Minhyuk Park

I can't believe it.

I turned to the three women in the room, who, up until a few moments ago, knew something I didn't.

They fucking lied to me.

They being the two love birds cuddled up on the bed. Castle smirked at me, knowing full well how irritated I was. What the hell? Why was it so hard for someone to tell me this?

"Prove it." Stephanie startled as if surprised I was giving her the benefit of the doubt.

"Um...I don't know exactly where he is. I was trying to use the map Castle had but it was too hard to read."

"So you can't even read a fucking map?" Why the hell is she acting so stupid?

"Hey-"

"Enough." Castle stood in between us. "Miranda and I are literally risking our lives for you right now. We don't have time for your childish bickering." My cheeks grew warm, though I knew it wasn't showing on my face. Why are you suddenly so immature Minhyuk? Didn't you outgrow that?

I looked at the girl in front of me. Her hair had been cut recently, given the discarded hair littered across the floor.

"The first thing we need to do is clean up this hair," I paused, "and then figure out what to do with her," I gestured to Stephanie, who immediately began sweeping the hair into her hands.

"She can stay with me." Trigger volunteered herself, but I knew that there was no way Castle would risk Miranda being caught. Sure enough, the woman spoke up.

"You'll get in a shit ton of trouble if you get caught. Plus my room is right next to Minhyuk's. It'll be easier to deal with."

"Fine." Trigger crossed her arms as Stephanie stood nearby, awkwardly.

"What the fuck even happened? Why the hell is she here?" Questions tumbled out of my mouth as I grew increasingly irritated.

"Someone thought it would be smart to show you what happened to the parents whose kids didn't make it." Trigger glared at her girlfriend, the latter of which refused to make eye contact.

"Wait, what happened to my dad?" Steph paused, "And Juanita, of course."

"They probably had their memories altered, like Minhyuk's."

"What? The fuck's wrong with my memories?" Are they seriously trying to tell me I remember things wrong? I distinctly remember watching her run away.

"Nothing huge, just a few missing chunks and pieces taken out of context," Castle offered. Cuz that makes it so much better.

"And you didn't think that you should explain it to me?"

Why couldn't they just say 'Oh! Your head was messed up.' and explain it all?

This would've been so much easier.

"We were planning to do it gradually, but someone took it into their own hands." As I glanced between the two women, I wondered how their relationship had lasted so long.

"They were going to send her to the kitchen! What did you expect me to do?" Castle shot back, growing defensive.

"Fucking talk to me!" Watching them resembled some sort of terrible kdrama right before the main lead runs off and gets hit by a car.

"How? You literally told me not to bother you! Because heaven forbid Miranda King gets seen with her girlfriend!" Castle's voice had begun cracking and I was mentally preparing myself for the soon-to-be screaming match. The shorter of the two breathed in deeply.

"Let's not talk about this now. We have bigger things to focus on, like dealing with this mess," Trigger gestured at Stephanie and I. Castle sighed before nodding. The tension in the room said otherwise.

"So San's alive." I wasn't sure how to start the conversation back up, especially with the added discomfort.

After what seemed like a decade of silence, Steph spoke up again.

"Yeah." Shouldn't she be happier? The lack of emotion from the girl made me question the truth of Trigger's story. If she didn't abandon us, why doesn't she care more?

"Can I see him? Or is this going to just be a secret for the three of you?" It was almost impossible for me to hide my resentment in this situation.

"To be honest, I didn't even know who this-" Castle paused, "Santaho? No, Santiago was." What the fuck? Santaho?

"We'll have to wait until Friday when the guards give up on looking for Stephanie." Trigger's voice was still strained from her argument with her girlfriend.

"Alright, I need to get back to work." I stood up awkwardly.

"Whatcha doin?" Castle seemed unreasonably relaxed as she sat back down on Trigger's bed as if the two had never argued.

"Nothing huge." I recalled the paperwork on my desk and the blank information beside the woman's picture, "Do I know you from somewhere?"

"Do you?" Sensing that I wasn't going to get an answer, I made my exit and headed back to my "office". The halls were surprisingly empty, but I wasn't going to complain. I needed space to think.

Sitting at my desk, I couldn't get the question out of my head. Somehow, the longer I spent with the woman, the more familiar she seemed. Clearly, I wasn't going to get anywhere with my paperwork. I know her from somewhere. I flipped open my Korean workbook, pencil in hand. As if I'm going to get any work done. Most of the practice questions were already answered, leading me to believe the books were merely a hand me down from my brother. I gazed at his handwriting in awe. Somehow all the letters aligned as if they had been typed. One of them caught my eye; it was a "something that happened today was..." type of question. With my broken grammar skills, I made a poor attempt to decipher it.

Father...think about...married. I don't like her.

I laughed, quickly realizing what the note was about. Minseok was around 14 when Father announced his plans for him to meet his arranged partner. The girl was tiny even though she was a little older than him. She was so passive-aggressive, even my father felt uncomfortable. We found out later it wasn't intentional and that she wasn't used to speaking in English.

"Minseok, come meet your future partner." What was her name? Vicki?

My brother and I were too busy with the puzzle to hear Father the first time, but the irritation lacing his voice was enough to carry through. We quickly walked into the main hall to greet our guest. She was so small, even the wind could knock her over.

"Nice to meet you...," I almost giggled as Minseok tried to recall her name.

"It's Vicki, though I'm obviously not important to Jaehwa's son." The girl didn't even bother taking his outstretched hand. I stared in awe, how could someone even dare to call Father by his first name?

"Well, let's move to the dining room, it's much more open," Father offered.

"Oh, that's alright. It's not like my legs are sore from walking up all those stairs or anything." Her father made a poor attempt to shush the girl, clearly frazzled. Vicki merely offered a mocking grin towards us.

The evening carried on in a similar fashion leaving an unnecessary amount of discomfort hanging in the air.

They met up a few other times, but the end result was always the same. At some point, the girl had chopped off all her hair, but she never gave up her attitude. Both of them were so against it that her parents called the whole thing off. To say that Father was angry was a massive understatement. I knew the two of them still kept in touch but I never saw her again. I tried to imagine what she might look like now, the same bored eyes, dark fringe, the obnoxious smile...

Oh my god.

"So you're Jaehwa's other son. I gotta say you're brother's cuter."

Castle is Vicki.