TIN 138
by Sorai“…”
I couldn’t manage any response. Despite her cold tone, her soft voice brought on a wave of déjà vu. As I wondered where I’d heard this voice before, she spoke again.
“How did you…”
But she didn’t finish her sharp line of questioning. As if sensing something odd, she cut herself off mid-sentence. After a moment of silence, a familiar name fell from her lips.
“…Bada?”
“…”
I slowly turned my head. I felt the gun barrel flinch away from the back of my head. My upward glance met exactly with hers.
A blue light flashed in our meeting gazes. Her cloudy irises were different from Yoon Ji-soo’s bright blue ones. Bewilderment crossed her face, and her expressionless lips slowly moved.
“Why are you here?”
It was Lee Yuna.
***
“…”
Her sharp gaze fixed steadily on me. She slowly scanned from head to toe, then lifted back up to settle precisely on my eyes. Though her look wasn’t exactly kind, it didn’t seem contemptuous either.
“To think we’d meet in a place like this.”
Lee Yuna muttered softly, furrowing her brow. She examined me searchingly for quite some time. In this dust covered house, this place filled with my memories, it felt like having an uninvited guest.
‘Your eyes…’
Though Lee Yuna had started with those words upon seeing me, surprisingly, she didn’t ask for details about what had happened. She just lowered her gun and stepped back. As the ensuing silence felt rather heavy, I awkwardly stood up and asked her.
“Why are you here?”
“I asked you that first.”
Lee Yuna retorted coldly, arms crossed. With her standing against the entrance, bright light poured in from behind her.
“How did you get to this island?”
That was what I should be asking. I knew I should’ve checked the beach first. Maybe Lee Yuna’s boat was on the opposite side from where I’d landed.
“What about Joo Do-hwa?”
“…”
That sudden name left me speechless. Surely she wasn’t asking out of ignorance. Lee Yuna must know about the wanted notices.
Sure enough, she clicked her tongue and frowned.
“This is troublesome. When I told you to seduce him, why did you suddenly run away?”
Her tone was genuinely reproachful, with hints of disappointment showing through. As if she had really believed I could entice Joo Do-hwa.
“…I heard this was an uninhabited island.”
Instead of answering Lee Yuna’s question, I carefully changed the subject. I didn’t want to casually discuss Joo Do-hwa with her.
“I didn’t think someone like you would come to a place like this.”
Between my presence on this island and Lee Yuna’s, the latter was clearly more suspicious. While I might have drifted here with nowhere else to go, Lee Yuna had no reason to be here.
“Where I go is my business.”
“Did you come alone?”
“Well, that’s…”
Lee Yuna, who had started to answer reflexively, suddenly closed her mouth. Then, with a face full of wariness, she raised an eyebrow sharply.
“…Why? Are you planning to harm me?”
“…”
It was a sharp observation. As someone who had been considering subduing her and running away, I couldn’t refute it.
“Wow, I didn’t take you for such a dangerous person.”
“What do you expect from a wanted criminal?”
With those words, I took a step toward Lee Yuna. I didn’t really intend to harm her, but I did mean to intimidate her somewhat. I wanted to know if she planned to catch and report me.
“Calm down. I’m just here to investigate something.”
Fortunately, if that’s the right word for it, Lee Yuna raised both hands, claiming her innocence. She seemed more intrigued by the situation than offended by my suspicion.
“There’s no cell service here anyway, and no way to contact Joo Do-hwa. …Besides, I’m the one with the gun, aren’t I?”
Her grinning face was the picture of composure. She shrugged and nodded toward her right leg. Indeed, there was a holster on her thigh, and the distance between us was too awkward for me to snatch it.
“Think about it. What would make me confident enough to be alone without bodyguards?”
“…”
“Let’s keep this peaceful, shall we?”
I could roughly guess why she acted so confident. Having a weapon, and being from a prestigious family, she likely knew decent self-defense. She could probably subdue a man or two easily.
“…Let’s talk outside.”
So I nodded toward the door in agreement. Lee Yuna glanced back briefly before stepping over the tree roots to go outside. She showed no hesitation in turning her back to me, as if demonstrating her trust that I wouldn’t harm her.
The sun that had been at its peak was now halfway down. The once-white clouds had turned gray, perhaps signaling rain after sunset. The weather had been so nice until just now. Indeed, coastal weather was unpredictable.
“What did you come to investigate, Yuna?”
“Hmm…”
Lee Yuna, who had gone out first, maintained that same ambiguous distance while looking at me. Just far enough that I couldn’t grab the gun, but close enough for conversation.
After a moment’s pause, Lee Yuna freely shared her purpose.
“I want to know about the person who lived here. I have a personal interest.”
“Do you know them?”
I asked reflexively. Lee Yuna tilted her head to one side and pulled at her lips. Her sleek hair flowed long over her shoulders.
“So you know who lived here.”
Since I hadn’t tried to hide it in the first place, it wasn’t really about her being perceptive. Of course, I couldn’t explain how I knew them.
“I heard from Joo Do-hwa.”
“Is that so?”
Fortunately, Lee Yuna didn’t probe any further than that. She just nodded indifferently.
“I don’t know them. I’ve never even seen their face.”
It was an anticlimactic answer. As I expected, it seemed I wouldn’t get any information about Yoon Ji-soo from Lee Yuna either.
“Most people probably don’t know, like me. We just know they were someone Chairman Joo loved passionately.”
“…”
A laugh escaped me unconsciously. Passionate love? Just how great must this love have been for it to be so famous?
“She was a woman who grew up sheltered, not even known publicly. I heard she was beautiful, but few people have actually seen her.”
As she said this, Lee Yuna looked intently at my face. Her gaze, fixed on my eyes since earlier, was quite meaningful.
“Besides, as soon as she disappeared, Chairman Joo destroyed all the photos.”
“He destroyed the photos?”
“Yeah. Apparently he collected them all.
He said that the woman’s family was all dead, so there was no one left to remember her. He even said that the house where she used to live had burned down and disappeared.
“It’s obvious who did it.”
“…Why would he do that?”
For someone he loved passionately? If he missed her enough to still search for her, shouldn’t he cherish even the smallest trace? What reason could there be to so persistently erase her from the world?
Lee Yuna defined this question in a single sentence: “He wanted to be the only one to remember her.”
“…”
“So that no one else would know, to have her all to himself.”
A chill ran up and down my spine. It was an abnormal obsession and thinking I couldn’t understand. While everyone might want to monopolize something they love but to go that far…
“That’s why there were rumors that Chairman Joo had kept her confined. Well, that probably wasn’t true.”
‘…Ji-soo?’
I remembered Chairman Joo’s face when he saw me. The lingering look in his eyes wasn’t just my imagination. The way he had scrutinized my face still made my skin crawl like insects were walking across it.
“Crazy, right?”
“…”
I didn’t answer. Pressing my lips shut was probably answer enough.
Lee Yuna pulled at her lips again and asked, “You don’t think Joo Do-hwa would be different?”
This time I truly had no words. Not because I agreed, but because it gave me a momentary chill.
“Why did you leave that house? Knowing his personality.”
Her smiling face didn’t seem particularly sympathetic to me. If anything, she seemed purely amused. She had said she wanted to get back at Joo Do-hwa—was she enjoying this situation?
“I guarantee if he catches you, you’ll at least get a broken ankle.”
Lee Yuna’s finger pointed at my ankle. Though my walk showed no problems, she must have noticed the slightly visible bandage.
“…A broken ankle would be getting off easy.”
“What?”
“He’ll just kill me. That’s his personality.”
I still vividly remembered him shooting someone dead right in front of me. He had no compassion whatsoever and didn’t even treat people as human beings. Having let me slip away twice, it wouldn’t be strange if he was burning with rage.
“I don’t think he’ll kill you…”
Lee Yuna muttered barely audibly. Before I could ask what she meant, she waved her hand dismissively.
“Never mind, now tell me. Why are you here?”
Since she had told me everything, it was my turn to talk. So that was why she had been so forthcoming with information—to get me to talk in return.
I wondered what to do. It wouldn’t be hard to make up a story about just drifting here with nowhere else to go.
“…I’m looking for someone.”
But these were the words that actually came out. Living intensely, scheming constantly—I was tired of it all now.
“There’s someone I want to meet…that’s why I came here.”
Maybe that was why I couldn’t help but laugh as I spoke. It was beyond reckless, bordering on stupid, and I couldn’t complain if Lee Yuna laughed at me.
“…”
Lee Yuna looked at me silently for a moment. I was about to say she could laugh if she wanted to, but she asked with a completely serious face, “What if you can’t meet them?”
Our gazes crossed for a moment. My bright blue heterochromatic eyes darkened. Unlike before, Lee Yuna asked calmly in a dry voice, “If that person is already dead, what will you do then?”