We drove for hours without saying a word to each other. It was dark: Definitely past midnight, and easily past my sister’s bedtime. We hadn’t gotten into any run-ins with people looking for us, which I was thankful for, but I was still worried about my sister. I glanced over at her a few times, but I couldn’t tell what she was thinking. I could only tell that she was tired by her frequent yawning and the fact that she kept closing her eyes.

It’s now or never.

“Haeyeon” I said as she re-opened her eyes “We can talk about what happened now.” She tilted her head to the side so she could look at me and spoke “What’s going on Unnie? Where are mom and dad?  Who were those people? ...” Her voice was filled with concern as she bombarded me with questions, the same way I did to my father earlier.

“You girls are two peas in a pod.”

My father had said this after he found out about the ice cream incident. I allowed myself a little laugh at the thought about that situation.

He pretended to scold us when one of the girls’ parents approached him. After that, however, he told us to avoid getting into fights. It was uncommon for our father to take things like this seriously, but we understood why he said it. He also stated that Haeyeon should stop watching my lessons because she would have her own later on, but I sill caught her lingering a few times…

After my sister finished asking her questions there was a period of silence: She was staring at me, but I didn’t take my eyes off the road. I took in a deep breath and began explaining what happened after I dropped her off at the bus.

She didn’t say anything, just stared at me focusing on my words. I decided not to tell her a few minor details like: the fact that our parents were taken in a vehicle that was designed for animals, and how much I had gotten roughed up during the day; including how bad the cut on my hand was, but I figured she noticed anyway.

As I spoke, Haeyeon’s eyes started to water, but, for some reason, she didn’t full out cry. “…Dad said that they’ll be fine and we just have to stay at the Hwang’s for a while.” When I was done talking, there was another gap in the conversation. My sister finally blinked and wiped the tears from her eyes. “Ok” she said in a blunt voice.

Her response took me by surprise “You’re not sad or anything?” I was stumped. “I am sad” she said flatly “But I trust you, and I know for a fact that dad wouldn’t let anyone hurt mom.” She shot me a look that reminded me of a situation that involved my mother…                                                 

A few years ago, there was a strange man stalking our mother: He was always at the restaurant just ogling her. We even saw him outside our house, a few times, pretending to “survey the land.” He eventually stopped watching, and followed our mother after work one day: Little did he know; our father was waiting for him. Mom could have easily defended herself, but our dad wanted to be old fashioned in this regard. He pinned the stalker to the ground and pushed his face into the dirt until he promised to stop following our mom…

The funny thing about that situation is that: after the stalker conceded, our father picked him up and helped clean him off.

Haeyeon’s right about that.

I reached over and put my hand on my sister’s head to comfort her; and myself. “Everything’s going to be fine.” I said calmly. “You should eat something before you go to sleep.” She was grabbing the stuffed doll and a blanket that I packed for her earlier in the day. “I’m not really hungry.” She responded while covering herself with the blanket. “I’ll be fine” she continued as if she could feel my concern.

Haeyeon tucked the stuffed doll under her left arm and wrapped herself in the blanket. Leaning towards the center of the car, she adjusted her body into a more comfortable position. With that, she laid her head down and closed her eyes.

“How are you so strong?” I spoke under my breath: It astonished me how well she took the situation.

“I got it from you, Unnie.” My sister’s words came out slowly as she dozed off to sleep.

…

Finally some sunlight

I sat with my legs crossed on the hood of the car; just enjoying the night air and the cool condensation hitting my skin. I had driven for most of the night and was annoyed at not being able to see what was around me.

A few hours after my sister went to sleep; I was able to find a small dip in the land on the side of the road and figured it would be a good place for us to rest for a bit. The dip was nearly impossible for me to see, even with my enhanced eyesight, so I knew we wouldn’t be found there. Plus I was taking an uncommon route to the Hwang’s house to throw off anybody who might have been on our trail.

We should get there late this afternoon if there are no hiccups.

Normally it would have taken half of a day to get to the Hwang’s, but the unconventional way I was taking tacked on a few hours.

With the sun rising, I got some food and water from our rations and decided to eat while on the hood of the car. I happened to grab a can of spinach: eating it made me feel like Popeye. Raising my arm in the air, I flexed to see if I grew some muscle, but to no avail.

Oh well

After the first can was finished, I dug back in the rations to get some more food. I usually didn’t eat this much, but the fact that I didn’t sleep meant my body would need the energy.

My mother had once explained to me about how our body’s energy worked. She mentioned that if you sleep less, your body will need more outside energy to maintain itself. She also stated that: “The longer you go without sleep, the less efficient your body is at using the energy you put in it.”

This means that I need to eat a lot more to keep myself going.

My sister woke up while I was downing the second can: She changed clothes in the car and came out to stretch.

“Gooood morning, Unnie” Her voice was strained because she was talking while doing one her warm-up stretches from gym class.

“Good Morning, Haeyeon” I said through a mouth full of food. She laughed at my second attempt to talk while eating, and continued stretching. “You should eat something too.” I resumed talking as I gulped down the last of my food.

“No thanks” she said, finishing up her stretches.

“You can’t tell me you’re not hungry. I can hear your stomach growling from here.”

“It’s not that I’m not hungry” she said in a low voice. “I’m just waiting for something.”

“Waiting for what?”

I hope this isn’t her way of coping with everything that’s happened…

“Don’t worry Unnie, I’m not going to starve myself to death.”

I swear she’s a mind reader. With all the crazy things going on, it wouldn’t surprise me.

Haeyeon went back into the car, and with no reason to argue about the topic, I got off the hood and went to check the side of the car.

The hit from my attempted drift had done some damage to the car, but luckily, it was only cosmetic. The only problem, from the collision, that would affect the car’s function was the flat tire. Slamming into the tree had poked a hole in the tire, and without something to seal it we could get stranded on the side of the road.

There was a small tool-kit in the car, but unfortunately; there was nothing to seal the hole.

Some gum could easily hold this tire until we get to the Hwang’s house.

I knew that there was a convenience store a few miles down the road, but I didn’t like the idea of stopping in the open before we got to safety. I looked back down at the tire though, and realized that I didn’t have the luxury of playing it safe.

Getting back in the car, I changed my clothes and started back on the road.

I need to stay awake.

I started dozing off while driving: I hadn’t slept in over a day and the fatigue was getting to me. I looked over at Haeyeon and noticed her playing her handheld game...

In the same conversation with my mother about energy in the body, she brought up staying awake with a lack of sleep. “You need to focus your mind on something, or else it will focus on how tired you are and make you fall asleep.” Those words were supposed to help me in case I had to pull an all-nighter homework session, but now I knew what they were really for…

Driving was such a mindless task, especially with little to no cars on the road, so I had to find something to keep my mind on. I searched the car, but wasn’t able to find anything. I was about to give up when I laid my eyes on the radio. Turning on the radio, I heard nothing but loud static.

 My sister shot me a cold glance as the noise had startled her. “Sorry” I said chuckling while twisting the knob to find a station that worked. None of the stations worked, except for one, so that’s what I left it on.

*“Gee Gee Gee Gee Baby, Baby, Baby. Gee Gee Gee Gee Baby, Baby, Baby.”*

Well it’s not really my kind of song… but it is catchy.

I had always loved music, but I was into ballads, and this was more pop music. I would always sing at the restaurant, and someone once told me that a lot of people came in just to hear my voice. I was even going to try my hand at some singing competitions once I went to the city.

It would be great to sing professionally.

I zoned out as I imagined myself in the girl group that was singing the song. Dancing around wasn’t really my thing, but I did it anyway.

Well… maybe one day…

…

It hadn’t taken us too long to arrive at the convenience store: There were only a few cars in the parking lot; something I was thankful for. It was still very early in the morning, and this convenience store was secluded so I assumed that I could buy the gum without anybody really knowing I was there.

Before leaving the car, I grabbed a wrench out of the tool-kit and tucked it in the back of my pants.

Just in case.

Haeyeon had insisted on going inside the store with me, but I figured that it would be better if she stayed in the car with the blanket over her. That way: She wouldn’t be included if anything bad happened in the store…

I walked inside the store, surprised by how empty it was. There were only four people in there: two boys around my age, an ahjussi, and an ahjumma; who happened to leave moments after I entered. One of the two boys dismissed my presence, but the ahjussi and the other boy had kept their eyes on me.

I had cleaned myself up earlier so I was looking that strange: I still had the bandage wrapped around my hand and a scab lined my cheek from the cut I received. I shrugged off their looks and guessed that since the convenience store was so secluded, that they didn’t get very many outside customers.

After the ahjumma left, the boy that was giving me the look, moved so that he was standing next to the door. I didn’t think much of it, but took note of the action either way.

Walking down the aisles, I eventually found where they kept the gum. I checked all of the different kinds of gum to make sure I got the one that do the best job of plugging the hole. While I was reading the packets, one of the boys walked up next to me: It was the one who had dismissed me when I walked in the store; he was sweeping the floor near me. Keeping his back turned to me, he started to talk in a quiet voice.

“Two men were in here earlier, looking for two girls… You fit the description of one of them…”

 As he said those words, the hair on the back of my neck stood up and my body tensed.

“They’re offering a few million wons for information on you.”

I slowly started reaching for the wrench that was tucked in my pants, but then he continued talking.

“Don’t worry; I’m not going to tell them, but… I’m not so sure about my boss and his son…”

I relaxed a bit and put my hand down.

The ahjussi must have noticed our conversation because he told the boy to go to the back and clean the bathroom.

“I’m sorry that I can’t help more.” He said walking away.

“Thank you” I responded softly.

Working on staying calm, I found the gum that I thought would work the best and walked towards the counter.

This isn’t good…

Someone walked into the store as I reached the counter… He was a foreigner: African-American, but I didn’t notice much other than that. The thought crossed my mind that he was a part of the people looking for me and my sister, but I shrugged it off because I didn’t get the same menacing feeling from him: He foreigner seemed somewhat distant, almost clueless.

What would a foreigner be doing way out here?

I would have pondered the question more, but I had more pressing matters at the moment.

A look of annoyance crossed the ahjussi’s face as the foreigner walked in the door, but it quickly went back to normal.

I approached the counter and handed the ahjussi the money for the gum. Before giving me change back, he tried to start a conversation with me.

“So what is a young girl like you doing all the way out here?”

“Sorry, but I’m sort of in a hurry.” I responded with a tone to match my urgency.

“Well that’s no way to treat an elder…”

I’ve got to get out of here.

Without letting him finish, I turned to walk out, but then he grabbed me by the wrist. His grip wasn’t too strong, but it caught me by surprise so I initially couldn’t break free. He raised his other arm and picked up and old phone on his desk: He started to dial a number…

Before I could panic, the old man stopped dialing because the buttons weren’t responding when he pushed them. We looked towards the door almost simultaneously to see the foreigner with the phone’s plug-in in his hand; he looked around, confused.

The ahjussi instantly began berating the foreigner, cursing him out and waiving his free hand around. As the ahjussi started waiving his hand around, his grip immediately became weaker.

The foreigner was taken back by the ahjussi’s anger; he started to bow and apologize to the older man in broken Korean. In the midst of one of his bows, the foreigner shot me a glance as if to make my move. “Go!” his eyes said.

It didn’t take me more than a second to pick up the gum and break free of the ahjussi’s grip. I ran towards the door; silently thanking the foreigner for his help as I moved past him. Waiting for me at the door was the store owner’s son. He had left the side of the door and was now standing directly in front of it, so as to block my path.

In one swift motion: I grabbed the wrench from the back of my pants and ran it across the boy’s jaw. The low hit forced his head upwards as he fell to the floor; writhing in pain. I stepped over the boy’s body as he made an attempt to grab my leg. I kicked his hand off and ran out the door…

________________________________________________________________________________________

Random foreigner aiding Taeyeon? Seems a little to convenient if you ask me...