Chapter 22
You Said Remember Me II
“We should be quick on our feet,” Kikwang slightly turned his head to look at Donghae, “I looked around before we left and I’m sure we haven’t been followed, but we should never assume that I’m right. Keep an eye out.”
Donghae nodded.
“If anything happens, I’ll try to stop them so you take Nana and go to Osan first. I’ll meet you two there before we make it to Suwon,” Kikwang mapped out their plan B. “Do you hear that Nana?”
Nana shrugged him away and distanced herself from him.
“Nana,” he called again.
Nana frowned angrily and kept her eyes elsewhere refusing to turn around. Kikwang sighed heavily as if he was tired of fighting with her. This time, Donghae became the one feeling awkward. He was unsure if he should step in or not and try to reduce the tension in the air then he wondered if he even had the right to. Nana wasn’t anyone to him, but a girl who was desperately searching for her brother’s killer. And Kikwang was a stranger he’d met along the way. He didn’t know either of them well enough to do anything.
“Are you two hungry? Shall we get something to eat?” Donghae suggested.
/ / / / /
“Ah…wait,” Yuri called after a police officer who’d came to drop off some paperwork for her, “that bombing incident at the criminal firm in Incheon…has there been any results?”
“It’s confidential information, Sheriff Kwon,” he replied easily. “I’m not supposed to tell you anything about it.”
“The Chief told you not to tell me anything?” Yuri assumed.
His face quickly flushed with frustration before he bowed and started for the door. Yuri shot up from behind her desk and slammed the quarter-of-the-way opened door shut with an arm and turned to face the officer who slowly inched back from her.
“Do I scare you?” Yuri asked intimidating him. “Did you hear what I did to the alcoholics when I was first recruited?”
Turning his face away he blinked his eyes amazingly fast. He was nervous.
“So, tell me what you saw on those papers and what you heard from the Chief,” Yuri demanded in a whisper.
/ / / / /
“You idiots!” Ren Gei shrieked into his hand phone. “I came all the way to Anyang just to prepare for this kind of bull from you heads?!”
“Victoria’s still in the city hiding somewhere,” Eui Tae answered calmly.
“Then why the hell are you calling me when she’s in the city?!” Ren Gei angrily screamed. “Get her, tie her up, and bring her to me! If you idiots weren’t so smart to have left her alone inside the car she wouldn’t have escaped! Bring her to me before I cut both your eyes out! Relay the same message to Leo, do you hear me? If the four of you fail to bring Lee Donghae and Victoria before me, I’m going to do it on my own. And your sorry asses will be hanging from the ceiling.”
/ / / / /
“That ,” Young Ae muttered sitting on the bench beside the standing Eui Tae chewing endlessly on her piece of gum. “Who does he think he is to order us around?”
“You better get your sorry up,” Eui Tae said with that low voice of his, “Victoria should be crawling about by this time of day.”
Young Ae’s head swerved to follow Eui Tae as he started down the street. Rolling her eyes she got up shaking her head.
/ / / / /
“Oh?” Eunhyuk said from beside her in the cab after hanging up.
“What is it?” asked Victoria.
“The landlady changed her mind,” Eunhyuk told, “the apart is ready for us anytime.”
“Really? So fast?” Victoria wondered.
“Good news, isn’t it?” Eunhyuk mused. “I didn’t feel comfortable staying with Yuri and Changmin. We don’t know them well, I know they’re good people but I don’t like being a bother.”
Victoria pressed her lips together into a fine line. Of course, they didn’t know Yuri and Changmin. But even if they moved into the apartment something told her that they’d still go back to the two.
They got back early in the evening to discover that both Yuri and Changmin’s car were parked in the driveway. When they entered through the front door Yuri’s yelling was storming throughout the whole house. Unsure whether to enter the arena or not Victoria and Eunhyuk paused at the front door.
A loud angry sigh came flooding from Yuri’s lungs as she put her hands on her hips and glared at the guilty Changmin. Her expression disappeared when she recognized Eunhyuk and Victoria standing in the doorway.
“You’re back?” Yuri’s voice surprised the two of them.
“Did we interrupt?” Victoria asked.
“No, it’s nothing,” Yuri ran a hand through her hair, “bad day at work and Changmin her just wasted the rest of the meat I had in the fridge.”
“I told you I could go out and buy you some,” Changmin whined quietly.
“Just shut it!” Yuri snapped.
“I saw some earlier at the mart. They were being put on sale,” Victoria offered. “I could go with Changmin to go get some.”
Eunhyuk quickly turned to her.
“It’s fine, it’s just a small trip back to the store,” Victoria assured. “Stop treating me like a child, I can do things by myself.”
Eunhyuk turned back to look at Changmin who quickly avoided his eyes. There was something about him that was fishy but he couldn’t quite grasp the reason.
“We’ll be back soon,” Victoria promised.
When she got into Changmin’s car she turned to look at him.
“The two of you argue like children,” Victoria commented with a smile.
“Yuri always pushes her way till she wins,” Changmin muttered. “I might sound like I’m complaining but…urghhh! She’s so annoying sometimes!”
“You two are like a married couple,” Victoria said. “It’s cute.”
Changmin scrunched up his face, “Don’t ever call Yuri that. She’s beyond bizarre. It’d be awful to have her as a wife especially if I were to spend the rest of my life with her. I’d rather marry someone smart…like you.”
Victoria turned to him with a small frown, “You’re like me and Yuri’s the female version of my husband. It’s amusing.”
“Your husband must be way cooler,” Changmin told, “to have married you, he must be a great kind of person.”
Victoria turned back to stare out the window.
“Your friend, Eunhyuk, are you two very close?”
“We’re good friends,” Victoria answered turning back to him. “Why?”
“Ah…it’s just he seems intimidating.”
“Really? How?”
Changmin just smiled in reply, “I must be talking too much.”
A few minutes later the two of them finally reached the market. Victoria led Changmin down an aisle until they reached the meat products. Carefully picking up the freshest packaged meat they headed toward the front to checkout. Victoria was feeling much more at ease and when her eyes searched around while they waited in line she spotted the newspapers stand sitting by the grocery section.
“I’ll be back,” Victoria told Changmin before edging her way out of the line.
Stopping before the stand she picked up a newspaper and started browsing through it. Her first priority was to see if there were anything on Donghae and any wrap up news about the destroyed criminal investigation firm in Incheon.
That was all before she heard a loud scream from a middle aged woman, “Yah!”
Taken aback by the loud scream which caused everyone around her to freeze she looked up to see a tall man with bulging shoulders and a young woman walking beside him look around dangerously. The woman they’d bumped into was busy picking up the apples that were rolling on the floor. Their eyes were fiercely focused among the crowd of peoples. When the man slowly darted his eyes Victoria’s way she found herself throwing up the newspaper to block her face from being seen.
Her heart started pounding loudly inside her chest. It was them. They were in Osan after all. She needed to get out.
Turning around she saw that Changmin was about checking out. Perhaps they’d be able to make it out on time, but how would she just walk away without being noticed?
Victoria gripped onto the newspaper tightly before trying to calm down her breathing. After a few seconds she lowered the newspaper down below her eyes and glanced around.
The two were out of sight.
Quickly folding the newspaper up messily she dropped it back onto the stand before rushing for Changmin. Just after a few steps, Victoria quickly halted. Eui Tae was marching around the crowd near the checkout lanes turning his head here and there every few seconds.
Where was Young Ae?
Chills crept up Victoria’s neck before she swiftly turned around to see the young woman smiling behind her.
/ / / / /
Eunhyuk made it back downstairs after dropping his and Victoria’s stuff into their rooms upstairs. Yuri was in the kitchen urgently scrubbing the dirty stove when he stopped at the doorway.
“I hope you and Victoria ate out,” Yuri said without looking up, “I don’t really have anything to cook right now.”
“It’s fine,” Eunhyuk replied.
Before he turned to walk away Yuri spoke up, “I didn’t mean to eavesdrop, but you said that Chief Kang returned to Incheon, right?”
Eunhyuk slowly nodded.
“Victoria said you’re good friends with her husband,” Yuri said, “how’d you and Victoria become so close then? If you don’t mind me asking.”
Eunhyuk pulled out a chair at the table and sat down.
“Yes, I met her through Donghae,” Eunhyuk nodded. “At first he was just in charge of the case, the one where her two friends had been murdered in their apartment. Victoria had been made a suspect since she was the only one to have discovered them that morning. After the funeral, Victoria disappeared. That was before Donghae found her again in Seoul. He quickly became infatuated with her before my sister started joining the picture. I didn’t know Victoria well, but after Donghae turned away from her I felt awful because Victoria was a victim, so I befriended her. There were many unfortunate events but thanks to those we were able to become better friends.
“Why? Do you feel suspicious of me when I arrived?”
“No,” Yuri quickly denied, “of course you have your reasons. I just wanted to know how close you were to her.”
Eunhyuk felt his eyebrows twitch. Yuri had something she was hiding.
She was silent for a long time and had stopped scrubbing the stove ever since he started talking. It was as if she were hesitating about something. Finally, she dropped the rag and walked over. Taking a seat beside him Yuri clasped her hands together in front of her.
“I was going to say the two of you don’t need to move out to another place,” Yuri began. “It’d save you more money, besides it’s not like Changmin or I mind having you here.”
Eunhyuk tilted his head to look at her.
Yuri took a long breath before saying, “I found out today…that they’ve stopped looking into the destroyed firm. So the police have assumed Chief Kang and Lee Donghae died because of their own doing and they’re not going to wait for Sasha to recover to testify, because it’ll take years for her to heal from shock. Victoria would be disappointed if she knew, so I didn’t want to tell her.”
It took a few long seconds for it all to transmit into Eunhyuk’s mind.
“Wait…so…the police have stopped investigation on the incident?” Eunhyuk asked still unsure of how put together what he’d just heard.
“They’re considered dead,” Yuri restated. “So even if someone was behind this, the police will no longer help with the case. They won’t arrest whoever did this because it’s been listed as Chief Kang and Lee Donghae’s own wrongdoing.”
“That’s not right…” Eunhyuk shook his head. “Why? How? They didn’t know anything, they were attacked!”
“They’ve dropped the case,” Yuri stuck onto her story, “I’ve been warned to stay away from their jurisdiction. My Chief isn’t happy with my prying into the matter, especially not after he found out I was looking into Im Jin Ah’s background.”
A new turn of the subject hit Eunhyuk’s brain.
“Who?” he immediately asked.
Yuri paused midway into her sentence wondering if she’d touched a subject he didn’t know about. She’d thought Victoria would have told him.
“Im Jin Ah,” the words slowly slid out.
Eunhyuk had never heard of her before.
“I don’t know who you’re talking about.”
Yuri looked away feeling flustered with herself.
“I thought Victoria would have talked to you about it,” Yuri said, “Victoria said she received a call from Lee Donghae before she was abducted. I checked up on the number and found that Lee Donghae had used Im Jin Ah’s phone to contact her. There’re two conclusions I have on my mind: he somehow has her phone or he’s not alone at the moment.”
Eunhyuk felt his eyebrows narrow. Victoria hadn’t said a thing about it. Had she been keeping it to herself all this while? The stress she could have felt from the news…
“I don’t want to be the one to let Victoria know,” Yuri told, “honestly, since you’re closer to her, I feel it’s best if someone she knows well tells her. It’s completely up to you, though, if you want to or not. I just felt it’d be better to let you know.”
spring semester ends this friday and i'm off for summer break :D i'll get back on track with YSRMII
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