Mysterious boy

16.

Jun firmly hits my arm, making me face him again.

"Calm down, they're not here for us," he hisses.

When I turn back around, I notice that he is completely right and that I'm just being paranoia.

Both police officers sit down a table behind us and Yangyang walks up to them to take their order. The men seem to be regulars, since Yangyang calls them by their first names, and so I find out that one of them coincidentally is also called Chan.

But I notice Jun is still on point and looks a little bit tensed, having that analyzing look in his eyes again. He is listening to their conversation, and so I follow.

"Nothing interesting today, right Hyunjin?" the officer called Chan says to his co-worker.

"Dude," the other police man, I guess his name should be Hyunjin then, chuckles and places his hands flat on their table. "There was this dead woman found today, decapitated. And they told us to look out for that missing kid... I think his name was Lee Chan."

Officer Chan rolls his eyes at him. "Bet he's long gone by now. Ahh, thank you, Yangyang."

Their conversation gets disrupted by their breakfast being served. Both men admire the food and lightly clap their hands in excitement before they start eating.

"So, they are looking for us," I squeak as quiet as possible.

Jun slowly nods at me and then mouths the words: "Let's go."

I bite my lip as I follow Jun's example of standing up, not forgetting to grab my backpack. Slowly but deliberately, we make our way towards the exit of the lunchroom, trying not to draw any attention to ourselves.

"Hallo, you two!"

I freeze and turn around.

Yangyang looks at me from behind the open kitchen counter. "You haven't paid yet."

I turn to Jun, hoping he knows how we can escape this situation. But he just intensely glances at the lunchroom owner, as if he is trying to hypnotize him into letting us go. I hope it works.

Then, Eric returns from is way too long restroom visit. He looks at us, to our table, to Yangyang, to the two police officers, back to us. "What is going on?"

"Uhm..." I try to come up with something. Something that sounds completely logical and not at all suspicious. "We wanted to see the window paintings from outside."

In the corner of my eye, I notice Jun squinting his eyes, probably mentally facepalming himself.

Yangyang tilts his head. "What is going on here?" And then he turns to Eric: "Why were your kids trying to get away without paying?"

"Oh, they're not my kids. I picked them up at a cafeteria along the way," Eric explains.

"You picked them up?" officer Hyunjin asks him. Shit (sorry for the bad word), we got their attention!

"Yeah," Eric nods. "They needed to get a lift and so I gave them one. To be honest, they looked a bit helpless and I wanted to do what's best for them, make the world a better place. I learned that from my lovely wife Dara. She always sees the best in people and inspires me in every kind of way possible to..."

"Sorry to interrupt you there, sir," officer Chan stands up from his table and walks towards me and Jun as he keeps talking to Eric: "I think you might have been wrong seeing the good in these two little lads." And then he turns to us: "You guys wanted to get a free meal and benefit from this good hearted man, didn't you?"

I swallow the lump I'm feeling in my throat away as I look the police man in the eyes. Wow, his eyes are very scary and intimidating, so I immediately look down again, slowly shaking my head. "We just wanted to see the pretty window paintings, officer."

Officer Chan lets out a giggle, showing he doesn't believe me, before turning serious again. "Can you show me your ID?"

I widen my eyes, denying to myself this is actually happening. I am being arrested. Soon they will find out who I am, if they haven't figured that out already.

"What is your name? Show me your ID," officer Chan repeats.

"They told me their names were Moon Junhwi and Lee Chan," Eric speaks.

Darn it, Eric! Just stop talking for one second! (Sorry for the swearing and being mean, Eric doesn't deserve that.)

Officer Chan's eyes widen and officer Hyunjin doesn't know how fast he needs to come standing next to his colleague.

"Lee Chan you said?" Hyunjin asks Eric as he looks me up and down. "Sir, where was this cafeteria you said you picked up these two lads?"

But before Eric can answer him, Jun has grabbed the coat rack that was standing next to the entrance of the lunchroom. In one firm movement, both police officers are knocked out and laying on the floor. I notice officer Chan has a little bit of blood seeping out of his head at the place Jun hit him, it looks bad.

Jun then tries to open up the door, but this one is locked. With an beauteous look in his eyes, he turns his head and gazes at the owner, who defensively puts his hands up.

"I'm sorry, I pressed the emergency locks," Yangyang wails. "Please don't hurt me."

In a response, Jun grabs the coat rack again and smashes the massive wooden object through the window with the pretty paintings, which shatters into a million pieces of shining glass. Jun takes a little run before jumping through and expects me to follow him.

I take one look back at Yangyang, the poor lunchroom owner who will have to pay for a new window. Then I look at Eric, the good hearted man who loves his wife way too much. And then at the two police officers, who were just doing their job.

They all deserved better.

I want to stay. I want to apologize. I want to make things right.

"Chan!"

Then I look at Jun, standing outside the window, shouting at me: "We need to go!"

I said I'd stay with him, so I will. Staying would probably not get me anywhere but jail.

I take a deep breath, jump through the window and follow Jun as he runs away from the lunchroom. We rush through the streets in a tempo I can barely keep up. But we need to keep running if we want to keep disappearing, if we want to survive. We just attacked two police officers, the authorities are definitely looking for us now.

When Jun finally stops running and we take shelter behind an abandoned school building, I notice my heartbeat going crazy and I painstakingly catch my breath. I rest my back against the cold brick wall and slide down until my butt touches the soil. Closing my eyes, I try to calm myself down, which takes a few minutes.

"What now?" I ask as I have finally stopped coughing and hyperventilating. I look at Jun, hoping he has a plan. He has to have a plan, he is the only one I can rely on at the moment.

Jun stares at the trees in front of us as he answers me: "My cousin, he may know what to do."