The Past, Seoul

I found Chan Wook sitting on the patio one night, textbooks scattered around him, his chin about to fall off his hand as he stared at an empty notebook. Grabbing his favorite soda from the fridge, I joined him outside and nudged books aside to carve out a place to sit beside him.

“How’s school going?” I asked as I offered him the drink. 

Lifting his head, he looked lost in thought for a moment before his eyes caught on the bottle and went wide with delight, a weary smile warming his features as he reached for it. “Grueling,” he replied after taking his first sip. “I thought studying for the entrance exams was a lot of work, but the pace of college has been relentless.”

“Maybe that’s because you’re taking classes above your level,” I pointed out.

“I tested into them,” he protested with a wounded look in his eyes.

I sighed. “I know. I know.” Looking down at one of the textbooks, I tried to decipher the code on the page but gave up quickly. “I just hoped that you would be able to enjoy school more. This is your last gasp of freedom before adulthood and a career gobble it up. You should make time to enjoy yourself along the way.”

Chan Wook rolled his eyes and gave my shoulder a playful shove. “Like you have? You skipped it and immediately started working yourself to death.”

“I did,” I agreed, biting back the retort I wanted to say, that I had done it all for him, so that he could have the experience I would never get. But the choice had been mine alone and I couldn’t put that kind of pressure on him when he’d never asked me to do it in the first place.

Expression softening, he asked, “Do you have the night off, or are you going to have to head out again?”

Lifting the beer I’d grabbed for myself when I got his soda, I shook my head. “I have the evening to myself for once.”

“Yourself?” Chan Wook made a face. “I’m here, too. We should do something fun together!”

“Don’t you need to study?”

Slapping the book in front of him shut, he pronounced, “I’ve studied enough. What do you want to do?” 

I had a hard time arguing with that look on his face. I’d always been weak to it, ever since we were simply neighbor kids and he’d asked to borrow a toy. I took another sip of beer. “To be honest, I don’t want to do anything but be lazy tonight. I don’t want to go out and I definitely don’t want to drive anywhere.”

“That still sounds nice,” he said, shifting books out of the way so he could scoot closer to me. “We could watch a movie and eat junk food like we did when we were little.” He leaned into me with a smile even stickier than the humid evening air, and I felt the heat of his arm against my own like a flame against my skin. He felt feverish to the touch and I worried he had pushed himself to exhaustion and was on the verge of getting sick, but if he was coming down with something, he certainly wasn’t acting under the weather. Eyes shining, he looked up at me with a mischievous grin. “Or we could play Go-Stop! I’ve improved my game since the last time we played.”

I thought about how good he’d been before and how I’d had to cheat a little to retain the upper hand. He would win easily against me now, and even if he didn’t manage it on his own I would probably let him win. “Are you sure you want to test me?” I asked, hiding my smile as I took another drink of beer.

“I do,” he said. “I don’t care if I’m winning if I’m playing with you.”

I froze, trying to figure out how to respond to a statement like that. Chan Wook had always been impractically sentimental, so his statement could mean nothing more than brotherly affection, but brothers didn’t act like that, did they? Brothers fought for dominance. They were competitive and willing to use any leverage they had to come out on top, but Chan Wook had always been so desperate to feel like part of a family that he’d strived to be a perfect brother rather than a typical one. I wished I knew how to tell him that he only needed to be himself.

My phone buzzed in my pocket and I was grateful for the excuse to remain silent.

The text was simple, only three words. Come get me.

Normally I would groan at getting called to work on the first evening I’d had off in weeks, but I never felt as annoyed by the extra work for Yun Seo as I probably should have.

“No.” Chan Wook groaned. “Tell me it isn’t your devil boss.”

“Devil boss?” I arched an eyebrow at him.

“He’s so demanding. He works you like a slave.”

I laughed. “The job isn’t that much work. In fact it’s far easier than most of the jobs I’ve had.” Texting Yun Seo back to ask where he was, I was shocked by the response.

I think someone spiked my drink. Then he sent me the address of a bar in Songpa. Come quickly before someone figures out how far gone I am. 

My fingers trembled as I typed out a quick response to let him know I was on my way, my imagination giving me far too many unhelpful images to go with his words for me to process. I imagined him half drunk on a stool, cheeks flushed pink and lips bitten red, and I wondered how I was going to get him to the car without causing a scene – or crossing a line Yun Seo had never given me permission to cross. He was my boss, I reminded myself. No matter what state I found him in, I had to keep him at arm’s length. This was the best job I’d ever had and I refused to ruin it over something as stupid as hormones.

“I have to go,” I said, already rising to my feet.

“Tell him you’re busy,” Chan Wook insisted. “That you’ve been drinking and can’t drive.”

“I only had two sips,” I replied, backing my way toward the kitchen so I could show him my can of beer as if he could tell how full it was from the outside.

“Hyung!” Chan Wook said in frustration, grabbing at the can. 

I let him take it. “Finish it if you want,” I told him. “You’re far too responsible for your own good.”

“You can’t be serious,” he said with a glance at the can. He was still underage, but only barely. I’d started drinking with older friends by his age, but Chan Wook was responsible in ways I’d never been.

“Why wouldn’t I be?” I replied. “I’m giving you permission. Enjoy yourself for once!”

“What’s the point of drinking at home when you’re alone?”

Relieved that he hadn’t reached a point in his life where that kind of thing was appealing, I slipped on my shoes and waved at him over my shoulder as I walked out the door. “Put it back in the fridge if you don’t want it. I’ll probably need a drink by the time I get home anyway.” 

I wasn’t dressed for a party, but I was presentable enough for a bar, even if it was the kind of swanky place Yun Seo would likely patronize. Rich people liked to dress down at places like that to show off that they could dress however they liked as long as they had money to spend. 

I drove past the bar twice before I realized that it was one of those trendy hidden bars and that the entrance looked more like a shrine than a door. 

Parking the car and walking my way through the narrow streets to the address, I frowned at the framed artwork within an alcove that marked the entrance, an illustration depicting a young man with a bindle and a dog on a leash. The man was looking over his shoulder without realizing he was about to step off a cliff. A title at the bottom of the frame read: The Fool.

I moved closer when I saw a couple push the entire back wall of the alcove inward and walk past it, the bar beyond glimmering with crimson and gold light. I followed them inside and the moveable wall swung shut behind me without a sound. Pausing to get my bearings, I surveyed the strange space and tried to figure out where to start looking. The walls were painted black and the tables were arranged within larger nooks around the room, each containing a similar painting to the one I’d seen on the outside, illustrations rich with symbolism and labeled with cryptic words. 

As if he’d seen me enter, Yun Seo sent me another text. I’m at the Hermit table.

I rolled my eyes, thinking that sounded like an appropriate place for him to be and wondering if he’d requested the table specifically. In the year I’d been working for him now, I’d never seen Yun Seo relax with friends. In Ho was the closest thing he had to a friend as far as I could tell, and Yun Seo basically paid the lawyer to hang out with him. What free time he allowed himself Yun Seo used to cozy up to influential patrons or be seen as someone important by the elite. I didn’t have a lot of friends myself, but I still had connections from my previous jobs and a few buddies from high school that I kept in touch with. I wasn’t sure Yun Seo had anyone. 

Other than his sister, I supposed, but I’d never really met her. She’d been standing in the doorway a few times when I arrived at the mansion to pick up Yun Seo, but she’d worn sunglasses and a shapeless, oversized hoodie with leggings like an incognito celebrity. Even though I had heard that she was the brains behind Liminal’s soon to be published app, she worked from home and rarely stepped outside if the flashes of deathly pale skin revealed by gaps in her clothing could be trusted. From what little I know about the inner workings of the company, Yun Seo’s sister was something of a recluse and left her brother to handle all the social requirements of their work. The rumor was that most of the employees had never even met her before.