The Past, Seoul

I expected to beat Yun Seo to his apartment but he was waiting for me when I arrived, dressed down for the evening as if he intended to spend the night there. We’d parted ways earlier than usual that day, Yun Seo saying he would find his own way home, so I was surprised to find him settled in for a night of work at his apartment with stacks of paperwork. The garbage can in the kitchen was filled with take out containers from more than one meal, making me wonder if he’d had company or if this hadn’t been his first dinner at the apartment. 

Following my gaze, he explained, “The Gihoe Society filed a lawsuit against Liminal. I haven’t told In Ho yet. He deserved at least one night to celebrate his victory. I decided to work here so Na Rae wouldn’t worry either.”

“They filed a suit? On what grounds?” I asked, not sure I particularly cared at the moment, but I wasn’t ready for the conversation I knew we needed to have so I delayed it a little longer.

“Defamation.” Yun Seo shrugged and crossed his arms over his chest. The t-shirt he was wearing stretched taut across his shoulders, momentarily distracting me. While he still rarely undressed much during our couplings, I’d felt enough of his body to know he was fit, but I hadn’t expected him to be so muscular. I guess that explained how he manhandled me so easily even though I had the advantage in height. Shaking the thoughts away, I tried to focus on what he was saying.

“But their real goal is publicity,” Yun Seo continued, not quite meeting my eyes. “They hope to use the court case to prey on people’s fears. Anyone can be a victim of accusations on Requite just as anyone can be the accuser. The sword cuts both ways. By attacking the app itself rather than the company behind its creation, they plan to steal our best weapon and use it against us.”

“You saw this coming?” I asked, irritated to learn of one more thing he knew that he hadn’t shared.

“Of course.” He gestured to the bottle of wine on the coffee table. “Would you like something to drink?” I suspected he thought I would be easier to deal with if I was inebriated. Little did he know I’d already had several bottles of soju on an empty stomach.

“Fine,” I said. I barely even felt buzzed anymore, and I wanted to be less sober for this conversation.

We sat down at opposite ends of the couch. I took the glass of wine he pushed across the coffee table toward me, avoiding making contact with his hand, and took a sip. It was rich, smokey and strong enough for me to feel its warmth when I swallowed. I glanced at the bottle and guessed that the label was in Spanish. Maybe drinking Yun Seo’s wine wasn’t the best idea after all.

“Do you want me to start?” he asked when I remained silent.

I laughed dryly. “Go ahead.”

“I thought you were safer if you didn’t know.”

Considering that, I took another sip of wine. “What about my father? He’s been working for our enemies for years now.”

“I’ve been keeping an eye on him to make sure he’s safe.”

I looked at him and knew my scowl must be intense from the way he flinched. His reaction was subtle but I knew him too well to miss it. “I’m the one you have tracking people,” I pointed out, “I’m the one you send to keep an eye on someone.”

A wrinkle formed between his eyebrows. “Did you think you were the only one?”

Laughing again, I took another drink and leaned back against the cushions, my jaw clenched so tightly it was beginning to ache. “Of course not,” I murmured under my breath even though it wasn’t true, hoping he wouldn’t hear me.

The silence stretched between us until I couldn’t stand it any longer.

“Why does the Gihoe Society care about my father’s research?”

For the first time since I’d met him, Yun Seo seemed to be at a loss for words. “Are you sure you want to know? Once you know the truth, you can’t go back to being ignorant.”

“It’s folklore,” I retorted. “How bad can it be?”

Yun Seo pressed his lips into a tight line before asking, “How much has your father told you about his research?” 

“Enough to know it’s nothing dangerous.”

He tilted his head to the side and waited impatiently for me to elaborate. 

“He talks about it all the time,” I said finally with a frustrated sigh. “He compares stories from different cultures, trying to find common elements and identify universal themes. It’s all esoteric, academic stuff. Nothing that should be of any interest to people with real power.”

Yun Seo nodded with deliberate restraint, and I realized he was leading me toward something one step at a time. “And how does he go about gathering this research?”

Eyes narrowing, I answered tersely, “Folklore is generally shared by word of mouth, so he interviews people to learn their stories.”

“That’s what he’s told you?”

“If you know something different, I wish you would just say so.”

Drawing a slow breath and releasing it, Yun Seo nodded again. “Your father isn’t interviewing people to learn their stories. He’s interviewing the subjects of the stories.”

I stumbled over that answer, my brain trying to understand the meaning and simply not connecting the dots. “The subjects?” I repeated. “What subjects?”

He didn’t reply, leaving me to do all the work.

“You mean the characters in the stories?” I said, unable to come up with any other explanation. “The ones that don’t exist?” I shook my head, my anger flaring even higher. “If you don’t want to tell me the truth, then at least come up with a better lie than that.”

Yun Seo’s expression was focused in a way I had learned to recognize as dangerous, but his touch was gentle as he reached out to take my hand. “I need to show you something,” he said as he stood up.

He pulled me toward the bedroom and I felt a quiver of trepidation at the direction of his steps. I was afraid he was leading me there as a manipulation, a way to redirect me and make me forget my concerns. I fought his grasp, but he pulled me closer as he stepped through the doorway, murmuring something unintelligible under his breath and dragging fingertips over the door jamb along the way. 

Rather than stepping into the darkness of the apartment’s sparse bedroom, we arrived in a different bedroom instead, this one richly furnished with an enormous bed and overflowing bookshelves on half the walls. It was his bedroom at the Jang estate.