Ice Cream Bar, Book 1: Keep Lucky (🔥🔞 Spicy Version)

Chapter 8 - Lucky (Saturday morning)

All I can feel is my head throbbing; specifically the right side, including my ear. Ugh, my head. Ow, my ear. Did I get hit by a truck? Oh no. No, no, not a truck. The floor. I fainted and hit the floor at work. Shit.

"How's he doing now?" I hear a whisper. It's ChaMin. Is he talking about me? Who's he talking to?

"He's still sleeping," I hear JiHoon respond in a low voice. Where am I? My eyelids still feel too heavy to open. My head is aching and my ear feels hot.

"What happened to him?" The whispers continue.

"How should I know? You were the one working with him. Did he seem weird or anything before it happened?"

"No, not at all. He was doing fine. I thought. I mean, I don't really know him so I don't know what he's like normally. But he seemed fine. He seemed pretty happy, actually."

I hear JiHoon snicker softly. "Just like you were when you first started working at the bat. Too damn cheerful for no reason."

"Shut up," ChaMin whisper-squeals. "I was just so happy to be out of my house and off of friends' couches and working a real job. I finally felt...free...and hopeful." It's quiet but heavy for a moment. Then JiHoon whispers again.

"I think he looks okay. Mint and Cake will call us if anything changes. Let's get going. We're going to be late."

"You're right. But I feel so bad. I wish there was something more we could do to help," ChaMin whispers back. I hear the shuffling of the two of them gathering their things and standing up to leave.

"Are you guys heading out?" Oh great, I hear a third person's voice speak up. I cannot believe this is happening. This is so embarrassing. I want to get up and run away but I still feel too weak and dizzy.

"Yeah," JiHoon replies. "We're going to taekwondo."

"The two of you are going to taekwondo...together?" I realize that the third whispering voice is Mint's. Wait, where am I? Whose bed am I in?

"Yeah, so what?" JiHoon scoffs.

"Nothing, nothing. I was just wondering."

"Whatever." JiHoon sighs. "Has Keep been by?"

"Not yet." Now Mint sighs. "He's at the morgue again." JiHoon groans and mutters a cuss word.

"Why would Keep be at the morgue?" ChaMin asks softly. It's quiet for a beat again. I hear a sigh.

"Keep has a missing sister," Mint begins quietly. "There's a police officer who's been working the case for years who contacts him when...This is so morbid. I'm hearing myself now and realizing how morbid this is. But anyway, this detective calls Keep every time an unidentified female body comes in."

ChaMin gasps. My heart seizes. My head starts to throb even harder. I squeeze my eyes. The guilt building in my chest is making it hard to breathe. That is absolutely heartbreaking. How could anyone live like that?

"And then Keep goes to the station to check the morgue." Mint continues. "It's never her. And then he's in a horribly depressed mood for days afterwards."

"What happened to her?" ChaMin asks.

"We're not 100% sure," JiHoon replies. "He doesn't talk about it much. We've all just gotten bits and pieces of the story."

"I think she was always kind of the black sheep of the family; getting into trouble in school, running with the wrong crowd," Mint chimes in. "Then one night, she went out and just never came home."

"So she ran away?" ChaMin asks.

"Keep doesn't think so," JiHoon says. "She was only 15. She didn't bring any of her stuff with her. Would she run away with just the clothes on her back and her purse? Not even a coat? I don't know. It doesn't seem likely. Keep definitely doesn't think so."