Untitled, 2018

Chapter 3: Snapback

I rapidly shifted my focus from the packet of drugs in the officer's hands to his eyes to mask-face guy. Am I being framed? I found mask-face guy glaring at me, so I glared right back, "Why did you put that in my bag?!" He narrowed his eyes, indignant, but our hands were suddenly dragged together in the most gaudy pair of red handcuffs mankind has ever seen. The officer tugged at the chain to pull us along, slinging my bag over his shoulder.

"And you- who are you?!" I resisted the tug, and the jerk didn't even turn to look back, just yanked harder. Mask-face whipped his head around and decided I was causing too much of a scene and grabbed my other hand with his cuffed one to pull me forward. I couldn't help but get this nagging feeling every time I saw his eyes. But I didn't have time to ponder; I was getting dragged into an official looking room with a desk and a few chairs by the back of the baggage claim. As soon as the door shut, I pointed at mask-face and said "He put those packages in my bag. They were not there before the mix-up." The officer smiled and held his hand out for mask-face's bag in my hand, and opened it revealing more of the white packages.

               Mask-face gasped and I exclaimed, "See?! He's had these packages since before I touched them!" He turned to the officer and whisper-yelled in Korean, "She's trying to frame me! I've never touched drugs in my life!"

             The officer responded, "Sounds like you're both in trouble." And then in English, "Can I see your identification please?" We pulled out our passports as best we could still handcuffed, and mask-face hesitated a bit before turning his over. I was about to hand mine over when I froze and realized how ridiculous all this was. "Hey you- are you even an officer... You're the guy who got me here, aren't you?" The officer-Goatee Man lookalike or whatever- just smiled quizzically. "No... you did."

            Mask-face groaned as the officer perused our passports, and pulled out his phone, which was immediately snatched from him. He took mine too. The guy looked anxious. "Can we finish this faster? I need my phone. I need to call a few people to get this sorted- it's important."
           "Mr. Park-"
           "You don't understand! Do I look like the kind of person who would do this? My... family really needs me somewhere really soon. This foreigner is clearly bringing drugs in from offshore; I'm innocent."

The officer just turned to take the packs of drugs out of the bags- there were about four in each. I turned to mask-face in the meantime and calmly responded in Korean, "This officer looks like he's a foreigner too, doesn't he?" To which he whipped his head around and stared at me for. I could see him internally groaning but he didn't apologize- not that it surprised me. He was a drug dealer trying to frame me after all. Familiar-looking drug dealer. I think I was staring a little too long, because he just adjusted his mask and pulled it higher up his small nose. He seemed really stylish, honestly.

                I asked, in the best Korean I could muster, "Do you make a lot of money selling these?" He slowly side-eyed me and responded something like "I think you would know better." I just sat on the table and said, "We both know I didn't do that. I was just asking because you're wearing a lot of designer clothing." Bulky, but designer nonetheless. "I need to keep up appearances for my career. Which is in trouble if my bosses found out I was talking to a drug dealer." He was roasting, but he seemed sincere. Which was annoying. I just groaned, "Dude. I didn't do it." in English. He narrowed his eyes and sighed harshly. "Well... me too," he said in an accent. Just then, the officer's phone buzzed and he responded with a "Hello sir?"

            I ignored the crack professor's apparent doppelgänger and pressed on. "If you didn't do it- how do you explain the packets in my bags?" He turned and pushed towards me some. "Why are you doing this? Did you know who I was before bumping into me and putting those packets in my bag? What do you want? Money?" I was a little taken aback, so I just mumbled, "Know you...? What?" He looked genuinely angry, and I wasn't sure why. Unless he actually wasn't the one to put the packets in our bags... and thought I was? Mind games; that's exactly what a drug dealer would do. I moved forward to poke him in the chest and glowered at him. "I didn't do it, and if you're trying to pin this on some 18 year old, you're crazy." It was his turn to be taken aback, but being so close to his face that looked so familiar, my features got less angry and more confused as I scrunched up my face, racking my brain for an answer. What the question was- I don't know.

           "Okay idiots!" We were interrupted from our showdown by the officer chuckling. We both turned to him as soon as we heard the sound of plastic ripping. The officer opened the bag and dumped out the contents into a trash can nearby. Then he scraped the inside of the empty bag with a finger and... licked it. He broke out into laughter. Mask-face guy glanced to me before muttering, "What's going on?" The officer dumped the rest of the bags in the trash and dusted off his hands. "You truly need neophytes to not be able to tell the difference between drugs and flour. Apparently a prankster has been going around dumping packets of flour into people's bags and you two were unlucky enough to be caught together. They caught him, and a few other people with flour in their bags around the terminals."

             Mask-face guy looked the officer up and down, appalled, and I could only gape. His words rolled in my head until it hit me, "Wait then didn't you know it was flour the whole time?" The officer just chuckled. I swear I was gonna throw the nearest object at him until we heard a knock on the door. It was Chocolate! And some tall muscular guy who wasn't peeking through the window at the door. I assumed it was mask-face's companion from before. The officer opened the door, while mask-face and I turned to each other, still slightly close, but now rather embarrassed.
                 We shuffled back a bit, but felt a tug when realized we were still handcuffed. The officer undid them (thank god; not only were they Red I swear I felt it was lined in velvet). I scratched the back of my neck and said "Um... sorry." And he only bowed and echoed my words in Korean. I stuck my hand out and he shook it with his soft but firm grip. "No hard feelings?" His eyes crinkled up a bit so I assume he smiled under his mask as he shook his head slightly. Mateo glanced over the officer's shoulder and looked confused. "What happened?" I just rolled my eyes and shouted "Long story!" to him. I glanced at mask-face and suddenly I just had to ask what was burning in the back of my mind since I first saw him.

                  "Hey... what's your name? I'm Riti." Mask-face guy made eye contact with his companion, who I felt looking between him and me, concern and panic settling in his wide eyes. I didn't quite understand what was going on, but I felt part of it. Mask-face looked at me one last time and breathed out a little smile. He left with his passport and phone, whispering to the tall guy and adjusting his cap. I think he glanced over his shoulder once but didn't make eye contact. Mateo grabbed my phone and passport and pulled me out of the room by my arm while I stared at mask-face guy's back.

                 By the time I was out of my trance I realized Mateo had been talking to me. "... and then I saw you through the window in that door! I guess so did the other guy, but he asked me something in Korean and I couldn't respond." "Uh huh." He disappeared from view and I realized I'd forgotten about the frickin crack officer who duped us. I needed answers and I wasn't going to hold back.. but he was nowhere to be seen. Yeah. Of course. Makes total sense.

So I begrudgingly left with Mateo and Jon. We took a taxi to a high end hotel in Seongdong or something- I didn't quite pay attention. The city is beautiful at dusk, truly. I really had a thing for the glittering lights. Jon's room was sandwiched between mine and Mateo's, and apparently Wang and Kang were in the two suites next to Mateo. How they afforded staying at the hotel for the whole duration of the trip I'll never know. For the time being I had nothing to do till the next day, so I spent the time in my hotel balcony, watching the news on my laptop and drinking in the view of Seoul. There seemed to be a few shopping centers glittering near the cluster of hotels - typical. It was helping my mind clear a little after the strange events of the day.

             As I sipped on a wine glass filled with water, I scrolled from political news to entertainment, and found myself in the celebrity section. I remembered seeing a throng of girls and boys greeting 4Ever, the girl group, earlier- and was curious about why they were in Japan earlier. Clicking on their tag, I saw an article of a photo one of the members had uploaded on Twitter an hour or so before. She was a bright eyed, cute kind of girl, somewhat generic of a mainstream idol girl group. My eyes, however, lingered on the black baseball cap she was wearing - some designer brand and all. Looks really expensive... wait hold up. Hold on a teensy second. Wait no. That's not possible. Is it?

I looked up at the skyline with a blank expression. My mind flashed to mask-face guy's back. The curve of his back, the mole on his neck (oops yes I paid attention), and his eyes! When it hit me, I slowly walked back inside and plopped on my bed, and literally slapped myself for not having realized earlier.
Scoffing in disbelief, I thought: Holy **** that was THE Park Jimin- followed by, Girl you are a THE stupidest **** in the world.