YB Quote #2: ‘Are you blind?  Yoo He Yi is so pretty!  If you don’t like someone like her, what kind of person do you like?’ – Jeremy to Tae-Kyung

‘Go Mi Nam...You’re dirty.’ – Tae-Kyung’s Freudian reply

Chapter 2 – A Thankless Job

Seoul was seeing the back of winter when the bodyguard arrived. The cold mornings had lost their bite, commuters were untying their hoods and scarves, and in the middle of the day some of the bolder wildflowers had begun to appear.

Mi-Nyeo didn't have much of a chance to enjoy the change of season. Her new job kept her running around so much that she didn't even have time to put A.N.Jell-brand plasters on her blistered heels. Actress Yoo He Yi, Korea's Fairy, had an irregular schedule that often ran for twenty out of the twenty-four hours a day, and she liked to run on time.

“Come on, bodyguard.  If you can’t keep up with the pace then I will make you swallow some pills,” He Yi muttered one evening, tapping her purse on the roof of a limousine.

Still only half-dressed, Mi-Nyeo crammed the short walk to the car with a frenzy of shirt-into-pants tucking, shoelace tying, equipment checking, fly zipping and hair flattening.  She made a dash for the door that He Yi had been standing next to all along, and pulled it open before the older girl exploded with impatience.

“Finally!”  He Yi bent down and slid into the car gracefully.  “You have no sense of time.  Appa must have thought I’d like you because of your appearance.”  The actress shuddered.  “But seeing Mi-Nam’s face on a woman just gives me the chills.”

Reminding herself that He Yi was also God’s lamb, Mi-Nyeo swallowed her pride and climbed in after her, taking care not to bump her head on the roof more than once.  She pulled the door shut just as the driver started the engine, and the car sped off into the night.

Mi-Nyeo looked around the expensive leather interior and fidgeted with her wrinkled jacket.  “It’s very nice in here.  Is this car yours, Actress?”

He Yi glared at her from over the 230 000 won champagne.  “How did you, of all people, become a bodyguard?  You’re small.  You’re naive.  Plus you’re a few radishes short of a kimchi side-dish...if you get my meaning.”

At the mention of food, Mi-Nyeo’s empty stomach growled.  She tried to muffle the sound by slapping her hands around her middle, but it did nothing for the mammoth gurgling.

He Yi let out a long-suffering sigh.  “You’ll have to do for now.  Tonight is important.  This is the first film where I haven’t had to play a weak female lead, and I need the critics to think I’m the dark horse of the Pan-Asian Film Industry.  Do you think you can handle that kind of pressure, bodyguard?”

Mi-Nyeo gave her a shaky thumbs-up.  “Yeh.  I have been preparing with your security team all afternoon, Actress.”

He Yi sank back into the soft leather.  “Who knows; it might be easier to have a female bodyguard shadowing me.  At least you understand the importance of lip gloss and tissues.”

Mi-Nyeo tried to remember if she’d brought either item, and felt around in her pockets.  Her fingers brushed against a paperclip, a crumpled handkerchief, and next to it...a very precious hairpin.

The memories attached to it made her heart ache.

“I don’t know if the security team warned you, but Mi Nam will probably come tonight,” added He Yi.  “I told him not to, as he will draw the attention away from the film, but he considers it a personal challenge to disobey everything I tell him to do.”

The bodyguard let go of the small plastic trinket and tried to focus on the news about her twin.  “May I ask you, Actress, how is Oppa?  Is he still as thin as when I last saw him?  Is he eating well?  How are his eyelids?”

He Yi yawned.  “He’s the same Mi Nam Oppa to me; eyelids and all.”

The limousine started to slow.  They had reached their destination.

Mi-Nyeo’s earpiece crackled to life.  “Perimeter secured.  Ready to go when you are, Jemma.”

“Ah...yeh,” she confirmed.

When the driver hit the brakes, Mi-Nyeo took a deep breath and jumped out into the crowd of screaming fans.  She swam through the sea of arms and legs to get to He Yi’s side, and helped the actress step out without being swamped.

“Hi everyone!” He Yi called to the onlookers.  “Thank you for coming!”

All of Seoul’s youth responded to her by turning the volume up on their cheers and whistles.  He Yi laughed, and then glided over to a crowd of small girls near the barrier.  Mi-Nyeo handed her a pen, and the actress spent a quarter of an hour signing the posters and souvenirs close enough for her to reach.

“You were very kind to them, Actress,” said Mi-Nyeo as they finally walked up the red carpet together.

He Yi swept a few hairs out of her face and scowled.  “My cheeks are going to ache from all the smiling thanks to those little monsters.  Ya.  Don’t forget to stay close to me.  Your pumpkin face will make me look better in the pictures.”

Mi-Nyeo stopped and scanned the scary group of journalists ahead.  “Is there anything else you need before you begin the interviews, Actress?”

He Yi rolled her shoulders back.  “How’s my posture in these shoes?”

Put on the spot, Mi-Nyeo struggled for the right words to make He Yi happy.  “Um...I think you look so pretty that...that....”

“That?”

“Heaven must be missing an angel?” she finished, cringing at her own words.

He Yi gave her a long look.  “Okay bodyguard, your kissing-up isn’t bad, but in the future I expect compliments coming out of those dry lips, not pick-up lines.  Besides, you’re just not my type.”  She paused.  “Mi...Nyeo, wasn’t it?  Go Mi-Nyeo.  Or do you still prefer to be called Go Mi Nam?”

Mi-Nyeo glanced up, and then paled.  “Get down!”

“No, that wasn’t it.”

“No!  Get down, Actress!”  Mi-Nyeo pulled He Yi into a crouch and then flung herself over her.

The screams of the fans had taken on a more alarming tone; a rough-looking Ahjusshi had made it across the barriers and onto the red carpet with a firearm, which was now pointed directly at the pair of them.

“This is Jemma; code red-code red,” Mi-Nyeo whispered into her earpiece.

“Go Mi Nam!”  The man shouted, and the screams around him died down.  “Don’t even think about running!”

“Pumpkin Face, is he talking about you?” whispered He Yi, peering around Mi-Nyeo’s bottom.  “He must be.  He’s pointing the gun at your back.”

Trembling, Mi-Nyeo scanned the red carpet for her Oppa; Mi Nam was nowhere to be seen.

He Yi poked Mi-Nyeo’s arm.  “Ya.  What are you going to do?”

“Go Mi Nam,” called the stranger; his voice reflecting anger and desperation.  “Stand up and face me like a man!  We have business to settle.”

“Stay low, Actress.  When I tell you to, I would be grateful if you would run into the building.  Okay?” whispered Mi-Nyeo.

He Yi nodded.  Her eyes were wide with fear.

“I’m coming, Ahjusshi!” said Mi-Nyeo, claiming her Oppa’s name.  Onlookers gasped and cameras clicked as she raised her arms high.  “Please don’t shoot me just yet.”

The man’s shiny black eyes narrowed as she approached.  “Your debt is worth more than your life, you coward!  Still...your flesh may be the only form of payment you can give me.”

Ignoring the voices in her earpiece, Mi-Nyeo stepped closer and scrutinised his shadowed face.  There wasn’t much to see except for the scruff around his chin.  A black hood covered the rest.

“I don’t know you,” she said.  “I don’t know what I’ve done. I’m sorry.”

“Then you insult me further with your ignorance.”

Mi-Nyeo looked him in the eyes.  “Whatever it was, I am sorry that it has caused you so much pain...but killing me won’t make you feel better.”

“Oh yeah?”  He smiled bitterly.  “Why is that?”

“There are people, your family maybe, who will care very much what happens to you tonight.  What you do will affect them long after you’ve pulled the trigger.”

His face twisted in anger.  “It’s because of them that I am here!”

“Ahjusshi, do you think they’d want that?”

“Sometimes, we all have to make sacrifices.”

Bang!

People were screaming again.  Some were running away from the scene, while others were running towards it.  Mi-Nyeo could only stand and watch the man’s back as he fled; the pain from the bullet in her chest was intense.  It stopped her from being able to breathe.  She turned her head to see if He Yi was safe, and was relieved to find that the rest of the team had arrived to sweep her away.

“Ow.”  She said as another wave of pain washed over her.  Through blurry eyes she watched guests being escorted from the building.  Some of the reporters and fans took advantage of the chaos to climb over the barrier.

And then, out of nowhere, her star appeared.

Among the shifting people, he was rooted to the spot, watching her.  His arm was being tugged on by a scared woman, but he seemed to be unable to move.

“Still so beautiful,” Mi-Nyeo whispered.

“Hold on, Jemma.  We’ve called you an ambulance,” said a voice to her right.  “Why don’t you lie down until it arrives.”

She winced.  “After all this time, it still hurts.  I shouldn’t have come back.  I shouldn’t have gotten so close.  Now I can’t look away.”

“Jemma, you’re not making any sense.”

Her world faded to black.