Chapter 1
From the point of view of Minkyun Song
He is missing. Conrad is missing and nobody knows where he went, or how he went. I saw him an hour before he went missing. He was leaning against my locker, pulling the stickers off of his. I should have known he was going somewhere.
“What’re you doin’” I asked and he shrugged and dropped a red crumpled up Supreme sticker onto the floor by his feet. I opened my locker and shoved my books into it, pulling out my jacket before.
“Well, school is over. Do you plan on stopping by tonight?” I asked him and he shrugged again. He always comes over to my house after school for “homework”, but in reality we just play video games and talk about the drama his ex-girlfriends are starting. The most recent, probably happened today, since I didn’t see a girl hanging on his arm.
“You goin’ anywhere?” I asked him and he turned and stared at me, contrary to his previous stance with his back towards me.
“What do you think?” he asked. He sounded upset, but angry. This was normally his voice and it sometimes scared people. It didn’t scare me, I’ve known him my whole life and I knew it was all an act. Conrad was secretly soft.
“I dunno” I shrugged and he groaned in annoyance. “What the hell is up with you anyways, Con?”
“Nothing.” he fake smiled, and shrugged on his backpack. He gestured for me to put out my hand, and I did, only for him to reward me with his trash stickers.
“Catch you on the flip side, Min.” he shot me a peace sign and backed out of the school, putting on his sunglasses in the process.
And that was the last time I saw Conrad for months.
Currently:
“How could he possibly be missing?!” I screamed. “He has no car, no money, and his damn phone is out of service!”
The police officer shook his head and shrugged.
“Like I said, we have no information. That’s why we called you kids in.” the police officer shrugged. I was sitting at the table with a few other people related to the “case”.
I looked around. It was a grey room with the table in the middle, but we were haphazardly placed in metal folding chairs around it. There were two cops in front of me, and one in the corner who was chewing his gum way too loudly.
“Can you please-” I started to ask him to spit out the gum, but was rudely interrupted by my brother D.O.
“If you know nothing, what makes you think we know something?” he asked and propped his crossed feet up on the table. I pushed them off and he shot me a dirty look. I feel like the cops secretly thanked me for that.
“You all are somehow related to the kid, so you have to know something.”
I know D.O. started fighting with the cop then, but I zoned out because of the cop in the corner who was aggressively chewing his gum.
“Man, can you spit out your gum?!” I groaned and the whole room, which was previously loud, got quiet.
“Min, can you chill?” asked D.O. and I narrowed my eyes at him.
“Shut up D.O.” I growled.
“Can the sibling rivalry stop and can we figure out some information on the missing kid?!” The aggressive gum cop asked.
I groaned and let my head fall back.
“I told you, we don’t know anything.” I sighed and ran my hand through my hair.
I looked over at my friend, CS, who winked at me.
“Why did he wink?” asked the initial questioning cop.
“Who? Garrett? He just has an eye twitch problem.” D.O shrugged and I snorted.
You see, not everyone was present. Out of the decent sized “friend” group we had, only four of us were here. Me, D.O., CS, and Jackson. Jackson, Conrad’s brother, was the most quiet of all of us. He never talked, and when he does he spits straight fire and roasts anyone in his path. Conrad and he never got along because Jackson always used to tease him.
D.O. and I grew up right next to Jackson and Conrad. Our house was the white one with the scratch down the front door, from when D.O. thought he could cut open the door with a knife. Theirs was the grey one with the open windows on the second floor all the way to the right. That was Jackson’s room, and I never knew if it was because he was always smoking something, or because D.O. and I had a rough childhood and the opportunity to talk about it was always open.
I remember when I was ten and D.O. was thirteen and we shared a room. We let our window open too, in case Jackson or Conrad wanted to come over. It was a Saturday, and It must have been around 2:00am. I stared at the darkness, the comfortable darkness of my room, until I heard the familiar creak of the roof and someone landing from the window, to the floor of my room.
“Who goes there?” I asked, jokingly.
“Min, is D.O. awake?” I heard the familiar voice of Jackson. I sat up when I heard D.O. respond with “yes” and “Is something wrong?”
I watched as D.O. hopped down from the top bunk to turn on the lights. My eyes adjusted to Jackson shaking his head and shaking. Was he scared? Was it so cold outside that he was shivering?
“Conrad is sick and I don’t know where my Dad is…” said Jackson. In seconds, I was out of bed and pulling on a sweatshirt (in case it was cold) and we were climbing out the window. When we got to their window, I was greeted with the sight of Conrad clutching his stomach with silent tears running down his face. I watched as D.O. immediately took over the big brother role, and started ordering Jackson and I around to get a thermometer, a damp warm cloth, and a fluffy blanket. He also took his phone and placed it on the table next to him, “Just in case 911 is needed…”, he told me.
I remember we stayed there all night, caring for Conrad, and comforting the worried Jackson.
It always was like that, Jackson and D.O. were more of parents than our actual parents. D.O. knew what to do when someone was sick or injured and Jackson was always the shoulder to cry on and the arms to hold you. Conrad was always secluded and independent. He was either in the corner listening to music with his headphones, or silently practicing the guitar. He always joined us for the big moments though. He was the one that got things done, quickly and easily, quietly and swiftly. I was just the baby. I was Jackson’s baby. I would come home from a day of bullying and Jackson would be already waiting on my porch with a tub of ice cream and open arms.
Soon enough, we all went our own ways. Jackson and D.O. graduated high school last year, so it was just Conrad and I, new juniors. Jackson was too busy studying Bio Chemistry, so he rarely ever stopped by. D.O. started taking medical classes, working towards being a pediatrician. Conrad threw himself into swimming, when we turned 13, he suddenly got obsessed with the dream of becoming an olympic swimmer. So, he usually went to school and then spent the rest of his afternoon in his backyard swimming in the pool they got last year. For me, I was doing nothing. I was taking normal classes, no dreams, no goals. For the moment, I am just here. I am just living.
