→ Chapter 021

Mina’s hand shook slightly as she moved her toothpick to her lips, and she wasn’t sure if it was because of the unexpected drop in temperature or the dread pooling in her since last night. She had to pull her face mask away to catch the wooden pick between her teeth, her lips closing over it swiftly before the mask covered the lower half of her face again. Pushing the pick farther to the side of so it wouldn’t be bizarre or attract unnecessary attention, she resumed her nonchalant strutting: relaxed shoulders, hands in pockets, shoes making little to no noise. But Mina couldn’t ignore the unusual bounce in her steps, and she wondered if that could give off her uneasiness.

She was fine a few days ago.

But when Mina finally moved on from her fear of breaking the law, telling herself that it was for the greater good again and again, Seulgi strolled in and threw her efforts for the wolves to feast on. Something terrible was bound to happen today; Mina couldn’t just forget about it (and frankly, she was the only one to blame). Dying was the worst case scenario, but dying without avenging her dead father would be even worse. Mina had spent the night turning and tossing in bed, braid ending up rolled around her neck and hands clammy against her cheek, but it didn’t stop at that. The nightmare she had a couple of weeks ago came back to haunt her sleep, leaving her in worrisome confusion.

It was the exact same: the dark bathroom, the familiar bright house and the woman shrieking for help. Except for this time, she caught a glimpse of the woman’s side profile and she heard something coming out of along the lines of ‘help me’. She didn’t –and couldn’t—recognize her, but as soon as she stepped closer to touch her, something pulled her back again into the dark bathroom. She couldn’t fall asleep since and spent the rest of her night reading, trying to distract herself from the strange dream.

It didn’t work.

Something inside her head urged her to know why the curse wanted to save that woman, why it couldn’t and why that woman needed saving in the first place. She had to also figure out why the house appeared so familiar to her. But of course, Mina got none of the answers she wanted and it made her even more scared.

And now that she was strolling around the dark alleys of Seoul, alone and with only a minuscule pocket knife (that she wasn’t even that good at using), she was ing terrified.

The only thing keeping her on her feet was her hungry desire of stealing the tape and putting Ilhoon behind the bars, and even that thought wavered when the court’s last statement was made public. The gun Ilhoon allegedly used to shoot her father, was covered with both his and Seho’s fingerprints. It was questionable, to say the least, but Mina refused to believe that it was someone else other than Ilhoon committed the crime, much less believe it was her father’s best friend.

Mina shook herself out of her daunting thoughts and focused on the yellow beams of the lampposts ahead, the dim light oozing out calmed her nerves. She was in the worst part of Seoul, the underworld, the masked reality: tenebrous, miserable almost. It was too late and too dark for her to be out, or anyone for that matter. Fortunately for her, none of the drunken sleazy men she had passed by attacked her, too busy trying to keep themselves balanced.

Her eyes trailed from side to side, searching for any odd movements as her hand discreetly clasped over her knife inside her pocket.

The abandoned houses on her sides, along with the few closed shops here and there, exuded a silence similar to the wintry blanket outside. There were no cars except for a couple parked behind a large tree dangerously leaning to the side of the road. There was nobody in sight, or at least it looked like it, and Mina let out a relieved sigh.

Without realizing it, her body grew loose and her hand came undone around the sharp weapon. She finally took a turn to the right, stepping into the familiar territory she had been studying the past few minutes.

Although the darkness was enveloping her surroundings in a black smothering mist, Mina easily spotted the DVD shop at the end of the street. Kodak blended with its background in perfect harmony: the windows, usually giving a sneak-peek of the items inside, were covered. The usually lit welcome card in front of the door now serving no purpose. It was somehow more deserted than it used to be which sent goosebumps along her arm.

Everything merged with the sinister entourage, from the vandalized buildings to the broken pieces of vodka bottles on the ground, and Mina figured that if she wanted to stay out of trouble, she had to blend in as well. She couldn’t go full black; it was way too obvious, screaming to get noticed. Other colors like Sacramento green and Hickory brown would do the job much better (that’s all she had in her closet anyway).

Pulling the hood over her head, she headed towards the shop. With the face mask covering half of her face, only her eyes remained seen, narrowed in determination.

When Mina reached the door, she halted, eyeing her sides in caution before shoving her hand into her hoodie’s pocket. A small key came out, shining under the fading moonlight. Her hand pushed forward, closer and closer until the key was only inches away from the opening. As if there was an invisible barrier, Mina’s hand couldn’t move any farther. For a moment, Mina hesitated.

“This is wrong.” a small voice inside her head screamed, and for a second, Mina believed it.

The reality only seemed to sink into her head: she was going to break into Kodak. A version of her from two months ago would’ve screeched at the idea; it was illegal and immoral. It was also incredibly mendacious and so unlike anything she’d ever do or done.

But this was a newer version of herself, right? This version could break her rules and make new ones for her own, ones that include breaking the law to obtain justice.

Mina gazed at the key in her palm and remembered the trouble she got into to acquire it. The locksmith in the hardware shop, who knew her and wouldn’t suspect anything about her wanting to duplicate a key, took a week off because of health issues. As soon as she had heard the news, her heart dropped and she spent the rest of the day wondering how she’d move on with her plan. That was before she decided to ask Kim Namjoon, the son of the most popular locksmith in Seoul. It wasn’t unknown that he took after his mother when it came to his skills.

“You want me to duplicate a key,” She recalled him telling her, “from a picture?”

She had followed him after one of his philosophy ‘lectures’ in the school cafeteria and lied effortlessly about her losing her house key she had promised her mother to keep. The guy believed her instantly. What he couldn’t believe was how she expected him to duplicate a key from a picture in such a short time.

“I never tried that before.” Namjoon had shaken his head, his foot tapping uncontrollably on the ground beneath it. He cast his gaze downwards; it wasn’t every day that Kang Mina spoke to him after all.

Mina called his name with her hand stretched in front of her casually, “Well you can try now.”

Namjoon lifted his head slowly until he fell face to face with the green cash folded inside her palm. A smile settled on his lips as he took the money and gave Mina a quick nod.

“You’ll have your key by next Tuesday.” He had promised, and with a slight tilt of the head, he had added, “But Miss Kang, isn’t it a bit weird of you to keep a picture of your own key? Or did you count on losing it?”

Mina had chuckled, munching on her toothpick before answering, “I paid you to duplicate a key, not to keep your mouth running. Or is that so hard for your brain to comprehend, Kim Namjoon? Meet me in the library at four in the evening, no questions asked.”

Namjoon gulped, nodding grimly at her words before fleeing out of the hallway. Mina didn’t really care if she scared him a bit (or a lot). She gave him half of her monthly allowance and he didn’t even know. He even had the audacity to put it roughly inside his blazer pocket, as if her mother didn’t spend hours of her life listening to her patients to gain it. She went out of her way to get the key so she shouldn’t –at all—think about backing away, and that was only one of the many (reasonable or not) reasons she had to keep going.

Mina held her breath and pushed the key into the keyhole. She turned it once, then twice until the door opened with a creek. Mina exhaled, knowing full well that there was no going back at that moment. She stepped into the shop and soon was basking in the cold darkness.

Flashlight on, Kodak felt like it could swallow anyone into the stillness of its air. It looked the same yet so, so much different. The murkiness displayed was something Mina had never witnessed before, outré and similar to the feeling one of somebody closely watching over you.

The shadow laid its silky fabric over the DVDs messily stacked on the shelves, giving them the appearance of not being stacked at all. The counter, which was at the far middle of the shop, struck her as uncanny now that Jung Ilhoon wasn’t there. The dim light of the flashlight didn’t highlight anything new but Mina knew better than to underestimate the criminal.

She closed the door with the heel of her foot and walked inside. Her hand was already circled around her pocket knife; anything could happen to her, and Mina wasn’t ready to act carelessly after what Seulgi had told her. So she peered around with focused eyes, heart beating hard against her ribcage. She waited and waited for anything: a move, a noise or a touch.

Nothing happened.

Mina’s comforted sigh filled the room soon, echoing between the four walls. She felt calm enough for her feet to leave the welcome mat (Kodak was a bit too welcoming for an illegal DVD shop, Mina noticed). She hadn’t had time to scan the shelves before for Jung Ilhoon watched her every move. Who knew if he hid the tape, which could eventually lead to his doom in prison, in between two other DVDs or a secret hiding place?

With those thoughts in mind, Mina marched carefully towards the shelves. Her vigilant fingers reached in between suspicious looking DVDs, leaving no cranny untouched. The light emitting from the stars sometimes caressed her features, making her hide deeper under her face mask; she couldn’t risk anyone finding out she was here.

Her fingers kept moving against the shelves, moving from one to the next in an impressive period of time. She crouched, kneeled and inspected under the wooden ledge. She only dirtied her jeans though because there was no trace of the awaited tape.

But Mina couldn’t bring herself to worry; she was only making sure the tape wasn’t in the shop. In fact, she was almost sure Ilhoon hid the tape somewhere inside the room behind the counter. But she couldn’t go there yet, no, only after she was perfectly certain the tape wasn’t anywhere else. The last thing Mina thought about doing was to search recklessly after all.

Her gaze trailed from the far left of the shop to the nearest right and it landed right at the basket full of old, unwanted DVDs. Mina used to think that it was the perfect hiding spot, but she changed her mind after seeing one of the customers sneakily taking one of the DVDs and shoving it inside his backpack without Ilhoon noticing. The owner either didn’t care about him or was plain oblivious. Mina remembered how bothered she was: she itched to call him out, tell him that it was wrong to steal another person’s possession but it would clash severely with the image she’d shown Ilhoon.

She treaded to the isolated basket hidden behind the large shelf, flashlight low enough to skip over the various movies and albums. None of them gave off the feeling Mina was hunting, yet she kept skimming through more.

Something felt wrong to her and she couldn’t put a finger on it. Her body leaned forward, lips pressed together firmly, as her hands roamed the basket. Her index finger plunged inside, driving through deeper and deeper until it reached the surface of the inside of the basket and that’s when Mina realized it: there was something wrong with the basket and not with the DVDs.

Her fingertip rubbed the surface, pushing against it continuously and soon the rest of her fingers followed suit. Mina widened her eyes once a circular part of the surface fell, landing on the ground. Sh