𝗡𝗢𝗖𝗧𝗨𝗥𝗡𝗘 𝗢𝗙 𝗡𝗜𝗚𝗛𝗧𝗠𝗔𝗥𝗘𝗦

Chapter 15

The cursor on Jay's screen transforms into an hourglass icon as they wait for the search results.

"There! There!", Jake points at the computer screen, and Jay clicks on the first link. "Bluebells, huh?", Jay tilts his head.

"Do you think it's still open?", Melody asks.

The page refreshes and shows them the headline of the article.

"Well, there's your answer", Jay replies to her.

The title read: 𝐁𝐥𝐮𝐞𝐛𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐬'𝐬 𝐎𝐫𝐩𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐂𝐥𝐨𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐔𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐥 𝐅𝐮𝐫𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐍𝐨𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐞.

She leans over Jay's chair and peers at the monitor. "After some successful adoptions, Bluebells's orphanage will halt operations due to the reasons withheld by the founder."

"The date is from thirteen years ago."

"That sounds fishy", Sunghoon comments. Melody turns to look at him," Doesn't it? It's around same time we lost our memories." Then she returns her gaze to the screen, scrolling the mouse down the page. "They seem to have good reputation, and if they've helped a lot of families, I'm sure they have a number of patrons too."

"Eh, maybe the founder just wanted to cut costs", said Jake. "Running an orphanage is expensive. Probably even more than managing a company."

"That could be true, but it's still suspicious", Jay sits and the chair swivels gently. "That's about it. There's not much info here."

"Let's try the other links", Sunghoon suggests.

Jay gets up from the chair and digs his phone out. "I'll leave the research to you. I need to make a call."

Sunghoon nods and takes his place on the chair just as Jake makes his way out of the door.

"Jake, where are you going?"

"I need to go home for a bit. Maybe my folks know something about this."

Oh right. Jake and i found out about our adoptions just yesterday.

Maybe my recovered memories were so horrible that my parents have been keeping them a secret.

Even though they were not related by blood, Melody's parents truly loved her and that's all that matters.

But will Jake be able to accept the truth?

She shoots him a worried look. "Are you gonna be okay?".

"No need to worry, Melody. I can handle it", Jake smiles, all teeth, and gives her a thumbs-up. "Call me if something comes up, alright?".

She nods.

As Jake disappears, she stands behind the chair and watches Sunghoon typing.

Wow...he's fast!

Is Sunghoon some kind of computer expert? Come to think of it, he's never shared too much about himself.

"There are some pictures here that are very similar to the house in the nightmare world", Sunghoon says.

"Woah, you're right", Melody replies impressed.

The pictures are clearly very old, but some features are clearly distinguishable. She tries to take a closer look, peering over Sunghoon's shoulder. But at the same time, he turns his head, and she feels his nose brush across her cheek.

Melody stayed frozen, but Sunghoon is already looking back at the screen.

He didn't feel that...did he?

"Mel, Look at this!", Sunghoon motions her closer.

"Is that...?"

At the end of the page, there's a picture of all the people from the orphanage. In the centre, there are six children.

This is basically personal information.

"Do you think so too?"

She squints her eyes. The photograph is obviously scanned from old material, making it hard to make out the details. "We can't be sure, but it's possible."

"What's up?", Jay comes in, immediately going straight to his desk.

"This picture..."

"Looks like a photo of us."

"Are you sure?"

"From what I remember from my vision, yeah."

"What else did you find?"

"Nothing much to be honest. There's so little info about it. The founder is listed as anonymous, and there doesn't seem to be an address", Sunghoon looks up at jay, as he swivels the chair. "Shouldn't orphanage have some sort of promotion to attract donors? Fundraisers, charity work, volunteer opportunities?"

"Sunghoon has a point", Melody nods. "Most orphanages i know would put themselves out there to get help and donations. Even if it's shut down now, it's strange that there's so little information about it."

Jay hums,"You're right once information is put out on the internet, it's not easy to erase it unless...."

They all look at each other.

Unless they're trying to hide something.

"Something is definitely up", Sunghoon mutters.

Jay walks over to the bed and sits down, cradling his face in both hands. "I couldn't get anything from my mom, either."

"Oh, is that why you went out for a call earlier?", Melody looks up at him.

"Yeah"

Jay and his mom must be close if he felt like he could ask about such a sensitive topic. "Maybe i should try to ask my parents too", Melody wonders.

Sunghoon turns the chair so that he is facing both her and Jay.

My parents don't even know I'm aware that i'm adopted.

"You don't need to", Jay puts his hands on his sides and throws his head back, as if to stretch. "My mom said she didn't directly adopt me from the orphanage."

"What do you mean?"

Jay sighs. "There was a middleman in the process. She didn't know anything about the orphanage because someone else handled it for her."

"So we've hit a dead end?", said Sunghoon.

"We still have to try", Melody replied. "Lives are at stake. We can't just give up now."

"Wait, where's the loudmouth?", Jay asks about Jake, looking worried for a moment, but when their eyes meet, he immediately tries to hide it.

"He went home to ask his parents"

Jay clicks his tongue, somewhat annoyed. "Seriously that guy just can't stay put."

Melody couldn't help but smile at his reaction.

"What are you laughing at?"

"Nothing", She keeps her smile, eyeing him knowingly.

"Whatever's going through that head of yours, you're wrong"

"What? I didn't say anything."

Even he doesn't say it, she was sure he was worried about Jake. The fact seems to have hit him the hardest.

"Anyways, how about we hit the library?", Jay changes the topic. "If the internet is no help, there's always good old-fashioned print. We might find something there."

Melody agrees with him,"Right, I'll leave Jake a message to meet us there".

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