Whispers of Refuge Box Set

CHAPTER 10

CHAPTER 10

“I’m so glad you’re home tonight. Do you know where Sun is?” Jae glared down at his sister’s schoolmate who stood outside his front door chattering like a squirrel in springtime. “They say she’s been taken across the border. Kidnapped.”

Jae set his jaw. “You should know better than to go around spreading rumors.”

She didn’t flinch. “You have to find her. You have to get her out of there and bring her back home.” She lowered her voice. “Some of my friends told me what kinds of things happen over there. What they make the girls do.”

Jae stepped outside and scowled down. “Shouldn’t you be getting home before curfew?”

She shook her head. “Sun’s so naïve. She’s ... inexperienced.” The girl flushed. “If what the other kids are saying is true, she won’t know how to defend herself. She’s ...” Sun’s friend covered her red cheeks with her hands. “She’s young.”

Jae cleared his throat. “You don’t need to worry about Sun anymore.” He slammed the door and strode to his bed, digging his fingernails into the flesh of his palms. He swallowed down a furious growl and resisted the urge to tug out his hair by the roots. No sister of his would play the part of an innocent, loving child while hiding a shameful pregnancy from her family and her friends.

Jae pictured the man in the cabin. The corpse lay with his eyes open, his expression indecipherable, neither anguished nor at rest. Was he the one who stole her away from her home and threatened to drown her family in shame? Jae regretted the man was already dead. If Jae had reached him first, it wouldn’t just be his torso that ended up butchered. Jae clenched his teeth. What had the smooth-complexioned, muscular man said to entice his sister to her ruin?

He hung his head in his hands, sank down on Sun’s bed, and fingered her discarded shoe. Sun ... his own baby sister. His precious baby girl. How often had he sat up, telling her stories until she fell asleep? How often, during the worst of the famine so many years ago, did Jae whisper to Sun about the great life beyond, where happiness waited and feasts were held in abundance? They were lies, but they were merciful lies, and he fed Sun’s empty stomach with words and images of gluttonous plenty.

Sun ... with that soft black hair, those unruly bangs, the rounded cheeks that remained plump even during the most extreme months of hunger. Sun didn’t know it, but Jae had twice risked his life by rushing over the frozen Tumen River into China to find food for her. Getting caught was a more bearable fate than watching his sister starve to death.

He squeezed his eyes shut. How he had loved that child! He would have done anything for her, would have faced hunger or danger or even the gulags to ensure Sun’s protection. Didn’t she know Jae cherished her over anything else in the world? Didn’t she know it would kill Jae if she ever fell into harm? Could he really turn his back on her? Could he cut her out of his heart that flippantly? From her little corner in the cabin, Mother let out a pitiful moan.

Jae threw his coat over his back. He would need it across the border.

There was only one thought in Jae’s mind as he walked away from his parents’ home. He needed money. An awful lot of money. The captain at the police station was a rich man, probably the wealthiest in the entire village. Jae liked his boss, but he was on a nearly impossible mission. He couldn’t just walk across the border without a single won to his name and expect to find his sister. Waiting for complete darkness, he paced the woods near the captain’s house for what felt like hours. He didn’t know where the captain stored his cash, but he didn’t have the time to snoop around for a few days in hopes of catching him make a deposit. Sun and the broker already had a two-day lead on him. His sister wasn’t going to rescue herself while Jae sat around playing thief.

When it finally grew dark, Jae pulled his hood over his hair and reached into his pocket for his makeshift mask. Whatever happened, he didn’t want to be recognized. He wasn’t sure how much time he had left to reach his sister, but the night wouldn’t tarry forever, and neither could he.

He lowered the mask over his face and crept through the window into the captain’s house. He made his way through the main living room, but by the time Jae realized the captain was waiting for him in the bedroom, it was too late. Jae grunted and stumbled as his boss’ ceramic jug cracked against his skull. A fist sped toward his head. Jae ducked. The captain reached for the mask but missed. Jae straightened up, flinging the full weight of his body against the captain’s shoulder. Both men fell to the ground, their mixes of curses and grunts awakening the captain’s wife and child. The woman held out her arms and called to her son. He scurried across the floor but Jae grabbed him before he reached his mother.

The boy kicked and struggled in Jae’s arms. “Father!”

The captain froze. His wife screamed again. In a swift motion, Jae pulled out the rope from his pocket and wrapped it around the boy’s neck. He kept it slack and put his lips close to the child’s ear. “Tell him I need two thousand won,” Jae whispered. The boy shuddered. “Tell him,” Jae repeated in a low snarl.

“He wants two thousand won, Father.”

The captain nodded at his wife. She scurried under the bed. Jae kept his eyes to the ground. A moment later, she emerged with a bundle of bills.

“Count it out,” the captain demanded.