Whispers of Refuge Box Set

CHAPTER 39

CHAPTER 39

The next morning, Mee-Kyong woke up with a gnawing emptiness in her gut that twisted up her insides into a tangled, knotted mess. Mrs. Stern rapped lightly on her door. “Are you awake, sweetheart?”

Mee-Kyong wondered if pet names and early-morning wake-up calls were blessings reserved just for the initiated. She pulled the quilt up to her shoulders. “Come in.”

Her benefactress waddled through the door, her smile as wide as her girth. “It’s your special day,” she chirped in a sing-songy voice. Mee-Kyong hoped the early hour would excuse her from having to gush enthusiasm.

Mrs. Stern held up a hairbrush and a handbag. “I brought you some things. To get ready.” Mee-Kyong sat up. Mrs. Stern lowered herself behind her on the bed and ran the brush through her hair. “I remember the day I was baptized,” she sighed. Mee-Kyong felt ill. Almost an hour later, after yanking, braiding, combing, twisting, and eventually pinning Mee-Kyong’s hair up in a simple braid, Mrs. Stern was satisfied. She then moved to the other side of the bed and dumped out the contents of her bag. Colorful tubes and jars of lipstick, skin cream, eye make-up, and facial powder spilled out on the mattress between them.

Mee-Kyong’s jaw ached from being clenched so tightly. She shook her head. “No.”

Mrs. Stern leaned back. “No?”

“I’m not wearing make-up.”

Mrs. Stern gently rested two fingers on a tube of lipstick. “I just thought that ... with it being such an important day ...”

Mee-Kyong turned her face away so she didn’t have to look at the rainbow of Mrs. Stern’s vials. “No make-up.”

Mrs. Stern took her hands off the lipstick and held them up in surrender. “Okay. No make-up. Do you want help getting dressed?”

Mee-Kyong crossed her arms. “I used to earn a living taking off my clothes. I think I can figure out how to put them back on.”

***

“She’s probably just nervous.” Roger ran his fingers up and down his wife’s spine. “Weren’t you just a little bit nervous the day you got baptized?”

“Even if I was, I didn’t bite anyone’s head off.”

Through her sweater, Roger felt Juliette tighten up all her muscles. He put both hands on her shoulders and started to knead the tension away. “She’s young. You’ve said it before; she’s been through a lot.”

“That’s still no reason to get crass with me.”

“No, it’s not.” Roger locked his thumbs to get a deeper rub. “But what’s done is done. Mee-Kyong’s getting baptized. It’s because of your hard work and compassion for her that she’s come this far. So let’s not ruin the day splitting hairs over who said what, okay? Let’s make this a great day for Mee-Kyong, a day she’ll never forget.” He glanced toward the clock on the nightstand, but his wife’s head blocked his view. “How much longer do we have?”

Juliette looked over. “Little less than an hour. Should we start getting the hot tub filled?”

“Not yet. We still have time.” Roger paused. “There’s one more thing I wanted to tell you, Baby Cakes.” He swallowed once. “Benjamin’s decided not to join us this afternoon.”

“Not join us?” Juliette glared at him in the mirror. “What’s going on? Has every single refugee living under our roof turned against us for some reason?”

Her pitch was rising, and Roger knew he needed to deescalate things quickly. “It’s nothing like that, Baby Cakes. It’s just ... well, he didn’t say it in so many words, but after what happened with Eve, I just don’t think he wants to be around.”

“Eve?” Juliette huffed, and Roger realized what a mistake it was to remind his wife of their ministry’s most recent drop-out. “What’s Eve got to do with this?”

Roger sighed. Did she really need him to spell this out for her? “It’s a baptism,” he stated. “It’s in our bedroom, in a hot tub.” Juliette’s face still hadn’t relaxed. “She’ll be wearing a swimsuit.”

Juliette’s exasperated breath was hot on Roger’s arm. “It’s not like it’s a bikini. Besides, she’ll have a T-shirt on over it.”

Roger sighed. “Baby Cakes, it’s a guy thing. And probably a cultural one, too. Let’s just not push it, okay? This can still be a great day for all of us if we just go into it with the right attitude.”

“That’s what I was trying to do all along,” Juliette muttered.

***

Mee-Kyong glowered at herself in the mirror, scowling at the way Mrs. Stern had swept her bangs to the side of her face. She picked at the strands and tucked them into her braid. Make-up? Mrs. Stern had actually expected her to paint her face just for some aquatic ritual? The clinging bathing suit stretched across her belly. The material prickled against her skin but clung too tight for her to scratch the flea-bite tingles away. Her fingernails set to work methodically on her skin instead until her neck and shoulders glared red in the mirror.

She scowled at her reflection. If Sun had kept herself alive, they could be out of Yanji. Life might have been hard at first, but Mee-Kyong would have watched out for them both. She would have found a situation for them by the first snowfall, one that didn’t involve entertaining hotel guests or copying Western literature until their finger muscles seized up.

Mee-Kyong wet her hands and tried to rub away the scratch marks on her neck. It wouldn’t matter anyway. None of the Sterns could see them once she put the oversized cotton shirt on over the bathing suit. She let out a short, mirthless laugh. How ironic the Sterns were concerned about the modesty of their little brothel rescue.

She turned her head toward the door. “Almost ready, dear?” Mrs. Stern’s voice was mouse-like, almost apologetic.

Mee-Kyong stood and yanked the big red shirt over her suit. It was the same shade as Sun’s old dress. “I’m ready,” she called out, throwing her shoulders back as she swung open the bedroom door.

***

“You did well, Agent Ko. I hear the director is already planning for your next assignment.”

There was no reason for Eve to blush before Ryuk. She had known the old man even before she started training at the Academy. She also knew platitudes meant nothing to him, so she swallowed down her pre-programmed reply about honor and service to the Party. She would save the rhetoric for her meeting with the director.

“I’m curious,” Ryuk continued as the two agents made their way to the train station. “What did you find out about the big one? The security guard.”

Eve checked her lipstick in her compact mirror. She hated not getting enough sleep. It worked horrors on her skin. “I sent my write-up on to the bureau. They never told me they wanted anything else.”

Ryuk took her arm. It was a paternal gesture, fitting for their assumed roles as father and daughter. “You wouldn’t be covering up anything for him, would you?”

“Of course not.” Eve puckered her lips, scowled at her reflection, and snapped the mirror shut. Ryuk scrutinized her out of the corners of his eyes, so she added, “He never meant anything to me.”

A lopsided grin crept to one side of his face. “I’ve read your reports to the director,” he reminded her. “I also know there was information you deliberately left out.”

Eve buried her mirror in her handbag and flung her hair off her shoulder. “Have you been checking up on me, Ryuk? I didn’t think you were the type to get jealous.” She pressed her body a little closer to his as they walked.

“And what about that other one? That Tiger?”

Eve laughed. “A diversion. You have no idea how bored you get serving tea all day on silver platters.”

“I take it he knew nothing of your work?” Ryuk stopped beneath a streetlamp and stared at her.

She shrugged again. “Of course not. I told you, I took care of everything before I came here.”

Ryuk sighed and continued walking. “Well, you know the director will ask questions. With the security guard, you can at least argue you were gathering intel. Trying to gain trust. But a sleazy punk off the streets? Come on, Ko. What’s the director going to think of that?”

She ran her fingers up and down the sleeve of his suit. “Who’s to say the director has to find out?”