could physically stop Ha Na's thoughts. "Ah no! Not that, he didn't tell us about that."

So they came to their own conclusion about them then. She awkwardly cleared her throat. "What do you know about?"

They exchanged another glance. "The superpowers." They whispered. "We won't tell anyone, we were just so glad that he could walk again, we didn't care much about the rest."

Ha Na stared at them, completely at a loss. She supposed she should erase their memories, but somehow that just felt cruel, seeing how much they clearly cared about their friend.  She sighed, "okay, that still doesn't explain why you came here instead of the police."

"We thought he must have encountered a villain, or something. If it was something that he couldn't handle with superpowers, then the police can't handle it either." The boy muttered.

Sound logic. "Go to the police." The two began to protest, as Ha Na put one hand up to tell them to pause. "I will look into it." They deflated a little, moving to leave, she felt bad, but there wasn't much else that she could tell them. In a move that probably appeared completely out of character for her, she reached out to place a hand on each of their shoulders, "it'll be okay, if Mun needs help, he can contact me, superpowers, remember?" They forced miserable little smiles as they walked out the door, looking back with pleading, disappointed eyes as she closed the door.

With one last sigh she turned around, seeing Mrs. Chu stepping out from behind the curtain that separated the kitchen from the customers. "Did you read their memories?"

The younger nodded.

Mrs. Chu returned the gesture, "that's good, it won't be much help without our artist to sketch the person for us, but at least one of us knows what he looks like."

Ha Na glanced around, she appreciated that the elder wouldn't trespass her boundaries, but she wasn't that selfish. "You can read them from me, just don't go through the rest of my head." They already knew everything anyway, but it still made her uncomfortable to have someone going through her mind like flipping pages in a magazine.

Mrs. Chu smiled, "thank you Ha Na." She stepped forward and held out a hand, which the younger accepted, allowing access to her memory. Once she had finished, she stepped back, patting the younger on the shoulder with a small smile.
"Such an old man is probably not the culprit, but you never know these days. Have you stepped on any lately?"
Ha Na shook her head, thinking. "There hasn't been anything for the last week, let alone something powerful enough to catch a counter. This is probably a person, someone that Mun wouldn't want to hurt."
"You think that someone he knows might have taken him?" Mrs. Chu had concern in her eyes,but doubt took her expression; as far as they went, all of Mun's friends and acquaintances were harmless, sweet people.
Ha Na couldn't help but feel the same, she couldn't imagine that Mun would hang out with anyone shady, and yet he was still a trouble magnet. "Possibly someone from school? Like Hyeok Yu?"

"Hyeok Yu wouldn't do anything, not after what happened with his father... And besides, he's transferred schools."

"So not him, but it could still be someone from school. We all know that he doesn't get along with a lot of people, even if he wouldn't willingly hurt them."

MaeOk nodded thoughtfully, as Ga MoTak came through the doors from the basement, making a beeline for the kitchen.
Halfway there he noticed the two conversing and stopped, retracing his steps to join the conversation. "Did something happen?"

"Mun's missing." Mrs. Chu sighed, shaking her head.

MoTak raised one brow, looking at the two. "Again?"
Mrs. Chu sighed again and HaNa smacked him across the arm, "show a little concern will you."
Mo tak rubbed his arm, grumbling. "So what did he do this time? Did he get into trouble at school? Chase an evil spirit without telling us? Wi gen would have told us if it was the former and Ha na would have picked it up if it were the latter, the kid probably just needed some alone time. Teenagers are like that." He pat Mrs. Chu on the shoulder, going to do the same for Ha na but shied away when she made to smack him again.
"See? Teenagers, so moody." He grumbled and continued his way to the kitchen, ignoring the youngest protests that she wasn't a teenager anymore.

Mrs. Chu watched the two as they ran off into the kitchen, Mo tak was right, they would know by now if something was wrong with their youngest member, all he had to do was talk to Wigen. As long as he was conscious, nothing could happen to him without them knowing.