by Asia Olanna
I would not have been surprised if they did—the Double Dragons did as well—but we, as criminal organizations, tried to avoid the Korean government on account of snitches.
“You’re really going to hand me over then,” I said, defeated. If I were committed to the hands of the government, I would never get away.
I would never have a chance to dismantle what my parents started, and begin a new life someplace else, someplace better.
It’s not like I had killed people. It’s not like I had done anything truly abominable.
Though I was willing to now in order to get out.
Cracking a couple of skulls? I would’ve done it in a heartbeat, if I had the strength to do so.
If only I could muster up the adrenaline to power me through. In a couple of moments, I could flip around, push the men aside, and knock Bit-na out.
Would it be possible…
“God have mercy on me,” I whispered.
“I hope so as well,” Bit-na said.
“I think he’s more upset with you than anything,” I said.
“And why is that?”
“A beautiful woman like you? Dating a poor guy like that?”
I spat. Then I quickly stepped on my saliva, right as we neared the house.
“You can talk like that,” Bit-na said. “But it doesn’t change the reality of who he is. He’s the king of the jungle now. You’re nothing more than a lone antelope. Can’t even run.”
“And what about you?” I said to the man in the suit and tie holding me up. “Don’t you want more in life? I could give you more in the Double Dragons.”
The man laughed.
“He has everything he needs with us,” Bit-na said for him. “Don’t you see that? You’ve lost the war. In just a matter of moments, we took you down from your stage. Your pedestal. Not even the public loves you anymore. They’ve forgotten you—worse than knowing who you really are, I guess.”
“And I suppose they’ve done this with the help of the Twin Swords? Am I supposed to believe you’ve toppled my popstar empire in just a matter of months?”
Bit-na flinched for a moment, just as I had when they forced me into the back of the van. I noticed a sense of anxiety flickering across her eyes. I had scared her, but why?
“We are strong,” she said, nodding. “We’re much stronger than you ever were.”
“That sounds like something out of an action flick,” I said. “But be real: were you really able to stop us in a matter of months? Or are you trying to just bring me into your world of lies. Where I know you have not much to gain from being a man’s whore.”
The suited man in the tie smacked my face. I dropped to the ground, my stomach caving in. His foot driving against my sternum.
Bit-na pushed him away, shouting at him. “Stop,” she said. “Stop it right now.” The man glanced at her in surprise. But he stopped. “If we kill him,” she said, “then we’re going to have real problems. Oh-seong was just joking. Don’t listen to him about this deal. That’s why he left me with Jong-soo instead. If he were here, he would’ve beheaded him by now. And then we would get nothing. Absolutely nothing.”
She crouched low against the forest floor, picking me up slowly. The other man wrapped his arm underneath my armpit, tugging me along as he had before.
“I need him alive,” Bit-na said.
She needs me alive because the money she’ll get from the deal of handing me in is her escape.
Isn’t it?
“Here we are,” Bit-na said, knocking on the front door. It had an arch over it with the designs of a traditional Japanese teahouse. It looked strange and out of place here in the Korean wilderness. Maybe I was right, this girl, this Bit-na was a half-Japanese woman.
There wasn’t a doorbell to ring, so we had to wait for someone to come. Bit-na stared at me, looking into my eyes. It was the first time I was able to truly see her, face to face, without the bars between us or people blocking our way. She had dark brown eyes, and straight eyebrows. A long nose, with around heart-shaped chin—her chin reminded me of a dagger.
One of the men in suits from before who was standing around the van came to answer. They were already inside, the Twin Swords, setting up shop. The man let us in, and then the other who was holding me, left my side, abandoning Bit-na to carry me all the way to a couch in the middle of a living room.
A television sat blank on top of a wooden table. A crank fan hung overhead. I did not feel air conditioning on—this was an old house, before air conditioning was even invented.
Underneath my feet were planks of wood, the floorboards covered up in rugs. By the windows were women whispering, prepping up for a meeting of sorts. The other men were adjusting their ties, shining their shoes, the scent of perfume and cologne wafting in the air.
“Are you really going to hand me in then?” I said to Bit-na. She sat down next to me, and was leafing through a magazine on the table before us. What a strange set up, this house. I had no idea if they built it for the specific purpose of handing me in or what.
“We really are,” she said, casually. After flipping through the front part of the magazine, she put it down back on the table, crossing her legs and looking at me again straight in the eyes. She pouted. “And it’s too bad, because you really are good-looking. They’re going to do so much to that face, you probably won’t come out recognizable.”
“You and I could get away,” I whispered. Low enough for no one to hear. Low enough for no chance of attention. “We could run for the hills. Quite literally.”
“Let me get you something to drink,” she said. “Your lips are looking chapped. And you’re going to be doing a lot of talking in the next couple of days.”
With a flourish of her hand, and a clacking of her heels, she turned for the kitchen, only a couple of feet away from my very own. I stared at the heels of my shoes, wondering if I would get out through the window.
It would only take me pushing out the woman. Then I could jump and maybe force the lock. Of course, not in that order.
Bit-na came back. She carried on a tray chai tea and a pair of sandwiches. “I thought you looked hungry as well,” she said, taking a bite out from one of the sandwiches. “Here, have some.”
Her hands leaned forward, egg and cheese pouring out from the side of crusty bread. I leaned forward myself, tasting the edges, salivating all the while.
“And don’t think I’m just being generous to you because,” she said. “Count yourself lucky. I’m taking pity.”
I figured I was making headway. At first, it didn’t seem like we were getting anywhere at all.
With just a little bit more suave, I might be able to persuade her into doing what I want.
“How did you end up working for him?” I said. Making small talk might bring her down some. Especially considering she probably had no recourse during her days. Being the right-hand woman of a kingpin was no easy task. At any given time, she could simply be disposed of, thrown to the side like garbage. Useless, and then what? Oh-seong would simply take up a new girl. He would have someone else at his disposal.
Bit-na pushed aside her brown hair. It had a thickness to it, a weight that Korean women did not possess naturally. The roots were done in braids. Definitely a military father. I would’ve bet my life on it.
Not that I had much to lose in those days anyway.
“It’s really kind of a personal thing,” she said. “But I’m in a storytelling mood right now. A very chatty mood.
“So, I was sitting down one day. And I noticed a man down in Gangnam. You know that district right? They’ve made music videos about it. So much fabulousness, so much glamour and Hollywood allure. Plastic surgery and the grandeur of life itself. Tourists come from all over Asia to get work done, and not just on their cheeks. But businessmen, sexy ones, the ones with money. You know so many men around Korea just don’t have what it takes to pay for what I want in life.”
She turned her eyes aside to some of the other men in th
e room. They adjusted their ties some more, glancing over at Bit-na, as if they had a chance. Even if some of them were muscular to boot, they did not possess what she had in mind as success.
“I spent a lot of days studying at a local university for cosmetology. It doesn’t pay, let me tell you that. And then after I graduated, I thought to myself, what can I do? So I went into retail. What else could I possibly have that would be valuable to society. Customer service is a dime a dozen. Everyone can smile and pretend to like you. It’s meeting someone genuine that’s difficult and hard.”
“Yeah,” I said, edging closer along the couch. I felt like I was making a good connection with her. An “in” if you will. With her on my side, I could do nearly anything I wanted. I just had to convince her. “Tell me more. This is interesting.”
Bit-na smirked. She drew hair between her lips, spitting it out and sputtering her mouth like a child. “Listen,” she said, “I spent a lot of time getting yelled at by random people. People with all sorts of ridiculous problems, like not knowing how to turn on their own computers, and then blaming me for it. Or yelling at me over the phone because of a late shipment from a third party dealer. Like I’m supposed to know anything about that.
“It’s too bad. Society could be so much more.” With a sigh, Bit-na tilted her head, glancing over at the sandwiches. “Here, have another bite. There you go. Like I was saying, I would get yelled at all day long, in the mornings, in the afternoons. People hated me for my very existence as a sales associate at the store. Did I tell you I had multiple jobs? That’s what drove me insane the most. I had so many jobs. Two, sometimes three just to stay afloat. The living standards can be so harsh here in Korea. Or really anywhere, if you don’t have a job that takes you far away and makes you a lot of money.”
“Why far away?”
“I like to travel. I’m used to having novelty. I like having different people in my life. It makes everything that more exciting.”
I nodded. “Being with the same old same old can get harrowing and boring, can’t it?”
“It can.” Bit-na pressed the sandwich against my lips again, opening my mouth and then closing it around the center. “You’re not going to survive what they’re going to do to you.”
“So why don’t you let me go?” I whispered. I wanted to keep at this, continuously pleading. “You could run away with me. You know where my networks are. Where everything is.”
“Hae-il? And the rest of your crew?”
“Yes,” I said. “You know where they are. You know—”
Someone banged on the door, a hard fist slamming against wood. I turned my head to see who it was. The men in suits and the women in skirts ran over, lining up as if to greet a king.
“See who it is,” Bit-na said, casually.
Yet another man in the suit and tie walked on through. But he was different than the rest. You could see muscles rippling underneath his shirt. He had a streak of blonde like a lightning bolt through his hair. And his shoes, they were large, his feet oversized. He would be difficult to take down alone, standing at over 6 feet in height. Right around my own head.
“Our informant is here,” Bit-na said. “Kyung-min, it’s good to see you again.”
“I’m happy to be here,” Kyung-min said, kissing her on the cheek. “I take it this is our little prisoner?”
“This is him,” she said. “You will be a hero, Kyung-min.”
I saw what was going on. They did indeed have moles in the Korean government. Moreover, with this Kyung-min man, they would be able to have the accolades of capturing me, a suspected criminal, but without revealing themselves as Twin Swords. Kyung-min would be an unassuming regular guy, a normal citizen doing his duty for the country.
Fairly ingenious. I had to hand it to Oh-seong and the Twin Swords.
“Let’s get him in cuffs,” Kyung-min said. I realized then that the men and women around us weren’t there for the meeting, but scouting out the premises for any sort of backup from the government.
Everything very clandestine. Secretive.
Very ingenious.
“I’ll get them from upstairs,” Bit-na said. “You arrived so early, we didn’t even need to put him up there.” Her heels clanged on upstairs. Some of the men and women went outside to prepare the van to take me back to the capital. And then from there…
I would be part of a real prison complex. Jailed for life. Possibly. I don’t know. There would be lots of questions, journalists asking me on and on and on about who I was, and who I knew.
It would never end.
Kyung-min lifted me from the couch, putting me right against his shoulder. I had a spurt of adrenaline running through my veins.
Now.
Soon.
I would have to make my getaway.
I couldn’t wait much longer.
Because once I reached the capital, that would be it. I couldn’t make a fuss out in public where everyone could see me. Here in the countryside, no one cared. I could run as far as I wanted, get a boat across for Japan.
If I stayed quiet.
If I found Hae-il.
Bit-na came back down, carrying a heavy set of cuffs. She wrapped them around my hands, but as she put them by my wrists, she slipped a rectangular object in my palm. She pressed my hands closed, quickly.
A pocket knife? That’s what it felt like. The kind you might get at Boy Scouts. I closed my eyes, and then glanced at her.
“We’ll need to move quickly,” Bit-na said. “Everyone, secure the building.”
The women and men went to standard positions north, south, west, and the east, right by the house itself, and then 5 m out, and then 10 m out. They formed concentric circles, wrapping around the clearing in their formal attire, looking so prim and proper, but ready to kill all the same.
Bit-na and Kyung-min walked down with me along the dirt road again. It was like we had just passed a checkpoint, making our way through points A, point B, heading towards point C.
I got why she didn’t want to take out Kyung-min himself. Because if I did it, then I would succeed and free her. But if I failed, no one would suspect her of betraying the Twin Swords. She had a lot to gain by joining me—or else she would not have given me the knife. There was something she knew that I didn’t, that something inspiring hope in me.
An escape plot. A way out of the misery I had been jailed in.
That she too was trapped in.
I just knew it: no girl would be happy like that.
“Can you take me back?” Bit-na said to Kyung-min. “Just drop me off halfway and I can walk the rest or something.”
He turned around to face her. He wiped sweat off his eyebrows, and then grinned. “I’d love to take you back.”
Deadly.
She knew what she was doing.
“Lovely,” she said. “I’ll just go sit in the van for a moment, it’s really hot.”
She ran ahead of us, although she turned around to catch a pair of keys Kyung-min threw at her. She started up the van, turning on the air conditioning, presumably.
Kyung-min tugged me along, just as Oh-seong had done. He did not have the same kind of cruelty in his act though. His hands were gentle, soft. Like he didn’t want to have to do what he was doing.
But at the end of the day, like I said, people get caught up in bad situations.
A man like Kyung-min? No different than any other in my own organization of the Double Dragons.
Once we walked up to the new van, Kyung-min slid me into the back. Bit-na came out from the passenger’s seat, saying, “It’s so hot out.”
Casual.
Like nothing was going on.
Then Bit-na pulled me into the back of the van. They shut the door, and I rested on my side.
The pocketknife still in my hands.
I flipped it open, and felt the blade’s end.
Enough to puncture a throat. To cut skin. To wrangle down and kill.
If only I could get out of my cuffs. But
how?
Kyung-min went around the van, going to the driver seat. Bit-na quickly got back into the passenger seat, tossing me a key.
Extremely quickly. Like a flash of fire flickering on a candle wick.
“Do what you want,” she mumbled. When Kyung-min stepped in, she said, “I’m ready for this ride. It’s going to be a good one.”
With the engine growling, we lurched off the dirt road. The Twin Swords had taken every precaution, but they had trusted Bit-na too much. She had some sort of sway over Oh-seong, maybe she poisoned him into too much trust, maybe she tricked Hyun-jun and he was in cahoots. No matter, I would figure out all of the details much later. But those were my guesses.
