Park Chaeyoung lives about an hour outside of the city of Jindo, so it takes some sweet-talking from Victoria to persuade a taxi to take them all the way there. Eventually he agrees – for an astronomical price – and the two climb into the taxi and are on their way.

“What are you going to say to her when we get there?” Victoria asks as the taxi nears the proper address.

Jongin frowns. “I’m not really sure,” he admits. “What can I say? I’m looking for my lost best friend, who happens to be the bastard child of your murdered sister?”

The taxi driver quirks an eyebrow at them in the rearview mirror but doesn’t comment.

“Maybe you shouldn’t be quite so blunt,” Victoria suggests. “Maybe start with the fact that you grew up with Kyungsoo and you were childhood best friends.”

They arrive at the address in question and Jongin pays the taxi driver even more to wait around for them for however long it takes them to talk to Ms. Park. Then he rings the bell at the gate, waiting anxiously.

“Yes? Hello?” comes a female voice through the intercom.

Jongin clears his throat. “Hello, is this Park Chaeyoung? Sister of Park Rahee?”

The woman is clearly suspicious. “Yes? Can I help you?”

“My name is Kim Jongin,” Jongin introduces himself. “I grew up with Do Kyungsoo. We were childhood best friends. I was wondering if we could talk for a bit?”

“You grew up with Kyungsoo?” the woman says. “Hold on just a moment, please.”

A second later, a middle-aged woman comes out of the front door and crosses over to let them in the gate. She is smiling, and she has the same eyes as Kyungsoo. The familiariarity of it sends a jolt down Jongin's spine. “It’s wonderful to meet someone from Kyungsoo’s past,” she says, gesturing for them to come in.

“So you know about Kyungsoo?” Jongin asks, following Ms. Park inside the house.

She nods. “Oh, yes. Rahee loved him so much, you know. It was so difficult for her to give him up.”

“She loved him, even though he was conceived through such a troubling event?” Victoria presses.

Ms. Park gives them a sad sort of look, holding open the front door and gesturing for them to enter the house. “She knew it wasn’t his fault. She never blamed the poor thing for anything. Please, have a seat. I’ll get us some tea.”

Leaving their shoes in the entryway, they pad in sock-clad feet into the living room, where they sink down on a worn sofa, listening to Ms. Park puttering around in the attached kitchen.

The living room is small and the furniture worn and aged, but it is clean and tidy. It reminds Jongin of Kyungsoo’s bedroom growing up – where every little thing had a place of its own – and he feels a surprising pang of nostalgia. He gives himself a little shake.

He’s nervous, and his anxiety is getting the better of him. Unable to sit still, he gets to his feet and crosses the room to a small bookshelf near the old television set. Most of the shelves are taken over by books, the majority nonfiction on cooking or gardening, but two are crowded with picture frames of varying shapes and sizes. They seem to be mostly family. Jongin glances over them, but he stops with a start when his eyes land on a small frame housing a black-and-white photo of a young girl. She has a shy sort of smile on her heart-shaped lips, and a pair of eyes that Jongin has dreamed about for over a decade now.

“Beautiful, wasn’t she?”

It’s Ms. Park, who has returned from the kitchen with a tea tray.

Jongin blushes and quickly replaces the photograph on the bookshelf. “I’m sorry,” he mumbles, embarrassed. “I didn’t mean to touch anything.”

“It’s fine,” Ms. Park says with a sad sort of smile, setting the tray on the coffee table and pouring them each a cup of tea. “I think it’s wonderful that someone other than me still cares about her.”

Jongin gratefully accepts the cup of tea and resumes his seat on the sofa beside Victoria, while Ms. Park sits in a rocking chair opposite them. “They look alike,” he murmurs. “Your sister and Kyungsoo, I mean. It caught me by surprise a bit.”

“They do, don’t they?” Ms. Park says. “Hold on a moment, I think I have a photo of the two of them together.”

Abandoning her tea, she totters off into the back of the house. A moment later she returns, handing Jongin another framed photograph. This one shows the beautiful Park Rahee holding a newborn child. She’s not smiling in the picture, her face looking rather haunted, but the baby Kyungsoo is swaddled and sleeping and looks quite peaceful.

“It’s the only photograph they ever got together,” Ms. Park explains, resuming her seat and picking up her tea once more. “The day Kyungsoo was born. She ran away from the maternity home the following day.”

Jongin stares at the photograph for a long time, blinking back the tears that threaten to fall.

Victoria, sensing that he’s lost his ability to speak momentarily, fills the silence. “Can you tell us about her? About Rahee, I mean?”

Ms. Park smiles sadly. “She was a wonderful person. I mean, we were only a few years apart so we fought quite a bit growing up. She was always taking my clothes.” She allows herself a little chuckle. “But still, we were very close. We told each other everything. She was so smart, too. We thought for sure she was going to university to become something important, like a doctor or lawyer or something. She was really into cooking, too.”

Jongin chuckles. “Kyungsoo, too. I wonder if he got that from her.”

Ms. Park smiles. “Yes, she was a good cook. She was also a hopeless romantic. I think that’s what got her in trouble in the first place.”

“You mean with Father Matthew?” Victoria asks.

Ms. Park sighs. “Yes. You know, I’d like to blame him for everything, but I can’t. Really, he’s not the only one to blame.”

“He’s not?” Jongin asks, finally looking up from the photograph of Kyungsoo and Rahee.

Ms. Park shakes her head. “My parents certainly thought he was. They blamed and cursed him until the day they died, God rest their souls. But it was Rahee who started the whole thing. She had always liked older men, and as soon as Father Matthew came to our church, she set her sights on him. She was such a flirt. She could charm her way into the heart of anyone. Father Matthew didn’t stand a chance. I think she saw him as something of a challenge. If she could get someone who had pledged celibacy to break his vow for her, she could do anything. That’s the way she saw it.”

“So their ual relationship was mutual?” Victoria asks in some surprise.

Ms. Park is quiet for a moment, thinking. “I don’t know,” she finally admits. “I wasn’t there. But, knowing my sister, I think she started the whole thing with the intention for it to go there. I think at some point she panicked and wanted to stop, but by then it was too late. I’m not forgiving Father Matthew for what he did by any means, but I do think that Rahee had given him every indication that she wanted to take it there. I think she was afraid to admit that to our parents, so she made it sound like it was an unwanted step in their relationship, but I do know that at some point she definitely wanted to sleep with him. She told me so herself.”

“How did they go from that relationship to him murdering her?” Jongin asks, hoping the question isn’t too insensitive.

But Ms. Park seems shocked by the question. “Murdered?” she demands, setting her tea down. “Whatever are you talking about?”

Jongin exchanges a nervous glance with Victoria. “We were under the impression that Father Matthew had Rahee murdered…”

“Oh, goodness no,” Ms. Park says quickly. “Father Matthew has certainly made mistakes, but he’s not a murderer.”

Victoria’s brow is furrowed. “Then what happened to your sister?”

“Car accident,” Ms. Park explains. “She had a lot of health problems after she gave birth to Kyunsoo, one of which was sporadic seizures. She had a seizure while she was driving. It was tragic, but certainly not murder.”

Jongin sits back heavily. So Rahee hadn’t been murdered after all. He finds that he is relieved by this revelation.

Ms. Park seems to sense that the conversation has gotten a bit too heavy. “Tell me about Kyungsoo as a child,” she says, pouring herself some more tea. “You said you were childhood best friends with him?”

Now here is a subject Jongin can talk about for hours. He smiles, remembering all the shenanigans they used to get up to together. “Yeah, we became friends when we were quite young and were pretty inseparable growing up, even though he was a year older than me. I even tried to get him to fail a year so we could be in the same grade at school. He laughed at me for that one.”

Ms. Park smiles. “I can imagine so.”

“He was a really great person,” Jongin says, and he feels tears welling up in his eyes again. “He always knew just what to say to cheer me up when I was feeling down. He made me a better person.” He stops to wipe the tears from his eyes before they could roll down his cheeks. “I’ve been searching for him for a long time now,” he admits. “That’s how I came to find you. And I’m not going to stop looking until I find him, or how he died.”

Ms. Park’s lips pucker up into a small o of surprise. “Died?” she repeated, shocked. “But, Kyunggie isn’t dead. He’s just gone on a trip for a few days.”

!!!!