TW: Major Character Death/Disappearance Rule 63 8Jun
Jun is sure she's in the lake.
They've checked, obviously. Police have done whatever weird dredging they do in a situation like this, combed through decades of layers of litter and trash and fish carcasses and found nothing of interest.
Still, Jun is sure she's in the lake.
It happens like this: Minghao has weak ankles. One fundamental flaw. We all have them. Jun has a short tongue. That's her burden to bear.
Minghao has weak ankles. She likes to run at the lake. She likes to run before the sun melts the frozen grass. She likes to run with music in, loud enough that nothing can be heard.
She likes to run before anyone else is awake.
She was gone before Jun's alarm went off at noon.
And so, Jun is sure she's in the lake.
She waits for a week. She can't tell the police how to do their job, but she's so fucking sure that it eats at her. She's restless, jumpy. She stays with Minghao's parents but can barely stay still.
She's in the lake, Jun just knows it.
Someone more hopeful might assume Minghao is still alive. Jun is hopeful, hopeful to a fault, but Minghao would call. If she was alive at all, even semi-conscious, even if she had amnesia or was in another fucking country, she would remember Jun. Jun knows this in her bones, in the callouses on her feet from a summer gone barefoot down at the coast when they were 16 and barely had hips. She knows this in the ends of her hair, still bleached from Minghao's brief foray into cosmetology. She knows in her fingers, two nails still short just because it makes Minghao flush whenever she paints her fingernails.
Minghao is in the lake. Jun would bet anything.
The police close the case after two months, to public outcry. Minghao is young, pretty, successful. Surely someone, somewhere, should know something. But no one does. Minghao is just gone. Not dead, not alive, not anything. Like she was never there, like the little tattoo on Jun's wrist means nothing. Like the matching one never got inked in the first place.
Jun goes to the lake. The water is warmer than she thought it would be. It feels like a hug.
[FILL] worse than knowing
Rule 63 8Jun
Jun is sure she's in the lake.
They've checked, obviously. Police have done whatever weird dredging they do in a situation like this, combed through decades of layers of litter and trash and fish carcasses and found nothing of interest.
Still, Jun is sure she's in the lake.
It happens like this: Minghao has weak ankles. One fundamental flaw. We all have them. Jun has a short tongue. That's her burden to bear.
Minghao has weak ankles. She likes to run at the lake. She likes to run before the sun melts the frozen grass. She likes to run with music in, loud enough that nothing can be heard.
She likes to run before anyone else is awake.
She was gone before Jun's alarm went off at noon.
And so, Jun is sure she's in the lake.
She waits for a week. She can't tell the police how to do their job, but she's so fucking sure that it eats at her. She's restless, jumpy. She stays with Minghao's parents but can barely stay still.
She's in the lake, Jun just knows it.
Someone more hopeful might assume Minghao is still alive. Jun is hopeful, hopeful to a fault, but Minghao would call. If she was alive at all, even semi-conscious, even if she had amnesia or was in another fucking country, she would remember Jun. Jun knows this in her bones, in the callouses on her feet from a summer gone barefoot down at the coast when they were 16 and barely had hips. She knows this in the ends of her hair, still bleached from Minghao's brief foray into cosmetology. She knows in her fingers, two nails still short just because it makes Minghao flush whenever she paints her fingernails.
Minghao is in the lake. Jun would bet anything.
The police close the case after two months, to public outcry. Minghao is young, pretty, successful. Surely someone, somewhere, should know something. But no one does. Minghao is just gone. Not dead, not alive, not anything. Like she was never there, like the little tattoo on Jun's wrist means nothing. Like the matching one never got inked in the first place.
Jun goes to the lake. The water is warmer than she thought it would be. It feels like a hug.
Minghao is in the lake.