Chapter Ten - ...With Regards, T.H.

Taeyeon watched out the window as her car left their apartments garage. Yuri and Tiffany were on their way to get some clothes and other belongings of Tiffany’s from her apartment. This gave Taeyeon ample time to do some research of her own.

She already had her shoes on and she picked up her black leather bag from her desk, checking that all the lights were off from the apartment leaving. She had called up a friend of hers on the first day she had met Tiffany, one of her old co-workers form the police force to check up on some information regarding her. Her friend had called her this morning that he had found something of interest and told Taeyeon that the two should meet. Since Yuri and Tiffany were using her car she needed to use the subway.

The meeting place was close by and the subway wasn’t crowded that time of the day. She was meeting her friend at a café that they had used often when she used to work in the police force. Even after leaving the force it was a place that they used every now and then to meet up and discuss about life or to share information. The café was close to one of the entrances of the station and as she walked up the steps she could already see her friend sitting in the café.

There were only a few people in the place and as she stepped in the air conditioned air hit her cooling her skin and raising the hair on it. The aroma of coffee drifted into her nostrils and filled her with warmth as she waved to her friend.

“Hey Taeyeon, how are you?”

“Kangin, it’s been a while. I’m good, how about you?”

A waitress walked over to ask for Taeyeon’s orders. She asked for a coffee and as the waitress left Kangin pulled out a thick envelope from his shoulder bag.

“I’ve been alright. Busy solving crimes and looking up stuff for you.”

“Hey now, you love being involved in my cases and you know it.”

“True, true. How is Yuri? I haven’t seen her for a while. She is still working with you right?”

“Yeah she is. She’s out on an assignment of her own.”

Kangin leaned back as the waitress arrived with Taeyeon’s coffee. She thanked her before mixing in milk and sugar, stirring it slowly.

“Is the woman her assignment?”

Taeyeon looked up at Kangin with a smile. He had always been a quick witted person and a good detective. It was the reason why she had befriended him in the first place back in the police force and why the two still kept in contact. They were good friends, though at some point possibly even now, Taeyeon figured that Kangin would have liked to be something more than friends with her. But he never let such thoughts slip out. Besides, Taeyeon wasn’t interested.

“If the picture you sent me is anything to go by, I’m pretty sure Yuri doesn’t mind her assignment.”

Kangin gave a cheeky grin before he began to open the envelope. He pulled out a thick stack of papers – it was all the research and material that he had on Tiffany. On the top of the stack of papers was the picture that Taeyeon had sent to Kangin, the one with Tiffany and her father, as well as a couple more pictures of Tiffany and her father.

“So what did you find out?” Taeyeon asked as she picked up the pictures on the top. One of them showed a young girl, Tiffany, probably at the age of twelve or so.

“Hwang Miyoung, born to Thomas Hwang, mother unknown. There was absolutely no information on her mother anywhere and I couldn’t find a birth certificate or anything regarding the birth of Miyoung. So the father has been taking care of her always it would seem. Thomas was a researcher and worked for the government on public research programs as well as some not so public ones.”

Taeyeon’s eyes were now looking at the picture of Tiffany’s father, Thomas.

“He owned stocks in the manufacturing of laboratory instruments, such as CAT-scanners and the likes. His business no longer exists but it was bought out by a company that even you know well enough.”

Taeyeon looked up at Kangin shaking her head so that he would continue.

“Omnicorp. They bought the owning stocks on the company quite a few years back, a long time before they became the huge company that it is now.”

“How long ago is that?”

“Just under eleven years ago. But what is interesting is that the company bought these stocks just a bit before Thomas went missing.”

“Missing? Tiffany told me that he had passed away.”

“Well, that is what you would say if your parents were no longer around right? But there is something even more interesting that happened at the same time, something that went unnoticed by the public, a secret business in which Thomas was involved in.”

“What is it?”

“About twenty years ago the government began researching dreams, mind control, espers, a load of bullocks along with legitimate brain research in secret. One of the head researchers of this secret undertaking was… ”

“Thomas Hwang.”

“That’s right. The research project was named Project 86 and it had a few goals. There wasn’t much on it but they basically were researching what dreams were, creating machines that allowed people to control dreams and such. They also believed that these espers existed and I guess they were trying to be able to control the dreams and possibly the minds of people through this. A scary thought if it would have worked.”

“If it would have worked?”

“Well, just about eleven years ago something went wrong with the research, horribly wrong and some major catastrophe occurred that pretty much set the whole research to the beginning and so it was shut down. Right after this Thomas Hwang’s company was bought by Omnicorp before he disappeared and he hasn’t been seen since.”

“How did you get all of this information? I doubt it was accessible to the public and if it was an old government secret research… Kangin, this could be bad.”

Taeyeon looked at her friend with worried eyes. This kind of secret government information would be hard to acquire and if it was ever found that someone took this information, it could mean trouble to Kangin and to herself. But the two knew the risks they were taking when doing work like this. The government was not a pure being that wanted the best of its people. There was much lying underneath, sinister and ugly things.

“It is bad but don’t worry, nobody knows that any information has been taken and if they do, they don’t know it was me.”

“So what came of Tiffany after her father disappeared?”

“She was raised under some relatives of hers, an uncle, who paid for her schooling and university where she got her degrees. It all was similar to the research her father had been conducting and her private research company into dreams is what we know about her. She is a very normal researcher by the looks of it, talented, and I must say beautiful too.”

“Hey now don’t get any ideas.”

“I won’t. There is very little regarding her except for her published research material, prizes for excellent research and all that stuff. A very normal person. Quite wealthy and normal.”

“Any relationships? Troubles with finances? Anything?”

“Nothing. No fiancés, boyfriends, debts, nothing outstanding at all. She is very normal in every way, though the fact that she has had no relationships with her looks, that is weird.”

“That’s true.”

Taeyeon looked once again at the photos in her hands. One of them was a couple of years old, a picture of her in a light blue summer dress. It was from an interview she gave after she had won an award for her research in the field of dreams and its relationship to psychology. Tiffany was an outstanding beauty and it wasn’t until now that Taeyeon started to pay attention to it. She really was quite something and it was no surprise that Yuri took a fancy for her. And this beautiful woman slept in the room next to hers.

“Maybe she is just a dedicated researcher. No time for relationships or drama and such.”

“Possibly. After her father’s disappearance she could have become obsessed with completing or continuing her father’s legacy. We can only speculate, unless you ask her of course.”

Taeyeon looked back at Kangin with a small smile spreading across her face.

“I’ll find out eventually.”

“I know you will. Anyways I need to get back to work; my lunch time is almost over.”

Kangin stood up from the seat and Taeyeon followed suit. He picked up his bag and as he walked to Taeyeon she gave him a hug.

“It was nice seeing you. Be careful out there.”

“You too.”

Kangin left the café waving his goodbyes and as he disappeared into the endless flow of pedestrians Taeyeon sat back down in her seat and picked up the picture of Tiffany.

Just how much did Tiffany know about her father’s research? She had lied to Taeyeon about the fact that he was dead, unless Tiffany had been told by her relatives that this was the case. The more she found out about Tiffany the less certain she was about the woman. She needed to find out what she was up to.

She quickly glanced through the files in her hand; a bunch of research papers and pictures, news articles and some stock market material. There was no mention of this ‘Project 86’ except in one document that seemed to be the official document from when it was shut down, and in a letter. It was very short letter, to the point, and it looked like it was written to someone prior to the accident eleven years ago.


“I would like to inform you that we are ready to start at your will. Just know that I’m warning you; Project 86 is not ready yet. She is not ready yet. If you wish to proceed then we will do so but I cannot guarantee the results. I predict failure.

With Regards, T.H.”


T.H., Thomas Hwang. Just what had happened eleven years ago? It all bugged her and it seemed the more she was researching into this, the more she found out about Tiffany, the more questions arose.

Taeyeon gathered the research material back into the envelope and put it in her bag. She finished her coffee and walked over to the counter to pay before quickly speeding off back to the subway station. She wanted to reach the apartment before Yuri and Tiffany came back. She had a few pressing questions to ask Tiffany that needed answering.


------------



On the other end of the alley another road was connected to it, a few cars going past every now and then while one end was blocked by a high metal fence. Kicking the discarded newspapers and black bin bags from her way, Sooyoung walked towards the open end of the alley. The stench made her nose scrunch and felt like it would burn her nose hairs if she smelled anymore of it. It brought back memories to her. Unpleasant memories.

As she got to the end of the alley that connected with the road she stopped for a moment taking in her surroundings and trying to get her bearings. There weren’t many places for her to go in here and she thought the first thing she should search out was her old home.

She looked to her left the road leading slightly up hill. The rows of poorly built apartment buildings lined the street. On one corner further up the hill there was a grocery store from where if you turned right, she remembered that you got to one of the few parks that existed in the city. In the other direction to her right the road led slightly down and the taller apartment buildings diminished and were replaced with smaller houses down the road. All of them were run down and at the end of the road, barely in sight, she could see where she had to go. Her old home.

Disgust was the first feeling that surfaced when she looked at her old home, her legs automatically taking her in the opposite direction up the hill. Slowly drifting up she got to the corner of the grocery store. She peeked in and saw the grumpy old man behind the desk, fast asleep as always but with an innate ability to wake up just as you were about to steal the candy bar. A real talent. She walked past the store down the hill towards the small park that she remembered. The one place where she could let out her frustrations, be free of all her worries for a moment to practice her abilities.

The park looked the same, the few trees that stood in the centre of it scarce in leaves. She continued walking and behind the trees she could see the rusty collapsed slide that she used to play with. Even though it was dangerous and she used to get cuts from it she still played with it. Right next to it at the edge of the small park were the swings and behind it was the spiked fence to keep kids from climbing on it.

The swings, the one thing in the park that was not broken and the place she had practiced her abilities with. She gently focused on the swings and they began to rock back and forth. She continued focusing by making each of the three swings go in turn at a different pace, as if a never ending wave of swings. A small smile crept on her lips as she remembered the first time she managed to do this feat. She had been exhilarated that she was able to control herself better and had thought that it was the answer to her problems in life. But these thoughts were quickly crushed as she realized; she still needed to live somewhere and the things she could do were not publicly believed or accepted. She could not change her life with abilities alone.

This trail of thoughts had gotten her legs moving again and she noticed that she was walking towards her old home. Down the bland street, down past the lower worn down houses, she looked forward as her destination loomed slightly above the other houses. At a crossing she turned right and walked a short distance before stopping. In front of her was her old home, a concrete building six stories high. Sad and worn down, rust and paint worn off and bleeding at the edges, cracks were covering its surface and the windows were so dirty you couldn’t see inside.

From the inside she could hear the familiar shouting and screams, the angry tone that she had grown up to and spent her childhood with. She noticed movement at the edge of her eyes and saw how a young skinny short haired girl was running to the house with a worn out cloth bag hanging from her shoulders filled to the brim with things. Her shorts were torn and filthy, the yellow t-shirt she had was almost gray from all the dirt. The girl noticed the staring and stopped to look at her with hostile questioning eyes. It seemed like the girl could hit her if she tried anything.

“What do you want?” The girl asked her, holding tighter onto the cloth bag, making sure that it could not be stolen from her.

“It’s hard in there isn’t it?”

The girl’s eyes widened slightly, the hard expression on her face disappeared and a hint of sadness filled it. She shifted sideways smirking.

“It is. But when is life easy?”

That question took Sooyoung by surprise. The girl was too grown up for her age, she was forced to learn the hardness and cruelty of life at a far too young age.

“Never.” She said looking at the girl, whose eyes that had softened earlier, now once again became serious, “but it will all get better soon. Trust me.”

The girl looked at her for a moment and her eyes seemed to fill with a little bit of hope. She smiled, quickly running once again straight to the front door of the concrete building. Just as she entered she looked back at her and smiled, before the shouting from the inside started again and she closed the door behind her.

“Where the hell have you been?! What took you so long?! You useless brat!”

Now left standing alone outside Sooyoung winced at the shouting she heard from the inside of the building and knew what was going to follow the shouting. A proper beating. It got her blood boiling but she couldn’t make herself go in the building. Just the thought of going in scared her out of her wits, fear gripping her and she couldn’t take a single step forward. Why was she so useless that she couldn’t go inside?

It was then she heard a familiar voice call out her name.

“Hey Sooyoung, it’s been a while!”