JIMIN POV
"Have a seat."
Crap, Allen looked old.
Not like his normal I'm not a young guy anymore but old old.
He'd been absent more than present at the bar for quite a while so maybe it was my memory playing tricks
but no, he looked bad.
I hobbled over and sat in the wobbly seat in front of his desk.
Last time I was back there
I had to switch to days.
He hadn't even bothered to
come in for the accident.
"Nice to see you." I lied,
my pants about to burst into flames.
It wasn't nice...
it was fucking terrifying.
I needed this job and nothing about this formal situation
felt like it was no big deal.
Nothing.
"No, It's not."
"You know I hate this place."
What the actual fuck?
He sat back in his chair, his
eyes closed.
"I gotta get out of here." His exasperated sigh filled the air.
I just let the silence sit there, unsure what else to do.
"Don't be like me, son."
"Just don't."
"I put everything into making money and now what do I
have to show for it?"
He pushed his chair back.
"Money, That's what."
"Not a family? Not a decent group of friends."
"Not anything but money."
I didn't remind him I had a
son I loved and put first so I wasn't likely to be like him.
The reason he was so alone
had nothing to do with making money, it had to do with
not paying attention.
"Yes, sir." Because he may be wrong but I still liked getting paid and not being fired for falling, which wasn't legal
but when did that ever stop anyone?
"Ever been to Costa Rica?"
"No, sir."
Okay maybe he'd been
drinking.
It was not even noon
but stranger things had happened.
"How about Slovenia?"
"No, sir."
"I haven't traveled much."
Or at all.
Fresh out of school, I got
married and then here we
were.
Not quite that quickly but traveling was not a thing I'd
done nor was it something
I'd ever longed for.
No.
I'd rather grow roots than
wings.
"You should fix that before
you regret it."
He pushed himself up and
walked over to the window, opening it all the way and
pulling a cigar out of his
pocket.
"You mind?" he asked almost
as an afterthought.
I did but I knew better than
to say anything.
Technically, he was breaking
the law but not my circus.
He lit the cigar and took a
long drag, carefully blowing
it out the window.
I still had no idea why I was
even there but since it didn't begin with a pink slip...well,
that was something.
"I was doing the Google."
Do not correct him.
Let him ramble.
"And I found a list and it
got me thinking."
"I mean why couldn't I do
that, Ya know?"
No, I did not.
"So that's the current plan."
Another long drag.
That thing was rancid.
"I just need to figure out
which."
"Which what, sir?"
Because this was going from weird to twilight zone right
quick.
"Pay attention."
Another long drag.
"How are you supposed to run this place while I'm gone if
you can't even follow a
simple conversation."
Because it doesn't make
sense.
"I'm retiring and starting a
new life."
"I'll be king of the hill there."
"I just need to decide if I
want to go to Slovenia or
Costa Rica, The bang for my buck is the same in both."
"The safety seems a bit better rated in Slovenia but the language barrier there will
be harder to deal with."
"And Costa Rica is near
Panama, which is also on
the list I found."
"You're retiring to a place
you've never been?"
I'd seen people on those
house hunting shows looking
for places in Slovenia, so I
half knew it was a thing
but wow.
And fuck.
If he left, this place was sure
to go under.
People didn't give a shit
about it as it was.
When the cat's away and all
that stuff.
"And the bar?" My stomach clenched.
"You will run it until it sells."
"Until it sells." I spoke more to myself than him, which was
fine since he had started in
on another non sequitur.
He was selling this place.
Maybe it would stay on the market a long time, the
town wasn't exactly bustling.
We'd pretty much tapped into
the local market.
It could do better.
That much I saw.
It wouldn't take much to have this place making enough to
stay afloat and send everyone home with decent money
but that, an investment
didn't make.
"Since you're useless on the floor." Geeze.
No sugarcoating there.
"You will run the place."
"When?"
"I'm leaving as soon as I can arrange it."
"Don't do it, kid."
"Don't be my age and wind up looking for where you belong."
I'd have felt bad for him if
my heart wasn't racing.
I wasn't losing my job today
but it was coming.
I could go back to office work.
I had the experience but if
Dalsu was having a hard time with me missing one field trip, what was he going to do when
I missed all of them and
school pickups and a
thousand other things.
My phone vibrated in my
pocket.
I ignored it.
"Do I have to...you know, give tours and such to potential buyers?"
"Callerman is taking care of
all of that." Great.
The Realtor wasn't well
thought of in town but
according to his ad on the
park benches because yeah
he was that guy, he won
awards for selling any
property in any condition.
My phone vibrated again and
this time I slipped it out of
my pocket.
It was the school and I hadn't miss one call, I'd missed three.
That was not good.
Not. Good. At. All.
"One moment, sir."
"It's my son's school."
"It might be an emergency."
He waved me on and I
answered which I would have done with or without his permission.
"Hello."
"Jimin, it's Mrs. Lee in the
office."
"I'm calling you because
Dalsu is missing."
I raced out the door the best
I could while pocketing my
stupid phone, just shouting
to Allen that my kid was
missing, not even caring how
any of that resolved itself
as my nightmare unfolded.
Dalsu was missing.
I was halfway to the cliffs
when I remembered Jin
had moved out that way.
We hadn't stayed super close when he got married but he'd always been a good guy.
Maybe he could help the
police search.
Please let us find him.