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Tae Hyun said nothing, so Yoo Mi left as well. Then Tae Hyun grabbed Jason’s hand. “We’ll be okay.”
Jason wasn’t sure if that was meant as reassurance or a question. But his response was the same. “Yeah. We will.”
Tae Hyun gave Jason’s hand a gentle squeeze. Then he let go and went to the closet to retrieve his suitcases. “We’re not leaving Yun Seo here, are we?”
Jason shook his head as he grabbed his pants from the bed. “No way. Aside from the fact that I can’t imagine what she’d say when she woke to find us gone, I don’t want to give them any leverage.”
Tae Hyun frowned. “You can’t think they’d use her like that.”
“I wouldn’t have before. But, now?” Jason shrugged. “All bets are off.”
Tae Hyun breathed out a long sigh and nodded. They had much to discuss, but it wasn’t the time or place. Jason quickly stuffed his clothes into his open suitcase. He didn’t bother folding anything since they were only headed across the river. And he was too angry to bother, anyway. Surprisingly, he had no desire to hit anyone. Maybe it wasn’t anger, after all. Maybe it was disappointment. That was worse in a lot of ways. Anger was easy. Somebody fucked around, and then they found out. But disappointment meant he’d had expectations that someone failed to meet. It was the consequence of all the time he’d spent going soft. The old Jason had no expectations of anyone and was rarely disappointed.
Seong Hyeon showed up just as Jason closed his suitcase, knocking on the halfway-open door before entering the guest room. His detached expression was a little stiffer than usual. “Mr. Park, sir.”
Jason snorted. “Lemme guess. You’re quitting so you can go back to working for Min Kyu?”
Seong Hyeon’s elaborate scowl probably meant Jason got that one wrong. “Absolutely not, sir. That’s–”
“I’m sorry.” Jason sighed. “It’s just been–I’m sorry.”
Seong Hyeon shared a single nod. “Mr. Yu informed us that you’d be leaving. I came to tell you that we’ve secured a vehicle for the duration of your Seoul stay.”
“It’s not one of Seong Woo’s, is it?”
“No, sir. It’s not.”
“Good.” Jason looked at Tae Hyun, who’d just finished getting dressed. “You’re ready?” Tae Hyun nodded, so Jason turned back to Seong Hyeon. “Have your brother wake Yun Seo and get her ready to go.”
Seong Hyeon nearly grinned. “I already have, sir. She’s using the bathroom before we leave.”
Jason cracked his first genuine smile since before the reception incident. “You’re a good man, Seong Hyeon. Could you help us with the bags?”
Neither Seong Woo or Yoo Mi bothered to see them out, which was probably for the best. They sent Min Kyu instead, who seemed vaguely embarrassed about the whole situation. But Jason wasn’t fooled by the man’s quietly affable nature. He was sure Min Kyu wouldn’t hesitate to forcibly remove them from the condo if necessary.
The vehicle Seong Hyeon had secured was an unarmored version of the same model SUV as the tanks. That meant the windows would go down, so Jason opened his to feel the cool evening air as Tae Hyun explained the situation to his incredulous sister. He offered to have her stay in their guest room, but she was more than ready to go home. And she let Seong Min walk her to her building’s front door before waving and heading inside.
The apartment was cold and dark, having sat empty since their last visit to Seoul. It was appropriate, considering Jason’s mood. He typically would’ve had a housekeeper come by to dust and turn on the heat beforehand, but they didn’t have any warning.
As Tae Hyun and Seong Min deposited the bags in the main bedroom, Seong Hyeon pulled Jason aside.
“There’s something you should know, sir.”
Jason frowned. “Okay. Tell me.”
Seong Hyeon nodded as he retrieved his phone from his jacket pocket. He woke it, opened the camera roll, and tapped on a photo. No, it was a video. “This is part of the footage from an early news story about Mr. Cho’s wedding,” he explained as he handed the phone to Jason.
Jason tapped the play button and silently watched as a reporter did a stand-up on the sidewalk outside the Park Grand Hotel with dozens of protestors chanting and waving their signs in the background. “What am I looking for?”
“Read the signs, sir.”
Jason quietly huffed as he scrubbed back to the beginning of the video and played it again. The signs were mainly in English–with a few in Hangul–displaying hateful messages about sinners needing to be saved or they’d go to hell. It was such a weird, disappointing scene that Jason almost missed one of the Korean signs. He paused, went back, and played it again, pausing when the sign came back into view. He had to read it several times before its message finally sunk in.
Remember Jong Soo
“Oh.” The sign cast a whole new light on the tear gas attack. It was already pretty much a given that the attacker’s motivation had something to do with Tae Hyun. But the sign meant the attack was probably more than a protest. It was also a message–the same one that someone had spray painted on the side of a building in Studio City. “Shit.”
Seong Hyeon nodded as he took his phone back. “Indeed, sir.”
