ᴛɪᴍᴇʟᴇss | ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ᴏɴᴇ

It was that Friday, two weeks later since Suri begged her aunt to accept the signed agreement to allow Minho to go on the senior trip with his classmates.

When he received the word, it was that Monday right before he had to go to soccer practice. Bo-ah asking him to stay behind so that she could talk to him.

He waved off the classmates that were hiding to the gym. "I'll catch up," Minho called out tossing them the soccer ball in which one of his classmates Minseok caught it as his other friends nodded their head before rushing off to the gym.

He tightened his group on his backpack as he walked over to Ms. Kwon's desk. "Yes, Ms. Kwon's?" He asked her.

Ms. Kwon intertwined her fingers, resting them on her desk as she angled herself to speak to Minho. "You know that in a couple of days we shall be going on our senior trip, and I haven't received your slip," she mentioned to him.

Minho rubbed the back of his neck before shoving his hands into his school uniform pants. Yeah, he knew he hasn't. He didn't forget. It was just to him, it wasn't important. "Sorry, it slipped my mind," Minho lied.

Ms. Kwon read the young man's eyes, knowing good and well that it didn't slip his mind. He really didn't have anyone. All he had was Suri and her parents who did their best to help out the young man as much as they could. But there were always setbacks like this. Instead of asking the Lees to help him out with signing the senior trip slip, Minho rather not go.

To him, it was a pointless trip. He didn't understand why everyone was making such a big deal about it including Suri. She was the majority of them all, she kept rambling on and on about the trip. About how much it meant that it was their last time for the senior class to be together.

That after this, all that's going to be the talk about is college exams and which college will accept them after that. To Minho, all wasn't a big deal since he still had all his college applications placed on his desk.

He wasn't too sure what his future held or if he even college was in the forecast for him. "I see," Ms. Kwon sighed. "Well,  I've got news for you."

Minho glanced up. "Oh, and what is that?"

Ms. Kwon retrieved out the stack of permission slips that she had locked in her desk's drawer. On top was Minho's. "Well, I got in touch with your grand aunt that offered to sign your slip. We did have to fax it to her since she couldn't make it to Seoul."

Puzzled, Minho stared at his teacher. "I have a grand aunt? Why wasn't this mention before? Do you have her number?"

Question after question Minho asked Ms. Kwon as she in a way, at first, didn't think that far though. She kissed her teeth rehashing the conversation with her niece. "She's very old and doesn't have a phone. We found her through some old documents that were in your records, so the community leader had to help us out. I'm sure of the exact number since we had to contact the police station who contacted him."

She glared at the young man in front of her hoping that he accepted the excuse. Minho stared back at his teacher, a sensually feeling registering inside of him that felt that his teacher was lying.

Minho knew for a fact that when his parents passed away, he was the last living member of his family. He even remembered his father telling him that no-one in their family was alive. It was just them. Just the three of them. So who was lying? Either his father or the woman in front of him that also knew his family so well was lying.

Ready to dig deeper into interrogated his teacher, Minho was ready to ask another question but the both of them were interrupted by another student who walked in. "Excuse me, Ms. Kwon but can I speak with you about my test, " Taeyeon softly asked.

Ms. Kwon glanced over at Minho, save by the bell she thought. "Uh, excuse me, Minho, do you mind, " she said.

Minho stepped back, bowing away before rushing out. "Uh, sure. I've gotta get to practice anyway."

He turned his heels, bowing again, this time to Taeyeon who smiled before walking into the classroom as Minho jetted off.

His mind still asking the question on why was Ms. Kwon lying about his family and who would put her up to do such a thing?

Minho pushed open the double doors that lead towards the gym so that he could change into his soccer uniform for practice.

As he raced to the gym, his eyes caught sight of a shadowy figure in the distance watching him. He halted in his tracks to focus clearly on the image.

He squatted his eyes for a moment before being interrupted again as the captain of the soccer notice him as he was heading to the gym. "Yeah, Minho, get to practice," he ordered.

Minho shook his head as he turned to face his captain. "Sorry about, Junsu, I'm on the way," he stated.

Junsu patted Minho's shoulder opening the gym doors to go ahead. Minho was about to enter as well but he was right back on the image that was now nowhere to be found.

He ruffled his hair as he shook the thought. Maybe my eyes are playing tricks on me, he thought. Minho sighed as he grabbed for the handle to step inside. As he did, the image from before returned but this time with another figure, both in view as Minho stepped through the doors.

"He saw you?" The mysterious person asked.

The other nodded.

"And the girl, did she see you and Suho as well?"

"Yes, she as what you thought she would do?"

The other chuckled before folding his arms. "Then all is going to plan."

Right after saying that, the two mysterious figures disappeared just as the gym doors open again, the spot from before, empty.

©  R. L