Lisa POV
Jennie... Jennie, Jennie, Jennie......
I had been rolling her name around in my head for days, like a coin on a table, the sound of it familiar by now, but no less painful every time I thought of it. I wanted to be with her so badly, but I knew that I had to give her space. Perhaps she would come back to me by her self? Or maybe she was done with me, my face and this place holding the memories of a rawness that she didn't want to face up to again.
Irene had been in touch a few times since our last date, when I had broken things off, but I had chosen to ignore her for the time being. I knew there was something up with her and her family and I didn't want to have to deal with whatever it was right now. I had enough going on already.
Rosé had been very busy of latest and I had been avoiding her. She saw something in me when I had told her Jennie had left, and I didn't want to restart that conversation. But if I was being honest with myself, I was worried that I would use Rosé as a way to track her down, to find Jennie and connect with her again, when I knew that what mattered now was giving her the space that she had made it so clear she needed.
I assumed she had returned to her family. That was what had to have happened. But that didn't make it any easier for me to handle her vanishing. I just wanted to see her one more time, to ask her if there was anything that I had done wrong, some mistake I had made that had scared her away. She didn't owe me an explanation, but I knew that I was going to be second-guessing our entire relationship for as long as I lived if I didn't get something in the way of a reason behind her leaving me so abruptly.
And it felt as though things had been going so well, too. That was the hardest part. If I had sensed her drifting away from me, had felt her moving on to a different part of her life, then that would have been different. I could have encouraged her on then, have under stood what had driven her away from me. But as it was now, I felt like my life was catching its breath, waiting to continue the next sentence, as though the penny hadn't dropped after her leaving me. I knew I wanted her back, so badly it made my heart ache, so badly it kept me up at night for hours. But I had no idea how I was meant to do that. If I was meant to do it at all...
I was sitting at my desk at work, still thinking about her, knowing that I should have been focusing on the project before me that I was meant to be taking care of. I was giving the go-ahead to a new campaign for a fresh client, and it was important that we got it right to guarantee them coming back for more. But all of this felt so distant and unimportant. And, in that moment, I knew I had to see her - just one last time before I let go - if I had I any hope of moving on with my life.
I managed to get through the rest of my day by promising myself that as soon as I got home, I would allow myself to start trying to find her. Not idly, as I had been doing, but truly. I would locate her, make sure she was safe and that she was happy, and then I would be able to move on. Once I had said goodbye and given her everything she needed to build the life that she so sorely deserved to have.
When I arrived back at my penthouse, I opened my laptop on the couch and stared at the blank screen for a long time. How was I meant to come across her again? I had to as sume that she'd left to her parents' place, so I decided to start there.
Searching her name, I managed to come across an appeal for information that had been released four years before, around the time that she had first gone missing. The picture showed her parents, drawn and pale and exhausted, standing outside what I assumed was their house - a small, humble place, but well-appointed for what it was. I squinted at the picture, downloading it and pulling it up on a program that would allow me to get a closer look, and enhanced the edges and the details until I came across something that would guide me to where I needed to go.
And then I saw it - a street name. Just the corner of a sign, but it was enough. Not far from Jongno-gu. My heart spun in my chest as I realized how close she could have been to me. All this time, it had felt like an endless distance was separating us, but now that distance had narrowed, and she was so close I could almost feel her presence.
I checked the area code of the phone number against the location I believed the house to be and confirmed that I was right in my assumption. I closed my laptop and paced the penthouse a few times, from top to bottom, trying to work off the excess energy that was forcing me to just get down there already. I should give it some time, leave it till tomorrow, let my brain come to terms with the thought of seeing her again. But I couldn't. It had to be now, it had to be tonight. If I wanted to get a good night's sleep again, I had to see her in person and con firm for myself once and for all that she was alright and happy and safe.
I gathered my things and called my driver, my heart pounding at the notion of seeing her once again. What would I say? I had no idea, but I figured that it would come to me once I was right in front of her once more. The thought of gazing into her eyes again, of being able to spill everything that had been weigh ing on my shoulders all this time, already felt like a relief. Perhaps it was selfish of me, a chance for me to unload everything I had been carrying all this time on to her. Or perhaps she wanted to see me too. Maybe she missed me the same way I had missed her. I could only hope...
I made my way through the city, the car cutting quietly through the streets as I gazed out into the darkness beyond. The place felt dangerous when it was like this, as though there could have been anything lurking in the shadows beyond. I shivered when I thought of what could be out there - I knew that the terrible place Jennie had been trapped in couldn't be the only one of its kind out there, that my sister was working tirelessly to bring as many of them down as she could. How many other women were trapped in the blackest place in the world, their bodies and minds broken for use by men who were more monsters than they were human?
The car turned on to the street I was sure the house was on, and I leaned forward to speak to the driver directly.
"Slow down," I instructed him. "I'm not sure what I'm looking for, but I know it's here."
I felt a warmth run through me as I looked around to think, this is where Jennie had grown up. I had been to the neighborhood so many times when I had visited Seoul with my parents, growing up. We had been so close then... Both of us going about our lives, not knowing that the other was so nearby. Who knows what would have happened had the two of us met sooner than we had? No Irene, that would have been for sure. Maybe I could have averted her kidnapping.
But I couldn't linger on that. I needed to focus on the here and now, what was right in front of me. My eyes widened as we came across the house that had been in that photograph. I was sure of it, the door the same faded red as it had been when her parents had stood before it to beg for the return of their little girl. I wished I could have been there with her, when she had met them again, when she had walked into the arms of the family who must have been sure they had lost her for good.
"Here?" My driver glanced at me in the mirror, and I hesitated for a moment before replying. This was my last chance to back out, to let her go.
"Here," I finally replied. I had to see her. One more time. To assure myself that she was where she needed to be.
The car drew to a halt, and I stepped out and stood there before the house for a moment be fore I approached. There was a light on, casting a warm glow out on to the street, so I knew somebody was home. I took deep breaths as I approached the door, pausing for another moment before I knocked. Did I really want to do this? Did I really want to drag her back to that place she had been when she had first arrived at my home, when she had been so vulnerable and so pained and struggling to get through the day?
Before I could overthink it a moment further, I knocked on the door, three hard taps, and waited for someone to respond. I wasn't taking her anywhere or demanding anything from her. I just needed to know she was safe. At least, that's what I told myself.
I heard movement inside the house, and I shifted my weight from one foot to the other as I waited for someone to answer. If she opened the door, I didn't know what I would do. Throw my arms around her, kiss her, hold her? I glanced over my shoulder and saw my driver watching me curiously; he shifted his gaze from me as soon as he saw me looking at him, and I knew I at least had to play it cool at first, to keep from any gossip spreading amongst the staff.
After a few moments, the woman from the picture opened the door. She looked as though she had aged ten years in the time since the photograph had been taken- her dark hair, wound into a tight bun on the back of her head, was now streaked with grey, and her eyes looked tired, as though she hadn't had a good night's sleep in weeks. I could see hints of Jennie in her, in the shape of her jaw and the curve of her mouth, and I smiled as soon as I laid my eyes on her.
"Hello," I nodded to her politely. "I'm sorry to disturb you at such a late hour. I'm here to see Jennie."
As soon as that name came out of my mouth, her face dropped. I had heard the phrase before, but never seen it acted out with such blatancy - it looked as though her features had slipped from her head, everything sliding downwards when she heard the name of her daughter. After a moment, her head snapped back up, and her eyes met mine, blazing with anger.
"What is this, some kind of joke?" She demanded, her voice cracking. "Jennie hasn't lived here in years."
"What?"
Panic sent my head spinning and my heart pounding out of control.
"What's going on?" A heavy voice called from inside the house, and a moment later the man from the picture wandered out to join his wife. He took one look at the expression on her face, and then turned his attention to me, his eyes burning.
"What are you doing here?" He took a protective step in front of her, and I tried to gather myself in the face of what I had just heard.
"You are Jennie's parents, right?" I planted my hand on the doorframe, hoping it would be enough to keep me upright. My knees felt as though they were going to buckle out from underneath me. The man furrowed his brow at me, his mouth twisting into a mess of pain and anger.
"Yes," he replied finally, after a long pause. "But we don't take any interviews about her anymore. None of them have come to any thing, and I don't want any more vultures-"
"I'm not here to interview about her," I told him quickly. "I... I think I need to talk to you."
"You've heard from her?" Her mother's eyes widened, and her face filled with hope, and I instantly felt a rush of guilt knowing that I was going to have to let her down. Yes, I had heard from her, but now she was gone, and I had been the one to let her slip through my fingers. How could I have been so stupid? She would never have left me without letting me know what was happening, where she was going. Something awful had happened to her, and I had no idea what it was or where she might be because of it. My hands were trem bling as I pushed them through my hair, try ing to calm myself enough to speak.
"She was staying with me," I told them, and her father stepped towards me, pressing his face into mine.
"You're the one who took her?" he snarled, and it was clear that he would have pushed me down the street right now. I shook my head and raised my hands.
"She came to me a few weeks ago," I explained hurriedly, and the woman eyed me for a moment, and then caught her husband's arm and pulled him back.
"Let him in," she ordered him quietly, and, after a moment, he did as he was told. The woman took me by the arm and guided me in side the house, to a small living room where she gestured for me to take a seat down on the couch.
"You know where our daughter is?" she asked, her voice so small and so hopeful that it broke my heart. I shook my head, hating that I had to let them down like this.
"I don't think She know anything," the man declared as he marched into the room behind us. "We shouldn't even be giving her any time. She's just another one of those vultures who want to profit from our daughter-"
"I'm not, sir, I promise you," I told him urgently. I knew that every moment we spent here was a moment that Jennie was out there, in the world at large, facing the kind of danger that I could only imagine. Where the hell was she?
"I need you to listen to me," I told him quickly. "I know where your daughter's been the last few years, but I don't know where she is now. And I need your help in trying to get her back."
"Tell me about her," Mrs kim ,her mother, ordered me. There was still clearly a hint of suspicion in her eyes, and she needed me to prove that I really did know her daughter as well as I claimed to before she gave me a moment of her time or energy.
"jennie," I took a deep breath and recalled everything that I had learned about that woman who had lived with me for a few weeks. "She wears an anklet on her right foot. She loves to read. She has she has these eyes, these incredible eyes, and sometimes they feel like they're going to go straight through you..."
Mrs kim slapped a hand over her mouth and turned to her husband. Her eyes were wide, and even he seemed shaken by what I had just said.
"Ha-joon," she breathed to him. "It's her. He knows her."
Ha-joon her father, stared at me for a long moment, and I saw something crack and break behind his eyes. Perhaps he had been too scared to embrace the possibility of there being some reality to what I was telling him, too nervous to admit that yes, I really might know his daughter. I wondered how long it had been since they had accepted that their daughter was long gone from this place - how long it had been since they had accepted that they would just have to go on without her. And now, here I was, telling them that she was alive - or at least, had been up until a couple of weeks ago.
"Where was she?" Mr kim demanded furiously. I knew his anger wasn't directed at me, but it still caught me off-guard.
"She was kidnapped," I told him quickly. "By a... by a pimp."
I didn't want to have to come out and say the words, but I knew I couldn't hide the truth from them forever. Mrs kim closed her eyes and swallowed heavily, as though keeping down the rush of emotion that came with finding out the truth.
"She was kept... they used her, for a few years," I explained hurriedly. "But my sister, she works with this shelter, and they broke everyone out of that place. There wasn't room at the shelter on the first night for Jennie, and she came to stay with me for a while, and we..."
I trailed off, realizing I was facing her parents here and that they may not want to hear about the romantic life of their only daughter.
"I fell in love with her," I continued, the first time I had ever let myself say those words out loud. I was surprised by how good they felt coming out of my mouth, that there was no doubt wrapped up within them, no question in my mind as to whether they were true.
"But a few weeks ago, I woke up and she was gone," I glanced between the two of them. "She'd mentioned her family in the city, and I assumed she'd come down here to stay with the two of you. I came here to check that she was alright and to say goodbye, but..."
"But she's not here," Mrs kimfinished up for me. She turned to her husband, her forehead furrowed and her eyes wild with a mix of emo tion.
"do you hear that?" she demanded of her husband. "Our daughter could be out there. She could be out there..."
"How long has it been since she went missing?" Mr kim asked me.
"A couple of weeks," I shook my head. "I'm sorry, I know I should have gone after her sooner, but after everything she'd been through, I didn't want to pressure her-"
"What do we do now?" Mr kim demanded. "Where could she be?"
"I have no idea," I confessed. "But I think I might know someone who does."
"Get them over here, now," he ordered me, and I reached for my phone and went to call Rosé. As I left the room, Mrs kim sank in her husband's arms, tears streaming down her face. I couldn't even begin to imagine what she was going through. The daughter she had likely written off as dead long ago was back, but still in danger somewhere far from here. She was so close to having her again, and yet so far. I paced up and down outside the small house as I waited for Rosé to pick up the phone, not caring much about the attention of my driver as he watched me like a hawk.
"Lisa?" Roséeventually picked up the phone, sleepy. "What's going on? Are you alright?"
"Yeah, I'm fine," I told her. "Could you get down to an address across the city? I'll send the car along to pick you up. I really need you here. It's to do with Jennie."
"Sure, sure," she replied, yawning. "Is every thing alright?"
"No idea," I replied truthfully. "But we need you here."
"I'm on my way," she promised me, and I hung up the phone and sent my driver across the city to Rosé's place, so I could get her down here sooner rather than later. I waited outside the house and tilted my head back to the black sky above me I wanted this to be over, as much as they did. I wanted her back in my arms. And I couldn't believe that I had let her go for so long without chasing her down. I had let myself get distracted by Irene, and now Jennie could be in terrible danger - if she was even still alive. No, no. I couldn't let my self think that. I had to focus on the positive, for as long as I could.
Rosé arrived after a significant wait, and she climbed out of the car and gave me a tight hug as soon as she saw me.
"What was that for?" I asked as I pulled back.
"You look as though you need it," she eyed me, stepping back to look me up and down. "Now, are you going to tell me what's going on?"
"Come inside," I jerked my head towards the house. "I have some people I think you should meet."
She followed me in, and Mr kim and a tearful Mrs kim leapt to their feet as soon as they saw us approaching.
"Who's this?" Mr kim demanded, looking Rosé up and down. "Can she help?"
"This is my sister, Rosé," I explained, as she greeted both of them. "She works at the shelter that saved Jennie in the first place. If anyone can help with this, she can."
"What's going on?" Rosé demanded. "Lisa, who are these people?"
"They are Jennie's parents."
"Then where's Jennie?" she asked, and I shook my head.
"That's what we're trying to find out," I told her. "She vanished from the apartment a couple of weeks ago and I had assumed that she had just come here to live with her parents for a while after everything that had happened. I came here to say goodbye tonight, and then I found that she isn't here at all."
"So, where is she?" Rosé asked again, not getting her head around what I was saying. I shook my head once more.
"We don't know, Rosé," I told her. "But we need your help finding out where she is."
"Oh my god," she rubbed her hand over her face, and Mr and Mrs kim watched her with withdrawn, nervous faces.
"Alright, well, chances are she's been taken by someone from her old life," Rosé looked up once more, sliding back into professional mode just like that.
"Like who?" Mrs kim asked nervously.
"Like, perhaps an ex-client, or a pimp," Rashi explained, and Mrs kim flinched at the very thought of it. I wanted to tell my sister to show a little restraint, given that she was around the parents of this girl who had been used and abused in such a terrible way, but I knew we didn't have time for politeness.
"Lisa, was there anything she said to you in the last few days before she went, that suggested where her head might have been?" She turned to me. I shook my head.
"But she did say she saw her ex-pimp when we were out together," I replied, drawing my mind back to that time in the mall when she had frozen on the spot and insisted we get out of there at once. I could still recall her sobbing in the back of the car, her entire body wracked with the pain of it, as though she would never truly find a way out from be neath it. My heart twisted. Why hadn't I taken her more seriously then? I had assumed it was her mind playing tricks on her or something, but I should have locked down the penthouse and set armed security on patrol twenty-four-seven to keep him and anyone else who might have come poking around.
"Kai, right?" Rosé raised her eyebrows at me. "That's the name the rest of the girls gave us."
"Yes, I think that's what she said," I nodded. Mr and Mrs kim were watching the conversation bounce between us, eyes sliding back and forth as though they were watching a ten nis match.
"Alright," Rosé nodded, taking a deep, shaky breath like she was trying to cool her self off. "So, we know he was around there. But how could he have gotten to her?"
"I don't know," I shook my head. "The villa is on lockdown every night. Nobody could have gotten in without my say-so, and I was sleeping right next to her, so it wasn't like they could just steal her away from beside me with out me noticing." I immediately realized the mistake of my words. Rosé shot me a peculiar look, but didn't say anything. I knew now I would have to explain my relationship with Jennie to her.
"So, she must have gotten out some other way," Rosé spoke after a long pause. She got to her feet and began to pace back and forth. "Lisa, did you notice things missing when you woke up and realized she was gone?"
"Some of the books I'd bought for her," I replied. "Some of the clothes, too. But not everything. She didn't take much."
"See, I don't think a kidnapper would have stood around waiting for her to pick out the books and clothes she likes," she shook her head. "Maybe she left of her own accord. Maybe she really was planning to come down here, and she got intercepted."
"What do you mean?" Mrs kim's eyes were burning with pain upon hearing that her daughter really could have been searching for them. As I glanced around the room, I noticed how dissonant the expensive furniture and accoutrements seemed in a place like this, and then it struck me - they must have stayed in this house all this time, despite the fact that they could afford something nicer, in case Jennie ever came home. My heart broke for them, and I swore at that moment that I would find a way to reunite Jennie with her family.
"Lisa, did anything happen that night? Anything at all?" Rosé demanded of me, and I blinked and tried to push my mind back. I had been so shaken-up that day that I hadn't really taken in much at all, so devastated that Jennie had left me. But then I remembered - the text from Irene.
"I got a message from Irene that night," I blurted out. "Jennie could have seen it. Maybe she thought I was cheating on her?"
"That could have been the push she needed to get out of there," Rosé screwed her eyes and nodded. "But not without grabbing a few bits and pieces before she left. And if Kai had seen her recently, he might have stalked her back to the house, and when she was out in the middle of the night all by herself..."
She trailed off, but she didn't need to fill in the rest. I stared at her for a long moment.
"You're saying that her ex-pimp has her?" I demanded, and she nodded.
"I think it's our best bet," she replied. "If she saw him around shortly before she went missing, then we must assume that he saw her too. And that he's doing everything he can right now to get some of the control he lost back. She could just be a side effect of that."
"Oh my god!" I buried my head in my hands, and Mr kim reached over to take his wife's hand and squeezed it tightly. I forced myself to look up. These people needed me. Jennie needed me. I couldn't sit around being upset when there was so much work that needed to be done.
"What now?" I asked Rosé , who was already on her feet.
"Lisa, give me your phone," she held her hand out. "Can I use your driver, too?"
"Anything you need," I assured her, and she squeezed my shoulder.
"Can I talk to you outside?" she spoke pointedly, and I knew it was time to reveal the truth of my relationship.
The moment we were alone outside, she smacked me on my shoulder, "What the hell Lisa?" she hissed angrily. "I left Jennie in your care so that she could be protected, not that you start sleeping in her bed and..." she trailed off. I couldn't believe what she was in sinuating.
"Are you insane? I was not using or abusing her," I exclaimed pulling my hair. "Yes, we were in a relationship," I started to explain, but the wild look in Rosé's eyes stopped me.
"Relationship with her? You think mom-dad would accept it?" she demanded. I didn't know if she was worried or angry.
"I don't care about them as of now. All I care is that I love her, and I want her back and safe next to me," I yelled.
"You love her?" Rosé couldn't believe me.
"Can we get on this topic later? Can you please focus your energy on finding her, instead of wondering what may or may not happen in my love life?" I demanded agitated. Every second here was crucial, and I felt this conversation was futile.
She gave me a long searching look and then marched inside.
"What's going on?" Mr kim demanded, clearly agitated with the wait. Mrs kim was clinging hopelessly on his arm, and I could see how broken they must be feeling.
"We'll find her, Lis," Rosé spoke after a while and promised me. Then she turned to Mr and Mrs kim. "And we'll bring your daughter home."
Mrs kim closed her eyes, and a single tear ran down her cheek. I stared at the empty seat beside them, and I could almost see Jennie in it - laughing, her legs tucked up beneath her, a book sitting on the arm of the chair with the page folded down, so she could come back to it later. I was going to make that a reality, no matter what. I was going to make sure that Jennie was safe again.
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