Let Go

Chapter 10- Embarkment

Looking at the Polaroid photos, Hoseok noticed something. "Christian, I've heard the story about what happened 7 years ago." he laid the photos on the table. "I have a rather personal question, it has puzzled me ever since I heard the story. I know it would not be a good memory, but I need to set things clear." He sat down the log. "They said you set the orphanage on fire."

"Yeah... I did..." Jimin looked down on the ground in guilt.

"And according to them, you put kerosene on the kitchen and dorm floors?" everyone could feel the atmosphere starting to tense up. Jimin nodded once as a response. "And you told them, you left a candle on your table which started the fire?" Hoseok continued asking. Jimin nodded again. "Then, does it not make sense?" everyone was suddenly confused. "Look at the photos where Vante showed up." He pointed his fingers at the photos, starting with the one taken in front of the church, near the lemon trees. "If the fire started from that candle as you said, wouldn't your room the first to be burned completely? Your room is made entirely of plywoods and lumbers. Which means, Jungkook should have been the first to die."

Jimin raised his eyes to meet with Hoseok's. "The place where most of the children died was the north wing. Yours was on the east wing, if my memory serves me right. Those who died were mostly female children from the first floor. Look at this one." He pointed to the second photo. "The stained glass is right at the middle of the splitting staircase. This is what Vante used as an escape route to save the others including Suga-hyung and Jungkook. If the fire started from your room, it would burn the east part of the orphanage and the staircase will not be accessible to be used as an escape route."

"Are you saying Jimin has been suffering guilt for years over something he did not do?" Namjoon interrupted. Hoseok nodded. "I'm not sure. But it is possible." he took the third photo in his hand and faced it to Namjoon. "Look at this photo..."

The photo was the one by the creek. Jimin and Jungkook were sitting by the dock, their feet soaked in the water. A few steps behind them, Vante stood, smiling widely with his hands in V sign near his right eye. Behind them in the photo is the view of the east wing of the orphanage. "This was the last place to burn, right? And from the orphanage, he had the time to bring you all to the creek. Then he went back to the orphanage."

This made everyone start to think about what happened back then. "Another thing, why is it that only the survivors of the Dalbang incident were sent to this desolated area? There used to be 130 survivors on the list, 135 if we include you all. 136 if I hadn't left two hours earlier. Everyone died. Randa almost died as well if Jin-hyung hadn't found us. Someone is trying to kill us."

The thought sent shivers down everyone's spines. "Why would they do that?" Yoongi asked, perplexed with all the realizations that has been going on.

"I still haven't told you my story, have I?" Hoseok sat by the fireplace "When I was at the orphanage, I heard Mother spoke to the people who are supposed to become my parents. I saw their faces. They weren't the same people who came to the orphanage the day I left. I have hesitated a lot, and I thought to myself, if Vante will come out of his room to stop me, I will not sign the papers." He pulled out something from his pocket, inside his wallet was another polaroid photo. The photo of him with his back facing the camera, as he walk the garden path. "I've kept this one all these years." it was the only photo of him that Taehyung was able to take. "The day I left, I found out that the children at the orphanage was not getting adopted. We were sold to families whose children are dying and need organ transplant." He lifted his shirt and showed a scar on his right side. "They were able to take one of my kidneys. I was able to escape the abandoned hospital where the illegal procedures were done. I slipped through an evening ferry headed to china and stayed hidden there for years."

This revelation shook everyone. "Suga, do you still have the ledger that you stole?" Hoseok looked at Yoongi. "Yes, let me get it." He headed to the room upstairs and went back down with the ledger. "I was able to study in China after an old merchant took me in. At first, I just work for him. But he said I remind him so much of his lost child. He let me use his identity, Jiung Ho Xhui. He raised me as his son, he passed away last year and left everything to me. I decided to return to South Korea and hoped you have all lived well. But the horror still lingers inside. Two weeks after I returned to Korea, I received an order which I hadn't thought of until now. I was supposed to deliver goods for someone. But I woke up here and all my items were stolen by the person who is supposed to drive me to my client. It hadn't occur to me how someone knew I am a merchant in just two weeks after I arrived in Korea. I'm pretty sure we are still in Korea, or maybe somewhere near Japan having been out-cold only for a couple of hours. The travel doesn't feel like we rode a plane or a ferry."

His judgment was spot-on and his deductions were sharp. "I could remember, I woke up here at past seven in the evening, on the outskirts where the fog is the thickest.I left my house at 1 PM. I arrived at 2:30-ish at the meeting place in Byeongsan Beach. If I would deduce based on the terrain and time of arrival, I'd say... We are in Junggye-ri."
"And what would that mean?" Namjoon entreated.

"It means, there's only one way out, and it's not by ferry."