Nidra || HEEJAY

CHAPTER 14

Jungwon and Sunoo stared in dismay at Heeseung's photo, "Went to his Grandma or aunt's house, huh?" The sleek boy in the photo stared at them without amusement, efficiently triggering the two officers.

"Just when I thought we were close to something!" Jungwon said in exasperation, his lips in a prominent scowl. "If we don't get even one clue, we will be shipped off to another case."

Ah, the gore reminder of duty.

"I know, I know." Sunoo muttered, "Don't remind me of that, please. Anyway, just keep a close eye on that boy, including CCTVs. I, on the other hand, will take a deeper look at Ni-ki."

"Ni-ki?" Jungwon shook his head, "Whatever you want to do, then." With that, Jungwon left with Heeseung's pretty photo in his hand.

"Ni-ki, Ni-ki, Ni-ki." mumbled Sunoo, his head tilted to the side, shining in the golden rays of the Sun, "What is it with you?"

*******

All day long, all Ni-ki did was eat and eat and eat.

Sunoo clicked his tongue at the view of a sumptuous crab dish Ni-ki was digging through, his salivary glands being the most active till now.

Following Ni-ki was a necessary step according to him, but he didn't think it would be this traumatising. Ni-ki was just enjoying his weekly holiday with food while Sunoo followed him like a scrambling mouse.

Always moving, never seen.

He watched on and on for something suspicious, something that might just slip off. But no, not one clue, not one indication that his loyalties lay somewhere else.

Sunoo watched as the boy went laughing into game stores, chuckling into restaurants and dancing into ice cream stores. God, how much does he even get paid?

Eventually, the Sun began to dim and
Ni-ki's pace of visiting places too became slower. Soon, it was just them walking alone on the main street with the bright streetlights.

The asphalt beneath Sunoo's feet felt cold and tough, his fingers numbing due to the oncoming winter season. He looked down to blow on his hands when he realised something dreadful.

He lost Ni-ki.

Panic rose is his heart, his legs running in all directions to find him. No, he couldn't lose him now after 12 hours of following. He turned around frantically, his eyes glaring through everything.

Where was he?

He was about to run to the left when he saw a dark figure leaning towards the pavement, whispering some words to whatever that was there.

Sunoo paced forward quietly, craning his neck to see whatever that was there. The view that came made his heart tug, pushing his lips into an involuntary smile.

Sunoo saw Ni-ki bent over an injured puppy.

His hands were feeding the tiny creature and his mouth whispering the sweetest of all words.

******

Jake sat on the lean rail on the terrace, his legs dangling in the air.

It was just another night for him, just another memory he probably would forget within a week. Yet, he hopes that when he takes his last breath, he would remember the comfort these passing winds and raging Sea gave.

His eyes remained static as he watched the invisible seconds pass by, the smell of salty waters somehow aggravating their already great hurry to rush away.

It was a known fact in his life that only a fool would reminiscence about the past and revisit the crumpled pieces of memory that once plagued him, but Jake decides to reward himself with this one piece of folly.

Bright glowing burns, all etched in his heart.

They walk into his view. His mother in her fading brown dress, his father in his lousy factory outfit, the fat man who once used him as a slave and the friend whose eyes held the stars.

They reach out to him, passing their ghostly hands through his cheek. They stand by his ear, telling him the countless tales of the everyday he once knew.

A weakening mother, a hopeless father, a crumbling household and the opportunist villain.

Jake shook his head, telling himself to see things as they are, not as they were. Memories, he tells himself, will not turn into reality, that they will not return to him as actual seconds.

Yet, he knows, that they will always remain in the horizon of his view.

"So many memories," He speaks out loud, "But only one remains true."

He smiles to the boy beside him, now tall and broad, no longer a child. He looks at his only memory that has remained with him as actuality and reaches out his hand, his heart lightening at the warm touch.

"Thanks for staying, Jay."