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It took Shaun longer than he’s willing to admit to fully process who exactly his father was, it took him even longer to put any research into who Di-Jun Wang was as a person, let alone a president. He had lived life without a father and now that he actually had a severance of an idea of who he was, he felt so hesitant to get to know further. It was like allowing himself the privilege of knowing anything more about his father was a method of psychological torture. He tried to ask that agent he met for some insight, but Shaun froze up before he could think of what to say, electing to thank him for solving the murder instead.
His mom had told him his reluctance is normal, and his hesitation was healthy, but every time she reassured him the less certain he felt. She had been looking into children’s therapists, he pretended he can't tell, but he knew. The scattered psychology magazines across their coffee table told him all he needed to know.
Although he also knew not all of them are for him.
He had a… how does one put this? A new roommate of sorts, Eustace Weiner, a teenager with orangey hazel hair, and the world's most active tear ducts. This kid would cry over anything and everything, burnt toast, crocodile tears and apologized to Verity, stubbed toe, locked himself in their guest bedroom for fifteen minutes to half an hour. Apparently this crybaby was a prosecutor who worked with his mother quite frequently before Shaun’s father’s killers were found.
Verity said he was staying there indefinitely, which could mean anything. She’s insisted Shaun be nice to him, but this kid wouldn’t even speak to him anyway. He’s quiet most days, spending most of his time either locked in the guest bedroom or out of the house doing god knows what.
All he knew was it stresses out his mother to no end. She frequently called that smart fancy prosecutor for advice or to simply express her worry about both him and Shaun. She tried to not let them hear, but he tended to listen in to said phone calls from outside her bedroom door. He thought she knew he snooped, neither of them commented on it though.
He tried his best to address her worries about him, making an effort to communicate with her and show her he’s trying his best. But Eustace, everything he did stressed her out more. He was so dodgy, and apparently one hell of a workaholic, spending every noon, day, and night looking over old case files for some reason that Shaun hasn’t overheard yet, it was ludicrous. The worst part, he didn’t even have the decency to realize how much he was stressing Verity out, he was so deep in his own world that other people around him were just blimps in his perception of the world.
What an ass.
There were very few moments where Shaun and prosecutor crybaby are alone, but here they sat, Shaun pouring milk into his bowl of frosted flakes on the counter while the teen stirred his tea silently seated at the kitchen table reading something within a manila folder.
“You know, I think you’ve stirred it plenty.”
He jumped, turning his whole body around to face Shaun, “Shaun! You scared me! How long have you been there?”
Shaun frowned, twisting the cap back onto the milk, “The whole time?”
“Oh.” Eustace responded blankly, as surprised as Shaun was by his lack of situational awareness, “Sorry. I uh. I’ll get out of your way..”
“You’re not in my way.” Shaun replied lifting the milk jug up, turning his back to the teen and to the fridge, “Why are you so skittish?”
“Skittish?” Eustace echoed, “I don’t think I’m skittish?”
“You are.” He closed the fridge door, turning back towards Eustace, “You always get so jumpy whenever anyone acknowledges you.”
Eustace hesitated a bit, “I just didn’t notice you, that's all.”
“Right.” Shaun picked up his bowl and carried it over to the table next to Eustace.
Eustace tensed up even more and shielded his view from the folder.
Shaun raised his eyebrow and pointed at it, “What’s that?”
“Nothing.” Eustace replied a little too hastily to be telling the truth, “Case files.”
Shaun deadpaned, “Case files?”
“Case files.”
Shaun tried to peak past him, but Eustace shuts the folder, all Shaun can see on it is ‘ST-6’ stamped on the front of the folder before Eustace picked it up, “You know, I don’t even like tea, I don’t know why I’m even stirring this,” He picked up the tea and dumped it in the sink, “Have a nice morning Shaun, bye!”
He ran upstairs.
That kid was weird.
…
Shaun liked to think Verity did a good job raising him to believe in the truth and not commit any sort of crime, but in moments like this most would disagree.
He got home from school less than a few minutes ago, but he was already scheming something very not-legal. He stood in front of Eustace’s room, listening carefully to Verity and Eustace talking nonsense downstairs, thoroughly distracted.
Shaun very carefully twisted the door knob, scared the slightest sound will sell him out.
Eustace had kept the guest room rather tidy, incredibly tidy. It didn’t look lived in, everything kept so neat, so carefully placed exactly it looked like a hotel room, well everything except for the desk. It was covered in papers and files, all taken out of a binder placed open in the center.
He snunk closer to the desk, and focused his attention on the binder. With a moment's hesitation he sat in the desk chair. He closed the binder to read the front, which had bright red text with the words “Null in void” written in all capital letters. He flipped the binder and the first page seemed to be some kind of warning.
“All the following cases have been proved to be faulty under ex-chief prosecutor Excelsius Winner. All verdicts and policies these cases have provided are considered null in void and in need of a retrial.”
He flipped forward a bit, back to the page it was open to before he closed it, ST-7, he looked and flipped back one, ST-5. It seemed the file Eustace had taken out came from here. He began looking around the desk for the file, eventually finding it underneath the binder.
He flipped it open to the front page.
The first thing he noticed was the fact it's incredibly short, the front page was only half filled out, and in the margins, notes were written in with a red pen.
He skimmed the title
ST-6: The disappearance of Helena Winner.
Shaun stared at the title for a minute.
Helena Winner, that had to be someone related to Eustace Winner, why did he have this?
Shaun kept reading
January 8th 2006, Helena Winner was reported missing, a thorough investigation of the Winner Household was performed and nothing seemed out of sorts about the home, nothing was missing or out of place. The only thing that had changed was an open window.
Chief Prosecutor Winner declared the case cold and no new investigation was permitted past the search.
That's it?
Shaun found himself rereading the case file, but that was really it. There was no evidence, or suspect, or anything. They hadn't even concluded if it was a kidnapping, or murder, or literally anything! They looked at the apartment and decided there was nothing they could do.
The notes in the margins were equally displeased, underlining the word "thorough" and writing the word "Not" in giant letters above it.
It didn't take a genius to know who wrote those notes. It seemed this case interested Eustace in some way, perhaps he wanted to find this "Helena." Was that what had been distressing him of late? The front of these files said they were in need of a retrial, maybe this was his next trial. But thereaws so little to go on due to the lack of investigation, if it wasn't a cold case then it sure was now. How did Eustace even plan to investigate this?
He went to flip the page.
"Shaun?"
Shaun hurriedly shut the file but it was too late. He turned to face the voice in the doorway to see Eustace standing there.
He watched his face change as he realized what Shaun was doing, his confusion twisting to pure anger
"What are you doing here!" Eustace rushed forward nearly pushing Shaun out of the way, "Were you going through my files?"
Shaun froze not knowing how to respond, he stepped back.
Eustace flipped back open the file, flipping through the, very few, pages with haste, "One… Two… picture…"
He recited everything in the file outloud before sighing with relief, nearly falling to his knees, clutching a picture from within the file.
Shaun peeked over at the picture, it seemed to be the victim. She looked very similar to Eustace, same orangey hazel hair, same dark brown eyes, even in the picture she was crying, holding a small child swaddled with blankets.
Eustace stared at the picture, forgetting Shaun's presence for a moment.
"Helena." Shaun started, catching Eustace's attention, "Was she your mom?"
Eustace put the picture face down on the desk, "Is. She is my mom."
Shaun watched as Eustace put everything back in the file.
"Was she found?"
"Not yet." Eustace flipped back open the binder, placing the file back in its place carefully, "I'm working on it."
"I can see that…" Shaun thought aloud.
"Sorry for snapping at you. I just…" Eustace searched for words, but drew a blank.
Shaun frowned, "Do you remember anything about her?"
Eustace lifted his hand bringing his thumb and index fingers close together, "All the memories I have are vague, and I'm starting to remember less and less. I don't even know if I'd recognize her without a picture."
Shaun took a seat on Eustace's bed, "Wanna talk about it?"
Eustace turned to him surprised, "You're offering to let me vent to you?"
Shaun felt his ears grow warm, "Say yes or no! I couldn't care either way!"
Eustace tried to hold back a laugh, but doesn't succeed, "Sorry, sorry! I was genuinely asking!"
Shaun sighed, "It's fine… I just, I get it you know? The whole parent thing."
Eustace took a seat next to him, glancing at him, waiting for him to continue.
"I didn't know him. I wanted to for so long, but never knew where to look or even if I should. The last thing I expected was to find out he was a president of a foreign country! And it sucks even more because, the more I learn about him, the more I realize he was appearntly this great dude! I watched dozens of interview footage and he seems to be this brave, strong, kind, dude! And I… I…" Shaun felt a clog inside his thought break and he struggled to speak, "I'll never get the chance to get to know him…"
Eustace's eyes widened, watching Shaun break down.
Shaun wiped a tear from his cheek, "Shoot… sorry I—"
Eustace hugged him.
"Oh."
Shaun hugged him back.
It was quiet for a moment, the room filling with Shauns sobs as the strength of his sobs died out, and he regained his strength.
He pushed himself away from Eustace.
Eustace softly smiled, "Feeling better?"
"A little… I… I didn't notice it was bothering me this much."
Eustace shrugged, "Sometimes it's good to get a good cry out. helps make the whole… processing thing easier."
"You could probably use one too."
Eustace turned toward him.
"You cry at every little thing, you clearly are holding somethings in. I wasn't lying when I said you're skittish."
"You're probably right, I just.." Eustace glanced back at the table, "Every time I think of her, I think about how I don't know what happened. I feel like… I need to. I need closure."
"Do you really think she's still alive?"
"I don't know. I hope she is but I'll never know unless I find out."
"You should tell mom." Shaun replied, following Eustace's gaze, "You are gonna drive yourself insane trying to solve a cold case by yourself."
"Maybe." Eustace turned to him, "You should talk to Agent Lang. You'll drive yourself insane if you don't try to get closure for your father's death."
"Maybe." Shaun glanced down at his lap.
The two remained there for awhile, eventually Shaun left the room.
But he took Eustace's words to heart, keeping all this in is gonna drive him crazy, and after a whole lot of courage, he was able to reach out to Agent Lang.
It was a scary experience, but Lang and his family helped a bit. He learned bits and pieces of what the President was like behind closed doors, and how he may have treated Shaun if the two of them had ever met. It was nice, and he began to speak to the president's surviving family via video call. He's even been learning bits of Chinese to talk to them directly. The more he learned the more conflicted he felt.
On one hand, he was sad he never will get the chance to speak to him, face to face, father to son, but at the same time, he was able to celebrate the life his father lived, and in a sense, forgive him for never being there.
Eustace seemed to also find a new sense of life. Shaun didn't know if it was because of his words, but he seemed to lighten his load a bit, and focus more on learning rather than solving. He was a lot more present at home, and very talkative.
It felt weird at first, having a sibling, but Shaun has been getting used to it.
Eustace was many things.
A crybaby, a sensitive kid, a workaholic, a messy eater, a chatty teen, and many other less than pleasant things.
But that was his brother, and he's decided he's the only one who can call him these things.