07: fire escape

FIVE YEARS LATER

Mingyu reads an article regarding an infamous drug trade that led to several deaths as two groups fought for control in Columbia. (He honestly doesn’t care much for it, but his upcoming client is more than an hour late, and he’d rather read about something informing than do nothing.) On his wrist is a new watch from Saks Fifth Avenue that accompanies the metronomic sound of his tapping foot.

The door to his office creaks open, and he lifts his eyes off his laptop screen. It’s the receptionist, Alyssa.

“Mr. Kim,” she greets him as she opens the door wider to reveal another man. The first thing that Mingyu notices about him is that he has a pale complexion and chubby cheeks, making him seem like a bunny. But beside the fact that his cheeks are chubby, the man is dressed elegantly in a black suit, and he stands with a straight, unbending form. “He says he only wants to talk to you,” Alyssa continues. “Says his name was Jun Kim.”

“Jun Kim,” Mingyu murmurs to himself. So, this man is his new client. “It’s alright, Alyssa. He’s my new client. Thank you for bringing him to me.”

“No problem, sir.” Alyssa gestures for Jun to come in to Mingyu’s office.

Jun strides over to the chair in front of Mingyu’s desk, ing his suit jacket. Not even a second after he does so, he opens his mouth.

“Mr. Kim,” he says with a Korean accent that Mingyu hasn’t heard in a while, “my name is Kim Junmyeon. I apologize for my lateness. I had a meeting.” He smiles as if Mingyu can understand—and he can. “But we emailed each other a few days ago, and you agreed to see me today regarding my divorce with my wife.”

“Yes, I know.” Mingyu folds his hands and nods. “The first thing you said in that email was that you’d pay me an incomprehensible sum of money.” Junmyeon smirks to seemingly confirm the fact that he did. “I don’t care about money, but the case intrigued me.” Mingyu turns his attention to his laptop where he pulls up the email. “You said you had a wife who ‘wronged’ you both ‘physically and mentally’ for the past 15 or so years.” Mingyu squints at Junmyeon as if he can distinguish his age just by looking at him. “How old are you, by the way? 33?”

“32,” Junmyeon corrects. “But yes, my wife—hell keep that woman—has tormented me for the past 13 years. I married her because I loved her, and it helped her poor family gain wealth and status. But she ran away on our 5th year of marriage. Can you believe that?” Junmyeon scowls with disdain. “I can’t believe that she would do that.”

“Well, that’s marriage.” Mingyu chuckles to himself. After being a domestic lawyer for more than three years, he has seen his fair share of family troubles—divorces included. “As years have gone by, values have gone down, and marriage can only get so sacred.”

Junmyeon nods, pressing his lips together. “I would like to get out of this one now. My wife ran away again, and she took her bastard son with her.”

Mingyu frowns. Junmyeon never mentioned anything of the sort in the email.

“What are you talking about?” Mingyu asks. “You mean to say that this isn’t mutual? Your divorce, I mean.”

As Mingyu hopes that it is mutual (not because it’s not as messy—because it really isn’t—but because he doesn’t like to see broken families), Junmyeon shakes his head and laughs.

“I don’t know or care if it’s mutual. What matters is that woman needs to be cut from my life.”

“Okay,” Mingyu says as if he can understand. While he doesn’t care for the fact that Junmyeon wants a divorce, he is concerned for the woman and her child. “You said something about a ‘bastard son.’ You had an adopted son?”

“Of course not!” Junmyeon exclaims as if he’s offended that Mingyu said that. “I would have loved to, but the first time she ran away, she disappeared for about seven or eight months, and when she came back, she was a few months pregnant.” Mingyu is surprised at that, but he has heard stranger things. “She let some poor son of a knock her up and expected me to love her bastard son.” Junmyeon’s face softens for a bit before hardening again. “And for a while, I tried to, but I couldn’t take it anymore.”

“Alright.” Mingyu uncaps his pen and jots this detail down on a legal pad. He looks at his watch for a second. 4:50PM. “May I call you Junmyeon to make things less formal?”

“Of course.”

“Junmyeon, how old is your wife?” Mingyu writes the word wife on the legal pad and underlines it. “This is for any base we need to cover. You can’t just go on divorcing a woman an older woman if she needs medical care and support.”

“She’s 32,” Junmyeon answers without a pause. “Same age as me. Do you want her birthday?”

“You can tell me the formalities later.” Mingyu shakes his head, jotting it all down. “And how old is her son?”

“He would be about five years old now.”

“Thank you.” Mingyu looks at the small bits of information he has. He wants to get more out of Junmyeon, but the work day is nearly over, and Mingyu still has a lot of I’s to dot and T’s to cross. “I’m sorry, but I have to cut this short, Junmyeon. I have several other things to attend to this evening.”

Junmyeon takes the cue and stands up with Mingyu following.

“No, it’s fine, Mingyu.” Junmyeon reaches out his hand, and they shake hands. “I appreciate you for agreeing to see me despite my lateness. I’m glad you did too—they say you’re one of the best regardless of your age when it comes to domestic affairs.” Junmyeon lowers his voice. “And you’re one of the only Korean lawyers who specialize in this in New York.”

Mingyu smiles, wondering who said that. Perhaps it was the reviews online. “I’m glad you chose me then, Junmyeon.”

They both nod at each other with smiles before exiting Mingyu’s office.

Junmyeon walks faster than Mingyu, and Mingyu heads to Seungcheol’s desk. Seungcheol is busy sketching what appears to be a flower on his legal pad with a pen, but he looks up in time for Mingyu to get to his desk.

“Hey,” Seungcheol greets him with a smile. “Are we still on for drinks tonight?”

“Yeah.” Mingyu recalls making plans with Seungcheol, Wonwoo, and Vernon a few nights ago about going to a bar and celebrating the anniversary of Seungcheol and his girlfriend—Haseul. “I just wanted to tell you that I might be a little late since I have some stuff to do.”

“Oh, that’s fine.” Seungcheol shrugs. “Is Yeri going to be late too? I thought you were coming together.”

“We are.” Mingyu furrows his brows together, suddenly remembering that he agreed to drive Yeri to the destination while her car was undergoing some repairs. “I guess I’ll try hard not to be late then.”

“Okay, sounds good.” Seungcheol throws him a smile and then shows him his drawing. Mingyu recognizes it instantly. It’s a rose, red from the pen Seungcheol used. “What do you think?”

A few memories run through Mingyu, and he could stand there for a few minutes thinking about them all, but instead he smiles and nods at his friend’s work. “It’s a really pretty flower.”

- - - - -

“Why are we stopping here?” Yeri asks Mingyu when they pull up to an old apartment building in Queens. She eyes him with suspicion at first but it turns into realization. “Oh. It was yesterday, wasn’t it?”

Mingyu barely nods. “I just want to see the old place.”

“Take all the time you need.” Yeri leans forward and kisses Mingyu on the cheek. “What are you waiting for? You should go before it gets dark.”

“Yeah,” Mingyu mumbles. His voice never seems to work each time he visits his old apartment.

He steps out of the car and into the slowly cooling air of Queens. It has only been a few years since he moved out of his small apartment into a shared condo with Wonwoo and Vernon, but he isn’t visiting his apartment out of nostalgia. Only the pain of the woman he used to love and the way she enchanted him by simply being can make him go back here. Here, to his roots.

The landlord he used to have passed away about five years ago and was replaced by another landlord who was nearly the same. This landlord, however, cares a little more. In