Sign of Life

A knock on my door awoke me. It was fairly strong and loud. It made me jump into a seating position in the fear of someone coming in. But they didn’t. There was no more for a minute. I rubbed my eyes and looked around for the clock to check the time. But I was no longer in the police station and there was no clock on the wall. I looked around, reminding myself where I was.

Another knock.

“The protocol dictates that I am to knock three times, if there is no acknowledgment, I am to open the door by any force needed to check on your wellbeing.” The voice startled me. It was deep and not one I heard previously.

“How – how do I acknowledge the knock?” I projected my voice as much as I could with sleep still covering my vocal cords.

“Any sign of healthy life will suffice.” He replied, before I heard him walk away.

Healthy life. I’m not sure I’m in that category. I laid back closing my eyes and feeling myself slowly fall back asleep. No. I jumped up, forcing my body to sit up. I’m meeting my brother today. I need to get up. I sluggishly made my way to the windows, squinting before opening the blinds and filling the room with light.

Why am I still so tired?

I walked out of my room, slowly descending to the ground floor. The only other room I knew was the room I met Hajun in, so that was where I headed. They were all in there, like they were the night before. They all turned around at the sound of my footsteps.

“Miss Choi. Good morning, I hope you slept well. Your brother is here, in his office if you’d like me to take you to him.”

“Good morning, everyone, yes please.” I bowed with a smile to all the suited men standing in the room. Hajun pointed to something on the table before leaving the room to help me find Joonho’s office. My heart was thundering inside my chest. My palms were sweaty, and I felt a knot form in my throat. I was mortified.

We stopped at a wooden double door. Hajun knocked once, before opening the door and allowing me to walk in first.

“Mr Choi,” he kept the door open and the man behind the counter nodded, before Hajun took his leave, shutting the door behind him.

Joonho was sitting behind a large desk at the end of the room, in front of a whole wall of just glass. I could see the green of the garden and the colourful flowers and cherry trees. He had a phone to one ear, while gesturing for me to approach closer like I was there for an interview.

He had black hair with a parted fringe. There was something in his face that I found familiar. Like I had seen him before.

He slammed the phone down, before getting out of his seat with a big smile and coming from behind of his table.

“Sujung, it is a great pleasure to meet you. I have waited a long time.” He bowed deeply and I did the same. I couldn’t utter anything. The knot in my throat was dry and I felt like I was going to be sick.

“If you brought me here to try and talk me into giving you my share of the will that your dad left me, then you didn’t need to do that. You 100% deserve that money and I will sign anything you want. I don’t want any of it and I don’t want to inconvenience anyone.” Another kind of sick. Word vomit. He took a step back at the sound of my harsh projection. His eyebrows furrowed together in confusion.

“What? No. I want you to have it. I already set up the account for you and sent the funds to the account. Here.” He quickly made his way back around to his desk and picked up a card out of his draw, before handing it to me.

“I want you here.” He smiled as I slowly took the card into my trembling hands. “I want to get to know you and tell you about him if you want to know anything. I want to make sure you’re safe.” He nodded along as he spoke, waiting for me to nod along as well, but I was in a state of shock. I expected the worst. It was easier to expect the worse than to have expectations and be let down.

“Safe? Why wouldn’t I be?” I chuckled, bowing my head and hiding my astonishment at his kind and down to earth tone. I was afraid he could see through me if I looked directly at him.

Truth was, I was desperate to have someone. To have a family. A better one. To feel included and happy. To have someone to speak to.

“Our fathers' murderers have yet to be punished for their crimes. They don’t know who did it and in Korea his death was a popular subject and with that the subject of a daughter that he’d left behind. We don’t know why they murdered him but if it has anything to do with his money, they will be coming after us.” His tone was tight and pained. He was still mourning and still hurting. And I just insulted him right to his face by assuming he would want to take the money his father left for me.

But why would they expose my identity knowing that somebody might be after us?

“What? Why would you look for me if you knew all this information? You’re only exposing my identity and leading them right to me.”

“I know. But the gamble was to find you and give you protection if needed, or in a couple of weeks or months or years be threatened that if I didn’t do as they said they would kill you, because they will find you and then for me to hand over my entire life to them only to find out they killed you anyway. I put all my money on option A.”

“That imagery is way more vivid than I would like it to be.” I swallowed hard. A week ago, I was in Korea living the most basic life. Now I live in a Kdrama plot.

“I can only apologise for the circumstances and timing. I will not apologise for doing what is best and whatever ensures your safety. I might not know you, didn’t even know you existed until my father – our father died, but you are no less my sister, and I will protect the family I have left.”

What was this strange urge to cry again? I was never much of a crier, but I had somehow almost cried four times in 48 hours. I always wanted to be wanted. And somehow a stranger was giving me that as opposed to my own mother.

“I understand. Thank you. You definitely had the choice to not bat an eye and get on with your life, but you didn’t, and I appreciate that. I would love the opportunity to get to …”

“Hyung! I told you to just sell this damn company! Look at what they sent through.” A younger man in a dark grey suit made his way in, interrupting me and startling me. Hyung. They seemed to be close. He didn’t even bat an eye at me. He rushed to the table, dropping some folders on Joonho’s desk. He looked at them immediately, confusedly running through the pages with the other man looking over him like a hawk.

“Who is this?” He didn’t even look up at me. Something in his subconscious just recognised a figure sitting in the chair in front of the table that he unintentionally ignored.

“This is our father's daughter Sujung Min-sun. She’s our sister.” They both looked up from the folder at the same time, looking me dead in the face. I felt my head jerk back at the pressure.

“Daebag! It’s an incredible pleasure to meet you. I’m Jin.” He walked over to me; his hand held out like I was a business partner. He shook it lightly as he bowed.

“You’re my brother also? No one had mentioned anything.” I awkwardly said as he stood beside me as if waiting for my life story.

“Ne. The same father. I hoped they would find you. I couldn’t wait to meet you.” He smiled brightly. His face was a light in the room. He was handsome and skinny. Very skinny.

“Sorry Sujung. I assumed Hajun had mentioned it to you.”

“No.”

“I’ll be the part time brother.” Jin laughed, not at all offended by no one mentioning him. His laugh sounded like perpetual hiccups. It made me smile.

“Do you go by Sujung? It’s very official.”

“No, my friends call me Mimi or Sunny.”

“We should both pick one, so she knows which brother is calling her.” Jin laughed again, directing it straight to Joonho who couldn’t help but laugh in return. I could see by Jin’s intent stare that he wasn’t at all joking and was waiting for Joonho to choose one.

I was observing them. For some reason my brain couldn’t do much more than that. There was a ringing in my ear, and I felt a weird feeling in my chest. Something like butterflies. Perhaps fear. A lot of things were changing very quickly, and I was not in control. If anything, other people were suddenly in control of me. It made my lungs deflate.

“Alright, alright, I pick Mimi to match the beginning of my own name.”

“Great. So Sunny, will you be living with us?”

“Living with you?” There was not enough air in the room for the three of us. I felt my lungs deflating and despite trying to take deeper breaths, the tickling, butterfly feeling as well as the world closing in on me was making it impossible to inhale fresh air.

“Wow.” I whispered unsure of what there was for me to do. It was a strange feeling. Not knowing what death feels like, I could only compare it to death. Perhaps the fear of not knowing what was happening. That part of death, not the pain or the nothingness.

I got to my feet. Not so gracefully. The chair made a dragging noise across the floor as I stumbled over it.

“Sunny?”

“I need some fresh air.” I explained, still with a smile on my face. It was silly not to ask for help when I was basically stumbling over the only chair in my way and inhaling air like I was drowning. They could see me. Why would turning away or walking a couple of inches ease their worries.

“Sujung?!” Joonho’s voice was hoarser and worry some.