5/29/2015

Out of Focus

Jiyong opened the letter handed to him by Teddy Park, the head of Sanjin Park’s security team. Teddy had started off working as a security guard for one of the company’s owned by Sanjin Park’s and worked his way up. He was a tall man who talked little and smiled less. But those who got to know him knew that beneath all that gruff exterior, Park Teddy was quite gentle and very loyal to the Park family.

Teddy silently waited to see what message had come from the immigration department. Jiyong had used his family’s connections with the department to find out if Sandara had left the country. It had been a month already since she’d disappeared and they still had no clue as to where she was. Her father was sick with worry. He’d hired a handful of the best investigators, sparing no expense for them to find Sandara and return her safely to him. Jiyong had taken it upon himself to lead the search for Sandara, assuring Mr. Park they would do everything possible to find her.

Jiyong placed the letter down and sighed. According to immigration records Sandara’s passport had not been used at any airports. “She’s still here, somewhere.” What he didn’t say out loud but was understood by Teddy as well was that she could be anywhere in the country – if she were still alive. But Jiyong wasn’t going to go there. He believed Sandara was alive. Everything he knew about her and was finding out about her over the past few weeks led him to believe that Park Sanjin’s daughter was street smart and intelligent.

Teddy had tracked down the bank Sandara used and had discreetly interviewed the manager she had spoken with the day after she left home. He had gotten a copy of the surveillance video that day and showed it to Mr. Park and Jiyong. The manager had said Sandara had said she was moving to the U.S. – which was what prompted them to try and find out if it were true.

“It’s possible she could have had a fake passport made,” Teddy observed, but Jiyong shook his head.

“Unlikely. It would cost too much. She doesn’t have enough cash on her to do something like that.”

She’d left no paper or electronic trail for anyone to follow. Which means she was operating off of the cash she withdrew from her savings and whatever cash she might have on hand when she left the house. $43,000 was a small amount of money that wouldn’t last long if she were not frugal in her spending.

“Any leads if any of her friends are helping her?” he asked.

“I’ve had one of my agents infiltrate her group of friends. None of them seem to know where she is. The last they heard she was involved in that accident on the morning after her birthday and then she disappeared. They’re assuming Mr. Park sent her off to the U.S. or somewhere else overseas.”

Jiyong didn’t like hearing about that day, the one that had led to all of this trouble. If only he hadn’t yelled at her that morning. But he’d been unable to take any more of her carelessness. He’d about had a heart attack when Jieun, the PA Sanjin had hired to look after matters regarding Sandara, had called him early that morning and informed him that Sandara was at the police station.

Jiyong had been rushed over to the police station. He was furious when he found Sandara at the police station, dressed the way she was, drunk, and then to find out the car she’d been had been totaled. If the driver of the car wasn’t already in the hospital Jiyong would have beaten the crap out of him for endangering Sandara’s life. It wasn’t until that moment at the police station and finding out how close Sandara came to death that Jiyong realized a truth that bowled him over. He cared for Sandara. He cared very much.

The truth had shaken him, especially in light of the reason he was there in the Park household in the first place. Sandara’s father had introduced him to the staff and to Sandara as being the son of a close childhood friend. That part was true. What Park Sanjin hadn’t revealed was that the two of them, Sandara’s father and Jiyong’s father, had agreed upon arranging a marriage between their children. Jiyong had been sent to get to know Sandara and to be groomed to eventually take over the helm of the Park Group. However, Sandara displayed so much contempt for Jiyong, it was decided by both Sanjin and Jiyong to keep the part about marriage a secret until after Sandara had been given a chance to accept Jiyong.

What a fiasco that had turned out to be.

“I want a list of all her friends, every acquaintance. Anyone she may have partied with or ever spoken with. Run a background check on each and every one of them,” Jiyong instructed Teddy. “If any of them helped her I want that person found.”

As Teddy turned to leave Jiyong called him once again. “Let me know as soon as you know anything. No matter what time of day, I want to know.” Teddy saw the weariness in the younger man’s eyes, the worry and guilt that ate away at him. And Teddy suddenly realized something about Kwon Jiyong he hadn’t previously observed.  

Kwon Jiyong loved Sandara.

The knowledge of this made Teddy a little less angry at the younger man for the role he had played in driving Sandara away from her home. With a slight nod Teddy agreed and then turned and left.

Meanwhile:

“Noona, help!”

Dara turned to see Mino struggling to balance plates of food on his arms while trying to open the door leading to the front of the restaurant.

“Aisht!” She quickly ran over and opened the door for him, then grabbed two plates off his hands and followed him out. “Why didn’t you just ask me to help you?” she scolded.

“I did just now, didn’t I?” Mino smirked.

He was the younger of two brothers, his older hyung being Sanghyun. Their parents owned the noodle shop restaurant that Sandara Park, now known as Lee Dara, was working at. She was older than both boys and had quickly come to like the two of them very much.

Mino was fourteen and had all the makings of a future bad boy. He considered himself a ladies man and girls from his school were always hovering outside or coming in to buy noodles when he was working. Mino had made a move on Dara the very first day she started working there. His parents had the last laugh though when Dara had promptly turned and pinched the younger boy’s ear hard and told him if he wanted to be a man he’d better get better grades in school because real women liked their men smart.

Sanghyun was the opposite of his younger sibling. At seventeen he was equally good looking but in a quieter way. When he wasn’t at school or working in the restaurant he was busy studying for college. It was Sanghyun who had found Dara standing at the community board looking through the want ads. Something about her had made him pause, and after watching her a few minutes he approached and asked if she needed help.

The farming town they lived in was small and Sanghyun knew mostly everyone in the area. Dara stuck out as an outsider. Her hair was jet black except for the tips which she had dyed a burgundy color. Normally he wouldn’t have stopped for a stranger but Dara drew his attention because (1) she was a girl, and (2) she looked extremely young to be out on her own. He’d been surprised when she flashed him a smile and claimed she was nineteen. Even then he hadn’t believed her until she pulled out her wallet and ID and showed it to him.

“I’m looking for a place to stay and possibly a job,” she’d told him. “Know of any recommendations for me?”

He did. He took her home that day and introduced her to his parents, Choi Jin and Da Hyun. And like he knew they would, his parents took to her right away. They offered her a job at the restaurant and a place to stay. Dara had been surprised by the second offer but Da Hyun had laughed and said, “You must be from the city. Here in the country we’re much more open and friendly. Plus it’s not good that a pretty young girl like you be roaming about all alone.”

Dara had told them the story that she was an orphan and had no other family. Da Hyun, whom Dara figured was who Mino took after with her cheerful and slightly mischief filled smile, had insisted she stay with them.  

Choi Jin had listened to her story, and although he didn’t say it out loud, something about her story didn’t add up for him. Her fingernails were manicured, her hands too soft. She wore a thin delicate patterned chain about her neck and matching bracelet. Jin had enough experience in his youth to know that those were not cheap. Neither was the name brand tennis shoes she wore and backpack. No, this girl definitely did not grow up in an orphanage.

Normally those things alone – knowing that she was being dishonest about her past -- would have caused him to oppose his wife’s decision to take the girl in. But there was a look in her young eyes that reminded Jin of himself when he was young and had no one to turn to. This girl who called herself Lee Dara may not be telling them the truth about her identity, but he sensed that she did need help, and maybe some proper guidance during this time in her life. And that was what made him decide to give her a chance. That and the fact that when his younger son tried to make a move on her Dara had promptly and effectively put him in his place.

“I’ve never done this kind of work before,” Dara admitted to Jin and his wife. “But I’m willing to learn if you’ll teach me.” And that was how she ended up living there in that small village forty minutes out of Seoul, working for Choi’s Noodle House, and becoming a noona to the handsome and serious Sanghyun, and the handsome and not so serious about life Mino.

Even now, as Dara was helping Sanghyun clear one of the tables, Mino was busy flirting at a table where four girls were seated.

“Mino!” Sanghyun’s voice rang out, and he gave his brother a warning look.

“Gotta go, ladies,” Mino smiled, then turned and hurried back to the kitchen.

Dara giggled and shook her head. Sanghyun might be quiet but he was much bigger than the thin Mino and he wasn’t above boxing Mino’s ears when needed to keep the younger one in line.  Her new adoptive family helped her to forget, during the day at least, the life she had left behind and eased the ache that had her holding back tears at night when she lay alone in her bed.

She still thought about her father, no matter how much she declared in her mind that she was finished with him. She no longer carried her father’s last name on her new ID and birth certificate, and she had shortened the name he had given her. But Dara was learning that it was much harder to erase her past and true identity from her heart.

Every once in a while she thought also of Kwon Jiyong, and it stirred her up to work harder to prove to him how wrong he was about her. She wasn’t a spoiled brat, neither was she an idiot. Most of all she wanted to prove to him that people could care for her and love her for herself and not just because she was the heir of a multi-billion dollar conglomerate.

She hated Kwon Jiyong with all her heart because he had taken the one thing she wanted more than anything, and that was her father’s love. But she had no intention of lying down and dying in self-pity because of that. No. She would live her life her way and prove to herself that she was of more worth than Kwon Jiyong or her father ever gave her credit for.