Chapter Four

"112[1]. Emergency, 112."

Seunghyun stared at the screen of his phone as if an explanation would reach out and smack him in the face. Nothing came to him. The number hadn't been saved in his phone's contacts, and the only person who sent him those kind of emergency messages was Jiyong, usually when he was overwhelmed. Big Bang's leader, however, was happily decimating a level of Angry Birds with Seungri watching at his side. Youngbae and Daesung were absent from the family circle, but Seunghyun knew one was re-filming part of their latest music video and the other was recording a new solo single. Just as he was about to delete the message and get on with life, another open popped up with the generic chime of an unknown number.

"T.O.P-sshi, my name is Kang Min-Hyo. I know you're friends with my teacher, Taylor Naomi. Something's happened to her, and I can't convince her to talk to me. Please. Will you help her?"

Seunghyun was shrugging into his jacket before he had processed the desire to move. He stepped into his shoes, thumbs flying over the screen. "Where is she?"

"Hyung, where are you going?" asked Seungri, startled by the sudden movement. "You don't have a date tonight. I thought you were just going to stay here with us." The group's youngest looked pathetically hurt, like a child being denied a trip to the zoo because of rain.

"The park across from the school."

"A friend needs me," Seunghyun replied and closed the door on the puppy eyes begging him to stay home.

The streets were dark, and a few stars struggled valiantly to be seen over the lights of Seoul at night. As he walked to his car, Seunghyun put the phone to his ear and waited for the ringing to give way to the voice of the student. When the call was answered, he wasted no time with pleasantries. "What happened to her?"

The voice which answered reminded him of Seungri before their debut; he was clearly young and still getting his feet wet in the world. "A representative from the American embassy came to see her before the final class of the day. They spoke in English, and I could only understand half of what they said, but I think he threatened to deport her back to America."

Seunghyun's stomach clenched sharply as cold dread rippled through him. The combination of sensation made him nauseous. "I brought all my worldly possessions with me," whispered the ghost of the conversation he'd had with Naomi in his mind. "Without Patricia, I had nothing."

"Is she hurt?" he asked sternly. The white Camaro's engine roared as he snapped the key into the ignition and twisted, the vibrations blazing up his body. The cold in his guts moved up into his chest, making him shiver.

"I don't think so, but she isn't acting the way she usually does. I looked in on her last class, and she let them work on school work the whole time. She doesn't like doing that because she doesn't think it's a good way to learn."

"I'm on my way to the school. I'll take care of her. Don't leave her until I get there." Tires shrieked around a corner as he swung into the street.

Min-Hyo barked a laugh that might just have a scream trying to blend with a sob. "T.O.P-sshi," he said, and for the first time, his voice was shaking, "I don't wait to think where she'd be now if I did. There's a bench across from the school yard under a light. I'll have her there when you arrive."

Without another word, Seunghyun tapped the End Call key and put his foot down firmly on the accelerator pedal.

The streetlight burned a muted orange in a street that was otherwise dark. The Camaro's lights cut the dark like a blade as it rolled to a stop under the conic beam, glinting gold off its lines. Seunghyun threw the car into park and stepped out. Min-Hyo - at least, he assumed it was Min-Hyo - looked up from the small form beside him and nodded once in greeting.

"Seongsaengnim," he said quietly, "T.O.P-sshi is here."

She looked up, and Seunghyun's heart felt like it stopped cold in his chest. She had been crying. Black lines of mascara and eyeliner rippled like gaping chasms in the light make-up on her cheeks, and strands of her hand clung to them like some disfiguring mold eating away at her face. She lowered her eyes in her lap, and he saw the dark spots on her slacks like sightless eyes.

Her lips were moving, and as Seunghyun knelt in front of her, he caught the barely-spoken English words. "They want to send me away. They want to send me where I'm all alone. They want… they want…"

"I'll take care of her," Seunghyun said as he gathered her up in arms that trembled a little; the cold fear was working itself merry way out of him now through his legs and fingers like electricity. Very carefully, he guided Naomi to the passenger door and let her sit in the Camaro as he brought up the soft top from its hidden recess above the trunk. She was visibly shaking now, tears turning black as they worked their slow way down her face.

"She needs to pay 540,000 won to renew her visa," Min-Hyo said, laying her messenger bag and sweater in the seat behind his teacher. "That's what the man told her. I could understand that well."

"Kamsahaeyo[2]," Seunghyun said and turned to face the younger man. "Do you need a ride home?" he offered; he felt compelled to be polite to the boy, who clearly cared for his teacher very much.

"No, I live two blocks north of here. Thanks though." Squeezing Naomi's shoulder once more, he walked up the sidewalk into the night.

The Camaro rolled to a stop ten minutes later in a parking space maybe 100 yards from Banpo Bridge[3]. The rainbow arches crossed the Han River in a parade of color. Seunghyun stepped out of the car and offered his arm to the subdued teacher leaning on the hood with her head down. "Walk with me," he said softly. His voice rumbled like thunder in the quiet of the night. "Let's talk."

He led her down the sidewalk to the pedestrian path on the underside of the bridge with her hand clutched in his and her head lightly tapping his arm as they swayed a little in rhythm. She had stopped shaking and crying, but he could feel the hopelessness lolling off her in suffocating waves. When they stood in the center of the bridge with the river roaring under their feet, he stopped and turned her toward him.

"What happened?" he asked quietly.

Naomi looked up at him and sighed softly. "I'm going to be deported if I can't renew my teaching visa and pay the fine for late renewal. The representative claimed he sent me warnings and reminders in the mail, but I never got them. But I don't have the money for the renewal fee, so… They're going to send me back to America where I'm all alone and unemployed and have to leave my students behind…"

"How much do you owe?" Seunghyun asked her. He put his arm around her shoulders and looked out at the rainbow of light that tumbled before them into the river.

"540,000," she said dully. "I don't have that much to use. It's for rent and food and bills. I just… don't have it." Naomi leaned her head on the side of his chest and felt it rise and fall as he breathed. His arm tightened around her so naturally, it was like he hadn't given it any thought. He had, of course, argued the move within himself for what felt like an hour but which was barely a bubble in the ever-drifting river of time.

Seunghyun leaned down to rest his chin on her head, kissing the spot just above the ponytail she had gathered her hair into on the ride over. A few moments later, he managed to force out the words he'd been rolling around his head since Min-Hyo had called him over an hour ago. "I'll pay for it for you if you kiss me."