Moments earlier, Haenyeo trudged down the city sidewalk, a white path through the maze of stone and glass pillars. She was aware of Eun-Mi’s frantic circling, but the young girl seemed far away – as if at the distant end of a long, dim tunnel.

It was nearing noon and the air was thick. It kept her from drying properly, and her once neat, white dress now stuck to her skin in uncomfortable wrinkles. Despite the heat, Haenyeo shivered.

She had no idea what it was that she was supposed to do.

She’d been the one to ask the question, can’t I have him? And the answer had come unexpectedly in the form of a wild eyed woman whose face was twisted in horror and anger. Haenyeo knew she’d been found out and clearly wasn’t wanted. But what to do? She still needed Seung-Bae. She was vulnerable, dependent upon him completely. But she wouldn’t push. It had never been her way. She would let fate decide if she should continue to exist.

The sidewalk was rough beneath her bare feet, and thanks to the heat of the shadowless midday sun, began to scorch. She now understood why humans were so fond of the pinching things called they called shoes.

Her stomach began to roar. She pressed a fist into it and dragged her muddy thoughts into a clearer timeline of the past days. How many had it been? Had it ever taken so long? Her bouts of hunger were coming more frequently and with a more intensity; she grimaced and placed one foot in front of the other.

And then it reached her.

A smell.

A delicious smell.

A maddeningly, mouthwateringly delicious smell.

And then it was gone.

She rushed forward, chasing .. trying to trace the source. She pushed passed other pedestrians busily making their way to and from their lunch hours, brushing and jostling their shoulders as she searched. Eun-Mi tugged at her elbow and called to her, but she was frantic now for the scent. The pain rose from the pit of her stomach and saliva rushed into .

And then she caught it again - just ahead.

The door to a street side barbeque restaurant had been pushed open and the scent raced towards her, so clearly she could almost see it in colors – the hot, spiced and savory scent of roasting meat.

She groaned silently and sprinted forward.

One step … two steps ... she could almost taste the scent sliding down and into her … three steps – and then her heel sank into something sharp and deep and she pitched forward, crying out, into the arms of the human man who had just exited restaurant.

“Eonni!” Eun-Mi cried at her side. “You’ve stepped on glass. You’re bleeding!”

Haenyeo looked down at her foot and saw the red warmth that had begun to pool between her toes. The man’s arms held her upright, tightening around her, and she drew her injured foot upward so that Eun-Mi should extract the long shard of green glass.

“Who are you?” The man who held her spoke quietly and, for the first time since her stumble, Haenyeo looked up into the face of the stranger who had caught her.

She almost smiled. She almost thought she was looking into the face of her Seung-Bae’s older friend, the one he called Hyun-Woo. The one he looked up to and cherished as an older brother. But then she realized that she was wrong and that it couldn’t be him because this man’s face was older and softer behind a pair of black rimmed glasses. The look she found in the deep brown eyes behind those glasses sent her reeling in despair.

“Eonni,” Eun-Mi was again beside her, attempted to pull her away from the man. But his arms lock around Haenyeo with the greed of obsessive infatuation and held her fast.

“Eonni,” Eun-Mi whimpered. “Your voice. You made a sound.”

How could I have been so careless, Haenyeo thought. Her hunger forgotten, she went limp with dread.

Suddenly, a taxi was there beside them and she was being pushed into the backseat. Eun-Mi fought to grab onto Haenyeo, but the man the girl away and slammed the taxi door against her frantic fists.

“Drive,” he ordered.

As they moved away, Haeneyo turned, and through the car’s rear window she saw Hyun-Woo staring back at her in confusion. The realization of the true horror of her error flooded through her.

This man had heard her voice.

And this man was Hyun-Woo’s family.