Ba Reum turned his from where it was lying on the sofa to look at the doorway from where he sat on the sofa, really not feeling like getting up. He tried to ignore the voices, in the hope that they would think that he wasn't there, but then the knocking got insistent. He sighed.
"You got the key Chi Kook, let yourself in." he shouted back. He heard some fumbling and another voice asking something. Great, Chi Kook wasn't alone. He was really not feeling up to this right now, with his head started to pound again and his body was starting to feel that he hadn't slept well in the past few days.
The door opened and Chi Kook came in, followed closely by Dong Koo and at the end of the column Bong Yi. Ba Reum opened his eyes, barely able to lift his head when they came in.
"What brings you here?" he asks. They stare at him with a certain amazement that he even dared to ask this question.
"You." Chi Kook said, flopping down in the sofa next to Ba Reum, who just moved his head to the side to look at his friend.
"Well, how did you know I was back home?"
"Well, the visiting hours ended at the hospital and we were just coming home. When we passed here to get Bong Yi home, we saw that the lights were on." Chi Kook said..
"Ah, the lights." He sighed. He really should have been more carefull and close the curtains first.
"Yes, the lights," Dong Koo asked, flopping down on the other side of his friend, his face turning serious "Ba Reum, are you okay?"
"Yes, I'm fine. A bit tired though." He said, holding his voice deliberately steady.
Bong Yi, who sat down in the single seat, snorted when Ba Reum said that.
"What were you doing, that you couldn't tell us?" Chi Kook asked, looking intently at his friend.
"I was just," a small moment of hesitation, "doing some soul searching I guess."
"Had it to do with the fact that you are adopted?" Dong Koo blurted out. He had trouble with the fact that his friend hadn't confided that little fact to him. Ba Reum sat up a bit more when he heard the question.
"How did you find out?" he asked, instead of answering the question. All three of his friends looked a bit embarrassed.
"Well, detective Moo Chi thinks that the connection between the victims is the fact that all women are barren. When he was looking in the fact, he found out you were adopted because of the case. Bong Yi accidently overheard a conversation when detective Moo Chi found out."
"Yeah, and Chi Kook overheard Bong Yi asking about it and then they just told me." Ba Reum groaned. Of course, from all the time that they ever could have found out, it was now. Murphy's law at work he guessed.
"Why did you never tell us." Chi Kook asked, looking at Ba Reum with something akin to disappointment in his eyes. Ba Reum sighed. It was amazing how Chi Kook could make him feel guilty for things like this with that puppy dog look in his face.
"Well, first of the reasons was that I didn't think it was important. It's not something you can easily slip into a conversation." He said, adding in a sarcastic tone "Yes, you backpack is awesome, by the way, I'm adopted?" his friends quickly looked a bit sheepish at his explanation.
"And second reason is that there has always been a lot of stress on family in our society. I didn't want to have anyone look down at me for something I couldn't do anything about." He looked at them a defiant look on his face. "Does this change anything?"
His friends shared a quick look, then Dong Koo suddenly took his head in a hold and noogied his hair.
"Of course that doesn't change anything. You are still our socially awkward, OCD friend Jung Ba Reum."
"Yeah, yeah. Now let go, my head is killing me." Ba Reum pulled himself loose of Dong Koo's hold, glaring a bit at him.
Dong koo looked at Ba Reum. He was indeed looking a bit pale and black circles had taken residence under his eyes. Ba Reum noticed Dong Koo's look of concern, but before he could deflect the attention Bong Yi interrupted.
"Calm down children" she said playfully, then she gave her attention to Ba Reum "Why don't you go take a shower and then go to bed. I'll stay the night, just to make sure you won't run away again." Dong Ko and Chi Kook immediately followed her with saying that they will stay over. They wanted to reassure themselves that Ba Reum was back with them safe and sound.
"I'll skip the shower and go straight to bed." Ba Reum said, yawning when he got up and stretched his arms. Suddenly Bong Yi boxed him in the upper arm.
"Ouch." He said, rubbing his arm. She had quite a punch.
"You smell oppa, go take a shower."
"Watch it, before you give me another black eye." Ba Reum said, "I'm too tired to take a shower." He pouted.
"Ba Reum, Bong Yi is right. In the shower with you. We'll prepare the sleeping bags for us." Dong Koo said. Ba Reum looked longingly towards his bed. He was really exhausted.
"Come on Ba Reum. First you act like a runaway teenager and now like a wayward toddler not wanting to take a shower." Chi Kook joked. Ba Reum's neck snapped his attention to Chi Kook and glared.
"Fine, I'll take a shower, whatever." He said blushing at the comment. Then he saw Chi Kook's smile break through and he knew that his friend was just teasing him. He really should not have lost his temper. Normally he stayed cool and calm under the teasing, but the past few days had been exhausting and emotionally draining. It was a bit difficult to stay in control completely.
When he was in the shower he felt glad that he was taking it, even though a few minutes before he felt like he could not safe the energy to wash himself.
He felt glad to get rid of the grime and sweat that had been collecting for the past few days.
The moment that Ba Reum was out of their sight the easy smile that Chi Kook and Dong Koo were displaying melted away.
"He looks dishevelled." Dong Koo said with a worried tone. Chi Kook nodded.
"I saw. It's worrisome."
Bong Yi was looking between the two friends, a frown on her face.
"What, like he's never been dishevelled." She said.
Chi Kook didn't look at Bong Yi when she said that but moved to the closet and went to get the sleeping gear out, a thoughtful expression on his face.
"Actually there is only been one time that I've seen him dishevelled and that was the first time he got drunk." Chi Kook answered eventually.
"What happened."
"Well, when we were 19 and graduated high school, we celebrated by getting drunk together for the first time." Bong Yi nodded. That's what her classmates had originally planned for their graduation.
"The drunker we became, the more depressed that Ba Reum became. We were kind of surprised, because he always seemed so collected. He told us some things, I don't think he even remembers telling us about them." Dong Koo and Chi Kook shared a look, decided to not break their friend's trust.
"Well, save to say, we know that when he starts to look dishevelled, something is wrong with his mental state." Dong Koo finished.
"Yeah, it was definitely a sight to see."
"What was a sight to see?" Ba Reum asked. They all looked at him startled. They had been lost in their conversation and no one had heard Ba Reum finishing up in the bathroom.
"We were just talking about that time we all got drunk for the first time." Chi Kook said innocently.
"Yeah, remember. In the end you got so drunk that you actually pissed yourself searching for a toilet Ba Reum." Dong Koo said with a cheeky smile, breaking the tension with his comment.
"Eeh, you shouldn't say that." Ba Reum said, a blush on his face, glancing at Bong Yi who looked a bit shocked at that information.
"You seriously did that?" Bong Yi asked, a hiding a scandalised smile behind her hand.
"I was drunk." Ba Reum exclaimed. "at least I didn't vomit over my bed that night."
They finished laying the bedding out all the while bantering about old memories.
Before long the were all settled in bed, having taken turns in the bathroom and settling a bit. The conversation continued. For Bong Yi it was all new. She had known Ba Reum since the days he was a police officer in their neighbourhood, but before that, they just lived in the same vicinity and barely knew each other's name.
"Do you remember Ba Reum, that time you broke in my house when you had run away from home when you were angry with your mom."
"How could I forget, you screaming like a ten year old girl woke me up that morning." Ba Reum said, sleep in his voice.
"Well, I didn't expect you. I nearly had a heart attack. It didn't help that you were sleeping next to me in my bed."
"Well, I didn't want to wake you up, it was the middle of the night. Pulling out a sleeping bag from the closet would have made too much noise."
"Say, why didn't you come to me actually?" Dong Koo wondered out loud.
"Your sister." Ba Reum deadpanned.
"Aah. True." Dong Koo said in understanding.
"What was wrong with your sister?" Bong Yi asked in surprise.
"She had a crush on Ba Reum. It wasn't pretty. Every time Ba Reum came over, she practically draped herself over him. He broke her heart eventually."
"How did that happen?"
"Like everything Ba Reum does, efficiently and cleanly. Afterwards she hated him for half a year."
They kept on talking a bit, eventually Ba Reum drifted off to sleep, listening to the comforting voices of his friends.
"I can't believe he made his bed before he snuck away from the hospital." Bong Yi whispered.
"Yeah. His OCD is a bit bad. It's better than before. His mom is helping with it."
"But it's still quite bad. Look." Dong Koo got up and opened Ba Reum's sock drawer. Bong Yi and Chi Kook crowded closer to check. In there was a black and white rainbow of socks, from white to grey to black, sorted in a way that went from light to dark with not a single one out of place.
"It's still quite bad his OCD. You know your birthday's next week Bong Yi. He already had his present for you for three months. He always buys his birthday presents exactly three months before." Chi Kook stood up and opened up another cupboard.
"See, this one is yours Bong Yi, and here is mine. And here is his birthday calendar. You see he writes the names twice, once for buying the present and once for the birthday."
"Well, at least he's never caught unaware." Dong Kook closed the cupboard and went back to bed, before he actually laid down, he pulled Ba Reum's blanket up higher, to make sure that his friend was nice and covered.
"We have to take care of him." he said, suddenly serious. The other two nodded.
"He doesn't show it, but he's emotionally very fragile. I'm afraid that if he lost his mother, he would get a depression and perhaps do something drastic."
"We will try to stay with him as much as possible. Make sure that he knows we are his family too and that he isn't alone."
Moo Chi entered the gynaecology department of the hospital. It was still early in the morning, and no one was in the waiting hall yet. He had made a call yesterday to book an appointment, and asked it to be discreet.
It didn't take long for him to be allowed to see the doctor and he followed her back into her office. She was a tall women, at least as tall as him, even taller with her slight heels. She went to sit down at her desk, gesturing him to take a seat across from her.
"So detective, to what do I own the pleasure."
"Ah, well, I'm sure that you know about the recent murders that have been going on?" he asked, seeing her nod, he continued talking.
"It has come to our attention that the first two victims were your patients."
"Ah, yes. I noticed that as well. But the third isn't." she said in slight confusion.
"No, she isn't, but we just want to check all the connection possible. They both had a medical condition and due to that they were barren. Can you explain a bit about these." He pulled out the medical files and showed her the words he had circled.
She explained all about the health state of her patients, explaining how that it happened that they were barren. He asked a few questions more and she answered them smoothly.
"I'm afraid that I have to start my consultations soon detective. If you have anymore questions?" she said, looking at her clock.
"Ah, no it's fine." He got up and accidentally knocked over a picture frame. He picked it back up and gave it to her.
"Your family?" he asks.
"Yes, my husband, my son and daughter."
"Ah. You look like a nice happy family." She smiled at him.
"We are. My husband was married before, but they broke it of a year or two before we met. She didn't want to have children apparently, and he always wanted them." She said, looking at the frame in affection.
"I have to start my consultations now detective. Here is my card if you have anymore questions". Moo Chi took the card and thanked her.