"it's been three weeks, mingi. you see? you can make it. you can get over them. you can be happy here. have you see any missing posters of you anywhere? no, of course not, none of us have. you see? they're not looking for you. they don't care that you're gone, mingi. so what reason is there to miss them?" the mother continued going on and on, making mingi have a weird feeling.
he figured she did have a point, but he still missed his family. he missed seonghwa's hugs, and hongjoong's motivational sticky notes in his lunch every day. he missed yunho coming into his room and having long chats with him, and trying his best to give yeosang relationships advice. he missed when he and san would go on walks when he got depressed, and practicing dances with wooyoung. he missed... well, he didn't really do things with jongho, but he still missed him. and he really missed his friends at school.
he kept debating in his mind whether or not he should miss them at all. he tried to tell himself he shouldn't, but deep down, he knew he was always going to.
"i think they are looking for me.." he muttered.
"no, mingi. they're not. please, don't make me have this talk with you again, we've been over this, mingi! you're better off here with us, not with them. they don't love you the way we do."
"no.. i want to go home.. my real home. the home i'm meant to be in, where i'm happy." he said sternly.
"you never learn." she said and slapped him in the face.
mingi grasped his face and held back his tears.
but she wasn't finished.
jongho walked into the unfamiliar cafeteria. he saw lines of kids, all completely unknown to him. he was told earlier which table number he was to sit at, and so the child kept repeating the number under his breath as he walked and searched for it.
once he found it, jongho sat down at the table, the other kids staring at him for a few moments.
after a bit of a long silence, someone finally spoke.
"hi, guys.. we don't know each other at all, we're gonna be sitting here for a while, why don't we introduce ourselves?"
"alright... i'm yuta. my full name is kind of long." "i'm sicheng, you can either call me that or winwin." "i'm jisung." "i'm chenle!" "my name is hueningkai, just call me kai." "i'm beomgyu." "i'm.. i'm jongho." everyone spoke quietly and quickly.
there was a moment of silence, before jisung blurted our the question jongho was praying wouldn't be asked.
"so... what are you guys here for? i mean, you obviously don't have to answer, i'm just curious.."
"ah.. trauma. something... bad happened." chenle said and laughed awkwardly. jisung nodded and patted the smaller's head, making him smile.
"mm.. depression runs in my family." beomgyu said.
".... abuse." sicheng muttered, almost sinking all the way down in his chair. just the remembrance of his past life before he was sent to the institution already had him near tears. yuta frowned and put his arm around him.
while others answered, jongho didn't want to answer, but he figured he should, since everyone else was.
"i went to a new school and got really lonely.. it lead to me self harming." he said. everyone nodded.
"so, mr. and.. mr.. kim, our detectives bed have been hard at work with this case, it is a bit of a touch one. we're very thankful for the note your son wrote. so, here's what we believe happened.. it's not a guaranteed accurate assumption, just keep that in mind. but this is what's been ruled by professional detectives."
