Almost immediately after Helen finished putting away the very last dish someone entered the house, unannounced.  She turned to see Jungryul leading a train of people into the dorm; they made eye contact before anyone else noticed her and he motioned with his head for her to go back to the room.  Helen quietly snuck away while makeup artists and hairdressers worked in the cramped dorm, trying to make the boys look like their Infinite idol image.  Throughout all the commotion no one even remembered Helen was in the apartment, even as they filed out of the room and headed for the van.  Jungryul, as usual, was the last to leave the dorm as he began locking the door behind him; Helen poked her head out, noticing it was just Jungryul.  “I need to go…and I won’t be here when you get back.”

He saw her dress…it wasn’t something he would’ve expected Helen to have picked out for herself.  Jungryul wasn’t going to lie; it did look stunning on her but after raising her he knew better than to think Helen had suddenly gained such fancy tastes.  Helen’s job had always paid well but Jungryul had taught her to save money; not spend it frivolously; and for all the fighting she was involved it she knew better than to waste money on clothes that would end up ripped, stained and destroyed by the end of a normal work day.  She often stuck to simple, plain t-shirts and jeans or shorts depending on the weather.  She should’ve been a model, instead.  Jungryul thought to himself as he watched the chiffon float around her body.  He often thought it was ironic, the choices Helen made. 

                Jungryul began to remember another memory a few weeks after he’d met her in the airport.  After he opened the envelope she had offered him, Jungryul understood that this girl was now in his charge for as long as he could care for her.  She had nothing with her and so after work he would bring her back a plain outfit everyday; Helen would be so happy and thankful.  Maybe it was during this time that she began to like plain clothes; it was all that she owned.  Jungryul had decided to take her shopping after he’d saved up money just for her.  He wanted Helen to make the choice of having one expensive outfit or many useful ones as he handed her a wad of hard-earned money.  It had taken her a few minutes of convincing before she slowly reached out to take the money; at the same time she reached out and grabbed Jungryul’s other arm and tugged him in the direction of a thrift store.  He smiled to himself, feeling proud of her; afterwards he asked to treat her with ice cream but she refused and replied that spending time with “Appa” was a reward enough.

Helen’s voice brought Jungryul back into the apartment, “I can’t tell you where I’m going, Appa…” 

Jungryul stood at the door nodding his head.  He’d grown accustomed to not interfering with her business; but it never stopped him from asking the same question each time she was about to leave, “Will you be ok?” 

Helen smiled, “Of course.”

“We’ll be back around seven tonight.”  Jungryul mentioned

“I’ll be gone by then.  Tell them thank you and that there are snacks in the refrigerator, ok, Appa?”

Jungryul started to close the front door but his thoughts brought him back into the apartment a final time.  “Will I see you again?”  He refrained from using the words “soon” and “ever” in his question but there was no way to hide the desperation in his voice.

Helen looked away trying to decide how to answer him; wells of water began to form in the corners of her eyes.  The silence grew longer and Jungryul understood her answer.  He nodded, accepting the fate and closed the door behind him.  Helen’s eyes stung as she blinked hard.

The truth was, was that she never knew what her job would call for next.  She’d been recruited for the position at such a young age that she knew nothing else but what her boss demanded and requested.  She was called out into the field so often which usually meant that when she was finished with her job she would need to relocate immediately and wait to be contacted by the company in a safe location.  That was the reason she was back in Korea after so many years; that was the reason she had finally given Jungryul a phone call. 

Helen remembered her real parents, the American’s from California; she remembered them traveling to South Korea many times as she grew up; she learned the language quickly.  Then, one day, something changed.  She woke up on the airplane with nothing but an envelope and a picture of man she’d never met in her small, ten year old hands.  On the back of the picture were instructions on where to find the man, and that she shouldn’t open the envelope but give it to the man.  Helen didn’t need to ask what was inside; she knew it wasn’t good when Jungryul’s face drained of colour and his face grimaced in pain and anger. 

Helen often wondered if the company she was currently working with had something to do with her past; she tried not to think about it because she felt as if she learned too much that eventually she would be disappointed.  Helen worried that eventually the secrets wouldn’t remain hidden anymore and she’d have to face the facts of her origins but today nor tomorrow would be the day.  Today she had a job to do; a “date” to attend and information to retrieve. 

Someone from the company had followed her, last night, and left her instructions on the windowsill with the dress.  Her teammate from the company, Jin Hyun, was going to meet her about a block from the apartment at 6:00p.m where they would then travel together in his car to a restaurant.  They were meeting two businessmen with whom they were to have dinner with.  Helen’s orders were to distract a man named Park Song while Jin Hyun completed an “under-the-table business transaction”.  Lastly, the instructions package stated that she would need to be armed and prepared to make an arrest.   There would be no backup from the company and she would need to be able to report everything Park Song said to her at the table immediately.  After a mission success she would be given more information at headquarters; Jin Hyun would show her their base camp. 

Helen smirked as she reread the instructions.  It was almost subliminal the way the company snuck in hidden meanings.  The instructions never mentioned anything about failing a mission.  It was unheard of to fail and Helen never did.