Myung Soo (Part 7): Abduction
Paris: The City of My Heart
1 Monsieur: Young Master, Mister.
2 Où suis-je?: where am I?
3 Chez vous: your (formal) home/house.
4 Où est-elle?: where is she?
5 D’ac: abbreviation of D’accord meaning OK (used in text messages by French community).
6 Éloignez-vous du pont! (formal): Move away / retreat from the bridge!
7 도련님 (read: do-ryeo-nim) : Young Master.
8 안녕하세요 Annyeong haseyo (read: Ahn-n'yohng-hah-say-yoh): Hello / Good morning / How are you?
9 Bonjour!: Hello! / Morning!
After I was discharged from the hospital, we laid on the bed with our hands intertwined. We didn’t do anything, we decided that we just wanted to lie down, relax, and talk since the last time we were here was the time we had our first fight. It was convenient that we lived together. I loved how we acted like a newlywed couple. I loved looking at her dilating pupils on her peaceful eyes whenever we stared at each other. It was the window to her inner soul.
“It’s not because we’ve been doing it that I love you, but because I love you that I made love with you.”
She stared at me for a while, unmoved, then said, “You know, sometimes I wonder if you’re just really sweet or you’re sweet-talking me.”
I chuckled and furrowed my eyes at her assumptions. “You are so unromantic, Am!”
“And why are you so cheesy?! You watched too many movies!”
“Excuse me?!”
She laughed for a moment, then stopped to say, “Myung, I have a question.”
“Go ahead.”
“You sure have done it before, haven’t you?”
“What?”
A tinge of red spread on her cheeks as she explained further, “You know… that.” I was clueless and it took me a moment to register what she meant. “I mean not that I care. I’m just curious, you know. All your actions seemed so… well thought-out.”
Her eyes bore on mine and I tried not to blush despite the heat I felt on my face. The reason everything I did was “well thought-out” to her was because I had imagined and dreamed the moment million times before. But of course, I couldn’t tell her. I had my pride and image to maintain.
“I have a question too.” She raised a lone brow at me, displeased that I didn’t answer her question. “Do you really think Sung Yeol’s hot?”
She blinked, frowned, and then burst out laughing. “Are you jealous?”
“No,” I retorted, my tone giving it away. “I’m just speaking as a completely objective third party observer with absolutely no personal interest in the matter.” Her laughter echoed in the room as she held her stomach. I waited for her to calm down, but grew impatient. “Are you going to answer me?”
She feigned a thinking expression; the one where she pursed her lips and shifted her eyes to the side. “I’m not going to justify your question with an answer. Instead, I’ll use a simile to explain it.” I raised an eyebrow, confused but expectant at the same time. “I think Sung Yeol is as hot as Daniel and Woo Hyun—“
"WHAT?! And I thought you were different from other girls when I thought you didn’t think Daniel was hot! And WHAT?! Woo Hyun hyung?!” I had to cringe and scowl at this revelation.
“I never said Daniel isn’t hot, I mean he’s good looking and all that, but nothing special. And Woo Hyun is charming, but he’s too much of a flirt,” she said. “And don’t cut me off. I haven’t finished!”
“Do I even want to hear this?”
“Yes, you do.” I groaned, already losing my interest. “I think Sung Yeol is as hot as Daniel and Woo Hyun, but not as y as you.”
A grin crept upon my lips as I looked into her cheeky eyes. Slowly, I leaned down and part her lips to enter . I was actually going for a brief one, but then I felt her hand at the back of my neck to deepen the kiss. It was a slow kiss, but I liked it. My hands moved to her waist and I rolled her on top of me. I loved that feeling of her against me, I loved being close to her. I moaned into the kiss and reached out my hand to her nape.
Gradually, she broke the kiss and said, “Let’s stop now before it gets any further.” I groaned in chagrin, causing her to laugh. “You can’t go long without seeing my beautiful body aye!”
I snorted. “More like you can’t take your eyes and hands off my body!”
Her laughter rang in the room again and I found myself smiling as I watched her. Eventually, her laughter stopped when she realised I was watching her. She looked into my eyes and she smiled dreamily. I caressed her cheek as I thought it was probably the most amazing sight I had ever seen in my life. I didn't know why when I saw her happy, it made me feel happy.
Together, we heard ourselves saying, “I love you.”
~✡~✡~
New Year’s Eve came. I took Amber out to the Eiffel Tower to see the fireworks. We could’ve stayed home and watched it on TV, but since she had never been, I took her out just for the sake of her experience. I had seen it a few times with Sung Yeol and Hyun Ah, but I didn’t know why I was more excited to go with Amber.
I realised that my Old Man’s men had been lurking around to get to her, which made me suspicious that he must have gone to see her again. So, I went back to our stupid castle and went off at him and told him to back off because I wasn’t going to let him ruin my life as he ruined Maman’s. When I was two, he made Maman work at clubs and brothels to get the money he wanted for who-knows-what. When I found out what it actually meant as I grew up, I couldn’t help but hate him with my soul. I didn’t even consider trying to understand him. Now that I had Amber, I couldn’t imagine just how he could let the woman he loved sleep with countless men out there. Because I couldn’t and wouldn’t let any other men touch Amber like that. Just thinking about it made me sick.
I contacted Min Ho, who was in Toulouse with Yuri and their kids. They just had their second child last month, who they named Jaden. If I could get Amber under their wings, she would sure be protected. Min Ho’s a Police Officer in Toulouse, but I was sure he would be promoted to be Chief in the next few years. Papa and Uncle were long-time foes with Mr Choi, the Chief Police Officer of Paris, and they stayed out of Mr Choi’s way as much as possible.
That night, we were walking back to our apartment when I heard shootings. I felt a burning pain in my chest which ascended up to my head. My muscles stiffened and I collapsed into blackness.
~✡~✡~
The emptiness in my head felt complete and definite.
Am I dead?
I slowly opened my eyes. There was light. It was dim with splits of grayness.
I tried to move, but the pain in my arm and all over my body stopped me. My blood felt like it was burning with fire.
It took me at least five minutes to adjust to what was happening.
I looked around and found that I was in a spacious room with baby blue coloured-walls. I frowned. It looked familiar, but… a bit strange.
Then I realised, I was in my room. The room that Maman decorated before I was born. Being back here made me miss her presence.
I sat up and looked around again. White silk curtain hung on the opposite sides of the window overlooking to the bright white sky, the door to the balcony, a plasma screen TV opposite my bed, the door, and the bathroom to my right.
The room was empty and felt dormant.
Am I dead?
But if I was, I wouldn’t be feeling any pain, would I?
I rubbed my temple when the light-headedness hit me.
The sound of the doorknob being turned made me jolt off the bed. I waited for my guest to come in. A middle-aged white man in black-suit entered with another shorter man behind him.
“Bonjour, Monsieur1 L!” they greeted me as they bowed.
I glowered at them. “Où suis-je?2”
“Chez vous3, Monsieur,” the short man’s deep baritone voice answered.
"Où est-elle?4"
Nobody answered. I grabbed the collar of the taller guy and kicked the short on the chest, sending him flying out into the wall outside my room in a big thump. I threw the tall one onto the floor and used my leg to hold his shoulder back on the footboard of the bed. He struggled, but I kicked him back to restrain him. He was obviously bigger than me, but I was his boss’ son and out of respect, he held his anger back.
“Où est-elle?!” I shouted at him.
He didn’t answer me. As I was about to send him a blow to the nose, someone grabbed me from behind. “L!” Without turning back, I already knew who it was: Uncle Lee, Sung Yeol’s dad. I ignored him and kept kicking the guard. “Stop it! You’re going to kill him!”
“I don’t care! Tell me where she is!” I bellowed at the whimpering guard. If I wanted to break his nose, it wouldn't be a problem because I was righting something that was wrong in my view. They had my girlfriend confined in one of the rooms and the unknown further enhanced my agitation. I yanked Uncle Lee away, but despite his age, he was still as strong as I could remember him.
“I’ll tell you if you let him go!” Uncle Lee raised his voice to get my attention, gripping tightly onto my shoulders, the painless one.
His stern voice made me stop and I stumbled back with my eyes still on the guard. He was on the floor bending down in pain. I turned to Uncle Lee in one, swift movement that he had no time to hold me back.
“Where is she?” I demanded.
He seemed surprise when he looked into my eyes. I didn’t even care to take a second to consider why. I was too anxious because they got Amber.
“She’s only a girl, L,” he sighed. “Do you have to be so worked up? Relax.” He let out a low guffaw, but I wouldn’t buy any of it.
“Where. Is. She?”
He cleared his throat and turned to the door. Outside, he ordered one of his men to deal with the beaten up guards and signalled me follow him. He led me to one of the guest rooms at the end of the corridor. There were three floors in this stupid castle. We were at the top floor. This place looked more like a hotel to me with the so many rooms around, but it was necessary for Papa to hide some things or people behind some of these doors and accommodate his men, at the bottom floor with him.
Two guards were guarding outside a room in the corridor. They were standing on attention and bowed when we arrived. Without any sign or words of gratitude, I made a move to enter, but Uncle stopped me.
“Let’s talk before you see her.”
“I want to make sure that she’s safe,” I said, stressing on the syllable of the last word.
“I’ll make sure with my life that she’s safe,” he said.
With his life as a guarantee, I felt my shoulders relaxing and I looked into his eyes as he waited to get my attention. “Where’s he?”
“At a very important meeting. He’ll be back in two hours.” When I didn’t say anything else, he continued. “I just want to say one thing," he paused to make sure he got my attention, "Break up with the girl.”
“Impossible,” I replied succinctly. It echoed throughout the corridor and lingered around us.
“L,” he sighed in remorse. “You don’t know how mad Joon Soo is right now with that girl. I know you know that he made her my case last week. I’m sorry that I hit you, but it was your own crazy decision to take the hit for her. I can’t believe this, L. What does that girl have that my Hyun Ah doesn’t?”
“Uncle, Hyun Ah is like a sister to me. I feel the same way as Sung Yeol does about her. I cannot treat her or see her in any other way.”
He held his palm up. “I’m not here to talk about Hyun Ah.” He gave me a piercing stare I had not seen in years. He then told me about the old man seeing Amber and how he threatened her about killing me and lied to her about his secret sons, which I doubt he was being dishonest. I couldn’t help but felt my anger enhancing with every second passing and every word said. “If you want that girl to be safe, L, you have to let her go. That’s the only way she’ll be safe, like what you want. You aren't meant to be together. Joon Soo doesn’t care whether she’s an innocent passer-by or not, he’ll lay a hand on her no matter how much you protect her because she’s hindering his plan.”
“What part of his plan is Amber hindering? Me marrying Hyun Ah or me taking over his position? None of these were going to happen in the first place." I glared at him with the same amount of emotion to show him that I wasn’t going to back down.
"You are still too young, L. You don’t understand how harsh this world is.”
“I know just how much I want to leave this hell world.”
“This is the written script of your life. You are to take Joon Soo’s position and marry my daughter.”
“You are going to sell your beloved daughter for my dad’s sake? Why is that, I wonder?”
“We had made an agreement that Hyun Ah will be the Madame of our Black Baron group.”
“Oh? So just for the sake of her being the Queen? Why don’t you just make her the Queen and find someone else to be her King?”
I could see Uncle restraining himself from slapping me for my attitude. “Fine. Do whatever you want. But I won’t let any harm touch you because I know just how much you mean to my daughter and my brother. I’m not sorry to say that whatever happens to that girl is of no importance to me. Whatever happens to her... is on you.”
He left and I let him go. I won’t let anyone lay a hand on Amber.
~✡~✡~
I wasn't sure how we did it, but we managed to escape. We were running towards the divided roads up ahead as I told Amber the plan. She was to go to the right side one because it was closer to the bus stop and main road, whereas I would have to go through some bushes, bridge, and secluded walkways to get there. She would have gotten lost since she wasn’t familiar with this place.
”That piece of paper I gave you has the address of my friend who lives in Toulouse.” I proceeded to take the envelope filled with money out of my inside pocket. I had put it in there when I went to my room to get my clothes earlier. She frowned as I placed it on her hand. “They took your bag, so take this money for now.”
“What? When did you prepare this?" she asked, perplexed.
I chuckled. “Let’s not ask too much, they’re coming closer. We’ll talk about it when we get to Toulouse.” I grabbed her in, about to kiss her lips but decided against it since I knew I wouldn’t be able to control myself, so I kissed her forehead instead. We stayed there for what only felt like two seconds. I really didn’t want to let her go on her own. What if they catch up with her? But I knew that I had to trust her, she was intelligent enough to protect herself.
“I love you. Don’t get lost,” I reminded her.
She nodded reluctantly. I looked down to her inviting lips and bit mine. Hell, whatever. I leaned down to her lips, but only did it briefly so as to not waste time and ran towards the left road.
She called out and I pivoted around to see her running towards me. When she arrived in front of me, she jumped up and her lips landed on mine. I pressed the back of her neck to deepen our kiss and kissed her back passionately like I always did when we kissed. I knew I was going to miss her for a while. I didn’t want to let go and kept our lips moving in unison, but I was aware that time was running out. Fortunately, she let go first and hugged me tightly before walking backwards away from me.
“See you in Toulouse,” I said before she turned and went on her way.
I heard her running footsteps fading away before going off towards my way. I took out my phone and saw my screensaver, which was a photo of Amber kissing my cheek. My lips tugged into a smile and I went to my Inbox to send a text message to Min Ho to inform him that Amber and I were on our way. He replied: D’ac5 :). Also, to Sung Yeol to remind him to send our clothes to Min Ho's, despite his complains. Sung Yeol and Min Ho never really got along ever since we met in junior high school, while Min Ho was already a senior.
I heard footsteps behind me, so quickly picked up my pace. My brain worked rapidly to realise that they were after me. I looked back to find about… twenty of them. I took a deep breath and ran faster and faster to get away. I looked around frantically for somewhere to hide and found a big tree. I turned back to see where they were before deciding to go for it. Two guards were already ten feet behind me, so I kept sprinting towards the hanging bridge where I used to play at with Sung Yeol and Hyun Ah when we were kids. I remembered Hyun Ah talking about her ideal proposal by the bridge over the lake.
My heart thumped against my chest and my breaths puffed out of my mouth as I aimed for the bridge. I took big steps in order to reach the other end faster. I ignored the wobbling ropes caused by our movements. Five guards were already on the bridge with me.
“Éloignez-vous du pont!6” one of the French men bellowed, followed by others.
I felt the five men stopped and the remaining movements were made by me.
“L do-ryeo-nim7, stop moving!" a Korean guard shouted a warning to me.
I ignored him. I wasn’t going to waste my time. But then I heard a snap and saw the bridge fell apart from the middle. Shock, I felt my heart skipping a beat. The five men screamed and then, I felt myself slowly descending down to gravity, towards the lake.
~✡~✡~
There was a whirring sound.
A lawn mower?
It was so unfamiliar.
The scent in the air smelled like… food? But what was it?
Definitely not baguette or toast.
I stirred awake and slowly opened my eyes. I lifted my hand and put it before my eyes to see the time. The Rolex watch Amber gave showed that it was 12:06, but I wasn’t sure a.m. or p.m.
How long have I been asleep? Where’s Amber? Has she reached Toulouse?
I sat up and observed the place I was in, and the strange interior design.
This can’t be Toulouse. I don’t remember getting on a train or arriving at Gare d’Austerlitz.
I was in a big room, probably the same size as my room, except the walls were white. I scanned the room in anti-clockwise. There was a wooden door on the right wall side, the bathroom at the wall opposite me, a black plasma screen TV opposite the bed, and a gold curtain closing… two big doors?
I moved off the bed and slowly walked over. Promptly, I yanked the curtain open to reveal… a pair of glassed doors looking towards a wooden balcony. I blinked when the bright light hit my eyes and I waited for them to adjust before opening the doors and stepped outside. Smell of grass filled the air and the whirring sound ascended. Cold breeze pricked my skin through my long sleeve shirt and I crossed my arms as I rubbed them for some warmth. It was so much better inside, warm and quiet, but the scene before me caught my attention. There was a white house opposite the house I was at, separated by a narrow alley. I took a look at my surroundings and discovered that the house I was in was fenced by brick walls.
An old man was at the garden lawn mowing. He saw me on the balcony and bent down to turn the machine off. He then looked up at me to smile and bow. His wrinkled face seemed to show how old he was. I bowed back out of courtesy. I didn’t know him.
I frowned as I stepped back inside, not forgetting to close the doors. I made my way out of the room, towards the stairs which were made of shining royal cream marbles. The living room at the bottom of the stairs was deserted. The grandfather clock in the living room showed that it was 08:10. I checked my watch and it was 12:10.
I could hear movements in the kitchen. With my heart drumming against my ribcage, I paced over towards the noisy area. I saw a familiar man in navy blue tracksuit and white long sleeve shirt cutting a piece of meat on a cutting board.
“Uncle Lee?” Both the sound of my voice and the words themselves surprised me.
The old man turned and beamed at me. “Annyeong haseyo8, L!" he greeted me in Korean.
I grimaced at the absurdity of the situation. The smell, the ambiance, and the air didn’t feel like the Paris I knew. It was also weird that Uncle Lee started speaking to me in Korean when he was well-aware that I could hardly put sentences together. I’d fail living in Korea, as Sung Yeol had said.
I wanted to ask where Amber was, but first, I needed to work out … where I was.
“Um… Bonjour!9” I hesitated as he turned back to his meat. “Where are we?”
When he answered, my muscles stiffened and my legs felt like jelly. I felt my throat closing up on me as I tried to make sense of what he said. I took a deep breath and told myself to take control. And it sank in.
“Welcome to Korea.”
TO BE CONTINUED . . .
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