Jae glanced up at the Westerner and took a step back. The woman had been about to let him in, but her husband didn’t seem so easily persuaded. His light hair made him look just like the American soldiers in those paintings from the Peninsula War. Jae kept his gaze downward. “I’m looking for my sister.”
The Westerner set his face and kept his arm across the doorway. He was over a head taller than Jae. “It’s late.”
Jae bowed his chin to his chest, trying to forget the pale-skinned villains from the propaganda posters. “It’s my sister, sir. I’m told she made it to Yanji. I only want to bring her home.”
“At this hour? Most folks are getting ready for bed by now, if they’re not asleep already.” The man’s Korean was heavily accented, but his meaning was clear.
“I apologize, sir.” Jae lowered
