Bubble

20. Ghost of the Past

The first thing that Bonita noticed as they entered the grand ballroom sized living room was how closely situated the furniture was. It was as if it was organized in such a way to give a homey feeling as opposed to a cold one like she pictured many homes of this size to give off. Seated in one of the vanilla-colored armchairs was a middle-aged woman with a book. Nearby on a small loveseat was a middle-aged man with grayish white hair. His face still retained its youth, making him look like a silver fox as he looked up from the newspaper he was holding and towards the door.

"Jeongin! What brings you home so suddenly?" asked the woman, looking up from her book and putting it aside as she heard him enter.

"Hi mom," said I.N as he moved to walk towards his mom as she stood from her chair, giving her a hug.

"I haven't seen you lately...not ever since a month or so after everything that happened," she remarked, conveniently glossing over the mention of Chris' death. "How have you been?"

"Good. Felix has been helping me a lot," said I.N as he released his mom from the hug to gesture towards Felix who stood near Bonita and Bang Chan.

"It's nice to see you again too, Felix," said I.N's mom as she looked at him.

I.N's stepfather had been relatively silent the whole time as he kept his eyes on Bonita and Bang Chan. One look told you that life had taken its toll on him. Depression hung over him like a cloud, weighing him down as his gaze remained on them.

"Jeongin, who are the other two with you?"

"These are some new friends Felix and I made that I'd like you to meet," said I.N, moving over to Bonita to start with the easiest reveal first. "This is Bonita."

"Oh my. She's very pretty," remarked I.N's mom, causing a blush to tint Bonita's check as she ducked her head.

I.N blushed himself as he nodded, watching as his stepfather gestured towards Bang Chan as Bonita still held his hand.

"Who is he?"

I.N bit his tongue as he tried to think of an answer. He wanted to say 'Bang Chan' but knew that it would give away that something was up. Thankfully Bonita spoke up to fill in the gap, remembering the name that Minho had given to him.

"This is Lee Haechung," said Bonita.

Before anyone could mention how odd the name was, I.N moved to take a seat beside his stepfather on the small loveseat.

"Dad," said I.N, "I came because I had to ask you something. Something about Chris."

The name brought with it a wave of pain that flickered like a flame of his stepfather's face before he turned from I.N to look back at the newspaper.

"What about him?"

"Did you know that he was receiving death threats before he died?"

"Why are you asking this now?" asked his stepfather. "He's dead. It doesn't change that."

"But it could," said I.N as he reached forward to grab one of his stepfather's hands, causing him to look up at him. "I don't think what happened to Chris was an accident. I think he was murdered by whoever sent him those death threats. If you know anything, please...you have to tell me. It's not too late to catch whoever did this."

"I really appreciate your words, Jeongin, but there's no use. We can't change the past," said his stepfather. "I failed to protect Chris twice..."

"What do you mean twice?" asked I.N as his stepfather sighed, still not able to meet his eyes.

"What I mean is, I think it's time you heard the reason why we moved away from South Korea in the first place."

- - -