A Shoddy Existence

Chapter 4 Part 1

It's been several days since MinKyu started staying with me. I'm not expecting my parents back for a while. MinKyu's father filed a report to the police and they came knocking on the doors, but they didn't try here since they know my parents are out. I've been keeping most of the lights off in the house to make it seem as if no is home as well, and it's not that hard to avoid them in fact. Me and MinKyu skipped a couple days of school since the summer break wasn't far away.

Today is the beginning of summer break so we don't have to worry about going to school for a few weeks. I don't know for sure how long he can stay here to be honest.  At the moment, I'm running errands and getting food since we are low. I never have much food in my fridge anyway and my parents always leave a little money to by some when they leave me alone in the house. It seems like my mom paid the rent because we haven't been evicted. At least she does something useful. She's not all bad, It's obvious I like her more than my father. She's just depressed... I've seen the pills she takes in her handbag. Sometimes I feel as if it's partly my fault and I wish I could do more to help, but I know it's mostly my father.

I reached the small store in the corner of town and opened the door, the little bell echoing through the enclosed space. I strolled into the store and went towards the frozen goods section. I found a few frozen dinners, some milk, bread, and eggs. It isn't much, but it's enough for now. I waltzed up to the register and placed the things onto the counter. The cashier gave me a strange look and rung up my things. "15.07, please," I gave him 16, he handed me my change, so I left.

I stared down at my phone while walking down the sidewalk, almost running into several light posts. Someone bumped into me, almost causing me to drop the food. "Oi' laddie watch where you're goin'." An angered voice of a seemingly burly man reached my ears. He had a curly mess of red hair and a leather jacket with some kind of gang symbol I couldn't quite recognize on it. He sounded somewhat Irish to me. 

"S-sorry." I answered back, embarrassed.

"Alright." The man answered, shoving me off and went on his way.

He stopped in his tracks. "Hey, aren't you John Andrews' kid?" he asked.

I froze. Crap, someone had recognized me... "uh, yeah."

His anger seemed to grow. "Isn't he outta town? You're old man owes me a large sum of money y'know that?" He said, stomping out his cigarette on the ground.

"He is, and no I didn't know that."

He turned his whole body towards me. "Ol' bastard left his kid all alone, ay?"

"Uh, yeah..." I answered, confused to why he was asking.

He nodded"Tell ya' father he's gonna pay." He yelled before leaving me there on the street.

Both scared and confused, I continued walking.

What has my father gotten himself into now.

I reached my house and knocked on the the door twice. I heard footsteps coming towards the door a few seconds later. "Hey, Min, open the door!" I said, getting impatient. Finally, the door swung open and MinKyu stood there staring at me. 

"Oh, you're back early." He said.

"Yeah. It was a shorter walk than I thought." I answered, walking inside the house.

He shut the door and followed behind me. "What'd you get?"

"Nothing special. Did anything happened while I was gone?"

He paused and then nodded his head. "This Irish man came by looking for your father. I told him he was out and then he asked where you were, so I told you were at the store."

"Oh." He came by here??

Who even is this guy...