6/3/2015 - Moving closer to the end. About six more parts to go.

Work it Out

Da Hyun stirred the hot chocolate she made for Dara and turned to set it down before her. The two were at home while the boys and Jin were working at the restaurant. Da Hyun had brought Dara home early so that they could spend some time together.

“How is everything?” she asked.

“Fine,” Dara answered, but Da Hyun only gave a short laugh.

“You know you can tell me anything, right?” she said gently. She reached over and ran a hand over Dara’s hair, watching as Dara shut her eyes and leaned into her caress. It was easy to see that Dara had learned to fend for herself for most of her life, but beneath all the bravado and wanting to show that she could handle anything that came her way Da Hyun could see a little girl that longed for a mother’s touch and her father’s love.

Dara took a deep breath and then drank her hot chocolate quietly. Da Hyun could see she was going to have to draw this out of her.

“How is work?” she asked.

“Fine,” Dara answered.

Da Hyun studied the stubborn set of Dara’s mouth. “Something’s upset you. What is it?”

“It’s stupid,” Dara declared, but Da Hyun knew that if it was bothering her this much then it had to be important.

“Tell me.”

Dara’s mouth tightened, and Da Hyun touched her hand.

“I’m here to listen, Dara. Not to judge. You’re not alone anymore. You know that, right?”

She nodded slowly, then with a sigh, she admitted in a small voice. “I saw someone.”

“Your father?” Da Hyun asked, knowing how that might make Dara anxious. But Dara shook her head.

“Someone you knew,” she stated, still trying to get Dara to open up.

Dara nodded.

“And seeing this person upset you.” This much was obvious to Da Hyun.

“He didn’t recognize me,” Dara said, and she sank back in her chair.

“It was someone you knew well?” she asked.

Dara nodded. “He was one of the main reasons I left home,” she confessed, causing Da Hyun to look at her with curiosity. Dara had never told her and Jin about someone else being involved with her leaving her home. Slowly Dara opened up and told Da Hyun about Kwon Jiyong, everything from when he came to live with them up to the part where she saw him two nights prior at the restaurant she worked.

Da Hyun listed quietly without interrupting, letting Dara to complete her story. When she was done Da Hyun asked, “He really didn’t recognize you?”

“I looked really different before,” Dara told her. “When he knew me I had blond hair with pink highlights.”

“Whoa!” Da Hyun blinked in surprise but Dara only nodded.

“I thought surely he recognized me. I almost turned and ran. But then I realized he didn’t know it was me. He’s never seen me like this – normal.” She explained. “I always wore heavy eyeliner, eyeshadow, dark lipstick.” Dara gave a small smile. “I guess I look really different.”

Da Hyun took in everything Dara said, and what she wasn’t saying. “He hurt you a lot with what he said that day you fought,” Da Hyun said, her voice gentle.

Dara sighed, her gaze lowering. All this time she’d been thinking of what she would do if she met up with her father again. But she hadn’t considered what she’d do if she saw Jiyong again.

“I hate him,” she murmured, her gaze hardening. But Da Hyun knew this couldn’t be true. The Dara she’d gotten to know was not a girl capable of hating someone. She might act like it in order to protect herself, but in reality she was a good girl with a good heart.

**

Jiyong had not returned back to the restaurant where Dee worked after that night. But he couldn’t get the girl off his mind and how she reminded him of Sandara. In fact, the more he thought of it, the more it puzzled him. When he finally couldn’t stand it any longer he picked up the phone and called Woo Jinwon, the private investigator in charge of the search for Sandara.

“I have someone I want you to check on,” Jiyong said. He filled in Jinwon on the information he had, which wasn’t much more than just the name of the place the girl worked at and her name.

“What am I looking for?” the PI asked.

“I’m not sure. I just have a gut feeling on this one,” Jiyong said. “Get whatever information you can on her and get it back to me asap.”

**

Jin spoke with Dara the next morning. Da Hyun had filled him in on what she and Dara had talked about. He sat Dara down in his and Da Hyun’s room and looked her in the eyes. “Is this Kwon Jiyong a threat to you?” he asked, he wanted to know if Jiyong had hurt physically as well. Dara shook her head and Jin relaxed a bit.

“Dara,” he began, holding her gaze. “When are you going to go see your father?”

Dara was surprised by his question and she looked away. Jin tried again.

“If something were to happen to your father, let’s say he got ill or had a heart attack and died, would you be alright knowing that you hadn’t tried to mend this rift between you two?” he asked.

“He doesn’t want to see me,” Dara said. “He hates me.”

Jin took a deep breath and released it slowly. His voice gentled as he spoke with Dara. “Dara-ah, I don’t believe your father hates you. I think he’s probably worried sick wondering where you are. If you won’t go to see him, at least give him a call to let him know you’re alive and safe.”

She remained silent, her face stubbornly set. Jin sighed again, but he reached out and took her hand in his. He couldn’t help but think of what it would be like if Dara were really his daughter and something like this had happened to them, and how much it would kill him not to know where she was or if she were even alive. So he tried once more to convince her to reach out to her father. “Will you at least think about it,” he asked her gently. The last thing he wanted to see was for her to run out of time, for something to happen to her father without her having a chance to speak with him again. If that happened then she would spend the rest of her life with regret eating at her.

Dara slowly nodded her head. “I’ll… I’ll think about it.”

**

Jiyong looked at the called ID and immediately answered. “Jinwon.”

It had been almost a week since he’d called the PI and given him Dee’s name and asked him to find out what he could about her.

“You’re not going to believe this,” Jinwon said to him on the phone, and Jiyong tensed, his heart racing.

“What is it?” Jiyong asked, and he knew this was big. He stood from his chair and stepped away from his desk, his hand gripping the phone.

“The girl you had me research, her name is Lee Dara,” Jinwon informed Jiyong.

“Lee Dara…”  Warning bells began going off in Jiyong’s mind.  ‘Dara’…. ‘Dara?’  What was the chance that someone would have as unique a name as ‘Dara’ – or SanDara?

Suddenly he began to see the similarities again in his mind between this girl and Sandara. The similar built, the shape of her face… the eyes...

Dear god.. it couldn’t be, could it?

“I searched her background,” Jinwon continued. “And get this – there is no Lee Dara, Jiyong. She doesn’t exist. The ID she presented when she applied to work at Yong Su Son is fake.”

Jiyong staggered, his hand reaching out for the wall to support him. “It’s her,” he whispered, finally accepting what his mind was trying to tell him all along. “She’s Sandara.”

*