Pop Singer: A Dark BWAM / AMBW Romance (38 page)

HENRIETTA

I was still hiding behind the bed when the shipmates came from down above. They were two in number, a man and a woman wearing double-breasted jackets and trousers with a red stripe down the center seam.

They entered by force, knocking Hae-il’s body against the wall as they slammed the door open. They raised their weapons up, a pair of guns, but then they drew them down when they saw me.

They saw the bodies.

The woman came over to me, talking to me in broken English. Then she dashed away, going to the bathroom where the male officer went.

I heard lots of chattering in Korean I could not understand.

What I could break down for myself was this: there were Yakuza on board, and they were sent by someone for us.

For some reason.

“I don’t know,” I heard Jong-soo say. “She’s out there,” he said, walking out. He came to my side again, clutching my shoulder.

How are we going to get out of this? The entire idea of going to Japan was to escape Korea, and not draw too much attention to us, right?

So much for that.

The woman went away. She came back with medical supplies to treat us. Nothing more than antiseptics and Band-Aids, strips of gauze for Jong-soo’s arm, which had been grazed by a bullet, it seemed. We still had the other medical supplies to use as well, which the woman helped him with.

A couple of other officials guided me out of the room, told me not to look at the bodies. As if I could scrub them from my mind.

I shook, filled with rage. What was going on?

How could I be so helpless? Simply standing there and not doing anything?

I stood outside, watching the woman treat Jong-soo. I felt jealous of her, of her abilities. She knew what she was doing. She knew how to wield a gun.

I didn’t.

I walked back inside the room, but a man stopped me from going any further than about 2 feet. It was the first official who had walked in with the woman.

“Can’t go in,” he said.

I stayed outside until they cleaned up the bodies and the mess.

Eventually, everyone filed out, the officials, Bit-na, and Jong-soo. Hae-il was wrapped up and put on a gurney.

I couldn’t look.

We were in the truck together, talking, and then this?

Rage and fury flew through my mind, twin eagles of desperate measures. I wanted to hook my nails deep down into Oh-seong’s face. Because he was the one who had done this. He was the one who orchestrated all of it.

I could see on Jong-soo’s face similar thoughts, the same conclusions.

And Bit-na.

She seemed in shock, unable to do anything except stare at me and then Jong-soo.

I held her, and that was the first time both of us were able to connect on a human level.

JONG-SOO

Henrietta was holding Bit-na, which was a first.

The officials closed the door behind us. They said we could be relocated to a different space.

They knew that Bit-na had bribed our way in.

I didn’t expect the passage to Japan to be completely safe, but neither did I expect to get ambushed on day one.

Night had not even come yet.

“We’ll put you down in the lower decks,” one of the officials said. “Closer to the engine room, where there is lots of security.”

We looked at one another, Henrietta, me, and Bit-na.

What could we do?

They relocated us in about five or so minutes, guiding us through various hallways, people staring at us, glancing our way.

Gossip spread through the ship like wildfire.

In a matter of minutes, people were speculating that we had been boarded by North Korean spies.

We were under assault by Chinese military.

Or that an underground rebel group from South East Asia was commandeering the ship, bringing it over to Malaysia, sinking it into the ocean.

“I just,” Henrietta said, “I can’t believe this.”

Henrietta did not look at all fazed. She walked with her shoulders held high, holding Bit-na the entire time.

Her hands, her arms.

“He has to pay for this,” Henrietta said. “He’s got to. There’s no way he can go on terrorizing people like this.”

Bit-na spoke up. She said, “I know he’s after me. He wants me. He’s angry at me. And you, Jong-soo. You were able to escape out of his prison. That’s the ultimate spite.”

We walked to the bottom level of the ship, where the engine purred, a soft, delicate sound.

We were guided into a room. I saw a pair of guards who stood outside in the hallway, where the engine lay.

“We don’t normally have people here,” the official said. “But considering the threat to your life, we feel obliged.”

“You didn’t keep security before,” I said. “You better keep it now.”

I still had the Glock 22 in my hands. At the very least, I could sleep with it at night. The officials didn’t seem to care that I had it, leaving us to our own devices, saying that they would be “back later.”

And that there was nothing else they could do for us.

What more could they?

“I think they’re working with them,” Henrietta said. “The Yakuza and the Twin Swords.”

“They won’t stop until we’re all dead,” I said. “It’s really not safe for you to be here anymore,” I told Henrietta.

“I—I know it’s not, but where am I supposed to go?”

“When we get to Japan, you and Bit-na need to take safety someplace else.”

Bit-na shook her head. “I don’t want to. I need to have revenge on Oh-seong… I can’t believe he killed Hae-il. I know he’s the one behind this.”

“As much as you two have feelings for Oh-seong, you can’t be in danger like this anymore. We have to stay low when we get to Japan. And when we get there, I have to go look for him by myself.”

Henrietta reached out with her hand, shaking her head as well. “I don’t want you to be in more danger than me,” she said. “I don’t want anyone to be hurt. Especially you.”

“I don’t have a choice,” I said. “I know who he wants. More than anything, he wants Bit-na, and then me. You’re just going to get hurt! That’s the truth.”

Henrietta settled down into the bed, still holding onto Bit-na. “Okay,” Henrietta said. “It’s the truth. Fine.”

She seemed hurt. I didn’t want her to be—but then again, she was much stronger than I thought she would be.

Considering how most other women would have fled.

“We can’t let Henrietta go anywhere,” Bit-na said, suddenly angry. “I want my revenge against him. And if it means sacrificing her, then that’s what it’s going to take.”

HENRIETTA

I wanted to hate Bit-na. I should’ve hated her in that instant she called me a “sacrifice.”

I did hate her.

But I felt compassion and empathy for her situation and mine.

“I’m not going to be a sacrifice,” I said. “Bit-na, look, I get that you’re in a bad situation. I’m not going to say we all are, because it’s true that you are the focus of attention here. You and Jong-soo. But I want to help you guys out somehow. If I can’t be trusted in the outside world, then let me help!”

Bit-na tilted her head from side to side. As if she was thinking deeply about what to do, how to phrase her words.

“I’m sorry,” she finally said. And those words, they were like a fresh ocean breeze washing over my mind. I closed my eyes, savoring the syllables. She was sorry, sorry.

I held onto her, rocking her back and forth. She did not say anything until it was late at night, not anything else but her apologies.

Jong-soo and I waited and then it was dinner time. He went to go fetch us some plates. The officials had the entire ship on lockdown.

We were apparently going to make an emergency stop in Tsushima.

“They want us to talk with some of the people there,” Jong-soo said. “We have to act naturally. Act and play as victims.”

“You can’t tell anybody about what’s truly going on,” Bit-na said to me, as we ate dinner, kimchi and rice and squid again. “You really can’t tell people what’s going on here. Because if you do, then I’ll never be able to have what I really want. To get back at that man who hurt me so much. Who continues to hurt me. Please,” she said, banging the fold-out table by our beds, “I need you to stay quiet.”

As much as I wanted to spite her for her bad behavior—and I did so by not talking to her for a long while, pretending to think about my answer—I could not do so.

To spite her would be to spite another woman in danger, this lady who had been abused. I understood why she was so painful to other people, so hateful and in a way, needy.

She was expressing her past in a furious rage.

And she needed to let it all out.

I was no psychologist, and as I said before, I wanted to have my own revenge as well.

Going home would not be a possibility for me—Bit-na did not want me to go anywhere, and I did not want to go home shamefully because of my pride.

So I said, “I’m not going to tell anything suspect to the officials.”

Bit-na’s face lit up, and she nodded to me. She seemed insane, and if you were to talk to me back then, I probably would have sounded insane to you as well.

But, girl, what would you have done? You were just abducted and now the captive of three other people. You met your popstar singer—a man you idolized—a man you wanted to help because of his bad situation, and because of his good nature. He saved you, and you… what?

Would you have abandoned him?

Left everyone behind?

The poor girl who had been raped?

How could I leave all of these people behind without any recourse?

I couldn’t.

I had to be by Bit-na and Jong-soo’s side. Help them out and make them whole again.

“No matter what they say to you,” Bit-na said, frantically, “you can’t tell them about who Jong-soo and I are. If you do, they’re going to send us away for a long time, and then Oh-seong will never be captured. He has so much more wealth, so much more power.”

I glanced at Jong-soo. He only ate his food.

“I’m more of a criminal than Jong-soo is,” Bit-na said. “And I know I have been not a good woman, but a bad one. But I’ve had such a hard life, an impoverished childhood, an abusive relationship. I’m a battered woman. Someone who hasn’t known what it means to have actual strength in life until now. Very recently. Now that I’ve gotten away from his influence, I can… I can…”

“Don’t say anything else,” I said, wrapping my arms around Bit-na again. I held her, as Jong-soo did to me, but in a platonic way, guiding my fingers along her forearms, shaking her hands. “Don’t worry about me. I’ve got you. I’ve got your back.”

The rest of the night, we ate in near silence, scarfing down our food.

Jong-soo still had the gun on the bed.

All of us were paranoid about being in another crazy hold-up situation, but the officials of the boat came back to check up on us, and they made sure that we were safe in our room, without any danger nearby.

We thanked them, and although we did not sleep very well, we were able to get bits and pieces of shut eye, strength renewed.

When the morning came, we were already docked, but we weren’t ready for what would happen next.