I opened my phone to check the photo I took at the hospital.
'This is definitely Daniel...at least the photo.
But who is James Lee? The police came up with the ID so it's probably not a mistake.
And I still remember, the credentials "Daniel Park" has given to the school were actually Dan's.
So does that mean that Daniel was a false identity? Is it actually James that's in the hospital? Why then would he pretend to be someone else and attend J High?
What's Dan's involvement in this? Why would he let someone else use his name and address, and live with them?
Whatever's going on is definitely messed up...'
James Lee lived alone, and his parents were overseas, supposedly. There was his address given in the ID. Inhwan-Gu, I'd never heard of that place before.
I looked it up online to find that it was pretty far away.
'I have today off... Should I?
I can at least go and see if there's someone living there, right?
Yeah, that shouldn't hurt.
Not like I have anything better to do in this situation anyway...'
.
.
.
It took an hour to get there by train. Definitely quite far away from home.
I found the address and entered an abandoned-looking building.
'...B01 is...that way.'
I took the stairs to go up and found the apartment. The calling bell didn't work, and there was no response after I continuously knocked on the door either. I noticed there were bills lying on the floor.
I lifted them up to find that they were addressed to James Lee.
'So there really was someone living here.
But what now? There's no one here right now.
I've come too far to just leave like that!'
I twisted the knob(or the handle or whatever) and the door opened.
'Oh.
The door's open?!'
It felt wrong to enter someone else's place without permission. But I needed to know, just what the hell was going on.
Though it didn't excuse me, the room was empty. Just looking around should be fine-
I entered the room and closed the door behind me.
It was a rather messy room.
There was a bed, a table, a small cupboard, a small setup like a kitchen, and a window facing the other side. Everything in disorder.
It was very cold inside, because of the weather. The place was full of dust, as though no one's been in there for a long time.
Books and paper were scattered around everywhere.
I turned on the flash on my phone and examined the stuff in there. Most of the books on the shelf were comic books. The papers too didn't have any 'information' that could've been useful.
I looked around the bed, in an attempt to find something, anything at all.
I lifted the mattress and grabbed out some sort of a coat. I let out a small smile.
'I've done that before, putting clothes under the bed and lying on top of it, so that the clothes would look like they've been pressed.
Doesn't work on all kinda clothes though...'
The coat seemed like it was part of a uniform of some sort. A school uniform, specifically, and there was an emblem on it.
'James Lee was a student huh-'
"...what are you doing here?" Startled, I looked at the door. There was someone outside.
'OH MY GOD, THERE'S SOMEONE OUTSIDE.'
I regretted coming inside. I quickly flashed the camera and took a photo, and dropped the uniform down.
'They might come in, I ought to hide.' The room didn't exactly have a lot of hiding spots, I desperately draped the sheets all over the bed and got under it, hoping the sheets covered me enough.
'Bad choice, Kyra. It's so damn dusty in here!
Well not like there was anywhere else I could hide...'
I prayed to all gods I don't sneeze and let them find me. Thank god I'm not allergic-
It was so silent in there, and the walls and the door weren't rather soundproof,(not that I expected it'd be) as I could make out the conversation going on between whoever was on the other side of the door. I paid attention, wondering who could have come exactly at the same time as I did.
"Did you come here to ask him to settle? Thank you so much!"
'Why does that voice sound familiar?'
'You trust him, right? You know he's not a bad guy, right?!"
'That...is Jiho's mom!' I remembered from when I went to visit Jiho yesterday.
'What are they doing here-
Oh, right! This was James Lee's address. The police have probably identified that Jiho pushed "James Lee" since the ID I found at the hospital said so.
They must've come here to negotiate. Who is she talking to?' I listened again.
"Don't you care about the victims?"
That is... DAN?! Sounds like Dan.
"What? What're y-"
"C'mon. Let's go. It looks like they won't be coming." The sound of another male.
"I don't think anyone lives in this building." Footsteps walking away. They're leaving.
Suddenly, the door creaked. Footsteps. I could tell from the footsteps. Dan hadn't left.
'Should I face him? Ask why he's here? Or should I just keep hiding?' I contemplated for a quick second.
I decided it was best not to let him see me since Dan seemed to be hiding whatever was going on with this Daniel Park business.
I heard him look around. I held my breath, trying to make no sounds that'd tell him I was there.
He began inspecting the room, much like I did.
After finding nothing from the books and papers that littered the room, he suddenly stopped. I assumed he found the uniform coat I had dropped. I didn't even get to look at it.
'Well, I did take a photo...'
I heard his footsteps again, walking out the door, slamming the door shut.
'I should wait till he leaves.
What was Dan doing here?
...what if I... follow him and find out? Since he doesn't seem like he'd tell me if I asked.'
I slowly and as quietly I can, came out from under the bed, and waited for a few seconds, to make sure the sound of his footsteps was completely gone before I opened the door and walked out.
'I hope I don't regret this...'
Thoughts?👀👀👀
Do you actually like how the story is going? Is it too bad or is it okay? The more times I read this the weirder I feel oops...😅😅
As always thank you for reading:)