The Interchange

Sumin sat in the passenger seat of Seunghyun’s van as they waited in the parking lot behind the SM building. She should’ve been watching the back entrance, on the lookout for Taeyeon, but instead her attention was on her reflection in the side-view mirror. She was captivated by the face staring back at her, seeing not herself in this reflection but the idol she had spent more than a decade hating.

It had taken longer than she had expected to reach this point. After the surgery, she had spent what was left of June and much of July recovering, all for a disappointing end result. The healed face showed a close resemblance to Taeyeon, with Sumin perhaps able to pass as a sister if anything, but not able to pass as Taeyeon herself. What she needed was a replica, not a resemblance. Seunghyun knew this, too, and agreed to do a second corrective surgery.

Sumin had more of a heart-shaped face, whereas Taeyeon’s was oval-like. During the initial surgery, Seunghyun had shaved down Sumin’s chin, squaring it off just below her lips, and had reshaped her cheekbones to make her face more narrow than round, but he hadn’t reshaped her forehead and brow, not until performing the second surgery in July. This subsequent operation resulted in a near perfect structural match and also fixed other imperfections, with Seunghyun doing some additional work on to trim more of the fat of her top lip so that it better matched the thinness of Taeyeon’s, and even cutting and reshaping Sumin’s earlobes so that they were detached like Taeyeon’s.

It had taken the rest of July and the beginning of August to heal from the second surgery. During this time, Sumin had starved herself, shedding fifteen pounds to match Taeyeon’s weight, and had started wearing lifts in her shoes, gaining an extra inch to match Taeyeon’s height. She had styled her hair like hers, had begun wearing makeup like hers, and had even tried singing…

… but this is where the fantasy had ended. Sumin couldn’t sing. She would sit on the floor, enshrouded in the darkness of her apartment, trying to sing “If,” but her voice was raspy, her tonal quality lacking, and her range practically nonexistent. Seunghyun had told her that she shouldn’t even speak, much less sing, lest she wanted to draw suspicion, but Sumin was delusional, believing that if she just kept practicing, she would be able to completely impersonate Taeyeon, voice and all.

She still believed this, but her delusion had evolved somewhat. It was the darkness of her apartment, she theorized, that made her unable to sing like Taeyeon. It represented her old life, and until she rid herself of that entirely, she would never have Taeyeon’s voice, no matter how much she practiced. In her mind, she needed to step into Taeyeon’s life first, to experience the light, and then the voice would follow.

Impatient to start her new life, Sumin looked up from the side-view mirror, returning her attention to the back entrance of the SM building. She and Seunghyun had come to this parking lot every night this week, waiting for an opportune moment to grab Taeyeon. So far, they had only seen her once, two nights ago, but she had been surrounded by too many people for Seunghyun and Sumin to make any sort of move. Sumin had been frustrated by that, thinking that the world was intent on keeping her in her place, but she wasn’t about to give up. She knew that the moment would come eventually; she just had to quell her impatience.

“Is that her?” Seunghyun asked. He was pointing toward the back entrance from which two people were now running and laughing, like young kids sneaking out of school. Both were wearing hoodies to hide their faces. It was clear from their body types and the way they were running that the one in front was female, the one in back male. The wind picked up a bit at that moment, lifting the girl’s hood and revealing her to be Taeyeon.

Sumin felt a surge of adrenaline rush through her body. “That’s her!” she yelled. She immediately reached for the door handle but Seunghyun grabbed her arm.

“Not yet,” he said.

They both watched as Taeyeon and her male companion got into the black Porsche Boxster parked directly across from Seunghyun’s van. The Porsche’s brake lights suddenly flared red and the exhaust began pumping out spurts of smoke into the night air, but the car stayed put, just idling there. The windows were tinted, making it impossible for Seunghyun and Sumin to see what the couple was doing inside.

“What are we waiting for?” Sumin asked. Her heart was racing and was dry. She had never been this anxious in her life.

“She’s with someone,” Seunghyun said. “Probably that guy she’s dating. What’s his name again? Bacon?”

“Baekhyun!” Sumin said, scoffing. She looked ahead again, trying to peer through the tinted darkness of the Porsche’s rear windshield, but to no avail. She eyed the car jealously then, feeling suddenly embittered. “Can’t believe she drives a Porsche,” she muttered.

“She’s a snobby idol,” Seunghyun said. “What did you expect her to drive?”

Sumin didn’t answer. She had already known about the Porsche, and for that matter about Taeyeon’s other cars, but in all the years that she had stalked her, she had never gotten this close to Taeyeon—to actually see her in her car, living her perfect life with her perfect boyfriend.

Just then, the Porsche’s reverse lights came on as it began backing out of its spot.

“We’ll just follow her and wait for when she’s alone,” Seunghyun quietly said. He turned the ignition, the van growling into life, and then lit a cigarette as he began to follow the Porsche out of the parking lot, staying a little ways back to avoid suspicion.

The Porsche headed west on local roads, skirted down to Apgujeong-ro, and then turned north on a boulevard that led to Seongu Bridge. Just as Sumin began to wonder where Taeyeon was heading, the Porsche suddenly veered off the boulevard toward the ramp for Olympic-daero, which ran parallel to the Han River, the ramps for the bridge crisscrossing above. They were only on Olympic-daero for a moment before the Porsche slowed to take what looked like a construction road on the right. On either side of the road’s entrance, there were yellow and black striped barricades, between which the Porsche easily passed, heading down the short slope to the banks of the Han, out of sight of the highway.

Seunghyun slowed the van, the sides of which were scraped by the barricades as he tried to squeeze through. He slowed the van even more, cursing under his breath until they cleared the barricades, and then turned off the headlights to creep stealthily down the narrow road to the water’s edge.

There, along the embankment, they saw a few construction vehicles parked haphazardly, presumably left there from the day’s work, which gave the area somewhat of an abandoned look with no sign of life… except for the Porsche a little ways down, parked so that it faced the Han. The passenger window had been rolled down just a crack, allowing a faint whisper of music to seep out, which was muffled a bit by the hum of the idling engine, the trickle of the river, and the rumble of the cars coursing along the bridge ramps above them.

Seunghyun parked in the back, away from the water but still in sight of the Porsche, and then cut the engine. He and Sumin sat there for a moment, both watching the car in sort of an awkward silence until Seunghyun finally spoke up. “Guess this is where idols go for dates,” he mumbled.

Sumin didn’t say anything. All she could think about was how this was the perfect place to snatch Taeyeon. There was nothing here—no witnesses… except for Baekhyun. She bit down on her lip, hoping that Taeyeon would have some reason to get out of her car so that they could get her without Baekhyun seeing. But these thoughts were quickly interrupted when she suddenly felt Seunghyun’s hand on her thigh. He was staring at her, the lights of the water and the nearby bridge reflecting against his profile, lighting up just one side of his face, with the other side covered in shadows. Sumin smiled at the symbolism of this sight, these two sides to Seunghyun. For a while, this is how she had seen him—as having some sort of dual personality—but recently, she had seen very little of his dark half. She didn’t know what to think of this.

“Come here and kiss me,” Seunghyun whispered. He closed his eyes and his lips.

“What?” Sumin shook her head and then gestured toward the Porsche. “We’re a bit busy now, don’t you think?”

Seunghyun continued tonguing his lower lip, his eyes still closed, apparently waiting for her.

Sumin was irritated. “Open your eyes already! We need to keep watching so we don’t miss our chance!”

“I don’t want to open my eyes,” Seunghyun said. “I like to listen to you without seeing you so I can imagine your real face looking back at me.”

Sumin felt suddenly hurt and wondered what it meant that he couldn’t even bear looking at her. But then she realized that this new face wouldn’t attract men like Seunghyun. It would attract those on the other side of the spectrum, like Baekhyun, for instance.

Seunghyun opened his eyes. As if reading her mind, he asked, “When you’re her, you’re not going to go sit in cars with that Bacon guy and… do anything, right?”

“What do you mean?” Sumin asked.

“You know what I mean,” Seunghyun said, his deep voice no longer a whisper. He looked over at the Porsche, his imagination running wild as to what was going on inside that car.

“Are you jealous?” she asked, with a hint of a smile.

Seunghyun hesitated, as if wanting to say something but was unable to.

Sumin wouldn’t have minded continuing the conversation, but right now she wanted only to focus on the mission. “If you’re worried that I’m not going to see you afterward, don’t be.” The smile that had just been a hint on her lips before now curled into a smirk. “After all, I’ll have to stop by to keep checking on our prisoner, right?”

At that moment, they both caught sight of the Porsche’s reverse lights as it began to pull away from the water’s edge. Sudden anxiety rippled throughout Sumin’s body, as she was sure she had just now lost her chance to carry out the plan in what would’ve been the perfect setting for it. As the Porsche slowly drove back the way it had come, past the van, Sumin grinded her teeth, trying hard to ignore the voice inside her that was screaming for her to jump out and run to the Porsche before it left, dragging Taeyeon out by her hair if that’s what it took. She didn’t even care if Baekhyun saw. She could get rid of him, too, if she had to.

Seunghyun fumbled with the key to start the van and then, with the headlights still off, followed the Porsche back up the construction road to the highway. Sumin, meanwhile, rocked back and forth in the passenger seat, continuously pulling at her hair to appease her anxiety.

They followed the Porsche all the way back to the parking lot behind the SM building, where it again sat for a moment, idling. But just when Sumin thought she wouldn’t be able to restrain herself any longer, Taeyeon’s companion suddenly opened his door and Sumin saw that it hadn’t been Baekhyun that whole time after all, but was instead Sehun, EXO’s maknae. While this was certainly a surprise and somewhat confusing, she didn’t have much time to think about it because Sehun was already walking away, heading back to the SM building, which meant that Taeyeon was alone in her car. Sumin flashed an intense look at Seunghyun, signaling to him that this was it; this was the moment they had been waiting for.

Seunghyun nodded and quietly opened his door, stepping out of the van at the exact moment that Taeyeon, too, was just stepping out of the Porsche. The darkness had enabled him to get close enough for something of a blitz attack as he swiftly grabbed Taeyeon from behind with one hand while smothering with the other to muffle her screams.

Sumin watched from the van with wide eyes and a sly smile, breathing heavily in some sick delight as Taeyeon’s thin arms flailed about, like that of a paper doll, in a feeble struggle. She was easily overpowered by Seunghyun, who lifted her off the ground with just that one arm around her waist and shoved her toward the van. Sumin excitedly climbed over the center console to the back of the van, sliding open the rear side door just as Seunghyun got there. His hand was still clasped tightly around Taeyeon’s mouth, but although Sumin couldn’t hear Taeyeon scream, she could see the absolute fright in Taeyeon’s eyes, and how that fright morphed into utter shock when the idol looked up to see Sumin—or rather, herself—looking back.

“Get her inside!” Sumin yelled.

Seunghyun pushed Taeyeon into the van, climbed in behind her, and quickly pulled the side door closed. Sumin immediately grabbed Taeyeon’s hair, yanking it hard to keep her down as she wrapped the ball gag—one of Seunghyun’s old toys—around the idol’s head. She adjusted it so tightly that the leather straps were practically embedded in Taeyeon’s cheeks, with the bright red ball shoved hard in , her lips barely stretching around it. Seunghyun grabbed her then, sitting her up and holding her still so that she could face Sumin.

Sumin kneeled on the dirty van floor across from Taeyeon. Her heart was racing, as she was sure Taeyeon’s was, too, at that moment. There was so much she wanted to say to the idol, so much anger she wanted to get out, but the excitement over the capture and all that adrenaline rushing through her body made it difficult to focus. It was like her body was acting ahead of her brain instead of the reverse, her mind unable to keep up with her primal instinct to act and react rather than to think and speak. Incapable of voicing anything coherent, and knowing that there wasn’t time for that anyway, she looked over at Seunghyun, her eyes wild with craziness. “Let’s get her clothes off,” she said.

Taeyeon’s eyes darted between Sumin and Seunghyun at that moment, and she then began to struggle again, whimpering as she tried to free her hands from Seunghyun’s grip. Seunghyun held her tightly, his legs straddling her body, while Sumin ped Taeyeon’s hoodie and yanked it off her. She went for Taeyeon’s shirt next, ing it and pulling it off, and then her jeans, and then her shoes, leaving the idol in just her underwear.

Sumin stood up then to take off her own clothes, redressing herself in Taeyeon’s. Seunghyun, meanwhile, pulled Taeyeon’s arms back behind her to handcuff her and then banded her ankles together with duct tape. Completely incapacitated from the restraints, Taeyeon fell onto the floor in somewhat of a fetal position, quietly crying.

“Are you going to call me later?” Seunghyun asked, as he stood up and reached for Sumin.

Sumin was still overwhelmed by the thrill of the plan in action, feeling almost intoxicated by the adrenaline, so much so that at that moment, she practically leapt atop Seunghyun, her chest crashing against his as frantically fought for his tongue’s attention. Seunghyun had initially flinched from the suddenness of it all, but his surprise was quickly replaced with reciprocating energy as he unleashed all of his pent up desire for her in his kiss back, his tongue just as desperately fighting with hers.

But then, just as quickly as she had initiated it, she suddenly stopped, pulling away from his mouth and staring at him with wide eyes as she bit down on her lip. “Gotta go,” she said. She zipped up her hoodie—or rather, Taeyeon’s hoodie, which she was now wearing—and then looked down at the idol who still lay curled and crying on the dirty floor. Sumin bent down to whisper into Taeyeon’s ear. “I’ll see you soon,” she said.

And with that, she pulled open the van door and stepped out into the night, never once looking back as she walked toward the lights of the SM building, and toward the new life she was about to start there.